The Daily: Sui Foundation disputes $400 million insider selling allegation, bitcoin strengthens amid Trump's rising election odds and more

Quick Take

  • The Sui Foundation rebutted social media allegations of $400 million worth of insider selling on the open market during the recent Sui token price surge.
  • Bernstein analysts attribute bitcoin’s recent price surge above $66,000 to its correlation with rising odds of Donald Trump winning the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
  • U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw net inflows of $555.9 million on Monday, the largest since June 4, with no net outflows reported by any fund.
  • The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Tuesday! In today's Daily, the Sui Foundation disputes a $400 million insider selling allegation, bitcoin strengthens amid Donald Trump's rising election odds, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs see more than half a billion dollars worth of inflows and more.

Meanwhile, Canary Capital seeks approval from the SEC for a spot Litecoin ETF.

Let's get started.

Sui Foundation disputes $400 million insider selling allegation

The Sui Foundation rebutted social media allegations of $400 million worth of insider selling on the open market during the recent Sui token price surge.

  • The Foundation claimed the wallet flagged as selling the tokens likely belongs to an "infrastructure partner" who owns them under a lock-up schedule.
  • "All token lockups are enforced by qualified custodians and continuously monitored by Sui Foundation, and this partner is in compliance," the non-profit organization noted.
  • The allegations were raised by the pseudonymous crypto analyst Lightcrypto, who identified wallets linked to the Sui initial coin offering as insiders, although no specific addresses were disclosed.
  • "It does not bring comfort that the people building this ecosystem, the people who arguably know this token's value best, are unloading hundreds of millions of dollars of the token into less informed buyers chasing momentum," they alleged.
  • "No insiders, neither employees of the Foundation or [Sui developer] Mysten Labs (including Mysten Labs founders), nor ML investors, have sold $400 million worth of tokens during this period, either individually or combined," the Sui Foundation stated.
  • Sui has surged around 100% over the past month to enter the top 25 cryptocurrencies with a market cap of $5.8 billion, according to The Block's Sui Price Page.

Bitcoin strength driven by correlation to rising Trump election odds, Bernstein says

Bernstein analysts attribute bitcoin's recent price surge above $66,000 to its correlation with rising odds of Donald Trump winning the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

  • Trump currently leads Kamala Harris by odds of 57.7% to 42% to win the election on Nov. 5, according to the decentralized predictions platform Polymarket.
  • However, national polling averages paint a different picture, with Harris leading Trump by 49% to 46% as of Oct. 12, within the margin of error, according to Bernstein.
  • The analysts predict bitcoin could reach $90,000 if Trump wins, but a Harris victory might see bitcoin drop back to the $40,000 range.
  • Meanwhile, MicroStrategy stock, which has outperformed bitcoin in 2024, gaining 191% compared to 57%, is a leading indicator of bitcoin's strength, having already broken out of its multi-month consolidation phase, the analysts said.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs see over half a billion dollars in net inflows — largest since early June

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw net inflows of $555.9 million on Monday, the largest since June 4, with no net outflows reported by any fund.

  • Fidelity's FBTC led the inflows with $239.3 million, followed by Bitwise's BITB with $100.2 million.
  • BlackRock's IBIT was third, registering $79.5 million in net inflows and accounting for $1.67 billion of $2.61 billion in daily trading volume for the spot Bitcoin ETFs — the highest since Aug. 23.
  • "Now approaching $20 billion net inflows in [10 months]," The ETF Store president Nate Geraci wrote on X. "Simply ridiculous and blows away every pre-launch demand estimate."
  • Meanwhile, U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs recorded net inflows of $17 million on Monday, led by BlackRock's ETHA with $14.3 million.

Blockstream secures $210 million to drive Layer 2 growth and expand its bitcoin treasury

Following the buzz around CEO Adam Back's appearance in the HBO documentary last week, Blockstream announced Tuesday it had secured $210 million via a convertible note financing round led by Fulgur Ventures.

  • The fresh capital will be used to accelerate the adoption and development of Blockstream's Bitcoin Layer 2 technologies, expand its mining operations and boost its bitcoin treasury, the firm said.
  • Blockstream aims to capitalize on increasing interest in bitcoin as an asset class and broader tokenization potential to position its Liquid Network sidechain as the "de facto infrastructure" for tokenizing real-world assets within the Bitcoin ecosystem.
  • Blockstream also announced that Michael Minkevich, former product engineering lead at global IT service provider Luxoft, had joined its leadership team to help drive the company's growth.

Base becomes largest Ethereum rollup by total value locked, surpassing Arbitrum

Base has become the largest Ethereum Layer 2 rollup by total value locked, reaching $2.5 billion across 366 protocols, surpassing Arbitrum.

  • The Coinbase-incubated Layer 2 is now ranked among the top five blockchains by TVL overall, sitting behind Ethereum, Tron, Solana and BNB Chain.
  • Base also leads in user activity with about 1.5 million daily active addresses, according to The Block's data dashboard.
  • "Base's rapid growth underscores the commitment of Coinbase and app developers to realizing Ethereum's rollup-centric vision, cementing itself as the top Layer 2 by TVL one year after launch," Eden Au, Research Director at The Block, said.

In the next 24 hours

  • UK CPI inflation figures are released at 2 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Est. MoM 0.2%; Core 0.3%. Est. YoY 1.9%; Core 3.4%. U.S. mortgage data follow at 7 a.m.
  • ECB President Christine Lagarde will speak at 2:40 p.m.
  • The Avalanche Summit kicks off in Buenos Aires. The Future Blockchain Summit continues in Dubai.

Never miss a beat with The Block's daily digest of the most influential events happening across the digital asset ecosystem.


Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

James Hunt is a reporter at The Block and writer of The Daily newsletter, keeping you up to speed on the latest crypto news every weekday. Prior to joining The Block in 2022, James spent four years as a freelance writer in the industry, contributing to both publications and crypto project content. James’ coverage spans everything from Bitcoin and Ethereum to Layer 2 scaling solutions, avant-garde DeFi protocols, evolving DAO governance structures, trending NFTs and memecoins, regulatory landscapes, crypto company deals and the latest market updates. You can get in touch with James on Telegram or 𝕏 via @humanjets or email him at [email protected].