• Binance plead guilty to money laundering and settled with the DOJ; leading to the stepdown of Changpeng Zhao as CEO and $4.3 Billion to be paid.
• Bitcoin and the market as a whole responds well, with price action remaining bullish across the board
• However, the biggest winners are a handful of previously undervalued alts that have seen significant inflows. Such as, Solana rallying to just less than $70 with ecosystem tokens like BONK increasing 655% on the month.

The integration offers increased liquidity venues for institutional investors to trade digital assets

• Changpeng Zhao has agreed to step down as CEO of Binance after the exchange agreed to pay $4.3 billion to US authorities.
• JPMorgan says Binance’s settlement may see traditional finance firms accelerate their crypto land grab.

• The CME remains the go to for Bitcoin futures traders as open interest climbs above $4.1 billion.
• Binance continues to lag its highly regulated counterpart amid ongoing scrutiny from regulators and law enforcement.

Singapore – November 21, 2023 – Wintermute Asia Pte. Ltd (“Wintermute Asia”), the digital asset derivatives trading arm of the Wintermute Group, the leading algorithmic trading firm and liquidity provider in digital assets, today announced that it has executed its first options block trade through CME Group. The BTC/USD block was traded between Wintermute Asia and TP ICAP and was cleared by ABN AMRO Clearing Bank N.V.

• Bitcoin continues to strengthen in price and dominance due to global tensions and ETF approval hopes 
• Ether activity and price action continue to falter comparative to Bitcoin 
• Exchange dramas abound as Uniswap fee takes hold of the market and FTX court case comes to a head. 

Execs at TP ICAP and Societe Generale say the identifier removes a major barrier for crypto acceptance.

Fraud, bad practice and poor governance … Participants in the crypto assets market have had good opportunity for learning, the hard way, lately. A panel at the Optic conference looked into the pace of institutional adoption. The market has slowed down, but the institutional setting is maturing and could well host growth over the longer term.

• Market for BTC and ETH remained relatively stable, dropping on news of FTX liquidations and Fed hawkishness before rallying to close above $27k. 
• SEC Chair Gensler’s approach to digital asset regulation is critiqued in congress, with the threat of subpoena levelled. 
• Volumes and transactions are growing on the peripheries, as Chainlink rallies off connectivity into institutions and crypto-natives speculate on each other’s value via Friend.tech. 

The digital assets ecosystem is going through a period of remarkable dynamism, moving from risky but exciting technology to production-grade, regulated business. Progress – both technical and regulatory – is extraordinarily rapid. This report from OMFIF’s Digital Monetary Institute identifies and analyses the assets, technology and service providers that are already shaping the future of digital finance. The winds of the crypto winter have blown away much of the speculative froth in the digital assets space and left us with a far clearer view of where real value and solid, reliable infrastructure is to be found.

OMFIF’s Digital assets report examines the developing ecosystem, highlighting those exchanges, custodians and other infrastructure providers that have demonstrated the most robust and resilient quality throughout this challenging period.