Canada approves first bitcoin ETF, raising hopes that the US SEC will soon follow

Emily Graffeo Feb. 12, 2021

Bitcoin. KTS Design/Science Photo Library/Getty Images

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Canada's financial regulator approved the first publicly traded bitcoin ETF in North America.
The Purpose Bitcoin ETF will trade on the Toronto stock exchange.

 
It raises hopes that the US SEC will follow in Canada's footsteps.

Canada's financial regulator approved the first publicly traded bitcoin ETF in North America, according to records published Thursday.

The Purpose Bitcoin ETF will seek to replicate the performance of the price of bitcoin, minus the ETF's fees and expenses, according to a fact sheet posted by Canada-based asset manager Purpose Investments. It will trade on the Toronto stock exchange under the ticket "BTCC."

"The Fund has been created to buy and hold substantially all of its assets in long-term holdings of Bitcoin and seeks to provide holders of ETF Units ("Unitholders") with the opportunity for long-term capital appreciation," the company prospectus reads.

Cidel Trust Company will be the custodian of the ETF while Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss' Gemini Trust Company will be the sub-custodian. Ernst and Young will be the auditor of the ETF.

The ETF announcement raises hopes that the US Securities and Exchange commission could be one step closer to approving a US bitcoin ETF. Several firms have filed and failed to gain approval for a bitcoin ETF in the past, with the SEC typically citing security concerns.

"It's another step towards an ETF being authorized in the US," Sui Chung, CEO of CF Benchmarks told Insider.

While the Canadian bitcoin ETF is a "significant" move forward that demonstrates how regulators in North America have gotten more familiar with the crypto landscape, it's unclear how quickly the US will follow suit, especially given the differences between Canadian and US financial regulations, Chung added.

Despite pushback from the SEC, demand for bitcoin-based investments has soared during bitcoin's 2021 rally. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust that follows bitcoin has gained 272% in the last

People are boycotting Publix because a member of its founding family gave $300,000 to the Trump rally that led to the January 6 Capitol riots




Irene Jiang Feb. 15, 2021, 10:00 PM

Trump supporters gather outside the U.S. Capitol building following a "Stop the Steal" rally on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

People are boycotting Publix after heiress Julie Jenkins Fancelli was unmasked as a top donor to the January 6 Trump rally.

Fancelli is not a Publix employee but is set to inherit from the $8.8 billion founding family's fortune.

Fancelli contributed most of the roughly $500,000 total raised for the "Stop the Steal" rally, the WSJ reported.

People are calling for a boycott of Publix after the Wall Street Journal unmasked an heiress to the Southern grocery empire as the top donor to the Trump rally that led to the Capitol riots on January 6.

Julie Jenkins Fancelli, an heiress to the Publix founding family's nearly $9 billion fortune, has previously donated millions to Republican causes and candidates. On January 30, the WSJ reported Fancelli as having contributed $300,000 out of the roughly $500,000 total raised for Trump's now-infamous "Stop the Steal" rally.

Publix has a dedicated fanbase, but Fancelli's contribution to the rally was the last straw for many loyal customers, The Guardian reported Monday. On Monday, the hashtag #BoycottPublix was trending on Twitter, with many users expressing outrage and claiming betrayal over Fancelli's donation.

—Bob south florida water man (@WaterDean) February 15, 2021

—Jordan Knash 🌊🌊🌊⚖️#ShutItDown (@JordanKnash) February 15, 2021

—Neri Beats (@NeriBeats) February 15, 2021

Fancelli's donation was facilitated by far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who himself donated $50,000 to the rally that led to the deaths of five people, the Journal reported.

After the riots, corporations raced to cut ties with former president Trump and to end donations to political candidates that supported Trump's attempt to overturn the election.

After the publication of the WSJ article, Publix rapidly distanced itself from Fancelli in a Twitter statement, and said it did not employ her.
—Publix (@Publix) January 31, 2021

Fancelli is still president of the George Jenkins Foundation, Inc., Publix founder George Jenkins's charity, which is not affiliated with the grocery chain. Since posting the statement on January 30, the Publix Twitter account - which previously posted around once a day - has been uncharacteristically silent.

