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Bitcoin rebounds to AUD $95k as Mt. Gox sale fears “overstated”
The world’s biggest digital currency has seen weekly gains of 12%+ as it pushes back toward the AUD $100k milestone.
Bitcoin’s price stumbled in late July following massive sale pressure from two independent parties. First, the German government was forced to liquidate US $3b worth of Bitcoin it seized from an illegal pirating ring. This was then compounded by bankrupt exchange Mt. Gox announcing it would begin repaying victims of its 2014 hack at around the same time.
So after weeks of stability, suddenly billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin were re-entering supply – and investors quickly jumped off the ship. At its lowest, BTC sunk to AUD $80k , and fears of another crypto winter started to grip the community.
However, like almost always, the FUD was simply an overreaction to the sentiment, rather than the reality of the sell-off. According to several analysts, the sales pressure of both Mt. Gox’s repayments and the German government’s liquidations was a drop in the bucket compared to normal BTC volume.
And this prediction was quickly proven right, as the market realised their doubts may have been “overestimated”. Within a week of its monthly low, Bitcoin was knocking on the door of AUD $90k.
And now, after a seven-day gain of 12%, BTC has settled back to around AUD $96k, with a new all-time high not entirely out of the question in the coming months.
BlackRock’s tokenised fund BUIDL surpasses US $500m AUM
The appetite for treasury funds hosted on blockchains continues to grow, with BlackRock’s tokenised fund continuing to attract investors.
The world’s largest financial institution, BlackRock, has become a valuable ally of the crypto industry over the past twelve months. The financial giant manages the world’s largest Bitcoin ETF by some margin (IBIT) and has also ventured into several tokenisation projects alongside major blockchain players.
BlackRock’s flagship real-world asset (RWA) fund, BUIDL, is buitl (hah!) atop the Ethereum network and is pegged 1:1 with the US dollar. It’s a treasury fund that typically invests in government debt, allowing for a relatively safe yield atop the US currency.
Treasury funds in general have been growing in popularity – but BUIDL is one of the largest to offer this service alongside the benefits of blockchain technology. Earlier this week, the fund eclipsed US $500m (approx. AUD $740m) in assets under management (AUM), a huge milestone for both BlackRock and the tokenised RWA industry.
On top of excellent adoption from individual investors, BUIDL is enjoying the limelight across several DeFi protocols and similar platforms. Ondo Finance, the world’s largest decentralised RWA provider, threw its hat into the ring with a US $100m investment in BUIDL. And over in TradFi circles, US-based brokerage firm FalconX began accepting BUIDL as collateral for derivatives trading on its platform.
The trend toward tokenised treasury funds is showing no signs of slowing, with decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) Maker running a competition to invest US $1b into the asset class. BUIDL, Ondo Finance and Securitize have all already applied for a cut of the prize pool3.
Telegram GameFi explodes as Hamster Kombat Ticks over 250 million players
The messaging platform is experiencing an influx of idle, blockchain-based games with millions of new users onboarded daily.
Are you a sucker for idle clicker games?
Okay, at first glance they don’t seem overly exciting. Basically, you click (or tap) an icon within the application to earn tiny amounts of a native currency. You can then use that currency to upgrade your earning capabilities through various means, which grows exponentially. By the “late stage” of such games, it might take hours, or days of passive gameplay to even sniff the next earning upgrade.
They’re simple – but that’s part of the charm. The dopamine rush of “money goes up” is hard to deny, especially when you can just throw a game on in the background while doing chores, watching Netflix or reading the latest crypto news.
It’s easy to see why these applications have taken crypto GameFi by storm. They are predicated on an internal currency, and by adding real-world profitability, people can feel productive while not doing a whole lot.
Telegram, a popular messaging app, has become the de facto home for the current GameFi craze and has fully embraced the title. By adding new features, such as multitasking, blockchain developers around the world are flocking to the platform to release their newest projects.
In the last month alone we’ve seen the release of Musk Empire, a game similar to its competitors with one exception – gameplay is centered around building your superhuman version of Elon Musk.
And in even more encouraging news, the global sensation Hamster Kombat has surpassed 250 million users within barely four months of being live. This means the game has captured nearly a quarter of all Telegram users – an incredible feat, although it does raise the question of whether the developers may be representing their userbase somewhat… creatively.
Nevertheless, millions of people have been onboarded into the Web3 world within the past six months thanks to Telegram’s role as the unofficial home of blockchain-based clicker games.
The ambition doesn’t end there though. Hamster Kombat’s ultimate goal is to “reach 1 billion people worldwide who will be a part of this whole project and will be learning about the blockchain and web3 worlds.”
Trump promises to attend Bitcoin 2024 conference despite assassination attempt
The presidential candidate is set to attend the Nashville event later in July and also recently announced JD Vance, a pro-crypto republican, as his running mate.
The biggest international news story of the year hit Australia earlier this week following the failed assassination of US presidential candidate Donald Trump. Despite the obvious political consequences of such a monumental event, the outcome has also spilled into the cryptosphere. In the past fortnight, Trump made several moves to entrench himself as the “pro-crypto candidate”. And the news of his survival, alongside a handful of other factors, sent the market into a frenzy – pushing Bitcoin back above AUD $90k.
One of Trump’s clearest demonstrations of support came last week, when the candidate was announced as a lead speaker at the major crypto conference – Bitcoin 2024. The event, which will take place in Nashville on July 27th, is expecting upwards of 30,000 attendees from all corners of the Web3 world.
You could probably excuse Trump from avoiding certain public commitments given the political violence he experienced just this weekend. But the leader of the Republican party has not been deterred, and is still set to take centre stage in the crypto community in less than ten days.
Attending one of the US’ biggest Bitcoin conferences wasn’t Trump’s only crypto-positive moves in recent times. In the aftermath of the attempted assassination, the Republican party announced Trump’s second-in-command – JD Vance.
JD Vance, an Ohio-based senator, made a splash in the crypto scene earlier this year after proposing amendments to the House-approved Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act.
Put it all together, and the Republican party is amassing a lengthy rap sheet of pro-crypto maneuvers. Considering the US is just about the biggest digital currency market in the world, it’s no surprise that the outcome of the 2024 election will have a major impact on the Web3 world going forward.
Ben Knight
