2024-05-24 09:11

One trader said ether’s sell-off on positive news is typical "buy the rumors, sell the facts" behavior. Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) prices declined in the past 24 hours, despite several ether exchange-traded funds being granted approval to list in the U.S. The ether price, which was up more than 20% in the past week, fell 4% after the approval, which became a "sell the news" event. Traders say they expect a significant influx of institutional capital into the ether market in the long term. Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) prices fell in the past 24 hours even as several ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were approved for listing on U.S. exchanges. Ether has dropped 4% since the approval, CoinGecko data shows. It had risen 20% over the course of a week amid indications of pending approval and updated odds of the ETFs getting approved. The broad-based CoinDesk 20, a liquid index that tracks the biggest tokens, fell 4.5% over 24 hours and the crypto market cap lost 2.9% to $2.5 trillion. “Ethereum's sell-off on positive news is a typical "buy the rumors, sell the facts" reaction of speculators,” Alex Kuptsikevich, a senior market analyst at FxPro, said in an email to CoinDesk. “We shouldn't be surprised if the price pulls back to the $3000 area again, returning to an important consolidation area. From these levels, large institutional investors can start building a position in ETFs. “We saw the same in January after the approval of the Bitcoin ETF, which took 19% off its price in the following two weeks before there was a spectacular reversal,” he said. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday approved key regulatory filings tied to ether ETFs, a historic milestone for the second-largest cryptocurrency. They are not, however, cleared to trade. Although the SEC approved the 19B-4 form that allows for the offering and listing of ETFs, it must still green light the funds' S-1 filings before investors can buy them. The regulator approved documents for eight ETFs – from VanEck, Fidelity, Franklin, Grayscale, Bitwise, ARK Invest 21Shares, Invesco Galaxy and BlackRock – for listing on the Nasdaq, NYSE Arca, and Cboe BZX exchanges. If the ETFs are approved for trading, a significant influx of institutional capital is likely. Standard Chartered predicted inflows of as much as $45 billion in the first 12 months. Some traders say they expect ether to rally over 60% in the coming months, with a marked increase in futures and spot buying demand for the token in the past week. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/05/24/bitcoin-ether-rally-cools-following-us-ether-etf-listing-approval/

2024-05-24 08:53

Binance's head of financial crimes compliance Tigran Gambaryan is seriously ill, his lawyers said. Thursday’s money laundering trial against Binance in Nigeria was postponed till June 20. Tigran Gambaryan, Binance’s compliance head, was seriously ill and needed medical attention. A Nigerian court on Thursday adjourned the money laundering trial against Binance and two of its executives to June 20 as one of the executives was ill, a family spokesperson for the executives told CoinDesk. Tigran Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and Binance’s head of financial crimes compliance, was charged with both tax evasion and money laundering along with his employer. Gambaryan is “very ill and requires comprehensive medical attention,” his lawyer said in a letter to trial judge Emeka Nwite, a Reuters report said. After Gambaryan broke down on Thursday, the medical facility gave him intravenous treatment for malaria, his lawyer said in the letter. Gambaryan, who turned 40 in prison last week, was moved to Kuje prison, which houses members of the Boko Haram terrorist group, after being detained by Nigerian authorities in February. He was also detained alongside British-Kenyan regional manager for Africa, Nadeem Anjarwalla, who later escaped but was included in the money laundering charges. “Yesterday, despite numerous signs of severe illness, my husband was still required to appear in court, where he later collapsed," Gambaryan’s wife, Yuki Gambaryan, said in the statement seen by CoinDesk. “The conditions in the notorious Kuje prison are, in a word, devastating. My husband is a strong, healthy person, but he is facing an environment that would bring even the strongest among us to our knees." Gambaryan was also meant to appear on Wednesday for his arraignment regarding the tax evasion charges but this was postponed to June 14, a family spokesperson said at the time. He did not appear for that session, Reuters reported. Last week, the executive was also denied bail on the grounds that he might try to escape. “I am calling, yet again, for his immediate release," Gambaryan’s wife said. "This punitive punishment against Tigran in an effort to target his employer has gone on long enough. My husband is sick; he needs help. Please, show some sense of humanity. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/05/24/binance-money-laundering-trial-in-nigeria-pushed-to-june-20-due-to-executives-illness/

2024-05-24 06:09

A farewell party for the popular dog will be held on Sunday in a Narita city park. Popular dog Kabosu, the face of dogecoin and several other meme tokens, died early Friday, her owner wrote in a blog post. She was over 17 years old. “We will be holding a farewell party for Kabo-chan on Sunday, May 26th . It will be held at Flower Kaori in Kotsu no Mori, Narita City, from 1pm to 4pm,” the blog reads. Kabosu’s viral meme picture inspired the creation of dogecoin (DOGE) in 2013, initially starting off as a joke currency. DOGE’s success later birthed a whole cohort of dog-themed tokens such as shiba inu (SHIB) and floki (FLOKI), which have since cumulatively become one of the industry’s biggest sectors. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/05/24/kabosu-dog-who-inspired-dogecoin-and-shiba-inu-is-no-more/

