Robinhood’s Crypto Beta, FTX Challenge, Bitcoin Miners Bet Big, BTC ETF Inflows + More News

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.________

Adoption news

Investing app Robinhood announced that they will launch their crypto wallets in their beta phase in mid-January 2022, which will roll out to thousands of customers from the waitlist. They added that they saw 1m waitlist sign-ups in less than 30 days, and as of the announcement, more than 1.6m people have signed up for wallets.FTX is calling on banks to reach out and discuss the possibility of accepting stablecoins in exchange for a USD 1m reward. The exchange said it was exploring forming relationships with banks in different regions to allow users to have “near-instant and near-free deposits and withdrawals” through stablecoins.

Mining news

Marathon Digital agreed to buy 78,000 Antminer S19 XP Bitcoin (BTC) miners from Bitmain for USD 879.1m. A total of 13,000 machines should be delivered each month from July to December 2022.GEM Mining, a South Carolina, US-based BTC mining company, said it has deployed a fleet of 13,118 active miners producing BTC 6.5 per day. The company also confirmed fully-funded purchase orders, with hosting, for another 19,000 machines – all set for activation by the end of 2022. The company said it has mined BTC 560.9 since February 2021.

Investments news

The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) has taken in more than USD 40m so far in December, its third straight monthly infusion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Also, investors have added USD 6.5m to the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF since the end of November, also its third consecutive month of inflows, per the report.

Regulation news

A new USD 768bn defense policy bill in the US has removed “cryptocurrencies” from the US National Strategy Against Terrorism and Illicit Finance wording, per Forbes. This policy position seems to de-emphasize the concern around or targeting emerging technology, it added.

NFTs news

E11EVEN Partners, the brand behind the famous disco club in Downtown Miami, purchased non-fungible token (NFT) Ape #11 of the Bored Ape Yacht Club for ETH 99 (USD 396,000 at the moment of the transaction). The NFT depicts a monkey dressed in a red bathrobe, with a laurel wreath and smoking a cigarette.Solana (SOL) Phantom wallet ditched its plans to sell pricey NFT invites for its iOS beta after taking heavy community criticism that it was effectively pricing people out with USD 1,600 access passes. It said it will donate the now-canceled mint proceeds to charity, but the access passes will be replaced with a “free” beta invite for 1,000 people, a sharp decline from the 7,000 planned non-fungible tokens.

Metaverse news

ETFs issuer ProShares applied for an ETF focused on the metaverse with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The “Metaverse Theme ETF” would track the performance of the Solactive Metaverse Theme Index, which includes companies exposed to the metaverse industry.

Legal news

Lawyers for Australian crypto mogul Greg Dwyer, of crypto exchange BitMEX, have convinced a US judge to delay Dwyer’s trial for charges for breaching banking laws because he had less time to prepare for the proceedings after fighting extradition from Bermuda, per the Sydney Morning Herald.