Date: 03/20/2021
More than 60% of respondents said they would choose to invest their $1,400 payments in Bitcoin over stocks.
Bitcoin has produced an average annualized return of 230% — more than 10 times higher than the second-ranked asset class. — Roberto Talamas (Messari researcher)
Weekly Headline News
1. Billionaire Investor Howard Marks Warming to Bitcoin
Coindesk
2. Long-Term Bitcoin HODLers Still Accumulating, Suggests Conviction
Coindesk
3. Retail traders buying more Bitcoin than institutions: JPMorgan
Cointelegraph
4. Bank of Japan governor says CBDC preparation can’t wait until hour of need
Cointelegraph
5. Survey says Americans could spend up to $40B from stimulus on Bitcoin
Cointelegraph
6. BTC was best-performing asset of past decade by 1,000%
Cointelegraph
7. Bitcoin ‘better than gold’ if you study it, fund manager tells mainstream media
Cointelegraph
8. $60K Bitcoin price back in sight after Morgan Stanley and Fed announcements
Cointelegraph
9. $288K by December? Bitcoin ‘will not stop at $100K,’ says stock-to-flow creator
Cointelegraph
10. Digital asset investment products hit record $4.2B inflows already this quarter
Cointelegraph
Summary
Billionaire Investor Howard Marks Warming to Bitcoin
● The investor, who is worth $2.1 billion according to Forbes, previously said in a 2017 memo that cryptocurrency was “an unfounded fad.” The comment was “a knee-jerk reaction without information,” Marks conceded in a video interview with the Korea Economic Daily on Monday.
● While bitcoin, unlike U.S. dollars, has a limited supply of 21 million units, Marks argued the market is “circular,” meaning people want the cryptocurrency because the price is rising and that demand drives prices up. Marks also said in a recent Oaktree memo that his son “thankfully owns a meaningful amount” of bitcoin.
Long-Term Bitcoin HODLers Still Accumulating, Suggests Conviction
● Long-term bitcoin holders have been adding to their positions over the past 10 months as supply held for shorter time periods has shrunk, based on an analysis of blockchain data by the cryptocurrency market-research firm Arcane.
● ”The bitcoin supply last being active in three to five years has grown by 1.5 million BTC since the middle of May 2020. This suggests that long-term holders still accumulate bitcoin, not seeking to sell at these current prices,” according to Arcane Research.
Retail traders buying more Bitcoin than institutions: JPMorgan
● According to research by strategists at the leading U.S investment bank, JPMorgan Chase, retail traders are flocking to buy Bitcoin from mainstream fintech firms. JPMorgan’s data suggests that retail investors have purchased more than 187,000 Bitcoin this quarter using PayPal and Square.
● Retail investors are even out-buying institutions, with JPMorgan’s analysts estimating institutions have purchased 173,000 BTC over the same period. Glassnode noted an entity's net growth spike in 2021 adding: “This is a strong indication that new retail investors have been entering the space.”
Bank of Japan governor says CBDC preparation can’t wait until hour of need
● In fresh remarks, Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda Haruhiko said that experiments with a domestic central bank digital currency will begin in spring 2021.
● The Bank of Japan has been tracking innovations across public and private finance closely, cooperating with the Bank for International Settlements and five other major global banks on CBDC research since January 2020 and devoting attention to issues such as offline availability when it comes to supporting a digital currency.
Survey says Americans could spend up to $40B from stimulus on Bitcoin
● Up to 40% of respondents said they would invest the direct payments into BTC and stocks, with 61% saying they would choose Bitcoin over equities.
● This is the third direct payment to financially assist those affected by income insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lawmakers provided many Americans with $1,200 direct payments in April 2020, as well as $600 checks in January. Crypto users who invested the full $1,200 into Bitcoin last year may have realized as much as $10,000 in gains as of the time publication, following the asset’s rise to more than $60,000 in 2021.
BTC was best-performing asset of the past decade by 1,000%
● Over the past 10 years, Bitcoin has beaten out all over asset classes by at least a factor of 10. Responding to the findings, Messari researcher Roberto Talamas highlighted that Bitcoin has produced an average annualized return of 230% — more than 10 times higher than the second-ranked asset class.
● The data also shows that gold made a paltry annualized return of 1.5% since 2011, with five out of the past 11 years producing a loss for the asset. Since 2011, BTC’s cumulative gains equate to a whopping 20,000,000%. 2013 was Bitcoin’s best-performing year, during which it gained 5,507%.
Bitcoin ‘better than gold’ if you study it, fund manager tells mainstream media
● Bitcoin is superior to gold if investors take the time to study it, says hedge fund manager Anthony Scaramucci. In an interview with CNBC on March 18, Scaramucci, who is CEO of SkyBridge Capital, reinforced his belief in Bitcoin for mainstream audiences.
● Continuing, Scaramucci stressed that Bitcoin fulfilled the role of money as technology — a central argument among Bitcoin proponents such as “The Bitcoin Standard” author Saifedean Ammous. “In a lot of ways, if you study it, it’s better than gold. It’s easier to store, you can move it around more quickly, and that value — that trusted network — is growing.”
$60K Bitcoin price back in sight after Morgan Stanley and Fed announcements
● Optimism returned across the cryptocurrency market on March 17 following a brighter economic forecast from the U.S. Federal Reserve and comments which hinted at the possibility of an interest rate hike in 2022 if employment and economic indicators continue to improve. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that Bitcoin struggled below the $57,000 level during early trading hours until the announcement from the U.S. Federal Reserve sparked a rally which took BTC to an intraday high of $58,243.
● Bullish momentum for the top cryptocurrency began to build after it was revealed that institutional banking giant Morgan Stanley will soon offer certain investors access to three funds that allow clients to own Bitcoin.
● Further validation for a continuance of the current bull market came from Bitcoin’s stock-to-flow creator PlanB, who feels that BTC “will not stop” at $100,000 and could reach an average price as high as $288,000 with its all-time high registering even higher.
$288K by December? Bitcoin ‘will not stop at $100K,’ says stock-to-flow creator
● Bitcoin has plenty of room to grow in its current bull run and “will not stop” at $100,000, according to analysts including PlanB. He referenced both his stock-to-flow, or S2F, and stock-to-flow cross-asset, or S2FX, models, which give an average BTC/USD price forecast of $100,000 and $288,000 during the current halving cycle, set to end in 2024.
● Despite the stock-to-flow model not existing during the top of Bitcoin’s first halving cycle price peak in 2011, it achieved a trajectory deviation equal to 1,157%. Continuing, PlanB highlighted December as the deadline for $288,000 to hit. In Twitter responses, he reasoned that the bull run has “at least some more months to go.”
Digital asset investment products hit record $4.2B inflows already this quarter
● According to digital asset investment manager, CoinShares, institutional-grade crypto-asset investment products inflows have already reached record levels so far in 2021. According to Coinshares’ March 15 Fund Flows Weekly report, first-quarter inflows into cryptocurrency funds are up 7.7% and already total $4.2 billion, smashing the quarterly record of $3.9 billion set in Q4 2020.
● The report noted that Bitcoin trading volumes on trusted exchanges have been slightly above average at $11.8 billion per day versus $10.8 billion per day on average for 2021. In its latest announcement, leading global crypto-asset fund Grayscale reported assets under management figure of $42.9 billion, of which 84% of that is its popular Bitcoin Trust.
