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BlackRock’s iShares filed Friday to create a new “blockchain and tech ETF” that will track the performance of an index that follows companies working in this area.

According to the filing, the ETF will track the NYSE FactSet Global Blockchain Technologies Index. At press time, concrete information about the components of that index could not be identified, but according to the iShares filing, component companies will include “(a) cryptocurrency mining, (b) cryptocurrency trading and exchanges, or (c) crypto-mining systems.” Presumably, this means that firms like crypto exchange Coinbase and an array of publicly traded miners are likely to be included.

“The Underlying Index is composed of (i) blockchain technology companies, (ii) cryptocurrency mining, (iii) cryptocurrency trading and exchanges, (iv) crypto-mining systems, and (v) video multimedia semiconductors,” the filing states.

BlackRock’s filing is a notable one from the investment giant. The firm indicated late last year that it would move to introduce a blockchain-related ETF, as reported at the time by Business Insider. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Elad Roisman, a commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission, ended his term on Friday.

As The Block reported at the time, Roisman announced his departure in December, immediately before the holidays. His statement upon leaving was as brief as his initial announcement, noting only “I will always be grateful for the time I have been able to work alongside my fellow Commissioners and the thousands of dedicated SEC staff, who not only believe in this mission, but unceasingly demonstrate their commitment to it through action.”

Originally a Trump appointee, Roisman began his term in 2018. It was a term originally set to last until 2023, though such turnovers are not unusual during handoffs between presidential administrations.

Still, that will leave the commission short one member, with Hester Peirce the sole remaining Republican. The Biden administration has yet to indicate its intended replacement, who will also be a Republican per commission tradition.

The administration has, however, faced slow going when it comes to its roster of appointees, and many major regulatory positions have remained vacant or occupied on an acting basis. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Reports on Friday evening indicate that the Securities and Exchange Commission is pushing back on MicroStrategy’s approach to bitcoin accounting.

Bloomberg and CNBC both reported on the SEC’s rebuffing, which was included in a December 3 filing that appears to show a months-long back-and-forth between the publicly traded company and the US securities regulator on this issue. 

“We note your response to prior comment 5 and we object to your adjustment for bitcoin impairment charges in your non-GAAP measures,” the filing reportedly states. “Please revise to remove this adjustment in future filings.”

Impairment charges, in accounting, show the decline in the carrying value of an asset on a balance sheet, with the carrying value referring to the cost of that asset minus any fall in the value of it.  MicroStrategy has long pushed for American accounting standards to be updated to account for assets such as bitcoin, penning a letter last fall to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on the matter. Specifically, the company has cited the ever-shifting value of cryptocurrencies as a flaw in the existing accounting approach. 

“Impairment charges, including intra-reporting period impairment charges, cannot be reversed once recorded under ASC 350,” the company wrote at the time. “As a result, subsequent increases in the market price of a digital asset are not reflected in the digital asset’s reported carrying value on an entity’s balance sheet. Entities with significant digital asset holdings, such as MicroStrategy, are therefore required to report digital asset carrying values on their balance sheets that diverge significantly from their fair market value.”

By using its non-GAAP disclosure approach, MicroStrategy went on to write, “provides investors with the type of ‘return-on-investment’ viewpoint that investors have indicated is valuable to their analysis of the financial health of our company. 

The developments come as MicroStrategy’s stock price has fallen by more than 20 percent this week. 

This is a developing story and will be updated with additional information. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Quick Take

• This weekly series explores the most interesting insights in NFTs, blockchain gaming, and virtual worlds
• By and large, a proliferation of newly arising NFT marketplaces resulted in a fragmentation of liquidity
• The burgeoning blockchain gaming ecosystem on Solana mushroomed to new highs and solidified its innovative position by exploring new avenues for experimentation

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Jerome Powell, the recently re-confirmed chair of the Federal Reserve, has reaffirmed his belief that a digital dollar should not drive private stablecoins out of the market

Following a Senate hearing last week, Powell responded to follow-up questions from the Banking Committee’s leading Republican, Pat Toomey, on the same day that the Federal Reserve published its initial impression on a US-centric central bank digital currency. 

Toomey inquired as to whether private alternatives, especially existing stablecoins, could serve as a check on a CBDC. While Powell hedged on the value of stablecoins, he did maintain that they should be able to coexist alongside an as-yet tentative CBDC:

“One critical question is whether a CBDC would yield benefits more effectively than alternative methods. These alternative methods could include improvements to the existing U.S. payment system. Alternative methods could also include well-designed and appropriately regulated stablecoins. Well-regulated, privately issued stablecoins could coexist with a CBDC. In the future, it is possible that CBDCs, stablecoins, and other forms of money could serve different needs or preferences. It is important for all forms of money to be well-designed and appropriately regulated.”

