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Bankrupt Crypto Firm Voyager Digital Approved to Release $270 Million in Cash Deposits

05/08/2022 by Idelto Editor

The now defunct and bankrupt Voyager Digital has been approved by the court to distribute $270 million in funds to creditors and affected customers. The news follows the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve Board ordering Voyager to remove any statements that allege Voyager is FDIC insured. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York and Judge Michael Wiles have allowed Voyager’s custodian, Metropolitan Commercial bank, to release the $270 million.

New York Bankruptcy Court Approves Release of $270 Million From Voyager’s Custodian

The TSX-listed crypto exchange Voyager Digital (OTCMKTS: VYGVF) revealed at the end of June that the hedge fund Three Arrows Capital owed the company $655 million. Then on July 1, 2022, Voyager suspended trading, deposits, and withdrawals in order to deal with turbulent crypto “market conditions.”

A week later, Voyager filed for bankruptcy protection after citing “prolonged volatility and contagion in the crypto markets.” Voyager shares exchanged hands at the stock’s peak in April 2021 at $29.86 per share, and today’s shares are swapping for $0.34 per unit.

Now the presiding bankruptcy court judge, Michael Wiles from New York, has allowed $270 million to be released from Voyager’s custodian Metropolitan Commercial bank (MCB), the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.

MCB explained to the WSJ that it held the $270 million when Voyager filed voluntary petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11. At the end of July, founder and CEO of the crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, detailed that FTX was offering early liquidity to Voyager customers.

In addition to Voyager, Three Arrows Capital (3AC) has filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection, and the crypto lender Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Celsius customers have been very upset about the firm’s downturn, as the company claimed it had roughly 1.7 million customers before it collapsed.

Celsius customers recently pleaded with the bankruptcy judge to release funds held on the platform. One client said it was an “emergency situation” as he needed his money to “simply to keep a roof over my family and food on their table.”

It is estimated that Voyager will complete the bankruptcy process by the end of September 2022, but there’s allegedly $1.3 billion worth of crypto stemming from 3.5 million customers stored on Voyager’s platform. CNBC reported on August 3, that Voyager’s CEO Steven Ehrlich obtained more than $30 million by selling Voyager equity in February and March 2021.

While Voyager is a publicly traded firm, last year it adopted an automatic securities disposition plan (ADSP) on December 31, 2021, after Ehrlich’s equity sales. CNBC’s Rohan Goswami reports that on January 20, 2022, Voyager’s CEO removed the ADSP structure. Voyager Digital also had a deal with the Dallas Mavericks and business relationships with Genesis Global Capital and Galaxy Digital.

What do you think about the judge in Voyager’s bankruptcy case allowing $270 million to be released from the company’s custodian MCB? What do you think about Ehrlich cashing out Voyager equity amid the stock’s price peak? Let us know your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below.

Coinbase Partners With World’s Largest Asset Manager Blackrock to Give Aladdin Clients Access to Cryptocurrencies

04/08/2022 by Idelto Editor

Coinbase Partners With the World’s Largest Asset Manager Blackrock to Give Aladdin Clients Access to Cryptocurrencies

On August 4, the head of Coinbase Institutional, Brett Tejpaul, and the vice president of institutional product, Greg Tusar, announced that Coinbase has been selected by the financial giant Blackrock to provide the firm’s Aladdin platform access to cryptocurrencies.

Blackrock Chooses Coinbase to Connect Aladdin Clients to Crypto

Coinbase’s institutional arm will help the world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock (NYSE: BLK), provide Aladdin’s institutional clients with access to digital currencies. The company noted that Blackrock chose Coinbase due to the firm’s “scale, experience, and integrated product offering.” The publicly traded company Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN) has a long history in the crypto space since it was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam.

The New York-based multinational investment management corporation Blackrock is one of the largest financial institutions worldwide. Blackrock deals with roughly $10 trillion in assets under management (AUM) recorded in 2021. Coinbase considers the partnership with Blackrock and Aladdin a “milestone” for the crypto asset company. The Aladdin platform stands for the Asset, Liability, Debt, and Derivative Investment Network and it’s an investment management and trading platform designed specifically for Blackrock’s institutional clients.

