GM friends,
Goldman Sachs ignored us, laughed at us, and fought us. Now, we win.
So pour a coffee and take a chair, because here’s your mid-week crypto update. ☕️📰
Here’s what’s in today’s issue:
- David shares his thoughts on Goldman Sachs owns $418M in BTC ETF shares, Coinbase launching wrapped Bitcoin, Marathon Digital raises $250M for more BTC, MetaMask launches debit card & TON Ventures launches with $40M in the bank.
- Rekt Capital has the latest technical analysis for you on the market.
- Erik has an article on the Puell Multiple: Signaling market tops and bottoms.
- In case you missed it by Rebecca.
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Goldman Sachs Owns $418M in Bitcoin ETF Shares
On Tuesday, it was revealed that American investment firm Goldman Sachs owns $418M in U.S. bitcoin ETF shares.
The disclosure came via an SEC-mandated 13F filing. Investment firms with over $100M in equity assets under management (AUM) are required to disclose their holdings on a quarterly basis to the SEC.
Goldman’s latest 13F filing covers the firm’s equity investments for Q2 2024. Therefore, we know that the firm made its purchases when bitcoin was ranging between $55K to $71K.
But what’s particularly notable about this sudden turn of events is Goldman’s long history of ambivalence or outright antagonism towards bitcoin and the larger crypto industry.
For example, in April, just as the firm was gearing up for its ETF purchases, Goldman’s chief investment officer for the firm’s Wealth Management unit, Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, told the Wall Street Journal that the firm didn’t “think [of bitcoin as] an investment asset class” and that “[they’re] not believers in crypto.” The CIO further stated that their clients had not expressed an interest in bitcoin or crypto.
These people will lie to your face and do the exact opposite behind your back.
As of 2023, Goldman Sachs had $2.81T in AUM. So even though this current investment is a drop in the bucket for them, it’s still significant given yet another financial titan has bent the knee to bitcoin.
Coinbase Teases Launch of Tokenized Bitcoin (cbBTC)
On Wednesday, Coinbase teased on X the launch of a new tokenized bitcoin product, called “cbBTC”.
The relationship between tokenized bitcoin and actual bitcoin is similar to that between stablecoins and dollars. Meaning, tokenized bitcoin are backed 1:1 by the real deal held in custody, and the tokens generally maintain a price peg to the underlying asset.
The largest tokenized bitcoin product by market cap, WBTC, operates as an ERC20 token. So, products like WBTC essentially transfer bitcoin’s liquidity onto other smart-contract based blockchains, which therefore means that these products can be used for DeFi uses like lending and borrowing.
Now, shortly after Coinbase’s post, Base’s lead developer Jesse Pollak took to X and wrote that his team is “going to build a massive bitcoin economy on Base.” So, expect to see some bitcoin-based DeFi products launching on Base soon.
Finally, the timing of Coinbase’s cbBTC announcement is interesting. That’s because some in the crypto community have expressed consternation about the new partnership between BitGo and BiT Global. BitGo manages the bitcoin custody for WBTC, and BiT Global has close business connections with Justin Sun. Mr. Sun has an extremely checkered reputation within the industry.
Therefore, it appears that Coinbase is leveraging the timing of this recent controversy in order to stake a bigger claim on the tokenized bitcoin market.
Marathon Digital (MARA) Raises $250M for More Bitcoin
On Monday, Marathon Digital, the largest publicly-traded bitcoin miner by total market cap, announced that the company is selling $250M in convertible notes in a private investor sale.
And for what purpose? To buy more corn.
Convertible notes are like government bonds, except that a corporation acts as the borrower. Additionally, convertible notes give the investor the option to convert the value of their notes into stock.
Now, within hours of the initial announcement, Marathon followed up in a second press release stating that the offering was oversubscribed (i.e. investor commitments exceeded $250M), and disclosed the notes’ financial details.
Some of those details are as follows: the notes will pay an interest rate of 2.125%; payments will be made on a semi-annual basis; and, the notes will mature in 2031.
With 20K bitcoin currently held in its treasury, Marathon is the second-largest bitcoin holder out of any publicly-traded company. In terms of publicly-traded miners, the company is in first place by a long shot, with more than double the bitcoin than its closest competitor, Hut 8.
Marathon’s latest debt-for-bitcoin offering is consistent with the company’s “full HODL strategy”, which was formally announced on July 25th. In that announcement, the company promised to retain all mined bitcoin for its treasury, as well as “periodically mak[ing] strategic open market purchases.”
LFG.
MetaMask Launches Blockchain-Based Debit Card
MetaMask announced this week that the company has officially launched their first pilot program for a new blockchain-based debit card.
Apparently, several thousand users within the EU and UK can use the new debit card now. And Metamask says that a larger release for Europe is due later this year, with additional pilot launches coming to other global regions over the course of 2024 and 2025.
The mechanics behind that card are very simple. Users swipe their card as they would with any other debit card. But instead of tapping into dollars from a linked bank account, Metamask’s card taps USDC, USDT, or wETH that’s held in the user’s Metamask wallet, on the Linea ETH L2 blockchain. And that’s it.
Metamask first announced in March that the debit card was coming. Their partners for the product are financial payments giant Mastercard and Baanx. The latter is a company that specializes in crypto payments.
Finally, Consensys, the developer behind Metamask, is also the developer of Linea.
TON Ventures Launches with $40M in the Bank
The TON blockchain now has its own venture capital fund, known aptly as TON Ventures.
Announced Wednesday, TON Ventures was launched by TON Foundation developers Ian Wittkopp and Inal Kardan. And according to the developers, TON Ventures has already raised $40M, primarily from “private investors who want to support the long-term growth of the TON ecosystem.”
The plan is for the venture to invest in up-and-coming dApps that are under development on the TON blockchain.
