Happy Monday Bitcoiners, it's Bam here from Bitcoin News.

Our goal is to help save you time by personally curating the most impactful Bitcoin events of the week into an easy-to-read update.

This week was extremely volatile for Bitcoin, with various significant events including MicroStrategy’s $2 billion equity program (to buy more Bitcoin), Morgan Stanley pitching Bitcoin ETFs to their wealthy clients, and substantial global money printing.

Let’s dive in for more! ⚡

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LATEST NEWS 📰

🙌 ADOPTION

• Bitcoin network difficulty reaches a new all-time high of 90.6T after a 10.5% positive difficulty adjustment.

• Morgan Stanley tells their 15,000 financial advisors they can pitch Bitcoin ETFs to their wealthy clients starting August 7th.

• University of Wyoming establishes a Bitcoin Research Institute, marking the first academic institute dedicated to Bitcoin studies.

⚖️ LEGAL

• The BITCOIN Act of 2024, a bill to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, has been officially introduced to Congress and referred to the Senate Banking Committee.

• Australia plans to tax unrealized gains in employee pension-fund accounts with balances over A$3 million ($2 million) in 2025.

• El Salvador proposes using Bitcoin to trade with Russia, aiming to strengthen economic ties and its global influence.

📈 MARKETS

• MicroStrategy buys an additional 169 Bitcoin, now holding 226,500 BTC. They also filed for a $2 billion equity offering to purchase more Bitcoin, expecting their holdings per share to grow by 4-8% annually over the next three years.

• Tether’s Q2 attestation reveals a profit of $5.2 billion for H1 2024 and holdings of $4.7 billion in Bitcoin.

• Futu Securities, Hong Kong's leading online brokerage, has enabled Bitcoin trading for its 3.5 million customers.

⛏️ MINING

• CleanSpark mined 494 Bitcoin in July, boosting its holdings 567% year-over-year. The company now holds 7,082 BTC ($462 million).

• Argo Blockchain, a leading UK-based Bitcoin miner, secures £6.5M ($8.3 million) in new funding through a private placement of shares.

• BitAxe unboxing and setup video shows how easy it is to begin mining bitcoin from your home.

🗳️ POLITICS

• Russia will allow "any" cryptocurrency to be used for international trade settlement starting September 1st.

• Hong Kong lawmaker, Johnny Ng, reacts to Trump’s speech at the Bitcoin Conference, “Regarding Bitcoin becoming an official financial reserve for a country or region, I think this is worth considering.“

• Janet Yellen seeks (just) $78 trillion to fight climate change. 

BAMS 2 SATS 🧢

It’s interesting how quickly sentiment changes in the space. After the Bitcoin Conference, there was tremendous hype as various politicians proposed using Bitcoin as a Strategic Reserve asset. They suggested not selling any of the 207,189 Bitcoin the U.S. owns and introduced initiatives like eliminating capital gains taxes on BTC/USD conversions. Some even envisioned accumulating a reserve as large as the gold reserve, with an ideal target of 4 million BTC stored in a digital Fort Knox.

The hype was validated with a price surge to $70,000, making new Bitcoin all-time highs seem inevitable. As American politicians discussed Bitcoin, legislators from around the world, including Hong Kong, began considering Bitcoin as an official reserve for their countries or regions.

But the hype didn’t last long. The U.S. government sent 29,800 Bitcoin (worth ~$2 billion at the time) to a Coinbase address, sparking speculation that the Biden/Harris administration might be moving to sell some of America’s Bitcoin after Trump had said he would hold it. The price began retracing sharply, dropping to lows near $59,800 in just six days, despite no confirmation of an actual sale or intention to sell.

By the end of the week, the U.S. stock market experienced a massive decline amid growing fears of a global recession.

Now, we see growing fear and uncertainty about the economic outlook. Short-term traders are worried about Bitcoin’s future, reflected in its price action. However, long-term holders, or real Bitcoiners, continue to buy at any price, understanding the value of absolute scarcity and viewing every dip as an accumulation opportunity.

The stage is set for a change of tune. After a series of rapid hikes and maintaining elevated interest rates for the past year, the markets are now anticipating the Fed will lower rates by September, with a potential substantial decrease of 50 to 75 basis points.

Nevertheless, liquidity is already starting to rise. China’s M2 money supply has finally reached new highs, following the trend of the global M2, which continues to climb higher after consolidating since 2022.

What comes next appears to be a more abrupt dilution of our fiat currencies. Financial institutions like BlackRock have already set the stage for Bitcoin to be seen by mainstream media as a flight to quality, a way to escape from irresponsible monetary debasement.

Regardless of where Bitcoin’s price goes in the next few weeks, let’s rejoice in knowing we’ve been right all along. Rest assured that despite the volatility, BlackRock has had continuous inflows into their Spot Bitcoin ETF for the past three weeks, a strong signal of growing confidence from smart money.

Keep on stacking!
Bam

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