News Roundup — MicroStrategy listing in the S&P 500 index could expose millions to Bitcoin

Major news stories this week;

1. MicroStrategy listing in the S&P 500 index could expose millions to Bitcoin
2. Ledger to simplify crypto purchases with Coinbase integration
3. Court rules Genesis can sell over $1.3 billion worth of GBTC shares
4. Bitcoin ETFs account for about 75% of new investments — CryptoQuant
5. Ethereum gas fees hit 8-month high amid ERC-404 craze

Story Summaries;

1. MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, is slowly creeping toward being eligible for inclusion on the S&P 500 index — a milestone that could see Bitcoin firms appearing on “nearly every portfolio.” The Bitcoin-focused firm would still need to meet strict eligibility criteria and secure a hefty market cap boost, however. Data shows MicroStrategy moved up to 535th position among the largest publicly-listed companies in the United States on Feb. 15, following an eight-day trading span that saw its stock price rally 46%.
2. Hardware wallet provider Ledger and crypto exchange Coinbase have announced a collaboration to streamline crypto purchases and create an easier way to transfer assets from an exchange into self-custody. The Ledger team highlighted that Coinbase’s on-ramp solution, Coinbase Pay, will be integrated into the Ledger Live application. This allows users to transfer their existing crypto asset holdings and transact directly from their desktop or mobile devices. This also means users can receive their crypto purchases directly on their Ledger devices.
3. A bankruptcy court has ruled that Genesis Global Holdco LLC can sell about 35 million shares in Grayscale's GBTC fund, which is currently worth more than $1.3 billion, according to Bloomberg. On Wednesday, Judge Sean Lane said Genesis could convert its shares in GBTC into either bitcoin or cash, the report said. Last month, Grayscale's flagship GBTC fund, which converted to a spot bitcoin ETF, began trading. The firm's spot bitcoin ETF has led all others in terms of total trading volume after it officially launched last month. The ETF has shed more than $6 billion since then, according to CoinShares.
4. An estimated 75% of new Bitcoin investments come from the 10 spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that were approved in the United States on Jan. 11. In the past two weeks, over three-quarters of new Bitcoin investments originated from spot Bitcoin ETFs, excluding Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) ETF, according to a Feb. 14 report by on-chain data analytics firm CryptoQuant. “We estimate over 75% of new investment into Bitcoin are coming from these ETFs. Moreover, investment from these ETFs has increased to 2% of the total historical investment in Bitcoin in just one month as measured by the realized market capitalization,” the report said.
5. Ethereum network gas fees reached an eight-month high amid a frenzy of interest for a new, unofficial experimental token standard dubbed ERC-404. Ethereum network gas prices reached an average peak of 70 gwei ($60 for a standard transaction) on Feb. 9, with peak gas costs surging as high as 377 gwei — a level not since May 12, 2023. While the causes of the gas price surge can be attributed to various factors, the spike arrived when the hype around the ERC-404 token standard began to pick up steam throughout the crypto sector.

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And that’s all for last week’s news! Wishing you a great week ahead!

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