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How Bitcoin ETFs Are Changing the Risk-Reward Ratio for Institutional Investors - CoinDesk

Having considered all the evidence and submissions presented to me during the Trial, I reached the conclusion the evidence was overwhelming. At that point, I made certain declarations (because I was satisfied they are useful and are necessary to do justice between the parties), as follows: First, that Dr Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin White Paper. Second, Dr Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in the period between 2008 and 2011. Third, Dr Wright is not the person who created the Bitcoin system. Fourth, Dr Wright is not the author of the initial versions of the Bitcoin Software.

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UK court calls man claiming to have invented Bitcoin a liar - The Verge

Illustration : Betka82 ( Getty Images )

On May 22, 2010, a man in Florida spent 10,000 Bitcoin the current-day equivalent of $700 million on pizza. The event, which marked the first digital currency transaction ever made for a physical item, is now celebrated annually as Bitcoin Pizza Day.

That, of course, was just the beginning. The world of cryptocurrency has evolved to the point where you can buy anything from movie tickets, plane seats, and even a college education using Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and other digital currencies.

Heres a list of items you can buy with cryptocurrencies.

Read this article:

What can I buy with Bitcoin? - Quartz

Bitcoin and Ethereum-based exchange-traded products (ETPs) are set to debut on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) following approval by the United Kingdoms Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on May 22.

The WisdomTree Physical Bitcoin ETP and the WisdomTree Physical Ethereum ETP will be among the first crypto ETPs to be listed in the U.K. and are expected to begin trading on May 28, according toETF Stream.

The ETPs will only be available to professional and institutional investors due to the 2021 ban on retail customers trading crypto derivatives. The listing of WisdomTrees two ETPs comes nearly two months after the LSEs public notice.

Alexis Marinof, head of Europe at WisdomTree, said that the FCAs approval of their crypto ETPs prospectus would make it easier for U.K.-based professional investors to invest in crypto-backed products that currently access crypto ETPs via overseas exchanges.

In a public announcement on March 25, the LSE announced that applications for cryptocurrency ETPs are open until April 8, with accepted funds listed in May, subject to clearance by the nations financial regulator, thFCA.

To gain FCA approval, the crypto ETPs should only be denominated in Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH), be physically backed and be non-leveraged. The issuers must also partner with an Anti-Money Laundering licensed custodian in the United States, the U.K., or the European Union and hold the underlying assets in cold storage.

Related: London emerges as worlds most crypto-ready city for business

The approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and their subsequent market success, which has seen billions flow into the ETFs, have prompted several other governments around the globe to offer crypto accessibility to investors.

Hong Kong also approved the listing of spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs. Unlike U.S.-based spot BTC ETFs, the Hong Kong ETFs have features such as in-kind transfers and denominations in three fiat currencies. Investors can instantly purchase and redeem ETF units using Bitcoin or Ether.

However, despite improved accessibility, the ETFs failed to achieve the same impact as the U.S.-based Bitcoin ETFs, attracting only $22.5 million on the first trading day.

Magazine: What do crypto market makers actually do? Liquidity, or manipulation

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Bitcoin and Ethereum ETPs debut on London Stock Exchange after FCA nod - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin (BTC) soared above $71,000 early Tuesday, reaching its highest level since early April, while Ether jumped more than 19% to $3,700. This surge followed Bloomberg analysts increasing the likelihood of a spot ETH exchange-traded fund (ETF) being approved in the U.S. to 75%.

According to the latest data from SoSoValue, as quoted by The Economic Times, Bitcoin ETFs saw total net inflows surpassing $241 million on May 20. Notably, BlackRocks Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, drew in over $66 million in net inflows, while Fidelitys Bitcoin ETF, FBTC, registered net inflows of $64 million.

Also read: SEBI recommends regulators to oversee crypto trade, RBI still sees macro risk

The crypto market is surging as investors react to a torrent of good news. ETH has skyrocketed 19% in 24 hours to surpass $3,700, while Bitcoin has crossed $71,000, up nearly 8%. The catalyst for this surge appears to be the ETF approval, with chatter suggesting the SEC could be doing a 180 on this increasingly polarizing issue," said Rajagopal Menon, VP, WazirX.

The global cryptocurrency market cap jumped by 7.9% to approximately $2.61 trillion in the past 24 hours.

Other major cryptocurrencies also saw significant gains: BNB (5.1%), Solana (3.5%), XRP (5.7%), Dogecoin (8.6%), Toncoin (5%), Shiba Inu (6.8%), Avalanche (14%), and Cardano (7.8%).

Markets began to rally late Monday after Bloomberg analysts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart increased the likelihood of a spot ether ETF from around 20% to 75%. Subsequently, CoinDesk reported that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requested that exchanges seeking to list ether exchange-traded funds update their 19b-4 filings ahead of an important deadline this week.

