Grayscale has launched a new digital asset fund focused on artificial intelligence (AI) tokens. The fund is available to accredited investors and invests in Bittensor (TAO), Filecoin (FIL), Livepeer (LPT), Near (NEAR) and Render (RNDR) tokens.
Tokens rose 1-3% after the announcement. The Fund will rebalance its assets quarterly. Grayscale believes that AI blockchain protocols can reduce the risks associated with the development of AI technologies.
- The CoinDesk 20 Index is trading at 2256.91, which is 0.3% (+7.2) higher than yesterday’s close. - Ten out of twenty assets are showing growth. - Leaders: XRP (+6.7%) and ICP (+4.4%). - Outsiders: BCH (-2.7%) and NEAR (-1.2%).
The CoinDesk 20 Index is traded on multiple platforms around the world.
Zodia Markets, a cryptocurrency trading firm backed by Standard Chartered's venture capital arm, is acquiring the over-the-counter trading arm of Elwood Technologies.
Elwood, following the sale of the business, will focus on its SaaS merchant technology products and services.
Zodia Markets expects a significant increase in daily trading volumes, which now reach $60 million per day.
- Bitcoin (BTC) surpassed $65,000 for the first time since late June, despite a recent fall below $63,000. - The growth of the cryptocurrency is associated with the movement of $2.8 billion BTC owned by Mt. Gox, for the distribution of assets to creditors. - The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) is up nearly 3% over the past 24 hours, with 16 of its 20 components posting gains.
XRP growth
- XRP, a token on the XRP Ledger network, rose 9% on Tuesday, extending its weekly gain to 35%. - Increasing holdings by large holders and new indices from CME and CF Benchmarks are driving growth.
Impact of Mt. Gox
- Experts say sales pressure on Mt. Gox is overvalued and will not stop the current market growth. - Analysts expect that the market will be able to absorb the liquidation of assets if it is gradual and distributed.
Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist and former contender for the role of Satoshi Nakamoto, was forced to place a legal notice on the home page of his website stating that he is not the creator of Bitcoin.
- The notice, which must remain on the site for six months, states that Wright "repeatedly and systematically" lied in court in an attempt to create a false narrative. - Judge James Mellor ruled that Wright forged documents and abused the legal system in the UK, Norway and the US. - The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) filed a lawsuit against Wright in 2021 to obtain a final ruling that he is not Nakamoto. - Mellor also referred the case of Wright and his colleague Stefan Matthews to prosecutors for consideration of perjury charges.
At the time of publication, Wright had not updated his Twitter/X account to reflect the legal notice.
European mining company Northern Data has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by former employees Gulsen Kama and Joshua Porter. They claim they were fired after raising questions about the company's financial health and tax evasion.
- Northern Data calls the lawsuit "an example of bad faith litigation." - The company claims that Kama and Porter were fired for poor performance. - The trial in this case is scheduled for August 19, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Northern Data denies all allegations and says they are financially motivated and baseless.
- The approval and trading of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US has become a major topic this year. - Bitcoin ETFs raised $16 billion in six months, and the price of Bitcoin increased by 46%. - BlackRock CEO Larry Fink recognized Bitcoin as a legitimate financial instrument. - The Ether Spot ETF is expected to launch next week. - ETFs for other cryptocurrencies, such as Solana, are possible in the future.
- American Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan was taken to court in Abuja, Nigeria, in a wheelchair due to a herniated disc in his back. - Gambaryan was detained in February and transferred to Kuje prison after the escape of his colleague. - He has been charged with money laundering; tax evasion charges were dropped. - His health deteriorated rapidly, including malaria and double pneumonia. - The US Congress called for his release on humanitarian grounds.
- Since the beginning of the year, spot Bitcoin ETFs have attracted more than $16 billion. - Funds received $300 million on Monday, continuing a seven-day streak of inflows. - The bulk of the funds went to iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) from BlackRock, which raised $117.2 million. - IBIT assets reached $18.4 billion, approaching the $20 billion mark. - Bitcoin is trading at $64,600, up 13% from Friday. - Inflows continue amid preparations for the launch of spot Ethereum ETFs.
- The CoinDesk 20 Index is trading at 2195.47, up 0.4% (+8.23) from yesterday's close. - Seven out of twenty assets are showing growth. - Leaders: NEAR (+7.8%) and XRP (+2.2%). - Outsiders: UNI (-4.4%) and ICP (-2.2%).
