Today in Crypto: Kraken Delists XRP, BlackRock Sells Major Stake in Chinese Telecom & More

The crypto world saw many ups and downs throughout the past week as Bitcoin price volatility saw a couple of major dips as well as recovery post the infamous Monday market crash of nearly $10k.  The top cryptocurrency is currently trying to consolidate its position above $37,000. Other major headlines of the day include,

• Kraken Delists XRP Trading for US customers.
• BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager sells all its stake in the Chinese firm China Telecom.
• Tether Banking Partner reveals they have invested customers’ funds in Bitcoin.
• Mt.Gox Creditors Can Claim 90% of Bitcoin Stuck in Bankruptcy

Kraken Becomes Largest Exchange to Delist XRP in US

Kraken joined the growing league of exchanges to delist XRP trading services for its US customers today citing the SEC lawsuit against Ripple. Kraken joined the likes of Coinbase and Binance US. The firm released an official blog post announcing the delisting and wrote,

Given the recent SEC filing against Ripple Labs Inc., we are halting XRP trading for U.S. residents no later than January 29, 2021 at 5pm PT (January 30, 2021, at 1:00 UTC). We may begin implementing this process at any time on January 29, 2021, so all U.S. clients are strongly encouraged to resolve their positions prior to that day.

MicroStrategy Shareholder BlackRock Sells All Its Stock in China Telecom

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager today sold all its stock in China Telecom of nearly $20 million after the Chinese firm was listed under a new ban on U.S. investment, a stock market filing on Friday showed. The ban was initiated by the Trump administration where it flagged companies known to have links with the Chinse Milliary and prohibited US firms from investing in it.

Note that BlackRock owns largest shares in MicroStrategy, a company that is on a Bitcoin buying Spree.

Blackrock also informed that its index funds had adjusted holdings to reflect moves by MSCI Inc, FTSE Russell, and S&P Dow Jones Indices to cut China Telecom and other firms affected by the sanctions from their benchmarks.

Tether Banking Partner Reveals They Have Invested Customers’ Funds in Bitcoin

Deltecbank, a Tether banking partner created quite a storm after the bank’s chief investment officer revealed that they have been investing client’s money in Bitcoin since May of 2020. Given Tether’s ongoing lawsuit against manipulation of funds, the news really brewed fresh trouble for stable coin issuer as there have been allegations in the past that it does’ maintain a 100% treasury for the circulating supply of USDT.

As a stable coin issuer, all the tokens must be backed one-to-one against the US Dollar, however, during the lawsuit Tether has revealed only 70% of its supply is backed by US reserves. The crypto community is closely following the developments owing to the long-running Tether Bitcoin FUD.

Mt.Gox Creditors Can Claim 90% of Bitcoin Stuck in Bankruptcy

Mt.Gox, the infamous bitcoin exchange which was hacked in 2014 and later filed for bankruptcy. The investors and traders filed a lawsuit against the exchange to refurbish their losses. A recent report from Bloomberg revealed that Creditors of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox will be presented with the option to claim up to 90% of the exchange’s remaining bitcoin.

The deal between Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy trustee and MGIFLP, a unit of Fortress Investment Group, will be presented to creditors for a simple up or down vote