[News Brief] Apr 22, morning | U.S. Spot Bitcoin ETFs See $227 Million in Net Outflows Last Week

U.S. Spot Bitcoin ETFs See $227 Million in Net Outflows Last Week

According to SoSoValue, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $227 million in net outflows last week. This marked the sixth consecutive week of net outflows on a weekly basis.

The product with the largest outflow was Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which saw $156 million withdrawn. GBTC’s cumulative net outflows now total $27.01 billion.

ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) also posted net outflows of $50.1627 million. In contrast, Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC) recorded net inflows of $14.9529 million.

As of the time of writing, the total net assets of spot Bitcoin ETFs stood at $78.32 billion, representing 6.19% of Bitcoin’s total market capitalization. Cumulative net inflows were tallied at $53.4 billion.

Short-Term Bitcoin Holders Transfer More Than 80,000 BTC to Binance Over the Past 7 Days

CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost said short-term Bitcoin holders sent more than 80,000 BTC to Binance over the past seven days.

This represents roughly $5 billion in potential selling pressure. The analysis suggests that as Bitcoin retested the $60,000 support level following a recent correction, selling activity among short-term holders intensified.

Darkfost explained that short-term holders are highly sensitive to market volatility and are more likely to make emotional decisions during sharp price swings.

Morgan Stanley Proposes 0.14% Fees for Ethereum and Solana ETFs

Morgan Stanley plans to set management fees for its proposed Ethereum and Solana ETFs at 0.14%, according to a report by Bitcoin.com.

According to the report, Morgan Stanley filed amended S-1 registration statements on June 18. If launched at that fee level, they would undercut Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust’s 0.15% fee and Franklin Templeton Solana ETF’s 0.19% fee.

Morgan Stanley’s proposed ticker symbols were listed as MSSE for the Ethereum ETF and MSOL for the Solana ETF. Both funds would stake a portion of their assets through Figment, Galaxy, and Coinbase Canada, with 5% of staking rewards allocated to service providers and custodians.

Morgan Stanley’s previously launched Bitcoin Trust, MSBT, was also introduced with a 0.14% fee, and as of June 18 had recorded cumulative net inflows of $307 million.

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission Moves to Expand Regulatory Sandbox Under Virtual Asset User Protection Act

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission is pushing to expand the scope of its regulatory sandbox to include the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, according to a June 22 report by PANews.

According to the report, the FSC is reviewing plans to include emerging-sector legislation such as the Internet-only Bank Act and the Virtual Asset User Protection Act within the regulatory sandbox framework in order to respond to changes in the financial environment and market demand.

The FSC has previously operated a regulatory exemption system to support innovation in financial services. The latest move is intended to broaden the framework so that virtual asset-related services can also be tested within the institutional system under certain conditions.

Bank of Korea Expands CBDC Pilot to Link With Commercial Banks’ Real Account Systems

The Bank of Korea’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot is being expanded to a stage where it will connect with commercial banks’ actual account systems.

According to a June 22 report by Odaily citing ETNews, participating banks are building the relevant infrastructure in a test environment designated by the Bank of Korea and based on Naver Cloud.

The infrastructure includes digital wallets for customers and merchants, a certificate system for fiscal fund payments, digital currency management tools, and blockchain integration modules.

The system is expected to be linked in the future with banks’ core account ledgers and smart banking services.

The pilot is seen as a step to verify whether a CBDC can be integrated with the actual account systems of financial institutions.

Bank of Korea Pushes for Commercialization of Deposit Tokens

The Bank of Korea is reportedly pursuing commercialization of its deposit token project rather than limiting it to the pilot stage, according to PANews citing Maeil Business Newspaper.

According to the report, the Bank of Korea and commercial banks are planning follow-up tests for the formal introduction and broader use of deposit tokens. Deposit tokens are a digital form of payment issued based on bank deposits.

The banking sector has requested adjustments to the timeline, saying that support for P2P transfers and broader use cases would require procedures equivalent to launching a new business. A document submitted by the Korea Federation of Banks to the office of People Power Party lawmaker Lee Heon-seung reportedly also stated that follow-up experiments are being prepared with the goal of establishing an uninterrupted operational system.

South Korea’s FIU Proposes Expanding FATF Travel Rule to Small Virtual Asset Transactions

South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) proposed at an FATF plenary meeting that the scope of the virtual asset travel rule should be expanded to cover small transactions as well, according to PANews citing Digital Asset.

The FIU said money laundering risks in cross-border digital asset transactions are increasing and stressed that the travel rule should apply to virtual asset service providers (VASPs) on both the sender and recipient sides. It also warned that criminal groups are increasingly exploiting overseas and unregistered VASPs, recommending stronger customer identity verification and restrictions on transactions involving high-risk unregistered VASPs.

The FIU has already been pushing an amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Act on Reporting and Use of Certain Financial Transaction Information that would expand the travel rule from transactions of KRW 1 million or more to those below KRW 1 million as well.

Taiko Suffers Over $1 Million Loss in Attack on Ethereum-Based ERC20 Vault

According to Blockaid monitoring, Taiko’s Ethereum-based ERC20 vault was attacked, resulting in losses exceeding $1 million.

Investigators said the attacker exploited a flaw in the source signal proof verification of Taiko’s cross-chain bridge. Even though there was no legitimate MessageSent event on Taiko’s source chain, a manipulated message proof was treated as valid on Ethereum L1, enabling unauthorized asset withdrawals.

U.S. Community Bank Group ICBA Urges Fed to Reevaluate Kraken Financial’s Fed Account

The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) has asked the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City to reevaluate Kraken Financial’s limited-purpose Fed account before its expiration.

According to PANews, the ICBA said in a letter that the account had not sufficiently addressed money laundering and fraud risks tied to crypto-related institutions, and that additional restrictions or termination should be considered.

Citing FBI data, the ICBA claimed that in 2025 there were about 13,500 complaints related to crypto ATMs, with losses totaling approximately $389 million.

Kraken obtained the account in March this year, giving it access to Fedwire, the Federal Reserve’s core payment system. The Kansas City Fed retains discretion over the account’s conditions and renewal, and no termination process has been initiated at this time.

Toss Bank Adopts Solana for Global Remittance and Payments Proof of Concept

Toss Bank is adopting Solana for a proof of concept in global remittances and payments, according to a report by Cointelegraph.

Toss Bank plans to conduct the Solana-based test in order to provide faster and cheaper cross-border transaction services to its roughly 15 million customers.

The initiative comes amid broader efforts to test financial-sector remittance infrastructure using stablecoins and blockchain-based payment networks.