Bitcoin at $1 million? MicroStrategy buys more

Today’s Weekly Roundup: Bernstein Predicts Bitcoin (Bitcoin) to reach $1 million in 2033; Ethereum ETFs are scheduled to launch in July; MicroStrategy Looks to Buy More BTC; and more and more scammers are developing romantic relationships to defraud victims.

Bernstein Sees BTC at $1 Million Despite Market Uncertainty

• Pepe Coin (PEPE) expert an 11% increase in 24 hours to $0.0000129, with a rapid increase in volume to $1.27 billion. Toncoin (TON) also saw a similar surge, reaching a new all-time high of $8.13.
• Interestingly, Mantra (OM) also hit a new all-time high of $1.0924 last week amid expansion efforts in the UAE and project development.
• The NFT market saw a 17% increase, reaching $145.3 million in sales. Bitcoin led this surge with a 50% increase in NFT sales, surpassing Ethereum in volume.
• The price of Bitcoin fallen to $66,000 before the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decision. Analysts noted that similar market behavior has been observed in previous FOMC-related scenarios.
• Despite bearish sentiment across the market last week, asset manager Bernstein expected a rise of Bitcoin to $1 million by 2033. They also predicted that Bitcoin will reach $200,000 this cycle, supported by ETF-driven demand.
• Bitcoin and Ethereum balances on exchanges reached up a four-year low, falling below 2.3 million and 16 million respectively, as investors continued to withdraw their assets from stock exchanges.

Cryptocurrency ETF Developments

• BTC ETF Outflows hit $200 million on June 11 ahead of Federal Reserve inflation data. These outflows occurred as investors anticipated the impacts of the upcoming data release.
• Eric Balchunas, ETF analyst at Bloomberg, suggested that Ethereum ETFs could do this go live in the month of July. The potential launch follows recent SEC filings and market preparations.

The main regulatory interventions

• Nigeria fallen tax charges against Binance executives Nadeem Anjarwalla and Tigran Gambaryan. The government dropped the charges after reviewing the evidence and circumstances.
• In a regulatory effort, the Securities and Exchange Commission in Thailand revoked cryptocurrency exchange Zipmex’s operating license, citing regulatory compliance issues.
• Meanwhile, in the United States, the Federal Trade Commission warned of crypto-romance scams. The FTC has reported an increase in scams in which scammers develop romantic relationships to defraud victims of their cryptocurrency holdings.
• Additionally, OFAC sanctioned an employee of Polyus, a Russian state-owned gold producer, for laundering money via cryptocurrencies. The individual used cryptocurrencies to facilitate money laundering operations.

Investments in blockchain are increasing

• Last week, Paradigm announced an $850 million fund for early-stage crypto projects. The fund will support startups developing blockchain technology and applications.
• Blockchain startups Safe $109.3 million in major funding rounds.
• MicroStrategy revealed plans to buy more Bitcoin with a $500 million convertible note offering. Shortly after, the feat oversized the offer at $700 million.
• Fire blocks enlarged its connectivity by joining forces with Coinbase International Exchange.
• Ripple offer for dominance in Asia with a new blockchain fund. The fund is designed to support blockchain projects in the Asian market. Ripple aims to strengthen its presence in the region through this initiative.

Cryptocurrencies hit and run

• OKX customers fallen victim of a SIM swap attack. Hackers took control of phone numbers to intercept SMS-based 2FA codes and withdraw funds. OKX advised users to adopt app-based authentication methods.
• Cryptocurrency scammers impersonated Binance Co-Founder Yi He Fraud Victims of $210,000. They used fake identities and convincing communications to trick people into transferring cryptocurrency.
• Hackers stole over $22 million from British exchange Lykke. The platform has launched an investigation to identify the attackers and is strengthening security protocols.
• UwU also lends lost $19.3 million in a cyber attack. The attackers exploited a vulnerability in the platform’s smart contracts. UwU Lend has suspended operations to conduct a security audit and resolve the issues.

Innovations and partnerships

• Last week, the NEAR Foundation spin-off, Nuffle Labs lifted up $13 million. The funds will be used to develop blockchain solutions and expand Nuffle Labs’ operational capabilities.
• The IOTA Foundation’s Web3 protocol was choice for the EU Blockchain Sandbox initiative. This includes IOTA in efforts to provide Web3 solutions for blockchain integration across Europe.
• Polygon launched a new subsidy program with 1 billion POL. The program supports and funds innovative projects within the Polygon ecosystem.
• Polygon also busy 35 million MATIC to support projects based on its network.

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