2024-09-13 12:36

The firms holdings have risen to 244,8000 bitcoins worth about $14 billion at current prices. Formerly a business software firm but now calling itself a bitcoin development company, MicroStrategy (MSTR) has added 18,300 bitcoins (BTC) to its multibillion-dollar holdings. The new purchases was made at an average price of $60,408 per token, Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said in an X post on Friday morning, boosting the company's holdings to 244,800 BTC. MicroStrategy's cost basis for those holdings is $9.45 billion, or an average price of $38,585 per bitcoin. At the current price just under $58,000 the stack is now worth about $14 billion. Saylor further said the company has achieved a BTC yield of 4.4% so far this quarter on its holdings and 17% year-to-date. BTC yield is a metric developed by MicroStrategy to try and describe the percentage change over a given period of the ratio between the company’s bitcoin holdings and its assumed diluted shares outstanding. MicroStrategy started purchasing bitcoin in 2020 and has added to its holdings since. BitcoinTreasuries data shows that it is the biggest holder of the asset among all publicly-listed companies in the world. MSTR shares are flat premarket and have risen 91% year-to-date. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/09/13/michael-saylors-microstrategy-purchased-183k-more-bitcoins-for-11b/

2024-09-13 12:07

The latest price moves in crypto markets in context for Sept. 13, 2024. Latest Prices CoinDesk 20 Index: 1,849.02 +0.94% Bitcoin (BTC): $58,248.56 +0.33% Ether (ETH): $2,369.12 +0.95% S&P 500: 5,595.76 +0.75% Gold: $2,567.76 +0.37% Nikkei 225: 36,581.76 -0.68% Top Stories Bitcoin was little changed, drifting mainly between $57,800 and $58,200 and trading just 0.33% higher over 24 hours at $58,250. The listlessness is a possible sign the world's largest cryptocurrency is taking a breather following its recovery from $53,800 a week ago. The broader digital asset market has risen around 0.9%, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 Index, with XRP rallying more than 5% to lead the gains. XRP was buoyed on Thursday by digital asset manager Grayscale's launch of a trust offering exposure to the token, paving the way for a possible effort to turn it into an exchange-traded fund, as it did with its BTC and ETH products. The market value of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) has hit $12 billion, according to research by crypto exchange Binance. Bigwigs from Wall Street, including BlackRock and Fidelity, have successfully forayed into RWAs alongside several crypto-native projects such as Securitize and Polymath. Tokenized treasury funds, digital representations of the U.S. Treasury notes, have surpassed $2.2 billion in market value, with BlackRock's BUIDL boasting nearly $520 million. With a market cap of $434 million, Franklin Templeton's FBOXX is the second-largest tokenized Treasury product. Elevated interest rates in the U.S. have catalyzed the rapid growth and leadership of the tokenized Treasuries market, according to Binance Research. Starknet token holders voted on Friday to implement staking on the layer-2 network, a proposal that’s been in the works since July, in a landmark governance election on Snapshot's new decentralized Snapshot X platform. The vote, which went live on Tuesday, passed with overwhelming support, though only 0.08% of eligible voters took part. A full 98.94% of participants voted in favor of implementing staking, while 0.45% abstained and 0.61% voted against it. The new mechanism on Starknet means that anyone holding more than 20,000 of the project's native token, STRK, will be able to stake on the network, starting in the fourth quarter of this year. Chart of the Day The chart illustrates the distribution of trading activity in decentralized exchanges (DEX) over different blockchains over the past 11 months. Arbitrum accounts for more DEX volume than Binance Smart Chain. Still, Arbitrum's ARB is down over 60% this year, while binance coin (BNB) is up 75%. Source: IntoTheBlock - Omkar Godbole Trending Posts Kraken Seeks Jury Trial in SEC Lawsuit, Presents Defense Arguments World Liberty, Crypto Project Helmed by Donald Trump's Family, Will Release on Sept. 16 DeFi Lending Giant Sky Sets Vote to Offload Wrapped Bitcoin as Justin Sun Concerns Linger https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/09/13/first-mover-americas-bitcoin-trades-little-changed-above-58000/

