Focus on Stablecoins
In this week’s recap, MicroStrategy increases its Bitcoin holdings, the U.S. SEC concludes its Ethereum probe, and stablecoins take the spotlight.
Bitcoin’s value dropped below $66,000 on June 18, followed by a further collapse below $65,000 as the week progressed. This downward pressure was attributed to a combination of factors, including miners capitulation, crypto ETF outflows, and reduced issuance of stablecoin tokens. Despite this, 87% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply remained profitable for investors.
Altcoins like Pendle and Toncoin bucked the market trend, with Pendle spiking 17% and reaching a market cap of $968 million. Meanwhile, MicroStrategy took advantage of the downturn to purchase nearly 12,000 additional BTC on June 20 for $786 million.
Zksync faced controversy and concerns over its token distribution but still managed to distribute 3.67 billion tokens, which were listed on Binance on June 17. However, over 41% of the top addresses that received the airdrop sold off all their allocations shortly after the distribution event.
Spot Bitcoin ETF products saw significant outflows, totaling over $500 million in the five days leading to June 21. At the same time, Australia’s AXS gave the green light to asset manager VanEck to launch the first spot Bitcoin ETF in the country, while 3iQ filed to list the first-ever Solana ETP on Canada’s Toronto Stock Exchange.
In regulatory news, South Korean authorities are reviewing the listings of over 600 assets across multiple exchanges, while Fidelity Investments confirmed a seed investment of $4.7 million for a spot Ethereum ETF with the SEC. In the U.S., North Dakota rescinded Binance’s operational license following the conviction of its former CEO, Changpeng Zhao. Binance also faced a $2.2 million fine in India for violating anti-money laundering provisions.
In a win for the Ethereum community, the U.S. SEC revealed that it had closed its investigation on whether certain sales of Ethereum constituted unregistered securities offerings. However, Consensys continues its battle with the agency on whether user interface offerings for functionalities such as Swapping and Staking on MetaMask constitute securities or not.
Stablecoins took center stage this week, with Tether disclosing plans to launch a new asset class backed by Gold. Uphold discontinued support for USDT, along with other “unauthorized” stablecoins, as the market anticipated the implementation of MiCA’s stablecoin regulations. Tether also faced criticism in the U.S. for alleged money laundering and corruption, while the National Australia Bank closed its stablecoin project.
