Nomura’s Bitcoin OTC, Prosecutors vs. Arthur Hayes, Tether’s Reserves + More News

 

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Investments news

• Financial services group Nomura has begun offering bitcoin (BTC) over-the-counter derivatives to clients, per Reuters. The trades were executed on the derivatives marketplace CME by crypto trading firm Cumberland DRW.
• Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of crypto exchange FTX, bought a 7.6% stake in trading app Robinhood, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing. At over 56m shares, the position was worth around USD 590m at the time of writing.
• Bill Miller, the Chairman of investment management firm Miller Value Partners, told CNBC that thathe sold some of his BTC holdings to raise cash to meet margin calls. He didn’t provide any other details about these transactions.
• Managed blockchain infrastructure provider QuickNode announced its acquisition of non-fungible token (NFT) analytics platform icy.tools. QuickNode will integrate the icy.tools application programming interface (API) directly into the existing QuickNode platform to offer analytics and other data to their users.
• Crypto-native market integrity and risk monitoring project Solidus Labs raised USD 45m in a Series B funding round led by Liberty City Ventures. The new funding will help them accomplish new partnerships and expand their current offerings, they added.
• Investment manager Galaxy Digital said that its quarter-to-date net comprehensive income is expected to be a loss of approximately USD 300m, bringing partners’ capital to USD 2.2bn, a decline of 12% versus March 31, 2022. Also, the firm stressed that its treasury does not utilize algorithmic stablecoins and Galaxy “remains in a strong capital and liquidity position and is well-positioned for long-term growth.”

Legal news

• BitMEX Co-founder and former CEO Arthur Hayes should spend significantly more than a year in federal prison for failing to implement an anti-money-laundering program at the exchange, US prosecutors said, according to Bloomberg. The Probation Office recommended that Hayes be sentenced to two years’ probation.
• Eddy Alexandre, the leader of a purported crypto and forex trading platform called EminiFX, has been charged with commodities fraud and wire fraud offenses that netted him more than USD 59m from hundreds of individual investors, promising huge passive income returns. He misdirected at least USD 14.7m to his personal bank account and failed to invest the vast majority of the investors’ funds, and his charges carry a maximum combined sentence of 30 years in prison, the US Department of Justice said.

Politics news

• US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has been confirmed by the Senate for a second four-year-long term at the helm of the US central bank, per CNBC.

Stablecoins news

• Tether (USDT)’s Chief Technology Officer Paolo Ardoino said that the majority of its reserves are in US Treasuries after having reduced its exposure to commercial paper over the last six months, but did not state what proportion was still held in commercial paper, per Reuters. He said, however, that the number is “still going down” and that a quarterly update on the reserves would be available later in the month.

Mining news

• Core Scientific has lowered its 2022 hashrate outlook from 40-42 exahash per second (EH/s) to 30-32 EH/s, stating it would take a more conservative approach to growing the company because of the market volatility. They self-mined BTC 3,202 during Q1 2022 and currently hold more than BTC 10,000 on their balance sheet, the company added.
• Hut 8 announced that its revenue during Q1 2022 increased 67% to CAD 53.3m (USD 41m), with its self-mining operations generating CAD 49.3m (USD 37.9m) of revenue on BTC 942 mined. The company also installed 9,592 new miners at two facilities in Alberta, US, bringing their total operating capacity to 2.54 EH/s, an increase of 27% from December 31, 2021.