Pre-market: US Stock Surges in Pre-market Trading, Bit Digital Up by 14.66%

On July 8th, Bloomberg's Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas posted on social media, indicating that BlackRock currently holds approximately 700,000 bitcoins and is only 38% away from surpassing Satoshi Nakamoto to become the world's largest single bitcoin holder. (If all bitcoin ETFs are regarded as a single entity managed by one, they have already exceeded Satoshi Nakamoto for a long time.) BlackRock's bitcoin spot ETF—IBIT is currently absorbing bitcoins at a rate of 40,000 per month (about 1,300 per day). At this rate, it is estimated that the holding will reach 1.2 million bitcoins by May 2026. This is a remarkable achievement for a product that has just been in existence for two years.

On July 8th, as per Axios, the second fund of Ego Death Capital has managed to raise $100 million. This fund is focused on providing support for the expansion of companies within the Bitcoin ecosystem. Typical target companies of this fund have annual revenues ranging between $1 million and $3 million. However, due to the limited funds available, their growth has been restricted. This new fund will mainly concentrate on the Series A funding stage, assisting proven companies in their scaling-up process. Additionally, a small portion of funds will be set aside for early-stage projects that show promising prospects (seed round) investment.

On July 8th, as per Cointelegraph, the Federal Government of Pakistan has set up the Pakistan Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (PVARA) in order to regulate the country's digital asset industry. PVARA will function as an independent regulatory entity and is responsible for issuing licenses to virtual asset service providers. It will also carry out supervision and oversight while making sure to comply with international standards, including adhering to the guidance of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

July 8th. According to bfmtv, on July 7th, a woman who held cryptocurrency was brutally attacked at her residence in Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine, France. During the attack, her husband and child were also present and witnessed the whole thing. The suspect managed to break into her house and delivered more than ten punches to the victim's face. The injured woman was then immediately taken to the hospital, and her injuries were considered relatively serious. A report has been filed. Investigations show that she might have been targeted for the attack because of her cryptocurrency holdings. After the incident, the attacker fled the scene. Later, one of them was arrested with a meat cleaver in his hand. He confessed to targeting this couple through social media due to their cryptocurrency assets. Currently, the Criminal Police of Hauts-de-Seine has taken over the case, and the authorities have launched an investigation for "attempted armed robbery."

On July 8th, as per CoinDesk, Tether has declared a strategic investment in the blockchain forensics firm Crystal Intelligence in order to reinforce its capacity to combat cryptocurrency crimes related to USDT. This investment allows Tether to directly make use of Crystal's entire range of tools, such as real-time risk monitoring, fraud detection, and regulatory intelligence systems, thereby further enhancing its ability to aid global law enforcement agencies in tracking suspicious activities. The two parties have also previously cooperated on the development of "Scam Alert", a public database that tags wallet addresses involved in scams.

July 8th. The Hong Kong stock concept stocks related to cryptocurrency and stablecoins continued to rise, demonstrating strong performance. Guotai Junan International witnessed a surge in its stock price by 16%. New Frontier Corporation and Multi-Dimension Technology each rose by more than 10%. Meanwhile, Euroclear and OSL Group also saw gains of over 5%. Driven by the stablecoin concept stocks, the market remains hot. It is particularly worth noting that GoldenStream Investment's stock price skyrocketed by more than 140% after reaching a strategic partnership with AnchorX. According to the announcement, GoldenStream Investment and AnchorX signed a strategic cooperation framework memorandum on July 4th. AnchorX has utilized advanced distributed ledger technology to introduce AxCNH, a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the offshore Chinese yuan. Both parties will focus on promoting the application of AxCNH in cross-border payments and trade settlements and further explore the development of digi