Cryptocurrency prices and related stocks were mixed Thursday as bitcoin ticked up slightly. MicroStrategy announced another hefty bitcoin purchase. Meanwhile, Martin Shkreli claimed he worked with Barron Trump to launch a new Trump-themed crypto token. Elsewhere, the Securities and Exchange Commission ended its investigation into ethereum.
MicroStrategy Buys More Bitcoin
MicroStrategy on Thursday announced that it purchased another 11,931 bitcoin for about $786 million, using the proceeds from a convertible notes offering. Founder and chairman Michael Saylor posted online that MicroStrategy acquired the bitcoin at roughly $65,833 per BTC. As of June 20, the software company holds 226,331 bitcoin that it acquired at an average price of $36,798 per bitcoin.
Rumors Swirl Around DJT Token
Former hedge fund manager and convicted securities fraudster Martin Shkreli claims to have created the mysterious DJT crypto token with Barron Trump, the former president's 18-year old son. Blockchain firm Arkham Intelligence on Tuesday offered a $150,000 bounty to anyone who could prove who created the token.
The DJT token, which runs on the Solana network, surged nearly 40% this week following reports that it was actually linked to Donald Trump.
Shkreli earlier this week told cryptocurrency investigator ZachXBT that he worked with Barron Trump on the token, according to messages shared on social media platform X.
"I have over 1,000 pieces of evidence I created it with Barron," Shkreli told ZachXBT. He confirmed again during a live Spaces session on X that he worked with a team of 40 to 50 people — including Barron — to launch the token, according to reports.
Shkreli's screenshot also included messages with right-wing influencer Andrew Tate. Tate in those messages claimed that Barron called him to buy in. "I told Baron (sic) to give me the amount of tokens I would have gotten from the buy in at that time and ill (sic) pump it but dont (sic) think he can," Tate said.
Tate is facing charges in Romania for human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. Shkreli in 2018 was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for securities fraud and other charges. He was released in 2022 and received a lifetime ban from the pharmaceutical industry.
However, former Trump advisor Roger Stone chimed in on X, saying that Donald Trump and Barron are not involved in any way with DJT.
SEC Ends Ethereum Probe
Elsewhere on Tuesday, the enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission ended its investigation into whether Ethereum 2.0 is a security. Ethereum developer Consensys touted it as a major win online.
"This means that the SEC will not bring charges alleging that sales of ETH are securities transactions," the firm wrote on X.
Consensys in April sued the SEC after receiving a Wells Notice from the regulator. The SEC in March issued subpoenas to multiple companies attempting to classify ethereum as a security, Fortune reported.
In late May, the SEC approved form 19b-4 forms for eight ether ETF applications. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas on June 14 predicted that spot ether ETFs could launch July 2.
Spot bitcoin ETFs launched in early January.
Bitcoin Price, Crypto Action
Bitcoin traded near $65,000 late Thursday, rising a fraction over the last 24 hours. The price of bitcoin rallied 54.6% in 2024.
Ethereum ticked down marginally to trade around $3,520. Ethereum leapt 53.9% so far this year.
Among crypto stocks, Coinbase ticked down slightly Thursday.
MicroStrategy stock declined about 0.3%.
The spot bitcoin ETFs, including the iShares Bitcoin Trust and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, climbed about 1%.
Crypto miners CleanSpark, Riot Platforms slid modestly Thursday after surging in early trade. Marathon Digital pared its gains on the day to 1.9%.
You can follow Harrison Miller for more stock news and updates on X/Twitter @IBD_Harrison
