Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes,
Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.
Top Stories This Week
Bakkt shares skyrocket after partnering with Mastercard and Fiserv
On Monday, the share price of the Intercontinental Exchange-backed crypto services company Bakkt (BKKT) surged 120% on the back of two major partnerships with Mastercard and Fiserv.
Both partnerships were announced on Monday, with the Mastercard deal enabling Bakkt’s U.S. customers to buy, sell and hold crypto assets via custodial wallets. Meanwhile, the strategic collaboration with global payment provider Fiserv gives Bakkt the chance to offer merchant-facing digital asset services.
The news sparked a bullish rally that saw BKKT surge by 120% to sit at $30.60 by the end of trading on Monday.
ProShares Bitcoin-linked ETF launches on NYSE
ProShares achieved a major milestone for the crypto sector this week after the firm debuted its Bitcoin (BTC) futures-based exchange-traded fund (BITO) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Tuesday.
ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy ETF saw around $1 billion in volume on its opening day, with Bloomberg analysts stating that it was arguably the largest first-day volume for an ETF in terms of “natural” or “grassroots interest.”
After two days on the NYSE, ProShares’ ETF became the fastest fund ever to reach $1 billion in assets under management. Following ProShares’ ETF, many onlookers are waiting to see how the next in line performs. At the time of writing on Friday, Valkyrie just launched its Bitcoin futures ETF on the NYSE.
GBTC delivered better returns than Bitcoin ETFs last week
While there has been a lot of hype surrounding the long-awaited launch of the first U.S. Bitcoin ETFs, Grayscale’s executives highlighted that the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) actually outperformed them last week.
Over a seven-day period starting from Oct. 19, the industry stalwart GBTC returned around 8.8%, while the new and shiny ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF dipped around 0.5%.
Despite Grayscale outlining plans to convert GBTC into an ETF, Barry Silbert, CEO of Grayscale’s parent company Digital Currency Group, was still keen to rub salt in the wound, as he highlighted GBTC’s higher trading volumes compared to BITO. As of Monday, GBTC’s volume totaled $374 million, while BITO managed to generate $286 million.
Volt Equity’s ‘Bitcoin revolution’ ETF goes live on NYSE
Speaking of ETFs, Volt Equity’s Bitcoin ETF went live on the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 28.
The Volt Crypto Industry Revolution and Tech ETF, which is trading under the ticker BTCR, opened at $21 in a nod to Bitcoin’s max supply of 21 million BTC. BTCR tracks companies with significant exposure to Bitcoin, such as MicroStrategy, Tesla, Twitter, Square, Coinbase and several BTC mining firms.
According to Volt Equity, the ETF is implementing a management approach informed by PlanB’s Bitcoin stock-to-flow model, a quantitative model intending to predict BTC’s price. Volt Equity told Cointelegraph that the firm will gauge the market behavior of Bitcoin and adjust its exposure to mining firms if the asset drops in value significantly.
NFL quarterback Tom Brady gives fan 1 BTC for his historic 600th-touchdown-pass ball
Superstar NFL quarterback Tom Brady almost lost the ball he threw for his record 600th touchdown pass this week after wide receiver Mike Evans mistakenly handed it off to a fan after scoring.
Evans apparently did not realize that it was the quarterback’s record pass at the time. However, Brady revealed after the game on Monday that he offered the fan 1 BTC as thanks for handing it back quickly.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers also agreed to give the fan two signed team jerseys, a helmet with Brady’s autograph, Mike Evans game cleats as well as a jersey signed by the wide receiver, season tickets for the rest of the year and through 2022, as well as a $1,000 credit towards purchases at the team’s store. Many onlookers have complained that it was a weak offer, as the ball could have sold for a much higher value via auction.
Someone bought $3,400 worth of SHIB last August. It’s now worth $1.55 billion
On Thursday, an unknown crypto billionaire was unveiled after their wallet address was shown to be worth $5.63 billion in SHIBA INU (SHIB).
The anonymous SHIB hodler’s $3,400 investment in the dog-themed token in August 2020 equated to a value of $1.55 billion. Out of the total of 44 purchases since that time, the investor never spent more than $3,200 on the asset at one time.
SHIB has gained around 85,437,459% over the past 12 months, and the asset temporarily ousted Dogecoin (DOGE) as a top-10 ranked coin this week. SHIB surged to a market cap of $40.3 billion on Thursday, while DOGE tallied in at $31.6 billion at…
cointelegraph.com