The second week of August has been exciting for the blockchain and cryptocurrency world. Perhaps the biggest news is that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) delayed a decision on whether to approve 3 Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) applications yet again. The applications were submitted by Bitwise Asset Management, VanEck/SolidX, and Wilshire Phoenix, and filed with the NYSE Arca and Cboe BZX (BATS: CBOE) exchanges, who all want to successfully launch the first ever Bitcoin ETF in the US. The SEC suggested it expects to make a final decision on the Wilshire Phoenix application by September 29, and on the Bitwise and VanEck/SolidX proposals by October 13 and 18. Bitwise previously sought to assuage the SEC's concerns about market manipulation in the BTC markets by issuing multiple reports arguing that the BTC markets are smaller, more efficient, and more regulated now.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
Bakkt announced on Friday that it is cleared for launch on September 23. In a blog post, Bakkt chief executive Kelly Loefler wrote that the Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE) subsidiary obtained a New York state trust charter from the New York State Department of Financial Services, allowing the firm to debut its highly anticipated physically settled Bitcoin futures contracts. The trust charter lets Bakkt create Bakkt Trust Company, a new entity serving as a qualified custodian to warehouse the physical Bitcoin for delivery. Bakkt will offer two types of futures: daily and monthly contracts. Loeffler also added that margin will be available for the daily contract, and the monthly contracts allow traders to take a position on BTC up to a year in the future. ICE Futures will provide the futures exchange services, while Bakkt takes care of custody and physical delivery.
Coinbase announced on Thursday it has acquired the institutional business of Xapo, a coin wallet and custody service firm, for $55 million. The exchange said the purchase will help it grow the custody segment and increase its assets under custody. Xapo uses physical vaults located in privacy-minded Switzerland. Coinbase Custody head Sam McIngvale said the acquisition will also help the firm explore crypto lending in the future. Most of Xapo's clients have already moved their assets to Coinbase. In related news, Coinbase revealed a password glitch on Friday that affected fewer than 3,500 customers. The major exchange said it discovered a potential vulnerability where a tiny percentage of its customer's passwords were stored in unencrypted plain text on an internal server log. Coinbase reassured users that the data was not accessed improperly by outside actors. The firm added it believes the glitch impacted 3,420 customers out of over 30 million. Coinbase said it will work to detect and prevent similar bugs going forward.
Crypto prices slipped badly this week to $272 billion. For the majors, Litecoin (LTC), EOS, and Stellar (XLM) fell hard, with Tether (USDT) the only coin in the green. In the top 100, the biggest losers were VestChain (VEST), down 30%, Egretia (EGT), down 25%, and ODEM (ODE), down 21%. The biggest gainers were HyperCash (HC), up 32%, Digitex Futures (DGTX), up 14%, and Verge (XVG), up 13%. Next week traders will see if Bitcoin can regain the $10,000 level.
The author owns a small amount of BTC and LTC.