The healing has begun last week—after US inflation appeared to cool—hit its stride this week as markets continued to reverberate from the bombshell of the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, file an application to the SEC for a Bitcoin spot Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF).
Many companies applied for ETFs, and dozens were rejected. Currently, not a single Bitcoin spot ETF has been approved by the crypto-skeptic SEC, despite the fact that Canadian regulators have approved many of them.
The stakes are high: a spot ETF will offer investors the chance to buy Bitcoin and ride the gravy train or go to hell in a basket, but if the latter, they will be safe in the knowledge that their investment is protected. , unlike those who buy and store crypto directly.
If anyone has a chance to get an ETF approved, it’s BlackRock. The company boasts an incredible $9 trillion in assets under management and has a winning score of 575-1 when it comes to getting an ETF approved by the SEC.
The news inspired two other US asset managers, WisdomTree and Invesco, both of which previously applied for their own ETFs—filed new ETF applications this week. Valkyrie quickly followed.
Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETC) both rallied this week. The world’s largest cryptocurrency rose 18% to its current price of $30,687, while the biggest runner up rallied 12.7% to trade at $1,893 at the start of the weekend.
Investors also flooded into other cryptocurrencies this week. In fact, most of the top thirty cryptocurrencies by market cap have increased by double-digit percentages. There are no losses in major unbacked coins.
Bitcoin fork Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has plunged a staggering 80.5% in the past seven days and is now trading at $192.90.
Regulation and expansion
While all eyes are on the SEC and major asset managers this week, there are a few other stories that show continued crypto adoption continues around the world.
In the United Kingdom, a central bank digital currency (CBDC) test project backed by the Bank of England has published its findings, concluding that a centrally issued sterling-pegged digital currency can “create a sustainable ecosystem. to promote innovationand to help meet the future needs of a more digitalized society.
The project—called Project Rosalind—promotes the programmability of crypto through smart contracts, which facilitate automatic payments and enable new types of online transactions.
On Monday, the British parliament in the House of Lords (upper chamber) voted by Financial Services and Market Housea piece of legislation that proposes regulation for stablecoins, crypto and crypto promotion.
The bill has passed the House of Commons and it has made it to the final stages: the Consideration of Amendments, where the two chambers debate the proposals and tighten the screws until they agree. The final stage required a signature from King Charlie himself.
That was it reported On Tuesday, Germany’s largest bank, Deutsche Bank, applied for a digital asset custody platform license to the German financial regulator, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).
During a semiannual listen on monetary policy held by the Republican-led House Financial Services Committee and chaired by Patrick McHenry (R-NC) on Wednesday, Fed chair Jerome Powell said the US central bank should play a “strong federal role” in crypto regulation and added that Bitcoin has”staying power” while implying the same about stablecoins.
Finally, the XRP progenitor Ripple was given a license to pay in principle in Singapore. Ripple has long felt the heat from US regulators. A lawsuit against it by the SEC has been ongoing since 2020 and, like Coinbase, the company is now hedging its bets through global expansion.
