News
Spot Bitcoin ETFs Shift to Outflows Ahead of Halving
Key points
- Bitcoin has remained stable as cryptocurrency markets prepare for the Bitcoin halving later this week.
- Bitcoin spot exchange traded funds (ETFs) saw net outflows last week, a rarity for the new asset class.
- Uniswap Labs has received a Wells Notice from the SEC, a sign that the decentralized exchange will face a lawsuit from the securities regulator.
- Monad Labs has raised $225 million to build a layer 1 blockchain to compete with Ethereum and Solana.
Bitcoin (BitcoinUSD) remained stable, while bitcoin spot Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), which have driven up demand for bitcoin and thus its price, experienced a rare week of net outflows as markets prepared for the trading event. halving later this week.
Uniswap Labs has received a Wells Notice from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Monad Labs raised $225 million from Paradigm and others.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs See Net Outflows Ahead of Halving Week
Last week, in the United States Spot Bitcoin ETF have experienced net outflows, a rare event that has occurred only three times since these funds were introduced in January.
Between April 8 and 12, the category, which includes 11 funds, saw an asset loss of about $83 million, according to data from BitMEX Research. This represents a significant shift from the previous week’s net inflows of $485 million. Despite this setback, spot bitcoin ETFs have accumulated $12.5 billion in positive net inflows since they launched.
In particular, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC) has continued to decline, with $767 million exiting the fund last week alone. In contrast, other leading funds such as BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) brought in $487 million and $90 million, respectively, but these gains were not enough to offset the large outflows from GBTC.
The demand generated by spot bitcoin ETFs has been attributed to the recent rally in bitcoin prices, and is also considered a key differentiator for the imminent halving of bitcoin compared to previous cases.
Uniswap Labs receives a warning from Wells
Decentralized crypto exchange Uniswap last week disclosed that Wells had received a notice from the SEC indicating impending enforcement action.
This led to a sharp drop in the price of Uniswap’s native token, UNI, which fell from above $11 before the news broke to below $8. Hayden Adams, CEO of Uniswap Labs, shared his disappointment and willingness to dispute the allegations about executive actions.
The SEC’s concerns centered on allegations that Uniswap operated as both a brokerage and an unregistered stock exchange, Uniswap executives Mary-Catherine Lader and Marvin Ammori clarified in a press conference, according to CoinDesk. The specifics of whether UNI itself could be classified as a security were not clear from the notice. Ammori referenced a recent court decision in favor of Coinbase, which he sees as a positive indicator for Uniswap’s defense against similar charges.
Monad Labs raises $225 million
Monad Labs has secured $225 million in a funding round led by Paradigm, allowing the company to expand its team and advance development of its blockchainwhich is designed to compete with Ethereum.
This financial support aims to take Monad’s trial version of its blockchain into a full production phase. Its Layer 1 blockchain maintains compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). According to Monad’s announcement on Substack, EVM processes over 96% of all decentralized finance (DeFi) investments.
While Ethereum is currently limited to processing fewer than 20 transactions per second, Monad’s new operational testnet, launched in March, demonstrates an ability to handle around 10,000 transactions per second. This significant increase in transaction throughput is part of a larger trend in the crypto community, which sees various entities, including both Level 1 and Level 2 solutions, trying to improve the efficiency of DeFi. Monad’s approach incorporates parallel execution to significantly increase performance throughout the protocol.
This funding round also attracted investment from several notable firms, including Electric Capital, Castle Island Ventures, Animoca Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and CoinFund, underscoring the broad industry support for Monad technology.
What to expect from the markets this week
All eyes are on bitcoin’s planned halving this week, as the fourth iteration of the cryptocurrency’s scheduled issuance rate decrease is expected to occur later this month.
Halvewhich occurs every 210,000 blocks, or roughly every four years, reduces the pace of mining new bitcoin and cuts miners’ incentives in half.
While previous halvings have led to bull runs for bitcoin in the past, numerous industry reports have indicated that the bitcoin ETF spot market could have a larger impact on the cryptocurrency. supply and demand dynamic at this point.
Despite the impending decline in bitcoin-denominated revenue for miners, it is possible miners could enjoy increased revenue in dollar terms due to the potential increase in the price of bitcoin combined with developments in Sort them and various Layer 2 networks.