Ethereum Futures ETFs near launch, and JPMorgan’s UK subsidiary bars crypto payments
Data from CryptoCompare shows that the price of the flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) went up steadily throughout the week, starting at around $26,000 to now trade at $28,300 after a significant upswing over the weekend.
Ethereum’s Ether, the second-largest digital asset by market capitalisation, moved in a similar way, starting the week at $1,680 and seeing a quick jump throughout it to the $1,700 mark, to now trade at $1,730.
Headlines in the cryptocurrency space this week were partly focused on the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) attitude towards a potential spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), with a bipartisan group of lawmakers from the House Financial Services Committee sending a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler saying the regulator should listen to the courts and approve a spot Bitcoin ETF.
Four prominent members of the Committee wrote a letter to Gensler, who is scheduled to testify before them soon. They claimed that there is no difference between a spot Bitcoin ETF and a Bitcoin futures ETF, which the SEC has already given the green light.
The letter urged the SEC to approve the applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs from companies like Fidelity and BlackRock’s iShares. It comes after last month the SEC was ordered by a DC Circuit Court of Appeals judge to reconsider its position on these applications.
Meanwhile, analysts expect Ether futures ETFs to launch as soon as this week as they believe the SEC is gearing up to greenlight a series of ETH futures ETFs. Investment management firm VanEck has raised its market efforts for these products with the release of two “Enter the Ether”-themed television commercials.
VanEck is looking to launch its Ethereum Strategy ETF (EFUT), which is set to invest in standardized, cash-settled ETH futures contracts trading on exchanges registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Over the week, Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase also saw its non-US exchange Coinbase International Exchange, secure regulatory approval from Bermuda’s financial regulators to offer non-US retail customers perpetual futures contracts.
The firm is now set to offer these perpetual futures contracts to its users in the near future through Coinbase Advanced.
Meanwhile, leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance revealed payments solution provider Paysafe “unilaterally” stopped processing euro deposits for its users. Binance has urged its users to either withdraw their EUR or trade them for USDT before the end of October, while it works on integrating new fiat currency channels.
JPMorgan’s UK subsidiary to ban crypto
Starting from October 16, JPMorgan’s UK subsidiary Chase will limit crypto-related payments for its clients in a bid to prevent scams and fraud by malicious actors. This is a stricter measure than other UK banks like HSBC and NatWest, which have only imposed some restrictions on crypto transactions.
Chase said that its customers will get a message saying that their transaction was declined if they try to make a crypto-related payment after that date. The decision is based on data that reveals a high incidence of crypto scams and frauds in the UK, such as fake celebrity endorsements and bogus investment schemes.
READ MORE: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong: ‘Ditch your JPMorgan Chase accounts’
Meanwhile, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken seemingly started laying the groundwork to facilitate trading of US-listed stocks and ETFs on its platform, and is seemingly looking to offer the new service to customers in the US and UK.
Kraken is said to have obtained the required regulatory approvals in the UK and is seeking a broker-dealer license in the US from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). It aims to launch the new service in 2024.
The week also saw Binance reveal it’s fully divesting from the Russian market as it agreed to sell its business in the country to crypto exchange CommEX.
READ MORE: Binance to sever all ties with Russia – CityAM
CommEX is notably a newly launched cryptocurrency exchange that offers “a wide range of product suites including Spot, Futures, Simple Futures and P2P service to engage with the world of cryptocurrency.”
Google Cloud adds 11 new blockchains to BigQuery
As blockchain adoption grows, Google Cloud, the tech giant’s computing arm, added 11 new networks, including Polygon, Optimism, and Polkadot to its BigQuery program, which is described on its webpage as a “serverless and cost-effective enterprise data warehouse” is tailored to cater for “practitioners of various coding skills”.
According to Google Cloud, one of its key advantages is allowing users to fetch historical data from an off-chain source faster than they would query the blockchain directly.
Google Cloud’s move came the same week a new report published by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) called for the global harmonisation of cryptocurrency regulation to ensure broader market stability.
Francisco Memoria is a content creator at CryptoCompare who’s in love with technology and focuses on helping people see the value digital currencies have. His work has been published in numerous reputable industry publications. Francisco holds various cryptocurrencies.
Featured image via Unsplash.