gm 08/09

Summary
gm, Traders pivoted from speculative altcoins to larger-cap assets as the Crypto Fear & Greed Index dropped to 44, signaling fear in the market. Bitcoin's illiquid supply hit a record 14.3 million BTC (72% of circulating supply), demonstrating strong conviction among long-term holders despite recent price volatility. Meanwhile, Ethereum has faced contrasting narratives with Etherealize raising $40 million to develop Wall Street-friendly privacy infrastructure using zero-knowledge proofs, even as ETF outflows reached $952 million over five days and network revenue fell 44% in August. On the security front, phishing scams targeting crypto users surged 72% in August, resulting in over $12 million in losses across more than 15,000 victims.

News Headlines
⛏️ Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Reaches All-Time High

• Bitcoin network mining difficulty has reached an unprecedented high of 134.7 trillion, continuing its upward trajectory despite earlier projections suggesting a possible decrease in difficulty levels.
• As difficulty increases, Bitcoin's hashrate has dropped to 967 billion hashes per second from recent peaks above 1 trillion, creating more competitive conditions for mining firms and potentially impacting their profit margins.

💰 Michael Saylor's Net Worth Surges by $1 Billion

• Michael Saylor, co-founder and executive chairman of Strategy, has seen his net worth increase by $1 billion to approximately $7.37 billion following his inclusion in the Bloomberg Billionaire 500 Index, representing a 15.80% rise since the beginning of the year.
• Saylor's fortune consists of $650 million in cash and about $6.72 billion in Strategy equity, with the company's stock price rising 12% to close at $335.87 on Friday, positioning him alongside other crypto billionaires like Coinbase's Brian Armstrong and Binance's Changpeng Zhao.

📊 Bitcoin Doesn't Rally Despite Fed Rate Cut Expectations

• Bitcoin remains below $112,000 despite the U.S. jobs report showing only 22,000 job additions in August, significantly below expectations, which has increased the probability of a Federal Reserve rate cut.
• Technical patterns reveal a concerning double top formation, typically signaling a market reversal, while BTC's failure to regain key support levels suggests potential for a deeper sell-off in the coming weeks.

🌍 India Tops Chainalysis Crypto Adoption Index for 2025

• India has claimed the top spot in the Cryptocurrency Adoption Index by Chainalysis for 2025, excelling across retail, DeFi, and institutional activity metrics. The United States ranks second, largely driven by institutional interest following the approval of bitcoin ETFs.
• Stablecoins dominate global financial flows, with USDT and USDC leading the pack, while newcomers like Circle's EURC and PayPal's PYUSD gain momentum with EURC experiencing nearly 90% month-over-month growth.

💰 ARK Invest Acquires $23.5M in BitMine and Bullish Shares

• Cathie Wood's ARK Invest has deployed over $23.5 million to acquire shares in BitMine Immersion Technologies and crypto exchange Bullish across three of its actively managed ETFs, with the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) making the bulk of the investments.
• BitMine, now recognized as the largest treasury firm for ether with 1.87 million ETH holdings, saw its shares decline slightly despite the investment, dropping 0.3% during regular trading and 1.17% in after-hours.

Market Metrics

Fundraising & VC
No fundraising data today.

Regulatory
💰 El Salvador Defies IMF, Purchases More Bitcoin

• El Salvador acquired 21 additional BTC on its fourth Bitcoin Law anniversary, bringing national holdings to 6,313 BTC valued at approximately $701 million, despite an IMF loan agreement prohibiting further purchases.
• The country's Bitcoin strategy shows mixed results after four years as legal tender, with the government scaling back involvement following IMF pressure while maintaining its strategic reserve.

🏛️ Ripple's SEC Victory Opens Door to SWIFT Competition

• With its SEC legal battle concluded, Ripple now has regulatory clarity to position XRP as a potential alternative to SWIFT, the dominant international money transfer network since 1973.
• XRP offers faster transactions and lower fees compared to SWIFT's outdated technology, but faces challenges in overcoming the banking sector's resistance to change and SWIFT's established network effect.

⚠️ Stripe's Tempo and Circle's Arc May Undermine Decentralization

• Christian Catalini, co-creator of Facebook's Libra, warns that Stripe's Tempo and Circle's Arc projects could compromise core crypto decentralization principles by consolidating power among fintech giants.
• He describes Tempo as a "referendum on the ghost of Libra," suggesting these corporate-led blockchains risk replicating existing financial hierarchies rather than disrupting them.

💸 Paxos Proposes Regulatory-Compliant USDH Stablecoin

• Paxos has proposed USDH, a stablecoin for the Hyperliquid ecosystem designed for full compliance with both the GENIUS Act and MiCA regulatory standards.
• The initiative allocates 95% of interest earned from USDH reserves to buy back Hyperliquid's native HYPE token, creating aligned incentives between the stablecoin and ecosystem participants.

⚡ Ordinals Community Threatens Bitcoin Core Fork Over Censorship

• Ordinals community leader Leonidas has threatened to fund a fork of Bitcoin Core if developers move to censor Ordinals, Runes, and other non-financial transactions on the network.
• The controversy highlights a fundamental divide within the Bitcoin community regarding whether the network should prioritize purely financial transactions or remain open to various data uses.

Technical Analysis
Bitcoin - Bitcoin has broken through the ceiling of a falling trend channel in the short term. This indicates a slower falling rate initially, or the start of a more horizontal development. The currency has support at points 107700 and resistance at points 113500. The currency is assessed as technically neutral for the short term.

Ethereum - Ethereum has broken the floor of the rising trend channel in the short term, which indicates a weaker initial rising rate. The currency is approaching support at 4130 points, which may give a positive reaction. However, a break downwards through 4130 points will be a negative signal. The RSI curve shows a falling trend, which could be an early signal of the start of a falling trend for the price as well. The currency is overall assessed as technically positive for the short term.