Langgam Pos - Marathon Digital Holdings, a leading Bitcoin mining company, has recently acquired Bitcoin valued at $100 million, equivalent to approximately IDR 1.6 trillion (based on an exchange rate of IDR 16,331 per USD). With this latest purchase, the company now holds over 20,000 Bitcoins worth around $1.3 billion in the open market, and they plan to acquire even more. Marathon also announced its intention to retain all of its mined Bitcoin.
Marathon’s CFO, Salman Khan, explained that the recent drop in Bitcoin prices, coupled with the company's strong financial position, provides an ideal opportunity to expand their holdings. The company has been selling Bitcoin recently to cover operational costs.
Meanwhile, Marathon’s CEO, Fred Thiel, believes Bitcoin is the best cash reserve asset in the world and supports the idea of national wealth funds holding Bitcoin. "We encourage governments and companies to hold Bitcoin as a reserve asset," Thiel stated, as quoted by Yahoo Finance on July 31, 2024.
As of June 30, 2024, Marathon held cash worth $268 million. The company is set to report its second-quarter earnings on August 1, 2024.
US Government Moves Bitcoin Seized from Silk Road, Valued at $2 Billion
According to the latest report from Arkham Intelligence, the US government has transferred Bitcoin worth over $2 billion, equivalent to IDR 32.6 trillion, seized from the infamous Silk Road dark web marketplace, to an undisclosed wallet. As reported by Yahoo Finance on July 31, 2024, it is still unclear whether the US plans to sell the recently transferred Bitcoin.
This transfer occurred just two days after former President Donald Trump, now a Republican presidential candidate, promised at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville to create a national strategic Bitcoin reserve if elected. Trump emphasized that under his administration, the government would stop selling seized Bitcoin. The market reacted swiftly to the transfer news, with Bitcoin prices dropping more than 2% from $70,000 per coin on Monday morning to $66,000, a 4.6% decrease in the past 24 hours.
Crypto entrepreneur and Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz criticized the timing of the transfer. The federal government often moves seized Bitcoin between wallets and custodians, but such transfers do not always indicate an intention to liquidate.
University of Wyoming Launches Bitcoin Research Institute
The University of Wyoming will launch its Bitcoin Research Institute in August. The institute aims to provide high-quality studies and reviews on Bitcoin. Bitcoin activist and University of Wyoming Professor Bradley Rettler announced the new institution on X on July 28 and will serve as its director.
Rettler described the current state of Bitcoin research as inadequate and emphasized the need for more quality publications and reviews. This will ensure the public receives accurate information about Bitcoin and its functioning.
He highlighted a 2018 study led by Professor Camilo Mora from the University of Hawaii, which claimed Bitcoin emissions alone could increase global warming by 3.6°F (2°C) by 2048. "They failed to account for difficulty adjustments and did not know about block size limits," Rettler explained, as quoted by Cointelegraph on July 30, 2024. "These errors enter journalism and policy. Bitcoin has many facets in theory and even more in practice. Journalists can't be experts, so they rely on academics. Too many academics disappoint them."
One of the institute's professors is Andrew M. Bailey, author of "Resistance Money: A Philosophical Case for Bitcoin." Rettler is also noted as a co-author of the book. The Bitcoin Research Institute will officially open in August, coinciding with the start of the Fall 2024-2025 semester.
Twitter Removes Emojis from Bitcoin and MAGA Hashtags
Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has removed the Bitcoin emoji from the hashtag "#Bitcoin," causing a stir in the crypto community. The Bitcoin emoji first appeared on X in 2020, introduced by Jack Dorsey, who sought to popularize the Bitcoin symbol to Unicode, a text encoding standard managed by the Unicode Consortium.
On July 28, 2024, X users noticed that the Bitcoin emoji was no longer visible when posting “#bitcoin” on the platform. Some users also found that emojis for hashtags like #bnbchain and #cryptocom had also disappeared. Additionally, the hashtag #MAGA, which previously featured an emoji of Republican candidate Donald Trump, had its emoji removed just before Trump’s scheduled appearance at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville.
Unlike X’s decision, Nexo appears to support the global adoption of Bitcoin emojis. On July 26, Nexo, an instant crypto lending platform, announced on X that it had contacted the Unicode Consortium with a proposal to add Bitcoin emojis to digital keyboards worldwide. The deadline for this year's decision is November 30.
The Unicode Consortium creates, manages, and promotes international software standards. Prominent industry figures, such as Bitget, Polygon, Chainalysis, OKX, and others, support Nexo’s petition for Bitcoin emojis.
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