🇺🇸 ETH ETF Approval: Biden's Move?
In today’s edition: 🌐 Farcaster’s billion-user strategy and $150M Series A, 📉 Why low float tokens struggle, 💰 Gala Games recovers $20M funds, and more!
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With ETH spot ETFs now more likely than ever, Bits + Bips hosts James Seyffart, Alex Kruger, and Joe McCann delve into the reasons behind this shift, surmising that the reversal may have come from powers above the SEC—perhaps in the Biden administration.
The three hosts surmise that ETH will likely reach all-time highs, discuss how this changes their election trading strategy and ponder where there is enough institutional demand for ether ETFs. They also look at whether the potential approval could sway the US elections.
Plus, they share insights into stablecoins and how they strengthen the US’s political power globally, dive into the debate on low float/high FDV coins, and also take a peek at what they think could be the potential next crypto spot ETF.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.
Just when everyone thought that spot Ether ETFs were going to be denied on Thursday, news broke Monday that they are now likely to be approved, with Bloomberg analysts tripling their odds to a 75% chance of approval.
Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, and Matt Hougan, CIO at Bitwise Asset Management, say this reversal definitely has to do with politics, citing the fight of Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, a rule that was unfriendly to financial institutions wanting to engage with crypto.
Plus, they delve into the reasons why Michael Sonnenshein stepped down as CEO of Grayscale after 10 years (hint: it has to do with GBTC), what the 13F filings revealed about who’s been buying the spot bitcoin ETFs since the beginning of the year, and what Vanguard’s incoming CEO, Salim Ramji, who was instrumental to getting BlackRock to launch its Bitcoin ETF, could mean for crypto’s future at the asset management firm.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.
What’s Poppin’?
by Sam Sriram, Juan Aranovich, and Sage Young
Q&A With Farcaster: How Crypto Social Media Goes From 100,000 Users to One Billion
Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan give a peek at how more decentralization is coming to Farcaster, personal takeaways from their time at Coinbase, and other insights.
Decentralized Social Network Farcaster Raises $150 Million in a Series A Round
Farcaster’s valuation stands at $1 billion as a result of the funding round led by crypto investment firm Paradigm, with a16z crypto, Haun, USV, Variant, and Standard Crypto as backers.
Who’s to Blame for the Underperformance of Low Float, High FDV Tokens?
Amid a heated debate around “low float” coins, Binance will now focus on small to medium projects for listing on its platform.
Exploiter Returns Stolen Funds After Gala Games Froze $180 Million
The Gala Games exploiter has returned a little over $20 million a day after the protocol froze 90% of the stolen funds.
$327 Million ETH Sent To Crypto Exchanges After Speculation About Spot ETF Approval
Over 87,800 ETH worth $327 million has moved on to exchanges, according to data from Nansen, as the hype around spot ether ETFs being approved escalated.
Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍️
📜 Uniswap Labs called the SEC's Wells notice against them "weak and wrong," challenging the agency's allegations that the decentralized exchange functions as an unregistered securities exchange and broker-dealer.
🏛️ Several House Democrats are urging colleagues to support the FIT21 crypto market-structure bill, set for a House vote today, though its future in the Senate remains uncertain. Meanwhile, ⚖️ SEC Chair Gary Gensler criticized the FIT21 Act, arguing that it would create regulatory gaps by exempting crypto assets from being classified as securities, thus compromising investor protection.
✈️ ZkSync reportedly plans to hold its token generation event this week, aiming for a mid-June airdrop of 21 billion tokens, despite some complications over the desired ZK ticker symbol.
🇺🇸 Former President Donald Trump's campaign will now accept cryptocurrency donations, including bitcoin, ether, solana, dogecoin, and shiba inu, marking a first for a major-party presidential nominee to embrace crypto for fundraising.
👁️ Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog ordered Worldcoin to stop operations in the region, citing violations of local privacy rules due to the unnecessary and excessive collection of facial and iris data from over 8,000 individuals.
🎨 Yuga Labs faced backlash after unveiling the first "Punk in Residence" collection by Nina Chanel Abney, with many CryptoPunk holders concerned about the potential risks of this official collaboration.
The $$$ Corner…
🌐 Solana-based wallet Phantom acquired Web3 specialist Bitski to integrate embedded wallets into Solana, enhancing user and developer onboarding experiences, particularly through email sign-ups.
What Do You Meme?
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is down 1.2%, trading at $70,122
ETH is up .7%, trading at $3,737
BTC dominance: 50.44%
Crypto market cap: $2.74T
*All data as of today, 07:00 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
Recommended Reads
Unchained: What Is CheckTemplateVerify (CTV) Proposal for Bitcoin? BIP-119 Explained
Solana Need L2s And Appchains? by Yash Agarwal
CoinDesk: The Biden Administration Is Easing Up on Crypto (a Vibes Analysis)
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