Bitcoin Price: US$ 67,597.72 (-0.08%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 3,439.60 (-2.72%)
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) experienced its largest inflow since March, with over $523 million entering the fund, bringing the total inflow to $22 billion, coinciding with the approval of spot Ether ETFs for trading in the US, which are expected to generate 10% to 20% of the flows that spot Bitcoin ETFs have been generating. Meanwhile, Microsoft attributed the recent CrowdStrike failure to a 2009 regulatory deal with the European Union, which allowed external security developers the same level of access as Microsoft, leading to critical bugs and causing a major IT blackout affecting approximately 8.5 million Windows systems worldwide. In response to the systems failure, the crypto community highlighted the security advantages of distributed computing systems over centralised systems. Bitcoin’s recent price surge is tied more to market expectations of a weakening US dollar rather than speculation over the US elections, with Bitcoin’s market behaviour often mirroring that of other major fiat currencies.
Asset manager Bryan Courchesne recently discussed the potential of Bitcoin to become a strategic reserve asset for the US government under a future Trump administration, suggesting that the Department of Justice could transfer its substantial holdings of 200,000 BTC to the Treasury. This discussion has fuelled speculation about Bitcoin’s potential to become a global reserve asset, particularly following Trump’s expressed support for the digital asset industry and his selection of JD Vance, a known Bitcoin holder, as his running mate. In parallel with these developments, the NYSE Arca has approved the listing and trading of spot Ether ETFs from Grayscale and Bitwise, subject to the security regulator’s authorisation, with a potential launch date set for July 23. These ETFs are expected to pave the way for other altcoins ETFs, including Solana’s native token, SOL, and could potentially lead to a supply shortage of ETH due to increased institutional demand. Meanwhile, Mt. Gox is preparing to repay creditors through the Bitstamp cryptocurrency exchange, having executed the first test transactions to the Bitstamp cold wallets. However, there are concerns that the potential sell pressure introduced by the Mt. Gox repayments could exert downward pressure on Bitcoin’s price.
CoinShares recently reported a significant $1.35 billion inflow into digital asset investment products, indicating a shift toward bullish market sentiment, with the US leading the charge, accounting for $1.3 billion of the total. This positive sentiment shift has been observed since the Bitcoin halving event in mid to late April, with Ether attracting $45 million in inflows and surpassing Solana’s SOL with $103 million in total year-to-date (YTD) inflows. Meanwhile, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, reported a record $10.6 trillion in assets under management (AUM) at the end of the fourth quarter, marking a $1.2 trillion year-over-year growth, driven by private markets, retail investors, and surging flows into the firm’s ETFs. In the political side, the 2024 United States Presidential election has ignited a surge of memecoins associated with candidates from both sides of the political spectrum, with Biden-related tokens tanking and those related to Vice President Harris seeing the opposite reaction. The political memecoin arena also includes a slew of tokens related to Trump, with MAGA (TRUMP) being the leading Trump-themed memecoin in terms of market capitalisation. On the international front, Hong Kong is set to launch Asia’s first Bitcoin futures inverse product, the CSOP Bitcoin Future Daily (-1x) Inverse Product (7376.HK), on July 23, offering investors a method of profiting from declines in the price of Bitcoin. However, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued alerts about seven crypto exchanges operating illegally in the region on July 5, aiming to reduce the risks of fraud and scams.
Gary Gensler, the SEC Chair, is expected to resign in early 2025 following President Joe Biden’s departure from the White House, according to 10x Research founder Markus Thielen, who predicts a Trump administration would force his exit. Thielen also mentioned the potential for a bullish crypto market, with rumours suggesting Trump might announce Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset, potentially driving its price up. In related news, nearly $67 million in leveraged long positions were liquidated shortly after Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race, although Bitcoin quickly recovered, leading to significant losses for leveraged short positions. HKX has joined several crypto exchanges in withdrawing its license application in Hong Kong due to regulatory challenges, advising users to withdraw their assets as it winds down operations.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com
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