SEC Denies Bitcoin ETFs Because Applicants Do Not Fit Industry Archetype 5919

The reason the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) has insofar denied crypto exchange traded funds (ETFs) is because the crypto industry does not fit the applicant archetype, according to the CEO of crypto payment startup Abra, CNBC reported September 4.

Speaking in an interview with CNBC’s “The Coin Rush,” Bill Barhydt suggested that the SEC has rejected crypto ETF applications because “people who are doing the applications don’t fit mold of who the SEC is used to approving.”

Barhydt said that in order to receive approval for an ETF, there should be an applicant who “looks, feels and smells” the way the SEC expects them to. He further noted that a trusted financial organization has better chances to get approval than a startup or a relatively unknown company. Barhydt predicted that the SEC will finally approve a Bitcoin (BTC) ETF next year:

“It’s going to happen in the next year, I would actually make a bet on it. There is too much demand for it.”

Barhydt’s statements follow some widely publicized rejections of Bitcoin ETF applications. In July, the SEC denied an appeal for the application of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund by brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. On August 7, the regulator postponed its decision on the listing and trading of a BTC ETF from investment firm VanEck and financial services company SolidX until September 30.

Last month, Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead suggested that a BTC ETF would take “quite a long time,” saying that crypto adoption was still in its early stages. Morehead noted that the most recent asset that gained approval from the SEC for ETF certification was copper, a metal that “has been on earth for 10,000 years.”

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CME Group Announces Launch of Euro-denominated Bitcoin and Ether Futures 7076

CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, today launched Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures.

“The launch of these new futures contracts builds on the strong growth and deep liquidity we have seen in our existing U.S. dollar-denominated Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts,” said Tim McCourt, Global Head of Equity and FX Products, CME Group. “Our new Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures will provide institutional clients, both within and outside the U.S., with more precise and regulated tools to trade and hedge exposure to the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap.”

Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures contracts will be sized at five bitcoin and 50 ether per contract. These new contracts will be cash-settled, based on the CME CF Bitcoin-Euro Reference Rate and CME CF Ether-Euro Reference Rate, which serve as once-a-day reference rates of the euro-denominated price of bitcoin and ether.

These new futures contracts will be listed on and subject to the rules of CME.

For more information on this product, please visit https://www.cmegroup.com/cryptocurrencies#explore-our-cryptocurrency-products.

As the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals. The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex® platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform. In addition, it operates one of the world’s leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing.

How ViaBTC, a Pool Founded 6 Years ago, Continues to Rank Top Globally by Hashrates 5641

Recently, the BTC hashrate has reached a new high. The previous record was 248.11EH/s, which was exceeded when the hashrate figure peaked at 254.77EH/s this month. Despite sluggish market conditions in 2022, the interest in mining remains unabated. In addition, as more people joined the mining community, the BTC hashrate kept going up, and the difficulty also soared. Running low hashrates, individual miners are becoming less competitive, yet the advent of mining pools brought them a ray of hope and also revolutionized conventional mining models.

Of the many pools that have popped up, ViaBTC Pool has left miners with a deep impression. In 2021, some countries cracked down on BTC mining, and many pools went out of business as a result. However, the strict policies didn’t hurt ViaBTC’s BTC hashrate. Instead, it has ranked 1st for a while thanks to the pool’s globally distributed business model and the recognition from global miners.

As a pool founded in 2016, ViaBTC managed to survive and record world-leading hashrates all thanks to the following factors.

A strong team

To create a stable mining environment, the ViaBTC team has deployed nodes all over the world to match miners with the nearest node, which minimizes delays and makes the mining network stabler. So far, ViaBTC remains the pool with the lowest orphan rate in the entire industry, which shows the strength of its team.

At ViaBTC, over 60% of the staff are members of the product and R&D teams, the primary members of which are all seasoned developers from world-renowned Internet-based companies. Led by ViaBTC’s founder Haipo Yang, the team has continued to upgrade and improve the pool. As it keeps the pool secure and stable, the R&D team has introduced more versatile products and features and built a full set of matching tools.

Innovation

To address existing flaws of the mining industry, ViaBTC Pool has rolled out many innovative products. For instance, the pool invented PPS+, which was the first payment method of its kind in the industry, and created Transaction Accelerator, also a unique product. Plus, it is also the first pool to support “Convert Now”. These products have not only improved the mining revenue but also solved the problem of congested transactions under extreme market conditions. Meanwhile, the hourly pay of mining revenue effectively avoids risks arising from price fluctuations.

