🥳 Weekly Recap: ETF Euphoria Spreads

Happy weekend Defiers!

Spot crypto ETF optimism continued to drive bullish momentum in the markets, with analysts tipping that spot exchange-traded funds investing in both Bitcoin and Ethereum could soon get the green light from U.S. regulators.

On Nov. 8, James Seyffart, an analyst at Bloomberg, reported that the U.S. Securities and Exchange could approve any number of spot Bitcoin ETF applications until Nov. 17. The applications are between comment periods, enabling the regulator to approve the filings.

Just one day later, online sleuths spotted that BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager and the front-running Bitcoin ETF applicant, had established an entity called the iShares Ethereum Trust in Delaware. Ether quickly rallied 5% over a couple of hours in response to the news.

The bullishness spilled over into other digital asset markets, too.

BLUR, the native token of the leading NFT marketplace, rallied 150% since mid-October amid a partial recovery in the NFT markets. However, the move came as the project’s second airdrop campaign approaches its conclusion, suggesting some BLUR holders may soon move to realize profits.

The Cosmos-based DeFi protocol Kujira also celebrated a more than 400% rally in 30 days.

Shares in the Grayscale Chainlink Trust, an institutional-facing product that does not offer LINK redemptions, puzzlingly surged to nearly 800% premium over its underlying asset. The rally coincides with Grayscale appearing poised to convert its Bitcoin Trust into an ETF.

Even Nouriel Roubini, an economist and former outspoken crypto critic, is now looking to get in on the digital asset bandwagon. Atlas Capital, a firm founded by Roubini, is planning on launching the Atlas Climate Token, a stablecoin pegged to a variety of real-world assets.

In other news, the community for Arbitrum, the top Ethereum Layer 2, voted to introduce a staking mechanism for its native ARB token. However, the community is divided on whether to fund the “Arbitrum Coalition” to perform research and development work on behalf of the project’s DAO.

Linea, the L2 from Consensys, kicked off its DeFi Voyage campaign in a bid to drum up adoption.

The Bank of England published a regulatory framework from stablecoins. The new framework will take effect in early 2024, delivering clarity for the sector.

And in this week’s podcast, Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas takes us through his thesis for why a spot Bitcoin ETF will be approved by mid-January.

Enjoy!

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