DIB 21 MAR 2024

Daily Intelligence Bulletin (DIB)

Block: 835,650

DTG/ICOD: 0800EST 21Mar24

Precedence: Routine (RR)

Controls: Public Release

QQQQ

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BLUF: US Calls for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza / Hong Kong Feels the Totalitarian Curtain Drop / Prison Break in Idaho, 3 Officers shot / Preteens Arrested for Bank Robbery / Grayscale Hints at Dropping Fees / Fed to Maintain Rates / Anonymous Claims to Hack Israeli Nuke Site

Market Data: Price: 1 BTC= $67,128, 30.42 oz Gold, .16 Median US House

24hr Hi: $68,199/ Lo: $62,082

Vol: $57B (Down 11%)

Mkt Cap: $1.31T (Up 6%)

HashRate: 490 EH/s

Avg Fees: 9,109 sats/tx (Down 10%)

Nodes: 18,294

—Reports—

-International Events-

1. Blinken: U.S. submitted draft resolution to UN calling for Gaza ceasefire: Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday the U.S. has submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council that calls “for an immediate ceasefire” in Gaza that’s “tied to the release” of hostages held by Hamas. (Axios)

2. Closed Bookstores, Canceled Shows: A Sad Silence Descends on Hong Kong: As China wraps its authoritarian rule more tightly around this once-boisterous metropolis, no corner of society has been left untouched. Bookstores are closing, shows have been canceled and opposition to the government—once a rallying force—is now mostly whispered between friends behind closed doors. (WSJ

3. Indonesia: Prabowo Subianto confirmed as president-elect as rivals allege fraud: Indonesia’s defence minister Prabowo Subianto has been declared the winner of last month’s presidential election in the world’s third largest democracy.(BBC)

-US Events-

1. Georgia inmate executed for first time in 4 years for 1993 rape and murder: Willie James Pye, 59, was executed at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson at 11:03 p.m. by lethal injection. Pye was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Alicia Yarbrough, in 1993. His execution is the first execution since 2020. (WSB-Atlanta)

2. 3 corrections officers wounded after ambush at Boise hospital springs inmate from custody: Corrections officers were preparing to take Skylar Meade back to the Idaho Maximum Security Institution – about 11 miles away – when “an unknown suspect attacked and fired at the officers, striking two of them,” Winegar said. Meade and the suspected shooter got into a gray four-door sedan, a 2020 Honda Civic, and fled the area just before police officers arrived, according to the chief. (CNN)

3. FBI: ‘Little rascals’ trio, ages 11, 12 and 16, arrested for robbing a Houston bank: The FBI’s Houston office says they were wanted for robbing a Wells Fargo bank in the Greenspoint area of north Houston on March 14. The FBI posted an image of the trio on X, showing all three of them wearing hoodies inside the bank’s lobby. The boys passed a threatening note to a teller before fleeing on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash. The parents of two of the boys identified them after their photos were released, while a third boy was recognized by a law enforcement officer following a fight. (AP)

-Regulatory and Legal-

1. Dutch Prosecutors Reportedly Charge Tornado Cash Developer With Money Laundering: Alexey Pertsev, a developer for Tornado Cash, has reportedly been indicted by prosecutors in the Netherlands. They accuse him of laundering $1.2 billion. Pertsev’s attorney confirmed the prosecutors’ intent to charge his client. According to Dutch prosecutors, while a crypto-mixing service is not “inherently illegal,” using it to launder criminal assets is punishable. (BitcoinCom)

-Institutional Concerns-

1. Grayscale CEO Confirms Fees Will Reduce As Outflows Cross $12 Billion: In a recent interview, Grayscale’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Michael Sonnenshein, disclosed to CNBC that the fees for the company’s Spot Bitcoin ETF (GBTC) will decrease over time. (Bitcoinist) (AC-There is certainly a reason for Grayscale to have left their fees almost a full point higher than other competitors and the resultant exodus from GBTC. The dumping of GBTC and selling of underlying bitcoin have kept the price relatively stable while institutions and whales have been buying bitcoin or the ETFs. The reason for the policy may be as benign as to capture high fees for a little longer or as nefarious as cooperation with other institutions to allow key clients to buy before the halving and supply drive the bitcoin price much higher.)

-Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC)-

1. Sweden’s central bank says ‘problems may arise’ in offline CBDC payments: Sweden’s central bank, Riksbank, cautioned in its recent research note on CBDCs about the potential risks associated with unsynchronized data in offline payments. Highlighting the importance of synchronizing offline transactions with online balances, the bank addressed concerns regarding liquidity risks stemming from shadow wallets, and intermediary nodes that facilitate connections between offline and online wallets. (CryptoNews)

-Economic Indicators-

1. The FOMC held interest rates level yesterday. Gold rose on the news to over $2,200/oz, the SP500 rose to a new ATH, and BTC rose almost 6%. (TradingEconomics)

-Security Incidents and Concerns-

1. Anonymous claims hack on Israeli nuclear facility: The hacktivist group ‘Anonymous’ has claimed a breach of Israel’s nuclear facility networks in Dimona as a protest against the war on Gaza. The hacktivists claimed to have stolen and published 7GB of documents, including thousands of PDF documents, emails, MS Excel and MS Word files, 28 zip archives, and PowerPoint presentations from the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center. (CyberNews)

-Bitcoin Community-

NSTR

-Bitcoin Sentiment-

1. Fear(0)/Greed(100) Index: 78/100 (Up 4 pts)

Analyst Comments (AC): From a totalitarian curtain dropping in Hong Kong, to increasingly brazen crime in the US, some days it seems the news portrays a dystopian future creeping up on us. There are certainly pockets of optimism and hope, and tribes are uniting globally to fight for freedom and common sense. This year the election cycle will unveil much of this 5GW war and its effect on all of us. In the meantime, changes can be made locally, networks built globally, and defense of rational freedoms fought wherever we can.