The spot Bitcoin ETF applications will Be decided by the SEC imminently and There's a lot you need to Know good morning Happy New Year you are Listening to the ryen crypto podcast by Coin Telegraph with me Robert bags Steering you through the crypto Cosmos With daily dispatches from the digital Frontier if you want to make sure you Are at the front of the packing crypto This year make sure you click that Follow button okay grab yourself a Coffee let's get into It the spot Bitcoin ETF applic are Dominating the news at the moment but That isn't the only story on the menu Today so here's a rundown falic boin Lays out the ethereum road map for 2024 And Beyond an analyst points to options Data to suggest that ETF approval will Not cause a market rally s SPF not Receiving a second trial is called a Miscarriage of Justice Bitcoin mining Experts shared their predictions for What will happen after the harving event And the JP Morgan CEO wanted crypto shut Down but then named as an AP in Black Rock Spot Bitcoin TF Application a good choice for the first Story of the year is ethereum's game Plan for 2024 as revealed in a thread on X this weekend although there haven't Been wholesale changes to the ethereum Road map from its 2023 version It's
Worth knowing what the big moves are as They will come up throughout the year I Will link bertin's tweet in the show Notes as a reference because it had Diagrams flowcharts and so on okay so Ethereum has six areas of improvement They are called the merge The Surge The Scourge The Verge The Purge and the Splurge merge yep there's a theme the Merge is where ethereum moves from a Proof of work consensus to the more Efficient proof of stake this is Arguably the key area of the road map And we saw it get underway back in September 2022 the next phase is Primarily focused on single slot Finality ssf and as boin says it's the Easiest path to resolving a lot of the Ethereum proof of State Design's current Weaknesses honestly this is pretty techy I live by Einstein's rule of if you Can't explain it simply you don't Understand it well enough so if you want To know more about ssf you're going to Have to go down that rabbit hole alone For now but the merge isn't the only Thing ethereum is focusing on so for the Other five elements here's a tldr The Surge is concerned with hitting the goal Of 100,000 transactions per second TPS Using rollups The Scourge is about Tackling the criticisms of Centralization in the ethereum ecosystem The Verge is focused on improving the
Process of verifying blocks The Purge Wants to simplify the protocol by Removing dead weight from the network And the Splurge has the daunting goal of And I quote fix everything else this Area is mostly about improving the evm Ethereum virtual machine and other Related Things okay firstly we need to start This story with the sliver of news Reuters reported over the weekend they Claim that the spot Bitcoin ETF Applicants could be contacted about the Approval of their application as early As today if that is the case we'll Likely know and I'll cover it in Tomorrow morning's episode so there have Been two pretty distinct camps when it Comes to the approval of the spot Bitcoin ETF applications some have Predicted it will send Bitcoin on a bull Run that will hit anything from $100,000 To $1 million depending on who you ask The other side believes that the market Has already priced in the ETF Application approval and so we won't see Much movement greeks. live a platform For trading crypto options believes it's More likely to be the latter they Believe that recent Market data Indicates there has been very little Volatility in major term implied Volatilities IV and prices gs. live Tweeted that looking at the options data
January 12 options IV which is strongly Correlated to the ETF fell rather than Rose and the block was almost untraded Accounting for only 2% of the day's Turnover a low level of share that is Very rare we can assume that the market Has priced the ETF and even if it Succeeds it may not result in Greater Returns so this has divided many people Although by the rumor sell the news has Always been Stellar advice the ETF Situation seems unusual and singular Greek . live put forward a well Supported case that those in the market Have factored in the etf's approval into Their positions already so the actual Approval is immaterial though many Others believe that the influx of new Money into Bitcoin cannot be fully Understood until the floodgates open Which side of the fence are you on tweet Us on cointelegraph or RK Bags as we wait for the sentencing of s Bankman freed in March where he faces a Maximum sentence of 115 years in prison A subplot to the story has opened up in The crypto community and let me tell you It's a conversation worth having the United States Department of Justice has Decided not to pursue a second trial Against SPF with a letter on the 29th of December stating that due to the strong Public interest the case required a Prompt resolution of this matter so why
