Cryptocurrency

According to JPMorgan, the price to Net Asset Value (NAV) gap for the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) has nearly closed, but fluctuations are expected if the launch of spot Ethereum ETFs in the U.S. faces further delays. While the SEC has approved the 19b-4 forms, the S-1 filings are still under review.The approval of these ETFs, which appears to exclude staking features to ensure SEC approval, suggests that the SEC may view Ethereum as a commodity without staking. JPMorgan analysts believe that the SEC is unlikely to approve ETFs for other tokens, which are considered more centralized and are viewed as securities, unless U.S. policymakers pass legislation treating most cryptocurrencies as commodities—a scenario deemed less likely before the U.S. election.JPMorgan raised questions about the potential for investor inflows into the newly approved spot Ethereum ETFs. The bank anticipates that demand for these ETFs will be a fraction of what was seen for spot Bitcoin ETFs. Reasons include Bitcoin’s first-mover advantage, the lack of a demand catalyst similar to Bitcoin’s halving, the initial exclusion of staking in the Ethereum ETFs, Ethereum’s different value proposition as an application token, lower AUM/liquidity, and the relative size of the Ethereum market compared to Bitcoin.The bank estimates that the spot Ethereum ETFs could attract modest net inflows of approximately $1 billion to $3 billion for the remainder of the year. Should staking be included in the future, potentially through legislative changes, inflows could increase to between $3 billion and $6 billion.Finally, JPMorgan noted that the initial market reaction to the launch of spot Ethereum ETFs might be negative. Drawing parallels to the post-launch reaction of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January of the previous year, the firm expects around $1 billion to exit the Grayscale Ethereum Trust as speculative investors who anticipated a conversion to an ETF may take profits, potentially leading to a short-term decline in Ethereum prices following the launch of the spot ETFs.This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C. More

Wave Digital Assets (Wave), a digital asset-focused investment adviser regulated by the SEC, is pleased to announce the launch of a Polygon network-focused yield vehicle with an initial $30 million. The vehicle is designed to support protocols and teams on the Polygon zkEVM blockchain.starting with facilitating liquidity and TVL.“We’re thrilled to support the developers and startups building upon Polygon’s sustainable blockchain infrastructure as it continues to break ground in the Web3 community. Today, we are launching a new vehicle that we believe will help expand this robust community,” said Benjamin Tsai, Co-founder and President of Wave Digital Assets. “Our new initiative will support promising entrepreneurs deploying onto the Polygon zkEVM chain and building its diverse community such as P2P exchanges, lending protocols, and stablecoin issuers.”Polygon zkEVM is a layer-2 network built on Ethereum that utilizes zk-(zero-knowledge) proofs to validate transactions on the network. By bringing together the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) and zk-proofs, Polygon zkEVM offers a promising solution to some of the key challenges facing Ethereum and other blockchain networks. By leveraging zk-proofs, Polygon zkEVM can achieve significant scalability improvements while maintaining the security integrity of the Ethereum blockchain. This means that transactions can be processed more efficiently, opening up new possibilities for decentralized applications (dApps) and use cases on the blockchain. Polygon zkEVM represents an exciting development in the ongoing effort to make blockchain technology more scalable, secure, and user-friendly.For media inquiries, please contact info@wavegp.comAbout Polygon LabsPolygon Labs is a software development company building and developing a network of aggregated blockchains via the AggLayer, secured by Ethereum. As public infrastructure, the AggLayer will bring together user bases and liquidity for any connected chain, and leverage Ethereum as a settlement layer. Polygon Labs has also contributed to the core development of several widely-adopted scaling protocols and tools for launching blockchains, including Polygon PoS, Polygon zkEVM, and Polygon Miden, which is in development as well as Polygon CDK.About Wave Digital Assets Wave Digital Assets (Wave) is a Los Angeles-based, SEC-regulated investment advisory firm that provides institutional and private wealth digital asset management solutions. Led by a team of highly experienced financial services professionals, Wave provides bespoke digital asset investment solutions with a focus on yield generation through private funds, as well as managed accounts for HNWIs and family offices seeking tailored digital asset exposure, bespoke treasury management services, early-stage venture capital, and strategic consultation to the digital asset ecosystem. Website | Twitter | LinkedInImportant Disclosures and Other Information Nothing in this material should be interpreted as an offer or recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security or other financial product. Registration with the SEC does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Additional information including important disclosures about Wave Digital Assets LLC also is available on the SEC’s website at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov or, learn more information about Wave Digital Assets at www.wavegp.com. ContactAccount DirectorJonathan DuranMelrose PRjonathan@melrosepr.com310-260-7901This article was originally published on Chainwire More

