Bitcoin Price: US$ 70,202.86 (+5.97%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 3,661.78 (+19.23%)
Amid speculation of spot Ether ETFs being approved by May 23, Ether’s value experienced an 18% surge. This speculation was fuelled by Bloomberg ETF analysts and Polymarket, which increased their odds of approval from 25% to 75% and 11% to 54%, respectively. In the midst of this, Prometheum, a digital asset trading and custody firm, soft-launched its Ether custody service that treats digital assets as security, with a full-scale launch planned for June. Concurrently, rumours are circulating that the SEC is reconsidering its expected denial of spot Ether ETFs, further raising the estimated odds of approval. However, this development could potentially cause a rift between the SEC and the U.S. commodities regulator, given the latter’s long-standing classification of Ether as a commodity, thereby adding a layer of complexity to the evolving landscape.
Rui-Siang Lin, known online as “Pharoah,” was arrested in New York for allegedly operating ‘Incognito Market,’ a $100 million dark web narcotics marketplace. His arrest and potential life sentence were a result of the FBI tracing crypto transfers from Incognito Market to Lin’s exchange account. Meanwhile, the crypto market saw an inflow of $932 million into investment products between May 13 and 17, largely driven by the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) report indicating moderating inflationary pressures. However, despite this positive trend, Ether prices remain under pressure due to uncertainty over the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s decision on spot Ether ETFs, with the first deadline looming on May 23. In legislative advancements, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Deploying American Blockchains Act of 2023, a bill aimed at promoting the competitiveness of the United States in blockchain technology. Despite facing opposition from some members, the bill was approved and is now set for consideration in the Senate, marking a significant step forward for blockchain-related legislation.
Michael Sonnenshein, the CEO of Grayscale Investments, a leading cryptocurrency asset management firm and one of the first to issue a Bitcoin ETF in the US, has stepped down. He will be replaced by former Goldman Sachs executive Peter Mintzberg on August 15, with CFO Edward McGee serving as interim CEO. Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) currently holds over 287,801 BTC, worth $19.3 billion. However, Jim Bianco, founder of Bianco Research, warns that despite their potential to attract more investors to Bitcoin, spot Bitcoin ETFs could harm on-chain Bitcoin adoption by siphoning on-chain liquidity back into traditional finance. In response to this, Crypto exchange Binance has invited small and medium-sized projects to apply for its listing programs to combat the trend of low float and high fully diluted valuations (FDV) within the crypto space. Meanwhile, a decade-old research paper, seen as a blueprint for the first practical use of zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs), has received the ‘Test of Time’ award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). This paper introduced the first practical use of this cryptographic technique in cryptocurrency for enhancing privacy, and ZK-proofs are now commonly used in Ethereum layer-2 solutions.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com
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