Hinman Emails Could Suggest a Gap in Existing Regs, CPI Continues to Cool
Market Update
- Equities are continuing their tear on the back of today's CPI release. The SPX and QQQ -0.07% are both trading approximately 80 bps higher. Interestingly, materials and energy are leading the market, suggesting a broadening of the emergent bull market. Crypto continues to track more closely with gold than equities, with BTC and ETH flat over the last 24 hours. Altcoins received an early bid after the release of the highly anticipated Hinman emails (more on this below) but have since retraced their gains.
Source: TradingView, Fundstrat
- The May CPI report revealed that headline inflation increased by 0.1% month-over-month and 4% year-over-year, showing a slowdown compared to the previous month. Despite the cooling of headline inflation, core inflation remained elevated. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, rose by 0.4% monthly and 5.3% annually. The main drivers of CPI were surging rent prices and increases in used car and truck prices. The Fed is expected to pause its rate hikes at tomorrow's FOMC meeting, with the possibility of a resumption in increases in July, as they continue to assess incoming data.
- On Tuesday, Ripple Labs disclosed emails from 2018 featuring William Hinman, the then-Director of Corporation Finance at the SEC, suggesting that ETH did not require registration as a security. These emails were unveiled as a part of Ripple's ongoing defense in a lawsuit lodged by the SEC, which accuses the firm of illicitly selling XRP tokens, deemed unregistered securities. The emails also disclose internal discussions among SEC officials about clarifying the aforementioned viewpoint and a meeting with Ethereum's founder, Vitalik Buterin. The exchanges suggest a historical acknowledgment by SEC officials that existing securities laws, including the Howey Test, may be insufficient to regulate cryptoassets, indicating a need for tailored regulations for this emerging technology. This perspective would benefit most existing parties embroiled in SEC litigation. There's no set date for the ruling on the Ripple lawsuit, but we expect a decision in the coming months. The revelation sparked a temporary rally among coins recently classified as securities in SEC lawsuits, although these gains have largely been reversed.
- Uniswap Labs, the team behind the decentralized crypto exchange Uniswap (UNI), has released a draft code for the fourth iteration of their protocol, Uniswap v4, inviting the community to contribute to its development. Uniswap v4 introduces "hooks," which are smart contracts that can be integrated into various pools, allowing developers to create more customizable pools with their own rules, trade-offs, and added functionalities. One potential function is acting as a time-weighted average market maker, enabling long-term swaps or orders. The architecture is more efficient and cost-effective as it consolidates all pools into a single smart contract, known as a singleton contract, which is projected to significantly reduce gas fees and facilitate liquidity across varying Uniswap pools. Additionally, Uniswap v4 implements a flash accounting system that streamlines balance transfers, reducing transaction fees. The launch date for v4 is yet to be determined as Uniswap Labs anticipates feedback from the community, expecting the process to span over several months.
Daily Technical Strategy
Mark L. Newton, CMT
Head of Technical Strategy
Mark is travelling today. He will return tomorrow with his regularly scheduled daily technical insights.
Daily Important Metrics
All metrics as of June 13, 2023 1:22 PM
All Funding rates are in bps
Crypto Prices
Symbol | Market Cap | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
BTC | $501B | $25,824 | ↓ -0.41% | ↑ 56% | |
ETH | $209B | $1,736 | ↓ -0.47% | ↑ 45% | ↓ -11% |
ADA | $9.5B | $0.2732 | ↓ -1.09% | ↑ 11% | ↓ -45% |
DOGE | $8.5B | $0.0610 | ↓ -0.59% | ↓ -13% | ↓ -69% |
SOL | $5.9B | $14.88 | ↓ -1.29% | ↑ 50% | ↓ -5.55% |
MATIC | $5.9B | $0.6361 | ↓ -0.34% | ↓ -17% | ↓ -72% |
DOT | $5.5B | $4.58 | ↑ 1.27% | ↑ 5.44% | ↓ -50% |
LINK | $2.7B | $5.22 | ↑ 1.05% | ↓ -6.02% | ↓ -62% |
NEAR | $1.1B | $1.19 | ↓ -0.16% | ↓ -6.31% | ↓ -62% |
Exchange Traded Products (ETPs)
Symbol | Premium to Nav | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
GBTC | ↓ -44% | $13.06 | ↓ -0.46% | ↑ 58% | ↑ 1.65% |
BITW | ↓ -56% | $9.66 | ↓ -1.73% | ↑ 80% | ↑ 24% |
ETHE | ↓ -56% | $7.40 | ↑ 0.00% | ↑ 55% | ↓ -0.43% |
BTCC | ↑ 0.11% | $4.75 | ↑ 0.21% | ↑ 57% | ↑ 0.88% |
News
QUICK BITS
Bitcoin Magazine Decentralized Social Networking App Damus Set To Be Removed From Apple's App Store Apple may remove Damus from the app store on the grounds that zaps within the app do not go through the in-app purchase mechanism. |
MARKET DATA
CoinDesk Bitcoin, Ether and Stablecoins Total 80% of $1T Crypto Market Cap as Investors Flee Altcoins The combined market capitalization of BTC, ETH and stablecoins reached the highest since February 2021, digital asset research firm K33 Research noted. |
The Block Blur set to increase circulating supply by 40% with $60 million token unlock Approximately 196 million BLUR tokens are set to be unlocked on June 14, accounting for around 40% of the circulating supply. The po... |
REGULATION
CoinDesk Investing Platform eToro to Delist 4 Cryptocurrencies for U.S. Users Next Month eToro cited "recent developments" as the reason for the move, referring to the SEC's legal action against Coinbase and Binance and the regulator labelling certa... |
The Block Ripple calls for investigation into former SEC official after document release Ripple is calling for a fresh investigation into William Hinman, a former director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Fina... |
Coin Telegraph Bitstamp now included on FCA's list of registered crypto firms The Financial Conduct Authority listed 42 registered crypto firms in compliance with the U.K. government's Anti-Money ... |
MINING
CoinDesk Bitcoin Miners Transfer $174M Worth of Coins to Exchanges in Two Weeks The 14-day average of miner transfers to exchanges has increased sharply to 489.26 BTC, the highest since March 2021, according to Glassnode. |
HIRING
The Block Crypto VC Eden Block hires former Goldman Sachs partner Orit Freedman Weissman London-based Eden Block, the crypto venture capital firm, hired former Goldman Sachs partner Orit Freedman Weissman as a general partner. ... |
WEB 3.0
The Block Polygon unveils plan to build network of ZK-based Layer 2 chains Polygon 2.0 will provide a multi-chain network of ZK-powered Layer 2 chains that can securely interact with each other. The post Pol... |
HACKS, EXPLOITS, AND SCAMS
Coin Telegraph DeFi protocol Sturdy Finance offers $100K bounty to hacker if funds are returned Sturdy Finance founder Sam Forman said the company will not pursue the issue any further if the hacker accepts the off... |
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