The Breakdown First Five - Thursday, September 26, 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. Friday Options

Bitcoin options are set to see a massive quarterly expiry on Friday with more than $5.8B in open interest. Max pain is at $59,000, 8% below current prices, which could make for a volatile end of the week. Sucks to be a market maker with over 20% of positions currently in the money.  Standard Chartered believes big interest is bullish, particularly as fresh bets roll in for the December expiry. 

4. Free Tigran 

Former government workers and compliance officers rallied in front of the UN urging freedom for Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan. You know the story by now, but good to see the pressure continuing. It’s time to bring Tigran home.  

3. ETFs Rolling

Crypto ETFs are on a roll with the Bitcoin products gathering another $106M overnight. Five positive days in a row and Blackrock seems to be making up for lost time with $283M coming in over the past two days. The enthusiasm was infectious, with ETH products catching a bid for the first time in weeks, putting up over $40M on back to back days. The boomers are back. 

2. Harris Edges Toward Crypto

Kamala Harris has continued with the small but meaningful nods toward the crypto industry. On Wednesday, she said the US will “recommit” to global leadership in sectors that “define the next century.” Blockchain was mentioned, alongside AI and quantum computing. The comments come as Coinb… sorry, Stand With Crypto received pushback to granting Harris the ‘supports crypto’ tag. They have now downgraded her back to ‘not enough information’.

1.  China Goes Brrrr

The Beijing Bazooka is here. Earlier this week, the PBoC fired up the money printers, announcing a $71B emergency liquidity fund to be injected into the stock market. Also record rate cuts. Also cutting reserve ratios. Also cash stimulus to the poorest households. Also emergency housing market support. And more to come. The outcome is obvious for risk assets but economists fear Beijing hasn’t and can’t do enough to fix a balance sheet recession.