Bitwise Hits USD 100m, SBI to Launch XRP, Bitcoin, and Ether Fund + More News
Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
Crypto adoption news
- Bitwise Asset Management, a provider of cryptoasset index funds to professional investors, said that it recently surpassed USD 100m in assets under management. The majority of demand has been for its Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund, which tracks the 10 largest cryptoassets, they added.
- Japanese financial giant SBI has announced that its SBI VC Trade crypto exchange subsidiary will launch crypto lending services in November, with crypto fund management offerings to follow in 2021. SBI stated that the new offering next year would be “Japan’s first cryptoasset fund.” Presentation materials appeared to indicate that 50% of the fund would be made up of XRP token (SBI is one of Ripple’s biggest partners). The remaining amount appears to be split 60:40 between bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH).
- Regulated financial institution for digital assets Nexo has announced a two-fold interest increase on cryptoassets BTC, ETH, XRP, bitcoin cash (BCH), litecoin (LTC), EOS, chainlink (LINK), stellar (XLM), tron (TRX), and pax gold (PAXG), offering rates of up to 8% APY (annual percentage yield) through its Earn on Crypto product. Per the emailed press release, the hike comprises a 1% bump in standard interest rates on these assets, combined with the introduction of Earn in NEXO, through which clients can earn an additional 2% APY on fiat and stablecoins.
CBDC news
- Societe Generale – Forge, the digital capital markets platform of the French multinational investment bank and financial services company Societe Generale Group, has chosen major blockchain company ConsenSys to provide technology and services as part of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot activities. ConsenSys will provide technology and expertise to the platform, they said, focusing on CBDC issuance and management, delivery versus payment, and cross-ledger interoperability.
Career news
- US-based major venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, announced their new operating partner on the crypto team, Anthony Albanese. He’ll be joining the firm from the New York Stock Exchange, where he is the chief regulatory officer.
- Crypto.com (CRO) has hired Filomena Ruffa as general manager of Latin America, where she will be responsible for leading all operations and driving strategic business relationships in the region. Previously, she served as vice president of innovation and strategic partnerships for Visa Latin America.
Blockchain news
- HSBC China has completed its first blockchain-powered interbank forfaiting (financing) transaction with the Bank of Communications, China’s fifth-largest bank, reported the Securities Times. The transaction is the first to be completed by an overseas-operated bank on the China Trade Finance Interbank Transaction Blockchain Platform. The platform is the brainchild of the China Banking Association and fellow banking signatories include the state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. The transaction made use of a digitized, bank-issued, blockchain-verified letter of credit.
- After consulting market participants, Australia’s bourse operator ASX Ltd ASX.AX has pushed back the launch date of its blockchain-based clearing system to April 2023, Reuters reported. The launch had already been pushed once amid March market turmoil from 2021 to April 2022. “The industry…requested substantially more post-trade processing capacity than what had been contemplated pre-COVID-19,” the company was quoted as saying.
DeFi news
- The team behind the decentralized finance (DeFi) project Harvest Finance, which recently suffered a flashloan attack, said in a post mortem report that the value lost is about USD 33.8m, which had corresponded to approximately 3.2% of the total value locked in the protocol at the time before the attack. The team, asking the attacker to return the funds, added that they take responsibility for the engineering error that allowed the attack, that they are working on ensuring such incidents are mitigated in the future, and that formulating a remediation plan for affected users is the top priority for the coming week.
Investment news
- Major US-based crypto lending startup BlockFi has submitted a new schedule 13G disclosure with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, following the acquisition of a stake in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), as the startup has seen its participation in GBTC reach a level that meets disclosure thresholds, they said in a press release. This specific form is known as a beneficial ownership report, and it is required whenever a person or company acquires more than 5% of any class of a company’s shares.
- Medici Ventures, the wholly-owned blockchain-focused subsidiary of Overstock.com, Inc., announced an USD 8m equity purchase in Bitt, its Barbados-based keiretsu company. The additional equity will enable Bitt to pursue market opportunities that accelerate the adoption of digital currencies in developing countries, they said, adding that this transaction gives Medici Ventures a controlling interest in Bitt.
Exchanges
- Gemini said they now support euro for deposits and trading on the platform. Also, they have launched ActiveTrader™ with order books for the following trading pairs: BTC/EUR, ETH/EUR, BTC/GBP and ETH/GBP.
Crime news
- Prosecutors in Seoul said that South Korean-Chinese crypto fraudsters have “duped 1,200 victims” in a multilevel marketing-type sting that accrued a staggering USD 15.6m. Per news agency Yonhap, prosecutors stated that a Chinese shell company was at the heart of the operation, although most of its masterminds were based in South Korea. The South Korean operatives claimed that that the Chinese firm was developing a new cryptoasset – and that investing in the token at an early stage would reap massive financial benefits. At least one of the perpetrators is believed to be at large after arrest warrants were issued earlier this month.
