Strengths
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the best performer for the week was Kaspa, rising 23.04%.
- Ether briefly pared losses after a report said that the U.S. could approve exchange-traded funds holding the second-largest cryptocurrency by as soon as July 4. The SEC and fund companies are in the final stages of talks, writes Bloomberg.
- Solana staged its biggest rally in more than a month after VanEck, an exchange-traded-fund issuer, submitted a filing for a product based on the digital asset, Bloomberg reports. The token rose as much as 11%, the highest since May.
Weaknesses
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the worst performer for the week was Gnosis, down 13.14%.
Losses are piling up in the crypto market after its second-worst weekly decline of 2024. Bitcoin hit a record of $73,798 in March, Bloomberg reports, but is trailing traditional investments such as stocks, bonds and gold this quarter. The 200-day moving average at about $57,500 is in focus now as a possible zone of support.
- Billionaire Steven Cohen’s venture capital arm, Point72 Ventures, is pivoting away from fintech and crypto after laying off its five investors focused on these areas. The departures include three fintech-focused investors and two investors on Point72 Ventures’ digital assets team, according to Bloomberg.
Opportunities
- State Street Global Advisors and Galaxy Asset Management are developing a cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund aimed at shielding investors from the industry’s famous volatility. The planned fund would target the “digital-asset ecosystem” by investing in a combination of crypto-linked equities and other ETFs that hold physical Bitcoin or futures, writes Bloomberg.
- Bybit surpassed Coinbase in March to become the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange after Binance, Bloomberg reports. The launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. helped Bybit double its market share to 16% in March from 8% in October 2023.
- Jesse Powell, founder of Kraken cryptocurrency exchange, announced on X that he has donated $1 million to former U.S President Donald Trump’s campaign. Trump has recently expressed strong support for the blockchain and crypto industry, according to Bloomberg.
Threats
- Bitcoin investment products saw around $600 million in outflows for a second consecutive week, the most over a two-week period since the U.S. approved ETFs to hold cryptocurrency in January, reports Bloomberg.
- Coinbase Global sued two federal financial regulators in a bid to obtain records on their policing of crypto trading, Bloomberg reports, the latest twist in a series of legal fights between one of the largest crypto platforms and Washington agencies.
- The SEC sued crypto firm Consensys for failing to register as a broker. The firm broke rules by failing to register as a brokerage in addition to collecting millions of dollars in fees, writes Bloomberg.