Bitcoin and cryptoassets posted gains across the board this week, with BTC exceeding $66,000 before slightly retreating. Traders are assessing the impact of Mt. Gox’s Bitcoin transfers and the concluded German government sales. Additionally, the news of an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, who has selected Senator J.D. Vance, a crypto supporter, as his running mate, is making waves in the crypto community. Trump, once a cryptocurrency skeptic, has now embraced the industry, positioning his party as its advocate.
The overall market sentiment remains positive, particularly with anticipation for a potential US spot Ethereum ETF launch next week. The SEC has indicated a timeline that could lead to a July 23 debut for the Ethereum funds, as reported by Blockworks. The regulator has requested issuers to submit their final registration statements by the end of Wednesday. As companies prepare for the expected launch, BlackRock and InvescoGalaxy have set their fees at 0.25% for their Ethereum products, slightly higher than those set by 21Shares (0.21%), Bitwise and VanEck (0.2% each). Fidelity also set its fee at 0.25% on Wednesday but said it would waive it through the end of 2024. Meanwhile, Grayscale has adjusted its fee structure, reducing the fee for the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust to 0.15% while maintaining a higher fee of 2.5% for its main Ethereum Trust. Grayscale plans to use 10% of its spot Ethereum ETF to establish its mini trust, with $1 billion in seed funding.
The US spot Bitcoin ETFs have continued their positive streak, with significant inflows reaching $422 million on Tuesday, led by BlackRock’s IBIT. Despite this, trade volumes are lower than in March, when daily volumes surpassed $8 billion, compared to $1.8 billion on Wednesday. Since January, the ETFs have accumulated a total net inflow of $16.59 billion. This week was packed with crypto news, highlighted by State Street’s announcement to create a stablecoin and a major crypto exchange hack (see headlines below).
Market Overview
The global cryptoasset market capitalization currently amounts to roughly $2.54 trillion – up from $2.23 trillion last week, with bitcoin accounting for about 51.5%. Among the Top 30 cryptoassets by market cap, Pepe (PEPE) outperformed, gaining about 41% over the week. The price of bitcoin (BTC) rose by 13.6% to $66,195 while the price of ether (ETH) increased by 11.7% to $3,483. The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi is sitting at $98 billion, with Ethereum (excluding Layer 2s) accounting for about 60% of TVL. Arbitrum One is currently the largest Layer 2 by value locked, accounting for roughly 40% of the almost $44 billion in assets.
This Week’s Headlines
- State Street said to explore creating stablecoin, Bloomberg reports
- Donald Trump says he wants US in charge of crypto before China in Bloomberg interview
- Craig Wright forced to post that he is not actually Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto following UK ruling
- BlackRock CEO Larry Fink calls bitcoin “legitimate financial instrument”
- Deribit to launch bitcoin and ether options to bet on US election
- Stripe enables Bitcoin, Ether and Solana purchase options in EU
- South Korea’s inaugural crypto law goes into full effect
- Crypto exchange OKX selects Malta as EU MiCA hub, plans EUR and USDC pairs under new framework
- Moody’s tapped for Project Guardian tokenization risk analysis by Monetary Authority of Singapore
- Polymarket taps election statistician Nate Silver as advisor
- Hacker behind $230 million WazirX exploit converts most siphoned assets into ether
- Vitalik Buterin publishes blog post against picking political alliances based on which side is pro-crypto
- Italian banks participate in 25 million euro digital bond issuance on Polygon in ECB Trial
- Grayscale launches new fund for decentralized artificial intelligence
Notable Deals and Fundraising
- Galaxy Digital acquires substantially all the assets of blockchain node operator CryptoManufaktur
- Zodia Markets agrees to acquire Elwood Technologies’ digital asset OTC trading business for an undisclosed sum
- Enterprise-grade blockchain data platform Allium raised $16.5 million in a funding round led by Theory Ventures
- Blockchain data network Chainbase raises $15 million in Series A funding
- Crypto-AI startup Mira raises $9 million in seed funding
- Crypto investment platform Truvius raises $3.2 million pre-seed led by Galaxy Ventures
- Bitcoin-backed stablecoin developer Bima Labs raises $2.25 million seed round
