1. Market Wrap: Bitcoin Sells Off as Regulatory Concerns Resurface
“We expect volatility to remain under pressure until mid [to] late August,” said one trading firm.
Cryptocurrencies traded lower on Thursday as regulatory concerns resurfaced. Bitcoin broke below initial support at $34,000 and is down about 5% over the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency could stabilize around $30,000, which is the bottom of the month-long trading range.
There is a lack of a “real catalyst or market-moving events right now,” wrote QCP Capital in a Telegram chat. “We expect volatility to remain under pressure until mid [to] late August.”
“With BTC, we have seen some funds speculate that the lack of narrative combined with lower levels of liquidity on exchanges may lead to a pop in prices if a positive headline is to occur,” wrote Chris Dick, quant trader at crypto trading firm B2C2.
Latest prices
Cryptocurrencies:
Bitcoin (BTC) $32962.45, -4.68%
Ether (ETH) $2157.6, -8.93%
Traditional markets:
S&P 500: 4321.07, -0.85%
Gold: $1801.8, -0.11%
10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.3%, compared with 1.318% on Wednesday
Regulatory headwinds
Growing concerns from regulators have been weighing on cryptocurrency prices over the past few months. This week, China’s crackdown intensified when the nation’s central bank issued a warning about the risks of stablecoins.
2. USDC Is Only Circle’s Second-Biggest Business, SPAC Filing Shows
“Transaction and treasury services,” with clients including Dapper Labs, Compound Labs and FTX, is the soon-to-be-public company’s top revenue source.
Most of the conversation about Circle revolves around USD coin (USDC), the stablecoin it created in collaboration with Coinbase.
But according to an investor presentation released with Thursday’s announcement that Circle would go public using a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), the company has three lines of business, all generating growing revenue. Of those, USDC is only the second-biggest contributor to the top line.
Circle has been a mainstay of the more corporate and institutionally focused side of the cryptocurrency industry. Started by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville as a peer-to-peer payments company that once had a strong bitcoin orientation, it has evolved into an infrastructure company supporting much of the blockchain industry, and that infrastructure work appears to be its strongest area for revenue growth.
3. Elizabeth Warren Gives SEC July 28 Deadline to Figure Out Crypto Regulation
The Democrat senator said in a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler that she needs answers by July 28.
Crypto skeptic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) gave the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) until the end of this month to figure out its role in regulating cryptocurrencies.
The senator, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Policy, said in a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler that she needs answers by July 28.
Despite the rising popularity of crypto, a “lack of common-sense regulations has left ordinary investors at the mercy of manipulators and fraudsters,” Warren said.
“The SEC must use its full authority to address these risks, and Congress must also step up to close these regulatory gaps,” she added.
Warren has long been critical of bitcoin, describing the crypto as “speculative in nature and going to end badly” during a CNBC interview in March.
She also voiced her concerns about the lack of regulatory clarity involving crypto and the energy usage of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies during a June subcommittee hearing.
4. Circle CEO Says USDC to Take High Road, But It’s a Long Road
Jeremy Allaire made the promise at a time that investors have been demanding more transparency around USDC.
With his company on the cusp of going public, Jeremy Allaire — CEO of Circle, operator of USDC (USDC (-0.04%)), the world’s second-biggest stablecoin — has vowed to make his company “the most public and transparent operator of full-reserve stablecoins in the market.”
He has a ways to go.
Circle announced Thursday that it is listing on the New York Stock Exchange via an acquisition by Concord, a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, led in part by former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond. The deal values the crypto financial services firm at $4.5 billion.
After the announcement, Allaire wrote in a tweet that the transformation from a private to a public company “creates an opportunity for Circle to also provide significantly more transparency about the business we are building around USDC, and about the reserves that back USDC.”
Allaire made the promise at a time when a growing number of commentators have called for greater insight into the assets backing stablecoins like tether (USDT, -0.06%) (USDT), the largest in the cryptocurrency category with about $63 billion of assets. №2 USDC has grown to about $25 billion outstanding from less than $1 billion a year ago.
5. First Midwest Bank Trust Division Holding 29.5K Shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust
First Midwest Bank Trust Division has $14 billion of assets under management and is the third-largest independent Illinois-headquartered bank.
First Midwest Bank Trust Division has reported holding 29,498 shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust as of June 30, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
According to the 13F SEC filing, the Joliet, Ill.-based bank purchased one lot of 20,655 shares and another lot of 8,843 shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.
First Midwest Bank Trust Division has $14 billion of assets under management and provides fiduciary, investment and private banking services to individual, corporate and governmental clients. It is the third largest independent, Illinois-headquartered bank.
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July 9th, 2021
