The Block

Quick Take Both of Gary Gensler’s warnings don not mention spot bitcoin ETFs, specifically, but come at an interesting time. Asset firms are working to get the SEC’s signoff to begin trading their spot bitcoin ETFs as early as Thursday.

Quick Take Firms are vying for a spot bitcoin ETF as fresh forms have been rapidly filed. Both Valkyrie and VanEck are expecting the SEC to make a decision on Wednesday.

Bitcoin futures open interest on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange has hit a fresh all-time high.The open interest in bitcoin long futures, held by asset managers on CME, also reached an all-time high, suggesting sophisticated traders anticipate price appreciation.

Quick Take German crypto firm Finoa raised $15 million in a round co-led by Maven 11 and Balderton. The funds were raised at the same $100 million valuation as Finoa’s Series A in 2021, a source told The Block.

Quick Take Spot bitcoin ETFs are expected to get approved at the end of business day on Wednesday, Valkyrie Investments co-founder and CIO Steven McClurg told The Block. Valkyrie is forecasting up to $400 million to flow into its ETF in the first week, and the entire market to reach up to $5 billion over the first several weeks of trading.

Quick Take The Solana Foundation reported improvements in developer onboarding and retention during 2023. The foundation attributed this to enhanced tooling and educational resources within the Solana ecosystem.

Quick Take BlackRock and VanEck have filed amended S-1 forms to address recent comments from the SEC.

Quick Take Akash Khosla, a departed co-founder at Evmos, returned his allocation of 59.4 million tokens to the Evmos Foundation. The return is expected to realign token distribution with Evmos’ current team and contributors.

Quick Take The group’s letter is in response to a letter Warren sent last month where she accused the Blockchain Association and other industry groups of “flexing a not-so secret weapon” of former defense and law enforcement officials being hired in a purported attempt to undermine Congressional efforts to address the alleged role of crypto in financing terrorist groups.

Quick Take The CFTC’s Technology Advisory Committee voted during a meeting to make recommendations, which some say is the first substantial report on DeFi by a government advisory committee.