Welcome to another edition of Olliv the Above. This week, the crypto news that has our antennae buzzing includes a fresh rally for bitcoin following a U.S. circuit court ruling about a potential bitcoin ETF. Also, Elon Musk's X could pivot from social media to crypto payments. And finally, one of the U.S. presidential race's pro-bitcoin candidates bowed out of the race after failing to qualify for the first round of primary debates.
Read on for the top crypto news of August 28, 2023.
A Circuit Court judge ruled in favor of asset manager Grayscale as they attempt to turn their Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which has more than $17 billion assets under management, into a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
A wave of ETF applications spurred a mini rally for bitcoin and crypto prices earlier in the summer of 2023. With the news that Grayscale could convert its popular securities investment vehicle into an ETF, bitcoin prices are once again looking bullish.
Bitcoin prices have been chugging along in an 8-week holding pattern – unusual for such a famously volatile asset class. Little blips of encouragement, like the early summer enthusiasm for ETFs, have pushed it closer to $30K but it has remained in a lull much of the summer.
Could the news of Grayscale’s court decision spur an SEC review of their pending ETF application sooner rather than later? Will this new momentum roll into a frenzy of price action for the fall? Time will tell.
Catch up: Summer of lull?
Elon Musk’s social networking platform X (fka Twitter) has been quietly obtaining money transmitter licenses (MTL) across the United States, with Rhode Island being the latest state to grant X a license.
This is a crucial step for the mainstay social app to transform into a payments platform. Remember, Musk is a co-founder of PayPal and has long been an enthusiastic supporter of Dogecoin (DOGE). Any news that pushes the speculation about X adopting crypto payments within the platform has been good for the memecoin, but there are implications for other cryptocurrencies as well.
The chances of the massive social media app relying solely on one crypto out of the many coins and tokens on the market are slim, especially as crypto markets shift out of crypto winter and begin to thaw out.
More reading: X marks the spot
Miami Mayor Francis Saurez has suspended his campaign for the U.S. presidency. Saurez became known in crypto circles as he was openly pro-bitcoin on the campaign trail, and even announced that he would be accepting some of his paychecks in BTC as Miami’s mayor. In a statement on X, Saurez said he would do what he can to “make sure [his] party puts forward a strong nominee” for the 2024 election.
Miami hosts one of North America’s largest gatherings of crypto fans and industry insiders at its annual Bitcoin conference. The city even pioneered its own civic version of a blockchain token with Miami Coin (MIA). The token hasn’t fared much better than Saurez’s bid for the White House – the price of MIA is down nearly 60% on the year.
Bitcoin basics: How does bitcoin work?
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