Daily News | BlackRock submits ETF exterior wall advertisement to SEC; 213 million XRP stolen from Ripple; Hong Kong investigated WorldCoin; FTX abandons restart

2024-02-01, 04:27

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## Crypto Daily Digest: 213 million XRP stolen from Ripple, Hong Kong Investigated WorldCoin
On February 1st, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyfhart posted on social media that on the 14th trading day of spot <a href="/ar/price/bitcoin-btc" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Bitcoin</a> ETFs, BITB inflow was $18 million and ARKB inflow was $15 million. In addition, GBTC had an outflow of $188 million, which was the least outflow day except for the first trading day on January 11th.

According to the daily position update released by Grayscale, as of January 31, 2024, its holdings of Bitcoin were 487,025.986, a decrease of 5086.4674 from yesterday's 492,112.4534. In addition, as of January 31, the asset management scale (non-GAAP) of GBTC was approximately $20.708 billion, with a decrease in outstanding shares to 545 million and a holding of approximately 0.00089353 BTCs per share. In addition, according to BitMEX Research data monitoring, the fund outflow of Grayscale GBTC on the 14th trading day was approximately $188 million, lower than the previous day's $220 million.

In addition, Arthur Hayes stated on his social media platform yesterday that New York Community Bank's unexpected losses due to loan loss provisions may trigger a stock sell-off, so the Federal Reserve may soon start printing money. It is expected that Bitcoin will experience a slight downturn. If community banks in New York are sold off, regulators will immediately provide assistance, and Bitcoin will replicate the trend of March last year (Bitcoin rose 22.96% in March 2023).

On February 1st, according to CryptoSlate, BlackRock proposed a plan in a document submitted to the SEC on January 31st to advertise its Bitcoin spot ETF on the side of buildings. The document briefly describes BlackRock's plan, stating: "The IBIT advertisement is an animation designed to project onto the exterior walls of former financial institutions in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles. This storyboard uses our Miami exterior as a template."

The IBIT code is exposed during most animation runs, and the advertisement displays BlackRock's timeline of events before the launch of the Bitcoin ETF in January this year. The scene segments include de_script_ions of the launch of the first US stock market in 1790, the first US ETF in 1993, the launch of Bitcoin in 2009, and the launch of the first Bitcoin futures contract in 2017, The final prominent advertising slogans include "A new era of entry" and "The arrival of spot Bitcoin ETFs." As mentioned above, BlackRock plans to place advertisements on former bank buildings.

It is currently unclear whether the company plans to only do so on its own property or plans to rent properties from other companies. The building on display appears to be a shared building located at 360 Rosemary Avenue in West Palm Beach, Florida. BlackRock previously released a more traditional advertisement for IBIT on January 14th. Compared to competitive advertisements from companies such as Hashdex, VanEck, Bitwise, etc., this advertisement is recognized for its simple, clear, and informative approach. Meanwhile, private investor Fred Krueger has observed that some websites have started displaying online advertisements for BlackRock IBIT funds.

On January 31st, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen posted on social media stating that his personal <a href="/ar/price/xrp-xrp" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">XRP</a> account (unofficial) was hacked yesterday and the issue was quickly discovered. He notified the trading platform to freeze the affected address, and law enforcement agencies have intervened. Previously, it was reported that on-chain detective ZachXBT posted on social media earlier today stating that it had detected Ripple suspected of having 213 million XRPs (approximately $112 million) stolen by hackers.

According to the latest market data from Gate.io, XRP fell nearly 4% in the short term due to this news, and is now quoted at $0.497.

Yesterday, according to Orange News, Hong Kong launched an investigation into WorldCoin's alleged illegal collection of customer iris information. According to a court warrant, the Hong Kong authorities searched six locations in Hong Kong, including Yau Ma Tei, Kwun Tong, Wan Chai, Cyberport, Central, and Causeway Bay, for WorldCoin World Coin. The Hong Kong Public Office calls on citizens to be vigilant and not to provide biometric personal information casually.

According to The Block, FTX lawyer Andrew Dietderich stated at a hearing on Wednesday that he has abandoned plans to restart the exchange but will fully repay former clients. Dietderich stated that we currently expect to have sufficient funds to fully pay all allowed customer and creditor claims. But FTX does not intend to restart the platform. The company acquired by FTX for hundreds of millions of dollars has proven to be of little value, and there are no investors interested in investing the necessary funds to restart the exchange.

The lawyer also stated that a disclosure statement will be submitted in February. Full compensation is based on the application date value of the claim. At the subsequent hearing, the judge approved a motion by the FTX debtor to convert digital asset claims into US dollars. On February 1st, according to Gate.io market data, FTT rose by over 20% in the short term and has now fallen by 38.49%, with a current price of $1.63.

