Bitcoin ETFs ‘superior’ to gold ETFs, cash is king in money laundering, ERC-404 explained

Another big volume day for the Bitcoin ETFs criminals are still preferring cash Over crypto and what are ERC 404s good morning you're listening to The ryzen crypto podcast by coin Telegraph with me Robert bags steering You through the crypto Cosmos with daily Dispatches from the digital Frontier if you want a concise daily Debrief of everything that's happening In crypto well that's the point of this Podcast so click that follow button grab Yourself a coffee and let's get into It we have some big p stories today so Here is what we are going to discuss Firstly the US Treasury Department's Report on money laundering shows that Cash is still King we look at the Innovative new ethereum token standard ERC 404 we go through the latest numbers On the spot Bitcoin ETF as we see Another big volume day and the core Scientific founder says that Bitcoin ETFs are superior to Gold ETFs and he Might have a Point there is a long-standing sentiment By those opposed to crypto that it is The lifeblood of some Criminal underwat Now we've discussed this from several Different angles in the past few months One is Senator Elizabeth Warren painting Crypto as the way crime is funded from Hacking to terrorism we've also looked At a more historic standpoint with how

Bitcoin became the currency of choice For the dark net Marketplace Silk Road The problem with this picture is that Although there is undoubtedly some truth Crypto's relationship with crime is Never as profound as it is shown crypto Is of course used in criminal activity It just isn't the primary choice for Money laundering and crime by volume or Percentage in recent years there have Been many different reports on this Topic that look at it in every way Imaginable and some of them have come From government agencies in fact the United States Treasury Department has Just released three separate reports That analyze money laundering terrorist Financing and proliferation financing Unpacking how criminal organizations Acquire launder and move funds both Internally and internationally now as You might expect crypto is mentioned and It plays a significant role in specific Crimes one example of that is ransomware And we discussed that in yesterday's Episode however across the chainalysis Report and this new treasury Department's report I couldn't determine If crypto was the primary choice of Funds for ransomware that would be Interesting to know as ransomware is Singled out for crypto the treasury also Highlighted anti-money laundering Obligations and compliance failings of

Exchanges and service providers Naturally reference is made to binance Us and the $4.3 billion cment as a Quintessential example of compliance Failings that led to money laundering on Exchanges defi protocols also got a Paragraph labeled special Focus as an Emergent means for transferring and Laundering illicit funds but with all This in mind there is one overarching Takeaway in the treasury's report crypto Is far below cash in the laundering of Money the report States criminals use Cash based money laundering strategies In significant part because cash offers Anonymity they commonly use the US best Currency due to its wide acceptance and Stability so while crypto does play a Role in money laundering do not accept The narrative that crypto is somehow the Primary method the crypto industry can Certainly improve but cash is still the Dominant method of laundering Money if you talk to anybody completely Outside of crypto the chances are that They see nfts as a fad a flash in the Pan that had its time and now is Consigned to the annals of digital History the problem I have with this is That the nft boom scarcely touched the Utility of nfts and that application of Technology was still fetal although I'm Not sure we'll ever again see the Fervent attention around nfts that we

Saw in 2021 I'm confident that they will Be prevalent in many if not most Industries all that we need to see is Continued innovation in the space and There is in fact a new experimental Ethereum token standard is catching the Eyes of some in the space it's called ERC 404 and it's a proposed hybrid of The erc20 and RC 721 token standards It's created by two sedon developers Control and Acme under the project named Pandora now if you're not too techy Don't worry don't skip the story it's Not that complicated to understand what This token standard does now erc20 Tokens are fungible where you can Exchange one of them for another one Without loss for example Unis swaps Token uni or chain Link's token link and So on the erc721 tokens are those oneof One nfts such as board apes or crypto Kitties these are of course nonf Fungible ERC 404 aims to bind ERC 721 Nfts to erc20 tokens creating what some Will call fractionalized nfts that is Multiple wallets can hold a part of a Single nft there are many interesting Use cases of fractionalized nfts so I've Linked an article by Anthony Clark in The description which discusses some of Them now it's worth noting that at the Moment the ERC prefix is name only as The ERC 404 token standard hasn't yet Been approved by ethereum Improvement

