The day after spot bitcoin ETFs made their debut in the United States, cryptocurrency asset management CoinShares (CS) exercised its option to purchase the exchange-traded fund (ETF) division of Nashville, Tennessee-based Valkyrie Investments. The Saint Helier, New Jersey-based CoinShares firm, which obtained the option on Valkyrie Funds in November, announced on Friday that it had
Soon after an exploit that led to the transfer of $1.2 million from some customers’ accounts, Telcoin, the company informed CoinDesk in an X message today, restored all user balances. Paul Neuner, the CEO and founder of Telcoin, commented, “I’m proud of the team for making that happen in record time. Preemptively restoring affected user
The Financial Services Commission (FSC), which oversees financial matters in South Korea, released a statement indicating that U.S. bitcoin ETFs that have recently been launched may not comply with Korean legal regulations. The regulator believes that domestic broking of a U.S.-listed bitcoin spot ETF by Korean securities firms may potentially clash with the country’s Virtual
In a world where the distinction between digital and physical is becoming increasingly hazy, the emergence of Web3, or the decentralised internet, has created a multitude of new career paths and opportunities. Among them, the function of a Web3 Project Manager stands as a critical fulcrum, connecting traditional project management abilities with a cutting-edge understanding
Three out of the five committee members that accepted the files that resulted in the first-ever spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) were led by Gary Gensler, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).Gensler was one of the three commissioners who authorized the submissions, along with Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda, according to a notice of commission voting posted on the SEC website.Jaime Lizárraga and Caroline Crenshaw, commissioners, voted against the measures. Although Gensler has publicly expressed his skepticism and dismissal of the cryptocurrency market, Peirce is well-known for his support of the sector. Gensler has highlighted fraud and customer protection as the two main concerns facing the industry. In his initial remarks following the approvals on Wednesday, Gensler reiterated the SEC’s opposition to bitcoin, claiming that the regulator was obliged to accept more than 12 bitcoin ETFs because to its legal defeat over rejecting Grayscale’s in 2022. “We did not approve or endorse bitcoin,” Gensler said. “Investors should remain cautious about the myriad risks associated with bitcoin and products whose value is tied to crypto.” Crenshaw, who took issue with the filings, said in a different statement that the choice “put us on a wayward path that could further sacrifice investor protection.” Big financial players BlackRock (BLK) and Fidelity are among the approved providers. The well-known Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), managed by Grayscale, is one of the cryptocurrency native funds that has been uplisted as an ETF.At Bitwise, Invesco, ARK, and Grayscale, fees for these products can reach 1.5% after just a few months.
Ethereum (ETH) investors are encouraged by the historic U.S. approval of spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETF) on Wednesday. They are speculating that the token powering the Ethereum network may be the next in line. Bitcoin saw a 1.3% increase in price in a day, whereas ETH saw a 10% gain. The value of layer
Grayscale’s bitcoin fund (GBTC), the largest bitcoin investment vehicle, has seen its discount to net asset value (NAV) decrease to 0% for the first time since February 2021.This occurs after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission granted the company permission on Wednesday to transform the fund into a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which started trading on Thursday am (with ten other ETFs). Since February 2021, the fund has traded below the value of the Bitcoin it owned, and in December 2022, it reached all-time lows of almost 50%.Due to growing bitcoin sentiment and the emergence of anticipation for an ETF approval last summer, GBTC’s discount to NAV started to decrease dramatically. Before the fund’s conversion into an ETF was approved by the SEC, the discount had dropped as low as 5.6% on Monday. “GBTC converging to NAV is a huge relief for the space and a symbol of the industry’s move into a new stage of maturation,” said Sean Farrell, head of digital asset strategy at FundStrat.“This product GBTC caused a lot of unnecessary pain over the past few years for obvious reasons,” said Farrell.The nature of the fund was the cause of the discount.
