President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly set to release an executive order making cryptocurrency a national priority and giving insiders within the industry a voice in his incoming administration.

A litecoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) could see investor inflows go as high as $580 million if Wall Street adopts such a fund at the same rate it adopted bitcoin funds.

Swiss government-owned cryptocurrency-friendly retail bank PostFinance has started offering ether staking to its 2.7 million customers, which represent roughly a quarter of Switzerland’s population.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Incoming Trump Administration Could Designate Crypto as National Priority
• Litecoin ETF Could Attract as Much as $580 Million in Inflows
• Swiss Retail Bank PostFinance Launches Ether Staking for 2.7 Million Customers
• CME Crypto Volumes Hit Record $264 Billion in December

Incoming Trump Administration Could Designate Crypto as National Priority

President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly set to release an executive order making cryptocurrency a national priority and giving insiders within the industry a voice in his incoming administration.

The order is expected to designate cryptocurrency as a national imperative or priority, thereby directing government agencies to collaborate with the industry. Additionally, it will establish a crypto advisory council to champion the industry’s interests in policy formulation.

The order would be significant for the cryptocurrency industry, which has been heavily prosecuted by the Biden administration, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) being accused by industry players of regulation by litigation.

Coinbase, Crypto.com, Ripple, and Uniswap are among the crypto industry players that have criticized the SEC’s approach, which filed more than 100 enforcement actions against the industry in recent years.

The executive order still has a few issues under discussion. Among them is a directive for government agencies to review crypto policies and potentially even pause any crypto-related litigation. 

The administration is also considering the creation of a strategic bitcoin reserve, which would encompass the government net $20 billion bitcoin holdings that it confiscated over various investigations. The order isn’t yet finalized and could change before it’s made public.

Litecoin ETF Could Attract as Much as $580 Million in Inflows

A litecoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) could see investor inflows go as high as $580 million if Wall Street adopts such a fund at the same rate it adopted bitcoin funds.

The project comes from the fact that roughly 6% of bitcoin’s total supply is currently locked up in various ETFs. Applying a similar adoption rate to LTC, which shares bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism, suggests inflows between $290 million and $580 million.

The potential launch of a spot LTC ETF gained momentum after market observers noted that the Securities and Exchange Commission had engaged with Canary Capital ahead of an amended S-1 filing for such a fund. 

Bloomberg Senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted that the appointment of a new SEC chair following the departure of Gary Gensler next week is a “huge variable.” President-elect Donald Trump has chosen crypto-friendly SEC commissioner Paul Atkins to lead the agency.

Swiss Retail Bank PostFinance Launches Ether Staking for 2.7 Million Customers

Swiss government-owned cryptocurrency-friendly retail bank PostFinance has started offering ether staking to its 2.7 million customers, which represent roughly a quarter of Switzerland’s population.

The bank’s new service will allow customers to invest using ether for a minimum fixed term of 12 weeks, and will provide the options to sell earned staking rewards, the bank has said.

While staking ether requires a minimum of 32 ETH on-chain, equivalent to roughly $106,000, PostFinance will allow investors to participate in ether staking with as little as 0.1 ETH, around $330.

The service will directly stake ether on the Ethereum blockchain, according to PostFinance’s head of digital assets Alexander Thoma, who added customers will be able to see their staking rewards “directly in their asset management, together with their other crypto assets.”

CME Crypto Volumes Hit Record $264 Billion in December

The total derivatives trading volume on the CME surged by 7.96% to an all-time high of $264 billion in December. This increase was accompanied by a 5.19% rise in BTC futures volumes to $196 billion, and a  41% surge in ETH futures volumes to $47.4 billion.

On the other hand, options trading volume experienced a decline of 52.6% to $2.92 billion. The BTC options volume also declined by 54.0% to $2.55 billion, while the ETH options volume saw a 40.4% drop to $368 million.

Dig deeper into the cryptocurrency trading world via CCData’s latest Exchange Review.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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