BlackRock CEO: "Bitcoin is a legitimate financial instrument" | Bitcoin News by CoinCorner

Transcript

This week, selling pressure appears to be calming as the German government has liquidated its entire Bitcoin position. Trump survives an assassination attempt and elects a pro-Bitcoin vice president, and Larry Fink admits that he was wrong and is now a major believer in Bitcoin.

Over the last month, we've experienced some significant selling pressure affecting Bitcoin's price, with a drawdown of around 25%. However, it now seems that things may be easing following events that took place over the weekend. On Saturday, the 13th of July, former President of the United States, Donald Trump, survived an assassination attempt while campaigning in Pennsylvania. Almost immediately after the event, we saw Bitcoin's price react by jumping up almost 15%. This is potentially in anticipation that this will improve Trump's chances of winning the election, based on historic patterns, such as the election results following Reagan's assassination attempt, where he won by a landslide in 1984. As Trump is now a pro-Bitcoin candidate, this is good news for the asset price.

It was announced last week that Trump would be speaking at the world's largest Bitcoin conference in Nashville later this month. Since the weekend's events, David Bailey, CEO and organiser of the event, has confirmed in a post on X that he has spoken to the president's team and that Trump is in good spirits and excited to see everyone in Nashville and deliver a speech that will be heard around the world.

More positive news for Bitcoin coming from Trump's presidential campaign was the announcement earlier this week of Trump's pick for vice president: JD Vance, who is the first Bitcoin holder to ever run for the role. Vance has held a crypto-friendly stance during his time as a senator and has a personal stake in its success, even disclosing that he held between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of Bitcoin in 2022, which would now be worth somewhere between $136,000 and $396,000 at today's prices. Throughout Vance's career, he has introduced a bill that would protect crypto firms and exchanges from being cut off by traditional banks in 2023. He has opposed the amendment to the infrastructure bill that he claimed would amount to a backdoor ban of Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies in 2021, and he said that the crypto community is one of the few sectors of our economy where conservatives and other free thinkers can operate without the pressure of the social justice mob.

Our next story, which is also positive news for the price of Bitcoin, is that the German government has now liquidated its entire Bitcoin position. Over the last few weeks, the German government has been rapidly selling off its Bitcoin treasury, which they accumulated through the seizure of funds tied to illicit activity. According to data from Arkham, they once had a total holding of around 50,000 Bitcoin, worth at times around $3.5 billion. But on the 12th of July last week, they offloaded the last of their coins. This move by the German government has garnered a lot of flack from many, including politicians within the administration, but also from the Bitcoin community. It didn't take long for someone to take the opportunity to publicly troll the German government by sending them $187 worth of Bitcoin with the inscription "hfsp German government," which stands for "have fun staying poor."

Now, this is all great news for the price of Bitcoin, as this is one large seller who can no longer affect the price. However, there is still the $9 billion Mt. Gox reimbursement plan looming, which may keep the price of Bitcoin suppressed in the coming weeks and sustain the climate of fear, uncertainty, and doubt that has plagued the market over recent months.

This week, we also saw Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, which is the world's largest asset manager, endorse Bitcoin as a legitimate financial instrument in an interview with CNBC. In the interview, Fink admitted to being a proud sceptic of Bitcoin but had since studied it, learned about it, and came away saying, "Okay, you know, my opinion for 5 years prior was wrong." He explained that he viewed it as digital gold, also an instrument to protect against currency devaluation, and as a way to invest in an asset that is outside your country's control. He also added that he believes that there is a real need for everyone to look at it.

Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas stated in a post on X that it's hard to overstate how big of a deal it is to have Fink's endorsements and that it could give advisers comfort and cover to make an allocation in everyday portfolios. Earlier this year, in January, BlackRock launched their Bitcoin ETF, iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which has now become the largest spot Bitcoin ETF by market cap, holding over $20 billion worth of capital. Just this week, we've seen net inflows approaching the $1 billion mark across the US Bitcoin ETF market.

Fink's strong endorsement of Bitcoin has also caught the eye of billionaire Michael Dell, who is continuing to arouse suspicion that he may have a Bitcoin allocation. Dell posted on X about Fink's interview with CNBC with the caption, "Fascinating." This comes following his recent string of posts on X, which all seem to have some link to Bitcoin, but also coincides with the timing of his decision to sell $2.1 billion worth of Dell stock, leaving many speculating that he may have purchased Bitcoin with some of this capital. However, as of yet, nothing has been confirmed.