Day: June 27, 2023

Cathie Wood’s ARK reportedly ‘first in line’ for a spot Bitcoin ETF

boss

ARK Investment Management, a pro-Bitcoin (BTC) firm founded by veteran investor Cathie Wood, is reportedly ahead in the race for a spot BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF). In mid-June, the investment firm BlackRock filed an application for a spot Bitcoin ETF, triggering notable optimism in cryptocurrency markets. Several reports suggested that BlackRock could become the first issuer of a spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States should it receive approval, but that might not be the case, according to some executives and analysts. “Other applicants will be able to amend their…

Riot Platforms to Onboard 33,280 Bitcoin Miners Ahead of Halving

Riot Platforms’ recent acquisition of Bitcoin miners from MicroBT holds significant importance in the context of the upcoming halving event in 2024. Riot Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: RIOT), a leading player in the Bitcoin (BTC) mining industry has announced a significant development in its quest to expand its mining capabilities. The company stated in a press release that it has entered into a long-term purchase agreement with MicroBT Electronics Technology Co., LTD, a well-known manufacturer of Bitcoin miners. This strategic partnership aims to enhance Riot’s mining capacity by securing an initial…

Where Ethereum Was Born and Crypto Goes to Grow Up

Then again, it is very much the place to be if you want regulatory clarity, easy access to banks and VCs or just a relaxing dose of Swiss tranquility. Zug is almost cartoonishly pleasant. I spent a month in Zug in 2019, taking jogs by the lake and basking in the clean serenity. I went to a crypto meet-up in the CV Labs, billed as “the heartbeat of Crypto Valley,” a gleaming, five-story coworking space – focused on Web3, of course – that had, on its top level, floor-to-ceiling windows…

The Center of Asian Crypto Wealth Is Ready for a Reset after Terra

Sooner than later, CZ and Balaji moved on, though. Zhuling Chen, founder and CEO of staking access startup RockX, his second crypto startup in Singapore, said that his view of the local crypto community is decidedly different from a luxury island for conspicuous billionaires. He describes a racially and gender diverse community, one that has diversified its cryptocurrency ecosystem as well. In addition to the ICOs, “Singapore had one of the earliest Ethereum communities,” he said. “When you go to NEAR meetups, or Solana, you see different people at each.…

Baidu Says Ernie 3.5 Outdid ChatGPT and GPT-4 in Key Metrics

The result of the AGIEval and C-Eval tests shows that Ernie 3.5 achieved higher scores than other large models, including ChatGPT, and surpassed GPT-4. Competition in the AI market heats up as China’s Baidu said its AI model Ernie 3.5 beats the popular OpenAI’s ChatGPT AND GPT-4 on key tests. The Chinese internet company unveiled the Ernie bot at an event in March. At the time of the announcement, CEO Robin Li said that the new product was imperfect and would continue to improve as people use it and give feedback. Within an hour…

Asia’s Retail Crypto Capital Moves on After the Disgrace of Terraform Labs’ Do Kwon

The capital city of Seoul is in the top tier for regulatory structure and scored high for ease of doing business and digital infrastructure – all criteria in which the government has a strong influence. Its grassroots’ embrace of crypto puts the country within the top 15% of the world in the crypto adoption index. But as the most populous hub in our final 15, it was hurt by a low opportunities score, which is a measurement of per-capita crypto jobs, companies and events. The sparse postings could be due…

Launching a Crypto Regulatory Arm to Challenge the Global Financial Hubs

Dubai and its sibling hub Abu Dhabi were rated tops in the regulatory structure, the most heavily weighted criterion at 35% of the total score. But the impact was blunted by the UAE’s bottom-quintile crypto adoption score, indicating that the larger population of the UAE is not as crypto-savvy as the residents in these two hubs. Despite the low overall drivers category score, Dubai cemented its place in the top five with high scores in opportunities category, which measured per-capita crypto events, companies and jobs. The emirate also achieved the…

A Wealthy Mideast Capital Creating a Bridge From TradFi to Crypto

The United Arab Emirates’ hubs of Abu Dhabi and Dubai had identical scores for crypto regulatory structure and crypto adoption, two of the most heavily weighted criteria in the ranking overall. But while the UAE’s regulatory structure is top tier – and accounts for 35% of its total score – its crypto adoption score (measuring 10%) was in the bottom quintile. Arguably, the low score is a reflection of the greater Emirati population, rather than the behavior of the residents of Abu Dhabi and Dubai themselves. In nearly every other…