Crypto Market Overview July 21th | Dex-Trade
Why Did Tesla Sell Off 75% of Its BTC Holdings?
In its financial report for the second quarter of this year, the electric car giant Tesla indicated information about the sale of its Bitcoin holdings in the amount of $936 million. However, this move was not a planned dumping of the market due to the loss of confidence in digital assets or an attempt to maintain profits during a global market crisis. The reason was record production costs in China, which are directly related to the blocking of production in connection with the new wave of COVID-19. This was announced by Elon Musk, commenting on the company's report. The sale of almost $1 billion worth of bitcoin helped the firm cover its contingencies, he said. The “father of electric cars” also noted that at the moment Tesla is in critical need of an influx of new funds due to recently opened gigafactories in Germany and the United States. By the way, a little earlier, these gigafactories, located in Berlin and Austin, Texas, were called "gigantic money furnaces." Despite the fact that Tesla has sold a significant part of its cryptocurrency holdings, Elon Musk continues to be a confident hodler. He admitted last summer that he invested part of his fortune in BTC, ETH and DOGE. And in March 2022, he assured that he would not part with his property. In the meantime, the market appears to have weathered a major sell-off, although the bright news has still weighed on the price of the main cryptocurrency. Bitcoin was actively striving for the $24,000 mark, but corrected to $22,610 and the sale continues its upward price movement.
Finland Sold Confiscated BTC and Sent Funds to Help Ukraine
According to a press release published today, 1889.1 BTC confiscated by the Finnish authorities, which were seized mainly during raids and raids on drug laboratories until 2018, will be redirected to Ukraine as aid in the liberation war against the RF. We are talking about $47.35 million, the fate of which was a long discussion in the country. In July 2021, the Finnish customs agency Tulli launched a tender for brokers willing to sell seized cryptocurrencies on behalf of the state. However, it was not completed until April 2022, when Finnish Finance Minister Annika Saarikko tweeted that the country would donate "tens of millions" of euros from the sale of confiscated bitcoins to Ukraine. To date, the transfer of funds from confiscated Bitcoins has already been approved by the Finnish government. This sale is not unique. For example, since 2014, the United States has already sold 187,381 seized Bitcoins in nine auctions, without indicating the dollar equivalent of the profit received. And the French authorities auctioned off 611 Bitcoins worth $34.5 million. However, Finland was the first country to donate the proceeds to charity. And this is obviously a worthy decision.
Vitalik Buterin Thanks the Shiba Community for the AI Grant Program
Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, announced the first intake of participants for the AI Scholarship Program and expressed his gratitude to the Shiba Inu community for implementing the scholarship program. “Big thanks to the Shiba Inu community, whose cryptocurrency made these fellowships possible!” — Buterin wrote. The program will support eight students who will study for five years of Ph.D. degrees with the possibility of renewal funding. The annual budget per student will be no more than $40,000 with an additional $10,000 allocated for research. Students will conduct existential security research in the field of AI. Their results will form the basis for understanding the principles of reflection of artificial intelligence and will certainly become a powerful catalyst for understanding the nature of human existence. In the meantime, we can only expect the emergence of cyber-philosophers and new teachings that compromise rationality.
