The Daily: SEC drops another probe, ZAP hits $100 million valuation, ETF sees 5th straight day of inflows, etc.

• In a Form 1-U filing that companies use to report material changes, Hiro said it received notice on July 9 that the SEC had concluded its investigation into Stacks, and that its staff had no intention of recommending enforcement action against the developer.
• The project was founded in 2013 by Ryan Shay and Muneeb Ali while they were students at Princeton University.
• Formerly known as Blockstack, Hiro conducted a $50 million token offering under the SEC’s Regulation A+ framework in 2019.
• Regulation A+ provides an exemption from registration for small-sum bonds of up to $50 million per year.
• The block reported on Thursday that the agency made its latest decision after it suspended its investigation into BUSD following the Paxos investigation, and also did not recommend any enforcement action.

Some Companies Allowed to Avoid Controversial Crypto Accounting Notices

• According to sources, companies have been consulting with the SEC on how to develop new cryptocurrency policies and procedures since the publication of Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121 (SAB 121) in March 2022, and SAB 121 itself has not changed.
• SAB 121 requires companies that custodian cryptocurrencies to record customer holdings as liabilities, which has sparked controversy over concerns that it could prevent banks from safeguarding digital assets.
• Despite President Biden’s veto of a legislative effort to overturn SAB 121, discussions and amendments to accommodate highly regulated entities offering cryptocurrency custody services are continuing.

Token Distribution Protocol ZAP Reaches $100 Million Value

• The funding includes $900,000 raised in a seed round in December, $2.1 million raised in a private round in June, and $12.1 million raised in an ongoing “vault sale” that could potentially raise up to $50 million.
• Built on top of Blast, an Ethereum Layer 2 network, the ZAP protocol aims to verify user contributions for fair token rewards and expand to more blockchains such as Base.
• ZAP recently launched the “Blast Gigadrops” campaign with a $1 million prize pool, which rewards users for their social and on-chain interactions. It is also developing a “no-code” token launcher for venture capital-backed projects.

Spot Bitcoin ETF records 5th consecutive day of net inflows

• BlackRock’s IBIT, the largest spot bitcoin ETF by assets under management, led inflows with $72.1 million added.
• Fidelity’s FBTC saw net inflows of $32.7 million on Thursday, while Bitwise’s BITB and Ark Invest’s ARKB saw net inflows of $7.5 million and $4.3 million, respectively.
• Grayscale’s high-fee GBTC was the only ETF to see net outflows, with $37.7 million flowing out of the converted fund.
• Spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen net inflows of $880.6 million over the past five trading days, bringing the total to over $15.5 billion since their launch in January.

Germany’s Bitcoin reserves are rapidly depleting.

• Starting June 18, German government agencies are gradually selling off 50,000 Bitcoins seized from online movie piracy site Movie2K in January.
• The German government sent a total of 5,748.25 bitcoins ($330 million) on Friday and received 500 bitcoins ($28.6 million) back.

Looking forward to next week

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak on Monday.

The latest UK and Eurozone CPI inflation figures are due on Wednesday. The ECB’s interest rate decision will follow on Thursday.