Heat on: Grayscale vs Others 🌋
Grayscale loses its Bitcoin investment crown to Wall Street giants like BlackRock and Fidelity. ETH ETFs incoming. Bitcoin seizure in Germany. Michelle Obama's betting attention. Solana soars high.
Hello, y'all. If you think you know your music, then this is for you frens👇
A complete go. Check out 👉 Asset - Music Nerd.
This is The Token Dispatch 🙌 you can hit us on telegram 🤟
Remember when Grayscale was the go-to for Bitcoin investments?
Well, things got a bit more interesting on January 11.
Now, giants like BlackRock and Fidelity are stepping into the ring.
And, of course, Grayscale is feeling the heat in the form of outflows.
The other 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs have been on a collecting spree, bagging over 150,000 BTC in assets just 13 days after they started trading - $6.5 billion in Bitcoin.
Post-ETF launch, money started flowing out of Grayscale and into the arms of BlackRock and Fidelity’s ETFs.
On January 30, GBTC saw an outflow of $221 million, while BlackRock and Fidelity saw $ 299 million and $119 million respectively.
GBTC has also seen its market share by trading volume nearly cut in half, plummeting from its peak of 63.9% down to 36.4%.
Can GBTC keep its crown? Time will tell.
Despite holding a pretty solid lead in assets under management (AUM), its higher management fees compared to the newbies could make things a bit tricky. Investors are clearly leaning towards the new, cheaper options, and they're BIG NAMES.
Seoyoung Kim, associate professor of finance at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, said.
“They [Grayscale] have a huge first mover advantage … Also, there’s a cost of switching. One reason people will still stick with Grayscale despite the high fee is [they may] trigger a tax liability if they switch.”
How did the GBTC exodus affected crypto market?
Bitcoin's price dip? Blame it on Grayscale's GBTC turning into an ETF. And then kicked off the massive sell-off, with investors cashing out to the tune of $4.3 billion.
FTX added fuel to the fire by offloading 22 million GBTC shares - a cool billion exiting stage left.
Read this: Who's selling? 🪝
Read this: This too shall pass🤞🏿
But, things are cooling down.
The GBTC outflows have significantly dropped from around $700 million in BTC per day to less than $200 million, with a noticeable decrease from 24,000 BTC in outflows on January 25 to just over 6,000 BTC by January 29.
Grayscale offloaded over 4,400 BTC to its custodian Coinbase.
The decrease in GBTC outflows and the balancing of BTC inflows and outflows on exchanges could signal a stabilisation in the market - a boost in investor confidence.
TTD Forcast 🔜
Standard Chartered Bank forecasts the SEC's approval of spot Ethereum ETFs on May 23, aligning with the process observed for Bitcoin ETFs.
And the price can go double.
Geoffrey Kendrick, Head of Standard Chartered Bank's forex and digital assets research.
"If ETH prices perform similarly to how BTC prices performed in the lead-up to BTC ETF approval, ETH could trade as high as $4,000 by then."
Rationale for Approval: The expectation is based on the SEC not classifying Ether as a security in its legal actions and ETH’s listing as a regulated futures contract on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
The bank mentions Grayscale's interest in converting its Ethereum Trust into an ETF, noting no fundamental reasons for the SEC to differentiate ETH from its treatment by the CME.
Kendrick suggests Ether might be less impacted by post-approval selling compared to Bitcoin, citing the smaller market cap share of the Grayscale Ethereum Trust.
Earlier, the bank said that BTC would hit $100,000 per coin by the end of 2024.
TTD Fraud 🦹🏻
In Saxony, Germany, the police, alongside tax pros and prosecutors, have snagged a whopping 50,000 Bitcoin, valued at about $2.17 billion.
The largest Bitcoin seizure in the country.
They're linking this stash, to a couple of folks from Germany and Poland. The duo allegedly bagged this Bitcoin by cashing in on pirated content online back in 2013.
Turns out, the accused were cooperative, transferring the Bitcoin to official police wallets voluntarily.
It remains unclear how the German authorities will manage or utilise the confiscated cryptocurrency.
A Bit of Context: It's not clear when exactly the Bitcoin was bought, but the massive size of the haul hints it might've been snapped up when Bitcoin was way cheaper.
According to some stats from Glassnode as of late October, the U.S. authorities had previously seized over 210,429 BTC tied to various crimes.
Where’s ETF?🚨
The battle between BlackRock and Fidelity for dominance in the bitcoin ETF market is expected to continue, as both firms benefit from their distribution networks👇
TTD Bet 🤝🏻
Michelle Obama is getting some unexpected betting attention for the 2024 Presidential Election, according to Polymarket.
Despite not being in the race, she's the third favourite among bettors.
How Much? $2.5 million has been wagered on Michelle Obama clinching the presidency, giving her a 6% shot at the title.
Top Contenders: Donald Trump leads the pack with a 53% chance, followed by Joe Biden at 37%. Other candidates like Nikki Haley, Gavin Newsom and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are far behind with just 1%.
Polymarket has had its hits and misses. It accurately predicted Biden's win in 2020 and the Bitcoin ETF approval, but missed the mark on the OceanGate vessel discovery.
TTD Solana 🟦
Solana has seen a significant uptick in activity, with January's transaction volume reaching $951.9 billion, a notable increase from December's $735.8 billion.
This marks a multi-year high, far surpassing the $40 billion low in September 2023.
SOL has bounced back impressively, crossing the $100 mark again.
This surge is partly attributed to trading activity around the WEN token pairs on decentralised exchanges.
On Monday, SOL also emerged as the top performer among major altcoins, posting an 8% gain.
WEN Token Impact: The WEN token airdrop to Jupiter DEX users, Solana Saga phone users, and select NFT project owners has spiked DEX trading volumes, especially in stablecoin-SOL, stablecoin-WEN, and SOL-WEN pairs.
TTD Surfer 🏄
China is planning to revise its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations to include cryptocurrency-related transactions.
The SEC is planning to dismiss its lawsuit against DEBT Box after admitting that inaccurate statements were made in court.
Terraform Labs, which is facing a securities fraud lawsuit from the SEC, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
If you like us, if you don't like us .. either ways do tell us✌️
If you dig what we do, show us love on Twitter, Instagram & Threads🤞
So long. OKAY? ✋