MicroStrategy may have to stop buying ever more Bitcoin (BTC) as rumors suggest that the firm is amid a blackout period, which is preventing it from issuing shares or convertible debt.

Publicly traded companies often self-impose these kinds of blackout periods and restrict some financial activities to comply with regulations or avoid attracting regulatory attention. Popular venture capitalist and Framework Ventures founder Vance Spencer claimed that MicroStrategy is going through this kind of limitations right now in a recent X post:

“Saylor has a blackout period all of Jan.”

Spencer claims that MicroStrategy cannot issue any new convertible notes to buy more Bitcoin. He sees it like a switch for liquidity to move from Bitcoin to altcoins:

“[MicroStrategy] goes for it through Dec 31 and then alt season.”

The details

MicroStrategy is a publicly traded business intelligence company founded in 1989 that pivoted to acquire as much Bitcoin as possible in 2020. The company now holds well over 1% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist, and is now well underway to get its hands on 2%.

The company recently acquired its first Bitcoin at over $100,000. According to reports from earlier this week, acquired 15,350 Bitcoin for $1.5 billion at an average price of $100,386 per BTC and achieved a Bitcoin yield of 46.4% quarter to date and 72.4% year to date. The company now holds 439,000 BTC.

The announcement follows a recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing by MicroStrategy revealing that the firm acquired about 21,550 BTC for approximately $2.1 billion between Dec. 2 and Dec. 8. The filing reads:

“The Bitcoin purchases were made using proceeds from the issuance and sale of shares under the sales agreement.”

This is true of most of the capital that MicroStrategy used to satisfy its Bitcoin habit. For this reason, news about the imminent absence of the firm’s regular investments into the world’s first cryptocurrency is important in the space if it ends up being confirmed.

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Major cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com withdrew its lawsuit against the United States Securities and  Exchange Commission (SEC) following a meeting between its CEO and President-elect Donald Trump.

An insider cited by Bloomberg revealed that Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek and Trump discussed government appointments related to the crypto industry and Trump’s plans for a Bitcoin (BTC) reserve. A Crypto.com spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company intends to advise the future president on matters relating to the crypto industry:

“We look forward to working with the new administration to develop and advance clear regulations for the crypto industry so the US can become a global leader in digital assets and innovation. […] We withdrew our action against the SEC given our intent to work with the incoming administration on a regulatory framework for the industry.”

The details

Crypto.com decided to sue the United States regulator in October after being served a Wells Notice. This kind of notice is issued by the SEC when it concludes an investigation.

In its investigation, Crypto.com accused the regulator of having expanded its jurisdiction over digital assets beyond the authority assigned to the body. A similar sentiment was shared by the republican state attorney generals and the DeFi Education Fund when they jointly sued the SEC and its five commissioners. That lawsuit read:

“The SEC’s sweeping assertion of regulatory jurisdiction is untenable. The digital assets implicated here are just that — assets, not investment contracts covered by federal securities laws.”

Bitcoin’s price failed to react positively to the amicable relationship between the United States regulator that are expected from the next presidency. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at just over $104,000 after losing 2.75% over the last 24 hours.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, a multifactorial measure of crypto market sentiment, currently indicates a level described as “extreme greed.” The index stands at  81, indicating that the crypto market is now overrun by greed. With such scores, the instrument warns of a possible imminent correction:

“When Investors are getting too greedy, that means the market is due for a correction.”

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Australian financial regulator Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) sued leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

Over 500 retail clients of Oztures Trading Pty — the company that Binance uses to operate in the region — “were denied important consumer protections after being misclassified as wholesale clients,” the regulator claims in its lawsuit. The ASIC announcement reads:

“ASIC alleges from 7 July 2022 to 21 April 2023, Binance offered crypto derivative products to 505 Australian retail investors who were misclassified as wholesale clients, representing 83% of its Australian client base.”

The details

Australian Binance customers trading financial products—including crypto derivatives—have certain rights and consumer protections under Australian laws. Local retail investors have a right to a product disclosure statement and access to a compliant dispute resolution service. ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said:

“Our case alleges Binance’s compliance systems were woefully inadequate and exposed more than 500 clients to high-risk, speculative products without the right consumer protections in place. Many of these clients suffered significant financial losses. In 2023, we oversaw compensation payments by Binance of approximately $13 million to affected clients.”

The court further highlighted that “crypto derivative products are inherently risky and complex, so it is critical that retail clients are classified correctly.” According to her, “those classifications ensure they receive the required consumer protections, and the information required to make an informed investment decision.”

