The Fantom Foundation has unveiled a treasury allocation of 200 million FTM, approximately 0 million USD, to expedite the migration of partners to its new Sonic network. This allocation includes native application grants, strategic grants to decentralized applications (dapps), and first-class infrastructure tools and partners for developers and users. The Foundation is said to be […]
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1inch Foundation Allocates 10 Million Tokens To The Delegation Incentive Program
1inch Network, a DEX aggregating platform, has allocated 10 million INCH tokens to its Delegation Incentive Program, a press release on January 24 shows. The goal is to incentivize more 1INCH stakers to delegate their Unicorn Power to resolvers.
Incentivize 1inch Stakers’ Delegation To Resolvers
1inch Network wants to increase the number of resolvers within its platform. Accordingly, it launched the 1inch Resolver Incentive Program in December 2022. The program’s goal was to compensate resolvers for the cost of gas they pay when they fill in user orders.
As part of this arrangement, the aggregator encourages its users to stake 1INCH, their native governance token. Any user who stakes the governance token receives Unicorn Power in place of delegation rewards.
Unicorn Power can either be delegated to resolvers or be used when voting on crucial network decisions. The aggregator has stated that the number of Unicorn Power received directly depends on the lockup period. Stakers who lock their assets for longer will receive more Unicorn Power.
Following this announcement, 1inch Network will now distribute 250,000 1INCH to resolvers weekly. The program will run until all 10 million 1INCH are distributed. Funds from the foundation will, in turn, be used to reward 1INCH stakers who choose to delegate their Unicorn Power. However, the 1inch Foundation has stated that the number of 1INCH received will vary between resolvers depending on their network share.
Program Follows Launch Of Fusion
In late December 2022, 1inch Network launched the Fusion Mode. With Fusion, users can swap transactions without paying network fees.
Depending on the underlying platform, network fees can vary from near-zero, cents, to double digits, in USD terms, in some blockchains, mainly Ethereum. Gas fees tend to spike when the Ethereum network is congested. Subsequently, this can increase the cost of swapping transactions in top decentralized exchanges like Uniswap, a platform whose price feeds are aggregated by the 1inch Network.
In Fusion Mode, resolvers play a critical role in enabling users to swap without paying transaction fees. In this setup, resolvers fill pending orders. These resolvers are professional market makers who will pay underlying gas fees on behalf of the user. As a result of their participation, they profit from arbitrage trading.
The launch of Fusion was described as a huge step forward for the entire DeFi space by Sergej Kunz, the co-founder of 1Inch Network. He added that swapping on the platform using Fusion will be much more cost-efficient and safer.
“This is a huge step forward for the entire DeFi space. Fusion makes swaps on 1inch dramatically more cost-efficient, as users won’t have to pay network fees, plus, an extra layer of security is added, protecting users from sandwich attacks.”
1INCH is trading at .514 as of writing on January 25.
Feature image from Canva, Chart from TradingView
New ETF Proposal Allocates 25% of Its Portfolio to Bitcoin Futures
A newly proposed exchange-traded fund plans to allocate 25% of its entire portfolio to bitcoin futures.
Bitcoin ETF on NYSE Arca
Realty Shares ETF Trust, a subsidiary of US-based asset manager Blockforce Capital, filed a registration form with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday to list its “Reality Shares Blockforce Global Currency Strategy ETF” on NYSE Arca. According to the application, the Fund would invest in sovereign debt instruments, money market mutual funds or other cash equivalents, and cash-settled bitcoin futures contracts.
“The Fund expects to obtain exposure to Bitcoin Futures by investing up to 25% of its total assets, as measured at the end of every quarter of the Fund’s taxable year, in a wholly-owned and controlled Cayman Islands subsidiary,” read the registration form. “However, the Adviser will seek to limit the Subsidiary’s investment in Bitcoin Futures, so the Fund’s aggregate notional exposure to Bitcoin Futures is limited to 15% of the Fund’s net assets at the time of investment.”
At the same time, the form explained, the Fund would allocate 15% of its net assets in fiat-denominated Fixed Income Securities and 10% of its net assets in Money Market Instruments for margin and cash management purposes.
Realty Shares’ ETF would initially include bitcoin futures offered by Cboe and CME. The Fund cleared that it plans to add more bitcoin futures offerings in the future.
Three Possible Scenarios for Realty Shares Application
With the Monday filing, Realty Shares now seeks SEC’s review on their bitcoin-enabled ETF. In return, the commission can either declare the registration statement effective or provide comments that would have Realty Shares to amend their statement and file it again. In the worst case scenario, the commission can refuse the report altogether, indicating that the ETF was unfit for approval. Should that happen, Realty Shares would either abandon their plans to launch a bitcoin-enabled ETF or would resubmit their application after making necessary adjustments.
