Crypto industry anticipation for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval in the United States has been building as investment managers file amended applications with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This anticipation has even caused the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) to jump ahead of other derivative exchanges in terms of Bitcoin (BTC) open interest, surpassing traditional crypto exchanges and showcasing the demand for a spot Bitcoin product. The CME recently achieved a milestone of over 100,000 BTC in its cash-settled futures market.
Unfortunately, the SEC also charged SafeMoon and three of its executives with fraud and unregistered securities sales concerning the SafeMoon (SFM) token. Allegedly, SafeMoon executives withdrew $200 million worth of assets from the project and misappropriated investor funds despite claiming that funds were locked in a liquidity pool. Two executives were arrested.
In other news, stablecoin issuer Circle has announced that it will be phasing out consumer accounts on Nov. 30. This follows emails received by customers in the previous days, informing them of the strategic decision. Wiring and minting functionalities are no longer supported. Business and institutional accounts will remain open.
The CME has become the second-largest Bitcoin futures exchange as open interest surges, just behind Binance with $3.58 billion in open interest, pushing it two places up from the week before, overtaking Bybit and OKX with $2.6 billion and $1.78 billion respectively.
Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, which he purchased for $44 billion in October 2022, is now reportedly worth less than half of that amount, as internal memo values its restricted stock units at $45 a share, putting the company’s value at around $19 billion.
Iris-scanning project Worldcoin has now achieved a milestone of 4 million downloads for its mobile World App. This could place the software wallet in sixth place in CoinGecko’s list of most downloaded wallets. Each user who passes the iris verification receives 25 Worldcoin (WLD) tokens, worth approximately $46.50. The project has become popular in countries such as Argentina, as some participants have seen it as a quick way to make money.
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