Top crypto market headlines:
- SEC’s Gensler takes to Crypto Twitter as ETF deadline looms - 8/1/24 (link)
- BTC Blasts Past $47K as Bitcoin ETF Excitement Gets Feverish - 8/1/24 (link)
- Spot bitcoin ETF applicants file amended S-1 forms in final step toward approval - 8/1/24 (link)
- Grayscale, VanEck and ARK Bitcoin ETFs Register to Trade on Exchanges - 4/1/24 (link)
- Analysts Say Spot Bitcoin ETF Approvals Still Likely For Next Week - 4/1/24 (link)
- Crypto investment products saw inflows of $2.2 billion in 2023: CoinShares - 4/1/24 (link)
- Fee war takes off in US spot bitcoin ETF applications - 3/1/24 (link)
- Matrixport founder says dissemination of Bitcoin ETF report was ‘beyond our control’ - 3/1/24 (link)
- Goldman Sachs Eyeing Bitcoin ETF Role Via BlackRock and Grayscale: Sources - 3/1/24 (link)
- Flash Crash! $100B Wiped From Crypto Market Cap In Three Hours - 3/1/24 (link)
- Etherscan acquires Solscan to expand blockchain data services - 3/1/24 (link)
- Crypto exchange volume cracks $1 trillion for first time since late 2022 - 2/1/24 (link)
- Inflation Rate YoY DEC?(US)
- Inflation Rate YoY DEC?(china)
- GDP MoM NOV?(UK)
- PPI MoM DEC?(US)
Happy New Year from the entire SUN ZU Lab team!
And what a start to a year! We have already seen BTC's price jump to $45K, driven by ETF excitement, flash-crash to $41K in under 3 hours after rumors that all spot ETF applications could be rejected, and bounce back above $47K in preparation for possible approval by the SEC by tomorrow. The major Asset Managers are waging a?fee war ahead of this key SEC ruling. On Monday, SEC's Gensler?published a thread on X advising crypto-interested investors to be mindful when allocating their funds. If history is any indication (2021's Bitcoin futures ETF approval), this tweet could be a sign of a positive outcome this week.
However, before diving any further into 2024's exciting events, we will go back in this first newsletter of the year over where we were a year ago and the extraordinary events that unfolded in the crypto space in 2023:
- Binance controls?over 90% of Bitcoin spot trading volume at the end of 2022 (down to ~50% by EOY 2023)
- Paxos stops issuing Binance USD stablecoin
- Introduction of Bitcoin NFTs (ordinals) sparks debate on fee markets
- Kraken ends its crypto-staking services for US clients following $30M SEC charge
- Coinbase Launches Layer 2 Blockchain Base to Provide Onramp for Ethereum, Solana, and Others
- US court questions SEC's rejection of Grayscale's Bitcoin fund proposal
- New York Attorney General alleges Ether is a security in KuCoin lawsuit
- Crypto bank Silvergate shuts down in the face of market turmoil, along with Signature and SVB - USDC depegs as low as 15%
- UBS rescues Credit Suisse via acquisition, avoiding a worldwide banking crisis
- Eurozone inflation falls sharply to 6.9% as energy costs recede
- Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade enables?staking withdrawals, increasing interest in ETH staking.
- Societe Generale's crypto subsidiary Forge launches euro stablecoin on Ethereum
- EU Parliament approves its first crypto regulation MiCA
- Jane Street, Jump pull back crypto trading over US regulatory uncertainty
- Reports emerge about Binance commingling custom funds and company revenue
- SEC sues crypto exchange Binance, CEO Changpeng Zhao over multiple securities violation allegations
- SEC Charges Coinbase for operating as an Unregistered Securities Exchange, Broker, and Clearing Agency.
- ECB increases rates to highest level since 2001
- BlackRock and the world’s major Asset Managers file for a spot Bitcoin ETF
- SEC approves first leveraged Bitcoin Futures ETF
- Apple’s market cap closes above $3 trillion for the first time ever
- Larry Fink says ‘crypto is digitizing gold’ and that BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF could help make the sector ‘more democratized’
- Coinbase shares surge after a wide range of ETF partnerships revealed
- Ripple notches landmark win (but mixed ruling) in SEC case over XRP cryptocurrency; Kraken, Crypto.com Join Coinbase in Relisting XRP After Court Ruling
- Fed approves hike that takes interest rates to highest level in more than 22 years
- PayPal launches stablecoin tied to the US dollar, issued on Ethereum
- Coinbase acquires stake in Circle, dissolving USDC issuer Centre
- Deutsche Bank?delves into crypto custody and?tokenization with Taurus
- Citigroup unveils Token Services for Institutional Clients
- BIS and central banks of France, Singapore and Switzerland successfully test cross-border wholesale CBDCs
- UBS taps Ethereum to pilot tokenized money market fund
- US 10-year Treasury yield above 5% for first time since 2007
- BlackRock CEO Larry Fink seeing client demand for crypto 'Around The World'
- Binance.US halts direct Dollar withdrawals
- SEC suffers court losses; Grayscale's Bitcoin trust ETF bid gets a favorable ruling
- Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty on all seven criminal fraud counts; faces up to 115 years in jail
- Crypto fund inflows break $1 billion for 2023, led by bitcoin, ether and solana
- Bitcoin ETF excitement drives Wall Street giant CME above Binance in BTC Futures rankings
- SocGen issues green euro-denominated bond on Ethereum; introduces EURCV stablecoin
- CZ Steps down as CEO of Binance as part of $4bn US settlement
- DeFi market rebounds to $50B as speculators hunt for yield
- BlackRock updates SEC filing for spot bitcoin ETF, names Jane Street and JPMorgan as authorized participants
- BTC ends 2023 up 170%, ETH up 80%
As it has recently become a tradition, many prominent crypto players have published their outlooks for how 2024 would look. Here is a small selection:
The overall themes for 2024 include a resurgence in the digital asset sector, with significant institutional adoption (BTC and ETH ETFs) and technological advancements, particularly in AI and blockchain integration (DePIN...), Real-World Asset tokenization,?scaling solutions for Ethereum (rise of modular blockchains...), NFTs come back, more acceptance from Central banks, and more bank stablecoins...
On a weekly basis, BTC is up by 4% and ETH is down by 2.6%.?
A report published by Matrixport suggesting that the spot bitcoin ETF applications in queue would be rejected was widely disseminated by news outlets, and is believed to have caused widespread panic and massive liquidations across the entire space last Wednesday. These were the most considerable liquidation levels since the infamous “Cointelegraph Intern” post several months ago that caught short sellers offside. ~$100 bn was wiped out from the crypto ecosystem market cap in a few hours.
Other major crypto headlines:
- Marathon's bitcoin production growth surges, bolstered by higher transaction fees - 5/1/24 (link)
- DeFi Protocol EigenLayer Reaches Restaking Capacity, Pushing TVL Past $1.4 Billion - 3/1/24 (link)
- IRS rules require reporting data from $10k crypto transactions in 2024 - 2/1/24 (link)
- MicroStrategy co-founder Saylor to sell $216 million worth of company shares - 2/1/24 (link)
And in case you haven't seen, here is a selection?of our latest articles:
