News
Crypto Market Takes a Stand on Solana ETF
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Hello and welcome to the FT Cryptofinance newsletter.
The arrival of Ether ETFs on U.S. markets this week has raised the question: what will be the next cryptocurrency?
The common consensus is on solana, which is based on the blockchain of the same name.
It is advertised as a faster and cheaper competitor to Ethereum and can be used to handle the high volumes of payments that traditional finance typically handles.
Summing up the excitement was traditional US fund manager Franklin Templeton, a brand not many people easily associate with cryptocurrencies, who described Solana as one of the “exciting and important developments that we believe will move the cryptocurrency industry forward.”
This is a remarkable achievement for a token whose market capitalization of $82 billion makes it the third-largest cryptocurrency excluding stablecoins, although it still represents only 3 percent of the overall cryptocurrency market value.
Solana made a comeback two years ago, when she was best known for her frequent interruptions and being backed by Sam Bankman-Fried (who?). Now she’s attracting attention from two different groups.
It’s a great place to launch meme tokens based on dogs, animals, or parodies of political figures, because it can handle the large amounts of trades these coins attract. In recent weeks, some of its most traded tokens have been those following the fortunes of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.
On the other hand, it is also used to tokenize real-world assets such as US Treasuries. This week, Hamilton Lane, an investment manager with over $920 billion in assets, launched a private credit fund on the solana blockchain.
The Securities and Exchange Commission must now make a decision on a Solana ETF by March of next year. VanEck and 21Shares filed with the SEC in early July.
The growing confidence that this will pass comes from the SEC’s unexpected approval of ether ETFs in May. The industry had taken the agency’s lack of commitment as a clear signal that the multitude of applications would be rejected en masse, because ether could be used to earn a return, functioning much like a stock.
But the SEC sidestepped the issue by preventing ETF issuers from earning a return; once they overcame that and got regulator approval, things changed.
This change of direction does not make a Solana ETF a formality. For many years, the SEC rejected spot bitcoin ETFs on the grounds that it had concerns about manipulation of the underlying market.
Bitcoin and, later, ether, futures markets at the CME, a federally regulated exchange, have done much to put this concern to rest. However, there is no CME futures market for solana.
“It cannot be approved [by March] “Unless there is a market that is acceptable and explorable for the SEC, and there currently isn’t one,” said Katalin Tischhauser, head of research at Sygnum Bank.
Even more concerning is the fact that last year the SEC filed lawsuits against Binance US, Kraken, and Coinbase, claiming that Solana is an unregistered security.
Nonetheless, it is indicative of the ethos of the cryptocurrency market that these are not seen as insurmountable obstacles, but as obstacles to be overcome.
The main hope is that a Donald Trump victory in November’s U.S. presidential election will lead to a change of tone at the SEC. The regulator last month closed an investigation into potential ether sales as securities transactions, raising hopes that it might also reverse its stance on Solana.
Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, confirmed to X that his firm’s presentation was a bet on Trump’s victory. Cryptocurrency legislation in Washington could also solve the problem. But with a March deadline, “a lot of things have to change and they have to change very quickly,” Tischhauser said.
But while March is still too early, the issue of a Solana ETF represents a turning point for both the industry and the regulator.
It can be argued that Bitcoin is digital gold and is worth holding for diversification and as a speculative asset. Ether is still the main play on the development of the cryptocurrency market as an alternative to the current plumbing and infrastructure of the financial system. ETFs on both were simpler cases.
As the third largest cryptocurrency, solana’s name is much less known outside the industry. After that, there is a very long tail of increasingly speculative projects with thinner liquidity and less maturity. This makes them less attractive as a basis for additional crypto ETFs and increases regulators’ unease about the integrity of the underlying market.
Like ether, solana can be used to generate returns, so in theory the regulator should be comfortable with the concept. A successful application will likely depend on market demand.
“There is so much excitement for [solana] as a core technology as much as ‘I want something different for my portfolio,'” said Adam Levine, head of corporate strategy at Fireblocks.
However, there were two days of net outflows in spot Ethereum ETFs in the first three days of trading, suggesting that institutional interest is more muted.
What gave spot bitcoin ETF applications an unstoppable momentum were applications from traditional names like BlackRock and Fidelity. These names were later to the market to file cryptocurrency-related ETF applications than others. They have not filed for a solana ETF and until they do, it is unlikely to appear.
What do you think? Send me an email at philip.stafford@ft.com
Highlights of the week
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Coinbase Cryptocurrency Exchange he was fined £3.5m fine from UK regulator for providing payment services to over 13,000 ‘high-risk’ customers.
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Exchange-traded funds that invest directly in ether arrived in the U.S. this week and have raised about $108 million the first day of trading. BlackRock, Bitwise Investments, and Fidelity emerged as the early leaders. Since then, there have been a couple of days of overall outflows, as the price of ether has fallen sharply. However, it is still early.
