The Daily: Grayscale's MKR fund, Coinbase in Hawaii, Bitfarms co-founder leaves board and more

Quick Take

  • Grayscale’s latest fund for qualified investors tracks MakerDAO’s MKR token
  • Coinbase to offer cryptocurrency services in Hawaii
  • Bitfarms co-founder Nicolas Bonta steps down from board
  • The following is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.
Happy Tuesday! In today's Daily, we look at Grayscale's MKR fund, Coinbase re entering Hawaii, Bitfarms's co-founder stepping down from its board and more. 
 
Let's get started.

Grayscale launches MKR fund

Grayscale is launching a closed-end MakerDAO Trust, its third single-asset trust announced in a week.
  • This new trust allows qualified investors and institutions to gain exposure to MakerDAO’s governance token MKR.
  • The decentralized exchange MakerDAO issues the DAI stablecoin, the third-largest stablecoin with a market cap exceeding $5 billion.
  • MakerDAO is currently undergoing a transformation under its "Endgame" plan, aiming to expand into on-chain credit and real-world asset markets with new products and services managed by "subDAOs."
  • Grayscale's two largest products, Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, both started as closed-end trusts, which can cause price divergence from the underlying assets since direct withdrawals aren't allowed.
  • Grayscale offers at least 17 private single-asset funds for various protocol tokens.

Coinbase offers crypto services in Hawaii

Coinbase has launched crypto services in Hawaii, allowing residents to buy, sell, stake and manage their crypto assets, as well as send funds internationally.
  • The move follows regulatory changes by Hawaii's Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Division of Financial Institutions that clarified rules for cryptocurrency firms.
  • Coinbase had previously exited Hawaii in 2017 due to strict regulations requiring one-to-one cash reserves for bitcoin holdings.
  • Hawaii's Digital Currency Innovation Lab, which allowed crypto firms to operate without a state license, ended on June 30, but companies can still do business in Hawaii under federal regulations.

Bitfarms co-founder steps down from board

Bitfarms has appointed CEO Ben Gagnon to its board of directors as co-founder and former chairman Nicolas Bonta steps down.
  • Bonta played a key role in Bitfarms' foundation, development and international expansion, particularly in Latin America.
  • U.S.-based Riot Platforms, which attempted to acquire Bitfarms earlier this year, has become its largest shareholder and is pushing to reconstitute the board.
  • Bitfarms reported a $27 million net loss in its recent earnings report, with revenue down 16% due to decreased block rewards following Bitcoin's April halving event.

Possible BitGo wallet moves $2 billion worth of Mt. Gox bitcoin

A wallet that received over $2 billion in Mt. Gox bitcoin moved most of the funds to another wallet on Tuesday, according to Arkham Intelligence.
  • Arkham speculated that the wallet might belong to cryptocurrency exchange BitGo, indicating the Mt. Gox saga could be nearing its final phase of creditor repayments.
  • The bc1q26 wallet, believed to be BitGo's, transferred nearly $2 billion worth of bitcoin to another wallet a few hours after initiating a test transaction.
  • The movement of these funds suggests that the process of repaying Mt. Gox creditors, ongoing since July, may be nearing completion.

Essential nets $11 million in Series A funding

Essential, an "intent-centric" Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain developer, raised $11 million in a Series A funding round led by Archetype, bringing its total funding to $16.15 million.
  • The round included participation from IOSG Ventures, the Spartan Group, Mirana Ventures and other prominent investors.
  • Essential plans to launch its testnet in 2024 and mainnet in 2025, alongside its token, while also expanding its team.

In the next 24 hours

The United States releases the month-over-month Producer Price Index (PPI).
 
The Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto and Istanbul Blockchain Week 2024 hit their second and final day.
 
Never miss a beat with The Block's daily digest of the most influential events happening across the digital asset ecosystem.

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

Editor

To contact the editor of this story:
Jason Shubnell at
[email protected]