Bitcoin rallies on Trump’s pro-crypto VP pick, BlackRock support, and incoming spot Ether ETFs
DATA from CryptoCompare shows that the price of Bitcoin moved up by around 7% over the past week from a low just above the $63,000 mark to around $67,500 today, in a bullish move that supported the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Ethereum’s Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, moved up around 4.6% over the same period to now stand at around $3,500, up from little over $3,000 at the beginning of the week.
Headlines in the cryptocurrency space this week focused on Bitcoin’s continued price recovery after the failed assassination attempt on Presidential candidate Donald Trump, and his choice of Ohio Senator JD Vance for Vice President.
Vance is a cryptocurrency-friendly venture capitalist, who is known to hold between $100,000 and $250,000 in Bitcoin on cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, while also owning a brokerage account with Robinhood, up to $100,000 in a crude oil exchange-traded fund (ETF), up to $250,000 in a checking account with Charles Schwab, and up to $250,000 in a gold ETF.
Positive sentiment surrounding Bitcoin also grew after the Chairman and CEO of the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock, Larry Fink, said that he sees Bitcoin as a “legitimate financial instrument,” and added he believes BTC serves as a hedge when there is a belief that countries are debasing their currencies through excess deficits.
Fink also likened the cryptocurrency to digital gold and expressed confidence that Bitcoin would become one of the asset classes that investors look at, particularly for those seeking to express their financial acumen in uncertain times.
Over the week, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken confirmed it received Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash transfers from the Mt. Gox rehabilitation Trustee, in a new step towards the end of the long-awaited compensation process for the exchange’s creditors.
The exchange noted creditors should expected a waiting period of 7-14 days for the funds to be credited to their accounts and emphasized the distribution amounts had been predetermined by the rehabilitation Trustee. Blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence found the transfer of approximately 48,641 BTC, valued at $3.1 billion, from Mt. Gox went to wallets associated with Kraken, suggesting that amount is being redistributed to creditors.
Collapsed crypto lender BlockFi also confirmed over the week the commencement of initial cryptocurrency distributions to eligible clients via Coinbase, in a process that starts this month and will be conducted in batches over several months, with clients receiving notifications via their registered email addresses.
The process won’t distribute funds to non-U.S. clients over regulatory requirements, with BlockFi’s Plan Administrator now working with Joint Liquidators of BlockFi International to implement a distribution process that complies with local regulations.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Metaplanet kept on accumulating BTC, adding an additional 21.88 coins for around 200 million Japanese yen ($1.2 million) to bring its total holdings to 225.6 BTC. The firm is often compared to MicroStrategy, the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder, as it is committed to using various financial instruments to bolster its BTC reserves.
Spot Ether ETFs to reportedly start trading this week
The week also saw the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reportedly tell prospective spot Ether exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuers that the funds can start treading this week, just a week after issuers submitted amended applications for these funds.
Last week, asset managers vying to launch these funds submitted amended S-1 filings, which came after the SEC approved 19b-4 forms from NYSE Arca, Cboe, and Nasdaq for various spot Ether ETF applications in May.
These filings revealed fund structure details, including management fees, revealing Grayscale stands out with a 2.5% fee for its main product, far above the 0.25% set by BlackRock and Fidelity for their spot Ether ETFs. 21Shares will charge a 0.21% fee, while VanEck, Invesco Galaxy, and Bitwise set their fees at 0.2%, above Franklin Templeton’s 0.19%.
State Street eyes launching its own stablecoin
Financial services and banking giant State Street is exploring ways to leverage blockchain technology for faster and cheaper payment settlements, which could reportedly involve creating a stablecoin.
The firm, which recently reported higher-than-expected revenue, is reportedly also considering its own blockchain-based representation of customer deposits through a deposit token.
The move would come after the volume of on-chain stablecoin transactions fell 7.5% to $1.8 trillion in June, according to CCData’s latest Stablecoins & CBDCs report.
The report details that among the top five stablecoins on the Ethereum blockchain USDC remained a leader in on-chain activity with a 43.6% market share, above Tether’s 34.2% and DAI’s 18.2%.
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.
