BlackRock Inches Closer to Bitcoin ETF, Shibarium Hits Record 130 Million Inscriptions, Ethereum's Buterin Makes Large Transfer to Coinbase Wallet: Crypto News Digest by U.Today

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BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) inches closer to Bitcoin ETF

In his X post from Monday, Dec. 19, James Seyffart, ETF research analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, reported that BlackRock its S-1 filing with the SEC. The amended document includes new details of the creation and redemption mechanisms for the proposed fund, which is denoted by the IBIT ticker. Bloomberg Intelligence's senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas commented on Seyffart's post, noting that BlackRock has now transitioned to a cash-only approach, and that it is a "good sign." He explained that the move was done in order to create new ETF shares, rather than direct Bitcoin deposits. BlackRock is not the only company that updated its filings for a spot Bitcoin ETF; the same move was made by ARK Invest and 21Shares.

Shibarium hits record 130 million inscriptions

In a recent impressive development, , Shiba Inu's layer-2 solution, hit over 130 million inscriptions, with its gas fees being the lowest in the industry. As stated by SHIB developer Kaal Dhairya, Shibarium achieved this faster than any other chain. He credits the Shibarium team's hard work for this accomplishment. With 130 million inscriptions, Shibarium is outpacing almost all of its competitors, except for Polygon being ahead of it, having 161 million inscriptions. Then comes BNB, which reports about 77 million inscriptions, and Avalanche C-Chain with 60 million. Other networks such as Fantom, Celo, Gnosis, Arbitrum One and zkSync Era report lower figures.

Ethereum’s Buterin makes significant transfer to Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) Wallet

According to a recent report by Lookonchain, Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin has made to a Coinbase Custody Wallet. The amount of transferred ETH equals 500 ETH worth approximately $1.1 million. This move by Buterin ignited speculations among the members of the crypto community, making everyone guess at his intentions. Seeing the growing curiosity surrounding his recent transfer, Buterin took to Warpcast, a popular online platform, to explain himself. He wrote that his transfer of ETH to exchange platforms should not be misconstrued as personal selling. Instead, he explained that these transfers are predominantly donations to charities, nonprofits or other projects. The transferred ETH are subsequently sold by the recipients of these donations to cover operational expenses.

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