The announcement follows recent reports that ASIC has ordered the local operator of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken to pay a fine of A$8 million ($5.1 million) for illegally offering a credit facility to over 1,100 customers. The regulator in question is increasing its pressure on crypto firms ever since it imposed license requirements on them back in late September.

The market has taken a hit over the last 24 hours, although it is hard to determine whether it is in any way related to ASIC’s regulatory actions. Bitcoin is trading at $103.820 after losing 2.65% over the last 24 hours.

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French magistrate and European Parliament member Sarah Knafo wants the European Union to establish its strategic Bitcoin (BTC) reserve and reject plans to issue a digital euro.

Knafo posted a video of her speech before the European Parliament in a recent X post, writing “NO to the digital euro” and “YES to a strategic national reserve of Bitcoin. She explained that she wants to prevent “totalitarian temptations” by the European Central Bank, calling for an end to regulatory overreach in crypto and the adoption of Bitcoin’s decentralization.

The lawmaker cited the adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender by El Salvador back in 2021 and the pro-crypto agenda of United States president-elect Donald Trump. She even mentioned United States Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell describing Bitcoin as “digital gold” earlier this month.

A call for a major change

Knafo criticized local regulators for instead focusing on what she perceives as excessive regulation, taxation, and stifling innovation. She said:

“It is time to change the paradigm. It is time to protect our people from inflation and the poor economic choices of our states. It is time to say no to the totalitarian temptations of the European Central Bank, which wants to impose a digital euro entirely in its hands.”

She explained that she wants to prevent a “dystopian world where a European bureaucrat will be able tomorrow to ban certain transactions and even eliminate us from the banking system with a click for a simple comment made on social networks or for an opinion that displeases. It is time to bet on freedom.”

Market reaction

Market data shows that Bitcoin is trading at just under $107,000 at the time of writing. Over the last 24 hours, the coin kept its value mostly stable and over the last seven days it gained nearly 11.5%.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, a multifactorial measure of crypto market sentiment, currently indicates a level described as “extreme greed.” The index stands at 87, indicating that the crypto market is now overrun by greed. With such scores, the instrument warns of a possible imminent correction:

“When Investors are getting too greedy, that means the market is due for a correction.”

The post ‘No to CBDC, yes to Bitcoin’ EU MP bets on BTC appeared first on ReadWrite.

The Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had local authorities arrest nearly 800 people amid investigations into local crypto romance scam operations.

In a recent EFCC announcement, the regulator’s Executive Chairman Ola Olukoyede explained that the operation led to the arrest of 792 suspects allegedly involved in cryptocurrency investment fraud and romance scams on Tuesday. The arrests were part of a sting operation in a seven-story building that purportedly served as a crime den.

A large-scale international operation

Per the report, the building could be mistaken for the headquarters of a financial corporation and served as training grounds for Nigerian scammers. Olukoyede said:

“Their Nigerian accomplices were recruited by the foreign kingpins to prospect for victims online through phishing, targeting mostly Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, and several others from European countries.”

Among the arrests, 148 are Chinese nationals, 40 Filipinos, two Kharzartans, one Pakistani and one Indonesian. According to the regulator, those people were responsible for administering the scheme and training Nigerian recruits.

Once Nigerian foot soldiers were able to gain the trust of a victim, they reportedly gave access to them over to foreign operators who would carry out the last stages of the scam. This also prevented local criminals from learning the details of the transactions.

The operation was also conducted on a particularly large scale, with 500 SIM cards being recovered by agents on the fifth floor alone. Many of the alleged scammers working in the building were assigned “high-end desktop computers” as well as foreign phone numbers, mostly German and Italian. Olukoyede highlighted that the operation aims to address the nation’s perception as a scam haven:

“Foreigners are taking advantage of our nation’s unfortunate reputation as a haven of frauds to establish a foothold here to disguise their atrocious criminal enterprises. But, as this operation has shown, there will be no hiding places for criminals in Nigeria.”

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Chainlink (LINK) regained high prices not seen since 2021 after President-elect Donald Trump’s decentralized finance (DeFi) firm invested in it.

On-chain data shows that Trump’s World Liberty Finance (WLFI) purchased another million of LINK late Thursday for the straight second day—bringing the firm’s total holdings of the token to $2 million. The decentralized autonomous organization (DOA) administering WLFI also acquired $246,000 of AAVE, reaching $1.2 million of holdings.

