Crypto trading volumes soar, BlackRock files to launch spot Ethereum ETF, while Tether goes Bitcoin mining

Data from CryptoCompare shows that the price of Bitcoin started last week with a sharp move downwards, dropping from around $37,000 to a low near $35,000, before recovering to now trade at $37,100 per coin.

Ethereum’s Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, moved steadily upward throughout the past week, going from around $1,940 per coin to a peak near $2,050 before a small correction over the weekend brought ether down to $2,020 a token.

Ethereum’s price kept rising as BlackRock – the world’s largest asset manager – filed an application with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a spot Ether exchange-traded fund (ETF), the iShares Ethereum Trust.

The fund would aim to “reflect generally the performance of the price of Ether”, and would have Coinbase as the custodian for the ETH held by the fund. Ethereum’s price started climbing after BlackRock registered the iShares Ethereum trust with Delaware’s Division of Corporations a week ago.

While the spot ETH ETF filing helped the price of Ether rise, a fake XRP ETF filing sparked a trading frenzy that saw the price of the cryptocurrency rise as much as 13% throughout the week, before BlackRock denied any involvement. XRP’s price then erased its gains, leading to over $7 million in liquidations.

The fake XRP ETF filing also appeared on Delaware’s website, and Delaware’s Department of Justice could now be looking into the fraudulent filing. It’s unclear how it ended up on the website.

Meanwhile the cryptocurrency arm of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Cboe Digital, is set to introduce margined Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts on January 11, following their  their receipt of approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in June.

The move will position Cboe Digital as the first regulated U.S. platform to provide both spot and leveraged derivatives on a single platform. Margined futures enable traders to utilize leverage to trade beyond their collateral, a feature not available with regular futures.

Crypto market volume soars amid South Korean trading frenzy

In the last two months, the volume of the digital asset market has experienced a significant rise, largely driven by trading activity in Asia, particularly South Korea. According to CCData, South Korean exchanges have more than doubled their market share, increasing from 5.2% in January to 12.9% in November. The total trading volume also saw growth in October and November.

The firm’s recent Exchange Review report details that Upbit, a centralized exchange, witnessed a substantial increase in market share in October, accounting for 9.16% of the trading volume on these platforms.

This is the highest market share that the Korean cryptocurrency exchange has achieved since its inception, with local traders reportedly focusing on altcoins.

Meanwhile cryptocurrency exchange giant OKX has started offering derivatives trading off of its platform, eliminating the counterparty risk of holding assets on an exchange, at a time in which it’s also introducing its own layer-2 blockchain called X1.

Poloniex, a well-established cryptocurrency exchange, suffered a major security breach after hackers stole over $100 million worth of digital assets from its hot wallets and used some of the funds to pump the price of TRX, a cryptocurrency created by Poloniex investor Justin Sun.

Tether to spend $500 million on Bitcoin mining expansion

Leading stablecoin issuer Tether has started venturing into the Bitcoin mining industry with a significant investment, aiming to become a global leader in the sector. Tether’s incoming CEO Paolo Ardoino has revealed the firm is investing $500 million over the next six months to strengthen its position in the sector.

Ardoino has revealed that Tether is establishing Bitcoin mining operations in Uruguay, Paraguay, and El Salvador. Each of these locations will have a power capacity ranging from 40 to 70 megawatts. The company’s objective is to increase its portion of the Bitcoin hashrate, which is the computational power that underpins the network, to 1%.

Meanwhile, global banking giant JPMorgan has launched a new programmable payment option for its institutional clients using its proprietary blockchain platform JPM Coin.

The latest feature provides institutional clients with the ability to establish treasury operations that are programmable and operate in real-time, laying the groundwork for cutting-edge digital business models, according to JPMorgan.

Francisco Memoria is a content creator at CryptoCompare who’s in love with technology and focuses on helping people see the value digital currencies have. His work has been published in numerous reputable industry publications. Francisco holds various cryptocurrencies.

Featured image via Unsplash.