The Breakdown First Five - Friday, September 6, 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. Durov Speaks Out

Telegram founder Pavel Durov has commented on his arrest and the future of Telegram. He said the service sometimes can’t agree with regulators on the “right balance between privacy and security.” In which case, Telegram is ready to exit those jurisdictions. Meanwhile, the messaging app has modified its terms of service, implying a slight increase to moderation and reporting functions. 

4. Arthur Predicts Doom

After a rough week in markers, Arthur Hayes predicts that it's about to get worse. He is calling for $50,000 Bitcoin over the weekend, a 10% drop from already depressed current prices. Arthur’s thesis has been that a closing rate differential between Japan and other nations is sucking liquidity out of the system, overwhelming the benefit of incoming rate cuts. With weak jobs data expected this morning, this weekend could be a bumpy one. 

3. DWF Stablecoin

Market maker DWF Labs has announced a synthetic collateralized stablecoin. The product will accept collateral in the form of major stablecoins, BTC, ETH, some blue chip tokens and a limited list of "long tail alts.” Think degen MakerDAO. DWF was embroiled in a price manipulation scandal earlier this year, but denied the allegations. 

2. Blockstream Mining Token

Blockstream has issued a third round of security tokens backed by their mining hashrate. Each token represents 1 PH/s worth of mining power. The previous round was issued in 2021 and delivered 32% in Bitcoin denominated returns over its three year maturity. This round of tokens is compliant with EU regulations and will be available to qualified non-US investors. 

1. Dismal ETF Flows

Bitcoin ETFs saw $211M worth of outflows yesterday. Compounded with massive outflows over the previous few days, the products lost more than half a billion dollars so far in the shortened holiday week. We’re now at seven straight days of outflows. This is already the worst week for Bitcoin ETFs in over a month and is on track to be the worst week since launch.