According to crypto lore, a “sat” refers to a satoshi, the smallest unit of Bitcoin, named after its mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Thus, 1 BTC is equivalent to 100 million satoshis. The phrase “stack sats” has become popular among Bitcoin supporters, encouraging consistent accumulation over time, regardless of price volatility. This philosophy underscores the importance of long-term investment and patience, suggesting that accumulating small amounts of cryptocurrency can steadily lead to significant gains over time.Saylor’s message encapsulates this investment strategy and reflects his broader views on Bitcoin. He advocates for a disciplined approach to investing, warning against the pitfalls of trying to time the market or making large, speculative bets. While he urges people to be humble and accumulate Bitcoin, even in small fractions, the price of the major cryptocurrency continues to test everyone’s patience.For the past two weeks, BTC has been trading in an extremely narrow price corridor, with an upper boundary of $72,000 and a lower one of $66,800. At the same time, the price of Bitcoin is held at $68,000 most of the time.This article was originally published on U.Today More

This partnership provides Coindisco’s community with a reliable, regulated, and trusted payment system that drives more approvals and more revenue from more digital assets.Topper, a fiat-to-crypto on-ramp by the global web3 financial platform Uphold, integrates today with Coindisco for buying and monitoring the user’s preferred crypto assets. This Topper integration ensures Coindisco users can enjoy seamless trading with multiple payment options, high transaction approval rates, and expedited transaction processing.With a diverse range of over 200 digital assets and coverage in more than 140 countries, Topper manages know-your-customer, anti-money laundering, and financial risk controls, freeing brands to focus on delivering excellent products to their customers. “As we evolve into becoming the leading provider in managing your digital assets, through features such as curated data analytics, profiled payment methods and aggregating your best on/off-ramp quotes, Topper sets our Coindisco users up for success to be one of our several go-to solutions for navigating the dynamic world of cryptocurrencies,” said Dmitri Gmyza, Co-Founder & CEO of Coindisco. “We look forward to elevating Coindisco’s commitment and implementing the most intuitive, cost-effective, and convenient payment companion.”To find out more, users can visit www.topperpay.com/ and check out the Coindisco app in Google Play or the App Store. About TopperTopper, the easy fiat on-ramp with higher approval rates, is an quick-to-implement web3 payment tool that lets crypto projects process more of their customers’ payments – supporting twice as many digital assets than its competitors. The Topper payment widget is built to simplify the payment process, accept more currencies and deliver higher approval rates, resulting in fewer declines and more revenue. Developed by Uphold, the web3 financial platform, Topper is a reliable, regulated and trusted payment system.About Uphold Named Uphold the Best Crypto Exchange in the UK by Forbes Advisor, Uphold is committed to making web3 easy. As a web3 financial platform, Uphold serves over 10 million customers in more than 140 countries. It provides businesses and consumers with easy access to digital assets and services. Uphold’s unique “Anything to Anything” interface gives end users seamless access to and between digital assets and national currencies and precious metals. Uniquely, Uphold smart routes orders across 30 trading venues delivering optimal execution and superior liquidity to customers. Uphold never loans out customer assets and is always 100% reserved. The company has pioneered radical transparency and uniquely publishes its assets and liabilities every 30 seconds on a public website (https://uphold.com/en-us/transparency).Uphold is regulated in the U.S. by FinCen and State regulators; and is registered in the UK and Canada with the FCA and FINTRAC respectively and in Europe with the Financial Crime Investigation Service under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania. To learn more about Uphold’s products and services, visit uphold.com.About CoindiscoWith over a decade worth of experiences building the finest user experience in web3 applications, Coindisco is well positioned to be your leading Crypto buying companion to manage all of your digital assets and compare leading payment providers, within a single app and at the touch of your fingertips.Save your payment methods, fetch the most competitive rates and obtain curated payment insights with Coindisco, the best way to buy crypto. To learn more about Coindisco, visit coindisco.comContactPR ManagerLauren BukoskeySerotoninlauren@serotonin.coThis article was originally published on Chainwire More