Is this a problem well the US government Prosecuted s spf's fraud with FTX where Around $8 billion of client funds were Lost while FTX was on the sharp Ascent SBF took loans from ftxs sister company Alamida research and used the money to Influence us governmental policies Surrounding crypto regulations money Influencing policy is an uncomfortable But not uncommon occurrence in spf's Trial he admitted to being a significant Donor to both the Republicans and the Democrats ahead of the 2022 midterms the Total amount donated according to court Documents was around $100 million and Now we're edging towards why this is a Problem with the 2024 presidential Election on the horizon candidates do Not want the FTX and SBF stink anywhere Near them which many commenters are Claiming is a motivator behind the Decision to not have a second trial as Simon Dixon puts it the co-founder of Bank to the Future the US government are Prosecuting his fraud but dropping his Political campaign Finance violations Coinbase's Chief legal officer Paul GRL Called the announcement a miscarriage of Justice and stated the public interest In a public airing of charges almost Always matters campaign finance charges Are at the very top of this list what Politicians and others knew was what and When are critical questions that deserve
Answers crypto influencer coin Bureau Also tweeted it's quite convenient that One of the charges they are dropping Against SPF is the one of campaign Finance violations I wonder why it Really is hard to explain away aund Million of stolen funds being pumped Into Political candidates particularly When the reasoning given is public Interest the campaign finance charges Are very much public interest and I have To just Echo Paul Gro here and say that There are critical questions that Deserve Answers the spot Bitcoin ETF approval And the Bitcoin harving event are the Two key dates on all crypto people's Calendars this year most are concerned With the ETF at the moment as we're mere Days away from a decision but the Harving event is a big deal the last Haring was back in May 20120 and happens Around every 4 years with the next Expected to be in April this year when It happens the block reward will fall to 3.125 bitcoin harving the mining rewards Is naturally a major concern to miners So Gareth jenkinson had a look at what Miners are predicting as outcomes of This April harving event the first Prediction is an expected one a focus on Mining efficiency although most larger Miners have been operating for some time With the harving in mind it's still a
Concern taras kulak founder of the Bitcoin mining infrastructure provider Sunnyside digital warned that unless Bitcoin's price increases dramatically Lower efficiency miners will just fall Away price is indeed a key part of this Equation if the price isn't high it's Easy for mining to become a loss making Venture for many but as Adam Sullivan Says the CEO of cor scientific the Bitcoin network is self-healing and Longterm it will always incentivize Mining to occur lux's head of research Colin Harper told coin Telegraph a Similar story he said this is why the Difficulty adjustment exists if Bitcoin Becomes unprofitable to mine for most Miners then they will turn off their Rigs hash rates will drop the difficulty Will follow suits and then it becomes More profitable to mine for the miners Who are left most of the predictions Mining experts offer do not play into a Narrative that is common around harving Events that Bitcoin is entering a death Spiral where we see a mass Exodus of Miners based on the lack of Profitability in mining one of the most Illuminating comments I have seen around The harving event was last month and it Was by blockstream CEO Adam back he said Money profitability has more than Doubled this year so if it harves at the Harving they're still in a better
Position than in January and the hash Rate went up all throughout that period So look we know 2024 is a big year for Bitcoin in and it's littered with Seminal moments so as everything plays Out mining is a part of the story that's Worth keeping on top Of finally we've got the return of Jamie Dimon CEO of JP Morgan as you may Remember from episodes a few weeks ago Dimon told the Senate and Senator Elizabeth Warren who is a stark opponent Of crypto that if he were in charge he'd Shut crypto down there were many Outraged cryptops who highlighted Various instances of hypocrisy if not From demmon directly than from the Company he is the the CEO of well anyone Looking for more evidence that dimon is Asking people to do as he says but not As he does they needn't look far Eric Balinas Bloomberg's ETF analyst went Through the updated and possibly final S1 form by Black Rock which is the spot Bitcoin ETF application to the SEC in it The document now names its APS Authorized participants which balcon as Pointed out they didn't have to do an AP Is an organization that has the right to Create and redeem shares of an ETF and What would you know one of these Authorized participants is JP Morgan the Crypto lawyer John E Deon has gone Straight in on demmon tweeting how about
That Elizabeth Warren Jamie Dion's JP Morgan is involved with Bitcoin despite Its only use case serving terrorists Drug cartels and other criminals or Maybe you and Jamie dimon are simply Gaslighting the American public this Comment also alludes to Dion telling Congress that the only true use case for Crypto is crime a narrative that Warren Has been aggressively pushing particular Particularly with the war in Gaza as one Commenter Sunny po wrote why is Jamie Dimon allowing JPM to participate in Money laundering tax evasion criminal Participation and drug trafficking it Really feels as if there's some Cognitive dissonance going on at JP Morgan they have had Myriad involvements With crypto and web 3 in the last few Years and JP Morgan even recently Launched its crypto token JPM coin on a Private version of the ethereum Blockchain for its institutional client Base how is there such a disparity in What the CEO is saying in Senate and the Actions the company is taking in Reality right that is the first episode Of 2024 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 day let's do this again
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