Subnostr

Bitcoin Veterans 1y ago

BTC Daily Intelligence Bulletin (DIB)

Block: 831,262

DTG/ICOD: 0800EST 20Feb24

Precedence: Routine (RR)

Controls: Public Release

QQQQ

__________________________

BLUF: Ukraine War Enters 3rd Year / Can The USG Confiscate Bitcoin? / BitWise ETF Approved for RIAs / Trump Must Put up $500M Just to Appeal

Market Data: Price: 1 BTC= $52,244, 25.73 oz Gold, .12 Median US House

24hr Hi: $52,449 / Lo: $51,334

Vol: $24B (Up 24%)

Mkt Cap: $1.02T (Down 0%)

HashRate: 553 EH/s

Avg Fees: 6,663 sats/tx (Down 10%)

Nodes: 18,180

---Reports---

-International Events-

1. As the Ukraine war enters a third year, Putin waits for Western support for Kyiv to wither: When the invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, some analysts predicted it might take as few as three days for Russian forces to capture the capital of Kyiv. With the war now entering its third year, Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be trying to turn that initial failure to his advantage — by biding his time and waiting for Western support for Ukraine to wither while Moscow maintains its steady military pressure along the front line. (AP)

2. WikiLeaks founder Assange starts final UK legal battle to avoid extradition to US on spy charges: Julian Assange’s lawyers began their final U.K. legal challenge Tuesday to stop the WikiLeaks founder from being sent to the United States to face spying charges, arguing that his actions had exposed serious criminal actions by U.S. authorities and were “of obvious and important public interest.” (AP)

3. Russian Court Upholds Detention of WSJ Reporter Evan Gershkovich: Tuesday’s rejection of the latest appeal by Gershkovich’s lawyers means he is set to remain behind bars until at least March 30, which would mark more than a year since he was taken into custody on an allegation of espionage that the Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny. (WSJ)

-US Events-

1. Trump Must Pay Half a Billion Dollars Before He Can Appeal New York Decision: Former President Donald Trump must pay nearly half a billion dollars as a bond to New York State before he can appeal the ruling by Judge Arthur Engoron last week that he must pay $354 million in fines — over $450 million, with interest — for fraud. (Breitbart)

-Regulatory and Legal-

1. Australian Police Officer in Court for Stealing Nearly 82 BTC From Seized Drug Trafficker's Wallet: An Australian police officer recently appeared in a Melbourne court where he faced charges of stealing 81.616 bitcoins from a crypto wallet seized from drug traffickers. After initially blaming the drug traffickers,’ the Australian Federal Police later reopened the case after an expert found evidence linking the theft to a former police officer. The accused police officer’s lawyer has vowed to fight all the allegations against his client. (Bitcoincom)

2. (Speculatory Article) Experts Warn Of 6102-Style Bitcoin Ban In The US, What Does It Mean?: The Bitcoin community is currently hotly debating the possibility of a US government crackdown on BTC akin to the historic 1933 gold confiscation, an event now ominously referenced in crypto circles as “6102.” David Bailey, CEO of BTC Media, has catapulted this conversation into the spotlight with a series of predictions on X (formerly Twitter), suggesting that the US might enact similar measures against Bitcoin within the next six years. Bailey’s theory hinges on a sequence of economic and market developments beginning with Bitcoin achieving parity with gold. This milestone, according to Bailey, will skyrocket BTC’s market valuation to an estimated $13 trillion. Such an event, he argues, would not only affirm BTC’s status as a premier asset class but also trigger a domino effect across global financial systems. (Bitcoinist)

-Institutional Concerns-

1. Bitwise Bitcoin ETF approved investment option for $30 billion advisor network: Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley revealed this development via social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on Feb. 19, noting that advisors within the network are now authorized to allocate funds with BITB, typically ranging from 1% to 5%. (CryptoSlate)

2. Bitcoin Order Books Are Most Liquid Since October as Market Depth Nears $540M: Early Tuesday, bitcoin's 2% market depth across 33 centralized exchanges, or the combined value of buy and sell orders within 2% of the market price, rose to $539 million. That's the highest since October and a roughly 30% increase since the spot ETFs hit the market on Jan. 11, according to data tracked by Paris-based Kaiko. (CoinDesk)

-Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC)-

NSTR

-Economic Indicators-

1. Bond Yields Edge Lower: The yield on the US 10-year Treasury note kicked off a holiday-shortened week slightly lower below 4.28%, with traders bracing for the FOMC minutes and comments from several Fed officials for further clues on the timing of the first interest rate cut by the Fed. Also, bond yields in Europe declined, with the benchmark 10-year one for Germany falling to 2.38%. (TradeingEconomics)

2. Chinese Banks Slash a Key Lending Rate as Economy Falters: The country is grappling with deflation, slowing exports and a prolonged real-estate slump. The People’s Bank of China said Tuesday that China’s major banks reduced the five-year loan prime rate, a benchmark for home loans, to a new low of 3.95%, from 4.2% previously. It was the largest cut since the rate was introduced five years ago, and a much bigger reduction than economists had expected. (WSJ)

-Technological Updates-'

NSTR

-Security Incidents and Concerns-

NSTR

-Bitcoin Community-

NSTR

-Bitcoin Sentiment-

1. Fear(0)/Greed(100) Index: 72/100 (Down 3 pts)

Analyst Comments (AC): Normally the BTC DIB reports on fact-based news but the speculatory article about a 6102 event is pertinent to game out the possibilities of future events relating to Bitcoin. This full article is at https://bitcoinist.com/6102-style-bitcoin-ban-us/ and as we look forward to the probable ascendancy of Bitcoin within a financial world storm, it is important to understand the possible reactions of governments and populations. A 6102-type order would have immense ramifications on Bitcoin holders and uses as a medium of exchange and store of value. It would take an economic emergency to allow governments to adopt this path, but those types of emergencies are common within generations. Any future-based forecasting should be looked at with a mechanistic lens and based in changing probabilities.

Reply to this note

Discussion