Today's edition of the Weekly Brief: Notcoin (NOT) faces 50% price drop after debut; Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded inflows to recover April losses amid market recovery; The cryptocurrency industry is witnessing a proliferation of regulatory and enforcement actions.
Notcoin sees a 50% drop after its debut
- The Notcoin project debuted. Previously, the team announced the closure of direct exchange deposits on May 14. He revealed plans to resume deposits after NOT listing on May 16.
- Crypto.news reported on May 16 that a play-for-profit blockchain project has dropped $80.2 billion to miners from the Open Network (TON) community.
- The listing took place soon after, with support from several major exchanges such as Binance, ByBit, Gate.io, and OKX. Upon listing, it fell 55% as miners rushed to cash in on their allocations.
- More than 500,000 Notcoin miners and recipients of the airdrop sent 1 billion NOT tokens worth $6.8 million to a public letter belonging to Telegram founder Pavel Durov as a gesture of gratitude.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs Recoup April Losses
- The spot Bitcoin ETF market started last week on a favorable footing, recording $66 million in net inflows on May 13. Fidelity's Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) took the lead with capital inflows of $38.6 million.
- A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed that the Wisconsin Investment Board holds a combined $162.4 million across the two largest Bitcoin ETFs, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).
- The spot ETF market also witnessed total inflows of $100 million on the second day of the week. On this day, GBTC saw outflows of $50.9 million, while the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) recorded the highest inflow of $133.1 million.
- Spot ETFs saw another round of net inflows on May 16, totaling $303 million, the largest since May 3. This trend of inflows continued throughout the week. As a result, the market witnessed five days of continuous flows. The cumulative figure reached $948.3 million last week.
- Eric Balchunas, a Bloomberg ETF analyst, confirmed that the ETF market saw $1.3 billion in inflows over two weeks, erasing last month's losses. He expected this positive trend to continue.
The fate of the Ethereum ETF is uncertain
- Balchunas also speculated that the SEC may never approve an Ethereum spot ETF product due to its stance on Ethereum in terms of its status as a commodity or security.
- Meanwhile, a report released last week confirmed significant interest in spot Bitcoin ETFs. Vitel Lund, K33 Research Analyst, revealed that as many as 937 institutions had committed to investing $11 billion in Bitcoin spot ETFs as of March 31.
Bitcoin Recovers $67K as Cryptocurrency Market Rebounds
- The market recorded a rebound last week, but price action at the beginning of the week was largely unfavorable. Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, predicted that Bitcoin could still reach $75,000 during the consolidation.
- After the US CPI data was released on May 15, Bitcoin and the rest of the market made a comeback. The global cryptocurrency market value rose to $2.5 trillion on May 16.
- Bitcoin surpassed $66,000 amid the uptrend, but this rally was not enough to provide significant gains to holders in the short term. The recovery was further fueled by reports that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange is looking to launch bitcoin trading.
- BTC finally reclaimed the $67,000 psychological limit on May 17, for the first time this month. Despite this, Chainlink (LINK) emerged as the biggest gainer on the day. LINK saw a 20% rise on the back of the DTCC partnership.
- BTC is currently trading at $66,576.70 per coin at last check on May 19.
Global enforcement actions
- Law enforcement efforts rocked the scene last week. Chinese authorities have arrested six people in connection with a $300 million illegal cryptocurrency trading scheme.
- A US court has ordered the seizure of up to 279 cryptocurrency accounts linked to North Korea. The accounts are scheduled to be confiscated and handed over to US authorities, as evidence indicates that they are linked to cryptocurrency theft cases.
- In the Netherlands, three judges sentenced Tornado Cash developer Alexei Burtsev to 64 months in prison after he was found guilty. Burtsev appealed the decision, with industry commentators noting that it was unfair to penalize an individual for developing the code.
- The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has arrested two brothers – Anton Pepper Bueno and James Pepper Bueno – for stealing $25 million worth of crypto assets in just 12 seconds. They carried out the heist using MEV bots on Ethereum.
- On May 16, the U.S. Senate voted 60-38 to repeal SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) No. 121. The resolution, HJ Res. Resolution 109 received bipartisan support, with 11 Democrats joining all but two Republican senators who abstained, to reject the rule despite Democratic leaders opposing the resolution.