Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.
WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assage is free – with some help from Bitcoin. The supply of new ETH has been gradually increasing for the last 73 days straight. Meanwhile, a Bloomberg ETF analyst believes the market for spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) is getting closer to launching in the United States.
Bitcoiner contributes to Julian Assange’s freedom, pays $500,000 debt in BTC
WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange is free after a 14-year battle against extradition to the United States. In a final effort to secure his freedom, an anonymous Bitcoiner donated over 8 Bitcoin, worth around $500,000, to help Assange’s family pay off the debt incurred by his travel and settlement expenses.
On June 24, Assange was released from the high-security Belmarsh prison in the United Kingdom after reaching a plea agreement with U.S. authorities. Shortly after his release, he departed the U.K. on a private plane from a London airport to Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory.
Assange appeared in a district court in Saipan on June 26, where he pleaded guilty to one charge of breaching the U.S. Espionage Act by leaking classified documents. The journey was planned to prevent Assange from touching foot on American soil.
In an interview, Stella Assange, Assange’s wife, stated that “freedom comes at a cost.” Assange is required to pay $520,000 to the Australian government for the “forced” chartering of flight VJ199 to travel to Saipan and Australia.
The donation link was posted by Stella Assange on June 25, and within 10 hours, an anonymous Bitcoiner paid over 8 Bitcoin BTC $61,835 to the fund, almost clearing the goal of $520,000. He has also received over 300,000 British pounds ($380,000) in fiat donations so far.
Ether supply has been inflating for 73 consecutive days
The supply of new Ether ETH $3,383 has been on its longest streak of continued inflation since The Merge in September 2022, with more than 112,000 ETH being added to the overall supply since mid-April.
The supply of ETH flipped inflationary around April 14, according to the Ethereum data dashboard ultrasound.money.
Much of the recent inflationary pressure appears to come from Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade, which introduced several Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), most notably including EIP-4844 which saw several fee-reducing and data-saving mechanisms introduced.
Notably, EIP-4844 introduces “blobs” a mechanism that allowed for transaction data to be siloed and stored temporarily, resulting in a massive reduction in fees paid for transaction on Ethereum layer 2 networks like Arbitrum and Optimism.
Despite this recent spate of inflation the total supply of ETH has still been on a significant downtrend since The Merge — the upgrade that saw Ethereum switch from a Proof-of-Work to a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism.
In total, just over 345,000 ETH — equating to just over $1.1 billion at current prices — has been burned since The Merge.
VanEck submits form 8-A for spot ETH ETF
VanEck has filed form 8-A for its spot Ether ETF with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), putting the investment manager one step closer to launching a live trading product.
According to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, form 8-A “is just part of the process” to list the Ether ETF, but the timing suggests the SEC may be closer to greenlighting trading than many people think.
As Balchunas noted, VanEck filed the 8-A form for its spot Bitcoin ETF exactly seven days before launch. Assuming the same timeline, the spot Ether ETFs could begin trading on July 2.
On May 23, the SEC approved spot Ether ETF applications from VanEck, BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Franklin Templeton, ARK 21Shares, Invesco Galaxy, and Bitwise. The decision came despite speculation that the securities regulator was considering labeling Ether
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