Mastercard is betting big on stablecoins, but not as peer-to-peer money.

Mastercard backs stablecoins post-GENIUS Act, but not as decentralized money

As Bitcoin (BTC) continues to set new all-time highs (ATH) &#8211; reaching $123,218 
on Binance on July 13 &#8211; on-chain data reveals a shift in holder behavior that 
could threaten the cryptocurrency’s bullish momentum. Bitcoin Holder Rotation 
May Derail Rally According to a CryptoQuant Quicktake post by contributor IT 
Tech, long-term Bitcoin holders (LTH) &#8211; those holding BTC for over 155 days &#8211; 
have transitioned into net distribution, suggesting seasoned investors are 
engaging in profit-taking. Meanwhile, short-term holders (STH) &#8211; those who 
have held BTC for less than 155 days — have recently turned net positive, 
indicating they are buying into BTC’s current rally in anticipation of further 
gains. Historical data shows that similar trends among LTH and STH were 
observed back in April 2021 and November 2023. During both these instances, 
BTC witnessed a cooling phase or a local top when spot demand faded. Related 
Reading: Bitcoin Exchange Inflows Spike After $123,000 Peak – Signs Of Short- 
Term Cooling? In their analysis, IT Tech suggested keeping an eye on exchange 
inflows and funding rates for confirmation. If spot BTC inflows to crypto 
exchanges surge, it could hint that sell-pressure is likely to increase, which 
may derail the digital asset’s bullish trajectory. Supporting this view, 
CryptoQuant contributor Arab Chain noted that the Spent Output Value Ranges 
(SOVR) indicator shows a spike in BTC transfers to exchanges from wallets 
holding 1,000 to 10,000 BTC &#8211; typically associated with whales. For the 
uninitiated, the SOVR indicator tracks on-chain BTC transfers by value buckets 
to identify which investor segments are active. It helps reveal whether 
retail, mid-sized, or institutional players are driving market activity. This 
aligns with IT Tech’s observations on long-term holders. If selling pressure 
intensifies, BTC could correct down to a support level near $111,800. Not All 
Analysts See Rally Exhaustion Although Bitcoin LTH entering distribution 
phase, and whales increasing their deposits to crypto exchanges may point 
toward a potential end for the current rally, not all analysts share the same 
sentiment. Related Reading: Bitcoin Profit-Taking Spikes Without Price Drop – 
Strong Demand Or Delayed Reaction? For instance, the STH Market Value to 
Realized Value (MVRV) suggests BTC may still be undervalued, indicating 
potential for further upside. If that holds, Bitcoin could climb as high as 
$150,000 before any major pullback. Additionally, a fresh injection of $2 
billion in liquidity to major crypto derivatives platforms could help reignite 
bullish momentum. However, caution remains warranted. The Bitcoin NVT Golden 
Cross has been climbing steadily, giving early signs of an overheated market. 
At press time, BTC trades at $118,754, up 0.4% in the past 24 hours. Featured 
image from Unsplash, charts from CryptoQuant and TradingView.com

Bitcoin Sees Long-Term Holders Sell As Short-Term Buyers Step In – Sign Of Rally Exhaustion?

Sharplink Gaming Inc. has filed to sell up to $5 billion worth of additional 
common stock, primarily to fund the purchase of ether for its corporate 
treasury. Sharplink Expands Stock Offering to $6B Total The Minneapolis-based 
online gaming marketing company disclosed the plan in a Securities and 
Exchange Commission (SEC) filing this week. The new […]

Sharplink Gaming Files to Sell $5B in Stock for Ether Purchases

As of Wednesday, at least eleven IP addresses have actively tried to exploit 
the vulnerability, with thousands more addresses possibly doing reconnaissance 
work.

