In today's episode of Empire Santi and Jason are joined by Blockworks Senior Reporters Casey Wagner and Ben Strack to analyze the historic first approvals of Bitcoin spot ETFs. They discuss the early winners among top asset managers, with BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale seeing significant early trading volumes. We also unpack the unfolding fee war between issuers as they slash prices to as low as 0.15% to stay competitive. We also dive into Coinbase's role as custodian for 9 of the 11 approved ETFs and discuss why their stock price surprisingly dropped. Stay tuned for all of this and much more!

- -

Follow Santi: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel

Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz

Follow Casey: https://twitter.com/caseywagnerr

Follow Ben: https://twitter.com/strack_ben

Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod

Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j

Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7

Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw

Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/

- -

Send your crypto to your PayPal account, swap it for PYUSD, and use it to checkout at millions of stores.

Pay how you want by getting started at:

https://blckwrks.co/PYUSD

- -

Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks.

Use the link below to learn more, and use EMPIRE10 to get 10% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there!

Learn more + get your ticket here: https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home

- -

Resources

Bitwise Survey

https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.bitwiseinvestments.com/Research/The-Bitwise-VettaFi-2023-Benchmark-Survey.pdf

- -

Timestamps:

(01:24) ETF Approval History

(10:04) The Fee Battles & ETF Customers

(15:10) Grayscale Pivoting GBTC

(19:18) Flow and AUM Predictions

(24:09) DAS 2024

(25:24) PayPal Ad

(26:22) ETH ETF Outlook

(29:08) Coinbase Stock Pullback

(31:24) SEC Prosecution Impact

(36:59) Circle IPO

- -

Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.