2024-09-13 11:54

The bump came as Trump said he would launch the family-helmed World Liberty Financial project on Monday. Betting odds on Polymarket for Donald Trump launching a cryptocurrency token before the November election surged to over 84% after he announced a launch date for the World Liberty Financial crypto project, but later reversed. The market, which has seen over $1.7 million in bets, will only resolve to "Yes" if Trump personally issues a verifiable token on a blockchain by November 4, 2024, despite plans for a governance token named "WLFI" in the project's white paper. Betting odds on Republican candidate Donald Trump issuing a token before the November presidential elections jumped to over 84% on Polymarket early Friday, before reversing, as he confirmed a launch date for the Trump family-helmed World Liberty Financial crypto project. The odds of a “yes” in the “Will Trump launch a coin before the election?” market were just 40% on Thursday and 16% a month ago. That seemingly changed in the past 12 hours as Trump said the World Liberty Financial project will released on Monday. The market has attracted over $1.7 million in bets by Polymarket users as of Friday. It will resolve to "Yes" if conclusive evidence emerges that Trump is involved in “deploying a new token” by November 4, 2024, 11:59 PM ET. That means mere plans or confirmation for the token will not resolve the market to “Yes:” it will have to be an actual token issued on a blockchain in a way that can be verified by all. A copy of the World Liberty white paper seen by CoinDesk states plans for the project to issue a non-transferable governance token called “WLFI.” However, it remains unknown what specific part Trump plays in the project and his role in issuing the proposed token. Still, some Polymarket users are taking their chances. “The development team already launched multiple test tokens on Ethereum,” user “Car,” who holds over 4,400 yes shares, wrote. “Funnily enough, that's enough to resolve this market to YES.” “Non-fungible tokens are indeed Tokens,” another user, “563defi,” who holds 6,600 yes shares, said, referring to Trump’s lineup of NFT projects. Those on the other side of the bet remain skeptical: “Even if a token launches, it will be his son's,” user “Tenebrus7,” who holds 2,000 “No” shares, wrote. “After the scam - trump will not want to be associated with it anytime soon.” https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/09/13/polymarket-bettors-see-84-chance-of-donald-trump-starting-his-own-token/

2024-09-13 11:47

USDT attracts property rights as it can be the subject of tracing and can constitute trust property in the same way as other property, a judge in England declared. England's High Court of Justice ruled that Tether's USDT stablecoin is property. The ruling comes as the government proposes a new classification of property that would specifically cover cryptocurrencies. The High Court of Justice for England and Wales said Tether's USDT stablecoin, the largest by market cap, can be considered property in a ruling one day after the U.K. government started legislating on the status of cryptocurrencies. "USDT attract property rights under English law, " Richard Farnhill, a deputy high court judge, said in the court filing on Thursday. "It can be the subject of tracing and can constitute trust property in the same way as other property." The case was brought by Fabrizio D’Aloia, who said he was the victim of a cryptocurrency scam, and relates mainly to crypto exchange Bitkub, named as one of seven defendants including two unidentified people and Binance, the largest crypto exchange by volume traded. The case against Binance was settled, according to the filing. D’Aloia claimed he was induced to hand over cryptocurrency in the form of USDT and Circle's USDC totaling around 2.5 million pounds ($3.3 million) by an unidentified defendant. The alleged scammer passed the funds through various blockchain wallets before it was withdrawn by the other unidentified defendent as fiat currency through Gate and Bitkub. On Wednesday the government introduced a bill paving the way for crypto to be treated like property. The bill, drafted by independent statutory body the Law Commission, had its first reading in Parliament. Farnhill's ruling echoes the bill's assertion that crypto is neither a thing "in possession,” which covers items such as money and cars, nor a thing “in action,” such as debt and shares, but is property nevertheless. Still, the judge concluded in favor of Bitkub, saying D’Aloia has no claim against the company because "it did not receive anything from him." D’Aloia's claim against crypto trading platform Aux Cayes Fintech was "struck out," the court document said. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/09/13/english-high-court-rules-tethers-usdt-stablecoin-counts-as-property/

2024-09-13 09:06

The new mechanism on Starknet means that anyone holding more than 20,000 STRK will be able to stake on the network, from the fourth quarter of this year. Starknet token holders voted on Friday to implement staking on the layer-2 network, a proposal that’s been in the works since July, in a landmark governance election on Snapshot's new decentralized Snapshot X platform. The vote, which went live on Tuesday, passed with overwhelming support, but only 0.08% of eligible voters holding Starknet’s native token, STRK, participated. 98.94% voted in favor of implementing staking, while 0.45% abstained, and 0.61% voted against it. The new mechanism on Starknet means that anyone holding more than 20,000 STRK will be able to stake on the network, from the fourth quarter of this year. “A minting mechanism that strikes a balance between rewarding stakers and setting inflation expectations was also approved in the vote,” StarkWare, the main developer firm behind the Starknet blockchain, wrote in a press release shared with CoinDesk. To power the governance process, Starknet is making use of Snapshot X, the governance protocol that the team behind Snapshot released Tuesday and its first on-chain feature. “Snapshot X determines voting power based on the voters’ STRK holdings,” StarkWare wrote. “The goal is to ensure votes are coming from genuine community members, and to prevent people outside of the community from buying STRK today, voting, and then selling the day after. To achieve this, Snapshot X takes a snapshot of STRK holdings at predetermined time.” https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/09/13/starknet-token-holders-ratify-plan-to-implement-staking-in-landmark-decentralized-election/

