What Happened in the Crypto Market Today? Australia Approves Bitcoin ETFs | Tether Launches Gold-backed Coin

The crypto market’s correction phase continued on June 18, as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) fell to record lows unseen in more than 30-days. In the news, Australian authorities approved Bitcoin spot ETFs for trading, while Stablecoin giant also launched a new Gold-backed coin. 

Crypto Market Has Declined by 4% in 2 Consecutive Days

On June 18 2024, the global crypto market correction phase intensified. Amid the market downturn altcoins like Toncoin (TON) and Uniswap (UNI) kept up a resilient upward performance. Meanwhile Bitcoin and Ethereum suffered daily timeframe losses in excess of 5%, with both assets dropping to 30-day record lows.

BTC and ETH downswings sent shockwaves through the altcoin markets and LONG traders book over $100 million in liquidation losses within the daily timeframe.

As expected, the global crypto market cap shrank by 4.41% shedding over $103.9 billion from the opening market capitalization of $2.4 trillion.

SEC Rejects Ripple Labs’ Request to Lower Potential $2 Billion Fine

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected Ripple Labs’ attempt to reduce its potential fines in their ongoing legal battle, arguing that the circumstances surrounding Ripple’s case differed significantly from those of Terraform Labs, which recently settled with the agency for a hefty $4.5 billion.

Ripple, embroiled in the legal dispute since 2020, compared the SEC’s proposed $2 billion fine for selling XRP to institutional investors to the Terraform settlement, arguing in a court filing that its penalty should be capped at $10 million, citing a jury’s recent jury determination that Terraform Labs’ co-founder Do Kwon engage in civil fraud – while the SEC’s case against it doesn’t include these allegations.

The SEC, however, countered that the two cases were not comparable. Terraform, facing bankruptcy, its lawyers said, is “burning the keys to all of its crypto asset securities, agreeing to return a significant amount to investors in those securities, and removing two of the board members in charge at the time of the violations.” Ripple, the SEC argued, had agreed to none of these concessions and is “agreeing to nothing.”

Ripple called for a penalty compared to the size of the Terraform penalty determined by the defendant’s “gross sales,” arguing the court should impose the same 1.27% ratio.However, the SEC countered that a more relevant comparison would be gross profits from the alleged violations, which would mean a penalty of $102.6 million for Ripple.

Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty, responded on social media, highlighting a recent court ruling: XRP, he argued, was not deemed a security, and there are no “victims” requiring compensation.

Australian Securities Exchange Approves its First Spot Bitcoin ETF

The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has greenlit its first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). The fund, launching on June 20th, will be a “feeder fund” passively tracking the price of Bitcoin by investing in VanEck Bitcoin Trust (HODL), a U.S. ETF already listed on the Cboe BZX Exchange.

The approval, announced via a VanEck blog post, comes on the heels of Australia’s smaller exchange, Cboe Australia, listing the Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (IBTC) earlier in June. The move is significant as ASX accounts for 90% of Australia’s equity market.

VanEck said their offering will be the “lowest cost bitcoin ETF in Australia.” The listing follows their re-submission of the application in February and came sooner than expected, with earlier predictions placing the first Australian spot Bitcoin ETF launches by the end of 2024.

Tether Launches New Synthetic Dollar Alloy Backed by Gold

The company behind the world’s largest stablecoin USDT, Tether, has announced a new synthetic dollar backed by its gold-backed stablecoin Tether Gold called Alloy (aUSDT).

The new token will trade on the Ethereum blockchain and users can create (or mint) aUSDT by depositing Tether’s existing gold-backed token, XAUT, as collateral in an overcollateralized system where the value of the deposited gold exceeds the value of the minted aUSDT.

In a press release Tether touted the launch of the new cryptocurrency as the introduction of a new digital asset category “known as tethered assets, designed to track the price of reference assets through stabilization strategies like over-collateralization.”

Tether’s gold-backed cryptocurrency XAUT is backed by physical gold stored in Switzerland and currently has a market capitalization of over $570 million.

The new aUSDT token is aimed at users looking to make transactions with a stable currency like the U.S. dollar, without having to liquidate their exposure to gold.