Gate.io Blog Daily News | $9.25B BTC Options are About to Expire; The SEC May Approve Spot Ethereum ETFs; The BVM Team Launched ZK Rollups Service to Expand BTC

Daily News | $9.25B BTC Options are About to Expire; The SEC May Approve Spot Ethereum ETFs; The BVM Team Launched ZK Rollups Service to Expand BTC

01 January 08:00

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## Crypto Daily Digest: $9.25 billion BTC options are about to expire, and bulls may face a crisis; The SEC may approve spot Ethereum ETFs as early as July 4; The Bitcoin Virtual Machine Team launched ZK Rollups service to expand Bitcoin; Blast airdrops issued 17 billion tokens
First, let's examine the trading activities of <a href="/price/bitcoin-btc" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Bitcoin</a> ETFs. According to Farside Investor data, on June 26, Grayscale Bitcoin spot ETFs (GBTC) received an inflow of $4.3 million in funds; Meanwhile, Fidelity Bitcoin spot ETF (FBTC) had an inflow of $18.6 million, and ARK 21 Shares Bitcoin spot ETF (ARKB) experienced an outflow of $4.9 million. According to official data from Grayscale, as of June 26, Grayscale GBTC held 275,895.653 BTCs, a decrease of approximately 499.811 from the previous trading day.

**$9.25 billion BTC options expire this week, and bulls may face a crisis**
The monthly expiration in June is particularly crucial as it marks the end of the first half of 2024. From a historical perspective, this moment is the second-largest maturity date in every market, including the traditional financial industry. Now, technology giant Nvidia, with a market value of $3 trillion, has fallen by 12% since hitting a historic high on June 20, and investors are particularly concerned.

This week, the $9.25 billion BTC options will expire. It has been two months since the Bitcoin halving event, and 57% of the bullish bets are focused on $70,000 or higher. However, the market's weak performance in the past two weeks has put pressure on bulls. If Bitcoin remains around $61,500 on June 28, BTC options priced at $62,000 and $64,000 will not expire, and put options priced at $58,000 and $60,000 will expire.

The current financial market dynamics are similar to 2021, which may indicate that a bear market is about to arrive. The signal includes the widening gap between the S&P 500 index and the equi weighted indexes. The availability of call and put option contracts on June 28 depends on the settlement price. Bitcoin's long position of $64,000 is needed to avoid losses, and the long position urgently needs to maintain a support level of $60,000 before its expiration on June 28.

**The SEC may approve spot <a href="/price/ethereum-eth" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Ethereum</a> ETFs as early as July 4**
Industry executives and other relevant sources have revealed that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may approve spot Ethereum ETFs as early as July 4. As negotiations between asset management companies and regulatory agencies have entered the final stage, eight asset management companies,including BlackRock and VanEck, are seeking SEC approval to launch these funds.

Sources pointed out that modifying the distribution documents has progressed to only addressing minor issues. A lawyer who collaborated with a certain issuing company also stated that this is only the "final polishing," and approval may not take more than one or two weeks. ETF analyst Eric Balchunas had previously anticipated approval as early as July 2.

The fund launched in January to track Bitcoin spot prices is one of the most successful funds in the ETF market, attracting approximately $8 billion in assets. As of the end of June, the asset size of these nine products was close to $38 billion, but Grayscale Bitcoin Trust's shareholding decreased to $17.8 billion, and the company also converted its $27 billion Bitcoin Trust into an ETF.

The SEC declined to comment on this. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler stated in an interview with Reuters earlier this month that the launch date will depend partly on the issuer's response speed to regulatory inquiries.

**Bitcoin Virtual Machine Team launched ZK Rollups service to expand Bitcoin**
Last week, BVM launched the zero-knowledge proof service BitZK, which enhances Bitcoin's scalability by allowing users to create summaries and migrate applications from Ethereum to Bitcoin. The surge in such activities has prompted multiple development teams to explore new ways to expand Bitcoin and absorb ideas from other blockchain projects.

BVM's access fee to its BitZK service is $99 or more per month, and it has accumulated a group of early users, including Bitcoin Layer2 RWA Chain, POWD3R Blockchain, and Octopus Bridge. The monthly fee covers the memory, CPU, and storage costs related to running the second layer of Bitcoin.

The Bitcoin Virtual Machine (BVM) was launched in January 2023, and according to the project's white paper, "BVM is a state machine similar to an Ethereum virtual machine that utilizes Bitcoin as the data layer to achieve trading level consensus. This approach allows BVM to act as a universal state machine, leveraging Bitcoin's security and data availability without additional network or consensus protocols."

This protocol aims to make the Bitcoin network as universal as possible and is one of several Bitcoin scalability solutions. The demand for scalability solutions began last year when protocols such as Ordinals and Runes were launched, increasing the demand for blockspace. These solutions started to receive attention, stimulating on-chain activities in the Bitcoin network.

Bitcoin's scalability has always been a challenge, whether through increasing block size or developing scalable layer 2 solutions. Zero knowledge proof is used in the blockchain circle to compress data and has become the foundation for many of the most popular rollups on Ethereum.

**Blast airdrops issued 17 billion tokens**
The Ethereum Layer 2 scalability network Blast distributed 17 billion BLAST tokens to early adopters of its network at 10 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday.

Parsec Finance's blockchain exploration tool shows that over 35% of airdropped BLASTs have been claimed within the first few hours of the token's launch.

