Crypto Goes Political, NFTs Fall and ETF Inflows Rise

Today’s edition of the weekly recap: Donald Trump makes an about-face on cryptocurrencies; the NFT market is experiencing a decline in trading volume; and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are experiencing a resurgence in capital flows.

Trump panders to the cryptocurrency community

• The GOP presidential candidate 2024 openly declared support for the crypto industry. In a speech, the quadruple-indicted Trump urged his supporters to donate digital assets to his campaign.
• Trump uses campaign donations to pay mounting legal fees.
• Mark Cuban, billionaire and minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, argued May 10 regulators’ tough stance on the crypto industry is doing President Joe Biden no favors in the upcoming election.
• SEC Chairman Gary Gensler is a Biden named person.
• Meanwhile, political action committee Stand With Crypto announcement plans to provide financial support to politicians who aim to protect the interests of the cryptocurrency industry.
• As Trump’s endorsement of crypto gains momentum, leading financial institution Standard Chartered asserted in a report that voting a Republican victory in November could benefit Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader crypto industry due to dedollarizationeasing regulations and approving US cash ETFs.

Global regulatory developments

• The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the Philippines disclosed plans to adopt broad crypto regulations in the second half of this year.
• Binance has faced regulatory issues in Canada, as Canadian authorities imposed fined the exchange $4.4 million for violating anti-money laundering provisions in the country.
• Regulatory issues in Nigeria also made headlines this week. The company’s CEO, Richard Teng, accused the Nigerian government to demand bribes to resolve the issue of the arrest of two of its officials. However, the government denied these demands.

Ripple and Kraken

• The Financial Services Committee of the United States House of Representatives revealed on May 10, he will consider voting on enacting the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21), which aims to provide clarity to the digital assets sector.
• On May 8, the American SEC deposit its final response to Ripple in the appeals phase of the three-year-old SEC lawsuit against Ripple. The agency objected to Ripple’s multiple claims, saying its $1.95 billion fine for the company’s securities law violations was fair.
• Kraken, another crypto-focused company in a legal battle with the SEC, filed with dismiss the regulator’s lawsuit, citing incorrect terms and lack of evidence that it dealt with services related to investment contracts or unregistered securities.

NFT market records record decline

• The non-fungible token (NFT) market has been making headlines this week due to a mix of favorable and unfavorable trends. For a, reports confirmed that the Magic Eden Marketplace surpassed Blur for the first time to become the leader in NFT trading volume in April, with volume of $468 million.
• The broader NFT market saw a decline in volume over the past week, with cumulative weekly volume dropping 11.16% to $144.3 million. Bitcoin-based NFTs accounted for $49 million of this volume, or 34% of the total figure.
• The proliferation of crypto-focused hacks also impacted the NFT scene this week, with one NFT trader losing $145,000 worth of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs in a May 8 phishing attack.

Grayscale touts ETF renaissance

• Reports this week confirmed that the spot crypto ETF market has seen a resurgence in flows, as have all spot Bitcoin ETF products in the United States. saw a positive net collection for the first time on May 3. However, ETF analysts doubt whether this trend will continue in the following days.
• Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) leverage this renewed investor interest recorded its first ever net inflow, totaling $63 million on May 3. Additionally, on May 6, the GBTC product experienced another net entrymarking its second consecutive day of consistent inflows.
• Coin Shares reported This week, crypto investment product outflows recorded in the previous week could be much higher than the actual figure, which stood at $251 million. According to the data, inflows from Hong Kong-based spot ETFs, totaling $307 million, helped dampen global outflows from crypto products.
• Interestingly, in a classic case of institutional adoption, data from the US SEC website confirmed that the American banking giant Wells Fargo has invested in ETF products from Grayscale and ProShares.

Fuente