WuBlockchain Weekly: Ethereum Spot ETF Sees Net Outflow of $179 Million in Three Days, Mt. Gox Assets Continue to Be Returned, etc

1. In Three Days, Nine Ethereum Spot ETFs Experience Combined Outflow of $179 Million link

The Ethereum spot ETFs launched this Tuesday, with the nine ETFs collectively seeing an inflow of $107 million and a total trading volume exceeding $1.1 billion on their first day. BlackRock’s ETHA led with an inflow of $266.5 million, followed by Bitwise’s ETHW with $204 million, and Fidelity’s FETH with $71.3 million. In contrast, Grayscale’s ETHE experienced an outflow of $484 million. Despite the strong debut, Ethereum spot ETFs have continued to face outflows since Wednesday. On Wednesday alone, there was a net outflow of $133 million, and on Thursday, a net outflow of $152 million. As of the latest update, the total net asset value of Ethereum spot ETFs is $8.969 billion, with an ETF net asset ratio (market cap relative to Ethereum’s total market cap) of 2.36%, and a cumulative net outflow of $179 million.

Major market maker Wintermute anticipates that Ethereum ETFs could attract up to $4 billion in inflows over the next year. This projection is lower than the $4.5 billion to $6.5 billion forecasted by most analysts and approximately 62% less than the $17 billion raised by Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. since their launch six months ago. Wintermute expects that these inflows will drive a 24% increase in Ethereum’s price over the next 12 months.

2. U.S. Q2 GDP Significantly Exceeds Expectations link

The United States has announced its preliminary annualized GDP growth rate for the second quarter, which stands at 2.8%, significantly exceeding the expected 2.00% and the previous value of 1.40%. The preliminary annualized core PCE price index for the second quarter is 2.9%, slightly above the expected 2.70%, but lower than the previous value of 3.70%. Analysts note that while the U.S. economy grew faster than expected in the second quarter, inflation has declined, leaving the Federal Reserve’s expectations for a rate cut in September unchanged.

3. Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Aims for Bitcoin Holdings to Match the Country’s Gold Reserves link

U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stated that, if elected, he will urge the federal government to purchase Bitcoin until its holdings match the scale of the country’s gold reserves. The U.S. government is the world’s largest holder of gold, possessing 8,134 tons, valued at $615 billion at current prices. Previously, Kennedy revealed at the 2024 Consensus conference that he bought 21 Bitcoins during his campaign and purchased three Bitcoins for each of his children. He aims to establish cryptocurrency as a transactional currency and advocates for not imposing capital gains tax on it.

4. Jersey City Pension Fund in New Jersey to Invest in Bitcoin ETFs link

Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop announced on Twitter that the city’s pension fund is applying to the SEC to allocate a portion of the fund for investing in Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), similar to the approach taken by Wisconsin’s pension fund (2%). The mayor expects this process to be completed by the end of the summer. Previously, in May, Wisconsin reported an investment of $164 million in spot Bitcoin ETFs.

5. Seven U.S. States Unite to Oppose SEC’s Cryptocurrency Regulation link

On July 10, a coalition of seven states led by Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird submitted an amicus brief opposing the SEC’s attempt to regulate cryptocurrencies. The coalition includes Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. The Iowa Attorney General’s office emphasized that the SEC’s actions in bypassing Congress to grant itself new powers are illegal. The brief also argues that the SEC has violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the Major Questions Doctrine, urging the court to prevent the SEC from overstepping its authority. The coalition contends that typical cryptocurrencies do not constitute investment contracts under the Securities Act of 1934.

6. Russian State Duma: Legalizes Bitcoin Mining and Permits Cryptocurrency Use in International Trade link

The Russian State Duma has passed a bill legalizing Bitcoin mining and permitting the use of cryptocurrencies for international trade. The bill is expected to take effect on September 1, pending final approval from the Federation Council. The vote saw 404 in favor, accounting for 89.8% of the total. The bill stipulates that Bitcoin mining activities will be regulated by the government and the Central Bank of Russia, with compliance ensured by federal agencies. Additionally, the bill allows for the sale of mined cryptocurrencies but prohibits their use for domestic payments and bans cryptocurrency advertising.