This happened as SEC asked aspiring ether ETF exchanges to update 19b-4 filings ahead of the 23rd May deadline. However it is still unlikely that the ETH ETF will be approved this week itself - the SEC seems to be moving in a positive direction, and that is what has triggered the market.

In the meantime, Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of value, surged by 19.2% to reach $3,667 in today's trading session.

Also read: Stage set for return of Binance, Kucoin to India

Spot Ethereum #ETF approval odds have surged to 75% from 25%, as the #SEC asks exchanges to update 19B-4 filings on an accelerated basis for Spot Ethereum ETFs. This is huge news for the future of Ethereum, indicating it may soon follow in the footsteps of #Bitcoin. Owing to this, the market is witnessing significant movement and is expected to gain further traction," said Avinash Shekhar, Co-founder and CEO of Pi42.

Over the past day, the market capitalization of Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency globally, surged to $1.402 trillion. As per CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin's dominance now stands at 53.79%. Additionally, Bitcoin's trading volume in the last 24 hours saw a significant uptick, soaring by 135% to reach $52.07 billion.

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Published: 21 May 2024, 04:51 PM IST

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Bitcoin surges to $71000 level today; what's driving the rally? - Mint

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) Chris Pan, Ohio State Universitys most recent commencement speaker, has told NBC4 what he shouldve changed about his speech while standing by certain portions.

Dubbed a social entrepreneur by Ohio State ahead of the speech, Pan is a 1999 graduate from the university with previous stints at PepsiCo China, McKinsey and Co., and Facebook. He now runs his own company called Spirit Labs, which includes custom bracelet-maker MyIntent in its fold.

But Pan, returning to his alma mater on May 5, drew boos from an audience of graduates and parents at Ohio Stadium when he mentioned Bitcoin. Calling it a misunderstood asset, he encouraged attendees to keep an open mind and look into it as an investment while reminding them of runaway inflation in the U.S.

I have tons of love mail, I have hate mail too, Pan acknowledged. You get a little bit of both out of 70,000 people.

In an interview Friday with NBC4, Pan said the controversial moment was born from a March 8 email asking him to be the speaker.

I asked all the faculty and staff that I know are at the university, Did you nominate me? And nobody said they did, Pan said. I couldnt really believe it. It was such a huge honor. And I immediately screenshotted it, and I texted to people here at the university. And I said, Is this what I think it is? Like, just to confirm, because I didnt want to jump the gun.

Pan was joined on stage for the speech by Ohio State President Ted Carter, who also happens to be on the board of directors for a nuclear-powered Bitcoin mining company. And while the pair shares what Carter called a completely random connection, Pan admitted the cryptocurrency was more of a new discovery for him. He doesnt think it had anything to do with his being picked to speak.

People speculate that there was some Bitcoin conspiracy, Pan said. I only got into Bitcoin like mid-February. That was when I got the news of the ETF and then I spent two weeks really understanding it for myself.

Pan voiced support in his speech and the interview specifically for Bitcoin ETFs, a new investment option that lets people buy into a fund that tracks the price of the cryptocurrency. While Bitcoin ETFs simplify secure investing into it, they also come with some disadvantages compared to buying the coin outright.

An investor placing money in one of these funds wont directly own the cryptocurrency, meaning they cant use it outside of the ETF. And while direct cryptocurrency can be bought, sold, sent and received at any time, ETF buys and sales are limited by stock market hours, as well as accompanied by additional fees.

Pan noted he had dabbled directly with Bitcoin in 2020 before selling it at a loss. But he said he made his first social media post about the cryptocurrency on March 2, six days before he received the email inviting him to speak. Carter and Pan both acknowledged that they talked about Bitcoin at the dinner before commencement. There, the social entrepreneur also received another answer from the president: This year, they wanted an alumni.

Its not surprising because Ive done other events here, I was on the cover of the 2018 alumni magazine, Pan said. And they did a big spread on me and the bracelets.

Pan also wasnt shy about how he made the speech, announcing on LinkedIn that he used the psychedelic drug ayahuasca to write it. He told NBC4 he has previously used the drug multiple times, starting out for therapy. Looking back, he doesnt regret doing so or speaking about it publicly.

You look at John Lennon, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, these are all guys whove worked with psychedelics, you know, LSD in particular, to fuel creativity, Pan said. And obviously, this is the biggest speech of my life. Of course I was gonna do psychedelics, how could I not? It would be crazy for me not to, right? Because thats part of my practice.

Pan pointed out that Ohio State is home to a group whose entire focus is studying the drugs, alongside some states in the U.S. making moves toward legalizing certain psychedelics for therapy.

Over at Bricker Hall, we have one of a handful of psychedelic clinical research centers in the middle of campus that a lot of people probably dont know about, Pan said. And it started with researching for veterans PTSD. By me talking about it, yes, Im getting a lot of flack. But I do hope its going to help a lot of people. And its going to take ayahuasca from What the heck is this to Oh, its just another healing modality.'

