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Two Binance executives are reportedly being held by authorities in Nigeria who blame the exchange for causing a devaluation in the country’s currency, the naira. A Bloomberg ETF analyst has revised his odds for an Ether
ETH $3,984 ETF approval by May, citing radio silence from the SEC toward prospective issuers. Meanwhile, Bitcoin miner Bitfarms has exercised the option to purchase an additional 51,908 ASIC miners roughly five weeks out from the next halving event.
Binance execs detained in Nigerian capital
Despite Binance announcing its exit from Nigeria last week, two of its senior executives are reportedly still being detained in the country’s capital, Abuja.
Tigran Gambaryan, a former cryptocurrency-focused United States federal agent, and a second Binance executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, have been held in Abuja without passports for two weeks, Wired reported on March 12.
The Binance representative stressed that both execs are “professionals with the highest integrity” and that the exchange is confident that there will be a swift resolution to this matter.
The first reports on the arrests of Gambaryan and Anjarwalla surfaced in late February, with the Financial Times reporting on the detentions without identifying them on Feb. 28.
Ethereum ETF approval odds lowered to 35% amid SEC ‘radio silence’
A lack of communication from the Securities and Exchange Commission around Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) toward issuers could be a bad sign for those hoping for Ether ETF approvals by May.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said there were more than a few reasons he’s now downgraded the chances of Ether ETF approval to just 35%.
“The main thing is the fact that we’re 73 days from the final deadline and there’s been no contact or comments from the SEC to the issuers. That’s not a good sign,” Balchunas said.
Balchunas also said SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s stance on Ether could also play a part, arguing that Gensler still thinks of Ether as a security and may be unwilling to endure another round of the “political blowback” he received following the approval of the spot Bitcoin ETFs and the SEC’s court loss to Grayscale in August 2023.
“I also feel like he feels like he threw the industry a bone. He ate crow with the court loss, and from his perspective, it’s like: ‘All right, you should be satisfied now,’” he said.
“At the end of the day, Gensler thinks Ether is a security. He would not want to approve it unless he thought it to be a commodity like Bitcoin. All of this little stuff adds up.”
Bitfarm acquires additional 51,908 ASICs
Bitcoin miner Bitfarms has purchased an additional 51,908 ASIC miners as it increases mining capacity ahead of the halving event, which is expected to occur sometime next month.
The purchase includes 28,000 Bitmain T21 ASIC miners, 19,280 Bitmain T21 miners, 3,888 Bitmain S21 miners and 740 Bitmain S21 hydro miners.
Each Bitmain T21 ASIC miner costs around $3,000 on the retail market and possesses a hash rate of 190 TH/s.
Bitfarms CEO Geoff Morphy said the purchase was executed “before anticipated hardware price increases,” as the industry transitions to Bitcoin’s quadrennial halving.
