Crypto News Today: U.S. Senate Votes against SEC | CME Group to List BTC | JPMorgan on BTC Mining

These developments signal major shifts in regulatory and market dynamics within the cryptocurrency space.

CME Group Eyes Spot Bitcoin Trading

The world’s leading futures exchange CME Group, is planning to launch spot trading for Bitcoin, capitalizing on the surging interest from Wall Street money managers in the cryptocurrency.

The Chicago-based exchange has been in talks with traders seeking a regulated platform to buy and sell Bitcoin, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

This move, which hasn’t been finalized, follows the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in January, which have attracted investment from Wall Street giants including JPMorgan and Wells Fargo.

Other large investors, including hedge funds like Bracebridge Capital and pension funds like the Wisconsin Investment Board, have also poured billions into spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

Offering spot trading alongside existing Bitcoin futures contracts would allow investors to engage in basis trades, a common strategy for professional traders, in which traders sell futures contracts while buying the underlying asset – in this case Bitcoin – to profit off of the small gap between both.

The figure is down from previous estimates exceeding $50,000, and the drop was attributed to declining hashrate after the halving event, which cut the Coinbase reward miners receive per block found in half, as unprofitable miners exit the network.

JPMorgan’s analysts noted that there was a delayed exit, which was attributed to the launch of the Runes protocol, a new token creation method within the Bitcoin network that triggered a temporary spike in transaction fees, which in turn offset the halving’s impact.

The report emphasized the boost provided by Runes was short-lived, as transaction fee revenue has since fallen dramatically. As power consumption in the network has fallen more than its hashrate, it adds, unprofitable miners with inefficient operations exited.

JPMorgan’s report sees limited Bitcoin upside in the near future over several headwinds, which include a lack of positive catalysts and the disappearing impulse of retail crypto investors.

U.S. Senate Votes to Overturn SEC Rule on Crypto

Lawmakers in the United States Senate voted 60 to 38 to pass a joint resolution, H.J.Res. 109, aiming to overturn a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule affecting financial institutions doing business with cryptocurrency firms.

The resolution aims to nullify Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121, which mandates that banks must keep customers’ digital assets on their balance sheets and maintain sufficient capital against them, something that many lawmakers and industry leaders see as stifling innovation.

The resolution previously cleared the U.S. House of Representatives and now faces a potential veto from President Joe Biden, who said he planned on vetoing the bill after expressing concerns about investor protection and the stability of the broader financial system.

Should the President veto the bill, it would return to Congress where it would require a two-thirds majority in both houses to override the veto.