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he United Arab Emirates (UAE) is gradually solidifying its status as a go-to Bitcoin BTC mining destination in the Middle East. The country has established itself as a pro-Web3 destination for crypto-focused companies with over 30 free trade zones and a growing contribution to the Bitcoin mining hash rate. Abu Dhabi has become a hub for all kinds of crypto mining activity in the UAE due to its energy efficiency and status as the center of trade in the country.

Source: CoinTelegraph

Crypto trading volumes rose in June for the first time in three months amid optimism following the filing of spot bitcoin exchange-traded-fund (ETF) proposals by BlackRock and other asset managers The combined spot and derivative trading volumes on centralized exchanges climbed 14% to $2.71 trillion, according to a report by CCData. This was the first monthly increase in trading volume since March, said the report. Among other high-profile U.S. institutions that filed or refiled last month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for spot bitcoin ETFs were Fidelity, Invesco and WisdomTree.

Source : CCData, Coindesk

Belarus is moving to ban peer-to-peer crypto transactions in an effort to reduce alleged fraud. The government is working on the legislation needed to formally make the transactions illegal. Citizens will instead have to turn to crypto exchanges registered with Hi-Tech Park (HTP) to make transactions “for transparency and control,” according to a social media post from Alexander Ringevish of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Source: Blockworks

North American mining firm Hut8 is seeing new demand for AI and high performance computing as it looks to re-energize some 6,400 rigs being moved from its inoperative North Bay site in Ontario. As previously reported, Hut8 is in an ongoing legal battle with its third party energy supplier Validus Power over alleged failure to meet contractual obligations. Operations at the facility have been suspended since Nov. 2022. Source: Cointelegrah

The Securities and Exchange Commission said a recent wave of applications filed by asset managers to launch spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds are inadequate, according to people familiar with the matter. The agency informed exchanges Nasdaq and Cboe Global Markets, which filed the applications on behalf of asset managers including BlackRock and Fidelity Investments, that the filings aren't sufficiently clear and comprehensive, the people said.

Though the Swiss National Bank is set to pilot central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, amid a changing financial ecosystem, it doesn’t necessarily have plans to launch one. The pilot is meant to test a wholesale CBDC for “a limited time” to test transactions with market participants on the SIX Digital Exchange, a spokesperson told Blockworks. The central bank sees signs in Switzerland of the development of a new financial ecosystem where transactions take place with tokenized securities and tokenized money — an environment set to make financial markets more efficient. Source: Blockworks

Last week, BlackRock submitted an application for a spot Bitcoin ETF, which would track Bitcoin’s underlying market price. Source: HolgerZ, Bloomberg

Bitcoin’s price hit $29,000 amid a flurry of exchange traded fund (ETF) applications in the United States and newfound institutional interest in facilitating crypto trading. The launch of EDX markets on Tuesday, a crypto exchange backed by Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Citadel Securities also appears to have strengthen the bullish momentum. EDX currently supports four cryptocurrencies in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Source: Decrypt