KAS harder to ignore

In the midst of a minor near-term pullback to start the week, Kaspa (KAS) as of mid-week remains a stalwart performer long term. It’s up 300% since last July.

Lately, the project is being talked about in almost suspiciously glowing terms – as in, possibly poised to go parabolic.

KAS is comfortably a member of the CoinGecko Top 30 club, in terms of total market capitalization ($4.2B).

Could KAS potentially climb into the ranks of the Top 10 coins? According to Crypto Jon, a YouTube crypto analyst, the answer is yes, and it's bound to happen sooner rather than later.

KAS spent June marching toward an all-time high of $0.1976. July thus far has been marked by choppy conditions and a not-too-excruciating pullback, with KAS shedding 12% or so over three weeks.

Measuring KAS from recent lows (it sunk to a dime this past May), there's charted evidence of continuously higher highs for the native asset of the GhostDAG-protocol-abetted blockchain.

Retracement support lines likely are going to be tested in the days ahead, especially if Bitcoin has a down leg toward $64K support levels, points out Crypto ZX, speaking to his 49,000 YouTube followers. But what if the largest crypto rebounds and tests new highs?

Coattail rides can and do happen but that scenario isn’t central to Crypto Jon's case for KAS to ascend. His theory pertains to some major CEX listings being inevitable, even if Kaspa isn't currently actively seeking them out. (Note: Kaspa enjoys no-strings-attached support from Uphold).

But despite seeing daily volume of $70M, KAS isn't yet trading on the industry’s largest platforms, such as Binance and Coinbase.

"At some point these big exchanges can't ignore Kaspa much longer," Crypto Jon said.

As the euphoria of multiple ETF listings earlier this week wore off, Ether (ETH) sold off sharply for a decline of 8.5% in the 24 hours ending at 7 a.m. in New York. The pullback was sparked by outflows from Grayscale's converted Ethereum Trust ETF combined with general malaise following yesterday’s large-cap tech stock selloff in the U.S. stock market. Bitcoin (BTC) also experienced volatility in early London trading to register a 3.5% decline for the day.

Even as new ETH ETF listings rose in trading on Wednesday, outflows from the converted Grayscale trust exceeded $800 million. As investors ran for shelter, open interest in CME listed ETH futures contracts rose to a record high open interest of 7,661 contracts on higher-than average trading volume.

Crypto markets were not the only ones facing a bumpy road on Thursday morning. A host of macro worries roiled global markets with U.S. and European equity benchmarks extending declines. Meanwhile, the Japanese Yen swung to its highest level in two months versus the U.S. Dollar.

Did you know that the newly launched Ethereum ETFs originally included staking mechanisms? These yield-generating components ultimately were found by regulators to be sticking points worthy of a fuss, and so were removed during the lead-up to actual launch as issuer registration statements were tweaked.

The SEC believes staking in exchange for tokens is akin to an offer of an investment contract, opening a trap door that would need to be roped off with a host of disclosures and protections.

However, says Variant's legal chief Jake Chervinsky, "there's no good reason why the SEC should prevent ETH ETFs from staking."

Ethereum users lock up, or stake, Ether to earn yields as a reward for helping secure the network. The annual percentage yield for ETH staking was 3.12% as of July 22, according to Reuters, citing StakingRewards.com. That extra juice comes via freshly-minted ETH and portions of transaction fees.

"As currently constructed, the SEC will only allow the ETFs to hold regular, unstaked Ether," Reuters explained.

It's kind of like a bond manager being told “sure, you can buy this bond but you can't clip the coupon,” as one exchange official groused.

Should money managers wish to include staking in their spot ETH ETF offerings, they'd have to get additional SEC approval, explains Bloomberg ETF Analyst James Seyffart. And this roadblock seems less onerous with each passing day.

"I think it's a matter of when, not if," Seyffart added.