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- > $8.6 billion USD in Bitcoin awakens as crypto whale emerges
- > Pump.fun token: To pump or not to pump?
- > SharpLink’s Ethereum treasury strategy spikes stock
Fund manager collaboration Rex-Osprey has officially launched the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States to support staking. With the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) set to make a decision on greenlighting (or blocking) a series of altcoin ETFs in the coming months, the noise surrounding crypto products becoming available on Wall Street is mounting.
And now, adding to the cacophony is the release of the Solana + Staking ETF (ticker: SSK), an ETF that provides exposure to the SOL token while generating on-chain staking rewards.
Despite spot altcoin ETFs (like Solana) still waiting for the SEC to make its judgement on their legality, Rex-Osprey have forged ahead to launch their product under a different structure.
SSK uses a third-party manager – Anchorage Digital – to supervise the fund’s holdings. This is part of the ETF’s C-Corp structure, which essentially means SSK operates as an independent legal entity under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and is subject to double taxation (both the fund managers and shareholders may pay tax on earnings).
The recent launch of the REX-Osprey Solana + Staking ETF (SSK) signals a pivotal shift in the digital asset investment landscape. Though perhaps not carrying the same weight as a traditional spot SOL ETF may (if approved), it foreshadows a trend of fund managers potentially prioritising the inclusion of yield-generating staking rewards for shareholders in upcoming altcoin ETFs.
The fund was launched on Cboe Wednesday last week, seeing approximately $12 million USD worth of inflows in its first day of trading. This outpaced the initial performance of both Solana and XRP futures ETFs, though it was considerably less than the debuts of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs on Wall Street.
$8.6 billion USD in Bitcoin awakens as crypto whale emerges
If you’re a keen whale-watcher, you’ll know the Eastern coasts of Australia have been abound with Humpback sightings throughout the majority of the winter.
But those in the crypto space will also know that the ocean isn’t the only place you can go whale spotting – and earlier this week, a long-dormant Bitcoin whale breached.
As far as we’re aware, whales living in the sea don’t make a habit of hibernation. But you couldn’t say the same about this crypto whale, whose most recent wallet activity came before the mysterious disappearance of Satoshi Nakamoto 14 years ago.
But after over a decade of dormancy, the wallet, as highlighted by Arkham Intelligence, was roused into action.
In April and May 2011, approximately 80,000 BTC was purchased by the anonymous whale, at a time when Bitcoin was trading for less than $1 USD.
Fast-forward to today, and the lump sum is worth a whopping $8.6 billion USD.
A major awakening like this is often associated with profit taking, particularly in the case of Satoshi-era investors who may have remembered (or recovered) their seed phrases/wallet passwords after years of searching.
At the time of writing, however, the fortune of Bitcoin hasn’t been liquidated into fiat or other digital assets. Instead, the 80,000+ BTC were distributed across eight different wallets, where they have sat idle since earlier in the week.
Caption: One of the Bitcoin whale’s new wallet addresses, receiving small amounts of BTC from various, likely random, accounts.
Regardless of the great mammal’s motives, one thing is clear – whoever accessed the wallet owns quite the handsome sum. If we assume that the original BTC was purchased at approximately $1 USD, this puts the (on paper) profit percentage at… wait for it…over 10 million per cent.
In honour of the late Brian Wilson: ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice?’
Pump.fun token: To pump or not to pump?
For about 12 hours this week, it seemed a foregone conclusion that the popular meme coin DEX on Solana, Pump.fun, was about to launch its first native token.
According to several posters on X (formerly Twitter), Gate.io released a landing page spruiking an upcoming token sale for PUMPFUN, a cryptocurrency associated with Pump.fun.
The Initial Exchange Offering (IEO), was supposedly scheduled for July 12th, with 150 billion of a total supply of one trillion PUMP tokens offered for sale. At an asking price of 0.004 USDT per coin, the launch would’ve theoretically raised $600 million USD.
All up, the Gate.io page surmised Pump.fun’s valuation at $4 billion USD.
However, within just a few hours of the page being accessible and spreading across X, it was just as swiftly taken down by the Gate.io exchange.
Adding to the murkiness was a response from a Gate.io spokesperson, which seemed to confirm that a pre-sale was on the cards…until something happened.
That something is yet to be quantified outside of ‘negotiations’, and there has been no comment made on Pump.fun’s side at the time of publishing. So, whether the PUMPFUN token is going to be released – certainly on July 12 – is very much up in the air.
SharpLink’s Ethereum treasury strategy spikes stock
SharpLink, the Nasdaq-listed online gaming company, has followed in the footsteps of Michael Saylor’s Strategy – but with a twist.
Known for their integration with SportsHub’s suite of fantasy games, SharpLink has been forward with their goal of building a comprehensive Ethereum Treasury to help underline their company.
This strategy (no association with Michael Saylor’s business) saw SharpLink acquire approximately $19.2 million USD worth of Ethereum over the past week. The move sees the team’s total ETH holdings rise to 205,364 – making SharpLink the highest corporate owner of the second-largest crypto.
The company raised $64 million USD through a market-priced share offering last week, with an additional $37.2 million USD slated to further bolster their Ethereum strategy.
The stock market responded positively to the news, with SharpLink’s share price spiking as much as 28% overnight.
Despite Ethereum’s slump relative to BTC over the past 12-18 months, it is another show of faith from firms – and investors – that digital assets may have a long-term future on their balance sheets.
ETH itself bounced on the news, shaking off the broader market lull to post 3% 24-hour gains.
Part of SharpLink’s strategy involves staking the ETH, which has already yielded the firm an additional ~300 Ethereum.
With the crypto working committee in the US set to deliver its recommendations to the White House by the end of the month. Such regulatory clarity in the United States could then potentially accelerate corporate engagement across the industry.
Ben Knight