Proposal EIP the developer control to Coin Telegraph it's a lengthy process There's a lot of politics usually the Process takes a couple of weeks but Despite its currently unofficial status The ERC 404 token project was launched This week and has seen gains of over 1,850 in 4 days and at the time of Recording around 7:00 a.m. eastern the Market cap has just reached north of $300 million furthermore crypto wallets From the exchanges binance and okx have Announced support for ERC 404 some Developers have raised concerns over the Project you can see one by the ex user Quit in Jesse coin's article I've Linked In the description but I think control Did a pretty good job of Defending it so It's early days for ERC 404 but this Feels like it might be one to Watch okay I think it's about time for a Little spot Bitcoin ETF update and there Are two separate stories that are Prompting this first up it's trading Volumes and the latest numbers which are Highly encouraging as always there's a Bit of a delay in getting the numbers on The spot Bitcoin ETFs but yesterday Bloomberg's ETF analyst James Safar Highlighted just how healthy the trading Volume has been Safar called Wednesday The 7th of February a big volume day as The total daily volume broke $1 billion Black Rock's ey shares Bitcoin trust

Ibit topped the charts with 341.50 million in volume and in third Predictably was Fidelity with $200 Million the other seven funds cleared $188 million between them bringing the Total north of $1 billion in terms of Inflows the nine ETFs have outpaced gbtc Outflows for the ninth day in a row and My Sprout Finance spot Bitcoin ETF Tracker had Wednesday the 7th end with Net flows of plus $146 million there was Also a really interesting side point Made by the ex-user Fred Krueger on the Bitcoin buying habits of the ET ET FS The 9 ETFs excluding grayscale have been Buying so much Bitcoin that they are Just about to surpass micro's strategy And by the time you listen to this they Probably have you might remember from an Episode earlier this week that micro Strategy has bought yet more Bitcoin and They are the largest publicly traded Holder of it and this week they hit 190,000 Bitcoin well at the end of the Day on Wednesday the nine ETFs excluding Grayscale have around 187,000 Bitcoin that means the nine Would have overtaken micro strategy in Just 30 days it really goes to show that These 9 ETFs are a black hole for Bitcoin at the Moment the second ETF story caught a lot Of attention yesterday and it's on the Comments made by the core scientific

Founder Darren Feinstein who said that The spot Bitcoin ETFs are superior to Gold ETFs the gold ETF has been one of The most successful of all time and Certainly the most successful ETF launch Of all time having reached $1 billion in Trading volume in just 3 days back in 2004 Now although Bitcoin has taken that Crown I found from the headline alone That I presumed bias from Feinstein that Is that he likely preferred Bitcoin Going in and there was a degree of Confirmation bias or even some recency Bias but after I finished reading his Comments I think I owe him an apology he Makes some really compelling points There are several areas of comparison Between the gold and Bitcoin ETFs and Feinstein firstly addresses how easy it Is to verify how much Bitcoin the Bitcoin ETFs hold and it's night and day In contrast to other Commodities based ETFs like gold he said a Bitcoin ETF Proves via the Bitcoin Network that it Holds the Bitcoin that's a much safer Investment in my opinion than investing In any other ETF such as a gold ETF Where you have no way to know on a Real-time basis if it's really holding The gold or if it's been authenticated This is a great point and the spot Bitcoin ETFs must be the first Commodities based ETFs that have

Real-time tracking of what they hold now You can find what they hold by doing a Bit of sleuthing as the blockchain Intelligence firm Arkham did with Grayscale and black rock or ideally it Can be offered by the ETF creators Themselves as we saw with bitwise who Publicly released their wallet address Feinstein went on to sing the Praises of Bitcoin and how reserves are publicly Available 24/7 he stated all Ledges have Been corrupted by the humans that keep The records either on purpose through Fraud or by accident through error and So for the first time in human history Bitcoin purported to have this immutable Ledger which I thought was impossible Until I sted Bitcoin bitcoin's Ledger is Unalterable this point is one I guess I Knew even if I hadn't spent much time Thinking about it however Feinstein made A related argument for Bitcoin ETFs over Gold that I hadn't even considered that Unlike other Commodities the Bitcoin Network shows how much Bitcoin is in Circulation how much is yet to be mined The total Supply cap 21 million how much Was mined each day and so on we have Enough analytics and data to drown in The details when it comes to Gold we Have almost none of these Einstein said It is said that there is $1 trillion in Physical gold on Earth but then added That there hasn't been a public audit of

Federal gold in 70 odd years what do you Make of these comments are spot Bitcoin ETFs really better than gold ETFs is There anything that Feinstein missed Share your thoughts with us on at coin Telegraph and arcade bags on X okay that is another week done and I Feel like this week had a wealth of Really interesting stories crop up and All the while bitcoin's price was just Gradually climbing timing so I'll be Surprised if this is a quiet weekend Nevertheless that is it for today so Consider yourself informed thank you for Listening to the ryen crypto podcast by Coin Telegraph if you're enjoying these Daily updates please make sure you let Us know by following subscribing or Leaving a review have a great weekend Let's do this again [Music] Monday