Bitcoin, Ether flat; U.S. equities drop as rate hike concerns return

Justin d’Anethan, head of Asia-Pacific business development at Belgium-based crypto market maker Keyrock, said the resubmission of Grayscale’s request to the SEC for their ETF approval is a reason for optimism. “Again, the arrival of a crypto-linked ETF seems to become more and more likely, although the timeline itself remains iffy,” he said.

Ethereum gained 0.51% to US$1,631.79, down 5.53% for the past seven days. The second largest cryptocurrency has been trading around US$1,640 since the weekend. But K33 analysts said they expect the token’s price to rise in the near future.

“September and October favor overweight exposure in ETH, as ETH carry stronger ETF momentum in the short term,” wrote K33 in Tuesday’s report. “Futures-based ETH ETFs are scheduled to receive their final verdicts in mid-October, with strong chances of approval.” 

Nearly a dozen companies including Volatility Shares, Bitwise, Roundhill and ProShares have filed to launch Ethereum ETFs in the U.S.

Other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies traded mixed over the past 24 hours. Solana’s SOL led the winners, rising 4.43% to US$20.22 but still posted a loss of 7.19% for the week.

Visa Inc. announced on Tuesday it would expand its USDC stablecoin settlement services to the Solana blockchain. The global payments giant has been supporting USDC settlements on the Ethereum blockchain since March 2021.

“By leveraging stablecoins like USDC and global blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum, we’re helping to improve the speed of cross-border settlement and providing a modern option for our clients to easily send or receive funds from Visa’s treasury,” Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, said in the announcement.

Solana said in a tweet Tuesday that Visa’s addition of the blockchain to its payment network follows an extensive period of planning and infrastructure evaluation.

“The partnership between Solana and Visa is a positive development for the blockchain ecosystem,” said John Stefanidis, CEO of blockchain infrastructure foundation Balthazar DAO. 

“It broadens the range of use-cases beyond just Ethereum-based applications. Additionally, Solana offers faster and more cost-effective transactions which makes it a great option for settling transactions internally,” Stefanidis said.

Meanwhile, crypto exchange Coinbase launched a new crypto lending platform for U.S. institutional investors on September 1. The platform has raised over US$57 million in investment, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission made Friday. 

The platform’s launch follows the bankruptcies of major crypto lenders including Celsius Network, BlockFi and Genesis Global. Those collapses opened up a vacuum in crypto lending services that the new Coinbase platform could come to occupy.

The total crypto market capitalization edged up 0.15% to US$1.04 trillion. Trading volume rose 5.55% to US$25.05 billion.