Mini Program: Daily Cryptocurrency Dynamics Summary
1. Standard Chartered Bank executives: Bitcoin is expected to hit a record high over the weekend
According to The Block, Geoff Kendrick, head of foreign exchange research and digital asset research at Standard Chartered Bank, said that Bitcoin is expected to hit a record high over the weekend, reaching the $73,798 level on March 14. Kendrick added that the optimism surrounding the possible approval of the spot Ethereum ETF this week made him more confident in Bitcoin's price target, that is, Bitcoin will reach $150,000 by the end of 2024 and $200,000 by the end of 2025. Kendrick also pointed out that the situation in recent days has been more constructive, and the inflow of funds into the spot Bitcoin ETF has increased, bringing its total to a record high of $12.9 billion.
2. Trump campaign accepts cryptocurrency donations, including Dogecoin and Shiba Inucoin
According to The Block, US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump announced that he will accept political donations in the form of cryptocurrency. According to Trump's website, his 2024 campaign will accept cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Dogecoin and Shiba Inucoin.
3. Bloomberg ETF analyst: Ethereum ETF may only account for 15% of Bitcoin ETF assets
The bullish trend has led some market analysts to predict that ETH ETFs will see a large inflow of funds, similar to the success of the BTC ETF launched in January. According to Farside Investors, these funds have accumulated about $13 billion in assets under management since the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States. However, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas remains skeptical, saying that Ethereum ETFs may only account for 15% of Bitcoin ETF assets.
4. Insider: US SEC tends to approve Ethereum spot ETF
According to Barron's, citing people familiar with the matter, SEC staff told exchanges on Monday that the agency is "inclined" to approve Ethereum spot ETFs. The SEC has provided opinions on these applications, and if they are resolved in a timely manner, they could be approved as early as this week. Earlier, Bloomberg ETF analysts said that given the change in political winds, the U.S. government's position on Ethereum spot ETFs may change drastically.
5. Six spot Ethereum ETF applicants have submitted revised 19b-4 documents
According to Watcher.Guru, six spot Ethereum ETF applicants have submitted revised 19b-4 documents, including VanEck, Fidelity, Franklin, ArkInvest, Grayscale, and Invesco Galaxy. Earlier today, it was reported that Grayscale's latest Ethereum spot ETF application had deleted the pledge wording, and Fidelity excluded the possibility of receiving pledge rewards in its S-1 registration statement. Yesterday, according to Cointelegraph, citing Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart, the approved 19b-4 must be accompanied by a signed S-1 registration statement in order to launch a spot Ethereum ETF. Even if the 19b-4s are approved this week, the signing of the S-1 may take weeks or even months.
6. ConsenSys CEO: Ethereum spot ETF may cause Ethereum supply shortage
According to DL News, Joe Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and founder and CEO of crypto infrastructure company ConsenSys, said that if the Ethereum spot ETF is approved, the resulting "flood of demand" for Ethereum could lead to supply constraints. Lubin explained that institutions that have been exposed to Bitcoin through the newly launched Bitcoin ETF "most likely want to diversify their investments into the second approved ETF," and the natural, pent-up demand for Ethereum through ETFs will be considerable, but the supply to meet this demand will be less than when the Bitcoin spot ETF was approved in January this year. In the case of Bitcoin, authorized participants (i.e., companies that buy Bitcoin on behalf of the ETF every day) can simply buy idle Bitcoin on exchanges or through over-the-counter counterparties. But on-chain data shows that more than 27% of the total Ethereum supply has been pledged on the Ethereum network. These Ethereums are locked in contracts to earn returns for their owners. "A lot of Ethereum is used in core protocols, decentralized financial systems, or DAOs," Lubin said. In other words, not only is Ethereum's market value lower than Bitcoin's - which makes Ethereum's price more sensitive to capital inflows - but a large part of its supply is not available for ETFs. Additionally, new activity on Ethereum will cause the network to destroy a large portion of the existing ether supply over time, further limiting supply.
