The crypto industry continues to await approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States as more investment managers file amended applications with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The great anticipation has even seen the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) leap forward among derivatives exchanges in terms of open interest in Bitcoin (BTC), overtaking traditional crypto exchanges and driving demand for a spot Bitcoin product highlighted. The CME also recently saw volume of its cash-settled futures contracts exceed 100,000 BTC.
Among the negative developments of the week was the SEC charging SafeMoon and three of its executives with fraud and unregistered securities sales related to the SafeMoon (SFM) token.
According to the SEC’s allegations, SafeMoon executives withdrew $200 million in assets from the project and embezzled investor funds despite promising to lock the funds in a liquidity pool. Two executives were arrested.
This week’s Crypto Biz also covers Circle’s decision to shut down consumer accounts while X (formerly Twitter) saw its valuation plummet a year after it was acquired by Elon Musk.
Circle wants to phase out consumer accounts, but Business and Mint will remain
Stablecoin issuer Circle will close consumer or retail accounts on November 30, according to emails received by its customers in recent days. On the morning of October 31, Circle customers reportedly received an email announcing that individual accounts would be closed “as part of Circle’s strategic review.” According to the announcement, “wiring and minting functionalities” would no longer be supported. In an email to Cointelegraph, a Circle representative confirmed that the accounts will be closed, but business and institutional accounts will remain open.
CME Becomes Second-Largest Bitcoin Futures Exchange as Open Interest Rises
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a regulated derivatives exchange that lists Bitcoin futures, is now just behind Binance in terms of notional open interest and takes second place on the list of BTC futures exchanges. CME open interest reached $3.58 billion on October 30, prompting the regulated derivatives exchange platform to add two positions compared to the previous week. The CME overtook Bybit and OKX with $2.6 billion and $1.78 billion in open interest, respectively, and is just a few million away from Binance with $3.9 billion.
Bitcoin futures exchanges ranked by open interest as of October 30th. Source: Coinglass
X is now worth half the $44 billion Elon Musk paid for it: report
Elon Musk’s social media platform X is worth less than half of what the tech billionaire bought it for in October 2022, an internal memo shows. According to an October 30 report from Bloomberg, restricted stock units recently paid to the company’s employees were valued at $45 per share, putting the company’s value at about $19 billion – less than half of the $44 billion Musk paid for the company on October 27, 2022. Musk has made a number of controversial moves since taking over the platform, including renaming it to X, changing many content rules, and firing about 80% of the company’s workforce.
Worldcoin claims to have 4 million app downloads and 1 million active users
According to a November 1 blog post from the project team, the Worldcoin iris scanning project has reached a new milestone as its World mobile app has now been downloaded over 4 million times. If CoinGecko eventually confirms this number, World App could reach sixth place in CoinGecko’s list of most downloaded software wallets. Each user who goes through Iris verification will receive 25 Worldcoin (WLD) tokens, currently worth about $46.50. The project has gained popularity in developing markets such as Argentina, as some participants saw registering and then selling the coins as a quick way to make a few extra dollars.
World App now has more than 1 million monthly active users, 4 million downloads and 22 million transactions. Not bad for six months pic.twitter.com/pagXxTfc8E
— Tools For Humanity (@tfh_technology) November 1, 2023
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