Data shared by blockchain data platform Lookonchain in a recent X post shows that so far WLFI spent $30 million on Ethereum (ETH), $10 million on tokenized Bitcoin (BTC), $2 million on Chainlink and $1.25 million on AAVE.

According to market data, Chainlink is trading at $29.6 after seeing its price increase by about 0.7% over the last 24 hours and 22.6% over the previous seven days. The current price has not been seen since late 2021, but is still significantly lower than the all-time-high of $52.88 reported back in September 2021.

The details

World Liberty Financial is the Trump family’s DeFi project. It establishes a unified platform for users to borrow and lend cryptocurrencies, create liquidity pools, and exchange stablecoins. The platform’s WLFI token allows holders to participate in the governance of the DAO that administers it.

WLFI leverages Chainlink to access market data and better integrate with the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem. Chainlink powers a leading “oracle” system, a technical term referring to systems that allow smart contracts to access data that would otherwise be unavailable on-chain.

World Liberty Financial also has close ties to AAVE. AAVE is a DeFi ecosystem that allows peer-to-peer lending and borrowing, similar to WLFI.

In October, the WLFI DAO proposed deploying a World Liberty Financial Ave instance, which would be focused on providing stablecoin liquidity for Ethereum, a standard tokenized Bitcoin, and growing the Ave protocol user base. The proposal was since accepted, and the instance was deployed, profoundly linking the two protocols.

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Michael Saylor — the CEO of MicroStrategy, the market intelligence firm known for siphoning billions of dollars into Bitcoin (BTC) for its coffers — just hinted at the company’s first acquisition of the world’s first cryptocurrency at over $100,000.

Saylor recently posted a screenshot of MicroStrategy portfolio data website SayloreTracker, which notably shows the firm’s Bitcoin acquisitions as green dots on a chart. As a comment to the image, he simply asked if” SaylorTracker.com [is] missing a green dot.”

Is https://t.co/Bx3917zMqi missing a green dot? pic.twitter.com/B3Zzd6M1uV

— Michael Saylor (@saylor) December 15, 2024

The details

Saylor’s comments apparently suggested that MicroStrategy had acquired Bitcoin once again, but the website’s chart does not yet feature this transaction. At the time of writing, the Saylor tracker does feature one more transaction: MicroStrategy acquired 15,350 Bitcoin for $1.5 billion at an average price of $100,386 per BTC.

Saylor announced the transaction in a tweet published earlier today. He also claimed that the company has achieved a Bitcoin yield of 46.4% quarter to date and 72.4% year to date. The company now holds 439,000 BTC.

This is the fifth Sunday in a row that Saylor has posted a screenshot of SaylorTracker. This series of his X posts has always been followed by a MicroStrategy Bitcoin acquisition being confirmed the day after.

MicroStrategy is a publicly traded business intelligence company founded in 1989 that pivoted to acquire as much Bitcoin as possible in 2020. The company now holds well over 1% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist, with institutional interest in MicroStrategy being an interest in a regulatory-friendly Bitcoin investment.

This latest post follows a recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing by MicroStrategy revealing that the firm acquired about 21,550 BTC for approximately $2.1 billion between Dec. 2 and Dec. 8. The filing reads:

“The Bitcoin purchases were made using proceeds from the issuance and sale of shares under the sales agreement.”

Despite Bitcoin’s price rallying ever since Republican candidate Donald Trump won the elections, MicroStrategy’s stock has had a less than stellar performance recently. Right as Bitcoin was approaching $100,000 for the first time in late November, MicroStrategy shares took a major fall.

The post MicroStrategy CEO hints at first $100,000 BTC purchase appeared first on ReadWrite.

Recent market data indicates that Bitcoin (BTC) spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have surpassed 500,000 BTC of inflows in 2024.

Head of research at K33 Research Vetle Lunde pointed out the milestone in a Dec. 12 X post. He also added:

“U.S. ETFs have absorbed more than 2.5% of the circulating supply since their launch in January.”

After years of battle in the cryptocurrency industry, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved only Bitcoin spot ETFs in mid-January. The spot ETFs track Bitcoin’s price directly by having the fund’s manager hold actual Bitcoin, in contrast to previous derivative-based Bitcoin futures ETFs, which only held “paper Bitcoin.”

The details

The asset managers leading this growth include BlackRock, Fidelity, ARK, the 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, and Bitwise. For context, BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager, with $10 trillion in assets, followed by Fidelity, with over $4.1 trillion. The world’s top players are now investing heavily in the development of Bitcoin products.

