Weekly Digest From TradeCrypto.com #19

Hot news:

🧨 BlackRock’s unit iShares files for spot bitcoin ETF

🔮 SEC and Binance.US reach agreement on asset freeze

💸 Deutsche Bank applies for digital asset custody license

Daily statistics update:

Today's market is red. BTC is trading at $29,998; ETH is at $1,878.

💪 Bitcoin dominance: 49.77%

📉 Total Crypto Market Cap: $1.17T

😲 Fear and greed index: 65 (Greed)

🚀 7d Gainers (Top-100)

• Pepe (PEPE) +67.35%

• Stacks (STX) +43.22%

• Conflux (CFX) +37.16%

 😭 7d Losers (Top-100)

• BitTorrent (New) (BTT) -7.94%

• KuCoin Token (KSC) -5.37%

• Tether Gold (XAUT) -2.02%

Terra's founder caught at Podgorica airport with forged docs is sentenced to 4 months in prison. During the hearing, however, he denied his guilt, saying that the docs were prepared by an agency in Singapore and that he didn't know they were forged. Well, he knew, of course, that he was wanted by Interpol and South Korean authorities, so the court in Montenegro court didn't find those words convincing enough.🤥 The time he has already spent behind bars will be counted. So in about 1.5 months, he'll be released and then probably sent to the U.S. for hearings and then to South Korea to serve his sentence for draining markets for $40 billion. 🥵

Fidelity Digital Assets, Charles Schwab and Citadel Securities have launched a new crypto exchange. All want their piece of the pie.🥧 EDX Markets CEO Jamil Nazaral said the exchange's goal is to bring the same level of TradFi services to crypto. What makes EDX Markets special is that the exchange doesn't hold client funds, as Coinbase does, for example. They'll act as a financial intermediary, just like the NYSE or Nasdaq. The announcement stressed the post-FTX era 🤡, where customers simply need someone they can trust. So far the exchange only offers BTC, LITE, BHC and ETH as regulation in the US is unclear.

Asset managers Invesco ($1.5 trillion) and WisdomTree ($87 billion) have jumped on the same bandwagon as BlackRock.🚀 However, both tried to open shops in 2021, but SEC refused to fill them, saying crypto was a scam. Perhaps this time will be different, as the world's largest asset manager did so last week. As stated before, all want a piece of the pie. Some speculate that TradFi is dying. Others simply say that the demand for cryptocurrencies is growing among their clients. 💰

In a recent hearing before the House Committee, Fed chair Jerome Powell said stablecoins are money and that the agency should play a more active role in regulating these assets.🧐 SEC chair Gary Gensler choked on this point. That's sensational, yet the point of the speech was that the Fed believes it's its job to oversee stables, not another agency. On the CBDC account, he said that they're far in the future and that CBCDs will be intermediated through the banking system, not the Fed, because of security concerns. 🫣

Congress is finally taking the leap to bring clarity to the wild west of digital assets. The House Financial Services Committee is drawing up the playbook to make it easier🙏 for digital assets to move from securities to commodities. They haven't forgotten about stablecoins either and are working on a roadmap for them. Both will be voted on in July. Let's see if they make it past the Senate and President Biden. 🚀

Conclusion: While Gary Gensler smokes in the background, all the high-weight bodies are changing the situation. Especially for bitcoin, gaining a lot on the news. TradFi too, one giant after another is filling up for spot bitcoin ETFs. While speculative theories abound, the motivation is simple: there is customer demand for cryptocurrencies, and serving that demand is a lucrative opportunity for these institutions. Everyone, of course, sees opportunity and money.

What is Crypto Ping Pong digest?

TC lads here are working quite hard and from time to time we gotta chill. Recently, we got ourselves a ping pong table to complete our lazy-bag-stuffed chill zone. As you all know our main hobby is Crypto, so even while we play we don’t really shut up about it. Ever.

So memes, leaks, gossips naturally come about – we collect them and share them with you in this interstellar space on our site we like to call Crypto Ping Pong digest