Today Robin Hood announces that it's Buying crypto exchange bitstamp for $200 Million while core scientific rejects a Billion deal from AI firm cor weave and Matthew seagull of Vanek sits down with Crypto world to discuss the sec's Decision to approve a rule change Paving The way for spot ether ETFs welcome to cnbc's crypto world I'm Mackenzie sigalos now cryptocurrencies Were mixed Thursday morning with Bitcoin Inching just half a percent lower by Noon Eastern ether on the other hand was Up 3/4 of a percent while Sal fell about 1% okay let's talk about the top stories Trading app Robin Hood is buying crypto Exchange bit stamp for $200 million now Bitstamp has been around for more than a Decade and holds registrations around The globe meaning that the acquisition Would help Robin Hood expand its Global Footprint Robin Hood CEO of Vlad tenev Said as much when he spoke about the Deal on cnbc's squawkbox just moments After the acquisition was made public It's really three things that got us Excited one is this is a international Business and it accelerates our plans For international expansion particularly In crypto second it brings an exchange To Robin Hood and we've been thinking For a long time that the world could use A Robin Hood exchange we have a lot of Ideas about how we can improve upon that
And as we talk to our Market makers we See there's a clear need for another Player in the market and then the third Institutional business this allows Robin Hood to enter uh a new business serving Market makers and other institutional Customers shares of Robinhood jumped as Much as 5 a half% after the announcement Of the deal which is expected to close In the first half of 2025 next core scientific just rejected A buyout from AI firm cor weave the Bitcoin miner said in a press release That core weave sent an unsolicited Proposal on June 3rd offering to buy all Of core scientific's outstanding shares For about 575 a share or a little bit More than a billion dollars cor said That the board partnered with Independent advisers to evaluate the Proposal but felt that it undervalued The company based on its near and Long-term potential The Proposal from Cor weave came just after the two Companies announced a series of 12-year Contracts to provide 200 megaw of Infrastructure for core weave and for Some context this attempted acquisition Points to a larger Trend that JP Morgan Mentioned in a report out yesterday an Analyst for the bank said that AI firms Could see Bitcoin miners as attractive M&a targets thanks to their readily Available power supply with cheap energy
Contracts all right focusing on ether For our main story vanak has a new price Target for the native token of the Ethereum protocol $22,000 by the end of the decade now That's according to the asset manager's New research out yesterday of course That would be a massive jump from Current levels of around $3,800 crypto world's Talia Kaplan sat Down with Matthew seagull head of Digital assets research at vanc ahead of The reports released to discuss the E Forecast he also weighs in on the sec's Recent decision as it relates to spot Ether ETFs the SEC had a final deadline of May 23rd to make a decision on Vex spot Ether ETF application That day the SEC approved a rule change Which would pave the way for spot ether ETFs what was your reaction to that I Saw you put out a statement that said That the Milestone anticipates more Legal victories and increased Investments in Bitcoin ethereum and Other blockchains what else did this Development signify it was the biggest Regulatory 180 in recent SEC history it Confirmed that ethereum is a commodity Which we think is tremendously bullish For the prospect of innovation happening On open- source blockchains so it's it's Great news uh Bitcoin and ethereum are
Both up more than 60% this year the NASDAQ is up 12% so it's another year of Top performing uh numbers from this Asset class and when we look at the State of the blockchain uh you all talk Talk about the quarterly earnings Reports coming from Corporate America on The blockchain we can see the p&l daily And 2024 uh can be characterized by all-time Highs across the board whether it's Number of addresses that are interacting On the blockchain the number of Transactions the amount of fees that Users are paying uh it's all record Highs so quite quite positive what does This mean for venex specifically this Development we were the first Traditional ETF issuer to file for a Bitcoin ETF in 2017 we were also first to file for a Spot ethereum ETF so there was a world In which being first used to mean Something uh you can argue that uh Respecting the Q as it were is Foundational to property rights uh so I Still hope and expect that uh the vanak Ethereum ETF if it's approved will trade First um you know if not then you know It'll be all issuers uh at the same time And we'll see we'll see what what Happens were you surprised by the sec's Decision to approve a rule change or did You see it coming I mean many industry
