U.S. Financial Advisors, Have Some Faith! 😅

In today’s edition: 🚀 Starknet's major upgrade vote, 💹 Positive ETF impact forecasted, 💱 Celsius to unstake Ether, and more!

January 05, 2024

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What’s Poppin’?

by Sage Young and Jeanhee Kim

As anticipation of SEC approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF heats up, a new survey reveals surprising pessimism among U.S. financial advisors.

Starknet’s upgrade aims to substantially reduce transaction fees and lays the groundwork for users to pay for their gas consumption with the zero-knowledge rollup’s native token STRK.

After taking a beating post-FTX, Bitcoin liquidity could “see a real recovery” with the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs, research firm Kaiko concluded in its Q4 report.

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…✍️✍️✍️

  • 💱 Celsius, undergoing bankruptcy restructuring, plans to unstake large amounts of Ether, potentially impacting ETH's market dynamics and easing selling pressure.

  • 📑 Major asset managers including Ark and Grayscale have filed key Form 8-A documents, advancing their pursuit of launching spot bitcoin ETFs.

  • 🔐 Following a security breach, the DeFi platform Gamma Strategies suffered a $3.4 million loss, leading to the temporary halt of deposits into its vaults.

  • ⚖️ Leveraging its recent court success in the Terraform Labs case, the SEC is intensifying its legal challenges against prominent crypto exchanges Coinbase and Binance.

  • 🔍 Israel's intelligence service is reportedly accused of using cryptocurrency to recruit spies in Turkey for operations against Palestinians, according to Turkish authorities.

  • 🏛️ Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer's retirement announcement could pave the way for a crypto-supportive leader to head the House Financial Services Committee.

  • 🚔 Taiwanese crypto exchange ACE's founder, David Pan, was arrested over fraud accusations.

  • 🏢  RDC, backed by Franklin Templeton, plans to launch a new bitcoin-based financial product for institutional buyers, exempt from standard SEC registration requirements.

  • 📈 The bitcoin derivatives market is showing signs of heightened volatility, with traders preparing for significant price movements.

Today in Crypto Adoption...

  • 🇳🇬 The Central Bank of Nigeria detailed new banking guidelines for handling digital assets, signaling a more flexible approach toward the crypto sector.

  • 🌐 Visa is collaborating with SmartMedia Technologies to introduce a web3-based loyalty rewards program, offering customers tokenized rewards and digital collectibles.

What Do You Meme?

Recommended Reads

📈 Your Market Update 📉

  • BTC is up 1.8%, trading at $43,922

  • ETH is up 1.2%, trading at $2,251

  • BTC dominance: 49.2%

  • Crypto market cap: $1.75T

*All data as of today, 05:42 am ET. Source: CoinGecko

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