Farside Investors data shows that BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) has received $35 billion in cumulative inflows so far, while the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) has received $12.22 billion. Ark Invest’s ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) and the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF have attracted $2.64 billion and $2.21 billion, respectively.

The remaining asset managers active in the market have garnered way less investor interest, in the order of millions. Those include products by WisdomTree, VanEck, Coinshares Valkyrie, Franklin, and the Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF.

The news follows mid-November reports that BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF products saw record-high inflows as cryptocurrencies rallied following Donald Trump’s victory in the United States. At the time, inflows reached values as high as nearly $1.12 billion, equivalent to almost 82% of the total of $1.37 billion.

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Cryptocurrency asset manager Grayscale Investments has launched two new investment products: the Grayscale Lido DAO Trust and the Grayscale Optimism Trust.

According to a recent announcement, the new Grayscale products give exposure to the governance tokens of Lido (LDO) and Optimism (OP). Grayscale’s Head of Product & Research, Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary said:

“Lido is helping to democratize staking on Ethereum, and Optimism is critical in allowing Ethereum to scale to compete with newer, faster Layer 1 blockchains. […] Grayscale Lido DAO Trust and Grayscale Optimism Trust provide investors with exposure to protocols helping to increase Ethereum’s efficiency, security, scalability, and adoption within the broader DeFi ecosystem — playing a critical role in the Ethereum story.”

Both Optimism and Lido are governed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Those are a peculiar kind of organizational structure that make heavy use of blockchain technology for their operation.

In most cases, DAOs have token holders vote to approve or deny proposals — often spending the organization’s funds — on-chain in a process not dissimilar to what happens with stakeholders in traditional markets, but instantly and on-chain. The LDO and OP tokens are among the assets allowing their holders to vote in this fashion.

The details

The new trusts highlight Grayscale’s expansion into Ethereum-related products. The latest financial derivatives are now available for daily subscriptions to eligible individual and institutional accredited investors.

The product featuring the LDO token is part of Grayscale’s “Financials Crypto Sector” category, which includes assets related to financial transactions and services. On the other hand, the trust giving exposure to OP is in the “Smart Contract Platforms Crypto Sector” category, which is focused on protocols supporting decentralized finance and applications.

The announcement follows recent reports that Grayscale Investments filed to convert its tradable Solana (SOL) close-ended trust into a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF). The New York Stock Exchange Arca recently submitted a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission asking for a rule change that would allow it to list Grayscale’s product.

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Microsoft shareholders strongly opposed a recent proposal to invest part of the company’s assets in Bitcoin (BTC).

As many as 5.148 billion votes were against the proposal, with only 28.234 million Microsoft shareholders voting in favor, according to the annual  Microsoft Investor Relations report. The reported data shows that only 0.55% of the total votes favored the investment.

Last month, a Microsoft document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that the company planned to assess investing in Bitcoin and vote on the issue during a meeting. The board’s recommendation to vote against the proposal had already set the tone.

The results follow late November reports that Michael Saylor — the chairman of top corporate Bitcoin holder MicroStrategy — was going to pitch investing in Bitcoin to the Microsoft board of directors. He explained that an activist arranged the meeting:

“The activist that put that proposal together contacted me to present to the board, and I agreed to provide a three-minute presentation — that’s all you’re allowed — and I’m going to present it to the board of directors.”

The details

The vote was the results of the National Centre for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) pushing for the proposal, noting that MicroStrategy outperformed Microsoft by over 300% with its Bitcoin accumulation strategy. The NCPPR highlighted that this is true despite MicroStrategy doing a fraction of the business” of Microsoft.

Early November reports by industry media suggested that Microsoft could risk being sued by shareholders if it decides not to invest in Bitcoin and the price increases. Saylor suggested that more companies should consider investing in Bitcoin:

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The city council of major Canadian city Vancouver gave the green light to study Bitcoin’s (BTC) integration in the local financial system.

The just-approved motion was submitted by city’s Mayor Ken Sim last month and proposes accepting taxes and fees in Bitcoin and converting a portion of Vancouver’s financial reserves to BTC.

Sim’s political party — A Better City — had already garnered the attention of the crypto community when, back in April 2022, it started accepting cryptocurrency donations. He said at the time:

“We want to demonstrate our commitment to technology both in terms of embracing it to help improve service at City Hall and to promote Vancouver as a tech center. […] Whether it’s automating applications processes, or using AI to optimize city planning, we need to use technology to remain ahead of the curve.”

