| ARK Amends Bitcoin ETF Application; Fed Monetary Policy May Continue to Tighten (June 29th)
Headline
Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, tweeted that ARK Invest has modified its Form 19-b-4 filing for the bitcoin spot ETF application. Similar to BlackRock's approach, ARK Invest's modification introduces a supervisory sharing agreement between the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and a prominent cryptocurrency exchange (possibly Coinbase).
Since ARK Invest's bitcoin spot ETF application preceded BlackRock's, this modification may put it in a leading position for approval by the SEC.
Industry News
Powell: Fed expects further tightening of monetary policy, believes there will be more rate hikes
Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said the Fed expects further tightening of monetary policy and has not been in the tightening phase for a long time. The Fed believes there will be more rate hikes.
He also stated that the dot plot shows most officials support two more rate hikes. The policy is tight, but not tight enough. The US labor market is indeed driving the economy. The closer you get to the target, the closer you get to the balance of risks. The possibility of taking action at consecutive meetings is not ruled out.
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), co-founder of Binance, recently gave an interview to Bloomberg in Dubai, during which she tried to convey two key messages: first, the differences between Binance and regulatory authorities may not be too great; second, the company is far from being the "bad actor" that critics claim.
She said, "If they really take the time to understand our industry, they will find that if Binance is not compliant, there are few other global exchanges or offshore companies that are."
In He Yi's view, Binance offers a higher level of transparency than critics claim and has been cooperating with US regulatory agencies. Unlike the allegations against FTX, Binance has not used user funds for its own purposes or used BNB as loan collateral.
JMP analyst Devin Ryan from the stock research firm stated that cryptocurrency exchange trading volume is rebounding, driven by institutional demand.
Data shows that in the past month, the daily trading volume for exchanges (seven-day moving average) has significantly increased from $11 billion on May 26th to nearly $19.5 billion on June 26th, but still far from the peak of over $150 billion during the previous cryptocurrency bull market cycle.
MicroStrategy buys another 12,333 bitcoins at an average price of $28,136.
Michael Saylor, the founder of MicroStrategy, tweeted that MicroStrategy has purchased another 12,333 bitcoins at an average price of $28,136, spending approximately $347 million.
As of June 27th, 2023, MicroStrategy has purchased a total of 152,333 bitcoins for $4.52 billion, with an average price of $29,668.
Regulatory Trends
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) website today published an article introducing a new project called Project Mariana.
Project Mariana is a collaborative project initiated by the BIS Innovation Hub, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Banque de France, and the Swiss National Bank. Its purpose is to explore whether wholesale central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) can improve the efficiency, security, and transparency of foreign exchange trading and settlement, as well as eliminate potential risks in the foreign exchange market, through the use of automated market makers for cross-border transactions.
It is worth mentioning that the project document of Project Mariana mentions the adoption of Curve V2's hybrid AMM (Automated Market Maker) model.
Project Highlights
The Wall Street Journal: FTX Begins Negotiations for Relaunch
FTX has started negotiations for the relaunch of the exchange. As part of the relaunch plan, FTX may rename the exchange. CEO John J. Ray III stated that the company has "started soliciting input from parties interested in relaunching FTX.com exchange." John J. Ray III took over FTX in November last year when the company filed for bankruptcy.
Market data shows that FTT has experienced a rapid surge, reaching a high of 1.55 BUSD and currently trading at 1.4117 BUSD, with a 24-hour gain of 11.11%. (The Wall Street Journal)
Volatility Shares Launches 2x Bitcoin Strategy ETF with First-day Trading Volume of $5.5 Million
Volatility Shares' 2x Bitcoin Strategy ETF traded a volume of $5.5 million on its first day. It is reported that this ETF will seek to enhance the performance of the S&P CME Bitcoin Futures Daily Rolling Index by double each day and is the first leveraged product approved by the U.S. SEC.
In the past week, several giants including BlackRock, WisdomTree, and Invesco have submitted applications for a Bitcoin spot ETF. According to insiders, Fidelity is also preparing to submit an application for a spot Bitcoin ETF.
