5/23/24: Crypto In The House 🇺🇸📜🐸

Author

Valko
May 23, 2024

Top News

  1. U.S. House approves crypto FIT21 bill, vote goes 279-136

  2. SEC starts engaging Ethereum ETF issuers over S-1 forms

  3. $PEPE is now a top 20 token with a $6B market cap

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Specs’ Breakdown

1. U.S. House approves crypto FIT21 bill, vote goes 279-136

⌐◪-◪ → The U.S. House of Representatives passed FIT21 with a 279-136 vote, including support from 71 pro-crypto Democrats.

This is a major win for the U.S. as it will help keep crypto innovation at home by bringing much-needed regulatory clarity.

While Biden’s White House said it would oppose the bill, they are no longer saying they will veto it — which means onwards to the Senate to confirm this historic milestone for crypto, freedom, and humankind.

Shoutout to the 71 Democrats who supported this bill.

The anti-crypto army is dwindling.

Read More: a16z, Rep. Tom Emmer,

2. SEC starts engaging Ethereum ETF issuers over S-1 forms

⌐◪-◪ → The SEC has opened discussions over S-1 forms with the prospective Ethereum ETF issuers.

Polymarkets bettors give the ETF a 77% chance of approval by May 31st — a new all-time high.

VanEck “fully expects” they’ll be the first to launch an Ethereum ETF, as they were first to file an S-1 — they even asked the SEC to “respect the queue”.

Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers just sent Gary Gensler a letter urging the SEC to approve spot Ether ETFs, arguing that it offers investors transparent crypto access.

The real question is — what digital asset will get approved next? Let me know what you think in Specs Chat!

3. $PEPE is now a top 20 token with a $5.9B market cap

⌐◪-◪ → $PEPE is officially a top 20 cryptocurrency with a market cap of $5.9B.

For context here are some other leading cryptocurrencies:

1. $BTC → $1.38T
2. $ETH → $473B
6. $USDC → $33B
8. $DOGE → $24B
20. $PEPE → $5.9B

This comes as Trump’s campaign officially started accepting donations in crypto. Unfortunately, they aren’t accepting $PEPE (yet).

At this point, $DOGE, $SHIB, and $PEPE are basically levered bets on Ethereum — with the ETH ETF approval around the corner, things are about to get crazy.

Everything Else

⛓️ Crypto & DeFi

  • Federal Reserve says only 7% of Americans own crypto

  • BTC hash rate and mining difficulty increase amid price increase

  • Vitalik Buterin transfers $300k via privacy protocol Railgun

  • Solana dev lights himself on fire trying to pump $DARE memecoin

  • Stripe CEO says he isn’t a fan of any crypto besides Bitcoin

  • MetaMask to add Bitcoin support within the next month

  • StarkWare unveils ZKThreads framework for ‘fractal scaling’

  • Starknet is testing a new zkEVM called Kakarot

  • Taiko L2 announces ‘genesis airdrop’ ahead of mainnet

  • TON added to Binance ahead of potential listing

  • Kiln enables LST restaking on EigenLayer via Ledger Live

  • AIOZ Network becomes 1st DePIN company listed on Nvidia

🏦 Wallstreet & VC

  • BTC ETFs see 8 consecutive days of inflows, $153M yesterday

  • Standard Chartered says BTC will hit an ATH by the weekend

  • ETH futures ETFs set new daily volume all-time high of $47.7M

  • Solana ETF is possible but will take time, says Bloomberg

  • Grayscale may launch a new trust for AI token Bittensor

  • BitGo expands custody service, adds CoinDesk 20 Index tokens

  • WeatherXM raises $7.7M round for weather DePIN platform

🏛️ Legal & Regulatory

  • a16z says it’s best to launch tokens outside of the U.S.

  • SBF is moving to a lower-security prison in CA, closer to his parents

  • BlackRock, Grayscale, Bitwise update 19B forms for Ether ETFs

  • SEC discusses Do Kwon case with Montenegro’s Minister of Justice

🌎 Rest of the World

🖼️ NFTs & Metaverse

  • OpenSea reveals ‘Get Based’ art series on Base network

  • PAC REKT becomes first Blastr collection to win Blast Jackpot

  • Collector sells 2 Fidenzas for 24 ETH to buy $FRIEND

  • ‘Stepn’ launches social version of move-to-earn game

  • 'Pixelmon' reveals airdrop details for $MON

  • Avocado DAO Launches BBQ Bumpathon with

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