Bitcoin price keeps climbing as ETF inflows grow, and crypto becomes hot election topic
DATA from CryptoCompare shows that the price of Bitcoin kept on rising throughout the past week, moving from little over $65,000 to a high above the $69,000 mark before enduring a slight correction, to now trade at $68,300.
Ethereum’s Ether - the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation – saw similar performance, starting the week at around $2,600 and moving to a $2,760 high before correcting, to now still stand above $2,700 per token.
Headlines in the cryptocurrency space this week revealed that the recent cryptocurrency market rally saw the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) launched in January of this year surpass $20 billion in total inflows, with BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) leading the charge.
The only spot Bitcoin ETFs that saw outflows so far this year are the Hashdex Bitcoin ETF (DEFI) with $1.79 million outflows and Grayscale’s GBTC with $20.1 billion in outflows. Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, noted that it took gold ETFs bout five years to reach a total of $20 billion in inflows.
On top of that, the cryptocurrency-focused arm of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, a16z Crypto, released its “State of Crypto Report 2024”, which notes that crypto activity has hit unprecedented levels, with September 2024 seeing a record 220 million active blockchain addresses.
It adds that crypto has become a significant political issue ahead of the upcoming US election, and that stablecoins have successfully found product-market fit while blockchain infrastructure has been showing continued growth.
The recent cryptocurrency market surge saw some in the top 100 assets by trading volume outperform Bitcoin, with memecoins PEPE and FLOKI seeing gains of 1,501% and 698% respectively, while Solana rose 599%. Curve’s CRV, ATOM, and ARB were the worst-performers, according to CCData.
Over the week, the Samara Asset Group - an alternative investment firm with a focus on deep-tech investments - announced plans to issue a senior secure Nordic bond of up to €30 million to expand its portfolio and bolster its Bitcoin holdings.
Meanwhile leading stablecoin issuer Tether, the company behind USDT, starts exploring lending opportunities in the commodities trading sector, which revolves around the movement of high-value shipments like oil and metals, and heavily relies on credit lines to maintain operations.
Mt Gox creditor repayments delayed to 2025
Over the week, the trustee overseeing Mt Gox’s assets announced another delay in distributing the remaining funds to creditors, pushing the deadline by one year to October 31, 2025, following initial repayments that started in July of this year.
While the estate of the once-dominant cryptocurrency exchanges has started sending out repayments, a substantial 44,900 BTC worth around $3 billion. The delay was attributed to the fact that many creditors haven’t yet completed the necessary procedures to receive their repayments.
Meanwhile the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, Ryan Salame officially begun serving his seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence at FCI Cumberland, a medium-security federal correctional institution in Maryland this week, after pleading guilty in September for conspiring to make unlawful political contributions and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business.
During the sentencing, Judge Kaplan emphasized that Salame prioritized his own interests, accusing him of metaphorically “getting in the lifeboat first” as FTX imploded
In other exchange news this week, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken launched Kraken Wrapped Bitcoin (kBTC), an ERC-20 token that aims to boost Bitcoin’s utility across decentralized applications on networks such as Ethereum and OP Mainnet.
The new wrapped Bitcoin token is backed 1:1 by Bitcoin held in custody at Kraken, with the exchange keeping verifiable on-chain reserves and the kBTC smart contract having undergone an audit by security firm Trail of Bits.
US senators clash over crypto in heated Senate race debate
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and her Republican challenger, John Deaton, clashed over crypto regulation, with Warren accusing Deaton of putting the interests of the cryptocurrency industry above those of working-class Americans.
Warren, a well-known critic of digital assets, then reiterated her concerns about the industry, saying it facilitates illegal activities such as money laundering and human trafficking and advocating for the same regulations applied to traditional financial institutions to be applied to the cryptocurrency space.
Deaton, a staunch advocate for crypto, countered Warren’s claims by highlighting crypto’s role in empowering marginalised individuals. Citing his works in the SEC v. Ripple case, Deaton argued he worked to protect small investors from regulatory overreach.
Throughout the debate, Deaton also criticized Warren’s focus on attacking crypto rather than addressing pressing economic issues such as inflation.
Francisco Memoria is a content creator at CryptoCompare who’s in love with technology and focuses on helping people see the value digital currencies have. His work has been published in numerous reputable industry publications. Francisco holds various cryptocurrencies.
