CoinTelegraph reports:
00:00-08:00
Keywords: Innovation Cryptocurrency Committee UK Head: UK Needs to Act Quickly to Regulate Cryptocurrency Companies, Viewpoint: Ethereum L2 Ecosystem’s Transaction Throughput to Exceed Solana’s by 100 Times in 5 Years, Former US Congressman Tulsi Gabbard: BTC is an “Independent Transparent Currency Form Not Controlled by the Government”, MegaETH Developer MegaLabs Completes $20 Million Seed Funding Round, Variant Fund Chief Legal Officer: US SEC May Reject SOL ETF Application Citing Lack of Futures Market, Dragonfly Capital Partner: US SEC Has Clearly Stated That SOL is a Security and Will Not Reverse This Decision, Wintermute Founder: It Will Be Difficult for SOL ETF to Be Approved This Year, Decentralized Cross-Chain Oracle Network Developer AnchorZero Completes $8 Million Seed Funding Round, Galaxy Digital: Expects $7.5 Billion Funds to Flow into Spot Ethereum ETF in the First Five Months, BlackRock Global Allocation Fund Holds 43,000 Shares of iShares Bitcoin Trust as of the End of April, BlackRock: Investors Use Bitcoin to Hedge Geopolitical Uncertainty, BlackRock IBIT Holdings Unchanged for Two Consecutive Trading Days, Coinbase Denies Customer Data Leak Concerns Raised by Au10tix Employee Credentials Leak
1. MegaETH developer MegaLabs announced the completion of a $20 million seed funding round, with Dragonfly leading the investment. Other participants include Figment Capital, Robot Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, as well as angel investors such as Vitalik Buterin, co-founder and CEO of ConsenSys Joseph Lubin, founder and CEO of EigenLayer Sreeram Kannan, co-founder of ETHGlobal Kartik Talwar, co-founder and CEO of Helius Labs Mert Mumtaz, Santiago Santos, Hasu, and Jordan Fish (also known as Cobie). MegaETH’s public testnet is expected to launch in early autumn, with the mainnet expected to go live by the end of the year.
2. Variant Fund’s Chief Legal Officer, Jake Chervinsky, stated, “I suspect the US Securities and Exchange Commission will reject the SOL ETF application on the grounds of a lack of futures market.” Dragonfly Capital Partner Hasseb Qureshi also said that there are better reasons to argue for BTC and ETH-based ETFs meeting the SEC’s market surveillance requirements, as these assets have already developed futures markets, which is necessary for market surveillance standards.
3. Dragonfly Capital Partner Hasseb Qureshi expressed doubts about the approval of a SOL ETF, suggesting that VanEck’s submission of a SOL ETF application may be a move to “buy goodwill” and lay the groundwork for the development of similar products, as the US Securities and Exchange Commission has already stated that SOL is a security and regulatory agencies will not reverse this decision.
4. Wintermute Founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy stated on the X platform that the likelihood of a SOL ETF being approved this year is almost zero (it would be foolish to wishfully think that this would become a priority for the Trump administration), Wintermute is a long-term supporter of SOL and ETH, but it should not be overly hyped, and it is important to be realistic, as the adoption of cryptocurrencies takes time. Once you actually see the inflows into the ETH ETF, you will understand that even if a SOL ETF is approved, the amount of inflows will be less. Previously, it was reported that asset management firm VanEck had submitted the first Solana ETF application in the United States.
5. Decentralized oracle network developer AnchorZero announced the completion of an $8 million seed funding round, led by Bain Capital Crypto and Spark Capital, with participation from Ethereal Ventures, Robot Ventures, Mischief Fund, Pascal Capital, and Sarah Meyohas. The specific valuation information has not been disclosed. AnchorZero is a blockchain technology company specializing in the development of decentralized cross-chain oracle networks, providing secure and reliable price feed data services for smart contracts, allowing access to external data for smart contracts on multiple platforms. In addition, they also provide Web3 tax planning solutions.
6. Galaxy Digital Research Vice President Charles Yu stated in a report that it is expected that up to $7.5 billion in funds will flow into spot Ethereum ETFs in the first five months. Yu wrote that as of June 15, the net inflows of Bitcoin ETFs reached $15.1 billion. If his prediction is correct, similar Ethereum funds may attract net inflows between $3 billion and $7.5 billion. This is in line with the prediction of Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan, who stated that the US spot ETH ETF may attract net inflows of $15 billion in the first 18 months after its launch. Yu added, “We believe that the launch of spot Ethereum ETFs will have a significant positive impact on the adoption of Ethereum and the broader cryptocurrency market.” He pointed out that ETFs will help legitimize Ethereum in the eyes of institutional investors, policymakers, and regulators. He suggested that demand may be driven by independent investment advisors and broker-dealer platforms.
7. BlackRock Global Allocation Fund disclosed in a filing submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on June 27 that as of April 30, 2024, the fund held 43,000 shares of iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). Previously, BlackRock submitted two filings on May 28, disclosing the Bitcoin exposure in its Strategic Global Bond Fund and Strategic Income Opportunity Portfolio.