The conversation about federal stablecoin regulation is happening alongside the one on CBDC. Many progressive members of Congress, including Banking Committee members like Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren, have suggested that CBDC could be most useful as a replacement for private operators. Even back in spring 2020, the initial draft from the Democrats of the Covid stimulus package included provisions for direct “FedAccounts,” which the public would access through post offices. 

Conservatives are typically fond of neither the USPS nor direct Fed access to the public.

Conservatives in Congress like Toomey and advocacy groups like the Digital Dollar Project have spent the subsequent 21 months pushing for continued intermediation by commercial banks as well as the continued survival of private stablecoins.

Powell often serves as a vector between the arguments about stablecoins and CBDCs, especially given his role in the President’s Working Group.

In November, the PWG put out a report on stablecoins urging Congress to act quickly on a federal regulatory scheme, a sentiment that Powell reiterated in these more recent responses. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Wall Street heavyweight Citigroup is hiring a global head of digital asset risk management, signifying the latest move in a broader strategic push toward crypto services. 

A post on LinkedIn said the role would be “accountable for all matters relating to the risk management of digital asset activities globally and across all Citi business lines.” 

The advert states that due to the “high-profile nature” and “regulatory focus” on digital assets, the successful candidate will have contact with the most senior leaders of business, risk and control functions.

The remit will include evaluating “all digital assets (beyond bitcoin and ether)” before any asset can be used in any initiative firm-wide. 

A spokesperson from the bank told The Block that Citi is “focused on assessing the needs of [its] clients in the digital asset space,” adding that before offering products and services it is studying these markets as well as the regulatory landscape with relation to its business. 

“This role is integral to ensure we have robust risk management capabilities,” they said.

The move fits into the strategy first reported in the Financial Times in May last year, which stated that the bank was looking into providing crypto-related services due to a surge in interest from clients. 

The firm subsequently announced in June a new group, dubbed Digital Assets Group, which it said would sit within its wealth management division, Citi Global Wealth Investments. A memo seen by The Block at the time revealed that the unit would be led by Alex Kriete and Greg Girasole. 

In November, the multinational also said it would hire up to 100 roles to build out its institutional clients group digital asset division. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

ADA — the native cryptocurrency of the Cardano network — is among the myriad of cryptocurrencies that saw their price soar in 2021.

On this episode of The Scoop, The Block’s Frank Chaparro sat down with Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano and CEO of Input-Output Global, to unpack the ecosystem underpinning the price headlines.

While Cardano’s ADA has surged over the course of 2021, the blockchain that underpins the token is yet to play host to a large decentralized exchange, of the kind that have sprung up on Solana or Ethereum. There have also been questions about the number of successful decentralized applications or ‘DApps’ in the ecosystem, when compared to others.

Hoskinson says that this sentiment reflects a misunderstanding about what is being developed on Cardano.

“There’s almost 200 DApps that are under construction right now,” he noted. “SundaeSwap is one of the most prominent, it’s launching tomorrow,” referring to the DEX that launched Thursday — albeit with congestion issues that resulted in some transactions taking longer than expected to complete.

“There are several already running on the ecosystem,” Hoskinson clarified. “And, you know, smart contract support technically started just in September of last year.”

Looking to the future, Hoskinson believes that Cardano can continue to become more decentralized as it grows over time, noting that if its valuation ever hit bitcoin’s it would have “tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of stake pools running the system or complemented by tons of validators inside the system.”

In the future, Cardano could even continue to exist without the participation of the Wyoming-resident. As Hoskinson opined, “the founders are important because they get the party started and they set the initial state of the system.” He went on to add, “I think that you have to plan for obsolescence, you have to plan to fire yourself. And that’s what Satoshi did.”

In this episode, Chaparro and Hoskinson also discuss:

• How the “semantic web” is turning into the metaverse, and the role of companies like Facebook and Twitter
• How crypto networks can develop beyond their founders
• DAOs as alternatives to VCs
• The importance of engaging with academia when building blockchains
• How institutions in politics are “falling apart” and failing the people they serve

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The price of bitcoin (BTC), the world’s largest cryptocurrency, continues to reel as it faces pressure from macroeconomic conditions, such as concerns around the tightening of US monetary policy.

In November, bitcoin touched an all-time high above $69,000. Yet it has declined significantly since then. Bitcoin is currently trading at around $38,500, the level it last saw in early August.

“Macro confusion continues as we are in the Fed blackout period until the 26 Jan meeting,” said crypto trading firm QCP Capital in its note earlier this week. “We think this sideways market could persist for a while, but when it does break out, it will be a violent one.”

