Asset Financial News

Donald Trump's crypto coin have accumulated close to $100 million in trading fees in less than two weeks, according to estimates from three blockchain analysis firms, a large windfall from a venture that has seen tens of thousands of small traders lose money. The meme coin, known as $Trump, was launched by the president on Jan. 17 and quickly surged, reaching a peak of over $14.5 billion in overall market value by Jan. 19, the day before his inauguration. It has since slumped by two-thirds.

USD 230 million crypto heist last year, WazirX is «hopeful» of securing adequate votes from users in favour of its upcoming scheme of arrangement, with founder Nischal Shetty asserting that while being legally binding, the scheme will allow the company a fighting chance to re-build value in «golden era of crypto» market. Shetty told PTI that the company's promise of returning 85 per cent to users «immediately» is a result of nearly USD 450 million reserves it has — the appreciated value of leftover tokens post July 2024, when the hackers stole USD 230 million of digital assets. "...if I can push this (scheme of arrangement) through, I will not rejoice. I and my team are going to work the next three years to bring back value," Shetty said.

Donald Trump's crypto coin have accumulated close to $100 million in trading fees in less than two weeks, according to estimates from three blockchain analysis firms, a large windfall from a venture that has seen tens of thousands of small traders lose money. The meme coin, known as $Trump, was launched by the president on Jan. 17 and quickly surged, reaching a peak of over $14.5 billion in overall market value by Jan. 19, the day before his inauguration. It has since slumped by two-thirds.

The firms did not disclose the transaction value, but BitOasis said in a separate statement that CoinDCX, which had already acquired a stake in the business last year, now owns the full share capital of the Dubai-based company.

At least three offshore Chinese asset managers will launch the virtual asset spot ETFs soon.

institutions are starting to join in, Goldman Sachs' head of digital assets Mathew McDermott said on Tuesday. Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency, hit a new all-time high of $73,794 last week and has gained 50% so far this year, pulling other crypto prices along with it.

Hong Kong has been a relative latecomer to crypto trading, approving its first three cryptocurrency futures ETFs in late 2022.

Bitcoin is down about 1.8% for the week as of 2:15 p.m. in New York on Friday. If the trend continues, it will be the first negative week for Bitcoin since its current rally began in late January. Retail investors enthusiastic about the recent approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds and the next halving event — which will cut the supply of newly minted Bitcoin in half — have driven up the price of the asset by 25% in recent weeks.

markets like Nasdaq (45%), BSE Sensex (18%), and Gold (12%). Amidst the continuous evolution of blockchain technology and its burgeoning acceptance worldwide, a cohort of digital assets has emerged as frontrunners, poised for significant growth and transformation in 2024. We list the ones that have caught our eye. From layer 2 solutions to decentralized protocols facilitating cross-chain compatibility and gaming ecosystems, these assets showcase diverse opportunities for investors. While we do the crystal gazing, we encourage investors to understand the risks and growth potential associated with each asset and do their independent analysis.

Asset management firms hoping to be among the first to win regulatory approval to launch exchange traded funds (ETFs) tied to the spot price of bitcoin updated their filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday and Friday, as market participants said a decision from the regulator may be imminent. By late Friday afternoon, BlackRock Asset Management, VanEck, Valkyrie Investments, Bitwise Investment Advisers, Invesco Ltd., Fidelity, WisdomTree Investments and a joint venture between Ark Investments and 21Shares had all submitted new documents with regulators spelling out details of the arrangements each has made with their marketmakers to ensure trading is liquid and efficient. People familiar with the filing process said issuers that met their end of the year filing revision deadlines may be able to launch by January 10 — the date by which the SEC is required to either approve or reject the Ark/21Shares ETF. The SEC may notify issuers as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday that they have been cleared to launch the following week, said those sources, who spoke on background given the confidential nature of the discussions.

Asset manager Fidelity is expected to file with the U.S. securities regulator for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund, joining other big money managers seeking to launch bitcoin ETFs, the Block reported on Tuesday citing a source familiar with the matter. In the past two weeks, BlackRock, WisdomTree, Invesco, VanEck, and Bitwise have filed new applications with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for spot bitcoin ETFs, sending the price of bitcoin to a more than one-year high of over $31,000 on June 23. Fidelity declined to comment. The Boston-based financial firm is also part of a consortium that includes market makers Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial, retail broker Charles Schwab, and venture capital firms Paradigm and Sequoia Capital, which recently launched a crypto exchange called EDX Markets.

bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) despite heightened U.S. regulatory scrutiny on the digital asset sector. BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager, filed last week to launch iShares Bitcoin Trust, an ETF that would have Coinbase Custody as its custodian as well as offer institutional investors exposure to the cyptocurrency. Crypto exchange EDX Markets, backed by investment firms Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Citadel Securities, also announced earlier this week that it will allow trading on some cryptocurrencies. The moves have revived investor interest in cyptocurrencies, which have been in the doldrums after a series of crypto company meltdowns including the sudden collapse of exchange FTX late last year.

put more pressure on remaining firms. The recent crypto platform bankruptcies trapped customer assets now worth around $34 billion, according to Xclaim, which allows creditors to trade such claims. To protect themselves, institutional crypto investors are switching to exchanges that offer stronger asset protection, boosting due diligence on trading partners, and executing trades in smaller chunks, among other new risk management measures, according to executives and industry data. «Investors in this asset class have learned their lessons the hard way and now are being much much more picky about who to deal with,» said Samed Bouaynaya, a digital asset portfolio manager at London-based hedge fund Altana Wealth.

