2024-09-10 05:04

BTC exchange traded funds (ETFs) inflows are back in the green, despite BTC's price slipping. The U.S.-listed BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) hit $28.7 million in inflows on Monday, ending a long losing streak. BTC is trading below $56.5K, while the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) is up 2.3%. Spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) listed in the U.S. posted just over $28.7 million in net inflows on Monday, ending a record outflow streak worth $1.2 billion, data shows. The ETFs lost money since Aug. 27, and Monday was the first day of net inflows in September – a month that traders have previously warned to be bearish for the leading cryptocurrency. Outflows from ETFs signal a lack of new demand among professional investors. The outflows have taken net inflows since inception to under the $17 billion mark, back to levels last seen in July. Meanwhile, BTC prices are down nearly 15% in the past two weeks – or 25% below March’s lifetime peak of $73,300. However, some traders remain bullish despite such price action. “Even with all the near-term noise and volatile price action, we remain structurally bullish,” QCP Capital traders said in a Telegram broadcast Tuesday. “And it certainly looks like the market is also taking advantage of this leg lower to pile on more longer-term bullish trades.” "The bounce from $52,500 is encouraging. So have we seen the bottom? Although we can't be certain, some institutions seem to think so as they take this opportunity to add to their bullish bets in Dec and Mar," traders added. The CoinDesk 20 (CD20), a measure of the largest and most liquid digital assets, is up 2.3%, trading at 1,800. Meanwhile, BTC is trading above $56,500, slipping from $57,000, ahead of the next CPI and PPI release and the first debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Polymarket traders are pretty certain that crypto isn't going to be mentioned during the debate, giving only an 11% chance of Harris mentioning the term (or bitcoin) and a 13% chance of Trump saying it. Traders are also expecting the debate to run overtime, with only a 30% chance of it ending on schedule at 10:30 pm. Elsewhere, several prominent AI tokens were well into the green during the first half of Asia's business day, with the CoinGecko category up 10%. Liquid staking tokens are also doing well with Lido DAO's (LDO) token up 6.3%. Lido rival Rocket Pool's RPL token is up over 20% as Binance Futures announced the launch of leveraged perpetual contracts. DeFi Llama data shows that despite this, RPL's total value locked hasn't meaningfully increased and is still just north of $2.9 billion. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/09/10/bitcoin-etfs-post-287m-inflows-after-record-losing-streak/

2024-09-09 20:31

"Bitcoin might be at the whims of the broader market backdrop," wrote NYDIG's Greg Cipolaro. The world's largest crypto is putting in a nice rebound on Monday after an ugly start to September that saw the price fall below $53,000 at one point last Friday. Bitcoin (BTC) at press time was trading just above $57,000, up 5% over the past 24 hours and outperforming the broader market gauge CoinDesk 20 Index's 4.2% advance. Ether (ETH) continues to struggle relative to the bitcoin and the broader market, ahead 3% to $2,341. The crypto gains are coming alongside an advance for U.S. stocks, which also took a drubbing last week. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 both gained 1.15% on Monday. Even with the big bounce today, bitcoin remains lower by about 3% for September and down more than 20% since hitting a record high above $73,000 in March. "Unfortunately, potential upcoming near-term catalysts for bitcoin are sparse at the moment," wrote Greg Cipolaro, global head of research at NYDIG, in his weekly update. As has been pointed out by others, Cipolaro noted August and September have proven to be notoriously weak months for bitcoin prices. The good news, he reminds, is that October and the fourth quarter in general have tended to be good for price action. The fourth quarter remains a few weeks off, and between now and then, said Cipolaro, bitcoin bulls might only be able to look to factors outside of crypto for positive catalysts. Among them would be macro news like employment, inflation and Federal Reserve policies. There's also the November presidential election, and while candidate Donald Trump has made very friendly overtures to crypto, far less is known about Kamala Harris' position. "We won’t guess as to which candidate might win the election, but November might be a pivotal moment for the industry," concluded Cipolaro. "Until that time, however, bitcoin might be at the whims of the broader market backdrop." https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/09/09/bitcoin-retakes-57k-but-potential-positive-catalysts-are-sparse-says-nydig/

