CoinDesk Crypto

Selling pressure on bitcoin (BTC) miners has been declining after a major sell-off in January. This could be a positive thing for bitcoin, seen as a “catalyst for prices to float higher,” according to a report by Stack Funds, a provider of cryptocurrency index funds in Asia.

• Miners’ seven-day outflows are at the lowest level in five years, currently trading around the 1.0 level, according to CryptoQuant, a South Korean cryptocurrency data firm.
• The last time the miner outflow indicator dipped to current levels was back in 2015 when “bitcoin went on a parabolic rise that lasted more than two years,” according to Stack Funds.
• The breakdown in the outflow indicator suggests miner selling pressure will continue to remain low.
• “Overall, most fundamental indicators suggest miners are back into accumulating, and we expect $50,000 to be a strong support handle for bitcoin in the near term,” according to Stack Funds.

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• Watch Out for These Risks Before Investing in Bitcoin or Ether

There are a number of risks associated with holding and investing in cryptocurrencies. In the latest CoinDesk Research report, we look at seven different risks, from the regulatory to the technological, that affect bitcoin and ether, and whether you’d want to hold these assets for the long term. 

Here is a brief overview of three of those risks, identified in the report “Bitcoin + Ether: An Investor’s Perspective.”

Twelve years after the creation of the world’s first cryptocurrency, bitcoin, regulating the asset is still complicated in most countries. Officials want to know, are bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies financial assets? Commodities? Property? 

Related: What’s Next for Beeple After Dizzying $69M NFT Sale?

As for ether, the questions are on a different level because of the underlying Ethereum blockchain. So regulators in the U.S., for instance, are wrestling with the kind of information decentralized applications (dapps) and proof-of-stake blockchains (where Ethereum is heading with its Eth 2.0 upgrade) do and do not collect about its users. 

In December 2020, the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a unit of the Treasury Dept., proposed rules affecting banks and money services companies as well as crypto exchanges. Exchanges would have to collect names and home addresses for the owners of private crypto wallets (also referred to as self-hosted wallets, unhosted wallets or sometimes just “wallets”) receiving more than $3,000 in cryptocurrencies in aggregate in a day.

Read more: FinCEN Extends Comment Period for Controversial Crypto Rules

Such rules, if implemented, could put a big chill on those holding crypto on exchanges, and even on users of Ethereum and its dapp ecosystem. Most of the activity on dapps is as yet untraceable, and the ease of moving value around in a pseudonymous manner through the ether cryptocurrency is still intact. There is the potential for this proposal to be implemented by U.S. regulators in some form but FinCEN is taking public comment and industry feedback until March 29.

Related: Bitcoin Not a Long-Term Allocation, Says Man Group CEO

The risk of a bug in the Bitcoin protocol’s software is low but not zero. The introduction of upgrades such as “Taproot” brings new code to the bitcoin currency’s underlying protocol that may make its technology open to new attack vectors. 

The technological risk for ether is much greater than bitcoin because of the Ethereum blockchain’s ambitious upgrade to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus protocol. Ethereum 2.0 will radically change how transactions and dapps are secured on the network. 

Read more: Ether Uptrend Is Weakening, Could Test Lower Support: Technical Analysis

PoS is a highly experimental technology that has yet to see widespread adoption on the same scale as Ethereum today. Ethereum 2.0 represents the bet that PoS will one day be able to replace Ethereum fully and adopt the network’s existing user base in its entirety. 

Due to the ambitious goals of the upgrade, there is a higher probability for code bugs and failures through the implementation of Ethereum 2.0 on Ethereum than Bitcoin’s Taproot upgrade. 

In addition to protocol upgrades, there is a different type of technological risk that exists for both the Bitcoin and Ethereum systems because they rely on the activity of “mining” for network security. A hostile actor could launch what is called a “51% attack” and censor blockchain transactions or cancel approved blocks by taking control of the majority of miner hash power. 

(Hash power is a measure of the computational energy expended by miners on a blockchain to process and finalize transactions.) 

Given the current size and spread of the crypto industry’s hash power, the cost of a 51% attack on Bitcoin, and to a lesser extent on Ethereum, is prohibitively expensive, but could be within reach of a state actor.

