- Sotheby's auction house, founded in 1744, will auction a rare diamond in Hong Kong. The lot has been estimated at $10-$15 million. The bets are planned to be accepted in the traditional currency, bitcoins or Ethereum. Bidding will start on July 9. Before that, the 101.38-carat pear-shaped diamond will be exhibited at Sotheby's Gallery in Hong Kong. “This is truly a symbolic moment,” the auction house said in a statement. “The most ancient and symbolic value denominator can be purchased for the first time with the latest universal currency of humanity.”
- According to Reuters, China's authorities have once again caused panic in the cryptocurrency market. The People's Bank of China has reportedly urged banks to immediately close payment gateways for customers who trade in digital assets. The crypto market reacted immediately to this news with a drop to $1.164 trillion. Thus, in just seven days, from June 15 to 22, the market has shrunk by more than 33%. Along with the fall of the crypto market, the hash rate of the bitcoin network also falls. At the time of writing, it has shrunk to 91 exahash per sec. Note that the last time the network recorded such values was back in November 2020. However, according to a number of experts, this reduction in the hash rate may be due to the relocation of miners from China to other countries.
- Amid the Chinese government's crackdown on the crypto industry, a logistics company in Guangzhou announced it was transporting a large batch of bitcoin mining equipment to the United States. According to CNBC, the cargo weighing 3,000 kg will be delivered to Maryland by air. Earlier, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez talked about plans to attract Chinese miners to the city, giving them access to nuclear energy. He stressed that he had not received specific proposals, but he was sure that cheap electricity would be of interest to industry representatives.
- Michael Burry, an investor and founder of hedge fund Scion Capital, who predicted the 2007 mortgage crisis, warned subscribers about the collapse of the cryptocurrency market. However, then this tweet was deleted. "All the hype and speculation is just attracting retail traders before the mother of all the crashes. Parabolic [uptrends] will not pass. [...] History has not changed,” Burry wrote. The investor also noted that the problem of the digital asset market lies in too much leverage. “If you don’t know how much leverage is in cryptocurrencies, you don’t know anything about cryptocurrencies,” he stressed. Burry had earlier warned that the market had inflated "the biggest bubble in history." In his post, he used the hashtag FlyingPigs360, which, according to Business Insider, may be a reference to the adage about investment: "Bulls make money, bears make money, but pigs get slaughtered."
- Bestselling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad and entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki has also predicted the collapse of the crypto market. “The biggest bubble in world history is getting bigger. The biggest crash in world history is approaching. Buy more gold and silver. Expect bitcoin to drop to $24,000,” he wrote. Recall that in 2020, Kiyosaki advised buying the first cryptocurrency until its price exceeded $20,000 and predicted the growth of the asset to $50,000.
- Business intelligence and software provider MicroStrategy has done it again: it has bought over 13,000 bitcoins. Michael Saylor's firm is now the largest corporate investor in digital assets. It owns 105,085 BTC, which is 0.5% of all bitcoins that ever existed and 0.56% of all tokens currently in circulation. The company made the purchase after it raised $500 million through the placement of high-priority securities. As Saylor wrote on Twitter, 13,005 coins were bought for just under $500 million at an average price of $37,617. In total, the businessman has invested over $2.7 billion in bitcoins, and the average purchase price was $26,080, which allows the company to remain in the black for now. Note that on the back of the latest drop in the crypto market, MicroStrategy shares are down 7.8%.
- Popular analyst PlanB has described a potentially bearish scenario for bitcoin this year. As usual, he relies on a stock-to-flow ratio (S2F) model. PlanB emphasizes that the current price pattern is consistent with a bearish scenario, however he is confident that bitcoin will hit its all-time high by October. And the price will reach $135,000 by the end of the year. “Bitcoin fell below $34,000 due to Elon Musk's tweet about the unsustainability of bitcoin, as well as due to the panic caused by the Chinese repression against miners,” he tweeted. “However, there are more fundamental reasons for the June decline. Perhaps they will spread to July. My worst-case scenario for 2021 (based on on-chain analysis): August> $47,000, September> $43,000, October> $63,000, November> $98,000, December> $135,000." The most optimistic scenario assumes an increase in BTC to $450,000.
- Russian billionaire co-owner of the aluminum giant En+ Group Oleg Deripaska accused the Bank of Russia of tight regulation of digital assets. In his opinion, the central bank discourages citizens from getting involved in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. He suggested that the country should add the main cryptocurrency as a means of payment. In addition, the oligarch pointed to the need for Russia to effectively conclude business deals with the rest of the world and called on the central bank to adopt "a real financial instrument that ensures independence in foreign trade settlements." “Even poor El Salvador realized the need for digital currencies and took the simple path of accepting bitcoin as a means of payment,” Deripaska said.
- Former Cramer & Co hedge fund manager and host of CNBC's Mad Money show Jim Cramer sold most of his bitcoins following news of China's mining restrictions. Cramer said there were structural problems in digital gold and predicted a further decline in its price. "When China pursues something, they tend to bring the matter to an end. This is not a democracy. This is a dictatorship. I think they see bitcoin as a direct threat to the regime because of what it is - the system is beyond their control.” Cramer also said that a decrease in the rate of mined coins could have a positive effect on the rate of the first cryptocurrency, but this did not happen. “When mining is limited, bitcoin obviously has to go up, unless holders are going out all over the place,” he explained. The Mad Money presenter added that the drop in Bitcoin to $30,000 could be an entry point for new investors. However, the presenter himself does not intend to buy cryptocurrency.
- The founder of the Point72 Asset Management Fund Steve Cohen, unlike Jim Cramer, on the contrary, reformatted completely to cryptocurrency. Cohen, whose net worth is estimated at $14 billion, said that he does not care about the current price of bitcoin, as he is still an early investor: “Now I definitely won't miss anything. I missed the first part, but I still feel that I got involved quite early,” says the billionaire.
- IOHK CEO, Cardano founder and Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson has no doubts that ETH will beat BTC. “The problem with bitcoin is that it's too slow - it's like programming for mainframes of the past, compared to building applications now. The only reason bitcoin still exists is because there is a huge amount of money invested in its support. " “Bitcoin is our worst enemy. It has a huge network, a well-known name and the support of regulators. But you cannot change its system, even if you fix the most problematic places, ” - said Hoskinson. He also commented on the bitcoin community, calling it "too ossified" and reluctant to innovate.
- Tesla founder Elon Musk should better study the mining of the first cryptocurrency, since in reality it is much more environmentally friendly than is commonly thought. “I don’t know how long Elon has been studying mining, but I hope he does a little more research on this topic,” said Kraken CEO Jesse Powell in an interview with Bloomberg. He acknowledged that there may be greener alternatives to bitcoin. But, in his opinion, people overestimate the harm of cryptocurrency to the environment. Mining digital gold allows a lot of excess and wasted energy to be utilized, and also contributes to the development of the renewable energy sector, Powell said.
