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The company shed $130 million in value after J Capital’s report.

The world’s largest asset manager appears to be getting into the bitcoin game.

Twin filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) suggest that BlackRock, the trillion-dollar asset management giant, is set to make allocations to bitcoin futures via some of its funds.

The two filings — for the BlackRock Funds V and BlackRock Global Allocation Fund, Inc. — contain the same language that refers to bitcoin futures. They both read: “Certain Funds may engage in futures contracts based on bitcoin.”

The filings, dated January 20, outline potential risks for such activities, noting:

“A Fund’s investment in bitcoin futures may involve illiquidity risk, as bitcoin futures are not as heavily traded as other futures given that the bitcoin futures market is relatively new.”

BlackRock added that “[t]he only bitcoin futures in which the Funds may invest are cash-settled bitcoin futures traded on commodity exchanges registered with the CFTC.”

To be sure, the filings themselves don’t definitively say that BlackRock funds are on the cusp of buying bitcoin future. But such filings have been known to predate these kinds of moves, indicating that BlackRock is at least laying down the regulatory tracks to conduct allocations if it so chooses.

Last month, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink remarked during a panel appearance that bitcoin is gaining legitimacy as an asset class, but cautioned that “[w]e have to go through many markets to see if it’s going to be permanently real.”

BlackRock is also seeking to hire a blockchain lead, a vice president-level role. 

H/t Macroscope17/Twitter

This report has been updated with additional information from the filing.

© 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.

Also: “Market professionals” think assets are overheating while Yellen voices concern over bitcoin.

As the crypto derivatives industry begins to take off, it needs to avoid the lack of transparency that plagued the industry in the 2000s, when the financial system collapsed.

With the price of BTC down and a new report out on the decrease in criminal crypto activity, CoinDesk’s Market’s Daily is back with the latest news roundup.

The developers behind Celo, a decentralized digital payments protocol, are plotting the launch of a new stablecoin which will be pegged to the euro.

Marek Olszewski, a partner at cLabs — one of the firms leading the development of the protocol — told The Block there had been a “flurry of activity” in the Celo community around launching a euro stablecoin over the past few months.

Testing of the on-chain governance proposals of the stablecoin is ongoing, but Olszewksi expects the token to launch in March.

The Celo platform already underpins a US dollar-pegged stablecoin, launched in the summer of last year, which can be used to make payments over mobile devices.

Today, the Celo Dollar is priced at $0.996650 with a market capitalization of around $28.5m, according to analytics site CoinMarketCap.

As with the planned euro stablecoin, the Celo Dollar is backed by a basket of crypto assets which is algorithmically adjusted to keep the price as close to its pegged currency as possible. In the case of the dollar product, Celo tokens make up 50% of the assets in reserve, which also includes bitcoin and Ethereum, according to Olszewski.

“We did a lot of work to show that having a diverse set of crypto assets is actually really good for stability,” he added. “The community is actually right now having discussions about adding other types of assets.”

A spokesperson for cLabs said the euro stablecoin will remain closely pegged to the euro “by creating an incentive for arbitragers to expand or contract the supply of cEUR to meet demand”.

“This is the same way that cUSD works, which has kept its peg since inception,” the spokesperson said.

A number of big names in the wider crypto industry – including Anchorage, Ramp, Coinbase Ventures, Ledger and Blockchain.com – are committed to building on the Celo protocol.

© 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 developers behind Celo, a decentralized digital payments protocol, are plotting the launch of a new stablecoin which will be pegged to the euro.

Marek Olszewski, a partner at cLabs — one of the firms leading the development of the protocol — told The Block there had been a “flurry of activity” in the Celo community around launching a euro stablecoin over the past few months.

Testing of the on-chain governance proposals of the stablecoin is ongoing, but Olszewksi expects the token to launch in March.

The Celo platform already underpins a US dollar-pegged stablecoin, launched in the summer of last year, which can be used to make payments over mobile devices.

Today, the Celo Dollar is priced at $0.996650 with a market capitalization of around $28.5m, according to analytics site CoinMarketCap.

As with the planned euro stablecoin, the Celo Dollar is backed by a basket of crypto assets which is algorithmically adjusted to keep the price as close to its pegged currency as possible. In the case of the dollar product, Celo tokens make up 50% of the assets in reserve, which also includes bitcoin and Ethereum, according to Olszewski.

“We did a lot of work to show that having a diverse set of crypto assets is actually really good for stability,” he added. “The community is actually right now having discussions about adding other types of assets.”

A spokesperson for cLabs said the euro stablecoin will remain closely pegged to the euro “by creating an incentive for arbitragers to expand or contract the supply of cEUR to meet demand”.

“This is the same way that cUSD works, which has kept its peg since inception,” the spokesperson said.

A number of big names in the wider crypto industry – including Anchorage, Ramp, Coinbase Ventures, Ledger and Blockchain.com – are committed to building on the Celo protocol.

© 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.

Fundstrat strategist David Grider based his bullish prediction in part on the promise of Ethereum’s technology.

Bitcoin mining revenue for January has already surpassed December’s total, reaching the highest level seen since January 2018.

According to data collected by The Block, bitcoin miners have generated $728.71 million as of January 20. By comparison, bitcoin miners brought in roughly $692 million in December, as previously reported. 

Underpinning these revenue figures is the rise in the price of bitcoin, which at last check is trading hands at roughly $35,000. Bitcoin’s price surpassed $41,000 earlier this month.

The heightened revenue comes amid an extended supply crunch in the mining hardware sector, with demand far outstripping available machinery — and fueling a resurgence in demand for older machines as well.

What’s more, existing firms like Galaxy Digital are throwing their hat in the proverbial ring by launching financial services geared toward miners. In the case of the Toronto-listed firm, Galaxy has also put together its own mining operation at a third-party location.

© 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.