- April 5: U.S. Non-farm Payrolls & Unemployment Rate
Ondo Finance and BlackRock’s Tokenized Fund Integration Ondo Finance created quite a stir last week, due to its pivotal collaboration with BlackRock’s BUIDL fund. Let’s dive into what we know: ?
- In a bold move, Ondo Finance allocated $95 million to BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, making up 38% of its total value.
- This strategic move is intended to back Ondo's own U.S. Treasury-backed token (OUSG), which facilitates?instant settlements instead of the standard T+2 model.
- BUIDL, an Ethereum-based token, allows white-listed, institutional clients to gain exposure to U.S. Treasury bills and repo agreements.
- This move marks the first instance of a crypto protocol leveraging BlackRock's tokenized fund offering.
- The integration with BUIDL has significantly enhanced the functionality of OUSG tokens as both an asset and collateral, addressing previous redemption time concerns.
- Ondo’s native token, ONDO, has seen a surge in market activity, reaching all-time highs and demonstrating substantial growth.
- Since its inception in August 2021, Ondo Finance has been at the forefront of innovation, starting with the adaptive Ondo Vaults and evolving to the Liquidity-as-a-Service model, which solidified numerous DeFi partnerships.
- In January 2023, Ondo introduced its V2, featuring innovative solutions like Ondo Funds and Flux Finance. This marked a strategic shift towards advanced DeFi services and expanding into the Asia-Pacific market.
- The partnership with BlackRock signals a rising institutional interest in tokenized securities.
- Ondo Finance is capitalizing on this momentum to strengthen its market presence, aiming to democratize access to traditional asset classes through tokenization.
- The success of this collaboration could catalyze the integration of more traditional financial assets into the blockchain, enhancing liquidity and broadening investment opportunities.
- SEC?can proceed with Coinbase lawsuit Commentary: A United States court has denied Coinbase’s motion to dismiss the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against the exchange. The decision allows the SEC to pursue its lawsuit against Coinbase. Coinbase was sued by the SEC last year for allegedly operating as an unregistered exchange, broker, and clearing agency. The regulator also took issue with Coinbase's staking and wallet services. The SEC and Coinbase also have to submit a proposed case management plan before April 19.
- SingularityNet, Fetch AI, and Ocean Protocol?reportedly discuss a token merger Commentary: Three prominent artificial intelligence (AI) protocols, SingularityNet, Fetch ai, and Ocean Protocol are in discussions to merge their tokens into an AltSignals (ASI) token that would have a fully diluted valuation of $7.5 billion. While the three platforms would continue to operate as separate entities, the new deal would foster their collaboration under a newly formed Superintelligence Collective, run by Ben Goertzel, the founder and CEO of SingularityNet.
- New?BlackRock tokenized fund?garners $160M in deposits in one week, adds $95M more Commentary: The BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), the $10 trillion asset manager's first tokenized investment fund, saw $160 million in inflows in its first week. It appears to be growing, with fresh funds from the tokenized real-world asset (RWA) platform Ondo Finance. The BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) is a tokenized money market fund that invests in U.S. Treasury bills, repurchase agreements, and cash. With help from Miami-based Securitize, it uses the Ethereum blockchain for issuing BUIDL tokens, which are designed to offer a stable value of $1 per token and pay dividends in the form of tokens representing U.S. dollar yield to qualified investors.
- Fidelity?files S-1 application with US SEC for spot ETH EFT with staking Commentary: Fidelity filed an S-1 application with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 27 to create a spot Ether exchange-traded fund (ETF). As expected from an earlier filing, the ETF will give Fidelity the option to stake part of the ETH it holds. That decision entails additional risk, the application noted. There would be a risk of loss “including in the form of ‘slashing’ penalties” and liquidity risks while the stake is being processed. In addition, staking rewards would be treated as income for the fund for tax purposes, as a result of which investors will experience a taxable event “without an associated distribution from the Trust.”
- Crypto exchange KuCoin?laundered $9B, 'flouted' anti-money laundering laws: DOJ indictment Commentary: The Department of Justice lodged charges against crypto exchange KuCoin and two of its founders, alleging they violated anti-money laundering laws. The Department says the exchange failed to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program and failed to have "reasonable procedures" in place to confirm customers' identities and also failed to file suspicious activity reports. The indictment said that KuCoin deliberately avoided U.S. AML and KYC regulations by "falsely representing that it had no U.S. customers when, in truth, KuCoin had a substantial U.S. customer base." The government claims KuCoin allowed its platform to be used for laundering over $9 billion.
- CFTC?reiterates ether is a commodity in the complaint against Kucoin Commentary: The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has once more asserted that ether and several other cryptocurrencies are commodities as regulators engage in a tug-of-war to secure oversight of the sprawling digital assets industry. The CFTC said in a legal complaint against the operators of crypto exchange Kucoin that bitcoin, ether, and litecoin are commodities, a press release shows. The CFTC’s assertion marks the latest of several public attempts by the regulator to establish the Ethereum blockchain’s native token as a good that falls under its purview.?
