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Bitcoin hits a new record high: Here's who's buying

Yahoo

3 days ago

Business
Yahoo

Bitcoin hits a new record high: Here's who's buying

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) hit another new record high, trading above $113,000. Bitwise Asset Management chief investment officer Matt Hougan explains what is driving the price higher and how institutional investors are playing a role in the climb. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Asking for a Trend here. Bitcoin making news as it hits new records of a hundred and thirteen thousand dollars. Let's bring in our Matt Hogan, Bitwise Asset Management CIO and Yahoo Finance banking reporter. David Holarith on all this, Matt. I'll start with you. So Bitcoin, Bitcoin hitting new highs, Matt. Walk us through what you think explains this. Is this uh, is this correlation to tech stocks, Matt? Is it just continuing enthusias enthusiasm from crypto friendly policies from the White House? What do you what do you chalk it up to? What do you make of it? Yeah, thanks for having me on. I think both of those are part of the story, but the bigger piece is just massive unrelenting demand meeting limited supply. We're seeing companies buying huge amounts of Bitcoin and ETFs purchasing huge amounts of Bitcoin and there's just not that much Bitcoin to go around. I'll mention in the last 30 days, we've seen Bitcoin ETFs acquire five point two billion dollars of Bitcoin. That represents institutional investors making a giant allocation to this space. We see that trend continuing and with the limited supply of Bitcoin, it's just forcing the price up. I think we're detaching from a hundred thousand dollars and I think we're going substantially higher from here. When you say substantially higher, Matt, give me some bogeys to watch. Yeah, absolutely. I think once we break the gravity of around a hundred thousand dollars where we've been trading in and out of for the last six months. I think it's sort of anyone's guess where we go here at Bitwise. We expect Bitcoin to top two hundred thousand dollars by the end of the year, which I know sounds like a very large number, but the flows we're seeing from institutional investors and corporations are really significant. They're accelerating, not slowing down, and I think they're going to force that price substantially higher. 200,000 is on the board. Meanwhile, Matt, Congress kicking off crypto week. What are your expectations there? Yeah, absolutely. That's the other piece of the story. At the same time, as you have this institutional allocation, you have very positive news from Washington. What we're hoping to see is the Genius Stable Coin Act, which passed through the Senate on a bipartisan basis, get through the house onto the president's desk and signed. That will help Wall Street move into crypto in a major way. We're also hoping to see the market structure act called the Clarity Act make progress through Congress. Those are the two big pieces of legislation. If we get those done this year, crypto is on an extremely strong footing. You're going to see again, Wall Street make a major move into the space. You're going to see much fewer risks of blow ups and fraud and negative events like we saw in the past. It's going to be a very strong foundation if those happen, and I think they might even this week. Hey Matt, David Holarith here. I wanted to ask about Bitcoin flows you were talking about earlier. I mean, last year the story was really about the Bitcoin ETFs. This year, it seems like it's more about corporations buying Bitcoin. I wanted to ask about those Bitcoin treasury companies. What do you make of it all? It looks like they've actually been acquiring Bitcoin at almost a faster pace. Sometimes faster than the ETFs this year. They have been. It's really remarkable. It's become a two horses pulling this card. The ETFs are still doing their part, but you're absolutely right. These companies are buying even more. For context, Bitcoin companies bought about a hundred and sixty thousand Bitcoin in Q2 alone. That's a hundred percent of the net new supply of Bitcoin that will come into the market this year. So in one quarter, they bought the entire year's worth of supply. I know a lot of people out there are skeptical of this trend. If you're on the inside and you're seeing the proposals for new deals flowing into your inbox, you know that Q3 is actually going to probably be an even bigger quarter than Q2. So this is a trend that I think actually accelerates before it plateaus and maybe tails off at the second at the end of the year. But I would expect significant buying in Q3 from this sort of quadrant of the market. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

