Schlagwort: crypto business

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Microsoft shareholders reject Bitcoin treasury proposal

  • Microsoft shareholders have voted against the proposal that sought to have the tech giant add Bitcoin to its balance sheet.
  • The vote on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, followed the proposal by the National Center for Public Policy Research, and came after MicroStrategy founder and Chairman Michael Saylor added to the call for Microsoft to adopt a Bitcoin treasury via a presentation.

On Dec. 10, details on the vote indicated Microsoft shareholders had rejected the proposal – meaning one of the world’s most valuable companies is not primed to add BTC to its treasury any time soon. Microsoft will not now take time to study the option of having the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap as part of its diversified portfolio.

Saylor, whose company is the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin after a buying spree that started in 2020, said last week that Microsoft had the potential to add trillions of dollars to its market cap if it invested in the flagship digital asset.

MicroStrategy acquired an additional 21,550 BTC worth $2.1 billion on Dec. 9, bringing its total haul 423,650 BTC bought for approximately $25.6 billion.

Microsoft board urged shareholders to vote down proposal

The “Assessment of Investing in Bitcoin” proposal by the National Center for Public Policy Research advocated for a 1% outlay of Microsoft’s assets into BTC. According to the proposal, the company should have weighed whether diversifying with Bitcoin to hedge against inflation was in the best interests of shareholders.

Saylor offered a 3-minute presentation to Microsoft’s Board of Directors and the chairman and CEO Satya Nadella. The Bitcoin bull explained why taking this approach would have been the right thing for the company.

The preliminary results of the shareholders’ vote means Microsoft could adopt this strategy at a time when BTC price will be much higher than the current $97k. The company’s board had last month asked shareholders to reject the proposal.

Despite the outcome of the vote, some in the crypto industry are bullish on what it means to have such a proposal in place.

Notably, the National Center for Public Policy Research has also submitted a similar proposal to Amazon.

MSFT shares traded around $446.98 at the time of writing, with the performance largely flat on the day.  Bitcoin price fell below $95,000 on the news, reaching lows of $94,550. However, BTC was back above $95k at the time of writing as bulls target a retest of the psychological $100k level.

The post Microsoft shareholders reject Bitcoin treasury proposal appeared first on CoinJournal.

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Price Analysis: Bitcoin Finds Support at the $93k Level

  • The crypto market shed 6.48% (roughly $240 billion) yesterday as Bitcoin’s fall from $101,000 to a daily low of $93,000 sparked $750 million in liquidations.
  • Major cryptos have begun to recover, with some alts already logging double-digit price increases.
  • Meanwhile, Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs continue to log positive inflows.

Bitcoin bled in yesterday’s trading session, falling from a daily opening price of $101,151 to a low of $94,270 during the US afternoon session before closing higher at $97,314. With a market dominance above 56%, the largest crypto by market cap weighed on the entire market as major altcoins logged double-digit losses.

However, at the start of today’s US trading session, some major altcoins appear to have found support. Ethereum reached a daily low of $3,506 yesterday and is up 5% from that level as of writing, while Solana is up 6.9% from yesterday’s lows.

Is the selling over?

Bitcoin’s price pushed down to a support zone with an upper boundary of $97,463 and while most of the selling pressure appears to have abated, its price still hovers around the support as definitive initiative buy action is yet to occur.

Open Interest trended lower since yesterday as liquidations and taking profit led to more positions being closed. However, a tell-tale sign of a resumption in the uptrend would be mounting open interest combined with positive price action, indicating new positions being opened.

Ethereum’s price action is similar as the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap hovers around a support level awaiting either initiative buy action to push prices higher or sellers to push price lower.

Elsewhere, some altcoins have almost completely shaken off yesterday’s slump, logging double-digit daily gains as of writing. Mantra is a great example of this as its price has climbed 14.11% since yesterday’s close as of writing.

Spot crypto ETF inflows remain steady

Yesterday’s slump is not indicative of a wider bearish sentiment as inflows into US crypto spot ETFs remain positive. US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $2.77 billion in inflows last week and $483.60 million yesterday.

Ethereum ETFs followed a similar pattern, recording weekly inflows of $836.8 million and $149.80 million yesterday.

Bitcoin trades at $97,900 as at publishing while Ethereum trades at $3,600.

The post Price Analysis: Bitcoin Finds Support at the $93k Level appeared first on CoinJournal.

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OKX Ventures boosts TON ecosystem with $5m investment

  • OKX Ventures’ investment adds to the recently launched $10 million Telegram Growth Hub.
  • The $5 million investment in TON Ventures targets growth for Telegram-powered apps on TON blockchain.

OKX Ventures, the investment arm of global crypto exchange OKX, has invested $5 million in TON Ventures to bolster the development of Telegram-powered TON applications.

The OKX Ventures team announced the investment in The Open Network blockchain’s dedicated venture capital fund on Dec. 10. Per the announcement, the investment will go into efforts to accelerate the TON ecosystem’s developer ecosystem.

“This investment, alongside our recently launched Telegram Growth Hub, demonstrates our long-term conviction in TON’s potential to drive mainstream adoption of onchain technologies. We’re excited to work closely with TON Ventures’ founding team, whose deep ecosystem expertise will be invaluable in scaling the next generation of TON-native applications,” OKX Ventures partner Jeff Ren noted.

OKX Ventures unveiled the $10 million Telegram growth hub alongside The Open Platform and Folius Ventures. The goal is to bring blockchain applications and its benefits to Telegram’s more than 950 million monthly active users.

Eyeing web3 expansion

TON has in the past several months witnessed the explosive surge and traction for mini-apps. Other than Catizen and Notcoin, there has been notable attention on projects such as OKX Racer.

