| | | | | | | February 18, 2025 | | | | | Jeff Bergstrom
Editor
John Lothian News | |
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| | | | Observations & Insight | | |
Blockfills Expands Crypto Services, Eyes Institutional Growth Amid Regulatory Shifts
JohnLothianNews.com
Blockfills, a digital asset trading and technology firm, is expanding its services to meet growing demand in the cryptocurrency market, according to Blockfills Co-Head of Digital Exotics Paul Sacks.
In an interview with John Lothian News at the FIA EXPO in November, Sacks highlighted the firm's focus on institutional clients and qualified professional traders globally. "We post massive volumes in Bitcoin and Ether," Sacks said, noting that most clients trade spot through the company's front-end platform, Vision Trader, or via API.
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Andrej Bolkovic - OCC
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Paul Hamill - ICE
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| | | | | | Lead Stories | | | BofA Survey Shows Investors Haven't Been This Risk-On Since 2010; Fund managers' cash levels slump to the lowest since 2010; Most respondents see no recession, expect Fed to cut rates
Sagarika Jaisinghani - Bloomberg
Global stocks have become the most popular asset class with investors, who are showing the biggest willingness to take risk in 15 years, according to a survey by Bank of America Corp. Fund managers' cash levels fell to the lowest since 2010, while 34% of participants said they expect world equities to be the best-performing asset in 2025, the survey showed. A net 11% indicated they were underweight bonds. Investors are "long stocks, short everything else," strategist Michael Hartnett wrote in a note. The bullishness was underpinned by expectations of robust economic growth and lower US interest rates this year, he said.
/jlne.ws/3CW93OY
The Fear Gauge Is Ticking Up. It's Still Far From Panic Levels.
Brian Swint - Barron's
The Cboe Volatility Index, better known as the VIX or the market's fear gauge, was rising early Tuesday. It's still well below levels normally associated with market turbulence.
The VIX measures how big the price swings are from shares, but it tends to register more when stocks are falling. At the minute, the S&P 500 is within a whisker of a new record high.
/jlne.ws/4gL93iQ
Why retail investors are excited and scared about market volatility
Dan DeFrancesco - Business Insider
A pro-business, unpredictable president with stocks near all-time highs has retail investors both excited and scared about the future.
Some see the market volatility driven by the Trump administration as a way to mint big returns. Others view it as a reason to be cautious about where they put their money.
Business Insider's Matthew Fox spoke to investors on both sides about how they're navigating what looks to be another turbulent market period.
/jlne.ws/430LaAk
YouTuber Is Closing His ETF After Performance Woes, Soaring Costs; Meet Kevin's ETF PP charged big fees but lagged the S&P 500; Founder opened up about the 'downsides' of the ETF industry
Vildana Hajric - Bloomberg
A popular YouTuber is closing down his actively-managed exchange-traded fund after it underperformed the market and ran up against the costs of doing business in the competitive ETF industry. Kevin Paffrath, a financial influencer who goes by the online moniker "Meet Kevin," said in a video on his channel that his fund, the Meet Kevin Pricing Power ETF, would be closing at the end of this month some two years after its inception and with just $32 million in assets.
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***** It sounds so easy to grow an ETF. Guess what? It isn't.~JJL
Vanguard Overtakes State Street as World's Biggest ETF; Vanguard's VOO has raked in $23 billion so far this year; It's not the first time that SPY's crown has slipped
Katie Greifeld - Bloomberg
Vanguard has unseated State Street for the title of the world's biggest exchange-traded fund, ushering in a new world order for the $11 trillion industry. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (ticker VOO) now commands nearly $632 billion in assets after raking in some $23 billion so far in 2025, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That haul has vaulted VOO past the $630 billion SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, known as SPY, which previously held the title of largest ETF.
/jlne.ws/42ZWGfm
ETFs in the US Reach New Record
MarketsMedia
ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm renowned for its expertise in subscription research, consulting services, events, and ETF TV on global ETF industry trends, reported that assets invested in the ETFs industry in the United States reached a new record of US$10.73 trillion at the end of January. During January the ETFs industry in the United States gathered net inflows of US$90.25 billion, according to ETFGI's January 2025 US ETFs and ETPs industry landscape insights report, the monthly report which is part of an annual paid-for research subscription service. (All dollar values in USD unless otherwise noted.)