Another common risk associated with bitcoin and ether is the potential for a more efficient, secure competitor to replace the assets. But while this is possible given that both are based on open-source code that anyone can replicate on GitHub, it is increasingly unlikely. 

The main reason is because the size of the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks is becoming an insurmountably high barrier. In Bitcoin’s case, the strength in the network is not just from the number of active addresses, which hit all-time highs in late January 2021. It is also from the number of miners that expend computational power to secure the network. 

Read more: Foundry Ends Bitcoin Mining Pool Beta Phase, Adds More Institutional Clients

A competitor would have to steal away bitcoin miners with a more attractive and profitable alternative. Incentivizing miners to switch their machines to a different protocol would require amassing similar levels of user trust and market value. 

Ethereum is in a similar position. Network effects matter, even if blockchain interconnectivity becomes seamless because the strength of the developer network and the sprawling web of complementary dapps matter.

For detailed descriptions of the other four risks associated with these two crypto assets, download the free report, “Bitcoin + Ether: An Investor’s Perspective,” available now on the CoinDesk Research Hub. 

• Alameda Research Pumps $20M Into Cross-Chain DeFi Platform Reef Finance
• Miner Selling Pressure Declines, Could Fuel Bitcoin Rally, Blockchain Analysis Shows

Business analytics firm MicroStrategy has made yet another large bitcoin purchase, buying a further $15 million worth.

• MicroStrategy announced Friday it purchased approximately 262 more BTC at an average price per coin of $57,146, just a little over $1,000 away from the cryptocurrency’s all-time high.
• This latest purchase brings the firm’s total bitcoin holdings to around 91,326, bought for an average of $24,214 apiece.
• At the time of writing, this is equal to around $5.1 billion, compared to the approximate $2.21 billion MicroStrategy paid for them.
• The company’s share price has partly recovered from a month-long downturn, which saw it dip as low as $547.40 on March 5.
• MicroStrategy stock was listed at $763 in pre-market trading today and stands at $803.75 at press time.

See also: MicroStrategy Keeps Stacking Sats With Additional $15M Bitcoin Buy

• What’s Next for Beeple After Dizzying $69M NFT Sale?
• Bitcoin Not a Long-Term Allocation, Says Man Group CEO
• Alameda Research Pumps $20M Into Cross-Chain DeFi Platform Reef Finance
• Miner Selling Pressure Declines, Could Fuel Bitcoin Rally, Blockchain Analysis Shows

Blockchain technology was mentioned for the first time ever in a draft of China’s national five-year policy plan, the final version of which was approved by lawmakers and advisers at the end of an annual political meeting on Thursday in Beijing.

• The technology that underpins bitcoin and other cryptocurrency was mentioned for the first time in the lengthy document that lays out China’s goals to work toward in the next half-decade, reports the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
• China’s 14th five-year plan outlines the country’s economic priorities and stressed that technology will play an increasingly important large role in the country’s top-down planning.
• Although China has banned the trading of cryptocurrencies, blockchain will play a key role in the country’s digital economy under President Xi Jinping, the SCMP reported.
• The digital economy is expected to contribute to the country’s GDP and “transform China into a global leader” through the use of artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and blockchain, according to the draft.
• The final version of the plan has yet to be made public.

Read more: NFT Art Craze Spreads to China

• What’s Next for Beeple After Dizzying $69M NFT Sale?
• Bitcoin Not a Long-Term Allocation, Says Man Group CEO
• Alameda Research Pumps $20M Into Cross-Chain DeFi Platform Reef Finance
• Miner Selling Pressure Declines, Could Fuel Bitcoin Rally, Blockchain Analysis Shows

Binance is being investigated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to determine if U.S. residents traded derivatives on the cryptocurrency exchange in violation of U.S. rules, Bloomberg reported.

Binance hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing and the CFTC may not bring an enforcement action, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg also did not outline a time period for this alleged trading.

Spokespeople for Binance and the CFTC did not immediately return requests for comment. However, in a tweet posted after Bloomberg’s report ran, the exchange’s founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao, appeared to call the report “FUD,” using an acronym for “fear, uncertainty and doubt” that is often used to refer to unwelcome news in the crypto industry.

