- The Breakdown
- Posts
- Tether FUD Hits Bitcoin as WSJ Hints at Criminal Probes
Tether FUD Hits Bitcoin as WSJ Hints at Criminal Probes
Plus Microstrategy’s 1500% Surge Outshines S&P Ahead of Earnings
Nathaniel Whittemore
October 28, 2024
The Breakdown First Five - Monday, October 28, 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. New Satoshi Statue
A new statue of Satoshi has emerged in Lugano, Switzerland. And then disappeared. The impressive new statue is visible only from certain angles, melting into the picturesque surrounds of Lake Lugano. The artist Valentina Picozzi aka Satoshigallery said it took 21 months to create. The statue was unveiled as part of the Plan B conference.
Grateful for the opportunity to make a statue of Satoshi Nakamoto for the city of Lugano 🇨🇭displayed in Parco Ciani.
The statue disappears in front of the audience and what’s left of Satoshi in visible “between the lines” (of the code) for all the #bitcoin users.
#bitcoinart
— Satoshigallery (@satoshigallery)
12:21 PM • Oct 25, 2024
4. Base Outranks Tron
Coinbase layer 2 Base was the leading blockchain for stablecoin transactions on Saturday, outranking Ethereum mainnet and Tron for the first time. The platform has been steadily gaining market share over the past 2 months as merchant friendly features are rolled out. Meanwhile USDC transactions are outranking Tether so far this month. The battle for the stablecoin industry is heating up.
For the first time ever, @base led all chains for total stablecoin transfer volume in a single day.
On October 26th, Base processed 18.1B+ in stablecoin transaction volume (99.9% was in USDC) accounting for over 30% of all stablecoin transaction volume that day. x.com/i/web/status/1…
— Peter Schroeder (@peterschroederr)
3:15 PM • Oct 27, 2024
3. US Government Recovers
The US Government has recovered 88% of the $20M in crypto that was hacked at the end of last week. Within 24 hours the hacker returned the funds, excluding a small amount that was laundered through sketchy crypto exchanges. A good result for the government, who would have faced serious questions about private key security. Still, the return begs the question of how the situation was resolved so quickly and quietly.
𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: $𝟭𝟵𝗠 𝗨𝗦 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱
The US Government’s address has just received $19.3M back following yesterday’s reported hack, less than 24 hours after the initial address breach.
88% of the compromised USD value has now been… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel)
2:41 PM • Oct 25, 2024
2. Microstrategy Surges
Microstrategy hit a new high with a 10% surge on Friday. The company is now outperforming every company in the S&P 500 over the past 5 years and has stronger returns than Microsoft since 1999 with a staggering 1500% gain. Earnings are due on Wednesday which will end the blackout period and open the door to another massive round of fundraising and BTC purchases.
Microstrategy is the only company in the world that benefits when major corporations announce they may enter their industry and try to compete with them.
The more "competitors" that $MSTR has the more rocket fuel there is for btc price increases.
— Bastiat (@Bastiat677637)
3:13 PM • Oct 25, 2024
1. Tether FUD
A new round of Tether FUD from the Wall Street Journal snuffed out Bitcoin’s momentum. They claimed criminal charges and sanctions are being considered, the first time referencing specifics about a criminal investigation. CEO Paolo Ardoino said the WSJ is “regurgitating old noise” and he would know if the company was being investigated. Bitcoin puked 4% on the news and has sluggishly recovered over the weekend. Most believe this is just another round of baseless FUD.