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🇺🇸 SEC Chair Gary Gensler stays mum on prospects for a spot bitcoin ETF, says he won't 'pre-judge' matter
Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler stayed mum on Wednesday when asked by journalists if the industry could soon see any action surrounding the applications for spot bitcoin ETFs the agency is reviewing. The crypto industry has been waiting with bated breath for agency to approve what would be the first spot bitcoin ETF. Multiple applications have been filed over recent months from asset managers including BlackRock and Fidelity, but they have so far all been delayed.
The SEC on Tuesday held fresh meetings with representatives from Invesco and BlackRock to discuss a potential approach to resolve concerns around "balance sheet impacts and risks." The agency also met with Grayscale and BlackRock last week, according to a memo published by the SEC. In the Wednesday remarks, Gensler reiterated his stance that bitcoin is considered a commodity, while voicing concern about the crypto industry as a whole. The SEC has brought enforcement actions against crypto firms over the past year, including ones against U.S.-based Coinbase and the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance.
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🇺🇸 Binance Founder CZ Stuck in U.S. for the Moment
Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao must remain in the U.S., at least for the moment, as a federal judge considers a U.S. Department of Justice motion that would require him to remain in the country until he is sentenced early next year. The exchange itself pleaded guilty to charges of violating sanctions and money transmission laws, agreeing to pay a $4.3 billion fine and embed compliance monitors who can report back to the U.S. government.
After Zhao pleaded guilty, a magistrate judge granted his release on a $175 million personal recognizance bond. Zhao put $15 million in a trust account and had three guarantors put up over $5 million in collateral to secure the bond. Under the terms of the bond release, he was free to return to the UAE, where his wife and children also reside. District Judge Richard Jones stayed this part of the ruling on Monday. U.S. Department of Justice moved to keep Zhao in the U.S., arguing he could be a flight risk if he leaves the country, noting that he still has a vast amount of wealth and that there's no extradition treaty between the U.S. and the UAE. They are not pushing to put him in jail ahead of his Feb. 23, 2024 sentencing.
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💰 Bitcoin Lightning App ‘Wallet of Satoshi’ Exits US Market
Wallets of Satoshi said it remains hopeful that future developments will enable the app to revisit and possibly resume our operations in the United States. A prominent Bitcoin Lightning wallet provider – Wallet of Satoshi – announced its decision to remove its app from the US Apple and Google app stores. In a Twitter post addressed to the community, Wallet of Satoshi clarified that it will cease catering to customers in the country. This sparked speculation that the decision might be linked to a growing hostility from US regulatory authorities toward the cryptocurrency industry.
The latest development comes after several crypto users flagged the disappearance of Wallet of Satoshi (WoS) from Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store in the United States, which coincided with the app approaching a milestone of over a million transactions this month. On November 24th, various users and members of the crypto community took to Twitter to share their experiences attempting to locate the WoS app, reporting either no search results or being redirected to alternative wallet applications. Notably, the app remained available for download on Apple’s App Store in other countries. Bitcoin layer 2 – Lightning Network – has surged by 1,200% in the last two years. Hence, Wallet of Satoshi’s decision to exit the US market is seen as a blow to the space.
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💰 Bitcoin user overpays $3 million in fees for a single transaction
A Bitcoin user appears to have accidentally paid a transaction fee of over $3.1 million today, setting a new record in U.S. dollar terms for a single Bitcoin transaction, more than six times the previous record of a $500,000 fee paid in September. The transaction was made at 9:59 a.m. UTC, paying 83.65 BTC ($3.1 million) to transfer 55.77 BTC ($2.1 million). The pre-transaction balance was 139.42 BTC ($5.2 million), with the user overpaying by 120,528 times, according to Bitcoin explorer Mempool.
The address used to make the payment was activated earlier today, making three Bitcoin transactions before a fourth incurred the record fee. The receiving address is also relatively new, dating back to October 16. The transaction was mined by AntPool in block 818,087, according to the blockchain explorer Blockchair. AntPool has not yet publicly commented on the transaction and did not immediately return a request for comment from The Block. The previous record $500,000 fee paid in September was subsequently identified as a “fat finger” overpayment by the crypto services provider Paxos. F2Pool, the miner facilitating that transaction, agreed to reimburse the fee to Paxos.
