SEC Reviews Bitcoin ETF Applications, Geist Finance Closes After Multichain Exploit

Market Update Equities markets open marginally higher after inflation data last week showed a slowdown in price increases, fueling hopes that the Fed can achieve price stability without triggering a recession. $SPX and $QQQ are up 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively, with earnings season to roll through further this week. Despite last week's encouraging developments on the court's ruling against Ripple, the digital asset market has retraced most of its gains since Wednesday. $BTC has since retraced back to $30k and is flat on the day, while $ETH fell back below $2k to $1.91k and is down 0.5% in the same period. Apart from $XRP, $1INCH has gained the most within the top 100, appreciating by ~46%. This price action can be partially attributed to the surge in volume from South Korean exchange Upbit, which has also done the same for Bitcoin Cash and Aptos in recent weeks.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has officially commenced review of BlackRock's proposed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). BlackRock's proposal stands out with a distinctive surveillance-sharing agreement with cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, designed to oversee and report possible illicit transactions. This measure has been replicated in the applications of other prospective ETF issuers like Val