The introduction of spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may help institutional investors since, according to Goldman Sachs (GS) in a research, these products will enable them to trade a proxy with low management fees and participate more actively in options hedging and arbitrage techniques. On Wednesday, spot bitcoin ETFs were finally approved in the
Voting to onboard PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin, issued by Paxos Trust Company, is being conducted by the decentralised non-custodial lending and borrowing protocol Aave. 99.98% of AAVE token holders taking part in the ongoing governance vote are in favour of adding PYUSD to AAVE’s Ethereum-based pool. The plan, dubbed a “temperature check,” was put up by
Following the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval of multiple spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Wednesday, the decentralised betting platform Polymarket saw a surge in trading volume of $5.7 million. Based on data released by PolyMarket on social networking platform X, the rise exceeded even the leading NFT marketplace OpenSea, which posted a
Almost $90 million worth of bitcoin (BTC) long and short positions had to be liquidated due to price volatility that followed a series of fictitious tweets from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s X account. This illustrates the industry’s risk of manipulation. On Tuesday, hackers gained access to the SEC’s X account, which they
According to Luuk Strijers, chief commercial officer of prominent cryptocurrency options exchange Deribit, traders are looking for insurance against a possible decline in the price of bitcoin (BTC). “Puts are overbought and calls are being sold, indicating the market is seeking protection from potential price declines,” Strijers said in an interview. Buyers can protect themselves
Days after the Indian government delivered compliance show cause notices to nine entities, Apple pulled Binance, KuCoin, and other offshore cryptocurrency exchanges from its app store in India.Despite not receiving a show cause notice, OKX, a well-known offshore bitcoin exchange, has also been taken down from the Apple India app store.The nine exchanges that received notices include Bitfinex, MEXC Global, Bittrex, Bitstamp, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, Binance, KuCoin, and Huobi. In accordance with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a division of the Finance Ministry, sent compliance show cause notes on December 28.Additionally, the government started blocking the URLs of “said entities that are operating illegally without complying.”CoinDesk was informed by a person with knowledge of the situation that the URLs for these exchanges are still operational in India despite the lengthy and ongoing paperwork required for this procedure.The individual stated that before taking any further action, the Indian government might wish to wait for the firms to reply to the notices.The apps continue to show on Google PlayStore. Apple India or the FIU could not be reached immediately for comment.
With the license, BitGo can continue to operate while waiting for a full permit, allowing it to offer digital payment token services to customers in the city-state. The top financial regulator in Singapore has given BitGo, a cryptocurrency custodial company, preliminary approval to apply for a Major Payment Institution (MPI) licence through a local organisation.
BlackRock (BLK) and ARK 21Shares both lowered the fees for their proposed exchange-traded funds (ETFs), joining other competitors who made reduction announcements yesterday, as the cryptocurrency sector anticipates that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will approve a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) as early as today. In a fresh S-1 filing on Wednesday,
According to the country’s Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, technical studies for developing crypto regulations are nearing completion and Turkey is in the “final stage,” CoinDesk Turkey reported on Wednesday. As part of larger attempts to remove itself from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list of nations whose anti-money laundering rules require strengthening, the
According to claims made by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on January 5, Rodney Burton was detained and charged by American authorities for allegedly scamming more than $7 million through a fictitious investment scheme.Court documents reveal that Burton, popularly known as “Bitcoin Rodney,” was accused of pushing the HyperVerse cryptocurrency investment fraud in Maryland.In June 2020, Hyperfund, HyperCapital, and HyperNation—other names for HyperVerse—were founded as an unincorporated business, according to the application. “A network of HyperFund promotors, in the District of Maryland and elsewhere, made fraudulent promotional presentations to investors and potential investors,” according to the filing by Andrew J. Accardi, a special agent with the IRS’s Criminal Investigations department. “HyperFund falsely claimed that investors who purchased ‘memberships’ would receive between 0.5% to 1% daily in
Updated documentation were filed on Tuesday by five potential issuers out of 13 that hope to introduce bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States: BlackRock (BLK), VanEck, Invesco and Galaxy, ARK 21Shares, and Grayscale.The firms were included in the filings as potential issuers to whom the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had sent comments within the previous day.Just hours after the companies filed documents outlining costs for their proposed products on Monday, CoinDesk earlier reported that the SEC provided comments to a group of potential issuers of the spot-bitcoin ETFs. Updated on Tuesday, the petition includes language that aims to prevent a conflict of interest between the ETF’s authorized participants and lessen the harm to shareholders in the case of collapse.Reducing the price they intended to collect from 0.59% to 0.39%, Invesco and Galaxy disclosed in their amended filing.With updates to their papers coming out in less than a day after the SEC’s answers, the most recent filings demonstrate an almost unprecedented level of interaction between the agency and potential issuers. Given that the SEC has until this Wednesday, January 10, 2024, to approve one of the petitions submitted by Ark and 21 Shares, it is widely anticipated that it will approve all of the applications this week out of a sense of justice.
