The Breakdown First Five - Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Welcome back to The Breakdown First Five — the 5 most interesting and/or important stories in bitcoin, crypto, and markets to start your day.

5. Galaxy Launch Active ETFs

Galaxy Digital in partnership with State Street have launched three actively traded crypto ETFs. The products will offer exposure to a range of blockchain related companies along with cryptocurrencies via futures and spot ETFs. Some will be long only while others will seek to manage volatility by selling covered calls and put options. 

4. Huge Bitcoin Outflows

Crypto exchanges experienced a massive $750M Bitcoin outflow on Tuesday, the largest single day withdrawal since May. Analysts suggest an outflow of this size has to be related to institutional movement of Bitcoin into cold storage. According to Coinglass data, less than 2.4M BTC remain on exchanges, an all time low. 

3. Paypal, Venmo Adopt ENS

Paypal and Venmo are diving deeper into crypto, integrating ENS names. The human readable blockchain addresses will be used solely for crypto transactions to begin with. It’s easy to imagine the protocol being used to route fiat transactions and perhaps even anchoring a crypto friendly KYC system in the future. 

2. DeFi Goes to Washington

DeFi policy experts descended on Congress for the first ever hearing on DeFi. While the hearing was pitched as an education session, Democrats weren’t interested. Instead they pushed the idea that DeFi is for criminals and that AML compliance is the only policy that matters. Industry representatives gave powerful testimony, asserting the right to financial privacy and insisted that forcing intermediaries into DeFi makes no sense as a regulatory goal. 

1. Crypto Not Mentioned

Last night's Presidential debate featured no mention of crypto policy. We got a fact check on cat eating in Ohio but no discussion of whether the industry crackdown would continue. Trump’s performance was panned by all but the most ardent supporters and Bitcoin collapsed alongside the former President. The race to the Whitehouse is now neck and neck.