7. JD.com to Issue Hong Kong Dollar Stablecoin link

JD.com will issue a cryptocurrency stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the Hong Kong dollar, which will be issued on a public blockchain. The reserves will be composed of highly liquid and reliable assets, securely held in independent accounts at licensed financial institutions. Earlier, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the list of participants in the stablecoin issuer “sandbox,” with JD Coin Chain Technology (Hong Kong) ranking first. Liu Peng, CEO of JD Coin Chain Technology, currently serves as Vice President of JD Technology.

8. Worldcoin Investors and Team Tokens Begin Unlock Period Starting Wednesday link

From July 24, the tokens for Worldcoin (WLD) investors and team members entered their unlocking phase. A total of 2.38 billion WLD (equivalent to $5.545 billion) will be linearly unlocked over the next four years (approximately 1.63 million tokens per day). On Tuesday, Worldcoin transferred 990 million WLD to address 0x2E3…8e5, and then distributed 494 million WLD to 222 addresses in preparation for future unlockings.

9. Mt. Gox Creditors Begin Receiving Returned Assets link

On Wednesday, Kraken CEO Dave Ripley announced on X that Kraken has successfully distributed BTC and BCH from the Mt. Gox trust to creditors. Nearly a decade has passed since Kraken was selected to assist in investigating and returning customer funds. Dave Ripley noted that despite some hindrances from frivolous lawsuits, the trust’s preservation of the majority of BTC and its value has undeniably benefited all creditors.

On Thursday, Mt. Gox creditors received their returned assets in Bitstamp accounts.

Mt. Gox officials stated that following distributions on July 5 and July 16, the bankruptcy trustee has repaid Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to some creditors via select cryptocurrency exchanges according to the reorganization plan. To date, over 17,000 creditors have been compensated with Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. The official process for repaying other creditors involves verifying the validity of registered accounts and the designated exchanges, and creditors are advised to wait a bit longer.

10. Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin Publishes “Exploring Circle STARKs” link

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published an article titled “Exploring Circle STARKs,” highlighting that Starkware can prove 620,000 Poseidon2 hashes per second on an M3 notebook. This suggests that if we trust Poseidon2 as a hash function, one of the most challenging aspects of creating an efficient ZK-EVM is effectively resolved. Vitalik believes that combining Mersenne31, BabyBear, and binary field technologies like Binius brings us closer to the efficiency limits of STARKs’ “foundational layer.” He anticipates that the frontier of STARK optimization will shift towards making arithmetic operations for primitives like hash functions and signatures more effective, optimizing these primitives themselves for this purpose, developing recursive structures for greater parallelism, and improving the arithmetic of virtual machines to enhance the developer experience, along with other advanced tasks.

Fundraising

• Binance Labs has invested in Catizen’s issuance platform Pluto Studio. link
• The liquidity staking platform aPriori on the Monad blockchain has secured $8 million in seed funding. link
• Ethereum scaling solution platform Caldera has completed a $15 million Series A funding round. link
• Igloo, the parent company of Pudgy Penguins, has announced $11 million in funding, led by Founders Fund. link
• Bitcoin L2 project Bitlayer Labs has completed a $11 million Series A funding round. link
• Base ecosystem GameFi developer NPC Labs has raised $18 million in funding. link
• L2 project Zircuit has announced the completion of mainnet funding, with participation from Mirana Ventures. link
• DePIN project Network3 has raised $5 million in pre-seed and seed funding rounds. link
• DAOBase has announced a $6 million funding round. link
• Decentralized AI platform Redpill has completed a $5 million seed round. link
• Web3 community platform OpenSocial Protocol has secured $6 million in strategic funding. link
• The liquidity staking protocol Kintsu has completed a $4 million seed funding round. link
• Tokenization platform Etherfuse has announced $3 million in seed funding. link
• Blockchain cloud computing company Nirvana Labs has secured $4 million in seed funding. link
• Web3 AI platform Assisterr has raised $1.7 million in seed funding. link
• On-chain order book exchange Kuru has completed a $2 million seed funding round. link
• Multiple Network has secured $2 million in seed funding. link

Learn more, check out crypto-fundraising.info.

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