Trump's second son: Falling in love with cryptocurrency, Musk X closes San Francisco office

Headline

▌Trump's second son: I really fell in love with cryptocurrency/DeFi, please look forward to major announcements

Eric Trump, the second son of former US President Donald Trump and current executive vice president of the Trump Organization, posted on social media, "I really fell in love with cryptocurrency/DeFi (decentralized finance). Please look forward to major announcements."

▌Musk's X will close its San Francisco office

According to an internal memo seen by foreign media, X is moving out of the building that Elon Musk once walked into with a kitchen sink.  

In an email to employees, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said the company will move to new major locations in the Bay Area, including an office in San Jose and a shared space shared with Musk's xAI in Palo Alto.  

Whatever the specifics, in the future, X's now much smaller workforce appears to be spread across three offices and working with contractors in other regions.

Market

As of press time, according to Coingecko data:

BTC recently traded at $56,010.38, with a daily increase or decrease of +3.6%;

ETH recently traded at 2,458.47 yuan, with a daily increase or decrease of +1.6%;

BNB recently traded at $483.94, with a daily increase or decrease of +4.2%；

SOL's latest transaction price is 143.94 US dollars, with a daily increase or decrease of +11.0%；

DOGE's latest transaction price is 0.09636 US dollars, with a daily increase or decrease of +2.1%；

XPR's latest transaction price is 0.5054 US dollars, with a daily increase or decrease of +3.4%。

Policy

▌BlackRock and Nasdaq apply to SEC to launch spot Ethereum ETF options products

Nasdaq and BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company, plan to list options products based on spot Ethereum ETFs.  

In a document posted on the website of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, BlackRock and Nasdaq proposed to amend the rules to list and trade options based on iShares Ethereum Trust (ticker ETHA). The document reads: "The exchange believes that offering trust options will benefit investors because it provides investors with an additional, relatively low-cost investment tool that allows them to access Ethereum spot, while also providing a hedging tool to meet their investment needs in Ethereum products and positions."  

Comments on the proposal will be published within 21 days. Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart wrote on X on Tuesday that the SEC may make a final decision on the proposal in early April 2025.

Blockchain Applications

▌Head of TON Blockchain Games: Currently about 20% of Telegram users are playing games

Inal Kardan, head of TON Blockchain Games, said that about 20% of Telegram users are currently playing games, while just last December, only about 1% of Telegram's monthly active users played games on the app.

▌Analysis: Ethereum L2 solutions may raise market concerns about liquidity fragmentation

Several analysts pointed out that the surge in Ethereum Layer 2 solutions is raising concerns about liquidity fragmentation. Patrick Liou, head of sales at Gemini, said that the emergence of multiple Layer 2 blockchains, although intended to solve scalability issues, has inadvertently weakened the operation and adoption of blockchains and their applications. Although it is not easy to transfer liquidity from one blockchain to another, advances in bridging applications are making the process smoother. Gemini's report shows that a new Ethereum Layer 2 appears every 19 days, further exacerbating the problem of decentralized liquidity.

Cryptocurrency

▌Michael Saylor: Bitcoin will be another "Louisiana Purchase moment" for the United States

MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor said Bitcoin will be another "Louisiana Purchase moment" for the United States.  

Michael Saylor previously predicted that by 2045, the price of each Bitcoin will reach about $13 million.

▌Coinbase: GenAI platform Coinbase-GPT will customize personalized solutions for users

Coinbase's official website blog posted that generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), including large language models (LLM) and other models such as image generation, is changing the industry by improving efficiency and productivity. GenAI's versatile technology can read, write, encode and draw, which can improve creativity and productivity in various industries such as retail, finance, manufacturing and healthcare. If used strategically, GenAI can drive innovation and provide competitive advantage in today's data-driven environment. CB-GPT is the abbreviation of Coinbase-GPT, which is the unified platform for all GenAI applications at Coinbase. By building and managing Coinbase's own GenAI platform, Coinbase is able to customize solutions based on unique crypto use cases and Coinbase's customer base. With CB-GPT, Coinbase aims to provide an intuitive experience through its products, providing personalized and contextual support at all times, creating rich opportunities for a wide range of users (from individuals to institutional investors) to learn, explore and participate in the crypto economy. ▌ Bitcoin and precious metals are negatively correlated in July This round of crypto asset sell-off is a rare test of an industry belief that Bitcoin is equivalent to "digital gold", so including it in the asset portfolio can hedge against stock market fluctuations. As stocks plunged on Monday and carry trades unwound, Bitcoin behaved more like stocks than gold, plunging 17% to below $50,000 before recovering some of its losses. Bitcoin and precious metals turned negatively correlated in July, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. "It's unrealistic to think that institutional investors are allocating money to Bitcoin for the same reasons as gold," said Josh Gilbert, an analyst at eToro. "The two assets don't play the same role in a portfolio." Some observers believe that Bitcoin's plunge supports the view that it is an asset class that is particularly vulnerable to potential dangers (such as the Federal Reserve waiting too long to cut interest rates, causing the economy to fall into recession). "If investors panic or want to deleverage, cryptocurrencies are often the asset of choice," Gilbert said.

