How the spot Bitcoin ETF filings affected the crypto industry in June: Report

The news surrounding BlackRock’s application for a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (EFT) sent the asset’s price from its local lows in mid-June to a strong monthly close of +12%. To most observers, this was a sign that institutional investment into the cryptosphere is once again on the horizon. A future approval of a spot ETF combined with rate cuts from the United States Federal Reserve could provide the ideal catalysts for the next bull run.

For those keen to gain a deeper understanding of the crypto space’s various sectors and their fundamental trends, Cointelegraph Research publishes its monthly “Investor Insights Report,” which dives into venture capital, derivatives, decentralized finance (DeFi), regulation and much more. This month, Cointelegraph Research examined how various sectors reacted to the bullish news surrounding BlackRock’s ETF filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The report is available for free on the Cointelegraph Research Terminal.

While crypto-related stocks, especially those of mining ventures, immediately benefitted from the news, other sectors traditionally tied closer to altcoin activity, such as DeFi, continued in bear-market mode unperturbed.

Zk-Rollups race heating up ahead of next bull run

Many suspect that novel layer-2 scaling solutions for Ethereum will be among the big gainers in the next bull run. However, the competition in the space is tight. Zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup technology, which allows a shortened summary of transaction batches and smart contract executions to be submitted to the chain, will arguably be the biggest area of innovation in this crypto market cycle.

ZkSync Era’s ZK Stack, Polygon zkEVM and StarkWare’s Starknet have all been in the news for their recent or newly proposed innovations. But what does the data say about the relative success of these projects?

In June, Polygon zkEVM outperformed zkSync and Starknet in terms of growth in total value locked (TVL), gaining an impressive 71% month-over-month. However, it still lags an order of magnitude behind the dominant zero-knowledge protocol, zkSync, which currently has a TVL of $120 million.

The recent growth of zkEVM can be attributed to the slew of DeFi protocols it has attracted — such as QuickSwap, Balancer and SushiSwap — with many more in the pipeline. These and other recent developments are discussed every month in the DeFi section of the Cointelegraph Research Monthly Trends Report.

Security tokens market chugs along unperturbed

Security tokens are a remarkable sector of the industry in that they seem to have continued their modest but steady growth throughout the bear market, apparently unphased by the ETF filings that rocked the rest of the market.

During the first half of the year, the total market capitalization of security tokens rose from $14.93 billion to $16.76 billion, as seen in the figure below. The 1.65% growth seen in June was connected to several notable deals and security token offerings (STOs).

Though the development of tokenized securities is controversial in the crypto community, banks such as Citigroup and Bank of America have predicted that the tokenization of real-world assets may drive trillions of dollars to blockchains in the future. While most securities offerings currently involve real estate, other types are quickly gaining pace. With a section on STOs, Cointelegraph Research’s monthly Investor Insights Report covers this lesser-known part of the crypto industry — one that may ultimately grow into a multitrillion-dollar sector.

The Cointelegraph Research team

Cointelegraph’s Research department comprises some of the best talents in the blockchain industry. Bringing together academic rigor and filtered through practical, hard-won experience, the researchers on the team are committed to bringing the most accurate, insightful content available on the market.