2024-10-03 12:33

Aave has becomes one of the largest crypto lending protocol by total value locked. “Grayscale Aave Trust gives investors exposure to a protocol with the potential to revolutionize traditional finance,” Grayscale’s head of product and research, Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, said in a statement. Grayscale is the issuer of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and the Grayscale Mini Bitcoin Trust (BTC) as well as the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE), which all launched earlier this year. Grayscale’s has started a new fund which offers exposure to Aave's AAVE token, the asset manager said on Thursday, in what has been a series of novel products from the crypto asset manager. Aave is a decentralized lending platform based on the Ethereum blockchain that offers automated loans of cryptocurrency using other tokens you own as collateral. It also lets users lend out their crypto to earn interest. While the platform’s native token stands at a market capitalization of $2.3 billion, a relatively small number compared to most well-known tokens, the protocol has become the largest cryptocurrency lending protocol by total value locked (TVL), according to data by DeFiLlama. “Grayscale Aave Trust gives investors exposure to a protocol with the potential to revolutionize traditional finance,” Grayscale’s head of product and research, Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, said in a statement. “By leveraging blockchain technology and smart contracts, Aave's decentralized platform aims to optimize lending and borrowing while removing intermediaries and reducing reliance on human judgment,” she said. The launch comes only a few weeks after Grayscale rolled out its most recent fund, the Grayscale Avalanche Trust, offering investors exposure to the AVAX (AVAX) token. The asset manager currently offers over 20 different crypto investment products, a number that has grown after the launch of the spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January, which spurred interest for publicly tradable products tracking cryptocurrencies. Grayscale is the issuer of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), the Grayscale Mini Bitcoin Trust (BTC), Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) and Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust (ETH), which all launched earlier this year. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/10/03/grayscale-rolls-out-aave-fund/

2024-10-03 12:23

BlackRock and Franklin Templeton could see tokenized shares of their money-market funds traded as collateral by the end of the year. A vote was passed on Tuesday to move recommendations on the use of tokenized shares of money-market funds to a larger body. A subcommittee of the CFTC moved its recommendations to the full committee but the recommendations are not yet known. The likes of BlackRock and Franklin Templeton could see tokenized shares of their money-market funds pledged in trading after a major group under the aegis of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved guidelines for their use, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. A subcommittee of the CFTC’s Global Markets Advisory Committee voted to pass the recommendations on to the full committee, which is expected to vote on the recommendations later this year, the report said citing two people familiar with the matter. The report did not reveal what the recommendations were but the mere action that they have been sent to the full committee could be seen as the next step. The CFTC did not immediately respond to a CoinDesk request for comment. BlackRock's USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) is an example of how creating blockchain-based tokens of traditional investments such as bonds and funds is a fast-growing use case for the larger digital asset space. The BUIDL fund became the largest tokenized Treasury fund just six weeks after its late launch in March. It surpassed $500 million market value in July. The CFTC’s Global Markets Advisory Committee includes BlackRock and Bloomberg LP, parent of Bloomberg News, the report said. Read More: Tokenized Treasury Funds Pass $2B Market Cap Amid BlackRock’s Explosive Growth https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/10/03/cftc-subcommittee-sends-up-recommendations-for-letting-firms-use-tokenized-shares-as-collateral-bloomberg/

