2024-03-22 16:05

Robert Mitchnick, the asset manager’s head of digital assets, said that there’s a misconception that BlackRock will have a “long tail” of other crypto services. The asset management giant BlackRock’s (BLK) clients have “a little bit” interest in Ethereum, compared to bitcoin (BTC), head of digital assets Robert Mitchnick said. “I can say that for our client base, bitcoin is overwhelmingly the number one focus and a little bit Ethereum,” he said during a fireside chat at the Friday Bitcoin Investor Day conference in New York. For every other crypto asset, he said, demand is “very, very little.” Perhaps it's only fitting that when asked about if BlackRock will be launching an exchange-traded fund (ETF) related to memecoin dogwifhat (WIF) anytime soon, Mitchnick said he didn’t know what it was, noting that there’s a misconception from the crypto industry that the asset manager will have a “long tail” of other services. “That’s really not what we’re focused on,” he said. BlackRock ushered in a bullish optimism within the digital assets market in January when it got approval to offer the Bitcoin Bitcoin Fund (IBIT) to investors, which in less than two months of trading, became one of the top five ETFs overall in the market. The fund has attracted $15 billion in assets, significantly more than any of the other nine funds. Part of the reason why the asset manager – which in previous years had been opposed to bitcoin – decided to launch a bitcoin ETF was because clients were consistent and enduring in expressing their interest in bitcoin through both bull and bear markets, Mitchnick said. He said they had also gotten “frustrated” about how difficult it was to get exposure to the crypto asset. Most recently, BlackRock unveiled its tokenized asset fund, BUIDL, on the Ethereum network, with asset tokenization company Securitize acting as a transfer agent and tokenization platform. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/03/22/blackrock-seeing-only-a-little-bit-demand-for-ethereum-from-clients-says-head-of-digital-assets/

2024-03-22 15:26

But the market for cryptocurrencies and blockchains that deliver consumer and business benefits is likely to be bigger than the one for “digital gold,” says Paul Brody, head of blockchain at EY. One of my key questions about the next era in crypto and blockchain is this: How will all the capital likely be deployed into digital assets and cryptocurrencies as they become better regulated? More than 90% of the world’s financial and business assets are considered “on-shore” – that is, they are owned and managed by entities and people residing in the countries where they are bought and sold. Today, most crypto-assets are bought and sold off-shore (I estimate about 80% based on data from CoinGecko). However, as more regulated opportunities open up, new capital will flow into these digital asset environments. I don’t, however, think there will be a huge new range of cryptocurrency growth opportunities. If you read my columns regularly, you know that I strongly believe that Ethereum will follow the path of many other technology ecosystems towards dominance. Ethereum is, first and foremost, a technology platform. Yes, ETH is a cryptocurrency, but its main demand driver is for use, as a payment for transaction processing. I think over time, ETH will largely be subject to the laws of supply and demand for processing power on this “world computer.” The technology industry needs and thrives upon standards that provide economies of scale and network effects. Ethereum has won the standards war for programming and has largely fixed its scalability issues, making it the default choice. Digital assets will, by and large, exist in the Ethereum ecosystem. Bitcoin isn’t subject to the same rules. Though people tend to lump them together, Bitcoin is a true crypto-asset and very much like gold; people don’t buy it with plans to use it. They buy it for its scarcity value and to see it appreciate as an asset. Like gold, people do not expect Bitcoin to generate a cash flow, just to appreciate through its scarcity. Nor do I think that recent efforts to add a Layer 2 ecosystem to Bitcoin, similar to what exists in Ethereum, is likely to change this outcome. The Ethereum ecosystem has an enormous lead and Bitcoin users that want to make their asset programmable have already been migrating it into “wrapped” Bitcoins on Ethereum for some time. So, can there be only one Bitcoin? Theoretically, there can be infinite Bitcoins. It feels like there practically already are. Litecoin, Dogecoin, and countless other meme coins and cryptocurrencies are nearly identical copies of Bitcoin. And while there is no BrodyCoin as of yet, I do offer complimentary NFTs (get yours here!). Despite the effectively infinite supply of Bitcoin copies, I suspect that there really can and only ever will be one Bitcoin, and it’s the one we already have. Let’s stick with the gold analogy. While there isn’t an infinite supply of gold, there are quite a few other precious metals out there. We could just as easily trade in silver or diamonds as gold. Despite there being multiple options available, however, gold absolutely dominates the market for precious metals. The total market cap of global gold stores is estimated at $13.7 trillion. Silver comes in at just $1.3 trillion and the market cap. An order of magnitude separates gold from the next alternative and so I believe we will see Bitcoin retain a position in the order of a magnitude higher than any other alternative crypto asset. I think this has a couple of important implications for people as they prepare for the next wave of growth in these markets that will come from a regulated era. The first is that inventing a new cryptocurrency isn’t necessarily going to be a path to success. Bitcoin has that role and, as people want digital gold, that is what they are going to buy. Second, the world of digital assets should, and can be much bigger than just a digital version of gold. Oil is essential (for the moment) to the global economy and it’s 10 times larger than gold – doing $1.7 trillion in revenue (not to be confused with market cap) annually. Net new growth opportunities are likely to be much bigger by creating something that is used by consumers or needed by enterprises. That space is much larger than holding reserve assets. It’s where I’ll be looking for the next opportunities for real growth. https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2024/03/22/there-can-probably-be-only-one-bitcoin/

