BTC pushes toward $68K

Bitcoin exited the weekend with a head of steam, hitting $68K on Sunday as the sun was setting on the East Coast of the U.S. When dawn broke today, BTC sat near $67,500, reflecting an increase of roughly 1% over the past 24 hours.

ETF flows were strong again on Friday with a net $380 million coming in the doors of 11 funds. Together, these spot BTC vehicles have garnered more than $17 billion since launching in January.

At the same time, selling among large BTC holders has exhausted in recent days, per Julio Moreno, CryptoQuant's head of research. “Valuation metrics suggest positive momentum,” he said.

Meanwhile, Core (CORE), 69th-largest coin, enjoyed one of the biggest surges of any Top 100 token as it rose 15% in 24 hours to reach $1.63. That was as of late yesterday. One week ago, CORE was $1.19. CoinGecko describes the project as a "symbiotic extension of Bitcoin" by way of a novel consensus mechanism called Satoshi Plus which combines Delegated Proof-of-Work (DPoW) with Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS), which is essentially a way to get miners to validate smart contracts in exchange for CORE tokens. It was unclear why CORE was pumping Sunday night. It might tie into the project tapping into heightened visibility at the Bitcoin 2024 event in Nashville later this week.

Another big gainer is Turbo (TURBO), which is now the 150th-largest coin, per CoinGecko, following a 7% rise in 24 hours to hit, as of this morning, $0.007. TURBO has soared 76% in the past week.

Early Monday, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell by three basis points to reach 4.2077% with Q2 GDP and crucial inflation numbers due to come out later this week. The Fed wants more data to show inflation is abating. Investors, meanwhile, fully expect a rate cut to come in September. (No one expects a rate cut when the Fed meets July 30-31 and there is no August meeting).

The key puzzle piece is the "personal consumption expenditures price index minus food and energy," or "core inflation," which is expected by most economists to have risen 0.1% when June's PCE number gets released on Friday. That would mark a second consecutive paltry monthly rise and bring three-month annualized core inflation down to the slowest pace this year, a signal that the economy is indeed downshifting, Bloomberg said.

In June, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic indicated that annual inflation of 2.5% or lower was more or less the line in the sand for policymakers to feel comfortable nixing the term "elevated" when describing inflation. Many economists feel that threshold will be met when PCE data for June is released Friday (Reuters).

President Biden announced yesterday afternoon that he was dropping out of the ’24 race and instead endorsing VP Kamala Harris. In an instant, political meme coins and the Polymarket prediction platform sprang into action.

Plummeting, at least initially, were the odds of the Democratic Party winning the election – but, as bets poured in, the odds jumped higher, eventually settling at 36% (Decrypt).

Harris won't be handed the nomination – there'll be a process involving party delegates – but it's unclear who, if anyone, would mount a challenge and risk further inner-party strife, per political pundit types. As for the wisdom of the crowds, Polymarket bettors give Harris an 82% chance of securing the nomination.

Checking the Democratic VP nominee market we see Pennsylvania's governor, Josh Shapiro, has emerged as the frontrunner with 30% odds.

Biden's decision comes amid concerns the senior statesman could not beat rival Republican Donald Trump, and also that Biden's presence at the top of the ticket might adversely impact "down-ballot" races involving Democratic candidates for the House and Senate.

The 81-year-old, in a historic, X-posted, Dear John letter to Americans, said he will finish his term and that he'll address the nation in more detail later this week.

Vastly unclear at this moment is the future for Jeo Boden (BODEN).

Immediately after the news broke, the already battered political meme token plunged another 58% from roughly 2 cents to barely a penny. It now has a market cap of less than $7M, putting it well outside the ranks of the Top 1,000, per CoinGecko. On the other hand, Kamala Horris (KAMA) more than doubled to 2.4 cents, an all-time high, following Biden's announcement.

KAMA's market cap is about $24M.

Meanwhile, as for MAGA (TRUMP), it spent Saturday climbing from $6.60 to $7.60, possibly owing to Elon Musk giving a plug on X to the Republican candidate and also with excitement building over Trump's keynote address next Saturday at the Bitcoin 2024 event.

The MAGA token (189th-largest coin with a market cap of $340M) was actually in the midst of a pull back yesterday but sizzled anew on the Biden drop-out reveal.

Now trending is a new coin, Super Trump (STRUMP). As of Sunday, STRUMP had a market cap of $38M after gaining 30% in 24 hours.