2024-10-03 09:50

The company strengthens its bitcoin position with a strategic options sale, generating nearly 24 BTC ($1.44M) in premium. Metaplanet sold 223 contracts of bitcoin put options, earning 23.972 BTC ($1.44 million) in premium income. The options expire on Dec. 27 2024 with a strike price of $62,000. If bitcoin falls below $62,000, Metaplanet will have to acquire an additional 223 BTC while keeping the premium income. Tokyo-listed bitcoin holder Metaplanet Inc. is now using bitcoin (BTC) options to boost its coin stash, diverging from its peer, the U.S.-listed Microstrategy's debt-fueled accumulation strategy. On Tuesday, Metaplanet announced the sale of 223 contracts of bitcoin put options at the $62,000 strike with a maturity date of Dec. 27. The transaction involved Singapore-based QCP Capital as the counterparty and generated a premium of 23.972 BTC ($1.44 million). CoinDesk reached out to QCP Capital for a comment. Metaplanet posted $13.826 million as margin collateral, with each contract offering a 0.1075 BTC premium, which Metaplanet received upfront. The transaction resulted in a nominal yield of 10.75% and an annualized yield of 45.63%. The $13.826 million of margin collateral came from the proceeds raised during Metaplanet's eleventh stock acquisition rights exercise. The purpose of this collateral is to ensure Metaplanet can meet the transaction if the option is exercised. Strategic selling of puts Metaplanet will use the premium received by selling put options to purchase more bitcoin. The company’s total bitcoin holdings now stand at 530.717 BTC ($32 million). A put option gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to sell the underlying asset at a preset price on or before a specific date. Metaplanet is a put seller, meaning it is obligated to buy BTC at the strike price of $62,000, even if prices are lower on the day of the expiry. If bitcoin's price drops below $62,000 by the maturity date, the buyer will likely exercise this option, forcing Metaplanet to buy 223 bitcoin at the higher strike price. Therefore Metaplanet's bitcoin holdings would increase by 223 bitcoin, even if the market price by Dec. 27 is lower, however the premium partially offsets the spot price risk. If bitcoin's price is higher than $62,000 by Dec.27, the buyer is unlikely to exercise the option since they can sell bitcoin on the open market at a higher price. The option would therefore expire worthless, while Metaplanet keeps the 23.972 BTC premium as profit. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/10/03/bitcoin-holder-metaplanet-sells-btc-options-to-boost-its-32m-btc-stash/

2024-10-03 08:35

Operation Kraken has nothing to do with the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, the company said. Australia's Federal Police (AFP) has seized $6.4 million in cryptocurrency discovered during a global crackdown on a secret messaging app. The effort is codenamed Operation Kraken. The cryptocurrency exchange Kraken said the name has nothing to do with their entity and the AFP said Kraken was not under investigation. Australia's police has confiscated $6.4 million in cryptocurrency as part of a global crackdown on Ghost, an encrypted communications network, authorities allege was “built solely for the criminal underworld,” a statement said. The seizure of the cryptocurrency comes two weeks after the AFP arrested a Sydney resident Jay Je Yoon Jung, 32, the alleged mastermind behind Ghost. He appeared in a Sydney court on Wednesday to face the charges. Another man who allegedly distributed the app has also been arrested. The seized crypto has been transferred into secure AFP cryptocurrency storage and the authorities will seek its permanent forfeiture. The effort is titled Operation Kraken but Kraken the cryptocurrency exchange "has not been the subject of any Operation Kraken investigations," an AFP spokesperson wrote in an email to CoinDesk. "Operation Kraken was an investigation into a dedicated encrypted communications platform." A Kraken spokesperson said, “We’re disappointed by this operation’s codename, which has absolutely nothing to do with our brand." The crackdown last month saw 700 AFP members execute 93 search warrants, arresting 46 people, intervening in 50 threats to life, and seizing 30 illicit weapons and 200 kg of illicit drugs, the AFP said. Read More: Australians Lost $122M Worth of Crypto to Scams in 12 Months: Police https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/10/03/australias-police-confiscates-crypto-worth-64m-in-crackdown-on-ghost-messaging-app/

