OVERVIEW

It Was Fun While It Lasted 🤕

Before we dive in, here’s today’s crypto market heatmap:

Source: Santiment

And here’s a look at crypto’s total market and altcoin market cap charts:

Source: TradingView

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
Still In An Uptrend 🧠 

Sometimes all it takes is one damn tweet and things go red. 🔴 

No need to dwell a lot on the technicals here: Bitcoin is still above that all important trendline we’ve been focused for over a year. 👀 

BTCUSD Daily Chart – Click to enlarge.

Bulls can feel confident as long as BTC remains above it.

But with a long weekend coming up – who the hell knows? 🤷 

NEWS
Bitwise’s BTC Forecast: Moon 🪙 

Institutional investment in Bitcoin is projected to significantly increase by the end of 2026, with notable inflows anticipated from major financial institutions, corporations, and nation-states.

Bitwise’s recent analysis outlines these developments, highlighting several key areas of institutional demand.

Bitcoin ETFs

• Bitwise reports that Spot Bitcoin ETFs received net inflows of $36.2 billion within their first year, surpassing early-stage inflows seen by traditional commodity ETFs like SPDR Gold Shares.

• Bitcoin ETFs collectively reached $125 billion in assets under management (AUM) within just 12 months—a pace twenty times faster than the GLD ETF.

• By 2027, Bitwise anticipates Bitcoin ETFs could experience annual net inflows of around $100 billion.

Corporate Treasury Adoption

• By the end of 2024, publicly traded companies held over 600,000 BTC on their balance sheets. Bitwise expects this trend to significantly increase due to regulatory changes allowing corporations to mark BTC holdings to market value.

• By 2026, corporate Bitcoin holdings could potentially reach up to 2.3 million BTC, driven by strategic treasury management decisions.

Nation-State Bitcoin Reserves

• Bitwise identified a strategic shift among countries towards Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation and currency depreciation, noting the declining dominance of the U.S. dollar in global reserves – from 71% in 2000 to 58% in 2024.

• Bitwise’s model suggests reallocating 5% of global central bank gold reserves to Bitcoin could result in an additional 1.6 million BTC acquisition.

Bitcoin Yield: A Significant Untapped Opportunity

Bitwise emphasizes the overlooked but rapidly growing area of Bitcoin-native yield generation, projecting it could expand into a $100 billion market by 2026.

• Bitcoin Treasury Companies are likely to increasingly pursue Bitcoin-native yield strategies (BTCfi), utilizing decentralized finance (DeFi) opportunities to enhance balance sheet growth.

• Bitwise projects a conservative scenario in which just 5% of Bitcoin’s market cap utilization in BTCfi could yield a $100 billion market.

You can read the Bitwise full report here.

CRIME
SafeMoon CEO Guilty; Faces 45 Years 👮

If there’s one altcoin that’s attracted some insanely dedicated believers, followers, and attention over the past five years, it’s SafeMoon. 🌑 

Sure, we haven’t heard much since it effectively collapsed in December 2023 – but it’s still etched into crypto lore alongside infamous names like Terra, Celsius, and FTX.

For those now in the know, and if you haven’t reasoned it out by now, SafeMoon wasn’t exactly the safe investment CEO Braden John Karony promised. After a 12-day trial in Brooklyn federal court, a jury found Karony guilty of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.

Interesting fact: Jury trials are pretty rare in the crypto space – most of the bad actors opt for plea deals. Notable exceptions? As notorious and notable as you’d expect: Do Kwon and SBF.

Dude’s facing up to 45 years in federal lockup – definitely not the kind of “moon” investors had in mind.

Here’s what Karony actually did:

• Misled investors by claiming SafeMoon liquidity pools were secure and inaccessible to insiders.

• Diverted millions of dollars from SafeMoon’s liquidity pool for personal use.

• Purchased luxury real estate properties in Utah and Kansas.

• Bought flashy vehicles including two Audi R8s, a Tesla, and customized Ford F-550 and Jeep Gladiator trucks.

• Laundered approximately $9 million in crypto through complex transactions to conceal theft.

• Lied publicly about not trading SafeMoon tokens, profiting significantly from insider trades.

Feds say Karony pocketed around $9 million in crypto from SafeMoon, laundering it through elaborate transactions to hide his moves. IRS Criminal Investigation agents tracked down his shenanigans alongside the FBI and Homeland Security. They weren’t impressed.

SafeMoon’s marketing promised investors automatic token redistributions and locked liquidity pools… but behind the scenes, insiders freely accessed the funds, lining their pockets with millions.

And yeah, they totally lied about not trading their own token. Turns out they bought low, sold high, and laughed all the way to their luxury dealerships until the feds knocked on their doors.

Co-conspirator Thomas Smith pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing and Kyle Nagy’s currently playing hide-and-seek with the feds.

As for Karony, it’s game over – unless he can trade those Audis and Teslas for a commuted sentence. Spoiler alert: federal penitentiaries don’t usually accept crypto as payment. 🤷‍♂️

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
AI, Stablecoins, & Privacy News 🕵️

💸 Circle Payments Network (CPN) Mainnet Launches

Circle’s CPN mainnet is finally live, hoping to replace the decades-old, painfully slow cross-border payment infrastructure. CPN brings stablecoin payments into mainstream finance, already onboarding partners like Alfred Pay, Tazapay, and Conduit, who presumably got sick of traditional banking’s “wait 3–5 business days” nonsense. Circle.

