The Breakdown First Five - Wednesday, August 14, 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. Coinbase Wrapped

Coinbase have teased their own ERC-20 Bitcoin wrapper to compete with the now Justin Sun aligned wBTC. Called cbBTC, the token will be available on Base but few other details are known. Many suggested Coinbase could take over the market after Bitgo’s announcement that wBTC would now be governed by a joint venture with Justin Sun. 

4. Fairshake v Brown

Fairshake has committed $12M to unseating Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio. This is the largest single spending commitment from Fairshake, which has grown to become the largest outside SuperPAC during this cycle. Smaller commitments were announced in the Michigan and Arizona Senate races, both going against Republican candidates. Fairshake said they were seeking to build a “sustainable bipartisan coalition” by spending against both parties. 

3. Democrats Crypto Town Hall

Crypto4Harris will hold their first crypto town hall tonight with the goal of engaging with the campaign in a meaningful way and pushing for a “formal reset.” Several pro-crypto lawmakers will speak, but it’s unclear whether senior campaign officials will be present. Crypto4Harris representatives said it was “incumbent upon the space” to engage if they have any hope of shaping policy. 

2. Bitcoin: Made in US

Marathon Digital is planting their flag on the blockchain. The Bitcoin miner has begun to stamp every block they mine with the phrase “Made in USA.” They claim they are the only miner able to do this due to their proprietary mining pool. The stamp is an obvious reference to the Trump platform. Some are suggesting that clear provenance could have some dangerous side effects for future fungibility via geographic filtering. 

1. Harris Hiring Chokepointers

The Harris campaign has appointed key architects of Operation Choke Point 2.0. Former NEC officials Brian Deese and Bharat Ramamurti have been tasked with refreshing the Biden economic platform ahead of November’s election. Both have ties to Elizabeth Warren, with Ramamurti working on her 2020 Presidential run. Frontrunners for Treasury Secretary are also remaining status quo, with Wally Adeyemo and Lael Brainard in the mix.