The details

The motion explains that the hope is that holding a portion of the city’s reserves in Bitcoin will preserve some of its purchasing power against the volatility, debasement and inflation of traditional currencies. The document reads:

“Diversifying the City of Vancouver’s financial reserves and payment options, including Bitcoin, would not only enhance the resilience of our city’s financial portfolio but also ultimately benefit the city’s taxpayers.”

Before fully implementing such drastic measures, the measure requests that city staff assess the risk and feasibility of the project and report the results by the first quarter of 2025.

Market data shows that Bitcoin is trading at nearly $101,200 after gaining 2.6% over the last 24 hours to press time. The world’s first cryptocurrency also lost 1.75% over the last seven days.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index stands at  83, indicating that the crypto market is now overrun by greed. In such cases, the instrument is being interpreted as a warning of a possible imminent correction — but no instrument can guarantee any kind of market performance. The website reads:

“When Investors are getting too greedy, that means the market is due for a correction.”

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On Dec. 9, the cryptocurrency market saw $1.552 billion worth of liquidations within 24 hours, according to data provided by CoinGlass. Long positions were responsible for $1.38 billion of total liquidations, while liquidated short positions accounted for $136.7 million.

Bitcoin (BTC) liquidations alone were worth $163.4 million, while Ethereum (ETH) $204.7 million. In a subsequent X post, CoinGlass wrote that in the 24 hours before the post $1.71 billion were liquidated:

“The biggest long liquidation of this bull cycle so far.

In the past 24 hours , 569,214 traders were liquidated , the total liquidations comes in at $1.71 billion.”

The details

The total cryptocurrency market cap shrunk from Dec. 9’s high of $3.71 trillion down to $3.35 trillion at the time of writing — shrinking by 9.7%. This is equivalent to $360 billion leaving the market.

Large liquidations like the one that just took place are often described as a “leverage flush” by market observers and are viewed as a sane cyclical occurrence, making the market more stable. Large amounts of leveraged positions in a market result in forced sellers or forced buyers during liquidations.

A large volume caused by forced buyers or sellers might significantly amplify market movements and volatility. The last significant leverage flush took place earlier this month, when liquidations across all exchanges reached over $1.1 billion. Reports at the time indicated that this was the largest crypto liquidation event since December 2021.

Market data shows that Bitcoin is trading at about $95,500 at the time of writing. Over the last 24 hours, the coin lost 2.56% of its value and over the last seven days it gained about 0.04%.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, a multifactorial measure of crypto market sentiment, currently indicates a level described as “extreme greed.” The index stands at  78, indicating that the crypto market is now overrun by greed. With such scores, the instrument warns of a possible imminent correction:

“When Investors are getting too greedy, that means the market is due for a correction.”

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A recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing by MicroStrategy reveals that the firm acquired about 21,550 BTC for approximately $2.1 billion between Dec. 2 and Dec. 8. The average price is about $98,783 per Bitcoin, including fees and expenses. The filing reads:

“The Bitcoin purchases were made using proceeds from the issuance and sale of shares under the sales agreement.”

The details

MicroStrategy is a publicly traded business intelligence company founded in 1989 that pivoted to acquire as much Bitcoin as possible in 2020. The company now holds well over 1% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist, with institutional interest in MicroStrategy being an interest in a regulatory-friendly Bitcoin investment.

At the time of writing, the firm holds about 423,650 BTC in its coffers — worth over $40.3 billion. The average price at which those assets were acquired is $60,324 per BTC, 57.5% lower than the current price of over $95,000.

Despite Bitcoin’s price rallying ever since Republican candidate Donald Trump won the elections, MicroStrategy’s stock has had a less than stellar performance recently. Right as Bitcoin was approaching $100,000 for the first time in late November, MicroStrategy shares took a major fall.

At the time,Citron Research explained that it recommended investing in MicroStrategy with a $700 target four years ago. According to the company, “MicroStrategy was the ultimate way to invest in Bitcoin.” Now, things were different:

“Now, with Bitcoin investing easier than ever […], [MicroStrategy]’s volume has completely detached from BTC fundamentals. While Citron remains bullish on Bitcoin, we’ve hedged with a short [MicroStrategy] position.”

Still, MicroStrategy is seeing its imitators grow their ranks. Last month, Metaplanet — a Tokyo-listed imitator — announced the issuance of 1.75 billion yen ($11.3 million) of one-year ordinary bonds to buy more Bitcoin.

The post MicroStrategy buys another 21,550 Bitcoin for $2.1 billion appeared first on ReadWrite.

