Last week, Wilshire Phoenix, an asset manager that unsuccessfully tried to create a Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) last year, filed to launch a new Bitcoin Commodity Trust. According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing published Friday, the New York-based firm seeks to offer Bitcoin to certain investors through the new trust, with a maximum proposed aggregate offering price of $2 million or 80,000 shares. The trust could compete with the $3.6 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTC: GBTC), which debuted in 2013. According to Wilshire's filing, asset management giant Fidelity Digital Asset Services will serve as the trust's Bitcoin custodian, while UMB Bank (NASDAQ: UMBF) will be the cash custodian. The trust's cash holdings will enjoy FDIC insurance, and the Bitcoin held will be insured against theft in excess of $100 million. The trust's net asset value will be calculated at the end of each business day.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
The DADA Art Collective, a loosely affiliated group of about a dozen visual artists across the globe, teamed up with the non-fungible token marketplaces OpenSea and Mintbase as well as the file-storage blockchain Arweave (AR), to publish the names and faces of American police officers accused of killing unarmed black people in a controversial project. Called "No Justice No Peace", the project was published June 6 in collaboration with crypto veteran Dennison Bertram, founder of DappHero. Bertram said: "It's a fascinating demonstration of how to do social protests using blockchain technology." The artists used Arweave's blockchain to create a wallet associated with each person killed, holding tokens that have data for the corresponding police officers' information. Many artists behind the project prefer to stay anonymous because some jurisdictions limit access to evidence that could incriminate police. Still, the art project is a novel use case of blockchain for memorializing information as part of a social protest movement.
Vanguard completed the first phase of a blockchain pilot exploring the issuance of digital asset-backed securities (ABS). The Pennsylvania-based investment management giant worked in collaboration with blockchain startup Symbiont, BNY Mellon (NYSE: BK), Citi (NYSE: C), State Street (NYSE: STT), and an unnamed US ABS issuer. Vanguard modeled the full lifecycle of an ABS settlement on blockchain in the pilot. Vanguard's fintech strategy head Warren Pennington said: "Vanguard is dedicated to providing innovative, world-class solutions that help advance the financial services industry." The firm's end goal is to improve the process of securitization with blockchain technology, eventually hoping to promote faster, more transparent, more automated, and more efficient capital markets.
Crypto prices edged down to $267 billion this week. For the majors, all coins except Tether (USDT) fell, with Cardano (ADA) and EOS posting the worst losses. In the top 100, the biggest losers were HedgeTrade (HEDG), down 31%, WAX (WAXP), down 25%, and Unibright (UBT), down 17%. The biggest gainers were SwissBorg (CHSB), up a whopping 80%, Kyber Network (KNC), up 64%, and Verge (XVG), up 40%. Next week traders will see if crypto experiences more volatility.
The author owns a small amount of BTC.