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Why The SEC Needs to Allow Staking in Exchange-Traded Products

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For far too long, the U.S. has been falling behind the rest of the world on staking policy. Now, in just the first 30 days of the Trump Administration, staking has been mentioned in Congressional hearings, listed as a top priority by the SEC’s newly created crypto task force and is today the focus of a bipartisan letter from lawmakers challenging the previous SEC’s stance on its inclusion in exchange-traded products (ETPs). Many in the digital asset sector celebrated when the first spot ether ETFs were approved in September of last year. It was a giant leap forward for the second-largest cryptocurrency, achieving legitimacy in the eyes of U.S. regulators. But there has been one glaring omission within these financial products: the ability to stake the held assets and profit by doing so. 

Now a bipartisan group of lawmakers including Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Steve Daines (R-Montana), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) is leading the way to correct that. In a letter delivered to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, they are challenging the SEC’s directive to exclude protocol staking in ETPs, highlighting how this position could undermine both investor protections and the competitiveness of U.S. markets.

The SEC’s prohibition on staking within ETPs is based on a faulty understanding of how staking works on proof-of-stake networks like Ethereum. Staking is not an investment product in itself. Rather, it is a fundamental technical requirement for securing and validating transactions on proof-of-stake networks. When token holders stake their assets, they contribute to the network’s security, and in doing so earn rewards generated by the protocol itself — not from any centralized authority.

International competitiveness

The SEC’s directive to spot ether ETP issuers to exclude staking raises serious concerns about America’s competitive position in global digital asset markets. While the United States hesitates, other major financial centers including Switzerland, Canada, Germany and Australia have embraced staking in their digital asset ETPs, recognizing its integral role in network security and operational stability. Just last month, the U.K. issued a statutory instrument acknowledging that arrangements for qualifying crypto asset staking do not amount to a collective investment scheme, reinforcing its importance in securing and maintaining blockchain networks.

Because staking is essential for securing proof-of-stake networks, it also means that if there were no one staking their ether, then all of the assets within these ETPs would be at risk. This means that, perversely, the SEC has forced American investors into a position where their investments are only protected by assets held in other jurisdictions.

Crucially, the impact of these regulations extends beyond just the Ethereum blockchain, but applies to possible future ETPs of other networks that also use proof-of-stake such as Solana, Avalanche and Polkadot. As the digital asset sector grows, the impact of this misguided regulation will only deepen.

Getting this regulation wrong hurts both American investors and the U.S. economy. Either investors accept domestic products without staking and the associated rewards, limiting their financial returns, or they seek exposure through off-shore alternatives, driving capital offshore and out of U.S. stock exchanges. Without staking, ether ETP holders gradually lose their relative network ownership position due to the inflationary nature of staking rewards.

This economic reality makes U.S. products less competitive and less attractive to investors seeking comprehensive exposure to the Ethereum ecosystem. Even more troubling, this outcome appears to contradict the SEC’s core mission of investor protection, likely pushing investors toward investment vehicles in other jurisdictions that may not meet the investor protection standards available to investors in the U.S.

The technical risks associated with staking, when managed by sophisticated validators, are minimal and well-understood. The often-cited «slashing risk» — a penalty mechanism for dishonest validation attempts — has affected just 0.001 percent of staked ether to date. This data suggests that the SEC’s cautious stance may be disproportionate to the actual risks involved.

What’s at stake

As we await the SEC’s response to the important questions raised by Congress, American investors continue to be at a distinct disadvantage. The path forward requires a balanced approach that recognizes staking for what it is — a technical mechanism for network security — while ensuring there is appropriate oversight when it is offered within regulated investment products.

As the letter rightly points out, while only Congress can create a comprehensive regulatory framework, the SEC has the authority to permit staking in ETPs. Doing so would align with both the agency’s mandate to protect investors and the goal of maintaining U.S. leadership in global financial markets.

The bipartisan Congressional letter to SEC Commissioners Uyeda and Peirce endorsing Protocol Staking in Digital Asset ETPs is a significant milestone for investors – both crypto native and institutional. With Uyeda having criticized what he has called the “weaponization” of the SEC’s enforcement functions and crypto advocate Paul Atkins being nominated to take over the role of SEC Chair, we have a rare opportunity to make progress on one of the most common sense issues in the digital asset landscape.

