MAJR Newsletter 035
Top Stories in Bitcoin and Crypto
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MAJR NEWS BRIEF
Top Stories
BITCOINBitcoin Rebounds to Above $30K, Resistance Seen at $34K
While bitcoin breached its $30k support level on Tuesday, price as seen a strong bounce with better volume putting the digital asset back in its two-month long range between $30k-$35k. New resistance is seen at around $34k.
Elon Musk Says SpaceX Holds Bitcoin at ‘B Word’ Conference
On Wednesday’s virtual ‘B Word’ Conference, Elon Musk stated that not only he himself and Tesla own bitcoin, but SpaceX as well. He said he holds ether and dogecoin on his personal balance sheet. Elon also stated that Bitcoin’s mining energy consumption footprint has improved, and that Tesla will most likely be accepting BTC for payments, but no clear date was given. Also included on the roundtable talk was CEO of ARK Invest Cathie Wood and CEO of Twitter / Square Jack Dorsey.
ARK Invest Buys Another $10.8M in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust
Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest bought the bitcoin dip and doubled down on Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust and Coinbase. Given the structure and charter of the ARK Funds, they are legally not allowed to hold the actual bitcoin asset. In the last 48hrs, the fund purchased 210,681 shares of Coinbase totaling $47.39 million and 450,224 shares of GBTC totaling $10.8 million. Across the ARK Invest fund portfolios, they hold $1.8 billion of shares in Square, $1.3 billion of shares in Coinbase and $216.9 million of shares in GBTC. To say Cathie Wood is bullish on bitcoin, crypto and technology is an understatement.
CRYPTODraftKings NFT Marketplace Will Be Exclusive Home of Tom Brady Crypto Collectibles
Sports betting company, DraftKings is going all in on NFTs launching their own NFT platform which will be the exclusive home to Tom Brady’s NFT collectibles from his NFT site Autograph.
NFT Marketplace OpenSea Becomes Crypto Unicorn at $1.5 Billion Valuation
Andressen Horowitz’s venture capital firm, a16z invested $100 million in a Series B round of the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, OpenSea. The company has reached unicorn status and is now valued at $1.5 billion. The company makes revenue from transaction fees from minters, buyers and sellers when transacting with NFTs. They’ve partnered with layer 2 scaling company Polygon to help bring down transaction costs. Other investors include Coatue, CAA, Michael Ovitz, Kevin Hartz, Kevin Durant and Ashton Kutcher.
Ethereum DeFi Pioneer Maker Foundation Is Shutting Down, DAO Will Take Over
MakerDAO the project behind the Maker (MKR) protocol and its synthetic crypto algorithmic stablecoin DAI is shutting down it’s foundation and decentralizing itself into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) controlled by MKR token holders. They will formally dissolve the organization in the next few months. Rune Christensen, CEO of the Maker Foundation discusses the transition in his blog post here. The announcement comes shortly after company ShapeShift led by CEO Erik Voorhees announced that they will formally be decentralizing company into a DAO as well. DAOs are the next big wave after ICOs and NFTs, and will most likely change the way human beings organize for work and governance. We highly recommend reading up on DAOs. We’ve wrote a piece last year on Aragon, a DAO launchpad titled New Religion and other articles can be found here and here. MAJR’s plans to decentralize its organization into a DAO as the benefits and incentives for community growth are super strong. Stay tuned.
Crypto Exchange FTX Raises $900 Million, Valued at $18 Billion
The 29-year old crypto billionaire CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and his crypto exchange FTX raised $900 million valuing the international exchange at $18 billion. The funds will be used for M&A activity. FTX has been in the news recently for spending heavily on promotional marketing partnerships with sports organizations to help support the launch of its US exchange FTX US. It’s FTT token has seen a 12% increase since the announcement.
Stablecoin News
MACROUS lawmakers don't want Olympic athletes to use digital yuan at 2022 games
US senators are working with Olympic committee to urge and forbid US athletes from using China’s digital yuan citing privacy concerns. China is using the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo (delayed one year) to pilot their central bank digital currency.
Bond Rally Undercuts Inflation Fears
The most recent rally in the bond market has pushed yields to their lowest since February hitting 1.18% on Monday and closed Wednesday at 1.292% on the benchmark US 10 YR Treasury. This investor move towards safety and risk off assets differs from the market concerns around inflation and runaway prices. It highlights investor concerns about low growth and another economic slowdown due to the Delta covid-19 variant.
Argentina’s Economy Posts Sharpest Decline in a Year in May
Argentina’s economy is struggling and posted it’s worst decline in a year as economic activity declined 2% in May. This was mainly due to a strict lockdown due to the pandemic in May along with a temporary ban on beef exports. Growth and elevated inflation are concerns for Argentina who’s defaulted on their debt 9 times.
Warning signs for global recovery as Delta dims outlook
Stock market turbulence and the flight to safety as US treasuries get bid could be warning signs for the global economy as the Delta variant spreads. The new virus mutation coincides with declining consumer sentiment and high prices due to inflation. This is highlighted by dollar appreciation against the euro and emerging market currencies.
Delta Variant of Covid-19 Isn’t Expected to Dent Robust U.S. Recovery
Economists see a continued increase in spending, hiring and limited disruptions even with the new variant making its way into headlines. The chances of a dramatic economic slowdown and correction in markets are low in the US given that we have preventative vaccines and half the population has been vaccinated. In addition, the system is flush with cash minus the Fed’s reverse repo activity and consumer savings is at an all time high, $2.6 trillion. Economists hope that politicians will urge vaccinations over another politically controversial lockdown.
MEDIANegative Rates: The Fed is Taking Over Money Markets
Bitcoin and crypto adoption is here to stay. Don’t let your friends and family miss the opportunity of a lifetime.
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