Spot Ethereum ETFs launched successfully but have experienced massive outflows since.
Celebrity memecoins between June and now have seen massive value drops of up to 99%, showing that they were all rug pulls.
Bitcoin is expected to reach a staggering $2.9 million by 2050, according to VanEck.
On the other hand, BlackRock remains focused on Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs alone, while others, like Franklin Templeton, see promise in Solana.
Last week, the crypto market crossed one of the biggest milestones in its path towards global adoption:
The spot Ether ETFs.
The market received the launch of these much-awaited ETPs fairly well on launch, even despite the lacklustre performance afterwards.
We also had other notable events during the week, including the dying trend of celebrity memecoins and updates regarding ETFs for other cryptocurrencies like Solana.
Some of last week's most notable events are summarized into bite-sized sections.
Last week, on 22 July, the spot Ethereum ETFs were approved by the SEC and began trading on exchanges like the NASDAQ, the NYSE Arca, and the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
This followed the success of the spot Bitcoin ETFs earlier in the year, which was met with much fanfare.
According to data from Farside, the Ethereum ETF market posted inflows of $106.6 million on its first day of trading.
However, things quickly went downhill from here, with consistent outflows of $133 million, $152 million, and $162 million from Wednesday through Friday.
The price of Ethereum has been under the radar for weeks now, even before the approval of these ETFs.
However, while the spot Ethereum ETF launches in the US didn’t immediately trigger a spike in the cryptocurrency’s price, analysts expect the long-term effects of these ETFs to remain bullish and ultimately capture more than 10% of the inflows seen by the Bitcoin ETFs.
At the time of writing, the Ethereum ETFs are in the red, with a net outflow of around $341 million since launch. This is mostly due to Grayscale's $ETHE streak of red, as shown above.
In June, more than 30 celebrities launched memecoins on the Solana network, including figures like 50 Cent, Caitlyn Jenner, Alexis Texas, Andrew Tate, Iggy Azalea, and Barron Trump.
Some of these celebrities claimed that their social media accounts, including X and Instagram, were hacked, while others openly endorsed these memecoins and urged fans to invest.
However, in late July, crypto analyst Slorg posted a thread detailing the current performance of these memecoins.
It turns out that most of them have plummeted by over 99% in value since launch, in an apparent rug-pull scam from these celebrities.
According to Slorg, only a handful of these memecoins have managed to hold more than 25% of their original value in just one month of their existence.
This comes amid several warnings from analysts, including Zach XBT and Bubblemaps, among others, about possible insider trading activity on memecoins like Iggy Azalea's $MOTHER, Andrew Tate's $DADDY and Messi/Ronaldinho's $WATER.
According to asset manager VanEck, Bitcoin's total market cap might reach $61 trillion by 2050.
This was reported in a report published on 24 July. The report puts Bitcoin at anywhere between $2.9 million and $3 million as the cryptocurrency becomes increasingly "used to settle 10% of the globe's international trade and 5% of the world's domestic trade."
VanEck even mentions that Bitcoin layer 2s like Stacks ($STX) and the others could be worth approximately $7.6 trillion—or around $7.6 trillion—which would be around 12% of BTC’s total value by then.
The report also mentions that a decline in the world's top economies, such as the US, European Union, and Japan, will contribute to Bitcoin's rise and that mining will consume about 15% of the world's total power supply by 2050.
Last week, at the Bitcoin2024 conference, Robert Mitchmick, Blackrock's head of digital assets, mentioned something interesting.
According to the official, the firm mostly focuses on Bitcoin and Ethereum because there is "very little" interest in other cryptocurrencies.
“I don't think we're going to see a long list of crypto ETFs." Mitchnick said, "Bitcoin represents about 55% of the market cap, and ETH is at 18%. The next “investible” asset is at, like, 3%.”
This indicates that BlackRock sees little chance for ETFs on other cryptocurrencies like Solana, XRP, and Cardano and is instead focused mostly on the major two.
On the other hand, Franklin Templeton, one of the major spot Ethereum ETF issuers, disagrees.
In a recent tweet, the asset manager highlighted the advantages of SOlana as a cryptocurrency, including its scalability, low transaction fees, and robust ecosystem.
As of July 2024, there are currently two Solana ETF filings: one from VanEck on 27 June and one from 21 Shares on 28 June, with Franklin Templeton likely to join the fray soon.
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