Happy Monday to everyone out there reading. There was a fair amount of news over the weekend, so I'm starting with that:
Major Exchanges Make Headlines
Binance seems to be coming under even more regulatory scrutiny recently. In the past 72 hours:
- It announced it will no longer service Ontario, Canada based customers and urged those to close out positions by 12/31/21
- Britain's Financial Conduct Authority stated Binance cannot participate in "regulated activity" in the UK
- Japan's Financial Services Agency issued a warning to Binance for providing crypto services without proper registration
While Binance was the subject of negative news, Coinbase received good news today, as it announced that the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority has granted the exchange a license for crypto custody and trading. Simply put, Coinbase Germany will launch in the coming weeks, and Germany will become the first country in the European Union to have thorough regulation in place for crypto platforms.
Bitcoin Hashrate Declines
Last week week saw several Chinese Bitcoin miners shutdown for relocation, amid orders from the Chinese government. With the majority of mining power coming from China, the exodus is starting to have a very noticeable effect on the network hashrate:
The hashrate has continued its steep decline since China ordered large-scale miners in several different provinces to cease operations. A lower hashrate means less processing power in the Bitcoin network. The total hashrate - measure in terahashes per second (TH/s) is currently at about 99.936m TH/s - a new yearly low.
Popescu Reported Dead
Mircea Popescu, early Bitcoin adapter and alleged owner of 1 million BTC (the real amount is supposedly much less, but who knows what the truth is), has been reported dead at the age of 41 in Costa Rica. He allegedly drowned offshore. Popescu was a unique character who was not without controversy - often called sexist and a bigot. Curiously, his blog he reverently maintained is now offline.
This left me wondering, if Popescu really did hold as many Bitcoins as he claimed, are they now out of circulation? What happens to Bitcoin and other crypto assets after death? Well, if you're holding your own keys (as you should), you better have a plan. By its very nature defined in the White Paper, the owners themselves control their own assets. However, if your assets are in an exchange, a death certificate may be able to unlock them for your heirs. As I was researching this subject, I was left with more questions than answers. It is a very curious subject to think about how many Bitcoins are ultimately lost due to premature/accidental death.
ARK Invest Files for Bitcoin ETF
In an S-1 filed today with the SEC, Cathie Wood's ARK Invest is seeking to create a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). Perhaps seeking to make Bitcoin more investor friendly, the S-1 for ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF states:
The Trust’s investment objective is to reflect the performance of bitcoin, as measured by the performance of the Index, adjusted for the Trust’s expenses and liabilities. In seeking to achieve its investment objective, the Trust will hold bitcoin and will value its Shares daily based on the bitcoin price reported by the Index.
The filing will have to be approved by the SEC before the ETF will be allowed to launch. It's another step in Bitcoin gaining legitimacy as a investable asset. Wood, who has made herself known as a Bitcoin bull, sees BTC reaching 100k. Her ARK Innovation ETF owns 3.6 million shares of Coinbase common stock, or approximately 1.3% of the exchange.
