In the murmur of Monday, Bloomberg spoke from the machine rooms of finance: London-based Standard Chartered is girding itself to widen its crypto harvest, to seed a prime brokerage for digital assets. The face of the bank is calm, the hands are busy, and the heart-who knows?-beats to the rhythm of speculation. 🤖
So, here’s the scoop: BitMine, under the wise leadership of our dear friend Tom Lee, has decided to play a little game of “let’s buy all the Ethereum we can” ahead of a shareholder vote. Because who doesn’t love a good shopping spree? 🛒💸
Recent days have seen BTC wallowing near $92,300, its backside pressed against a trendline support that whispers sweet nothings between $90K and $91K. DrBullZeus, the Oracle of Bullspeak, declared with the gravitas of a prophet, “We are very close to a breakout here! I think BTC could be targeting $94K again.” The price, currently loafing at $92,086, has shown the faintest hint of interest, like a cat eyeing a half-eaten mouse. 🐱
In a series of tweets that read like a middle school essay on “Why I Was Wrong,” Mercx argues that central banks are waging a “frontal attack on the FED” (yes, he really wrote that with a capital F), and investors are fleeing to gold like it’s the last lifeboat on the Titanic. Meanwhile, Bitcoin is languishing 20% below its peak. “The verdict is in,” he proclaims. “The debasement trade is Gold & Silver, not Bitcoin.” If only he’d said that in 2013… but no, back then he was probably busy sipping chamomile tea and muttering, “This can’t last.” 🤷♂️
In the wake of Strategy’s latest proclamation, Bitmine, with a smirk as wide as the blockchain itself, declared its holdings to be a monstrous $14.0 billion. This treasure includes 4.17 million ETH, $988 million in cold, hard cash, 193 BTC, and a $23 million equity stake-a trifle they modestly dub “moonshots.” All this, as of the 11th hour of January, when the clock struck 7 p.m. ET. 🕰️✨
Strategy, once known as MicroStrategy, now tradeth at $157-a paltry sum compared to its July zenith. ‘Tis a 65% descent, dear friends, as if one had eaten 65% of their soufflé and then wept into it. 🥧
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC), that stalwart of regulatory rigor, has drafted guidelines to allow listed companies and professional investors to trade crypto, a move that would see the overturn of a nine-year-old ban. 🧱 According to BusinessKorea, the FSC shared the draft with a public-private task force on January 6th, and according to a high-ranking financial industry official, authorities are expected to release the final guidelines between January and February. 📅
Standard Chartered is getting ready to launch a prime brokerage for cryptocurrency trading, a move that shows how seriously global banks are now taking digital assets. A prime brokerage is a service designed for large investors, offering support like asset safekeeping, lending, and funding so they can trade smoothly across different markets.
The weekly market opener resembled a Hollywood drama-Bitcoin (BTC), gold, and silver staged a triumphant rally, probably celebrating the dollar’s stumble. All this occurred after Federal Reserve’s Jerome Powell, in a move that might have involved a lot of deep breathing, declared he’d resist political pressure like a noble knight defending the sacred castle of monetary independence, which is ironic because everyone still seems a bit nervous.