2024-10-03 06:24

Just as optimism was about to surge, clouds rolled in, pushing prices lower. XRP fell 10% as renewed regulatory uncertainty overshadowed ETF optimism. XRP's call-put skew shows fears of an extended price drop. XRP's (XRP) options market shows a greater risk of an extended price decline than renewed gains as renewed regulatory uncertainty overshadows Bitwise's ETF filing and weighs over the cryptocurrency's price. On Monday, asset manager Bitwise submitted an S-1 form to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), filing for an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that would invest in XRP. Bitcoin and ether spot ETFs, which debuted in the U.S. early this year, have pulled in billions of dollars in investor money. However, to the dismay of XRP bulls, Bitwise's action was quickly followed by the SEC filing a notice of appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, pushing back against Judge Analisa Torres's two-month-old ruling that fintech company Ripple Labs did not violate programmatic sales to retail exchanges did not violate securities rules. Four years ago, the SEC charged Ripple with selling unregistered securities after the platform sold $1.3 billion worth of XRP. While Ripple is a fintech company dedicated to building a global payments network, XRP is an independent digital asset for online payments and currency swaps. Being categorized as security is widely seen as a bearish development in the crypto market, as securities are more tightly regulated than commodities and demand greater reporting and transparency by companies. As such, XRP has declined by 11% to 53.7 cents in the past 24 hours, taking the week-to-date loss to over 16%, according to data sources CoinDesk and Coingecko. It's the third worst-performing cryptocurrency among the top 100 coins by market value. Market leaders bitcoin and ether are down 0.5% and 3.7%, respectively. Bearish options skew Options traders on Deribit seem relatively more bearish on XRP than bitcoin and ether, according to the seven-day call-put skew, which measures the difference between call and put volatility (demand). At press time, XRP's seven-day skew was -3.2%, a sign of bias for puts offering protection against price slides. BTC and ETH's seven-day skews were 0% or neutral and 2.8%, according to data source Amberdata. Meanwhile, funding rates in the XRP perpetual futures market have turned positive, reversing the brief overnight negative flip, which represented a bearish bias. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/10/03/xrps-bearish-skew-persists-after-10-price-slide-amid-sec-appeal-and-etf-filing/

2024-10-03 06:20

PLUS: AI tokens not moving despite a $6.6 billion fundraise from OpenAI. Bitcoin remains relatively stable above $61,100, while ether experiences a 4% drop to $2,390 amid geopolitical tensions following Iranian airstrikes on Israel, influencing a broader market sell-off. Despite the downturn, there's significant whale accumulation of Bitcoin, suggesting anticipation of a future bull run. Meanwhile, bitcoin ETFs see outflows, whereas ether ETFs attract inflows. XRP drops over 10% after the SEC's decision to appeal a ruling on its regulatory powers over crypto markets. Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) continued in the red at the start of Asian trading hours Thursday as the market withstood another sell-off. BTC is flat, trading above $61,100, while ETH is down 4% and trading at $2,390. Crypto markets took a hit from Tuesday night after Irani airstrikes on Israel, which the latter has vowed to retaliate, in a move that has dented a rally in risk assets, including bitcoin. However, whales continue to accumulate bitcoin at unprecedented rates despite the macro environment and market dullness, CryptoQuant founder Ki Young-Ju said in an X post. Whales colloquially refer to influential entities that hold largest amounts of any asset - and on-chain data shows new bitcoin whales are making sizeable purchases in anticipation of a bull run ahead. The CoinDesk 20 (CD20), a measure of the performance of the largest digital assets, was down over 3% as investors continue to sell most major cryptocurrencies. Outflows from the BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continued with $91.76 million in outflow during the Wednesday U.S. trading day. Ether ETFs experienced the opposite, with inflows of $14.45 million, breaking a two-day streak of outflow. XRP plunged more than 10% in the past 24 hours after the U.S. SEC said on Wednesday that it is appealing a court ruling restricting its ability to regulate cryptocurrency markets. The SEC will ask the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review a July 2023 decision that the XRP token sold by Ripple Labs on public exchanges did not meet the legal definition of a security. Memecoin mog (MOG), the second-largest cat-themed token behind popcat (POPCAT), saw little price movement after getting an automated mention from Republican candidate Donald Trump's X account. Trump's account seems to be sending a reply to any account that liked his tweet A Polymarket market tracking Trump's mention of the word "mog" - or related adjectives - before December 31 was unchanged at 13% of "yes" votes, leading to some drama among voters. Elsewhere in the market, LDO, the native token of non-custodial staking solution Lido, is down nearly 9%, following Ether's decline. Artificial Intelligence tokens are also not moving, despite an announcement from OpenAI that it had raised $6.6 billion at a valuation of $157 billion. CoinGecko data shows that the category, which includes (NEAR), {{TAO}}, and (ICP) is down 1.8%. Worldcoin, which was founded by OpenAI's Sam Altman, but has no formal ties otherwise to OpenAI, is down 4%. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/10/03/bitcoin-flat-near-61k-as-whales-continue-to-accumulate-xrp-down-10-as-sec-appeals-case/