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Market Check-in

This Week in Crypto

BlackRock files for a Bitcoin ETF

BlackRock's iShares unit has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to establish a spot Bitcoin ETF called the iShares Bitcoin Trust, which will primarily hold Bitcoin, with Coinbase acting as custodian. This comes despite the SEC rejecting previous attempts from other fund management companies to establish a spot Bitcoin ETF. BlackRock, being the world's largest asset manager with over $10 trillion in assets under management (AUM), may have a stronger influence on the SEC, and a track record of successful filings. The proposed ETF will be benchmarked against the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate.

Hinman emails come out

Ripple published several emails connected to William Hinman's 2018 speech, the then-Director of Corporation Finance, where he stated that Ether did not appear to be a security. This publication is part of Ripple's ongoing defense in a lawsuit from the SEC, which alleges that Ripple illegally sold XRP tokens as an unregistered security for over seven years.

According to a JPMorgan report, the release of the Hinman documents in the SEC’s case against Ripple is seen beneficial to Ethereum. The report noted that this could explain why the SEC hasn't acted against ether while pursuing other crypto tokens. JPMorgan analysts suggest that these revelations may shape US congressional efforts to regulate crypto, possibly leading to ether being categorized similarly to Bitcoin and regulated as a commodity. The release of these documents may also stimulate a race among major cryptocurrencies to become more decentralized.

Ethereum Devs think to increase validator limit

Ethereum devs are contemplating a significant increase in the validator limit from 32 ether (ETH) to 2,048 ETH due to surging interest and elongated waiting times for initiating Ethereum validator nodes. The current cap has led to a rapid expansion of Ethereum's validator set but has also necessitated large entities to operate multiple validator nodes to provide staking yield services. The proposed increase, still under debate, would allow for auto-compounding validator rewards and simplify operations for large-scale node operators, including exchanges like Coinbase. However, the increase could potentially result in higher penalties for accidental double attestations or proposals, known as "slashing".

More reading from this week

1/ Do Kwon found guilty in Montenegro fake passport case

2/ Binance deregisters in UK amid regulatory woes

3/ Crypto Payments Firm Wyre Winding Down Due to ‘Market Conditions’ - Decrypt

What would it look like to Dollar Cost Average in Crypto?

Say you usually spend $20 a month on avocado toast, but decided to skip on that during the last 5 years, and invested them in Bitcoin instead.

Here's what the results would look like:

- Total invested: $1,200
- Total profit: $1,465 🟢
- Total return: 122% 🟢

Now let's do the same thing, $20 a month (or one avocado toast skipped per month), invested into Ethereum.

The results:

- Total invested: $1,200
- Total profit: $4,265.07 🟢
- Total return: 355% 🟢

Not bad for just skipping avotoast once a month!

You might say "but you cherry picked the numbers!"

Ok – let's look at doing the same strategy on Ethereum with different starts:

Start 1 year ago: 13%🟢
2 years ago: -15% 🔻
3 years ago: +51% 🟢
4 years ago: +241% 🟢
5 years ago: +355% 🟢

Time is on your side.

What if you can dollar cost average more than $20 a month?

How about $1,000 a month in Ethereum for 5 years?

- Total invested: $60,000
- Total profit: $213,000 🟢
- Outcome: $273,130 🟢

Now we're talking about real money.

At Alongside, we believe in long term outlooks over short term trading. That's why $AMKT, the Crypto Market Index, exists today. It tracks the top 25 assets in the space, and makes it easy to passively buy into the market.

Want to look at other scenarios? Go try the calculator out yourself!

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DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.