Last week, Blackrock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) briefly surpassed MicroStrategy’s (MSTR) bitcoin holdings, solidifying its position as a leading bitcoin trading platform during the last several months. Dencun Upgrade Lifts Ether: 23On Monday, though, MicroStrategy said that they had added 12,000 bitcoins to their holdings, bringing their total to 205,000.4
Also Read: Why Is Crypto on the Rise: Navigating Crypto Market Trends
According to BitMEX Research, the aggregate capitalization of the nine new ETFs is larger than Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). Since 5 GBTC became an ETF, about $10 billion has been taken from it. Among the ten spot bitcoin ETFs available today, Grayscale’s offering stands out with much higher costs of 1.5 percent.6
Bitcoin Price Drives Crypto-Related Stock Gains
The gamble that MicroStrategy took by purchasing Bitcoin is yielding astonishing returns. In early afternoon trading on Monday, MicroStrategy shares were trading at approximately $1,650, a 16% increase. The stock has increased in value by about 140% since the beginning of 2024, and over 600% in the last year. Shares of MicroStrategy are a solid choice for investors looking to get exposure to Bitcoin, says Michael Saylor, executive chairman of the business.
So, you’re interested in buying Bitcoin at its all-time high, but you’re worried about losing money if its value drops. Dencun Upgrade Lifts Ether: What can you do? Saylor told CNBC in an interview on Monday that MicroStrategy has sold $800 million worth of debt and that the company had $12–$13 billion worth of bitcoin on the books. “If you’re a bitcoin maximalist and you love bitcoin and you want it to hold forever, the ETFs charge you 25 basis points, MicroStrategy is accreting—we’re giving you a yield against your shares in a tax-efficient fashion.”7
The bitcoin surge has been good for Coinbase (COIN) and other stocks. The cryptocurrency exchange stock has increased by over 15% in the last five days and by nearly 70% so far this year, despite certain issues caused by extremely high trading volumes in the previous two weeks.
SEC Commissioners Criticize Agency’s Crypto Stance
Critics struck SEC members for attacking Shapeshift, a digital asset trading platform. Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda, commissioners of the SEC, questioned the lack of clarification over whether tokens constituted securities, even though ShapeShift consented to pay $275,000 for allegedly enabling trades of unidentified digital assets designated securities. 8. They spoke crypto companies can’t innovate since they can’t tell if standards have been did.
“Cases like this do not protect investors; they intimidate innovators and entrepreneurs,” Peirce and Uyeda said.”We respectfully dissent.”Companies that have been sued by the SEC for operating illegal securities exchanges, such as Kraken and Coinbase, share the same complaints as the commissioners’ remarks.
Fed Chair Powell: CBDC Not a Concern
The possibility of a U.S. In his address to Congress last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell brought up CBDC. “We’re nowhere near recommending or adopting a central bank digital currency in any form,” Powell stated.10
To allay fears that the Federal Reserve could enter into direct competition with private banks or spy on individuals’ financial dealings, Powell stressed that any efforts to create digital currency would use the current banking system. Dencun Upgrade Lifts Ether: His comments reflect the continuing discussions over privacy and the potential effects of digital currencies backed by central banks on the current financial system, which are occurring at a time when lawmakers are trying to block the Federal Reserve from creating a CBDC without the consent of Congress.11
What to Expect from Ether Network Upgrade
In anticipation of this week’s Deneb-Cancun (or Dencun) network upgrade, the price of Ether (ETH) has surpassed $4,000 for the first time since December 2021. Ether has risen over 70% so far this year and is up over 4% on Monday alone.
Fidelity Digital Assets reports that the upgrade is typical to drastically lower the expenses of several layer-two network protocols built on top of the Ethereum blockchain.
Also Read: 101crypto.co.uk