🤖 Metis Launches HyperHack on Hyperion

Nothing screams practicality like an AI-driven DeFi yield optimizer in your RPG battle game. Metis just kicked off the HyperHack hackathon, offering $200k for developers willing to mash blockchain with AI. Categories include AI-native dApps, real-time systems, and bonus points for integrating Alith, their decentralized AI sidekick. Metis.

🌐 World Scores $135M from Andreessen Horowitz and Bain, Privacy Isn’t Cheap 

World just bagged $135M from Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital Crypto. With over 26 million users (half of them Orb-verified), World promises to distinguish you from an AI bot, while definitely not creating a dystopian global ID registry. Congrats World, you’ve finally monetized eyeball scanning. Worldcoin.

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Real World Asset Tokenization (RWA) News 🪙

📈 DTFs Are the New ETFs

Decentralized Token Folios (DTFs) are here, promising instant diversification without the usual Wall Street bros taking a cut every step of the way. DTFs ditch legacy market drama and let anyone spin up investment products. Reserve Rights.

👻 Casper CTO Talks Casper 2.0

Casper Association’s CTO Michael Steuer dropped details on Casper 2.0, which brings deterministic finality – fancy speak for transactions are actually finalized immediately. After rigorous security audits by Halborn, Casper 2.0 launched without chaos, focusing on boring-but-useful stuff like built-in access controls and multi-VM support for real businesses rather than degens. Imagine blockchain tech that actually works for normal people—wild, huh? Casper Network.

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Metaverse, NFT, & Gaming News 🎮️

🪙 Enjin Blockchain Integrates Stablecoins via Hyperbridge

Even gaming networks are all in on stablecoins lately. Enjin’s MultiToken Pallet is hooking up with Hyperbridge to allow stablecoins like USDC and Tether to waltz onto their blockchain. Users can now lock their tokens on Ethereum, mint equivalents on Enjin, and pray nothing breaks. Enjin.

🪐 VeBetterDAO Drops Jupiter GM NFTs

The Jupiter GM NFTs are now live on VeBetterDAO, marking the sixth level of their “cosmic journey”. With a massive 2.50x rewards multiplier and shiny new Jupiter art, holders now have an even bigger reason to obsess over governance votes and rewards pools. Mjolnir and ThunderX node holders upgrade free. VeChain.

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
DeFi, DEX, & Lending Protocol News 🏦

🚫 Synthetix Scraps Acquisition of Derive

Synthetix pulled the plug on buying Derive after realizing the community wasn’t keen on overpaying? Despite their best efforts to hype the synergies and off-chain matching engines, stakeholders weren’t buying it (literally). Synthetix.

🛡️ Mithril Makes Cardano Light Wallets Actually Light

Mithril’s Cardano solution simplifies verifying blockchain data for light wallets, layer-2 bridges, and other blockchain thingamajigs I pretend to understand. By avoiding downloading the whole blockchain, Mithril helps save your phone battery, and sanity, while verifying transactions with actual security. They’re even looking at zero-knowledge proofs to shrink their certificates further. Cardano.

OLD NEWS
Last Years News, Today 👴

From the May 23, 2024 Litepaper:

ETH ETFs Approved

• ETH ETFs got the SEC’s green light just after 5 PM EST following Chairman Gary Gensler’s vague, cagey remarks earlier.

• Reasons for the approval include FIT21 bill passing Congress, Biden’s support, SEC’s legal embarrassments, and political awakening about crypto’s voter power.

Bybit Battles Rumors and Launches P2P Ranger

• Bybit faced panic withdrawals due to rumors of hacks and insolvency, sparked by a glitch in Arkham Intelligence’s proof-of-reserves dashboard.

• CEO Ben Zhou squashed the FUD with proof-of-reserves transparency; rival analytics firm Nansen took shots at Arkham’s mistake.

OpenSea Launches ‘Get Based’ NFT Series

• OpenSea introduced ‘Get Based,’ affordable weekly NFT drops priced at $5 or less, kicking off on the Base Layer-2 network.

• Featured artists include known names like Yiying Lu (Twitter’s “Fail Whale”), with some NFTs offered completely free.

Other News

• An appeals court in Florida tossed out regulators’ sloppy attempt to ban Binance.

• Regulators banned Worldcoin over privacy violations tied to its eye-scanning Orbs.

• Glassnode reported Bitcoin demand slowing considerably despite a slowly rising Realized Cap.

• Sam Bankman-Fried transferred from New York to California’s Mendota prison

LINKS
Links That Don’t Suck 🔗

🧠 Genius group resumes Bitcoin accumulation after U.S. court lifts treasury ban

🕵️ U.S. DoJ seizes $24M in crypto from Russian hacker

👾 ‘A New Frontier’: DeLorean launches on-chain car marketplace with Patrick Stewart

⚔️ Crypto game Ember Sword closes operations after failing to secure further funding

😱 Changpeng Zhao says WSJ was paid to smear him

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