The CoinDesk 20 Index covers a wide range of assets and is traded on multiple platforms around the world.
- A new lawsuit has been filed against Tether and Bitfinex in the Southern District of New York. - The companies are accused of manipulating the crypto market and violating antitrust laws. - The lawsuit alleges that Tether artificially inflated the price of cryptocurrencies by issuing fiat USDT. “This is the third accusation in this case, which began in 2019.” - Representatives of Tether reject all accusations, calling them baseless.
Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for US leadership, announced that he has selected Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his vice president.
- Trump announced this on the social network TruthSocial. - Vance is known for his support for cryptocurrencies and his efforts to create clearer legislation in this area. - Vance’s chances of being nominated in the Polymarket cryptocurrency platform have reached 70%.
Vance did not disclose any cryptocurrency purchases or sales in his latest Senate financial report.
- Former US President Donald Trump will speak at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville this month, despite a recent assassination attempt. - Cryptocurrency has become part of Trump's election campaign, which emphasizes its growing importance. - The Republican Party actively supports cryptocurrencies, adding them to its official platform. - Trump changed his attitude towards Bitcoin, previously criticizing it, and now supporting it.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said Bitcoin is a legitimate financial asset that should be in every investor's portfolio.
- Fink admitted that his opinion five years ago was wrong. - BlackRock published results for the second quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations. - iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) added $4 billion in assets during the quarter. - Assets under management of the company increased by 13% to $10.6 trillion.
The Spanish National Fan Token (SNFT) has fallen 20% in the last 24 hours.
- The price reduction occurred after Spain's victory in the UEFA 2024 Championship. - SNFT token fell to $0.024, market capitalization was $565,000. - Other fan tokens such as Paris Saint-Germain and FC Barcelona grew by 2-4%. - The decrease in SNFT price is explained by the “sell the fact” phenomenon. - Research shows that fan tokens are prone to volatility and do not always correlate with the success of teams on the field.
"Decentralized computing networks can solve GenAI's energy problem. The use of DePIN stimulates technology development, democratizes access to powerful resources and attracts more users to web3. DePIN can harness the power of nodes running on computers and laptops. Node operators can exchange their rewards for other assets, and GenAI applications can harness the energy needed. DePIN also effectively lowers the barriers to entry for web3. This is proof that DePIN is a reliable path to widespread adoption."
At the center of the US Department of Justice's case against Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm is the question of whether he created the software or controlled the service. Storm and his colleague Roman Semenov are accused of money laundering conspiracy and violating the international economic emergency. The defense argues that Storm simply developed software for financial transactions. The hearing continues.
Crypto platform MakerDAO has announced an open competition for investment of $1 billion in tokenized offerings of US government bonds. Contenders include BlackRock-Securitize, Ondo Finance and Superstate.
MakerDAO's plan involves a significant shakeup in reserve strategy as the protocol enters a new era under the leadership of founder Rune Christensen.
An open competition for the distribution of $1 billion was announced at the ETHCC in Brussels and in a post on public administration. Applications will begin on August 12.
The investment will be financed by reallocating $500-500 million in reserves from vaults managed by Monetalis Clydesdale and Andromeda BlockTower.
MakerDAO's investment could be a big boost for tokenized real asset protocols due to its sheer size.
"AAA" games, the largest titles from top developers, are larger than the film and music industries combined. The introduction of Web3 technology has the potential to transform the "AAA" economic model, opening up markets to a global audience of gamers. However, technical complexity and scaling issues remained a barrier to mass adoption. The solution is to implement an invisible blockchain experience. Thanks to innovations in UX-centric products, UX problems have already been solved. Scaling to serve hundreds of millions of smart contracts and daily transactions on a single blockchain is made possible by modular appchains.
Analytics company Chainalysis, in its latest report, points to the possible use of blockchain networks by traditional criminals for money laundering. It is noted that these transactions are not related to cryptocurrency fraud and hacking, which Chainalysis usually monitors. Instead, they come from wallets that are not known to be illegal but nonetheless follow strategies that would likely make banks suspicious. For example, breaking into rounded tranches that are just below the KYC reporting thresholds and then merging them later.