Welcome to the latest edition of Cointelegraph’s decentralized finance, or DeFi, newsletter. In a week where DeFi’s parabolic growth continued elsewhere, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler threatened to tackle stablecoins. What you’re about to read is the smaller version of this newsletter. For the full breakdown of DeFi’s developments over the last week — released a whole lot quicker than Cardano’s smart contracts — subscribe at the bottom of this page. Layer two’s defining the future This week, analytical data revealed that DeFi continues to be one of the fastest-growing sectors of the crypto economy …

Crypto companies from the United States filed two registration statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission, seeking permission to sell exchange-traded funds (ETF) in relation to Bitcoin (BTC) and decentralized finance (DeFi). Atlanta-based investment company Invesco joined New York’s Galaxy Digital Funds to file and register Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF, a trust with physically protected private keys. Illinois-based Amplify ETFs filed the second registration to add DeFi-centric open-end ETF funds offering to the Amplify ETF Trust. If approved by the SEC, the Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF will be registered as a securities offering with the ability to get listed on …

Bloomberg Intelligence commodity strategist Mike McGlone believes it is only a matter of time before the United States Securities and Exchange Commission approves the country’s first Bitcoin (BTF) exchange-traded fund (ETF). In an interview with Stansberry Investor host Daniela Cambone on Tuesday, McGlone asserted that Canada is extending a competitive lead over the U.S. after approving Bitcoin ETFs from 3iQ and CoinShares in April. He emphasized that capital is flowing from the U.S. to Canada’s institutional crypto products, including money from Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest. However, he believes that lawmakers in the U.S. will not want to miss out for …

Despite Bitcoin (BTC) dropping below the $43,000 mark on Monday, the outflow of BTC from exchanges has continued in a multi-month trend, particularly on Coinbase Pro. Over the past month, the amount of Bitcoin held in Coinbase Pro’s vaults dropped by 28,843.87 BTC. Similarly, other crypto exchanges, including Kraken, OKEx, Bitfinex and Huobi, also experienced a drop in their Bitcoin holdings, with the withdrawn amount totaling 30,236 BTC across the board. On-chain analysts perceive falling Bitcoin reserves as a bullish signal. That is primarily because most traders move their BTC assets to exchanges only when they prefer to trade them …

Alternative investment firm SkyBridge Capital hopes to expand its crypto offerings, filing for a crypto-focused exchange-traded fund (ETF) on Tuesday and revealing plans for an Algorand fund at this week’s SALT conference in New York. Speaking to CNBC, SkyBridge founder and former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci said the firm had raised more than $100 million toward the newly announced Algorand fund. He added that the firm currently holds roughly $700 million worth of crypto assets. Scaramucci asserted that “crypto is here to stay,” adding that regulators must act “very quickly” if they intend to stem the snowballing adoption …

Over the past ten days, Bitcoin (BTC) price tested the $44,500 resistance on multiple occasions, and this marked a 16% drawdown from the previous week's $53,000 local top. Not even the $3.4 billion long futures contracts liquidations that occurred on Sept. 7 while BTC dropped by 18.7% was enough to eliminate bulls' optimism, according to options markets data. If historical data plays any role in the price of Bitcoin, the month of September presented negative performances in four of the previous five years, and BTC finished August trading at $47,110. Regardless of the price, adoption by institutional investors has been …

Multinational financial services firm Fidelity Investments has pressed the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to approve its Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). A private meeting was held on Sept. 8 among Fidelity Digital Assets president Tom Jessop, six of the firm’s executives and several SEC officials. The finance executives laid out a number of reasons why the regulator should approve the investment product. These include increased demand for digital assets and related products, the prevalence of similar funds in other countries, and the rise of Bitcoin (BTC) adoption. A Fidelity presentation from the meeting outlining the benefits of a Bitcoin …

Are crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) finally coming to the United States of America? Dozens of cryptocurrency-based ETFs or ETF-like products are currently selling on regulated exchanges in Europe, while Canada and Brazil have already introduced their own versions this year. Over the past eight years, however, not a single investment firm has won the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) approval for a cryptocurrency-backed ETF. The winds may now be shifting. “A futures-based Bitcoin ETF will be approved in the coming weeks, not months,” John Sarson, co-founder and CEO at Sarson Funds LLC, told Cointelegraph, adding that “the futures market …

Some financial experts believe that the price of cryptocurrencies is solely driven by investors' speculation, and in the past few years, detractors have suggested that fixed income instruments like Treasury bills have no relation to do with digital assets. This point of view is fairly accurate because at this time, most investors from the asset class are not allowed to invest in Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins. Public pension funds, retirement plans, fixed income and most non-leverage equity and multimarket mutual funds can only invest in certain asset classes. These limits arise from the fund class regulation, the fund's own bylaws …

Very few events can shake the cryptocurrency markets in a sustainable manner that really sends Bitcoin and altcoin prices into a sharp directional move. One example is when Xi Jinping, China's President, called for a country-wide development of blockchain technology in October 2019. The unexpected news caused a 42% pump in Bitcoin (BTC), but the movement completely faded away as investors realized China was not altering its negative stance on cryptocurrencies. As a result, only a handful of tokens focused on China's FinTech industry, blockchain tracing, and industry automation saw their prices consolidate at higher levels. Some 'crypto news' and …

Accelerate Financial Technologies is planning to match each investment in its pending Bitcoin exchange-traded fund with the planting of thousands of trees. According to a Friday report from Bloomberg, the Calgary-based investment services company has pledged to plant 3,450 trees for every $1 million CAD — roughly $792,000 at the time of publication — invested in its Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund, or ETF. The move is part of Accelerate’s aim to have its Bitcoin ETF be carbon negative — that is, removing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than the energy required for Bitcoin mining and transactions would create. The …

Around 6% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply has been accumulated by asset managers and companies, signaling ever increasing mainstream and institutional adoption of crypto assets. According to Buy Bitcoin Worldwide, 816,379 BTC worth $40.1 billion is currently held by 14 Bitcoin fund issuers and asset managers — representing 4% of the cryptocurrency’s supply. Industry leader, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, represents more than 3% of the Bitcoin supply, managing 654,600 BTC (worth $32 billion). CoinShares’ XBT Provider ranks second with 48,466 BTC ($2.4 billion) representing 0.23% of supply. The 12 remaining issuers represent 113,313 BTC or 0.54% of thesupply combined. The data …