Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether are becoming real hits in the narcotics business. Mexican drug lords prefer popular crypto tokens to fiat money to make payments in fentanyl trade, U.S. Treasury warns. The U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued an alert concerning the growing use of cryptocurrencies by Mexican cartels. Infamous drug traffickers are buying fentanyl ingredients with popular digital assets. The cartels are sourcing materials from Chinese suppliers. They are actively using Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, and Tether for those purchases. Which shouldn't come as a surprise, as these tokens are the most popular in the crypto world. Payments often land in hosted wallets at crypto firms. Some transactions involve secondary money transmitters. This trend isn't new to U.S. authorities. Recent sanctions and criminal cases have highlighted the issue. In October, the Justice Department charged eight China-linked companies. These firms faced allegations of illegal drug activities. The charges included production, distribution, and sales of precursor chemicals. Fentanyl overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-45. The drug's potency is alarming. It's 100 times stronger than morphine. China is a major source of fentanyl precursors. Later these chemicals travel through multiple countries. Their final destination in most cases is the United States.

Hashdex has filed for a combined spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF in the United States. If approved, this might be a revolutionary tool to promote cryptocurrencies into financial world. Building on recent SEC crypto fund approvals, crypto asset management firm Hashdex wants to make a major step nobody has foreseen. We now have Bitcoin ETFs, we will soon have Ethereum ETFs. But joint ETFs that directly hold both of the leading cryptocurrencies will be a major shift. According to the filing submitted to Nasdaq, the ETF will include cash holdings, with Coinbase Custody and BitGo designated as custodians. Interestingly, the fund would primarily hold Bitcoin (70.54%) and Ethereum (29.46%), mirroring the relative weightings of these two dominant cryptocurrencies on the market. It is also noted that the index could potentially incorporate additional crypto assets in the future. To be included, the asset would need to meet specific criteria, for instance, to be listed on a U.S.-regulated platform or serving as the underlying asset for a derivative instrument on such a venue. As we all remember, Bitcoin ETFs were approved by SEC in January. That resulted in a significantly fast surge, followed by halving, which also helped BTC gain bullish momentum. As for Ethereum ETFs, SEC's Gary Gensler said the that he anticipates that they will begin trading this summer. Hashdex's previous efforts to transition its Bitcoin futures ETF to one holding physical BTC directly went south. The company was unable to secure approval before its competitors' launch in January.

Tether Co-Founder predicts next ETFs after Bitcoin and Ethereum. He claims that Wall Street is too greedy to stop. And that is not so good for crypto. William Quigley told Decrypt this week that he doesn't expect crypto ETF momentum to slow after the approvals of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum funds. According to Quigley, Wall Street's “greed” will bring more and more such products. He named Solana and Cardano as possible next ETFs installations. They will be driven by Wall Street's relentless pursuit of profit. “Every time Wall Street packages a new product to sell to consumers, if that product is successful, you can guarantee there will be copycats. There would be no ETFs if the Bitcoin ETF had failed,” Quigley said. His comments were overall less than flattering for Wall Street guys. They just love 'the next hot thing' because it is easy to sell it to consumers. Once there is a big pullback the trend will lose momentum, Quigley thinks. ETFs are considered to be a true milestone in the history of crypto. Basically, they allow investors to gain profits from Bitcoin without actually holding any crypto. That is as safe and convenient as buying shares of NYSE companies. With recent SEC statements, their is very little doubt that Ethereum ETFs will be approved this summer. Now rumours spread that Solana ETFs are on horizons. So Quigley might be right about the overall trend. Why is Quigley so angry with ETFs? Well, obviously Tether co-founder isn't excited with crypto mainstream adoption because of the increasing involvement of traditional finance in the decentralized space. One of the questions he asks is what is actually going to happen when in time of downturn - and those are inevitable on the crypto market - Wall Street investors will simply pull out. That would be a risk factor that is new for crypto world, and absolutely unpredictable. "I was happy with crypto without Wall Street,” Quigley summarized.

Whales are bullish for the Ethereum and Shiba Inu prices. Data shows that the largest exchange wallets for ETH and SHIB have seen significant withdrawals recently. That is definitely a bullish sign, analysts say. For example, the on-chain analytics firm Santiment claims that the top 10 exchange wallets on the SHIB and ETH networks have recently seen their supplies go down. Ethereum whale wallets have declined by a whopping 8.6%, while Shiba Inu wallets on crypto exchanges have lost about 2.4% of their value. Those wallets are the biggest currently attached to centralized exchanges. It's fair to suggest that the wallets belong to the so called whales. Simply put, the largest investors on the market. And of course, these wallets are the most influential. Audience keeps focus on them. So any moves, even the slightest ones, can lead to a significant change in the market sentiments. Taking of crypto from exchanges is a clear bullish sign. You keep your crypto on exchanges if you are planning to sell. Or at least you are ready to sell any moment. Long-term holders prefer holding assets on their self-custodial wallets. Once coins go off the exchanges it means sell supply of the token is going down. That's a bullish sign too. So Ethereum and Shiba Inu largest holders are not planning to sell in the near future. That means they are optimistic and, sorry for using the term too much, they are bullish.

Whales and long-term holders keep accumulating Ether despite the recent price drops. Analysts see it as a bullish sign. According to Julio Moreno, the head of research at CryptoQuant, there is a surge in Ethereum demand. Holders keep buying Ether. And it has now reached the second-highest level on record. Moreno takes June 12 as an example of such accumulation in process. During just one day, accumulation addresses acquired approximately 298,000 Ether tokens, equivalent to roughly $1.34 billion. This is just a bit shy of the absolute record set on September 11, 2023, when long-term holders purchased 317,000 Ether in 24 hours. Recent accumulation surge happened even despite an 8.49% price decline over the past seven days. The $3,500 price level has proved to be a resilient resistance for Ether bulls, analyst notes. It seems that long-term Ether investors trust some recent news. The chair of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler hinted at the possible approval of spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for trading by the end of September. This might bring Ether to the path that has already led Bitcoin to a rather impressive surge earlier this year.