Holders Add $5.4B in BTC; Stocks Resume Slide

Crypto News:

Bitcoin Plunges More Than 10% Since Hitting $70K 72 Hours Ago

Bitcoin (BTC) continued its sharp pullback after a fast start to the week, with the price retreating to a two-week low of of $62,700. At press time, bitcoin was lower by 5.5% over the past 24 hours, outperforming the broader CoinDesk 20 Index's 6.1% decline. Ether (ETH) was off 5.8%, Solana (SOL) 10% and XRP (XRP) 10%. It was roughly 72 hours ago when bitcoin touched more than a four-month high just above $70K. Markets received what nominally was good news on Thursday morning, with the U.S. July ISM Manufacturing PMI falling far more than economist expectations, sending interest rates to multi-month lows across the board. Also, U.S. initial jobless claims jumped to their highest level in about one year. Taken together, the data adds to ideas that the U.S. in on the cusp of a monetary easing cycle by the Federal Reserve – usually thought of as bullish for risk assets, bitcoin among them.

Large Bitcoin Holders Added $5.4B in BTC in July

In a display of confidence, large bitcoin (BTC) holders, often adept at timing market moves, boosted their coin stash in July at the fastest pace in years, capitalizing on the two-way price volatility. Large holders, or addresses owning at least 0.1% of BTC's circulating supply, snapped up over 84K BTC, worth $5.4 billion at the current market price, according to data tracked by blockchain analytics firm IntoTheBlock and TradingView. That's the biggest single-month tally in BTC terms since October 2014. The accumulation was characterized by bargain hunting during the early July price dip to under $55,000 and brief pauses in the subsequent recovery to $69,000. BTC ended July with a meager 3% gain, according to CoinDesk data.

Global News:

Wall Street 'fear gauge' jumps to three-month high as stocks resume slide

Wall Street's most watched gauge of investor anxiety jumped to a more than three-month high on Thursday as U.S. stocks fell sharply after a round of data on Thursday spurred concerns the economy may be slowing faster than anticipated. The Cboe Volatility Index hit 19.48, its highest since April 19, before paring gains to finish at 18.59. The jump came as the S&P 500 fell nearly 1.4%. A 2.3% drop in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index, meanwhile, brought it within two percentage points of a 10% decline from a record high reached last month. The options-based VIX index, which has been largely subdued with an average reading of 13.96 so far this year, has perked up in recent weeks as investors have grown increasingly apprehensive about the outlook for corporate earnings and economic growth.

US Justice Dept. launches whistleblower program aimed at corporate crime

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday debuted its first-ever whistleblower program offering monetary awards to tipsters who report certain types of corporate misconduct, an effort designed to ratchet up the pressure on companies who face allegations of wrongdoing. The program, which officials previewed in March, is designed to fill gaps in existing U.S. government whistleblower programs and incentivize both people with knowledge of corporate wrongdoing and companies who might be implicated to inform the government. Under the program, which will run initially for three years, whistleblowers who report original information about certain corporate offenses will, if a prosecution results in a forfeiture of assets, be eligible to receive a certain portion of that penalty.

Local News:

DBM confident debt-to-GDP ratio will dip below 60% by 2026

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said on Thursday that revenue measures and fiscal reforms in the pipeline are likely to bring the debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio down to 60% by 2026. While the government expects its borrowing to hit over P17 trillion next year, it is confident that the debt-to-GDP ratio will decline to 60% by 2026 based on current revenue projections and the passage of a number of economic reform bills, Budget Undersecretary Joselito R. Basilio said at a Palace briefing on the proposed National Expenditure Program for 2025. A debt-to-GDP ratio of 60% is the rule-of-thumb maximum sustainable debt load for developing countries, according to international development banks.