OpenAI responded to a lawsuit that The New York Times (NYT) had filed against it in a blog post on January 8, stating that it is “without merit” and outlining its joint ventures with other news outlets. According to the blog post, OpenAI was in discussions with the NYT that appeared to be “progressing constructively.” “Their lawsuit on December 27—which we learned about by reading The New York Times—came as a surprise and disappointment to us.” The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming that its information has been improperly used to train chatbots using artificial intelligence (AI).The NYT’s assertions are refuted by OpenAI, which says it sees this as an opportunity to “clarify our business, intent, and how we build out the technology.”It outlined four assertions, the first of which is that it actively cooperates with news organizations and generates new opportunities for news, as the foundation for its arguments. It also stated that, although offering a “opt-out,” its instruction is “fair use” and is “the right thing to do.”Furthermore, the AI developer asserts that the NYT is not providing the “full story” and that the “regurgitation” of text is a “rare bug” that is being corrected.OpenAI listed a number of collaborations it has established in the media sector, including a recent agreement to address AI “hallucinations” with German media behemoth Axel Springer.Another group it communicates with to “explore opportunities, discuss their concerns, and provide solutions” is News/Media Alliance. This, however, comes after a 77-page study, released on October 30 by the News/Media Alliance, was submitted to the US Copyright Office claiming that AI models have been trained on datasets that contain a disproportionate amount of information from news publishers compared to other sources.Additionally, OpenAI emphasized the “opt-out process” that it has put in place for publishers, which stops its tools from accessing the websites of those publications who have used it.It was reported that August 2023 saw its adoption by The New York Times.One of the main points of contention in the NYT lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft is that, behind Wikipedia and a database of US patent records, “www.nytimes.com” is the most highly represented private source. The New York Times further states that it attempted, but was unable, to contact Microsoft and OpenAI in April 2023 to express concerns around intellectual property and “explore the possibility of an amicable resolution.”Lawyers have dubbed the NYT’s complaint—which claims that generative AI is violating copyright—the “best case yet,” notwithstanding OpenAI’s reply.OpenAI stated that its content is not a “substitute for The New York Times” and that any abuse reported by the NYT would be “not typical or allowed user activity.” “Regardless, we are continually making our systems more resistant to adversarial
Blockchain is a modern jargon that connotes clarity, unchangeability, and security. Due to its tokenized, distributed, and decentralised structure, it has drawn interest from corporate executives across the globe. Governments and businesses are investing in blockchain initiatives at an increasing rate. However, it is important to understand the fundamentals of creating UX designs for blockchain,
Ahead of an anticipated conversion to a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), the discount on the largest bitcoin (BTC) fund in the market, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), has dropped to its lowest point since April 2021. According to data, the discount hit a level last seen in June 2021 on Monday, dropping as low as
Following a recent announcement, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the American organisation in charge of regulating futures, swaps, and options, requested that legislators consider methods of identifying the participants in decentralised finance (DeFi). According to the paper, policymakers should identify and rank the projects that are most important and concentrate on digital identification, know
Nasdaq (NDX) and Bitcoin (BTC) have separated after the cryptocurrency moved in lockstep with Wall Street’s tech-heavy equities index for the majority of the previous four years. Fairlead Strategies, a research company, has tracked data showing that there is no link between the asset classes. The 40-day correlation between bitcoin and Nadaq is currently zero.