This isn't the first time Publix has courted controversy over its political donations. It came under fire after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis awarded the chain an exclusive vaccine distribution contract. This followed the Publix PAC donating $100,000 donation to his campaign - a spokeswoman for DeSantis said any implication that the contract was a reward for the donation was "baseless and ridiculous," per the Lakeland Ledger.

Leaders from predominantly Black communities throughout the state also criticized the contract, saying it deprived many Black Floridians of the chance to get vaccinated.

Weird Norfolk: The Magdalen woman who fought the Devil when he came for her soul

Stacia Briggs And Siofra Connor

Published February 13, 2021

Did the Devil visit Mrs Tash at Magdalen in the form of a crow? - Credit: iWitness24/Rosemary Howard

When the Devil came to collect a soul promised to him when its owner was a girl, he hadn’t bargained for a fight: but Norfolk’s Mrs Tash wasn’t prepared to go quietly. There are several accounts of the strong-willed Mrs Tash, including from Fen authority Arthur Randall and folklore expert Enid Porter.

In The Folklore of East Anglia by Porter, written in 1974, the curious tale of Mrs Tash is told – a woman who wasn’t ready when the Devil came calling. She lived in the village of Magdalen, close to Wiggenhall St Mary (which itself has a haunted pipe organ) and gave her soul to Lucifer as a young woman. How or why she made a bargain with the Lord of the Underword is unknown and Ms Porter remarks that despite her deal, she had not “been looked upon as a witch”.

Mrs Tash was buried at the church in Wiggenhall St. Mary Magdalen village sign. - Credit: Ian Burt

The story continues: “A century ago, when she was lying old and ill in bed, the Devil came to claim her.

“One evening, when two neighbours came to visit her, they found the bed empty and no sign of the old women anywhere in the house.

“On the bedroom windowsill, however, were scratches as though something had been hauled across it, and on the ground below were some marks which seemed to indicate that a body and been dragged along for several yards.

“At daybreak next morning, a party of men followed the marks for half a mile to the side of a dyke and there, at the bottom of a pit, they found Mrs Tash lying still alive but stark naked.

‘So old Harry came after her last night,’ said one of the men, ‘and nearly got her, too, by the look of it. You see, he’ll be back again tonight to fetch her away.’”

Hastily covered, the old woman was taken back to her house and put to bed. Neighbours stayed with her as she rested quietly all day – but as night fell, she began to become restless and by the middle of the night, she was agitated. Shouting and flailing her arms, the neighbours were shocked to see a large black bird throw itself at Mrs Tash’s windowpane and they ran terrified from the room, calling for her son to come quickly. When he ran into his mother’s room, her son found that she had died and, on her chest, there was the mark of a three-toed foot or talon etched into her skin.

Weird Norfolk’s research has revealed that a Mary Tash died on April 21 1873 – a century before the book was published – and was buried at Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalen. Aged 81, her husband was Henry Tash and her son Timothy and on the 1861 census her occupation was given as ‘farmer’s wife’.

The Devil is often depicted in 19th and 20th century occultist illustrations as a black bird which has the power to transform into the figure of a man while in Europe, many cultures believed that crows made a annual descent to hell to visit Satan. Catholic teachings read that Saint Benedict was praying when he was visited by the Devil disguised as a blackbird but the Saint was not fooled and sent him on his way with the sign of the cross.

Deals with the Devil were a pact between a person and Satan or a lesser demon in which souls were exchanged for diabolical favours such as youth, knowledge, wealth, fame or power. Others made the pact just to recognise the Devil as their master and expected nothing in return despite realising their deal ensured eternal damnation. Quite what, if anything, Mrs Tash gained from her bargain with the Dark One and whether she was the Mrs Tash who is recorded in the village is unknown – other than to the Devil, obviously.