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📣 Bittrex Global to wind down operations, urges customers to withdraw funds
U.S. arm filing for bankruptcy protection earlier this year, Bittrex Global announced it is closing down and said customers should withdraw their funds as soon as possible. "It is with great regret that we announce that Bittrex Global has decided to wind down its operations. This decision was not made lightly, and we understand the inconvenience it may have on our valued customers," the company said in a statement.
The closure comes a few months after Bittrex Global CEO Oliver Linch assured customers "if they want to do business with a non-U.S. regulated digital assets exchange, Bittrex Global is here for you." The exchange was once one of the largest exchanges in the U.S before its market share crumbled to below 1% in 2021. Bittrex's U.S. unit had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May after the Securities and Exchange Commission charged it with running an unregistered exchange. The exchange said in its statement that all trading activity on the platform will cease Dec. 4.
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🚨 Kronos Research Breach Halts Transactions, $25M WOO Network Loss!
Kronos Research recently announced a security breach via Twitter, revealing that certain API keys had been illicitly accessed without authorization (WOO Network loss). The tweet sent shockwaves through the crypto community, highlighting the persistent challenges faced by platforms in safeguarding digital assets. Kronos Research, known for its role as a liquidity provider, emphasized the importance of immediate action to address the security lapse and protect users’ funds.
In response to the breach, WOO Network, the platform where Kronos Research operates, issued a statement confirming the suspension of all transactions. The decision was framed as a proactive step to ensure the safety of users’ positions and prevent further unauthorized activities. The temporary suspension aimed to give the platform’s security protocols the necessary time to investigate and address the breach comprehensively. WOO Network, transactions were eventually resumed, marking a critical step toward restoring normalcy within the platform. However, the incident did not unfold without financial repercussions. Noted crypto commentator ZachXBT entered the conversation, revealing that the financial toll of the breach exceeded a staggering $25 million, equivalent to 12,800 ETH.
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🇦🇪 Crypto.com obtains license in Dubai to operate crypto exchange services
Crypto.com has obtained a Virtual Assets Service Provider license in Dubai to operate specific crypto activities. The company said in a statement that its Dubai entity, CRO DAX Middle East FZE, received the license from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, and that Crypto.com will be allowed to offer exchange, broker-dealer, investment, lending and borrowing services following operational approval. Crypto.com will be allowed to offer crypto exchange and broker-dealer services following operational approval, the company said.
“Crypto.com’s VASP Licence is subject to the Company fully satisfying select conditions and localisation requirements defined by VARA, and will be able to commence operations thereafter subject to operational approval notice from the regulator,” the company said. “We are excited to showcase more of our industry-leading products to customers across permissible jurisdictions from Dubai, and look forward to working with regulators contributing to this thriving ecosystem,” Kris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com, said in the statement. Nomura’s crypto arm Laser Digital also said in August that it had completed the final stage of VARA’s licensing process and received a full license in Dubai. That
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🇺🇸 US Lawmaker: Crypto Is Not the Problem, Bad Actors That Exist in Every Industry Are
U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis has defended crypto against claims that the asset class is heavily used in illicit finance. Emphasizing that “Crypto is not the problem, bad actors that exist in every industry are,” the lawmaker pointed out that crypto accounts for less than 1% of all illicit finance activity. In addition, she has urged Congress to create a regulatory framework to allow crypto firms to operate in the U.S. instead of driving them to “unregulated foreign markets.”
Recently, several news outlets reported that Hamas had raised millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. However, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has debunked the reports, stating: “There is no evidence to suggest that crypto fundraising has raised anything close to this amount, and data provided by Elliptic and others has been misinterpreted.”. This week, U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo said the Biden administration is seeking more tools to combat the illicit use of crypto. He emphasized that the attack on Israel has brought an “increased focus on the illicit financial use of digital assets.” Nonetheless, he admitted that crypto is not a major source of funding for terrorist groups.
