One week in review:
July 18–24 We've selected the hottest materials of the past week for you to stay up to date with the latest crypto news: | | #1. SpaceX owns Bitcoin, Elon Musk and Nic Carter believe BTC is becoming greener | | | Elon Musk, Dogecoin (DOGE) proponent and fair-weather friend to Bitcoin (BTC), revealed for the first time on July 21 that his aerospace firm SpaceX owns an undisclosed amount of Bitcoin. | | | "I do own Bitcoin; Tesla owns Bitcoin; SpaceX owns Bitcoin," he said. | | | Musk was speaking at "The ₿ Word" — a virtual event dedicated to Bitcoin — alongside Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood, and the erratic tech billionaire suggested Tesla was on the verge of accepting the cryptocurrency again following promising signs that the percentage of renewable energy used for mining was increasing. | | | Tesla's $1.5 billion foray into Bitcoin earlier this year sparked a major BTC price rally. However, Tesla's suspension of Bitcoin as payment method over environmental concerns in May appeared to tank the price of Bitcoin, with BTC crashing around 40% over the past two months. | | | Now that there is a diminishing Chinese coal-powered hash rate after the mining ban, it appears that Musk is warming up to digital gold again. Musk has stated that, after he does a bit more "due diligence" on mining sustainability and can confirm it's backed by 50% renewables or more, Tesla may re-enter the market. | | | One wonders what said due diligence this entails, and why he didn't do it before the $1.5 billion Tesla BTC buy. | | | Musk also revealed, for the first time, that he holds Ethereum (ETH), and unsurprisingly reaffirmed his support for the meme-inspired Dogecoin. | | | "I do personally own a bit of Ethereum, and Dogecoin of course," he said. | | #2. Daily Dogecoin volume soared to nearly $1B during Q2 | | | Speaking of Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, trading volume for Dogecoin increased by more than 13 times during the second quarter of 2021, nearly tagging $1 billion daily. | | | According to data compiled by Coinbase and reported by Business Insider, Dogecoin trading volumes soared 1,250% between April and June, with $995 million worth of DOGE changing hands daily on average during the quarter. | | | By comparison, Dogecoin's average daily volume for the first quarter of 2021 was $74 million. | | | While those figures are sure to spark hype amongst the fiery-eyed Dogecoin community, the subject of the top canine coin may be a touchy one for Coinbase. | | | A Coinbase user has filed a class action lawsuit seeking $5 million in damages because of an allegedly misleading Dogecoin campaign. | | | According to court documents, plaintiff David Suski said he was deceived into trading $100 of Dogecoin for entry into a $1.2 million sweepstakes offer on Coinbase. The lawsuit asserts that Coinbase failed to communicate that a person could enter the sweepstakes without purchasing $100 of Dogecoin. | | #3. Grayscale sets sights on institutional DeFi fund | | | While Buterin is looking beyond the decentralized bounds of finance, digital asset management giant Grayscale is looking to gain exposure in the sector. | | | On July 19, Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of Grayscale, announced a new investment vehicle aimed at DeFi assets. | | | In an interview with CNBC's Squawk Box, the CEO chimed in to announce Grayscale's plans for a DeFi Fund and index. Detailing the purpose of the new product, the Grayscale CEO said the fund would offer exposure to DeFi assets, such as Uniswap and Aave, for its institutional clients. | | | During the same week, Sonnenshein stated he thinks that only a "couple of maturation points" separate the United States from its first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). | | | After many rejections of BTC ETFs in the past, along with 13 ETF applications under consideration, Sonnenshein is undeterred and said the firm is "100% committed" to transforming its Bitcoin product, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, into an ETF once conditions are right. | | #4. Prediction of the week. $13K Bitcoin price predictions emerge with BTC falling below historic trendline | | | Ever since the crypto downturn began around May 12, the bears have been on parade as they forecast doom and gloom for the future price of BTC. | | | This week, Cointelegraph reported that a pseudonymous chartist who goes by the name "Bitcoin Master" shared concerns about Bitcoin's potential to undergo an 80% average price decline upon breaking bearish on its 50-day simple moving average (SMA). The analyst noted that if the said fractal plays out, BTC/USD exchange rates could crash to as low as $13,000. | | | The 50-week SMA represents the average price traders have paid for Bitcoin over the past 50 weeks. Over the years, and in 2020, its invalidation as price floor has contributed to pushing the Bitcoin market into severe bearish cycles. | | | However, previous market cycles haven't been impacted by Elon Musk's inclination to cause mayhem in crypto through his tweets, so we may see a 50-week Musk tweeting average become the accepted method for BTC price predictions in the future. | | #5. FUD of the week. SEC Chairman says cryptocurrency falls under security-based swaps rules | | | The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may soon issue new rules for the regulation and registration of security-based swaps, including cryptocurrency. | | | In a speech to the American Bar Association Derivatives and Futures Law Committee, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, outlined that, from November, new requirements will go into effect which include internal risk management, supervision and chief compliance officers, trade acknowledgement and confirmation, and recordkeeping and reporting procedures, to name a few. | | | "Make no mistake: It doesn't matter whether it's a stock token, a stable value token backed by securities, or any other virtual product that provides synthetic exposure to underlying securities. These platforms — whether in the decentralized or centralized finance space — are implicated by the securities laws and must work within our securities regime," Gensler said. | | #6. FUD of the week: Auditors reveal USDC backing as Jim Cramer sounds alarm over Tether's mad money | | | Speaking during a July 20 interview with TheStreet, Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC's Mad Money, questioned Tether's lack of transparency and asked why the firm hasn't disclosed what the large percentage of commercial paper backing the stablecoin is. | | | Tether's brief reserve breakdown in May showed that, as of March 31, three quarters of its reserves were held in cash, cash equivalents, other short-term deposits and commercial paper. Among that category, commercial paper accounted for 65.39%, with cash alone accounting for just 3.87%. | | | "I am concerned about Tether, and I'm not gonna stop sounding the alarm until I know what Tether has. They've got about $60 billion in commercial paper. Tether, open up the kimono, what commercial paper do you own?" Cramer said. | | | Feel free to explore the most important news with Hodler's Digest: | | | |