## Market Trends: Layer2 narrative is gradually being abandoned by the market, eyes on the inflation data released on Friday
BTC: Bitcoin has experienced a decline after rebounding above $62,000 and is currently consolidating around $61,000. This consolidation state indicates that the market is seeking new directions, and investors are waiting for further market signals.

ETH: <a href="/price/ethereum-eth" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Ethereum price</a> has slightly fallen to around $3,380; however, the ETH/BTC exchange rate remains strong.

Altcoins: After experiencing yesterday's general rise, the current increase in Altcoins has narrowed. This situation usually indicates that the market is digesting the early gains and there may be a demand for short-term adjustment.
### Macroeconomics:
US stocks: Continuing to rise, it indicates investor confidence in the economic outlook. But at the same time, the US dollar index is also rising. The market is highly concerned about the upcoming inflation index data to be released on Friday, which will significantly impact future monetary policy.
### Market Hotspots:
Layer2 Project Blast: BLAST was launched on Gate last night and currently has a market value of $2.7 billion. The Blast point airdrop model is not user-friendly for large players and has not yet been launched on more high-quality trading platforms. The price performance of Blast, to some extent, indicates that the market is abandoning the narrative of Ethereum Layer2, and investors may be looking for new growth points.

List of stablecoin projects: LISTA continues to soar, breaking through $0.8 this morning. This week, Lista announced the start of a new mining round, with LISTA/<a href="/price/bnb-bnb" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">BNB</a>'s annual mining revenue reaching 245%. Community users estimate that based on Lista's mining revenue, the price peak of LISTA tokens may be around $1.2.

KAS of the Pow chain: KAS surged, approaching a historic high. The official announcement is that Kaspa Chain will shift its focus towards Meme coins in the future. After halving BTC, many BTC mining companies have switched their computing power to mine KAS.

Meme section: Trump and Biden will hold their presidential debate tomorrow at 9pm Beijing time. The concept tokens of the US election, such as MAGA and PEOPLE, are worth paying attention to and may experience short-term price fluctuations due to debates.

After a round of adjustment and consolidation in the current market, investors should closely monitor the release of macroeconomic data and changes in market trends. Especially in the Meme sector, there are certain short-term investment opportunities. For long-term investors, observing the trends of BTC and ETH, as well as changes in macroeconomic policies, will help develop more robust investment strategies.

## Macro: Trading volatility before the release of inflation data, with Wall Street closing slightly higher; Asian stock markets falling, Japanese yen plummeting
On June 26, major US stock indexes closed slightly higher on Wednesday after experiencing volatile trading. Investors remain cautious until the US presidential debate and the highly anticipated inflation report by the Federal Reserve are released.

The index’s performance is as follows: the Dow Jones index rose 0.04%, the Standard & Poor's index rose 0.16%, and the Nasdaq index rose 0.49%.

Chip manufacturer Nvidia surged 0.25% before the close, smoothing out the previous decline. Large technology stocks such as Apple, Amazon, and Tesla also recorded profits. However, some analysts have expressed concerns about Nvidia, believing that geopolitical issues may significantly impact the company.

There will be multiple economic data releases this week, among which Friday's Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) price index is particularly important, which is the preferred inflation indicator for the Federal Reserve to determine the path of monetary policy. Analysts believe investors are still standing, waiting for tomorrow's presidential debate and PCE data. Meanwhile, investors increased their bets on non-tech industries earlier this week.

Due to inflation concerns, Asian stock markets fell on Thursday, June 27, and bond yields soared. The Nikkei index in Japan fell 1%, and the MSCI Asia Pacific region's broadest stock index fell 0.5%.

The US yield supported the US dollar in the foreign exchange market, hitting a two-month high of 106.13 against a basket of currencies on Wednesday. Due to stubborn inflation and strong economic data, expectations of interest rate cuts in the United States have been suppressed, with the US dollar index rising 1.3% this month and nearly 1.5% in the quarter. The New Zealand dollar fell further by 0.1% on Thursday to a six-week low of $0.6069, while the pound fell to a six-week low of $1.2613. The US dollar hit a six-week high against the pound and the New York dollar.

The Japanese yen exchange rate against the US dollar is 160.7, slightly lower than the 38-year high set on Thursday. This tense sentiment makes risky assets in the financial market particularly vulnerable.

The Japanese yen fell to a historic low of 171.79 against the euro on Wednesday, with the yen against the US dollar at 171.57 during the Asian session, lower than the level that prompted Japan to intervene in April and May. On Thursday, Japanese Finance Minister Junichi Suzuki stated that he would not comment on the exchange rate level. He reiterated the government's concerns about the impact of the yen's depreciation on the economy and closely monitors the currency market.

The acceleration of inflation to a six-month high in May impacted the yield of Australia's three-year government bonds, which jumped 18 basis points on Wednesday. It rose 10 basis points on Thursday to 4.21%, following the momentum of overnight US treasury bond selling.

Regarding commodities, Brent crude oil futures fell 0.4% to $84.92 per barrel, down 3% this quarter.

Due to the increase in yield, the price of gold has fallen, trading at $2,297 per ounce.

<div class="blog-details-info">
<div>Author:**Sherry S. & Icing**, Gate.io Researcher
<div>Translator:Joy Z.
<div class="info-tips">\*This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
<div>\*Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting of the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced. In all cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.
</div>

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Daily News | $9.25B BTC Options are About to Expire; The SEC May Approve Spot Ethereum ETFs; The BVM Team Launched ZK Rollups Service to Expand BTC

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