United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler and ProShares head of investment strategy Simeon Hyman discussed the launch of the first Bitcoin-linked exchange-traded fund (ETF) with CNBC on Tuesday. ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, also known as BITO, is based on CME Bitcoin (BTC) futures contracts. CNBC commentator Bob Pisani shared concerns from some investors that BTC futures could deviate from the BTC spot price. “The futures market is a better place for price discovery,” said Hyman. “The CME futures market trades more volume than the largest U.S. crypto exchange. We launched a similar mutual fund on 7/28, and …
Ping An Bank, a subsidiary of China’s Ping An Insurance Group, will launch a boutique bank using blockchain, cloud services, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Ping An Insurance Group is one of the world's leading financial and insurance corporations, and their subsidiary’s announcement was reported on Nov. 20 by People’s Daily, China’s official state run press service. A boutique bank is defined as a non-full service investment bank that supports more individualized services than larger firms. The new boutique bank will rely on Ping An Group's scientific and technological skills and comprehensive financial capabilities to provide integrated financial services …
The Union Cabinet of India has approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the collaborative research of distributed ledger technology (DLT), local news outlet ANI reported September 12. The Union Cabinet is the supreme decision-making body in India consisting of cabinet ministers and led by the prime minister, Narendra Modi. The MOU, which is a cooperative initiative under the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism, aims to foster better understanding of DLT and define areas where the technology can be deployed to improve operational efficiency. The research will be jointly conducted by the Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) and banks from …
Brazil’s central bank has created a permissioned digital ledger platform that will enable data sharing among financial regulators, Finextra reports today, June 20. The ledger, called the Information Integration Platform for Regulators (Pier), will be used by regulators to exchange information on general authorization processes of financial institutions, ranging from administrative processes to the conduct of employees. Additional information not related to administrative sanctioning processes can also be shared if mutual interest is shown. Pier, developed by the Banco Central de Brasil’s IT department (Deinf), will connect the Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil (CVM), and the National Pension Funds …
On Thursday, registered investment adviser and fintech firm Defiance announced it has launched the first NFT-focused exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the New York Stock Exchange Arca. The fund is listed under the ticker symbol NFTZ and has a management fee of 0.65% per year. The fund does not directly buy and hold NFTs to store in wallets. Instead, it tracks an index of companies operating or intending to venture into the NFT space, as well as the Metaverse. The BITA NFT and Blockchain Select Index, which the fund intends to mirror, is maintained by Germany-based fintech company BITA. Notable holdings …