News Roundup — Talks between SEC and Bitcoin ETF issuers in 'Advanced' Stages

Major news stories this week;

1. Talks between SEC and Bitcoin ETF issuers in 'Advanced' Stages
2. Canadian crypto exchanges reach $1B in assets under management
3. Early Bitcoin Miner Apparently Sent 1,000 ‘Satoshi Era’ BTC to Trading Desks This Week
4. Recession won't keep bitcoin from reaching new highs in 2024, VanEck predicts in yearly crypto forecast
5. Bitcoin Halving Is Poised to Unleash Darwinism on Miners

Story Summaries;

1. Discussions between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and asset managers seeking to launch Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have progressed to key technical details, suggesting potential approval of these products, according to Reuters. A potential Bitcoin ETF approval could open access for investors through the regulated stock market, with expected demand reaching $3 billion in the initial days.
2. Bitbuy and Coinsquare, two of the largest crypto exchanges domiciled in Canada, have surpassed 1 billion Canadian dollars ($736 million) in assets under management. Assets under management at the Purpose Bitcoin ETF, the world’s largest spot Bitcoin exchange traded fund, soared 60% to over $947 million Canadian dollars this year. Canada’s spot Bitcoin ETF market share sits at 48% of all global spot crypto ETFs, at around $2 billion in assets, according to CoinGecko.
3. According to on-chain data firm CryptoQuant, over 1,000 bitcoins mined during the early stages of the network, known as the "Satoshi era," were transferred to trading desks and custodian services on December 4. These bitcoins were originally mined between August and November 2010 and were estimated to have cost around $100. The tokens were consolidated into one address, which now holds a balance of 1,028 bitcoins, worth approximately $40 million
4. VanEck expects a long-awaited U.S. recession to finally arrive in 2024, but still anticipates spot bitcoin ETF approvals and the halving event spurring bitcoin to all-time highs by Q4. No ether “flippening,” solana outperformance, a significant rebound in NFT activity and Binance losing its spot trading throne are also among the investment manager’s predictions for the year ahead.
5. Darwinism could soon pummel some bitcoin (BTC) miners as the halving, a once-every-four-year event that cuts the reward for creating new BTC gets cut by 50%, unleashes a "survival of the fittest" battle in April. To prepare for the disruptive event, larger companies are securing newer and more-efficient mining machines. But they might also consider gobbling up smaller miners as they figure out how to both survive and benefit from the halving.

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And that’s all for last week’s news! Wishing you a great week ahead!

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