00:00Did the son of a government contractor steal seized crypto and BitMine buys more ETH?
00:06You're watching Coindesk Daily. I'm Jen Sinassi.
00:08The U.S. Marshals Service is investigating allegations that the son of a government
00:12contractor stole over $40 million in seized crypto. Blockchain sleuth ZachXPT accused
00:18John Lick-Dagita of draining the funds from wallets managed by his father's company,
00:24CMDSS, which handles asset disposal for the DOJ and DOD.
00:28John allegedly exposed himself during a, quote,
00:31band-for-band argument on Telegram, where he screen-shared a wallet holding millions to prove
00:37his wealth. ZachXPT traced those funds directly back to government seizures.
00:41The Marshals Service confirmed an active investigation is underway, but declined to further comment.
00:46BitMine is picking up steam again as the world's largest corporate ETH holder,
00:51recently purchasing a whopping 40,302 ETH worth $117 million.
00:56The latest buy brings the firm's total stash to over 3.5% of the entire circulating supply.
01:03The purchase follows a shareholder vote that authorized the company to raise more capital.
01:07BitMine is also staking nearly half of its treasury to generate yield,
01:11a move so massive it's helped push the wait time for new Ethereum validators to 54 days.
01:16The company now holds a staggering $12.8 billion in assets and expects its ETH strategy to generate
01:23$400 million in annual income. As of this morning, ETH is trading around $2,900.
01:29And Bitcoin's 7% drop last week pushed sentiment into the gutter,
01:33but analysts see a golden opportunity in the derivatives market.
01:37With Bitcoin losing its long-term bullish trend and $1.3 billion in ETF outflows,
01:42most traders are piling in to put options for downside protection.
01:45According to VanEck's Matthew Siegel, this crowded trade has left call options at a significant discount.
01:51While capital flees to gold and silver, analysts suggest that if you have a thesis for a bounce,
01:56the options market is practically giving away upside exposure right now.
02:00As of this morning, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap is trading range bound below $88,000.
02:06That's it for Coindesk Daily.
02:07Get more updates on Coindesk.com and we'll see you next time.
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