ETF Saga: Is Coinbase Enough?

📢 Sponsor | 💡 Telegram | 📰 Past Editions

Good Morning,

The crypto markets are up with ETH inching closer to $2,000. Binance, Justin Sun, and TUSD are allegedly doing some weird movements of funds. Stay cautious.

Happy early 4th of July to the Americans — may the force of the bull market be with all of us 🇺🇲

In Today's Email:

• What Matters: ETF saga continues 🧑‍⚖️

• Products: Azuki Elementals, what’s next? 🔥

• Charts: Solana activity declines, GBTC discount dips 📉

BROUGHT TO YOU BY… ?

This spot could be your company - in front of tens of thousands of web3 builders and investors! We are looking for early sponsorship partners. Fill out this form and we'll get in touch :)

— or follow us here and here to chat

WHAT MATTERS

SEC: ETF Filings Are Inadequate

State of play: The SEC returned ‘inadequate’ Bitcoin ETF applications filed by asset managers.

• This is because the applications did not name the spot bitcoin exchange which they are expected to have a surveillance-sharing agreement (SSA).

• All applicants have updated their filings, naming Coinbase, except for BlackRock or ARK.

What’s next: After the resubmission, SEC has 15 days to put the filing out for public commentary, it can return the filings again by the seventh day.

• After the 15-day period, the SEC has up to 240 days to approve or reject the filing.

Our take: Last week Eric Blachunas argued that the Bitcoin ETF has a 50% approval probability because Coinbase is the exchange that will be used for the ETF.

• Now he argues that it is no longer a problem, thus, the approval probability should be higher than 50% now.

• The only concern now is that Coinbase is not adequately regulated yet and it’s also being sued by the SEC.

For builders and investors: Right now, this ETF news is the catalyst that will decide whether investors will bring back their appetite for crypto assets.

• It’s also critical to adjust your marketing time — any news you put out (if not targeted properly), will be outshined by Bitcoin ETF news.

Take a peek at our new referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 100 smart crypto investors' wallet addresses 👇

PRODUCTS OF THE WEEK

Azuki’s “Elementals” NFT Collection Mint

Azuki NFT project released its “Elementals” collection. It’s a 20,000-edition derivative of its wildly-popular original collection.

• Of the 10,000 Elementals collection, the entire allocation went to the Azuki and BEANZ community.

• In just over 24 hours after the release, the floor price for Elementals NFTs was hovering around 1.5 ETH (~$2,700), falling below its original mint price of 2 ETH.

• Some Azuki holders complained that they weren’t able to mint at all because of technical difficulties.

• Multiple collectors claimed that the Elementals collection displayed remarkably similar artwork to the original Azuki collection, including identical metadata on certain NFTs.

• The co-founder of Azuki promptly attributed the mistake to a "technical glitch" that resulted in incorrect processing of metadata for a few tokens.

Revamping the product after the backlash:

• The Azuki team plans to update the artwork of the Elementals collection to further distinguish it from the original collection.

• Azuki stated that it is working on an anime series featuring its character universe — it will be self-funded.

• "Imagine watching an anime, and afterward you can interact with an NPC in the anime, whether that's via Twitter or a web app, and the NPC can issue you tokens with which you can interact,” said Zagabond on the call.

Other cool products:

• SatoshiGPT, a ChatGPT for crypto.

• Uptop Deals, a crypto shopping experience.

• Capture, a creator-focused platform that safeguards creative work.

• Binocs, a crypto tax software and accounting platform.

• Workverse, a Web3 identity-focused video conferencing app.

• Crossmint, a wallet infrastructure for developers.

CHARTS OF THE WEEK

Solana Active Addresses Decline

State of play: Solana is experiencing a significant decline in address activity.

• Solana experienced the highest decline in the number of active addresses, with a decrease of 47.7% in the past 30 days.

• Arbitrum comes second, with a 32.8% decrease in the past 30 days.

• Optimism has the highest increase of active addresses with a 86.3% increase over the past 30 days.

Our take: Alt L1s tend to struggle in getting activities as they aren’t EVM-compatible. Meanwhile, Optimism is surging because other entities (Binance, Coinbase, a16z), are building their own L2 using OP stack.

GBTC Discount Dip

State of Play: Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust share price discount dipped from the -45% range to -30%.

• The discount on the GBTC’s share price relative to its net asset value.

• GBTC share price has gained nearly 50% in less than two weeks since BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF application.

• The last time GBTC share price closed the day around this level was September 2022.

Our take: GBTC discount tends to reflect sentiment towards Bitcoin in the US.

• In general, if Grayscale can get out of the discount situation without selling BTC, it would be an overall good thing for the space.

QUICK BITES

• SEC says spot Bitcoin ETF filings are inadequate.

• Kraken ordered to turn over user information to the IRS.

• CME’s Ether Options sees ATH open interest.

• Poly Network exploited, attacker issued billions in worthless tokens.

• South Korea passes standalone crypto bill.

• OKX expands Manchester City sponsorship with a $70M deal.

• Binance burns 2.65 billion Terra Classic LUNC tokens.

MEME & NOTEWORTHY READS

• Adam Cochran’s read on Justin Sun and TUSD ownership.

• Our Network’s read on bridges.

• Variant Fund’s read on app rollups and on-chain ads.

CMS Intern is a pioneer of the crypto Twitter meme game — best of luck sir!

If you enjoy reading this issue, please consider subscribing. It takes 1 minute of your time but it would mean the world to us 🙇

Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advic