Author: Michelle Lazo

Digital assets firm Galaxy Digital has granted a multimillion-dollar loan to Yat Siu, the co-founder of Animoca Brands, using a unique collateral combination: a tokenized 1708 Stradivarius violin and its corresponding non-fungible token.

Valued at over $9 million, the violin boasts a storied history, including ownership by Russian Empress Catherine the Great. This deal could set a precedent for the tokenization of physical assets, potentially revolutionizing collateralization and opening new investment opportunities for high-value items.

Galaxy Digital’s decision to tokenize the Stradivarius violin, crafted by the esteemed Stradivari family, merges the art world with blockchain technology. The physical violin will be securely stored in Hong Kong, while its digital counterpart facilitates the loan process.

Tokenization involves converting a tangible asset into a digital token tradable on blockchain platforms, offering a novel approach to asset management. Several asset managers are optimistic about the future of tokenization.

A report by 21.co late last year projected that the tokenization market could scale to $3.5 trillion in a bear-case scenario, or up to $10 trillion in a bull case.

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Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD) imposed buying restrictions on GameStop (NYSE:GME) shares late Sunday after the meme stock’s value surged following speculation that Keith Gill, known as “Roaring Kitty,” might hold a substantial position in the company.

The brokerage stated that Blue Ocean ATS, the platform facilitating overnight trades, would only accept orders within 20% above or below a reference price of $22.99. Thus, orders to buy GME above $27.59 or sell below $18.39 during the night would likely be rejected. Despite this, some Robinhood users reported being completely blocked from purchasing GME overnight.

Robinhood did not respond to Cryptonews’ request for comment by press time.

The trading restriction followed a Reddit post by Keith Gill, aka “Roaring Kitty” on YouTube. The post, Gill’s first since April 21, indicated he bought 5 million GME shares for $115.7 million and invested $65.7 million in call options, betting that GME would reach at least $20 per share by June 21. The screenshot also showed he had accrued over $9.3 million in profits from his GME holdings but sustained a loss of nearly $2.5 million on his call options.

In Robinhood’s overnight markets, GME surged nearly 20% in 20 minutes to reach $27.58 following Gill’s Reddit post. GameStop closed at $23.14 on Friday, May 31, marking a 38.8% increase in shares for the year, seemingly influenced by Gill’s return.

On the same day as his Reddit post, Gill shared a green UNO reverse card on X, adding to a series of cryptic posts and memes since his return in May. The latest post garnered nearly 50,000 likes by early Monday. Gill’s reemergence three weeks ago sparked a significant surge in GameStop shares, doubling their value in May alone. Additionally, Ethereum-based meme coins, including one named GME, showed renewed optimism with the reappearance of Roaring Kitty guiding the next bullish phase.

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Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has confirmed reports of an executive reshuffle following complications with the Notcoin launch, which led to $23 million in compensation being distributed to 320,000 users.

The news, initially reported by Wu Blockchain, indicated that several executives had “voluntarily resigned” and that Bybit had hired new technical and spot managers. A Bybit spokesperson told CoinDesk, “Bybit regularly updates its organizational structure to align with our strategic goals. The affected team members are not leaving the company but have taken up other internal roles.”

Notcoin, a game based on the Telegram instant messaging platform, is one of the largest cryptocurrency gaming projects, boasting 35 million users. Early adopters earned in-game balances that could be converted to a Notcoin airdrop at a 1000:1 ratio.

On May 16, users experienced delays in depositing the newly issued Notcoin to Bybit, resulting in financial losses as they were unable to sell the asset immediately. Bybit received 370,000 on-chain transactions, with 70% of deposits credited before the market went live.

“We prioritized customer interests and conducted a thorough internal review to enhance the customer experience for the future,” the Bybit spokesperson added. “This improvement led to some leadership role changes, which we believe are essential.”

Notcoin is currently trading at over $0.0115, more than doubling from a low of $0.0047 last week, according to CoinMarketCap.

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Immutable’s Guild of Guardians Avatars overtook NodeMonkes to claim the top spot on CryptoSlam’s daily non-fungible token sales charts on Thursday.

The Immutable game-linked collection led NFT sales with a daily volume of $828,697, representing a 19% increase from $696,862 the previous day.

NodeMonkes, a Bitcoin-based collection that topped Wednesday’s sales, fell to third place with sales dropping to $756,950 from $935,770. Earlier this week, NodeMonkes became the 26th best-selling collection in the industry, surpassing $228 million in all-time sales.

DMarket, a Mythos collection for in-game items from popular online games, secured second place with $774,176 in sales, reinforcing the dominance of game-related NFTs on the weekly charts.

Bored Ape Yacht Club, the second-best selling NFT collection of all time, maintained the fourth spot with $567,631 in daily sales, pushing its all-time sales volume to $3.15 billion.

Polygon’s Unstoppable Domains soared to the fifth position with a daily sales volume of $491,535, up from just $1,075 the day before. This surge followed the announcement of a new self-custody wallet in collaboration with digital asset custodian Fireblocks.

New entries to the top 10 include the Validat3rs collection, debuting with a daily sales volume of $362,942 on Solana.

Despite NodeMonkes dropping from the top spot, the Bitcoin network led the daily blockchain sales for the second consecutive day with $5.51 million, a 9.86% increase from the previous day’s $5.01 million.

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s monthly blockchain sales total stands at approximately $159 million, on track to end the month with the lowest NFT sales since October 2023.

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Stablecoin issuer Tether Holdings Ltd. has acquired a $100 million stake in Bitdeer Technologies Group (NASDAQ:BTDR), a US-listed Bitcoin miner owned by Chinese billionaire Jihan Wu, with an option to buy an additional $50 million in shares within a year.

The companies signed a subscription agreement for a private placement of 18.6 million Class A ordinary shares, raising $100 million in gross proceeds, according to Bitdeer’s statement on Friday. The agreement also includes a warrant to purchase up to five million more shares at $10 each. The private placement was completed on Thursday, with Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. serving as the placement agent.

This investment will support Bitdeer’s data center expansion, the development of ASIC-based crypto mining equipment, and other corporate purposes. The percentage of Bitdeer now owned by Tether was not disclosed. Tether did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This acquisition marks a significant advancement in Tether’s strategy to become a prominent Bitcoin miner, following the initiation of its mining facilities in Uruguay, Paraguay, and El Salvador last year. Tether, which is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands and issues the widely-used cryptocurrency USDT, announced in November its plan to invest half a billion dollars in this effort within six months.

Bitdeer, one of the largest public crypto miners listed in the US with a market capitalization of around $670 million, is headquartered in Singapore and operates data centers in the US, Norway, and Bhutan. Bitdeer’s shares, which had dropped over 40% this year, rose approximately 6.5% to $6.20.

In March, Bloomberg News reported that Bitdeer was in discussions with private credit firms to secure about $100 million in financing. It is unclear if those talks are ongoing following Tether’s investment.

Bitcoin mining, which involves running energy-intensive computers to secure the blockchain and earn new tokens as rewards, became less profitable in April due to a programmed network upgrade known as “the halving,” which reduces rewards by half every four years.

Conversely, Bitcoin’s price reached a record high in March, partly driven by optimism around newly-launched spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the US. On Friday, Bitcoin traded up around 0.7% at $68,800.

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