Bitcoin Whales Moving To Wall Street Via BlackRock

A quiet migration is underway among Bitcoin’s wealthiest holders — from cold storage to custodians.

A new wave of U.S. exchange-traded funds (ETFs) is allowing longtime Bitcoiners to fold their holdings into the traditional financial system without selling a single sat. 

The change comes after regulators approved “in-kind” transactions for spot Bitcoin ETFs this summer, a mechanism that lets investors deposit Bitcoin directly into a fund in exchange for shares, according to Bloomberg reporting.

This mechanism is a tax-neutral move standard across equities and commodities ETFs.

The result: volatile digital assets become regulated, reportable holdings on brokerage statements,…

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Federal Reserve Enters a ‘New Era’ in Payments, Waller Welcomes Crypto to the Table

Bitcoin Magazine

Federal Reserve Enters a ‘New Era’ in Payments, Waller Welcomes Crypto to the Table

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller says the central bank is entering a “new era” in payments — one that openly embraces decentralized finance (DeFi), distributed ledgers, and digital asset innovation as part of the mainstream financial system.

Speaking Tuesday at the Fed’s first-ever Payments Innovation Conference in Washington, Waller said the central bank intends to play an “active role” in the crypto revolution transforming the global payments landscape. 

The conference is ongoing, but Bitcoin’s price reacted positively after a rough night. When the…

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Exclusive: YZi Labs leads $25M round for Sign

YZi Labs, the former venture arm of Binance, led a $25.5 million strategic investment round for Sign, Blockworks has exclusively learned. IDG Capital also participated in the round. 

In January, Sign raised $16 million from YZi Labs, which was also YZi’s first investment after being spun out from Binance after former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao turned it into a family office. Sign has, in total, raised over $55 million in all three — seed, Series A and strategy — rounds. 

Sign builds digital infrastructure and plans to use the capital to expand its tech team, CEO Xin Yan told Blockworks. 

Sign is “actively seeking top talent in Hyperledger Fabric, zero-knowledge…

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Crypto founders criticize Binance listing process

Some crypto founders releasing tokens end up giving a portion of the token’s supply to Binance in order to be listed on the exchange. Just don’t call it a listing fee or imply Binance makes money from it.

Binance argues that it does not make money from token listings since it reinvests the assets in its users. It also contests the term “listing fees” to describe its token allocations.

But regardless of how it’s described, and despite the sometimes steep cost of a Binance listing, engaging with the world’s largest exchange is likely still a good business decision for crypto founders.

Three founders granted anonymity to discuss their dealings with Binance told…

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Arkade Launches As Bitcoin’s First Major Layer-2 In A Decade

Bitcoin may be the world’s most secure digital asset, but for years its base layer has limited the kinds of financial applications developers could build on it. 

That changes with the launch of Arkade, the first significant Bitcoin layer-2 solution since the Lightning Network nearly a decade ago.

Developed by Ark Labs, the protocol enters public beta with a bold mission: to turn Bitcoin into a programmable financial platform without compromising the security that has made it “digital gold,” according to a note shared with Bitcoin Magazine. 

Arkade builds on the Ark protocol, first introduced two years ago, which promised a new way to scale Bitcoin while unlocking new…

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Aifinyo AG Plans To Accumulate Over 10,000 Bitcoin

German fintech company aifinyo AG (Ticker: EBEN) has announced its ambitious plan to become Germany’s first pure-play Bitcoin treasury company, with a target of accumulating over 10,000 Bitcoin by 2027. The announcement marks a significant milestone for corporate Bitcoin adoption in Europe’s largest economy.

The company has already invested €3 million in Bitcoin purchases, complemented by an additional €3 million investment from strategic partner UTXO Management. Aifinyo plans to convert future operating profits from its B2B payments business into Bitcoin purchases, creating what Garry Krugljakow, the company’s head of Bitcoin strategy, describes as a “self-reinforcing…

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Ethereum reckons with Dankrad Feist’s move to Tempo

Ethereum just lost one of its most prolific researchers, Dankrad Feist, to Tempo — the Stripe/Paradigm co-production that’s building a purpose-built EVM chain for payments. 

The move has reignited debate in the Ethereum community: Is a venture-owned, EVM-compatible chain a threat to Ethereum mainnet and talent pool — or a healthy forcing function that clarifies what Ethereum should (and shouldn’t) chase?

On Monday, Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin weighed in with a measured counterpoint, arguing that venture capital both extracts and contributes, and reaffirming Ethereum’s position as the “rigorously decentralized, credibly neutral” base layer. 

Prominent Ethereum…

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Bitcoin Price Holds $111,000 as TD Cowen Predicts $141,000 by December

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Price Holds $111,000 as TD Cowen Predicts $141,000 by December

Bitcoin price is holding steady around $111,000 after a turbulent few weeks, but TD Cowen analysts project that the bitcoin price could reach $141,000 by December. 

In a note released Monday, the firm highlighted the recent crypto market crash and recovery as a testament to the resilience of the broader crypto and bitcoin ecosystem.

The flash crash earlier this month triggered roughly $19 billion in liquidations, the largest single-day event in crypto history. Despite the scale of the sell-off, TD Cowen noted that most exchanges remained operational with minimal disruption, demonstrating the…

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Bitcoin Mining Stocks Surge As Market Optimism Jumps

Shares of leading Bitcoin mining firms surged today alongside renewed strength in Bitcoin markets. 

Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA) climbed 7.97% to $21.13, Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) jumped 11.21% to $22.28, and CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) rose 9.09% to $21.30, at the time of writing. 

Earlier during Monday’s trading hours, some of these tickers saw stock increases of 10% or more.

The rally follows a rebound in Bitcoin prices and growing investor confidence in miners’ profitability and AI-initiatives. 

Cleanspark announced a move into AI and HPC that marks a pivotal moment for the company. The miner said it is positioning itself to serve as a leading…

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LATEST: Binance Founder CZ Declares That Bitcoin Will Eventually Flip Gold

Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has made a bold forecast for Bitcoin, suggesting the world’s top cryptocurrency could one day overtake gold in total value. Despite gold’s dominance, Zhao believes Bitcoin’s rapid growth and rising market confidence could eventually help it “flip” the precious metal.

Currently, Bitcoin’s market capitalization stands at around $2.21 trillion, far below gold’s $30.34 trillion. Yet, BTC’s performance has remained impressive, climbing 61% so far this year compared to gold’s 60.7%. Analysts note Bitcoin’s increasing role as a hedge against currency devaluation, similar to gold, and point out that both assets tend to rise alongside M2 money supply growth.

Bitcoin last traded around $111,000 while gold hovered near its all-time high of $4,346.45. Though BTC is still not an official reserve asset, its consistent performance and historical rallies following gold peaks suggest that closing the gap with gold could soon become a reality.