First Mover Americas: Crypto Prices Tick Upward as Meme Coin Season Receives Fresh Impetus

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Bitcoin kicked off the week by reclaiming $69,000 as crypto assets ticked up across the board during the European morning. BTC is priced around $69,200 at the time of writing, an increase of about 2.5% in the last 24 hours. The broader digital asset market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), rose 1.4%. Dogecoin led the gains, trading just under 3% higher, after influential retail investor Keith Gill disclosed a $180 million position in Gamestop, sending GME up around 80% in pre-market trading. Meme stock surges are often seen as a bullish indicator for meme coins such as DOGE. A Solana-based GME meme coin has rocketed over 200% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Australia's first bitcoin ETF will begin trading on the Cboe Australia exchange on Tuesday. Monochrome Asset Management's product (IBTC) will be the only ETF to hold bitcoin directly in the country, the company told CoinDesk. Australia already has two exchange-traded products providing exposure to spot crypto assets on Cboe Australia, but they do not hold bitcoin directly. “Before IBTC, Australian investors were only able to invest in ETFs that indirectly hold bitcoin or through offshore bitcoin products, both of which don’t benefit from the investor protection rules under the directly held crypto asset Australian Financial Services Licensing licensing regime,” Monochrome said.

The crypto industry has so far gathered about $161 million after Coinbase became the latest company to donate $25 million to its political action committees for the coming U.S. presidential election, which potentially makes it among the most formidable campaign-finance operations in the country. The money is bolstering the coffers of the industry's Fairshake political action committee (PAC), which has been combing through primaries to find candidates who've left their political platforms open to pro-crypto positions. U.S. regulations represent a massive hurdle for the industry to win more significant global acceptance, which could translate to many more mainstream investors. U.S. lawmakers are showing signs of shifting toward wider acceptance of crypto, which could come to a head in legislation that establishes tailored rules of the road for digital assets.

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