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Ripple CTO David Schwartz Reveals Unexpected Truths About XRP Distribution and Supply

David Schwartz, Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer, recently shared his views on the company’s strategy regarding its XRP holdings. These revelations provide a better understanding of Ripple’s approach to managing its cryptocurrency holdings.

Ripple’s XRP Allocation

Ripple’s XRP assets are divided into two different categories. The first includes the XRP currently available in Ripple wallets. The second category includes XRP in escrow on the ledger, scheduled for release in the coming months. However, it is important to note that Ripple does not have immediate access to custodial XRP until its scheduled monthly release. In the past, a significant portion of the released XRP was returned to escrow.

XRP Holdings Decisions and Strategies

Responding to a user’s query, Schwartz explained Ripple’s options regarding its XRP holdings. In principle, Ripple can either maintain its current XRP holdings or choose to reduce them. According to Schwartz, the company planned to reduce its XRP holdings as quickly as possible. However, he questions the feasibility and potential benefits of this original strategy.

Initially, the company considered using giveaways to reduce its supply of XRP. But as XRP gained market value, there was a chance that people would take advantage of these freebies, which led to their discontinuation. Ripple has also explored alternative methods, such as B. Locked Sales and using XRP to incentivize affiliates. Ultimately, however, these strategies were similar to selling XRP directly.

Long-term vision and trusting decisions

Schwartz noted that, despite being over a decade old, Ripple is making good progress on its initial five-year plan. He also answered questions from the community about managing deposited XRP. Additionally, Schwartz expressed ambivalence toward the escrow account itself, rejecting the idea of burning the escrow stock on the grounds that it might lead to a different outcome.

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Bitcoin Bitcoin Wallet Cryptocurrency news

Coinbase: Uniswap tops 2023 list of protocols

Launched in 2018 by Hayden Adams, a former mechanical engineer at Siemens, the Uniswap blockchain runs on the Solidity programming language, a popular choice for many decentralized finance (Defi) projects on the Ethereum platform.

Uniswap offers users the ability to provide liquidity to pools and trade decentralized tokens in pairs, including native cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. Uniswap is characterized by its open source nature and encourages contributions from a diverse community. The project has since collected more than three million unique senders.

The thread continues and highlights Tether as the second protocol. It recorded 33.6 million sends from 6.2 million unique addresses, making it a significant player in the Ethereum ecosystem, followed by Opensea, Metamask and 1inch.

It is worth noting that aggregator 1inch emerged as the most used project, while recent addition Banana Gun, launching in 2023, recorded 1.5 million swaps in ninth place on the list.
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Bitcoin Wallet cryptocurrency exchange Cryptocurrency news

Michael Saylor Selling $216 Million of Microstrategy’s Shares, Plans to Buy More Bitcoin

Microstrategy’s executive chairman, Michael Saylor, is selling $216 million of his company’s shares, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The pro-bitcoin executive intends to use some of the proceeds to acquire additional bitcoin for his personal holdings.
Michael Saylor Plans to Buy More Bitcoin for Himself

Microstrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR)’s executive chairman, Michael Saylor, plans to sell 315,000 shares of his company’s common stock worth $216 million, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Jan. 2.

Microstrategy previously disclosed Saylor’s plan to sell up to 400,000 shares of company stock over four months. In its November 10-Q filing with the SEC, the Nasdaq-listed firm explained that the pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plan, triggered by a stock option that expires on April 30, 2024, involves daily sales of 5,000 shares contingent on a minimum price condition.

During Microstrategy’s Q3 2023 earnings call on Nov. 2, 2023, Saylor explained that he plans to use some of the proceeds to buy more bitcoin for his personal account.

“I was granted a stock option in 2014 with respect to 400,000 shares, which is going to expire next April if I don’t exercise it by then,” the executive chairman began. “For almost a decade now at my request, the company has only paid me a $1 salary and I’ve chosen not to be eligible for any cash bonuses.” Saylor continued:

Exercising this option will allow me to address some financial obligations as well as to acquire additional bitcoin for my personal account.