A well-established blockchain ecosystem

ViaBTC has been trying to build an all-encompassing blockchain ecosystem that integrates products, tools, and investment. In addition to ViaBTC Pool, the group now also boasts other four key business segments, including CoinEx Exchange, ViaWallet, CoinEx Smart Chain (CSC), and ViaBTC Capital, which makes it one of the best-established blockchain firms out there.

Relying on its strong ecosystem, ViaBTC has simplified the tedious process that goes from crypto mining to transaction and circulation. When withdrawing cryptos from ViaBTC Pool to CoinEx Exchange, miners do not have to pay any fees, and withdrawals arrive in real time. Moreover, Staking, a built-in service of ViaWallet, provides miners with all kinds of different ways to preserve the value of their assets in an extended bear market.

Popular BTM Operator: Bitcoin of America Welcomes Shiba Inu Coin to Its Bitcoin ATMs 8314

Bitcoin of America has officially announced the newest addition to their Bitcoin ATMs (BTMs). Shiba Inu coin is now available at Bitcoin of America ATM locations. Bitcoin of America has more than 1800 BTMs across 31 states. They recognized the growing popularity of Shiba Inu and decided it was time to include it in their BTMs. Bitcoin of America also offers Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum options. This news comes after their recent addition of Dogecoin in March of this year.

Bitcoin of America is a popular virtual currency exchange registered as a money services business with the United States Department of Treasury (FinCEN)(RegNum). They are known for their top-of-the-line customer support while also providing a fast and hassle-free transaction.

Bitcoin of America makes it easy for everyday businesses to get their hands on a Bitcoin ATM and for customers to buy Bitcoin. They take care of their host locations by providing passive income, increased foot traffic, and marketing. They even handle customer support and any maintenance/installation services.

The popular operator has made many updates to its BTMs and services over the past year. They launched their universal kiosks, which operate as a traditional ATM combined with BTM functions. Bitcoin of America has created a point-of-sale system for their tablet program, which has allowed businesses to accept cryptocurrency as a new form of payment. Bitcoin of America is constantly expanding and improving its services.

Data Mynt Payment Processing Platform Now Supports Bitcoin Payments 8209

Data Mynt, a leading provider of simple, stable cryptocurrency payment products, now enables payments over the Bitcoin network, which already supports roughly 225,000 transactions per day and $30 billion USD dollar equivalent volume per day worldwide (as of publishing).

Data Mynt merchants and partners join the 15,000 retailers that accept Bitcoin today, making it the world’s most widely used digital asset for payments. Retailers include Twitter, Whole Foods and Overstock.com.

Now the Data Mynt payment processing platform enables payments from any wallet and asset across the $2 trillion combined market cap (as of publishing) available to make a payment over the Bitcoin, Ethereum Mainnet and Polygon networks.

The Data Mynt payment processing solution enables merchants and enterprises to expand their payment options for their customers and partners. At the same time, it reduces payment processing costs and eliminates frictions such as chargebacks and crypto price volatility.

“As a payment processor, it only makes sense for us to enable our merchants and partners to accept what the world already accepts—the biggest cryptocurrency,” noted Data Mynt CEO Alex Christian. “Almost one-quarter of the US population owns Bitcoin. Many other countries such as Brazil, Indonesia, UAE, Singapore, Israel, India, Mexico, and South Africa have even higher adoption rates. Data Mynt merchants can feel good knowing they offer these Bitcoin owners another payment option.”

The dedicated Data Mynt global sales team began rolling out its payment platform in Q1 of 2022.

About Data Mynt

Data Mynt is a leading crypto payment processor. Its wallet, asset and blockchain-agnostic suite of solutions offer partners and merchants an omnichannel approach to accepting on-chain crypto payments free from volatility and the risks and costs of traditional payment methods. The Data Mynt payment platform is also designed to streamline implementation delivering a seamless customer experience. DataMynt.com

Popular BTM Operator Bitcoin of America Wins Silver in 11th Annual Best in Biz Awards 10406

Bitcoin of America has been named a silver winner in the Company of the Year – Midwest category in Best in Biz Awards, the only independent business awards program judged each year by prominent editors and reporters from top-tier publications in North America. Bitcoin of America is a popular virtual currency exchange, registered as a money services business with the United States Department of Treasury (FinCEN)(RegNum). Apart from ensuring a fast and hassle-free transaction, their customer support makes them the best in the industry.

