Weekly news summary for December 24 to December 30

Friday, Dec. 24: SEC Says No to Offering Valkyrie, Kryptoin ETF

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected two proposals to include and trade bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund and Kryptoin Bitcoin ETF Trust, as they failed to meet the regulator’s anti-fraud standard.

The decision came a month after the SEC gave the green light to list bitcoin futures-based funds, ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF and Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF, on Wall Street, but the agency has yet to allow a spot bitcoin ETF due to regulatory concerns and risks of fraud and manipulation.

Monday, Dec. 27: Kraken Plans to Enable NFT-backed Loans: CEO

Kraken is set to introduce a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace that will allow NFT-backed loans starting next year, the crypto exchange’s co-founder and chief executive Jesse Powell stated.

Powell said Kraken plans to venture into the NFT business in early 2022 and looks to include the feature that would establish an NFT’s liquidation value and whether it can be used as collateral for a loan.

Tuesday, Dec. 28: S&P 500 Posts Record High in Santa Claus Rally

The S&P rose to a new record high on Tuesday as the outlook in the US economy eased market players’ fears over Omicron-driven travel issues and store shutdowns after US stocks posted four consecutive days of gains in holiday-thin trading.

The S&P 500’s healthcare and materials sectors and the Philadelphia chip index reached record highs on Tuesday, while the Dow added 149.83 points or 0.41% to $36,452 and S&P 500 index climbed 3.23 points or 0.07% to $4,794.

Wednesday, Dec. 29: Musk Finishes Exercising All His Stock Options

Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk has finished exercising all his stock options expiring in August 2022, putting a close to his stock sales that led the electric-vehicle maker’s shares to shed a quarter of their value in November.

So far, Musk has sold 15.7 million shares in Tesla, nearing the 10% stake that he aims to sell, with 10.3 million of those shares associated with the exercise of the options.

Thursday, Dec. 30: Yen Hits One-Month Low, Sterling at Six-Week High

The Japanese yen hit a new one-month low, and the British pound posted a fresh six-week high amid thin trading on Thursday, as investors’ risk appetite returned and several governments decided not to employ new lockdown measures despite the ongoing spread of the Omicron variant.

The safe-haven yen traded at $115.05 to mark its lowest in a month and not far from its 4-1/2-year low of $115.51, while the sterling was up $1.35, its highest in six weeks and the Australian dollar extended gains at $0.72.

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