Mt Gox Set to Distribute $9B in Bitcoin

The Breakdown First Five - Monday, June 24, 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.

5. Big ETF Outflows Continue

For the second week in a row the Bitcoin ETFs have seen more than $500M worth of net outflows. Combined the past two weeks are every bit as nasty as the April outflows. Fidelity led the way with $417M worth of redemptions for the week. Many analysts think we’re watching a large basis trade unwind, as yield from the position drops below the treasury rate. 

4. Winklevi Break Donation Rules

Last week the Winklevoss twins grabbed headlines with a pair of $1M donations to the Trump campaign. Part of the donation has now been refunded as their donation exceeded the limit for individual donors. The Winklevi have been spending big during this campaign, attending a $300,000 per head Trump dinner and giving $5M each to Fairshake. This Trump donation seemed like a statement, telling their industry peers it was ok to overtly support Trump.

3. Bitcoin Bust

It was a rough weekend for Bitcoin with the price falling below $61,000. Last week ended with heavy FUD on news that the German government was shuffling around some of their $3B Bitcoin stack. Panic on the timeline as traders imagined that entire stash being liquidated into thin markets. So far only $195M has been sent to exchanges, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens to the rest.

2. Dell Thinking Bitcoin?

A curious twitter exchange led to speculation that Dell might be considering a Bitcoin plan. There’s not much to go on, CEO and majority shareholder Michael Dell tweeted “scarcity creates value” prompting a response from Michael Saylor. Dell confirmed that he was talking about Bitcoin via a meme. The massive stock price rise for Dell has made its CEO one of the wealthiest men on the planet and Dell has $5.8B in cash on hand. Dell was also briefly the largest merchant who accepted Bitcoin in 2015, so this would be familiar territory.

1. Gox Unlocks

The Mt Gox trustee has signaled they are set to begin the Bitcoin distribution in July. More than $9B in Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash will be returned to creditors. There are no details whether the distribution will be conducted in stages or all at once, but the deadline to complete distribution is in October. After more than a decade of waiting and monumental FUD, the Gox unlock is finally here.