Related: What’s Next for Beeple After Dizzying $69M NFT Sale?

The news comes a day after Binance announced it has hired Max Baucus, a former U.S. senator and ambassador to China, as a policy adviser who would be able to navigate the exchange’s relationship with U.S. regulators. Baucus currently operates a consulting business.

Binance does not directly serve U.S. customers on paper, instead using a San Francisco-based entity operating as Binance.US for that purpose. Despite this, the parent exchange has announced at least twice in two years that it would be removing all U.S. customers from its platform.

The probe is another sign regulators are trying to funnel U.S. investors into regulated channels.

Derivatives trading in the U.S. is strictly overseen by the CFTC. The agency brought an enforcement action last year against BitMEX, also on allegations it allowed U.S. customers to trade derivatives products. That case, which is also being pursued by the Department of Justice, is ongoing.

Related: Bitcoin Not a Long-Term Allocation, Says Man Group CEO

UPDATE (March 12, 2021, 14:00 UTC): Updated with additional context throughout.

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• Miner Selling Pressure Declines, Could Fuel Bitcoin Rally, Blockchain Analysis Shows

A widely tracked technical indicator is signaling a weakening of upward momentum amid bitcoin’s renewed push toward record highs.

The 14-week relative strength index (RSI), a momentum indicator, has formed a lower high this year, decoupling from the continued uptrend in prices for bitcoin (BTC).

The RSI’s bearish divergence indicates uptrend fatigue and suggests scope for a bull market correction.

Related: What’s Next for Beeple After Dizzying $69M NFT Sale?

The cryptocurrency fell sharply following the confirmation of RSI’s bearish divergence in February 2017 and August 2017 (above right).

Bitcoin peaked at $13,880 in June 2019 with a bearish divergence on the weekly chart. That resistance was topped in October 2020 (above right).

The leading cryptocurrency is currently trading at $56,500, for a 95% year-to-date gain, having narrowly missed on Thursday the record high of $58,332 reached Feb. 17.

Also read: Bitcoin’s Put-Call Ratio Hits 9-Month High, But That’s Not Necessarily Bearish

Related: Bitcoin Not a Long-Term Allocation, Says Man Group CEO

A convincing move above the psychological resistance of $60,000 would likely lift the RSI above its down trendline. That would invalidate the bearish divergence and may invite stronger chart-driven buying pressure.

• Alameda Research Pumps $20M Into Cross-Chain DeFi Platform Reef Finance
• Miner Selling Pressure Declines, Could Fuel Bitcoin Rally, Blockchain Analysis Shows

Bitcoin (BTC) is holding support above its 50-day volume weighted moving average, but the cryptocurrency faces resistance around $58,000. Upside momentum is slowing, with initial support around $52,000 on the 4-hour chart.

• For now, BTC’s uptrend remains intact as buyers on March 8 pushed prices above the $50,000 level for the second time since February, and bitcoin has moved this week back toward its all-time-high around $58,000.
• Momentum, defined by the relative strength index (RSI), is slowing on both intraday charts and the daily chart, diverging from BTC’s price uptrend.
• Traders are on watch for a breakout to fresh all-time highs, but there is concern about a double top forming, which could lead to profit taking.

• What’s Next for Beeple After Dizzying $69M NFT Sale?
• Bitcoin Not a Long-Term Allocation, Says Man Group CEO
• Alameda Research Pumps $20M Into Cross-Chain DeFi Platform Reef Finance
• Miner Selling Pressure Declines, Could Fuel Bitcoin Rally, Blockchain Analysis Shows

The government of Australia has allocated AU$6.9 million (US$5.3 million) to the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (DISER) to study the role blockchain technology can play in regulation.

• The money will be spent on two pilot projects intended to show how cost reductions in regulatory compliance are possible with the use of blockchain, ZDNet has reported.
• The projects will focus on the supply chains of critical minerals and food and beverages.
• According to Tim Bradley, general manager of Emerging Technologies and Adoption at the DISER, thus far regulators have concentrated their blockchain efforts on the financial-services industry.
• “This is very much an initiative to demonstrate the use of the technology across the [Australian Public Service] and with regulators,” Bradley said.
• Steve Vallas, CEO of trade group Blockchain Australia, last month called for more support from the government and regulators to encourage blockchain innovation.

