The price of a basket of cryptocurrencies finished the week down (6.7%), after falling as much as (14%) through mid-week. If history is any indication, then what an opportunity this week was. At time of writing, Bitcoin/USD is trading at $56,288. This represents a 1-day change of +0.8%, a 1-week change of +3.57%, a 1-month change of +10.46%, a 3-month change of +75%, a 6-month change of +205%, and a 1-year change of +514%. So on, and so forth.
This week in Crypto: The NBA, Microsoft, Billionaire FOMO, Web 3.0
The wealthiest man in the world, Elon Musk, sent a series of tweets announcing that Tesla cars can now be paid for with Bitcoin. More notably, Tesla is operating bitcoin nodes and, “bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin”, and not converted back to dollars. Back in January, Tesla announced that it purchased $1.2 billion in bitcoin to hold on its balance sheet, joining the growing list of companies holding BTC as treasury. Bonus for the traders/savvy investors out there: Elon Musk is really good at timing his Bitcoin tweets around options expirations.
Traditional investment powerhouse Fidelity ($4.3 Trillion AUM), has filed with the SEC to manage a Bitcoin ETF, “Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust”. Fidelity’s entry to the space further legitimizes Bitcoin and puts pressure on the SEC to approve an ETF for US investors.
An institutional New Zealand Retirement fund also reported an ~$18 million Bitcoin purchase on the grounds that it has similarities to gold. The traditional retirement fund started buying in October, when Bitcoin was trading around $10,000. “Opportunities present themselves”, the chief investment officer said.
Norwegian Billionaire Oystein Spetalen, who less than one month ago was a prominent critic of Bitcoin (he publicly called it a “nonsense currency” and suggested it be banned), humbly announced a new Bitcoin investment, adding, “when the facts change, I change. I had been wrong.” Maybe it’s just FOMO. “I can’t bear to see Rokke make money and not me”, Spetalen said, referring to industrial business magnate and fellow Norwegian billionare Kjell Inge Rokke’s launching of a crypto firm earlier this month.
Miami, FL – American Airlines Arena, home to the NBA’s Miami Heat, will be renamed FTX Arena after its newest sponsor, cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The entire deal is worth $135 million and comes on the heels of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s push to make Bitcoin a part of the city’s economic future.
Microsoft ($MSFT) Launches Decentralized Identity System on Bitcoin. This stands out to me because I’ve worked on creating decentralized identities for farmers in rural areas that don’t have or don’t want a formal (national) identity. Microsoft deployed its first version of the “ION” platform atop the Bitcoin network. This is cutting-edge and something that I see people sleeping on. Self-sovereign identities are the future and will most obviously be used in health passports.
Billionaire Investor Mark Cuban and Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Jerome Powell both stated in the last week in separate interviews that Bitcoin is more of a store of value that should be considered as digital gold as opposed to a digital currency. Cuban also shared that he’s investing in several crypto assets, but only has “enough skin in the game to allow [him] to learn about them.” It reminds him of the early internet days, and for those who may have forgotten, that’s how Cuban hit his big lick.
Verasity, an E-Sports site and protocol taking part in the NFT-craze was awarded a patent in its drive to stop ‘fake news’. Verasity, who’s mission is to increase engagement for video creators and deliver them a boost to advertising revenues, obtained Patent #10956931 for its Proof-of-View protocol, that “ensures views recorded on video platforms are genuine – delivering accurate, secure, real, and transparent audience metrics.” Some estimates suggest that over 50% of money spent for online ads go to views that are not even seen by real people.
Up to $389 Billion per year is expected to be spent on digital advertising by 2023, and last year, 2/3 of that ad spend went to Google and Facebook. This dominance causes obvious problems. The token that governs the Verasity network, $VRA, also can be staked on the Verasity website at an annual interest rate (paid in VRA) of 36.5%. This is HUGE and reflects the disruptive nature of defi compared to traditional banking.
Another video streaming platform and protocol that has recently been awarded patents for its’ blockchain technology, Theta Network, received a +$100 million stake from institutional investors who claim that, “Theta’s global decentralized edge network will be a key component for Web 3.0 video and data delivery.”
Theta claims that its network’s peer-to-peer data relay makes it cheaper for any platform that moves large amounts of data (like videos) by utilizing users’ excess computing power instead of letting it go to waste. Theta’s advisors include Youtube co-founder and chief technology officer Steven Chen and Twitch co-founder Justin Kan, and it’s growing partnerships include Lionsgate film studios, Google, Sony Europe, and Samsung.
What’d I miss? Reply below or send me a message if you have some fresh crypto news. Looking forward to the days ahead!
#jk
*Disclaimer* I own positions in mentioned assets
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