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!

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