Currently, Bitcoin trades at $67,500, just a shade under this critical level. A chart and heatmap have shown this will be a crucial area for long traders, in the zone of $67,000-$69,000. If BTC makes its way in this direction to step into the critical zone, more liquidations will be raining in, pushing aggressively on the asset’s price. The CoinGlass heatmap clearly shows that the most saturation has occurred around liquidation levels, where, in turn, enhanced volatility is likely.At least in the obvious short-term time frame, this latest round of price action leaves BTC consolidating above this level. Market sentiment at the moment is mixed and overwhelmed by a host of factors, but most notably by the ongoing craze surrounding the prospect of Ether ETFs in very short periods of time, which sees both bullish and bearish tendencies back on the table and another layer of complexity added to the short-term price movement for Bitcoin.What this effectively will do — if the quoted price of Bitcoin breaks $69,000 with strength — is invalidate the bearish scenario and lean toward really feeding big price surges. Such a breakout might send BTC into new highs, as this might bring in new bids that will further squeeze shorts. The real key is strong momentum to sustain volume, which will provide the pushed fuel wanted for a critical vertical move.The failure of BTC to hold above the $67,000 support is likely to see it drop further on long liquidation, which can even take it to the immediate next level of support around $64,000. Conditions are bound to be quite volatile in such situations as traders react sharply to price moves.This article was originally published on U.Today More

Ethereum, with a market valuation of roughly $450 billion, boasts around $45 billion in total value locked (TVL) across its various Layer-2 (L2) solutions, or 10% of Ethereum’s total value. In contrast, Bitcoin, valued at $1.4 trillion, has only around $2 billion of L2 TVL, which constitutes a mere 0.13% of Bitcoin’s total value.”Key factors in evaluating Bitcoin scalability solutions include how they address the trustless two-way bridge issue, their relationship and alignment with the Bitcoin base layer, potential fork requirements, and the level of incentive alignment among users, developers, and newcomers to the cryptocurrency space,” Binance Research stated.The development of foundational Bitcoin technologies at the infrastructure level, such as Taproot and BitVM, has broadened the scope of protocols that can be built on Bitcoin. Although many of these implementations are still in their fancy, this has not deterred projects from creating solutions to Bitcoin’s scaling challenges.”Bitcoin-native projects like the Lightning Network and RGB are designed to enhance Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer transaction capabilities and introduce smart contract functionalities while maintaining the core integrity of Bitcoin,” Binance Research noted. The Lightning Network has achieved relative success, whereas RGB is still under development.Moreover, various other scaling solutions are emerging, including sidechains and EVM Layer 1s that leverage bridged BTC as the staked asset to secure their chains. Despite somewhat tapping into Bitcoin’s economic security, bridged versions of Bitcoin often involve centralized components and cannot genuinely claim to inherit much of Bitcoin’s security.Elsewhere, Zero-knowledge rollups have recently entered the Bitcoin Layer 2 scene, employing BitVM technology to more securely verify rollup data compared to other scaling solutions that merely post a hash of their block data into Bitcoin blocks. These rollups are considered to inherit the most Bitcoin security at the current stage.”The coming months promise to be an exciting period, with significant developments anticipated,” Binance Research concluded. More