In terms of data fluctuations, according to The Block's latest data, the total trading volume of <a href="/ar/price/ethereum-eth" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Ethereum</a> options in January has surged to nearly $20 billion (currently $19.99 billion), of which about $15 billion comes from the Deribit derivatives trading platform. According to Deribit data, the majority (approximately 74,548) of open Ethereum option contracts are call options with a strike price of $2,500, which will expire on Friday, February 23rd.

In addition, the supply of stablecoins has been increasing since the fourth quarter of 2023, and its trend has continued into 2024. At present, the total supply of stablecoins has increased by about 3.5% in the past 30 days, while the stablecoin supply ratio (SSR) has dropped from 4.13 at the end of October last year to the 0.74 range, indicating that stablecoins have more purchasing power to purchase BTC. In contrast, due to the launch of Bitcoin spot ETFs, the current supply of Bitcoin is showing a dynamic trend, and institutional fund flows are increasing on chain trading volume.

## Macro: ADP employment data fell short of expectations, Powell stated that it is unlikely to cut interest rates in March
ADP employment data released: in January, the number of ADP jobs in the United States increased by 107,000, which was less than the expected 150,000. However, the growth rate in December last year was revised downwards to 158,000. This is consistent with the gradual cooling of the labor market.

After the release of unexpected "small non farm" data, the US dollar index briefly fell below the 103 mark. Later, it reversed its intraday decline due to Federal Reserve Chairman Powell's direct blow to expectations of a rate cut in March, and ultimately closed up 0.121% at 103.52; The US Treasury Department hinted that it would not further increase the scale of quarterly bond auctions before next year, boosting the demand for US treasury bond bonds. The yield of 10-year US bonds fell, breaking the 4% mark for the first time in two weeks, and finally closing at 3.918%; The two-year US Treasury yield, which is more sensitive to the Federal Reserve's policy interest rates, closed at 4.209%.

Due to the market's expectation of interest rate cuts riding a roller coaster under the influence of "small non farm" data and Powell's "hawk release," spot gold unexpectedly experienced a reverse V reversal in trading, breaking the daily low to $2,030.74 and dropping nearly $25 from the daily high. It rebounded slightly in the end and finally managed to close up 0.12% at $2,039.32/ounce. Spot silver ultimately closed down 0.96% at $22.94 per ounce.

International crude oil resumed its downward trend, as cold weather prompted US producers to increase production, leading to an unexpected increase in crude oil inventories. However, despite the increasingly tense situation in the Middle East, the two oil companies still achieved their first monthly increase since September last year. WTI crude oil fell 2.48% to $75.75 per barrel; Brent crude oil closed 2.35% lower at $80.91 per barrel.

The three major US stock indexes closed lower under pressure. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.83%, marking its largest daily decline since December 20th last year; The S&P 500 index fell 1.6%, marking the largest daily decline since September 21 last year; The Nasdaq fell 2.2%, marking the largest daily decline since October 25th last year.

The Federal Reserve has announced its first interest rate resolution for 2024, maintaining interest rates unchanged for the fourth consecutive meeting. The Federal Reserve's FOMC statement removed the wording "may further tighten policy" and stated that interest rates will not be lowered until there is more confidence in inflation continuing to move towards 2%. Federal Reserve Chairman Powell: It is unlikely that interest rates will be lowered in March, and there is widespread disagreement among officials regarding the rate of rate cuts. The issue of the speed of rate cuts will be discussed in detail in March. After Powell's speech, interest rate futures traders significantly reduced their bets on the March Fed rate cut.

According to Coindesk, financial markets may be overly optimistic about the speed and speed of the Federal Reserve's policy easing through interest rate cuts this year. The macro strategy team of JPMorgan, led by Shrenick Shah, stated that the key areas of inflation closely monitored by the Federal Reserve have not yet shown clear signs of deflation.

They stated that the Federal Reserve's commitment to combating potential inflation rebounds is still undervalued, opening the door to adjustments in risky assets. Previously, with inflation falling in 2023 and the Federal Reserve hinting at its December meeting that it will shift towards interest rate cuts, expectations of rate cuts have become widespread. According to data from the federal funds and futures market, traders expect a rate cut of 140 basis points this year, almost twice the rate cut shown in the Federal Reserve's December rate forecast chart (also known as the Policy Path Chart).

On February 1st, according to CME Federal Reserve observation, the probability of the Federal Reserve maintaining interest rates in the 5.25% -5.50% range in March is 64.5%, and the probability of a 25 basis point rate cut is 35.5%. The probability of maintaining interest rates unchanged by May is 5.4%, the probability of a cumulative 25 basis point rate cut is 62.1%, and the probability of a cumulative 50 basis point rate cut is 32.5%.

<div class="blog-details-info">
<div>Author:**Byron B.**, Gate.io Researcher
<div>Translator:Joy Z.
<div class="info-tips">\*This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
<div>\*Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting of the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced. In all cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.
</div>

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