SEC approved the first futures-based Bitcoin-ETF, the price of digital gold surpassed $60,000, Binance established a $1 billion fund to develop the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem, and other events from the week.
SEC quietly approved the first futures-based Bitcoin ETF
On October 15, the SEC approved ProShares’ filing to launch the futures-based Bitcoin Strategy ETF. Trading is scheduled to begin on Monday, October 18.
The approval rests on an updated prospectus and the 75-day window for review. Since the agency did not reject it in time, this is considered approved, though the Commission did not publicly confirm it.
The fund’s underlying asset will be Bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). In the updated document, the mention of investments in Canadian Bitcoin ETFs was removed.
Nasdaq also expressed willingness to add to its listing a similar product from Valkyrie Investments, which had previously filed Form 8-A for securities registration. ProShares filed the same form.
Digital gold prices rise above $60,000
Throughout the week, Bitcoin’s price rose amid the approaching deadline for ETF filings. On Friday, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF was added to Bloomberg terminals under ticker BITO — the price of the first cryptocurrency climbed above $62,900.
In the last seven days Bitcoin rose about 11%. At the time of writing, the asset traded near $60,950.
Over the week, most top-10 cryptocurrencies by market cap finished in the green. After the announcement by Polkadot developers of readiness to launch parachains on the mainnet DOT rose more than 14%.
According to Messari, among digital assets last week the strongest riser was the native token of the decentralized network NuCypher. The NU price rose 423%, and the market cap surpassed $1 billion. This happened after the asset’s listing on one of South Korea’s major Upbit exchanges.
The Sentinel cryptocurrency posted the biggest decline. Its price fell more than 58%, and its market cap dropped to $98 million.
The market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market stood at $2.6 trillion. Bitcoin dominance rose to 44.7%.
In Russia, plans to ban buying Bitcoin on foreign exchanges were denied, while Putin allowed use of cryptocurrencies for settlement
According to Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev, the Russian authorities do not plan to ban citizens from buying cryptocurrencies on foreign exchanges. Regulators will focus on banning the use of digital currencies as a means of payment domestically to avoid losing control over the money supply.
The following day, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about cryptocurrencies. In response to a question about using digital assets to settle oil payments, he stated:
“Cryptocurrency, of course, can be a unit of account, but it is very unstable. To move funds from one place to another, yes, but to trade, especially trading energy resources, in my view, is still premature.”
Meanwhile, the Bank of Russia called private investment in Bitcoin a potentially significant problem.
The United States leads Bitcoin hashrate share. Russia ranks third in the global country-by-hash rating
The United States displaced China from the top position by hashrate in the Bitcoin network. Since May 2021, the U.S. share of total hashrate has grown from 17.8% to 35.4% in August, according to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.
Russia’s share, from 7.2% in May, rose to 11.2%. Kazakhstan’s rose from 7.4% to 18.1%, and Canada from 4.7% to 9.6%. These countries, along with the United States, were identified by experts as the main destinations for migrating Chinese mining capacity for cryptocurrency production.
Binance established a $1 billion fund to develop the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem and became a sponsor of Lazio football club
The cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced the launch of a $1 billion fund to develop and support the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) ecosystem.
The fund is divided into four categories:
- talent development program ($100 million);
- liquidity mining/LP program ($100 million);
- developer program ($300 million);
- investment and incubation program ($500 million).
The fund is divided into four categories: The exchange also signed a two-year €30 million contract with Italian football club Lazio. The Binance logo will appear on the front of players’ jerseys. As part of the partnership, the company launched the Lazio fan token sale on the Launchpad platform.
These news positively affected the price of the Binance Coin (BNB). Over the past seven days it rose by more than 11%.
Billionaire Bill Miller talks up Bitcoin
The legendary investor and founder of Miller Value Partners called Bitcoin digital gold and compared his bet on it to buying Amazon stock during the dot-com crash:
Coinbase announces NFT marketplace launch and proposes creating a new federal oversight body for the crypto industry
Coinbase NFT will allow users to issue, buy and display collectible digital assets. Initially, the marketplace will support ERC-721 and ERC-1155 tokens on Ethereum. In the future, the company plans to add support for other networks.
Coinbase opened a waitlist for early access to the marketplace. Within a day, more than 1.2 million users joined the queue.
During the week, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong also proposed for the United States to form a federal agency with authority over digital assets.
JPMorgan clients’ interest in cryptocurrencies; Morgan Stanley counters with a different view
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon again criticised bitcoin, but admitted that clients of the financial group have a different view.
Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman, by contrast, said that digital assets do not enjoy much demand among clients. He also stressed that cryptocurrencies will not disappear, and the technology underpinning them, blockchain, has proven its efficacy.
The ‘short-seller’ is eyeing a possible crypto short
The investor Michael Burry, who predicted the 2007 mortgage crisis, is exploring the possibility of taking a short position on cryptocurrencies. He asked his Twitter followers how such a move could be executed.
Burry noted that he believes shorting a volatile market is not the best idea. In his words, this is merely an “out loud” thought.
Celsius Network and MoonPay raise $400 million each
Centralized crypto lending platform Celsius Network announced a $400 million investment round. The company’s valuation exceeded $3 billion.
The financing round came amid lawsuits in the US accusing the platform of selling unregistered securities. The complaints were raised by state regulators in Texas, New Jersey, Alabama and Kentucky.
According to The Information, MoonPay also raised $400 million in its first investment round. The crypto-payments startup was valued at $3.4 billion.
Launched in 2019, MoonPay counts over five million users and supports more than 80 digital assets. The publication called the three-year valuation “astonishing” and the deal amount — “unusually large for early-stage venture financing.”
Square contemplates building a Bitcoin miner
According to Square chief executive Jack Dorsey, the payments giant is considering creating an open-source Bitcoin mining device.
Head of the Hardware Development group Jesse Dorogusker leads the initiative. Dorsey also urged followers to share thoughts, ideas, issues and collaboration proposals.
Valve bans blockchain games, NFTs, and cryptocurrencies on Steam
The American game developer Valve Corporation has banned publishing blockchain games that allow issuing or exchanging crypto or non-fungible tokens on its Steam storefront.
The main competitor, Epic Games Store, said it is “open to games with crypto assets and blockchain-based assets.” The company is also willing to work in the NFT space, but “with some limitations.”
CFTC orders Bitfinex and Tether to pay penalties of $42.5 million
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulated the claims against Tether and Bitfinex, requiring the companies to pay civil penalties totaling $42.5 million.
According to the order, Tether was fined $41 million for “false or misleading statements” about full backing of the stablecoin USDT. The penalty for Bitfinex for providing futures contracts on the platform without registration and for over-the-counter trading with U.S. residents amounted to $1.5 million.
Also on ForkLog:
- The governor of Irkutsk complained to the government about “underground” miners.
- Binance will close access to OTC trading for users from mainland China.
- Bakkt will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
- Grayscale will apply to convert its Bitcoin Trust into an ETF.
What to Read and Watch
ForkLog analyzed the features of decentralized options, looked into why they are increasingly popular, and explored the pitfalls of these nuanced but promising financial instruments.
In our traditional digest we collected the week’s main events in the field of artificial intelligence. The most important recent news from the venture capital sector can be recalled in our “Institutional Gazette”.
On October 11 on ForkLog’s YouTube channel, there was an online conference “Play and Earn — What is Waves Ducks?”, where speakers spoke about Waves’ blockchain game.
Read ForkLog’s bitcoin news on our Telegram — crypto news, prices and analysis.