Crypto to the SEC: Did You Say Something?

Amanda Heckman|September 18, 2021

Gary Gensler may have had the spotlight on Wednesday, but the crypto market didn’t pay the SEC head any mind.

While many news outlets eagerly – or fearfully – awaited his remarks and what he might say about crypto…

The crypto market was busy making news of its own.

Yesterday, Andy told you about Bitcoin’s golden cross (when an asset’s 50-day moving average crosses over its 200-day moving average). This is a hugely bullish signal that Bitcoin is trending higher.

As Andy wrote…

The last two times this happened, the coin’s price soared by five times on the first run and by three times on the second.

Folks got rich.

With previous crossovers leading to 3X and 5X returns, does this mean the calls for $100,000 Bitcoin by the end of the year are back on the table?

Famed crypto bull Cathie Wood sure thinks so. She’s calling for a $500,000 price tag in just five years.

This week’s chart formation tells us the market backs her math.

But it wasn’t just the charts that were full of good news…

Big Moves

As if they wanted to make a statement to Gary and friends, several big banks made some big moves with crypto.

First, we learned that Morgan Stanley is starting a new crypto-focused research division. It will study the impact of cryptos on equities and fixed-income investments.

The bank said that the launch of a crypto research team is thanks to crypto’s growing importance in global markets.

Then we learned that global investment firm Franklin Templeton will raise $20 million for its first blockchain venture capital fund. This comes after it backed digital asset bank Galaxy Digital’s crypto venture fund this summer.

This is on top of the company posting new jobs for engineers in a “Tokenized Asset Development Department.”

Franklin intends to build a new platform to expand digital asset investing and management. The company wants to find candidates experienced in “public blockchain protocols,” including Algorand, Ethereum, Solana, Stellar and Tendermint.

These new hires would join a quickly growing digital asset team. Earlier this month, Franklin also put out want ads for crypto traders and researchers to join the company’s Digital Assets Management division.

Clearly the firm sees where the financial industry is headed.

Wagging Fingers

While top brokerage firm Fidelity didn’t announce any new crypto funds or jobs this week, the company took the SEC to task for not approving its Bitcoin ETF yet.

Back in March, Fidelity filed for a Bitcoin ETP (exchange-traded product) called the Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust. Since then, 20 more applications have been filed by various financial institutions. Yet the SEC continues to punt on the issue.

In a private meeting with the SEC, Fidelity pushed for more digital assets and related products… pointing to the growing number of funds in other countries. It argued that the government isn’t acknowledging the size or liquidity of the crypto market… as defined by its own standards.

We’ll see if the slap on the wrist gets the SEC moving… but we think the agency is taking its time because it really has no idea what to do.

It’s more than a tad disappointing, given that Gensler's been hailed as someone who knows and gets what crypto is all about. But surprising? No. (We’re talking about the government, after all.)

Tickets, Please

But let’s finish with another feather in crypto’s mainstream-adoption cap.

AMC Entertainment announced that it will start accepting multiple coins as payment for movie tickets by the end of 2022. It had previously said it would take Bitcoin… but it’s now adding Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to the mix.

It’s more proof of just how far crypto adoption has come… and just how unstoppable this trend will be with so much of the public (and our financial system) behind it.

Gary Gensler, take note.

Note: If you’ve been on the fence about buying crypto, Bitcoin’s golden cross is the signal you’ve been waiting for. And it’s not just Bitcoin. We’ve got our eye on several other cryptos that are ready to make their moves. Click here to learn more about the cryptos we think will be even bigger than Bitcoin.