In the wake of the SEC’s renewed scrutiny of the decentralized finance space—which drew fire from within—the DeFi outlook is increasingly uncertain. With total value locked shrinking from $178 billion to $48 billion, many are asking what’s next.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. While Elon Musk is not falling for that platitude, perhaps globally dominant BlackRock can take some solace that it is the leader the industry has chosen to follow.
As the spot Bitcoin ETF applicant deemed most likely to succeed, other would-be purveyors of the holy grail of Bitcoin investment vehicles have been copying its homework.
The extra credit question: How will these institutions enforce securities law and KYC rules? The answer is a “surveillance sharing agreement” with a major exchange—Coinbase, it turns out—so bad actors and fraudulent transactions can be identified.
The more Bitcoin economics is embraced by the mainstream, the more mainstream Bitcoin economics becomes.
🪙 Coin of the moment
It was red candles almost all the way down the crypto charts this week, although the losses were not especially dramatic. Amid this vast blandness, Solana stands out.
Even though the week started with yet another exchange delisting the token thanks to the SEC’s “guilt by association” statements, Solana also saw renewed attention when Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin said he felt bad about how Solana has been treated as of late.
For its part, Solana Labs suggested greater integration between Solana and Ethereum. On balance, the week saw the token spike above $22 at one point and cross into the weekend up nearly 20%, according to CoinGecko.
