Golden Morning News Huang Renxun cashes out 312 million Venezuelas president avoids sanctions using cryptocurrency

Top News
▌NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang cashes out $31.2 million through a series of internal transactions
Recent regulatory filings reveal that NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang cashed out $31.2 million through a series of internal transactions, selling 240,000 shares of stock on June 13-14.
▌Venezuelan President using cryptocurrency to evade sanctions
Venezuelan political critics accuse President Nicolás Maduro and his government of increasingly relying on cryptocurrency transactions to evade international sanctions. The US recently re-imposed sanctions on gold and oil due to Maduro’s failure to ensure fair elections in July. Analysis by Chainalysis shows that the Venezuelan National Cryptocurrency Supervisory Authority (SUNACRIP) is transferring significant amounts of stablecoins, which can facilitate financial operations even under sanctions.
Market Update
According to Coingecko data at the time of writing:
BTC recent price: $66,438.96, 24-hour change: -0.3%;
ETH recent price: $3,507.48, 24-hour change: -3.1%;
BNB recent price: $605.83, 24-hour change: -0.9%;
SOL recent price: $143.23, 24-hour change: -4.9%;
DOGE recent price: $0.1288, 24-hour change: -5.8%;
XPR recent price: $0.5043, 24-hour change: +3.2%.
Policy
▌Cumberland DRW receives BitLicense for virtual currency from NYDFS
Digital asset trader and liquidity provider Cumberland DRW announced on Monday that its New York entity has been granted a BitLicense by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
▌Opinion: Biden’s nomination of two CFTC commissioners may impact the agency’s cryptocurrency policies
Investment bank TD Cowen suggests that President Biden’s nomination of two Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) commissioners may influence how the agency deals with cryptocurrencies in the future.
Biden recently nominated CFTC commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero to lead the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and nominated Kristin Johnson as Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the Treasury Department. Both commissioners have advocated for the agency to establish rules or guidelines to protect consumers and address conflicts of interest in cryptocurrencies.
If Romero and Johnson assume their new roles, CFTC will have Democratic Chairman Rostin Behnam and Republican commissioners Caroline Pham and Summer Mersinger, giving Republicans a majority. TD Cowen’s report on Monday suggests that the Biden administration will quickly fill these vacancies, but confirmation of alternative candidates may be delayed until the fall.
Blockchain Applications
▌Foundation founder to launch new social network Rodeo supported by Farcaster social graph
NFT marketplace Foundation founder and CEO Kayvon Tehranian announced on social media the development of a new social network called Rodeo. He described it as fun, simple, and highly social, currently limited to invited users only.
Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero confirmed that the upcoming social network Rodeo will be supported by Farcaster’s permissionless and decentralized social graph.
Cryptocurrency
▌FTX victims seek criminal forfeiture of company assets
In a criminal case against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), different groups are competing over claims on some or all of the assets involved. SBF is currently serving a 25-year federal prison sentence.
In a filing submitted to the US Southern District of New York court, lawyers representing FTX creditors and the company’s Bahamian entity FTX Digital Markets argue that they have a “priority” claim on assets that could be used to satisfy the $11 billion judgment against SBF. The legal team contends that the assets, including FTX’s plane, funds held at Signature Bank, Farmington State Bank, and Silvergate Bank, the sale of Robinhood stock, and political donations related to former FTX executives, should not be used for SBF’s judgment but for the victims of the defunct exchange.
The filing states, “Amend the preliminary seizure order to provide for the return of specific property to debtors and/or FTX Digital, which would benefit the debtors’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding and all creditors and stakeholders in FTX Digital’s Bahamian liquidation, including victims of SBF’s crimes.”
▌JPMorgan questions sustainability of $12 billion inflow into cryptocurrencies
JPMorgan analysts raise concerns about the sustainability of the $12 billion inflow into cryptocurrencies so far this year. They note that while most of the funds are transferred from spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), given the current high price of Bitcoin relative to production costs and gold, they are skeptical about the sustainability of the inflow. Despite the potential for annualized net inflows to reach $26 billion based on this trend, analysts remain cautious, aligning with their early concerns about spot Bitcoin ETF approvals attracting new capital into the crypto space.
