Top Stories of The Week
‘Bitcoin smells trouble’ as banks are stressed and ‘yields are puking’ – Strike CEO
Several regional banks in the United States are facing renewed stress despite strengthening their finances after the 2023 banking crisis, and Bitcoin could benefit from any liquidity crisis that follows.
Strike CEO Jack Mallers sees the banking stress as validation that Bitcoin is correctly pricing in an impending liquidity crisis, opining that the Federal Reserve’s inevitable response will drive BTC prices higher.
“Bitcoin is accurately smelling trouble right now,” he said on the Primal social media platform on Friday. “The US is going to have to inject some of that sweet, sweet liquidity soon and print a ton of money or else their fiat empire goes kaboom.”
‘Ethereum could flip Bitcoin’ like Wall Street flipped gold: Tom Lee
Ethereum could eventually surpass Bitcoin’s market share in a similar manner to how US equities overtook gold 54 years ago, when the US abandoned the gold standard, according to BitMine chair Tom Lee.
“Ethereum could flip Bitcoin similar to how Wall Street and equities flipped gold post-71,” Lee said in an interview with ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood on Thursday.
Bitcoin’s market capitalization is about 4.6 times larger than Ethereum’s, standing at roughly $2.17 trillion compared to $476.33 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. Lee, who oversees BitMine’s Ethereum accumulation strategy, suggested Ethereum could rise in the same way the US dollar rose to dominance after 1971, when US President Richard Nixon made the US dollar “fully synthetic” and no longer backed by gold.
Ripple seeks to buy $1 billion XRP tokens for new treasury: Report
Ripple Labs is reportedly on the cusp of launching a fundraising effort to purchase $1 billion worth of its XRP token to hold in a digital asset treasury, according to Bloomberg.
The fundraiser is being organized through a special purpose acquisition company or SPAC, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing anonymous people with knowledge of the matter.
The digital asset treasury will consist of the freshly bought XRP and Ripple will also throw in some of its own stockpile, but the exact terms of the transaction are still being hashed out and could change before the deal is inked, according to Bloomberg’s sources.
95% of corporate ETH buys happened in Q3 — start of Ether supercycle?
Nearly all of the Ethereum accumulated by public companies to date occurred within a three-month window between July and September, according to recent data.
This comes as several crypto executives predict the price of Ether will rise by as much as 200% before the end of the year.
“95% of all ETH held by public companies was purchased in the past quarter alone,” Bitwise Invest said on Wednesday, referring to the $19.13 billion held in public treasuries, equivalent to roughly 4% of Ether’s total supply.
Ether set to go ‘nuclear’ with 3 active ‘supply vacuums’ — Analyst
The price of Ether (ETH) has nowhere to go but up, according to an analyst, with 40% of Ether now out of circulation amid record institutional demand.
“Ethereum has never experienced a market cycle with all three supply vacuums active at once,” said pseudonymous analyst Crypto Gucci on Tuesday.
Crypto Gucci noted that digital asset treasuries (DATs) did not exist in the last market cycle. Over the past few months, DATs have amassed a whopping 5.9 million ETH, worth around $24 billion and equivalent to 4.9% of the total supply, according to StrategicEthReserve.
These entities will hold the asset for long-term yields.
Crypto Gucci stated that Ether has entered this cycle with record institutional demand and the smallest liquid float in its history:
“When demand meets a shrinking supply like this, price doesn’t just go up, it goes nuclear.”
Most Memorable Quotations
“Ethereum could flip Bitcoin similar to how Wall Street and equities flipped gold post 71.”
Tom Lee, chair of BitMine
“I like to say that we’re the securities and innovation commission now.”
Paul Atkins, chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission
“I think there’s a very high chance this is the start of the bull market.”
Alex Becker, crypto trader
“That is why Bitcoin is based on energy: you can issue fake fiat currency, and every government in history has done so, but it is impossible to fake energy.”
Elon Musk, billionaire entrepreneur
“One of the things I would ask everyone to do, both reporters and otherwise, is to hold traditional finance accountable for, yes — I agree that the crypto industry should be held to the same standard around AML [Anti-Money Laundering], KYC [Know Your Customer], OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control] compliance: Yes, yes, yes.”
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple
“95% of all ETH held by public companies was purchased in the past quarter alone.”
