The Daily: Gary Gensler's potential farewell, bitcoin ETFs' half-trillion-dollar milestone and more

Happy Thursday! In today's newsletter, Gary Gensler's time leading the SEC nears a possible end, Republicans keep control of the U.S. House, spot bitcoin ETFs reach a half-a-trillion dollar milestone and more.

Meanwhile, the FBI seizes Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan's phone and electronics.

Plus, find out how Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy and Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus reacted to Trump's "DOGE" announcement.

Let's get started.

Gary Gensler's potential farewell

In prepared remarks on Thursday at the Practicing Law Institute's 56th Annual Institute on Securities Regulation, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler reflected on his time leading the agency's team .

• "It's been a great honor to serve with them, doing the people's work, and ensuring that our capital markets remain the best in the world," he said. 
• "I've been proud to serve with my colleagues at the SEC who, day in and day out, work to protect American families on the highways of finance," he added.
• Gensler's comments suggest a potential farewell could soon be on the cards following Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential race last week.
• Pro-crypto Trump said he would fire the industry-hostile Chair "on day one" during the election campaign. Sources have said Gensler would likely step down, as other SEC leaders have done in the past. However, he could still decide to stay on as a commissioner.
• Never one to miss an opportunity, Gensler also used the speech to once again call for crypto exchanges to register and urged issuers to make proper disclosures, describing many of the 10,000 digital assets in circulation as securities.
• "Putting this in context, aside from bitcoin, ether and stablecoins, the rest of this market approximates $600 billion," Gensler said. "That's less than 20% of the whole crypto market and less than one quarter of one percent of the worldwide capital markets."

Republicans keep control of US House, ushering in crypto-friendly lawmakers to lead key committee

Republicans retained control of the U.S. House on Wednesday, having secured a majority of 218 members, paving the way for crypto-friendly lawmakers to lead the Financial Services Committee and efforts for digital asset-related bills.

• The committee, an influential panel that has oversight of the SEC, Federal Reserve and other agencies, will likely appoint a new Chair this month or by December.
• The current Chair, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., is set to retire in January. Possible candidates to replace him include Reps. French Hill, Andy Barr, Bill Huizenga, and Frank Lucas, all of whom support crypto initiatives.
• Blockchain Association Director of Government Regulations Ron Hammond previously told The Block that a Republican-led committee would likely prioritize stablecoin regulations and crypto market structure first, then DeFi and NFTs.

US spot bitcoin ETFs top half a trillion dollars in cumulative trading volume

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs have surpassed $500 billion in cumulative trading volume — less than a year after their January debut.

• The half-a-trillion dollar level was surpassed after a combined $7.9 billion in volume for the ETFs on Wednesday, marking their fourth-largest trading day since launch, with BlackRock's IBIT contributing a record $5.2 billion.
• While the metric is up only in nature, it still represents a significant milestone for the new bitcoin funds, competing against some of the largest and most established ETF products in the world, including the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) and the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) Nasdaq-100 Index.
• The bitcoin ETFs have clocked up $4.7 billion in net inflows in a six-day positive streak following Donald Trump's election victory, nearing $30 billion in total net inflows since launch, driving their combined assets under management to almost $90 billion.

DeFi Technologies aims to replicate MicroStrategy's success with upcoming CoreFi Strategy launch

Fintech firm DeFi Technologies is launching CoreFi Strategy , aiming to offer investors "higher beta bitcoin exposure" through Core, which is positioned as a "bitcoin-staking" blockchain despite Bitcoin not having a native staking model.

• According to the firm, CoreFi Strategy will launch on a Canadian stock exchange in the first quarter of 2025. The firm will accumulate BTC and CORE tokens, employ financial strategies to build its treasury and deliver regulated yield opportunities to investors.
• "We believe CoreFi Strategy can offer investors a way to capture value in the bitcoin staking ecosystem, similar to how MicroStrategy unlocked bitcoin exposure for traditional markets," DeFi Technologies CEO Olivier Roussy Newton said.
• Core's ecosystem, which claims to have over 8,200 BTC staked and $700 million in TVL, enables users holding CORE tokens to stake their bitcoin for additional staking yields through its dual staking model.

Coinbase surges back into US Apple App Store top 10 amid Trump-fueled crypto rally

Coinbase has surged back into the U.S. Apple App Store's top 10 free category, reaching the number one position in finance amid the recent Donald Trump-fueled crypto rally.

• The app rose from 435th the day before the U.S. election to 8th as bitcoin hit new all-time highs above $93,000 on Wednesday, likely reflecting renewed retail enthusiasm.
• Historically, Coinbase has entered the top 10 rankings when the crypto market was heading toward peaks, last hitting the number one spot just ahead of the prior bull market top in October 2021.

In the next 24 hours

• UK GDP figures are released at 2 a.m. ET on Friday.
• U.S. FOMC member John Williams will speak at 1:15 p.m.
• Devcon concludes in Bangkok. Adopting Bitcoin kicks off in El Salvador.

Never miss a beat with  The Block's daily digest  of the most influential events happening across the digital asset ecosystem.