Bitcoin Price: US$ 65,894.85 (-2.52%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 3,482.51 (+1.25%)
Ether ETFs have commenced trading, with Bitwise leading the pack by recording $25.5 million in capital inflows within the first 15 minutes, contributing to a total of $112 million inflows across nine Ether investment vehicles. Despite this promising start, Ether’s price experienced a dip, falling from roughly $3,540 to around $3,471. In a bid to attract investors, Ether ETF issuers, including 21Shares, have implemented strategies such as reducing or waiving fees for a certain period. On their debut, US-listed spot Ether ETFs witnessed approximately $1.08 billion in cumulative trading volume, with Grayscale Ethereum Trust and BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust recording the highest volumes. In preparation for the ETF launch, Grayscale transferred $1 billion worth of Ether to Coinbase, a move that coincided with the US SEC’s approval of the final S-1 registration statements necessary for the ETFs to launch on stock exchanges. Notably, Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust is offering 0% fees for the first six months of trading. Interestingly, institutional investors, who are more bullish on Ether than retail investors, doubled their Ether exposure shortly after the ETF announcement, a move that could potentially see Ether’s price double in the next six months.
As the spot Ether ETFs commence trading, Bitwise has made a significant pledge to donate 10% of its profits from the Bitwise Ethereum ETF (ETHW) to two Ethereum-focused organisations, namely Protocol Guild and the PBS Foundation. In a move to ensure transparency, Bitwise also commits to publishing the wallet addresses of all its ETHW holdings, thereby enabling investors to verify the fund’s holdings and flows directly. Meanwhile, Kaiko, a crypto analytics firm, forecasts that the price of ETH will be sensitive to the inflows of these newly launched ETFs. In a parallel development, the United States Securities Exchange and Securities Commission (SEC) has given the green light to the VanEck Ethereum ETF, marking a significant step towards providing investors with a regulated means of gaining exposure to Ether in the US. Following the SEC’s Ether ETF approvals, Grayscale confirmed the commencement of trading for its two spot Ether ETFs on July 23 on the NYSE Arca. Amid these developments, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has introduced a new cryptographic protocol called Circle STARKs, promising to enhance blockchain security and efficiency by leveraging smaller fields like Mersenne31.
On July 23, Mt. Gox, a defunct exchange, initiated a significant move by shifting over 47,500 Bitcoin, equivalent to almost $3.2 billion, to two unknown addresses. This action, which reduced its current holdings to around 42,744 BTC worth $2.85 billion, aligns with its plans to carry out repayments to creditors, marking a substantial offload of over $12 billion since July 16. In the midst of these financial shifts, the crypto world is also grappling with security threats. Crypto scammers have been exploiting malicious links that mimic the video conferencing platform Zoom, prompting users to install malware. Once this malware is installed, it infiltrates the target computer and steals data, with scammers already having pilfered $300,000 worth of crypto through this method. Amid these challenges, United States presidential candidate Kamala Harris, as per billionaire investor Mark Cuban, could potentially be more receptive to technological innovation and cryptocurrencies than President Joe Biden. Harris’ team has been proactively reaching out to crypto executives for input on crypto policy, suggesting that she could garner support from West Coast tech executives and venture capitalists if she fosters a pro-tech policy approach.
Donald Trump has dismissed reports suggesting he might appoint JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon or BlackRock CEO Larry Fink as Treasury Secretary if reelected, contradicting earlier claims by Bloomberg and the New York Post, and clarified on Truth Social that he had never considered either for the position, despite previous speculation. Meanwhile, crypto exchange dYdX’s version 3.0 website was compromised in a DNS attack, prompting warnings to users to avoid the site, while version 4.0 remains unaffected. Despite the breach affecting only the user interface and not the smart contracts, dYdX is also negotiating the sale of its derivatives trading software to firms like Wintermute Trading and Selini Capital. Following a recent leadership change and the launch of its v5 protocol, the attack on dYdX v3 underscores the ongoing challenges in securing decentralised exchange platforms.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com
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