Autor Cointelegraph By Martin Young

Overwhelming support for Grayscale BTC Trust ETF conversion proposal

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has allowed comments and feedback on a proposed rule change that would convert Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust to a spot-based exchange-traded fund (ETF).A notice of filing a proposed rule change to list and trade shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust as a spot-based ETF has generated a long list of comments with a large majority in approval.Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas had a look through some of the more recent comments on Feb. 15 observing that 95% are in favor of the proposed conversion.Just glancing through the many comments from ppl to the SEC re converting $GBTC to an ETF and 95% are in favor of it and most using real names and pointing to the stupefying fact that futures ETF ok but spot not. eg: pic.twitter.com/j15iNYnh8R— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 14, 2022Several respondents to the SEC proposal argued that the regulator had already approved futures-based exchange-traded products so a spot-based product should logically come next. The U.S. risks falling behind other countries such as Canada which has already approved such investment products, others added.A spot-based fund would be physically backed by the asset itself as opposed to backing by futures contracts from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) which is how existing Bitcoin ETFs operate.Another comment pointed out that the current fund creates arbitrage opportunities that can take advantage of retail traders.“The current structure of the closed end fund has led to price of the fund trading at a premium and discount to net asset value which has created arbitrage opportunities for more sophisticated traders to take advantage of unsuspecting retail investors.”Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust has been trading at a massive discount in recent months as investors speculate and hedge on the ETF being approved by the SEC. At the time of writing, the fund was trading at a discount of 24.75% according to Ycharts. This means that with BTC currently priced at around $43,600, the discounted fund price would be equivalent to around $32,500.One investor said that he invested his life savings into the fund and is tired of the SEC trying to protect people, adding that the regulator is just out to “help the rich.” The financial regulator has repeatedly cited a lack of investor protection as a reason for delaying or rejecting crypto-based investment products. Related: First US Bitcoin ETF a ‘dud’ in 2021 as GBTC discount stays near record lowsGrayscale originally hinted at converting the world’s largest BTC fund into a spot ETF in October. On Feb. 4, the SEC delayed the decision on the conversion of the $37 billion GBTC fund citing the same familiar concerns regarding manipulation, liquidity, and transparency.

Čítaj viac

AssangeDAO raises $38M in donations to help free WikiLeaks founder

A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) set up to support the liberation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from prison has raised 12,569 ETH or around $38.8 million at current prices.Assange is currently fighting extradition to the United States following a court ruling in December that overruled a British court ruling barring extradition. He is currently locked up in a London prison where he has been since 2019. Donations started rolling in on Feb. 4 according to JuiceBox, the community funding platform hosting the campaign. Funding accelerated over the weekend, doubling over the past 24 hours to the current level.According to the AssangeDAO Twitter feed, it is now the largest JuiceBox Ethereum raise in history, exceeding that of ConstitutionDAO which raised funds in November to purchase an original copy of the United States Constitution.AssangeDAO is now the largest JuiceBox DAO raise in History exceeding that of ConstitutionDAO.Congrats everyone this seriously exceeded our wildest expectations!#FreeAssangeNOW pic.twitter.com/MqhZv6CWTK— AssangeDAO (@AssangeDAO) February 6, 2022The comparison has been made in ETH terms, which was priced much higher in November. Back then, the dollar value raised by ConstitutionDAO was around $49 million.AssangeDAO is described as a “collective of cypherpunks” aiming to raise ETH in return for JUSTICE governance tokens. These will be used to bid on a NFT collection called “Censored” by digital artist Pak in collaboration with Julian Assange.The proceeds from the sale will go towards Assange’s defense fund for “legal fees and campaigning to raise awareness about Julian’s extradition case.”The @AssangeDAO has now broken US $30 million barrier in less than 3 days for its fundraising which will go to defend #WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange – facing a 175 year sentence for revealing war crimesContribute: https://t.co/LKIU3AbzL2Info: https://t.co/W5eQ2x8PYd pic.twitter.com/O1PE0OzZdB— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 6, 2022

The genesis of AssangeDAO began in a Telegram group in mid-December on the day that the U.S. government won its appeal of a U.K. court ruling that barred Assange’s extradition. The official website states “if extradited to the United States, Assange faces 175 years in prison for publishing truthful information.”The concept was inspired by the FreeRossDAO which raised $12 million to free Ross Ulbricht, founder of the dark web marketplace Silk Road.Related: Top secret Julian Assange and Pak NFT collaboration is wikileakedJulian Assange has been held in London’s Belmarsh prison where he has been for the past 3 years. He had previously spent almost seven years holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, protected by asylum status.

