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Bitcoin has jumped back above the $60,000 mark, which inspired MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor to share a post about its resilience. Whales took advantage of BTC’s recent price dip as well, and ended up accumulating 71,000 BTC, while smaller traders sold off holdings. Dormant Bitcoin wallets have also become much more active, transferring massive amounts of BTC for the first time in years. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump confirmed that he will still speak at the upcoming Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, despite the recent assassination attempt.
Bitcoin Bounces Back to $60K
Bitcoin (BTC) has once again touched the $60,000 mark, and this prompted a statement from Michael Saylor, the chairman and co-founder of MicroStrategy. In a tweet, Saylor declared, "Bitcoin is the bridge from chaos to hope," sharing a clip from Fox Business showing Bitcoin's yearly performance compared to major asset classes. From 2013 to 2023, Bitcoin led gains among major asset classes in eight out of eleven instances.
Saylor's statement comes at a time when global economic uncertainties and market volatility are pushing investors to look for alternative assets.
Recently, Bitcoin's decline from its March record accelerated because of concerns about Mt. Gox, the German government's Bitcoin sales. Bitcoin started last week with a slump that also raised fears of outflows from U.S. exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Instead, dip buyers poured in funds, fueling optimism in the entire cryptocurrency market. A net $737.5 million was added to the 11 ETFs in the four days leading up to Thursday.
At press time, Bitcoin was trading hands at $62,657.95 after its price managed to climb by more than 5% over the past 24 hours of trading. BTCs is up by around 13% on its weekly time frame as well.
Whales Buy BTC During Market Drop
Bitcoin whales took full advantage of the crypto market slump earlier this month. In fact, they ended up accumulating 71,000 Bitcoin, the fastest rate of Bitcoin stacking since April of 2023. This Bitcoin is worth close to $4.3 billion at current prices, and was primarily scooped up when Bitcoin retraced to $54,200 on July 5, according to a chart from cryptocurrency analytics firm IntoTheBlock.
CryptoQuant pointed out that Bitcoin whales have been stacking Bitcoin at the fastest rate on a 30-day moving average since April 2023, a period marked by the collapse of several local banks in the U.S. CryptoQuant analyst Minkyu Woo suggested that this accumulation indicates that the bottoming out of Bitcoin may be almost complete.
In contrast, smaller traders were selling off their holdings during the dip, according to cryptocurrency analytics firm Santiment. Santiment also reported a net increase of 261 Bitcoin wallets holding at least 10 Bitcoin over the first 10 days of July, which should provide traders with some confidence in a more long-term bullish outlook.
However, it seems like not all Bitcoin whales are planning to continue accumulating and holding onto their Bitcoin.
Whales Make Big Moves
A dormant Bitcoin wallet address that contains 1,000 BTC transferred funds for the first time in about 12 years on Sunday, according to on-chain data. The wallet received the Bitcoin 11 years and 9 months ago and did not make an outgoing transaction until Sunday when it sent the 1,000 BTC to a new address.
At the time the wallet received the Bitcoin, its value was only $12,100. After holding for almost twelve years, the wallet has seen a roughly 500,000% increase in value. The exact reason for the transfer and the identity of the wallet's owner are still unknown.
Another wallet that has been dormant for over twelve years also recently transferred almost $7 million in funds. Additionally, on May 12, 1,000 BTC worth more than $60 million was moved for the first time in a decade, after a transfer of 687.33 BTC worth over $44 million that had been dormant for ten years, just a week earlier.
In March, the fifth richest address on the Bitcoin blockchain, which was dormant since 2019, moved $6 billion. During the same month, another entity combined $140 million in Bitcoin mined in 2010 into a single wallet.
Trump Confirms Bitcoin Conference Appearance
Former President Donald Trump seems just as optimistic about Bitcoin’s potential as Saylor is. In fact, Trump still plans to speak at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, despite surviving an assassination attempt on July 13 in Pennsylvania.
David Bailey, one of the event's organizers and CEO of Bitcoin Magazine, confirmed the news on X.com on Friday. He stated that he spoke with Trump's team and that the former president was "in good spirits." Bailey added that Trump was "excited to see you all in Nashville and deliver a speech that is heard around the world."
Trump committed to speaking at the conference earlier in the week, before the assassination attempt. The event runs from July 25 through July 27, with Trump slated to speak on July 27.
SEC Ends Three-Year Inquiry Into Hiro
The sentiment surrounding Bitcoin could also receive a boost because the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has dropped a three-year-old investigation into Hiro Systems, a blockchain software developer previously known as Blockstack, that raised $70 million in token sales from 2017 to 2019.
The end of this investigation is another victory for the crypto industry in its ongoing struggle with the regulator. Just last week, the SEC also ended an investigation into stablecoin issuer Paxos.
In a letter attached to a July 12 filing, the SEC's division of enforcement stated that it does not intend to recommend an enforcement action against Hiro Systems PBC. However, the letter included a standard caveat that the notice should not be interpreted as an exoneration or a guarantee that no future action will result from the investigation.
Hiro Systems develops tools for building applications on Stacks, a layer-2 blockchain that is designed to enhance Bitcoin. Stacks was created by crypto industry veteran Muneeb Ali, who is now the CEO of Trust Machines and a board member at Hiro. Ali tweeted that the SEC's probe focused on the Stacks protocol in addition to the Hiro entity.
Blockstack launched the first version of the Stacks chain and its token (STX) in 2018, and initially treated the tokens as securities. Some token sales were conducted under the SEC's Regulation A+, allowing limited public sales without full registration, while others were sold to accredited or international investors.
In January of 2021, a new version of Stacks with a proof-of-transfer consensus mechanism was launched, and Hiro stated that the network had become fully decentralized, no longer requiring the tokens to be treated as securities. The SEC was still skeptical, and Hiro revealed in September 2021 that it was responding to an inquiry from the enforcement division.
However, Friday's filing signifies the end of that inquiry, and although the SEC has left a few legal doors open, it still removes a legal threat that has been looming over the firm.
