The new cryptocurrency tax policy is now live and has caused a significant drop in trading volumes on major cryptocurrency exchanges in India. Since the market in general is moving higher, it is likely that the activity has moved to the gray market to avoid taxes.
Pressure on the SEC mounts
Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of the world's largest digital asset management firm, Grayscale, mentioned in an interview that he could sue the SEC if his application to convert his Bitcoin trust into a Bitcoin ETF is denied. This comment could stem from frustration as Grayscale's GBTC, which has over $30.6 billion in AUM, has been trading at a discount of roughly 25 percent to its NAV.
GBTC used to trade at a premium (above the fund's NAV or Net Asset Value) mainly due to the lack of an alternative institutional investment vehicle for Bitcoin. However, that has changed significantly. This can be attributed to increased competition and the extremely high fixed management fee of 2 percent which makes Gbtc (not Bitcoin) undesirable.
A Bitcoin spot ETF could be the next catalyst when it comes to mass adoption, as an ETF removes the barrier of complexity. The investor does not need to know about hardware wallets, crypto exchanges and anything technical. All you have to do is buy the publicly available ETF and it's in Grayscale's best interest to make it happen.
The $600 million hack
The gaming industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. It is one of the first industries to jump into the crypto space and Axie Infinity is spearheading it. Unfortunately, Axie Infinity's Ronin network was exploited and a staggering $600 million worth of Ethereum and USDC was stolen. The hack was made possible due to a certain level of centralization in the Ronin chain. It had nine validator nodes that were in charge of verifying deposits and withdrawals. The hacker gained access to 5 nodes to sign his transactions. The interesting part of the trick was that it was not noticeable for a week.
Cardano making a comeback
Since the Cardano smart contract upgrade went live in late 2021, the price of ADA has plummeted. This can be attributed to a lack of activity within the network. However, things are starting to change for Cardano, as the TVL or Total Value Locked has increased almost 100-fold since the start of the year. As an added bonus, โCoinbaseโ has just allowed people to stake their Cardano through their exchange. This means that all Cardano collecting dust in their Coinbase wallets can earn passive income, thereby removing more and more Cardano from exchanges.
