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’s most notable events are in our “Politics” section and include the buzz around Donald Trump’s pro-Bitcoin pivot and German politician Joana Cotar criticizing her own government’s disorderly Bitcoin sale on the open market.

Let’s dive in for more! ⚡

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LATEST NEWS 📰

🙌 ADOPTION

• Bitcoin addresses hit a four-month high of 432,026, indicating a potential return of retail investors.

• Zero Hash, the infrastructure underpinning payment groups such as Stripe, has launched support for the Lightning Network and Universal Money Address in partnership with Lightspark.

• FC Red Bull Salzburg, a European soccer team, partners with Bitcoin exchange 21bitcoin to raise Bitcoin awareness.

⚖️ LEGAL

• U.S. Marshals Service, an agency within the U.S. DOJ, partners with Coinbase to provide custody and trading services for their "large cap digital assets"

• Taiwan Mobile, Taiwan’s second-largest telecom operator, obtains a virtual asset license and may soon launch its own cryptocurrency exchange.

• Mt. Gox moves 47,228 Bitcoin from cold storage to a new wallet, initiating the long-anticipated repayment process to its creditors.

📈 MARKETS

• Metaplanet purchases an additional ~20.20 Bitcoin for ¥200 million, bringing their total holdings to ~161.27 Bitcoin.

• U.S. Spot Bitcoin ETFs record positive monthly inflow of $668 million in June, despite the price retracing from $67,500 to $61,000.

• More than half of the top 25 hedge funds in the U.S. are reported to have Bitcoin exposure.

⛏️ MINING

• Despite China's ban on Bitcoin mining, Chinese mining pools still hold nearly 54% of the market share.

• Northern Data, Europe’s largest Bitcoin miner, is reportedly exploring a US IPO for its data center and AI cloud business, seeking a $16 billion valuation.

• CleanSpark will acquire Bitcoin miner GRIID for $155 million in an all-stock transaction, with plans to expand over 400 MW in Tennessee.

🗳️ POLITICS

• US M2 Money Supply has begun to increase after peaking in 2021 and decreasing for over a year. The money printer is back in action.

• Donald Trump sparks talk of Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset for the United States.

• Joana Cotar, a German MP, criticizes her government’s decision to sell their Bitcoin holdings, stating her preference of keeping “Bitcoin in the state treasury”.

BAMS 2 SATS 🧢

The past few weeks have been quite volatile, to say the least. Last week, the price dipped to around $58,400, followed by a brief recovery to about $63,800 between the weekend and Monday, only to plunge further to new lows of $53,550 on the evening of July 4th. This abrupt dip triggered the second-largest liquidation event in Bitcoin history, surpassed only by the FTX collapse in November 2022, bringing prices down to levels not seen since the end of February.

So what has happened and what comes next?

In short, there have been more sellers than buyers, with many people believing the price couldn’t drop further. This led to heavy leverage exposure, only to be proven wrong and face liquidation. To explain in more detail, let’s dive into what sparked the fear.

In general, the whole fearful move stemmed from three main reasons:

• Speculation that Mt. Gox redemptions will lead to a selloff of over 47,000 Bitcoin.

• Bitcoin miners selling their reserves due to decreased revenues post-halving.

• The German government moving 2,700 BTC to exchanges over the past two weeks.

Naturally, this can spark short-term fear as the price falls and concerns arise that demand won’t match the increased supply from these potential massive sell-offs. However, let’s balance this with a more positive perspective.

• As Bitcoin is distributed from these large wallets, each coin might end up in stronger hands. We know that MicroStrategy’s playbook is now being replicated by companies around the world.

• Bitcoin miners are long-term bullish on Bitcoin; otherwise, they wouldn’t be in the industry. This confidence is evident in the substantial amounts of capital they are investing in technological infrastructure.

• ETFs saw $668 million in inflows in June and have already amassed $238 million in positive flows this month.

• We know El Salvador continues to accumulate Bitcoin daily, now holding over 5,800 BTC.

The massive sell-off was even followed by rumors that Germany had begun to buyback some of the Bitcoin they had sold.

However, these rumors have proven to be false. The return of Bitcoin to their wallet address only meant that they removed it from the exchange, allegedly to sell via OTC (over-the-counter) to avoid significantly impacting the market price by dumping it on the exchange.

If history repeats itself, the recent big liquidation may mark the price bottom, just as it did during the FTX collapse. Alternatively, we might have more time to stack some cheap sats. Ultimately, we know the demand for Bitcoin is strong and continues to grow. It’s only a matter of time before the price begins to rise, and you’ll wish you had stacked more in the $50k range.

Don’t forget to stay humble and stack sats!
Bam

Saylor Predicts Bitcoin Election

We will be releasing a new interview with Michael Saylor in the coming days.

In the meantime, catch up on our interview with Michael Saylor at BTC Prague last year, where he expertly predicted that Bitcoin would play a role in the 2024 presidential election.