The Squeeze and the Stall | MJBurrows Crypto - Issue No 8

One company, 4.8% of all ether

One company now owns 4.8% of every ether in existence. BitMine's treasury has swelled to roughly 5.79 million ETH, around $11.2 billion, after buying another 9,946 coins last week — and, unusually, it's repurchasing its own stock at the same time, 6.1 million shares under a $4 billion programme. So the float is shrinking on both sides at once: fewer ether for the market to trade, fewer BitMine shares for investors to hold. At this size the company isn't really a participant in the ether market so much as a feature of it. That thin float cuts both ways — it can amplify a rally and, just as easily, a fall, because a treasury this large has no quiet exit. The arrangement works while the ether price cooperates. The interesting question is what happens the day it doesn't.

Washington runs out of road

While one firm was busy cornering ether, Washington was busy doing nothing. The Clarity Act — crypto's long-chased market-structure bill — lost its Senate slot this week, bumped behind a Russia sanctions bill and nominations. The chamber takes one contested bill at a time, so crypto's law now sits in a queue it can't jump, with the summer recess starting 8 August and the ethics clause on officials' own crypto holdings still unresolved. Miss this window and the runway narrows to a few weeks in September, then a post-election lame-duck session. A version already cleared the House, so the Senate is the usual bottleneck — and if it stalls, the industry falls back on regulators rather than lawmakers, a holding pattern a later administration can rewrite. Crypto didn't lose a vote this week. It lost a slot, which is worse.

A market fast enough for one firm to swallow 4.8% of an asset, and a Congress too slow to write the rules for any of it — crypto's week in a sentence. The cards below, then the rest of the issue. — MJB

One company now owns 4.8% of every ether in circulation. Bitmine added another 9,946 ETH last week, and its Ethereum treasury is up to roughly 5.79 million tokens worth $11.2 billion (~£8.4bn). Most treasury stories are about balance sheets. This one is about supply — because every coin Bitmine buys is a coin the market cannot. Tom Lee, Bitmine’s chairman, reckons the ETH/BTC ratio is telling him to keep going. The float is getting thinner.

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Washington’s biggest crypto bill needed floor time this summer. Instead, the Senate handed it to Russian sanctions and a package of nominations, and the crypto Clarity Act went back in the drawer. The chamber moves one contested bill at a time, so the market structure legislation the industry has chased hardest now sits behind a queue it cannot jump. The summer break starts on August 8, and the calendar is doing what opponents could not.

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There's a tidy contrast in today's issue. One company amassed 4.8% of all ether in a matter of months; the United States Senate couldn't find an afternoon to vote on the rules governing it. Private crypto moves at the speed of a buy button. Public crypto moves at the speed of a cloture motion. Guess which one the rulebook depends on. — MJB