See also: Mystery Over Why Blockchain Australia Revoked Membership of Crypto Project Qoin

• What’s Next for Beeple After Dizzying $69M NFT Sale?
• Bitcoin Not a Long-Term Allocation, Says Man Group CEO
• Alameda Research Pumps $20M Into Cross-Chain DeFi Platform Reef Finance
• Miner Selling Pressure Declines, Could Fuel Bitcoin Rally, Blockchain Analysis Shows

The government of Australia has allocated AU$6.9 million (US$5.3 million) to the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (DISER) to investigate the role blockchain technology could play in regulation.

• The money will be spent on two pilot projects intended the cost reductions in regulatory compliance possible with the use of blockchain, ZDNet has reported.
• These projects will be around the supply chains of critical minerals and food and beverages.
• According to Tim Bradley, general manager of Emerging Technologies and Adoption at the DISER, use cases for blockchain being adopted by the government have thus far been concentrated in financial services.
• “This is very much an initiative to demonstrate the use of the technology across the [Australian Public Service] and with regulators,” Bailey says.
• Steve Vallas, CEO of Blockchain Australia, last month called for more support from government and regulators to encouraging blockchain innovation.

See also: Mystery Over Why Blockchain Australia Revoked Membership of Crypto Project Qoin

• Bitcoin Battles Resistance Near All-Time-High as Possible ‘Double Top’ Looms: Technical Analysis
• Bitcoin’s Put-Call Ratio Hits 9-Month High, But That’s Not Necessarily Bearish
• Grayscale’s ETF Push Highlights Existential Threat to GBTC Dominance
• NFT Art Craze Spreads to China

Bitcoin’s put-call open interest ratio, which measures the number of put options, or bearish bets, open relative to calls, or bullish bets, is rising. However, that does not imply traders are positioning themselves for a drop in the market.

The ratio jumped to 0.91 on Thursday, the highest level since June 26, 2020, according to data provided by the crypto derivatives research firm Skew. 

The metric has been rising since the beginning of the year. The spike, however, may have been fueled by increased put selling, which is usually done when the market is expected to consolidate or rally. 

Related: What’s Next for Beeple After Dizzying $69M NFT Sale?

Bitcoin’s one-month implied volatility, or investors’ expectations for price turbulence over four weeks, spiked to record levels in early January, boosting options prices, and remained elevated above its lifetime average of 100% (annualized) until last week. 

Traders, therefore, had a strong incentive to sell put options at high prices during that bull run. Volatility essentially represents uncertainty and has a positive impact on options prices. The one-month implied volatility is now hovering below 100%. 

Open interest only tells us the number of calls and put contracts that are active, or open, at a given point in time and does not reveal whether investors are buying call/put options or selling (known as “writing” in options markets). 

The way the options are currently priced actually suggests bullish bias in the market. One-, three- and six-month put-call skews, which measure the cost of puts relative to calls, are hovering in negative territory, implying greater demand for bullish calls compared to puts. 

Related: Bitcoin Not a Long-Term Allocation, Says Man Group CEO

Indeed, the put-call skews have recovered from the bull market depths seen earlier this year and options market recently saw some put buying. Again that does not imply a bearish mood, as traders often buy put options as a hedge (protection) against bullish or long positioning in the spot or futures markets.

Lastly, the put-call open interest ratio is closing on parity, which means the market is heading toward neutral positioning. All-in-all, the spike in the put-call open interest ratio shouldn’t be a cause for concern for the bulls. However, a continued rise in the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield may play spoilsport.

The yield has risen back to 1.6% today, making the U.S. dollar more attractive as an investment and putting a downward pressure on equities and other competing investments. Bitcoin fell sharply in the last week of February, as yields spiked, triggering risk aversion in traditional markets.

Bitcoin is currently trading near $56,100, having narrowly missed challenging the record high of $58,332 on Thursday, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index. The pullback seen today could be associated with the jittery traditional markets. The U.S. 10-year yield has risen back to 1.6%, strengthening the dollar and pushing the European equities lower.

