Last Week in Review: Another financial heavyweight files BTC ETF application

 The highlights from last week’s headline grabbers. All the important news, numbers and events from the world of crypto in one place

News from the block

🟠 Franklin Templeton joins the BTC ETF race

• The global asset manager filed its BTC ETF application last week, joining six other financial heavyweights in the queue. 
  

• The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) delayed its decision on applications filed earlier in the year, with the next deadline in mid-October.
  

• A futures-based ETF derives its value from futures contracts on an underlying asset, while a spot ETF holds the actual physical assets, providing direct ownership of the underlying assets. The SEC has approved futures-based BTC ETFs but is yet to give the nod for a spot-BTC ETF. 
  

⛓️ Chainlink and SWIFT partner to send assets across different blockchains

• Chainlink recently signed a partnership with SWIFT to help develop sending tokenised assets across different blockchains.
  
  
• The parties involved will use Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) to transact across various blockchains.
  
  
• “Chainlink’s CCIP will enable complete interoperability between the source and destination blockchains,” Yahoo reported. 
  
  
• The deal was already announced in June this year, but LINK rallied on Monday as Chainlink’s co-founder Sergey Nazarov elaborated on the project at SWIFT’s global financial services networking event.
  
  

💎 Crypto bull buys $150 million worth of ETH

• The ETH whale bought nearly 92,600 ETH call option contracts worth $150 million, CoinDesk reported.
  
  
• Call options give investors the right, but not the obligation, to buy a specific stock at a predetermined price before a certain date.
  
  
• “A call buyer is implicitly bullish on the market,” the publication noted. 
  

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TL;DID read

The Crypto Calendar: economic events that matter

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Crunching the numbers

🔺 4% – The interest rate in the European Union after the European Central Bank (ECB) raised interest rates to record highs, but reportedly hinted it may be the last one. 

📉 2% – The target inflation rate of the ECB and the Federal Reserve Bank in the US, with the latter currently meeting to decide whether to pause or hike rates. 

🙏 97% – Traders see a 97% chance that the Fed keeps rates unchanged this month, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. 

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Crypto trivia

An illustrated guide of Bitcoin through the years

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Protect your crypto 

The first step to protecting yourself against scams is staying up to date with the various ways criminals can get access to your crypto investments. Read below how to avoid falling prey to romance scams. 

💔 What are the red flags? 

*This information should not be construed as a solicitation to trade. All opinions, news, research, analysis, prices or other information is provided as general market commentary for information purposes only and is not investment advice or recommendation. Luno always advises you to obtain your own independent financial advice before investing or trading in cryptocurrency.