“Blackrock and Coinbase will continue to progress the platform integration and will roll out functionality in phases to interested clients,” Tejpaul and Tusar wrote on Thursday. In mid-June, Rick Rieder, chief investment officer (CIO) of global fixed income at Blackrock, explained that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC) are durable assets. In April, Blackrock launched a blockchain exchange-traded fund and Blackrock was named “a primary asset manager of USDC cash reserves” the same month.

Blackrock Exec: ‘Institutional Clients Are Increasingly Interested in Gaining Exposure to Digital Asset Markets’

Joseph Chalom, the global head of strategic ecosystem partnerships at Blackrock, remarked that Blackrock’s clientele has been gravitating toward digital currencies. “Our institutional clients are increasingly interested in gaining exposure to digital asset markets and are focused on how to efficiently manage the operational lifecycle of these assets,” Chalom said on Thursday. The Blackrock executive added:

This connectivity with Aladdin will allow clients to manage their bitcoin exposures directly in their existing portfolio management and trading workflows for a whole portfolio view of risk across asset classes.

Following the Coinbase and Blackrock partnership announcement, COIN shares increased more than 16% higher during the morning trading sessions on Thursday (EST). However, COIN is down 72.46% in value from the stock’s all-time price high. Moreover, at the end of June, Goldman Sachs downgraded COIN to a sell rating.

The news follows the alleged U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe reported on July 25, and the company’s recent European expansion. In mid-June, Coinbase also revealed it had to cut back 18% of the firm’s workforce to “ensure [Coinbase stays] healthy during this economic downturn,” according to the company’s co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong.

What do you think about Coinbase partnering with Blackrock and integrating with the firm’s Aladdin platform? Let us know your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below.

Alphabet, Microsoft and Now Meta Release Disappointing Quarterly Earnings

28/07/2022 by Idelto Editor

Meta joined Alphabet and Microsoft in releasing disappointing quarterly financials, following the company’s Q2 earnings call. In a week of a disappointment for mega-cap stocks, the trio has all missed revenue and earnings expectations, with Meta seeing its first quarterly sales decline ever recorded.

Economic Slowdown

Due to the current global economic slowdown, markets had anticipated that earnings of mega-cap stocks which account for 40% of the Nasdaq, and 30% of the S&P 500 could face a bloodbath.

However, although earnings have disappointed, and came in worse-than expected across the board, some analysts suggest that the situation might have been more dire.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently announced that it was revising its 2022 global GDP forecast, from 3.6% at the start of April, to now expecting growth of 3.2% for the remainder of the year.

This seems to have been reflected in the earnings report released by three of the world’s largest tech companies.

Alphabet

Alphabet, the parent company of Google was one of the first companies to release earnings this week, with figures falling short of expectations.

The company reported revenue for the second quarter had risen by 13% to $69.7 billion, which was lower than the expected $70.8 billion.

Q2 earnings came in at $1.21 per share, which was less than the consensus of $1.27 per share for the quarter.

Microsoft

Microsoft also fell short of expectations, with both earnings and revenue figures disappointing for Q2.

The company founded by Bill Gates reported that earnings came in at $2.23 per share, versus general expectations of $2.29 per share.

Quarterly revenue was reported at $51.87 billion, which was less than the $52.44 billion analyst had forecasted.

Local Council Member in Ukraine Declares 124 BTC and 500 Tesla Shares

14/11/2021 by Idelto Editor

A government official in Rivne region of Ukraine owns close to $8 million in cryptocurrency and 500 Tesla shares, his declaration shows. The news comes as another Ukrainian lawmaker in Kyiv has found it hard to prove possession of the crypto holdings on her asset statement.

Ukraine Officials Declare Crypto Assets, Fail to Provide Proof of Ownership

Crypto investments have enjoyed a growing popularity among Ukrainian politicians in recent years, mandatory asset statements have revealed. According to recent media reports, a member of the Virovsky Village Council in the western Rivne Oblast has declared having 124 BTC worth almost $8 million in today’s prices.

Vladimir Pachesny acquired the coins in early 2013 for 73,920 hryvnia at the time of purchase, a little over $2,800, using the latest exchange rate of the inflated Ukrainian fiat currency. In 2019, the 36-year-old local deputy also bought 500 shares of the U.S. electric vehicle company Tesla which pushed crypto prices up this year with its announcements of accepting and owning bitcoin.

