Today’s Weekly Recap: Donald Trump has changed his stance on cryptocurrencies. Trading volume has decreased in the NFT market. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are seeing inflows again.
Trump panders to the cryptocurrency community
- The Republican Party’s 2024 presidential candidate has publicly declared his support for the cryptocurrency industry. Trump, who has been indicted four times, urged his supporters in his speech to donate digital assets to his campaign.
- Trump is using campaign donations to pay his mounting legal costs.
- Billionaire and Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban argued on May 10 that regulators’ hard-line stance on the cryptocurrency industry does President Joe Biden no favors in the upcoming election.
- SEC Chairman Gary Gensler is a Biden appointee.
- Meanwhile, the Stand With Crypto political action committee announced plans to provide financial support to politicians seeking to protect the interests of the cryptocurrency industry.
- As Trump’s support for crypto gains traction, leading financial institution Standard Chartered reports in a report that a Republican victory vote in November could lead to de-dollarization, deregulation and the approval of a US spot ETF, which could help Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader cryptocurrency industry. It was claimed that it could help. .
Global regulatory developments
- The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has revealed its plans to enact sufficient cryptocurrency regulations later this year.
- Binance faced regulatory challenges in Canada after Canadian authorities fined the exchange $4.4 million for violating anti-money laundering provisions.
- Nigeria’s regulatory issues also made headlines this week. The company’s CEO, Richard Teng, accused the Nigerian government of soliciting bribes to resolve issues related to the arrest of two officials. However, the government denied these claims.
Ripple and Kraken
- The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee said on May 10 that it will consider a vote 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 US SEC filed a final response to Ripple in the relief phase of the three-year SEC v. Ripple lawsuit. The agency responded to several of Ripple’s claims, arguing that the $1.95 billion fine for the company’s securities law violations was fair.
- Kraken, another cryptocurrency company involved in a legal battle with the SEC, dismissed 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 Record Drop
- The non-fungible token (NFT) market has been making headlines this week due to a mix of favorable and unfavorable trends. First, according to the report, the Magic Eden marketplace surpassed Blur in NFT trading volume for the first time in April, recording $468 million in volume.
- The broader NFT market saw trading volume decline last week, with weekly volume down 11.16% to $144.3 million. Bitcoin-based NFTs accounted for $49 million of this volume, or 34% of the total.
- The proliferation of cryptocurrency-focused hacks also impacted the NFT scene this week. An NFT trader lost $145,000 worth of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs to a phishing attack on May 8.
Grayscale claims revival of spot ETF
- According to this week’s report, the spot cryptocurrency ETF market has seen an increase in inflows again, with all U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF products seeing positive net inflows for the first time on May 3. But ETF analysts doubt this trend will continue. next day.
- Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) capitalized on this resurgence of investor interest, recording its first net inflows totaling $63 million on May 3. Additionally, GBTC products experienced another net inflow on May 6, marking the second consecutive day of net inflows. inflow.
- CoinShares reported this week that outflows from cryptocurrency investment products seen last week may be much higher than the actual figure of $251 million. Inflows into Hong Kong-based spot ETFs totaling $307 million helped mitigate global outflows of cryptocurrency products, according to the data.
- Interestingly, in a classic example of institutional adoption, data from the US SEC website confirmed that US banking giant Wells Fargo has invested in ETF products from Grayscale and ProShares.