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| Here is a quick look at the hits from the week's latest Inside Cryptocurrency newsletter: - Coinbase's new AI-powered NFT feature,
- A $7.5M fine Robinhood agreed to pay to Massachusetts' securities regulator,
- Solana Mobile's new crypto-focused smartphone beating its predecessor in sales in its first 30 hours, and more.
Enjoy your reading, and have a great weekend! Doğa
p/dogayurduneri | |
| 1 | | Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S., which recently obtained the green light to start trading, have surpassed silver ETFs in assets under management (AUM), making Bitcoin the second-largest ETF commodity in the country. The rise caused the silver to drop to the third spot on the ranking. More: - The U.S.-based spot Bitcoin ETFs now hold nearly 647,651 Bitcoin under management, accounting for $27.5B.
- The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC), converted from Grayscale Investments' existing Bitcoin trust into an ETF, is currently the largest one, with around 619,000 Bitcoin holdings.
- In contrast, silver holds around $11.5B across five U.S.-based ETFs as a single asset class.
- Gold still sits in the first spot in terms of AUM ahead of Bitcoin, with $96.3B in holdings across 19 ETFs.
- The combined trading volume of 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. has exceeded $12B on their fifth day of trading as of Jan. 18.
- The active spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. include the funds of VanEck, Bitwise, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Valkyrie, Hashdex, Ark Invest, Grayscale, BlackRock, WisdomTree, and Invesco Galaxy.
Zoom Out: - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved all the spot Bitcoin ETF applications on Jan. 10, marking the first time it approved such a product.
- The funds allow retail and institutional investors to get exposure to Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, through traditional brokerage accounts without dealing with crypto-native platforms that have come under scrutiny by regulators over the past years.
- The new products are also expected to bring the crypto industry closer to the more regulated environment of traditional finance, broadening access to Bitcoin for millions more investors.
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| 2 | | 
What the numbers say: The data compiled by CCData has revealed that the market share of Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, remained steady in the last quarter of 2023. The platform closed the year's' latest month with a 31.8% market share among other centralized crypto exchanges. The exchange also took similar pieces of the cake in October and November, with 31% and 30.8%, respectively. However, December's figure still represents a significant drop from the year's peak of 57% in February. Relevance: Binance's market share experienced stability in Q4 2023 despite the regulatory challenges the platform faced during the same period. In November last year, Binance agreed to pay a $4.3B fine, one of the largest-ever corporate penalties in U.S. history, to settle U.S. authorities' money laundering, unlicensed money-transmitting business operations, and sanction violations charges. At the time, the platform's CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), also pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering requirements and sanctions in the U.S. by allowing terrorist groups to make crypto transactions on Binance. Under a plea deal, CZ was ordered to step down from the CEO position, pay a $50M penalty, and not engage in Binance's management for three years. The settlement deal resolved a years-long investigation conducted by the U.S. regulators over the exchange. However, increased regulatory challenges did not negatively affect Binance's market share in the last quarter as the key metric kept its average levels. Brands that should care: On the other hand, Binance also faces another lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the U.S., which involved the allegation of mishandling customer funds. The latest settlement did not resolve the SEC's case. Over the past year, many other crypto exchanges, including Coinbase, Gemini, Kraken, and Bittrex, similarly came under increased scrutiny by the SEC. | | | |
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| 3 | | Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, has launched a new AI-powered feature dubbed Instamint on its NFT marketplace. The feature allows users to instantly create new NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain network using AI. More: - The Instamint feature, launched as a beta version, will offer the AI-powered NFT creation experience for free for a limited time.
- However, users will still be charged gas fees, which are paid by Ethereum users to process transactions or use smart contracts on the network.
- The feature requires users to upload an image and provide a name and description for the NFT.
- Users can also determine a price as low as $0.01 for their NFTs.
- Coinbase's NFT marketplace was launched in May 2022 as a platform that allows users to create, purchase, showcase, and sell NFTs.
Zoom Out: - Coinbase's rival Binance also launched a similar NFT generator dubbed Bixel in July last year, nearly four months after releasing the beta version of the AI-powered feature under the name of Bicasso.
- Bixel also allows users to create unique digital artworks in the form of an NFT by utilizing AI.
