July 11th, 2023 — 🏅Bitcoin as Digital Gold — Gemini Sues DCG & Barry Silbert

Get an overview of crypto market liquidity from July 3rd to July 11th, 2023.

Top crypto market headlines:

• Former SEC chair says bitcoin ETF approval ‘hard to resist’ if ‘efficacy’ proven — 7/10/23
• Crypto hiring: Binance loses exec trio as regulators circle — 7/8/23
• Crypto firm Gemini sues DCG after conflict over unit’s restructuring deal — 7/7/23
• Congrats, you’ve just survived the longest bitcoin bear market ever — 7/6/23
• Circle Considers Issuing Stablecoin in Japan Under New Rules — 7/6/23
• Larry Fink says ‘crypto is digitizing gold’ and that BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF could help make the sector ‘more democratized’ — 7/5/23
• Binance CEO expects heavy trading volume, readies platform for action — 7/5/23
• Nasdaq files for Valkyrie bitcoin ETF, lists Coinbase as surveillance sharing partner — 7/5/23
• Traders flocking back to centralized exchanges amid bitcoin rally — 7/4/23
• Coinbase shares surge after wide range of ETF partnerships revealed — 7/3/23
• Hong Kong stacks Web3 task force with top finance regulators — 7/3/23

Weekly Insights Report:

Bitcoin seems to have had its formal TradFi induction moment last week, with BlackRock’s CEO Fink saying, “Bitcoin is an international asset” that is “digitizing gold.” Speaking to Fox Business, Fink talked at length about iShares’ application for a spot BTC ETF. “We’re a believer in the digitization of products… ETFs were a big revolution from the mutual fund industry… and we do believe that if we can create more tokenization of assets and securities… it could revolutionize again finance.” Fink clarified that he had previously been skeptical because of Bitcoin’s early uses for illicit activities but believes today that the role of crypto is digitizing gold.

The arrival of institutional capital into Bitcoin has long been feared or desired depending on ideological views of crypto’s role, but it was always inevitable. A public embrace by the world’s biggest asset manager is indeed a giant leap towards mass adoption and “democratizing” access to crypto.

Former SEC Chair Jay Clayton said that applicants for a spot bitcoin ETF have a strong chance of approval if they can demonstrate it’s a more efficient way for investors to access the digital asset. Clayton said in an interview with CNBC, “If they’re right that the spot market has similar efficacy to the futures market, it would be hard to resist approving a bitcoin ETF.” He refrained, however, from making predictions about when or if a BTC spot ETF will be approved.

Shares in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust were trading at just 27% below their NAV on July 6th, the lowest discount in over a year, as the latter was hovering around 50% at the end of 2022 post the FTX bankruptcy. This discount narrowing seems related to the current wave of BTC spot ETF filings by giant asset managers and the perceived rising probability of approval by the SEC. Coinbase shares surged by more than 10% last week after it was revealed that it has partnerships with a wide range of ETF issuers regarding a spot Bitcoin fund. BlackRock submitted an amended application for a spot BTC ETF after the SEC expressed misgivings about its first attempt. In a new filing submitted on its behalf by the Nasdaq exchange, BlackRock said that it will be finalizing a surveillance agreement with Coinbase (COIN), addressing one of the main objections the SEC has raised when rejecting applications for Bitcoin spot ETFs in the past.

In other news, crypto exchange Gemini has filed a lawsuit against Digital Currency Group (DCG) and its founder, Barry Silbert, accusing them of fraud against creditors. Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss alleges that Silbert is the mastermind behind the supposed fraudulent activities conducted by DCG and its Genesis crypto lending firm. Cross-chain router protocol Multichain has been exploited for nearly $130 million after an attacker siphoned capital out of numerous token bridges. Stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle have blacklisted five addresses that received part of the stolen funds. These firms froze $67.5 million worth of USDC and USDT, representing about 50% of the stolen funds from the cross-chain protocol. Binance had a wave of executive resignations last week, including its Chief Strategy Officer, Senior VP of Compliance, and General Counsel, with rumors circulating that this is only the beginning and more executives could be leaving soon.

On a weekly basis, BTC is down by 1.5% and ETH is down by 4%.

Other major crypto headlines:

• Taylor Swift might not have shaken off deal with FTX — 7/6/23
• Bakkt eyes Hong Kong, UK and EU for international crypto plans — 7/6/23 (
• EU’s Leaked Metaverse Strategy Proposes Regulatory Sandbox, New Global Governance — 7/6/23
• Uniswap v4 expected to go live after Ethereum’s Cancun upgrade and security audit — 7/6/23
• Number of crypto M&A deals plummeted in Q2–7/5/23
• Gemini’s Cameron Winklevoss Tweets $1.5B ‘Final Offer’ in Debt Talks Over Crypto Firm Genesis — 7/4/23
• Singapore wants crypto firms to keep client funds in a trust — 7/3/23
• Revolut is delisting Polygon, Solana and Cardano tokens in the US — 7/3/23

And in case you haven’t seen, here is a selection of our latest articles:

• Commentary notes on Credit Suisse’s rescue deal and recent banking turmoils (2/2)
• Commentary notes on SVB’s failure, Credit Suisse, implications for crypto, and where do we go from here (1/2)
• The Future of Trustless and Decentralized Cross-Chain DeFi — Focus on Interlay
• On Blockchain Interoperability — Focus On The Polkadot Ecosystem
• FTX Post-Mortem Analysis — Why Transparency Matters?
• Opinion article: How a simple “heads or tails” game illustrates the importance of transparency in crypto markets?