Crypto Markets Watch Washington Regulatory Agenda, ECB Rate Decision This Week

Crypto markets this week will take cues from a busy US regulatory calendar in Washington and the European Central Bank's rate decision.

CoinDesk reported on July 20 that several events this week could move digital-asset markets.

Three regulatory dates stand out. On July 21, a US House Financial Services subcommittee will hold an oversight hearing on the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. On July 24, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will close public comments on proposed rules tied to the GENIUS Act that would apply anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance standards to stablecoin issuers. On July 27, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission will end its comment period on a proposal to allow 24-hour, year-round trading and spot Bitcoin-based perpetual futures contracts. The deadline comes about three months after the CFTC allowed prediction-market platform Kalshi to offer the first regulated Bitcoin perpetual futures trading.

In macro, the ECB's rate decision on July 23 is the key event. Markets expect the central bank to hold rates at 2.4%. The US will also release weekly initial jobless claims that day. On July 24, S&P Global will publish flash purchasing managers' index readings for the euro area and the US.

Quarterly earnings are also due this week. Interactive Brokers is scheduled to report on July 21, followed by CME Group and Tesla on July 22 and Nasdaq on July 23.

Token unlocks are another focus. The largest this week is Toncoin on July 26, with about $69.9 million of tokens, equal to 0.9% of circulating supply, set to be released. Worldcoin will unlock $57.7 million, or 1.5% of circulating supply, on July 24. LayerZero, Avalanche, Morpho, Arbitrum and Humanity Protocol also have unlocks scheduled through the week.

Several major decentralized autonomous organization governance votes will also conclude this week. Arbitrum DAO is voting through July 23 on a proposal to extend security council members' terms to two years from one year. ZKsync DAO is voting through the same day on ZIP-16 v31, a proposed protocol upgrade.