DIB 19 MAR 2024

Daily Intelligence Bulletin (DIB)

Block: 835,352

DTG/ICOD: 0800EST 19Mar24

Precedence: Routine (RR)

Controls: Public Release

QQQQ

__________________________

BLUF: SecState Warns China Over Philippines / IDF Strikes Hezbollah in Syria / SCOTUS Temporarily Halts Texas Immigration Law / GBTC Sells $643M, Causing Net Outflow, BTC to Drop / Sell Pressure on BITMEX Causes $8.9K BTC Price for 2 Minutes / Japan Ending Era of Negative Rates

Market Data: Price: 1 BTC= $63,063, 29.15 oz Gold, .15 Median US House

24hr Hi: $68,552/ Lo: $62,478

Vol: $67B (Up 64%)

Mkt Cap: $1.24T (Down 8%)

HashRate: 534 EH/s

Avg Fees: 9,057 sats/tx (Up 9%)

Nodes: 18,477

—Reports—

-International Events-

1. ‘Only God can change this place’: Haitians see no end to spiraling violence: “Port-au-Prince is in panic mode,” a friend in the Haitian capital texted me. Residents of Petionville, a wealthier area of the city, are shaken after their most violent day so far in the country’s spiraling security crisis. More than a dozen bullet-ridden bodies lay in the street – the victims of the latest gang rampage. As well as the early morning killing spree, the home of a judge was also attacked – a clear message to the country’s elites vying for power. (BBC)

2. Blinken Warns China Against Armed Attack on Philippines: Secretary of State Blinken warned China on Tuesday that an “armed” attack against Philippine vessels in the South China Sea would trigger a mutual self-defense pact between Washington and Manila. (NYT)

3. Israeli missiles destroy Hezbollah warehouse in Syria: According to N12, citing reports, the advanced weapons located in the warehouse had arrived from Iran and were supposed to be transferred to Hezbollah. (JerusalemPost)

-US Events-

1. Supreme Court blocks Texas from enforcing controversial immigration law for now: The so-called administrative stay will remain in place while the court considers emergency appeals from the Biden administration and others, who want the justices to block enforcement of the law while their legal challenges to it play out. Monday’s order does not include an expiration date for the stay. (CNN)

2. Chicago begins evicting migrants from shelters as residents decry a ‘lack of respect’: Migrants who have been evicted, as well as those who face a rapidly approaching deadline, said there has been widespread confusion about the process and frustration with being forced to leave while they still lack the resources to find their own places to stay. (NBC)

3. 6 former Mississippi law officers to be sentenced for torture of 2 Black men: The former law officers admitted in August to subjecting Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker to numerous acts of racially motivated, violent torture. In a January 2023 episode, the group of six burst into a Rankin County home without a warrant and assaulted Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Parker with stun guns, a sex toy and other objects. (AP)

-Regulatory and Legal-

1. Argentine Senate Passes AML Reform Creating Cryptocurrency Entities Registry: The Argentine Senate passed a law that creates a registry for any institution that offers cryptocurrency services in the country. The CNV, the Argentine securities enforcer, will manage this registry, which also establishes obligations for crypto companies to deliver personal information on their customers and other data to government entities. (BitcoinCom)

-Institutional Concerns-

1. BTC Maintains $65K as GBTC Outflows Hit Highest Level Ever: According to data compiled by BitMEX research, outflow from GBTC hit $643 million on March 18. Data from investment firm Farside shows that there’s a net outflow from bitcoin ETFs in general to the tune of $154 million. (CoinDesk)

-Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC)-

1. Hong Kong Launches Second Phase of Its CBDC Pilot Program: This new phase will focus on furthering the research on already examined use cases for the currency, including programmability and tokenization, and adding new, not previously explored use cases. (BitcoinCom)

-Economic Indicators-

1. Japan Ends Negative Rates, Scraps Yield Curve Control: The Bank of Japan (BoJ) raised its key short-term interest rate to around 0% to 0.1% from -0.1% in March 2024, matching market expectations and halting its eight years of negative interest rates. It is the first interest rate hike since 2007, as inflation had exceeded the central bank’s 2% target in over a year while the largest companies in the country had agreed to raise salaries by 5.28%, the biggest wage hike in over three decades. (TradingEconomics)

2. Brent Hovers Near Multi-Month Highs: Brent crude futures held near $87 per barrel on Tuesday, hovering close to its highest levels since early November as supply-side concerns continued to support oil prices. (TradingEconomics)

-Technological Updates-

NSTR

-Security Incidents and Concerns-

1. Binance Denies Hack As Exchange Halts Trading: Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Binance said it won’t resume trading or enable customer withdrawals until Friday amid a continued blackout blamed on a prolonged system upgrade. The suspension has sparked fears that the exchange has been hacked, though Binance, responding to such comments on Twitter, has strongly pushed back against the claim. (CoinDesk)

-Bitcoin Community-

1. Bitcoin Flash Crashed to $8.9K on BitMEX: Large sell orders worth $55.49 million drove bitcoin’s price down to $8,900 on BitMEX. The overnight crash was short-lived, lasting only 2 minutes. (CoinDesk)

2. Bitcoin mining firm Bit Digital reports revenues up nearly 40%: Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining firm Bit Digital has announced earnings of $44.9 million for 2023 — up 39% from 2022. Bit Digital said this growth was driven by a “higher active hash rate” but was partially offset by increased network difficulty. (CoinTelegraph)

-Bitcoin Sentiment-

1. Fear(0)/Greed(100) Index: 79/100 (Up 2 pts)

Analyst Comments (AC): Institutional investment action continues to drive the short-term price of Bitcoin, in the most recent case, to the downside. The long-term demand for Bitcoin remains strong as ETFs, RIAs and other institutions only begin to start investing in the digital asset and plebs continue to support price by buying the dips.