The Breakdown First Five - Tuesday, November 12, 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. Bitcoin Reserve a Priority

The strategic Bitcoin reserve is rapidly transforming from a fantasy campaign road promise into a priority for the new administration. Senator Lummis believes she can get it done quickly with bipartisan support if it has the support of the people. Market structure bills for altcoin clarity seem way down the list as Bitcoin’s geostrategic importance takes center stage. Rumors are swirling about new nation state adoption to be announced soon. 

4. Deck Soaked

Former Alameda Capital CEO Sam Trabucco has finally washed ashore, agreeing to forfeit a $70M claim against the company. He will also hand his $2.5M Yacht, named “Soak my Deck”, and $9M in San Francisco real estate to FTX creditors. While he didn’t admit fault and won’t face jail time, this is another loose end tied up in the FTX saga. 

3. Saylor Speeding Up

Microstrategy executed their largest ever buy, purchasing $2B worth of Bitcoin at an average price of $74,463. This was a 7.3% increase in Bitcoin holdings, all in one hit. Funding was sourced from selling shares out of the $21B shelf offering announced two weeks ago. The stock premium is now near all time highs, valued at 2.78x NAV, suggesting plenty of room to sell more.  Microstrategy’s Bitcoin stash has now doubled in value since they began buying. 

2. Monster Trading Day

Wall Street was all about Bitcoin on Monday. The trading day saw $38B in volume for the ETFs, Coinbase and Microstrategy combined. New record. Not close. The past four days saw $3.5B flow into the ETFs, beating the previous best streak from March. Coinbase is up 75% since the election. Microstrategy up 30% to finally surpass their 2000 high. NYDIG warned the street, “There are no excuses now, not owning the asset is going to become a liability in the future."

1. Big Green Candles

The election rally isn’t slowing down. Bitcoin hit a fresh all time high above $89,500 last night and we’re in the period of the market where anything is possible. End of year price targets range from $100,000 to infinity. Bitcoin now has a larger market cap than Silver and is closing in on Saudi Aramco. The best part; this seems like a spot driven rally, with funding rates only slightly elevated. Let the FOMO begin.