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The crypto exchange is accused of serving Belgian customers from countries outside the European Economic Area in violation of the law, the FSMA has said.

The “Evergreen Siezenals” garden flag is selling for $39.98 at Lowe’s. It features the phrase “cc0 summer 2023” and mfers characters and comes with a replica NFT that can be redeemed online.

The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has been surging this week after three financial services giants filed applications for spot bitcoin ETFs.

A bitcoin rally to the mid-$30,000 region is in sight unless central bank tightening kills risk appetite. The world’s largest crypto by market capitalization surged to its highest level in more than a year on Friday, rising 4.4% to $31,191 at 12:19 p.m. in New York.

“Bitcoin momentum could make a run towards the mid-$30,000 region, but if central banks globally remain hawkish, that could kill risk appetite,” Ed Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, said in a note.

Bitcoin is holding onto gains that came after multiple spot Bitcoin ETF filings have signaled a flurry of institutional interest in the asset class.

Short-sellers have been squeezed amidst optimism the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission might finally be ready to approve BlackRock’s planned spot bitcoin ETF. But macroeconomic headwinds are gathering strength, with this week’s rate hike by the Bank of England and the European Central Bank promising another increase in July.

U.S. inflation data

Konstantin Anissimov, an independent digital asset analyst, pointed to next week’s release of U.S. inflation data and warned that the “data will be closely watched by investors, with a hotter reading having the potential to kill risk appetite, as it would signal that inflation is still a major problem.”

Conversely, Annissimov stated that a lower inflation reading could invalidate the Federal Reserve’s case for more hikes.

“If inflation is coming down, it means that the Fed’s current monetary policy is working,” he said. “This could lead the Fed to slow down its pace of rate hikes, or even pause them altogether.” 

The analyst suggested that if recent applications for spot bitcoin ETFs by several major financial institutions are processed by the SEC, “it would create a clear and positive stance from the SEC that would allow many of the large institutional investors to fully utilize this asset class.” 

BlackRock filing for spot bitcoin ETF

Rubicon Crypto CEO Gregory Johnson is cautious about the possibility of BlackRock gaining approval for its ETF in the near future.

“The collective industry opinion in many circles has been the reluctance by the SEC to give a first mover advantage to any one firm,” Johnson told The Block.

“If ever there was a submission that would break through the log jam at the SEC, it is the recent spot bitcoin ETF filing by BlackRock,” he said.

© 2023 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.

MakerDAO’s decentralized U.S. dollar stablecoin, DAI, has significantly reduced its reliance on USDC as a collateral asset over the last few months.

The amount of USDC used as backing within MakerDAO’s peg stability module (PSM) has fallen significantly since the start of the year. The PSM allows users to deposit USDC and mint DAI at a 1:1 ratio, helping to keep the stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar.

In January 2023, about $2.4 billion of USDC was locked in the PSM, per DeFiLlama data. Now, this number has shrunk to around $520 million — indicating a 78% decline in the amount of USDC directly used to back DAI in its own contracts. That said, the project still has some extra exposure to USDC through its agreement with Coinbase.

Notably, USDC’s overall share for DAI’s collateral reserves has dropped from around 50% to merely 8%, according to DeFiLlama data. The current supply of DAI stands at 4.7 billion.

“USDC [reserve] is going down as we have finally ways to get yield from those unproductive asset,” Sébastien Derivaux, analyst at MakerDAO’s Strategic Finance unit, told The Block.

The reduction was largely caused by MakerDAO’s move to diversify its balance sheet with real-world assets, the core team said. It highlighted that MakerDAO has utilized $1 billion worth of its USDC reserves to purchase U.S. Treasury bills and moved an additional $500 million worth of USDC, transferring it to Coinbase Custody to earn rewards.

Meanwhile, the role of Ethereum derivatives as DAI’s collateral has surged. Wrapped ether (WETH) and wrapped staked ether (wstETH) now represent the largest chunk of DAI’s collateral, accounting for $4.3 billion, or 68%, of the total collateral value.

