Planet Daily | BlackRock IBIT Bitcoin holdings market value exceeds $16 billion, setting a new record; Tunisia will allow encrypted assets to be used in foreign exchange reforms
headlines
The market value of BlackRock’s IBIT Bitcoin holdings exceeded $16 billion and reached a new high
Official data from BlackRock shows that as of March 13, its spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) holdings reached 223,645.98255 BTC (more than 1% of the theoretical maximum supply of 21 million Bitcoins), with a market value of approximately 16,354 , $611,204.29, and the current number of shares outstanding is 378,520,000.
Tunisian Prime Minister: Tunisia will allow crypto assets in foreign exchange reform
Tunisia will allow the use of crypto assets in its foreign exchange reforms, the Prime Minister said.
Industry news
BlackRock IBIT’s Bitcoin holdings exceed 210,000, currently surpassing MicroStrategy
Official data from BlackRock shows that as of March 12, its spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) holdings were 215,625.76908 BTC, with a market value of approximately US$15.2 billion, and the current number of outstanding shares is 357,680,000.
It is worth mentioning that as of March 10, MicroStrategy and its subsidiaries held a total of approximately 205,000 Bitcoins, with a total purchase price of US$6.81 billion, and an average purchase price of US$33,706 per Bitcoin.
This means that if MicroStrategy has not purchased enough BTC from March 10 to now, BlackRock IBITs Bitcoin holdings will have exceeded MicroStrategy.
Earlier today, it was reported that MicroStrategy submitted an application for the issuance of US$500 million in convertible senior notes on Wednesday afternoon and plans to use the proceeds to purchase more Bitcoins. Assuming Bitcoin prices remain at current levels around $73,000, MicroStrategy will be able to use the funds from this latest raise to purchase 6,800 Bitcoins.
According to monitoring by Farside Investors, the Bitcoin spot ETF has accumulated a net inflow of US$11.8288 billion since its launch. in:
-IBIT’s cumulative net inflow is US$12.0278 billion;
-FBTC’s cumulative net inflow is US$6.7033 billion;
-BITB’s cumulative net inflow is US$1.4313 billion;
-ARKB’s cumulative net inflow is US$1.9705 billion;
-GBTC has a cumulative net outflow of US$11.4026 billion.
On Thursday, Australias Federal Court dismissed a lawsuit brought by the countrys Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in December 2022 against Finder Wallet. The case claims that its cryptocurrency interest-bearing product, Finder Earn, is a (corporate) bond and, therefore, it violated the Corporations Act by conducting financial services business without holding an Australian Financial Services License (AFSL).
However, the court ruled that ASIC had not proven that the Finder Earn product was a bond and ordered it to pay the defendants costs.
Judge rules that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto or the author of the Bitcoin white paper
British judge James Mellor said today after closing arguments in the Crypto Open Patent Alliance trial that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, nor is he the author of the Bitcoin white paper. James Mellor added that he plans to write a ruling that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, the author of the Bitcoin white paper, or the creator of Bitcoin technology.
CoinShares Director: Digital asset ETP AUM surpasses $100 billion for the first time
CoinShares research director James Butterfill posted on the X platform that the total asset management scale (AUM) of digital asset ETPs exceeded the $100 billion mark for the first time in history. Yesterday’s news, Butterfill said that the net inflow of digital asset ETF/ETP so far this year exceeded US$12 billion, breaking the historical record of net inflow of US$10.6 billion for the whole of 2021.
S 3 Partners: Microstrategy stock shorts have lost $3.3 billion this year
The rise in Bitcoin prices has helped MicroStrategys stock price rise 180% so far this year. According to data disclosed by S3 Partners, short sellers of Microstrategy stock have lost approximately US$3.3 billion so far this year.
If short sellers are forced to buy back shares to cover their losses, MicroStrategy stock prices could rise further and squeeze short sellers.
According to Lookonchain monitoring, Grayscale reduced its holdings of 1,122 BTC (valued at approximately US$79.82 million) on March 14 and currently holds 387,747 BTC (valued at approximately US$27.58 billion). BlackRock increased its holdings by 8,020 BTC (valued at approximately $570 million) and currently holds 223,646 BTC (valued at approximately $15.9 billion). Nine spot Bitcoin ETFs (including Grayscale) added 12,828 BTC (worth approximately $912.6 million).
Project news
The Dutch central bank announced on Wednesday that cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com was fined 2.85 million euros ($3.12 million) by the Dutch central bank in October last year. The notice stated that the fine was imposed on Foris DAX MT Limited (DAX MT), which operates Crypto.com, because the company was not registered with the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) when providing services in the Netherlands.
The penalty applies approximately two years before the platform’s registration with the regulator in July 2023. The regulator said it increased the fine against the platform for a number of reasons, including serving a significant number of customers in the Netherlands and failure to pay regulatory fees.
The platform is now registered with the Dutch Central Bank.
Arbitrum launches Atlas upgrade to reduce costs by consolidating blob transactions
Offchain Labs announced that it has supported the Ethereum Dencun upgrade in the Arbitrum ecosystem through the Atlas upgrade, which is designed to reduce transaction costs by merging blob transactions. In addition, Arbitrum One’s additional gas reduction will be launched on March 18.
Investment and Financing
Polyhedra Network, the team behind the zero-knowledge interoperability protocol zkBridge, today announced the completion of a US$20 million strategic round of financing with a valuation of US$1 billion, led by Polychain Capital, Animoca Brands, Emirates Consortium, Arkstream Capital, Mapleblock Capital, Hashkey Capital, UoB Ventures, Symbolic Capital, Longhash Ventures, MH Ventures and Web3Port Foundation participated in the investment. It is reported that this is the fifth round of financing conducted by Polyhedra Network in the past two years.
Pantera Capital has invested in decentralized derivatives trading platform Aevo
According to Paul Veradittakit, managing partner of Pantera Capital, Pantera Capital has invested in the decentralized derivatives trading platform Aevo, but he did not disclose the specific time and amount of the investment transaction. Previous investments in Aevo also include Paradigam, Dragonfly Capital and Coinbase Ventures .
