The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day |
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In Michael Saylor's world, economics appear to be upside down. He's turned MicroStrategy, originally a relatively unknown software business into corporate America's largest bitcoin (BTC) bull, amassing a gigantic stockpile of the cryptocurrency. On Wednesday, his company announced it would issue and then sell $21 billion of its own stock — a move that, for most any other publicly traded company — would prove disastrous for current shareholders. That's because MicroStrategy's market capitalization was about $50 billion when the plan was announced, meaning the ownership stake represented by that existing equity will be diluted by roughly one-third. A 33% plunge or so in its stock price wouldn't be much of a surprise. But MicroStrategy — and the fervent fanbase around it — isn't like most stocks. Its shares rose about 1% on Thursday after more than tripling so far this year, driving its market cap above Coinbase (COIN), which had been the largest crypto stock and slumped after the crypto exchange's disappointing third-quarter results. MicroStrategy, whose value tracks bitcoin's price given the significant size of the company's holdings, even climbed as BTC's price fell. MicroStrategy's rally "is a testament to investor confidence in the firm's accretive dilution strategy for bitcoin — wherein MicroStrategy leverages capital markets to buy bitcoin, diluting shares by issuing more, but accreting shareholder value via its bitcoin purchases," said Joe Consorti, head of growth at Theya. |
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Crypto Slips Alongside Trump Odds |
Growing uncertainty around the result of next week's U.S. presidential election could be pushing crypto lower just days after bitcoin (BTC) came within a few dollars of hitting a new record high. Bitcoin has slumped 1.9% in the last 24 hours and is currently trading at $70,600. Meanwhile, the CoinDesk 20 — an index of the 20 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization except for stablecoins and exchange coins — is down 3.9% over the same time frame, led by ether (ETH) bleeding 5.3%. Markets move for all sorts of reasons, but some market watchers are attributing the crypto slump to shrinking odds for a victory for crypto-friendly GOP candidate Donald Trump. On crypto betting site Polymarket, Trump's chances of winning tumbled to just 61% on Thursday from 67% 48 hours earlier. The victory odds for Democrat Kamala Harris have surged to 39% from 33%. Meanwhile, the stock for Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT) — seen by some as a proxy for Trump's chances next week — has plunged 34% in the last three days after gaining 352% over the previous month. Broader traditional markets are having a tough go of it as well on Thursday, with the Nasdaq off 2.4% and the S&P 500 1.6%. |
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Trump's Crypto Business Slashes Targets |
Donald Trump's crypto business World Liberty Financial slashed its fundraising goal after sales of its WLFI token fell dramatically short of the initial target, according to a regulatory filing. The company now plans to raise up to $30 million from investors, a 90% cutback from the $300 million World Liberty Financial had originally sought. An SEC filing dated Oct. 30 says World Liberty Financial plans to "terminate" WLFI sales upon hitting $30 million. The change raises the possibility that former President Trump – who is running for election next week – may not quickly see any big payday from World Liberty Financial. A Trump-owned entity called DT Marks DEFI LLC will get paid 75% of "net protocol revenues" (which include token sales) only after World Liberty Financial amasses a $30 million warchest to fund operations, according to public documents. |
As MiCA Looms, Fastex Pushes for Regulatory Compliance What are the three biggest crypto trends of 2024? You could argue the top three trends are regulation, regulation, and regulation. The “Wild West” is no more. Europe’s MiCA framework will soon go into effect. Debates over crypto regulation have spilled into the U.S. presidential election. And one Web3 company is traveling across the globe — quite literally — to show leadership in regulatory compliance: Fastex. Continue reading here. |
Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao was greeted with a standing-room-only crowd and ovation in his return to crypto following his release from a U.S. prison. Attendees stood shoulder to shoulder at Binance Blockchain Week to hear Zhao, colloquially known as "CZ," make his first public appearance since his release last month. He served a four-month sentence following his guilty plea for violating the Bank Secrecy Act during his time running the exchange. Zhao took the stage Thursday on the second day of the event, a two-day conference held in Dubai. In the hour or so before his scheduled appearance, the main stage area began filling up and no seats were left half an hour before the scheduled time of his appearance. When he was announced, attendees cheered and pulled out their phones to film him walking up onto the stage. Altcoin Daily founder Austin Arnold, the session's moderator, opened the talk by asking Zhao about his experience in prison. "First question, how was your summer?" he asked, drawing laughter from the room. Zhao smiled at first but grew serious as he delved into the charges he pleaded guilty to — including violating the Bank Secrecy Act — noting that per his plea agreement, he can't speak badly about the deal. "It's not good," he said of prison. "It's less fun than now [at the Binance event]. I think the whole experience is just very limiting in a lot of ways, right? Your freedom is taken away and you have nothing to do, so it gives you a lot of time to reflect." |
The Takeaway: Blockchains For Nat Sec |
By Kenneth Egan, Michael Mosier, Trent Teyema, Jeremy Sheridan As national security experts, we invariably view emerging technologies through a lens that focuses on risk, mitigation and safety. We have decades of combined experience in numerous national security roles across the U.S. government, including careers at the FBI, CIA, U.S. Secret Service, and Departments of Justice and Treasury. Our experiences range from establishing the first dedicated digital asset illicit finance investigation unit, to high level roles at the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence, to dismantling transnational organized criminal groups. The national security edge in the U.S. has been built on an ability to develop and embrace new technologies and we have joined with the Blockchain Innovation Project to share our experiences on how U.S. national security may benefit from certain implementations of blockchain technology. Given that blockchain technology is still in the early stages of its cycle into mainstream uses, policy makers and the public are often confronted with a plethora of inaccurate information, frequently from sources that don’t understand the technology, and occasionally from purposeful efforts to advance a narrative with incomplete facts or misguided analysis. In its simplest form, a blockchain is a technology utilizing cryptography. Like other technologies, it is agnostic to its use. Currencies, whether fiat or digital, are used to fund both legitimate and illicit activities. America’s strategic national security interests require policy focus on market structure. Many policy approaches relating to markets and the role of blockchains in them are too broad, trying to simultaneously address multiple issues like market integrity or mitigating systemic risk. The challenges of these broad-scope approaches are compounded by a continued lack of understanding about blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, and tokenomics. Read the rest. |
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