Stephen Findeisen — a YouTube sleuth known as “Coffeezilla” — has denounced the many false headlines surrounding Haliey Welch and her HAWK memecoin.

Findeisen voiced concern over the misleading headlines and reports on social media. In a post shared with his 638,900 followers on X, he wrote:

“Can y’all stop these insane headlines? She didn’t rug for $500M and she didn’t profit $50M.”

The details

The early December debut of Welch’s memecoin was soon followed by controversy. In what was widely believed to be the consequence of a rug pull, the coin quickly reached a significant market cap of $500 million before crashing and dropping down to $25.3 million.

A rug pull is a scam that sees the team behind a token, coin or non-fungible token (NFT) sell all holdings leading to a price crash as soon as investors buy in pushing the price higher. Haliey Welch faced significant backlash over these allegations.

Still, Coffeezilla dismissed those accusations. He explained that Welch’s team had presold “a few million” welch to strategic advisors who decided to sell their holdings early, leading to a crash.

Can yall stop these insane headlines.
She didn’t rug for 500M and she didn’t profit $50M. FFS.

1. The team presold a few million to “strategic advisors” who sold early.
2. The token got sniped.
3. LP made >$1m on 15% fees according to the meteora tracker. https://t.co/drp6RlGog0

— Coffeezilla (@coffeebreak_YT) December 6, 2024

United States legal firm specialized in consumer protection Burwick law already started representing HAWK holders in an upcoming lawsuit. In a recent X post, the company wrote:

“We are representing clients in matters related to $HAWK. If you’ve experienced losses and would like to explore your options. […]

Please note that all legal claims depend on individual circumstances, and recovery is not guaranteed.”

At the time of writing HAWK is trading a $0.002473 after losing a further 5.25% over the last 24 hours. Haliey Welch’s token has a market cap of $24.73 million and a 24-hour trading volume of $438,280. The token’s current price is nearly 95% lower than its all-time high of $0.0492 reported on Dec. 4, just a few days ago.

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Shareholders of e-commerce behemoth Amazon are pushing the company to put 5% of its assets in Bitcoin (BTC).

A recent shareholder proposal by conservative think tank National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) suggested that Amazon should heavily invest in Bitcoin. The proposal reads:

“Though Bitcoin is currently a volatile asset — as Amazon stock has been at times throughout its history — corporations have a responsibility to maximize shareholder value over the long-term as well as the short-term. Diversifying the balance sheet by including some bitcoin solves this problem without taking on too much volatility.”

The details

Holding 5% of its assets in Bitcoin is portrayed as the bare minimum the proposal. The text continues:

“At minimum, Amazon should evaluate the benefits of holding some, even just 5%, of its assets in Bitcoin.”

This would translate to less extreme version of the strategy adopted by MicroStrategy, a publicly-traded business intelligence company founded in 1989 that pivoted to acquiring as much Bitcoin as possible in 2020.

MicroStrategy now holds over 1% of all Bitcoin that will ever be mined and is well on its way to reach 2% soon. Also, Amazon is not the only tech giant that may soon consider such an investment.

Last month, news broke that MicroStrategy chairman Michael Saylor is about to pitch investing in the coin to Microsoft. He said that an activist arranged the meeting:

“The activist that put that proposal together contacted me to present to the board, and I agreed to provide a three-minute presentation — that’s all you’re allowed — and I’m going to present it to the board of directors.”

Also in Microsoft’s case, the company received a similar proposal from the NCPPR. In its report, the think tank highlighted that MicroStrategy outperformed Microsoft by over 300% despite MicroStrategy doing a fraction of the business” of Microsoft.

According to market data, at the time of writing Bitcoin is trading at $97,620 after having lost 2.25% over the last 24 hours and gaining 0.7% over the last seven days.

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Bitcoin’s (BTC) dip to under $93,000 yesterday was exploited as a fire sale by the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock and MARA Holdings.

BlackRock acquired 7,750 BTC as investors continue to acquire its iShares Bitcoin Trust exchange-traded fund, data from blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence shows. Thomas Fahrer, founder of crypto markets firm tracking the ETF Apollo, highlighted that the firm now holds $50 billion worth of Bitcoin.

Blackrock Buys 7750 #Bitcoin

They hold over $50 Billion in Assets.

Fastest growing ETF EVER! pic.twitter.com/uJU9MLTlTb

— Thomas | heyapollo.com (@thomas_fahrer) December 6, 2024

Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings similarly bought 1,423 Bitcoin — worth $139.5 million — split between four transactions on Dec. 5 and Dec. 6. The acquisition was highlighted by a blockchain data provider in a Dec. 6 X post.