product manager for Coinbase Global Inc and his brother have agreed to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charges related to insider trading of crypto asset securities. The SEC said Ishan Wahi and his brother, Nikhil Wahi, agreed to settle civil charges that they engaged in a scheme to trade ahead of multiple announcements regarding at least nine crypto asset securities that would be made available on Coinbase's platform, the regulator said in a statement. «While the technologies at issue in this case may be new, the conduct is not,» said SEC's enforcement director Gurbir Grewal. A lawyer for Ishan Wahi declined to comment on the settlement. He previously pleaded guilty to related criminal charges that he tipped off his brother Nikhil and a friend with confidential information about digital assets that would be listed on Coinbase, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges.

tether is winning the race for the title of the crypto world's «least risky» asset. As a regional U.S. banking crisis widens and a regulatory crackdown on crypto firms deepens, investments within the cryptosphere are moving into tokens and coins perceived as relatively safe. Tether is already the top performer among stablecoins — digital tokens pegged to some fiat asset like the dollar — and has seen its market value soar since March. Its value is anchored by a 1-to-1 peg against a cache of dollars and a supply cap at around 85 billion tokens. Demand for the coin has been so strong that its peg has held above 1 since mid-April, hitting 1.002 last week.

exchange Coinbase Global Inc posted a smaller-than-feared loss in the first quarter, benefiting from cost cuts and diversification of revenue sources, sending its shares up 7% in extended trading on Thursday. The company has benefited from its deal for One River Digital Asset Management to ramp up product offerings in subscription and services revenue, while it also launched wallet-as-a-service and other products to scale blockchain. «We're also seeing the benefits of increased cost efficiencies, and we've taken deep lessons from growing too quickly and believe that we are going to be prudent in our spend going forward,» Chief Financial Officer Alesia Haas said.Coinbase posted a loss of 34 cents a share, while analysts estimated a loss of $1.35 as investors tiptoe back to the speculative asset class to hedge against elevated market risks after a brutal selloff last year.

Bitdeer have announced plans to raise $500 million to set up crypto mining operations that use the Himalayan kingdom's plentiful hydropower. Huge amounts of electricity are needed to power the vast computer farms that mine for cryptocurrency, leading to heavy criticism of their impact on the climate and a search for greener mining options. Soaring energy costs have also squeezed crypto firms, leading to the birth of several initiatives to find cheaper and more sustainable ways to power their operations in a notoriously risky and volatile industry. The initiative announced on Wednesday by the Bhutan government's investment arm Druk and Nasdaq-listed crypto-mining firm Bitdeer includes the construction of data centres and investment in renewable energy such as hydropower and hydrogen.

Ownership of digital currencies in Turkey was the highest in the world at 27.1% followed by Argentina at 23.5% — well above global crypto ownership rate estimated at 11.9% — according to data from research firm GWI. What's common to Turkey and Argentina besides their pole positions in crypto adoption is high inflation, which has led to crumbling currencies and capital controls to deter local residents from taking money out. Turkey's annual inflation was 50.51% in March, Argentina's was even higher at 104%. The lira and peso have been plunging and are at record lows. Argentina's peso trades around 464 per dollar in the black market, more than double the official exchange rate of 222.

asset called UpToken. Friday's settlement resolves claims that Coinme's Up Global unit and Neil Bergquist, who led both entities, misled investors in a late 2017 initial coin offering for UpToken, which was issued on the Ethereum blockchain. The SEC said investors were led to believe Up Global would limit the supply of UpToken, while Coinme would create constant demand for UpToken to fund a bitcoin automated teller machine rewards program, helping boost UpToken's price. According to the regulator, the claims were misleading because Up Global had quietly conducted transactions that reduced Coinme's need for UpToken.

bitcoin has been a surprise winner of the banking blowout. Yet investors aiming to amp up their bets face an ominous obstacle: a lack of liquidity that could trigger wild price swings. The price of the No.1 cryptocurrency has jumped 40% to around $27,700 since March 10, when the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) careered into mainstream markets. On the flip side, though, its liquidity is drying up. Bitcoin's market depth indicates the asset is at its lowest level of liquidity in 10 months, even lower than in the aftermath of the FTX collapse in November, according to data provider Kaiko. The market depth for the two leading trading pairs — bitcoin-dollar and bitcoin-tether — stands at 5,600 bitcoin, the equivalent of about $155 million, Kaiko said.

The fallout from the failure of Silicon Valley Bank reached further into crypto, unhinging a key cog in the market that’s meant to be among the safest digital assets in the space. The second-largest stablecoin fell from its intended $1 peg, trading as low as 81.5 cents as investors reacted to the exposure of issuer Circle Internet Financial Ltd. to the collapsed bank. USD Coin, or USDC, is an asset-backed stablecoin and a widely used plank of crypto markets. The token is intended to hold a constant $1 value, fully backed by reserves of cash and short-dated Treasuries. But late Friday, Circle disclosed that $3.3 billion of its roughly $40 billion stockpile of reserves is held with Silicon Valley Bank, which has just become one of the largest US bank failures in recent history. Regulators seized the bank on Friday and investors are awaiting more clarity on the return of deposits. In that vacuum, USDC fell below $1, and was trading at about 91 cents as of 8:45 a.m. in New York. Smaller stablecoins like DAI, which is sometimes viewed as a proxy for USDC, and Pax Dollar also fell from their pegs. DAI is the fourth-largest stablecoin by circulation and one of the most widely used tokens in decentralized finance.