The Daily: Spot Ethereum ETFs go live, BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF huge daily inflow, and Pudgy Penguins

The Block2024/07/23 22:01

By:James Hunt

Spot Ethereum ETFs begin trading: Here’s what you need to knowBlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF posts $527 million in net inflow, largest since mid-MarchMt. Gox moves $2.85 billion worth of bitcoin: ArkhamThe following is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Tuesday! In today's Daily, spot Ethereum ETFs go live in the U.S., Pudgy Penguins pick up $11 million, Mt. Gox bitcoins are on the move again, and more.

On their first day of trading, ether ETFs generated more than $1.019 billion in cumulative trading volume , according to Yahoo Finance data compiled by The Block Pro Research.

Let's get started.

Spot Ethereum ETFs go live

The SEC allowed registration statements from eight issuers to become effective on Monday, marking the final sign-off for the first-ever spot Ethereum ETFs to begin trading in the U.S. at 9:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday.

Six of the funds will use Coinbase as a custodian. VanEck is using Gemini, whereas Fidelity is self-custodying its ether.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs, which launched in the U.S. in January, have amassed over $60 billion in assets under management and $17.5 billion in net inflows combined.
Analysts predict the Ethereum ETFs will attract significantly less investment, potentially generating $750 million to $1 billion in net inflows per month and around 10% to 15% of the Bitcoin ETFs' assets.
The new U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs had generated a trading volume of more than $667 million on Tuesday by sending time.

BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF daily inflow tops half a billion dollars

BlackRock's IBIT saw net inflows of $526.7 million on Monday, marking the spot Bitcoin ETF's largest intake since March 13.

Fidelity's FBTC, Invesco's BTCO and Franklin Templeton's EZBC added $23.7 million, $13.7 million and $7.9 million worth of net inflows, respectively.
However, net outflows of $47.7 million from Bitwise's BITB and $38.4 million from VanEck's HODL reduced total net inflows to $485.9 million.
The remaining funds, including Grayscale's GBTC, Ark Invest's ARKB and Valkyrie's BRRR reported zero flows for the day.

Mt. Gox bitcoins are on the move again

A wallet linked to Mt. Gox transferred approximately 42,587 BTC ($2.85 billion) to internal addresses on Tuesday, part of an ongoing repayment process of $9 billion worth of bitcoin to creditors.

Mt. Gox later moved around 1,980 BTC ($131.8 million) to crypto exchange Bitstamp in two separate transactions, which may indicate that Bitstamp's distribution of bitcoin repayments is imminent.
Bitstamp, one of five firms selected by the Mt. Gox trustee to manage the payouts, had been expected to receive and distribute its allocation of bitcoin creditor repayments soon.
Bitbank and SBI VC Trade have already received and seemingly distributed their Mt. Gox funds, while BitGo has yet to receive its allocation.
Meanwhile, Kraken appeared to begin repayments to customers on Tuesday after receiving its allocation from Mt. Gox last week.

Peter Thiel's Founders Fund leads $11 million round for Pudgy Penguins' parent

Igloo, the parent company of the popular NFT brand Pudgy Penguins, has raised over $11 million in a strategic funding round led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund to develop a new Layer 2 blockchain Abstract.

The fresh capital will be used to set up Cube Labs, a new venture under Igloo, to oversee and contribute to the development of Abstract.
Abstract, incubated under the not-for-profit Abstract Foundation and built using Matter Labs' ZK Stack and EigenLayer's EigenDA aims to help make decentralized app development easier, cheaper and safer.
Abstract is currently live on testnet, with a mainnet launch expected by the end of the year.

In the next 24 hours

U.S. FOMC member Michelle Bowman will speak at 4:05 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

EDCON 2024 kicks off in Tokyo, Japan.

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Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.