Čítaj viac

Tezos transactions and smart contract activity surge on NFT demand

The Tezos network has seen impressive growth over the past 12 months in smart contract addresses and general adoption, primarily driven by non-fungible tokens (NFTs).Activity within the Proof-of-Stake ecosystem has had a spurt of growth recently as it aims to compete with Ethereum for NFT minting and markets.According to Coin Metrics’ “State of the Network” report on Feb. 1, the number of transactions involving smart contracts has surged over the past 12 months to more than 50,000 per day from less than 10,000 per day in January 2021.The report observed that the growth has been driven by NFT platforms such as the generative art platform FX Hash seeing increased interest. Additionally, gaming giant Ubisoft also announced Tezos support for gaming NFTs in December.High Ethereum network fees are driving NFT creators and buyers to alternative networks such as Tezos. The network has a portal for all Tezos-based NFT marketplaces which it claims are “carbon-neutral” with network fees that are “less than a penny.” NFTs have caused controversy due to the environmental issues around minting and trading them on Proof-of-Work networks. Tezos has been widely touted as an alternative to alleviate these concerns. Active addresses on the network are at an all-time high of over 45,000 while active smart contract addresses have tripled from under 200,000 to over 600,000 over the past 12 months. This highlights the growth in NFT and DApps that are using Tezos.The research also measured the total number of daily transactions which it labeled as ‘other transactions’. This figure spiked in August 2021 when the network launched an upgrade cutting block times in half. From a steady 40,000 daily transactions, it surged to over 250,000 and has remained at those levels ever since.Chart – CoinMetricsAccording to the platform’s own tracker, the current daily transaction figure is 309,431, less than a quarter of the daily transactions on Ethereum which is currently 1.17 million according to Etherscan.The report also charted the number of addresses containing more than at least 1 XTZ. This has recently surpassed 300,000, increasing 150% from the same time last year.Related: What is the best marketplace to buy NFTs? Find out now on The Market ReportTezos was launched in 2018 as an ‘energy efficient’ proof-of-stake network that uses a system called ‘baking’ to validate and publish new blocks on the chain.Its native token, XTZ, has gained 6.7% over the past 24 hours to trade at $3.77 according to CoinGecko. XTZ is currently 58.6% below its Oct. 4 all-time high of $9.12.

Čítaj viac

Circle's USDC stablecoin gobbles Tether's market share with 50B milestone

The world’s second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization keeps on growing as it erodes the dominance of the current leader, Tether.The stablecoin landscape is a constantly-shifting dynamic but one trend has become clear over the past year or so — Tether’s dominance is diminishing.Its main rival, Circle, has just reached a milestone of 50 billion USDC in circulation according to CoinGecko and a Feb. 1 tweet by company co-founder and CEO, Jeremy Allaire.50 BILLION USDC (w/ thread below) pic.twitter.com/5FEaPmXjup— Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) February 1, 2022Allaire said that while this is a massive number, “it’s the massive growth and ecosystem around it that tells the broader story.” He added that USDC has seen 10,000% growth over the past two years.The total stablecoin supply currently stands at $177 billion, equating to around 9.7% of the total crypto market capitalization. Tether commands around 45% of that total, whereas Circle now takes a 29% share as the gap between them closes. For reference, this time last year Tether had a dominance of 74% with Circle taking just 16% of the stablecoin pie.Circle’s stablecoin market capitalization expanded by 987% in 2021 according to CoinGecko. Comparatively, Tether’s supply saw less than a third of that growth with 275% over the same period. According to the Circle CEO, the stablecoin network saw $2.5 trillion in on-chain transactions and 4.6 million active wallet addresses in 2021 alone. USDC runs on eight different blockchains, is supported by 200 protocols, and can be traded in 180 countries on 34 exchanges. Tether is still the dominant force in the stablecoin ecosystem, but the Goldman Sachs-backed digital payment company Circle is closing in fast. Related: Tether freezes $150 million in USDTAs reported by Cointelegraph on Jan. 19, the USDC supply has already flipped USDT on the Ethereum network. Tether supply is currently split mostly between Ethereum and Tron with around 39 billion and 36 billion USDT on each network respectively and the rest on a handful of others such as Solana, Omni, and Algorand according to its transparency report.On Jan. 31, Circle announced that it had expanded its multi-chain ecosystem by adding support for Dapper Labs’ Flow network.

