BlackRock, worlds largest asset manager, now has $24 BILLION in Bitcoin | Bitcoin News by CoinCorner

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FTX customers, who were expecting to receive their assets back this month, have been hit with another blow, as it's been revealed they'll only be receiving between 10% and 25% of the value of their assets. Swan Bitcoin is suing former employees for allegedly conspiring with Tether to steal their Bitcoin mining business, and China could be on the way to unbanning Bitcoin, as the former Deputy Finance Minister proposes that the country pivot on its strict stance on the asset.

Looking first at Bitcoin's price, after rounding out last month as the best September on record with gains of 7.29%, as we've moved into October, it's been a bit of a rocky start so far. The main reason for this is due to rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. In light of this, the price is down around 8% from the highs we saw last week, following the conflict's escalation, with the price now trading at around $60,000 per coin.

Now, our first story this week is coming from Bitcoin financial services company Swan Bitcoin, where it's been revealed that they are suing former employees. In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, Swan alleged that ex-employees of the company, including former executives, conspired to execute a "rain and hellfire" plan to usurp the firm's Bitcoin mining business. The company further alleges that the scheme was aided by Tether, the cryptocurrency giant responsible for issuing the industry's largest stablecoin by market cap, USDT.

Swan said that former employees stole highly proprietary code from Swan's mining monitoring software, in addition to stealing its vendors and business partners. The employees then conspired to resign en masse and create a competing company called Proton Management. According to Swan's lawyers, the evidence of the theft is overwhelming, and they were "stealing the crown jewels" from Swan's Bitcoin mining business. It's said that Proton CEO Raphael Zagury, who was formerly Chief Investment Officer at Swan, made a concerted effort to sow dissent and chaos at Swan in an attempt to get Swan employees to defect and plotted to ensure that Swan would accept wind-down capital from Tether.

Just four days after the employees resigned at Swan, including Zagury, Tether, Swan's funding partner in its mining operation, notified Swan that Defendant Proton would be taking over day-to-day Bitcoin mining management in their joint venture.

Severe as these accusations are, Proton has since vigorously denied these allegations, arguing that the claims hold no legal merit. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this all plays out in the legal system.

Also in the news, Bitcoin-curious billionaire Michael Dell sold another $1.2 billion worth of Dell stock in September. This most recent unload of stock comes after another series of sales earlier in the month, which cumulatively total around $2 billion. Dell has made no statement as to why he's offloaded so much of his company's stock, but many are still speculating that he may be considering an allocation into Bitcoin after a series of tweets earlier in the year. However, at this point, nothing is confirmed for him personally. What we do know is that Dell Technologies does not hold any Bitcoin on their balance sheet.

Now, moving into the world of Wall Street, the world's largest asset manager, BlackRock, now holds approximately 1.7% of the total available Bitcoin supply, worth nearly $24 billion. The vast holdings come from client capital held within their Bitcoin ETF, iBit, which was launched earlier this year in February. The huge success of this ETF demonstrates the growing institutional interest in the asset, but the sheer size of the fund is now causing some to question if they genuinely hold the Bitcoin in the quantities they claim to have.

However, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas confirmed on X that BlackRock maintains its own blockchain node and consolidates its Bitcoin balances nightly, which are then reported to Base Prime, who custody the asset. Reassuring as this is, it's important to know if you hold any of these ETFs, you are making the decision to trust a centralized custodian, as confirmed by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong in a post on X.

Now, on the topic of trusting custodians, this week creditors of the failed crypto exchange FTX have been told that they will only be receiving between 10% and 25% of the value of their assets back, according to newly revised bankruptcy documents. The reason for this is that creditors would receive reimbursements according to the petition date, when cryptocurrency prices were much lower than they are today. To put this into perspective, the price of Bitcoin was approximately $16,000 when the legal petition was filed, and now it's at around $60,000.

This last-minute change has sparked outrage, as creditors were under the impression that they would be receiving the full value of their assets, rather than just a dollar-denominated value on a specific date. This has led to victims speaking out about the legal process, saying that it's disgraceful, and that it's as if customers have now been scammed twice.

Also this week, Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, has been released from U.S. custody after serving a four-month sentence for his role in compliance failures at Binance. CZ pleaded guilty in November of last year to charges of neglecting to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program, which allowed misuse of the platform by cybercriminals and terrorist groups. As a consequence, Binance faced substantial financial penalties, totalling a $4.3 billion settlement, and CZ consented to a $50 million fine in a plea deal, which required him to step down as CEO and prohibits him from holding any executive positions at Binance. Despite this conviction, CZ is still estimated to be worth approximately $30 billion and is now focusing his attention on a new business.

Now, our final story today is coming from China, whose former Deputy Finance Minister has called on the government to re-evaluate its approach to Bitcoin in order to stay competitive with the U.S. He warned of the risks posed by digital assets, but emphasised their growing significance in the global digital economy. The U.S. has recently taken a more positive stance on Bitcoin and crypto, with Donald Trump pledging to support the industry if he gets elected in November. But China currently has a complete ban on Bitcoin and mining operations, so this would be a significant shift that could lead to a digital asset arms race, where we might see countries competing to push the industry forward.