Schlagwort: blockchain markets

• Franklin Templeton has launched the OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX) on Aptos.
• FOBXX currently has a market cap of over $435 million, second among tokenized US Treasuries behind BlackRock fund BUIDL.

Franklin Templeton has expanded its OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX) to the layer-1 blockchain Aptos.

The $1.6 trillion asset manager, which also offers the Franklin Bitcoin ETF (EZBC) and Franklin Ethereum ETF (EZET), announced the launch of FOBXX on Aptos on Wednesday, October 2, 2024. It’s another milestone for the company after its recent expansion of the tokenized money fund to Avalanche.

FOBXX launched in 2021 and is a US Treasury-backed fund that brings the benefits of tokenized real-world assets to investors.

With its expansion to Aptos, the fund has expanded to a non-Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and adds to institutional investor access through Franklin Templeton’s platform Benji Investments.

FOBXX will be represented by Franklin’s BENJI token on the Aptos network, helping to merge traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralised finance (DeFi). Franklin brought its money market fund to Polygon and Stellar blockchain networks in April 2024.

The firm then expanded it to Arbitrum in August 2024.

Tokenized treasuries market growth

According to data from RWA.xyz, FOBXX is currently the second largest tokenized fund with over $435 million in assets.

The top US Treasury-backed asset is the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), which launched on Ethereum and currently has over $518 million in assets under management.

Investors have increasingly looked to tap into opportunities in the RWA market. This has seen treasury-related products such as the Ondo U.S. Dollar Yield (USDY), Hashnote Short Duration Yield Coin (USYC) and OpenEden TBILL Vault (TBILL) attract a growing number of holders.

USDY, USYC and TBILL have market caps of $420 million, $280 million and $116 million respectively. Ondo launched its USDY fund on Sui in March.

Meanwhile, the total value of tokenized US treasuries, cash-equivalents and bonds, per RWA.xyz, has grown to over $2.27 billion.

That’s up from around $769 million on January 1, 2024, when FOBXX incidentally accounted for over $325 million of the total market value.

BlackRock’s BUIDL launched in March 2024 and hit $500 million market cap in July.

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• The first XRP ETF filing is now with the US Securities and Exchange Commission
• Bitwise submitted a Form S-1 filing for approval to launch an XRP ETF on October 2, 2024.

Bitwise has filed an initial registration statement for the launch of the first spot XRP exchange-traded fund.

On Wednesday, Oct. 2, the crypto asset manager announced it had submitted a Form S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the Bitwise XRP ETF.

XRP is the cryptocurrency by Ripple. Currently, it’s the seveth-largest crypto asset by market cap with over $32 billion.

First XRP ETF

Bitwise, one of the ETF issuers already offering a spot Bitcoin ETF and Ethereum spot ETF, is the first company to officially apply for approval to issue an exchange-traded fund tracking the daily price of XRP.

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, commented on the development via X:

First BTC, then ETH…it was only a matter of time.

This move underscores the growing trust & integration of digital assets like XRP into traditional finance, marking the continued adoption and maturation of the crypto market. I sense this is just the beginning. https://t.co/s1pHpIEqth

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) October 2, 2024

The announcement that Bitwise seeks SEC’s approval for an XRP ETF followed the filing for an XRP ETF Trust in Delaware on Tuesday, October 2, 2024.

With this official Form S-1 filing, the Bitwise XRP ETP will now await SEC’s approval, including for the Form 19b-4.

Commenting on the filing, Bitwise chief executive officer Hunter Horsley said:

“At Bitwise, we believe blockchains will usher in new, apolitical monetary assets and permissionless applications for the 21st century… It’s why for the past seven years we’ve helped investors access the opportunities in the space, and we’re excited to continue that work with our filing for a Bitwise XRP ETP.”

Will SEC appeal XRP ruling?

Bitwise’s S-1 filing comes just days before a deadline for the SEC to appeal the 2023 court ruling on the status of XRP. This deadline is on October 7 and relates to the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple and its executive over the sale of XRP, which the regulator said was a security until a US judge ruled it was not in July last year.

If SEC appeals the ruling over XRP sales, then it would be interesting to see how the regulator handles the application for the XRP ETF.

Ripple has battled the SEC in a legal tussle that began in December 2020. In August 2024, Judge Analisa Torres ordered Ripple Labs to pay a $125 million civil penalty in settlement with the securities agency.

XRP price rose sharply following this news. However, the coin has pared most of the gains and traded around $0.58 at the time of writing.

The post Bitwise files Form S-1 for XRP ETF with SEC appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Bitcoin ETFs recorded outflows of $243 millin as markets fell amid Iran’s missile attack on Israel.
• BTC price also fell, hitting lows of $60,300 before recovering to above $61k.

Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded net outflows for the first time in two weeks, with $243 million exiting on October 2, 2024.

