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Another day, another once unthinkable crypto exchange traded fund filing. Canary Capital's proposed Solana ETF has become the second such vehicle to reach the starting gate. In a regulatory filing Tuesday the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) opened up public comment on the "Canary Solana Trust," a proposed ETF that would bring SOL investing into mainstream finance. The filing amounts to a clock-setting for Canary Capital's proposed investment vehicle. In 21 days the SEC will render a verdict (approval or denial) or, perhaps more likely, kick the decision can with deadline extensions. Market observers are broadly bullish that SOL and other altcoins will win their own ETFs this year, but the exact timing and order is unclear. What's more seemingly apparent is the SEC's newfound willingness to look favorably upon the industry, and past the regulator's old misgivings under former Chair Gary Gensler. Donald Trump's return to the White House created an opening for Canary to act aggressively, CEO Steve McClurg previously told CoinDesk. The firm's looking to list altcoin ETFs for assets like Solana that would have been nonstarters under the old regime. Grayscale's prospective Solana ETF reached this starting gate last week, meaning its 21-day fate will come a few days before Canary's – and likely be a "canary in the coal mine" for both. A representative for Canary did not immediately respond to a request for comment. |
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ETH to Breach $3k Say Analysts |
Ether (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, recently sunk to its weakest price compared to bitcoin (BTC) since late 2020 in a trade war-fueled panic crash, but a relief bounce might be on the horizon. "ETH looks to be trying to establish some bullish momentum and could be looking to finally make a recovery back above $3,000," LMAX strategist Joel Kruger said in a Tuesday morning report. "Sentiment towards the world’s second largest crypto asset has been back on the rise with many medium and longer-term players stepping in to take advantage of the recent dip," he added. "ETH looks to be trying to establish some bullish momentum and could be looking to finally make a recovery back above $3,000," LMAX strategist Joel Kruger said in a Tuesday morning report. "Sentiment towards the world’s second largest crypto asset has been back on the rise with many medium and longer-term players stepping in to take advantage of the recent dip," he added. Ether's relative strength index (RSI), a key technical indicator representing momentum, dropped to near 35%, which foreshadowed a rebound in several previous occasions from similar oversold levels, crypto analytics firm 10x Research noted in a report. The upcoming Pectra upgrade, scheduled for March, could also provide a "modest wave of hype" in the next few weeks, the report added. Wednesday’s U.S. CPI inflation report, if it arrives in line with analyst forecasts of 2.9% or lower, could also boost crypto market sentiment and fuel ETH higher, the report said. Ether is currently battling with key resistance at around $2,650, and a breakout could see prices climbing to the next resistance level of around $3,000, 10x Research analysts said. ETH shed 20% of its value over the past month as the border altcoin market bled against bitcoin, which consolidated sideways in a narrow range around the $100,000 level. The second largest crypto was recently down 1.5% over the past 24 hours at $2,644, and a rebound from current levels to $3,000 would translate to a 13.5% gain. |
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Goldfinch Prime: A New Leader In The Emerging RWA Opportunity The tokenized real-world asset (RWA) market is experiencing a rapid surge, with VanEck projecting it will exceed $50 billion by 2025. In traditional finance, private credit loans provide non-bank financing, mainly to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This lending process has now evolved in the RWA space, creating on-chain private credit secured by real-world collateral. Continue reading |
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Crypto Revenue at Robinhood Up |
Major action in crypto in 2024's final three months is expected to show up in the results of trading app Robinhood (HOOD). A surge in user activity leading up to and then following the election of Donald Trump in November has analysts expecting a 440% quarterly jump in HOOD's cryptocurrency trading revenue to $345.5 million, according to FactSet. Shares of HOOD have soared 350% over the past year as retail traders have returned to the app in anticipation of a more favorable macro environment for stocks and crypto and are higher by 37% in just the first six weeks of 2025. Robinhood's overall revenue in the fourth quarter is estimated to land at $934.9 million, up from $660.5 three months earlier, according to FactSet. Earnings-per-share are expected to be $0.41 versus $0.18 the previous quarter. Robinhood’s trading data, which is disclosed regularly by the company, is often used by analysts to estimate Coinbase’s (COIN) trading volume, which historically has moved in correlation with HOOD. According to analyst Benjamin Buddish at Barclays, the trading app saw very strong overall growth in reported crypto volumes with total volumes of roughly $69 billion through Dec. 27. This would be a five-fold increase quarter-over-quarter and a six-fold increase year-over-year, the bank noted. As a result, Buddish sees Coinbase’s retail volume to land north of $108 billion, even assuming a lower "beta" for those retail volumes, he said. Coinbase, which announces fourth quarter earnings on Thursday after the close, is estimated to report one of its strongest quarter in terms of trading volume to date leading to $1.8 billion in revenue, according to FactSet estimates. Earnings-per-share are estimated at $1.99 versus $0.41. Shares of COIN will likely be affected by Robinhood’s earnings in anticipation of a similar positive report from the crypto exchange on Thursday. COIN is up 90% over the past year, currently trading at $269.88. HOOD, on the other hand, is up 370% over the same period, trading at $54.33 at press time. |
Powell Worries About Debanking Too |
When confronted by members of the Senate Banking Committee about concerns over the "debanking" trend plaguing the crypto industry, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said he's also worried about it and is already tweaking internal supervision policies at the Fed.
