Bitcoin ETFs see $4.5B in volume on day 1, and Gensler had the swing vote

If Gary Gensler had voted against the Spot Bitcoin ETFs they would have been Rejected so why didn't He good morning you're listening to the Ryen crypto podcast by coin Telegraph With me Robert bags stiring you through The crypto Cosmos with daily dispatches From the digital Frontier if you want to stay ahead of The curve in crypto you better make sure You click that follow button okay grab Yourself a coffee and let's get into It so the spot Bitcoin ETFs are up and Trading or at least 10 of them are so Today we're going to look at how they Did on their first day of trading why Gary gendler didn't stop the spot Bitcoin ETFs when he had the chance why Vanguard is blocking the purchase of Spot Bitcoin ETFs from its customers and The latest filing by the SEC against Ripple which wants them to produce their Financial Statements on the big day of the spot Bitcoin ETF approvals by the SEC a Friend and I were discussing the Decision when I spotted a detail that I Thought I must be misunderstanding it's One I alluded to to yesterday as it goes When it come to the spot Bitcoin ETF Approvals the SEC held a vote the vote Came down to five people and three were In favor of approving and two were in Favor of rejecting so it was a close

Call the two who voted to reject the Applications were Caroline kensaw and Jamie lizar Raga can you see my Confusion well in case you can't Commissioners Hester Pierce and Maru wer Voted in favor of approval and if I'm Being aouch dramatic and why not the Casting vote fell to the chair Gary Gendler enemy of the state to crypto and He voted to approve but why we all know That Gensler opposes crypto vem and as I Read out in yesterday's episode Gensler's official statement after the Announcement of the spot Bitcoin ETF Approvals was brutal it started by Saying while we approved the listing and Trading of certain spot Bitcoin ETP Shares today we did not approve or Endorse Bitcoin and then went on to State that Bitcoin has no underlying Value and it's used by criminals and Terrorists and yet he could have shot This ETF down for the eenth time in a Decade and he didn't he voted to approve Possibly the deciding vote too so there Are a lot of theories here and I want to Hear yours too so make sure you tweet us On @ cointelegraph and at ARC bags Turner right covered a few theories in The article Linked In the description One was that gendler simply voted with Wall Street as the spot Bitcoin ETFs Will certainly bring in more money Another speculated that the SEC didn't

Really have much of a choice after Losing the grayscale legal case in August Grace gal won their appeal and The SEC was said to have been arbitrary And capricious in the rejection of the ETF application so to reject it again Alongside 10 others would have required Better reasons for rejection much better I do think it's more likely that it is The second theory gendler wasn't Convinced that another rejection would Hold up in court so his hand was forced To tick the approved box then by issuing An aggressive statement he makes it Clear that his position is still anti- Crypto and that his vote was not a free One also if I were feeling very cynical I'd say that in 5 to 10 years time if The general consensus is overwhelmingly Positive towards Bitcoin and crypto he Can can claim he voted it in I say that Tongue and cheek but there is a chance That in 10 years time gendler is Remembered as the guy who voted the spot Bitcoin ETFs in as the blockchain Association CEO Christine Smith told Cointelegraph it would have been simpler Quicker and much less painful had chair Gendler approved an ETF years ago rather Than being essentially compelled to do So by a court order nevertheless we got The positive outcome that most of us Wanted and the vote will likely be Forgotten before the week's

End okay let's stay with the SEC for a Minute I hope the CC isn't going to be a Main character in crypto again this year But with the spot ether ETF on the Horizon it does feel kind of likely well That and the many legal cases they have Open against crypto organizations one Such organization is Ripple and this has Been going on for some time in fact it Was 3 years in December since the SEC First filed its lawsuit against Ripple The CEO Brad garlinghouse and executive Chair Chris Larson the lawsuit was for Allegedly using unregistered Securities To raise funds you might remember a Previous episode of ryen crypto so where I covered that the commission filed Notice to drop the case against Garlinghouse and Larson garlinghouse Immediately tweeted Ripple 3 sc0 and Ripple's Chief legal officer tweeted This is not a settlement this is a Surrender by the SEC so perhaps the SEC Has a bit of an ax to grind well Although the case against garlinghouse And Larson was surrendered the SEC is Still pursuing Ripple with mixed results Yesterday the secc filed with the US District Court for the southern district Of New York requesting that Judge Sarah Netburn issue an order to Ripple to Produce financial statements from 2022 To 2023 and post complaint contracts Governing institutional sales so let me

Explain what's happening here in July Last year the judge ruled that Ripple's Token xrp only qualified as a security When sold to institutional investors so It looks as if the SEC is playing the Hand they were dealt and looking to Maximize the penalties for institutional Sales which violated Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933 Ripple filed a Motion the same day the 11th of January Requesting a 2-day extension to respond To the sec's motion to compel this moves The deadline from the 17th of January to The 19th of January it seems the SEC is Pushing the only pain point they can get To with ripple and it will be very Interesting to see how this one plays Out right so there's a big question most Will want an answer to if they've been Following the Advent of the spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States how did that First day of trading go the vast Spectrum of predictions ranging from Extreme ly disappointing to world Changing indicated that nobody really Knew what to expect we now have some of The numbers but it's still not perfectly Clear the headline is that the spot Bitcoin ETFs topped $4.5 billion in Total trading volume on the first day But there are many caveats here firstly Only 10 of the ETF started trading one Didn't if you're a regular listener you Can probably guess who it's Hash deex