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🇭🇰 UBS Group’s Wealthy Clients Can Now Trade Some Crypto ETFs in Hong Kong: Bloomberg
Swiss bank UBS' wealthy clients can now take exposure to three crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) through the lender's Hong Kong platform, according to a Bloomberg report citing a person familiar with the matter. The three crypto ETFs, Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active, CSOP Bitcoin Futures and CSOP Ether Futures ETFs, are all authorized by Hong Kong's securities regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). Together, the three products boast assets worth around $72 million.
Significantly, the news comes a day after HSBC, one of the world's largest banks, said it plans to start a digital assets custody service for institutional clients. In the past few days, Hong Kong has moved towards allowing retail investors to buy spot crypto Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and primary dealing of tokenization. The move appears to be another step in Hong Kong's recently accelerated ambitions to become a virtual asset hub. It implemented a new regulatory regime in June, accepting applications for crypto trading platform licenses, and granted the first set in August, allowing exchanges to serve retail customers. UBS and the SFC did not immediately respond to a CoinDesk request for comment.
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📈 Unlock a world of crypto insights at Charts | Signals & Trading with over 133,000 members. Discover technical analysis, swing, and scalp trades to elevate your trading journey. Don't miss out, join the channel now and become a part of this thriving community
/channel/+RS-e_5lUrDk3MThk
🪙 A Uniswap user lost $700,000 to an MEV bot — but it only made $260
A Uniswap V3 user who appears to have mistaken one token for another in creating a liquidity pool lost over $700,000 in 12 seconds to an MEV-related transaction this morning. It seems the user mistook the value of the Curve DAO token (CRV) for USD when they added $1.56 million worth of wrapped BTC to the liquidity pool. The user received 1.56 million CRV in return, however, which was only worth around $850,000 at the time.
MEV bots quickly rushed in to exploit the arbitrage, though the most successful only netted a total profit of around $260 after paying a $527,000 bribe to validators in order to 'frontrun' other bots and get its transaction through first, according to blockchain analytics firm Arkham. "Tough luck," Arkham's post added. Mistakes in transactions, often referred to as "fat finger" errors, are not uncommon in crypto. Last month, a user swapped what had been over $130,000 in one stablecoin, USDR, for $0 worth of another stablecoin, USDC. The bot that was most heavily involved in the arbitrage paid $527,000 to the validator to fulfil the transaction and only made $260 from the trade.
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🪙 ProShares launches first short ether futures ETF for bearish traders
Asset manager ProShares has launched the ProShares Short Ether Strategy ETF (SETH), designed to offer investors the opportunity to profit from ether price declines. "SETH is designed to address the challenge of acquiring short exposure to ether, which can be onerous and expensive," ProShares CEO Michael L. Sapir said in a statement. "With today’s launch of SETH, ProShares now offers investors opportunities to profit both on days when ether increases and when it drops.
Not to be confused with sETH — a synthetic ether token enabled by the Synthetix protocol — SETH joins a range of crypto-linked ProShares exchange-traded funds. This includes BITO, the first U.S. bitcoin-linked futures ETF launched in 2021, BITI, the first U.S. short bitcoin-linked ETF and EETH, the first U.S. ETF investing in ether futures. ProShares also offers BETH and BETE, two futures ETF products focusing on the blended performance of bitcoin and ether, providing market cap-weighted and equal-weighted exposure, respectively. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange, SETH aims to deliver the inverse of the daily performance of the S&P CME Ether Futures Index, the company stated.
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⬜️ OKX Latest Proof of Reserves Shows Exchange Over-collateralized
It's the one-year anniversary of Proof of Reserves (PoR) becoming a post-FTX industry norm, and OKX's latest published PoR shows the exchange has $12.5 billion in assets and is over-collateralized. OKX's now 12-long series of PoRs shows the exchange has maintained a reserve ratio exceeding 100% for the last year in the market's 22 most important assets, including bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and tether (USDT), the company wrote in a blog post.
