The Breakdown First Five - Thursday July 6, 2023

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. Mashinsky Investigated

Bloomberg reports that Celsius and former CEO Alex Mashinsky have been investigated by the CFTC. Staff will recommend commissioners file a lawsuit due to misleading conduct and rules breaches. The SEC and DOJ also have investigations on foot according to anonymous sources. Bankruptcy investigators called Celsius’ business deceptive in January.

4. Grogan finds funds

Coinbase director Conor Grogan has tracked down the owner of 6 figures in lost on-chain funds. Grogan has been looking through large inactive ETC wallets from the 2016 Ethereum fork who may be unaware of their dormant tokens. In the process he’s been finding some inventive ways to identify users, including one investor who lost their life savings in a 2019 hack.

3. Land of the Rising Circle

Circle is looking East for new opportunities, seeking to launch a stablecoin in Japan. Legalization under strict new regulations has opened the Japanese market to stablecoin issuers, who can now offer tokens backed by Yen and other fiat currencies. CEO Jeremy Allaire called the regulatory overhaul “the most important thing the government has done.”

2. Hawkish Fed Minutes

Minutes from the Fed’s June meeting have indicated more rate hikes are to come. Almost all members of the FOMC see at least one rate hike before the end of the year, with most expecting two or more. Markets were happy to oblige, pricing in one and a half hikes through December without making a dent in risk appetites.

1. Laser Eyes Larry

Blackrock CEO Larry Fink reintroduced the investing public to Bitcoin, saying it was digitizing gold and made sense as a hedge against “the onerous problems of any one country.” Fink’s interview hit classic Bitcoiner talking points, but repackaged for the Tradfi audience. He said tokenization could “revolutionize finance”. While he couldn’t comment on Blackrock’s ETF application, he said the firm would be working with regulators to fix any problems.

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