Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Powell: Rate Cut is Imminent, but Unlikely to Have Confidence for a Cut in March

Federal Reserve Chairman Powells interview on “60 Minutes” aired, during which host Pelley asked Powell, “You disappointed a lot of people last week. The next meeting to decide the direction of interest rates will be in March this year. Based on what you know now, is there a greater or lesser likelihood of a rate cut at that time？”　　Chairman Powell responded, “The current overall situation is that the economy is strong, the labor market is strong, and inflation is decreasing. My colleagues and I are trying to choose an appropriate time to start reducing our restrictive policy stance. That time is approaching. We have stated that we want to have more confidence in inflation reaching 2%, and I think the committee is unlikely to have that level of confidence at the March meeting in 7 weeks. Except for two participants, all other participants believe it is appropriate to start easing the restrictive stance through rate cuts this year. So, thats the basic situation, and we just want to find the right time.”　　During the interview, Pelley also asked Powell, “In the December 2023 Fed forecast, is it still possible for this years rate cuts to bring interest rates down to around

2024-02-05Deep Dive

SFC Hong Kong: Apply for Crypto License by Feb 29, Cease Unlicensed Operations by May 31

According to official information, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong has stated that crypto asset trading platforms operating in Hong Kong, under the transitional arrangements, must either submit a licensing application to the SFC by February 29, 2024, or cease operations in Hong Kong by May 31, 2024.　　Investors are advised to check the regulatory status of their crypto asset trading platforms and should be prepared by May 31, 2024. This preparation may include closing their accounts on platforms not on the “Licensed Crypto Asset Trading Platforms List” or “Crypto Asset Trading Platform Applicant List,” or transferring to crypto asset trading platforms licensed by the SFC.　　For applicants on the “Crypto Asset Trading Platform Applicant List” whose applications are still under process, the approval status is uncertain, and trading on these platforms carries risks.　　The SFC strongly urges investors to trade crypto assets only on platforms licensed by the SFC, as trading on unlicensed platforms may leave them unprotected.　　

2024-02-05Deep Dive

FTX Seeks Approval for Swift Sale of 8% Stake in Anthropic

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, is preparing to sell its most significant remaining illiquid asset: an 8% stake in the AI startup Anthropic. In October 2021, Anthropic received a $500 million investment from Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX. FTX has submitted a motion seeking court approval to sell its stake in Anthropic. Another motion has been filed, requesting a shortened review period for the sale motion, allowing it to be considered at the next bankruptcy court hearing on February 22. Objections to this motion must be submitted by February 15.　　The filing discloses the exact percentage of FTXs ownership in Anthropic, which is 7.84%, and outlines two primary procedures for selling the shares: auction or private sale. FTXs lawyers have redacted the price they seek for their Anthropic shares, citing that “public reference prices may adversely affect the debtors goal of obtaining higher and better offers for the Anthropic shares.”　　

2024-02-04Deep Dive

Bitcoin Spot ETF Nets $80.07 Million Inflow Yesterday, with Total Net Asset Ratio at 3.34%

According to data from SoSoValue, on February 2nd (Eastern Time), Bitcoin spot ETFs experienced a total net inflow of $80.07 million, marking the sixth consecutive day of net inflows (January 28th net inflow of $14.81 million, January 29th net inflow of $255 million, January 30th net inflow of $247 million, January 31st net inflow of $197 million, and February 1st net inflow of $38.45 million). Grayscales ETF GBTC saw a net outflow of $144 million on the same day. Excluding Grayscale, the other nine ETFs had a total net inflow of $224 million. Among them, the Bitcoin spot ETF with the highest single-day net inflow was BlackRocks IBIT, with a net inflow of $105 million, accounting for 46% of the total daily inflow. IBITs historical total net inflow has reached $3.12 billion. Following closely is Fidelitys FBTC, with a single-day net inflow of approximately $78.95 million, representing 34.8% of the total inflow, and a historical total net inflow of $2.6 billion. As of the time of writing, the total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs is $28.16 billion, the ETF net asset ratio (percentage of market value relative to total Bitcoin market value) has reached 3.34%, and the historical

2024-02-04Deep Dive

Genesis Seeks Bankruptcy Court Approval to Sell Approximately $1.6 Billion in Grayscale Trust Assets

Digital Currency Groups subsidiary, Genesis Global Capital, has submitted a new motion to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking authorization to sell approximately $1.6 billion worth of Grayscale Trust assets.　　According to the documents, Genesis holds assets including Grayscale GBTC shares worth about $1.4 billion, Grayscale Ethereum Trust Fund (ETHE) shares worth about $165 million, and Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust Fund (ETCG) shares worth about $38 million.　　The company has also filed a separate motion to expedite the related deadlines for consideration at the next bankruptcy court hearing on February 8.　　Genesis initially transferred the disputed GBTC shares, used as collateral, to Gemini as part of the latters Gemini Earn program. Some of these shares were acquired through the bankruptcy from Three Arrows Capital.　　Furthermore, the company is seeking legal recourse to reclaim an additional 31,180,804 GBTC shares from Grayscale (worth about $1.2 billion) that were pledged to Gemini but never transferred. The ownership of these shares is a matter pending resolution by the court.　　

