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MLB Team Washington Nationals Partners With Terra Blockchain Community, Ballpark Plans to Accept UST

On February 9, the American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C., the Washington Nationals, announced the team has partnered with Terra, the open-source blockchain platform and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The Washington Nationals detail that the team is a “leading innovator” and is “consistently introducing new technologies to enhance the fan experience.” Washington Nationals Ink Long-Term Deal With Terra Major League Baseball (MLB) team the Washington Nationals has partnered with the blockchain platform and DAO Terra, according to an announcement published by the team on Wednesday. The deal with Terra follows a slew of sports-related deals with crypto firms, but the MLB team will be the first to partner with an open-source blockchain project. In addition to the partnership, the algorithmic stablecoin UST that’s issued on the Terra blockchain will be “accepted as a payment method at Nationals Park as early as next season.” “The Nationals continue t...

North America’s First Bitcoin ETF Now Holds Over 11,000 BTC

North America's First Bitcoin ETF Now Holds Over 11,000 BTC

The first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in North America now holds over 11,000 bitcoins. Purpose Bitcoin ETF saw strong interest at launch. An ETF researcher explained that the surge in interest was evidence of some combination of pent-up demand, the price of bitcoin, and investors switching from other means of getting cryptocurrency exposure.

First North American Bitcoin ETF Holding More Than 11K Bitcoins

The first approved bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in North America, Purpose Bitcoin ETF, is holding 11,141.2363 bitcoins as of March 2. According to Purpose Investments, which manages the fund, the bitcoin ETF currently has CA$669 million ($530 million) in assets under management.

Purpose Bitcoin ETF gained widespread attention when it launched on Feb. 18 on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). The fund saw more than $165 million in trading volume on the first day. The ETF trades under the symbols BTCC.B (Canadian dollar-denominated ETF non-currency hedged units) and BTCC.U (U.S. dollar-denominated ETF non-currency hedged units).

Purpose Bitcoin ETF’s bitcoin holdings. Source: Glassnode

However, trading has slowed significantly since its launch. The volume stood at $17 million on Tuesday. Ben Johnson, Morningstar’s global director of ETF research, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying: “The initial surge in interest was evidence of some combination of pent-up demand, investors switching from other means of getting bitcoin exposure, and the fact that bitcoin’s price was notching new highs as the Purpose ETF began trading. Longer term, I expect volumes will be correlated with bitcoin’s price.”

Canada’s securities regulator has approved another bitcoin ETF. Evolve Bitcoin ETF started trading on the TSX one day after Purpose Bitcoin ETF. It trades under the symbol EBIT (which offers exposure to the daily price movement of bitcoin in Canadian dollars) and EBIT.U (which offers exposure to the daily price movements of bitcoin in U.S. dollars).

Evolve Bitcoin ETF’s volume at launch was about $15 million. Its volume dwindled to about $3.2 million shares on Tuesday. The ETF lowered its management fee from 1% to 0.75% on Feb. 24, making it cheaper than the fees charged by Purpose Bitcoin ETF. On March 2, Evolve filed to list and trade an ether ETF designed to provide investors with exposure to ETH.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not approved any cryptocurrency ETF. President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the SEC, Gary Gensler, has yet to be confirmed as the SEC chairman. This week, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) filed with the SEC to list and trade a bitcoin ETF.

Would you invest in a bitcoin ETF? Let us know in the comments section below.

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