Weekly Newsletter[Block#831,065]
HCM Capital cultivates value through mutual sharing. Your substantial contribution unite us in envisioning of future Bitcoinization world. Tipping is appreciated.
Preview
A. Bitcoin Spot ETF
1. Bitcoin spot ETFs hit $10B milestone just one month after approval
2. Bitwise’s bitcoin spot ETF addresses updated to native SegWit P2WPKH
B. Bitcoin Ecosystem
1. Elizabeth Warren pivots on Bitcoin, honors Satoshi Nakamoto with Flagover Capitol
2. Bitcoin Magazine announces partnership with Unchained to educate bitcoiners
C. Regulation
1. Banks are pushing US regulators to change crypto guidance
D. Macroeconomy
1. European economies face substantial recession risk, poll shows
2. Turkey’s January inflation sees biggest monthly jump since August, nears 65% year-on-year
E. Bitcoin Tech Development
1. Ideas for relay enhancements after cluster mempool is deployed
2. Notable code and documentation changes
A. Bitcoin Spot ETF
1. Bitcoin spot ETFs hit $10B milestone just one month after approval
The recently launched Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) completed the first 20 trading sessions, hitting the $10 billion milestone in assets under management (AUM). According to data from BitMEX Research on Feb 18th, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, which currently holds Bitcoin worth $6.2 billion. The second position is claimed by Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund, with over $4.4 billion in bitcoin under management. The Bitwise Spot Bitcoin ETF and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF also reached the billion-dollar milestone, holding over $1 billion worth in the portfolio.
Reference:
https://twitter.com/bitmexresearch/status/1758911218180301233?s=61&t=2OK2aNkW76f1H3319tmn6A
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-etfs-hit-10b-milestone-just-month-after-approval
2. Bitwise’s bitcoin spot ETF addresses updated to native SegWit P2WPKH
Bitwise announced that it is transitioning its Bitcoin address from P2PKH to native SegWit P2WPKH. The aim is to adopt new technology and offer an enhanced experience to investors. The SegWit P2WPKH reduces the cost and improves the efficiency of transactions. It also signifies Bitwise’s commitment to innovation and leaving behind the players in traditional finance. For a quick reference, the native SegWit brings features of better speed, economical cost, and higher efficiency than the traditional mechanism. It therefore marks a futuristic pathway for all transactions pertaining to Bitcoin. Considering many players would look to get into the market, and only the ones with higher efficiency and lower costs would make it to the top. Bitwise is confident about putting Bitcoin on the fast track and is also bidding to attract more investors.
Reference:
https://cryptonews.net/news/bitcoin/28564523/
https://twitter.com/bitwiseinvest/status/1757813223536103568?s=46&t=JfU1gwkLl3mISmbPi7a5mQ
B. Bitcoin Ecosystem
1. Elizabeth Warren pivots on Bitcoin, honors Satoshi Nakamoto with Flagover Capitol
Elizabeth Warren, the long-time adversary of Bitcoin on Capitol Hill, has seen the orange-tinted light and quite literally raised a flag to praise the work of Bitcoin’s anonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, celebrating 15 years since the network launched. In participation of the Capitol Flag Program, Senator Warren’s office submitted a request to commemorate Nakamoto’s accomplishment of creating the first “truly inclusive financial system,” with the colors of the United States being flown above the Capitol on December 18, 2023 — a date known to Bitcoiners as HODL Day.
2. Bitcoin Magazine announces partnership with Unchained to educate bitcoiners
Bitcoin Magazine announced a new partnership with Unchained, as official collaborative custody and IRA partner in the United States. Unchained offers a better way to interact with Bitcoin through collaborative custody. Providing investors with the right tool to eliminate custodial risk by taking ownership of their assets or distributing control among multiple trusted parties. This method has gained traction as a superior risk management strategy. Bitcoin Magazine and Unchained will co-produce Bitcoin-only educational content. With the goal of helping new and current Bitcoin investors access the best tools and methods to achieve their financial goals, this content will focus on financial literacy, security, planning (including 401k, IRA, and inheritance), and best-in-class market research. As part of these educational efforts, Bitcoin Magazine and Unchained will release an institutional adoption roadmap to show financial institutions how, and why, to interact with the Bitcoin network through collaborative custody.
