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Crypto giant Grayscale confidentially files for IPO

Grayscale Investments is preparing to go public.

The firm confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 to the SEC. It’s the latest crypto firm filing for an IPO, coming on the heels of Circle’s mammoth offering last month and amid a massive bitcoin rally.

Grayscale didn’t include details of the submission, and a spokesperson declined to comment further due to the SEC’s quiet period.

Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust was the first publicly traded bitcoin fund in the US back in 2015, and converted to an ETF last year. The firm holds 183,748 bitcoin. It offers both bitcoinand Ethereum ETFs, and has a slew of altcoin/meme coin ETF filings with the SEC, including for Solana, polkadot, dogecoin, and litecoin ETFs.

Earlier this month, the SEC halted the conversion of Grayscale’s Digital Large Cap Fund, a multi-asset fund including bitcoin, ethereum, solana, XRP, and cardano, into an ETF after having initially approved it.

“While this development was unexpected, it reflects the dynamic and evolving nature of the regulatory landscape surrounding a first-of-its-kind digital asset product like GDLC. Grayscale remains committed to pursuing the listing of GDLC as an ETP, and we are working closely with key stakeholders to meet all necessary requirements,” a spokesperson told Sherwood News.

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Altcoin trading activity has lost its mojo

Non-bitcoin cryptocurrencies have seen their trading volume plummet in the past five months. The combined trading volume of ethereum, XRP, solana, dogecoin, SUI, and chainlink has decreased by 60% since crypto’s October 10 liquidation event, according to Thomas Probst, a research analyst at crypto markets data provider Kaiko.

Main Altcoins Trading Volume in USD
The trading volume of ETH, SOL, XRP, DOGE, SUI, and LINK.

For all altcoins, spot trading volume on Binance has declined between 80% and 85% to $7.7 billion, while altcoin volume on other exchanges has dropped to $18.8 billion, down from a range of $63 billion to $91 billion in October, a Friday report from Decrypt found, citing data from CryptoQuant.

“This trend may be explained by a contraction in market liquidity over the same period,” Probst told Sherwood News. “This phenomenon is also reflected in the average 1% market depth, which stood at approximately $2.6 million before the October 10 crash and is now closer to $1.7 million when aggregated across ETH, XRP, SOL, SUI, and LINK.” 

Market depth is used by investors and traders to gauge the scale of liquidity in a market. 1% market depth refers to the amount of liquidity needed to move the market by 1%. 

CoinGlass’s Altcoin Season Index, a measure to assess the performance of non-bitcoin cryptocurrencies, has been sitting above 50 this week, suggesting that the current market is neither in a bitcoin dominant phase nor an altcoin season.

Witch

“Triple witching” day may put further pressure on bitcoin’s price

This is not “a favorable environment for risk assets.”

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Payward, parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, puts plans for IPO on hold

Payward, crypto exchange Kraken’s parent company, has paused its plans for an initial public offering until market conditions improve, according to a report from CoinDesk that cited two people with knowledge of the matter. 

Since the firm announced in November its preparation for an IPO of its common stock, the total market capitalization of the crypto industry has shed around $652.2 billion, from $3.2 trillion to $2.5 trillion as of Wednesday, data from CoinGecko shows. 

The news comes two weeks after Kraken received approval for a master account from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, allowing the crypto exchange to connect to the Fed’s payment infrastructure used by traditional banks and credit unions. 

Last year, Kraken raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation from institutional investors such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities.

The news comes two weeks after Kraken received approval for a master account from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, allowing the crypto exchange to connect to the Fed’s payment infrastructure used by traditional banks and credit unions. 

Last year, Kraken raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation from institutional investors such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities.

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