Čítaj viac

Wonderland co-founder throws in the towel on beleaguered DeFi project

The co-founder of the embattled Wonderland decentralized finance project is preparing to pull the plug following a deeply divided community vote.On Jan. 30, Wonderland co-founder Daniele Sestagalli tweeted that the Avalanche-based reserve currency experiment is coming to an end. He added that the divided community “means that we failed.”The vote to save or wind down the project came after Sestagalli asked former partner and Wonderland treasury head Michael Patryn (who goes by the pseudonym ‘0xSifu’) to step down late last week.Patryn, who has changed his name on a number of occasions, was sensationally revealed on Jan. 27 to be the co-founder of the defunct Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX. He has also been previously convicted of credit card fraud and pleaded guilty to several related offenses in the early 2000s. 1/Wonderland experiment is coming to an end. It is clear from the vote that the community is divided. The core and heart of Wonderland is still the community. If we cannot find agreement on wether to continue or not, it means that we failed.— Daniele never asks to DM (@danielesesta) January 30, 2022There were several active votes on the Wonderland governance forum, however, the vote to wind down the project and return the treasury back to its holders had 55% voting to save it and 45% in favor of disbanding at the time of writing. Sestagalli said that the division has resulted in a single path forward:“The duty of the Team is to enact the will of the token holders. As the vote is so close to 50/50 there is only one path forward, it is to reimburse/unwind.”He added that he is working with the team on a new proposal. However, it was pointed out by those in favor of keeping the project going that the community was not split. They suggested that the token allocation was split, which raised other concerns among the community.I am ready to listen to what you have in mind, so please do not take this as FUD or hate, I just want to correct a point here The community is not split 50-50. The token allocation is. The community as individuals voted overwhelmengly No and against all odds, we eeked out a win pic.twitter.com/nBS3cCRe39— 0x von Bismarck (@0xVonBismarck) January 30, 2022

A number of alternative proposals have been put forward to save the project from going under. These include another ongoing discussion on a potential merger with Wonderland and Abracadabra, a DeFi lending protocol and yield strategy generator.Additionally, on Jan. 31, a lengthy proposal for Wonderland 2.0 was published by members of the community known as “Frogs” suggesting a transition of the existing protocol and treasury to a new DAO structure with a more transparent governance system. Related: Daniele Sestagalli discusses Wonderland’s future after QuadrigaCX co-founder doxThe DeFi imbroglio has had ripple effects throughout the ecosystem with other networks such as Terra also feeling the impacts. The close ties between Wonderland and Abracadabra’s MIM (Magic Internet Money) token have also impacted Terra’s ecosystem since MIM is used for yield farming with the Terra stablecoin, UST.The stablecoin has dipped below its peg recently on Wonderland concerns, and this has had a knock-on effect on LUNA which is used for its price-stabilization mechanism.LUNA prices are currently down 13% over the past 24 hours as investors have been liquidating. Meanwhile, Wonderland’s native TIME token has crashed nearly 60% since the debacle began last week and is now languishing 96% down from its Nov. 7 all-time high of just over $10K.

Čítaj viac

Získaj BONUS 8 € v Bitcoinoch

nakup bitcoin z karty

Registrácia Binance

Burza Binance

Aktuálne kurzy