For a daily dose of Weird Norfolk follow our Instagram here or our Facebook group here.

Roman and prehistoric remains found after archaeological dig at huge north Derbyshire new homes development

Developers at a huge new homes site in Derbyshire say they will continue ‘as planned’ after prehistoric to Roman era remains were found beneath the ground.

By Tim Paget
Friday, 12th February 2021, 

Persimmon Homes has secured planning permission to build up to 590 properties on land off Oxcroft Lane, Bolsover, but has been required to organise an archaeological study on site.

Archaeologists discovered evidence of ‘prehistoric to Roman date field systems’ as well as ‘post-medieval agricultural features’, and their findings have been published on Bolsover District Council’s website as part of the planning application.

MORE: Major plans to build 150 homes near Chesterfield could be delayed by archaeological digs

Archaeologists have found Roman and prehistoric remains on the site of a major housing development in Bolsover.

A spokesman for Persimmon Homes Nottingham, said: “As part of our planning consent an archaeological study was undertaken on the land off Marlpit Lane, Bolsover. These types of studies are not unusual on sites which may be of interest.

"The outcome confirmed the presence of probable prehistoric to Roman date field systems as well as exposing post-medieval agricultural features.

“The works are now complete, and all historic data and findings have been accordingly gathered. We are in the early stages of this development and will continue our works as planned.”


Allen Archaeology Ltd was commissioned to undertake an archaeological evaluation by digging trial trenches on land off Marlpit Lane.

"The site lies in an area of archaeological interest, with several prehistoric flint scatters in the vicinity of the site,” the archaeology company said in its report.

"Romano-British occupation has been identified at Sherwood Lodge approximately 400m to the southwest.”

Studies found quantities of prehistoric worked flints and suggests ‘there is some potential for prehistoric activity within the site boundaries’.

“The results of the archaeological evaluation demonstrate that there is a low density distribution of features and deposits of archaeological interest within the targeted area,” the report adds.

Of the 20 trenches excavated, seven were found to contain a small number of ‘linear features’, generally one or two features per trench.

This included pottery ‘of a possible Bronze Age date’ and a piece of possible Roman quern.

Archaeologists concluded: “Overall the evidence suggests that the excavated features represent part of a potentially later prehistoric to Roman agricultural landscape, with the environmental evidence and very low density of finds suggesting the site lies away from any settlement focus.”

Sask. uranium giant ups stake in laser technology to fuel small reactors


Michael Bramadat-Willcock , Local Journalism Initiative Reporter , The Northern Advocate / Battlefords News-Optimist

FEBRUARY 12, 2021 

Silex technology separates isotopes using lasers to produce enriched uranium. Photo courtesy of Silex Systems

The world's largest publicly traded uranium company is betting big on a new laser enrichment technology that it says will help power Canada’s shift to a more eco-friendly future.

Saskatoon-based Cameco Corp. obtained a 49 per cent stake in Global Laser Enrichment LLC (GLE) in a joint acquisition with Australian technology company Silex Systems for General Electric Company subsidiary GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy's shares in the project.


GLE was founded in 2008 as a joint venture between General Energy, Hitachi and Cameco to develop Silex’s technology that separates isotopes using lasers to produce enriched uranium.

The federal government recently announced Canada’s Small Modular Reactor Action Plan as part of its commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) are designed to produce smaller amounts of electricity, between 50 and 300 megawatts, without the emissions usually associated with power generation.

“Nuclear power plays a massive role in the global clean energy equation,” Cameco President and CEO Tim Gitzel said.

“That role will only increase in a carbon constrained world, particularly with the momentum behind SMR and advanced reactor technologies, a focus on the electrification of transportation systems, and the many other innovations that countries and companies are counting on to help meet their emission reduction targets.”

Canada’s current reactor fleet consists mostly of Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) technology which doesn’t rely on enriched fuel.

