Today’s Weekly Recap: Notcoin (NOT) is facing a 50% price slump following its airdrop debut. Spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded record inflows, recouping April losses amid a market rebound. Regulatory and enforcement actions are rampant in the cryptocurrency industry.
Notcoin plummets 50% after debut
- The Notcoin project debuted. Previously, the team announced that it would end direct deposits on the exchange on May 14th. They announced plans to resume deposits after NOT listing on May 16.
- Crypto.news reported on May 16 that the Play-to-Earn blockchain project airdropped $80.2 billion to miners in The Open Network (TON) community.
- The listing came soon after with the support of several major exchanges such as Binance, ByBit, Gate.io, and OKX. At the time of listing, it did not fall 55% as miners cashed out their allocations.
- More than 500,000 Notcoin miners and airdrop beneficiaries sent 1 billion NOT tokens worth $6.8 million to Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s public address as a token of their gratitude.
Spot Bitcoin ETF Recovers April Losses
- The spot Bitcoin ETF market started off well last week, recording net inflows of $66 million on May 13. Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) led the way with capital inflows of $38.6 million.
- According to filings with the U.S. SEC, the Wisconsin Investment Board holds a total of $162.4 million across the two largest spot Bitcoin ETFs, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). It is done.
- A total of $100 million in funds also flowed into the spot ETF market on the second day of the week. On this day, GBTC recorded an outflow of $50.9 million, while ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) recorded the highest inflow of $133.1 million.
- Spot ETFs recorded another net inflow on May 16, totaling $303 million, the largest since May 3. This inflow trend continued throughout the week. As a result, the market saw continuous inflows for five days. Last week’s total was $948.3 million.
- Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas confirmed that the ETF market recorded inflows of $1.3 billion over two weeks, making up for last month’s losses. He predicted that this positive trend will continue.
The fate of the Ethereum ETF is uncertain
- Balchunas also predicted that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may never approve a spot Ethereum ETF product due to its stance on Ethereum’s status as a commodity or security.
- Meanwhile, reports from last week confirmed massive interest in spot Bitcoin ETFs. As of March 31, up to 937 institutions had invested $11 billion in spot Bitcoin ETFs, K33 Research analyst Vetle Lunde said.
Bitcoin recovered $67,000 as the cryptocurrency market rebounded.
- Although the market rebounded last week, price action early in the week was largely unfavorable. Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz predicted that Bitcoin could still hit $75,000 during the consolidation period.
- Bitcoin and the rest of the markets rebounded after US CPI data was released on May 15th. The global cryptocurrency market capitalization soared to $2.5 trillion on May 16.
- Bitcoin surpassed $66,000 on the rise, but the rally was not enough to deliver any real gains to short-term holders. The rally was further strengthened by reports that CME is exploring launching Bitcoin trading.
- BTC eventually regained the psychological threshold of $67,000 for the first time this month on May 17th. Nevertheless, the biggest gainer on the day was Chainlink (LINK). LINK gained 20% thanks to the DTCC partnership.
- BTC is currently trading at $66,576.70 per coin at last check on May 19th.
Global Enforcement Action
- Enforcement efforts rocked the scene last week. Chinese authorities have arrested six people involved in a $300 million illegal cryptocurrency trading scheme.
- A U.S. court has ordered the seizure of up to 279 cryptocurrency accounts linked to North Korea. The account will be confiscated and handed over to US authorities as there is evidence linking it to cryptocurrency theft.
- In the Netherlands, three judges sentenced Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev to 64 months in prison after finding him guilty. Pertsev appealed the decision, with industry critics suggesting it was unfair to punish individuals for developing the code.
- The US Department of Justice (DoJ) arrested two brothers, Anton Pepaire-Bueno and James Pepaire-Bueno, for allegedly stealing $25 million worth of cryptocurrency assets in just 12 seconds. They carried out the heist using MEV bots on Ethereum.
- The U.S. Senate voted May 16 to approve the SEC’s Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) No. The vote was 60 to 38 in favor of repealing 121. Resolution, HJ Res. 109 received bipartisan support, with 11 Democratic lawmakers joining in, all but two Republican senators abstaining, despite Democratic leaders opposing the resolution.