In a significant development, wstETH has gained ground in recent months and is closing in on WETH in terms of the total value locked (TVL) within MakerDAO. This means DAI can take advantage of Ethereum staking rewards, which will increase its backing over time.

© 2023 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 founder of collapsed crypto enterprise FTX had argued legal advice from the Silicon Valley law firm was “at the core” of the government’s criminal allegations against him.

A meme NFT collection that combines the idea behind the popular NFT collection EtherRock with the unofficial branding of the investment giant BlackRock has already seen 398 ETH, or $749,000, in total trading volume. 

The collection, also called BlackRock, comes on the heels of BlackRock’s filing for a Bitcoin ETF. The investment firm has no affiliation with the NFT project, according to the collection’s OpenSea profile.

EtherRock is a collection of 100 rocks launched in 2017. It grew to prominence during the NFT craze, when its NFTs were selling for as high as $1.8 million.

The BlackRock meme collection has 999 individual NFTs that are selling at a floor price of 0.245 ETH, which is worth about $462 as of publication time. The collection sold out on June 21, 2023. This recent activity caused it to be trending on OpenSea.

The creator of the BlackRock NFT collection appears to have kept ownership of 100 of the NFTs, or 10% of the collection. So far they have not put these NFTs for sale or accepted any offers on them.

BlackRock’s crypto impact

BlackRock filing a Bitcoin ETF with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on June 15 has an immediate impact on the crypto market. The Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust spiked 400% in the days after, and bitcoin’s price rallied above $30,000 — surpassing this threshold for the first time since April. 

The venture capital fund Valkyrie Fund filed for a Bitcoin spot ETF on June 21 after BlackRock, adding the potential ETF to its existing roster of a Bitcoin Strategy ETF and a Bitcoin Miners ETF. Invesco and WisdomTree also submitted filings for Bitcoin-tied products in the same week. 

As a potential result of both BlackRock and Valkyrie filing Bitcoin ETFs and others following suit, Bitcoin’s volatility rose to the highest it has been since mid-May, The Block previously reported. 

© 2023 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 SEC’s “pre-crime” litigation strategy seemed to annoy Judge Amy Jackson.

Coinbase celebrated a victory at the U.S. Supreme court on Friday, even if it wasn’t directly related to the broader dispute it’s been embroiled in with regulators in the country. 

“We are grateful to the Supreme Court for its careful review,” Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal wrote on Twitter. “Another example of why I believe in the American court system. The rule of law is sometime slow, and at times disappointing. But it remains our last, best hope in an imperfect democracy,” Grewal said. 

The court sided with Coinbase in a 5-4 vote, bolstering the exchange’s ability to go through arbitration when dealing with customer disputes. Justice Brett Kavanaugh delivered the opinion on Friday morning. 

Class action suit

This ruling came after Abraham Bielski filed a class action suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that Coinbase “failed to replace funds fraudulently taken from the users’ accounts,” according to the opinion. That district court denied Coinbase’s motion to begin arbitration, which later brought into question whether the district court had to stay its proceedings.

“The sole question before this Court is whether a district court must stay its proceedings while the interlocutory appeal on arbitrability is ongoing. The answer is yes,” the justices said.

Dissenting opinion

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson filed the dissenting opinion and said the decision has “significant implications for federal litigation.”

“This mandatory-general-stay rule for interlocutory arbitrability appeals comes out of nowhere. No statute imposes it. Nor does any decision of this Court,” Jackson said. 

Coinbase has been engaged in a bitter battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over crypto regulation in the county, with the regulator suing the company earlier this month over alleged violations of securities laws.  

© 2023 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.

Volatility Shares’ 2x Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITX) will become the first leveraged crypto ETF available in the United States after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) let it go effective on Friday, an executive at the company told CoinDesk.