While Saylor has not disclosed how much bitcoin he owns recently, he said in October 2020 that he personally owns 17,732 BTC. Meanwhile, his software intelligence firm publicly reported holdings of 189,150 bitcoin as of December 2023.

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Bitcoin Cryptocurrency news

OKX presents investor risk questionnaires according to FCA

To adapt to the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations in the UK, OKX Exchange has introduced a comprehensive user review system. Starting next week, UK-based OKX users will be subject to a detailed investor questionnaire. This metric is important to assess your understanding of the risks involved in buying and trading cryptocurrencies.

In addition, there is an additional level of evaluation. OKX implements another questionnaire aimed at checking the suitability of crypto investments for each individual. The exchange’s strict policy is that users who fail these checks or cannot demonstrate sufficient understanding of the risks will not retain their accounts.

OKX adaptation to FCA regulations

These measures are a direct response to the FCA’s upcoming regulations, which come into force on January 8th. The UK cryptocurrency market has undergone significant regulatory changes. As a result, other exchanges such as Binance have already made adjustments, including halting new user registrations in the UK from October 16th.

In addition, OKX proactively adapts its services. The exchange is reducing its offering of digital assets to around 40 tokens. Additionally, it integrates important risk warnings into its interface. This approach is part of a broader trend of regulatory caution prevalent in crypto exchanges worldwide.

Revised security measures

Recently, OKX overhauled its security protocols, improving the security of exchanges between users. The move includes the delisting of several privacy-focused tokens last week. Such changes reflect a growing trend in regulatory compliance and risk management in the cryptocurrency exchange industry.

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Bitcoin cryptocurrency exchange Cryptocurrency Investment Cryptocurrency news

Bitcoin Spot ETF: Bitwise Closes Ranks with $200 Million Initial Fund

Competition among Spot Bitcoin ETF issuers is intensifying as the period for possible approval of these funds approaches. Asset manager Bitwise is the issuer currently making waves as it could potentially overtake the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, in terms of seed funding for its respective ETFs.

Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Could Receive $200 Million Seed Funding

Bitwise’s latest amendment to its S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shows that the asset manager has secured investor interest for its ETF to receive $200 million at launch. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas highlighted its importance, saying it “exceeds” BlackRock’s initial fund of $10 million.

The analyst noted that Bitwise actually seeding its ETF with such an amount could be a “huge help” in the early days of the run. It is believed that the SEC will likely approve the pending ETF applications simultaneously. As such, Bitwise’s ability to create shares worth $200 million could give the asset manager an edge in terms of meeting client demands.

Bitwise had already demonstrated its intention to lead from the start following the launch of its commercial Bitcoin ETF. This move could help the asset manager gain a lot of interest in their Bitcoin ETF even before launch. This way, the public sees it as the first option at the time of launch.

Notably, Bitwise did not mention who the authorized participant (AP) of its ETF would be. The AP would act as an intermediary between the investor and the ETF issuer, as they are responsible for creating and redeeming ETF shares. While Bitwise has not named its AP, other issuers such as BlackRock have included it in their latest S-1 filing with the SEC.

BTC ETF Issuers Show Their Hands in Latest Wave of Registrations

Bitcoin ETF spot issuers have made some notable additions in their most recent and final amendment to their S-1 filings. These inclusions also give an idea of the strategy these issuers may seek to adopt to attract investors to their funds. In the case of Fidelity, the asset manager will seek to attract investors with its relatively low fees.

Balchunas noted that Fidelity’s “sponsorship fee” of 0.39% turns out to be the lowest so far among other issuers that have disclosed theirs. Interestingly, Invesco is adopting a more attractive strategy, as it revealed in its latest amendment that it will waive fees for the first six months and the first $5 billion in assets.

The Bloomberg analyst mentioned that fee wars will continue to exist in the Bitcoin spot ETF arena as issuers look to outdo each other.