The Breakdown First Five - Tuesday, October 15, 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. Trump’s ICO

The day is here, Donald Trump is launching a token. The World Liberty Finance token sale goes live this morning with a stated 100,000 US accredited investors whitelisted. The project is seeking to raise $300M, valuing the token at a $1.5B market cap. No word on when the platform will go live and tokens are unable to be traded for the first 12 months. Still, this could be the most insane ICO in several years as institutional crypto investors scramble for an allocation. 

4. Quantum Countdown

Quantum risk is one step closer after scientists demonstrate the ability to break encryption. Researchers at Shanghai University claim to have used quantum annealing to breach algorithmic protections used in crypto and banking. The paper claimed this was the first time a quantum computer has “posed a real and substantial threat”. Fixes are being worked on, but the acceleration of quantum-safe encryption now seems urgent. 

3. Fink: Bitcoin to Win Election

Blackrock CEO Larry Fink doesn’t think the election matters, Bitcoin wins either way. On the Q3 earnings call, he said that Bitcoin adoption isn’t a function of regulation, it’s a “function of liquidity and transparency.” He compared the financialization of Bitcoin to the growth of the mortgage market, which grew rapidly as analytics and data improved. 

2. Saylor’s Trillion Dollar Bitcoin Bank

Michael Saylor has a vision of the future, a world in which he’s the Chairman of the world’s largest Bitcoin bank. In an interview with Bernstein, Saylor painted the roadmap for Microstrategy to become a trillion dollar company. Among the predictions were $13M BTC and Microstrategy accumulating $150B in Bitcoin, 15x where they are now. He said the firm doesn’t have plans to lend out its Bitcoin at the moment, stating that he prefers to “lend to Bitcoin”.

1. Kamala’s Racial Crypto Pledge

Kamala Harris has weaved crypto policy into a last minute push to attract black male voters. Alongside loans to black entrepreneurs and legalization of marijuana, the Harris campaign committed to enacting a regulatory framework to “Black men and others who participate in this market are protected.” This likely says more about polling data than crypto credentials, with Harris struggling with young black men.