The purchases follow MARA closing its second $850 million convertible note offering. The offering was announced as a way to accumulate more Bitcoin in the company coffers:

“MARA expects to use approximately $48 million of the net proceeds from the sale of the notes to repurchase approximately $51 million in aggregate principal amount of its existing convertible notes due 2026 […] with the remainder of the net proceeds to be used to acquire additional bitcoin and for general corporate purposes.”

MARA now holds 22,108 BTC worth $2.17 billion, data from blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence shows. The value of the holdings more than doubled from their value of $899 million reported one month ago.

During the third quarter of 2024, MARA took MicroStrategy’s example and decided to retain all the Bitcoin it mines and accumulate as much of it as possible. MicroStrategy is a publicly-traded business intelligence firm founded back in 1989 that pivoted to accumulating high volumes of Bitcoin in 2020.

MicroStrategy now holds well over 1% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist, with institutional interest in MicroStrategy being an interest in a regulatory-friendly Bitcoin investment. The firm’s chairman Michael Saylor, will also pitch adopting the same strategy to the Microsoft board on Dec. 10. Saylor said that he will have three minutes to argue his case:

“So you will see me putting together the three-minute proposal for Microsoft […], and we’ll send it to the board.”

The post BlackRock and Mara Holdings acquire over 9,000 BTC on dip appeared first on ReadWrite.

Cryptocurrency liquidations reach levels not seen for years as Bitcoin (BTC) falls back below $100,000.

Earlier today total 24-hour crypto liquidations across all exchanges reached over $1.1 billion, according to CoinGlass data. Of those, $280 million came from short positions and $815 million came from long positions.

This is the largest crypto liquidation event since December 2021, according to crypto news outlet The Block. The Bitcoin market was the one that saw the most liquidations, with over $560 million involving the world’s first cryptocurrency.

This follows Bitcoin recently breaking $100,000 for the first time. The last leg up followed United States President-elect Donald Trump announcing his pro-crypto Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman.

What does this crypto liquidation actually mean for coin owners?

Such large liquidations are often described as a “leverage flush” by market observers and are viewed as a sane cyclical occurrence, making the market more stable. Large amounts of leveraged positions in a market result in forced sellers or forced buyers during liquidations, which might significantly amplify market movements and volatility. Rachel Lucas, crypto analyst of BTC Markets told The Block:

“Market makers and large players often use these conditions to their advantage, first pushing the price above $100,000, attracting retail enthusiasm, and then reversing it sharply to liquidate leveraged positions on both sides, long and short.”

Liquidations happen when a trader takes a leveraged position that gives him exposure over 100% — positive or negative — and is forced to close the position because the trade ended up costing them their entire collateral. Lucas added:

“Retail traders’ excessive leverage during Bitcoin’s all-time high exacerbated this situation. […] Many succumbed to FOMO (fear of missing out), taking long positions at elevated levels, while larger holders (whales) strategically offloaded their assets.”

Market data shows that Bitcoin is trading at about $99,320 at the time of writing. Over the last 24 hours, the coin lost 2.63% of its value and over the last seven days it gained just under 1.5%.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, a multifactorial measure of crypto market sentiment, currently indicates a level described as “extreme greed.” The index stands at  72, indicating that the crypto market is now overrun by greed. With such scores, the instrument warns of a possible imminent correction:

“When Investors are getting too greedy, that means the market is due for a correction.”

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An address associated with the long-defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox just moved about $2.8 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC).

Over 27,871 BTC were moved from the Mt. Gox address on Dec. 5, according to data from blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence. The exchange still holds about 39,878 BTC worth over $4 billion at time of writing.

The details

Mt. Gox — short for “Magic: The Gathering Online eXchange,” a name referring to the platform’s origin as a trading card exchange — was launched in 2010. After pivoting to Bitcoin, it quickly captured its market and became the primary way to buy and sell Bitcoin online.

Mt. Gox was hacked in 2014 and lost almost 750,000 BTC owned by its customers and around 100,000 BTC of its own. This is a large amount of Bitcoin, equivalent to around 7% of all Bitcoin in circulation at the time.

Since the amount of Bitcoin involved that could soon end up on exchanges following the Mt. Gox redistribution is so large, movements like the ones reported today often result in Bitcoin’s price falling. This time around no such effect was observed by the time of writing.

