News

Weekly Crypto News Summary (May 20 – 26)

QUICK OVERVIEW

  • Grayscale announces CEO resignation and two new Trust products
  • Coinbase to launch oil and gold futures trading
  • FIT21 crypto law approved in the USA
  • SEC approves all 8 spot Ethereum ETFs
  • OKX exits Hong Kong
  • Anti-CBDC law passed in the USA
  • Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital partners with Kenya
  • Farcaster raises $150 million from investors

USA, Legislation, and Spot ETH ETFs

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump announced that he will accept political donations in the form of cryptocurrencies. This marks the first time a major party presidential candidate has embraced crypto donations for campaign contributions.

The US House of Representatives passed the “Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act” (FIT21). The crypto market structure bill, approved by a vote of 279-136, now moves to the Senate, where its future is uncertain. There is no companion bill in the Senate, and the leading lawmakers in the Democrat-controlled Senate have shown little interest in it, with the Biden administration signaling opposition to the bill.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the 19b-4 forms for all 8 spot Ethereum ETFs submitted by issuers including BlackRock, Fidelity, VanEck, Grayscale, Bitwise, ARK 21Shares, Invesco, and Franklin Templeton. This approval is the first of two important steps needed to start trading spot ETH ETFs. The S-1 forms, required for the public offering of new securities, also need approval. The timeline for this process is unclear, but some analysts suggest it could take weeks.

On May 23, the US House of Representatives passed a bill amending the 1913 Federal Reserve Act, prohibiting Federal Reserve banks from offering certain products or services directly to individuals and banning the use of central bank digital currency (CBDC) for monetary policy and other purposes. The bill still requires Senate approval to become law.

Financial Institutions and Crypto Brokers

Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of Grayscale’s parent company, Digital Currency Group (DCG), announced that Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of Grayscale Investments, will step down after 10 years. He will be replaced by Peter Mintzberg, a former Goldman Sachs executive, effective August 15. Additionally, Grayscale announced two new investment products for individual and institutional accredited investors: the Grayscale Near Trust, investing in NEAR supporting the Near protocol, and the Grayscale Stacks Trust, investing exclusively in STX, part of Bitcoin Layer 2 Stacks. Daily subscriptions for these products began on May 23.

Coinbase announced the launch of retail futures contracts for oil and gold starting June 3. Coinbase Derivatives, regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), already offers futures contracts for bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash, litecoin, and dogecoin.

WisdomTree received approval from the UK financial authority to launch WisdomTree physically-backed BTC and ETH exchange-traded products (ETPs) on the London Stock Exchange. The ETPs are expected to be listed on May 28.
OKX announced that after reconsidering its business strategy, it decided to withdraw its OKX HK VASP license application and will cease providing crypto trading services to Hong Kong residents on May 31 in compliance with regulatory requirements. This does not affect OKX’s web3 self-custody wallet services.

Project Investments

Kelp DAO, an Ethereum liquid restaking platform based on EigenLayer, raised $9 million in a private token sale round led by SCB Limited and Laser Digital. Kelp plans to launch liquid restaking services for other blockchains, including Bitcoin, Solana, and BNB Chain, by the third quarter of this year.

The decentralized social network Farcaster announced raising $150 million in a funding round led by the venture capital firm Paradigm. Other investors included a16z, Haun Ventures, and Union Square. The funding raises the valuation of the project’s parent company, Merkle Manufactory, to $1 billion, according to Dan Romero, Farcaster’s founder and former Coinbase executive.

Blockchain Developments, Partnerships, Web3, and DeFi

Uniswap Labs and Across Protocol are introducing a new Ethereum ERC-7683 token standard for better cross-chain interoperability. The new token standard will be used by Uniswap for cross-chain swaps on the upcoming UniswapX platform, offering significantly lower costs for users.

AIOZ Network, a decentralized computing platform, has been listed in Nvidia’s prestigious Accelerated Applications Catalog as the first DePIN solution. This listing provides AIOZ with significant exposure in Nvidia’s global developer ecosystem alongside industry giants like Adobe and Epic Games, promoting decentralized options for web3 AI, data storage, and streaming services.

The Ethereum layer 2 rollup project, Taiko, plans a “genesis airdrop” distributing 5% of its 1 billion token supply to community members before the mainnet launch, which is expected soon. The network will operate as an Ethereum-equivalent ZK-EVM.

Dfinity Foundation announced a new API allowing Internet Computer smart contracts to read and write on any Ethereum Virtual Machine, enabling dapps to benefit from cross-chain liquidity, community integration, and simplified API key management.

Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital (MARA) announced a partnership with Kenya’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, investing over $80 million in green energy projects in Kenya. The company will assist in monetizing and managing renewable energy production in the African country.

Solana DEX aggregator Jupiter announced the Grand Unified Markets (GUM) initiative, aiming to create a “unified atomic market” on Solana. In collaboration with the Solana Foundation, market makers Wintermute and DWF Labs, the GUM Alliance aims to create liquid markets for not only crypto but also tokenized real estate, forex, stocks, and bonds on Solana.

Hack Attack

The web3 gaming platform Gala Games reported that someone minted 5 billion GALA tokens, worth over $200 million, from their treasury and exchanged a portion for 5913 ETH. Gala Games announced that they blocked the hacker’s address, investigated the incident successfully, and restored the damages. The attacker returned $22 million that was realized.