7. Several U.S. House Democrats petitioned their colleagues to join the camp supporting the crypto bill FIT21
As the U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on Wednesday, which is expected to pass comprehensive cryptocurrency legislation with bipartisan support — a major milestone for the industry — some Democrats are urging their colleagues to vote in favor, CoinDesk reported. At least eight House Democrats have publicly supported the 21st Century Financial Innovation and Technology Act (FIT21), and they may recruit more supporters, according to a memo shared by congressional aides. The bill is currently scheduled for full discussion and voting later on Wednesday. "As Democrats, we believe this is an important opportunity to regulate the digital asset market," the eight lawmakers wrote in an internal memo on Tuesday, asking for their colleagues' support. "This should not be a partisan issue," said lawmakers including Reps. Wiley Nickel (D-North Carolina), Yadira Caraveo (D-Colorado), Jim Himes (D-Connecticut), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Ritchie Torres (D-New York), Darren Soto (D-Florida), Josh Gottheimer (D-New Jersey) and Don Davis (D-North Carolina). But despite bipartisan support in the House, the effort further highlights the lack of similar progress in the Senate, where cryptocurrency market structure legislation is likely to fail. To that end, senior staff on the House Financial Services and Agriculture Committees working on the bill said Tuesday that they are having increasing discussions with their Senate counterparts but are also willing to consider the bill as a possible additional legislative vehicle as the current Congress draws to a close.
8. The EU plans to introduce blockchain infrastructure to improve record keeping and data transfer between member states
The European Union has launched a new organization that aims to introduce blockchain infrastructure and improve record keeping and data transfer between the bloc's 27 member states. This took place during a meeting of European Council telecommunications ministers in Brussels, where lawmakers also approved the EU's landmark artificial intelligence law. Mathieu Michel, Belgium's secretary of state for digitization, said the blockchain infrastructure will affect individuals and companies. Michel has promoted the blockchain project, which is managed by EU countries and is called Europeum. He told a press conference that Europeum will be tangible in the daily lives of European citizens. It will allow citizens to trace the origin of their products and enable businesses to protect their intellectual property by maintaining data on an immutable blockchain network. Ten European member states, including Italy, Poland and Greece, have agreed to help operate and launch the EU blockchain. Other European countries will still be able to use this blockchain infrastructure. Michel added that more countries are expected to join. Germany and France have not yet committed to the arrangement, but the latter has been supportive of the project.
9. Lawyer: Ethereum spot ETF may take time in the S-1 application approval process. Bitcoin spot S-1 document approval took 4 months
Regarding the potential approval time of the Ethereum spot ETF, Scott Johnsson, a well-known financial lawyer, said on the X platform that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) spent nearly 4 months reviewing and revising the Bitcoin (BTC) spot S-1 form and 5 months reviewing the Bitcoin (BTC) futures S-1 form. If the company's finance department did learn of this potential approval yesterday, they may have just started. This situation is not clear at a glance, so it is difficult to know how they can quickly advance this process. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart quoted the above remarks and commented that it is generally believed that (19b-4 filing) "approval" means the immediate launch of the Ethereum ETF. This is not necessarily the case. It may take a few days (at least), possibly at least a few weeks, and even months between approval and release.
10. Former Bloomberg analyst: Cryptocurrency needs to deliver on its promises and demonstrate true decentralization
Jamie Coutts CMT, a former Bloomberg analyst, wrote on the X platform that it is either decentralized or regulated as a security. I have always believed that cryptocurrencies need to deliver on their promises and show true decentralization. The FIT21 Act is based on the Hester Peirce safe harbor proposal: a single issuer shall not control more than 20% of digital assets. The devil is in the details, but Hestor Pierce's mission is finally coming true. You know, her original proposal was made in 2019, and in the past five years, innovation, jobs, and productivity have all suffered, not to mention the wool-pulling, fraud, and greed that have harmed ordinary investors. Gary Gensler, together with the leaders of Covid regulatory agencies (CDC, FDA, NIH, etc.), has become the most politicized and destructive regulator in modern history.
11. Report: 10 listed Bitcoin mining companies raised a total of $2 billion through equity financing before the halving
Publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies strengthened their balance sheets in preparation for the latest halving event, which took place in April. According to an analysis of the financial earnings of 12 publicly traded miners by Blocks Bridge Consulting, 10 of them raised a total of $2 billion in equity financing activities in anticipation of a decline in profitability after the halving. The group of companies raised $1.25 billion in the last quarter of 2023. Marathon Digital, Clean Spark and Riot Platforms were the companies that raised the most funds in the last quarter, accounting for 73% of the funds raised. As of the end of March, Marathon, Clean Spark and Riot held a total of $1.33 billion in cash and more than 32,200 bitcoins. Fundraising activity may decrease in the second quarter of 2024. According to Blocks Bridge Consulting, as of May 15, "less than $500 million was invested in subscribing to major public mining stocks." The report noted: "Fundraising activity seems to have cooled since the second quarter, but this figure is already higher than the third quarter of last year."
The article is forwarded from: Jinshi Data