Converting existing mining sites to HPC infrastructure involves large capital expenditure. While some components can be reused, most of the existing infrastructure would need to be rebuilt to support HPC operations. Currently, HPC data centers require an investment of $8-10 million per megawatt (MW) in capex, excluding GPUs, whereas a Bitcoin mining site typically costs between $300,000 and $800,000 per MW, excluding ASICs.Most Bitcoin miners do not possess GPUs, which were commonly used for Ethereum mining, and instead employ ASICs for Bitcoin mining. Consequently, they lack the excess GPU capacity necessary for HPC tasks.Bitcoin miners venturing into AI are predominantly acquiring GPUs, typically H100s, and co-locating them in third-party sites as a quicker and less capex-intensive way to generate AI revenue compared to building dedicated data centers. However, Needham believes it is more advantageous for miners to own their data centers, especially if they have access to cheap power, rather than relying on third-party sites for GPU co-location.Large publicly traded Bitcoin miners plan to more than double their power capacity over the next 12-24 months, inclusive of their mining and AI/HPC expansion plans. Location is a critical factor, with Needham favoring northern, less dusty climates over regions like West Texas due to temperature and dust/wind conditions.According to the report, Applied Digital Corp (NASDAQ:APLD), Core Scientific Inc (NASDAQ:CORZ), and Terawulf Inc (NASDAQ:WULF) are leading in their ambitions for HPC sites. Companies like Hut 8 Corp (NASDAQ:HUT), Bit Digital Inc (NASDAQ:BTBT), HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:HIVE), Iris Energy Ltd (NASDAQ:IREN), and Bit Brother Ltd (OTC:BETSF) are currently focusing on co-locating GPUs in third-party sites.The report further details that Applied Digital has the most ambitious AI/HPC site plans among covered companies. Originally a Bitcoin miner, the company no longer classifies itself as such after selling a ~200 MW Bitcoin mining hosting site to Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA). Meanwhile, Bit Digital has become the first cloud service platform in Asia to offer NVIDIA DGX SuperPod H100s. “We do not include any revenue from AI/HPC in our model but will be monitoring for updates as 2024 progresses,” Needham noted.HUT 8 Mining also launched a third-party HPC service, despite currently having no revenue from it. The company executed a purchase order for 1,000 Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) H100s and secured a $20 million annual run-rate contract with a VC-backed AI large language model customer, with revenues expected to begin in the second half of 2024.Elsewhere, Bit Brother has a three-year contract to provide GPU resources to a customer developing its own proprietary large-language model (LLM) and expects $50 million in annual revenue following a 2023 funding round. Moreover, Core Scientific’s multi-year contract with CoreWeave is expected to generate more than $100 million in total potential revenue.Finally, HIVE Blockchain had majority of H100s delivered in March 2024, and the company reports growing positive HPC operating income with $25 million in run-rate annual HPC revenue guidance as of Q1 2024. More

Easing concerns over a massive potential sell event by defunct exchange Mt Gox offered Bitcoin some relief. But this was countered by strength in the dollar, which rose to an over two-week high as anticipation of more economic data kept traders largely biased towards the greenback.Bitcoin climbed 0.5% in the past 24 hours to $68,109.3 by 08:42 ET (12:42 GMT). The world’s largest cryptocurrency remained well within a $60,000 to $70,000 trading range established since mid-March.Inflation, rate angst keeps Bitcoin under pressure Crypto markets were reeling from a string of hawkish comments from the Federal Reserve over the past two weeks, as several policymakers signaled that the bank needed more convincing that inflation was coming down.This put upcoming U.S. economic readings squarely in focus. A revised reading on first-quarter U.S. gross domestic product data is due later on Thursday, with any signs of economic resilience giving the Fed more headroom to keep rates higher for longer.More closely watched will be PCE price index data- the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge- which is due on Friday. Traders were seen steadily pricing out expectations that the Fed will cut rates in September- which boosted the dollar and weighed on most risk-driven assets, including crypto.High rates bode poorly for crypto, given that they diminish the appeal of speculative assets. Still, recent data showed that crypto investment products saw a third consecutive week of inflows, with Ether seeing increased inflows on optimism over the U.S. approval of an exchange-traded fund that directly tracks the world’s second-largest token. Ether fell 1.6% to $3,750.05 on Thursday, retreating further from recent two-month peaks as hype over the immediate approval of a spot Ether ETF died down. While the Securities and Exchange Commission approved applications from major exchanges to list any potential spot ETF products, the regulator still needed to engage with applications from potential issuers of the products, meaning that a listing was still a long ways away. Other altcoins fell amid jitters over interest rates. Solana and XRP fell 0.7% and 1.7%, respectively, while among meme tokens, Investing.com Shiba Inu Index and DOGE/USD lost roughly 3% each.Intriguingly, DBS, the largest bank in Singapore, is a significant holder of ether, according to on-chain analytics firm Nansen.The firm said a blockchain address, identified as belonging to DBS, holds 173,753 ETH, valued at $647 million at the current market price.Nansen also noted that this address has generated over $200 million from its ether investments.DBS is no stranger to the crypto market, given that the bank provides a variety of services such as digital asset custody, a trading exchange for security tokens, and a portfolio management app that covers both traditional and crypto assets.A recent report from the bank emphasized the increasing interest in the crypto market from retail investors, high-frequency traders, and hedge funds. More