Hacker reconnaissance work continues on TeleMessage app vulnerability — Report

Peter Thiel-backed Bullish files for US IPO after reporting $150M in profit 
and holding $2.4B in customer assets.
The post Peter Thiel-backed crypto exchange Bullish formally files for IPO 
appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Peter Thiel-backed crypto exchange Bullish formally files for IPO

Tom Lee devoted a six-post thread on X yesterday to a single proposition: if 
companies treat Ethereum (ETH) the way MicroStrategy treats bitcoin, the token 
price need only follow the mathematics of balance-sheet absorption to reach 
roughly $30,000. Lee’s argument rests on the mechanics he says really powered 
MicroStrategy’s spectacular equity rerating. From 11 August 2020 through today 
the software company’s shares climbed from $13 to about $455, a 35-fold gain. 
Only eleven of those thirty-five turns came from bitcoin’s own rise—roughly 
$11,000 to $118,000 in the same period—while twenty-five turns were created by 
“treasury strategy,” Lee wrote, meaning repeated financings that increased BTC 
per share even faster than the coin’s spot price. Ethereum To $30,000? Lee 
lists three moves that made the template work and, in his view, will be even 
more potent for ETH: issuing new stock above net-asset value to acquire more 
tokens, exploiting token volatility to lower borrowing costs, and relying on 
convertibles or preferred shares to cap dilution. Because ether’s realised 
volatility still exceeds bitcoin’s, Lee argues the cost of debt-and-option 
structures used to lever the treasury can be driven lower still, accelerating 
token accumulation. Related Reading: Ethereum Road To $10,000: Replay Of May’s 
Playbook Predicts Another Breakout In the same thread he reposted a chart 
showing that his own vehicle, BitMine Immersion Technologies, purchased four 
times more notional value in its first week of activity ($1 billion in ETH) 
than MicroStrategy bought in its first week of bitcoin purchases back in 2020. 
BitMine’s numbers illustrate the scale. A regulatory filing and follow-up 
press release on 17 July confirmed the company now holds 300,657 ETH—just over 
$1 billion at the time of publication—after closing a $250 million private 
placement on 8 July. Lee, who chairs BitMine’s board, said the firm is “well 
on our way to acquiring and staking five per cent of the overall ETH supply.” 
The second-largest treasurer is SharpLink Gaming, chaired by Ethereum co- 
founder Joseph Lubin. On 17 July the company updated its SEC prospectus to 
increase the stock it can sell from $1 billion to $6 billion, saying proceeds 
will fund additional ETH purchases. SharpLink had already raised $413 million 
between 7 and 11 July and disclosed 280,706 ETH on its books as of 13 July, 
all but a few hundred of which are staked for yield. Related Reading: Ethereum 
Could Shoot Above $4,000 This Week, Predicts Analyst Bit Digital rounds out 
the trio. After a $172 million underwritten share sale on 7 July and the 
liquidation of 280 bitcoin, the Nasdaq-listed miner reported a treasury of 
100,603 ETH and declared its intention to become “the pre-eminent ETH holding 
company in the world,” according to chief executive Sam Tabar. Taken together, 
the three firms now control roughly 682,000 ETH, or about half a per cent of 
the circulating supply, and each has active authorisations to issue more 
equity or debt expressly for ether accumulation. Lee insists the reflexive 
loop this creates—higher share prices providing ever-cheaper capital that buys 
still more token per share—can compress the time it takes for price to capture 
scarcity. Crypto analyst DCInvestor, responding to Lee’s thread, distilled the 
mathematics into a range: “Tom Lee basically calling for like $30-80K ETH. And 
some of you think we are gonna stop $1-2K after last cycle’s all-time high.” 
Ether changes hands today near $3,600. An eight-fold move to $30,000 would 
merely replicate the multiple that bitcoin logged between MicroStrategy’s 
first treasury purchase and its 2021 peak. The difference, Lee argues, is that 
MicroStrategy spent four years proving the model; Ethereum treasuries have 
taken less than two months to raise their first few billion dollars. Featured 
image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com