1. Market Wrap: Bitcoin Claws Back to $36.4K While 25% of Ether Options Will Expire in March
Bitcoin is making gains, though much of the day saw the cryptocurrency in a holding pattern. Meanwhile, a quarter of ether options are expiring in March, meaning traders are making some bets on the first fiscal quarter of 2021.
Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $36,286 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 5.5% over the previous 24 hours.
Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $32,463-$36,552 (CoinDesk 20)
BTC above the 10-hour and 50-hour moving averages on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians.
2. Anchorage Becomes First OCC-Approved National Crypto Bank
Crypto custodian Anchorage has secured conditional approval for a national trust charter from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), making it the first national “digital asset bank” in the U.S.
The safekeeping, management and trading of digital assets have been regulatory stumbling blocks for large financial institutions — but those obstacles are gradually being removed. The OCC, a part of the Treasury Department charged with keeping banks safe but also competitive, has now issued three interpretative letters that lay the groundwork for banks to custody crypto, participate in blockchain networks and become payment providers using the tech.
“In granting this charter, the OCC applied the same rigorous review and standards applied to all charter applications,” the bank regulator said in a statement. “By bringing this applicant into the federal banking system, the bank and industry will benefit from the OCC’s extensive supervisory experience and expertise.”
3. Grayscale Investments Begins Dissolution of XRP Trust Citing Ripple SEC Suit
Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest digital currency asset manager, announced it has begun dissolution of its Grayscale XRP Trust following the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Ripple Labs alleging the XRP token is a security under federal securities law.
4. US Navy Commissions $1.5M Blockchain System for Tracking Critical Weaponry
Indiana-based blockchain firm SIMBA Chain announced Wednesday it was awarded the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) phase II contract to build a demand sensing system that would anticipate the need for “critical” military weaponry parts.
The blockchain solution will be built for the Defense Logistics Agency, the combat support agency in the U.S. Department of Defense, and is aimed at reducing disruption issues and threats to engineering and maintenance operations.The contract for the ALAMEDA Project (for Authenticity Ledger for Auditable Military Enclaved Data Access) commenced on Jan. 6 and will be conducted at the Fleet Readiness Center Southeast at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fla.
SIMBA will also continue work on a phase 1 project at the airbase, focusing on the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet supply chain.
“Blockchain is well suited to solve complex supply chain pain points as it enables a decentralized mechanism for the recording of non-repudiable transactions, making data both immutable and auditable, and lastly, tamper-proof once written,” said SIMBA Chain CEO Joel Neidig.
5. Trading Hall of Fame: The Bitcoin Options Bet That Made $58.2M Profit on Just $638K
With a 9,118% return on investment, a bitcoin options trade initiated in late October is trouncing some of the best currency market bets of the past 40 years by leaps and bounds.
On Oct. 30, someone (a single trader or small group) bought 16,000 contracts of Jan. 29 expiry call options at the $36,000 strike for 0.003 bitcoin (BTC, +9.16%) per contract, according to data shared by Deribit. The initial investment or total purchase cost was 48 BTC, or roughly $638,400 as per bitcoin’s price back then.
At press time, the $36,000 call option is drawing a price of 0.1060 bitcoin on Deribit. At current prices, which haven’t changed much in the past 24 hours, and assuming the position is still active, the trader appears to be sitting on a gain of 1,648 bitcoin or $58.2 million.
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January 14, 2021