“The OKX Ventures team were one of the first supporters of the TON value proposition, which sits at the intersection of Telegram’s social graph and TON’s blockchain rails, to develop a vibrant ecosystem of Web3 consumer applications that would onboard millions of people,” TON Ventures partner Ian Wittkopp said.

So far, TON Ventures has secured $40 million in funding, with the target for future development including gaming and monetization tools.

The post OKX Ventures boosts TON ecosystem with $5m investment appeared first on CoinJournal.

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Crypto groups oppose re-nomination of SEC’s Caroline Crenshaw

  • Blockchain Association, DeFi Education Fund and CEDAR Innovation Foundation have all opposed the re-nomination of Caroline Crenshaw as a SEC Commissioner.
  • Crenshaw is a Joe Biden appointee and is criticised for her negative stance on crypto.

Crypto and blockchain advocacy groups Blockchain Association and DeFi Education Fund have written to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs voicing their opposition to the re-confirmation of SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw.

The Blockchain Association and the DeFi Education Fund sent the letter to Senate Banking committee chair Sen. Sherrod Brown and Ranking member Sen. Tim Scott.

According to the letter, Crenshaw’s actions over the past four years have largely undermined Congress’s mandate to establish clear regulatory policies for the crypto industry.

“Congress has a clear mandate from the American people to establish sound and reasonable cryptocurrency-related policies. Unfortunately, Commissioner Crenshaw’s tenure at the SEC has been marked by actions that seem to be at odds with this charge,” the two groups said in a joint letter.

In the past month, SEC chair Gary Gensler and Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga both announced their departures from the agency in January. This leaves Hester Peirce, Caroline Crenshaw, and Mark Uyeda, with Crenshaw having joined in 2020 and seeing her term expire in 2024.

Read more: Donald Trump selects pro-crypto Paul Atkins to be the next US SEC chair

CEDAR Innovation Foundation also opposes the re-nomination

Opposition to Crenshaw’s re-confirmation arises from the fact that she largely aligned with the SEC’s negative approach to crypto. In one significant instance, she dissented on the approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the US, even after the DC Circuit Court had slammed the SEC for its “arbitrary and capricious” actions in denying Grayscale’s proposal to list a spot BTC ETF.

Apart from BA and DEF, the other opposition to Crenshaw’s renomination has come from the crypto advocacy group CEDAR Innovation Foundation. The industry-backed group has launched an ad campaign seeking to convince lawmakers to reject the re-confirmation.

Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett shared CEDAR’s ad plans on X.

The US Senate Banking Committee will vote on the decision on Wednesday. If approved, the Democrat appointee will continue at the SEC for four more years until 2029.

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Amazon shareholders call for the company to hold 5% of its assets in Bitcoin

  • MicroStrategy’s stock has outperformed Amazon’s stock by 537% in the past year
  • The proposal calls for Amazon to include some Bitcoin to maximize shareholder value without taking on too much risk
  • Last week, Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy called on Microsoft to adopt Bitcoin, calling it “digital capital”

A group of Amazon shareholders has requested that the company allocate 5% of its assets in Bitcoin.

The National Center for Public Policy Research, a free-market, independent conservative think tank, submitted the proposal to Amazon for consideration at its 2025 annual shareholder meeting.

The proposal, shared by Tim Kotzman, a podcast host covering Bitcoin and MicroStrategy, recommends adding “assets to its treasury that appreciate more than bonds, even if those assets are more volatile short-term.”

The proposal points to Bitcoin’s price, which has increased more than 131% over the past year, outperforming corporate bonds by more than 126%, on average.

“MicroStrategy – which holds Bitcoin on its balance sheet – has had its stock outperform Amazon stock by 537% in the previous year,” the proposal said.

“And they’re not alone. Institutional and corporate Bitcoin adoption is becoming more commonplace: more public companies such as Tesla and Block have added Bitcoin to their balance sheets; Amazon’s second and fourth largest institutional shareholders – BlackRock and Fidelity, respectively – offer their clients a Bitcoin ETF; and the US government may form a Bitcoin strategic reserve in 2025.”

The proposal points out that while Bitcoin is a “volatile asset,” Amazon’s stock was the same in the past. Because of this, companies have “a responsibility to maximize shareholder value over the long-term as well as the short-term,” adding:

“Diversifying the balance sheet by including some Bitcoin solves this problem without taking on too much volatility. At minimum, Amazon should evaluate the benefits of holding some, even just 5%, of its assets in Bitcoin.”

Michael Saylor calls Bitcoin “digital capital”

The shareholder proposal comes as Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, said to Microsoft that Bitcoin is the best asset a company should own, claiming it represents the “greatest digital transformation of the 21st century.”

In a three-minute video posted on X last week, Saylor said:

“Microsoft can’t afford to miss the next technology wave, and Bitcoin is the next wave. Bitcoin represents the greatest digital transformation of the 21st century; it represents digital capital.”

Talking about long-term capital, Saylor noted that risk – including general taxes, politics, recession, regulation, war, and the weather – is destroying over $10 trillion in capital each year.

Because of this, investors are turning their attention to digital capital, such as Bitcoin, to avoid these risks. In Saylor’s view, “it makes sense” for Microsoft to buy and hold Bitcoin rather than buy back stock or hold bonds.

“If you’re going to outperform, you’re going to need Bitcoin,” Saylor said. “You’ve surrendered hundreds of billions of dollars of capital over the past five years, and you’ve just amplified the risks that your own shareholders face. If you want to escape that vicious cycle, you’re going to need an asset without counterparty risk.”

In Saylor’s opinion, that lies with Bitcoin.

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