Blockchain Confidential - 25 March 2022

HubSpot hacked, Goldman's OTC trade, and two more Bitcoin spot ETF deferrals

The Week

The HubSpot hack exposed personal information and contacts for cryptocurrency firms and their users. Coinbase Cloud’s hosting service now supports Avalanche validators; separately, Avalanche started rolling out Bitcoin bridging. Goldman Sachs partnered up with Galaxy Digital for its first cash-settled, OTC Bitcoin option trade; GS also released survey results that 60% of their clients expect to increase digital asset holdings in the next year or two. Meanwhile FTX and Coinshares teamed up for a Solana staking ETP listed on Xetra. Figure will launch crypto-backed mortgages starting in April, while Robinhood’s new debit card will offer crypto rewards. Bridgewater Associates is gearing up to launch its first big crypto investment, but likely first through a third party rather than standing up its own crypto hedge fund.

The Good Read

This week’s Good Read comes from the Coinbase blog, on a quant topic. Read An analysis of triangular arbitrage transactions in Uniswap V2.

Regulator Radar

The SEC deferred WisdomTree and One River’s Bitcoin spot ETF applications, and Bloomberg’s analysts speculated that coming changes to increase regulation of U.S. spot exchanges might finally open the door in 2023. On the U.S. state level, New York legislators continues to consider a potential mining moratorium. In a comment sure to rile concerns about crypto and sanctions evasion related to the war in Ukraine, a Russian lawmaker floated the possibility of accepting Bitcoin in return for energy exports. The Bank of England outlined their approach on crypto regulation, and to a degree echoed Fed Chair Powell’s “same activity, same regulation” principle. The OECD opened for public comment a proposal on tax reporting for digital assets, and expressed concern about crypto as a growing channel for tax evasion. The BIS completed its Project Dunbar multi-CBDC project; their innovation lab has done extensive work on interoperability. Finally, Thailand banned crypto for payments, but left the door open for trading & investment.

At the Office

Our co-founder and COO Jia Yng Wee moderated a panel in Singapore on “Digital disruption in banking and asset management” sponsored by UOB. In the event’s publicity we also unveiled Cloudwall Capital’s Chinese name, 云华  (yún huá). Ilya and Boris worked on refining and integrating our first market risk model while Barry and Tanya worked with Bob to refine his vision for Serenity’s portfolio management front-end. Ilya also laid out his plans for research collaborations in 2022; we hope to announce more shortly.