Saylor Stumbles and Bitcoin Falls — Week in Review

Read all of the biggest stories of the week.͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ 

Saylor stumbles and Bitcoin falls It's been down only for Bitcoin and crypto since Thursday of last week. The ATH celebration on Thursday was short lived before dropping sharply on inflation data, dampening expectations for a Fed rate cut in September. Many who had done well from July until now chose to take profits. This derisking has led to four consecutive days of outflows for spot bitcoin and ether ETFs, I've seen this called "healthy derisking." Another likely culprit for the price action is the stumble of the progenitor of DATs (Digital Asset Treasuries), Strategy. The Michael Saylor led outfit promised not to dilute MSTR below a 2.5x mNAV, but on Monday reneged. This article explains the whole situation well. Like many on X, I'm bemused that people ever took Saylor at his word. My co-host Graham and I once again spent part of this week's episode of Token Narratives struggling to find a reason why someone would buy DATs. We're not the only ones. There must be enough people doing likewise to prompt this Saylor X post explaining 4 reasons MSTR should trade at a premium to mNav. Sponsored by Wild.io Up to 170% + 175 Free Spins, First Deposit Bonus! Join Wild.io and enjoy a massive welcome package up to 400% + 300 Free Spins. Wild rewards await: 💎 $25,000 in Jackpots every week; 🎡 $130,000 weekly, in the Wheel of Fortune; 💰 20% Cashback, every week! ... and more! 👉 Sign Up Now! Jon Charbonneau published a sharp little article this week framing the DAT meta as greater-fool investing, akin to memecoins. He contrasted this with fundamental investing, citing revenue-generating projects like Hyperliquid or Tether. Under this framework, Ethereum doesn't look attractive, especially at these prices. The author of this excellent thread concurs, though it should be noted he is still playing the greater-fool game. Another player of the Ethereum greater-fool game is The Giver, who posted a theory with a lot of merit about the investment strategy of leading BTC DATs (Michael Saylor) versus ETH DATs (Tom Lee). As always, when prices turn negative for a week or more, calls for market tops (or not-too-distant market tops) elicit questions of where we are in the cycle. Chamath Palihapitiya's new SPAC smacks of late-cycle euphoria, especially the nihilistic self-aware line from the filing that there's "no crying in the casino." Conversely, are we in the early stages of a crypto institutional cycle? On to a grab bag of crypto news. Stablecoins continue to be the brightest corner of the market. Metamask, once the dominant software wallet, is the newest project to announce a stablecoin. Bullish, fresh off a successful IPO, chose to receive $1.15 billion of proceeds in stablecoins. Finally, World Liberty Financial's stablecoin, USD1, will be added to Coinbase. For those of us (me included) who have largely dismissed World Liberty Financial because of its close ties to the current U.S. administration, our biases have likely been a disservice. Luca Netz, CEO of Pudgy Penguins, said on the latest Unchained podcast that companies like Phantom Wallet and World Liberty Financial (specifically around the USD1 stablecoin) are interesting because, "owning the user interface is where all the money is going to be made." Phantom makes sense, but I've never thought of World Liberty from this perspective. Something that doesn't make sense is the fact that people still pile into high-profile memecoin launches. On Thursday, Kanye West launched $YZY, which skyrocketed to a "$3 billion" valuation in 13 hours before dropping 78% as of writing this on Friday morning. Let's end on a lighter note. The Harvard economist skeptical of Bitcoin who went viral last week after CT (Crypto Twitter) dunked on him because Harvard's endowment bought $100 million worth of Blackrock's spot bitcoin ETF, responded on X by essentially doubling down on Bitcoin's intrinsic lack of value. You get bitcoin at the price you deserve. -David Sencil News Ripple Highlights Custody as Core Infrastructure for $18.9T Tokenization Market Ripple is spotlighting custody as the backbone of digital finance, driving stablecoin adoption, tokenized asset growth,… read more.   Editor's comment: Recognition for the need of various forms of custody on the spectrum from self-custody on one end of the spectrum, to third-party custody on the other are a sign that the crypto industry is maturing.   Robert Kiyosaki Warns of Massive Stock Crash, Doubles Down on Bitcoin Stock market crash indicators are flashing red, according to Robert Kiyosaki, as bitcoin gains favor while… read more.   Editor's comment: If the stock market crashes, expect it to take crypto markets with it. At least in the short term.   Analyst: Bitcoin Peaks Follow Halving Patterns—Next One Expected by Late 2025 Crypto analyst Cryptobirb predicts that bitcoin is nearing its cycle peak, which is likely to occur between October… read more.   Editor's comment: We might indeed be near the market top, or it could be the case that we've just had a week of downward price action following a lackluster all-time high.   XMR Price Climbs Amid Doubts Over Qubic's 51% Attack Success Claim XMR rebounded 4% to $276 on Aug. 18 after dropping to $233 on Aug. 15, following reports of a 51% attack… read more.   Editor's comment: Whether Qubic achieved its explicitly stated target, it certainly was a much-needed wake-up call for the Monero community.   China Eyes Yuan-Backed Stablecoins to Challenge Dollar Dominance China is considering yuan-backed stablecoins as part of a new international strategy, signaling a major policy… read more.   Editor's comment: This seems to indicate that China, like the ECB, is worried about US-denominated stablecoins increasing the dominance of the US dollar, and weakening the power of their central banks. 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