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Jack Dorsey's Bitcoin-Centric Block Inc to Join S&P 500 This Week

Block Inc, the tech company that operates several business units in the digital asset ecosystem, will be added to the S&P 500 effective Wednesday, July 23.

"It’s a milestone that reflects the strength of our business and the work of thousands of people building tools to increase access to the economy, across our brands including Square, Cash App, Afterpay, TIDAL, Proto, and Bitkey," the company said in a release. "Thanks to our customers, teams, and shareholders who’ve been with us on the journey. We’re just getting started."

Block (ticker XYZ) was originally founded in 2009 as Square and was initially focused on providing financial services and mobile payment solutions. In December 2021, the company rebranded to Block Inc., reflecting its growing interest and involvement in blockchain technology and digital assets.

Ethereum's ETH Breaks $3,800 Amid Massive Whale Buy, Large Capital Inflow

Ethereum's ether (ETH) rose nearly 6% during the past 24-hour period, rising above $3,800, outperforming the CoinDesk 20 Index, a broader gauge of the digital assets market.

The move comes as major financial institutions and treasury companies have started to pour capital into the digital asset, while Wall Street's heavyweights are starting to pay attention to ETH. Most recently, U.S.-listed spot ether ETFs saw record inflows of $2.18 billion over the past week, which was dubbed as "crypto week" as major crypto legislation was passed by the regulators.

The rally also coincides with some whales moving a massive amount of ETH on-chain over the weekend. According to on-chain analyst EmberCN, over the weekend, one ETH whale seems to have accumulated around $50 million of the token, at an average price of $3,714.

Gordon Brown Redux? UK Reportedly Mulls Sale of £5B in Bitcoin

Led at the time by Gordon Brown, the U.K.'s Chancellor of the Exchequer in the period from 1999-2002 famously sold off about half of the country's gold reserves at what turned out to be a generational bottom of roughly $275 per ounce for the yellow metal.

In a bit more than two decades since, the price of gold has risen roughly 12-fold to its current $3,350 per ounce, the U.K. thus missing out on a substantial windfall.

Is the sceptered Isle about to repeat that mistake?

Facing the need to come up with as much as £20 billion this year to narrow the government budget gap, Rachel Reeves — the country's current Chancellor of the Exchequer — is eyeing the sale of what might be £5 billion or more in seized bitcoin, according toa weekend article in The Telegraph.

While it's uncertain how much bitcoin the government controls, the Telegraph report noted one raid in 2018 recovered 61,000 Bitcoin from the proceeds of a Chinese Ponzi scheme. At the current price of roughly £90,000, that would be worth more than £5 billion.

Weekly NFT Trade Volume Hits Six-Month High, Led by Ethereum Projects

Ethereum's recent rise in price has buoyed its NFT ecosystem, with trading volume on the chain reaching its highest level since mid-January. 

Ethereum NFTs have seen $75.0 million of trade volume over the past week, according to The Block's data, a majority of the total $143.5 million of volume seen across major chains. 

Ethereum NFT volume has significantly increased from just two weeks ago, when the chain recorded only $18.3 million of weekly volume. Bitcoin-based NFTs have also increased over the same time frame, from $11.0 million to $25.6 million, though Polygon-based NFTs saw a slight decline in volume. 

Bitcoin & Ethereum Spot ETF Flow

The overall net inflow of the US Bitcoin spot ETF on Friday was $363.45 million. The total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs is $152.4 billion, and the ETF net asset ratio (market value compared to total Bitcoin market value) is 6.51%.

Source: SoSoValue

The Bitcoin spot ETF with the highest net inflow on July 18 was iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), with a net inflow of $496.75 million. Following that was WisdomTree Bitcoin Fund (BTCW), with a net inflow of 3.11 million, according to SoSoValue.

Source: SoSoValue

The overall net inflow of the US Ethereum spot ETF on Friday was $402.5 million. The total net asset value of Ethereum spot ETFs is $18.37 billion, and the ETF net asset ratio (market value compared to total Ethereum market value) is 4.19%.

The Ethereum spot ETF with the highest net inflow on July 18 was iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA), with a net inflow of $394.91 million. Following that was Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust ETF (ETH), with a net inflow of 65.25 million, according to SoSoValue.