This week in the crypto world we saw banks buying Bitcoin, a seconds-long $25 million ETH heist, and the CME planning a Bitcoin exchange.
Watch out Coinbase.
Banks Buy Bitcoin
This week it emerged that about a hundred banks had bought into the Bitcoin ETF rush during the last five months, even those whose CEOs detest it. JPMorgan, UBS, Wells Fargo, and the Bank of Montreal were among the institutions that revealed that they now hold Bitcoin, showing just how far the asset has come in recent years.
All we need now is for Berkshire Hathaway to announce a holding and the circle will be complete.
Gone in (Less Than) 60 Seconds
This week saw an extraordinary story about two brothers who carried out a $25 million raid on the Ethereum network that lasted just 12 seconds. In what must go down as the quickest multi-million theft in history, Anton and James Pepaire-Bueno managed to intercept a glut of transactions on the blockchain and change the intended transaction paths to their accounts instead.
The pair even hatched plans for what to do in case they were caught, looking for jurisdictions that were more lenient on white-collar crime, but their efforts proved futile. They were arrested and arraigned this week, despite their best endeavors.
CME Planning to Open Bitcoin Exchange
The introduction of its Bitcoin futures exchange in December 2017 helped burst the Bitcoin balloon, and the CME is at it again; the outfit wants to open a spot Bitcoin exchange. The Chicago-based company sees enough potential in regular Bitcoin trading among its clientele to warrant the creation of a good old-fashioned Bitcoin swap shop, replete with the kind of doodats and thingummys that Wall Street traders love to do in order to try and maximize their gains.
If Bitcoin price manipulation wasn’t bad enough already, just wait until this gets going. Can’t wait.