The Horizen community recently approved ZenIP 42204 to abandon the Horizen main chain shielded pool. After the abandonment, all privacy features will be removed from the Horizen main chain at the consensus level. This means that ZEN will no longer be a privacy coin.
Horizen stated that the purpose of abandoning the Horizen main chain shielded pool is to ensure that Horizen uses privacy technology correctly and sustainably to mitigate regulatory threats.
Bloomberg: EDX Markets may switch its custodial partner from Paxos to Anchorage Digital
Insiders reveal that the digital asset market EDX Markets, supported by Citadel Securities, Fidelity Investments, and J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, is changing its custody service provider. The cooperation with Paxos has ended, and final negotiations are underway with Anchorage Digital for a new partnership.
On the EDX website, Anchorage has been listed as one of the suppliers and partners, while Paxos is not on the list.
When asked about the changes in the partnership, a spokesperson for Paxos said, "EDX shifted its focus to non-custodial products when it launched. We are very excited about what EDX is building and hope to support EDX customers through our regulated custody as banks and brokers join the platform."
NFT
The Azuki team is suspected to be modifying the metadata of the Elementals series, which has caused the preview images of some NFT platforms like Blur to not display properly. Currently, when querying the Elementals series contract, some tokenURLs cannot display query results.
In addition, community members have discovered that the repaired metadata uploaded by the team appears to be a file, which redirects to a download page after being accessed.
Some community members pointed out that the same image appears when opening the Elementals. Azuki co-founder 2 PMFLOW responded that it is a technical failure, and a few token metadata were mistakenly processed due to outdated event logs from the data provider caused by Ethereum block reorganization. The team is working hard to restore the correct images and metadata.
Christian: Azuki's approach is unwise, willing to offer $40 million to buy his company
Cryptocurrency fund NDV co-founder and Azuki whale Christian commented on Twitter, "It is unwise for Azuki to destroy a project worth $1 billion (as well as the most loyal community on Earth) in order to gain a profit of $38 million. I am willing to offer $40 million to buy the entire company."
Former Dragonfly researcher Boba Epicure is willing to offer a higher price to acquire the project. Christian replied that the project can be split and made a real DAO.
Azuki may airdrop "Green Bean" NFT to holders
Azuki may airdrop "Green Bean" NFT to holders. Several community members have discovered that the Elemental Beans contract address has deployed a new contract called Green Bean, with a total of 10,000 NFTs that can be transferred and traded.
In addition, Azuki made a lengthy response and apology on its official Twitter account, stating: "Our vision is to build a decentralized brand, which requires good communication and execution abilities, both of which were missing during the Elementals sales process. We know we have lost some trust today, but nothing motivates us more than correcting mistakes. And, in the end, we mentioned "One more thing" with a cover image of "Green Bean".
Investment and Financing
Bitpanda Pro, a subsidiary of the Austrian cryptocurrency company Bitpanda, has raised €30 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Valar Ventures, under Peter Thiel, with participation from MiddleGame Ventures, Speedinvest, Keyrock, and Wintermute Ventures. Bitpanda Pro, which caters to institutions and professional traders, has now become an independent company called One Trading, led by Josh Barraclough, the former Head of Digital Innovation at JPMorgan. Bitpanda will retain ownership in the company.
DeFi mortgage protocol PWN has announced it has raised over $2 million in funding. The round saw participation from StarkWare, Nethermind, Safe Ecosystem Foundation, Digital Finance Group, Jsquare, as well as angel investors such as Patricio Worthalter (POAP), Christoph Jentzsch (Founder of Slock.it), Danny Ryan, Tim Beiko (Ethereum Foundation), Alex Van de Sande (ENS delegate), and Lefteris Karapetsas (Founder of Rotki).
Paradigm Co-founder Matt Huang tweeted that Paradigm has never been more focused on cryptocurrencies. Five years ago, when Fred and I founded Paradigm, we didn't have a complete plan. We were just curious about the future, believed in cryptocurrencies, and were eager to push the boundaries of possibilities (technology). Our wisest decision was to create the role of "research partner" early on. Over the past five years, we have learned a lot from our serendipitous research-driven approach. Investing has made us better researchers, and research has made us better investors. We hire curious individuals and empower them to follow their instincts.