/jlne.ws/3QniiuF
Ex-Pimco Executive to Run World's First Catastrophe-Bond ETF; Fund is scheduled to start trading next month on NYSE; Cat-bond returns have exceeded other high-yield debt markets
Gautam Naik - Bloomberg
Catastrophe bonds, whose returns have consistently trounced those of high-yield debt markets in recent years, are about to become accessible to a wider group of investors. An exchange-traded fund based on a portfolio of as many as 75 of the 250 so-called cat bonds outstanding is due to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange next month, marking a world first.
/jlne.ws/4gNb7GQ
| | | | | | Exchanges | | | Cboe's 'Follow the Sun' Model Will Help 24Ã5 US Equities Trading
Shanny Basar - MarketsMedia
Cboe Global Markets plans to offer 24Ã5 U.S. equities trading, subject to regulatory review and industry developments, and believes it will benefit from its experience of operating derivatives markets over this timeframe.
Cboe currently supports extended trading hours for U.S. equities on one of its four US equities exchanges, EDGX. Early order acceptance begins at 2:30am ET, with trading starting at 4:00am ET and closing at 8:00pm ET, Monday through Friday. In February this year, Cboe announced plans to offer trading for 24 hours from Monday through Friday on EDGX to meet demand from overseas investors for US equities, particularly retail investors in Asia Pacific, who want to trade during their day.
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MEMX Seeks Approval to List 21Shares XRP ETF; MEMX has filed with the SEC to list the 21Shares XRP ETF as a "Commodity-Based Trust," letting investors track XRP's price without holding it
Blockhead
Equities exchange MEMX has submitted a request to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list an XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF).
According to the filing, the exchange has applied to list the 21Shares XRP ETF as a "Commodity-Based Trust."
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| | | | | | Regulation & Enforcement | | | SEC acknowledges Cboe's request to list 21Shares XRP ETF; Cboe sought permission to list four spot XRP ETFs on Feb. 6, including 21Shares Core XRP Trust.
Alex O'Donnell - Cointelegraph
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) acknowledged Cboe BZX's request to list asset manager 21Shares' XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF), according to a Feb. 14 regulatory filing.
The acknowledgement is a sign of progress for US exchanges seeking to list ETFs containing spot XRP, the native token of Ripple's XRP Ledger blockchain network.
/jlne.ws/4gHmxMx
| | | | | | Moves | | | OCC Appoints Matt Rathbun as Chief Security Officer-Elect; Former Two Sigma executive Rathbun will succeed current CSO Mark Morrison, who is set to retire in 2025
OCC
OCC, the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization, today announced that Matt Rathbun has joined OCC as Chief Security Officer-Elect and will succeed current CSO Mark Morrison following his upcoming retirement. Rathbun has more than 25 years of experience in information technology and systems engineering, most recently as CSO for Two Sigma.
/jlne.ws/4b7y8mB
| | | | | | Strategy | | | Navigating volatility: trading European volatility markets in a year of macro events and elections
Eurex
Ahead of this year's Eurex Derivatives Forum in Frankfurt, we caught up with Davide Silvestrini, Head of EMEA Equity Derivatives Strategy at J.P. Morgan, to discuss the volatility outlook for this year and the opportunities available for trading the European markets.
/jlne.ws/3ELBUGn
| | | | | | Miscellaneous | | | The innovation imperative: balancing progress and stability in finance
Eurex
As financial markets embrace rapid technological advancements, regulatory frameworks, cybersecurity, and systemic stability are key concerns. Ahead of Derivatives Forum Frankfurt 2025, Efthimia Kefalea, Director, Collateral & Repo Clearing Design at Eurex Clearing, shares her insights on how the industry can balance innovation with market integrity.
/jlne.ws/436hH8t
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| | | Jeff Bergstrom
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