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Nasdaq Plummets 3.6% in Worst Day Since 2022
Plus Bitstamp Begins Distributing $2.5B in Mt Gox Bitcoin
Nathaniel Whittemore
July 25, 2024
The Breakdown First Five - Thursday, July 25, 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. Revolut Secures UK Banking License
Crypto-friendly neobank Revolut has been granted their UK banking license after a three year wait. The firm has long been a cornerstone of the British crypto industry but operated as a non bank fintech platform. The new licensing will allow them to expand their services and slowly integrate crypto into more traditional banking operations.
My thoughts on @RevolutApp finally getting its UK banking licence.
It's UK Banking license will allow it to offer overdrafts, loans, and savings products to its more than 9m UK consumers.
🧠 This is a huge moment for Revolut and UK Fintech. Revolut has talked a big game on the… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— Simon Taylor (@sytaylor)
7:58 AM • Jul 25, 2024
4. Fold to SPAC
Bitcoin savings and rewards company Fold plans to go public via SPAC later this year. The deal has been approved by the board and will value the company at $365M. This will be the first major public exit for a Bitcoin only venture backed company, with Ten31 the major investors. The company plans to hold their treasury partially in Bitcoin.
SPACs are still happening.
Fold is a bitcoin rewards product... you get rewards for using your debit card, affiliate fees, etc.
Now planning to go public via SPAC at a $365M pre-money valuation
— Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi)
6:47 PM • Jul 24, 2024
3. Proton Wallet
Proton has unveiled a self-custodial Bitcoin wallet. The company is best known for their internet privacy products, Proton Mail and Proton VPN. The wallet will be open source and allow users to send Bitcoin via linked email addresses. The aim is to make a beginner friendly wallet. It seems the attack on onchain privacy in US scuttled plans to maximize privacy, with critics pointing to the obvious limitations.
With Proton Wallet, you pre-sign a pool of receiving addresses with your PGP key; these are used to receive BTC. Once used they are deleted from the pool.
Proton tries to keep everything as private as possible, and stores almost nothing. However, they do state:
"Users like… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— adam anderson (@bc1984adam)
1:04 PM • Jul 24, 2024
2. Bitstamp Gox Distribution
Bitstamp have confirmed they will begin distributing Mt Gox Bitcoin to creditors today. The distribution could take up to one week. UK based individuals will not be included in this round and will need to wait a “few months.” Based on on-chain data it seems Bitstamp has received around $2.5B worth of Bitcoin. Kraken confirmed $3B in Bitcoin was distributed on Monday.
66% of Mt. Gox creditor funds distributed ✅
I don't expect too much in the way of price impact tbh - 'couple dips then up only' etc.
[shoutout @JA_Maartun for the gud dashboard on @cryptoquant_com]
— Tom Mitchelhill (@thecryptojourno)
8:01 AM • Jul 25, 2024
1. Nasdaq Meltdown
The Nasdaq Composite Index had its worst day since 2022, falling 3.6%. The index is now more than 7% off recent highs as big tech leaders crumble. Tesla earnings were a debacle, reporting declining profits and lacking direction on automated driving. The stock was down 12%, its largest single day fall since 2020. Small cap outperformance continues, with the Russell 2000 only taking a 2.1% decline. Bitcoin held up relatively well until an evening crash.
This is the chart of the day for me.
$QQQ - mostly high-flying tech stocks / Mag-7 has had a meltdown
$IWM - mostly "value" + garbage risk stocks steady and climbingRotation or otherwise but unwinding 6 months of relative value in a few days is always bloody.
— Zaheer (@SplitCapital)
4:50 PM • Jul 24, 2024