"I too, am troubled by the quantity of these reports," Powell said in routine testimony before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday. He offered that "one theory is that banks are just very risk averse" about money-laundering rules and aggressive supervision under which they're unwilling to welcome customers that may stretch their compliance demands.
"We're determined to take a fresh look at that," said Powell, who added that he'd been "struck by the growing number of cases of what appears to be debanking." Republican lawmakers and the new financial watchdogs appointed by President Donald Trump have devoted special scrutiny to the so-called debanking they say was encouraged by the previous administration's banking agencies, including the Fed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Powell also thanked crypto-advocate Senator Cynthia Lummis for raising in a recent debanking hearing that the Fed has a policy to direct greater supervisory scrutiny on bankers who engage in controversial speech or activity. He said that policy is being deleted from the internal manual it came from.
While crypto oversight wasn't a central topic at Powell's hearing on Tuesday, a few of the industry's big issues were raised, including stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
Powell said the Fed supports new regulatory efforts around stablecoins — the tokens designed to maintain a steady value by being pegged to assets such as the U.S. dollar.
"Stablecoins may have a big future with consumers and businesses," Powell said. "We can't know that now, but it is important for the development of stablecoins — in a safe and sound manner that protects consumers and savers and all — that there be a regulatory framework."
The chairman of the U.S. central bank also gave a clear answer to his intentions regarding CBDCs — a nebulous threat of a digital dollar that had long concerned U.S. crypto firms, though no U.S. proposal had ever really developed. When asked whether he'd agree to never launch a CBDC, Powell simply responded, "yes." The possibility of matching Chinese and European experiments with CBDCs had already grown more remote in the U.S. at the election of Trump and the congressional majorities who are loudly opposed to such an effort.
Powell will speak again at a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday. And crypto was set to be the featured topic later Tuesday afternoon at a hearing in the House Financial Services Committee. |
Interview: Bobby Ong Says DEXs Are Better |
By Leah Callon-Butler When it comes to trading memecoins, time is money — and waiting on a centralized exchange (CEX) could cost you both. Take $TRUMP, for example. On Jan. 17, 2025, just before his inauguration, Donald Trump launched his memecoin on Solana, which surged past a $14.5 billion peak market cap on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) like Raydium and Orca within little more than 24 hours, making it the second largest memecoin behind Dogecoin at one point.
By the time the major CEXs listed $TRUMP a day or two later — having cleared the usual bureaucratic rigmarole — the action was over. As such, for speculators, DEXs aren’t just faster; they’re more liquid, more volatile and frankly, more fun. In a market where fortunes are made in minutes if not milliseconds, waiting for a CEX to catch up is a missed opportunity. On the Monday morning following $TRUMP memecoin mania, I spoke with Bobby Ong, co-founder of CoinGecko, the independent crypto data aggregator that has long been my personal go-to for checking token prices — along with roughly 40 million other monthly visitors, according to HypeStat.com. Founded in 2014, CoinGecko has grown into one the most trusted sources for crypto market data. Ong and I had actually scheduled the call before Christmas, so it was pure coincidence that Trump just happened to launch his memecoin a few days earlier. When we spoke, we both had the same reaction: What the hell just happened? I’ve known Bobby for years—he’s a true OG, having first bought bitcoin in 2013, and is one of the sharpest observers of how trading habits evolve at the grassroots level. When he started CoinGecko, it was to solve his own problem — back then, crypto price tracking was rudimentary, and there wasn’t a way to analyze market depth, liquidity, developer activity or community engagement. He wanted better insights, so he and his co-founder built the tool themselves.
Ong is based in Malaysia, while I’m in the Philippines, so we’ve both spent years in Asia’s crypto scene, watching firsthand how the region has shaped — and been shaped by — crypto. With Consensus Hong Kong coming up and both of us slated to be speakers, we planned to discuss crypto adoption trends in Asia. But we ended up talking about the problems with CEX. For CEX users, waking up on Monday was a brutal realization: they’d already missed out on nearly 41,000% in potential gains. This was particularly gut wrenching since it wasn’t just another obscure memecoin popping off in some niche corner of the internet; it was a headline-dominating asset tied to the newly re-elected U.S. president, and still, CEXs couldn’t move fast enough. Meanwhile, in just 72 hours, Solana's DEX users recorded an unprecedented $28 billion in trading volume, largely driven by $TRUMP and the fast-following $MELANIA token. This level of DeFi engagement was unimaginable barely a few years ago, when DEXs were considered too complex for the average trader to use. But that’s no longer the case, which suggests that DeFi isn’t just an alternative to CEXs; it might just overtake them.
“The experience with decentralized exchanges is superior compared to centralized exchanges, and people gravitate to that — that’s what I’m seeing in the market right now,” Ong told me.
Bobby Ong is a speaker at Consensus Hong Kong. Register today and save 15% with the code CoinDesk15.
Read the full interview here. |
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