Soundtrack of the week
The big bitcoin conference is coming up in Nashville this weekend, with Donald Trump giving the keynote address. Organizers had been in talks to have Kamala Harris, but she decided not to attend. She’s probably trying to juggle a lot of things all of a sudden. Whatever the reason, some people have taken it as a huge snub, including Tyler Winklevoss of Gemini Exchange. Write on X:
“The Biden-Harris administration has been waging all-out war on the crypto industry for 4 years… What do they do? They refuse. They can’t even take the first step and show up to start healing. Our industry won’t forget this. We will show no mercy in November.”
And finally . . .
Tonight is the opening ceremony of the Olympics. The French will have a long way to go to surpass James Bond and the late Queen Elizabeth II parachuting in the stadium. Good luck, my friends.
Cryptofinance was edited by Tommy Stubbington. To view previous editions of the newsletter, click Here
Your comments are welcome
News
Cryptocurrency Price August 1: Bitcoin Dips Below $65K; Solana, XRP Down Up To 8%
Major cryptocurrencies fell in Thursday trading following the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep its key interest rate unchanged. Overnight, the U.S. Federal Reserve kept its key interest rate at 5.25-5.5% for the eighth consecutive time, as expected, while also signaling the possibility of a rate cut at its next meeting in September. The unanimous decision by the Federal Open Market Committee reflects a continued wait-and-see approach as it monitors inflation trends.
CoinSwitch Markets Desk said: “Bitcoin has fallen below $65,000 after the US Federal Reserve announced it would keep interest rates unchanged. However, with markets now anticipating rate cuts at the next Federal Reserve meeting in September, the outlook for a Bitcoin rally by the end of the year has strengthened.”
Meanwhile, CoinDCX research team said: “The crypto market has plunged after the Fed decision. Tomorrow’s US unemployment rate announcement is expected to induce more volatility, with the ‘actual’ figure coming in higher than the ‘expected’ one, which is positive for cryptocurrencies.”
At 12:21 pm IST, Bitcoin (BTC) was down 3.2% at $64,285, while Ethereum was down nearly 4.5% at $3,313. Meanwhile, the global market cryptocurrency The market capitalization fell 3.6% to around $2.3 trillion in the last 24 hours.
“Bitcoin needs to clear its 200-day EMA at $64,510 to consolidate further. Otherwise, a retest of $62,000 could be in the cards,” said Vikram Subburaj, CEO of Giottus.
Altcoins and meme coins, such as BNB (3%), Solana (8%), XRP (5.7%), Dogecoin (5%), Cardano (4.6%), Avalanche (4.3%), Shiba Inu (3.8%), Polkadot (3.4%), and Chainlink (4%) also saw declines.
The volume of all stablecoins is now $71.64 billion, which is 92.19% of the total cryptocurrency market volume in 24 hours, according to data available on CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin’s dominance is currently 54.99%. BTC volume in the last 24 hours increased by 23.3% to $35.7 billion.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, opinions and views provided by experts are personal. They do not represent the views of the Economic Times)
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News
Altcoins WIF, BONK, RUNE, JUP Down 10% While Bitcoin Drops 4%
Altcoins dogwifhat, Bonk, THORChain, and Jupiter have suffered losses of more than 10%, while Bitcoin is down 4% in the last 24 hours.
After a period of relative calm yesterday, July 31, Bitcoin (BTC) price action has seen a drastic change as the cryptocurrency dropped by more than $3,500, bringing its value to $63,300. At the same time, altcoins mirrored this trend, with the total value of liquidated positions rising to nearly $225 million over the course of the day.
Initially, the week started on a positive note for Bitcoin, which reached its highest point since early June, hitting $70,000. However, this peak was short-lived, as it was quickly rejected, leading to a substantial decline, with Bitcoin falling below $65,500.
The cryptocurrency managed to regain some stability, trading comfortably at around $66,800. However, following a Press conference According to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, the value of Bitcoin has fallen again to $64,300, down more than 3% in 24 hours.
BTC Price Chart 24 Hours | Source: crypto.news
The recession coincided with a relationship from the New York Times stating that Iran had called for retaliatory measures against Israel following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, increasing the risk of further conflict in the region.
Meanwhile, on the economic front, the Federal Reserve decided to keep its benchmark interest rates in place, offering little information on a planned September rate cut. Powell also hinted that while no concrete decisions have been made on the September adjustment, there is growing consensus that a rate cut is likely.
Amid Bitcoin’s decline, altcoins have suffered even more significant losses. For example, dogwifhat (Wife) saw a 12.4% drop and (DISGUST) has suffered a 10% drop. Other altcoins such as THORChain (RUNE) also fell by 10%, while Jupiter (JUPITER) and the Ethereum naming service (ENS) decreased by 8% and 9% respectively.