Creating a reliable and secure wallet app is a challenging but worthwhile project in the ever-changing world of cryptocurrencies. This post delves into the intricate process of creating a bitcoin wallet, taking you step-by-step through every important stage, from developing a plan to deploying it. What are a cryptocurrency wallet’s essential features? In addition to
According to research by blockchain analytics company TRM Labs, in 2023, the rates of criminal activities among cryptocurrency service providers in nations with complete regulatory frameworks were lower than those in less regulated areas.The analysis by TRM Labs was released on Monday in a paper that examined global crypto policy for 2023 in 21 jurisdictions, accounting for 70% of all crypto exposure worldwide.According to the analysis shared with CoinDesk, up to 80% of the 21 jurisdictions have taken steps to strengthen their regulation of cryptocurrencies, and nearly half have particularly advanced consumer protection safeguards. “While differences in national philosophies and priorities persist, we observed a convergence toward certain standards,” the report said. “This increasing regulatory maturity and greater focus on compliance by the private sector have already impacted illicit finance activities.” The report predicts that in 2024 questions will remain in the DeFi space – for example, “where
Lazarus Group, a group of North Korean hackers, transferred $1.2 million worth of their illicit riches from a currency mixer to a holding wallet, which represents their biggest transaction in more than a month.The wallet belonging to Lazarus Group got 27.371 bitcoin (BTC) in two transactions, and then 3.34 BTC was sent to a wallet that was previously utilized, according to data from the blockchain analysis company Arkham.Nothing was known about the coin mixer. Coin mixers, commonly called tumblers, are essentially blockchain-based protocols that can be used to mix up coins from different users before dispersing them, making it impossible to determine who received what.The provenance and transfers of cryptocurrency are usually easy to follow because to blockchains’ transparency.According to a research from cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, Lazarus Group is suspected of being responsible for $3 billion worth of bitcoin breaches and vulnerabilities during the previous three years.The U.S. Treasury Department has connected Lazarus Group to a bitcoin heist from the Ronin bridge, which is connected to Axie Infinity, that totaled $600 million. The Lazarus Group wallet currently contains $79 million in wallets that Arkham has identified, including $3.4 million in ether (ETH) and $73 million in bitcoin.The recent Orbit attack, which cost $81 million, resembled earlier Lazarus Group attacks, according to Metamask developer Taylor Monahan.
According to an amended S3 filing, asset manager Grayscale has lowered its 2% management fee to 1.5% as part of its proposed elevation to a spot bitcoin ETF.ABN AMRO Clearing, Virtu, Macquarie Capital, and Jane Street will now be authorized participants (APs) of Grayscale, which manages assets under management (AUM) of about $27 billion. “We did a ton of research to evaluate similar product offerings’ fees, including spot and futures-based ETFs in geographies around the world that have been earlier to open access to bitcoin through the ETF wrapper,” Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of Grayscale Investments, said in an interview. Sonnenshein declined to comment on any of the other
As the cryptocurrency market awaits the Securities and Exchange Commission’s final approval, BlackRock, Fidelity, and other applicants to list a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States have disclosed their listing fees. According to BlackRock’s final S-1 filing, the charge will begin at 20 basis points and increase to 30 bps after a
The likelihood of a bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) being approved in the United States has increased to over 90%, according to two prominent analysts at Bloomberg. Meanwhile, traders on the cryptocurrency market at Polymarket, a betting platform, have become increasingly negative, reducing the odds to 85%. In a post on Saturday, Bloomberg ETF analyst
Over the course of three of its exchange-traded funds (ETFs), ARK Invest sold an additional $20.6 million worth of Coinbase (COIN) shares on Friday. The total number of COIN shares offloaded by Cathie Wood’s investment firm was 133,823.98. The stock closed last week at $153.98. No single stock should exceed 10% of an ETF’s value,
