Investment giant BlackRock has begun tokenising assets with the launch of its Digital Liquidity Fund.
BlackRock filed Form D with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund.
According to the documents, BlackRock founded the fund in 2023, but has not yet launched it. Form D is used to obtain various exemptions. BlackRock said that it is seeking an exemption under Section 3(c) of the Investment Company Act, which exempts it from certain SEC regulations.
The fund has been established under the jurisdiction of the British Virgin Islands. The fund will have a minimum investment of $100,000 and will be offered by Securitize, an American digital asset securities firm that will also conduct the sale of the tokens. According to Etherscan, the fund will be tokenised on the Ethereum Blockchain using an ERC-20 token called BUIDL, which currently has one holder and an on-chain market cap of $0.
Incidentally, Securitize is registered as a stock transfer agent and alternative trading system with the SEC. It has tokenised assets for asset manager KKR and Spanish real estate investment fund Mancipi, partnered with SBI Digital Markets in Singapore, and bought cryptocurrency fund manager Onramp Invest, which has more than $40 billion in assets under management.
Incidentally, BlackRock’s $62,136 Bitcoin BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) was among the first to receive SEC approval in January this year. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink had shortly thereafter told Bloomberg that he believed the next step will be the tokenisation of financial assets, meaning that every stock and bond will be kept on a ledger.
A Nigerian High Court has ordered the operators of Binance Holdings to provide the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with complete data and information on everyone in Nigeria operating on its platform. The anti-corruption agency’s lawyer argued in the application that Binance’s activities in Nigeria contained criminal elements.
According to the local news agency Sahara Reporters, the directive came about in an interim ruling issued by Justice Emeka Nwite on February 29, 2024 following an ex parte application by the EFCC against the cryptocurrency exchange platform.
In the application, the anti-corruption agency’s lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho, argued that Binance's activities in Nigeria contained criminal elements. Under Section 38 of the EFCC Act, 2004, and Section 15 of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 (as amended), it is mandatory to report suspicious transactions to the authorities. There are also penalties for non-compliance.
In an affidavit, EFCC agent Hamma Bello said the commission needed to complete its ongoing investigation after receiving intelligence information on suspected money laundering and terrorist financing linked to the cryptocurrency exchange platform. The commission claimed that the negative impact of these activities on the Nigerian economy was communicated to Binance traders, which led to calls for the naira to be removed from the Binance trading platform. The official also suggested banning platforms like Binance in Nigeria. Incidentally, Nigeria has become one of the fastest-growing crypto economies in the world in recent years. It is also the second-largest economy in the world in terms of cryptocurrency adoption in 2023.
Solana’s memecoin Slerfsol (SLERF) has seen a fairly successful launch after its creator mistakenly burned over $10 million worth of Solana SOL $172 from investors during the presale on March 18, 2024. The memecoin has surpassed a market cap of $500 million despite an embarrassing launch.
At present, SLERF is worth $0.79 with a total market cap of $505 million and listing on multiple exchanges. The day prior, its namesake creator had asked for donations after a blunder that saw 535,000 of investors’ SOL sent to a burn address during the minting of SLERF.
The creator has publicly asked for donations to make users whole, with the coin’s wallet address receiving 3,000 SOL. The same day, cryptocurrency exchange BingX reached out to Slerf on X (formerly Twitter) with an offer to donate all trading fees from buying and selling SLERF on its platform to the project itself.
BingX also said it would “airdrop future BingX World Debut tokens to addresses that participated in the Slerf private sale but didn’t receive $SLERF tokens.”