Bitcoin of America has demonstrated rapid growth. In June of this year, Bitcoin of America’s Chief Financial Officer reported record company growth. In January, the company had a total of 630 Bitcoin ATMs. To date, they have seen a 138.095% increase in their number of locations. They even hit a major achievement of 1500 plus BTMs. Bitcoin of America has also seen enormous growth in their number of employees. In just one year their team grew over 32 percent.

Bitcoin of America also added new products, services, and even updates to their BTMS. In May, they announced the launch of their new universal kiosk. The kiosk combines the capabilities of a traditional ATM with a Bitcoin ATM. The universal kiosk is known to offer 3 different functions. The first is the traditional ATM feature where customers can dispense cash from a debit card. The second function is being able to buy bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies with cash. The last is that customers can sell crypto in return for cash. This is huge for business owners. These universal kiosks are bringing stores additional revenue streams, while also saving floor space. They also announced that Ethereum would be available for customers to purchase from any of their locations.

Besides offering cryptocurrency services to customers, Bitcoin of America has helped hundreds of businesses across the United States. Bitcoin of America offers a host program for store owners who are interested in cryptocurrency or are just looking to earn extra income. They take care of their host locations by providing them with passive income, increased foot traffic, and marketing. They even handle customer support and any maintenance/installation services.

ZIM & Marius Nacht complete additional investment in WAVE BL, a leading provider of a paperless Bill of Lading solution 27575

ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. (NYSE: ZIM) and Marius Nacht, one of Israel’s leading serial entrepreneurs and investors, announced today that they have jointly invested in a Series B Financing round of WAVE BL, a developer of groundbreaking blockchain network supporting paperless trade in the shipping industry. The two investors co-lead a round of approximately $8 million that will accelerate global implementation of WAVE BL’s proven technology.

ZIM pioneered the first paperless electronic bill of lading pilot in the shipping industry in 2017 using WAVE BL’s platform and has since widely expanded its use to become the industry leader. Electronic bill of lading is currently offered to ZIM customers worldwide, requiring only a simple onboarding process which is supported by ZIM.

Digitization of bills of lading is revolutionizing shipping documentation, sharply reducing time, complexity, errors and costs for all parties involved, while maintaining a high level of security and, importantly, being far more sustainable than the traditional paper bill of lading.

Aligning with international rules, standards and insurance coverage such as IG P&I Clubs and eUCP 600, WAVE BL’s one of a kind decentralized, digital documentation solution is changing the shipping industry as it becomes the new industry benchmark enabling secure and efficient remote business continuity.

Proceeds will be used to support development of WAVE BL’s business and further implementation of its pioneering technology supporting paperless trade in the shipping industry, as well as in other sectors.

ZIM President and CEO Eli Glickman: “Our early adoption of WAVE BL’s blockchain based platform to promote paperless trade highlights our leadership in utilizing digital strategies to best serve customers and has proven extremely successful for ZIM and for changing the industry. Today, ZIM is an industry leader in paperless shipping processes, and we are seeing growing interest from others in our sector to adopt the platform reflecting the significant benefits it provides to both customers and carriers. This new investment in WAVE BL is a step forward in the path to a more digitized and sustainable future, in accordance with our vision and values.”

ZIM CIO Eyal Ben-Amram: “Since completing the integration of WAVE BL’s platform with our system, we can offer every customer the ability to enjoy the vast benefits of paperless shipping, which is especially crucial during COVID-19. We are pleased and proud to continue our support of this exciting and leading company.”

WAVE BL CEO Gadi Ruschin: “Our partnership with ZIM has enabled us to introduce our pioneering technology to a vast audience as we endeavor to become the shipping industry standard in paperless trade. We are extremely pleased with the continued faith and commitment of ZIM and Marius Nacht in our company and look forward to leading the wave of the future in shipping.”

Ophir Shoham, who leads Marius Nacht’s investments in high-tech: “We are proud to continue supporting WAVE BL’s remarkable technology and believe in its disruptive potential, leading to a fundamental change in the way business is conducted across countless sectors and industries. We are very impressed with the great progress the team has made and excited to invest in WAVE BL’s trail-blazing platform.”