Raifique points to a consensus amongst OKX users. According to a survey it did earlier this year, 84% said that publishing Proof of Reserves is very important to assuaging fears of solvency. Nic Carter, a general partner at Castle Island Ventures, has ranked OKX highly with using a PoR valuation framework. Carter, however, did note that OKX could improve their score within that framework by improving language in its Terms of Service that specifically outlines the segregation of client funds and operating capital. Japanese customers, for instance, were quickly made whole due to rules the nation's regulators made in the aftermath of Mt. Gox, which required the use of third-party custodians to segregate customer funds. Others didn't fare as well.
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🟠 Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo sued for allegedly promoting unregistered securities on Binance
Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo is being sued over his involvement in allegedly promoting unregistered securities on Binance, according to a recent class action lawsuit filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. In 2022, Ronaldo entered into a multi-year agreement with Binance, launching his first-ever NFT collection ahead of the soccer World Cup. He has since become a prominent figure in Binance’s advertising campaigns.
The lawsuit alleges that Ronaldo engaged in a "sustained and aggressive" promotional campaign for Binance, claiming that these promotions were “deceptive and unlawful.” The plaintiffs argue that Ronaldo, knowingly or unknowingly, assisted Binance in “soliciting investments in unregistered securities by encouraging his millions of followers, fans and supporters to invest with the Binance platform,” aiding and abetting the company’s alleged fraudulent activities and causing them to suffer losses. Binance last week, which probed into alleged money laundering, fraud and sanctions violations. The crypto exchange will pay a $4.3 billion fine, marking one of the largest corporate settlements in U.S. history.
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🟠 Binance's Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao Is a Manageable Flight Risk: U.S. DOJ
The U.S. Department of Justice doesn't want Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao locked up until sentencing, but it doesn't want him to leave the United States either, arguing in a new filing that he's a "flight risk that could be managed." "Based on all the relevant facts, including Mr. Zhao's voluntary self-surrender, his intent to resolve this case, and the sizable bail package he proposed, Judge Tsuchida found that Mr. Zhao presents no risk of flight, even while residing in the UAE," last week's filing said.
U.S. Attorneys pushed back on that, arguing that the potential severity of the sentence would give Zhao incentive to flee back to the UAE, which has no extradition treaty with the U.S. Last week, prosecutors said Zhao, as a citizen of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), had "minimal ties to the U.S." and may not return should he be allowed to leave. "The reality is that the top-end of the Guidelines range may be as high as 18 months, and the United States is free to argue for any sentence up to the statutory maximum of ten years," the filing reads. "The penalties he faces at sentencing will no doubt seem significant to him, and that weighs in favor of the reasonable restrictions the United States proposes."
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🏦 Coinbase stock price rises to highest value since May 2022
Coinbase stock reached a new annual high for the year, crossing figures last observed in May 2022. After starting the month at $77, Coinbase rose to $116.4 today, an increase of 50%, according to TradingView. It's now trading at the highest price since mid-2022. The stock's price is still much lower than during 2021 when it ranged from $220 to $350. It took a hit during early 2022 and hasn't recovered fully since then. The exchange's stock has rallied at a time when the industry is poised to see the acceptance of a spot bitcoin ETF.
The SEC has met recently with Grayscale Investments, over its plan to convert its flagship bitcoin trust to a spot bitcoin ETF, plus BlackRock and Nasdaq employees. Prospective spot bitcoin ETF issuers, such as Grayscale and Ark Invest, have also updated their prospectuses recently, showing further progress. The recent highs also come following a $4.3 billion fine on one of its largest competitors, Binance, and the removal of its CEO Changpeng Zhao. Industry analysts have mixed opinions on whether Binance will be able to maintain its market share following the setback. Crypto prices have reached recent highs, with Bitcoin surpassing the $38,000 mark, increasing by 4% today. Ether trades at $2,120, reflecting a similar 4% rise today.
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📣 KPMG and Chainalysis join forces to combat rising crypto crime in Canada
Big Four accounting firm KPMG’s Canadian arm has teamed up with blockchain data platform Chainalysis to help organizations combat rising crypto-related fraud. The collaboration sees KPMG joining Chainalysis’ “Solution Provider” program, offering “rigorous monitoring, support, governance and risk management to crypto exchanges, financial institutions, law enforcement and government agencies," according to a statement. KPMG professionals will become “Chainalysis Certified Investigators” as part of the program.
