Wu Says Daily Selected Crypto News + This Week’s Macro Indicators

1. Bitmine increased its holdings by 27,801 ETH last week, bringing total holdings to 5,770,038 ETH

Bitmine increased its holdings by 27,801 ETH last week, bringing total holdings to 5,770,038 ETH, about 4.8% of ETH’s total supply, and has staked 4,917,189 ETH. As of July 12, the company also holds 206 BTC, $482 million in cash and tradable securities. The combined size of its crypto assets, cash, and related investments totals $11.3 billion.

2. Strategy sold $466.7 million worth of MSTR stock last week and did not buy or sell Bitcoin

Strategy, last week, planned to sell about 4.82 million shares of MSTR stock through an ATM (at-the-market issuance), raising net proceeds of about $466.7 million. In the same period, Strategy did not conduct any Bitcoin purchases, and its holdings remained unchanged at 843,775 BTC. Based on an average acquisition cost of $75,476, the total cost was about $63.69 billion. In addition, Strategy disclosed that it did not carry out any stock buybacks between July 6 and July 12; as of July 12, its cash reserves were about $3 billion.

3. The UK government promotes a tokenized financial markets working group; 54 institutions including BlackRock and Goldman Sachs join

A tokenization working group supported by the City of London and led by the UK Treasury will spend one year advancing real-world tokenization use cases in the UK’s financial markets. In the initial stage, the focus will be on tokenised repo (tokenised repurchase agreements). Participating institutions include BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, UBS, and others. The report says the UK needs to accelerate the development of tokenization market infrastructure in order to maintain its position in competition among global wholesale financial markets.

4. Japan’s financial giant SBI teams up with Solana Foundation to push global issuance of JPY stablecoins and RWA

Japan’s financial giant SBI Holdings announced a strategic partnership with Solana Foundation. The two sides will jointly promote the development of Japan’s on-chain financial markets. As part of the collaboration, Solana Foundation will join SBI R3 Japan (planned to be renamed SBI Solana Global in the future), and together with SBI and one of Japan’s three major banks, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), will advance a new growth strategy. SBI Solana Global plans to support, based on the Solana network, including the issuance of JPY stablecoins, RWA tokenization (such as corporate bonds, commercial paper, funds, and real estate), the build-out of cross-border payment infrastructure, institutional-grade on-chain financial services, and next-generation payment infrastructure for the era of AI agents.

5. Prosecutors’ Daily: recommends improving evidence rules for money-laundering crimes using virtual currencies and mechanisms for disposing of assets involved

A theoretical article in Prosecutors’ Daily says that China’s crackdown on crimes of money laundering using virtual currencies still faces problems such as offense characterization, evidence collection, and recovering and preserving proceeds, and it recommends establishing adaptive standards for electronic evidence authentication and review, building tiered proof standards and reasonable presumption rules, and exploring the authorization and standardized application of technical investigation measures. It also calls for issuing national-level procedures for the disposal of assets involved in cases involving virtual currencies, unifying operational standards for seizure, custody, appraisal, and liquidation/realization; building a national-level custody and disposal platform for virtual currencies involved in cases; and disposing of assets through compliant channels such as targeted auctions or agreement-based transfers.

6. Wu Shuo this week: macro indicators and analysis—U.S. inflation indicators CPI, PPI, and the Fed’s semiannual monetary policy report

Summary

Last week, the Federal Reserve initiated a re-evaluation of its monetary policy framework; the meeting minutes show that internal disagreements still remain. U.S. employment data stayed stable, inflation pressure in the Eurozone warmed up, and China’s June CPI fell. This week, the focus will be on U.S. inflation indicators CPI and PPI, as well as the Fed’s semiannual monetary policy report.

Last week’s recap

Over the past week, the U.S. and Iran again launched intense clashes around the Strait of Hormuz. Iran attacked multiple merchant ships and announced a blockade of the strait, and the U.S. responded with consecutive airstrikes against Iranian missiles, drones, naval and communication facilities. Iran, in turn, carried out missile and drone attacks on U.S. military targets in Gulf countries such as Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain. Trump announced that the previously agreed ceasefire had ended. Although both sides still made contacts through channels such as Oman, the conflict has clearly spilled over, and risks to global shipping and energy supply have risen further.

The Federal Reserve announced the formation of five independent working groups to re-evaluate the monetary policy framework, covering areas such as communication mechanisms, balance-sheet policy, data systems, the impact of AI on productivity and employment, and the inflation framework. Working group members include Marc Andreessen, co-founder of a16z; Nobel laureate Thomas Sargent; Harvard professor Greg Mankiw; Anthropic researchers Charles Jones; and others. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said that the U.S. economy is undergoing major changes, and the Federal Reserve needs to re-examine its analytical tools and policy approaches to better achieve the goals of price stability and full employment.

In the U.S., initial jobless claims for the week ending July 4 were 215,000, versus 218,000 expected; the prior figure was revised from 215,000 to 217,000.

The meeting minutes of the Fed’s monetary policy show: internal divergence, and the inflation and interest-rate outlook remains unclear.

ECB meeting minutes for June have been released: upside inflation risks have become a consensus, and pricing continues to build for up to three rate hikes this year.

China’s June CPI was 1% year over year, below expectations, and fell further from the previous month.

Key events & indicators this week

July 14

U.S. June CPI year over year, not seasonally adjusted (20:30)

Fed Chair Worsh attends a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee on the “Fed’s Semiannual Monetary Policy Report” (22:00)

July 15

U.S. June PPI year over year (20:30)

Fed Chair Worsh attends a hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee on the “Fed’s Semiannual Monetary Policy Report” (22:00)

July 16

The Fed releases the Beige Book on economic conditions (02:00)

U.S. initial jobless claims for the week ending July 11 (in ten-thousands) (20:30)

July 17

Fed Vice Chair Jefferson delivers remarks on the economy and monetary policy (07:00)

U.S. July one-year inflation rate expectations—initial estimate (22:00)

U.S. July University of Michigan consumer sentiment index—initial estimate (22:00)