2023-12-29 23:39

BlackRock, Fidelity and Invesco want all their ducks in a row should the SEC grant approvals early in the new year. The race to launch a bitcoin ETF reached a bureaucratic crescendo Friday as some of the biggest Wall Street firms finalized their offerings' paperwork ahead of widely expected – possibly imminent – approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. BlackRock, Fidelity and Invesco, as well as crypto-focused firms Valkyrie and Bitwise, revealed key details, including partnerships with vital trading firms and the fees their prospective ETFs will charge customers if the SEC gives the green light. The fun could start in a matter of days. ETF watchers expect the SEC to drop its years-long stonewalling of a spot bitcoin ETF in early 2024. Over a dozen firms are hoping to break into the new market by selling their own version of the easily investable product to investors who'd rather keep their bitcoin exposure in their conventional brokerage accounts alongside stocks and bonds. Friday's filing rush suggests the firms aren't willing to take any chances on timing. Bloomberg analysts have said the SEC is likely to approve multiple issuers at once to avoid picking favorites. Thus, the eager issuers are getting all the ducks in a row so that they can be in the first group. BlackRock set off the end-of-week filing frenzy by declaring JPMorgan and Jane Street its authorized participants – a key role in the ETF business, a job that involves ensuring ETF prices stay closely linked to the value of their underlying assets. Within hours, other filings followed. With little to differentiate one bitcoin ETF from the next, the fight could come down to fees. Invesco and its partner Galaxy Digital disclosed they'll waive fees for the first six months and $5 billion invested, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas. That undercut Fidelity, which plans to charge 39 basis points. But size also matters. Bitwise revealed it's already lined up $200 million in seed capital for its ETF, edging out BlackRock, which has $10 million at the ready. Investors could also choose one fund over the next simply because of its popularity out of the gate. Read also: BlackRock, Valkyrie Name Authorized Participants Including JPMorgan for Bitcoin ETF https://www.coindesk.com/coindesk-news/2023/12/29/invesco-fidelity-blackrock-others-dot-their-bureaucratic-is-as-likely-sec-action-on-spot-bitcoin-etf-looms/

2023-12-29 22:38

Jamie Dimon's bank agreed to play a key role with BlackRock's proposed bitcoin ETF, just weeks after he told U.S. senators: "I've always been deeply opposed to crypto, bitcoin, etc." JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has dumped on cryptocurrencies for years. "I've always been deeply opposed to crypto, bitcoin, etc.," he said during a U.S. Senate hearing this month. "The only true use case for it is criminals," he added. "If I was the government, I'd close it down." But this reprimand and the ones that preceded it – he called bitcoin a "hyped-up fraud" in January – are now very much a "do as I say, not as I do" situation. That's because JPMorgan is going deeper into the original cryptocurrency. On Friday, it was revealed that the bank will play a key role for BlackRock's proposed bitcoin (BTC) ETF. JPMorgan will be one of its authorized participants if the ETF is approved, which involves "ensuring that ETF prices are accurate, and that trading is smooth, in all market conditions," according to BlackRock. In the multi-trillion-dollar ETF industry, few jobs are more important than the one JPMorgan will play for BlackRock's product. Given Dimon's stance, if this isn't hypocrisy, it's close. In the world of finance, the allure of profits has always had the ability to override morals, though Wall Street has embraced the ESG movement (short for environmental, social and governance) in recent years, giving clients the ability to steer investments away from investments deemed not socially responsible. For at least now, though, the bitcoin hype is too much for the biggest U.S. bank – as well as other traditional finance players like Jane Street and Cantor Fitzgerald, which have also been named authorized participants for bitcoin ETFs – to ignore. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/12/29/jpmorgan-ceos-bitcoin-bashing-is-a-do-as-i-say-not-as-i-do-situation/

2023-12-29 21:11

BlackRock will use J.P. Morgan and Jane Street as their authorized participants. Valkyrie has also named Jane Street in addition to Cantor Fitzgerald. Two spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) applicants, BlackRock and Valkyrie, have named two authorized participants (AP) for their yet-to-be-approved ETF, filings show. BlackRock was the first applicant to announce who will acquire the bitcoin on behalf of BlackRock, which is not legally allowed to purchase the cryptocurrency itself. The asset manager has teamed up with J.P. Morgan and quantitative trading firm Jane Street, a filing shows. Valkyrie has also named Jane Street in addition to Cantor Fitzgerald as AP, another filing shows. Many ETF issuers will likely have multiple authorized participants. Both applicants filed an updated S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday – the last day that applicants can do so – being the only ones so far to do so. However, applicants aren’t required to name their authorized participants in their S-1 filing. Some industry experts were surprised to see J.P. Morgan was named in BlackRock’s filing, given CEO Jamie Dimon’s strong negative stance on bitcoin and the crypto sector in general. Just earlier this month, Dimon said he would ban crypto if he were the government and is “deeply opposed” to the asset class. The SEC is expected to make a decision on whether or not it will approve a spot bitcoin ETF between January 5 and 10. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/12/29/blackrock-names-jp-morgan-jane-street-as-authorized-participants-for-bitcoin-etf/

