PDAXScope: Grayscale ETF outflows slow down 👀

(January 29) Bitcoin briefly climbed past USD 42,00 amid a slowdown in outflows from the $20 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust that strategists said may help to stanch a two-week slump in the token. Check out other fresh news in the crypto world in today’s issue of the PDAXScope. 📰

• Bitcoin Climbs Past USD 42,000 as Grayscale ETF Outflows Slow

Bitcoin briefly climbed past USD 42,000 amid a slowdown in outflows from the USD 20B Grayscale Bitcoin Trust that strategists said may help to stanch a two-week slump in the token. About USD 4.8B has exited the more than decade-old Bitcoin portfolio - the world’s largest - since it became an exchange-traded fund on January 11, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Bitcoin had shed around 20% in the same period. The fund’s conversion from a closed-end format allowed investors to close out a popular arbitrage trade and sparked disposals by the estate of the bankrupt FTX exchange. The daily pace of outflows from the vehicle, also known as GBTC, hit a peak of USD 641M on January 22 but cooled to USD 394M by January 25.

• FTX Is Unloading Crypto to Raise Cash and Pay Back Customers 

FTX is unloading cryptoassets and hoarding cash as bankruptcy advisers look for a way to repay customers whose accounts have been frozen since the platform collapsed in 2022.The fraud-tainted crypto firm’s four largest affiliates — including FTX Trading Ltd. and Alameda Research LLC — together nearly doubled the group’s cash pile to $4.4 billion at the end of 2023 from about $2.3 billion in late October, according to Chapter 11 monthly operating reports. The company’s total cash is likely higher including the rest of its affiliates.

• Biden Faces Pressure to Confront Iran After US Troops Killed

 President Joe Biden faces intensifying pressure to confront Iran directly after the country’s proxies killed three American soldiers in a drone strike in Jordan, risking precisely the wider regional conflict that he’s said he wants to avoid. A person familiar with the US position, who asked not to be identified discussing private discussions, said it was clear that a strike killing Americans would force a stronger response than what the US has done so far in the weeks since Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7 and touched off a new conflagration in the Middle East. One possibility is covert action that would see the US strike Iran without claiming credit for it but sending a clear message regardless. The Biden administration could also target Iranian officials directly, as former President Donald Trump did when he ordered the killing of General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020.

• China Tightens Securities Lending Rule to Support Stock Market 

China will halt the lending of certain shares for short selling from Monday, the securities regulator announced Sunday, in a move to support the country’s slumping stock markets. Strategic investors won’t be allowed to lend out shares during agreed lock-up periods, the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Securities Regulatory Commission’s statement. “The move may have limited impact in terms of stabilizing the market” as some estimates show that such security lending balance is of insignificant size, said Willer Chen, senior analyst at Forsyth Barr Asia Ltd. “Still, this is a good gesture as market participants had been calling fro regulators to step in on this front.”

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