Date: 03/23/2021
“The demographic of crypto investors has changed versus previous years, with more institutional participation, leading to greater capital inflows. Hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars are being exchanged in single purchases, and this increased liquidity will lead to more stable prices.” - Simon Peters, a market analyst at eToro
Weekly Headline News
1. Canadian Property Firm Buys Bitcoin in Hopes of Eventually Scrapping Condo Fees
Coindesk
2. Bitcoin Is ‘Too Important to Ignore’: Deutsche Bank Report
Coindesk
3. Scaramucci Says More Companies Should Be Holding Bitcoin on Their Balance Sheets
Coindesk
4. AMD, Unlike Nvidia, Won’t Try to Block Crypto Miners From Using Its Chips: Report
Coindesk
5. First Advisor, Scaramucci-Led SkyBridge Team Up to File for Bitcoin ETF
Coindesk
6. Stocks of Bitcoin: JPMorgan offers BTC exposure, an ETF in sheep’s clothing
Cointelegraph
7. A little bit of history repeating? The numbers behind Bitcoin’s bull run
Cointelegraph
8. Bidding on NFT of First-Ever Tweet Ends Today; Top Offer Remains at $2.5M
Coindesk
9. Even NYC’s Highfalutin Guggenheim Museum Is Looking at NFTs, Job Posting Suggests
Coindesk
10. Bitcoin is ‘more a substitute for gold than the dollar’ — Fed Chair Powell
Cointelegraph
Summary
Canadian Property Firm Buys Bitcoin in Hopes of Eventually Scrapping Condo Fees
● Saskatchewan-based Thornton Place Condominium Corp is hoping to eventually do away with condo fees by investing in BTC. In an announcement, Thornton Place in Regina said it has purchased 0.4 bitcoin with CAD$25,000 (US$20,050) through the exchange Kraken at an average price of CAD$62,500 (US$52,104) per bitcoin including fees and expenses.
● The company said it has taken direct physical custody of the bitcoin purchased instead of using a custodial service or exchange-traded fund with a management fee. Thornton Place Condominium said it sees a 10-year time horizon for the investment and it has “taken the first steps” which it hopes will lead to the elimination of fees for residents.
Bitcoin Is ‘Too Important to Ignore’: Deutsche Bank Report
● Bitcoin is now “too important to ignore” given its $1 trillion market capitalization, according to a new report by Deutsche Bank. Bitcoin’s current valuation has the broader shift toward cross-border digital currencies priced in, therefore it must demonstrate its value as a means of payment to live up to its reputation, Deutsche Bank’s paper concludes.
● Tesla, like bitcoin, has sparked numerous debates about whether it is the future of the car or a “soon-to-die fad.” Sentiment has shifted dramatically in the last 18 months as Tesla proved itself able to deliver cars such as the Model 3 at scale.
Scaramucci Says More Companies Should Be Holding Bitcoin on Their Balance Sheets
● More companies should be holding bitcoin on their balance sheet due to the explosive growth of the U.S. monetary supply, former White House Communications Director and hedge fund founder Anthony Scaramucci said on CoinDesk TV.
● The reason he’s so bullish on bitcoin is that it’s a “solution” to the undercutting of the Bretton Woods agreement back in the early 1970s. Bitcoin has the potential to “start to standardize money again and that will be better for the working poor and the middle class.”
AMD, Unlike Nvidia, Won’t Try to Block Crypto Miners From Using Its Chips: Report
● Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices said it’s not going to restrict its graphics cards from being used for mining cryptocurrencies after rival Nvidia installed a limiter on some of its chips to prevent their use in mining ETH, according to a report in PC Gamer.
● Of course, AMD may not have had much of a choice in not trying to limit how its chips are used. Not only is Nvidia’s 24GB GeForce RTX 3090 the best GPU chip for mining, because AMD’s drivers are all open-source, it limits the company’s control over them, PC Gamer noted.
First Advisor, Scaramucci-Led SkyBridge Team Up to File for Bitcoin ETF
● First Trust Advisors and SkyBridge Capital, the hedge fund run by former White House Communications Director and recent BTC convert Anthony Scaramucci, have become the latest firms to seek to offer a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
● In an S-1 filing with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the companies applied to be able to offer the “First Trust SkyBridge Bitcoin ETF Trust.” First Advisor would be the advisor to the ETF while SkyBridge would serve as the sub-advisor. Shares would trade on NYSE Arca, the filing said.
● The two companies are just the latest to file for an ETF. This bull run’s regulatory rush has seen WisdomTree file for a bitcoin ETF in March, NYDIG in February, Valkyrie in January, and VanEck in December of last year.
Stocks of Bitcoin: JPMorgan offers BTC exposure, an ETF in sheep’s clothing
● Cryptocurrency adoption has been penetrating the mainstream at an exponential rate. While most investors are going straight into buying the likes of Bitcoin and Ether, a few skeptical investors want to invest in the cryptocurrency economy without exposure to tokens’ volatility directly.
● For the overly cautious investors, JPMorgan recently announced its Cryptocurrency Exposure Basket, or CEB, a debt instrument portfolio consisting of 11 stocks. These stocks are either companies that hold Bitcoin as a treasury asset or companies in industries complementary to the cryptocurrency industry.
A little bit of history repeating? The numbers behind Bitcoin’s bull run
● In terms of the similarities between now and 2017, there are some critical parallels, the first of which is the relationship between BTC prices and the mining reward halvings. Each time the mining reward halves, it introduces new scarcity to Bitcoin’s supply.
● Despite the similarities, there are also many differences between the crypto markets now compared to 2017, mainly relating to an advanced state of maturity. Four years ago, crypto was entirely the preserve of individual retail speculators.
● The metrics also point to some differences between the 2017 cycle and this one. One that stands out is the variance in Bitcoin dominance. Throughout 2017, BTC’s dominance dropped dramatically from 85% to a low of 32% — which is the lowest point it’s ever been. Since the epic price rises of 2021, both BTC and ETH have seen small increases in dominance at the expense of the broader altcoin markets. Therefore, these metrics imply that the new generation of investors is less fickle and more committed to BTC and ETH as flagship assets.
Bidding on NFT of First-Ever Tweet Ends Today; Top Offer Remains at $2.5M
● The auction of a tokenized version of the first tweet ever sent is due to end in a few hours with a top bid of $2.5 million, where it’s been stuck for more than two weeks.
● The first-ever tweet was sent by Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey 15 years ago today. Earlier this month, Dorsey called attention to a tokenized version of that tweet on the non-fungible token (NFT) platform Valuables. Given Twitter is based in San Francisco, it’s possible Dorsey won’t consider the auction over until midnight West Coast time.
Even NYC’s Highfalutin Guggenheim Museum Is Looking at NFTs, Job Posting Suggests
● One of New York City’s modern art meccas is preparing for a potential future of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), according to a new job posting.
● The Guggenheim Museum wants its next MBA intern to provide an evaluation of non-fungible token (NFT)-based art, which its administrators called a “nascent, fast-growing, highly scalable area of the art world.” “How will blockchain and cryptocurrency [sic] change how a museum defines its collection strategy?” the posting mulls.
Bitcoin is ‘more a substitute for gold than the dollar’ — Fed Chair Powell
● Jerome Powell, the chair of the United States Federal Reserve, said crypto assets are more of an asset for speculation, so they’re not particularly in use as a means of payment. It’s more a speculative asset. It’s essentially a substitute for gold rather than for the dollar.
● For all their disagreements, however, both Powell and Bitcoin’s biggest proponents thus agree on the cryptocurrency’s status as a new form of gold.