2024-09-09 18:14

The judge in the prediction market's court case against the CFTC has called a hearing Thursday over the regulator's motion for a two-week delay. Kalshi may be basking in the glory of a court victory over regulators, but it will have to wait at least until Friday to list its long-sought prediction markets on the upcoming U.S. election. On Monday afternoon, Judge Jia Cobb of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia called for a Thursday hearing. In the meantime, she stayed her Friday order clearing the way for Kalshi to list event contracts on which party will control each house of Congress after the election. Last year, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission barred Kalshi from listing such contracts. Among other reasons, the regulator said it was concerned about potential damage to the integrity of elections if traders were allowed to bet as much as $100 million on them. Kalshi then sued. In her Friday ruling, Judge Cobb sided with Kalshi but did not give her rationale, which she said she would spell out in a subsequent opinion. She still has not said when that opinion would be published. Hours after its defeat, the CFTC filed its emergency motion asking Cobb to stay her order for 14 days following publication of the opinion. Without knowing her reasoning, the agency said, it can't determine whether it should appeal the decision. If granted, the stay proposed by the CFTC would prevent Kalshi from listing election markets until late September at the earliest, giving it only five weeks or so to partake in this year's election betting boom. The company has been locked out of the action while the case was pending. However, the stay Judge Cobb ordered Monday will last only until the end of Thursday's hearing, meaning that depending on what happens, Kalshi might still be able to list the markets as soon as Friday. Kalshi is the only CFTC-regulated prediction market in the U.S., the only country where the company has users. It lists contracts on a variety of events, ranging from whether U.S. students' test scores will improve or worsen to how high bitcoin will rise this year. (To be clear: Trades are settled in dollars.) PredictIt, an older U.S.-only site that also settles bets in fiat, lists election contracts under a narrow regulatory exemption. Polymarket, this year's breakout success story in both prediction markets and cryptocurrency, is barred from doing business with U.S. residents under a settlement with the CFTC. Nevertheless, both companies have gained market share at Kalshi's expense, the company complained in a weekend filing pushing back against the CFTC's proposed delay. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/09/09/kalshis-us-election-markets-delayed-until-friday-at-earliest/

2024-09-09 17:10

Adecoagro is a founder and partial owner in an Argentina-based agricultural commodities tokenization platform Agrotoken. Tether acquired a nearly 10% stake for $100 million in NYSE-listed agricultural conglomerate Adecoagro SA, a regulatory filing shows. Agrotoken, together with Adecoagro, started the development of three stablecoins, SOYA, CORA and WHEA, which allow producers to have their own currency represented in grains, Agrotoken CEO Novillo Astrada said. Tether is also working on a tokenization platform expected to launch later this year, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said earlier. Tether, issuer of the $118 billion market cap stablecoin USDT, and its latest investment in a Latin American farming giant may not have much in common at first glance, but both companies share ambition in tokenization of real-world assets. The stablecoin giant invested $100 million to acquire a 9.8% stake in Adecoagro SA (AGRO), a Luxembourg-based agricultural conglomerate that is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, according to an August filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Adecoagro owns 213,500 hectares of farmland and industrial facilities spread across Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, with businesses in the crops, rice, dairy and sugarcane segments, according to its website. It produces 2.8 million tons of agricultural products and over 1 million MWh of renewable energy. Adecoagro also has a minority stake in Agrotoken, an Argentina-based company that focuses on agricultural commodities tokenization. The company invested in the startup in 2021, which "seeks to transform grains into a digital asset, to store or exchange for supplies, services, and other assets," according to Adecoagro's annual integrated report. Agrotoken CEO and co-founder Eduardo Novillo Astrada said in a video posted on LinkedIn that Adecoagro was a founder of Agrotoken and owns a 10% stake in the startup. "Mariano Bosch, the CEO of Adecoagro, has always supported us," Novillo Astrada wrote. "He had great vision and understood that what he wanted to do was tokenized land, something we are also working on together with Adecoagro and other major agricultural partners." Agrotoken claims to have transacted $70 million in tokenization deals with more than 250 merchants and over 40 grain holders, in addition to having interacted with more than 1,000 farmers and tokenizing 230,000 tonnes. Together with Bosch, Agrotoken started the development of three stablecoins, SOYA, CORA and WHEA, according to Novillo Astrada, which allow producers to have their own currency represented in grains. "This is a clear message of the connection between blockchain technology and agribusiness." he said. Agrotoken has already worked with firms such as Santander, partnering with the Spanish banking giant in 2022 to launch loans collateralized with tokenized commodities in Argentina. "Tether views land as a crucial asset class, complementing its existing investments in bitcoin and gold," a Tether spokesperson said in an email to CoinDesk. "Land is inherently scarce, provides long-term yield, and has historically served as a safe haven during periods of geopolitical instability." Tether's tokenized RWA plans Tether's ambition to venture into tokenized assets has been well-documented as the company aims to diversify from its highly profitable stablecoin business. The company reported $5.2 billion net profit in the first half of 2024. The company issues the gold-backed stablecoin XAUT, which is the largest tokenized gold offering with a $615 million market capitalization. CEO Paolo Ardoino outlined plans in April to launch a tokenization platform that would facilitate the creation of digital versions of a range of assets including bonds, stocks, funds and loyalty reward points. The company also introduced in June a token minting platform called Alloy and a "synthetic" dollar token that users can create by posting XAUT as collateral. The platform "allows users to create collateralized synthetic digital assets and would be part of Tether's digital assets tokenization platform, launching later this year," Ardoino said at the time. Tether also invested in a slew of businesses over the past year, including a sustainable bitcoin mining operation in Uruguay, payment processor in Georgia and cloud computing firm Northern Data. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/09/09/tethers-100m-investment-in-latam-agriculture-firm-may-be-a-tokenization-play/