On what was possibly the biggest point of conflict in his speech, Pan said he felt misinterpreted about Bitcoin, as well as comments about barriers to investing: fear, laziness and closed-mindedness. NBC4 asked him if he saw how that could come off to an audience with fresh student debt.

Some people took offense because they think I was calling them that, Pan said. I was not, I was calling myself that. I was that person who was fearful and who was lazy and who was closed-minded. In terms of debt, I actually had a section that I ended up cutting out, because I just didnt have time. And it was around, you know, we buy things we dont need to impress people we dont like. And we have an emptiness inside us, a sense of unworthiness, emptiness, you know, not being loved. And we use retail therapy.

The speaker also issued an apology, and separately explained what he would have changed in his message about Bitcoin.

I think it comes from a notion, probably a couple of things. One is what is appropriate at a commencement, right? Because theyre like, Well, you know, I didnt want to hear about this. Yeah, thats probably right, so I apologize. I didnt mean to offend you, I just thought it was really important, Pan said. My main message isnt even around Bitcoin, its around being open-minded, its around love, its around conflict resolution. If I were to do it over again, I would probably make it clear that I only got in three months ago.

At the same time, Pan stood by his message about researching cryptocurrency and investing in general.

I think dont put your rent money in there, Pan said. Dont put money you need over the next two years, three years, right? If its something you need in the short term, dont put it in there. But if its long-term money, thats five years and up, which hopefully all of us are thinking about retirement. Obviously, the earlier we start saving for retirement, the bigger the nest egg is going to be and thats where we get to retire. For any long-term investment, Im so bullish on Bitcoin. Ive never been more bullish on an asset class.

Pan said while his speech may have been criticized, the boos he received on stage will be worth it if a graduate says he helped them years from now.

Im really sorry, if you had a bad experience. I genuinely am, Pan said. That was not my intention. I have never had an intention to make people upset. My intention was actually to be helpful.

Regarding the MyIntent bracelets he promised to the stadium at the end of his speech, Pan said his company sent codes to OSU for each student and three of their attendees to get free bracelets. He noted the university did not give students emails to MyIntent, and OSU will handle sending the codes out. Redeeming the codes is optional.

See the original post:

Im really sorry: Chris Pan on Ohio State Bitcoin speech, and how he was picked - NBC4 WCMH-TV

Ethereum prices (ETH-USD) are jumping on the possibility that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could approve offerings for an ether ETF. This sort of action in the crypto market is reminiscent of what investors saw in the lead-up to the SEC's decision on spot bitcoin ETFs seen at the start of 2024.

Yahoo Finance Senior Markets Reporter Jared Blikre monitors the price action brewing around digital assets and the year-to-date crypto asset flows since the spot bitcoin ETF's inception.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination.

This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Sticking with the prospect of another spot.

Crypto ETF Jared Blier is here now with a look at the lessons learned from what happened with Bitcoin.

Jared.

Yes, it's, uh, hard.

Easy to forget that.

Uh, only at the beginning of the year.

We are still looking forward to the spot Bitcoin ETF approvals.

And I'm gonna put up a chart here of Bitcoin.

This is gonna be over the last year and things that rumour mill really got started last October.

We didn't get the approvals until, let's say mid January, and we actually saw a little bit of a decline.

Sell the news on that.

But then we rose to record highs.

And that's where we've been kind of languishing in this in this upper end of this trading range here.

Now, with Ethereum really interesting that this comes right now.

It was only a week or two ago that President Trump himself came out as a pro crypto candidate, and it's leading a lot of people to speculate that this reversal, this sudden reversal that we saw at the SEC with respect to the spot ether, is because the Democratic Party wants to be more competitive in crypto.

So whether or not that's the case, I do want to point out Jim Bianco has pointed out Rather, and I'll echo his sentiments here that the whole purpose of the spot Bitcoin ETF that there is going to be this wave of boomers and people just absorbing all this all this Bitcoin into their 401 This did not happen.

In fact, we see the Bitcoin ETF flows.

This is as of this year.

So this is year to date, largely just following the price.

Uh, Bitcoin topped out right in here and this is when it started trading in that range and that is when the flow started decreasing.

So we haven't seen the promised uptake in people's 401 that could happen.

But nevertheless, the fact that this is now a political football is just bullish for crypto.

You're probably going to see a lot of favourable statements into the election.

So take that for what you will.

Story continues

Jared.

Thanks a lot.

Appreciate it.

We'll continue to be on top of this

Continued here:

Could a pending ether ETF mimic the arc of spot bitcoin ETFs? - Yahoo Finance

Trading volume of derivatives on the popular cryptocurrency XRP has increased by 60% in the last 24 hours, according to the latest data fromCoinGlass. This notable growth was primarily due to a significant increase in the turnover of perpetual XRP futures, which reached a whopping $2 billion. Simultaneously, on the spot market, the trading volume of XRP increased by 18.40% to reach $1.75 billion.