The Federal Open Market Committee is set to hold a meeting on January 25 and 26 for the first time this year. The US monetary policy outlook is hawkish in light of 7% inflation, the highest in 40 years. The Fed is expected to hike rates several times this year due to the rising inflation.

The price of ether (ETH) is also trading down at around $2,800, the level it last saw in September.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

With more than $100 billion in market cap across all chains, it is likely that the DeFi market cap will grow to $200 billion by 2025. However, many users still face various technical barriers when using decentralised platforms to do on-chain farming, staking and trading, while off-chain solutions face liquidity issues, fiat restrictions and the lack of a central multichain to support crypto assets and institutional-grade custodians. 

To accelerate the growth of mainstream user adoption and unlock the next trillion dollars in the DeFi space, a centralised platform with streamlined features and beginner-friendly user interface will be the solution. 

Next-gen platform, DeFiato, offers One-Click-to-Farm proprietary technology, ease of fiat access and exchange-grade security, to effectively eliminate technical barriers and financial risks. It provides a user experience similar to centralised services, such as high security, quick settlements and customer service support, making it a pioneer in Centralised Decentralised Finance (CeDeFi). 

Since its launch, DeFiato has garnered strong interest and funding from various investors including leading DeFi-focused funds DAO Maker, Redline DAO, Avalaunch, Mirana Ventures, a venture partner of Bybit and BitDAO, CRC Capital, Double Peak Group, Dweb3 Capital and 7 O’Clock Capital. This reflects a high demand for secure, centralised exchange graded platforms.  

DeFiato streamlines the otherwise complicated process with its aggregated, centralised system and allows end-users to easily swap and farm crypto with just one click. Using DeFiato removes human errors or security compromises on users’ end. 

DeFiato is on its way to becoming a leading cross-chain aggregator. It currently supports Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon and Avalanche, and will be onboarding Solana soon. On a single platform, users can simply deposit their crypto assets from one chain, and immediately be able to earn rewards from various farms on any of these chains, hence reducing touchpoints such as bridges/wormholes that could result in human errors and cyber attacks.  

DeFiato will also be introducing fiat on- and off-ramp. Users can transfer fiat from their bank to purchase stable coins, swap them for tokens and start earning rewards – all on DeFiato. They can also cash out seamlessly without leaving the platform. 

Additionally, DeFiato takes security on the platform very seriously. Constant pen-testing and internal audits are conducted on its technological framework, coupled with best practices for cold/hot wallet management. All technical elements are custom built according to the best-in-class framework for custodial management. 

DeFiato only onboards DeFi protocols with well-audited contracts both by external auditors as well as multi-factored internal audits. It also has plans to secure both on-chain and  fintech insurances in the near future as the TVL reaches a significant amount.  This would provide an additional protection against risks associated with DeFi. 

DeFiato has launched its mobile app in open-beta and will be introducing its native utility token early this year. The token will be used primarily for payment of fees within the platform, and users can expect significant cost savings. The platform will also onboard five more blockchains and release multiple new features. 

Anyone, both new and matured users of DeFi, can now start earning from their crypto holdings all on a single platform. Simply farm in one click and watch your assets grow with DeFiato. 

Find out more about DeFiato at: 

Website: https://defiato.com/  

Telegram: https://t.me/DeFiato  

Announcements: https://t.me/DefiatoChannel  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DeFiatoOfficial 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not a fan of Twitter’s new non-fungible token (NFT) integration. In a tweet posted on Friday morning, Musk slammed Twitter for spending engineering resources on integrating NFTs while not doing enough to curb spam activity on the social media site.

“This is annoying,” he wrote. “Twitter is spending engineering resources on this bs while crypto scammers are throwing a spambot block party in every thread!?“

Twitter recently began rolling out access to NFT profile pictures (PFPs) for its users. Some user accounts are already sporting hexagon-shaped avatars that display NFT images. Twitter now shows that the images are part of a verified collection on NFT marketplace OpenSea.

Musk’s criticism of Twitter’s NFT venture is likely because fake accounts often impersonate the Tesla CEO and other notable figures to promote crypto giveaway scams. In 2020, one such Musk impersonator was able to steal $2 million from unsuspecting victims. Fittingly, under Musk’s tweet complaining about crypto scammers were tweets promoting fake giveaways.

Scammers pretending to MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor also recently stole over $1 million worth of bitcoin from an individual. This issue is not restricted to Twitter alone, as fraudsters also employ similar tactics on government websites and several other social media platforms like YouTube.

Twitter’s NFT integration is currently only available to members of the social media company’s subscription service Twitter Blue.

For more breaking stories like this, make sure to follow The Block on Twitter.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.