It’s beyond time for the SEC to assume a leadership position when it comes to protocol staking, which powers the digital asset sector. This befits the aspirations of the American economy and the Americans who rely on it.

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Strategy Buys $555M of Bitcoin, Increases Total Stash to 538,200 BTC

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Strategy (MSTR) has added 6,556 bitcoin (BTC) to its balance sheet, spending $555.8 million in the process, according to a regulatory filing published on Monday.

The purchase was funded using proceeds from the company’s two at-the-market (ATM) stock offering programs, the filings notes.

The firm, the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, sold 1.76 million shares of its Class A common stock and over 91,000 shares of a preferred stock series — STRK — between April 14 and April 20.

The common stock sale brought in $547.7 million, while the preferred shares added another $7.8 million. The latest acquisition boosts Strategy’s total holdings to 538,200 BTC, purchased at an average price of $67,766 per coin.

The Michael Saylor-led company has spent $36.47 billion on bitcoin to date. Shares of MSTR are up 2.77% in pre-market trading as BTC rose to $87,300.

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Crypto Daybook Americas: Bitcoin Breakout Lifts AI, Memecoins, Underscores Hedge Value

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By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

Bitcoin’s censorship-resistant, decentralized setup empowers individuals by facilitating peer-to-peer transactions without government interference or corporate control.

You’ve probably heard that from a Bitcoin maxi many times.

It’s an idea that resonates even more strongly today in light of reports that President Donald Trump is exploring ways to remove Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, which is the world’s most powerful central bank.

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett talked about Trump’s intentions Friday and markets responded early Monday by selling the dollar and the U.S. stock futures. The Dollar Index, which tracks the currency’s exchange rate against major fiat currencies, slipped to a three-year low of 98.00 while gold touched new highs above $3,400 per ounce.

Bitcoin rose past $87,000, confirming a bullish breakout from its recent sideways trading between $83,000 and $86,000 to suggest more gains ahead. The uptick saw gaming, AI and memecoins outshine other sectors of the crypto market, with smaller tokens like ENJ and MAGIC chalking out gains in excess of 50% in 24 hours. MANTRA still tanked 15%.

«A weaker dollar could draw renewed attention from American investors, highlighting bitcoin’s potential as a hedge against declining dollar value,» said Matrixport, a crypto financial services platform.

On-chain data warned of heightened volatility as prices potentially near the $90,000 mark. «Cost‑basis clusters show little overhead supply below that range, implying the market could advance quickly before a larger tranche of holders reaches break‑even and begins taking profit,» analytics firm IntoTheBlock said in a Telegram post.

In other news, Charles Shwab CEO Rick Wurster said the financial services firm is “hopeful and likely to be able” to support spot crypto trading within the next year. Wurster said that more and more clients are seeking information about crypto.

Slovenia’s Finance Ministry proposed a 25% tax on capital gains on profits from selling cryptocurrencies for fiat or spending tokens for goods and services. The tax is proposed to go into effect from 2026.

Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain, proposed replacing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with RISC-V, an open-source instruction set architecture used to develop custom processors for a variety of applications. Buterin said the proposal address one of Ethereum’s key scaling bottlenecks by dramatically improving the efficiency and simplicity of smart contract execution.

Speaking of Ethereum, it briefly fell behind its chief rival, Solana network in terms of the total staked value of their respective native tokens, ETH and SOL. Uniswap founder Hayden Adam warned that Ethereum could fall behind Solana if it goes back to relying on the layer 1 bockchain instead of the layer-2 scaling products.

In macro news, China said it will retaliate against countries that work with U.S. to isolate Beijing in the trade war started by Trump. Stay alert!

