From the market perspective, crypto’s biggest talking point this week was a carry over from last week: top investment firm BlackRock’s decision to apply to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF.
While the SEC has swatted away such proposals like flies for years, there’s a sense that this one’s different. It helps that BlackRock—the world’s largest asset manager with a whopping $9 trillion in assets under management—has applied for 576 ETFs and has only been rejected once.
That air of experience and confidence helped propel the price of Bitcoin to a one-year high this weekend.
Footage of BlackRock CEO Larry Fink made the rounds, in which he explains just how much of a PR boost his company’s Bitcoin pivot is.
$10 TRILLION Blackrock's CEO Larry Fink:
We got 3,000 hits on our website for monetary policy, and 600,000 hits on #Bitcoin
"Bitcoin has caught the imagination of many people...(they're) excited about it" pic.twitter.com/IfFcgAZS1g
— Bitcoin Archive (@BTC_Archive) June 23, 2023
Business analyst and popular crypto fan Adam Cochran bought an unofficial BlackRock NFT to commemorate the occasion.
The BlackRock news may have caused crypto prices to balloon this week, but as usual in the cryptoverse, there was also a fresh heap of skepticism. Earlier in the week, Cochran could be seen giving his two cents on a proposal by Ethereum’s developers to up the stake needed to be a network validator from 32 ETH to 2,048.
Doesn't really help network.
Lowers total validators to pull from -> lower redundancy.
Means staking shops will pool more ETH on single validator -> higher slashing risk for users.
Only benefits wealthy staking services and no one else.
— Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran) June 19, 2023
Crypto sleuth ZachXBT on Monday shared some of the toxic harassment he has had to face from people trying to exploit him as supporters rally around his legal defense fund.
Blockchain journalist Colin Wu tweeted about an interesting glitch that briefly happened on Binance.US. The formerly unshakeable Binance is being sued by the SEC for securities violations, and cracks appeared in its public image after the SEC leaked incriminating chat logs of company personnel discussing how they were apparently aware the exchange was violating securities laws.
The BTC/USDT trading pair BTC price on BinanceUS briefly rose to 138,070 USDT, and then quickly returned to the norma. Since being sued by the SEC, market makers left, and the market depth of Binance US has dropped by 78.8%. https://t.co/sbDBPRUrbd pic.twitter.com/xVy3TXeLqF
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) June 21, 2023
Like fellow U.S. company Coinbase, Ripple is on a global expansion drive right now— and it has everything to do with the SEC’s crackdown on domestic blockchain companies.
We’re honored to obtain In-Principle Approval of a Major Payments Institution License from the @MAS_sg – allowing us to offer regulated digital asset products and services, and scale customer use of #ODL. 🇸🇬
Learn more: https://t.co/8Ylc3lZSeg
— Ripple (@Ripple) June 22, 2023
Bitcoiners notched another high-profile another convert in Washington on Thursday.
CNBC’s Mad Money host Jim Cramer had a small rant that day. Cramer was once all in on crypto. but appeared to cool off a little last summer.
Understand i am not against crypto and done quite well with it. I am against BOGUS crypto and outfits that stole your money and wouldn't let you have it back
— Jim Cramer (@jimcramer) June 22, 2023
Singapore-based exchange Crypto.com on Saturday announced it has made inroads in Europe.
Alex Gladstein, the Chief Strategy Officer of the Human Rights Foundation, shared a video that day from his organization that warns the public about the concerning implications of a centrally-issued digital currency—something that could spell the total end of financial independence for people living under authoritarian regimes.
A lot of big companies are dabbling in crypto now, according to a collaborative report by Coinbase and The Block, that was tweeted by the latter’s editor Frank Chaparro on Sunday.
Key findings:
- Fortune 100 companies have made 109 private VC investments
- Tech financial services and retail make up ~75% of initiatives
- As of Q2 2023, 70% of Fortune 100 companies with crypto initiatives were in the publicly launched stage
— Frank Chaparro (@fintechfrank) June 22, 2023
Finally, President Joe Biden had this to say about everyone’s favorite crypto-adjacent topic:
We’ll see more technological change in the next decade than we saw in the last 50 years.
Artificial Intelligence is already driving that change.
We’re committed to safeguarding folks’ safety – from protecting privacy to addressing bias and disinformation.
— President Biden (@POTUS) June 20, 2023
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