BlackRock is pushing forward with plans for a possible spot ether ETF.

This comes after the asset manager filed a 19b-4 last week, showing that the spot ether ETF would be listed on Nasdaq. It filed the S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

A 19b-4 is an SEC form noting rule changes.

Last Thursday, Nasdaq filed for the iShares Ethereum Trust after BlackRock filed in Delaware for the entity. 

According to the S-1, essentially a registration statement to the SEC, the proposed ETF “seeks to reflect generally the performance of the price of ether.”

BlackRock’s move into the spot ether ETF race comes months after it jumped into the spot bitcoin ETF race. 

In…

Read more on Blockworks

Bitcoin (BTC) saw a classic pullback after the Nov. 16 Wall Street open as deja vu BTC price action continued.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: TradingViewAnalysis: Door open to deeper BTC price correction

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed Bitcoin as it descended to $36,470 — down over $1,000 on the day.

The landscape closely followed events from earlier in the week, where bulls failed to flip new highs to support and endured long liquidations.

These were less present on the day, with around $21 million of BTC longs wiped out at the time of writing, per data from monitoring resource CoinGlass. On Nov. 14, the tally reached $120 million.

BTC liquidations (screenshot)…. Read more on Cointelegraph

CoinShares has secured an “exclusive option to acquire Valkyrie Funds,” the asset manager’s investment advisory business centered on crypto ETFs.

The deal was announced through a press statement on Thursday.

Additionally, CoinShares and Valkyrie have entered into a brand licensing agreement for Valkyrie’s products. This agreement means that Valkyrie has permission to use the CoinShares name for specific products and regulatory filings; most notably its pending Bitcoin spot ETF.

“Throughout the option period, Valkyrie Investments is granted a limited, revocable global license to use the “CoinShares” name for its S-1 filings with the SEC. Should the SEC approve the Valkyrie…

Read more on Blockworks

Fhenix, a potential layer-2 network that wants to bring fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) to smart contracts, has revealed a technical white paper for the first FHE rollup.

FHE itself is a form of encryption that ensures the confidentiality of the data even while it’s being used, for example in smart contracts, because data can remain encrypted and processed without ever needing to be decrypted. 

This enables Ethereum and other EVM networks to process information privately, with potential applications related to private voting and confidential gaming — such as poker, for example. 

Read more: Encryption startup Fhenix raises $7M for private computation

Unlike zero-knowledge (ZK)…

Read more on Blockworks

Dubai’s dedicated crypto regulator, the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA), is switching leaders as it prepares for the next phase of its “ramp up to full-scale market operations” in 2023. 

In a statement sent to Cointelegraph, VARA said that its incumbent CEO, Henson Orser, will be replaced by Matthew White, a global adviser who worked several roles at PwC. VARA also explained that Orser will still help the regulator as a consultant.

Orser is a former banker who worked at Nomura Holdings. The executive led VARA in adopting a regulatory regime for the crypto space that took effect earlier in 2023, right after the FTX collapse.

VARA said the official established a…

Read more on Cointelegraph

In late 2022, Formula 1 had a big problem: Over $245 million in crypto sponsorship money vanished.

Graphic by Crystal Le

F1 wasn’t alone; trust between sports and crypto was shattering globally. With more than 40 different crypto deals collapsed in 2022, an estimated $1 billion in total sponsorship value was lost. 

Why then, did McLaren stick with Official Primary Partner OKX as 25% of crypto deals (sponsorship, partnership, etc.) in the sport were terminated?

Surely it must be the money, right?

Running a Formula 1 team costs hundreds of millions of dollars, meaning sponsorships are vital to keeping the lights on. With companies willing to spend millions to get their logos featured…

Read more on Blockworks

As decentralized finance grows in popularity, many wonder what the future holds for traditional finance (TradFi). In episode 37 of Cointelegraph’s Hashing It Out podcast, Elisha Owusu Akyaw talks to Sarah Clark, the CEO of E-Gates, about how TradFi plans to compete and collaborate with the Web3 space and what that means for global payments moving forward. The episode also highlights issues around Web3 payments, such as regulatory compliance, fraud prevention and customer trust. 

Clark has worked at multiple TradFi firms like PayPal and Barclays before pivoting to Web3. She explains that conventional finance could benefit from integrating blockchain technology and Web3 practices to…

Read more on Cointelegraph