US SEC's guidance is first step toward rules governing crypto ETFs

Khaleej Times

7 days ago

Business
Khaleej Times

US SEC's guidance is first step toward rules governing crypto ETFs

New U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission guidance on disclosure requirements for exchange-traded products tied to cryptocurrencies marked the first step toward approval of dozens of applications for ETFs linked to everything from Solana and XRP to President Donald Trump's eponymous meme coin. The guidance, issued last Tuesday, signaled a dramatic shift by Republican leadership in how the top U.S. markets regulator deals with the crypto sector. The SEC has launched a task force to draft new regulations, refocused its crypto enforcement team and paused or altogether walked away from high-profile enforcement cases that many thought the agency was winning. The 12-page document is the first part of the new landscape for crypto funds that SEC staff members are designing. Asset managers also anticipate guidance from the SEC's division of trading and markets on ways to streamline the application process, said people familiar with the discussions. This should accelerate the pace for new product debuts. "The SEC is moving forward on creating a framework for how they'd like to see all these crypto assets included in investment funds" to address the "explosion" in the number of ETFs now awaiting a regulatory verdict, said Sui Chung, CEO of crypto index provider CF Benchmarks. Industry participants said they saw few surprises so far. "The most interesting and important thing about this guidance is that it exists," said Matt Hougan, chief investment officer of Bitwise Asset Management, which has more than half a dozen crypto ETFs awaiting SEC approval. "It suggests that the SEC acknowledges that crypto ETPs are becoming part of the mainstream and so it's trying to lay down rules of the road to save both issuers and SEC staff time and hassle." The SEC guidance spells out that in order to be approved, issuers must clearly address, in "plain English", all factors that make crypto-based ETFs distinctive, such as custody arrangements and risks of the hyper-competitive landscape. The next document, however, is likely to prove more significant. According to several people familiar with the ongoing discussions, who could not speak publicly due to the confidentiality of those proceedings, the SEC staff is seeking to create a new listing template to replace the current need for exchanges to submit a special form each time they want to list a new crypto product. That form, known as a 19(b)4, asks for an exemption from current listing rules for the specific ETF. Eliminating that from the process could cut the time between filing and launch dates from as much as 240 days to only 75 days. "The SEC is looking for a general rule it can apply to all listings, and currently is going back and forth on precise wording with the exchanges," said a senior executive at one issuer, who added he expected that exchanges will submit that kind of general filing within "days or weeks." Officials at the Nasdaq Stock Market and Cboe declined to comment on these talks; the New York Stock Exchange did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the SEC also declined comment on the discussions. While ETFs tied to the spot prices of everything from coins like XRP, Polkadot, Dogecoin and the Trump meme coin await an SEC verdict, issuers expect the next batch of crypto products will be tied to Solana, the world's sixth-largest cryptocurrency. That likely will not happen until after the SEC has rolled out the second part of its guidance, pushing the launch date into early autumn, issuers said. Some asset managers are not waiting. Last week, REX Financial and Osprey Funds used a more indirect and complex approach to launch the first U.S. ETF to give investors exposure to Solana, the REX-Osprey Sol + Staking ETF . In contrast to the half-dozen spot Solana ETFs awaiting approval, it invests in a separate entity that in turn will own both Solana and a non-U.S. Solana fund. That structure means REX can bypass the rules governing those commodity funds and leapfrog other issuers, as well as offering investors access to yield via the cryptocurrency "staking" mechanism. In staking, cryptocurrency holders volunteer to take part in validating transactions on the blockchain, checking that the ledger all adds up. In return, validators either receive a share of the transaction fees or newly created cryptocurrencies. "We do think the SEC is taking big steps forward in dealing with cryptocurrency, but it's still the SEC, and not everything has been codified yet," Greg King, CEO of REX Financial, told Reuters. King acknowledged he is trying to get a head start on what is expected to be a fiercely competitive race for market share on new Solana products. The new ETF pulled in $12 million of assets on its first day of trading on Wednesday, July 1, King said. "We'll probably do a spot Solana ETP too, once those rules are in place," he added. "There's no either/or in this situation."

