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Bitcoin has hovered around $30,000 in the past week as investors watch for more news from spot ETF filings in the US. Bitcoin oscillated through the week between highs of $30,820 and lows of $29,688 as the market waited for updates from the US regulator. The price is currently around $30,300 on the eToro platform.

Elsewhere in the market, ether had a modestly good week, beginning below $1,900 but tracking upwards slowly across the week to trade around $1,930 now. 

While much attention paid to macroeconomic events seems to have diminished, there are signs of its power to move markets in crypto diminishing, at least for now. For now, investors appear to be weighting spot ETF updates more heavily than macro issues, which haven’t yet disappeared.
 

Institutions refile Bitcoin ETF applications

One of the biggest market movers, particularly for bitcoin, has been the flurry of filing activity in the US for bitcoin spot ETFs in recent weeks. The regulator poured cold water on the filings saying they ‘lacked clarity’ but in a speedy response from some of those institutions, applications appear to have been amended in quickly time, according to reports in Bloomberg. 

Major institutions such as Fidelity, Invesco, VanEck and WisdomTree have all filed and now amended their applications to include market surveillance information to comply with regulatory wishes. The flurry of activity in this area has sent Bitcoin higher in recent weeks, although the price now treads water above $30,000. 

The market seems to have really cheered the potential filings, but we won’t get much more movement now until some of these filings come to a conclusion. Approval or denial of these ETFs will have fairly obvious impacts on market sentiment, which is very focused on looking for good news at the moment. 
 

UK Law Commission calls for bespoke ownership rules for crypto

A report from the UK’s Law Commission has recommended bespoke legal frameworks for the ownership of crypto in the UK. 

Digital assets have emerged only in recent years and the response from the Government has been slow to enshrine the market in legislation. The inclusion of crypto into the financial services and markets bill, which became law last week, was a big step for the market and businesses in the space.

But as the Law Commission argues, digital asset ownership rights in the UK are still highly ill-defined. While the parameters of business and the market are now clearly set by the new legislation, investors will still tread cautiously if the ownership of their digital assets is uncertain. 

Arguably one of the biggest successes of finance in the modern era in the UK has been a very robust set of ownership rights and courts in place to protect those rights. This is the basis for successful growing democracies. The addition of digital assets in specific rules to these property rights could be a huge step toward attracting investors who wish to shelter their digital assets in safe jurisdictions in future.  
 

Hong Kong launches Web3 taskforce

In a sign of more major financial centres setting out their case to become crypto and Web3 hubs, Hong Kong has now launched a task force to promote the growth of the sector in the region. 

There is a growing regulatory arms race so to speak in crypto, especially in response to market instability in 2022. Most regions have acknowledged that the sector isn’t going anywhere, but should be carefully managed to address issues and protect participants while allowing positive actors to thrive. 

Hong Kong is no different in this respect, as a major Asian financial centre looking to capitalise on the burgeoning market. The EU and now the UK have both arrived at a clear set of rules and frameworks so the pressure is on other parts of the world to follow suit. While Hong Kong competes regionally with centres such as Shanghai and Singapore, the digital nature of crypto makes it a global competition to attract talent and capital.

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