Pachesny is neither the first, nor the richest cryptocurrency investor among officials in Ukraine, which has established itself as a leader in crypto adoption. A report from April unveiled that government workers and politicians held 46,351 BTC worth 75 billion hryvnias at the time (more than $2.6 billion), with a member of the Dnipro City Council, Mishalov Dmitrovich, having the largest stash of 18,000 BTC.

In their 2020 declarations, public figures have admitted to owning a total of 46 351 BTC and various other digital currencies, including ETH, LTC, BCH, and XMR, according to numbers compiled by the Opendatabot platform which monitors public registries in Ukraine. Not all of them, however, have been able to provide the necessary documents to prove they are in control of the coins. This spring, the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) promised to verify the numbers.

Another Ukrainian MP Cannot Account for Owned Cryptocurrency

Ukrainian media reported in September that a parliamentarian from President Zelensky’s Servant of the People party had failed to prove his digital holdings. Data filed by the lawmaker revealed that his wife, Maria Saltykova, had 42 BTC last year but NAPC said he had not submitted any documentation confirming the accuracy of this information. The deputy only explained that the crypto was stored on a hardware wallet that disappeared when his car got stolen earlier this year.

Gurin’s is not an isolated case in Ukraine. A recent article by the “Slovo i Dilo” portal showed that another member of the Verkhovna Rada, Anna Skorokhod, did not give the NAPC a proof that she actually owned the cryptocurrencies she had previously reported to the institution.

In her last declaration, Skorokhod stated she had 44 BTC, 130 ETH and 135 ETC while her husband at the time, Alexey Alyakin, kept in his possession some 118 ВТС, 78 ЕТН and 350 ETC. The Ukrainian MP gave “general explanations regarding the obtaining and ownership of the cryptocurrency without providing documents certifying the facts of the acquisition and the availability of the cryptocurrency as of the end of the reporting period.”

The cryptocurrencies’ value has been estimated at more than 2.7 million hryvnia (over $106,000) at the time of purchase. Skorokhod told the NAPC that due to her insufficient knowledge about the digital money, all operations with the coins were carried out by her husband on her behalf. She added she had no access to the keys or any accompanying documents after their divorce.

Virtual Assets of Ukraine, a public organization, and the Blockchain4Ukraine association, uniting lawmakers from different political factions in the Ukrainian parliament, have proposed to introduce a requirement that would increase transparency as far as officials’ asset statements are concerned. The two entities insist that public officials should provide the addresses of their cryptocurrency wallets on their declarations.

Do you think Ukrainian politicians will be able to account for all their cryptocurrency holdings? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.

Digital Asset Firm Bakkt to Go Public After Completing Merger — BKKT Shares Set to Trade on NYSE Monday

17/10/2021 by Idelto Editor

The digital asset company Bakkt Holdings has completed a merger with a firm called VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings and the combined business will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on October 18. Bakkt revealed it was aiming to go public last January, and the Bakkt listing on Monday will leverage the ticker “BKKT.”

Digital Currency Firm Bakkt Set to List on NYSE Next Week

The digital currency firm Bakkt is set to start trading on NYSE next week, according to an announcement from the combined firms on Friday. The shares will be called “BKKT” and the public-listing was made possible via a merger with the company VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings, according to the Intercontinental Exchange’s (ICE) and VPC’s press statements.

VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings is an affiliate of Victory Park Capital, a global investment firm. “At the extraordinary general meeting of its shareholders held on October 14, 2021, the shareholders voted to approve its previously announced business combination with Bakkt Holdings, LLC, the digital asset marketplace founded in 2018,” the announcement details. The press announcement adds:

Approximately 85.1% of the votes cast at the meeting voted to approve the business combination.

Merger Vote Details to Be Included in Form 8-K, Bakkt’s Recent Partnership With Google

The news concerning Bakkt’s latest deal follows the firm’s recent collaboration announcement with Google. Bakkt stressed that the newly inked partnership with Google is meant “to introduce digital assets to millions of consumers.”

The recent merger vote, which took place on October 14, will be included in a current report on Form 8-K to be filed by VIH with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the announcement concludes.

Bakkt’s decision to go public follows a slew of other crypto-asset firms that have recently obtained listing status on NYSE or Nasdaq. The mining manufacturer Canaan was able to offer an initial public offering and the popular crypto exchange Coinbase went public as well.

Meanwhile, the crypto community is under the impression that the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) has been approved to start trading as well on Monday.

What do you think about Bakkt merging with VPC and getting listed on the NYSE? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.