The biggest news of last week is that Huobi announced it has scaled back or suspended some services and products in certain countries and stopped its miner hosting services in China after the country's recent crackdown on crypto. The exchange's decision includes some futures contract trading services, leveraged investment products, exchange-traded products, and miner hosting services in China, and it led to further bleeding in the crypto market.
Huobi stated: "Huobi always strives to abide by the evolving policies and regulations of each jurisdiction to adhere to risk and preserve the well-being of our users and their assets." The exchange did not disclose the specific countries and regions where it has suspended services. Huobi noted it will also suspend the sale of crypto mining machines and mining hosting services in China and will soon give existing clients more details. As a major crypto services provider for Chinese investors, Huobi's pullback could signal more pain ahead for the sector.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) is planning to offer digital currency investments through a new professionally-managed fund for its wealthy clients. Darrell Cronk, the president of Wells Fargo Investment Institute (WFII) told Insider Wednesday that the financial giant obtained regulatory clarity and is moving forward. The effort is being head by Greg Maddox, the head of Global Manager Research, and the professionally-managed solution is slated to be added to the bank's platform around mid-June. The fund will be added as an alternative investment through professionally-managed funds, as a beneficial diversifier for qualified investors. The WFII Global Investment Strategy Team believes long-term supply and demand trends in crypto will help the industry's growth and potentially minimize price volatility. Wells Fargo's move comes after peers Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and BNY Mellon (NYSE: BK) unveiled plans to offer clients Bitcoin (BTC) and digital asset funds and custody.
Figure announced Thursday it raised $200 million in a Series D funding round that boosts the blockchain mortgage startup's valuation to $3.2 billion. The newest fundraise was led by 10T Holdings and Morgan Creek Capital Management and had contributions from new and existing investors including Digital Capital Management, DST Global, and Digital Currency. Also, Morgan Creek general partner Sachin Jaitly and 10T cofounder Stan Miroshnik will join Figure's board of directors. Figure uses its own blockchain called Provenance as a marketplace for loans and mortgages, capital table management, fund management, banking, and payments services. The firm originally aimed to raise $250 million in the round, according to a regulatory filing from February. The new capital comes as Figure tries to obtain a US banking charter, and its application is still under review by the federal government.
Crypto prices cratered this week to $1.291 trillion, due to bearish news from China and the US. For the majors, all coins except stablecoins plummeted. In the top 100, the biggest losers were Terra (LUNA), down 74%, Fantom (FTM), down 68%, and THORChain (RUNE), down 66%. The biggest gainers were stablecoins DAI, up 0.28%, and Tether (USDT), up 0.2%, and TrueUSD (TUSD), up 0.91%. Next week traders will see if Bitcoin can stay above $30,000 or the selloff continues.
The author owns a small amount of BTC.