2023-12-29 17:20

Bitcoin slipped below $42,000 on Friday, stalling below its yearly high. Shares of U.S.-listed cryptocurrency-related companies sold off heavily on Friday morning as investors took profit on the last trading day of the year after an explosive rally in 2023. Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) declined 8% during the early hours of Friday, while the shares of relentless bitcoin hoarder MicroStrategy, with nearly $6 billion in BTC in its treasury, dropped nearly 7%. Nasdaq-listed bitcoin miners Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) and Riot Platforms (RIOT) suffered even steeper losses ranging over 10%. Smaller public miners CleanSpark (CLSK) and Hut 8 (HUT) also fell nearly 20%. The sell-off was perhaps buoyed by investors locking in profits for 2023, capping an explosive year for the beaten-down asset class as bitcoin's price rally stuck below its yearly highs ahead of an expected spot-based ETF approval in the U.S. BTC was changing hands slightly below $42,000, lower than its near-$45,000 local top recorded in early December but up 155% this year. Crypto stocks gained even more through 2023, with Coinbase up nearly 400%, while the miners' stocks multiplied several folds. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2023/12/29/crypto-stocks-bitcoin-miners-sell-off-as-profit-taking-caps-explosive-year-end/

2023-12-29 15:49

Bharat Web3 Association's (BWA) Chairman wrote the letter to the Indian government on Dec. 16. The offshore exchanges have been given two weeks to respond to the show cause notice. "All we are asking for is a level playing field," said Rajagopal Menon, Vice President of prominent Indian crypto exchange WazirX. The Indian government's decision to block URLs of nine offshore exchanges and issue them show cause notices on Thursday came after an official request asking for the same from the Indian crypto and Web3 association's advocacy body, a letter viewed by CoinDesk shows. The letter dated Dec. 16 was written by the Bharat Web3 Association's (BWA) Chairman, Dilip Chenoy, and was addressed to the Indian Finance Ministry's Department of Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra. The offshore exchanges have been given two weeks to respond to the show cause notice, which asks why actions against them shouldn't be taken, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity given the person wasn't authorized to speak on the matter. However, the letter from the BWA sought a one-month grace period for offshore exchanges to register with India's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which falls under the Finance Ministry. It wasn't immediately clear whether the BWA letter was single-handedly responsible for the action or whether the government would have taken the action unilaterally as well. In March, India’s Finance Ministry mandated that crypto businesses will have to register with the FIU, the country's anti-money laundering unit, and comply with other processes under its Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). As many as 31 domestic entities have registered themselves with the FIU since. Binance, KuCoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global and Bitfinex are the nine exchanges. None of the entities responded to CoinDesk's requests for comment during the end-of-the-year holiday season. The BWA didn't immediately respond to a CoinDesk request for comment. The action by local crypto-related entities against foreign exchanges is rare if not entirely unprecedented in so far as local exchanges haven't asked the government to take action against offshore exchanges. The move comes after Indian crypto exchanges have been in survival mode, trying to extend their runways, ever since the nation imposed stifling taxes on the industry – a 30% tax on crypto profits and a 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) on all transactions. A think tank has detailed how the TDS prompted as many as 5 million Indian crypto traders to move their transactions offshore and estimated that it cost the government a potential $420 million in revenue since it was introduced in July 2022. The study also revealed that Indians moved more than $3.8 billion in trading volume from local to international crypto exchanges after the controversial crypto rules were announced. The letter from the BWA also asked for the government to ask the offshore exchanges to establish an Indian subsidiary or entity, to mandate depositing of the applicable TDS effective from when it was imposed on July 1, 2022, and in case of non-compliance, restrict access to these platforms on mobile app stores and block their IP addresses. It isn't clear whether all of these requests from the BWA feature in the show cause notices. Crucially, the letter asked the government to give Indian retailers 30 days to withdraw their assets before implementing any restrictions. "All we are asking for is a level playing field," said Rajagopal Menon, Vice President of prominent Indian crypto exchange WazirX which has also been embattled in a dispute with Binance over ownership. "We are focusing on the 1% TDS issue because that is what is affecting our business." Sumit Gupta, the co-founder and CEO of CoinDCX, another leading crypto exchange said Indian exchanges, led by BWA, have consistently advocated for a level playing field, particularly in the context of investors migrating to offshore platforms, which are not obligated to implement taxation and 1% TDS. "FIU IND's recent steps toward offshore Virtual Digital Assets Service Providers (VDA SPs) will mitigate risks, protecting users and investors from potential scams and fostering the development of a secure VDA ecosystem," Gupta said. Read More: India to Block URLs of 9 Offshore Exchanges Including Binance After Issuing Compliance 'Show Cause' Notices https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/12/29/indias-local-crypto-and-web3-advocacy-body-asked-for-action-against-offshore-entities-source/

2023-12-29 14:13

A slump in miner reserves indicates potential selling pressure, according to CryptoQuant. Crypto miners' bitcoin reserves slid to the lowest point since May following a spate of withdrawals this week, in a sign of mounting selling pressure as the largest cryptocurrency posts a December gain of more than 13%, data from CryptoQuant shows. Miner reserves measure the number of coins held by the affiliated miners' wallets. The number drops as the coins are moved to crypto exchanges, possibly as a prelude to a sale. Miners began balancing their books in late October, with reserves entering a decline that accelerated this month. Reserves now number 1.832 million BTC being held by miners, down from October's high of 1.845 million. In a post on social-media platform X, AliCharts pointed out that miners have sold 3,000 bitcoin (BTC) over the past 24 hours, equating to around $129 million. The cryptocurrency is currently trading at $42,891, down from yesterday's high of $43,710. The net flow of bitcoin on Dec. 28 stood at minus 1,524 BTC, meaning that withdrawals exceeded new coins being minted, data shows. Bitcoin will undergo a halving in April, which will see miner rewards slashed to 3.125 BTC per block from 6.25 BTC. Analysts predict that the halving will cause a supply shock with bitcoin potentially reaching $160,000. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/12/29/bitcoin-miners-offload-129m-btc-in-day-sending-reserves-to-the-lowest-point-since-may/