1. Market Wrap: ‘Ethereum Killers’ Pop as ING Report Highlights Ethereum Over Bitcoin
Atcoins are rising, ether hits another all-time high and bitcoin’s correlation to gold drops to zero.
The tokens of the Ethereum blockchain’s competitors are making huge gains Thursday, while ether set a new price record above $3,600.
Bitcoin has less than 10% of gold’s market capitalization but could continue to differentiate itself from the yellow metal and grow its piece of the total market-cap pie.
Ether (ETH) trading around $3,483 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 0.28% over the previous 24 hours.
Ether’s 24-hour range: $3,397-$3,607
Ethereum Classic (ETC) trading around $148 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 50% over the previous 24 hours.
Eos (EOS) trading around $12.29 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 48% over the previous 24 hours.
Cardano (ADA) trading around $1.59 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 9% over the previous 24 hours.
Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $56,161 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Losing 1.6% over the previous 24 hours.
Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $56,586-$58,266
Big-time gainers Thursday included tokens associated with blockchain projects that aim to replicate some of the key attributes of Ethereum, mainly programmability.
2. Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Taps NYDIG as Bitcoin ETF Custodian, Documents Show
New SEC filings reveal that NYDIG has been picked for SkyBridge’s pending bitcoin ETF application.
NYDIG is the custodian for the proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) from First Trust Advisors and SkyBridge Capital, according to regulatory documents.
The New York-based institutional bitcoin powerhouse is named as “bitcoin custodian” in a Thursday filing update with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). When First Trust and Anthony Scaramucci’s SkyBridge originally applied in mid-March they left the custodian’s identity blank.
Now boasting BNY Mellon as its service provider and cash custodian and NYDIG as keeper of the keys, the First Trust SkyBridge Bitcoin ETF Trust attempts to gain an edge in the bustling race for regulatory approval.
3. Square Bitcoin Revenue Grows 11x Year Over Year
Square’s Cash App generated $3.51 billion of bitcoin revenue in the first quarter of 2021, according to a shareholder letter published Thursday.
Square’s (SQ) revenue from its bitcoin (BTC, -1.36%) (BTC) business increased 11-fold compared with this time last year.
“Cash App generated $3.51 billion of bitcoin revenue and $75 million of bitcoin gross profit during the first quarter of 2021, each up approximately 11x year over year,” according to a shareholder letter published Thursday.
That was double Square’s bitcoin revenue of $1.76 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020. Bitcoin revenue for the first quarter of 2020 was $306 million.
4. Crypto Now Viewed by Some as a Threat to Financial Stability, Fed Survey Finds
The Fed’s own staffers didn’t mention cryptocurrencies as a risk to financial stability, but market participants did.
A Federal Reserve survey of market contacts found that brokerage firms, investors, political advisers and academics increasingly see cryptocurrencies and stablecoins as a potential threat to the stability of the existing financial system.
Roughly 20% of the 24 professionals contacted by the Fed listed “cryptocurrencies/stablecoins” as a potential risk to financial stability. The survey was included in the Fed’s latest semiannual report on financial stability, published Thursday.
Notably, the Fed’s own staffers made no mention of cryptocurrencies in their own analysis of the risks. Neither cryptocurrencies nor stablecoins were mentioned in the previous report, published in November.
5. Goldman Sachs Offering Bitcoin Derivatives to Investors
The bank will protect itself from the cryptocurrency’s volatility by buying and selling bitcoin futures in block trades.
Goldman Sachs is offering investors access to non-deliverable forwards (NDFs), a derivative tied to bitcoin’s price that pays out in cash, according to a Bloomberg report. When reached by CoinDesk, the investment bank confirmed the news.
The bank will then protect itself from volatility by buying and selling bitcoin (BTC, -1.45%) futures in block trades through CME Group, using Cumberland DRW as its trading partner.
NDFs are futures contracts in which counterparties settle the difference between the negotiated NDF price or rate and the spot price or rate on a notional agreed sum.
In January, CME took the prime spot on the list of the biggest bitcoin futures trading platforms, indicating a continued rise in institutional participation.
In March, Goldman Sachs relaunched its cryptocurrency trading desk after a three-year hiatus, with plans to once again support bitcoin futures trading.
A source with knowledge told CoinDesk that Goldman quietly began offering bitcoin derivatives contracts to clients last month to test its hedging methods.
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