BlackRock is opening the door to bitcoin (BTC). This is apparent from two filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company is the largest asset manager in the world with over $8,600 billion (!) of assets under management.
Two of the company's funds are asking permission to put some of their assets into bitcoin futures contracts.
BlackRock and bitcoin
Two funds called BlackRock Funds V and BlackRock Global Allocation Fund may, if approved by the US regulator, start to deposit themselves in the bitcoin market. They made the application on January 20. The Blockreports.
This is the largest asset manager in the world who may be involved in btc's market. For the time being, it seems that it is only on futures. The company doesn't seem to be ready, or may not want to, to actually buy bitcoin and put it in a fund.
An example of the latter is Grayscale. They already have over 500,000 bitcoin under management with
their fund and are not ready yet: Grayscale buys 16,244 Bitcoin (BTC) within 24 hours.
What are they going to do?
BlackRock Funds V and BlackRock Global Allocation Fund request permission to trade futures. This allows them to speculate on the bitcoin price without buying BTC themselves. In the application they indicate some risks: ''An investment by a fund in bitcoin futures may have to do with illiquidity.'' These financial products are growing in popularity, but are not as large as other futures markets.
This application also specifically refers to futures that are paid and paid out in cash (dollars, probably). In the entire process, no bitcoin transaction passes. Of course, they also solemnly promise to work only with financial products that have been approved in America. A company like this doesn't go to work on a crazy stock exchange.
It's not a certainty that BlackRock will actually start working with BTC. The fact is, they want to be ready if they want to do that.
If you are looking for a job: the American company is also looking for a 'blockchain lead'.
China is still the undisputed leader in the bitcoin market, the researchers conclude from Messari. This can be read in the report Asia's Crypto Landscape by analyst Mira Christanto. She has looked at the active funds, exchanges and traders in the largest bitcoin - and crypto market: Asia.
Within that region, China is the most dominant country, despite discouragement from the central government.
Bitcoin computing power 65% in China
In China, 65% of the computing power of the bitcoin network is still established. The so-called hashrate is another term for the total computing power of the network.
It is an indicator to indicate how many times the hash function can be calculated within a second. These are estimates based on historical performance of the network.
Other countries with computing power are America (7.24%), Russia (6.9%) venezuela (0.43%). Countries such as Iran, Pakistan and Kazakhstan are also investing in computing power to mine bitcoin. Each block generates 6.25 BTC, still more than $200,000 in gross sales.
The dominant position is despite the government's discouragement policy. Trading cryptocurrency has been banned since 2017, hence trading on offshore exchanges. Market leader Binance started in the country, but quickly dodged to Singapore, Hong Kong and Malta.
Tether USDT
Not only in terms of computing power, the country also dominates, but also in terms of transaction volume it is at the top. Asia as a region accounts for 43% of the total transaction volume of all crypto volume. That equates to $296 billion in volume at the time of the investigation. These are also transactions of currencies other than bitcoin.
By comparison, Eastern Europe and Latin America account for 12% and 7% of all transaction volume, respectively. It's remarkable, because bitcoin is catching on in inflationary countries like Venezuela and Argentina. And countries such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan and also Russia are actively engaged in mining activities in policy terms.
The fact that China is the market leader is not surprising either. Investors are forced to find alternatives to escape inflation from the renminbi. In addition, residents are only allowed to buy and store up to $50,000 worth of foreign currency. This capital control drives investors to the bitcoin market and stablecoin Tether USDT in particular.
Hong Kong, hub for institutional money
The report states Tether USDT is 'booming' in China and the rest of the continent. Hong Kong is home to the majority of institutional investors. In South Korea, a craziness is going on, because a third of the population would be a bitcoin owner.
In Japan, more traditional banks are active in the sector compared to other countries. Vietnam has the strictest regime: bitcoin is banned as a means of payment and listed companies and funds are not allowed to invest in it.