The company plans to commercialize this new uranium enrichment process that it says could power SMRs in a more cost-effective way.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said last summer that nuclear power is a critical part of the solution to climate change and will help rural and remote communities as a new base for the electrical grid.

“We are not going to be able to deal with things like climate change or very broad issues if we are not going to commit to integrating nuclear power into our systems. It has to be part of the solutions. We simply are unable to get the job done without it,” Moe said.

While nuclear power has backing from both federal and provincial governments as a way to shift away from carbon, uranium enrichment is a complex process that accounts for around 30 per cent of the cost of nuclear fuel.

GLE has an agreement with the United States Department of Energy to enrich depleted uranium tails, repurpose legacy waste into uranium, convert products to fuel nuclear reactors and help clean-up enrichment facilities no longer in operation.

Gitzel said in a statement that the new technology could provide a stable source of North American-based uranium enrichment in both Canada and the United States and fast-forward the progress of emerging SMR designs.

The agreement comes with promises to deliver low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel with better efficiency and flexibility than current enrichment technologies, and to produce the high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) needed as the primary fuel stock for SMRs.

In addition to lowering cost, Silex says the process could also increase supply of nuclear fuel to the new reactors more efficiently.

“This new ownership structure, together with the recently announced U.S. Government approval represents the start of an important new era for GLE and the Silex technology, at a time when nuclear power is coming back into focus as a key source of zero-emissions base load electricity in an emissions constrained world,” Silex CEO and Managing Director Michael Goldsworthy, said.

Moe had signed a memorandum of understanding with the premiers of Ontario and New Brunswick to work together on further developing the nuclear industry last December.

“Cameco is committed to responsibly and sustainably managing our business and increasing our contributions to global climate change solutions,” Gitzel said.

“Our investment in GLE aligns well with these objectives.”

Air Canada to temporarily cut 1,500 jobs, suspend 17 routes

MEANWHILE ASKING THE GOVT TO BAIL THEM OUT

Jon Victor, The Canadian Press

Feb 9, 2021

MONTREAL -- Air Canada will temporarily lay off 1,500 unionized employees and an unspecified number of management staff as it cuts more routes in response to harsher travel restrictions.

Air Canada will temporarily suspend service on 17 routes to the U.S. and other international destinations until at least April 30, the company said Tuesday.

"We are further reducing our transborder and international commercial schedule as a result of COVID-19," a spokesperson for Air Canada said. "Affected customers with bookings will be contacted with options, including alternate routings."

The route suspensions in the U.S. include flights to New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Denver and Fort Myers, Air Canada said. The earliest flight suspensions to the U.S. will go into effect Feb. 14.

Air Canada is also suspending flights to Bogota from Montreal, London and Tokyo from Vancouver, and Bogota, Dublin and Sao Paulo from Toronto, among other routes, the company said.



Flights from Toronto to Tel Aviv will continue to be suspended, and flights from Toronto to Dubai and Hong Kong will have their startups postponed.

The layoffs and route cuts come as Canada rolls out stricter measures to reduce international travel, including mandatory hotel quarantines for new entrants.

Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada Component of CUPE, which represents flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge, blamed the cuts on the government's new travel restrictions and said Ottawa wasn't doing enough to help the airline sector weather the pandemic.

"We appreciate the need for measures to prevent the spread of new variants of COVID-19 in Canada," Lesosky said. "But restrictions have to be accompanied by solutions."

At the end of January, Canadian airlines agreed to suspend all flights to Mexico and the Caribbean until April 30, at the request of the federal government.

Last week, Air Canada said it planned to temporarily halt operations at Air Canada Rouge, which primarily operates the company's flights to Mexico and the Caribbean. The service cuts involved temporary layoffs of around 80 employees.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has continued to crack down on international travel, saying Tuesday that as of Feb. 15, anyone entering Canada through a land border will have to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test.

A previous requirement for international travellers to show negative test results, which went into effect on Jan. 7, applied only to air travel. Airlines said they saw an immediate drop in bookings once the requirement was implemented, leading to another round of route cuts and layoffs by Canadian carriers in January.

