Crypto prices experienced a slight increase during the European morning, following a relatively calm Asian session. Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, reached $41,250 at around 11:45 UTC, showing gains of approximately 2.6% in the last 24 hours. The 20 Index, which tracks the highest tokens by capitalization, also saw an increase of about 1.6%. Solana’s SOL and Avalanche’s AVAX were among the top performers, with gains of 3.7% and 5.7% respectively.
However, despite these gains, the overall crypto market is still down by around 14% from its recent highs, which were reached immediately after the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs in the United States earlier this month. This indicates that there is still some volatility and uncertainty in the market.
In other news, ARK Invest, a prominent investment management firm, has made some significant changes to its holdings of bitcoin-related ETFs. The company has sold a total of 2,226,191 shares of the ProShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, worth approximately $42.8 million, from its Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW). On the other hand, it has purchased 1,563,619 shares in the ARK 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), worth around $62.3 million. This move suggests that ARK Invest had anticipated the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs in the US and had planned to swap its holdings in the ProShares Bitcoin Trust for a spot bitcoin ETF once the approval came.
The Celo blockchain, a decentralized platform for financial services, is also making progress in its migration to become a new layer-2 network on top of Ethereum. The developers behind Celo have been evaluating technical proposals from various teams, including Optimism, Polygon, zkSync, and Arbitrum. These teams are competing to provide the technology for Celo’s migration. Tim Moreton, CEO of cLabs, the leading developer behind Celo, stated in a blog post that they are now moving towards evaluating the non-technical aspects of the proposals. While no specific timeline was provided, Moreton mentioned that they are working as fast as possible to come up with a comprehensive proposal.
In summary, crypto prices have shown some upward movement, with bitcoin reaching $41,250 and the 20 Index increasing by 1.6%. ARK Invest has made significant changes to its holdings of bitcoin-related ETFs, selling shares of the ProShares Bitcoin Trust and buying shares in the ARK 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF. Additionally, the Celo blockchain is progressing in its migration to become a layer-2 network on Ethereum, with developers evaluating technical proposals from various teams.