Today Bitcoin holds its ground above $61,000 buybit surpasses coinbase as the Second largest crypto Exchange in the World and Juan Leon with bitwise breaks Down the firm's research on spot ether ETFs and the intersection of crypto and AI welcome to cnbc's crypto world I'm Talia Kaplan crypto prices moving just a Bit this morning with Bitcoin holding Above the $61,000 level that's after Brief YY bouncing above $62,000 Yesterday ether is in the red this Morning falling to the $3,300 mark while Salana fell to $136 after that huge Rally yesterday driven by an upgrade to That Network okay let's talk about the Top stories bit surpassed coinbase as The second largest crypto Exchange in The world that's according to research From Kao the research says bit took the Second place spot back in March Benefiting from increased trading Volumes following the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs back in January plus low Fees on its platform while competitors Like the current Global leader binance Face regulatory hurdles Kao also said The exchange's market share jumped to 16% up from 8% back in October meanwhile Coinbase's global market share only Gained 1% in that same time binance's Market share fell from 60% to 54% since October of course the next month binance Faced a more than $4 billion fine from
The US Government next the doj announced Two men were sentenced to prison for Crypto related Securities and wire fraud In the millions of dollars according to The department this case is the first Time where a jury in a federal criminal Trial found that a cryptocurrency was a Security and that manipulating Cryptocurrency prices was Securities Fraud the doj says Shane Hampton of Philadelphia and Michael Kane of Miami Beach hired a South African firm Moonwalkers trading which used a bot to Flood the market with fake and Fraudulent orders the goal was to entice Retail investors with the hydro token's Artificial volume the bot executed Around $7 million in wash trades and Placed more than $300 million in spoof Trades for the token Hampton was Sentenced to nearly 3 years behind bars While kanaine was sentenced to just Under four years for orchestrating the Scheme to manipulate the price of the Hydro token now Kane was co-founder and CEO of the tokens company and Hampton Was the head of financial Engineering all right for our main story Bitwise Asset Management said in a new Research note out this week that ETFs Could attract $15 billion of net inflows In the first 18 months Chief investment Officer Matt Hogan wrote the note adding That his research doesn't take into
Account multiple tail winds behind Ethereum's growth including the rise of Stable coins growing regulatory Clarity And the after effects of the Network's Recent upgrade he wrote that despite Those factors he still thinks 15 billion In the next year and a half is a good Starting point and that it would have a Quote dramatic impact on the ethereum Market now earlier this month bitwise Asset Management separately forecasted That crypto and AI could add a Collective 20 trillion dollar to the Global economy by the end of the decade Juan Leon senior crypto research analyst At the investment firm wrote that note So I spoke with him about his research And what he calls the emerging Partnership between Bitcoin mining and AI he also weighs in on the firm's note On spot ether ETFs Your Chief investment officer Matt Hogan Wrote a note explaining why spot ether ETFs will quote attract billions Specifically he forecasts that these ETFs will attract $15 billion dollar in Net flows in the first 18 months since Launching what was your reaction to the Sec's decision to approve a rule change Last month which would pave the way for ETFs that Buy and Hold ether speaking With C CNBC recently SEC chair Gary Gensler said these products should be Fully approved sometime over the summer
What do you think this means for the Crypto industry and do you think these Products will prove to be as popular as B Bitcoin ETFs which launched more than Five months ago well well we are Thrilled by the developments that are Happening in the industry uh we saw Earlier this year the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs we call that the IPO moment For Bitcoin uh because the ETFs open up The institutional Market uh to bitcoin Uh really for the first time and so We're very excited now for the Possibility of these eth ETFs to come to Market as well and for ethereum to have Its IPO moment uh and start to become Institutionalized like Bitcoin has Started to earlier this year these two Assets together Bitcoin and ethereum Make up almost 70% of the crypto market Cap and so by having both of these in an ETF format it really opens up the Institutional Market to the majority of The crypto ecosystem and that is Wonderful for the industry uh for Continued Innovation and for investors As well to get access to these uh Exciting assets that are growing Quickly Switching gears the intersection Of AI and crypto has been getting a lot Of Buzz recently you actually put out a Note this month writing that crypto and AI could be a multi-trillion dollar Mega Trend adding a collective 20 trillion