"Crypto asset exchanges, crypto-native companies, financial institutions, government and law enforcement agencies are increasingly looking for innovative ways to help them 'follow the crypto' to investigate criminal activity," Enzo Carlucci, forensic leader at KPMG in Canada, said. "By teaming up with Chainalysis, KPMG clients can benefit from Chainalysis' proprietary blockchain data monitoring technology, resulting in improved identification of potentially criminal activities and faster response times,". "By teaming up with one of Canada's largest professional services firms, our clients can leverage the expertise of KPMG's trusted forensics and crypto asset advisory professionals to establish effective know your transaction (KYT) rules.
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📣 Worldcoin price swings accompany twists in OpenAI saga
The saga surrounding Sam Altman and OpenAI appears to have triggered significant price action in WLD, the token issued by the crypto project Worldcoin, which Altman also co-founded. WLD rose 9.1% over the past 24 hours to trade at $2.55 at around 4 p.m. Hong Kong time on Monday, according to CoinGecko data. The token rose 31.4% in the past week. While he’s been ousted as CEO of OpenAI, Altman appears to remain the co-founder and chairman of Tools for Humanity.
On Friday, the tech world was shocked by news that Altman had been removed as CEO from OpenAI, the outfit behind ChaptGPT. He has since engaged in negotiations with the board to return to the role. On Sunday night in the U.S., however, the board of directors of OpenAI announced in an internal note to staff that Altman would not be returning to his job and that Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch, will replace Mira Murati as OpenAI’s interim chief executive, according to a New York Times report. Altman was then immediately offered a job at Microsoft — one of the OpenAI investors that had pushed for this return to the AI firm — to lead the software giant’s AI team after he was turned down by OpenAI, Bloomberg reported today.
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📣 Jump Trading makes cross-chain protocol Wormhole a separate business: Bloomberg
The trading firm Jump Trading has made the cross-chain protocol Wormhole its own independent business. This comes at a time when the number of staff at Jump Crypto, the firm's cryptocurrency arm, has been reduced by 50% since its peak of 150 in 2022, reports Bloomberg citing people with knowledge of the matter. Jump had been slowing its crypto market activity since May in part due to U.S. regulatory uncertainty.
In addition, the firm ended its years-long partnership with the trading app Robinhood in August, though on-chain data suggests the firms cut ties a month earlier. Robinhood saw crypto trading volume drop by 43% in the spring. In early February 2022, hackers stole 120,000 ETH worth $323 million at the time from Wormhole. Jump Crypto stepped in to restore the lost funds a day later, The Block previously reported. The hack still remains the second largest exploit in decentralized finance history. Jump Crypto was also affected by the collapses of the crypto exchange FTX and algorithmic stablecoin Terra. Jump Trading did not immediately respond to The Block's inquiries or request for comment.
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🪙 BlackRock files for spot Ethereum ETF with SEC
BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, has officially filed for a spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The ETF, dubbed iShares Ethereum Trust, seeks to "reflect generally the performance of the price of ether," reads Form S-1 filed with the SEC by iShares late Wednesday. The iShares brand is associated with BlackRock's ETF products. Then hours after Nasdaq filed for the proposed ETF, confirming BlackRock is working on a spot ether ETF.
BlackRock has selected Coinbase Custody Trust Company as the custodian for its proposed spot Ether ETF. Additionally, the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate from administrator CF Benchmarks, a subsidiary of Kraken, has been chosen as the proposed ETF's benchmark. These selections align with those made for its proposed spot Bitcoin ETF. BlackRock filed for the iShares Bitcoin Trust in June of this year, which moved markets. The SEC is currently reviewing multiple spot bitcoin ETF applications, including one from BlackRock. The asset manager's bitcoin ETF ticker, IBTC, has also appeared on the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp's website since August — but was noticed only late last month.
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📣 Crypto News Site The Block Bought by Foresight Ventures in $70M Deal
Crypto news and data provider The Block said Singapore-based Foresight Ventures had completed an acquisition of the majority of its shares. The purchase was completed at a $70 million valuation, and the company plans to “build out new exciting products” and expand into Asia and the Middle East, CEO Larry Cermak said in an X post on Monday.