Also read: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Rallies Near $58K, Stocks Soar to Record Highs

• Alameda Research Pumps $20M Into Cross-Chain DeFi Platform Reef Finance
• Miner Selling Pressure Declines, Could Fuel Bitcoin Rally, Blockchain Analysis Shows

Bitcoin’s put-call open interest ratio, which measures the number of put options, or bearish bets, open relative to calls, or bullish bets, is rising. However, that does not imply traders are positioning themselves for a drop in the market.

The ratio jumped to 0.91 on Thursday, the highest level since June 26, 2020, according to data provided by the crypto derivatives research firm Skew. 

The metric has been rising since the beginning of the year. The spike, however, may have been fueled by increased put selling, which is usually done when the market is expected to consolidate or rally. 

Related: Bitcoin Battles Resistance Near All-Time-High as Possible ‘Double Top’ Looms: Technical Analysis

Bitcoin’s one-month implied volatility, or investors’ expectations for price turbulence over four weeks, spiked to record levels in early January, boosting options prices and remained elevated above its lifetime average of 100% (annualized) until last week. 

Traders, therefore, had a strong incentive to sell put options at high prices during that bull run. Volatility essentially represents uncertainty and has positive impact on options prices. The one-month implied volatility is now hovering below 100%. 

Open interest only tells us the number of calls and put contracts that are active, or open, at a given point in time and does not reveal whether investors are buying call/put options or selling (known as “writing” in options markets). 

The way the options are currently priced actually suggests bullish bias in the market. One-, three- and six-month put-call skews, which measure the cost of puts relative to calls, are hovering in negative territory, implying greater demand for bullish calls compared to puts. 

Related: Australia’s Government Allocates AU$6.9 Million for Blockchain Pilot Projects

Indeed, the put-call skews have recovered from the bull market depths seen earlier this year and options market recently saw some put buying. Again that does not imply a bearish mood, as traders often buy put options as a hedge (protection) against bullish or long positioning in the spot or futures. 

Lastly, the put-call open interest ratio is closing on parity, which means the market is heading toward neutral positioning. All-in-all, the spike in the put-call open interest ratio shouldn’t be a cause for concern for the bulls. However, a continued rise in the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield may play spoilsport.

The yield has risen back to 1.6% today, making the U.S. dollar more attractive as an investment and putting a downward pressure on equities and other competing investments. Bitcoin fell sharply in the last week of February, as yields spiked, triggering risk aversion in traditional markets.

Bitcoin is currently trading near $56,100, having narrowly missed challenging the record high of $58,332 on Thursday, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index. The pullback seen today could be associated with the jittery traditional markets. The U.S. 10-year yield has risen back to 1.6%, strengthening the dollar and pushing the European equities lower.

Also read: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Rallies Near $58K, Stocks Soar to Record Highs

• Grayscale’s ETF Push Highlights Existential Threat to GBTC Dominance
• NFT Art Craze Spreads to China

For seven years, Grayscale Investments’ bitcoin trust has been nearly the only game in town for investors who wanted to bet on bitcoin’s price without the fuss of handling cryptocurrency.

Lately that’s been changing fast. From alternatives like Osprey’s bitcoin fund to Bitwise’s cryptocurrency index to Canadian bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), investors now have more choices for hassle-free bitcoin exposure. Arguably, MicroStrategy and even Tesla shares might scratch the itch now.

The once-sizable premium over the price of bitcoin for shares in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) has flipped to a discount, reflecting a drop in demand for the vehicle.

Related: Bitcoin Battles Resistance Near All-Time-High as Possible ‘Double Top’ Looms: Technical Analysis

“I don’t think we’re going to see 40% to 50% premiums again like in 2017,” said crypto analyst Kevin Rooke. “There is institutional awareness now,” he said, “and so many ways to get the same exposure.”

And if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approves a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) this year, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) might end up marginalized as the obsolete legacy of a regulatory regime that has since passed.  

“If we have a Bitcoin ETF in the U.S., there probably will be no more inflows into any bitcoin trust,” said Steven McClurg, chief investment officer of Valkyrie Digital Assets, which has its own pending proposal for a bitcoin ETF. 

