Bitcoin price surges after failed Trump assassination attempt, as ETF inflows grow and SEC drops key probe
DATA from CryptoCompare shows that the price of Bitcoin moved up by around 12% over the past week from a low just above the $56,000 mark to almost $63,000 this afternoon, in a bullish move that supported the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Ethereum’s Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, moved up around 14% over the same period to now stand at around $3,350, up from little over $3,000 at the beginning of the week.
Bitcoin’s upward price movement came after former US President Donald Trump suffered an assassination attempt that spurred speculation the pro-crypto presidential candidate could be re-elected later this year. Trump has been decidedly pro-crypto during his campaign, vowing to support the industry and calling for remaining BTC to be mined in the country.
Headlines in the cryptocurrency space this week also revealed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw their highest inflows in a month after Bitcoin’s historic price drop to a $53,000 low earlier this month, with data showing Fidelity's Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) led the charge with a hefty $117.4 million in net new investments.
They also focused on Rostin Behnam, the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), who speaking before the Senate Agriculture Committee reiterated his agency’s claim that Bitcoin and Ether should be classified as commodities and regulated by his agency.
Behnam noted that inaction by other regulators in the United States wouldn’t “quash public interest for digital assets,” and would lead to greater risk for financial markets and investors, and outlined key legislative priorities in which the CFTC could contribute to effective crypto regulations.
These included the authority to tailor regulations to the specific risks posed by different cryptocurrencies, a permanent “fee-for-service” funding model, and stricter disclosure requirements for entities dealing in crypto assets.
SEC drops key BUSD stablecoin probe
Over the week the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ended its investigation into the New York-based stablecoin issuer Paxos, more than a year after it sent the firm a Wells notice signalling impending enforcement action.
The regulator sent Paxos a Wells notice over the stablecoin it issued in partnership with leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance, BUSD, arguing it functioned as an investment contract because it earned profits from the reserves it held and passed a portion of those to Binance users in the form of yield, but Paxos contested this, and maintained that BUSD was fully backed by dollar reserves and did not meet the criteria for a security.
Notably the stablecoin probe was dropped in the same week CCData’s latest Stablecoins & CBDCs report revealed that the total market capitalization of the stablecoin sector rose 0.53% in June to $1.61 billion, its highest level since April 2022.
The growth of the stablecoin sector has slowed, however, since May amid a wider downtrend in the cryptocurrency space, with trading volumes in June falling 18% to $970 billion.
Meanwhile, within the stablecoin sector, Circle launched its euro-backed stablecoin EURC on Ethereum Layer-2 network Base, expanding its native support beyond the blockchains it’s already in: Ethereum, Avalanche, Solana, and Stellar.
On top of that, Tron founder Justin Sun announced plans to develop a fee-free stablecoin that’s set to launch in the fourth quarter of the year, claiming that the transaction fees would be “entirely covered by the stablecoins themselves.”
BlackRock's tokenised treasury fund hits $500 million milestone
As institutional investors move into the cryptocurrency space, BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) has kept on growing and now hit a new milestone, becoming the first tokenized treasury fund to surpass $500 million in market capitalisation.
The fund was launched less than four months ago and offers exposure to tokenized U.S. Treasuries. Its growth saw it dethrone the Franklin OnChain US Government Money Market Fund (BENJI) as the largest tokenized treasury fund in late April, just six weeks after its launch.
Meanwhile, Nasdaq-listed business intelligence firm MicroStategy, the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, has announced a 10-for-1 stock split aimed at increasing investor and employee access to the company’s stock.
The split is set to go into effect on August 1, with shareholders of both Class A and Class B common stock receiving nine additional shares for each share they currently hold. These shares are expected to be distributed after the market closes on August 7.
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.
