Bitcoin Facing Worst Month Since FTX Collapse as $9B Mt. Gox Unlock Looms
Bitcoin's selloff may look worse than it is, according to Dragonfly's Rob Hadick.
By: Zack Guzman
June 24, 2024
Bitcoin is coming off its second-worst week of the year and facing another critical stretch with a key inflation indicator on deck.
This week: President Trump is said to be heading to the Bitcoin 2024 conference after his debate with President Biden, Pantera is doubling down on an altcoin that’s more than quadrupling Bitcoin’s YTD performance, Bitcoin ETFs shed more than half a billion dollars, and the boost from real-world assets might be taking longer than we thought.
Bitcoin ETFs Shed $500M+
Seeing as Bitcoin suffered its second-worst week of 2024, perhaps its not surprising to note Bitcoin ETFs saw massive selling pressure. According to CoinShares, more than half a billion dollars poured out of Bitcoin investment products last week.
Interestingly, however, altcoins actually notched some inflows — perhaps fueling some ideation that a bottoming among alts may be forming.
With Ethereum ETFs expected to begin trading in early July, there are a couple more weeks left before any (potentially) good news could turn the tide. For now, most of the market is squarely focused on Mt. Gox returning roughly $9 billion in bitcoin to users who have been waiting ever since the 2014 hack. (That’s about 3X the amount Germany began offloading from a raid on a dark web platform.)
Pantera Doubling Down on TON Bet
If there is one crypto that has certainly outperformed Bitcoin this year, it’s Telegram’s TON coin. The altcoin is up more than 220% to Bitcoin’s 44% gain, and one of the leading crypto funds, Pantera Capital, continues to be all about it.
The Block reported that the firm is raising additional funds to make another TON purchase merely weeks after its last big bet. At the time of that bet back in May, Pantera called it their “biggest investment ever.”
“I recently had lunch with Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram. The purity of his conviction is mesmerizing,” wrote Pantera founder Dan Morehead. The bet stems from the fact Telegram is adding crypto capabilities to accounts of its 930 million users, rather than being a crypto first project trying to attract users.
“Telegram is a community integrating blockchain technology. That’s just got to be easier,” Pantera’s announcement says.
Bitcoin Gets Presidential
The first debate between President Biden and President Trump is set for Thursday on CNN and the stakes for crypto couldn’t be higher.
Interestingly, Axios confirmed rumors Coinage had heard swirling that President Trump would be making an appearance at the Bitcoin conference this July. The Nashville conference is taking place July 25-27 — the week after the Republican National Convention. Trump’s appearance would also be coming off the heels of an endorsement from investor Cathie Wood — who said this weekend Trump would be better for the economy.
As for the debate, we’ll be watching to see if “Bitcoin” or “crypto” get mentioned. Polymarket has odds at just under 50% (which seems surprisingly low, given Trump is now mentioning Bitcoin openly on the campaign trail.) Coinbase’s Stand with Crypto advocacy arm also launched a tool to email CNN to ensure they get a crypto question.
Are Real-World Assets Real?
A lot of people in crypto have been pumping the idea of tokenization for what seems like a while now. But if you look around, not all that much has really been tokenized.
Turns out, it really might be taking longer than we all thought. After a report from consultants at Boston Consulting Group estimated we might see $10 trillion in tokenized assets by 2030, McKinsey came out saying their base case is just $2 trillion by the end of the decade.
Other Web3 News:
Coinage interviewed Injective’s Eric Chen about their mission to double down on financial tooling in Web3
Jump Crypto’s Kanav Kariya — former intern to dominant player in the space — is stepping down
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