CNA

7 days ago

Business
CNA

Analysis:US SEC's guidance is first step toward rules governing crypto ETFs

New U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission guidance on disclosure requirements for exchange-traded products tied to cryptocurrencies marked the first step toward approval of dozens of applications for ETFs linked to everything from Solana and XRP to President Donald Trump's eponymous meme coin. The guidance, issued last Tuesday, signaled a dramatic shift by Republican leadership in how the top U.S. markets regulator deals with the crypto sector. The SEC has launched a task force to draft new regulations, refocused its crypto enforcement team and paused or altogether walked away from high-profile enforcement cases that many thought the agency was winning. The 12-page document is the first part of the new landscape for crypto funds that SEC staff members are designing. Asset managers also anticipate guidance from the SEC's division of trading and markets on ways to streamline the application process, said people familiar with the discussions. This should accelerate the pace for new product debuts. "The SEC is moving forward on creating a framework for how they'd like to see all these crypto assets included in investment funds" to address the "explosion" in the number of ETFs now awaiting a regulatory verdict, said Sui Chung, CEO of crypto index provider CF Benchmarks. Industry participants said they saw few surprises so far. "The most interesting and important thing about this guidance is that it exists," said Matt Hougan, chief investment officer of Bitwise Asset Management, which has more than half a dozen crypto ETFs awaiting SEC approval. "It suggests that the SEC acknowledges that crypto ETPs are becoming part of the mainstream and so it's trying to lay down rules of the road to save both issuers and SEC staff time and hassle." The SEC guidance spells out that in order to be approved, issuers must clearly address, in "plain English", all factors that make crypto-based ETFs distinctive, such as custody arrangements and risks of the hyper-competitive landscape. The next document, however, is likely to prove more significant. According to several people familiar with the ongoing discussions, who could not speak publicly due to the confidentiality of those proceedings, the SEC staff is seeking to create a new listing template to replace the current need for exchanges to submit a special form each time they want to list a new crypto product. That form, known as a 19(b)4, asks for an exemption from current listing rules for the specific ETF. Eliminating that from the process could cut the time between filing and launch dates from as much as 240 days to only 75 days. "The SEC is looking for a general rule it can apply to all listings, and currently is going back and forth on precise wording with the exchanges," said a senior executive at one issuer, who added he expected that exchanges will submit that kind of general filing within "days or weeks." Officials at the Nasdaq Stock Market and Cboe declined to comment on these talks; the New York Stock Exchange did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the SEC also declined comment on the discussions. While ETFs tied to the spot prices of everything from coins like XRP, Polkadot, Dogecoin and the Trump meme coin await an SEC verdict, issuers expect the next batch of crypto products will be tied to Solana, the world's sixth-largest cryptocurrency. That likely will not happen until after the SEC has rolled out the second part of its guidance, pushing the launch date into early autumn, issuers said. Some asset managers are not waiting. Last week, REX Financial and Osprey Funds used a more indirect and complex approach to launch the first U.S. ETF to give investors exposure to Solana, the REX-Osprey Sol + Staking ETF. In contrast to the half-dozen spot Solana ETFs awaiting approval, it invests in a separate entity that in turn will own both Solana and a non-U.S. Solana fund. That structure means REX can bypass the rules governing those commodity funds and leapfrog other issuers, as well as offering investors access to yield via the cryptocurrency "staking" mechanism. In staking, cryptocurrency holders volunteer to take part in validating transactions on the blockchain, checking that the ledger all adds up. In return, validators either receive a share of the transaction fees or newly created cryptocurrencies. "We do think the SEC is taking big steps forward in dealing with cryptocurrency, but it's still the SEC, and not everything has been codified yet," Greg King, CEO of REX Financial, told Reuters. King acknowledged he is trying to get a head start on what is expected to be a fiercely competitive race for market share on new Solana products. The new ETF pulled in $12 million of assets on its first day of trading on Wednesday, July 1, King said. "We'll probably do a spot Solana ETP too, once those rules are in place," he added. "There's no either/or in this situation."

CNBC

10-06-2025

Business
CNBC

Trump's CFTC pick calls for comprehensive crypto rules in nomination hearing: CNBC Crypto World

On today's episode of CNBC Crypto World, major cryptocurrencies climb as investors wait for more insight on trade discussions between the U.S. and China. Plus, Brian Quintenz, President Trump's pick to lead the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, prepares to testify before the Senate. And, Matt Hougan, Bitwise Asset Management CIO, discusses the launch of the asset manager's new GameStop-focused covered call ETF.