"Excited to see the company move forward on a stronger ground as we continue to expand our news, research and data offerings," Editor in Chief Tim Copeland told CoinDesk. Most of the capital was used to buy out former CEO Mike McCaffrey's stake. McCaffrey resigned in December, 2022 after informing The Block's editorial team that the website had secretly been funded since 2020 by Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research. Bankman-Fried has since been found guilty of seven charges of fraud. The Block laid off 27 staff, about a third of its workforce, in March in a leadership shake-up that saw Cermak, the website's head of research, become CEO.
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💰 Crypto asset inflows top $1B as Bitcoin ETF optimism grows
Inflows into crypto asset investment products have surpassed $1 billion this year due to the prevailing optimism surrounding the possible approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund approval (ETF), according to CoinShares Senior Analyst James Butterfill. Butterfill, citing data from CoinShares, revealed that crypto investment products attracted $226.4 million in inflows this week, sustaining the recent positive trend permeating the burgeoning industry. This elevates the month-to-date flow to $482.1 million, contributing to a robust year-to-date total of $1.074 billion.
Breaking down the inflows by assets, Bitcoin dominated with over $1 billion, followed by a noteworthy $119 million inflow for Solana. Short BTC products also experienced inflows totaling $59 million for the year. In contrast, Ethereum and Tron-related investment products faced outflows of $77 million and $51 million, respectively. Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas highlighted the investment product’s notable gains amid the positive buzz surrounding the potential launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs. However, he also emphasized that BITO will likely face significant challenges once these spot ETFs are approved. BITO is the first U.S. BTC-linked ETF offering investors exposure to the top cryptocurrency via futures contracts. Unlike the highly anticipated spot ETFs, it does not invest directly in BTC.
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🔵 BlackRock has filed to register a new iShares Ethereum Trust entity in Delaware
A website for the Delaware Department of State Division of Corporations shows that BlackRock Advisors filed today for an iShares Ethereum Trust entity. The filing indicates that BlackRock could be doubling down on crypto. The world's largest asset manager is currently awaiting a decision on its spot bitcoin ETF application from the Securities and Exchange Commission. A BlackRock spokesperson declined to comment to The Block. Ether's price has jumped nearly 8% today to around $2,040.
BlackRock filed for the iShares Bitcoin Trust in June of this year, which moved markets. The iShares brand is associated with BlackRock's exchange-traded fund products. The iShares Bitcoin Trust filing was a registration statement with the SEC, with details such as its custodian (Coinbase Custody Trust Company) and benchmark (the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate from Administrator CF Benchmarks, a subsidiary of Kraken). An iShares Ethereum Trust filing doesn't yet appear on the SEC's website. But notably, the iShares Bitcoin Trust entity was first registered in the Delaware state seven days before BlackRock filed the ETF application with the SEC. That suggests the iShares Ethereum Trust filing might appear on the SEC website next week.
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⚪️ Robinhood plans EU crypto trading expansion as Q3 revenue fell short of estimates
Trading app Robinhood is set to expand its crypto trading services to the European Union and open UK brokerage operations in the coming weeks. Its crypto brokerage services are only available in the United States at the moment. “With an experienced team in place, we will soon launch brokerage operations in the UK,” Robinhood wrote in its Q3 earnings statement released late yesterday. “As another step in global expansion, we are also planning to launch crypto trading in the EU following our UK launch.”
Robinhood currently supports the trading of crypto assets in the U.S., including Bitcoin, Ether, Chainlink, Dogecoin and USDC, according to its website. The firm ended support for Solana, Polygon and Cardano in June after SEC's legal complaint against Coinbase and Binance, in which the agency deemed the assets unregistered securities. The move follows Q3 results for the fintech firm, which resulted in Robinhood shares falling around 10% from $9.76 to $8.82 in after-hours trading, according to TradingView. Its stock (NASDAQ: HOOD) currently trades at $9.02 in pre-market trading. Robinhood Markets, Inc.’s transaction-based revenue fell 11% year-over-year to $185 million, driven by a 55% decline in crypto revenues to $23 million.