Grayscale clearly sees the writing on the wall. Far from sitting on its hands, the investment manager (which, like CoinDesk, is owned by Digital Currency Group) has been buying back GBTC shares, helping to stabilize the price. Perhaps more significantly, the firm is hiring specialists to compete in the bitcoin ETF space.

Related: Australia’s Government Allocates AU$6.9 Million for Blockchain Pilot Projects

“Grayscale is continuously exploring new opportunities, such as an ETF, in response to customer demand,” said Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein. “We were the first to provide exposure to a digital asset through a regulated wrapper, and our goal is to ensure that we lead the market in whatever future product we bring forward as well.”

Such adaptive measures show how rapidly the bitcoin market structure is changing as the price trades near all-time highs and the mainstream investors Grayscale has been courting for years are arriving in greater numbers than before. Firms are now adding millions of dollars worth of bitcoin to their corporate treasuries, institutions are buying more bitcoin than what’s being mined, and Goldman Sachs plans to relaunch its crypto trading desk after a three-year hiatus.

Hypothetically, the investment manager could convert GBTC into an ETF, but it would be expensive compared to others already on the market under the current fee structure. CI Global Asset Management has advertised that its Canadian bitcoin ETF would have a 0.4% annual fee. 

Grayscale could instead create a bitcoin ETF that’s secondary to GBTC but with a lower fee than GBTC’s current 2% annual fee, said James Seyffart, ETF research analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. (With around $36 billion in assets under management, Grayscale rakes in around $700 million annually, Seyffart said.)

This would give Grayscale some wiggle room to convert GBTC into an ETF, giving it the opportunity to create one of the most liquid bitcoin funds in the world, Seyffart added, but the investment manager would have to act fast. Seyffart said he’s become less confident now that Grayscale can hold onto institutional investors after seeing trading volumes soar on Canada’s bitcoin ETFs.

There’s also the possibility that as more institutional investors become comfortable with cryptocurrencies, they’re willing to hold bitcoin directly, instead of doing so through a fee-heavy investment vehicle, Seffyart added.

“People are less interested in holding money in GBTC and want to hold bitcoin themselves,” he said. 

• Bitcoin’s Put-Call Ratio Hits 9-Month High, But That’s Not Necessarily Bearish
• NFT Art Craze Spreads to China

Beijing is to host its first exhibition dedicated to “crypto art” which will showcase non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

• The exhibition titled “Virtual Niche—Have you ever seen memes in the mirror?” will run from March 26 until April 4 in the city before moving on to Shanghai and is the first of its kind, according to a report by The Beijinger.
• The curator of the exhibition, Sun Bohan, told the publication crypto art is an emerging trend that is formed by “bridging art and blockchain-based platforms, culture, and technology.”
• The NFT craze has been taking off recently with millions of dollars being spent on rare or desirable digital artworks.
• On Thursday, a piece of digital artwork or NFT by crypto artist Beeple was sold for a record $69.3 million by the auction house Christie’s.
• NFTs are digital assets that represent a wide range of unique tangible and intangible items, from collectible sports cards to virtual real estate and even digital sneakers.

Read more: How NFTs Became Art, and Everything Became an NFT

• Bitcoin Battles Resistance Near All-Time-High as Possible ‘Double Top’ Looms: Technical Analysis
• Australia’s Government Allocates AU$6.9 Million for Blockchain Pilot Projects
• Bitcoin’s Put-Call Ratio Hits 9-Month High, But That’s Not Necessarily Bearish
• Grayscale’s ETF Push Highlights Existential Threat to GBTC Dominance

Japan-based financial-services company SBI Holdings said it will give its shareholders the option of receiving the embattled XRP cryptocurrency as a benefit for the second year in a row.

• In an announcement Friday, SBI Holdings said shareholders with 100 or more shares can receive XRP worth 2,500 yen ($22.92) as a way of thanking them for their support.
• The amount of XRP given to holders will be determined on June 30, and shareholders will have until May 31 to apply for the perk.
• SBI’s support of XRP is a sign of the digital token’s continued strong fan base in Japan, which is in contrast to its position in the U.S. where most exchanges have stopped trading in the cryptocurrency.
• In December,  the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) sued XRP’s issuer, Ripple Labs, claiming XRP is an unregistered security. 

