July 02, 2022

[Editor's Note: If this is your first crypto winter or experience with an 80% drawdown ...aka decline, you need to take a break from staring at BTC price action. While the past is NOT a prediction of the future, there are many things on teh horizon that should give you hope. Now for some news.]


Major Bitcoin ETF Legal Battle Begins as Grayscale Sues SEC

One of the biggest bitcoin (BTC) and crypto investment companies, US-based Grayscale Investments, sued US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after it rejected its application to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), the world's largest BTC fund, to a spot exchange-trading fund (ETF).

"It is the SEC's arbitrary and capricious actions and discriminatory treatment of issuers that necessitates elevating this matter to the courts in the best interest of GBTC and our investors," the company said. According to them, the market watchdog is failing to apply consistent treatment to BTC investment vehicles as evidenced by its denial of GBTC's application for conversion to a spot ETF, but approval of several BTC futures ETFs.

"If regulators are comfortable with ETFs that hold derivatives of a given asset, they should logically be comfortable with ETFs that hold that same asset," they added.


Despite the Bear Market, a Salvadoran Wants to Build a USD 200M Power Plant to Mine Bitcoin

A wealthy expat Salvadoran is set to fund a USD 200m solar-powered Bitcoin (BTC) mining facility, and appears to have the backing of the government. Per ElSalvador.com, the website of the newspaper El Diario de Hoy, Milena Mayorga, El Salvador's Ambassador to the United States, has spoken about the plan, which was masterminded by Josue LC3pez. The latter was described as a Salvadoran who is currently living in Switzerland.


Outflows Rock Bitcoin As Institutional Investors Pull The Plug, More Downside Coming?

Outflows have been the order of the day since the price of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin had begun to crash. The same sentiment had spread through individual as well as institutional investors, leading to massive sell-offs in the space. Despite the price of bitcoin recovering in recent times, it seems that the sellers are not done just yet as outflows had ramped up over the last week.


Fed Announces Inflation Warnings As Bitcoin Whales Remain In Wait Mode

Due to major inflation worries and rate hikes indicated by central banks, particularly the US Federal Reserve, BTC has almost lost half of its value over the previous month. Bitcoin's market valuation has fallen from $1.27 trillion in November 2021 to under $366 billion at present.


BITCOIN CREATES A NEW TYPE OF PROPERTY OWNERSHIP

Consent is a core mechanism for property to gain independence from a king. What I'm referring to is the act of ownership, not necessarily the technical machinery. By owning bitcoin, I universally express the following: I acknowledge what is mine and I acknowledge what isn't. Otherwise, in the words of Hobbes, "... every man has a Right to every thing and therefore as long as this natural right of every man endures, there can be no security to any man."

CHANGING THE "BITCOIN IS USELESS" NARRATIVE

Bitcoin has the power to help real people, but the "Bitcoin is useless" narrative still exists. Traveling on the ground in the emerging world, I've heard hundreds of stories from people who've said that Bitcoin has changed their lives for the better. And it's no surprise. People are using Bitcoin for remittances, e-commerce, wealth preservation and social good.


This Bitcoin Bear Market Is Unlike Any Other, Here's Why

But several macroeconomic factors make this bear market different from the ones seen in 2020 and 2018, complicating the timing of a recovery. This has also seen crypto markets experience one of their worst drawdowns in history- down over $2 trillion.


Coinbase, Robinhood Shares Plummet After Binance.US Does This

Binance.US has decided to eliminate any fees on spot trading of several popular crypto assets. The US branch of the major exchange decided that it will no longer charge any fees for the spot trade of BTC to US dollars and three major stable coins: Tether, USDC and Binance USD.


Crypto Hedge Fund Three Arrows Capital Faces Liquidation Order From Authorities in British Virgin Islands: Report

Reuters says that Teneo, a global consultancy and advisory firm, has been appointed as liquidators. The court order comes just days after the firm received a notice of default from crypto platform Voyager Digital related to a loan worth hundreds of millions of dollars.


SEC's Gensler Reiterates Bitcoin Alone Is a Commodity. Is He Right?

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler has reiterated his claim that bitcoin (BTC) is a commodity. His interpretation is partially rooted in precedent and, one would hope, reality.
"Some, like bitcoin, and that's the only one, Jim, I'm going to say because I'm not going to talk about any one of these tokens [that] my predecessors and others have said [are] a commodity," Gensler said in an interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer on Monday.