Scenius Sync (Issue #82)

BLACKROCK EXPECTS ETF APPROVAL ON WEDS, COINBASE PLANS EU DERIVATIVES EXPANSION, BTC ON A ROCKET TO THE MOON (LITERALLY), & MERCARI PLANS TO ACCEPT BITCOIN

Scenius: The intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. The communal form of the concept of genius.

Welcome to The Scenius Sync.

Our mission with this concise publication is twofold:

1. Share the essential stories driving the crypto industry and markets.

2. Highlight innovative applications and mainstream adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.

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Essential News 🗞

1. BlackRock expects spot Bitcoin ETF approval Wednesday

   • The wait for the approval of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that trades bitcoin directly, known as a spot bitcoin ETF, may be over as soon as next Wednesday. According to a report in Fox Business, BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager and one of the firms vying to bring a spot bitcoin ETF to market, expects its application to be approved next Wednesday. 

   • On the fee war fee front: Lowest long term fee is Bitwise at 0.24% followed closely by Van Eck. But we also have fee waivers on 3 for 6 months down to 0.0%. Plus BlackRock waiver to 0.20%. For more, see tweet from James Seyffart here and coverage from Decrypt here.

   • In related news, VanEck pledges 5% of potential spot BTC ETF profits to Bitcoin core developers at Brink

2. DCG says it completed payoff of all short-term loans from Genesis

   • Digital Currency Group said Friday that it had paid off all short-term loans to institutional investor crypto broker Genesis. "DCG is pleased to announce that we have completed a payoff of all short-term loans from Genesis," the firm wrote. "In total, DCG has paid off more than $1 billion of debt to its creditors in just over a year, including nearly $700 million to Genesis, satisfying all obligations currently due. With this milestone behind us, we're looking forward to the next chapter of DCG and the future growth of our industry."

3. Coinbase plans acquisition to expand derivatives offering in EU

   • Coinbase said Friday that it is in the process of acquiring a MiFID-licensed entity to expand its derivatives offering in the EU. The deal is subject to regulatory approval and could close later in 2024, it said in a blog post. The name of the company, which is based in Cyprus, is unknown. The license will allow Coinbase to offer cryptocurrency-based derivatives in Europe. The exchange currently only offers spot trading in the EU. 

4. CFTC advisory committee advances recommendations urging a timely focus on DeFi

   • An advisory committee for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted on Monday to submit a report to the commission calling on the government and industry to work to understand decentralized finance and "advance its responsible and compliant development."  The CFTC's Technology Advisory Committee voted during a meeting to make recommendations, which some say is the first substantial report on DeFi by a government advisory committee.  CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero, who sponsors the committee, said the report is meant to "to help inform ongoing policy debates in the U.S. Congress, state legislatures, and regulators including the CFTC," the commissioner said in a statement. 

5. Ethereum validator exit queue spikes as Celsius, Figment withdraw stakes

   • The Ethereum blockchain saw a record spike in validator withdrawal requests, with the exit queue reaching over 16,000. Over 500,000 ether are in the exit queue, with a maximum stake of 32 ether per validator. Celsius, undergoing restructuring, is withdrawing many stakes — contributing significantly to the queue.

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Innovation & Adoption 💡📈

1. Bitcoin hitches a ride on a rocket to the moon

   • The Peregrine 1 spacecraft took off early Monday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying 20 payloads, including one called the “Bitcoin Genesis Plate.” Also included, a private key engraved on a 43 gram physical coin with a public vanity address —1MoonBTCixFH3XTrWRCbMpK23o74nQrA1Q — is pitched as “the first-ever financial asset sent to the Moon.” A partnership between derivatives exchange BitMEX, robotics firm Astrobotic Technology, Bitcoin Magazine, and Oxcart Assembly, the bitcoin wallet is loaded with 1 bitcoin.

2. Crypto Exchange Upbit Gets Full Licensing in Singapore

   • South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit has officially obtained a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The MPI license enables Upbit to provide regulated digital payment token (DPT) services to its clients in the Southeast Asian city state. Upbit acquired in-principle approval from the MAS in October last year, which enabled it to continue operating while awaiting full licensing.

3. Japan’s e-commerce giant Mercari plans to accept BTC payments

   • Mercari, Japan’s digital flea market platform with over 22 million monthly active users, is planning to allow users to purchase products in bitcoin by June this year, according to Nikkei.  Payments in bitcoin are set to be hosted by the company’s Tokyo-based blockchain subsidiary, Mercoin. While prices on Mercari would remain displayed in Japanese yen, users of the app would be able to make payments with the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to the report.  Mercoin plans to serve as an intermediary that transfers bitcoin to the seller in yen, imposing transaction fees similar to those in sales made in fiat currency. It remains unclear if users would be charged the same amount of fees.

4. Bitcoin Devs Preserve Classic Nintendo Games With Ordinals

   • Bitcoin developers continue to push the boundaries of what Ordinals are capable of with a new project called Pizza Ninja, which on Monday announced that a Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) emulator had been added to the Bitcoin blockchain. A video game emulator is software that allows one computer system to imitate another, allowing games from old arcades, consoles, or different platforms to be played on a device it was not initially intended to—in this case, the Bitcoin blockchain.

5. Starknet approves vote to add ability to use STRK token for paying transaction fees

   • The Ethereum Layer 2 network Starknet's community approved a vote to proceed with implementing the Alpha version 13.0 update on its mainnet.

     The proposal received overwhelming support, garnering approval from over 99.8% of votes from participating delegates. The v.13 update will introduce transaction fee payments using both STRK and ether. The network plans to eventually transition to exclusively using STRK for transaction fees, Eli Ben-Sasson, a core contributor, told The Block. The upgrade is expected to go live this Wednesday. However, the activation of STRK token payments will be delayed until the token becomes transferable at a later date.