The TON ecosystem has exploded this year, in part due to its tight connection with Telegram, and also because of several popular “tap-to-earn” games like Hamster Kombat, Notcoin, and PixelTap.
The TON blockchain’s native coin – TON – has a current market cap valuation at $17B, which places it within crypto’s top-ten most valued assets.
In today’s edition, the following cryptocurrencies will be analysed & discussed:
- Injective (INJ)
- Solana (SOL)
- Bonk (BONK)
- Optimism (OP)
- Vanar Chain (VANRY)
Injective — INJ/USDT
INJ is showcasing initial signs of reclaiming the black $18 level as support, despite the fake-breakdown from two weeks ago.
Any dips into the black $18 level would be a retest attempt and price stability above $18 is crucial for this early-stage bullish divergence to play out.
The RSI is developing a Higher Low (green) whereas the price action may be developing a Lower Low (blue) to bring about a budding bullish divergence.
Hold $18 (black) as support and INJ could challenge for a revisit of the red $21.68 resistance.
More, the RSI itself may be developing an Ascending Triangle; the green Higher Low is the base of it and the red boxed resistance the top of it.
Breaking the red resistance on the RSI would not only see a breakout on the RSI but it would confirm the validation of the bullish divergence and likely precede upside in INJ’s price action.
Solana — SOL/USDT
SOL is still sitting on the ~$145 (blue) Monthly level, as it has been doing for the past 2.5-months.
Of course, price has been downside wicking as long as into the ~$120 area (orange and slightly below) as part of a volatile retest, but SOL has maintained itself above $145 every time such a volatile downside wick occurred.
Continued stability at $145 would enable a move via the red path towards $165 (blue).
Price strength confirmation at current levels is crucial now.
So far, so good.
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The Puell Multiple: Signaling Market Tops and Bottoms
The Puell Multiple tells us something about how overheated or oversold the market is. In the past, the indicator has been useful as a signal for both market bottoms and tops.
While the value for market tops is in a rather linear downtrend, the Puell values for Bitcoin bear market bottoms, have been pretty constant throughout the years.
Crypto Market News
- Bitcoin whale transactions hit their highest levels since April on August 5 and 6. Source
- FTX and Alameda Research have been ordered to pay $12.7 billion to creditors. Source
- Robinhood’s Q2 crypto revenue jumped 161% due to rising trading volume. Source
- Bitstamp has partnered with Stripe to allow European customers to buy crypto through Stripe’s fiat-to-crypto on-ramp. Source
- Standard Chartered’s subsidiary Mox has become the first digital bank in Hong Kong to offer Bitcoin ETFs. Source
- Coinbase has expanded its crypto services to Hawaii including crypto staking. Source
- Marathon Digital has announced it will stamp “Made in USA” on all the Bitcoin blocks the company mines in the US. Source
- Marathon Digital is planning to sell $250 million in convertible bonds to raise money to buy more Bitcoin. Source
- Bitcoin miner Argo Blockchain has repaid its $35 million bailout loan from Galaxy Digital. Source
- Metaplanet has bought another $3.4 million worth of Bitcoin to bring its total holdings to 303. Source
- Bitcoin miner Bitfarms co-founder has stepped down from the board. Source
- El Salvador has announced a $1.6 billion investment for its Bitcoin City from a Turkish holding company. Source
Coins and Projects
- The USABTC policy group is proposing to create a tax-free digital economic zone for Bitcoin. Source
- Ethereum’s burn rate has dropped to its lowest level this year after gas fees have decreased. Source
- Lido’s community has voted to approve the integrations of Axelar and Wormhole as the solution to bridge staked ETH to the BNB Chain. Source
- Immutable will wind down its NFT marketplace on August 13. Source
- Ripple has started testing its RLUSD stablecoin on Ethereum and XRP Ledger. Source
- Solana has hit a new all-time high against ETH after the market’s recent rebound. Source
- A spot Solana ETF has been approved by Brazil’s Securities and Exchange Commission. Source
- Ethena Labs has launched its USDe stablecoin on the Solana network. Source
- Franklin Templeton’s tokenized money market fund has launched on Arbitrum. Source
- Grayscale has announced the launch of its Bittensor Trust and Sui Trust. Source
- Grayscale has launched an investment fund for MakerDAO’s MKR token. Source
- NEAR has launched its Signatures feature on the mainnet to make transactions between networks easier. Source
- Ripple has been fined $125 million as part of its litigation with the SEC. Source
- Toncoin has been listed on Binance and TON’s price jumped 10%. Source
Macro News
- The Democrat party in the US has launched a “crypto for Harris” campaign to rival Trump’s. Source
- Kamala Harris may continue the Biden administration’s crackdown on crypto as the industry braces for the unveiling of her economic policy. Source
- The US Producer Price Index (PPI) increased 0.1% last month which is less than expected. Source
- Ex-Bank of Japan official has ruled out another interest rate rise in 2024. Source
Thank you so much for your support, and I truly hope that today’s issue will give you insights needed to help you master your wealth.
If you are reading this it means you are on the free version of the Wealth Mastery Investor Report, which is great for news and tips on the crypto markets.
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See you next time!
Lark and the Wealth Mastery Team
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Wealth Mastery (Lark Davis, and the Wealth Mastery writing team) are not providing you individually tailored investment advice. Nor is Wealth Mastery registered to provide investment advice, is not a financial adviser, and is not a broker-dealer. The material provided is for educational purposes only. Wealth Mastery is not responsible for any gains or losses that result from your cryptocurrency investments. Investing in cryptocurrency involves a high degree of risk and should be considered only by persons who can afford to sustain a loss of their entire investment. Investors should consult their financial adviser before investing in cryptocurrency.
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