Welcome again to Chain Reaction.
Happy New Year! The crypto area has been off to a robust begin for 2024 as reporters and ETF analysts have reported {that a} bitcoin spot ETF approval within the U.S. might be coming as quickly. As a end result, bitcoin’s worth went over $45,000 on Tuesday, hitting its highest degree since April 2022. It has since retracted barely to $44,000 on the time of publication. The complete cryptocurrency market capitalization is rising at $1.68 trillion, the very best degree since May 2022.
In different information, Financial Intelligence Unit, an Indian authorities company, mentioned final Thursday that it has issued a discover to 9 world crypto exchanges — together with Binance, Kraken, Kucoin and Mexc — that they’re allegedly working “illegally” within the nation and have blocked their web sites. More particulars beneath.
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This week in web3
- Crypto optimism within the age of the doomer
- India to dam crypto exchanges Binance, Kraken web sites
- Love ’em or hate ’em, NFTs can survive because of the communities that drive them (TC+)
- Crypto losses declined over 50% in 2023 (TC+)
- Hackers stole $2 billion in crypto in 2023, information reveals
- Why I’m modestly crypto-bullish in 2024 (TC+)
- Why Puma is sticking to its web3 bets as crypto shakes off an extended winter (TC+)
The newest pod
For this week’s information episode, Jacquelyn dove again into the most recent developments on spot bitcoin ETF functions within the U.S. as anticipation builds.
Fred Thiel, the CEO of Marathon Digital Holdings, a digital asset expertise firm and largest publicly traded bitcoin mining agency, joined to assist break down the most recent developments on spot bitcoin ETFs.
As it stands, there are 14 asset administration companies, together with BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale and VanEck, hoping to individually win approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for his or her spot bitcoin ETFs. And some studies are actually saying it would occur quickly given the frequent conferences and up to date filings in latest weeks.
We additionally mentioned what a spot bitcoin ETF may imply for traders, establishments and miners, in addition to bitcoin’s worth.
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Follow the cash
- Arkon Energy raises $110 million to develop U.S. bitcoin mining capability, launch AI cloud service in Norway
- Web3 gaming firm Portal closed a strategic spherical for an undisclosed quantity
- Lending platform Tonka Finance raised $2.5 million in funding
- Animoca Brands invested into racing esports startup Veloce in pre-IPO funding spherical
This checklist was compiled with info from Messari in addition to TechCrunch’s personal reporting.
What else we’re writing
Want to department out from the world of web3? Here are some articles on TechCrunch that caught our consideration this week.
- 23andMe tells victims it’s their fault that their information was breached
- I assume I’m a projector individual now?
- Remembering the startups we misplaced in 2023
- No, spiders don’t need to mate together with your viral physique butter
- More than 40 traders share their prime predictions for 2024 (TC+)
Follow me on Twitter @Jacqmelinek for breaking crypto information, memes and extra.