The cryptocurrency market remains range-bound, with Bitcoin (BTC) hovering around $70,000. While preparing this report, Bitcoin was trading at $66,932, down 5.60% in the past 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH) had lost 7.10% to trade at $3,360. XRP was trading at $0.5955, a decrease of 5.20% in the same period.
Major cryptocurrencies, which have lost ground in the past 24 hours, are Binance Coin (BNB – $557.09, -7.50%), Polkadot (DOT, $8.75, -9.10%), Cardano (ADA, $0.5981, 7.60%), Polygon (MATIC – $0.9156, -8.60%), Solana (SOL, $184.29, -9.20%), Avalanche (Avax- $48.10, -10.80%), Shiba Inu (SHIB, $0.00002699, -11.10%), EOS (EOS – $0.9945, -10.10%), ChainLink (LINK – $17.78, -7.50%), and VeChain (VET, $0.04222, -10%).
Private Sector Initiatives
Zodia Custody Launches Collateral Project with Tokenet Integration
Zodia Custody, which is backed by SBI, Northern Trust, and Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures, rolled out a new digital asset lending and borrowing platform, Collateral Project, by integrating Tokenet. Digital Prime Technologies unveiled Tokenet in November 2023. Tokenet offers a platform focused on institutional lending and borrowing. The initial customers include Citadel and Schwab-backed EDX Clearing, Xapo, and Hidden Road.
Following the shutdown of cryptocurrency lenders such as Genesis, Celsius, and BlockFi, there’s a real need to fill the void in the market for digital asset lending.
In contrast to centralized lenders, Tokenet facilitates bilateral agreements. Under this arrangement, Zodia’s Collateral Protect securely stores collateral in segregated cold storage wallets. Despite this segregation, the system facilitates real-time transactions. Furthermore, Zodia Custody employs a resilient remote structure to safeguard against bankruptcy, ensuring that assets remain separate from its bankruptcy estate in the improbable event of a collapse.
UDPN Introduces Sandboxes for Interoperability of Digital Currencies
The Universal Digital Payments Network (UDPN) has unveiled sandboxes aimed at both commercial and central banks, structured to facilitate interoperability among various digital currencies, including stablecoins, tokenized deposits, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Deploying a decentralized Swift-like messaging system, UDPN utilizes blockchain and smart contracts to enable seamless interoperability.
Founded by Red Date Technology, the firm behind China’s Blockchain-Based Service Network (BSN), UDPN has joined hands with GFT, a German consultancy, and Toko, a tokenization spinoff of the DLA Piper law firm.
Prominent entities such as Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank have already participated in UDPN proofs of concept. The sandbox can handle a range of currencies, encompassing both retail and wholesale CBDCs, alongside various stablecoins like PayPal USD, Paxos Dollar, USDC, and Tether.
For retail CBDCs, the sandbox enables commercial banks to experiment with features such as quota management, circulation, and wallets.
Hyperledger Welcomes BNDES and Citi, Launches Besu Financial Services Group
The Hyperledger Foundation, offering an enterprise-level blockchain platform, has enrolled two new members: the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) and Citi. Furthermore, it unveiled a new entity, the Hyperledger Besu Financial Services Working Group. Besu, which collaborates with both public and private Ethereum blockchains, is focused on providing solutions to enterprises.
With the inclusion of BNDES, several domestic blockchain development systems have started using Besu. This includes LACChain (IDB), Europe’s EBSI, and Spain’s Alastria network.
Similarly, Brazil-headquartered Banco Central do Brasil, employs Besu as the core of its wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) project, DREX.
The central bank has joined the newly formed finance working group under the leadership of the DTCC, alongside other prominent members such as Accenture, Consensys, Citi, Japan Securities Clearing Corporation (JSCC), Kaleido, LACNET, Mastercard, Santander, Visa, and Web3 Labs. According to recent research conducted by Blockdaemon, 44% of the 92 institutions surveyed have adopted Besu.
BlackRock Plans Tokenized Fund in Collaboration with Securitize
BlackRock is on course to roll out a tokenized fund, the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund. As per the SEC filing, the fund has collaborated with tokenization firm Securitize.
The document did not disclose the specific magnitude of the Cayman Islands fund; however, it stipulated that the minimum investment requirement is $100,000.
Furthermore, the spot Bitcoin ETF IBIT unveiled about two months ago managed $15 billion worth of assets. BlackRock also administers Circle’s reserve fund, which forms the core of the USDC stablecoin.
Between IBIT and the Circle Fund alone, BlackRock’s assets in the crypto sector exceed $40 billion. Nonetheless, BlackRock’s total assets under management (AUM) surpass $9 trillion.
Disclaimer: Any financial trading analysis offered here is our opinion and is not intended as advice or direction for investors. We cannot guarantee the success of any trades made as a consequence of this article, and we encourage traders to incorporate a strong money management strategy to limit losses when they enter the markets. Please use this article as part of your own research before formulating strategies prior to trading.
