Crypto Gives Back Last Week’s Gains as Key Fed Speech Approaches
Fed Chair Jay Powell reigns all powerful once again as crypto eyes Jackson Hole Speech
As the saying goes, what goes up, must come down. And this week seems fairly important in knowing just how far “down” might be — as Fed Chair Jerome Powell steps to the mic for an all important speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
As we inch closer to that speech on Friday, it seems like traders are once again taking a wait-and-see approach to what could be yet another Powell-triggered selloff. Ethereum has already given back most of the prior week’s gains, and things could go from bad to worse if the Fed chair signals that the recent uptick in inflation is more worrisome than the softening in the labor market. Traders could very well continue pushing out hopes of interest rates coming down.
Case in point, as Bloomberg points out, odds of a 0.25% rate cut in September have been incredibly volatile just over that last few weeks:
As Trump continues to bully the Fed, Powell has continued to dig in. We’ll see if cooler heads prevail on Friday.
Until then, perma-bull Tom Lee — and now Chairman of the second-largest crypto treasury company behind Strategy — provided a little more reason to bet Friday goes Ethereum’s way to get back to chugging along higher:
Ethereum Treasury Company Copies Coinage Dividend Play
As always, we can’t really avoid covering the Ethereum treasury news of the day. Not only did Tom Lee’s BitMine announce they acquired an additional $1.7 billion of ETH over the last week, but fellow Ethereum treasury company BTCS announced their own dividend.
They called it the first “Blockchain Dividend Payable in Ethereum” or “Bividend” for short. And while it is unclear who thought that might be an attractive way to sell what they are doing, it is an interesting way to get people to buy and hold shares in an Ethereum treasury company.
It’s also something that Coinage absolutely takes credit for pioneering onchain (as we paved the way for DAO/Coops to pay patronage dividends.) Either way, it will be interesting to see if other treasury companies follow suit. After all, these companies sharing some of the yield they are making with shareholders seems like a much more straightforward way to align interests rather than the dizzying and constant debt or share issuances.
Terra Founder Do Kwon Takes Plea Deal
Speaking of Coinage, you may recall our award-winning exclusive interview with Terra Founder Do Kwon after the record $40 billion collapse of his crypto empire.
It’s been almost exactly three years to the day since we published that piece, and just last week Do Kwon pleaded guilty to fraud charges. By taking a plea deal, Do Kwon has significantly cut his possible max sentence down from 130 years to just 25 — and the government has said it doesn’t intend to advocate for more than 12 years.
It’s worth nothing SBF went to trial and lost. He got 25 years. As part of this deal, Do Kwon would likely be sent back to Korea after serving just half of the sentence the judge decides to hand him. Final sentencing is expected in December. But as we highlight in our new episode, it might be one of the better outcomes among the fallen crypto founders of last cycle:
Winklevoss Twins Gear Up For Gemini IPO
This year has been kind to crypto IPOs. Stablecoin issuer Circle set the tone, and just a week ago, Coindesk parent company Bullish continued the excitement. Shares popped 150% at one point in its debut after pricing at $37 and opening at $90. Shares have come back to around $60 since, but still a pretty solid start.
That makes Gemini all the more interesting to watch. The exchange has been around almost as long as Coinbase, but the company revealed a net loss of $282.5 million on just $67.9 million in revenue in the six months ending June 30.
That’s not exactly a “to the moon” type of S-1, but crypto excitement may still be hot enough to carry Gemini to the promised land of Day-1 pumps. We shall see when the company is expected to list in September.
Other Web3 Headlines:
Solana memecoin launchpad war flips again as Pump takes top spot amid LetsBonk collapse
New York’s top lawyer said Ethereum is a security. A crypto lawyer is coming for her job
Ethereum Could Hit $80,000, Says Etherealize CEO Vivek Raman
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