| Bitcoin | $37,061 | 7 day: +19.9% | | Ethereum | $1,622 | 7 day: +27.7% | | All crypto | $1.11T | 7 day: +20.4% | | Bitcoin dominance | 61.6% | 7 day: -1.5% | Prices as of 4 p.m. EST
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Bitwise Asset Management announced it has begun applying to OTC Markets to list its Bitwise Bitcoin Fund on the QX tier. If ultimately approved, the fund would directly compete with Barry Silbert's Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTCQX:GBTC). More: - Bitwise's Bitcoin Fund would offer private placements to accredited investors of $10,000, sizably lower than GBTC's $75,000 minimum.
- Bitwise would also lower its annual expense ratio to 1.5% versus GBTC's 2.0%.
- Bitwise has filed FINRA Form 211 for the fund.
- The Bitwise Bitcoin Fund would become Bitwise's second fund cleared for public quotation. Bitwise gained approval to list a multi-asset fund, the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (OTCQX:BITW), in December 2020.
- BITW holds 10 digital assets. It had owned Ripple (XRP) prior to the SEC's lawsuit, but subsequently divested all XRP.
Coindesk 
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 The Winklevoss Twins Gemini has introduced "Gemini Earn," a program to allow investors to earn interest on their holdings at rates up to 7.4% APY. - There is no minimum balance required, and no fees to transfer into or redeem from Gemini Earn.
- Gemini Earn is already available for "select" customers.
- The program will roll-out to all U.S. Gemini customers by early February.
- Gemini Earn supports all of Gemini's 26 supported crypto assets with varying interest rates by asset (details not yet disclosed).
Important insurance: - Co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have purchased expensive insurance policies for Gemini making it one of the most well-insured crypto companies in New York.
- As of January 2020, Gemini had "the largest limit of insurance coverage currently available by any crypto custodian in the world."
- Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are independently wealthy billionaires, uniquely able to self-insure and afford otherwise prohibitively expensive insurance policies.
- Through insurance broker Marsh LLC, the twins also purchased excess insurance for their $200M captive insurer through Lloyd's of London's marketplace.
Law360
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 Anurag Singh Thakur India's Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Anurag Thakur, said his government is not currently considering the issuance of its own digital currency. - Thakur later clarified that statements to this effect were part of a series of responses to Parliamentary questions and were taken out of context by media outlets.
- Nonetheless, last week, the Reserve Bank of India did release a booklet saying the country's central bank is exploring the possibility of a digital version of its fiat currency.
- There is also currently a bill making its way through India's Parliament looking to ban all private digital currencies entirely.
- Nischal Shetty, CEO Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, said, "I do not believe there will be a complete ban on crypto in India."
AMB Crypto
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A Southern California resident used various LLCs to hide his identity and launder $13M using bitcoin. - Hugo Sergio Meija, a resident of Ontario, California, will plea guilty to one count of running an illicit money exchange and laundering approximately $13M using bitcoin, according to federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
- Meija used several LLCs to hide his real identity and commit crimes between May 2018 and September 2020.
- Prosecutors estimated the combined value of transactions involving cash-to-bitcoin and bitcoin-to-cash performed by Meija at $13M.
- Meija's companies included Worldwide Secure Communications LLC, The HODL Group LLC, and World Secure Data.
- Prosecutors have attributed one of the $250,000 transactions handled by Meija to a client whose primary customer was an Australian methamphetamine buyer who distributed drugs in the U.S.
- Meija will appear in U.S. district court next month facing a maximum sentence of 25 years in federal prison.
Law360
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CURO Group Holdings (NYSE:CURO) is acquiring Flexiti Financial in a deal worth $121M. After rallying approximately 20% on the news, CURO has a current market capitalization of approximately $680M. More: - U.S. lending company CURO (NYSE:CURO) said it is buying the Canadian e-commerce company, paying $85M in cash and $36M in earn-out milestones, according to a press release.
- Legal advisors in the deal included Osler and Norton Rose LLP.
- CURO also disclosed that Flexiti is refinancing and expanding its credit facility from $296M to $390M in connection with the deal.
- Flexiti, founded in 2013, will diversify CURO's revenue by adding Canadian consumers to its omnichannel credit card platform and personal loan portfolio from brands like Verge Credit, SpeedyCash, and LendCredit.
- The deal gained approval from the board of directors of each company and is currently awaiting approval from Canadian regulators.
Law360
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- MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) announced its purchase of an additional 295 bitcoin for $10M, bringing its total holdings to approximately 71,079 bitcoin worth roughly $2.5B.
- Chinese wagering company 500.com (NYSE:WBAI), which recently began mining bitcoin, signed another purchase order for 5,900 mining rigs. Delivery is scheduled for Q2. The company has an option to purchase an additional 10,000 rigs during Q3-Q4.
- New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) bought $200M worth of bitcoin for a single investor.
- Sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on OpenSea, a peer-to-peer collectible marketplace, hit all-time highs on Monday, generating $1.9M in sales volume. 356,000 unique visitors accessed the site in January.
- Kraken has published a second report in a multi-part series, examining the structure and offerings of DeFi.
- Davis Polk partner Joseph Hall, a former SEC staffer, comments on the SEC's charges against Ripple (XRP).
- Guggenheim CIO Scott Minerd still sees how bitcoin could reach $600,000.
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 |  | Curated by Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, and bitcoin follower since $1, Aaron Wise. Temporarily listening to news squawk boxes in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia. |  | | Editor | Charlotte Hayes-Clemens is an editor and writer based in Vancouver. She has dabbled in both the fiction and non-fiction world, having worked at HarperCollins Publishers and more recently as a writing coach for new and self-published authors. Proper semi-colon usage is her hill to die on. | |
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