SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce proposed a joint digital securities sandbox with the Bank of England, allowing firms to use technologies like distributed ledger technology under the same regulatory requirements in both countries. Peirce emphasized that sandboxes have facilitated innovation in highly regulated sectors, citing UK experience. The collaboration aims to provide a larger dataset for both jurisdictions, helping smaller firms compete with larger ones and benefiting the public by easing market entry. Peirce has previously proposed regulatory leniency for new technologies, contrasting with SEC Chair Gary Gensler's stricter enforcement approach towards crypto.
Australia's first spot bitcoin ETF, holding bitcoin directly, will launch on Tuesday, announced by Monochrome Asset Management. This follows Monochrome's application in April and swift approval, reflecting Australia's efforts to align with global trends in crypto-related ETFs. Previously, Australian investors could only access indirect bitcoin exposure through ETFs or offshore products. The new ETF, listed on Cboe Australia, offers direct bitcoin investment under the Australian Financial Services Licensing regime. This launch follows global moves, including the U.S. approval of spot bitcoin ETFs in January and Hong Kong's approval in April.
Bitcoin staking project Babylon secured $70 million in funding led by Paradigm, with contributions from Polychain Capital and Bullish's venture arm. Babylon offers BTC as a staking asset, enabling proof-of-stake chains to access funding from BTC reserves. This initiative aims to boost the utility of idle BTC by providing yield, following an earlier $18 million funding round in December.
BTC and ETH rallied over the weekend from Friday’s lows of 66,700, despite BTC experiencing its lowest weekend volume in four months. Prices surged early today to 70,300 before pulling back due to economic data like the manufacturing PMI. BTC has been testing higher levels but has been unable to break through the $72K mark over the past two weeks. Meanwhile, ETHBTC is trending lower after maintaining elevated levels since May 23rd, leading to BTC outperforming ETH by 5% since the peak of the recent squeeze.
In the US BTC ETF market, there were inflows of $48.8 million on Friday, despite Grayscale seeing outflows of $124.3 million.
The total stablecoin market cap on Solana has returned to $3 billion, with USDC leading at $2.2 billion (72.8%), USDT at $768 million (25.4%), and PYUSD entering the market with $45 million (1.5%).
In other news, Microstrategy founder Michael Saylor agreed to a $40 million settlement in a D.C. income tax case. The district sued Saylor in 2022 for allegedly not paying income taxes while residing there. Saylor disputes the allegations and stated he settled to avoid the "burdens of litigation."
The S&P 500 rose on Monday as investors aimed to extend May’s strong market momentum into the new month. Nvidia climbed more than 3% after announcing a new suite of artificial intelligence chips, succeeding the previous model by just three months. Wall Street is coming off a robust May, with all three major averages recording their sixth positive month in seven. The Nasdaq rose 6.9%, marking its best month since November 2023. GameStop rallied again Monday on speculation that Keith Gill, known as Roaring Kitty on X and YouTube, might hold a significant position in the video game retailer.
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