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Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
Investments news
- US-based investment banking giant JPMorgan is preparing to offer an actively managed bitcoin (BTC) fund to certain clients as soon as this summer, Coindesk reported, citing undisclosed sources familiar with the matter. Institutional bitcoin shop NYDIG will serve as JPMorgan’s custody provider, it added.
- The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has filed a 19B-4 Form on behalf of investment firm Valkyrie Digital Assets for its BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF). Per the filing, the trust will only hold bitcoin, and will, from time to time, issue baskets (one basket equalling a block of 50,000 shares) in exchange for deposits of bitcoins and to distribute bitcoins in connection with redemptions of baskets.
- Major digital asset manager, Toronto-based 3iQ Corp in partnership with digital asset investment firm CoinShares announced the launch of an Ethereum (ETH) ETF on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) on April 23. It will trade in Canadian dollars under the symbol ETHQ, and in US dollars under the symbol ETHQ.U.
Adoption news
- Professional American football team Kansas City Chiefs tight end Sean Culkin said he will earn 100% of his 2021 salary in bitcoin. The Chiefs will pay his salary in USD, which will automatically be converted on a weekly basis to BTC via Strike by Zap, a payments application that leverages Lightning Network, said the emailed press release. It added that offensive tackle Russell Okung was the first NFL player to convert part of his 2020 salary to BTC, while Culkin will be the first to convert his entire salary - USD 920,000.
- The most popular stablecoin, tether (USDT), has surpassed USD 50bn in market capitalization today. Per the press release, USDT’s exponential growth, which has seen its market capitalization grow by more than a factor of ten over the past 12 months, "has left the stablecoin eclipsing major blue chip stocks such as Ford Motor and Kraft Heinz."
NFTs news
- Company specialized in the Tezos (XTZ) blockchain TQ Tezos and advertising & representation agency DMA United have announced Truesy, a new curated non-fungible tokens (NFT) platform built to host work from fine artists, iconic figures, unique brands, designers, elite athletes, musicians, and entertainers at the intersection of art and culture who want to create their own unique NFTs.
- The former NBA star Yao Ming has ventured into the world of non-fungible tokens – via his wine business. The company, Yao Family Wines, is based in the Californian grape-growing county of Napa Valley. The winery said it was “releasing its most exclusive wine,” named The Chop, which would be “paired with a limited edition NFT.”
CBDCs news
- The Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com is running an exhibition at a digital yuan pavilion running at the Digital China Summit, which wrapped up today in Fuzhou, Fujian Province. The firm said that its exhibition was made alongside “six state-owned banks and technology enterprises,” and featured an unmanned store, where visitors with digital yuan wallets could “purchase products at the store and make payments” using digital RMB “solutions” or buy products using the JD.com app using the central bank digital currency (CBDC) and “arrange for home delivery.”
Tax news
- More local tax authorities have seized crypto and frozen exchange wallets as South Korea’s spate of crypto tax busts looks set to continue into another week. After several weeks of raids on the highest-earning income individuals and companies in various parts of the country, last week was the turn of Seoul, which confiscated millions of dollars worth of tokens from tax evaders who had sought to conceal the size of their earnings by buying crypto for cash. But per WowTV and Newsis, over the weekend officials in the Yuseong District of Daejeon seized a further USD 90,000 worth of tokens, while USD 10.4m in tokens was frozen and seized from a further 287 individuals in the capital.
DeFi news
- Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Aave is set to launch liquidity mining program. The Aave Improvement Proposal (AIP) 16 reached quorum on April 24, meaning that starting today, 4/26 liquidity providers and borrowers in Aave’s USDC, DAI, USDT, GUSD, ETH, and WBTC pools will earn stkAAVE rewards in addition to their standard interest yield.
Career news
- Marathon Digital Holdings, a Nasdaq-listed major Bitcoin miner, said it has appointed Fred Thiel as its new chief executive officer, effective today. Thiel will succeed Merrick Okamoto, who has served as the company’s chief executive officer since 2018, and who will serve as executive chairman of the board of directors following the transition, they added. Prior to serving as Marathon’s chief executive officer, Thiel co-founded and served as chairman of Sprocket, a blockchain and cryptocurrency technology and financial services company.