8. According to a report by Bitcoin Archive on the X platform, BlackRock stated that Bitcoin is an “emerging asset” that investors use to hedge geopolitical uncertainty.
9. Official data from BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF shows that as of June 26, the market value of IBIT reached $18,584,300,966.09, and the position remained unchanged at 305,612.3283 BTC for two consecutive trading days.
10. Gary Gensler, the chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), recently stated that the earliest possible date for the listing of spot Ethereum ETFs is expected to be in September.
11. Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has been hired as a senior advisor for the Biden campaign in the 2024 election. Lance Bottoms served as the mayor of Atlanta from 2018 to 2022 and joined the Coinbase Advisory Board in April 2024, after leaving her position as a White House advisor in 2023. The Hill reported on June 27 that Lance Bottoms will continue to stay with Coinbase during the Biden presidency, which is expected to end in November when American voters cast their ballots. The former mayor stated that cryptocurrencies are a “non-political and unifying issue.” It is currently unclear whether Lance Bottoms will provide advice to the Biden campaign on cryptocurrency-related issues. The Hill reported that Lance Bottoms previously stated at a Stand With Crypto Atlanta event, “Cryptocurrency provides an opportunity for enhanced financial freedom for communities who typically don’t have bank accounts or access to banks.”
12. The Labour Party, expected to win the upcoming general election, has not taken a clear stance on digital assets. Laura Navaratnam, the UK Policy Lead of the Innovation Cryptocurrency Committee, stated that the new government needs to act quickly to ensure that the UK’s leadership position in global cryptocurrency innovation is not weakened. Under the support of the Conservative government over the past 15 years, the UK’s cryptocurrency ecosystem has steadily grown. Former Treasury Economic Secretary John Glen and his successors Andrew Griffith and Bim Afolami have pledged to make the UK a global center for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Navaratnam suggested that the new government should immediately focus on stablecoin regulation, clarity on staking regulation, and financial promotion guidelines. She warned that if the new government does not act quickly, the UK will lose its global leadership position in innovation.
13. Former US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard will be speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville and will describe BTC as an “independent transparent currency form not controlled by the government.”
14. A proposed exchange-traded fund (ETF) submitted a prospectus on Thursday to allow traders and investors to invest in Bitcoin and gold without buying any assets. The STKD Bitcoin&Gold ETF was launched by Tidal Investments and Quantify Chaos Advisors, aiming to provide investment opportunities that track the price performance of both Bitcoin and gold through Bitcoin futures and ETFs and gold futures and ETFs. According to the prospectus, the strategy is based on the idea that combining investment strategies for Bitcoin and gold may bring complementary benefits. It aims to reduce the impact of short-term market volatility on overall investment results, potentially providing a more stable investment trajectory. The document specifies that the ETF will become effective on September 9, 2024, but does not include the ticker symbol or any related fees.
15. Stripe and Coinbase announced a partnership to increase on-chain adoption and provide faster and cheaper financial infrastructure. Stripe will add support for Base in its crypto product suite, offering users faster and cheaper remittance services. Coinbase, on the other hand, will add Stripe’s fiat-to-crypto onramp to Coinbase Wallet, allowing users to instantly purchase cryptocurrencies using credit cards and Apple Pay.
16. Coinbase denied any customer data leak following concerns raised by the leak of Au10tix employee credentials. Au10tix stated that although the credentials were leaked, there is currently no evidence of data misuse. The leaked credentials may have allowed hackers to access sensitive information such as names, dates of birth, and driver’s license images of users. Au10tix has removed the relevant credentials and strengthened security measures to prevent a similar incident from happening again. Coinbase has not confirmed whether it stores customer data using Au10tix but firmly stated that no data leaks have been detected.
17. S&P Global Ratings announced its participation in Singapore’s “Guardians Initiative,” which aims to explore tokenization on public blockchains. Led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the initiative brings together 18 financial institutions and regulatory bodies. S&P will focus on developing a framework for analyzing and evaluating digital assets in the fixed income space. Several financial institutions are conducting experiments related to fixed income, reflecting the push for digital transformation in the financial market.
18. Analyst Ryan Berckmans stated that despite the bearish market, the Ethereum Layer 2 scaling ecosystem is growing rapidly. Berckmans pointed out that L2 protocols and EVM scaling platforms are gaining popularity, with Coinbase, Worldcoin, and Immutable X all launching EVM L2. He predicts that the transaction throughput of L2 will exceed Solana’s by 100 times in the next five years. Currently, the total locked value of all L2 protocols is $42.86 billion, and this figure has remained stable since March despite the downturn in the crypto market.
19. Bolivia has lifted the ban on Bitcoin and crypto payments, officially legalizing them for financial entities.
20. ETF analyst Henry Jim tweeted that 21Shares has submitted an 8-A12B filing for its spot Ethereum ETF.
21. According to Farside Investors, data from the US spot Bitcoin ETF on June 26 showed a net outflow of $11.4 million from GBTC, while BITB saw a net inflow of $8 million.
22. Hedge fund Baupost has laid off nearly one-fifth of its investment staff.