2024-02-04Deep Dive

Reuters: Options Products for U.S. Bitcoin Spot ETF May Take Several Months to Gain Approval

Several industry insiders have indicated that the approval of options products for the new US Bitcoin spot ETF may take several months, potentially diminishing the appeal of the underlying product.　　The delay in the options products for Bitcoin spot ETFs is attributed to the absence of established regulatory procedures to approve them. According to sources, the US SEC, responsible for overseeing the required technical rule changes for exchanges to launch options products, usually approves them several days after the ETF starts trading. However, as regulatory authorities classify Bitcoin as a commodity, options products for Bitcoin spot ETFs may also need approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).　　An insider revealed that products associated with Bitcoin spot ETFs could raise jurisdictional and regulatory issues, and the CFTC is still addressing these concerns. MarketVector Indexes Digital Asset Product Strategist Martin Leinweber stated, “This dual regulatory involvement adds complexity, and some might call it regulatory friction.” He anticipates the approval process may take between two to ten months. MarketVector Indexes provides benchmark data for VanEcks Bitcoin spot ETF.　　Another insider disclosed that some executives from exchanges are set to meet with CFTC officials soon to discuss this matter.　　Institutional investors often use options for risk hedging.

2024-02-02Deep Dive

JPMorgan: Tether's Increasing Dominance is Negative News for Cryptocurrencies

JPMorgan has expressed concerns about the growing dominance of USDT (Tether) in the stablecoin market, despite the recent encouraging growth in the total capitalization of stablecoins.　　In a report released on Thursday, analysts at JPMorgan, led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, stated, “Given its lack of regulatory compliance and transparency, Tether faces the greatest risk. Therefore, we believe that the increase in Tethers concentration over the past year is negative for the stablecoin universe and the broader crypto ecosystem.”　　The analysts noted that stablecoin issuers face regulatory risks globally. In the United States, the “Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act” is awaiting approval from Congress. Additionally, in Europe, the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulations are expected to be partially implemented in June of this year. According to the analysts, stablecoin issuers who strictly adhere to existing regulations are likely to benefit from the upcoming regulatory scrutiny and may gain market share.　　

2024-02-02Deep Dive

Binance's New CEO: Team Successfully Freezes $4.2 Million XRP from Stolen Funds of Ripple Co-Founder

Binances newly appointed CEO, Richard Teng, stated on the X platform that Chris Larsen, the co-founder of Ripple, had his personal account compromised, resulting in the theft of 213 million XRP. The Binance team has successfully frozen XRP worth $4.2 million. Binance will continue to support the ongoing investigation and make efforts to assist in recovering the funds, including closely monitoring the remaining funds in the attackers external wallets to prevent deposits into Binance.　　On January 31st, in response to ZachXBTs disclosure of the Ripple hack, Chris Larsen, co-founder of Ripple, posted on the X platform, mentioning that Ripple quickly identified the issue and informed exchanges to freeze the affected addresses. Law enforcement is currently involved. Additionally, Chris Larsen revealed that his personal XRP account (not affiliated with Ripple) was also unauthorizedly accessed the day before.　　

2024-02-02Deep Dive

ARK Invest: Optimal 2023 Portfolio Bitcoin Allocation at 19.4% for Maximum Risk-Adjusted Returns

According to the “Big Ideas 2024” report released by ARK Invest, research indicates that, to maximize risk-adjusted returns, the optimal allocation of Bitcoin in a portfolio for the year 2023 is 19.4%, significantly higher than the 6.2% in 2022.　　If 2.5 quadrillion dollars of global investable assets were allocated to Bitcoin, it would have a significant impact on its price. Allocating 1% of this total would potentially drive the Bitcoin price to $120,000. Allocating 4.8% could push it to $550,000, and allocating 19.4% might result in a Bitcoin price reaching $2.3 million.　　Furthermore, the report highlights that smart contracts can facilitate the origin, ownership, and management of on-chain assets with only a small fraction of the financial costs associated with traditional assets. If financial assets move to blockchain infrastructure at a speed similar to the adoption of the internet and fees related to decentralized financial services are one-third of traditional financial services, smart contracts could generate over $450 billion in fees annually, creating a market value exceeding $50 trillion, with compound annual growth rates of 78% and 32% by 2030.　　

2024-02-01Deep Dive

BNB Chain's 2024 Vision: Phasing Out BNB Beacon Chain and Building 'One BNB' Interconnected Model

BNB Chain has released its outlook for 2024, stating that the core focus for the year is to build the “One BNB” interconnection paradigm. This strategy will integrate BSC, opBNB, and Greenfield into a cohesive ecosystem, ensuring seamless interaction between decentralized computing and storage solutions. The One BNB solution is crucial for the scalability of large-scale DApps as it addresses computing and storage needs, making BNB Chain a competitive choice for Web3 developers.　　In addition, the BNB Beacon Chain will be gradually phased out, and new governance, staking, and MEV PBS functionalities will be integrated into BSC. This strategic shift, referred to as “BNB Chain Fusion,” aims to simplify the network, improve efficiency, reduce security risks, and align the architecture of the BNB Chain with current and future technological requirements.　　

2024-02-01Deep Dive

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