Trump vows to make US ‘Bitcoin superpower’ as Spot Ether ETFs start trading and Mt creditors receive refunds
DATA from CryptoCompare shows that the price of Bitcoin moved up by around 3% over the past week to now trade at around $69,500, up from $67,000 a week ago, with BTC seeing a low around $63,000 over the last few days before recovering.
Ethereum’s Ether - the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation - lost roughly 3% of its value over the same period, dropping from around $3,500 to a low around $3,100 before recovering, to now trade at $3,400 per token.
Cryptocurrency prices rose over the week ahead of a highly-anticipated speech from former US President Donald Trump at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville. That speech saw Trump vow to ensure the federal government wouldn’t sell off its Bitcoin holdings if he returns to the White House, while also saying he would help make the US the crypto capital of the planet and a “Bitcoin superpower”.
Trump also said that, if elected, he would dismantle the “anti-crypto crusade” of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, adding that he would “on day one” fire US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler.
The president of the United States, it’s worth noting, does not have the power to fire appointed commissioners. Trump, nevertheless, also vowed to create a “Bitcoin and crypto presidential advisory council” and to help keep every remaining BTC to be mined within the US.
After Trump’s speech, Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wy) filed a legislative proposal to create an official US Federal Reserve of 1 million Bitcoin over the next five years, which would be held for a minimum of 20 years and would be used to reduce the country’s debt.
Notably, advisers to Vice President Kamala Harris have started reaching out to top cryptocurrency firms, including Coinbase, Circle, and Ripple, to foster a more constructive dialogue and amend strained ties between the Democratic Party and the crypto industry.
Trump’s campaign has gained support from key industry players over his recent pro-crypto approach, earning his campaign a surge of cryptocurrency donations, with for example super Political Action Committee (PAC) Fairshake raising over $200 million from prominent backers.
Meanwhile, a Hong Kong lawmaker has pledged to start discussions about including Bitcoin in the territory’s financial reserves, pointing to the cryptocurrency’s global acceptance and its perception as “digital gold.”
SEC greenlights spot Ether ETFs
Headlines in the cryptocurrency space this week also focused on the SEC greenlighting several spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which started trading last week. The funds, launched by seven issuers including BlackRock, Fidelity, and VanEck, saw over $1 billion in trading volume on their debut.
On their second day of trading, however, spot Ether ETFs saw a more modest trading volume and experienced over $133 million in outflows, after registering $106 million of inflows on their debut.
Notably the trading volumes come after a month in which cryptocurrency open interest on derivatives exchanges dropped by 9.67% to $47.11 billion, following a series of liquidations triggered by dropping cryptocurrency prices, from which the market has since recovered, according to CCData’s latest Exchange Review report.
Over the week, it was revealed Hong Kong is set to debut Asia’s first inverse Bitcoin ETF, allowing investors to bet on a decline of the flagship cryptocurrency’s price.
Kraken distributes Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to Mt Gox creditors
This week also saw popular cryptocurrency exchange Kraken distribute Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to creditors of the once-dominant cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox, which collapsed in 2014 after a massive security breach.
Kraken CEO Dave Ripley noted on social media that it has been nearly a decade since the exchange was selected by the Trustee to “facilitate the investigation and return of client funds”, adding this was the firm’s “privilege and it was our duty”.
Kraken is one of the five cryptocurrency exchanges tasked with returning billions of dollars in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to Mt Gox’s 127,000 creditors, which are awaiting an estimated $7 billion worth of cryptocurrency and cash distributions.
Meanwhile Coinbase’s asset management arm is said to be developing a tokenized money-market fund after BlackRock’s tokenized Treasury fund BUIDL amassed over $500 million in assets shortly after being launched.
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.
