Thread by @ankitagg2302

As you might know, @BitwiseInvest filed for a Bitcoin ETF with a 227-slides deck (sec.gov/comments/sr-ny…). Apart from their most talked about finding that 95% of the trading spot volume for crypto is fake, they had other interesting learnings about the crypto market - #thread

1/ Spot vs. Futures: Spot market for BTC trading is smaller than we think, & futures is bigger. CME trading volume on best day was 30% of volume in spot markets, which is significant. However, they ignored @bitmex, @deribit in the calculations. They should have been investigated.

2/ Similarly, the daily futures trading volume on @CMEGroup is nearly equal to the trading volume on @cz_binance @binance (most liquid spot exchange). That should answer some of SEC’s doubts for market manipulation, and help in approving a Bitcoin ETF. #hopium

3/ Tether: Sometimes the BTC/USD markets and BTC/USDT markets have different rates. Bitwise found, that this was because the stable-coin Tether itself wasn’t ‘stable’. Once, rate changes in Tether were accounted for, the difference in BTC/USD and BTC/USDT was removed.

4/ Market makers: According to the report, famous Wall Street market makers such as Jane Street, DRW, SIG are already operating in the crypto market since early 2018. They are in a great position to support an ETF, if/when need be.

5/ Custody and Auditing: Bitcoin custody has been solved! There are a number of regulated, insured, third-party crypto custodians operating in the US. Auditing is explained to be simple for crypto and established firms such as @Deloitte , @KPMG understand it.

6/ Overall, it’s a gem of a report - @HHorsley & @Bitinvest brilliant work! However, we should remember the report was published for approving an ETF, so it might have its biases. However, with such developments, chances of ETF approval keep increasing. Good times ahead!