This Week in Crypto – 1st of December 2021
Morgan Stanley accumulate more Grayscale Bitcoin shares
Morgan Stanley, one of the largest investment banks in the US, continues to double down with Bitcoin and added more shares of Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) to a number of their funds.
In its latest report to the SEC, the company revealed that it increased its Bitcoin exposure while taking advantage of GBTC discount rates. As of writing GBTC discount sits at 12.32% per YCharts.
Three of MS's funds saw increases in their Bitcoin exposure; Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund's Growth Portfolio, Morgan Stanley Insight Fund, and Morgan Stanley Global Opportunity Portfolio.
With its latest purchase, Morgan Stanley holds 6,626,381 shares, worth roughly $307 million based on current prices.
Since February GBTC's shares have been trading at a discount, meaning that the shares are cheaper than they should be. For many investors, this is a huge problem because their investments are unprofitable. To stop the losses Grayscale's parent company took control of the situation and bought some of GBTC's shares. Last month Digital Currency Group increased its purchase from $750 million to $1 billion.
Christie's works with OpenSea to auction digital art
World famous auction house Christie's has begun to work closely with NFT marketplace OpenSea to show its digital art.
The collaboration, called "Christie's X OpenSea" will be hosted on OpenSea's website where users can bid for the NFT in Ethereum. Among the featured artists are Andre O'Shea, Alpha Centauri Kid, Ash Thorp, Beige, Blake Kathryn and more.
Earlier this year Christie's sold a NFT by Bepple for a record $69 million. Since then the auction house continues to keep a close eye on the space and last month reported more than $100 million in NFT sales.
When it comes to OpenSea the platform is the largest NFT marketplace with more than $11 billion trading volume.
"Crypto doesn't pose a big risk for the economy" Bank of Canada
Canada is known as one of the few countries with a pro-crypto policy. The country became the first to approve Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETF but also a combined crypto ETF.
Despite the high levels of crypto adoption the Bank of Canada deputy governor Paul Beaudry believes that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin don't pose a significant risk to the financial system.
In a meeting on Tuesday, he said that the Bank doesn't think crypto is "developing in a way that creates a systemic type of risk for a financial system" up to now.
Spanish regulators sounded the alarm on Binance promo by footballer Iniesta
The Spanish financial regulator, CNMV, put a warning out regarding Andrés Iniesta promoting the largest crypto exchange Binance on his Twitter and Instagram account.
Iniesta, who has played for Barcelona and the Spanish national team, posted some photos of him next to a laptop showing the Binance website.
12 hours later the regulator wrote: "Hi Andres Iniesta, crypto assets carry some significant risks due to being unregulated products".
Despite the warning, Iniesta's post already has more than 8,000 likes and 1,000 Retweets.
Militsa Dimitrova
Crypto Enthusiast
Militsa Dimitrova is a crypto enthusiast with experience in content creation & social media, who produces her own Cryptocurrency Newsletter and Podcast both in English and Bulgarian. She joined FXCM as an Accountant in 2020, after obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Accounting from the University of National and World Economy of Sofia.
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