Today's edition of Weekly Digest: Donald Trump changes direction on cryptocurrency; The NFT market is seeing a decline in trade volume; Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are seeing a return in inflows.
Trump is courting the cryptocurrency community
- The Republican Party's 2024 presidential nominee is open Announce Support the crypto industry. In a speech, Trump, who is quadruple-charged, urged his supporters to donate digital assets to his campaign.
- Trump is using his campaign donations to pay for mounting legal expenses.
- Mark Cuban, the billionaire and minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, argued on May 10 that regulators' tough stance on the cryptocurrency industry does President Joe Biden no favors in the upcoming election.
- SEC Chairman Gary Gensler is Biden Appointed.
- Meanwhile, the “Stand With Crypto” political action committee announced plans to provide financial support to politicians who aim to protect the interests of the cryptocurrency industry.
- As Trump grows more supportive of crypto gains, leading financial institution Standard Chartered asserted in a report that a vote for Republicans in November could benefit Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader cryptocurrency industry due to de-dollarization, easing of regulations and approval of US spot ETFs. .
Global regulatory developments
- The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has revealed plans to enact broad cryptocurrency regulations in the second half of this year.
- Binance has faced regulatory issues in Canada, with Canadian authorities fining the exchange $4.4 million for violating the country's anti-money laundering provisions.
- Regulatory problems in Nigeria also made headlines this week. The company's CEO, Richard Teng, accused the Nigerian government of demanding bribes to resolve the issue related to the arrest of two of its officials. However, the government denied these allegations.
Ripple and Kraken
- The US House of Representatives Financial Services Committee revealed on May 10 that it will consider voting on enacting the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century (FIT21) Act, which aims to clarify the digital asset industry.
- On May 8, the SEC filed its final response to Ripple in the remedies phase of the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple three years ago. The agency argued against multiple claims from Ripple, arguing that the $1.95 billion fine for the company's violations of securities law was fair.
- Kraken, another cryptocurrency-focused company in a legal battle with the SEC, has filed to dismiss the regulator's lawsuit, citing incorrect terms and a lack of evidence that it handled services related to investment contracts or unregistered securities.
NFT market records decline
- The non-fungible token (NFT) market made headlines this week due to a mix of positive and unfavorable trends. For example, reports confirmed that the Magic Eden market overtook Blur for the first time ever to top NFT trading volume in April, with a trading volume of $468 million.
- The broader NFT market saw volume decline last week, with cumulative weekly volume falling 11.16% to $144.3 million. Bitcoin-based NFTs accounted for $49 million of that volume, contributing 34% of the total figure.
- The spread of cryptocurrency-focused hacks also impacted the NFT scene this week, as an NFT trader lost $145,000 worth of NFTs from Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) to a phishing attack on May 8.
Grayscale promoters point to a revival of the ETF.
- Reports released this week confirmed that the spot crypto ETF market has seen a return of inflows, with all US spot Bitcoin ETF products seeing positive net inflows for the first time on May 3. However, ETF analysts are skeptical about the support for this trend. In the following days.
- Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) took advantage of this rebound in investor interest to record its first ever net inflow, totaling $63 million on May 3. Additionally, on May 6, the GBTC product saw another net inflow, marking the second straight day of continuous inflow. Inflows.
- CoinShares reported this week that the outflows from cryptocurrency investment products it saw last week may be much higher than the actual number, which was $251 million. According to the data, inflows from Hong Kong spot ETFs, totaling $307 million, helped mitigate global outflows into cryptocurrency products.
- Interestingly, in a classic case of institutional adoption, data from the US Securities and Exchange Commission website confirmed that leading US banking giant Wells Fargo invested in Grayscale and ProShares' ETF products.