Kategorie: Crypto Markets

• Cathie Wood bought 162,325 shares of Coinbase Global Inc on Friday.
• Her stake in the crypto exchange is now worth more than $18 billion.
• Coinbase stock has already rallied about 70% since the start of 2023.

Shares of Coinbase Global Inc have already rallied about 70% this year but Cathie Wood remains convinced they’re not out of room to run just yet.

How many shares of Coinbase did she buy?

That’s based on a rather massive sum of money she recently spent on buying Coinbase stock.

The famed investor took about a month-long break from investing in the crypto exchange. On Friday, though, she returned and bought 162,325 shares of Coinbase.

In total, the recent purchase was worth $9.20 million and was split between two of her funds; the flagship ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) and ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW).

Interesting, Wood bought Coinbase stock ahead of the anticipated year-on-year weakness in its Q4 results. Next week, the Nasdaq-listed firm is expected to report $2.39 a share of loss for its fourth financial quarter – well below $3.32 a share it “earned” a year ago.

SEC is getting more aggressive against crypto

Earlier in February, Cathie Wood reiterated her super bullish view on Bitcoin, which, she said, will eventually be worth $500,000.

She’s keeping optimistic despite a more aggressive Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that recently pushed Kraken into terminating its crypto-staking operations in the U.S. It’s worth noting that Coinbase offers similar services to its U.S. clients as well.

On Monday, the regulator ordered Paxos Trust to stop issuing Binance USD as well. Nonetheless, across all eight of her funds, Wood now owns more than $18 billion worth of Coinbase Global Inc. The crypto company accounts for 3.88% of her total holdings.

Wall Street currently has a consensus “hold” rating on Coinbase stock.

The post Cathie Wood spends another $9.20 million on Coinbase stock appeared first on CoinJournal.

• HANetf co-founder & co-CEO Hector McNeil was commenting on the UK Treasury and Bank of England’s recent announcement regarding a digital pound.
• McNeil says “cash is on decline” and that the “future of finance and money is digital.”
• Yield App CIO Lucas Kiely last week told CoinJournal that the UK’s digital pound and CBDCs in general are not a threat to crypto.

HANetf co-CEO and co-founder Hector McNeil has commented on the recent announcement by the UK Treasury and Bank of England regarding the possibility of a central bank digital currency dubbed the Digital Pound.

As CoinJournal reported last week, the UK unveiled a consultation paper on the launch of the digital pound, with the BoE noting that if it ends up releasing the digital currency, its use would be alongside cash. Per the UK central bank, the digital pound would not replace the fiat currency even as the plan is to have more households and businesses adopt it for payments.

McNeil says the UK’s move is part of the government’s push to remain in control of the country’s financial system.

The future of finance and money is digital – HANetf’s McNeil

According to McNeil, “cash is on the decline, with growing numbers of consumers embracing digital payments,” a fact that sees the government view the digital pound as an important project.

The concern, he noted in comments shared with CoinJournal, is that the UK government feels the central bank issued digital currency is key to the BoE retaining control of the financial system.

“The argument for the digital pound is that the UK state should guard its role of ensuring the stability and usability of money,” the fund manager said. He continued:

“Of course, there are all sorts of potential questions about the future of the financial system. Would a digital pound mean less cash held in bank deposits? What does this mean for the business models of commercial banks and their ability to lend? In times of financial stress, would consumers remove their money from commercial banks to their digital wallet, creating the potential for a bank run?”

McNeil pointed to the government “pre-empting” some of the above concerns with the announcement that there would be a limit to how much of the digital pound users would hold. Indeed, the Treasury has floated the idea of a limit of between 10,000-20,000 (digital) pounds in individual wallets.

What does this say of the digital pound then? McNeil thinks the idea of limiting what one can hold reduces the digital currency’s attractiveness.

“With the current various methods of digital payments seamless and already in widespread use, what would be the incentive for consumers to instead use Digital Pounds in a limited wallet with restrictions on the amount held?” he posed. 

While the UK Treasury and the BoE might have to rethink this plan, the HANetf exec opines that recent announcements concerning the digital pound project confirms that “the future of finance and money is digital.”

Lucas Kiely, the CIO of digital wealth platform Yield App also thinks the launch of the digital pound would be positive for crypto. As highlighted in our coverage of the news last week, Kiely believes CBDCs are inevitable and do not necessarily pose a threat to crypto.

Rather, according to him, bringing traditional finance on-chain, such as through the digital pound, will only help spur further innovation and adoption of crypto.

The post UK’s digital pound project shows future of money is digital, says HANetf co-founder appeared first on CoinJournal.

• The NYDFS has ordered Paxos Trust Co. to stop issuing BUSD stablecoin.
• This comes after the SEC issued Paxos with a wells notice on the same.
• The SEC alleges Binance USD is an unregistered security.

