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This past week was all about US spot bitcoin ETFs in the crypto world. Rumors started swirling last week that approvals were coming, which sources confirmed.
But the road to approval was not smooth. On Tuesday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account was compromised, a spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch. This was one huge problem because the government’s account posted an “unauthorized” post that the agency had granted approval for a “bitcoin ETF.”
The post was up for about 30 minutes, prompting a number of news outlets and online personalities to report that the SEC had approved the long-awaited spot bitcoin ETFs. The unauthorized post has since been deleted.
But all’s well that ends well. Fast forward to Wednesday and the SEC approved the first spot bitcoin ETF applications for 11 issuers (TC+). I spoke with two executives from Grayscale and Valkyrie about what’s in store for their spot bitcoin ETFs.
Read about it here:
Trading for spot bitcoin ETFs began Thursday morning and brought in about $2 billion in total trading volume, said VanEck’s head of digital asset research Matthew Sigel.
Prior to that, Valkyrie co-founder Steven McClurg told TechCrunch that he expected about $2 billion to $3 billion in trading volume in the first week, so this initial influx may signal that demand may become larger than it has initially predicted.
Note: In addition to regularly scheduled newsletter pieces, I will be covering some recurring segments and features. Not only that, in the coming weeks, we’ll be retiring the “Chain Reaction” name for something a little more on the nose: TechCrunch Crypto. So watch out for this!
If there’s anything you’d like to see, let me know at jacquelyn@techcrunch.com.
Anyway, that’s enough home and bitcoin ETF news for today. Let’s move on, shall we?
This week on web3
- USDC Stablecoin Issuer Files Confidential for an IPO (TC+)
- Hestia wants you to mine crypto to heat your house
- X removes support for NFT profile pictures
- Apple pulls Binance, Kraken, other crypto apps from India App Store
- Is India done with crypto?
- Fox partners with Polygon Labs to tackle false mistrust
- Logan Paul promises CryptoZoo refunds as long as you don’t sue him
The last pod
For this week episode, Jacqueline interviewed Michael Sonnenshein, the CEO of Grayscale Investments.
Grayscale is a digital asset investment company that aims to provide products and services to institutional and individual investors, it is known for the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and now, the new spot bitcoin ETF product. The company was founded in 2014 and is one of the largest digital asset coin managers in the world. The GBTC fund owns over 3% of the outstanding bitcoin supply, worth tens of billions of dollars.
The company and its executives have made headlines in the past for their persistent efforts to get their spot bitcoin ETF approved, after it was initially denied by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in June 2022 and later ruled in favor by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. . And now, Grayscale's bitcoin spot ETF has been approved.
We look at what spot bitcoin ETF approval means for GBTC and market demand. We also discussed competition between issuers, fee structures and why regulated bitcoin exposure matters, as well as what a spot bitcoin ETF could mean for the crypto space.
Sign up to Chain reaction on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to catch up on the latest episodes and leave us a review if you like what you hear!
Follow the money
- Hedera-based web3 music startup Tune.FM has raised $20 million in strategic round
- Liquidity solutions startup Eesee raises $2.85 million in seed round
- DeFi developer NoahArk Tech Group received $2.4 million from EOS Network Ventures
- OORT Raises $10M to Focus on Its Decentralized Cloud for Privacy and Cost Savings
- Altitude Raises $6.1M in First Round to Improve DeFi Loans
This list was compiled with information from Messari as well as reports from TechCrunch itself.
What else are we writing?
Want to escape the web3 world? Here are some TechCrunch articles that caught our attention this week.
- CES 2024: Everything revealed so far, from Nvidia and Sony to the rabbit's pocket AI and the weirdest revelations
- CES 2024: The weirdest tech, gadgets and AI claims from Las Vegas
- Funding for female founders held steady in 2023 (TC+)
- Explained in 5 charts: Venture capital in 2023 (TC+)
- Meta is facing another EU privacy challenge over its 'pay for privacy' consent option.
Follow me on twitter @Jacqmelinek for crypto news, memes and more.
