Here comes Friday, December 8th. As the week elapses, we can focus on the industry highlights over the past few days.
Robinhood sees a 75% surge in crypto trading volume
The well-known online brokerage giant has notified the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of a substantial growth in its trading volume.
“November Crypto Notional Trading Volumes were roughly 75% above October 2023 levels,” according to the Form 8-K. The paper also highlights that over the course of the last month customers contributed roughly $1.4 billion of net deposits to Robinhood.
Reinvigoration of trading activity on the platform is accompanied by a strong market rebound. Back on December 4, Bitcoin price hit $42,000, exceeding the annual maximum.
Let us remind you that May figures showed a 68% drop in Robinhood’s trading turnover. In June, the brokerage firm reported a 7% shrink of its workforce.
The platform’s crypto trading revenue fell by 18% in August.
Elon Musk-led xAI to raise $1B in equity
X.AI, an artificial intelligence startup, founded by the renowned multi-billionaire has filed a notice to the SEC about its plans to raise $1 billion through an equity offering.
The company has so far sold a total of $134.7 million worth of shares since Nov. 29, according to the claim. Thus, xAI anticipates raising another $865.3 million.
The notice filed under Form D implies a securities tax avoidance.
Musk is described in the notice to the regulator as Director and Executive Officer, while Jared Birchall, Corporate Secretary, is listed as another affiliate of the company.
XAI opted not to disclose its current market capitalization.
The entrepreneur set the startup rolling back in April to develop artificial intelligence intending to “understand the true nature of the universe.” The team includes former employees of DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, Twitter and Tesla.
In early November, the project team unveiled Grok, a chatbot modeled after the guidebook from Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” series of science fiction novels. Grok subsequently engaged in a debate with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who expressed doubts about its sense of humor.
Recall that amid the popularity of the chatbot in question, there appeared a multitude of tokens dubbed GROK. The price of one such coin sunk to zero after blockchain expert ZachXBT revealed there turned out to be a notorious fraudulent scheme was behind the asset.
JPMorgan CEO urged US authorities to shut down crypto
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon voiced his opinion on the dire need for strict restrictions on digital assets in a meeting with U.S. lawmakers, The Block reports.
Responding to a question from Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren about why cryptocurrencies are enticing to criminals, Dimon emphasized the risk of sidestepping government oversight. “I’ve always been deeply opposed to crypto, bitcoin, etc. If I was the government, I’d close it down,” he added.
The JPMorgan executive also advocated for stricter regulatory supervision of stablecoins.
Dimon has long been a staunch opponent of digital assets. Back in October 2021, he stated that bitcoin “cannot go very far,” noting that his opinion is not always popular. Later on, he described cryptocurrencies as “decentralized Ponzi schemes.”
The government task force involved representatives from other banks such as Wells Fargo & Company, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs. They all spoke in favor of Warren’s statement, believing that crypto should comply with conventional anti-money laundering (AML) regulations.
“I’m not usually holding hands with the CEOs of multi-billion dollar banks, but this is a matter of national security,” she emphasized.
In the waning days of December 2022, Elizabeth Warren, along with colleague Roger Wayne Marshall, had introduced a draft bill to tighten anti-money laundering requirements regarding the use of digital assets.
Recall that in March 2023, Warren called on authorities to take action against “sham audits” of crypto-driven companies.
BlackRock, Bitwise update bids to launch bitcoin-ETF
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and crypto investment firm Bitwise have submitted refined applications to launch spot bitcoin ETFs.
Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart views the latest developments as a sign that the SEC is passing along similar instructions to various issuers. According to him, this is further evidence of gearing up for the possible approval of the product.
“What does this mean? Without having read them — it just means that the wheel is still turning. Both the SEC and these issuers are working hard to iron things out. These filings are likely the result of many conversations and a lot of man hours on/between both sides,” he explained.
Following the published tweets, BTC tried to consolidate above the $42,000 mark but failed to claw its way, hitting its highest since April 2022. The alpha cryptocurrency value is now back to $41,700 at the time of writing with a daily gain of about 0.5%, according to CoinGecko.
Previously, the SEC began collecting feedback from the community regarding spot bitcoin-ETFs. Lawyer Scott Johnson interprets this as a signal that the regulator is ready to approve all applications for the instrument concurrently until January 10, 2024.
The SEC and BlackRock held a meeting in November to discuss details of a spot bitcoin ETF.
Prior to this, the regulator was in talks with Grayscale’s management to discuss the possible conversion of their bitcoin trust into an ETF.