2/29/24: Financial Transparency For All 🔎🪙🤫

Author

Valko
February 29, 2024

Top News

  1. Ark Invest integrates Chainlink for spot Bitcoin ETF proof of reserves

  2. Bitcoin is about to flip Silver’s market cap at $1.27T

  3. Snowden thinks a Gov. will reveal it’s been secretly buying Bitcoin

Specs’ Breakdown

Ark and 21Shares to Disclose Spot Bitcoin ETF Reserves Via Chainlink Integration

The move comes after fellow spot bitcoin ETF issuer Bitwise drew applause from industry experts for making its wallet address public in January.

⌐◪-◪ → Ark Invest and 21Shares are integrating Chainlink’s proof of reserves to make their spot Bitcoin ETF holdings 100% transparent.

They are the second spot Bitcoin ETF to do so, following Bitwise, who in my opinion is leading by example by doing things the “web3” way.

This move is a major win for the entire industry, as it elegantly showcases the power of blockchain on a global stage and puts pressure on all financial institutions to create greater transparency.

Slowly but surely, the dominoes are falling until this level of transparency and trustlessness eventually becomes the norm.

If FTX and Alameda had proof of reserves, they could have never defrauded their users/investors. Transparency is a powerful thing.

2. Bitcoin is about to flip Silver’s market cap at $1.27T

⌐◪-◪ → Bitcoin is on a roll and is about to flip Silver’s market cap at $1.27T.

But how big is that exactly? How about we put Bitcoin’s $1.24T market cap in the context of other companies/assets:

  • Visa → $0.58T

  • Tesla → $0.65T

  • Meta → $1.23T

  • Bitcoin → $1.24T

  • Silver → $1.27T

  • Microsoft → $3.03T

  • Gold → $13.768T

If that doesn’t impress you, how about this…

Bitcoin just surpassed the Russian Ruble (yes the national currency of Russia) in market cap, making Bitcoin the 14th largest currency in the world. Insane.

3. Snowden thinks a Gov. will reveal it’s been secretly buying Bitcoin

⌐◪-◪ → Our favorite whistleblower, Edward Snowden, predicts a major government will reveal that it’s been buying Bitcoin in secret sometime this year.

He goes on to call Bitcoin the modern equivalent of Gold, which for context has a market cap 11.1x the size of Bitcoin.

A few Twitter polls speculate it could be Russia, which is sort of ironic considering BTC just surpasses the Ruble’s market cap, but who knows?

It’s all speculation, and even Snowden could be wrong with his prediction here, but if his track record is any indication of his insider knowledge, then he’s probably right.

Let me know what country you think has been secretly buying Bitcoin in Specs Chat!

Everything Else

⛓️ Crypto & DeFi

  • Blast mainnet is launching today with $2.2B TVL and 223k users

  • Coinbase is showing $0 for some users, blames surge in traffic

  • Trump now holds $4M worth of memecoin $TRUMP

  • Uber prices surge at ETH Denver, $125 for a 5-minute UberX

  • Shiba Inu adopts tech to bring privacy to SHIB holders

  • Seneca stablecoin exploited for $6M due to smart contract flaw

  • Floki developers plan to burn $11M tokens, reducing supply by 2%

  • Usual protocol introduces stablecoins backed by real-world assets

  • Babylon launches testnet, rewarding early stakers with NFT passes

  • GMX earns over $1M in protocol fees in 1 day

🏦 Wallstreet & VC

  • Marathon Digital unveils two BTC sidechains within Anduro network

  • Spot BTC ETFs hit record $673M daily inflows, led by BlackRock

  • Morgan Stanley evaluating spot BTC ETFs for its brokerage platform

  • BounceBit raises $6M in seed funding for restaking protocol

  • Ether.Fi raises $23M Series A for liquid restaking protocol

  • Backpack raises $17M at $120M valuation for crypto exchange/wallet

🏛️ Legal & Regulatory

  • SEC challenges Terraform Labs’ suspicious $166M lawyer retainer

  • Gemini to pay $37M fine in settlement with NY regulator

  • US Government transfer $1B of BTC seized from Bitfinex hacker

  • Craig Wright to face new allegations of forgery in COPA trial

  • SBF’s family and cellmate appeal for leniency in sentencing

🌎 Rest of the World

  • South Korea’s ruling party retracts spot BTC ETF election promises

  • El Salvador’s president says their BTC holdings are up 40%

  • HashKey OTC receives in-principle approval for license in Singapore

  • Hong Kong to broaden e-CNY pilot to boost cross-border payments

  • HSBC in Hong Kong is exploring tokenization for physical assets

  • Binance Nigeria moved $26B of untraceable funds in 2023

🖼️ NFTs & Metaverse

Join The Conversation!

Unlock Specs’ full potential by joining Specs Chat, where members chat with Valko, add context to the daily crypto news, and share a diverse set of perspectives.

Specs Chat is more than just a group chat, it’s a community designed to help you become a better crypto investor and operator.