Insiders I spoke with ahead of the Decision said that they didn't think it Was going to happen right now especially Given the lack of Engagement by the Regulator with applicants that is until The week of the deadline for vanex spot Ether TF so did you have any Correspondence with the SEC and if so Did that correspondence take place Before the week of the deadline or did It happen the week of the deadline what Happened there if you're able to Discuss I was on the record as saying That I would eat my hotel hat if an Ethereum ETF uh trades before the US Elections very surprising I'm working up Uh smoothie plans uh right now to you Know ex hopefully execute on that on That promise but you know no it was it Was very surprising I think it's a Reflection of the public pressure that's Been brought the crypto Super PAC uh is Now the largest industry specific pack Uh it's larger than Donald Trump's Re-election campaign pack so that you're Talking about Fair Shake yes uh so you Know that got lawmakers attention uh and It hasn't really gotten the White House's attention yet right so the White House put out an executive order two Years ago in instring all federal Agencies to bring maximum pressure on This asset class and that's been playing Out for two years we hope this is the
Beginning of a turn but just to break it All down the SEC approved vanex 19 Before filing along with seven others Including black rocks and fidelities but The SEC has yet to Greenlight the ETFs S1s which would allow for the trading of These ETFs so what's next what does this Mean for vanak how long do you think That will take and just in a nutshell What's what are the next steps so as You Observe to list one of these ETFs it's Like a nuclear code you need two keys The 19 B4 and the S1 so we'll have to Wait and respond to the agency's Comments if there are any and we're Hopeful that these products can be Trading in a matter of weeks but it's Really uh not up to us you're confident That the SEC will in fact approve these S1s Absolutely uh there's no uh fundamental Logical difference why ether the asset Should be treated differently than than Bitcoin uh and this will be the final Confirmation that uh eth is a commodity And I think what we really look forward To there's so many traditional Financial Market participants who are not fully Aware that this is not an asset purely For speculative means but it has uh real World use cases uh 3,000 different apps Uh that have collectively transmitted More than $3 trillion dollar in in value Over the last year so this is an
Open-source App Store with the potential To take significant margin away from the Big Tech platforms and also banking uh And we look forward to educating you Know the traditional Market participants About about this asset do you have a new Price target for eth given all these Developments in the mix so we did just Uh refresh our model and uh based on More constructive view uh around the Political landscape as well as some of These onchain indicators where Ethereum's scaling Road mapap has really Ignited uh a boom in users transacting On the network so we see this network uh Generating more than $70 billion in free Cash flow to token holders by 2030 uh And that will support uh a coin price of 22,000 per ethereum uh by 2030 so we're At 3,800 or so now um it's a you know 47% odd ker and it certainly will be Very interesting to see if that forecast Does in fact come to fruition but of Course this development with spot ether ETFs comes about 5 months after spot Bitcoin ETF started trading here in the US you're wearing the hat hdle that is Vanex bot Bitcoin ETF at last check as Of June 4th there were more than $705 Million in total net assets compare that To say black rock which has more than2 Billion dollar in net assets it's Important to note that black rock did in Fact become the largest spot Bitcoin ETF
In the US even surpassing grayscale so How does your spot Bitcoin ETF compare To your competitors what differentiates Yours from the others out there well Given that the SEC allowed all these Products to trade on the same day that Of course gives an advantage to the Largest incumbents uh so there was a World in which speed used to matter and The first to file would be first to list Maybe someday we will return to that World uh now that these crypto asset ETFs are normalized so you know there Are few ways for issuers to Differentiate eles given the starting Point was the same uh we did it through Skin in the game we made the largest Investment off of our firm's balance Sheet into our own product by a multiple Of three $70 million uh so if this asset Has a big correction uh we're going to Be there with skin in the game to Explain why do the research uh and be There next to our clients the second is The quality of our research if you look At our models on these assets I think They're the most detailed uh on the Street and the third is that uh tickers Can be differentiators so uh we think we Have the best one with Hodel SQL also weighed in on recent Regulatory advancements in crypto as Well as Bitcoin miners pouring millions Of dollars into AI businesses you'll be
Able to check out the full interview Over at cnbc.com Cryptoworld okay that's all for crypto World today but we will be back again Tomorrow and we'll see you then
