A Summary of Sam Altman’s Weekly Activities
Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a significant price increase last week, leading to a retest of $64,000. During this time, spot BTC ETFs recorded all-time high volumes. However, Nigeria fined Binance $10 billion over allegations of currency manipulation, and Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The week started off well for Bitcoin, as it surpassed the $56,000 mark on February 27 due to increased buying pressure. This surge in price reignited bullish optimism, with futures traders betting on a further rally.
Bitcoin continued to climb and reached the $59,000 mark on February 28, with a noticeable increase in whale transactions. This led to a surge in social volume, as bullish discussions became more prominent.
According to data from Santiment, spot BTC ETFs have consistently attracted more interest from market participants, recording two consecutive all-time high volumes on February 25 and 26.
Bitcoin’s bullish momentum carried on, pushing it above key psychological resistance levels from $61,000 to $63,000. On February 28, it retested the $64,000 zone. The rally was driven by a combination of reduced supply and increased demand, as spot BTC ETFs acquired more tokens than what miners were releasing.
On March 1, Custodia Bank CEO Caitlin Long confirmed that the surge on February 28 was primarily driven by a scarcity of supply. She revealed that at the time, OTC desks only had around 40 BTC tokens available for sale, despite the surge in demand. Matt Hogan, the CIO of Bitwise, also suggested that Bitcoin is experiencing high demand and insufficient supply, predicting increased institutional investments in spot BTC ETFs.
In response to the increased demand and Bitcoin’s surge, Bank of America and Wells Fargo announced plans to support spot Bitcoin ETFs for their clients on February 29.
Coinbase, the American exchange, experienced a surge in activity due to the massive price increase, leading to a temporary crash and zero balances for some users.
Before the price surge, MicroStrategy Chairman Michael Saylor, a well-known Bitcoin advocate, announced that the company had purchased an additional 3,000 BTC tokens for $155 million between February 5 and 25. This increased their total holdings to 193,000 BTC, acquired at a total cost of $6.09 billion.
Meme coins also saw significant price surges during the market resurgence. The top five gainers of the week, according to CoinMarketCap, were all meme coins. Dogwifhat (WIF) experienced the highest surge at 439%, followed by Pepe (PEPE) with a 314% rally. Floki (FLOKI) also saw a 310% increase in price after announcing a burn of 2% of its circulating supply. Shiba Inu (SHIB) and BONK (BONK) recorded gains of 126% and 112%, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian naira continued to weaken against the dollar, reaching its highest point since July 2021. The Central Bank of Nigeria implemented emergency policies to address the devaluation, including cracking down on local currency exchange operators. However, these measures were unsuccessful, leading to a focus on crypto P2P traders, particularly Binance. Nigeria’s National Security Adviser office arrested two Binance executives and fined the company $10 billion for its alleged role in the naira’s collapse.
In another development, Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI. Musk and Altman were initial board members of OpenAI when it was founded as a non-profit organization focused on AI research. However, OpenAI has since become a for-profit firm, leading to Musk’s legal action. Following the lawsuit, OpenAI’s Worldcoin token experienced a 5% decline.
Overall, last week was marked by Bitcoin’s price increase, record volumes in spot BTC ETFs, regulatory actions against Binance in Nigeria, and Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI’s CEO. Meme coins also saw significant gains during this period.
