BTC inches toward $27K
What's being bought and sold*
TOP TRENDING ASSETS
*Trading activity in the past 24 hours on the Uphold platform, as of 8 a.m. EST 15th September 2023.
The combined total of buy and sell percentages can exceed 100% due to customers who engage in both buying and selling the same asset within the 24-hour time frame.
All investments and trading are risky and may result in the loss of capital. Cryptoassets are largely unregulated and are therefore not subject to protection.
What’s up
$27K Beckons But Bitcoin Slow To Respond
Crypto's biggest coin is a slow-motion barge slicing across a murky lagoon.
Is Bitcoin $27,000 yet? No, but BTC has inched up 2.2% since last Friday. Is it at least higher than it was one month ago? Nope. In fact, BTC has declined by 9% over 30 days as of this morning at 8 a.m. (EST).
Still, the first-ever spot BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) could be around the corner and banks sure do suddenly seem keen to offer crypto services.
Last week, in South Korea, Hana Bank and BitGo announced the formation of a strategic partnership to enter the digital asset custody business (BeInCrypto).
Yesterday came news that Deutsche Bank is partnering with a Swiss crypto firm, Taurus, to provide custody services for institutional clients.
Meanwhile, total crypto assets rose 0.2% to $1.09 trillion, per CoinGecko. One of the biggest gainers among the Top 100 coins this week is No. 44 Kaspa (+26% in seven days). KAS is flat over 24 hours.
What's down
Winter’s Chill Lingers On
Peril besieged a cadre of crypto players last summer. Few firms were spared. We could hardly keep track.
Celsius was a crypto lending platform serving retail customers. After Terra's coins/world collapsed last May, Celsius floundered, froze customer assets and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of Celsius, along with the company’s chief revenue officer, Roni Cohen-Pavon, have been charged with securities fraud. Mashinsky earlier this summer pleaded not guilty to the charges and is free on bond; Cohen-Pavon, as it turns out, reportedly only recently pleaded guilty to charges related to fraud and price manipulation, and he now faces sentencing in December (Cointelegraph).
Genesis was a crypto trading firm with institutional clients. The Terra debacle and fallout hit it hard, too.
Wait, wasn't Genesis a lending platform?
Oh yeah, that's right. Genesis did have a lending arm. It filed for bankruptcy in January. Genesis' trading business was cordoned off from those proceedings.
But then we saw yesterday that Genesis has ceased offering digital asset trading. What’s that about, then?
“This decision was made voluntarily and for business reasons," a Genesis spokesperson said.
What's next
Writing On The Wall? Banks Seem To Think So
The Deutsche Bank/Taurus partnership is huge. It means the giant global bank will, for the first time, be able to hold a limited number of cryptos for its clients, as well as tokenized versions of traditional financial assets, a Deutsche Bank spokesperson told Reuters.
The bank had applied for a digital asset custody license in Germany back in June, according to BeInCrypto.
Paul Maley, who heads the bank's business development practice, made the following statement: “As the digital asset space is expected to encompass trillions of dollars of assets, it is bound to be seen as one of the priorities for investors and corporations alike. Our focus is not just on cryptocurrencies, but supporting our clients in the overall digital assets ecosystem. Our product design, and the nature of custody for clients, will make sure that there is not the risk of contaminating the bank’s other activities.”
This week also saw London’s HSBC reveal a coming collaboration with Fireblocks.
A crypto custody technology provider, Fireblocks is said to be currently busy working on projects with the likes of BNY Mellon and BNP Paribas.