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🏴 South Korea’s SK Telecom partners with Aptos, Atomrigs Lab to develop crypto wallet
SK Telecom, the largest mobile carrier in South Korea, is partnering with Aptos and Atomrigs Lab to develop its web3 wallet service known as T wallet. The Korean telco firm said today in a LinkedIn post that the tripartite partnership is aimed at enhancing its affiliations with customer-preferred mainnets and decentralized applications — with a focus on T wallet. SK Telecom noted that the collaboration with Aptos will be its first non-Ethereum virtual machine blockchain integration.
“We will also provide users with tangible value by connecting to the promising dApp ecosystem within Aptos,” the company added. “By leveraging the innovative MoveVM blockchain technology offered by Aptos, this integration represents a significant advancement in making Web3 services more accessible to a broader audience,” The collaboration with Aptos follows SK Telecom’s partnership with CryptoQuant last month for the launch of T wallet. The wallet product is designed to grant users access to a blockchain-based application on their phones to store tokens, according to CoinDesk. In August, SK Telecom partnered with Polygon Labs to develop its web3 ecosystem.
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💰 Ex-FTX Unit LedgerX in Gray Area Beyond CFTC Proposal on Customer Funds: Commissioner
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) proposed a rule change Friday on how customer funds should be invested by firms the agency oversees – futures commission merchants (FCMs) and derivative clearing organizations (DCOs). LedgerX has been bucking tradition, possibly most prominently, when it shook up the industry recently with its aborted push to directly settle margined crypto transactions for customers without intermediaries.
Friday's proposal, which details how regulated firms must only put customer assets into an expanded list of the most liquid of investments, doesn't consider "the context of a non-intermediated clearing model where the DCO offers direct client access to its clearing services, without the FCM as an intermediary," said CFTC Commissioner Kristin Johnson. "Our current regulations do not reach the issues addressed by the conditions in the LedgerX order," Johnson said. "The Commission should consider regulation that closes this gap and ensures parallel retail customer protection for trading through intermediaries and non-intermediated DCOs."
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🏦 Coinbase crypto futures for retail US traders goes live, includes 'nano' bitcoin trading
After securing regulatory approval, Coinbase's service offering crypto futures trading to eligible retail U.S. customers is now active and includes "nano" bitcoin contracts, the company said in a statement. "Customers in the U.S. can now access regulated crypto futures contracts," the company said in a statement. "These futures contracts are specifically sized for retail traders, at 1/100th of a Bitcoin and 1/10th of an Ethereum."
Coinbase announced it had obtained regulatory approval from the National Futures Association, a self-regulatory organization designated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, to operate as a futures commission merchant. At the time, Coinbase said that the global crypto derivatives market represents roughly 75% of crypto trading volume worldwide and is a critical trader access point. Last year, the company created the Coinbase Derivatives Exchange after acquiring FairX, a CFTC-regulated futures exchange. The platform, open to third-party brokers, FCMs and market makers, in June launched new bitcoin and ether futures contracts tailored for institutional clients.
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💰 Ripple CEO criticizes former SEC Chair Jay Clayton’s comments
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse strongly criticized former United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Jay Clayton’s remarks regarding the agency’s regulatory approach. Since the first quarter of 2023, the SEC has initiated various regulatory actions against crypto exchanges and companies. During an interview with CNBC on June 29, 2023, Clayton expressed his view that the SEC should pursue legal action against specific companies only when they have strong legal grounds.
In light of the SEC voting to dismiss the allegations without prejudice, the Ripple CEO reminded that the former SEC chair had filed a lawsuit that had little chance of success in court. In the lawsuit against Ripple, Garlinghouse and Ripple co-founder Christian Larsen in December 2020, the SEC accused the company and the two executives of “unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering,” alleging that they had raised more than $1.3 billion from sales of the XRP token. Clayton’s statements from June 2023 have gained attention in light of the recent lawsuit developments involving Garlinghouse and Larsen. As previously reported, the SEC moved to dismiss the charges against the executives in October.
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