gm friends —

We’re trying something new: Mid-Week Crypto Updates.

The purpose is to keep you informed with the week’s crypto news stories as they develop - no more waiting until Sunday. Sometimes I’ll also include a bonus section after the news stories (check out today’s 👀).

Don’t worry though - Sunday’s newsletter will keep the same format. So without further ado, let’s dive in!

News Stories

Markets & Macro

• Bitcoin Holds Above $61,000 As CPI Inflation Falls To 2.9% [BeIn Crypto] The 2.9% figure was slightly below expectations. The bigger news here is that Fed Chair Powell warned that waiting for 2% inflation to cut rates might be too late, hinting at potential shifts in economic policy by September.

• US government moves 10,000 Bitcoin [Cointelegraph] The US government moved 10,000 Bitcoin, valued at nearly $594 million, from its seized Silk Road stash. This transfer occurs as debates continue over how the government should manage its substantial BTC holdings, currently valued at around $12 billion.

• Grayscale ETH ETF stems bleeding as activity spikes on Ethereum [Cointelegraph] After weeks of heavy outflows, Grayscale's Ethereum Trust finally saw a day without losses, coinciding with a spike in on-chain activity across Ethereum and its layer-2 networks. This marks a potential turning point, with analysts predicting ETH's price could follow Bitcoin's trajectory post-ETF approval, especially as Ethereum layer-2 networks hit near-record transaction volumes.

• Jump Crypto Selling More ETH [Lookonchain] Jump Trading has resumed selling large amounts of Ethereum, raising concerns of another significant price drop after last week's 20% crash. With $148 million in ETH still held by the firm, the market is bracing for potential further declines as trading volumes decrease.

Institutions, Regulation, & Politics

• Kamala’s Rumored Anti-Crypto Advisors [Alex Thorn] Kamala Harris's rumored choice of advisors, including key figures from Biden's anti-crypto team like Brian Deese and Bharat Ramamurti, suggests she may continue the administration's hardline approach. Deese, known for orchestrating "Chokepoint 2.0," and Ramamurti, a top crypto critic, were central to blocking pro-crypto legislation, raising concerns that Harris's economic policy might mirror Biden's crypto crackdown.

• DRW Venture Capital Discloses $150M Ethereum ETF Holdings [Watcher Guru] DRW Venture Capital has revealed a substantial $150 million investment in Ethereum ETFs, signaling strong institutional interest. With recent net inflows reversing an outflow trend, and BlackRock's ETH ETF nearing $1 billion, Ethereum's ETF market appears to be gaining momentum.

• Goldman Sachs Holds Over $400M in Bitcoin ETFs [Coindesk] Goldman has quietly amassed over $400 million in Bitcoin ETFs, marking a significant shift from its earlier crypto skepticism. With its largest holding in the iShares Bitcoin Trust, the bank's investment signals growing institutional confidence in Bitcoin ETFs as a transformative force in the financial system.

Crypto Products & Onchain Events

• Coinbase teases ‘cbBTC’ days after BitGo Wrapped Bitcoin controversy [Cointelegraph] Coinbase is teasing the launch of "cbBTC," sparking speculation of its own wrapped Bitcoin token just as BitGo faces backlash over its partnership with Tron founder Justin Sun. Concerns about Sun's involvement in Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) have led to calls within the DeFi community to withdraw support for the asset and raised questions about the future of Bitcoin-pegged tokens on other blockchains.

• Grayscale Launches MakerDAO Trust [GlobeNews Wire] Grayscale Investments has launched the Grayscale MakerDAO Trust, offering investors exposure to MKR, the governance token of the MakerDAO ecosystem.

This is all for today’s Mid-Week Crypto Updates news stories! Let me know in the comments how you liked it and what you’d like to see in the future!

BONUS: Reflections on Investing From The Oldest Man in Crypto

A note from Internet Capital Co-Founder The Grand Tonto

I may quite literally be the oldest man in crypto. I’m 56 years old and have lived through the Internet Bubble, the Mortgage and Financial crisis of 2008 and Covid Crash.

I began investing with 20th Century mutual funds (now American Century) in 1990, putting away $100 a month in 20th Century Ultra, which at the time was the hottest mutual fund going. Later, I moved all my holdings to the classic mutual fund family, Vanguard. Over the 30+ years I’ve been investing, I’ve almost never made a trade. I’m a classic buy-and-hold guy or, in, crypto terms, a HODLer.

In 2021, I got interested in crypto from my son and, of course, bought at the all-time highs for ETH at around $4500. It promptly went down and I sold. In 2022, he convinced me that crypto was the future ( I agree) and moved a portion of my retirement holdings into ETH and BTC with a custodian – Alto IRA. It’s basically locked there and more or less nothing can be done with it for years. Since investing, I’m really happy with its return!

This past winter, I got more interested in crypto because I had some extra time and began doing stuff on the blockchain -  Airdrop farming, looping, and things like that. However, this approach also moved me away from what I had done for 30+ years- just buying and holding and letting appreciation take over knowing that I wasn’t smarter than the markets or the other people in the game.

During the past 9 months, I did things too quickly, and most recently, I did something I had never done before – I took a leverage position on ETH - and on crypto black Monday, for a variety of reasons, got washed out. I knew that was a possibility, and I’m not complaining – I was lucky, and that was a very small portion of my overall portfolio.

However, the reason I’m writing this is because there’s going to be a lot of people just like me who are going to be entering the crypto world in the next few years and decades. My advice to you - don’t let crypto be the thing that takes you away from what you do.

Yes, lots of people are claiming they make millions of dollars on meme coins and other strategies (I think most are lying). However, you don’t have to do that to get to your investment goals.

Bitcoin is literally like digital gold and all you need to do is buy and hold it, and Ethereum is literally a tech stock that has endless possibilities. You don’t need to do other stuff with it - just buy it and hold it for years and decades at a time. It will pay off.

Now if you want to learn more and take small positions and do degen crypto things, fine, but be sure that you are aware of the risks. Be sure you’re smart about your time in life and goals. If you’re younger, maybe you do more; if you’re my age, you probably need to do a lot less.

But even for those of us who have been investing for decades, the allure of crypto and making a lot of money very quickly takes over our minds sometimes. It got me, and I’m just lucky that it had a small impact on my portfolio. I don’t want that to happen to anybody else.

So be yourself, be smart, do what you do best and learn about the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem. In 5-10-15-20 years, you or your kids or your grandchildren will be happy you did!

#DareToBeGreat

Thanks for reading!

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Nothing in this newsletter is meant to be taken as legal, tax, investing, or other advice. Internet Capital is for educational and entertainment purposes only. All views are our own, and not representative of any organizations with which we are affiliated. For any business partnerships please reach out via the email [email protected]