According to Galaxy, there were significant developments in the cryptocurrency space this week. This includes VanEck’s application for the Solana (SOL) ETF, the European Union’s MiCA framework coming into effect, and the launch of Ethereum’s first production-ready Reth execution client.
Solana trades at higher price with ETF application
VanEck has made a big change in the crypto ETF market by filing an S-1 with the SEC for a spot Solana exchange-traded product (ETP). The proposed trust aims to track the price of Solana (SOL) by holding the underlying cryptocurrency. Despite the filing, operational details such as a custodian and sponsorship fees have not yet been disclosed. Notably, the trust does not engage in staking assets. Since the announcement, SOL has traded about 8% higher.
VanEck’s filing contains several risk disclosures, such as Solana’s concentrated ownership and potential network risks. However, the SEC has not yet begun a formal review period for this application. Assuming the 19b-4 filing is imminent, the SEC’s final decision is expected around March 2025, Bloomberg’s James Seyffart reports.
Given the SEC’s stance on Solana as an unregistered security, it seems unlikely that this application will be approved without significant regulatory changes. The SEC’s precedent for approving spot-to-crypto ETPs involves a multi-step process that includes launching regulated futures and spot-based ETPs, which Solana has not yet met.
New MiCA rules come into effect in the EU
The European Union’s Markets in Cryptocurrencies (MiCA) framework will come into effect on June 30. This landmark bill imposes new regulatory requirements on cryptocurrency businesses, particularly stablecoin issuers. Under Article 23, companies must stop issuing stablecoins that are used in more than 1 million transactions or have a daily value exceeding 200 million euros.
The framework also mandates a digital currency license for stablecoin issuers to operate legally in the EU. However, industry players, including leaders such as Circle and Tether, have yet to acquire such licenses. The European Banking Authority (EBA) recently published guidance on technical standards, but the regulatory environment remains unclear. Exchanges such as OKX and Bitstamp Tether’s EURT stablecoin was preemptively decommissioned, and Binance plans to restrict unauthorized stablecoins for European users starting next week.
Despite the regulatory challenges, MiCA aims to provide clarity and create a more predictable business environment. Partial application of the framework will begin on Monday, with full compliance required by the end of the year.
Paradigm unveils first release of production-ready Reth
On June 26, Paradigm announced the first production-ready release of Reth, an Ethereum-running client written in Rust. After two years of development, Reth is now available to large-scale node operators, offering faster sync times and reduced storage requirements compared to existing clients.
Reth’s performance metrics include a synchronization time of 50 hours from inception and approximately 2.25 TB of storage space on the archive node. The next major release will focus on improving the usability of optimistic rollups and implementing changes to Pectra, Ethereum’s upcoming upgrade.
Reth is the latest of five actively maintained Ethereum running clients. Although it is not the most widely adopted, its unique optimizations and rapid feature adoption make it well suited for future growth. However, rapid development also increases the risk of potential bugs and misuse.
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Ethereum’s beacon chain has seen high demand for staking, leading to a significant increase in validators waiting in the entry queue. The daily backlog has been between 4,000 and 5,500 validators over the past month. The churn limit, which controls the number of validators entering or leaving the set each day, currently allows 1,800 validators to leave the queue per day, resulting in a latency of 2-3 days.
Other news
- State Street partners with Galaxy to launch ETF
- Marathon Digital Expands into Altcoin Mining to Diversify Revenue Streams Post Bitcoin Halving
- Julian Assange was released through a plea deal with the U.S. government and received a $500,000 Bitcoin donation.
- Coinbase has sued the SEC and FDIC over FOIA requests, claiming the federal regulators are trying to block the cryptocurrency.
- The Bitcoin Virtual Machine team launches the ZK Rollup service to scale Bitcoin.
- 3,940 Bitcoins Moved to Coinbase from Wallet Linked to US Government
- The Blast Foundation plans to distribute 17 billion BLAST tokens through airdrops this week.
- The Solana Foundation has launched the Blinks feature, which lets you embed Solana features into other web and social apps.
- The supply of USDT stablecoin on the TON blockchain has surpassed 500 million.
- You can use your Bybit card with Apple Pay.
- After the presidential debate, the odds of Trump winning jumped to 67% on blockchain-based prediction market PolyMarket.
- The Supreme Court ended the practice of internal administrative tribunals by the SEC and other federal regulators.
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