Botswana names Canadian firm as preferred bidder for copper mine

Mbongeni Mguni, Bloomberg News 

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  Feb 13, 2021
  
  

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Ore is poured into a tank in the mill area at Freeport McMoRan Inc.'s Grasberg copper and gold mining complex in Papua province, Indonesia, on Wednesday, April 22, 2015. Freeport is the world's largest publicly traded copper producer. Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg Intelligence , Bloomberg

Botswana picked Premium Nickel Resources Corp. as the preferred bidder for its shuttered copper mining group BCL Ltd., according to Mmetla Masire, the permanent secretary for the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security.

The privately owned Canadian minerals investor has six months to conduct due diligence before making an offer for the state-owned miner, Trevor Glaum, BCL’s liquidator, said in a Feb. 11 memorandum to remaining workers at the group. Glaum couldn’t be reached for comment on the memo.

Premium Nickel is seeking US$26.5 million of financing to be used for its due-diligence process, according to a January presentation on the website of North American Nickel Inc., the Vancouver-based founder shareholder of Premium Nickel.

BCL went into liquidation in October 2016 due to high operational costs and low base metal prices. Its mines employed more than 5,000 workers at the time oftheir closing and have become a political sore point for President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s administration.

Putin needs more details of Musk's Clubhouse offer, Kremlin says

Ilya Arkhipov and Andrey Biryukov, Bloomberg News

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., arrives at the Axel Springer Award ceremony in Berlin, Germany, on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. , Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz/Bloomberg

Russian President Vladimir Putin may not use social media but the Kremlin is still keen to learn more about billionaire Elon Musk’s invitation to chat on the Clubhouse app.

“It’s undoubtedly a very interesting offer, but we need to know what he means, what’s he’s proposing,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call Monday. While Putin personally doesn’t use social media, “we’ll check it out first and then we’ll respond,” Peskov said.

было бы большой честью поговорить с вами

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 13, 2021

The chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX tweeted at the Kremlin’s official Twitter account at the weekend, asking if Putin wanted to join him for a conversation on Clubhouse, which allows people to create digital discussion groups. Peskov didn’t say whether anyone in the Kremlin uses the invitation-only app.

 CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

FX rigging may have spread to 200 chat rooms, lawyer says

Ellen Milligan, Bloomberg News

Pedestrians pass a currency exchange in Madrid, Spain, on Friday, Dec. 4, 2020. The pound rallied on mounting speculation that Britain and the European Union are closing in on a Brexit trade agreement. Photographer: Paul Hanna/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

Traders may have used as many as 200 online chat rooms to rig foreign exchange rates, far more than previously thought, a lawyer for investors told a London court Monday.

Marie Demetriou, a lawyer for investment funds suing seven banks, said that some of the newly discovered chat rooms were instant message groups that lasted just a few hours while others were “permanent” fixtures established over months.

The chat rooms, as well as emails, telephone calls and WhatsApp messages will play a central role in a suit brought by investment funds. They’re suing banks including Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co over allegations they lost money as a result of illegal manipulation of the FX market.

As a result of the disclosures, the investors are now in the process of re-pleading their case, Demetriou said. They expect that when the remainder of disclosure is given, “further chat rooms and unlawful anticompetitive communications will be identified,” she said.

Citi, JPMorgan and Barclays were among five banks that agreed in 2019 to pay European Union fines totaling 1.07 billion euros (US$1.3 billion) as part of a settlement with the antitrust regulator. Those probes focused on two cartels that traders ran on chat rooms called “Essex Express n’ the Jimmy” and “Three Way Banana Split,” swapping sensitive information and trading plans that allowed them to make informed decisions to buy or sell currencies.

Officials at the banks couldn’t be immediately reached to comment.

The banks face lawsuits in the U.S. and U.K. over traders’ manipulation of benchmark foreign-exchange rates a decade ago. More than a dozen financial institutions have paid about US$11.8 billion in fines and penalties globally in regulatory probes, with another US$2.3 billion spent to compensate customers and investors.