2024-05-23 21:16

"A week ago, I would've said you were a little crazy to think that these ETFs were going to get SEC approval," a Bloomberg analyst said. Ether ETFs took a major step toward becoming available in the U.S. as the SEC approved key regulatory filings. Just days ago, prospects for the ETFs looked bleak. Spot ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds took a giant leap toward reality on Thursday after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved key regulatory filings tied to them, a milestone for the second-largest cryptocurrency. They are not yet cleared to trade, though. The SEC gave its blessing to so-called 19b-4 forms tied to the ETFs, but the regulator must approve their S-1 filings before investors can buy them. The approval follows a stunning turnaround by the markets regulator. After clearing spot bitcoin ETFs earlier this year, the SEC didn't seem to engage much with issuers on ether ETFs. That changed in recent days. "A week ago, I would've said you were a little crazy to think that these ETFs were going to get SEC approval," James Seyffart, ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said in an interview ahead of the decision. In a statement, a Grayscale spokesperson confirmed the regulator had approved its 19b-4. "At Grayscale, we appreciate the opportunity to engage constructively with regulators as they review spot Ethereum ETFs, and we remain optimistic about the potential of bringing Ethereum further into the US regulatory perimeter in the ETF wrapper," they said. Would-be spot ether ETF issuers include BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, VanEck, Franklin Templeton, Ark/21Shares and Invesco/Galaxy. Although the approval of the 19b-4 filings suggests that regulators are willing to allow issuers to bring a spot ether ETF on the market, it doesn't guarantee that they will ultimately approve the final S-1 forms filed by all issuers. "There is likely to be a gap before we see S-1 approvals and these ETFs begin trading. My guess is that this will take at least a week, but likely more. If history is any guide it could be much longer and be measured in months. But I personally think the gap will be measured in weeks. Everyone is just guessing right now though.” Seyffart said. Regulators sent a shock wave through the industry on Monday when reports came out that issuers were asked to update their 19b-4 filings ahead of the SEC's deadline to approve or deny one of the issuers, VanEck’s filing. An SEC spokesperson said the agency would not comment beyond what's in the order published Thursday. In a statement, 21Shares Head of Legal Andrew Jacobson said the approval was "a significant step in the right direction." Cboe Global Head of ETP Listings Rob Marrocco said the exchange, which plans to list five different spot ether ETF products, was "excited to expand our offerings" to the ETFs. The 19b-4 approval is a step toward those listings. "The introduction of spot bitcoin ETFs in January has already demonstrated significant benefits for the digital assets and ETF space, and we believe that spot Ether ETFs will similarly provide safeguards for U.S. investors, allowing them to gain Ether exposure in a transparent, well-regulated and easily accessible structure," he said. The exchange will continue working with the SEC to bring the ETFs to market, he said. VanEck expects to be the first issuer to launch its spot ether ETF, said the company's head of digital assets research, Matthew Sigal. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/05/23/sec-approves-spot-ether-etf-listing-still-needs-to-approve-products/

2024-05-23 18:37

The bill's prospects in the Senate are unclear, however. The U.S. House of Representatives voted largely along party lines to prevent the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency. The CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, introduced by Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), seeks to block the U.S. central bank from continuing efforts toward the development of a digital dollar. Republicans expressed concerns that a U.S. CBDC could be used to control Americans. Democrats said during debate before Thursday's vote that the concerns were overblown and a ban would block public sector innovation and research. Overall, 213 Republicans and three Democrats voted for the bill, while 192 Democrats voted against it. Thursday's vote count is a far cry from a vote the day before, when 71 Democrats joined 208 Republicans in voting for the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, a crypto market structure bill that would give the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission greater spot market authority over digital assets and spells out how another key U.S. markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, can approach the sector. Industry participants hailed Wednesday's vote, the first for a bill focused solely on crypto market issues, as a sign that the sector was finally receiving recognition as being significant. "The House passage of FIT21 represents a watershed moment and badge of Congressional validation for the crypto industry in the United States," said Kristin Smith, who heads up the Blockchain Association, an industry lobby group. Nicole Valentine, the director of FinTech at the Milken Institute, similarly called the passage a "welcome step." However, both the market structure and the anti-CBDC bills seem headed toward similar fates in the Senate – going nowhere – given that half of congress does not have a counterpart for either piece of legislation. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/05/23/us-house-passes-bill-banning-federal-reserve-from-issuing-a-cbdc/

2024-05-23 14:36

The sell-off was broad-based, with DOGE, SHIB, AVAX, LINK diving more than 4% in less than an hour. A trading firm's $27 million sell order for ether could have triggered the decline, one market observer speculated. A rampant U.S. dollar after a PMI report showed a red-hot U.S. economy may have accelerated the drop. Cryptocurrency prices took a hit Thursday as market participants waited for a U.S. regulatory decision on spot ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds. Bitcoin (BTC) dropped below $68,000 during the early U.S. trading session from around $70,000 earlier in the day, sliding almost 3% over the past 24 hours. ETH, which surged to its highest price since mid-March to above $3,900 early Thursday, tumbled to near $3,700, but was still in the green over the past 24 hours. The sell-off rippled through the broader digital asset market, with the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) declining over 2%. Altcoin majors dogecoin (DOGE), Avalanche's native token (AVAX), shiba inu (SHIB) and Chainlink's (LINK) all fell more than 4% in less than an hour, CoinDesk data shows. While the sell-off started earlier, a fresh S&P Purchasing Managers' Index report showed a red-hot U.S economy, with output growing at the fastest pace in two years. That drove a surge in the dollar as traders tamped down interest-rate cut expectations, which might have exacerbated the drop in risk assets. The broad-market equity index S&P 500 fell 0.6% from its opening price. One observer noted that the crypto decline could have been triggered by a large ETH sell order from trading firm Symbolic Capital Partner. Blockchain data showed the firm sold 6,968 ETH worth $27.4 million within a minute. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/05/23/bitcoin-drops-below-68k-ether-slumps-in-sudden-crypto-sell-off-as-eth-etf-decision-looms/