BlackRock & Spot Bitcoin ETF | Coinbase & SEC | Uniswap & Wormhole & Axelar | Celsius & BTC & ETH | Ethereum & Validator limit |&more
14.06. - 19.06.2023
Welcome to the redefined DeFi vs. CeFi weekly newsletter. If you want to join our community, visit us at the links below.
1 | BlackRock's iShares Files Paperwork for Spot Bitcoin ETF
The iShares unit of fund management giant BlackRock (BLK) filed paperwork Thursday afternoon with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the formation of a spot bitcoin (BTC) ETF. To be named the iShares Bitcoin Trust, the fund's assets are to "consist primarily of bitcoin held by a custodian on behalf of the Trust," according to the filing. That custodian will be crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN), said the filing. CoinDesk earlier on Thursday reported on BlackRock's intention to soon file for a bitcoin ETF.
2 | SEC Says It May Make a Recommendation on Coinbase Petition Within 4 Months
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hasn't made a decision on whether it will respond to Coinbase's (COIN) petition for rulemaking and its enforcement action against the crypto trading platform isn't inconsistent with any decision on rulemaking, the regulator said Tuesday. The SEC responded to a court order on how it was currently looking at the rulemaking petition in light of the agency's enforcement action against Coinbase, which the regulator sued last Tuesday on allegations it was operating an unregistered securities exchange, broker and clearing agency. Though Coinbase has argued that the SEC has decided to reject the petition, the SEC said Tuesday that it hadn't made a decision one way or another, though agency staff think they will make a recommendation within 120 days.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/tether-invests-in-el-salvador-renewable-energy-scheme
3 | Uniswap committee approves Wormhole and Axelar bridges for cross-chain deployments
Uniswap Foundation’s Bridge Assessment Committee has selected Wormhole and Axelar as two bridges for potential cross-chain deployments. In January 2023, Uniswap initially selected Wormhole as its preferred bridge, but the process was marred by controversy. In March, it set up a committee to research and suggest a path forward, a process that has now been completed. "The Committee finds that the Wormhole and Axelar bridges are currently suitable for use by the DAO for managing governance messaging in future cross-chain deployments, but advise the community to continuously review both them and other bridge providers on an ongoing basis," the committee concluded in its report.
4 | Celsius seeks to convert altcoins to BTC, ETH in updated bankruptcy plan
Defunct crypto lender Celsius Network has requested court approval to convert all altcoin holdings to Bitcoin and Ethereum. Celsius announced the move in an updated reorganization plan filed on June 14 as part of its bankruptcy proceedings in the Southern District Court of New York. If the bankruptcy court approves the plan, Celsius will begin converting all altcoins that are not designated for Withhold or Custody accounts on July 1. According to the filing, the coins will be converted using “commercially reasonable efforts” to maximize value. If any parties oppose the plan, they must submit written objections to the court electronically, which will be heard during the June 28 hearing. Opposing parties must submit their objections by June 26 and appear in court for the aforementioned hearing to have their claims assessed by the court. The Celsius Network Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors has already greenlit the plan.
https://cryptoslate.com/celsius-seeks-to-convert-altcoins-to-btc-eth-in-updated-bankruptcy-plan/
5 | Ethereum developers consider raising max validator limit from 32 to 2,048 ETH
Ethereum’s core developers are considering a proposal that suggests raising the maximum validator balance from the current 32 ether (ETH) to 2,048 ETH per validator. This proposal concerns an increase in the maximum validator stake, while the minimum would remain at 32 ETH. As it stands, Ethereum validators are subject to an effective balance cap set at both the minimum and maximum of 32 ETH. This forces large-scale staking operations to spin up multiple validators if they want to earn yield on any amount greater than this Unsurprisingly, this practice has led to a big increase in the number of validators. There are currently 600,000 active validators and an additional 90,000 awaiting activation in the queue.
6 | Wyre winding down as crypto winter bites
Cryptocurrency infrastructure provider Wyre is winding down, feeling the pinch of dwindling interest in a market that was once hailed as the next frontier of finance. The decision, announced in a tweet on Friday, comes months after online checkout company Bolt Financial scrapped its planned $1.5 billion purchase of Wyre. Since then, the digital asset market has seen a high-profile bankruptcy of crypto exchange FTX and lawsuits from the U.S. securities regulator against Binance and Coinbase Global (COIN.O). Wyre's decision was not because of any regulatory action and investors who have assets on the company's platform could withdraw them via its dashboard through July 14, it said.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/wyre-winding-down-crypto-winter-bites-2023-06-16/
Join the movement
Visit our Website: https://redefined.org/
Join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/hcpWsw2Kfb
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/redefined__org
Join our Telegram Update Channel: https://t.me/redefined_org
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/redefined-org