Wall Street Eyes $100 Billion Potential for Bitcoin Spot ETF, Three Reasons Why SHIB Wallets Soared 14,793% in 20 Months, Ripple CTO Spooks XRP Army: Crypto News Digest by U.Today

U.Today - U.Today presents the top three news stories over the past day. Take a closer look at the world of crypto!

Bitcoin spot ETF: Wall Street eyes $100 billion potential

As reported by Bloomberg, Wall Street is currently anticipating in the crypto sphere as Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) are expected to make their debut and, thus, open up digital-currency investing to institutional and regular investors. According to Bloomberg Intelligence estimates, with major industry players like BlackRock (NYSE:BLK), Fidelity and Invesco involved, the spot-Bitcoin ETF market may eventually become a $100 billion giant. The regulatory agency has been rejecting ETF applications for decades, but now it is expected that it will approve exchange-traded funds by mid-January or sooner. Meanwhile, in the wake of looming ETF deadlines, Bitcoin's price has risen by 30% in the last month, touching yearly highs. BTC is now trading at $36,570, down 2% over the past 24 hours, per CoinMarketCap.

Three reasons why Shiba Inu (SHIB) funded wallets soared 14,793% in 20 months

According to data provided by IntoTheBlock, the number of Shiba Inu wallets with a nonzero balance has grown as much as 14,793% over the last 20 months. Today, a total of 1,260,000 SHIB wallets have a balance other than $0 in them, while on Feb. 1, 2021, their number stood at only 8,460. helped this happen. First is the appearance of Shibarium, thanks to which more wallets have been created, and with new DeFi capabilities on the network, users have found reasons to buy SHIB. Second, broader market sentiment positioned SHIB as a favorite asset for "hodling"; with many investors suggesting that they have missed out on BTC, altcoins like SHIB remain a crucial option for them. Third is the active involvement of the SHIB community in the promotion of the meme coin, which accelerates its adoption across the board.

Ripple CTO spooks XRP community with cryptic post

Ripple CTO David Schwartz the XRP community with his recent X post. While the he shared seems to contain no hidden message (it reads "I love the @Ripple team so much!"), it might not seem to be so if one knew what "inspired" it. As recently reported by U.Today, Sam Altman was suddenly dismissed from his CEO post at OpenAI, the start-up behind the ChatGPT chatbot. The reason for Altman's removal is said to be disagreements with OpenAI's board. In the meantime, there were speculations that Altman might be brought back because of pressure from the company's staff and investors. As speculations grew more intense, Sam Altman shared a post that reads, "I love the OpenAI team so much." While Altman's post was published when the OpenAI team was divided, the post by Schwartz emerged when Ripple remained at absolute peace after its recent victory in court. Thus, it seems that the Ripple CTO simply wanted to tease the XRP community.

This article was originally published on U.Today