The investment funds include Allianz, PIMCO, Brevan Howard and BlueCrest, and some of the world’s largest pension funds, including the four state pension funds of the Kingdom of Sweden and a Danish pension fund.

A representative for the claimants declined to comment.

The funds engaged in very substantial volumes of FX trading between 2003 and 2013 -- the period covered by the lawsuit -- with more than 2.5 million trades identified to date, Demetriou said.

CPP OWNS THIS

Arc Resources, Seven Generations merging in major Montney Natural Gas tie-up

Noah Zivitz, BNN Bloomberg
Feb 11, 2021

Arc Resources Ltd. and Seven Generations Energy Ltd. announced a tie-up late Wednesday, in a transaction that would bring together a pair of major players in Canada's Montney region.

Under the terms of the transaction, Seven Generations shareholders will receive 1.108 Arc shares for each share held. Once the deal closes, Arc's shareholders will own 49 per cent of the combined entity and Seven Generations holders will own 51 per cent, according to a joint media release. The combined company will retain Arc's name and will be headquartered in Calgary.

According to the release, the combined company will be "the largest pure-play Montney producer" with annual production hitting 340,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day across 1.1 million acres of land. The companies said they see potential for $110 million in annual cost savings by next year.

According to the companies, the combined entity would be the sixth-largest upstream energy producer in Canada. The combined firm plans to continue to pay Arc’s current $0.06 per share quarterly dividend, subject to approval from its board.

While Seven Generations' investors will hold a narrow majority of the shares, Arc will have a stronger hand in the boardroom. Indeed, the two companies said the combined entity's board of directors will have 11 members, with six seats occupied by Arc appointees.

Arc Chair Hal Kvisle, an industry veteran who has previously served as CEO of TransCanada Corp and Talisman Energy Inc., will remain chair after the deal closes, while Arc President and CEO Terry Anderson will hang on to those titles.

The deal is subject to customary closing conditions, including a vote by Seven Generations shareholders on the offer, and a vote by Arc shareholders on the necessary share issuance.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which owns 16.8 per cent of Seven Generations' shares, has already confirmed its intent to support the offer, according to the release.

The two companies said they expect the deal to close in the second quarter of this year.

RBC is serving as Arc's financial advisor on the deal, while CIBC is advising Seven Generations.

CPPIB OUR NATIONAL PENSION FUND INVESTS IN FRACKING

Oil and gas production

The Montney Formation is a major shale gas and tight oil resource. A comprehensive joint study on the potential of the Montney Formation was completed by the National Energy Board, British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission and the Alberta Energy Regulator in 2013. This study found that the potential resources contained within the formation were 449 trillion cubic feet of marketable natural gas, 14,521 million barrels of marketable natural gas liquids (NGLs) and 1,125 million barrels of oil. This estimate makes it one of the largest known gas resources in the world and equivalent to 145 years of Canada's 2012 consumption.^[5][6]

Gas is produced from the Montney Formation in both British Columbia and Alberta. Major operators include Seven Generations Energy Ltd., Progress Energy Canada Ltd. (a subsidiary of Malaysia's (PETRONAS), Painted Pony Energy Ltd., Royal Dutch Shell plc, Encana Corporation, Murphy Oil Corporation, ARC Resources Ltd., and Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd.^[7][8] and oil is produced from the formation in Northern Alberta.^[4] Horizontal drilling and extensive fracturing process is necessary to have the fluid flow through the low permeability siltstone. Shale gas extraction emerged in the late 2000s in the distal facies of the formation's western extent.

Hydraulic fracturing in Canada

Main article: Hydraulic fracturing in Canada

Massive hydraulic fracturing has been widely used in Alberta since the late 1970s.^[9]:1044 The method is currently used in development of the Cardium, Duvernay, Montney and Viking formations in Alberta, Bakken formation in Saskatchewan, Montney and Horn River formations in British Columbia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montney_Formation