Bordier & Cie, a Swiss financial institution operating for more than 170 years, has announced a partnership with digital asset bank Sygnum to allow its customers to purchase crypto assets. The integration with Sygnum’s business-to-business banking platform allows Bordier’s clients to purchase Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Tezos (XTZ). The announcement describes the move as “lay[ing] the foundation for a broader offering of regulated digital asset products and services,” including options and tokenized asset classes. Bordier managing partner Evrard Bordier said: “By partnering with Sygnum Bank, we are providing our clients with a one-stop, integrated solution while …

Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX has created a new specialized futures contract for traders to bet on the likelihood of the Olympic Games occurring in Tokyo in 2021. The coronavirus pandemic continues to cast a shadow over the safety of hosting the event this year, particularly after a renewed outbreak of the virus in Tokyo last month. For each such uncertainty, as FTX noted in its tweet promoting the new contract, there can be a lucrative market. The new futures contract on FTX Token (FTT) has, according to the exchange, a different risk profile than Bitcoin (BTC). That is, "It has …

Major European digital asset manager CoinShares is expanding its product portfolio with a new physically-backed Ether (ETH) exchange-traded product, or ETP. Called CoinShares Physical Ethereum (ETHE), the new investment product is launching with around $75 million in assets under management. Announcing the news Wednesday, CoinShares said that each unit of ETHE is backed with 0.03 ETH at launch. The news comes shortly after CoinShares launched its first physically backed Bitcoin (BTC) ETP, CoinShares Physical Bitcoin (BITC), in January. Similar to BITC, the new ETH ETP will be initially listed on SIX Swiss Exchange. The new product intends to provide investors …

Hester Peirce, the commissioner for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission known by the nickname "Crypto Mom," welcomes the challenge of regulating decentralized finance. In a speech for a George Washington University Law School event on the digital economy, Peirce said decentralized finance, or DeFi, could be the alternative legacy financial system many are seeking given the surge in anti-Wall Street sentiment surrounding the short squeeze of GameStop stocks. The SEC commissioner said the technology could provide a "very good test" for the regulatory body in protecting investors and markets. "Although a work in progress with all the growing pains …

Cointelegraph Markets Pro, a data platform designed to level the playing field for cryptocurrency market participants, is now available to the public following a successful live testing period. The platform, which has been in development for a year, is the result of exhaustive analysis of the crypto markets and the key drivers of asset price movements. It was developed jointly by Cointelegraph and The TIE, a leading provider of crypto data, analytics and software that counts major hedge funds, market makers and over-the-counter desks among its clients. Testing the VORTECS Score At the heart of the platform is the VORTECS …

21Shares, a Switzerland-based provider of cryptocurrency exchange-traded products, or ETPs, has recorded a 100% growth in assets under management over the past two weeks. The company announced Monday that it has passed the $1 billion mark in assets under management across its diversified 12 crypto-asset ETPs. 21Shares CEO Hany Rashwan said that the company has seen a meteoric rise in its crypto ETP products recently, doubling its AUM in less than two weeks. The company previously announced that 21Shares broke $500 million in AUM on Feb. 8. According to the announcement, the massive surge in 21Shares’ crypto ETP business is …

Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law. Editor's note Technology is by and large not the major barrier — though many in the industry have a decent bit of hubris about it. More important is that people, whenever their money is on the line, get mighty conservative. Which is not necessarily greedy or unreasonable, but it is why it was easier for lawmakers to greenlight email than electronic signatures. Conservatism surrounding money also means that old systems have to fail in a pretty conspicuous fashion for anyone to …

Analysts at American investment bank JPMorgan Chase have delivered another skeptical statement on Bitcoin (BTC), arguing that its current price is much higher than its fair value. In a regular memo for investors, JPMorgan argued that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are an “economic side show” and the poorest hedge against a decline in equity prices, Reuters reports Friday. The analysts said that the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin increases its correlation with cyclical assets, which makes it a less attractive asset for portfolio diversification: “Crypto assets continue to rank as the poorest hedge for major drawdowns in equities, with questionable diversification benefits …

Vlad Tenev, Robinhood’s CEO, very much occupied the hot seat in today’s hearing before the House Financial Services Committee over January’s market volatility. None of the representatives seemed particularly interested in putting the screws to Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and many seemed to give Keith Gill the same props the rest of us did. These aren’t the market manipulators you are looking for Gill, in all fairness, was the most likeable character involved, introducing his remarks by saying “A few things I am not: I am not a cat and I am not an accredited investor.” Gill, who really started …

United States lawmakers are set to grill Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev over the GameStop trading frenzy at a Congressional hearing later today. In his prepared remarks, Robinhood CEO appeared to place responsibility for the platform’s stock trading suspensions on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Tenev said that the company blocked trading to meet “regulatory deposit requirements” defined by the SEC. The exec specifically criticized an SEC rule that requires equities transactions to clear over two days: “It takes several days for the clearinghouse to process the transaction [...] This is known as “T+2” settlement, denoting the trade date plus …

PancakeSwap (CAKE) has emerged as a rising star in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector with the recent surge in price helping the food-themed token become the first billion-dollar project on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). Data from Cointelegraph Markets and Tradingview shows that the price of CAKE has risen 520% since reaching a low of $1.89 on Feb. 3 to establish a new all-time high of $11.12 on Feb. 17. This propelled its total market cap above $1 billion for the first time. As DeFi has grown in prominence with a majority of top projects currently operating on the Ethereum …

The controversy-laden trading platform Robinhood announced on Wednesday that it intends to implement cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals. While customers have been able to buy and sell cryptocurrency via the platform for some time, they are unable to access the coins themselves to transfer them to other wallets. According to a series of tweets published from the company’s Twitter account, work on integration of cryptocurrency transfers has already begun, though no dates or specifics were provided on when it will go live. Robinhood also clarified that crypto deposits would be custodied by their own wallets and added that the company does …