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Bitcoin Approaching $100K on Christmas Eve
The price of Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is approaching the $100,000 level once again on Christmas Eve.
The pioneer cryptocurrency is currently changing hands at $98,703, according to data provided by CoinGecko.
The cryptocurrency has surged by nearly 6% in mere hours, with some pundits jokingly describing this overperformance as a "Christmas miracle."
Following the sudden spike, Bitcoin bears might not be in the festive spirit. According to data provided by CoinGlass, roughly $61 million worth of Bitcoin shorts ended up being liquidated over the past four hours.
Crypto stocks rallied on Tuesday. Hut 8 rose 12%; Canaan rose 9%; Riot Platforms and MicroStrategy rose 8%; TeraWulf rose 7%; MARA Holdings rose 5%; Coinbase and CleanSpark rose 4%.
Coinbase CEO, Other Crypto Insiders Billions Richer After Seeking to Steer Elections
The leaders of the companies responsible for the river of money that flooded U.S. political shores this year have already benefited tremendously from the outcome of last month's election — increasing their personal fortunes by billions of dollars, far outpacing the large spending they devoted to crypto-friendly candidates.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and his company devoted some $74 million to the industry's dominant political action committee, Fairshake, putting Armstrong in a close lead over a few other crypto insiders. That's an especially significant amount of money from a company that booked about $95 million in 2023 profits. But the elections went their way, and the company's value has ballooned by $21 billion since Nov. 4, the day before in-person voting began and the outcome became clear.
In a pre-programmed series of trades starting less than a week after the election, Armstrong sold $100 million worth of his Coinbase shares. Those same shares on the night before the election had been worth about $39 million less. A week after that, he cashed in about $313 million — all part of a selling strategy he'd set in motion if the price spiked.
Since then, the co-founder and CEO sold smaller amounts week after week, for a total of about $437 million for stock that was worth $308 million before the victories of President-elect Donald Trump and a slate of congressional lawmakers backed by crypto. In other words, the pro-crypto sentiment surging after the election outcome that Armstrong helped shape earned him an additional $129 million in wealth for the shares he sold.
He still owns more than 10% of the largest U.S. crypto exchange, and the value of about 24 million shares tucked into his trust, according to the latest Securities and Exchange Commission filings, is about $6.4 billion — up near $2 billion since Nov. 5.
MicroStrategy Calls Shareholders Meeting to Fund More Bitcoin Purchases
Software company MicroStrategy is calling a special shareholder meeting to expand its equity-issuance plan and purchase more Bitcoin.
According to a Dec. 23 proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company is seeking permission to increase the number of authorized shares for both Class A common stock and preferred stock, giving it more flexibility to issue additional shares as needed in the future.
The first amendment seeks to raise the authorized Class A common stock from 330 million shares to 10.33 billion shares, while the second amendment aims to increase the authorized preferred stock from 5 million shares to over 1 billion shares.
Behind the proposals is MicroStrategy’s 21/21 Plan. Disclosed in October, the plan outlined the company’s goal of purchasing an additional $42 billion worth of Bitcoin over the next three years. The plan involves raising $21 billion through equity sales and an additional $21 billion via fixed-income securities.
BlackRock's IBIT and Fidelity's FBTC Now Hold Almost $50B Worth of Bitcoin Combined
BlackRock's IBIT and Fidelity's FBTC now hold almost $50B worth of Bitcoin combined, according to Cointelegraph.
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