▌Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX has established a $6 million investor protection fund to compensate users in the event of a security breach

Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX has established an investor protection fund, which is designed to "compensate users for losses in extremely rare cases such as security breaches," according to Sumit Gupta, co-founder of the Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX. The investor protection fund is designed to "compensate users for losses in extremely rare cases such as security breaches," and will initially hold nearly $6 million (INR 500 crore), which will be entirely from "our profits." The decision comes after WazirX suffered a $230 million hack last month that involved nearly 45% of customer funds in a single wallet. Gupta was one of the first to criticize WazirX's proposed customer fund management plan after the hack.

▌Bloomberg ETF Analyst: BlackRock will abandon the BlackRock brand in its active ETFs and use the iShares brand

Eric Balchunas, senior analyst at Bloomberg ETF, wrote on the X platform, "BlackRock will abandon the BlackRock brand in its active ETFs and use the iShares brand. This makes sense and brand influence must be used."

▌The average cost of mining Bitcoin for U.S. miners is about $43,000

Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of CryptoQuant, wrote that the average cost of mining Bitcoin for U.S. miners is currently about $43,000.  

Marathon Digital, in its second quarter 2024 report, said the company's average mining cost per bitcoin was $42,969. This can be calculated using their operating hash rate, cost per gigahash per day, and average bitcoin mined per day.

Important Economic Dynamics

▌Morgan Stanley: Rising odds of Trump win expected to boost dollar

The increased likelihood of a Republican winning the election later this year is set to boost the dollar, even if the U.S. Republican Party wants to curb dollar strength. "While former President Trump spoke against dollar strength, we believe his policies will lead to a stronger dollar," strategists including Andrew Watrus and Zoe Strauss wrote in an Aug. 6 research note. They noted that the key dollar index surged in November and December 2016 after Trump's last victory. They added that "if the Republicans win a landslide victory, an expansionary fiscal policy agenda could boost expectations for U.S. economic growth and encourage capital inflows into the United States."

▌The probability of a 50 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve in September is 71.5%

According to CME's "Fed Watch", the probability of a 25 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve in September is 28.5%, and the probability of a 50 basis point rate cut is 71.5%. The probability of a cumulative 50 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve by November is 19.3%, the probability of a cumulative 75 basis point rate cut is 57.6%, and the probability of a cumulative 100 basis point rate cut is 23.2%.

▌Goldman Sachs CEO: The Federal Reserve is not expected to cut interest rates urgently, and may cut interest rates 1-2 times in the fall

Goldman Sachs CEO Solomon expects the Federal Reserve to avoid emergency rate cuts because he believes the U.S. economy will avoid a recession. "I don't expect to see any progress before September," Solomon said in an interview. "The economy will develop smoothly and there may not be a recession." Solomon said, "Based on the economic data we are seeing and the information sent by the Federal Reserve, I think there may be one or two rate cuts this fall." Solomon said: The recent stock market adjustment may be healthy. The Federal Reserve will abandon the emergency rate cut and does not expect a recession in the United States.

Golden Encyclopedia

▌What is an inverse futures contract?

An inverse futures contract is a financial arrangement that requires the seller to pay the buyer the difference between the agreed price and the current price when the contract expires. Unlike traditional futures, the seller benefits from the price drop. The nature of inverse futures contracts is non-linear. When traders go long on BTC/USD inverse futures contracts, they are shorting the US dollar. Because the contract is inverse, the trader's position is worth less in Bitcoin, and the higher the value of Bitcoin, the higher its value relative to the U.S. dollar.

Disclaimer: As a blockchain information platform, Golden Finance publishes articles for information reference only and is not intended as actual investment advice. Please establish the correct investment concept and be sure to increase risk awareness.