News Roundup — BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner

Major news stories this week;

1. BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
2. UK Bill Empowering Authorities to Confiscate Crypto Approved by House of Lords
3. DeFi ‘Circuit Breaker’ Could Drastically Reduce Hacks and Thefts
4. Julius Baer Heads to Dubai in First Expansion of Crypto Ambitions Beyond Switzerland
5. Ethereum Layer 2 network Starknet plans 'Quantum Leap' upgrade on July 13

Story Summaries;

1. The Nasdaq exchange has refiled its application to list BlackRock's proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund, joining rivals in naming the U.S. exchange Coinbase as the market that will be monitored in a so-called surveillance-sharing agreement. Several other pending applications, including one on behalf of BlackRock's money-management rival, Fidelity, have since been updated to name Coinbase as the partner for the surveillance-sharing agreements. The sponsor of a bitcoin trust must enter a surveillance-sharing agreement with a regulated market of significant size to secure a go-ahead from regulators, based on a reading of according to the SEC's previous rulings.
2. The UK’s Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill passed a third reading after a meeting of the House of Lords (the Parliament’s upper chamber). If officially approved, the legislation will allow the authorities to seize cryptocurrencies should they have a relation to some sort of financial crime. On another note, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCI) of the United Kingdom reminded that all domestic firms marketing cryptocurrencies to British consumers must comply with a designated promotion regime.
3. A newly proposed Ethereum ERC standard would make it easy to adopt sensible rate limiting on many DeFi protocols. Through the first half of 2023 alone, around $292 million has been lost across 85 DeFi security incidents, according to statistics from Beosin, a blockchain security firm. The proposal aims to reduce the attack surface of a protocol, by delaying or reverting value outflows beyond a configurable threshold.
4. Julius Baer is expanding its crypto wealth management services in Dubai, marking the firm’s first major digital-assets push beyond the borders of its native Switzerland. The Swiss private bank’s Middle Eastern subsidiary JBME will apply imminently for “a digital assets license variation” on top of its existing permissions with the Dubai Financial Services Authority, it said in a statement, which would allow the company to arrange and provide advice and custodial services on digital assets like Bitcoin, Ether and other cryptocurrencies.
5. Starknet, an Ethereum Layer 2 network, is preparing to release a major upgrade named ‘Quantum Leap’ this month. Scheduled for launch around July 13, the "Quantum Leap" upgrade aims to elevate the network’s sequencer transaction rate to “several hundred” per second. This would mark a significant upswing from current levels, according to the team at StarkWare, a key network contributor.

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And that’s all for last week’s news! Wishing you a great week ahead!