• What’s Next for Beeple After Dizzying $69M NFT Sale?
• Bitcoin Not a Long-Term Allocation, Says Man Group CEO
• Alameda Research Pumps $20M Into Cross-Chain DeFi Platform Reef Finance
• Miner Selling Pressure Declines, Could Fuel Bitcoin Rally, Blockchain Analysis Shows

Japan-based financial services company SBI Holdings said it will give its shareholders the option to receive the embattled XRP cryptocurrency as a benefit for the second year in a row.

• In an announcement Friday, SBI Holdings said shareholders with 100 or more shares will receive XRP worth 2,500 yen ($22.92) as a way of thanking them for their support.
• The amount of XRP given to holders will be determined on June 30, and shareholders will have until May 31 to apply for the perk.
• SBI’s support of XRP is sign of the digital token’s continued strong fan base in Japan, which is in contrast to its position in the U.S. where most exchanges have stopped trading in the cryptocurrency.
• In December 2020,  the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) filed suit against XRP’s issuer, Ripple Labs, claiming XRP is an unregistered security. 

• NFT Art Craze Spreads to China
• Ripple Execs Ask Court to Block SEC Requests for Personal Financial Records
• Binance Adds Merchant Features to Early Version of Payments Platform
• Romanian Barber Arrested for Allegedly Stealing $620K in Crypto

Two senior executives of Ripple have asked the court to quash requests for access to their personal financial records by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In a letter to the Southern District Court in New York on Thursday, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Executive Chairman Chris Larsen asked Judge Sarah Netburn to block subpoenas sent to multiple banks seeking eight years’-worth of their financial information.

The SEC’s request is “wholly inappropriate overreach” say the executives, since the case relates to the alleged sale of unregistered securities, and is a “non-fraud litigation.”

Related: NFT Art Craze Spreads to China

Specifically, Garlinghouse and Larsen argue their personal financial lives are not relevant, though they have already agreed to provide some financial information. Additionally, the SEC’s demands violate privacy interests, they add.

“The Individual Defendants’ privacy interests are especially powerful here because the requests and subpoenas seek such a comprehensive intrusion into their personal financial lives,” the letter states.

Six banks have been sent subpoenas, including SVB Financial Group, First Republic Bank, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Silver Lake Bank, Silvergate Bank and Citibank N.A, the letter indicates.

“The SEC has not offered and cannot provide a coherent explanation for why it is entitled to this information,” according to Garlinghouse and Larsen.

Related: SBI Is Offering Shareholders the Option of Getting XRP as a Reward for 2nd Year

In December, the regulator sued Ripple and the co-founders, alleging they had not registered XRP as a security and had sold over $1.3 billion-worth of the cryptocurrency to retail investors.

See also: Ripple’s Chris Larsen Files Motion to Dismiss SEC Case Over XRP Sales

Read the letter:

• Binance Adds Merchant Features to Early Version of Payments Platform
• Romanian Barber Arrested for Allegedly Stealing $620K in Crypto

The Binance exchange is adding new features for merchants to its cryptocurrency payments platform following a beta release in February.

• Binance Pay now allows businesses to process payments in crypto, online or in-person, via QR codes and a dedicated API, the company said in a blog post Friday.
• The beta version, which was for peer-to-peer payments only, drew a claimed 250,000 users.
• The Pay platform supports more than 30 cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, ether, dogecoin and BNB, as well as five fiat currencies: the Australian dollar, Brazilian real, euro, U.K. pound and Turkish lira.
• Founder and CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao previously described payments as the “most obvious use case for crypto.”
• With Binance Pay charging no fees, CZ said Friday, “Traditional payment infrastructure services are riddled with high transaction fees; we see this Pay product as a way to solve one of the many issues and limitations of traditional finance.”
• Binance’s first merchant client on the platform is Travala, a travel-booking platform that already uses its own cryptocurrency.
• Merchant payments services like this generally allow businesses to automatically convert their crypto to fiat at the time of a transaction to counter price volatility.
• However, a Binance spokesperson told CoinDesk that with Pay, “Merchants can manage the payouts by moving their balances to the Binance spot wallet and cashing out using their preferred banking channel.”

