SEC Investigates Robinhood, SEC Delays Invesco Spot Ethereum ETF

Headline

▌The U.S. SEC has been investigating Robinhood's crypto division for some time

Robinhood's crypto division received a Wells notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 4. According to the latest filing, the commission staff led by SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has been investigating Robinhood's "cryptocurrency listing transactions, cryptocurrency custody and platform operations" for some time before recommending enforcement action against it.

▌The U.S. SEC postponed its decision on the proposed Invesco Galaxy spot Ethereum ETF

The U.S. SEC postponed its decision on the proposed Invesco Galaxy spot Ethereum ETF. The SEC set the next deadline for approving or rejecting the proposed spot Ethereum ETF as July 5, 2024. The SEC's optimism about approving such products has weakened in the past few months.

Market

As of press time, according to Coingecko data:

BTC's latest transaction price is $63,190.47, with a daily increase or decrease of -1.3%;

ETH's latest transaction price is $3,064.71, with a daily increase or decrease of -2.4%;

BNB's latest transaction price is $588.23, with a daily increase or decrease of -0.6%；

SOL's latest transaction price is 152.87 US dollars, with a daily increase or decrease of +4.1%；

DOGE's latest transaction price is 0.1565 US dollars, with a daily increase or decrease of -2.7%；

XPR's latest transaction price is 0.5403 US dollars, with a daily increase or decrease of +2.0%。

Policy

▌CFTC Chairman: US regulators are expected to continue to crack down on more cryptocurrency companies

Rostin Behnam, chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), expects that as long as there is interest in the market to attract investors, the country's regulators will continue to crack down on cryptocurrency companies to protect investors from potential fraud and manipulation.

▌ECB member: The future of central banks must modify business models and embrace CBDC

Joachim Nagel, president of the German central bank and member of the European Central Bank (ECB), said that the future of central banks depends on the modification of their business models and the rapid adoption of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

▌Kenya appoints mining company Marathon Digital as consultant to review the country's cryptocurrency regime

Kenyan President William Ruto recently revealed that the government has appointed Bitcoin mining company Marathon Digital as a consultant to review its cryptocurrency regime. The US-based bitcoin miner will reportedly discuss electricity usage for cryptocurrency mining with the Kenyan Ministry of Energy.

Blockchain Applications

▌Alethea CEO: In 5 years there will be AI agents that autonomously perform cryptocurrency transactions

Alethea CEO Arif Khan predicted the future of crypto and AI at the Consensus 2024 conference. He predicted that in 5 years, there will be AI agents that autonomously perform cryptocurrency transactions to manage life. He stressed the importance of decentralized AI, incorporating ownership into the design structure to bring compensation to creators. Alethea's vision is to build Web3 infrastructure, combining scarcity and abundance, and create AI protocols to track and monetize generative assets.

▌Uniswap’s Total Volume on the Arbitrum Network Surpasses $150 Billion

Ethereum layer 2 protocol Arbitrum has surpassed $150 billion in volume on decentralized exchange Uniswap. Arbitrum is the first Layer2 to break the $150 billion total volume threshold on a DEX, Uniswap Labs wrote in a social media post on Monday. As of early May, Arbitrum’s cumulative swap volume reached $150.2 billion. Blockchain data tracker DeFiLlama shows that Arbitrum’s total value locked (TVL) is $2.64 billion, making it the Layer2 with the largest TVL and the fifth largest protocol after Layer1 Solana, BSC, Tron, and Ethereum.

▌Ethereum developers intend to improve the usability of crypto wallets through EIP-3074

Ethereum developers have been discussing and incorporating certain Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) into Pectra, the next major hard fork of the blockchain. EIP-3074 is one of the proposals that has received support and attention from the Ethereum community. This proposal aims to improve the user experience of blockchain wallets.

▌German state-owned development bank KfW intends to issue blockchain digital bonds with a minimum size of 100 million euros

German state-owned development bank Kredittanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (KfW) intends to issue blockchain digital bonds with a minimum size of 100 million euros. According to people familiar with the matter, the bond is expected to mature in December 2025. It is reported that KfW will discuss with European institutional investors in the preparation stage for a few weeks so that investors have time to familiarize themselves with the transaction, which is expected to be completed in the summer.

Cryptocurrency

▌TD Cowen: BTC and MicroStrategy shares may rise this month

BTC may have huge upside potential this month due to two major catalysts, said TD Cowen analyst Lance Vitanza, and Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy (MSTR) shares may also rise. Vitanza said customers have given very positive feedback to MicroStrategy's legacy software business, which was established long before Saylor pushed the company to buy billions of dollars in Bitcoin. MicroStrategy's stock has risen 89% so far this year, and the company's stock may also see meaningful gains due to two major catalysts that may push up Bitcoin prices.  

May 15 is the deadline for institutional investment managers to submit Form 13-F to the U.S. SEC. If more companies buy the newly approved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the first quarter, it will indicate that Bitcoin has gained further institutional recognition. Another potentially favorable event is that the SEC may reject the Ethereum ETF, Bitcoin will prove to be the winner, and incremental demand may be even stronger.

▌Hightower discloses purchase of $68 million worth of spot Bitcoin ETF

Hightower, an asset management company with $130 billion in assets under management, disclosed in a report that it has purchased a total of $68 million worth of ETFs through 6 spot Bitcoin ETFs.

▌SouthState Bank discloses its holdings of BlackRock and Grayscale's spot Bitcoin ETFs

SouthState Bank, with $44 billion in assets under management, reported in a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it holds spot Bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock and Grayscale.

▌Spot Bitcoin ETF GBTC had a net inflow of $3.9 million yesterday

According to HODL15Capital monitoring data, yesterday (May 6), the spot Bitcoin ETF GBTC had a net inflow of $3.9 million, which was the second consecutive trading day of capital inflow; ARKB had a net inflow of $76 million; BITB had a net inflow of $2 million.

Important Economic Dynamics

▌The probability of the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates unchanged in June is 91.3%

According to CME's "Fed Watch", the probability of the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates unchanged in June is 91.3%, and the probability of a 25 basis point rate cut is 8.7%. The probability of the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates unchanged by August is 68.6%, the probability of a cumulative 25 basis point rate cut is 29.2%, and the probability of a cumulative 50 basis point rate cut is 2.2%.

▌Fed Williams: The Fed will eventually cut interest rates

Fed Williams said that data may fluctuate up and down in unpredictable ways; rate cut decisions will be made based on overall data; the Fed will eventually cut interest rates.

Golden Encyclopedia

▌What is Liquidity Staking?

Liquidity staking allows stakers to maintain liquidity of staked tokens by using alternative tokens, which they can use to earn additional returns through DeFi protocols. Liquidity staking enables cryptocurrency holders to participate in staking without giving up control of their holdings. This changes the way users stake. Projects such as Lido have introduced liquidity staking to provide tokenization of staked assets in the form of tokens and derivatives.

Disclaimer: As a blockchain information platform, Golden Finance publishes articles for information reference only and is not intended as actual investment advice. Please establish a correct investment philosophy and be sure to increase risk awareness.