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What happened in the cryptocurrency market today? Australia Approves Bitcoin ETFs | Tether launches a gold-backed coin
Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, responded on social media, highlighting a recent court ruling: XRP, he argued, is not considered a security and there are no “victims” seeking compensation.
The Australian Stock Exchange approves its first spot Bitcoin ETF
The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has given the green light to its first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). The fund, launched on June 20, will be a “feeder fund” that will passively follow the price of Bitcoin by investing in VanEck Bitcoin Trust (HODL), a US ETF already listed on the Cboe BZX Exchange.
The approval, announced via a blog post by VanEck, comes on the heels of the listing of the Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (IBTC) by Australia’s smallest exchange, Cboe Australia, in early June. The move is significant as the ASX represents 90% of the Australian stock market.
VanEck said their offering will be “the lowest priced bitcoin ETF in Australia”. The listing follows a resubmission in February and came earlier than expected, with previous forecasts placing the first Australian Bitcoin ETF spot launch by the end of 2024.
Tether launches new alloy of synthetic dollars backed by gold
The company behind the world’s largest USDT stablecoin, Tether, has announced a new synthetic dollar backed by its gold-backed stablecoin Tether Gold called Alloy (aUSDT).
The new token will be traded on the Ethereum blockchain, and users will be able to create (or mint) an aUSDT by depositing Tether’s existing gold-backed token, XAUT, as collateral in an overcollateralized system where the value of the gold deposited exceeds the value of the minted aUSDT.
In a press release, Tether touted the launch of the new cryptocurrency as introducing a new category of digital assets “known as constrained assets, designed to track the price of reference assets through stabilization strategies such as overcollateralization.”
Tether’s gold-backed cryptocurrency XAUT is backed by physical gold stored in Switzerland and currently has a market capitalization of over $570 million.
The new aUSDT token is aimed at users who want to transact with a stable currency such as the US dollar, without having to liquidate their gold exposure.