Realty Shares’ ETF filing also follows two bitcoin-related ETF applications filed by VanEck/SolidX and Bitwise Asset Management. While Bitwise’s application is still awaiting review by the SEC, VanEck/SolidX withdrew their application in January 2019 after an overstretched government shutdown in the US.
In retrospective, VanEck/SolidX had published a proposed rule change for their bitcoin ETF on July 2 last year. In the very next month, the SEC had organized proceedings to determine whether or not to approve their proposed rule change. The Commission had eventually marked February 27 as the date to announce its final decision. However, VanEck/SolidX withdrew their application – as mentioned above – and refiled it later on January 31, 2019.
The VanEck SolidX Bitcoin ETF proposed rule-change has been submitted by CBOE. Hard work by all teams involved. Public document: https://t.co/X25lOPjiFS pic.twitter.com/C9FP4adDE8
— Gabor Gurbacs (@gaborgurbacs) January 31, 2019
Many at the time of withdrawal believed that the companies ignored a potential bitcoin ETF rejection by the SEC. And hence, they preferred just to quit the process. However, SEC commissioner Robert J Jackson said in an interview recently that a bitcoin exchange-traded fund was inevitable, indicating that the commission was more likely to approve a similar ETF this year.
Robert Jackson, #SEC: we are ready to approve #BitcoinETF; pic.twitter.com/Qs32NUfPwI— Nano Bank Console (@NanoBank) February 11, 2019
The comments followed a spike in bitcoin prices that surged more than 10% against the US Dollar in just 12 hours.
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Binance CEO: What Happens if Fidelity Allocates 5% of its Portfolio in Crypto
To emphasize the importance of attracting institutional investors to the crypto world, the CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, recently tweeted a question to his followers. The question was simple, and it asked what would happen if a fund like Fidelity allocates 5% of its portfolio to crypto space.
What happens when a fund like Fidelity allocates a mere 5% of their portfolio to crypto? Have you calculated how much that is? https://t.co/ljcZ4SjQnw
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) October 21, 2018
Considering the sheer amount that large funds contain, even a small allocation of 5% (around 0 billion) would be able to not only double but almost even triple the market cap of the entire crypto space.
Right, that little 5% is more than doubling (almost tripple) the entire crypto market cap. And some people are still worried about… pic.twitter.com/EETSyQXjnm
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) October 21, 2018
Mike Novogratz Provides Support for BitGo
Evidently, such a large amount can only enter the crypto world through institutions and large funds that have been avoiding the cryptocurrency space for years. However, recent moves such as Mike Novogratz’s partnership with Goldman Sachs and BitGo might soon change the ecosystem.
Novogratz has been optimistic about crypto, or at least Bitcoin, for a large part of 2018. Until recently, he predicted large surges that would take BTC further than ever before. However, as the year slowly approaches its end, not much has happened. Instead, a few price drops have forced Novogratz to change his mind regarding his earlier prediction.
However, he did not express negativity towards the crypto market, and only days ago, he expressed his excitement regarding the partnership with cryptocurrency custodian BitGo Holdings Inc. So far, Goldman Sachs and Novogratz contributed around million to BitGo’s fundraising, which collected a total of .5 million.
More institutional architecture. Excited to partner with @BitGo and @GoldmanSachs #theherdiscoming https://t.co/X49qYlReZ8
— Michael Novogratz (@novogratz) October 18, 2018
The fact that two companies with strong ties to Wall Street supported BitGo is expected to bring institutions to it, as well as numerous high profile customers.
Can Fidelity Attract Institutional Investors to Crypto?
It is easy to see how analysts predict Fidelity Investments’ association with crypto to boost the development of this industry. A sign that demonstrates the genuine long-term strategy of Fidelity is that the firm announced the launch of a new business that will allow institutional clients to access cryptocurrencies in a safe environment. The new business is called Fidelity Digital Asset Services LLC, and it is a branch that will buy and sell digital currencies for hedge funds, family offices, and similar monetary ventures.
Additionally, all coins will come via over-the-counter exchanges, and they will be kept in cold storage’s which will guarantee their safety and immunity to hacking attacks. So far, institutional investors avoided dealing with crypto due to high volatility, the lack of custody, and similar banking services. However, thanks to this new move, their stance toward cryptos might change, and institutional money might finally start flowing to crypto space.
The cryptocurrency industry needs institutional investors in order to continue its growth and development. While its development so far has been nothing less than impressive, considering that it all happened without support from larger players, many believe that the crypto industry reached a point where it cannot continue on its own.
Nice, institutional money will enter sooner or later, just a matter of time. https://t.co/c2oP7pSIRg
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) October 21, 2018
For now, Binance’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao, remains convinced that it is only a matter of time before institutions join crypto trading. However, everyone agrees that it would be much more beneficial if that time came sooner, rather than later.
The post Binance CEO: What Happens if Fidelity Allocates 5% of its Portfolio in Crypto appeared first on NewsBTC.