Bitcoin surged past $100,000 on May 8 as institutional investors ramped up ETF inflows, with ARK 21Shares, Fidelity and BlackRock leading the charge. Bitcoin crossed the $100,000 mark again on May 8 as institutional investors continue stacking sats. Farside Investors’ data shows that spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded cumulative net inflows of $142.3 million on May 7, in a sign of “sustained institutional interest,” according to the founder of Obchakevich Research, Alex Obchakevich. “These inflows indicate the activity of institutional investors, including hedge funds and asset managers, who continue to accumulate BTC through regulated instruments,“ he said. Read more
Animoca Brands' Yat Siu says rethinking how we fund education could be the breakthrough that brings blockchain to the mainstream — starting with DeFi student loan financing. Ripple’s $25 million donation to a crypto education fund has reignited conversations about how blockchain projects are building influence through academia—but in the latest episode of Byte-Sized Insight, Animoca Brands’ co-founder Yat Siu says that money alone isn’t enough. Instead, real-world use cases like student loans backed by DeFi may be crypto’s most convincing value proposition to date. On April 30th, Pencil Finance, a project supported by Animoca Brands and its education arm Open Campus, announced a $10 million student loan financing initiative aimed at providing cheaper, blockchain-backed loans. Siu believes this type of infrastructure investment goes further than symbolic funding. Read more