See also: Luxury US Hotel Group Now Accepts Bitcoin, Dogecoin and Other Cryptos

• NFT Art Craze Spreads to China
• SBI Is Offering Shareholders the Option of Getting XRP as a Reward for 2nd Year
• Ripple Execs Ask Court to Block SEC Requests for Personal Financial Records
• Romanian Barber Arrested for Allegedly Stealing $620K in Crypto

A barber in Romania suspected of stealing $620,000 in cryptocurrency from an unnamed company in the Cayman Islands has been apprehended.

• Ionel Roman, 38, from the southern city of Craiova, was arrested on March 5, charged with hacking, IT fraud and money laundering.
• According to a statement by prosecutors, Roman launched a cyberattack on a Cayman Islands-based company, described as “the seventh largest cryptocurrency operator in the world,” in late Janaury.
• The barber then transferred $620,000-worth of crypto to several people who paid him in fiat currency.
• Roman withdrew this money in numerous sums of 10,000 lei ($2,449) circumventing the need to provide identity credentials, according to the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT).
• DIICOT seized 10,800 lei from Roman’s home along with various items of electronic equipment.

See also: EXMO Exchange Taps Ledger Vault to Help Secure User Assets After 2020 Hack

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Crypto venture capital firm Pluto Digital Assets has raised a $40 million fund with U.K.-listed Argo Blockchain (LON: ARB) as its lead investor.

• In an announcement Wednesday, Pluto said it now has $50 million in assets under management after launching earlier this year. Argo Blockchain will be maintaining a 25% stake in the new fund with an investment of $10 million.
• Pluto’s fundraising effort was and joined by two other publicly traded firms: Pires Investments Plc (LON: PIRI) and Riverfort Global Opportunities Plc (LON: RGO).
• Pluto will use the funds for “incubating projects, taking equity positions and holding strategic and treasury positions in digital assets,” the firm said in a press release.
• According to Pluto’s website, the London-based firm holds positions in BTC, ETH, AAVE, DOT, KSM and LINK, along with a number of startup investments.

• NFT Art Craze Spreads to China
• SBI Is Offering Shareholders the Option of Getting XRP as a Reward for 2nd Year
• Ripple Execs Ask Court to Block SEC Requests for Personal Financial Records
• Binance Adds Merchant Features to Early Version of Payments Platform

Web 3.0 analytics and querying platform The Graph announced Radicle, a peer-to-peer software building stack, will host its governance protocol, the Graph Improvement Proposal (GIP) Process. All future protocol governance will also be hosted on Radicle, which is akin to a decentralized GitHub. 

• The GIP process is meant to make sure protocol upgrades are frictionless and to allow the decentralized community and stakeholders to contribute to the overall development of the Graph protocol.
• It lays out how contributors can propose an idea and provides a methodology for the The Graph Council, which governs The Graph Foundation’s Treasury, to assess not only if proposals are viable but also the level of community support from indexers, delegators, curators, and subgraph developers.
• Radicle can be seen as a decentralized peer-to-peer version of a platform like GitHub, but without the middlemen or, ultimately, centralized control.
• Radicle does not have any centralized servers and therefore cannot be unilaterally censored.
• The Radicle protocol participants enable collaborative permissionless code, and the process of editing and merging code requests is decentralized.
• According to a blog post announcing the development, “the GIP process includes both the stages and acceptance criteria that a proposal hits as it is fleshed out in The Graph’s Radicle repo.”
•  “Radicle is putting developers back at the heart of code collaboration and providing an alternative to the centralized gatekeepers and data silos that control most git repositories today,” said Brandon Ramirez, co-founder at The Graph, in the blog post.
• “This strongly aligns with The Graph’s vision of an open internet built on public infrastructure and was the natural choice for the GIP process.
• The two projects have future plans to collaborate, including “storing subgraph repositories on Radicle and indexing Radicle projects using The Graph.”
• “Radicle was designed with decentralized communities like The Graph in mind and its core properties of security, sovereignty, and permission-less nature make a great fit,”said Eleftherios Diakomichalis, co-founder of Radicle in the post.

Read more: Web 3.0 Infrastructure Blockchain ‘The Graph’ Now Live on Ethereum

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