U.S. Endowments, States Continue to Lean Into Crypto

U.S. Endowments Are Leaning Into Crypto: FT

Emory University, based in Georgia, in October disclosed it had millions worth of Grayscale’s bitcoin ETF. The University of Austin announced in May it is raising a $5 million bitcoin fund to contribute to its $200 million endowment and the $4.8 billion Rockefeller Foundation is exploring whether or not to increase its exposure to crypto. The foundation invested in crypto venture funds in 2023.

“We don’t want to be left behind when their potential materialises dramatically,” Chun Lai, the foundation’s chief investment officer, told the FT. Rockefeller Foundation did not respond to CoinDesk’s comment request.

As One State Gets Closer on a Crypto Reserve, Others Jump Into the Fray

As Utah became the first state to get a bill through a legislative chamber that would allow the investment of public money into crypto assets, lawmakers in two other states joined the hunt this week: Kentucky and Maryland.

Though broadly identified with the Republican-led charge toward a so-called “bitcoin strategic reserve” at the federal level, the states have moved their own measures, widely varied as to how each might invest state money into digital assets.[…]

Fifteen other states are weighing legislation in their current sessions, with others expected to follow, and another two states — Michigan and Wisconsin — already have portions of their retirement funds in crypto ETFs. The surge in state interest mostly developed after the election of President Donald Trump and his stated interest in a strategic stockpile of digital assets.

US Attorneys Said to Be Told to Justify Keeping Newest Prosecutors

US attorneys must provide by Feb. 10 justifications for keeping anyone with less than two years of service who doesn’t work on immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety, said the individuals, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. The request came from a senior career official who is herself being kept in the dark about the purpose of the mandate.

Recent hires who don’t fall into those three specified categories would potentially include prosecutors specializing in white collar, civil fraud, and civil rights investigations.

Delaware Law Has Entered the Culture War

The clubby insular world of corporate law has entered the culture war.

First, Elon Musk started railing against Delaware, which for more than a century has been known as the home of corporate law, after the Delaware Chancery Court chancellor, Kathaleen McCormick, rejected his lofty pay package last year.

Eventually he switched where Tesla is incorporated to Texas.

Now, Dropbox has announced shareholder approval to move where it is incorporated to outside Delaware, and Meta is considering following suit. Others are also evaluating whether to make the move, DealBook hears.

Yahoo Finance is reportedly blocking press releases from crypto companies

Yahoo Finance has recently been criticized for allegedly excluding press releases from crypto companies. The controversy came to light when BTCS Inc. (Nasdaq: BTCS), a blockchain technology-focused company, discovered that its press releases were not appearing on Yahoo Finance despite being distributed through major wire services.

Other crypto-focused companies, including Marathon Digital Holdings, Riot Platforms, Strategy, Bitfarms, CleanSpark, TeraWulf, and Argo Blockchain, have also reportedly been unable to get their announcements displayed on the platform. Publicly listed crypto companies banned from Yahoo Finance now represent over $212 billion in combined market capitalization.

BTCS initially believed the issue might be a technical glitch or an oversight. However, when it sought clarification from GlobeNewswire—one of the primary press release distribution services used by publicly listed firms—it learned that Yahoo Finance had evidently chosen not to display these crypto-oriented announcements.

GlobeNewswire confirmed that the platform had not provided an official explanation or policy statement to justify the block: “Unfortunately, Yahoo Finance maintains a policy of not publishing crypto-related news or announcements. This policy is consistent across the industry and applies to all crypto-focused topics, including blockchain-related events such as the fireside chat described in this release.”