Share this article

First Mover Americas: VanEck’s ETF Volume Surges, Fairshake Raises Another $5M

The latest price moves in crypto markets in context for Feb. 21, 2024.

By Lyllah Ledesma, Omkar Godbole|Edited by Sheldon Reback

Updated Mar 9, 2024, 5:52 a.m. Published Feb 21, 2024, 1:40 p.m.

This article originally appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter, putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.

Latest Prices

STORY CONTINUES BELOW

Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Long & Short Newsletter today. See all newsletters

By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

Top Stories

Trading volumes of VanEck’s HODL, one of the 10 spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S., surged over 2,200% on Tuesday in a move driven by individual traders. More than $400 million of HODL changed hands on Tuesday, compared with its daily average of $17 million. The figures came a day ahead of VanEck's planned fee cut to 0.20% from 0.25%. HODL’s volumes were the third-largest after Grayscale’s GBTC and BlockRock’s IBIT, the usual leaders. The ETF held nearly $200 million worth of bitcoin as of Feb. 20, data shows.

Billionaire Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital (GLXY) has new coverage at Canaccord Genuity, which initiated the stock with a buy rating and a C$17 ($12.6) price target. Galaxy “represents one of the most diversified ways to play digital assets," wrote analyst Joseph Vafi, whose price target suggests 30% upside from the current C$13. Galaxy's institutional trading business is a "share gainer,” said Vafi, citing the upcoming launch of its crypto prime brokerage platform, Galaxy One. Combine that with the price gains surrounding the spot ETFs and the upcoming halving and trading should do well, according to Vafi.

Fairshake, a super political action committee (PAC) backing crypto-friendly candidates, has now received funding of a total of $4.9 million from billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Bloomberg reported, citing the latest federal filings. The twins, who are co-founders of crypto exchange Gemini and heavyweight bitcoin (BTC) investors, were initial investors in Fairshake, revealed in the first announcement on Dec. 18, 2023. They join a list of high-profile crypto investors backing the super PAC, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and ARK Invest as well as crypto companies such as Circle, Ripple, Coinbase (COIN) and others.

Chart of the Day

The chart shows the average trade size in the bitcoin market in U.S. dollar terms since February 2023.
The average trade size has consistently topped the $1,000 mark since the start of this month, indicating increased institutional participation.
Source: Kaiko

- Omkar Godbole

Trending Posts

First Mover Markets Bitcoin

Lyllah Ledesma

Lyllah Ledesma is a CoinDesk Markets reporter currently based in Europe. She holds a master's degree from New York University in Business and Economics and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of East Anglia. Lyllah holds bitcoin, ether and small amounts of other crypto assets.

Omkar Godbole

Omkar Godbole is a Co-Managing Editor on CoinDesk's Markets team based in Mumbai, holds a masters degree in Finance and a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) member. Omkar previously worked at FXStreet, writing research on currency markets and as fundamental analyst at currency and commodities desk at Mumbai-based brokerage houses. Omkar holds small amounts of bitcoin, ether, BitTorrent, tron and dot.