SEC Punts Decision on Wilshire Phoenix’s Bitcoin ETF Proposal to February

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed making a decision on a bitcoin and U.S. Treasury bond exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposal filed by Wilshire Phoenix. According to a document published Friday, the SEC will continue evaluating the proposal, which was first filed earlier this summer, setting Feb. 26, 2020 as its next decision date to approve or reject the ETF proposal. The securities regulator has been loathe to approve any bitcoin ETF, rejecting more than a dozen in the last two years. The agency has pointed to concerns about…

SEC Punts Decision on Wilshire Phoenix’s Bitcoin ETF Proposal to February

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed making a decision on a bitcoin and U.S. Treasury bond exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposal filed by Wilshire Phoenix. According to a document published Friday, the SEC will continue evaluating the proposal, which was first filed earlier this summer, setting Feb. 26, 2020 as its next decision date to approve or reject the ETF proposal. The securities regulator has been loathe to approve any bitcoin ETF, rejecting more than a dozen in the last two years. The agency has pointed to concerns about…

GSR and Interhash to Create Hedging Solutions for Bitcoin Miners

Liquidity service provider and digital asset market maker, GSR, announced a partnership with Interhash, the mining services company and strategic partner of mining rig manufacturer, Canaan, in an updated press release, Dec. 20. The partnership aims to provide risk management solutions for Bitcoin miners on Canaan’s network, allowing them to protect against losses and earn yield on inventory. Risk management solutions for a volatile industry GSR will offer a customized suite of products consisting of swaps, collars, and more bespoke structured instruments from January 2020. These will provide a hedge…

XRP Not Likely a Challenge to Bitcoin, Despite Ripple’s $10 Billion Valuation

Blockchain start-up and XRP proponent Ripple says it’s raised a $200 million investment round, lifting its valuation to $10 billion. Despite this move, critics worry whether Ripple and its XRP digital currency have a future in the space when up against CBDCs, stable coins, and XRP’s biggest competitor, Bitcoin. Ripple Hopes Funding Refutes XRP Skeptics The $200 million Series C funding round, which was led by global investment firm Tetragon, could help validate Ripple’s claim that more banks and money transmitters will embrace XRP for international transactions. Further, the funding…

XRP Not Likely a Challenge to Bitcoin, Despite Ripple’s $10 Billion Valuation

Blockchain start-up and XRP proponent Ripple says it’s raised a $200 million investment round, lifting its valuation to $10 billion. Despite this move, critics worry whether Ripple and its XRP digital currency have a future in the space when up against CBDCs, stable coins, and XRP’s biggest competitor, Bitcoin. Ripple Hopes Funding Refutes XRP Skeptics The $200 million Series C funding round, which was led by global investment firm Tetragon, could help validate Ripple’s claim that more banks and money transmitters will embrace XRP for international transactions. Further, the funding…

Japan’s Top Credit Card Issuer JCB to Apply DLT in Its $10T B2B Market

Japan’s top credit card issuer JCB plans to adopt a new business-to-business (B2B) payment solution based on blockchain technology. JCB has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with blockchain-based commercial payments platform Paystand to develop a digital payment platform for enterprises and customers in Japan, Cointelegraph Japan reports Dec. 20. Initiative to cut costs and delays associated with “pre-internet technology” in Japan’s $10 trillion B2B market The new joint development aims to cut costs and delays associated with “pre-internet technology” that is still practiced in Japan’s $10 trillion B2B market…

Art Haus Ethereum Meets Bitcoin Financialization

One of the most important (yet somehow quiet) narratives of 2019 has been the financialization of bitcoin and the emergence of a robust market for derivative products. That was reinforced today as Binance announced a significant investment in derivatives exchange FTX. How will key events coming up in 2020 like the bitcoin halving be impacted by the presence of derivatives? One of the most important (yet somehow quiet) narratives of 2019 has been the financialization of bitcoin and the emergence of a robust market for derivative products. At the same time,…

Alibaba Patents Would Secure, Accelerate Its Consortium Blockchain

Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group has won two U.S. patents designed to make its blockchain network safer and faster.  One patent aims to reduce the time to verify block data, while the other is designed to help participants set a validity period for a transaction in a blockchain network.  Both of the patents were approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) this week.  The approvals comes at a time with Ant Financial, the fintech arm of Alibaba, announced the launch of its Ant Open Blockchain Alliance, a consortium…

8 Congress Reps Send Letter to IRS Urging Further Crypto Tax Clarity

Eight members of the United States (U.S.) Congress sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) urging the agency to provide additional clarity on cryptocurrency tax laws.  A letter dated Dec. 20, signed by eight U.S. Congress members, stated: “We wrote in April of this year urging the issuance of guidance for taxpayers who use cryptocurrencies and we are pleased to see that you have issued guidance and addressed many questions we posed. We are, however, concerned that this recent guidance creates many new questions related to the topics…

A Decade of Quantitative Easing Has Paved the Way for the Age of Digital Currency

This post is part of CoinDesk’s 2019 Year in Review, a collection of 100 op-eds, interviews and takes on the state of blockchain and the world. Michael J. Casey is CoinDesk’s chief content officer. The views expressed here are his own. Our social media-constrained attention spans make it hard to focus on anything lasting longer than 24 hours, let alone a decade. So, we risk missing the big, secular trends that lead to the kinds of paradigm shifts Bridgewater Associates founder and co-chairman Ray Dalio speaks of. Once they’ve occurred,…