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Crypto4Harris Town Hall Lacks Campaign Presence

Plus Fed Eyes Victory on Inflation as CPI Falls Below 3%

Author

Nathaniel Whittemore
August 15, 2024

The Breakdown First Five - Thursday, August 15, 2024

Welcome back to The Breakdown First Five — the 5 most interesting and/or important stories in bitcoin, crypto, and markets to start your day.

Crypto4Harris Town Hall Lacks Campaign Presence

5. Blackrock Coming for Satoshi

It’s no secret the Bitcoin ETFs have been wildly successful but the products are now looking like they will overtake Satoshi to become the largest Bitcoin holders. Blackrock is already the third largest Bitcoin holder, behind Binance and Satoshi. Fidelity is currently in ninth place. At the current pace, the Bitcoin ETFs will become larger than the Satoshi wallets sometime in October. 

4. US Government Moving $600M BTC

For the first time there is some doubt that the government is selling when their coins are on the move. The US Government sent 10,000 Bitcoin to a wallet linked to Coinbase Prime yesterday. The coins had been moved two weeks ago to an unknown wallet. Now that the government has contracted with Coinbase to custody and trade their Bitcoin, we really can’t tell their intentions. The market reaction was muted, perhaps because of this uncertainty. 

3. Institutional Adoption

Another round of 13F filings show continued institutional demand for Bitcoin ETFs. In the second quarter Goldman Sachs added $400M worth while Morgan Stanley bought $188M. It’s unclear whether this represented early demand from MS clients, who have only recently approved financial advisors to suggest the products. The dark horse additional was Paul Tudor Jones, who has added $30M worth of Bitcoin to his hedge fund.

2. Inflation Fight Over

A below expectation CPI print has left commentators suggesting the Fed can declare victory on inflation. Headline CPI came in at 2.9%, the first time below 3% since March 2021. Estimates of Core PCE inflation suggest a 2% rate excluding shelter and alarmingly low 1.3% inflation over the past 3 months. The Feds attention will likely turn to rising unemployment to guide whether a jumbo 50bps cut is necessary in September. 

1. Crypto Progressives Gather 

The Crypto4Harris Town Hall was heavy on the Crypto and light on the Harris. No representative of the campaign was present, but Chuck Schumer headlined with a pledge to pass pro-crypto legislation by the end of the year. Bitcoin was only mentioned once when Mark Cuban denigrated Bitcoin maxis lining up for Trump. Zero mention of chokepoint or the SEC crackdown left non-partisan crypto industry folk feeling overlooked.