The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day |
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An unidentified crypto wallet sent 27 bitcoin (~$1.17 million) to the first-ever Bitcoin address connected to Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto on Friday, raising questions about why. The same sender withdrew roughly the same amount from crypto exchange Binance, Arkham Intelligence shows. The transaction happened only two days after the 10 year anniversary of the day the “genesis block” was mined, and as bitcoin ETF speculation is reaching a fever pitch. Lawyer Jeremy Hogan speculated the move may be an attempt to reveal Nakamoto’s identity through new U.S. tax rules that state transactions over $10,000 need to be reported to the IRS. |
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North Korean hackers Lazarus Group moved $1.2 million worth of crypto from a coin mixer to a holding wallet, marking its largest transaction in over a month. Lazarus Group is said to have been behind $3 billion worth of crypto hacks over the past three years, including a $600 million theft of the Axie Infinity-linked Ronin bridge. According to data from Arkham, the group’s wallet now holds $73 million worth of bitcoin and $3.4 million worth of ether. Metamask developer Taylor Monahan said the recent $81 million Orbit attack followed patterns similar to previous attacks committed by Lazarus. |
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Sohrab Sharma, aka "Sam Sharma," a co-founder of Centra Tech, has been sentenced to eight years in jail for conducting an illegal ICO that fleeced investors of $25 million. The Miami-based company had purported to offer crypto-based financial products including a debit card, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Sharma was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit over $36 million. |
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- The SEC appears set to approve a dozen or so issuers of bitcoin ETFs. Odds of a spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) being approved in the U.S. have risen to more than 90%, two influential analysts at Bloomberg said, while crypto market participants at betting platform Polymarket became more pessimistic, trimming the odds to 85%. BitMEX founder Arthur Hayers predicts the event would be a “sell the news” moment, predicting bitcoin could fall as much as 40% if BTC rallies to $60,000-$70,000 in the coming weeks, he wrote.
- All 13 proposed ETFs announced fee structures, with crypto native fund manager Bitwise charging the least – 0.24% after a 6-month period of no fees. BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, set its fee at 0.30%, lower than some experts had expected given its size and reputation. Fidelity set its fee at 0.39% and Invesco and Galaxy at 0.59%, while Valkyrie and Hashdex chose 0.80% and 0.90%, respectively.
- Grayscale Investments, if approved by the SEC, plans to charge fees at the high end of range, 1.5%. This is lower than the trust's management fee of 2%. However if it can concert its GBTC trust, it would come out of the gate with more than $27 billion of assets under management, via its trove of over 619,000 BTC accrued since 2013. "GBTC opening on day one with over $20 billion and $350 million of daily volume is like bringing a gun to a knife fight," Bloomberg's Eric Balchunas said.
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The Takeaway: The Good & Bad of ETFs |
(Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk) |
Word on the street is that a bitcoin ETF will be approved this week, which would mark a milestone for the world’s first cryptocurrency, if only because there has been tremendous media interest in these investable products. Bitcoin already has mainstream attention and interest from Wall Street. What a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) would provide, apart from potentially positive momentum for bitcoin’s price, would be a signal of the asset’s maturity. In other words, the bull case around an ETF boils down to legitimization. Even before Gary Gensler, the current chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), took charge, the U.S. government was hesitant to approve crypto ETFs because of the possibility of market manipulation and fraud. ETFs, which are like mutual funds except typically more tax efficient and lower cost, are a relatively new and quick growing segment of traditional finance. Mere attempts by firm’s like financial players including Fidelity, VanEck and BlackRock in launching BTC ETFs is already a major endorsement, so how much more significant would actual investors be? Larry Fink, the CEO of the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, said the firm is interested because it sees legitimate demand from its clients in a spot bitcoin ETF. Although many types of crypto-based ETFs are already live, the much-anticipated spot bitcoin ETF would allow institutions to more easily gain exposure to crypto as well as everyday investors to indirectly add bitcoin to their Roth retirement accounts and 401(k)s. This opens bitcoin to a new set of buyers and sellers, including financial advisers who for years have been looking for off-the-shelf solutions for crypto investing. Perhaps more important are the financial products that could be built around bitcoin ETFs, like the “model portfolios” that BlackRock creates for anyone from mom-and-pop to the ultra high-net worth investors. Bitcoin’s historic volatility makes it an easy way to change up ready-made investment products for any level of risk tolerance (though some speculate bitcoin will become less volatile as more capital flows in). If this plug-and-play model comes to pass, where any financial institution can add bitcoin to any number of financial products, it could mean millions of people could one day have exposure to bitcoin. This could be politically favorable for the crypto industry, as it might make legislators less inclined to make decisions that materially affect their constituents. Of course there are many open questions regarding a bitcoin ETF, including if any particular firm will dominate the field. What would it mean if BlackRock became the world’s largest bitcoin holder for Bitcoin’s development and governance, for instance? Market surveillance is an SEC requirement, which is bad news for privacy — but is it also a backdoor to censoring transactions? Today’s bitcoin holders will have to wait and see, but first an ETF has to launch. Read the "bear case" online. – D.K. @danielgkuhn daniel@coindesk.com |
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Algorand Foundation - Blockchain for Real-World Impact with Matthew Keller Following the Algorand Impact Summit, a two-day event bringing together developers, founders, executives, policymakers, NGOs, investors and other thought leaders who see blockchain as part of the solution to the world’s most intractable challenges, the CoinDesk team got to speak with the Algorand Foundation’s Matthew Keller to dive deeper into its impact initiatives. Matthew Keller, director of impact and inclusion, discusses the impact of blockchain technology, how to measure success for inclusionary initiatives and how the Algorand Foundation thinks about the future of on-chain public goods. Read the full interview here. |
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Consensus is the biggest and most established hub for everything crypto, blockchain and Web3. Join us at the 10th annual Consensus May 29-31 in Austin, Texas for dialogue, discovery and dealmaking alongside developers, investors, startups, executives and more.
Register with code NODE15 for 15% off. Grab your pass.
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