The third week of September has been exciting for the blockchain and cryptocurrency world. Perhaps the biggest news is that Cboe BZX Exchange (BATS: CBOE) withdrew its VanEck/SolidX Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) application from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to a filing on September 17, a proposed rule change to publicly list shares of the VanEck/SolidX Bitcoin Trust was withdrawn on September 13. The SEC had already delayed their decision several times, and it now faces a final deadline of October 18 to determine whether to approve or reject the first Bitcoin ETF in the US. The move by Cboe came weeks after VanEck and SolidX began offering shares of the Trust under a Rule 144A exemption to qualified institutional buyers. The SEC is still reviewing two other Bitcoin ETF proposals from Wilshire Phoenix and Bitwise Asset Management.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) announced on Tuesday it is developing a stable cryptocurrency linked to the US dollar (USD) that will run on the financial giant's first blockchain platform. Named 'Wells Fargo Digital Cash', the stablecoin will be used initially in a pilot for internal settlement across the firm's businesses. Lisa Frazier, head of the bank's innovation group, said Wells Fargo sees a growing demand to reduce friction across borders with new digital technology. Wells Fargo says its proprietary digital ledger tech platform will enable it to move money in "near real-time" and "without impact to the underlying account, transaction postings, or reconcilement infrastructure." Eventually, the bank hopes the stablecoin service will reach all of its branches worldwide.
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) obtained a patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office for a concept to use blockchain technology to support the dynamic creation of virtual SIM (vSIM) cards. A device on the Verizon mobile network would create a user account for storing one or more vSIMs and a selection of network services. The network device would then create a blockchain record including a vSIM certificate for the network services and an International Mobile Subscriber Identity, a number that uniquely identifies all users on a mobile network. Participating nodes on the "distributed consensus network" would maintain a list of records that Verizon calls a vSIM blockchain. Records on the vSIM blockchain would be stored in a hash tree structure to ensure that blocks are received "undamaged and unaltered." In theory, the vSIM can be assigned any of multiple mobile devices linked to a user account and transferred between them. The telecom giant hopes someday the idea could make physical SIM cards obsolete.
Crypto prices slipped slightly to below $265 billion this week. For the majors, Stellar (XLM), Ethereum (ETH), and Ripple (XRP) jumped, while EOS, Bitcoin, and Binance Coin (BNB) slipped. In the top 100, the biggest losers were MonaCoin (MONA), down 18%, Cosmos (ATOM), down 16%, and MaidSafeCoin (MAID), down 14%. The biggest gainers were ABBC Coin (ABBC), up a whopping 151%, 0x (ZRX), up 44%, and Crypterium (CRPT), up 44%. Next week traders will see if Bitcoin can regain $10,000 and move up from there.
The author owns a small amount of BTC.