Combined, these figures brought the total turnover ofXRP on centralized platforms to a staggering $3.75 billion in a single day. Given that the token's market capitalization is $29.5 billion, trading volume is now approximately 12.71% of the total value, indicating a high level of trading activity.

In addition, theprice of XRP againstBitcoin rose by more than 3% today: the cryptocurrency is now trading at 0.00000785 BTC. In dollar terms, this growth is characterized by the fact that XRP rose in price by more than 3%, while Bitcoin fell by 1.26%.

This divergence is largely due to the recent market decline, which has seen positions worth $119.85 million liquidated in the last few hours.

XRP's positive momentum is fueled by Coinbase's decision to add a token to its platform, a move that will make the cryptocurrency available to New Yorkers for the first time since its removal in 2021 amid Ripple's legal battle withthe SEC. This development has significantly boosted XRP's market presence and trading activity.

Read the original here:

XRP Skyrockets 60% in Volume as XRP Price Outperforms Bitcoin - U.Today

A month after its halving and in the midst of Bitcoin Pizza Day this week, the leading cryptocurrency seems to be in the mood for celebration.

Nvidia earnings stun the street and the stock is soaring

Bitcoin was trading around $68,000 on Monday, which was up 3.4% in the last 24 hours and over 9% in the past week. Bitcoins all-time high is $73,835, which it reached on March 14, 2024.

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, followed suit, hovering around $3,100, with a 3% gain. Solana, also known as ethereum-killer, saw more than a 6% jump Monday, to $180, meaning it now has jumped over 21% in a week. Top memecoins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu saw modest jumps of over 2% each.

Overall, the global cryptocurrency market was up nearly 3% on Monday, standing at $2.47 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

The surge in the crypto market is primarily driven by macroeconomic factors, such as the ease in the inflation rate.

Meanwhile, gold hit a record high on Monday, causing analysts to speculate about how it reached the new peak and whether Bitcoin will surpass its all-time high mark.

Possibly, the answer lies in the mining of metals and cryptocurrencies, said Neil Roarty, an analyst at investment platform Stocklytics.

The cost of extracting gold from the ground has been rising steadily due to various factors, including disrupted supply chains and Russias invasion of Ukraine, he said. Meanwhile, Bitcoins recent halving event reduced the rewards Bitcoin miners receive by 50% in April.

With political uncertainty and the promise of falling interest rates likely to sustain demand for both categories, the rising cost of supply should give the bulls of both camps reason to be optimistic.

In addition, spot Bitcoin ETFs have been performing well the past few days. According to industry tracker Farside, investors have been putting money into the various spot Bitcoin ETFs since May 15. Even Grayscales GBTC, which was in the red for months, was also receiving funds from investors.

Since May 1, BlackRocks iShares Bitcoin Trust, or IBIT, has seen an inflow of $15 billion, followed by Fidelitys FBTC with $8.4 billion, ARK 21Sharess Bitcoin ETF ARK with $2.4 billion, and Bitwises BITB with $1.8 billion, per Farside.

Original post:

Bitcoin is back above $68,000. Are we heading toward a new peak? - Quartz

Photo: Jose Cabezas ( Reuters)

Popular cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask might soon add Bitcoin support, CoinDesk reports. An unnamed source cited by the outlet said access could be granted within the next month, while another mentioned that the functionality is not yet finalized. The features may be initially limited and then expanded over time.

Nvidia earnings stun the street and the stock is soaring

A blockchain software company, Consensys created MetaMask to connect users to Ethereums blockchain ecosystem. The wallet supports Ethereum and Ethereum Virtual Machines (EVMs), such as Avalanche, Polygon, Optimism, and Arbitrum.

Currently, MetaMask does not directly facilitate Bitcoin acquisition. Users must make the transactions using Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC). A Wrapped Bitcoin is a tokenized version of Bitcoin that operates on the Ethereum blockchain. It is pegged 1:1 to Bitcoin, so one Wrapped Bitcoin is always equal to one Bitcoin. It acts as a bridge between Bitcoin and Ethereums decentralized applications (dApps). If the CoinDesk report pans out, MetaMask users will soon be able to add Bitcoin directly.

This is not the first time MetaMask has expanded beyond the Ethereum ecosystem. In 2023, the company added a feature called Snaps. Snaps are JavaScript applications that enable cross-chain interoperability, allowing different blockchain networks to communicate and interact without intermediaries.

Users have downloaded MetaMasks apps over 22.66 million times, according to CoinGecko.

Continued here:

Bitcoin may be coming to the biggest crypto wallet on Ethereum - Quartz