2024-03-22 14:42

The Luna/Terra founder will remain in the Balkan country “until a decision is made” on where to send him to face charges. The Montenegrin Supreme Court has stepped in to stop Do Kwon from being extradited to South Korea. The decision overturns earlier decisions from two lower courts to extradite Kwon to face charges in his home country, rather than in the U.S., which is also fighting to try him on criminal charges. Montenegro’s Supreme Court placed a pause on Terra founder Do Kwon’s pending extradition from the Balkan country, issuing an order on Friday that overturns earlier decisions from two lower courts to extradite Kwon to his native South Korea. Kwon has been in Montenegrin custody since March 2023, when he was arrested and jailed for attempting to use fake Costa Rican documents en route to Dubai after months on the run. The decision effectively puts a time-out on the ongoing tug-of-war over Kwon between South Korea and the United States. Both countries want to try Kwon for criminal charges, including fraud, relating to the $40 billion collapse of the Terra ecosystem in May 2022. Kwon has fought extradition for a year, but a decision from a Montenegrin Appellate court earlier this month to extradite him to South Korea seemed final – until the country’s top prosecutor stepped in. On Thursday, the Office of the Supreme State Prosecutor issued a statement arguing that the court’s decision overstepped the limits of its power. The prosecutor claimed that a decision on where to extradite Kwon can only be made by the country’s minister of justice. The Supreme Court has said that Kwon’s extradition will be halted "until a decision is made." A company Kwon founded, Terraform Labs, is set to go on trial next week to face charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/03/22/do-kwons-extradition-to-south-korea-postponed-by-montenegrin-supreme-court/

2024-03-22 09:30

Fantom's impending Sonic upgrade, expected to boost transaction processing speeds, may have galvanized investor interest in the cryptocurrency. Fantom’s FTM token has rallied over 190% in four weeks. The network’s upcoming Sonic upgrade may have catalyzed the bull run. The upgrade’s testnet has demonstrated faster transaction processing speeds and finality times. Layer 1 blockchain Fantom’s native token FTM has gained over 190% in four weeks, becoming the best-performing non-meme cryptocurrency among the top 100 digital assets by market value. FTM’s price has surged from 40 cents to $1.16, reaching the highest since April 2022, according to data tracked by CoinGecko. The token’s market capitalization has jumped to $3.29 billion, making it the 44th largest digital asset in the world. Bitcoin (BTC), the market leader, has rallied 28% in four weeks and ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, has gained nearly 20%. The CoinDesk 20 Index, a broader market gauge, has risen by 33%. Fantom’s impending Sonic upgrade, expected to boost transaction processing speeds, may have galvanized investor interest in the cryptocurrency. The Sonic mainnet will replace the existing mainnet Opera in the spring of this year. Sonic’s testnet went live in October last year. The closed testnet with simulated traffic has demonstrated a maximum theoretical throughput of 2,000 transactions per second (TPS) with a time to finality of 1.1 seconds. As of writing, the Opera mainnet had a throughput of just 3.2 transactions per second. While TPS measures the number of transactions the blockchain can process per second, time to finality indicates the time it takes for a transaction to become irreversible after it is confirmed and added to the blockchain. Another key feature of the upgrade is the Fantom Virtual Machine (FVM), which is programmed to boost the smart contract execution speed substantially. The FVM translates the Ethereum Virtual Machine’s (EVM) code into its format, allowing developers to transition smoothly. The backward compatibility means popular Ethereum-based decentralized applications can easily migrate to Fantom. “Fantom Sonic unlocks new possibilities for the Fantom ecosystem, particularly in decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, blockchain games, high-frequency applications, and the Internet of Things (IoT). The enhanced throughput and efficiency enable smoother operation of DeFi platforms, richer gaming experiences, efficient handling of microtransactions, and secure IoT data exchanges,” Reflexivity Research said in a report published last month. The impending upgrade, however, is yet to revive investor interest in Fantom’s decentralized finance ecosystem. Data tracked by DeFiLlama show the number of FTM locked in Fantom’s DeFi applications has dropped to 123.85 FTM, the lowest since May 2021. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/03/22/fantoms-ftm-is-the-best-performing-non-meme-token-of-the-past-30-days/

