Ethereum ETFs’ impressive first week

Ethereum ETFs saw about 40% of the volume that BTC ETFs saw in their respective debut weeks.

There’s never a dull moment on the blockchain. Here’s what you need to know this week:

Bitcoin briefly revisited $70K. Plus, Ethereum ETFs had a strong first week, Bitcoin Cash saw an unexpected rally, and crypto games are having a moment.

Politicians from both parties are making the case for crypto. From former President Trump to a group of 28 Democrats, here’s what they’re saying.

This week in numbers. How big the market for BTC mining hardware could get, the amount of car titles the California DMV put on the blockchain, and more.

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ETH ETFs make strong debut, crypto games are having a moment, and more

After former President Donald Trump made his pitch to crypto voters during a major crypto conference over the weekend, BTC briefly reached a seven-week high of $70,000 before falling close to $66,000 by Monday afternoon. ETH prices took a similar journey, peaking around $3,400 before dipping to around $3,200.

One factor potentially impacting prices are worries that $2 billion in previously-seized crypto the U.S. government reportedly moved to new wallets could be headed for the open market.

Here are three more key news stories you should know about.

Ethereum ETFs had a solid first week

Earlier this year, the launch of spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) helped drive crypto’s 2024 rally. Last Tuesday, similar ETFs for ETH from firms including BlackRock and Fidelity began trading.

In their first week the new products saw more than $1 billion of inflows, around 40% of the total attracted by spot BTC ETFs in their first week. BlackRock’s ETHA got off to an early lead in inflows, with $442 million, followed by Bitwise’s ETHW ($265.9 million) and Fidelity’s FETH ($219.4 million).

What’s next? Ethereum is down about 4% since the launch, but it’s worth noting that bitcoin also saw a dip in the days after its ETF launch, before running to new all-time highs. It also appears that the ETFs are successfully attracting institutional investors to buy into ETH.

Mt. Gox distributions are more than halfway done

One factor potentially weighing on crypto prices recently has been the approximately $9 billion in BTC that the long-shuttered, Japan-based crypto exchange Mt. Gox has been returning to customers this summer after a decade-long wait.

But as a Glassnode analyst recently noted, “Mt Gox distributions are almost 50% complete, and the Bitcoin price is doing just fine.”

Cashing in… While most of the Mt. Gox distributions are in bitcoin, the firm is also returning around $73 million in Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Even though the Mt. Gox BCH adds up to about 25% of BCH’s typical recent daily trading volume, the cryptocurrency’s price has surprisingly risen about 12% since the distributions began. For reasons that are unclear (but could be as simple as BCH being in the news because of the Mt. Gox returns), BCH saw its trade volume spike by 70% between Sunday and Monday.

Crypto gaming’s latest moves

The web3 gaming industry has raised billions of dollars in venture capital funding since 2018, but so far there hasn’t been a crypto-based game that has broken through in a truly mainstream way. But with some high-profile web3 games rolling out this summer, could that be about to change? Here are three gaming projects you should know about:

1: Illuvium, which is built on the Immutable X blockchain, consists of three, interconnected titles: Illuvium Arena (a player-vs-player battle arena game) Illuvium Overworld (an open-world role-playing-game) and Illuvium Zero (a real-time strategy game).

The Illuvium game studio is made up of veterans from many of the biggest gaming companies in the world. Early players are eligible to earn a portion of Illuvium’s in-game token by completing tasks and achieving milestones. The games went live on the Epic game store on Monday.

2: Planet X, a mobile shooting game, announced that it will be launching on Xai (an Ethereum scaling solution focused on gaming) and will offer players the chance to win real-world prizes, including a Tesla Cybertruck.

Through Xai, all in-game assets will be tokenized and can be traded with anyone around the world; the Planet X ecosystem will also be supported by an in-game token.

3: Atari just launched a retro onchain arcade on Base, the Ethereum Layer 2 network incubated by Coinbase. The first game players can access is 1979’s Asteroids.

Users can play the game by minting an NFT access pass for $5.25, and compete against other players in order to win weekly prizes or other on-chain rewards. Early prizes include gift cards and vintage Atari consoles.

Play Atari games onchain

TAKES

What politicians on both sides of the aisle are saying about crypto as the 2024 election takes shape

With the U.S. presidential election heating up, crypto has become a major campaign issue.

Former President Donald Trump spoke last week at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville; Vice President Kamala Harris is, as reported by the Financial Times, seeking to “reset” the relationship between Democrats and the crypto industry; and others are arguing that crypto shouldn’t be a partisan issue.

Here’s what some politicians on both sides of the aisle have had to say about crypto recently.

Donald Trump

At Bitcoin 2024 on Saturday, the Republican presidential candidate, whose campaign began accepting crypto donations earlier this year, made his case to potential crypto voters.

During his speech, he said he would make America the “the crypto capital of the planet,” “appoint a new SEC chairman,” and that under his administration the U.S. would “keep 100% of all the bitcoin the U.S. government currently holds or acquires into the future.”

Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-NC)

The Democratic Congressman, also speaking at Bitcoin 2024, emphasized his belief that crypto is an issue that should transcend party lines.

“Vice President Harris understands this issue, her husband is someone I know who gets it, and I think we're going to get to see a reset which will be a big deal in this space,” said Nickel. “The future has to be a bipartisan one."

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)

The Wyoming Republican is one of the strongest advocates for clear crypto regulation in the Senate. At the Nashville conference she discussed a bill that would establish a “strategic bitcoin reserve” by directing the U.S. Treasury to purchase 1 million BTC (worth around $68 billion).

As Lummis put it, “It would be of value … to have a hard asset that backs the U.S. dollar and that grows in value instead of declines in value,”

Earlier this year, Lummis and Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York introduced a bill that would provide rules for issuers of stablecoins.

Democratic representatives and candidates

In a July 26 letter to Democratic leadership, a group consisting of 28 members of Congress and congressional candidates argued that crypto should be added to the party platform, pressed for a “pro-innovation” SEC chair, and requested a vice presidential candidate “sophisticated in digital-asset policy.”

“The current financial system has left many Americans behind,” they noted. “Digital assets and blockchain technology are not merely financial instruments but represent a revolutionary shift that can enhance privacy, reduce fraud, and create a more inclusive financial system.”

NUMBERS TO KNOW

$20 billion

The estimated market size of the bitcoin mining chip and hardware industry over the next five years, according to Bernstein analysts. New mining chips from companies including Block and Auradine are more energy efficient than current chips, and can help diversify chip supply chains away from China, which has about 80% of the mining hardware market share.

$1 billion

The valuation that Anoma Foundation, which provides blockchain infrastructure, is seeking in a new funding round as it looks to raise $40 million, reports Bloomberg. The potential fundraise, said Bloomberg, is "the latest sign of rebounding digital-asset startup investment.”

42 million

Number of car titles that California’s Department of Motor Vehicles has digitized and added to the Avalanche blockchain in an effort to boost fraud detection, simplify the title transfer process, and reduce the need for in-person DMV visits. According to Reuters, California residents will have access to digital car titles next year once the DMV has finalized their app.

$6.6 million

Amount that the State of Michigan Retirement System invested in the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF — the second confirmed investment by a pension fund in spot BTC ETFs since their January launch, per Reuters. The Michigan fund manages roughly $144 million in pension fund assets for state employees.