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What’s Poppin’?
by Sage Young and Jeanhee Kim
For at least the next ten years, VanEck will donate 5% of its profits from its yet-to-be-approved spot BTC ETF to Bitcoin-focused nonprofit Brink.
The surge in Arbitrum’s daily volume likely stems from the upcoming Ethereum upgrade dubbed Dencun, not the memecoin frenzy experienced by other blockchain networks.
BlackRock, ARK Invest and several other potential issuers filed amended SEC filings on Friday that would put in place stock exchange rule changes needed for the spot Bitcoin ETFs to be approved.
The past few days have been a busy stretch in the run-up to a potential spot Bitcoin ETF approval by the SEC. Goldman Sachs was revealed as a possible authorized participant (AP) for BlackRock and Grayscale’s offerings, the SEC met with representatives of major stock exchanges, and a report skeptical of an imminent SEC approval likely caused a 7% decline in Bitcoin. Spencer Bogart, general partner at venture capital firm Blockchain Capital, joined Unchained to break down what all of these events mean, as well as discuss who the likely winners will be among ETF issuers, the impact of a spot bitcoin ETF on companies such as MicroStrategy and Coinbase, and how a spot ETF will affect Bitcoin futures ETFs and leveraged crypto ETFs.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.
Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️
💳 Digital Currency Group cleared all its short-term loans from subsidiary Genesis, totaling over $1 billion in debt repayment.
🚨 Exiled Chinese billionaire Ho Wan Kwok, associated with Himalaya Exchange, was indicted under RICO Act for a $1 billion scheme, along with others involved in the operation.
📈 BlackRock is anticipating SEC approval for its spot Bitcoin ETF next Wednesday, as per a Fox Business report, alongside staff cuts.
🐶 Solana's memecoins, including the dog-themed token bonk (BONK), have experienced a significant price drop, over 70% for BONK, after their December surge.
🛒 Japan's e-commerce giant Mercari plans to introduce Bitcoin payments, allowing purchases with BTC via its blockchain subsidiary Melcoin.
🚀 An unknown bitcoin user transferred $1.2 million to Satoshi Nakamoto’s Genesis wallet, potentially losing access to these funds.
🧩 Another anonymous entity spent approximately $66,000 to inscribe nearly 9 megabytes of encrypted data onto the Bitcoin blockchain, with the content remaining unreadable.
🔒 Ethereum validators are facing delays in unstaking ETH due to a backlog, partially attributed to Celsius' withdrawals.
🌐 North Korea is reported to have been involved in crypto thefts amounting to $600 million last year, raising U.S. national security concerns.
🔒 A significant portion of Ethereum blocks since its transition to proof-of-stake have been censoring users sanctioned by the U.S., raising concerns about network neutrality.
🚫 The X social media account of crypto auditing firm CertiK was hacked, leading to phishing attacks and crypto theft from users through fake security alerts.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
🌍 Coinbase is pursuing an acquisition to expand its crypto derivatives offerings in the EU, pending regulatory approval.
What Do You Meme?
Recommended Reads
Unchained: Crypto's pathway to widespread adoption: Compromise by Ramon Recuero
Signposts by Arthur Hayes
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is down .1%, trading at $43,949
ETH is down .7%, trading at $2,221
BTC dominance: 49.2%
Crypto market cap: $1.7T
*All data as of today, 05:25 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
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