- Tether?looks to ‘build the next generation of open AI models’ with new data division Commentary: Tether has established a new AI division within the company. The new division, named Tether Data, is looking to hire an AI engineer and a head of AI research and development, according to Tether’s job recruiting website. “Our goal is to build the next generation of open AI models, leading innovation in AI, through an accessible, transparent, and privacy-preserving approach,” the job postings read. In addition to building AI models, Tether’s AI unit will lead collaborations integrating AI solutions into “market-driven products” and advance the field of open AI, according to the company’s blog post.
- London Stock Exchange?to launch crypto ETNs on May 28 Commentary: The London Stock Exchange (LSE) will launch cryptocurrency exchange-traded notes (ETNs) tracking the performance of Bitcoin and Ether on May 28. Despite substantial investor interest, the ETNs will only be available to professional investors as per the U.K. FCA’s ban on the sale of crypto derivatives and ETNs enacted in January 2021.
- SEC plans to ask the judge for $2 billion in fines and penalties from?Ripple Labs Commentary: The Securities and Exchange Commission has requested a New York judge impose $2 billion in fines and penalties on Ripple Labs Inc., according to the company's chief legal officer. The filings Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty said will be made public on Tuesday are part of the continuing saga of its years-long case with the SEC. The SEC and Ripple have been embroiled in a legal fight since 2020 when the agency accused Ripple of raising $1.3 billion through the sale of XRP, which it says is an unregistered security. Last year, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that some of Ripple’s sales of XRP did not violate securities laws because of a blind bid process in place for them.
- Philippines?regulators take steps to block Binance Commentary: The Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Monday that it has worked on obstructing access to Binance because the platform does not have the required regulatory license to operate within its jurisdiction. "The group has been actively employing promotional campaigns on social media to attract Filipinos to engage in investment and trading activities using its platforms but Binance has not secured from regulators a license to solicit investments from the public, nor to create or operate an exchange for the buying and selling of securities." the agency said in the statement.
- FTX?to sell two-thirds of Anthropic stake for $884 million, with buyers including Jane Street and funds managed by Fidelity Commentary: The estate of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX is selling two-thirds of its stake in AI company Anthropic for $884 million, according to court documents. The deals are with two dozen buyers, including Jane Street and Fidelity.
- Singapore’s DigiFT?launches US T-Bill RWA tokens Commentary: Singapore’s on-chain real-world asset (RWA) exchange DigiFT announced today the launch of new tokens based on the U.S. Treasury Bills. The new product adopts the structure of depository receipts, which traditionally involves a certificate reflecting shares of a company outside the local stock market. DigiFT added that its new RWA token will be suited for stablecoin issuers and Web3 product developers who are looking for regulatory-compliant treasury, as well as cash management solutions.
- Polygon zkEVM?blockchain resumes operation following 10-hour outage Commentary: Polygon zkEVM, the Ethereum Layer 2 network that was launched a year ago this week, suffered a recent network outage that saw its nascent blockchain grind to a halt for over ten hours. The Polygon zkEVM outage did not affect Polygon's main blockchain or any chains designed with Polygon's Chain Development Kit (CDK). "We look forward to our release of the second-gen zkEVM in the coming weeks," the company wrote.
- SEC?chair says ‘Crypto markets need disinfectant’ Commentary: United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler aimed at crypto industry participants, claiming some avoided registration requirements with the regulator. “There still are those who would like to whittle away at the SEC’s disclosure regime,” said the SEC chair. “There are participants in crypto securities markets that seek to avoid these registration requirements. No registration means no mandatory disclosure. Many would agree that the crypto markets could use a little disinfectant.”
- Base?TVL doubles in a month as pundits tip memecoins to drive adoption Commentary: Ethereum layer-2 network Base’s total value locked (TVL) has doubled in less than a month, reaching $2.13 billion, while commentators say it could become the next epicenter for memecoins. Degen (DEGEN) and Base God (TYBG) are among the largest Base memecoins, boasting market caps of $143.4 million and $65.9 million. Normie (NORMIE), Briun Armstrung (BRIUN), and Brett (BRETT) are among the other Base memecoins that are being speculated on by traders.
- April 10?- U.S. Consumer Price Index for March
- April 19?- Bitcoin Halving ETA Date
- May 1?-?U.S. FOMC Interest Rate Decision
- May 15?-?BTC ETF Investors 13-F SEC filing disclosure
- May 23?-?VanEck Ethereum?ETF Filing SEC Next Decision Date
- May 24?-?21Shares & ARK Ethereum?ETF Filing SEC Next Decision Date
- May 30?-?Hashdex Ethereum?ETF Filing SEC Next Decision Date
Bringing traditional finance and blockchain together is revolutionary! Like Aristotle said, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This partnership is a brilliant step forward for financial innovation. ????