2024-09-09 15:18

MicroStrategy has purchased roughly $8.3 billion worth of bitcoin since August 2020. “There’s no doubt the Republicans have taken a very pro crypto stance," MicroStrategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said Monday. Appearing on CNBC, Saylor reiterated his outlook that one bitcoin will be worth $13 million over the next two decades. Republicans are way ahead of Democrats regarding their opinion of crypto and bitcoin (BTC), said MicroStrategy (MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor. “There’s no doubt the Republicans have taken a very pro crypto stance [...] Trump in particular.” Saylor said in a CNBC appearance on Monday when asked about the impact of the presidential election on the industry. “At this point the Republicans have shifted to way progressive and the Democrats are drifting to the middle [...] in terms of their view toward crypto and bitcoin,” he added. Of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman and crypto gadfly Gary Gensler's role in a potential Harris administration, Saylor said it was above his pay grade to answer that question. Saylor appeared unbothered by bitcoin's recent brutal run, which saw the price tumbling to about a seven-month low below $53,000 last week. He reiterated his belief that bitcoin, which now accounts for 0.1% of global capital, will eventually rise to 7% of global capital, or a price of $13 million over the next two decades. MicroStrategy, which recently rebranded itself to a bitcoin strategy company, now says its primary business is to securitize the world's largest crypto. The company started purchasing bitcoin in August 2020 and currently owns roughly $8.3 billion worth of the asset at the current price. Shares of MSTR have risen 879% since the company began buying bitcoin, though have slipped 20% over the past six months alongside the poor performance of BTC. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/09/09/michael-saylor-says-republicans-have-more-progressive-view-on-crypto-democrats-drifting-to-the-middle/

2024-09-09 13:02

The credit card from Ether.fi will reward 3% cash-back and let users borrow money against their crypto collateral. Blockchain technology has been around for over a decade now, but it has arguably failed to find many mainstream use cases beyond speculative investment and simple peer-to-peer transactions. Ether.fi, best known for its liquid restaking service, wants to change all that with a new blockchain-based credit card, Ether.fi Cash. It announced on Monday a plan to work with Scroll, a layer 2 network on Ethereum, to bring the credit card to market. Ether.fi Cash would enable users to spend fiat while using their crypto assets as collateral, allowing people to hold onto crypto and earn yield while making everyday purchases. The card is currently in use internally at Ether.fi and will start shipping out to pre-order customers on Sept. 16. The partnership with Scroll aims to enhance cardholder transaction efficiency and provide a range of crypto-based rewards. In an interview with CoinDesk, Sandy Peng, Scroll's co-founder, stressed that the network hosts one of the largest markets for the Aave lending platform: "If you put 10 Ethereum into Aave and you use this credit card, then for you it's going to be the cheapest credit card in the world that you can find," she said. According to a press release from Ether.fi, which has opened the card for pre-orders, Cash users will benefit from a 3% cash-back incentive on all transactions, without restrictions. The card, which will be issued as a physical Visa credit card, is designed to be compatible with mobile payment providers like Apple Pay. “The first, probably 10 to 20,000 people, are going to be crypto 'degens,' like DeFi, crazy people," said Ether.fi co-founder Mike Silagadze. DeFi is short for "decentralized finance" and refers to blockchain-based tools for investing without middlemen. Scroll operates a zero-knowledge rollup on top of the Ethereum blockchain—a kind of sister blockchain that allows users to transact cheaply. As Cash’s settlement layer, Scroll will power Cash's DeFi lending and borrowing features, allowing users to leverage their crypto assets as collateral for purchases made using the card. The companies told CoinDesk that Scroll was selected as the settlement layer for Ether.fi Cash in part because of its potential to reduce gas fees, making gasless transactions possible for Ether.fi Cash cardholders. According to Peng, Scroll's chain abstraction features – which will power the gasless transactions – will allow people to use Cash without paying mind to which particular blockchain they're using. "No one cares about what chain you're on, people just care about whether it's a good product," said Peng. The card won't be available in the United States, at least for the time being – likely as a result of the decentralized finance industry's shaky regulatory standing in the country. The "tentative" list of countries that will receive Ether.fi's new credit card include, the UK, Hong Kong, UEA, Thailand, Brazil, Turkey, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Denmark, Estonia, Netherlands, Poland and Czech Republic, Silagadze told CoinDesk. Ether.fi Cash is not the crypto industry's first stab at creating a credit card, and previous efforts have failed to break through into the mainstream. Ether.fi and Scroll hope that things will be different this time around. Silagadze's ultimate goal is to appeal to non-crypto users. "There's just no other card that gives you 3% cash-back without crazy restrictions," he said. "I think it's the first time I've been able to get my friends who are outside of crypto interested" in a crypto product, Peng added. "It's genuinely a better credit card product" rather than just "a better crypto product." https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/09/09/etherfi-to-launch-visa-cash-card-on-scroll-network/