Reference:
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/press-releases/bitcoin-magazine-announces-partnership-with-unchained
C. Regulation
1. Banks are pushing US regulators to change crypto guidance
Major banks and financial institutions in the United States are pushing the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to re-adjust its definition of crypto assets, which could allow them to play a larger role in crypto, such as acting as custodians to the recently approved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. On Feb. 14, a trade group coalition comprising the Bank Policy Institute, American Bankers Association, Financial Services Forum and Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association pled their case in a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler. The group highlighted the recent approval of spot Bitcoin exchange traded products in the U.S., noting that American banks were absent from the approved products as asset custodians.
Reference:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/big-banks-push-sec-change-crypto-accounting-bitcoin-etf-action
D. Macroeconomy
1. European economies face substantial recession risk, poll shows
European economies received a poor bill of health in a survey of experts that showed elevated recession risks due to geopolitical conflicts and heightened energy costs. In the euro zone, the chances of two consecutive quarters of declining output by year-end are highest in Germany and the Netherlands at 38%, according to a quarterly poll by the ifo Institute and the Swiss Economic Policy Institute. That compares with 26% in the US. The 20-nation bloc stagnated at the end of 2023, avoiding a recession by the slimmest of margins as firmer growth in Italy and Spain offset a downturn in Germany. The prospects for a quick turnaround are slim, with the European Central Bank predicting continued near-term weakness.
Reference:
https://ampvideo.bnnbloomberg.ca/european-economies-face-substantial-recession-risk-poll-shows-1.2032461
https://us10.campaign-archive.com/?e=3f4e3dc99d&u=451473e81730c5a3ae680c489&id=ce3911d0db
2. Turkey’s January inflation sees biggest monthly jump since August, nears 65% year-on-year
In January, Turkish inflation climbed to 6.7 percent, from 2.9 percent in December, while year-on-year inflation hit nearly 65 percent, according to the Turkish central bank’s figures. The consumer price index for the country of 85 million people increased by 64.86 percent annually, up slightly from 64.77 percent in December. Sectors with the largest monthly price rises were health at 17.7 percent, hotels, cafes and restaurants at 12 percent, and miscellaneous goods and services at just more than 10 percent. Clothing and footwear was the only sector showing a monthly price decrease, with -1.61 percent.
E. Bitcoin Tech Development
1. Ideas for relay enhancements after cluster mempool is deployed
Gregory Sanders posted to Delving Bitcoin several ideas for allowing individual transactions to opt-in to certain mempool policies after cluster mempool support has been fully implemented, tested, and deployed. The improvements build on the features of v3 transaction relay by relaxing some of its rules that may no longer be needed and adding a requirement that a transaction (or a package of transactions) pay a feerate that makes them likely to be mined within the next block or two.
2. Notable code and documentation changes
Bitcoin Core #28948 adds support for (but does not enable) version 3 transaction relay, allowing any v3 transaction that has no unconfirmed parent to enter the mempool according to the normal transaction acceptance rules. The v3 transaction can be CPFP fee-bumped but only if the child is 1,000 vbytes or less. Each v3 parent may only have one unconfirmed child transaction in the mempool and each child may only have one unconfirmed parent. Either the parent or child transaction can always be replaced by fee.
Eclair #2818 maximizes the number of inputs the Eclair wallet believes it can safely spend by detecting some cases when an existing unconfirmed transaction is very unlikely to become confirmed. Eclair uses Bitcoin Core’s wallet to manage its UTXOs for onchain spending, including for fee-bumping transactions.