Hash deex is unique in the ETF Application process in so far as they Are converting they're already trading Bitcoin Futures ETF so their process is A little different and Tom Mitchell Hill Wrote The Following in his article Hash's spot Bitcoin ETF did not start Trading on January the 11th while the United States Securities and Exchange Commission approved hash's 19 B4 filing Which would allow it spot ETF product to Be listed on us stock exchanges the SEC Did not make its form S1 effective Meaning that hash's defi fund defi is The ticker is still only trading as a Futures-based ETF the company also Issued a corrected statement noting the Fund did not yet hold any spot Bitcoin In its portfolio to get to the next Caveat we need to look at how the Trading volumes break down in terms of Inflows and outflows that is there Wasn't $4.5 billion of new money going Into these ETFs in terms of volume Grayscale was first with its conversion Of the grayscale Bitcoin trust racking Up $2.2 billion in total volume Black Rock was second with $1 billion of Volume 22% of all of the 10 ETFs Combined and third was Fidelity with 685 Million in the first day the sizable Caveat here is that gray scale's volume Could be largely selling as opposed to Buying according to ETF analysts such as

Eric balinas or Bloomberg grayscale's Fee is Miles higher than any other ETF And particularly black rocks and Fidelities as a reminder black rocks is 0.2% for the first $ billion or 12 Months and then it's 0.3% Fidelity is 0% Until the 31st of July and then 0.25% gra scales is 1.5% and has no waiver so balinas and His colleague James saart both suggested That investors might be rotating out of Gbtc and into a lower fee product so Although we have the sexy numbers the Guts of the matter is still largely Unknown and as balcon went on to say we Won't know the impact of the ETFs on Bitcoin until we have a better sense of The spot Inflows finally let's look at one of the Biggest stories yesterday Vanguard is The second biggest asset manager by Assets under management wedged between Black Rock in first and Fidelity in Third although Black Rock and Fidelity Were at the Forefront of the spot Bitcoin ETFs Vanguard wasn't and they Doubled down on it yesterday when they Blocked customers from buying spot Bitcoin ETFs on their platform in a Statement to the Wall Street Journal a Spokesperson said spot Bitcoin ETFs will Not be available for purchase on the Vanguard platform we also have no plans To offer Vanguard Bitcoin ETFs or other

Crypto related products our perspective Ive is these products do not align with Our offer focused on asset classes such As equities bonds and cash which Vanguard views as the building blocks of A well-balanced long-term Investment Portfolio an ex-user Tony Spencer claims To be a Vanguard customer and that he Spoke to a spokesperson at Vanguard who Said that Vanguard isn't allowing spot Bitcoin ETFs for purchase because the Product doesn't fit with vanguard's Investment philosophy Tony Spencer was Just one of a ground swell of unhappy Customers including coinbase's senior Engineer ing manager Yuga Cola who took To X to say they had moved their Roth 401k from Vanguard to Fidelity and they Were far from alone in doing that Bitcoin archive on X did an image Compilation of tweets of people doing The exact same thing but Vanguard wasn't The only person to be blocking these Purchases the Wall Street Journal also Reported that customers of City meril Lynch Edward Jones and UBS were unable To purchase spot Bitcoin ETFs though as Braden lindrea wrote in the article Linked In the description below UBS is Considering unsolicited offers from Prospective spot Bitcoin ETF investors And is making assessments on a caseby Casee basis a source close to the firm Told coin Telegraph the ETF can only be

Offered in a brokerage account and is Only suitable for aggressive investors They added meanwhile it's not a cut and Dry situation with City or Merl Lynch Either as they seem to be evaluating the Situation rather than opposing the ETFs Unsurprisingly or surprisingly depending On how you look at it JP Morgan's Brokerage platform allowed spot Bitcoin ET F trading the surprising perspective Is that JP Morgan's CEO Jamie dimon Slammed crypto to the Senate the Unsurprising angle is that JP Morgan is An authorized participant in Black Rock's ey shares Bitcoin trust ETF okay I know we're still pretty heavy On ETF stories but there's just so much Happening that you need to know about But that is it for today and this week And I swear this week must have had more Than 5 days on Wednesday alone I felt Like I was Aging in dog years so I'm Sure crypto is going to give us a nice Quiet weekend right see you bright and Early Monday consider yourself informed Thank you for listening to the Risen Crypto podcast by coin Telegraph if You're enjoying these daily updates Please make sure you let us know by Following subscribing or leaving a Review have a great weekend let's do This again [Music] Monday