🔥 Crypto & Finance Recap – March 31
💤 Ethereum ICO Whale Wakes Up: An early Ethereum ICO participant with 2,000 ETH ($3.7M) resurfaced after 10 years. They initially bought the tokens for just $620 in 2015.
💰 Marathon to Raise $2B for BTC: The US mining giant plans to sell shares worth $2B to buy more BTC. The company already holds 46,374 BTC ($3.9B).
😅 No DOGE for DOGE Agency: Elon Musk joked that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will not adopt Dogecoin as its official currency.
⚠️ Maker Whales Near Liquidation: Two whales holding 125,603 ETH ($229M) on MakerDAO are at risk of liquidation, with thresholds set at $1,787 and $1,701 per ETH.
🇯🇵 Japan to Reclassify Crypto as Financial Product: The FSA plans to regulate crypto as a financial product rather than a payment method, aiming to curb crypto-related fraud.
🇷🇺 Russian Banks Deny Crypto Services: Despite reports of Russian banks offering crypto services to major clients, the banks have denied these claims.
⛔️ Irkutsk May Ban Mining: The governor of Irkutsk proposed a year-round mining ban in the region's southern part due to electricity shortages.
⚒️ Hut 8 and Eric Trump Launch US Mining Firm: The new company, American Bitcoin, aims to mine BTC exclusively, with a target hash rate of 50 EH/s and energy efficiency below 15 J/TH.
📚 OpenAI Power Struggle Revealed: Excerpts from "The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future" reveal details of the 2023 coup attempt against Altman.
Board members accused him of opaque management and misleading about the OpenAI Startup Fund, which was actually under his control.
Allegations of downplaying safety concerns around GPT-4 Turbo also surfaced.
The board ousted Altman, but after employee backlash and Microsoft pressure, he was reinstated.
🐳 MicroStrategy Buys 22,048 BTC: The company purchased BTC at an average price of $86,969, bringing its total holdings to 528,185 BTC (2.52% of the circulating supply), with an average acquisition price of $67,458.
🦈 BlackRock CEO Bullish on Bitcoin:
1️⃣ Larry Fink believes BTC could replace the USD if it gains more investor trust, predicting it could reach $700,000.
2️⃣ The USD is losing ground due to growing US national debt and budget deficits.
3️⃣ Debt is increasing three times faster than GDP since 1989, and by 2030, debt servicing could consume the entire budget.
4️⃣ DeFi makes finance faster, cheaper, and more transparent.
5️⃣ Tokenization of assets like stocks and real estate is revolutionizing investments.
6️⃣ US economy remains resilient, and markets will stabilize over time.
7️⃣ BlackRock remains bullish on BTC and tokenization to streamline investments.
📈 Pavel Durov on Telegram Bonds:
Pavel Durov stated that Telegram bonds are hitting price records, noting that they were issued four years ago when the company had no income and half the user base it has now. With over 1 billion active users and stable profits today, the bond price increase is to be expected.