The Breakdown First Five - Monday, November 25, 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.

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5. Bessent Picked for TresSec

Hedge fund manager and macro genius Scott Bessent has been selected for Treasury Secretary by the Trump transition team. Bessent is pro-Bitcoin, but not a laser-eyed maxi. More broadly, he has a coherent plan for getting the nation’s finances back on track. Put simply, growth. Bessent is aiming to push the economy above 3% growth while slashing the deficit below 3% and enabling an extra 3 million barrels of oil production per day to keep inflation low. 

4. Lutnick Owns a Slice of Tether

Cantor Fitzgerald CEO and incoming Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is a little closer to Tether than he has been letting on. According to the Wall Street Journal, Cantor acquired a 5% stake in Tether as part of their custody and trading arrangement. The strategic partnership isn’t all that strange, but the numbers seem extremely generous. Lutnick has said he would divest of his companies in accordance with ethics rules, but said he believes that wouldn’t require a sale. 

3. Blockchain Association’s First 100 Days

The Blockchain Association has published an open letter containing their priorities for the first 100 days of the Trump administration. They asked for a crypto regulatory framework, an end to debanking, a new SEC chair and a rollback of SAB121, new leadership at Treasury and the IRS, and finally a crypto advisory council to be established. A solid list, but this would require a lot of political capital to compete by the summer. 

2. SEC Empties Out

Following shortly behind Gary Gensler, SEC Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga has resigned. This leaves two seats to be filled immediately upon inauguration, the Chairman and a slot for a pro-crypto Democrat. This also leaves the commission somewhat in limbo, needing a unanimous vote including Democrat Caroline Crenshaw to pass or repeal rules. Still, Lizárraga’s early departure gives a clear opportunity to reshape the regulator. 

1. Still Waiting on $100k

The Asian session couldn’t do it, the weekend couldn’t do it, Bitcoiners are still waiting on $100k. There’s currently around $600M on order books holding the line at $100k. Long Term holders have taken profits at a cycle high pace. Interestingly, it’s almost entirely traders closing positions from earlier this year, rather than multi-cycle holders cashing out, suggesting older whales want to see Bitcoin go higher. Will we get there this week?