A Blackrock Bitcoin ETF?

Plus more scuttlebutt around Prometheum

Author

Nathaniel Whittemore
June 16, 2023

The Breakdown First Five - Friday June 16, 2023

Welcome back to The Breakdown First Five — the 5 most interesting and/or important stories in bitcoin, crypto, and markets to start your day.

5. New Tether FUD

The cause of this week’s Tether sell off has been revealed. Coindesk have finally received the documents from Tether’s 2021 reserves lawsuit. No doubt journalists are sifting through bank records and account statements right now. Paolo says the documents show full reserves, but even if they don’t, they’re out of date. Tether asked for some discretion on releasing customer details. Tether truthers may soon be out of a job.

4. Golden Goose Sold

The Goose went under the hammer at $6.5M including buyers premium. Punk6529 edged out an anonymous rival to capture the NFT formerly held in 3AC’s Grail collection. This is the second highest generative art sale on record. The Sotheby’s auction of 37 3AC NFTs took in nearly $11M for the failed hedge fund’s creditors, with all sales exceeding valuations.

3. Abra “insolvent for months”

Texas state regulators have filed emergency orders against Abra. The claim the Crypto lender has been insolvent for months after getting money stuck in Genesis, 3AC and Babel Finance. Apparently $118M was lent to Binance as well. Regulators also allege misleading conduct designed to deceive the public.

2. Did the SEC set up Prometheum?

The Blockchain Association has filed a freedom of information request in an attempt to get to the bottom of whatever the hell happened with Prometheum. If the request is allowed, the SEC will have to answer for their involvement in the scandal of how the firm’s CEO ended up in front of Congress.

1. BlackRock Spot Bitcoin ETF

Blackrock has filed to list a Spot Bitcoin ETF. The goliath asset manager will partner with Coinbase on custody and offer daily redemptions. Yes, it’s structured as a trust. So are SPY and GLD. Yes, it’s Blackrock, so standard conspiracy theories apply. But this is the real deal. After years of delays, maybe BlackRock can finally push the SEC to bring a spot Bitcoin product to the stock exchange.

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Thanks for reading -NLW