Dollar to Global GDP by 2030 what made You come to this determination I know You mentioned in the note that you were Recently at the crypto conference Consensus in Austin Texas and that the Biggest takeaway from that event was That the merging of the two technologies Is going to be even bigger than people Imagin how did you come to that Conclusion yes well at bitwise we're Always looking for emerging Opportunities and my takea away from Consensus this year was really this Intersection of crypto and Ai and the Huge opportunity that lies there as you Mentioned uh we think it could be a 20 Trillion Mega Trend and could add to the Global economy by 2030 uh that's a huge Opportunity for a couple of reasons uh We're at the beginning of an AI boom That's already made ninia one of the Largest companies in the world due to The demand for its GPU chips now the Race for this AI Supremacy is also Creating an unprecedented shortage of HPC high performance Computing data Centers and that's where miners come in Uh crypto miners traditionally mine Bitcoin uh but with the Advanced Data Centers that they have they are seeing The opportunity to partner with AI Compan In order to house them for their AI Services that are developing and that is
Giving crypto miners a new Revenue Stream that diversifies as their their Revenue opportunities and is creating Huge uh growth uh for these for these Miners and that's really Exciting and we're going to talk more About Bitcoin miners in just a bit but In your note you mentioned that adding $20 trillion to the global economy won't Happen overnight but that we're already Seeing early indications of its Potential and touched on this but can You take us through some of those Examples yeah well one of the things is That the world economic Forum has named Misinformation created by AI as the top Immediate risk to the global economy That's something that concerns the Investors that we talk to on a daily Basis and the opportunity is that Blockchains are built on the tendance of Accessibility of transparency of Immutability and that way crypto can Play a pivotal role in putting checks And balances on the misinformation Information created by AI so that's a Huge opportunity for the two uh Technologies to come together and work With each other in order for AI to Continue to thrive uh and create all the Efficiencies that it's uh that it's uh It's made possible um and then for Blockchain to work in order to counter Uh the downsides of AI and be able to
Enhance it even further now going back To bitcoin miners your research notes That they have all the resources that AI Firms need including powerful chips State-of-the-art cooling systems and Accompanying infrastructure in fact We're seeing a lot of Partnerships Between AI firms and crypto Miners and Many Bitcoin mining companies have been Retrofitting existing facilities to Service AI clients as revenue from Mining plummets you mentioned that just This week hot 8 announced a $150 million Investment to build AI infrastructure And earlier this month Bitcoin minor Core scientific announced a 12-year deal With cloud provider core weave to Provide infrastructure for use cases Like machine learning what do you think About these developments and do you Think we'll see more deals like this in The near future these are huge Developments a 12year deal for three and A half billion that's the biggest AI Crypto Miner partnership we've seen uh It allows core uh core scientific to Utilize its data data centers for AI and Continue to help build out the Infrastructure needed for the AI Boom The $150 million deal uh between CTO Manag man agement and h8 is an example Of kot kot investment management they're Known for being technology investors Being early into uh Trends they see the
Opportunity in the buildout of Infrastructure for AI and they see AI uh They see hut8 as a capable uh builder in In the space of data centers and so this 150 million deal really allows them to Have the capital to continue to build Out their expansion uh and continue to Pave the road for what is this AI boom Uh that that is that is emerging so I Think they're both fantastic Developments they put these companies at The front and center of this emerging Trend and I think we will see more uh More deals and more Partnerships Emerging uh with between crypto Miners And AI companies what would you say to Those who argue that there are Misleading narratives tied to the Intersection of AI and crypto in April I Interviewed the chief scientist at chain Link Labs who argued that the often Touted uses for bringing Ai and Blockchain together aren't actually all That useful some of what he calls Misleading narratives include that Blockchain can combat misinformation Caused by generative Ai and that Blockchain can bring privacy to AI do You think these narratives can be Considered misleading that's a great Question Talia I think uh it is both of These are emerging Technologies they're Still early and nent uh in in their Development and so no one uh fully
Understands the cap abilities yet uh and So there can be the idea that they they They maybe cannot work together or there They can be misleading narratives but I Think overall uh the opportunities are Clear in that AI uh enhances uh Productivity and creates new avenues for Expansion and blockchain is here to be Able to validate what is true what is Not create efficient Ledger systems for Transactions uh and payments uh and Unlock the opportunity through smart Contracts of new Auto at functionality And those things can be paired with AI For bigger efficiency gains to validate What is true and what what what isn't uh And so I think that's because of those Reasons the two technologies actually Can work together in a way that uh Enhances each of the Technologies and Ultimately leads to bigger outcomes uh And better outcomes for society as a Whole okay that's all for crypto world Today we'll be back again tomorrow and We'll see you then
