Grayscale Bests The SEC & ETFs Are Coming
Grayscale Bests The SEC & ETFs Are Coming
The SEC is now forced to re-review Grayscale's BTC ETF application, in what was just one headline from a majorly bullish day for crypto.
TylerD's Market Summary
GM!
Today's top news includes:
Grayscale wins lawsuit against SEC
NFTfi does 1st ever loan against token stream
Snowfro completes last major Squiggles mint
Twitter (X) gets crypto payments license
Base passed 100k ETH bridged milestone
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👨⚖️ Grayscale Wins Lawsuit Against the SEC
Tuesday was a very bullish day for the crypto space.
The main driver?
Grayscale won its lawsuit against the SEC, forcing another review of their Bitcoin ETF application.
Many now say that BTC (and ETH) ETFs are now just a matter of when and not if.
What Happened?
A federal appeals court directed the SEC to review its earlier denial of Grayscale's proposal to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an ETF.
Their rationale? The Grayscale ETF was too similar to the two previously approved BTC ETFs already approved by the SEC.
Grayscale's legal team had argued that their proposed ETF beared significant resemblance to those priors from Teucrium and Valkyrie, and the court agreed.
"The Commission failed to adequately explain why it approved the listing of two bitcoin futures ETPs but not Grayscale’s proposed bitcoin ETP. In the absence of a coherent explanation, this unlike regulatory treatment of like products is unlawful. We therefore grant Grayscale’s petition for review and vacate the Commission’s order," the ruling said.
This has been a long-time coming for Grayscale, which first applied for its Bitcoin ETF in October 2021.
But this ruling does not mean that the Bitcoin ETF will be approved; it just means the SEC has to review it again. They can still legally find other ways to deny the application.
Why It Matters
Primarily, this was a major hurdle removed towards the Bitcoin ETF approval that many have been (somewhat desperately) waiting for.
Major crypto ETFs are a major vehicle for retail investors to put their money into crypto (BTC and maybe ETH). Their existence alone provides more confidence in crypto as a viable investment vehicle along with its duration (will be around for awhile).
And many believe that investment via ETF and more mainstream products offered from premiere financial institutions will be the driver of the next cycle. Without them, there are questions of where new money will come from.
The market certainly liked the news, with Bitcoin immediately ripping up 5% to $27,500 on the news, and ETH following suit up 4% to $1,720.
Gary Gensler may be in hot water as well after the ruling.
U.S. House Rep Warren Davidson called for the removal of Gensler as Chair of the SEC after Grayscale's victory.
So the SEC is on the ropes, and more likely than not to approve the ETF.
Get your popcorn ready.
💸 Groundbreaking NFT Financialization
NFTfi just announced a game-changing NFT loan in what may be the first step in a multi-billion-dollar unlock for NFT finance.
They have facilitated their 1st ever loan against a "token stream" NFT (via Sablier).
NFTfi users can now unlock liquidity against future income, airdrops, and token vesting.
What Happened?
Sablier is the first asset streaming DeFi protocol, which enables real-time finance with second-by-second vesting via its ERC-20 token streams.
Through Sablier:
token vesting can happen in real-time
salaries can be disbursed by the day/hour
airdrops can be distributed evenly over time
So onchain payments which were previously one-time or periodic lump-sum payments have been broken down into their smallest components, accruing evenly and steadily over time.
And once these ERC-20 token streams are wrapped into ERC-721 NFTs - they unlock NFT finance options.
NFTfi has capitalized, allowing its users to take loans against those token streams.
Let's look at a real-world example.
A Sablier user created a 15,000 USDC, 90-day token stream
They then wrapped that token stream into an ERC-721
Using NFTfi that user was able to take out an 8,000 USDC loan, 30 days with 9% interest (paying 59 USDC over the term)
Basically, the user got access to 53% of their future income for $59.
Sablier creating token streams for vesting, payroll & airdrops is a big deal for real-time onchain finance.
Connecting it to NFT lending with NFTfi takes it even further, showing how liquidity can be created from token streams, along with the reach NFT financialization may have in the near future.
It may be an NFT bear market, but you wouldn't know it looking at the pace of building in the NFT finance sector.
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
Trading volume again ticked up slightly to 4.9k ETH on Tuesday; NFTs were mostly green with majors up 1-3% and Impact Theory leading top movers up 285%
Snowfro announced that he would be minting 66 new Squiggles in the last bulk mint on Tuesday evening, leaving just 2 remaining to be minted (already spoken for); the new Squiggles went to his family, friends, artists and supporters
Opepen Set 15 "Divina Proportione" revealed on Tuesday, opening up at a 1 ETH floor (20-30% higher than the previous 3 sets)
Beeple has added a limited number of new tickets to his CryptoPunks party in Sept at Beeple Studios, noting that every NFT party needs non-holders to avoid being an echo chamber
Nakamigos appeared to have deployed a new collection called Nakamigos Cloaks, causing the floor to rally 19% to 0.34 ETH, though the team noted that their Twitter feed is the only source of updates
Winds of Yawanawa briefly opened up a new mint window which was botted (only 9 botted), though causing the team to pause and delay the mint until mid-September; the floor fell 19% to 6.5 ETH
DraftKings Reignmakers are giving away free packs for all users (not just new users) ahead of NFL Week 1
Yue Minjun's "Boundless" holders are able to purchase signed prints for 0.8 ETH (its floor fell 16% on the day to 0.25 ETH)
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
The crypto market surged on Tuesday after the Grayscale news; BTC +5% to $27,4400; ETH +4.2% at $1,718
X (Twitter) successfully obtained the license required for crypto payments and trading (in Rhode Island) indicating its plans to use crypto in the future; X still needs to get licenses in all 50 states most likely in what is a long journey
Rollbit announced that Unibot and $BITCOIN are now eligible for its crypto futures product (Unibot +7% to $170; BITCOIN +35% to $0.107)
Coinbase's L2 Base hit a major milestone of 100,000 ETH bridged to Base within the 1st 20 days of its launch
🚀 NFT Total Volume
BAYC (665 ETH, 26.3 ETH Floor)
MAYC (657 ETH, 5.19 ETH)
DeGods (341 ETH, 4.41 ETH)
Wrapped Cryptopunks (335 ETH, 49 ETH)
Pudgy Penguins (285 ETH, 4.09 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase
Impact Theory Founder's Keys (285%, 0.15 ETH Floor)
Adworld Season 1 (71%, 0.12 ETH)
Sproto Gremlins (52%, 1.1 ETH)
CyberKongz (30%, 0.75 ETH)
Nakamigos (19%, 0.34 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
Today is a very busy day of new drops, mostly in the art sector.
Art Blocks has an interesting new drop from Sterling Crispin, 270 in supply and Dutch Auction format.
Braindrops is back with its latest AI project "Mappings", 500 in supply with fixed 0.1 ETH? price.
There are several other art drops happening today, on Base, on Floor, and elsewhere.
If you want more, see the full list of today's drops from Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
Pearl Games (10:00 a.m. ET)
Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
Floor ICONS x tiffatronn (11:00 a.m. ET)
Braindrops - Mappings (1:00 p.m. ET)
Art Blocks Presents "Flourish" by Sterling Crispin (1:00 p.m. ET)
Base -FVCKRENDER x LVCIDIA x Fair.xyz - FLUX (TBD)
Enjoy this write-up? Follow along with me on Twitter @tyler_did_it or reach out via email tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.
For all volume and floor price data, see Lucky Trader's Project Rankings page.
For all upcoming mints, see Lucky Trader's NFT Calendar page.