What to Watch

  • Crypto:
    • April 21: Coinbase Derivatives will list XRP futures pending approval by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
    • April 25, 1 p.m.: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Crypto Task Force Roundtable on «Key Considerations for Crypto Custody«.
    • April 29, 1:05 a.m.: BNB Chain (BNB) — BSC mainnet hardfork.
    • April 30, 9:30 a.m.: ProShares expects its XRP ETF, offering exposure through futures and swap agreements, to begin trading on NYSE Arca.
    • April 30, 10:03 a.m.: Gnosis Chain (GNO), an Ethereum sister chain, will activate the Pectra hard fork on its mainnet at slot 21,405,696, epoch 1,337,856.
  • Macro
    • April 21-26: World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring meetings take place in Washington.
    • April 22, 8:30 p.m.: Statistics Canada releases March producer price inflation data.
      • PPI MoM Prev. 0.4%
      • PPI YoY Prev. 4.9%
    • April 22, 6 p.m.: Fed Governor Adriana D. Kugler will deliver a speech titled «Transmission of Monetary Policy.»
    • April 23, 8 a.m.: Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography releases retail sales data.
      • Retail Sales MoM Prev. 0.6%
      • Retail Sales YoY Prev. 2.7%
    • April 23, 9:45 a.m.: S&P Global releases (flash) U.S. April purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data.
      • Composite PMI Prev. 53.5
      • Manufacturing PMI Prev. 50.2
      • Services PMI Est. 52.9 vs. Prev. 54.4
  • Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
    • April 22: Tesla (TSLA), post-market
    • April 30: Robinhood Markets (HOOD), post-market
    • May 1: Block (XYZ), post-market

Token Events

  • Governance votes & calls
  • Unlocks
    • April 22: Metars Genesis (MRS) to unlock 11.87% of its circulating supply worth $127.9 million.
    • April 30: Optimism (OP) to unlock 1.89% of its circulating supply worth $22.78 million.
    • May 1: Sui (SUI) to unlock 2.28% of its circulating supply worth $167.97 million.
    • May 1: ZetaChain (ZETA) to unlock 5.67% of its circulating supply worth $10.57 million.
    • May 2: Ethena (ENA) to unlock 0.73% of its circulating supply worth $12.12 million.
  • Token Launches
    • April 21: Balance (EPT) to be listed on Bitget Bybit, KuCoin, Gate.io, LBank, MEXC, BingX.
    • April 22: Hyperlane to airdrop its HYPER tokens.
    • April 22: BNB to be listed on Kraken.

Conferences:

Token Talk

By Shaurya Malwa

  • Bitget, a centralized crypto exchange, will reverse trades and compensate users due to «abnormal trading» in its perpetual futures market for VOXEL, a token linked to the Polygon-based RPG game Voxie Tactics.
  • Early Sunday, VOXEL’s trading volume surged past bitcoin’s 24-hour volume — with the token’s value surging over 300% in a week — despite being only the 723rd-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
  • An X user claimed six-figure profits from a sub-$100 investment, attributing the surge to a potential bug in Bitget’s market-making robot,. The trade rollback will likely erase these gains.
  • Bitget’s investigation revealed possible market manipulation by certain accounts, prompting the exchange to activate its risk-control system and plan a trade rollback within 24 hours.
  • Affected users who incurred losses will receive compensation, and Bitget is continuing its investigation.

Derivatives Positioning

  • The market-wide futures open interest has climbed to $37.22 billion, the highest since March 24, according to Velo Data. The figure represents open interest in all coins listed on Binance, Bybit, OKX, Deribit and Hyperliquid.
  • ETH is the best performing major token in terms of futures open interest growth, followed by BTC and LINK.
  • Speaking of OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta, ETH also leads the pack with the highest positive reading, implying an influx of buying pressure in the market.
  • On Deribit, BTC and ETH risk reversals for short- and near-dated expiries have flattened out, recovering from the recent persistent negative prints that represented bias for protective put options.

Market Movements:

  • BTC is up 3.19% from 4 p.m. ET Sunday at $87,270.44 (24hrs: +3.63%)
  • ETH is up 2.54% at $1,631.90 (24hrs: +3.17%)
  • CoinDesk 20 is up 0.8% at 2,268.01 (24hrs: +3.77%)
  • Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 47 bps at 2.47%
  • BTC funding rate is at 0.0044% (4.776% annualized) on Binance

