The Block
Quick Take President-elect Donald Trump tapped Bessent on Friday amid a flurry of administrative nominations. “Crypto is about freedom, and the crypto economy is here to stay,” the former hedge manager has stated.
Cboe BZX filed four applications for spot Solana ETFs earlier this week.The approval path for additional spot crypto ETFs should become clearer with a pro-crypto White House administration.
Quick Take Coinbase has asked the judge in its SEC lawsuit to approve an interlocutory appeal, or an appeal granted before the case is decided, after the SEC appealed the ruling in its separate case against Ripple. Coinbase seeks to ensure the Second Circuit has “as complete a picture as possible” by presenting its case for appeal around the same time as the SEC’s appeal in the Ripple case.
US-based spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds logged modest inflows on Friday, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the outflows last week.The ETFs logged over $300 million in outflows for the week, reversing a three-week trend of positive inflows.US-based Ethereum ETFs also saw a modest inflow on Friday but logged net outflows for the week.
Quick Take Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have taken contrasting stances toward the crypto industry ahead of next month’s U.S. presidential election. Industry experts largely agreed that the outcome wouldn’t impact the overall market trend, though a Trump presidency was generally seen as more positive for the space.
Quick Take Donald Trump is preparing to name Kelly Loeffler, former CEO of crypto company Bakkt, to his cabinet to lead the Agriculture Department. Loeffler, a former Senator, is co-chair of Trump’s inauguration team, while her husband is the current CEO of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the NYSE owner who founded and majority-owns Bakkt. Financial Times reported earlier this week that Trump’s social media company is in advanced talks to acquire Bakkt in an all-stock deal.
It’s been another mild week, consistent with the past three months, but sentiment from fund managers and subscribers suggests change could be on the horizon.This column is adapted from The Scoop newsletter.
Quick Take IcomTech founder David Carmona, 41, was sentenced on Friday to 121 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon. Carmona and others “hosted lavish expos,” tried to get people interested in investing and bragged about how much money they were earning, prosecutors said.
Quick Take EigenLayer said it is investigating a suspicious wallet that sold approximately 1.67 million EIGEN tokens, potentially violating the one-year lock-up for employees and early investors.
Quick Take An older Bitcoin whale has transferred a total of $3.6 million worth of BTC mined in 2009 to the Kraken crypto exchange, according to Arkham Intelligence.
