Circle, a Goldman Sachs-backed fintech company focused on stablecoin development, has officially announced Thursday its plans to go public. Under the terms of the agreement, a new Irish holding company will acquire both Concord and Circle and become a publicly-traded company that is expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker “CRCL.” Upon completion of the transaction, existing Circle shareholders will hold around 86% ownership of the public entity. The company said it would go public through a merger with blank-check company Concord Acquisition Corp in a deal valued at $4.5 billion. Investors have …

Argo Blockchain, a publicly traded blockchain technology company focused on cryptocurrency mining, is looking at a potential secondary listing on the Nasdaq exchange. On Tuesday, the company announced that it is now exploring the possibility of a secondary listing on the Nasdaq as part of its operational and strategic update for June 2021. Argo Blockchain said that the firm has not yet reached a decision on the timing of the secondary listing, noting that “There is no guarantee that the listing will be finalized,” and, “Any proposed listing is subject to market and other conditions, and there can be no …

Ark Investment Management has become the latest firm to file for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). According to a June 28 filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) submitted in partnership with European exchange-traded product issuer, 21Shares, the ETF would be listed on the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s (CBOE) BZX Exchange and trade under the ticker ARKB. The ETF would also track the S&P BTC index, with the trust underpinning the ETF also holding BTC directly. The filing has received praise from the crypto industry. The great folks over at @21Shares_ just filed for a Bitcoin ETF …

Bitcoin (BTC) starts a new week with a key weekly close under its belt and everything to play for — can it hold higher? After the weekend saw moderate volatility, including a retest of $30,000 support, BTC/USD is back above $35,000. Despite the negative press, FUD and miner shake-up from China, the latest BTC price action shows that the largest cryptocurrency still has energy left to fight. Nonetheless, the risk of a further downturn remains, and by no means is everyone convinced that the market has truly bottomed. Cointelegraph considers five factors at play when determining where Bitcoin is headed …

Bitcoin (BTC) and the U.S. dollar fell in tandem while the S&P 500 refreshed its record high at open on Friday as the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation indicator surged to its highest levels in almost three decades. According to data shared by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, the US Core Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCI) rose 0.5% in May, coming in below the estimation of 0.6%. Nevertheless, the expenditure rose 3.4% year-over-year, the highest level since 1991. The Federal Reserve treats core PCI as its benchmark metric to gauge inflation. The U.S. central bank has indicated that it would tolerate …

Bitcoin (BTC) price received a boost as news that lawmakers in Paraguay plan to present a bill to make BTC legal tender spread across Twitter. Shortly after the unconfirmed news surfaced on Twitter, Bitcoin price rallied to $35,289 before slightly pulling back below the key short-term resistance level. Congratulations Paraguay • a bill has been submitted to make #BITCOIN legal tender • reading likely to occur on July 14th • they wish to be a crypto hub • promotion of green energy mining • some interest from Argentina & Brazil now too — djThistle (@DJThistle01) June 24, 2021 While the …

Switzerland-based token issuer Digital Assets AG, or DAAG, has officially launched its stock-tokenization infrastructure on the Solana blockchain, offering users of the FTX trading platform a novel way for accessing traditional equity markets. During the initial rollout, FTX users who have completed Know Your Customer documentation will have access to 55 free-floating stocks, available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, Digital Assets AG announced Thursday. That means users in permitted jurisdictions will be able to buy, sell and withdraw the assets at any time. Free-floating stocks are assets that have received regulatory approval to trade on tokenized platforms. …

One of the hedge funds badly burned in the infamous GME social media-driven short squeeze is closing down, while GameStop itself has just completed its $1.13-billion equity offering. According to the Financial Times, London-based White Square Capital, operated by Florian Kronawitter, has closed its main fund and will return capital to investors. White Square Capital reportedly had $440 million in assets under management at its peak. The hedge fund was one of many that suffered double-digit percentage losses from short positions in January, when the r/Wallstreetbets subreddit helped pump GME’s price from $21 on Jan. 12 to around $345 on …

Shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR) plunged anew on Tuesday, extending an early week slump on the back of a highly volatile cryptocurrency market that saw Bitcoin (BTC) briefly pierce below $30,000. MSTR touched an intraday low of $513.02 through the early morning session, capping off a 12% decline. Shares of the business intelligence firm collapsed 16.7% on Monday, erasing much of last week’s rally. By comparison, the broad S&P 500 Index of large-cap stocks rose 1.4% on Monday and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.8%. Both indices were on track to close higher on Tuesday. MSTR has played out like …

The ghost of stock market crash is back again to haunt Bitcoin (BTC). It happened last in March 2020. Back then, the prospect of the fast-spreading coronavirus pandemic led to lockdowns across developed and emerging economies. In turn, global stocks crashed in tandem, and Bitcoin lost half of its value in just two days. Meanwhile, the U.S .dollar index, or DXY, which represents the greenback's strength against a basket of top foreign currencies, has now climbed by 8.78% to 102.992, its highest level since January 2017. The huge inverse correlation showed that investors dumped their stocks and Bitcoin holdings and …

Bitcoin (BTC) is an uncorrelated asset, or so the narrative used to go. For much of Bitcoin’s lifetime, it existed as something of value to a very small group of people. Now, awareness and demand are accelerating rapidly. So, what does this mean for the status of BTC as a supposedly uncorrelated asset? That Bitcoin was an uncorrelated asset isn’t just conjecture — the numbers back it up. According to data compiled by VanEck in early 2021, there was almost no discernible pattern between the movements of Bitcoin and other markets, including S&P 500, bonds, gold, real estate and others, …

Traditional hedge funds are willing to increase their exposure in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency markets over the next five years, a new survey has found. Intertrust Global, an international trust and corporate management company, polled the chief financial officers of 100 hedge funds globally about their intention to purchase crypto assets. About 98% of them responded that they expect their hedge funds to have invested 7.2% of their assets in cryptocurrencies by 2026. The survey found that a 7.2% investment into the cryptocurrency sector would equal about $312 billion if replicated across the sector. Meanwhile, about 17% of the polled …