PDAXScope: BlackRock unveils token on Ethereum network

Crypto News

BlackRock enters asset tokenization race with new fund on the Ethereum network

Asset management giant BlackRock (BLK) officially unveiled its tokenized asset fund on the Ethereum network on Wednesday. The BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund is represented by the blockchain-based BUIDL token, is fully backed by cash, U.S. Treasury bills, and repurchase agreements, and will provide yield paid out via blockchain rails every day to token holders. Securitize will act as a transfer agent and tokenization platform, while BNY Mellon is the custodian of the fund's assets, BlackRock said. Anchorage Digital Bank NA, BitGo, Coinbase, and Fireblocks also participate in the fund's ecosystem.

Pixels crypto game fuels resurgent Ronin blockchain

This year's bull market has seen a resurgence of many crypto narratives from yonder cycles, including crypto gaming. In that sector the Ronin network – whose game Axie Infinity reigned over the last gaming moment – is back again. Since the start of 2024, Ronin's user base has ballooned over 700%, and in the past month it has seen 1.25 million unique users plug in and play. Unlike Axie Infinity, Pixels was not built by Sky Mavis for the Ronin network. It started life on Polygon and moved to Ronin last October, before the current bull run caught on. Back then Pixels had maybe 3,000 daily active users. Now, it can see as many as 750,000.

Global News

Switzerland surprises with rate cut, who's next?

The Swiss National Bank kicked off rate cuts on Thursday, the week's second momentous central bank decision after the non-conformist Bank of Japan delivered its first rate hike in 17 years. The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday stuck to its projections of 75 basis points (bps) of rate cuts this year, and the Bank of England on Thursday said the economy was moving in the right direction for it to start rate cuts. The Swiss National Bank cut rates by 25 bps to 1.50% on Thursday, a surprise move that pushed the franc to eight-month lows against the euro while Swiss government bonds rallied. It was the SNB's first rate cut in nine years, and comes after inflation dipped to 1.2% in February, the ninth month in succession that price rises have been within the SNB's 0-2% target range.

Reddit shares end trading up 48% in market debut

Social media platform Reddit's shares ended their first day of trading in New York up 48%, signaling that investor appetite for initial public offerings of promising yet loss-making companies could be returning. Reddit, which has not turned an annual profit since launching in 2005, lured investors by positioning its content as training grounds for artificial intelligence (AI) programs. Reuters reported last month that Reddit struck a data licensing deal with Google worth about $60 million a year. Shares of the San Francisco-based company opened at $47 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday after pricing at $34 in the IPO, the top of the company's indicated price range. They ended trading at $50.44.

Local News

BoP deficit narrows to USD 196M in Feb

The deficit in the Philippines’ balance of payments (BoP) narrowed sharply to $196 million in February from the $895-million gap recorded a year earlier, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed. Month on month, the BoP deficit was slimmer than the $740-million deficit recorded in January. At its end-February position, the BoP reflected a final gross international reserve level of $102 billion, lower than $103.3 billion as of end-January.The dollar reserves were enough to cover six times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.6 times based on residual maturity. It is also equivalent to 7.5 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. 

DISCLAIMER: PDAX would like to reaffirm that the statements in this article do not constitute financial advice. PDAX does not guarantee the technical and financial integrity of the digital assets and their ecosystems.  Trading with any cryptocurrency is subject to the user’s risk and own discretion and must be done after adequate and in-depth research and analysis.  

External links are provided for convenience and for informational purposes. They are not statements of PDAX and PDAX bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality or content of said links.

For inquiries or complaints, please contact us through the following channels: Chatbot: https://pdax.ph or https://web.pdax.ph/ (click webchat feature); ‘Customer Support’ webpage at https://support.pdax.ph; Email: support@pdax.ph. Please provide us your name, email address, and any other information that we may need to identify you, your PDAX Account, and the particulars of the Order and/or Transaction on which you have feedback, questions, or complaints. If you already have a registered PDAX account, please provide us your registered name and use your registered email address.

The Philippine Digital Asset Exchange  (PDAX), Inc. is an entity regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) https://www.bsp.gov.ph. You may get in touch with the BSP Consumer Protection and Market Conduct Office through the following channels: 

Email: consumeraffairs@bsp.gov.ph; 

Webchat: http://www.bsp.gov.ph (click webchat feature); 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BangkoSentralngPilipinas; 

Direct Line: (02) 5306 2584 / (02) 8708 7087; Trunk Line: (02) 8708 7701 loc. 2584;  or SMS: 21582277 (for Globe subscribers only). 

For further details, you may refer to BSP's Inclusive Finance - Consumer Protection.