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| 4 | | The U.S.-based crypto and stock trading platform Robinhood has agreed to pay a $7.5M fine to settle the allegations in an enforcement action launched by the U.S. state of Massachusetts' securities regulator in December 2020. The settlement will also see Robinhood reviewing its digital engagement practices for targeting inexperienced investors through the gamification of crypto and stock trading. More: - Besides, the firm was ordered to address serious cybersecurity issues on its platform as part of the settlement.
- The settlement ended a three-year legal battle between Robinhood and the state regulator.
- The original complaint claimed that Robinhood marketed itself as some sort of game that users might be able to win, proposing canceling the firm's license in Massachusetts since it violated its rules.
- Robinhood's deputy general counsel and head of government affairs, Lucas Moskowitz, said the allegations in the complaint do not reflect today's Robinhood, adding that they are pleased to put this matter behind them.
- The firm also denied that its app was gamified, underlining that it had already taken numerous steps to address cybersecurity concerns since 2021.
Zoom Out: - Gamification refers to the use of typical elements of game playing, such as point scoring and competition with others, in other areas as an online marketing technique to increase engagement with a product or service.
NOTE: Inside.com founder and CEO Jason Calacanis is an investor in Robinhood. | | | |
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| 5 | | Solana's new crypto-focused smartphone, Chapter 2, has surpassed the entire first-year sales of its predecessor, Saga, within the first hours after it was unveiled. Solana Mobile, the mobile division of the Solana blockchain ecosystem, has disclosed that the device reached 30,000 preorders in the first 30 hours. More: - The new smartphone hosts the same fundamental features as Saga, including a built-in crypto wallet, a custom Android operating system, and a decentralized application (dApp) store listing crypto apps.
- However, it has a cheaper price tag of $450 and different hardware.
- A Solana spokesperson revealed that Chapter 2 will hit the market in H1 2025.
- In contrast, Saga was initially put up for sale for $1,000 in May last year, but its price was later cut to $599.
- The upcoming phone marked a reversal for Saga's fate since the Solana founders originally planned to discontinue the device due to disappointing sales.
- However, an exclusive airdrop for the Solana-based BONK token, which distributed 30 million tokens to Saga owners for free, caused a massive jump in sales.
- Shortly after the airdrop, the limited stock of 20,000 Saga phones sold out in the U.S. and Europe, and the device's sales price reached as much as $5,000 on eBay.
- The following airdrops also triggered an increase both in the phone's sales and the relevant tokens' prices.
Zoom Out: - Solana Mobile's first crypto-focused smartphone, Saga, was unveiled by Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko at a New York City event in June 2022.
- Unlike other smartphones, Saga allows users to send, receive, trade, and store crypto assets within the device directly and securely.
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| 6 | | China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has recently formed a metaverse-focused working group with representatives from the government, academia, and businesses. The ministry aims the group to establish industrial standards for the local metaverse sector. More: - The working group includes members from several Chinese tech giants, such as Huawei, Ant Group, Tencent, Baidu, NetEase, and Sense Time.
- The MIIT said the establishment of basic standards could be beneficial for creating consensus among industry participants.
- The ministry also added that there is currently no consensus among academia, industry, and researchers on the definition of the metaverse and its terminology, and this situation hinders the development of the industry to a certain extent.
Zoom Out: - Cryptocurrencies, any kind of crypto transactions, and all crypto mining activities have been forbidden in China since 2021.
- However, the country's government has been developing strategies to increase the adoption of blockchain technologies, metaverse, and the central bank digital currency (CBDC).
- Last year, two Chinese provinces, Sichuan and Shandong, announced their plans to grow their metaverse industries to reach a market size of $35.1B and $21B by 2025, respectively.
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- Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has sought the dismissal of the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against it once more in a recent court hearing.
- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed the deadline for its decision on asset management firm Fidelity's spot Ether exchange-traded fund (ETF) application to March 5.
- Crypto exchange WOO X has raised $9M in funding in a recent financing round to improve its liquidity.
- A recent report by the International Criminal Police Organization's (Interpol) Metaverse Expert Group points out that metaverse platforms could be a valuable tool for law enforcement training and crime scene preservation and analysis.
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 | Staff Writer | | Doga is a tech and science editor who has been writing news for nearly 10 years. She worked for leading tech platforms and mainstrem media channels as an editor and presenter throughout his career. Then, she carried her know-how to more than one platform. She is a part-time cat lover and binge-watcher, and also fond of science, space, and emerging tech. She always has a story to tell. She is a bit addict to the laughter and -unfortunately- the '90s culture. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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