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Appold Market Watch - Week 15 to 19 January 2024

Market Update & Industry News - Week ending 19 January 2024

🔷 BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF became the first spot Bitcoin ETF to hit $1bn AUM on Wednesday. The global investment firms’ flagship iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) began trading on the 12th of January 2024, a day after approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Appold view: Congratulations to BlackRock for hitting this $1bn milestone ahead of the competition, with Fidelity Investments behind at just under $900m. Combining a strong brand name, deep institutional relationships and low fees goes a long way. 

🔷 The European Parliament and Council of the European Union announced a provisional deal on parts of a regulatory package related to money laundering and terrorist financing. The Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) will force crypto firms operating within the bloc to apply customer due diligence measures for transactions amounting to €1,000 or more as part of a “single rulebook” regulation.

Appold view: This stance may influence other jurisdictions to adopt similar measures, leading to a more coordinated approach. If not then many companies in the digital asset space may consider regulatory arbitrage.

đź”· Technology giant, Dell Technologies, announced a further global expansion of its offering of an AI-focused decentralised cloud service. As part of Dell’s global loyalty program, it now offers its clients OORT Storage, an enterprise-grade decentralised cloud storage solution.  

Appold view: We are seeing a significant increase in decentralised storage solutions. This collaboration with OORT is most likely a strategic move as part of expanding their own future AI offerings to meet the huge data and processing requirements. 

đź”· Italian-based startup, BlockInvest, reported a partnership with securitisation firm, 130 Servicing, to create a proof-of-concept to tokenise Italian non-performing loans (NPL). Blockinvest allegedly plans to issue digital asset-based securities directly on-chain, enabling tokenisation of financing agreements and related instruments. In July 2023, the Italian Central Bank backed a project to research a security token ecosystem project.  

Appold view: A potential landscape-altering initiative from Blockinvest, backed by Crédit Agricole Italia and utilising Polygon Labs technology. However, the NPL market involves complex loans which could impact the sizeable adoption of this initiative. The less complicated loans and real estate debt should be more straightforward. 

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