The world’s leading futures exchange CME Group, is planning to launch spot trading for Bitcoin, capitalizing on the surging interest from Wall Street money managers in the cryptocurrency.

In a research report, JPMorgan pointed to a decline in Bitcoin’s mining costs after the recent halving event, using the current hash rate and power consumption of the Bitcoin network to estimate mining costs of around $45,000 per BTC.

Lawmakers in the United States Senate voted 60 to 38 to pass a joint resolution, H.J.Res. 109, aiming to overturn a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule affecting financial institutions doing business with cryptocurrency firms.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• CME Group Eyes Spot Bitcoin Trading
• Bitcoin Mining Costs Dropped Below $50,000 Per BTC: JPMorgan
• U.S. Senate Votes to Overturn SEC Rule on Banks
• Crypto Market Movers – AR, PEPE, BONK

CME Group Eyes Spot Bitcoin Trading

The world’s leading futures exchange CME Group, is planning to launch spot trading for Bitcoin, capitalizing on the surging interest from Wall Street money managers in the cryptocurrency.

The Chicago-based exchange has been in talks with traders seeking a regulated platform to buy and sell Bitcoin, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

This move, which hasn’t been finalized,  follows the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in January, which have attracted investment from Wall Street giants including JPMorgan and Wells Fargo.

Other large investors, including hedge funds like Bracebridge Capital and pension funds like the Wisconsin Investment Board, have also poured billions into spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

Offering spot trading alongside existing Bitcoin futures contracts would allow investors to engage in basis trades, a common strategy for professional traders, in which traders sell futures contracts while buying the underlying asset – in this case Bitcoin – to profit off of the small gap between both.

CME, an exchange catering to large hedge funds and proprietary traders, emerged as the largest Bitcoin futures market over the renewed institutional interest in the cryptocurrency space.

The proposed spot trading operation would be run via the EBS currency trading platform in Switzerland, known for its comprehensive regulatory framework overseeing the trade and custody of cryptocurrency assets.

Bitcoin Mining Costs Dropped Below $50,000 Per BTC: JPMorgan

In a research report, JPMorgan pointed to a decline in Bitcoin’s mining costs after the recent halving event, using the current hashrate and power consumption of the Bitcoin network to estimate mining costs of around $45,000 per BTC.

The figure is down from previous estimates exceeding $50,000, and the drop was attributed to declining hashrate after the halving event, which cut the coinbase reward miners receive per block found in half, as unprofitable miners exit the network.

JPMorgan’s analysts noted that there was a delayed exit, which was attributed to the launch of the Runes protocol, a new token creation method within the Bitcoin network that triggered a temporary spike in transaction fees, which in turn offset the halving’s impact.

The report emphasized the boost provided by Runes was short-lived, as transaction fee revenue has since fallen dramatically. As power consumption in the network has fallen more than its hashrate, it adds, unprofitable miners with inefficient operations exited.

JPMorgan’s report sees limited Bitcoin upside in the near future over several headwinds, which include a lack of positive catalysts and the disappearing impulse of retail investors.

U.S. Senate Votes to Overturn SEC Rule on Banks

Lawmakers in the United States Senate voted 60 to 38 to pass a joint resolution, H.J.Res. 109, aiming to overturn a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule affecting financial institutions doing business with cryptocurrency firms.

The resolution aims to nullify Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121, which mandates that banks must keep customers' digital assets on their balance sheets and maintain sufficient capital against them, something that many lawmakers and industry leaders see as stifling innovation.

The resolution previously cleared the U.S. House of Representatives and now faces a potential veto from President Joe Biden, who said he planned on vetoing the bill after expressing concerns about investor protection and the stability of the broader financial system.

Should the President veto the bill, it would return to Congress where it would require a two-thirds majority in both houses to override the veto.

Crypto Market Movers – AR, PEPE, BONK

Several tokens are leading the charge in the last 7-day period. Some of these are well-known cryptocurrencies with more liquid trading pairs, so we’ll be focusing on these over low-cap cryptos that may have higher percentage changes.

Arweave (AR) - Arweave (AR) is a unique type of storage platform that backs data with sustainable and perpetual endowments, allowing users and developers to store data indefinitely. It is a decentralized storage network that utilizes a modified version of the blockchain, termed "blockweave," for permanent data storage. AR token is the native cryptocurrency of the Arweave network, used to pay for storage and bandwidth on the network.

Pepe (PEPE) - Pepe (PEPE) is a digital currency positioned as the next step in the evolution of meme coins, leveraging the memetic power of Pepe, a recognizable internet meme. Launched without any presale or taxes, PEPE aims to be a coin for the people, with its liquidity provider tokens burned and contract renounced.

Bonk (BONK) - BONK is a community-focused cryptocurrency designed to integrate into Solana DApps across the network, serving as a unit of account and a reward for user participation. Launched in 2017, BONK positions itself as the community coin of the Solana ecosystem, aiming to be widely used across various decentralized applications.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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