This Week in Coins: Bitcoin and Ethereum Rally Hard Post-BlackRock – Decrypt

The recovery that began last week— after US inflation appeared to cool — accelerated this week as markets continued to reverberate from the world's largest asset manager BlackRock's pump. Submit a request to the SEC for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Dozens of companies apply for ETFs and dozens have been turned down. To date, not a single Bitcoin spot ETF has been approved by the crypto-sceptic SEC, despite Canadian regulators having approved many of them.

The stakes are high – a spot ETF would offer investors the chance to buy Bitcoin and jump on the gravy train or go to hell in a hand basket – but if it is the latter, they will be safe in the knowledge that their investment is protected. , as opposed to those who buy and store crypto directly.

If anyone stands a chance of getting an ETF approved, it's BlackRock. The company has an incredible $9 trillion in assets under management and has a winning score of 575-1 when it comes to getting an ETF approved by the SEC.

The news inspired two other US asset managers, WisdomTree and Invesco, who have previously applied for their own ETFs, to submit new ETF applications this week. Valkyrie did the same shortly after.

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETC) surged this week. The world's largest cryptocurrency soared 18% to its current price of $30,687, while the second largest rose 12.7% to trade at $1,893 at the start of the weekend.

Investors also flooded into other cryptocurrencies this week. In fact, most of the top thirty cryptocurrencies by market capitalization shot up by double-digit percentages. There were no losses among the major unsupported coins.

Bitcoin's fork, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), has skyrocketed a staggering 80.5% in the past seven days and is currently trading at $192.90.

Regulation and expansion

While all eyes were on the SEC and big asset managers this week, there were a couple of other stories that indicated steady cryptocurrency adoption continues around the world.

In the UK, a Bank of England-backed central bank digital currency (CBDC) trial project published its findings, concluding that a centrally issued sterling-pegged digital currency could “enable a robust ecosystem to encourage innovationand help meet the future needs of a more digitized society.”

The project, dubbed Project Rosalind, emphasized the programmability of cryptocurrencies through smart contracts, which facilitate automatic payments and enable new types of online transactions.

On Monday, British MPs in the House of Lords (upper house) voted through the Financial Services and Markets Billa piece of legislation proposing regulation for stablecoins, cryptocurrencies, and the promotion of cryptocurrencies.

The bill has already passed the House of Commons and reached the final stages: Consideration of Amendments, where both houses debate the proposals and tighten the screws until they both agree. The final stage requires the signature of King Charlie himself.

Was reported on Tuesday that Germany's largest bank, Deutsche Bank, applied for a digital asset custody platform license with the German financial regulator, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).

during a semester audience On monetary policy upheld by the Republican-led House Financial Services Committee led by Patrick McHenry (R-NC) on Wednesday, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the US central bank has "staying power” while implying the same about stablecoins.

Finally, the progenitor of XRP, Ripple, was granted a license payments in principle In Singapore. Ripple has long felt the heat from US regulators. The lawsuit against it by the SEC has been ongoing since 2020, and like Coinbase, the company is now hedging its bets through global expansion.