Valour, a Zurich-based exchange-traded products (ETP) issuer, announced the launch of a fully-backed investment product to increase exposure to Uniswap decentralized exchange’s native token, UNI. The UNI token serves as the underlying asset within the Valour Uniswap ETP offering available as a fully-backed passive investment product. The Uniswap ETP was launched on a European stock exchange named Boerse Frankfurt Zertifikate AG, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange co-owner. Valour CEO Diana Biggs highlighted the inaccessibility of blockchain-based investment products on traditional markets and stock exchanges. Speaking about Valour Uniswap ETP’s position in making DeFi investments available via mainstream investment channels, he said: …

ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy exchange-traded fund (BITO) saw the highest ever first day “natural” volume for an exchange-traded fund (ETF), with the figure reaching a little over $1 billion by the end of the opening day. It is second overall, tailing just behind the BlackRock U.S. Carbon Transition Readiness ETF, which booked $1.16 billion in volume on its debut in April. The ProShares Bitcoin futures-based ETF launched on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday with an opening price of $40.88. According to data from TradingView, BITO closed the day at $41.94, with a total of 24.313 million shares changing hands, …

Bakkt (BKKT), an institutional and retail-facing digital asset platform founded by Intercontinental Exchange, has suffered a drawdown of -6.4% after closing a volatile first day of trading as a publicly listed company. After launching on the New York Stock Exchange at $9.45 on Monday morning, BKKT rose by roughly 3.3% up to $9.77 during its first 30 minutes of trading. However, traders quickly moved to take profits, causing prices to slump by -9.5% down to $8.84. According to Bloomberg, BKKT was trading at $8.76 by the day’s close after having shed almost -7% from its opening. Bakkt went public via …

Bakkt Holdings, the digital assets management arm of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), has announced it will soon become a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, starting Oct. 18. The public listing for Bakkt comes as a result of a merger with VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings, a Chicago-based special purpose acquisition company. According to an official statement, a shareholders meeting regarding the merger saw approximately 85.1% approval for the business combination: “Upon closing, the combined company’s Class A common stock and warrants are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the ticker symbols “BKKT” …

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is going after pump-and-dump groups on Telegram. On Monday, an account under the name “ASIC” posted a message in the “ASX Pump Organization” on Telegram to warn around 300 members of the group that “we’re monitoring this platform and we may be investigating you.” “Coordinated pumping of shares for profits can be illegal. We can see all trades and have access to trader identities. [...] You run the risk of a criminal record, including fines of more than $1 million and prison time.” Many of the group’s members assumed the account to be …

Tesla’s bold foray into the Bitcoin (BTC) market has been paying off in 2021 as BTC’s price has been rallying in October to hit over $58,000 on Oct. 14. Tesla currently holds roughly 43,200 BTC, worth roughly $2.5 billion at today’s prices, according to online monitoring resource Bitcoin Treasuries. This is approximately 65% or $1 billion more than what the carmaker paid in February when Elon Musk’s company revealed that it had added $1.5 billion in BTC to its balance sheet. In Q2, Tesla sold 10% of its Bitcoin holdings — about 46,000 BTC — at a reported average price …

There are good reasons why pension funds should not invest in the crypto and blockchain space. The industry is too new, too volatile, and stultifyingly technical. Moreover, the rules and regulations to govern the sector have yet to be settled. But the fixed-income financial instruments that pension funds typically favor — like long-term government bonds — are scarcely paying anything these days, so the traditional caretakers of employees’ retirement funds have a dilemma: Where to find investment yield in a world where inflation is looming? It may not be entirely surprising, then, that pension funds — the most cautious of …

The dramatic short squeeze of the stock of video game retailer GameStop this January was the moment when r/WallStreetBets finally transformed from a humble Reddit forum into a financial force that can no longer be ignored. But lost among the memes, trading app drama and hand-wringing over the sanctity of the stock market was one surprising outcome: GameStop’s share price didn’t just rise — the company actually listened to its many new retail investors and aggressively ramped up its strategy to focus on e-commerce. Rather than just a one-off market glitch, the investments made by r/WallStreetBets users resulted in the …

Ali Sahraee, the chief executive officer of the Tehran Stock Exchange since 2018, has reportedly resigned after the discovery of cryptocurrency mining rigs in the building. According to a report from the country’s state-run media, the Islamic Republic News Agency, Tehran Stock Exchange, or TSE, market vice president Mahmoud Goudarzi will be leading the company following the departure of Sahraee. The change in leadership seems to be the result of “a number of miners” being discovered in the basement of the TSE building located in the district of Sa'adat Abad. The TSE reportedly initially denied the existence of the miners, …

Bitcoin (BTC) might have outperformed traditional financial markets regarding investment returns, but the cryptocurrency still fell behind Bitcoin-related companies. The price of BTC climbed by about 290% year-over-year in which it surged from $10,695 to a little over $42,000. In comparison, shares of Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA), one of the largest North American crypto mining companies, rose by 1,641% in the same period. Institutions-led pump More crypto mining firms outran spot BTC prices in terms of YoY returns. For instance, Canada-based Bitfarms (BITF) surged 1,736%, while Hut 8 Mining (HUT) and Riot Blockchain (RIOT) rallied by 1,010% and 913% in …

The United Stat Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a complaint against two Robinhood users over an alleged wash-trading-based arbitrage scheme that utilized meme stocks. According to a complaint on Monday, defendants Suyun Gu and Yong Lee took advantage of differing trading fee schedules offered by different retail brokers and exchanges to extract arbitrage while wash-trading. By trading between venues that offer rebates to market makers and those that do not charge fees to market takers, the SEC estimates they generated more than $1.5 million worth of rebates in total through the alleged wash-trading scheme. Gu and Lee are believed …

Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), staged a rebound on Sept. 26 following a massive decline earlier this week that saw its prices plunging to as low as $2,651 on Coinbase. The ETH/USD exchange rate rose 3.63% to hit an intraday high of $3,030. The upside move amounted to a 14.3% upside retracement from the pair’s week-to-date low at $2,651, showing that traders attempted to retain their bullish bias despite potential headwinds ahead. Last week, ETH prices fell due to a flurry of issues arising from China. On Monday, traders dumped crypto assets en masse after a tumult in China’s heavily …