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $106,695 Ether (ETH) at $3,859 and XRP at $2.32. The total market cap is at $3.61 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Dash (DASH) at 35.97%, Bittensor (TAO) at 30.81% and Story (IP) at 13.66%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) at 32.68%, Aptos (APT) at 19.77% and SPX6900 (SPX) at 16.81%.
For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.
Prediction of The Week
Bitcoin ‘bull run is over,’ traders say, with 50% BTC price crash warning
Bitcoin fell to $103,500 on Friday, resulting in over $916 million in liquidations of leveraged long positions and dampening sentiment in BTC markets.
Investors appear to be losing confidence after two straight weeks of failing to hold prices above $110,000. But does this mean the bull run is over?
Bitcoin may only have a few days of price expansion left in the cycle, especially if it follows historical patterns from past bull runs, according to pseudonymous analyst CryptoBird.
The Bitcoin “bull run ends in 10 days,” the analyst said in an X thread on Tuesday, basing the forecast on previous cycles.
Cycle Peak Countdown shows that the Bitcoin bull run is 99.3% done, as weak hands are shaken out “in a classic pre-peak pattern,” the analyst said.
Top FUD of The Week
Swiss regulator GESPA takes aim at FIFA’s NFT platform in formal complaint
Switzerland’s Gambling Supervisory Authority (GESPA), the country’s gambling regulator, has filed a complaint against FIFA’s non-fungible token platform FIFA Collect, alleging that it is an unlicensed gambling provider.
On Friday, GESPA announced the complaint, alleging the platform’s “competitions,” which feature user rewards like airdrop campaigns and challenges, constitute gambling under current Swiss regulations due to the element of chance in claiming rewards. GESPA wrote:
“Participation in the competitions is only possible in exchange for a monetary stake, with monetary benefits to be won. Whether participants win a prize depends on random draws or similar procedures.”
Ocean, Fetch.ai feud escalates to legal threats as Binance restricts deposits
A feud between Fetch.ai CEO Humayun Sheikh and the Ocean Protocol Foundation has escalated into legal threats, onchain accusations and a reaction from Binance, all centering on about 286 million Fetch.ai (FET) tokens worth about $84 million.
The conflict stems from the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance, a 2024 merger that combined AI-focused crypto projects Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol and SingularityNET under a shared token framework.
On Wednesday, Sheikh alleged that Ocean Protocol minted and transferred millions of OCEAN tokens before the merger. He said the project later converted them into FET and moved large sums to centralized exchanges and market-making firms without proper disclosure.
Bitcoin needs a fresh catalyst to avoid a ‘deeper correction’ — Analysts
Bitcoin may struggle to sustain its upward trend unless something triggers more excitement among investors, according to Glassnode.
“Without a renewed catalyst to lift prices back above $117.1k, the market risks deeper contraction toward the lower boundary of this range,” Glassnode said in a report published on Wednesday.
“Historically, when price fails to hold this zone, it has often preceded prolonged mid- to long-term corrections,” Glassnode said, pointing out the increase in profit-taking among long-term holders in recent times, which may signal “demand exhaustion.”
Top Magazine Stories of The Week
Back to Ethereum: How Synthetix, Ronin and Celo saw the light
Synthetix and Aave are making the Ethereum L1 great for DeFi again, while Ronin, Celo and Phala set up shop on L2s.
Binance shakes up Korea, Morgan Stanley’s security tokens in Japan: Asia Express
South Korea finally greenlights Binance return, exchanges adopt a fail-proof formula for emerging markets, and more.
Sharplink exec shocked by level of BTC and ETH ETF hodling: Joseph Chalom
SharpLink Gaming co-CEO Joseph Chalom says BlackRock’s Bitcoin and Ether ETFs marked a “mission accomplished” moment.
Editorial Staff
When privacy is a privilege: Ontology’s Jun Li on blockchain-based digital ID
“Some insurance companies will put telemetry devices on the cars to collect your driving information. Every year, your insurance pricing will be based on your behaviour data.”
Read more
Elon Musk is worth 100K followers: Yat Siu, X Hall of Flame
His followers include William Shatner and Paris Hilton, but Animoca’s Yat Siu says Elon Musk would have a much greater impact: X Hall of Flame
Read moreEther’s price to go ‘nuclear,’ Ripple seeks $1B XRP buy: Hodler’s Digest, Oct. 12 – 18