2024-03-22 08:53

The pace of net inflows into spot bitcoin ETFs has slowed considerably, with a significant outflow recorded in the past week, the report said. JPMorgan says bitcoin remains overbought. Spot ETFs witnessed a significant outflow in the past week. Bitcoin profit-taking could continue into the halving event, the bank said. Cryptocurrency markets suffered a sharp correction in the past week with the price of bitcoin (BTC) falling by over 15% before rebounding after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on Wednesday. The sell-off may not be over as positioning still looks overbought, JPMorgan (JPM) said in a research report Thursday. “There remains considerable optimism in the market over the prospect for prices rising significantly by year-end, with a significant component of that optimism arising from a view that bitcoin demand via spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) would continue at the same pace even as the supply of bitcoin diminishes after the halving event,” analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote. The quadrennial reward halving is when miners’ rewards are cut in half. The next halving is expected in mid-April. However, the bank notes that the pace of net inflows into spot bitcoin ETFs has slowed considerably, with a significant outflow recorded in the past week. “This challenges the notion that the spot bitcoin ETF flow picture is going to be characterized as a sustained one-way net inflow,” the authors wrote. “In fact, as we approach the halving event this profit-taking is more likely to continue, particularly against a positioning backdrop that still looks overbought despite the past week’s correction,” the report said. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/03/22/bitcoin-remains-overbought-despite-recent-correction-jpmorgan-says/

2024-03-22 06:13

Frax's singularity roadmap has set a target of $100 billion in TVL for its layer 2 Fraxtal. Frax’s singularity roadmap sets a target of $100 billion in TVL for its layer 2 Fraxtal and plans to launch 23 new layer 3s. The proposal calls for reviving the few switch mechanisms to boost liquidity for the FXS governance token. Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Frax Finance released a singularity roadmap on Friday to boost the total dollar value of crypto assets locked in its layer 2 blockchain Fraxtal to $100 billion by the end of 2026. As of the time of writing, the so-called total value locked (TVL) in Fraxtal was $13.2 million, according to data tracked by DefiLama. The roadmap proposed launching 23 layer 3s within a year and new assets like frxNEAR, frxTIA and frxMETIS. The existing assets, FRAX, sFRAX, frxETH, and the new ones will be issued on Fraxtal going forward, the proposal floated by founder Sam Kazemian and other contributors added. Layer 3 protocols provide decentralized applications with a highly customizable and interoperable network built on top of layer 2 scaling solutions. Kazemian also called for reviving a mechanism to share the protocol revenue with stakers of its native tokens. “We propose that the protocol fee switch be turned back on, with 50% of the yield flowing to veFXS and the other 50% used to buy FXS and other Frax assets to pair in the FXS Liquidity Engine (FLE),” the proposal said. “FLE will allow Frax to continue building its balance sheet while significantly increasing the liquidity of FXS and its paired Frax assets.” FXS is the governance and utility token of the Frax ecosystem. FXS holders who lock their tokens receive veFXS, which can be staked on the Ethereum mainnet and Fraxtal. Besides, the plan details how new tokenomics will fully collateralize Frax’s stablecoin FRAX, one of the top 10 dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies in the world, and boost yields on staked FRAX (sFRAX). FXS changed hands at $1.35 at press time, representing a 2% gain on a 24-hour basis. The cryptocurrency has declined 14% this year, underperforming the CoinDesk 20 Index, which has rallied 41%. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/03/22/frax-finance-targets-100b-value-locked-in-singularity-roadmap/