The outflows followed a sharp decline for Bitcoin (BTC) price on Tuesday as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East threatened to escalate further with Iran’s attack on Israel. With institutional investors largely concerned as the Middle East teeters, spot Bitcoin ETFs hit outflows for the first time since Sept.18.

Bitcoin ETFs break inflows streak

Outflows on Oct. 1 meant the US spot BTC ETFs market broke an eight day streak of net inflows. It also saw the Bitcoin ETFs record the largest outflows since more than $287 million exited the market on Sept. 3. That outflows streak also hit eight consecutive days.

Apart from BlackRock’s IBIT, which recorded inflows of over $40.8 million, all other ETFs either saw outflows or zero net flows.

Fidelity’s FBTC led with over $144.7 million in negative flows, while Ark 21Shares’ ARKB saw more than $84.3 million offloaded. Meanwhile, there were zero net flows for Grayscale’s Mini Bitcoin Trust as well as Franklin, Invesco, Valkyrie, WisdomTree ETFs.

BTC price retreated to $60.3k

Amid these movements, BTC price slumped more than 4%, with losses pushing it to lows of $60,300 across major crypto exchanges. From highs above $64k, it meant bulls gave up almost $4k before finding support.

This was the sharpest price dip for Bitcoin since Sept. 6, when BTC fell from above $56,170 to near $52,500.

As BTC price fell, a major whale dumped over $46 million in BTC on Binance. This particular whale, according to Spot On Chain, had accumulated 3,933 BTC worth more than $234 million between August 29 and September 15, 2024.

Despite the sizable sale, the BTC whale still hodls 9,736 bitcoins worth over $601 million.

Bitcoin has traded to above $61k.

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• The DSS has the “potential to improve efficiency and reduce costs” in financial markets
• The sandbox will boost the UK’s position as a “vibrant financial centre”
• The DSS will operate until December 2028, but could be extended

The Bank of England (BoE) and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have launched a sandbox exploring new technologies such as distributed ledger technology (DLT) and how it can be applied to improve efficiency in financial markets.

In an announcement, the BoE and the financial regulator said they had opened the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS), encouraging innovative firms to test the DLT for financial markets.

According to the FCA, the DLT has the “potential to improve efficiency and reduce costs in wholesale markets, benefitting industry and investors.”

“We believe the DSS could also lead to a quicker, more effective and collaborative way of delivering regulatory change.”

The FCA stated that the initiative’s aim will help boost the UK’s leading position as a “global and vibrant financial centre” by providing the best environment for “investment, innovation, and sustainable growth.”

The DSS will be operational until December 2028, but the FCA noted that this could be extended by the UK government. Applications for applying will close around March 2027 giving regulators and firms time to transition to a permanent regime.

Scope of the DSS

The BoE and the FCA have said that the DSS has four stages: testing, go live, scaling, and a permanent regime.

During the second “go live” stage, firms in the DSS will be involved in activities including issuing, trading, and settling real digital securities. According to the FCA, “the aim of the DSS is that these securities should be capable of being used in broadly the same way as traditional securities.”

The FCA noted that these can include equities, corporate and government bonds, money market instruments, fund units, and emissions allowances.

Last July, the FCA launched its digital sandbox as a testing environment for firms to see how their products would perform at an early stage of development. At the time, the FCA said that the digital sandbox fosters innovation and growth, and that its development environment allows experimentation while safeguarding the data assets on the platform.

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• The FSC has restricted access to the virtual asset ETFs to professional institutional investors
• Security companies will need to establish a “virtual asset ETF suitability system”

Taiwan’s financial regulator is allowing professional investors to invest in “foreign virtual asset” exchange-traded funds (ETFs) through a re-entrustment service.

In an announcement, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) explained that the move would give investors a “variety of product choices and enhance the momentum of China’s securities firms’ re-entrustment of business.”

As a result of the high risks involved in crypto-related ETFs, the FSC has restricted this to professional investors. These include professional institutional investors, high-net-worth professionals, and high-asset clients.

Additionally, the FSC noted that security companies will need to establish a “virtual asset ETF suitability system, which needs to be approved by the board of directors, to determine a client’s professional knowledge of virtual assets before investing in an ETF.

The security companies will also need to provide product information relating to the ETF before a client makes their first purchase. The security firms will also provide regular training and education on virtual assets.

The FSC said it will “continue to pay attention to the handlings of re-entrusted business by securities firms and continue to improve relevant regulations to ensure the rights and interests of investors and enhance the competitiveness of securities firms.”

Cautious approach

Taiwan has, traditionally, taken a cautious stance toward the cryptocurrency market.

However, over the past year, the financial regulator has seen a shift toward the industry. Last September, the FSC released its guidelines for crypto exchanges with the aim of boosting crypto regulation.

Following that, last October, the Taiwan government introduced the Virtual Asset Management Bill.

Focusing on customer protection, regulatory obligations, and industry self-regulation, the bill provides guidelines for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) while building industry growth.

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