Just hours after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a wells notice to Paxos, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has Paxos Trust Co. to stop issuing the Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin on its exchange itBit.

According to the wells notice issued by the SEC, Binance USD is an unregistered security and Paxos violated investor protection laws by listing and issuing the stablecoin. Normally, firms have the opportunity to respond in writing to convince the SEC why it should not continue with a lawsuit after a wells notice.

Redemptions of the Paxos product to continue

While the NYDFS has asked Paxos to stop creating any more BUSD, Binance has issued a statement saying that Paxos will continue to manage the redemption of the product.

Only last week, the SEC said that crypto staking violated securities laws and forced crypto exchange Kraken to shut down its crypto staking product after agreeing on a $30 million settlement deal for issuing the product without first seeking authorization. Coinbase which had said that the SEC was planning to crack down on crypto staking, has decided to take up the fight and defend its crypto staking offering in court if need be.

The securities debate within the crypto industry has been there for some years now and has been in focus since the US SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs, three years ago, arguing that its Ripple (XRP) token is a security. The case is still ongoing with speculations that it could be ruled in favour of Ripple after a US Court recently ruled that another token, LBRY Credits (LBC), is not a security.

The post Blockchain Company Paxos Trust ordered to stop issuing Binance USD appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Kraken is ending crypto-staking services to settle with the U.S. SEC.
• It will also pay $30 million in penalties as part of that settlement.
• The development casts doubt upon Coinbase that also offers staking.

Kraken – the U.S. based crypto exchange was in focus today on reports that it’s bringing down the curtain on its crypto-staking operations.

Kraken to pay $30 million in penalties to settle charges

Kraken was facing an investigation from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over selling unregistered securities.

The Kraken staking programme is offered and sold as a security. Staking-as-a-service providers must register and provide full, fair, and truthful disclosure and investor protection.

On Thursday, the crypto exchange agreed to end the said operations to settle those charges. Kraken will pay $30 million in penalties as well even though it refrained from admitting to or denying the allegations.

The development marks the first regulatory crackdown on staking; a service that’s been quite popular with the crypto exchanges.

Non-U.S. clients will still have access to staking services

Kraken offered a whopping 20% annual percentage yield on staking with payments sent to clients twice per week. On Twitter, Gary Gensler – Chair of the U.S. SEC said in a video message today:

When a company or platform offers you these kinds of returns, whether they call their services lending, earn, rewards, APY or staking – that relationship should come with protections of the federal securities laws.

The crypto exchange did confirm, however, that its staking services will remain available to clients outside of the Unites States through a different subsidiary.

Today’s settlement also casts doubt upon Coinbase Global Inc that offers staking services in the United States as well. Its shares closed the regular session down nearly 15% on Thursday.

The post Kraken to end its crypto-staking services in the U.S. – here’s why appeared first on CoinJournal.

• MakerDAO’s integration of Chainlink extends on the Maker’s automated system Keeper Network.
• The automation will help stabilise the DAI infrastructure, including via updates on price and the debt ceiling.
• An proposal over the integration passed in a governance vote by Maker (MKR) holders.

MakerDAO has onboarded Chainlink’s decentralised oracle framework as it looks to enhance the stability of its DAI stablecoin.

The integration with Chainlink’s automation tool follows a governance proposal that saw Maker (MKR) holders approve the launch of the oracle system on MakerDAO’s Keeper Network, the DAI creator announced on Thursday.

MakerDAO integrates Chainlink oracle for DAI

The Keeper Network helps uphold the DAI infrastructure, offering an automated system that executes specific functions related to the Maker Protocol, including providing updates on price and debt ceiling. 

The Maker Protocol will also benefit from tasks such as liquidity balancing for DAI as well as increased decentralisation due to the addition of third-party actors.

Automation via Chainlink’s oracle network is therefore critical to MakerDAO’s technology stack, with activation set to help stabilise DAI.

“The sophisticated technology and tools that quietly but constantly run in the background to ensure DAI’s stability rely upon MakerDAO’s Keeper Network. This network of automated bots perform essential tasks to maintain the Maker protocol and will be greatly expanded through the integration with Chainlink’s renowned, hyper-reliable automation platform,” Nadia Álvarez, a member of MakerDAO’s Growth Core Unit, said.  

As highlighted above, integration with Chainlink followed a vote on what was a wider proposal for various changes, including dust parameters and recognised DAO delegates’ compensation package for January to 8 February, 2023.

Per an update from MakerDAO, the executive proposal passed on 9 February, 2023 at 03:23 UTC and is subject to a 48-hour delay as stipulated in MakerDAO’s governance pause delay. The security measure means the changes can now be executed as of 11 February, 2023 beginning 03:23 UTC.

Following the vote, MakerDAO will avail 181,000 DAI to the Chainlink Automation Keeper Network for the next six months, translating to 1,000 DAI per day.

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