Appold Market Watch - Week ending 27 September 2024

Market Update & Industry News - Week ending 27 September 2024

🔷 BlackRock Spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) posted its largest September daily inflow of over $180m, along with a wider five-day total inflow streak across all US Bitcoin ETFs of approximately $490m. This streak follows The Fed's previously announced decision to implement a 50bps rate cut last week, which had a significant impact on the markets as a whole.

Appold view: The combination of institutional interest and monetary policy has led to stronger buy pressure into Bitcoin ETFs, with BlackRock remaining the more popular and stronger brand amongst institutional investors.

🔷 Global payments provider, PayPal, enabled its US business account users to buy, hold, and sell digital assets through their platform. This new feature expanded the company's existing digital asset services, previously available only to personal accounts. The service allows merchants to integrate digital asset transactions into their operations.

Appold view: The delay in the corporate rollout was reportedly due to PayPal overcoming some regulatory hurdles (such as AML and KYC standards), risks, and technical aspects to deliver on this. It will be interesting to see the uptake and trading volumes in the coming months. 

🔷 Mango Markets agreed to settle charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission concerning the illegal sale of the MNGO token, which the SEC said was an unregistered security and sold through an unregistered broker service.

Appold view: As part of the settlement, they agreed to pay $700k in civil penalties, destroy all MNGO tokens, and have them delisted from the market. Mango had already faced significant challenges, including a major exploit in 2022, in which an attacker siphoned in excess of $100m from the platform. 

🔷 Binance founder Changpeng Zhao “CZ” was released from U.S. custody after being detained as part of legal proceedings tied to the ongoing regulatory investigations into Binance. Zhao's release followed his alleged cooperation with authorities, though the specific terms of his release were not disclosed.

Appold view: It is unclear what CZ will do with his freedom and the estimated $60 billion of wealth he has accumulated at Binance. Many people in the industry feel he will still invest his time and money in the sector.

#Marketwatch #Blockchain #Investments