DIB 2 MAY 2024

BTC Daily Intelligence Bulletin (DIB)
Block: 841,779
DTG/ICOD: 0800EST 02May24
Precedence: Routine (RR)
Controls: Public Release
QQQQ
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BLUF: Columbia (Country) Breaks Diplomatic Relations with Israel / US Announces New Sanctions on Russian Enablers / US Says Russia Using Chemical Weps / Police Cracking Down on Campus Protests / New Video Shows CIA Withheld Intel From Trump / BTC ETFs Outflows Hit High Mark / FOMC Stays Steady / UnitedHealth Hack May Affect 1/3 Of All Americans / Saylor Announces New Digital ID on BTC Blockchain

Market Data: Price: 1 BTC= $58,602, 25.45 oz Gold, .14 Median US House
24hr Hi: $59,389 / Lo: $56,592
Vol: $40B (Down 11%)
Mkt Cap: $1.15T (Up 2%)
HashRate: 620 EH/s
Avg Fee Rate: 21 sats/vBtye (Down 11%)
Nodes: 19,909

—Reports—
-International Events-
1. Colombia’s president says country will break diplomatic relations with Israel over war in Gaza: Colombian President Gustavo Petro described Israel’s siege of Gaza as “genocide.” He previously suspended purchases of weapons from Israel and compared that country’s actions in Gaza to those of Nazi Germany. Historically, Colombia had been one of Israel’s closest partners in Latin America. But relations between the two nations have cooled since Petro was elected as Colombia’s first leftist president in 2022. (AP)

2. Ukraine war: US hits China with sanctions over war supplies to Russia: US officials on Wednesday announced a sweeping package targeting nearly 300 entities in Russia, China and other countries. Other than China, targeted non-Russian entities were located in Azerbaijan, Belgium, Slovakia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). (Guardian)

3. US says Russia used choking agents against Ukrainian troops, breaching chemical weapons ban: In a statement on Wednesday, the US State Department said it had “made a determination … that Russia has used the chemical weapon chloropicrin against Ukrainian forces in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).” The Kremlin dismissed the US accusations. (CNN)

-US Events-
1. Police move in and begin dismantling a pro-Palestinian demonstrators’ encampment at UCLA: The law enforcement action comes after officers spent hours threatening arrests over loud speakers if people did not disperse. Hundreds of people had gathered on campus, both inside a barricaded tent encampment and outside of it in support. As police helicopters hovered overhead. The sound of flash-bangs, which produce a bright light and a loud noise to disorient and stun people, could be heard as police moved in, and chants of “where were you last night” could be heard. Meanwhile, protest encampments elsewhere were cleared by the police, resulting in arrests, or closed up voluntarily at schools across the U.S., including The City College of New York, Fordham University, Portland State, Northern Arizona University and Tulane University. (AP)

2. Rep. Gaetz Demands Congressional Investigation of Intelligence Community After Undercover Footage Shows CIA Official Boasting Feds Spied on, Withheld Information From President Trump: Gaetz’s message was delivered almost immediately after O’Keefe’s Wednesday exposé revealed Amjad Fseisi, a program manager working in Cyber Operations for the CIA, admitting intel agencies “kept information” from Trump during his presidency. (TheParadise/X)

-Regulatory and Legal-
NSTR

-Institutional Concerns-
1. 17% more of asset managers consider adding digital assets: According to a survey from Northern Trust, almost a third are already invested in the asset class. Another 32% plan to support new asset classes. Of that group 54% are eyeing digital assets, translating to 17% overall. In other words, if the investment managers follow through on their plans, the proportion of asset managers invested in the asset class would increase from 32% to 49%. Of the 300 survey respondents, 90% manage more than $10 billion, with half managing north of $100 billion. (LedgerInsights)

2. U.S. Bitcoin ETFs Bleed Record $563M Even as Fed’s Powell Rules Out Rate Hike: The 11 ETFs saw a cumulative net outflow of $563.7 million, the largest since the funds began trading on January 11, extending a five-day losing streak, according to data source Farside Investors and CoinGlass. Investors have pulled out nearly $1.2 billion from the ETFs since April 24. (CoinDesk)

3. VanEck says about $175 billion in bitcoin held by ETFs, nations and companies: “Bitcoin interest among institutional investors has also increased. Hedge funds, asset management firms, and endowments are increasingly recognizing bitcoin’s potential as a store of value,” VanEck said in the report. That accounts for roughly 15% of the entire bitcoin supply, according to CoinGecko. As of Wednesday, bitcoin’s total market capitalization was about $1.2 trillion. (TheBlock)

-Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC)-
NSTR

-Economic Indicators-
1. Fed Chair Jerome Powell Projects Optimism, But Inflation Data Are in the Driver’s Seat: Powell tried to keep the central bank’s options open Wednesday by sticking with his view that interest rates are restrictive and that inflation was likely to resume its decline. For now, the Fed’s view that a rate cut is more likely than an increase “is a reasonable one,” said one economist. (WSJ)

2. US Job Cuts Fall in April: US-based employers announced 64,789 cuts in April 2024, a 28% decrease from March’s 14-month high of 90,309 cuts and compared with the 66,995 cuts announced in the same month last year. (TradingEconomics)

3. US 10-Year Treasury Yield Falls Further: The yield on the US 10-year Treasury note fell toward 4.6% from the over-five-month high of 4.7% (TradingEconomics)

-Security Incidents and Concerns-
1. UnitedHealth says hackers potentially stole a third of Americans’ data: On Wednesday, during a House hearing, when pushed to give a more definitive answer, Andrew Witty, the CEO of Change Healthcare’s parent company UnitedHealth Group, testified that the breach impacted “I think, maybe a third [of Americans] or somewhere of that level.” (TechCrunch)

-Technology-
1. MicroStrategy Is Building ‘Decentralized ID’ on Bitcoin Using Ordinals-Like Inscriptions: “Michael Saylor presented a very compelling case for why we need decentralized identity and DID decentralized identifiers,” MicroStrategy executive vice president of engineering Cezary Raczko told the audience. “He made an even more compelling case why it makes sense to anchor digital identity into the Bitcoin blockchain, protected by the strength and the security of the Bitcoin network.” Alongside the announcement, MicroStrategy published an unofficial draft of the MicroStrategy Orange specification to Github. (Decrypt)

-Bitcoin Community-
NSTR

-Bitcoin Sentiment-
1. Fear(0)/Greed(100) Index: 43/100 (Down 11 pts)

Analyst Comments (AC): Saylor’s announcement on ‘Orange’ is drawing reaction from the Bitcoin community, both negative and positive. Some see the need for a digital ID (DID) as a necessity in this digital age and would be best hardened on the immutable bitcoin blockchain. Others see the attachment of inscription-like DIDs on the blockchain as a corruption of the bitcoin philosophical purpose of an unassailable currency. The debate will certainly bring out the pros/cons of the proposal and already has drawn fire on Saylor as the leading proponent of Bitcoin as a store of value. The question will center around the other qualities of money, specifically as a medium or exchange and unit of account, which Saylor may seem to be abandoning.

Follow us on NOSTR: @Bitcoin Veterans
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Analyst: BV2A
END REPORT
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*NSTR-Nothing Significant To Report