Bitcoin, Ether flat; U.S. equities drop as rate hike concerns return
Bitcoin was trading flat below the $26,000 resistance level in Asia on Wednesday morning. Ether edged up slightly but remained below the $1,650 level, while other top 10 non-stable cryptocurrencies traded mixed. Solana led the winners after Visa announced it would be expanding stablecoin payments to the Solana network. US stock futures traded mixed after a bad day on Tuesday. Restrictions on oil supplies by Russia and Saudi Arabia have raised inflation concerns among investors and fears of further rate hikes in the US.
Solana drives the Visa partnership
According to data from CoinMarketCap, over the past 24 hours, bitcoin is up 0.01% to $25,764.10 (as of 07:10 Hong Kong time), for a weekly loss of 6.72%. The world’s leading cryptocurrency has been trading between $25,500 and $26,000 since Saturday. In June, it was trading in the same range before US investment giant BlackRock’s bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposal pushed the price above $30,000
“The market appears to be underestimating the potential impact of US BTC spot ETFs. A spot ETF approval is likely to attract huge inflows and generate significant buying pressure on BTC. Conversely, if the BTC spot ETFs are rejected, nothing changes,” crypto research firm K33 Research wrote in a report Tuesday.
“Prices are now the same as before the Blackrock news that breathed new life into BTC spot ETF opportunities. Over the same period, the Nasdaq 100, often a good indicator of the market’s overall risk appetite, is up 2%. BTC spot ETFs will be huge and given the improved chances of admission, it seems obvious that the market is misjudging them,” the report continues.
Digital wealth manager Grayscale Investments sent one letter on Tuesday to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), asking the regulator to approve its application to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot bitcoin ETF. This followed an Aug. 29 favorable court decision for the digital asset management firm, which asked the SEC to review a filing it denied last year.
“GBTC is ready to operate as a Bitcoin ETF upon regulatory approval, and Grayscale looks forward to continued constructive engagement with the SEC,” Grayscale said in a Twitter thread Tuesday.
Justin d’Anethan, head of Asia-Pacific business development at Belgium-based crypto market maker Keyrock, said Grayscale’s resubmission of the SEC’s filing for approval of its ETF is cause for optimism. “Again, the launch of a crypto-related ETF seems increasingly likely, although the timeline itself remains in question,” he said.
Ethereum is up 0.51% to $1,631.79, down 5.53% over the past seven days. As of the weekend, the second largest cryptocurrency has been trading at around $1,640. However, analysts at K33 anticipate that the price of the token will increase in the near future.
“September and October favors overweight exposure to ETH as ETH brings stronger ETF momentum near-term,” wrote K33 in Tuesday’s report. “Futures-based ETH ETFs are due to receive their final judgments in mid-October, with a good chance of approval.”
Nearly a dozen companies including Volatility Shares, Bitwise, Roundhill and ProShares have applied to launch Ethereum ETFs in the US
Other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies have been trading differently over the past 24 hours. Solana’s SOL led the gainers, rising 4.43% to $20.22 but still down 7.19% for the week.
Visa Inc. announced on Tuesday that it will expand its USDC stablecoin settlement services to the Solana blockchain. The global payments giant has been supporting USDC settlements on the Ethereum blockchain since March 2021.
“By leveraging stablecoins like USDC and global blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum, we’re helping improve the speed of cross-border settlement and offering our customers a modern way to easily send or receive funds from Visa Treasury.” , said Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa said in the announcement.
Solana said in a tweet on Tuesday that Visa’s addition of blockchain to its payments network precedes an extensive planning and infrastructure assessment phase.
“The partnership between Solana and Visa is a positive development for the blockchain ecosystem,” said John Stefanidis, CEO of blockchain infrastructure foundation Balthazar DAO.
“It expands the range of use cases beyond pure Ethereum-based applications. Additionally, Solana offers faster and cheaper transactions, making it a great option for processing transactions in-house,” said Stefanidis.
Meanwhile, on Sept. 1, crypto exchange Coinbase launched a new crypto lending platform for US institutional investors. The platform has raised over $57 million in investments, according to a filing filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.
The platform’s launch follows bankruptcies of major crypto lenders including Celsius Network, BlockFi, and Genesis Global. These collapses have created a vacuum in crypto lending services that the new Coinbase platform could fill.
The total crypto market cap increased by 0.15% to $1.04 trillion. Trading volume increased 5.55% to $25.05 billion.
