BTC Daily Intelligence Bulletin (DIB)
Block: 820,853
DTG/ICOD: 0800EST 12DEC23
Prcedence: Routine (RR)
Controls: Public Release
QQQQ
__________________________
BLUF: World's first Bitcoin bonds receive approval / Sen. Warren introduces bill to curb self-hosting and increase KYC / China to use Blockchain for citizen ID / CPI comes out today
Market Data: Price: 1 BTC= $41,858, 21.02oz Gold
24hr Hi: $42,388/ Lo: $40,234
Vol: $31.334B (up 13.34%)
Mkt Cap: $818.383B (down 1.11%)
HashRate: 494.6 EH/s
Avg Fees: 22,614 sats/tx
Nodes: 16,928
---Reports---
-International Events-
1. World’s First Bitcoin Bonds Receive Regulatory Approval in El Salvador: El Salvador has received regulatory approval to issue Bitcoin Volcano Bonds in early 2024, which are part of the counrtry's broader strategy to leverage Bitcoin's volatility. Originally intended to raise $1 billion, half of the funds from the bonds are allocated for building a tax-free Bitcoin City, with the remaining for Bitcoin investment. (CoinDesk)
2. China still fighting deflation: While many central banks around the world are still trying to cool inflation, China is grappling with falling prices. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) dropped 0.5% in November on an annual basis, the biggest fall since the depths of the pandemic three years ago. The drop marked an acceleration in the rate of deflation from October, when the CPI fell 0.2% from a year earlier, and prompted calls for urgent action from Beijing to boost demand and prevent a downward spiral of prices. (CNN)
3. Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Vietnam on Tuesday seeking to further deepen ties with the Southeast Asian nation, “This reflects Beijing’s concerns about Hanoi’s advances with the West,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow with the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. “Concerns that Vietnam may join an anti-China alliance and gang up against China.” (AP)
-US Events-
1. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will arrive on Capitol Hill to a darker mood than when he swooped in last winter for a hero’s welcome, as the Russian invasion is grinding into a third year and U.S. funding hangs in balance. Zelenskyy’s visit Tuesday comes as President Joe Biden’s request for an additional $110 billion U.S. aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs is at serious risk of collapse in Congress (AP) (AC-At ACOD, Ukraine was experiencing a large cyberattack in Kiev throughout it's infrastructure (WashPost)
2. Elon Musk Twitter Takeover Lawsuit Gains Steam as Judge Advances Investors’ Claims: In the months after negotiating a buyout of Twitter but before being forced to consummate the deal in October 2022, Elon Musk deployed scorched-earth tactics in an attempt to lower the price of the $44 billion acquisition. (AP)
-Regulatory and Legal-
1. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) introduced legislation yesterday aimed at regulating cryptocurrencies, citing concerns about their potential use in illicit activities, including money laundering and sanctions evasion. The bill, supported by a coalition within the Banking Committee, proposes stricter reporting requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act, including Know-Your-Customer (KYC) rules and reporting on transactions involving unhosted wallets, to address these concerns(Bitcoin Magazine) (AC: Sen Warren has a record of 305 bills introduced during her time in Congress, 0 of which have passed (Congress.gov))
-Technological Updates-
1. China to utilize blockchain technology for real-name verification of 1.4B citizens: In a groundbreaking announcement, the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), a national-level blockchain initiative in China, has revealed plans to employ blockchain technology for verifying the real-name identities of the country’s vast population of 1.4 billion people. (Cyrptopolitan)
-Institutional Concerns-
1. Blackrock warns agains BTC as a security: In a recent update to its exchange-traded fund (ETF) filing, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has expressed concerns about the possible classification of Bitcoin as a security by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The asset management giant cautioned that such a classification could have far-reaching consequences for the cryptocurrency and its trading environment.(Cyrptopolitan)
2. ARK Unloads 10% of it's GBTC: ARK Invest sold around $12.85 million worth of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares from its Next Generation Internet (ARKW) exchange-traded fund (ETF) on Monday, the biggest sale in more than a year. The offload of 395,945 GBTC shares from ARKW leaves the fund with about $112.7 million worth of GBTC, a weighting of 6.95%. ARK aims for no individual holding in its ETFs to exceed a 10% weighting of the fund's total market value. (CoinDesk) (AC-At ICOD, ARK also sold $2M Coinbase Shares (COIN))
-Economic Indicators-
1. The Labor Department will release the November consumer-price index report at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday.
-Security Incidents and Concerns-
1. A lawsuit filed last week in San Francisco Superior Court says that hackers broke into vascular surgeon Ricardo Vasquez’s Coinbase wallet and transferred $348,407 worth of various cryptocurrencies to accounts not related to him. Vasquez had set up two-factor authentication, yet despite such guardrails, Vasquez said in May 2022 hackers were allegedly able to connect his account to a device 600 miles away, set up a new phone number on the account and remove his two-factor authentication, the lawsuit states. (The SF Standard)
-Bitcoin Community-
1. Ancient Bitcoin arises: On Thursday, December 7, 2023, a dormant stash of 50 bitcoin (BTC) stirred into action for the first time in over ten years. This movement of the so-called ‘sleeping bitcoins’ was detected by the blockchain parsing platform btcparser.com. Echoing the activity seen on December 4, where a series of 20 blocks were utilized, the original address divided the funds between two separate Pay-to-Script-Hash (P2SH) addresses. (Bitcoin.com)
-Bitcoin Sentiment-
1. Greed/Fear Index: 67/100
-Analyst Comments (AC): Althoough Sen Warren does not have a good record for getting bills passed, her narrative of crypto being used for illicit activities continues to gain momentum on Capitol Hill.
____________________
Analyst: BV2A
END REPORT
NNNN
*NSTR-Nothing Significant To Report
