Biweekly Headlines 2023 Sep W2 – W3
“Fiat Democracy is a Faustian bargain. Free stuff in exchange for giving up your beliefs, being manipulated constantly, and giving them the right to steal from you.” – Jimmy Song
Biweekly News Roundup
BTC experienced a 5% increase after testing the $25,000 support level on Sept. 11. However, BTC has witnessed a 15% decline since July. Macroeconomic uncertainty favors bears, but BTC bulls remain confident. Bitcoin data highlights 3 key reasons why investors don’t care about BTC price: Bitcoin’s hash rate hovers near a record high, BTC addresses holding 0.1 BTC at all-time high, and Bitcoin balances held on exchanges trend down. Its market dominance has been on the rise as risks rise for the rest of the cryptocurrency sector. The final quarter of the year is historically bitcoin’s strongest in terms of performance, with an average return of more than 35% over the past nine years, Matrixport said. Bitcoin has just over six months before the halving, the event that cuts miner rewards earned per block by 50% every four years. Analysts argue that the resulting emission restrictions have a cathartic impact on BTC price performance, acting as something of a springboard in advance of Bitcoin seeing new all-time highs.
With $1.5T in assets under management, Franklin Templeton applied with the SEC on Sept. 12 to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF. The SEC’s next deadline for deciding on the application is Oct. 16. Fintech giant PayPal is quietly and consistently venturing deeper into the crypto space, rolling out features and building key partnerships to advance its digital assets strategy. With new participants joining the digital assets world daily, it’s evident that crypto is becoming more mainstream, even in the face of a long bearish market. The institutional engagement has ushered in a wave of blockchain developers eager to create interfaces and integrations that comply with regulations, setting the stage for more utility-driven crypto products that could drive mainstream adoption. Elon Musk said in 2021 that Tesla would accept Bitcoin payments once miners were using roughly 50% clean energy sources “with positive future trend” — a benchmark that has recently been met.
Bitcoin blasts past its 2021 all-time high in Argentina, but hyperinflation outpaces gains. This means that despite a 61.5% drop from $69,000, investors in Argentina have still managed to accrue gains of 38% when measured in the local currency. Germany has reached an all-time high in global blockchain funding share in 2023 despite a decline in the overall performance of the blockchain market across the globe. Hong Kong was crowned the best-prepared jurisdiction for widespread cryptocurrency adoption in 2023, retaining its crypto-readiness prowess for the second year in a row. India leads the global crypto adoption in 2023. India will decide on its crypto stance in the coming months since it steered the G20 towards endorsing a global framework for crypto. Estonia, Singapore and Switzerland are among the busiest hubs for crypto and blockchain companies. Latvia central bank opens to fintech with “Innovation Hub.” There are 12 countries that impose a 0% tax on crypto for individuals — including Germany, Panama, and Portugal among others — who remain well-positioned to climb up the ranks in the coming years.
The estate of bankrupt FTX has marshaled around $7B in assets, including $1.16B in SOL, $560M in BTC, and $200M in Bahamas real estate, according to a court filing on Sep. 11. FTX sued SBF’s parents on Sep. 18 to “recover millions of dollars in fraudulently transferred and misappropriated funds. Stanford University will return “gifts” $5.5M donated by FTX. Apple paid $5M for the rights to author Michael Lewis’ upcoming book on SBF which is set to be released on Oct. 3 — the start of SBF’s trial in New York.
Circle’s stablecoin USDC launches on Polkadot on Spe. 19. Binance’s Bitcoin trading volume plunges 57% as regulatory pressure mounts. Coinbase may be a beneficiary, with volumes at that exchange higher by 9% this month. Coinbase’s layer 2 blockchain, Base, which launched in early August, has seen its daily transactions hit an all-time high as total value locked nears $400M, higher than layer 2 rivals Arbitrum and Optimism combined, which saw 780,000 and 370,000, respectively. Google Cloud pushes deeper into blockchain data, adding 11 networks including Polygon, Optimism and Polkadot to its ‘BigQuery’ program for public datasets. Baidu and Qualcomm join forces to shape Metaverse future. The partnership marks a significant step toward reshaping the digital landscape and setting the stage for the forthcoming metaverse revolution.
September 23, 2023