Decentral Block Post

The introduction of a spot-based Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) would make the asset more accessible to individual investors and mutual funds. What’s more, unlike a futures-based Bitcoin ETF, a spot-based ETF involves actually buying BTC.

So, will the approval of the first Bitcoin ETF be a bullish event? Not necessarily.

GBTC ‘discount’ remains in the double digits

Over the years, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected every Bitcoin ETF applicant, with the latest denial issued to the VanEck Bitcoin Trust on March 10, 2023.

The SEC concluded that the offer did not have a “comprehensive surveillance-sharing agreement with a regulated market of significant size related to spot Bitcoin.“ Regulators are hesitant to release what many believe would be a more equitable and transparent Bitcoin product. 

Investors now question whether the latest bids from ARK Invest and BlackRock to launch spot Bitcoin ETFs might be the solution to Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), an investment vehicle with shares traded on the stock exchange.

Bitcoin (BTC) spiked through $31,000 on June 30 as a nearly $6 billion open interest expiry loomed.

Options expiry precedes day of BTC price triggers

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting local highs of $31,268 on Bitstamp before returning lower.

BTC price performance improved into a key quarterly options expiry event, the second largest in Bitcoin’s history, with analysts keen to see its effect on markets.

“Will be interesting to see how much is rolled over to future expirations and whether that OI is call or put dominant --> as that will impact how dealers hedge (buy or sell BTC),” financial commentator Tedtalksmacro wrote in part of associated commentary.

June 30 represents a key date for BTC traders all around, with the options expiry forming just one in a series of key events.

The Polkadot Decoded 2023 conference just wrapped up and this year more than 100 speakers and 100 blockchain projects were in attendance. 

The beauty of crypto bear markets is they catalyze a realignment of perspectives and objectives.

All the hidden leverage is gone and most of the speculation is gone.

SBF is gone.

Do Kwon is gone.

Base, a new layer 2 application-focused protocol by Coinbase has just one criteria left to fulfil  before being ready for mainnet launch.

On June 29, the team said the Optimism-powered, Ethereum-secured network has been subject to six months of rigorous security audits — both internally and externally — its second-last criteria required for launch.

“With the completion of these audits, we’ve now fulfilled ⅘ of our criteria for mainnet launch,” Base said, adding that they feel confident after not finding any critical code bugs:

“Completing these in-depth security workstreams without discovering critical severity bugs gave the Base team confidence to proceed towards mainnet launch.”

The other three criteria passed included a “Regolith” hard fork in testnet, a successful infrastructure review with OP labs — the team behind Optimism — and Optimism’s “Bedrock” upgrade.

While many investors in the West may look to crypto to speculate the next biggest trend, blockchain technology is actually solving “real-world problems” in Africa such as hyperinflation and "corruption," executives told Cointelegraph.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Chris Maurice, founder and CEO of Yellow Card — Africa’s largest cryptocurrency exchange — said crypto in Africa “is growing at the speed of light” because it allows many Africans to escape from the traditional financial system’s failures and transact more freely.

“Crypto solves real-world problems with banking and currencies on the continent, and it isn't the casino that it can feel like sometimes in the West.”

Maurice said the most common use cases in Africa are to make international payments, to send money to friends and family and to “save money against inflation.”

“Crypto in Africa lives closer than any other part of the world to the original mission of the technology,” he added.