CoinDesk 20 members’ performance

  • DXY is down 1.11% at 98.26
  • Gold is up 2.04% at $3,395.65/oz
  • Silver is up 1.12% at $32.89/oz
  • Nikkei 225 closed -1.3% at 34,279.92
  • Hang Seng closed +1.61% at 21,395.14
  • FTSE is closed at 8,275.66
  • Euro Stoxx 50 is closed at 4,935.34
  • DJIA closed on Thursday -1.33% at 39,142.23
  • S&P 500 closed +0.13% at 5,282.70
  • Nasdaq closed -0.13% at 16,286.45
  • S&P/TSX Composite Index closed +0.36% at 24,192.81
  • S&P 40 Latin America closed +1.64% at 2,383.75
  • U.S. 10-year Treasury rate is unchanged at 4.33%
  • E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 1.04% at 5,275.00
  • E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 1.16% at 18,168.25
  • E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are down 0.92% at 38,969

Bitcoin Stats:

  • BTC Dominance: 64% (0.23%)
  • Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.1873 (0.54%)
  • Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 858 EH/s
  • Hashprice (spot): $45.22
  • Total Fees: 5.48 BTC / $479,045
  • CME Futures Open Interest: 141,280 BTC
  • BTC priced in gold: 25.7 oz
  • BTC vs gold market cap: 7.2%

Technical Analysis

BTC/USD's daily price chart with trading volume and seven-day volume MA. (Coinglass)

  • Bitcoin’s breakout has set the stage for a continued move higher to $90,000.
  • However, trading volume has dipped, suggesting low participation in the price recovery.
  • A low-volume rally often ends up being short-lived.

Crypto Equities

  • Strategy (MSTR): closed on Thursday at $317.20 (1.78%), up 3.13% at $327.12 in pre-market
  • Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $175.03 (1.64%) up 1.4% at $177.49
  • Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$15.36 (-1.41%)
  • MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $12.66 (2.76%), up 2.69% at $13.00
  • Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $6.46 (1.57%), up 2.63% at $6.63
  • Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $6.63 (0.61%), down 0.45% at $6.60
  • CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $7.51 (3.16%), up 1.86% at $7.65
  • CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $12.04 (1.09%), up 2.41% at $12.33
  • Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $32.49 (4.79%)
  • Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $36.58 (-1.64%), up 2.1% at $37.35

ETF Flows

U.S. equity markets were closed on Friday.

Overnight Flows

Top 20 digital assets’ prices and volumes

Chart of the Day

XRP options risk reversals. (Deribit/Amberdata)

  • XRP’s short- and near-dated risk reversals continue to be priced negative, a sign of persistent demand for put options, which offer downside protection.

While You Were Sleeping

In the Ether

Price range for Bitcoin in the 4th halving cycle:Schwab CEO expects to launch direct spot crypto trading w/in next 12mos…Bitcoin has no counterparty risk.Capital inflows into the crypto market have plunged 70% over the past two weeks, falling from $8.20 billion to just $2.38 billion!This brings total China’s gold reserves to a record 2,292 tonnes.

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Bitcoin’s Breakout Signals BTC Potentially Rallying to $90K-$92K: Technical Analysis

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This is a daily technical analysis by CoinDesk analyst and Chartered Market Technician Omkar Godbole.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) recent range play resolved bullishly early Monday, shifting focus to the $90,000-$92,000 range, which was previously a strong support zone.

The leading cryptocurrency by market value rose past $87,000, convincingly breaking out of a week-long consolidation between $83,000 and $86,000. The renewed willingness among the bulls to lead the price action indicates the resumption of the recovery from the April 7 lows under $75,000.

It also means potential for a continued move higher to the $90,000-$92,000 range, which acted as the floor, arresting price drops from December to early February. The support zone was eventually breached in late February, spurring a rapid decline to under $75,000.

BTC's hourly and daily charts. (TradingView/CoinDesk)

The range breakout is seen on the hourly chart (left).

It follows the recent invalidation of the bearish trendline, characterizing the sell-off from record highs, as seen on the daily chart. BTC has also surpassed the 30-day exponential moving average (EMA) of price highs, indicating a bullish shift in momentum.

The focus, therefore, is on the $90,000-$92,000 range, the former support zone from early this year. Those tracking moving averages should note that the 200-day simple moving average (SMA) is now located at $88,245.

The bullish outlook risks invalidation should prices fall all the way back to $85K by the day’s end (UTC).

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