Here’s what you’ll find in today’s edition:

• What we’re hearing from ETF issuer execs as crypto proposals keep coming.

• This new OCC decision will make it harder for banks to refuse crypto clients. 

• Another Fed week has come and gone. Here’s what else happened.

ETF learnings at DAS

Thursday was the last day of Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit. It also marked Volatility Shares’ launch of two solana futures ETFs — and we even saw Canary Capital file for a Pudgy Penguins fund. 

As we try to predict what the SEC may approve next, let’s go over what I heard on the DAS stage and in my chats with executives at some of the biggest issuers. 

Bloomberg Intelligence’s James Seyffart said during a Thursday panel with BlackRock’s Robbie Mitchnick and Nasdaq’s Giang Bui that futures products are used more as trading vehicles and see less demand than spot products. 

“But it’s still very interesting to see, because as we saw with bitcoin and ethereum, if you get a futures product, you’re pretty likely to get a spot product at some point in the future,” he added. 

CME solana futures going live Monday was viewed as a possible pre-requisite for proposed spot SOL ETFs to get a green light. 

Kyle DaCruz, VanEck’s director of digital assets product, noted CME futures were indeed a way for the Gary Gensler-led SEC to check the “regulated market of significant size” box. But there are paths — beyond futures — to demonstrate markets are not manipulated, he argued, such as crypto exchanges sharing data with the regulator.

Canary’s filing for a PENGU ETF — to hold both the Pudgy Penguins token and NFTs — is the latest altcoin proposal. Issuers also have live filings for products that would hold XRP, LTC, HBAR, AXL, DOGE, AVAX and others.

Executives noted that while the Gensler-less SEC (with its new crypto task force) is more willing to actively engage about products, the proliferation of altcoin ETF filings shouldn’t be taken as a sign issuers are being told they have a good shot.  

Will Peck, WisdomTree’s head of digital assets, told me: “Sometimes people just put stuff forward on the off chance that they could be first.”

Now if BlackRock — the world’s largest asset manager — filed for a specific altcoin ETF, that might be more of a cue. 

When Seyffart asked Mitchnick what it would take for the firm to float another crypto ETF, the BlackRock exec gave a rather vague response. 

He said client demand is “the number one guiding thing.” He added that building a product that investors can be sure is solving a problem and in a beneficial structure is “not so easy to do for a lot of these things.”

As for the possible next approvals, DaCruz said in-kind creations/redemptions for existing crypto ETFs and staking for the ETH products are “low-hanging fruits.”

Despite the many altcoin filings, the SEC is likely awaiting possible legislative change (i.e. whether crypto oversight will lie with both it and the CFTC, security status questions, etc).

“I think it’s a hard job for the SEC to take every single crypto asset one by one and say we’ll approve or not approve,” DaCruz explained. “It’s much easier if they had a framework…and to operate like that.” 

— Ben Strack

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The number of consecutive days bitcoin ETFs have seen net inflows following an ugly run of outflows for the category.

The funds have brought in $700 million over that span after seeing net outflows on 20 of the prior 25 days, Farside Investors data shows. 

As President Trump was denouncing the “lawless” Operation Chokepoint 2.0 at the Digital Asset Summit, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency yesterday said it will remove “reputational risks” from its examination manual for supervisors. 

The move from the national bank regulator, which came after increased pressure from Republicans, will, in theory, prevent banks from refusing to serve clients involved in distasteful industries. That includes crypto. 

“The OCC’s examination process has always been rooted in ensuring appropriate risk management processes for bank activities, not casting judgment on how a particular activity may fare with public opinion,” acting comptroller of the currency Rodney E. Hood said in a Thursday statement. 

Those in favor of removing “reputational risks” argue that banks are letting politics interfere by blocking customers that may be engaged in unpopular activities, even if those activities pose no actual financial risk to the bank. 

Risk is, of course, still at the center of the examination handbook. But banks will have to prove a client truly endangers the institution to justify not accepting them as a client. 

We’d heard from people familiar that the Trump administration is working on an executive order related to crypto and debanking. Given this move from the OCC, we imagine a ruling from the executive branch is no longer a top priority. We’ll still be keeping an ear out though, so you just keep an eye on your inbox.

— Casey Wagner

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Happy Friday! It was a big week with the March FOMC meeting. Investors have been busy digesting the first projection materials of 2025 and Powell’s post-meeting comments. 

Here’s a recap:

• Housing starts and new building permits data on Tuesday came in better than expected, but economists are still expecting construction to retract in the coming months amid tariff- and recession-related fears. New constructions were up 11.2% last month and permits came in at 1.46 million — ahead of the expected 1.45 million. The increase in housing starts is largely attributed to the severe winter weather across the country in January and early February, which likely slowed building. 

• The Fed on Wednesday held interest rates, as expected. Powell also brought back the word “transitory” — this time in reference to tariff inflation, which he says could impact Fed policy. But central bankers are not ready to act just yet. Median forecasts from committee members still project a 50bps cut by the end of 2025, which helped calm markets. 

• Initial jobless claims came in at 223,000 for the week ended March 15, up from 221,000 the week prior. The four-week moving average is slowly ticking up, coming in at 227,000. The report showed that while private sector layoffs remain low, an increase in former federal employees are applying for benefits, reflecting DOGE layoffs in recent weeks.

— Casey Wagner

• The SEC’s crypto task force hosted the first of a series of roundtables Friday. Open to the public, the session — titled “How We Got Here and How We Get Out — Defining Security Status” — was going on at the time of writing.

• Related to the above, the SEC said Thursday that certain mining activities — specifically proof-of-work mining — don’t fall under US securities rules.   

• Tornado Cash addresses were removed from the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s specially designated nationals list.

• Coinbase is reportedly in discussions to buy crypto derivatives exchange Deribit, sources tell Bloomberg.