All Been Crypto — Week 6 Dec 2024
Happy 100k week. We did it we broke the 6 digit mark for the first time, of course only to revert right back to currently 97k but nevertheless BTC made major headlines and probably gearing up for the next leg higher. We have also seen strong rotations and catch up of large cap coins, ETH +8% at 3800, XRP +46%, HBAR +93%, IOTA +87% EOS and TRX +60%. Some of that volatility was caused by some political turbulence in Korea but i reckon it’s a lot of rotational flow after BTC seems to consolidate around 100k and so funds shift. We also had a massive airdrop of HYPE +300% since launch now at 4.5bn market cap reviving airdrop fever season. In the news we were watching Trumps pick for SEC chairman and the new Crypto Czar role, MicroStrategy of course bought another 15k BTC for 1.5bn, Putin made some clear comments about crypto and even J Powell gave BTC a mention. We are full mainstream now, enjoy reading and the ride!
Bat Tai Chi — btc21@mail.com
HEADLINES:
Trumps nominations Crypto Czar and SEC chair
David Sacks got selected for White House AI and Crypto Czar. The new role got created and as you can see from the title is already a break with traditions. Sacks is going to be the liaise with the industry and work on a legal framework so the Crypto has the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the U.S. Born in South Africa, Sacks, 52, is a co-founder of venture capital firm Craft Ventures and an early leader of PayPal. He’s what some call part of the PayPal mafia and went on found and lead other start ups like the software company Zenefits and Yammer a social network for enterprise users. He was of course early into crypto, telling CNBC in a 2017 interview that he believed the rise of BTC, was revolutionizing the internet. The appointment won’t require Sacks to divest or publicly disclose his assets, so expect to pump his bags.
Trump also selected former SEC commissioner Paul Atkins to return to run the agency as it’s next chairman. A bit of background, according to Atkins’ bio page at Patomak Global Ventures, the former commissioner “has led industry efforts to develop best practices for digital asset issuances” while serving as co-chair of the Token Alliance. He’s generally seen as positive for the industry and his nomination received widespread support.
Hyperliquid Airdrop — and Synfuture
The perpdex dropped HYPE at <4$ and now trading at >13 so made a casual 300% in a week now at 4.4bn market cap straight into the top 50 coins. It’s raised a number of eyebrows because we haven’t seen a successful airdrop for a while yet and so naturally people were analyzing what’s different. Many point the finger towards no VC engagement and therefore no locked overhang and forced selling but of course it’s also timing, volumes are high, funding rate is elevated and so the perfect time to drop a token for DeFi, on top you to regulatory clarity so it’s probably a combination of these. It’s interesting though if the narrative of no VCs good for airdrop will prevail and might shift market dynamics for new project launches. Synfutures also announced a token drop today so we’ll see how that one goes.
Pudgy Pengiuns to launch their own token PENGU
The NFT collection that you have heard me write about a few times already is now setting to get their own token PENGU. Of course you need to go with the times and NFTs were last cycle you need a MEME coin to get new users, well but that’s pre product. Pudgy already has a collaboration with serious businesses distributing their soft toys all across walmart in the US for example. I’m closely following them because they are in my eyes probably the most successful NFT project and so I’m confident they have a different token strategy than other projects. We saw with APE that success of the coin and the chain is quite challenging and so they likely will have to pick a different route.
Saylor pitched Microsoft his playbook
Saylor did a 3min presentation at Microsofts AGM to make the case for a Bitcoin Treasury. Of course this is a bit of a moon shot and more to be seen as a PR but polymarket actually gives the proposal a >10% chance to get accepted. It’s unlikely that Microsoft one of the worlds largest companies would adopt a BTC treasury strategy and what we see more likely is that an Elon company like Tesla could be the first. Outside of course a number of smaller enterprises that sometimes don’t have a strong core business and use this to ‘monetize’ the corporate set up. Regardless it’s a historic moment this being discussed with such big coverage and could be setting the stage for actual more adoption in 2025. The vote for Microsoft shareholders is next week and will be interesting to see who supports (for signaling).
QUOTES:
Bitcoin is not a competitor for the dollar, it’s really a competitor for gold
Jerome Powell — Federal Reserve Chairman
Processes related to the use of other instruments are taking place naturally. For example, bitcoin, who can ban it? Nobody. And who can prohibit the use of other electronic payment instruments? Nobody, because these are new technologies. And no matter what happens, no matter what happens to the dollar, these instruments will develop one way or another, because everyone will strive to reduce costs and increase reliability
Vladimir Putin — Russian President
You have to remember an intangible asset like this is valued on intangible aspects. It’s about community. It’s about standing opposed to the power of the state. People take joy in that. The American people want agency of their money, and crypto is part of that
Ken Griffin — Citadel Founder
All Been Crypto — Week 6 Dec 2024 was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.