16th June 2024 > > Corporate Treasury & ETFS.

tl;dr

Crypto LaLa reinforces one of the most basic lessons about owning cryptos. DeFi Technologies reminds us why we own BTC. Spot ETH ETFs are imminent, to the eternal annoyance of SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw, who clings to an unhealthy desire for control over us mere mortals.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

Almost a full house of “unch”, with only the treasury market closed at the weekend.  Nearly four months of sideways BTC price action probably means I am talking to an audience of one.

Occasional Series – European Championship

Of course, England are going to win it, though I am not sure that the Watford faithful are pleased with our man’s contribution to the opening game. Facing a three-match ban for what looks like a very bad two-footed tackle, Ryan “Norman Hunter” Porteous can get on with his summer holiday now.

Moving on, the funniest placard so far?

To be fair, it’s hard to argue with that sentiment.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Oh my

Crypto LaLa (really?), operations manager at Quant Matter, has suffered a hack on her crypto account on OKX:

“I couldn’t believe my eyes. I have many years of extensive experience in the cryptocurrency space, and this was the first time I had personally seen my assets being stolen. To this day, I still can’t believe that all the money in my OKX account was stolen. My hands are still shaking, and I am extremely angry, frustrated, and sad.”

One can empathise with all of those emotions, but there is one mitigating factor.

The total loss was $11mm.

Who would leave $11m of assets on any centralised cryptocurrency exchange? Especially someone with “extensive experience in the cryptocurrency space”?

Unless $11mm is much less than 5% of her total crypto holdings, in which case, “meh”.

…

Star Xu (really?), founder of OKX proclaims “Crypto will eat the world, self-custody is the future.”

I doubt Star keeps any material amount of the wealth he has earnt from his exchange on his own exchange.

Please don’t ever be as complacent as Crypto LaLa.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Corporate Treasury

And we have yet another addition to the list of companies buying BTC to add to their corporate treasury balance sheet.

DeFi Technologies, a publicly listed Canadian company, dipped a toe or two to buy 110 BTC. Curtis Schlaufman, CEO, reinforces what we already know:

“We believe BTC is a reasonable hedge against inflation and a safe haven from monetary debasement. For @DeFiTechGlobal, utilizing the best performing asset in the world over the last decade as a primary reserve asset just makes sense.”

The corporate treasury bandwagon is just getting going. It will become a monster of a juggernaut.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Spot ETH ETFs …

… are getting ever closer, as Erich Balchunas (Senior ETF Analyst at Bloomberg and the go-to man for crypto ETF info) explains:

“UPDATE: we are moving up our over/under date for the launch of spot Ether ETF to July 2nd, hearing the Staff sent issuers comments on S-1s today, and they're pretty light, nothing major, asking for them back in a week. Decent chance they work to declare them effective the next week and get it off their plate bf holiday wknd. Anything poss but this is our best guess as of now.”

NFU (not for us), as the regulator in the UK works hard, and successfully so, to disadvantage retail investors at every turn. But that’s technocrats for you.