2024-09-13 08:44

Gold has rallied 10% to record highs this quarter, leaving behind bitcoin and Wall Street's benchmark index, the S&P 500. Idiosyncratic factors keep BTC under pressure as gold rallies to record high. Gold's surge hints at a favorable macroeconomic conditions for bitcoin ahead. Some analysts caution against reading too much into the gold rally. Gold rose to a new record high reaching $2,564 per ounce on Friday, taking its quarter-to-date gain to 10%. Bitcoin (BTC), often touted as digital gold, remained under pressure at nearly $58,000, representing a 7% quarterly loss, according to CoinDesk data. The yellow metal's performance looks even more impressive, if you consider that Wall Street's benchmark index (S&P 500) has only eked out a meager 2% rise this quarter. Bitcoin has recently moved in tandem with technology stocks amid fears of a U.S. economic recession and the threat of mass unwinding of the "risk-on yen carry trades." Most observers are of the opinion that idiosyncratic factors are responsible for the ongoing BTC-gold divergence, and the rally in the yellow metal suggests favorable macroeconomic conditions for the cryptocurrency ahead. Per Charlie Morris, chief investment officer and founder of ByteTree, gold's surge is linked to increased accumulation by central banks, a privilege bitcoin still lacks, which also suggests monetary policy easing eahead. "The appeal of government bond in reserves is lesser and gold has stepped up. Many central banks are accumulating gold, which used to be priced off U.S. Treasury inflation-protected securities but is now being influenced by global factors like structural government deficits," Morris told CoinDesk. "The strength in gold reflects increasing current and future [fiat] money supply, among other things, and bitcoin will rally when the economy picks up or when the sound of stimulus is heard," Morris added. The year-on-year change in the combined fiat money supply growth of U.S., Eurozone, U.K. and Japan flipped positive in August and could continue to grow as central banks embark on renewed liquidity easing. The European Central Bank cut interest rates on Thursday, and the Fed is likely to do the same next week, kicking off the so-called easing cycle, meaning stateside investors could soon hear the sound of stimulus. André Dragosch, head of research Europe at Bitwise, opined that gold's rally likely indicates a sharp slide in inflation-adjusted U.S. government bond yields ahead. The decline in the so-called real yields typically has investors rotating money into riskier investments like bitcoin and technology stocks, as observed in 2020. "Gold prices have completely decoupled from U.S. real yields. This implies two things: Either gold is overpriced, or gold is already anticipating a massive decline in U.S. real yields," Dragosch told CoinDesk. "A massive decline in U.S. real yields is equivalent to a sharp easing in monetary policy, which is not yet priced more broadly into financial markets except in gold, which is why bitcoin and other assets might follow gold higher." The U.S. 10-year real has already pulled back to 1.61%, the lowest in over a year, from the peak of 2.52% in October, according to data source TradingView. Gold-bitcoin demand divergence Central banks snapped up 37 tonnes of Gold in July, doubling net purchases from the preceding month, according to the World Gold Council. That's the highest monthly since January, when net purchases were 45 tonnes. In 2022, central banks purchased a 1,037 tonnes of gold, the second-highest annual purchase in history, following a record 1,082 tonnes in 2022. In contrast, the bitcoin market has been hit with supply worth billions of dollars since June, thanks to liquidations by Germany's Saxony state, Mt. Gox creditor reimbursements and the U.S. government. Meanwhile, the uptake for the 11 U.S.-listed spot exchange-traded funds has weakened in recent months and the funds have witnessed a net outflow of around $1 billion since late August, according to data source Farside Investors. The outflows and supply increase explains BTC's dour performance, according to the LondonCryptoClub newsletter service. "Gold is anticipating lower real rates, rising liquidity and a softer dollar, much like bitcoin. Overlaying that, however, is the supply/demand dynamic. Gold has seen huge demand from central banks, but little negative supply, whereas bitcoin has had to digest a lot of supply in recent months from the German and U.S. government and the Mt Gox distribution," founders of the LondonCryptoClub told CoinDesk "Short-term, gold outperformance can be seen as a lead on where BTC should be headed," founders added. That said, not everyone in the crypto market is psyched by the gold rally. Alex Kruger, a partner at the digital assets and macro advisory firm Asgard Markets, cautioned investors from reading too much into the gold rally as far as bitcoin is concerned. "Its irrelevant. Bitcoin never trades with gold. When you look too intently into something, you end up seeing what you want to," Kruger said in a Telegram chat, as some market participants drew parallels with 2020 when gold rose to record highs before BTC. Besides, traders should be watchful of a renewed August-like growth scare in risk assets, which saw BTC nosedive to $50,000. A potential 50 basis point rate cut by the Fed next week might just do that. "Bitcoin is a risk-on asset, gold risk-off. Gold likes the system to be cold and falling rates. In contrast, bitcoin likes the system to be overheating," Morris noted. CORRECTION (Sept. 13, 09:50 UTC): Andre Dragosch is a head of research Europe at Bitwise, which recently took over the ETC Group. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/09/13/golds-market-beating-rally-hints-at-renewed-bullishness-for-bitcoin-or-does-it/