🌳 Kamala Harris Receives Record-Breaking Donations; SEC Approves Spot ETH ETFs

Macro & TradFi

Vice President Kamala Harris raised a record-breaking $81 million (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/22/us/politics/harris-fundraising-biden-actblue.html) in the first 24 hours of her presidential campaign with 888,000 donors contributing. Of these donors, 60% were first-time contributors. The Harris campaign also secured 43,000 recurring donations, bolstering its financial position after a period of uncertainty following President Biden’s poor debate performance. The surge in donations was facilitated by ActBlue, which processed over $90 million in the same period, making it the third-largest single day of fundraising in its history. The substantial influx of funds is seen as a critical move to rebuild the Democratic war chest and consolidate party support behind Harris’s candidacy.

In other news, Nvidia is developing a version of its new flagship AI chips (https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/22/-nvidia-preparing-version-of-new-flagship-ai-chip-for-chinese-market-reuters-reports.html) tailored for the Chinese market to comply with existing U.S. export controls, according to four sources familiar with the matter. The upcoming "B20" chip, a variant of the recently unveiled "Blackwell" series, is expected to launch in the second quarter of 2025 through Nvidia's distributor partner, Inspur. This move aims to address the restrictions imposed by Washington in 2023, which sought to limit China's access to advanced semiconductors for supercomputing and military applications. Despite these challenges, Nvidia is seeing increasing sales of its H20 chips in China, with projections estimating over $12 billion in revenue this year. The U.S. administration is also considering further restrictions on semiconductor exports and advanced AI models, contributing to recent declines in chip stocks globally.

On Tuesday, major stock indexes rebounded sharply, with the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 gaining 1.6% and 1.1%, respectively, as technology stocks recovered from last week's declines. Nvidia and Tesla led the gains, rising 4.8% and 5.1% ahead of their earnings reports. However, CrowdStrike and Verizon were notable decliners, falling 13.5% and 6.1% respectively, due to ongoing impacts from a recent tech outage and disappointing earnings. Market focus shifted to U.S. political developments, with President Joe Biden announcing his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race, and economic data releases later in the week, including GDP growth and inflation measures. Investors will be looking out for the US GDP and Initial jobless claims are due Thursday, at 20:30 SGT, while US Personal Income and PCE Price Index are due Friday, 20:30 SGT.

DeFi & CeFi

   •   SEC gives final approval for spot ETH ETF trading

   •   Hongkong to launch inverse BTC ETFs

   •   Swan Bitcoin delays IPO plan, announces shutdown of mining unit

   •   ETHTrustFund DAO transfers $2M treasury in apparent rug pull

   •   Orderbook-like DEX on Sei v2 solves slippage and MEV attacks in DeFi trading

   •   Mt. Gox prepares for repayments on Bitstamp

The US SEC (https://cointelegraph.com/news/spot-ethereum-etfs-begin-trading-sec-approval) approved the final S-1 registration statements necessary for the launch of spot ETH ETFs on the respective stock exchanges, including the likes of Nasdaq, New York Stock Exchange, and Cboe. Institutions that are to issue spot ETH ETFs include 21Shares, BlackRock, Fidelity, Bitwise, Invesco Galaxy, VanEck, and Franklin Templeton. All spot Ether ETFs, except the Grayscale Ethereum Trust, will offer a base fee ranging from 0.15% to 0.25%. However, Fidelity, 21Shares, Bitwise, Franklin, and VanEck plan to waive fees for their spot Ether ETFs until a specified period ends or their products reach a certain level of net assets. Similarly, the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust will waive fees for the first six months or until it accumulates $2 billion in net assets, whichever occurs first. The introduction of spot ETH ETFs is expected to bring a huge influx of liquidity into the digital asset ecosystem.

🌳 Kamala Harris Receives Record-Breaking Donations; SEC Approves Spot ETH ETFs

Macro & TradFi

Vice President Kamala Harris raised a record-breaking $81 million (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/22/us/politics/harris-fundraising-biden-actblue.html) in the first 24 hours of her presidential campaign with 888,000 donors contributing. Of these donors, 60% were first-time contributors. The Harris campaign also secured 43,000 recurring donations, bolstering its financial position after a period of uncertainty following President Biden’s poor debate performance. The surge in donations was facilitated by ActBlue, which processed over $90 million in the same period, making it the third-largest single day of fundraising in its history. The substantial influx of funds is seen as a critical move to rebuild the Democratic war chest and consolidate party support behind Harris’s candidacy.

In other news, Nvidia is developing a version of its new flagship AI chips (https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/22/-nvidia-preparing-version-of-new-flagship-ai-chip-for-chinese-market-reuters-reports.html) tailored for the Chinese market to comply with existing U.S. export controls, according to four sources familiar with the matter. The upcoming "B20" chip, a variant of the recently unveiled "Blackwell" series, is expected to launch in the second quarter of 2025 through Nvidia's distributor partner, Inspur. This move aims to address the restrictions imposed by Washington in 2023, which sought to limit China's access to advanced semiconductors for supercomputing and military applications. Despite these challenges, Nvidia is seeing increasing sales of its H20 chips in China, with projections estimating over $12 billion in revenue this year. The U.S. administration is also considering further restrictions on semiconductor exports and advanced AI models, contributing to recent declines in chip stocks globally.

On Tuesday, major stock indexes rebounded sharply, with the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 gaining 1.6% and 1.1%, respectively, as technology stocks recovered from last week's declines. Nvidia and Tesla led the gains, rising 4.8% and 5.1% ahead of their earnings reports. However, CrowdStrike and Verizon were notable decliners, falling 13.5% and 6.1% respectively, due to ongoing impacts from a recent tech outage and disappointing earnings. Market focus shifted to U.S. political developments, with President Joe Biden announcing his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race, and economic data releases later in the week, including GDP growth and inflation measures. Investors will be looking out for the US GDP and Initial jobless claims are due Thursday, at 20:30 SGT, while US Personal Income and PCE Price Index are due Friday, 20:30 SGT.

DeFi & CeFi

   •   SEC gives final approval for spot ETH ETF trading

   •   Hongkong to launch inverse BTC ETFs

   •   Swan Bitcoin delays IPO plan, announces shutdown of mining unit

   •   ETHTrustFund DAO transfers $2M treasury in apparent rug pull

   •   Orderbook-like DEX on Sei v2 solves slippage and MEV attacks in DeFi trading

   •   Mt. Gox prepares for repayments on Bitstamp

The US SEC (https://cointelegraph.com/news/spot-ethereum-etfs-begin-trading-sec-approval) approved the final S-1 registration statements necessary for the launch of spot ETH ETFs on the respective stock exchanges, including the likes of Nasdaq, New York Stock Exchange, and Cboe. Institutions that are to issue spot ETH ETFs include 21Shares, BlackRock, Fidelity, Bitwise, Invesco Galaxy, VanEck, and Franklin Templeton. All spot Ether ETFs, except the Grayscale Ethereum Trust, will offer a base fee ranging from 0.15% to 0.25%. However, Fidelity, 21Shares, Bitwise, Franklin, and VanEck plan to waive fees for their spot Ether ETFs until a specified period ends or their products reach a certain level of net assets. Similarly, the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust will waive fees for the first six months or until it accumulates $2 billion in net assets, whichever occurs first. The introduction of spot ETH ETFs is expected to bring a huge influx of liquidity into the digital asset ecosystem.