▌BlackRock and Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin ETFs currently hold a total of 477,121 BTC
BlackRock and Fidelity currently hold a total of 477,121 BTC, valued at $31.4 billion, for their spot Bitcoin ETFs. These ETFs now hold 262,721 more BTC than MicroStrategy.
▌Lifeboat Foundation accepts cryptocurrency donations but its non-profit status is questionable
The Lifeboat Foundation claims to be dedicated to “safeguarding humanity” and has associations with notable figures like Jeffrey Epstein and Vitalik Buterin. Despite claiming to have non-profit 501(c)(3) status, it has been on the automatic revocation list of the US Internal Revenue Service since 2020.
The foundation has been accepting cryptocurrency donations since 2013, with the first donation of 500 bitcoins from Brian Cartmell. It currently holds a significant amount of cryptocurrency and has not immediately converted it into fiat currency. Donors include Jaan Tallinn and Charlie Shrem, with a total of over 1,100 bitcoins and 190 ethers received.
Currently, most donors are businesses looking to boost their search engine rankings by having their names and links displayed on the website.
▌Opinion: Speculative hot money shifting to AI-related stocks, unfavorable for the crypto market
BIT Mining’s Chief Economist Youwei Yang believes that the speculative hot money is moving towards AI-related stocks, which is unfavorable for the cryptocurrency market. He notes that the current US stock market sees every piece of AI news as positive, leading to FOMO, and states that “cryptocurrency has lost its allure.”
Youwei Yang suggests, “There is only a certain amount of hot money in the market, and right now, all that hot money is being poured into the field of artificial intelligence. Until cryptocurrencies can break through some convincing narratives or constructive progress, during this period, cryptocurrencies will remain in a sideways trading pattern, waiting for significant market shocks.”
Key Economic Developments
▌Probability of the Fed maintaining interest rates in August at 90.7%
According to CME’s “FedWatch,” the probability of the Fed maintaining interest rates in August is 90.7%, with a 9.3% chance of a 25 basis point rate cut. The probability of the Fed keeping interest rates unchanged in September is 39%, with a cumulative 55.7% chance of a 25 basis point rate cut and a 5.3% chance of a cumulative 50 basis point rate cut.
▌Fed’s Harker: Based on current forecasts, one rate cut in 2024 is appropriate
Federal Reserve’s Harker stated that based on his current forecasts, he believes that one rate cut this year is appropriate, emphasizing a signal that rates may remain high. “If everything goes according to expectations, I think a rate cut by the end of the year would be appropriate,” Harker said. “In fact, I think there is a good chance of either one or zero rate cuts this year, depending on how the data evolves. So we will continue to rely on the data.” The Philadelphia Fed President currently expects economic growth to slow but remain above trend, with the unemployment rate moderately rising. He also believes that returning to the Fed’s inflation target will be a “lengthy process.”
▌Nasdaq, S&P 500 indices hit new all-time closing highs
US stock markets closed higher, with the Nasdaq up by 0.95%, the S&P 500 up by 0.77%, and the Dow up by 0.49%. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 indices reached new all-time closing highs, with the Nasdaq setting a new record for six consecutive trading days. Most major tech stocks rose, with Tesla up over 5%, Microsoft, Apple, and Intel up over 1%, Netflix, Google, Amazon, and Meta slightly up; NVIDIA slightly down. Both Microsoft and Apple reached new all-time closing highs. GameStop fell over 12%, with the CEO stating that the company will focus on profitability and avoid speculation.
▌Citi to raise year-end target for S&P 500 index to 5,600 points
Citi strategists have raised their year-end target for the S&P 500 index from the previous 5,100 points to 5,600 points, becoming the third Wall Street firm since last Friday to raise its expectations for the benchmark index, following Goldman Sachs and Evercore ISI. Scott Chronert-led strategists wrote in a client report on Monday that continued earnings upgrades and profit growth expanding beyond tech stocks prompted the target increase. The latest forecast implies a roughly 2% increase from Monday’s levels. Citi raised its full-year earnings per share estimate from $245 to $250.
Golden Nugget
▌What is a reverse futures contract?
A reverse futures contract is a financial arrangement that requires the seller to pay the buyer the difference between the agreed price and the current price at contract expiration. Unlike traditional futures, the seller benefits from a price decrease.