Blackrock Submits Spot Bitcoin ETF Fund Application to SEC, Other Firms Follow Suit

In a watershed moment of mainstream validation for Bitcoin, asset management firm BlackRock has submitted an application to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the price of Bitcoin. If approved, this fund could potentially be the first Bitcoin fund to be officially approved by the SEC, which could be the foot in the door to usher a properly regulated and accessible path to Bitcoin for Wall Street. Let’s look at how the application has progressed, and where it might go from here.

Liquidity is a necessary part of any financial market, and digital assets are no exception. Recent events, however, have caused an adverse effect on the availability of liquidity in the market; for example, the SEC has sued several asset exchanges and expanded the list of assets that it believes to be securities such as Binance USD (BUSD) and Cardano (ADA). Should these new regulatory actions take exchanges offline or force them to delist coins, this will further constrain available funds for trading. Here’s what will be needed to manage this new potential phase of the digital asset economy.

Although artificial intelligence has been a computer science discipline for many years, over the past decade there has been a revolution of fitting AI to work on graphic processing units of all levels, from enterprise-grade hardware down to common gaming-oriented peripherals found in home computers. This unprecedented level of access to the technology has enabled both solo enthusiasts as well as developer groups to bring their own AI-enabled offerings to the community.

Conclusion

Digital Assets Remain Correlated Despite Recent Events

In financial markets, correlations are commonly used to identify relationships between different assets and can be used as a measure of market risk. When it comes to traditional markets and digital assets, there is some debate over whether or not they are truly decoupled from each other. While some argue that crypto is becoming increasingly independent from traditional market movements, the truth is that it will take much longer than a few isolated events to demonstrate that decoupling. Recently, the rise in BTC price has been attributed to mistrust in traditional banks due to recent failures which has caused people to move their funds into cryptocurrencies for security and stability purposes. This could indicate that there is still a strong link between traditional markets and crypto despite its increasing independence.

Loizos Vasiliou (Head of Capital Formation) and Peak Phattararthanatnont (Venture Associate) attended the Sunset Mixer in Bangkok, Thailand, hosted by Metapack and Certik. It was an evening filled with stimulating conversations, idea sharing, and discussions on domestic growth within the blockchain industry.

Digital assets are finishing off an incredibly turbulent year with a bang, with both Bitcoin and altcoins finding new highs and old favorites climbing closer towards previous highs. Positive pandemic news in the form of extremely encouraging vaccine results was released which sent traditional markets soaring. Despite this, digital assets markets did not lose their edge, even though they were positioned as a safe haven asset to sit alongside gold over the prior year. The strides that digital assets were making in accessibility and investment levels over the year have finally paid off, which led to an explosive price gain once all the underlying factors were finally realized.

Conclusion

FTX and Alameda Research Go Bankrupt: What Happened?

Over the past two weeks, previously trusted exchange FTX has been rocked by a scandal where it was discovered that customer funds from FTX were misappropriated and funneled to quantitative investing firm Alameda Research. Following this news, a crisis of confidence and subsequent liquidity crisis struck the exchange, sending a shock throughout the digital asset world that had previously already endured similar turmoil earlier this year following the collapse of LUNA.

Varys Capital is pleased to announce an investment in Arties. Arties’ goal is to provide a platform for traditional artists and guide them through the NFT space through combining traditional and digital art with new technology.

Varys Capital is pleased to announce an investment in Analog. Analog’s mission is to provide omnichain interoperability that allows any number of blockchain projects to communicate with each other, providing a decentralized, secure, trustless, and infinitely scaling transaction ledger.

Conclusion

Institutional Investors Dig Deeper Into Digital Assets Despite Bear Market

According to a study conducted on behalf of Fidelity Digital Assets, seven out of ten institutional investors expect to invest in digital assets In the future. Moreover, almost half of those respondents stated they are already invested in them. Despite the common perception of a “crypto winter” it appears that institutions are still bullish in investing and have maintained their holdings even despite Bitcoin’s precipitous fall earlier in the year.

Conclusion

Ethereum Merge Brings Huge Upgrades to the #2 Market Player

The long-awaited Ethereum Merge is set to occur between September 10 and 20, dependent on when specific on-chain metrics are reached. This will bring with it not only several on-chain upgrades but also address a very specific environmental concern that critics of digital assets have been levying against Bitcoin for years. Although any upgrade to a major platform can be intimidating, there is quite a bit of reason for optimism and may bring some big changes to how digital assets are traded and invested.

Conclusion

What We Can Learn From Celsius

Following on the high-profile collapse of Terra a month prior, the Celsius network has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while halting transactions and withdrawals. While the two networks had much in common, such as offering users unsustainable high rewards, their stories have nonetheless subtle differences. It’s important to examine what led to the collapse, and how other platforms and services can avoid the same fate, even in the midst of a heavy bear market.