This can be partly attributed to the ongoing bull market and a recent announcement shared by the Mt. Gox redistribution team pushing creditor repayment one year further in the future. This effectively eliminates the expectation that the Bitcoin move will increase sales pressure in the market in the near future.

Bitcoin is trading at $101,260 at the time of writing after hitting a new all-time high of nearly $104,000 earlier today. Bitcoin is up 6.5% over the last 24 hours and 6.55% over the last seven days.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, a multifactorial measure of crypto market sentiment, currently indicates a level described as “extreme greed.” The index stands at  84, indicating that the crypto market is now overrun by greed. With such scores, the instrument warns of a possible imminent correction:

“When Investors are getting too greedy, that means the market is due for a correction.”

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Cryptocurrency company founders take up almost one-third of the finance category of the Forbes 30 under 30 list.

Forbes’ annual 30 under 30 list features 10 men and four women from the crypto sector—nine out of the 30 people in the list’s finance category. The list was published on Wednesday and is focused on North American business personalities who achieved great success before the age of 30.

The list also features 26-year-old Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan, after his decentralized prediction market saw high volumes in connection to bets on the United States presidential elections. Dune data shows that volume on that particular market reached over $925 in a month, dominating activity on the platform.

Polymarket leaned towards a Donald Trump victory for most of the time, even when competing platforms were not as decisive. More recent data indicates that the prediction market kept many new users onboarded through interest in election betting.

Meet The #ForbesUnder30 Class Of 2025: 600 go-getters across 20 industries-and a sneak peek into things to come. https://t.co/TijTKDGJsC #ForbesUnder30 pic.twitter.com/rcjmvKJhe2

— Forbes Under 30 (@ForbesUnder30) December 3, 2024

The details

The list includes multiple decentralized exchange (DEX) founders, including Ostium Labs co-founders Kaledora Kiernan-Linna and Marco Antonio Ribeiro. Also Osmosis’ founders Sunny Aggarwal and Dev Ojha is included alongside Drift Labs co-founder Cindy Leow.

Decentralized exchanges are exchanges that rely on decentralized infrastructure. In most cases, they rely on smart contracts on blockchains to serve as their backbone while the user interface is a simple website and allow usage with no documents or know-your-customer rules.

The three founders of Cortex Labs — Soroush Ghodsi Boushehri, Stefan Stokic and Jake Sylvestre — took another spot for their blockchains featuring artificial intelligence (AI). Entropy founder Tux Pacific was also listed for his efforts in creating on-chain AI agents.

Co-founders of the multichain decentralized app protocol Omni Network Austin King and Tyler Tarsi are also featured.

Succint, a firm helping developers program zero-knowledge proofs, also earned its founder, Uma Roy, another seat at the 30 under 30 table. This is not the first time that crypto founders took up nine spots in the list, with the same number taken in 2024.

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Tron (TRX) jumped up by 80% within the last 24 hours following a declaration of martial law in South Korea.

Market data shows that Tron went from $0.2342 24 hours ago to $0.4343 earlier today — a jump of over 85.4%. Since then TRX corrected down to $0.3887 at the time of writing, which is still nearly 67% up from 24 hours ago.

What happened in South Korea

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on live television on Dec. 3. He accused the opposition of sympathizing with North Korea and declared the activities of the National Assembly (the country’s parliament), local councils, political parties, rallies, and demonstrations illegal while also putting media under military control.

Following the declaration, nearly 300 military personnel entered the National Assembly. Party officials successfully defended the building and voted against martial law; the military soon dispersed. Soon after, the Cabinet lifted martial law just hours after its establishment.

Why it matters to crypto

South Korea is home to one of the largest and most reactive retail cryptocurrency markets. It also has stringent capital control, leading to the famous kimchi premium—referring to a typical South Korean side dish—with Bitcoin (BTC) trading even over 50% higher in the country compared to the rest of the world.

Following the martial law declaration, Bitcoin’s price fell to $62,000 on leading South Korean crypto exchange Upbit, according to data tracked by TradingView. Upbit and its local competitor Bithumb both experienced outages as people moved assets off-exchange in mass amid the coup attempt.

Rachael Lucas, crypto analyst at BTC Markets, suggested that Tron saw such an uptick in price because it surfaced as the favorite transfer asset used by South Korean cryptocurrency holders looking to move assets off local exchanges. She told crypto news outlet The Block:

“TRX’s role as a widely used transfer token between exchanges, especially in South Korea, makes it a tool for traders looking to move funds across platforms quickly.”

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