Among the largest-cap cryptocurrencies, the biggest losers are Solana (SOL) with a decrease of 8%, (Exchange rate risk) down 6%, Cardano (ADA) down 4%, and both Ethereum (ETH) and Dogecoin (DOGE) recording a decrease of 4.4%.
Data from CoinGlass indicates that approximately 67,000 traders have been negatively impacted by this increased volatility. BTC positions have seen $61.85 million in liquidations, while ETH positions have faced $61 million. In total, the value of liquidated positions stands at $225.4 million at the time of writing.
News
Riot Platforms Sees 52% Drop in Bitcoin Production in Q2
Bitcoin mining firm Riot Platforms has released its second-quarter financial results, highlighting a decline in cryptocurrency mined due to the recent halving.
Colorado-based Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Riot platforms revealed its second quarter financial results, highlighting a significant reduction in mined cryptocurrencies attributed to the recent halving event that took place in early April.
The company reported total revenue of $70 million for the quarter ended July 31, a decline of 8.7% compared to the same period in 2023. Riot Platforms attributed the revenue decline primarily to a $9.7 million decrease in engineering revenue, which was partially mitigated by a $6 million increase in Bitcoin extraction income.
During the quarter, the company mined 844 BTC, representing a decline of over 50% from Q2 2023, citing the halving event and increasing network difficulty as major factors behind the decline. Riot Platforms reported a net loss of $84.4 million, or $0.32 per share, missing Zacks Research forecast a loss of $0.16 per share.
Halving increases competitive pressure
The Colorado-based firm said the average cost of mining one BTC in the second quarter, including energy credits, rose to $25,327, a remarkable 341% increase from $5,734 per BTC in the same quarter of 2023. Despite this significant increase in production costs, the firm remains optimistic about maintaining competitiveness through recent deals.
For example, following the Recent acquisition Cryptocurrency firm Block Mining, Riot has increased its distributed hash rate forecast from 31 EH/s to 36 EH/s by the end of 2024, while also increasing its 2025 forecast from 40 EH/s to 56 EH/s.
Riot Platforms Hashrate Growth Projections by 2027 | Source: Riot Platforms
Commenting on the company’s financials, Riot CEO Jason Les said that despite the halving, the mining company still managed to achieve “significant operational growth and execution of our long-term strategy.”
“Despite this reduction in production available to all Bitcoin miners, Riot reported $70 million in revenue for the quarter and maintained strong gross margins in our core Bitcoin mining business.”
Jason Les
Following its Q2 financial report, Riot Platforms shares fell 1.74% to $10.19, according to Google Finance data. Meanwhile, the American miner continues to chase Canadian rival Bitfarms, recently acquiring an additional 10.2 million BITF shares, increasing its stake in Bitfarms to 15.9%.
As previously reported by crypto.news, Riot was the first announced a $950 million takeover bid for Bitfarms in late May, arguing that Bitfarms’ founders were not acting in the best interests of all shareholders. They said their proposal was rejected by Bitfarms’ board without substantive engagement.
In response, Bitfarms She said that Riot’s offer “significantly understates” its growth prospects. Bitfarms subsequently implemented a shareholder rights plan, also known as a “poison pill,” to protect its strategic review process from hostile takeover attempts.
News
Aave Price Increases Following Whales Accumulation and V3.1 Launch
Decentralized finance protocol Aave is seeing a significant spike in whale activity as the market looks to recover from the recent crash that pushed most altcoins into key support areas earlier this week.
July 31, Lookonchain shared details indicating that the whales had aggressively accumulated Aave (AAVE) over the past two days. According to the data, whales have withdrawn over 58,848 AAVE worth $6.47 million from exchanges during this period.
In one instance, whale address 0x9af4 withdrew 11,185 AAVE worth $1.23 million from Binance. Meanwhile, another address moved 21,619 AAVE worth over $2.38 million from the exchange and deposited the tokens into Aave.
These withdrawals follow a previous transfer of 26,044 AAVE from whale address 0xd7c5, amounting to over $2.83 million withdrawn from Binance.
AAVE price has surged over 7% in the past 24 hours amid buy-side pressure from these whales. The DeFi token is currently trading around $111 after jumping over 18% in the past week.
Recently, the price of AAVE increased by over 8% after Aave founder Marc Zeller announced a proposed fee change aimed at adopting a buyback program for AAVE tokens.
Aave v3.1 is available
The total value locked in the Aave protocol currently stands at around $22 billion. According to DeFiLlamaApproximately $19.9 billion is on Aave V3, while the V2 chain still holds approximately $1.9 billion in TVL and V1 approximately $14.6 million.
Aave Labs announced Previously, Aave V3.1 was made available on all networks with active Aave V3 instances.
V3.1 features improvements that are intended to improve the overall security of the DeFi protocol. The Aave DAO governance has approved the v3.1 improvements, which also include operational efficiency and usability for the network.
Meanwhile, Aave Labs recently outlined a ambitious roadmap for the projectwith a 2030 vision for Aave V4, among other developments.
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