The Breakdown First Five - Friday, September 27, 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. Zimbabwe Devalues

Zimbabwe have officially devalued their gold-backed currency by 40%. The currency, known as the Zig was introduced six months ago in an effort to quell inflation and push back on dollarization. Officially the currency had maintained its value well, but has been trading at a 50% discount on the black market. The “gold-backed” currency is not convertible to gold nor pegged to a particular amount of gold. The devaluation raises questions of what the point even was. 

4. FTX Distributions Not Set to Begin

Contrary to your favorite influencer, the FTX estate is not set to begin distributions today. The rumor spread like wildfire over the weekend through the CT influencer network, leading to a runup in FTT. I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. The actual story is that the bankruptcy court will likely approve the distribution plan next Monday and the estate could take months to pay out. Estimates of reinvestment into crypto markets are closer to $1.5B rather than the $16B rumor. 

3. Lummis: Senate Control In Play

Senator Cynthia Lummis has highlighted control of the senate as a big deal for crypto legislation. All work on crypto bills this year have died after reaching the senate, largely stymied by Senate Banking Committee chairman Sherrod Brown. Lummis said that Tim Scott is the GOP frontrunner to take over the Committee and has pushed the idea of a dedicated digital assets subcommittee, to finally get the legislative work done. 

2. Sentiment Overheated

A couple of green candles and everyone loses their mind. Santiment has warned that the crypto bull run could be snuffed out if you guys can’t play it cool. Bitcoin is not even at all time highs, but Santiment is seeing sentiment at multi-month highs already. Bullish posts on CT are outweighing the bears almost 2 to 1. Coinbase has risen to a top 400 app. Santiment warned, “markets historically always move in the opposite direction of the crowd’s expectations.”

1.  CZ Free

After spending four months behind bars, CZ is once again a free man. His Friday release saw a simple ‘gm’ post, resulting in rousing welcome back from the industry. Having served his time, CZ is moving on to his education startup, AI and biotech investing as well as making it two thirds of the way through writing his memoir while sleeping on the bottom bunk. We don’t know what CZ will get up to next, but it won’t have anything to do with Binance. End of an era.