Date: 04/03/2021
“Gold will always have a place in jewelry and coin collections, but most indicators point to an accelerating pace of Bitcoin replacing the metal as a store of value in investor portfolios.” — Mike McGlone
Weekly Headline News
1. Latvian Airline Starts Accepting Payments in Dogecoin, Other Cryptos
FINANCE MAGNATES
2. Mark Cuban on his cryptocurrency portfolio: ‘I own a lot of Ethereum because I think it’s the closest to a true currency’
CNBC
3. Bitcoin, in Switch From February, Keeps Bullish Tone as US Treasury Yields Rise
Coindesk
4. Aussie Beer Can Now Be Exchanged for Excess Solar in New Program Involving Blockchain
Coindesk
5. Bitcoin Has Best Start to Year Since 2013, as Gold Disappoints
Coindesk
6. Bitcoin Miners Saw a Monthly Record $1.5B Revenue in March
Coindesk
7. South Korea to launch blockchain-based vaccine passports
Cointelegraph
8. Teletubbies hint at becoming the next Bitcoiners
Cointelegraph
9. Bitcoin on ‘inevitable path’ to reach gold’s market cap — Mike Novogratz
Cointelegraph
10. One BTC will be worth a Lambo by 2022, and a Bugatti by 2023: Kraken CEO
Cointelegraph
11. Bitcoin market cap exceeds Canada’s M1 money supply once again
Cointelegraph
12. PayPal to start letting US customers pay in Bitcoin at global merchants
Cointelegraph
13. Bitcoin beats out final resistance as Ethereum returns to $2K
Cointelegraph
Summary
Latvian Airline Starts Accepting Payments in Dogecoin, Other Cryptos
● Latvian airline, airBaltic has become the latest to take cryptocurrency mainstream as the company started to accept multiple cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin, as payments for ticket booking. Announced on Monday, the airline added Bitcoin Cash, Ether, and Dogecoin, along with four USD-pegged stablecoins, GUSD, USDC, PAX, and BUSD to its payments options. The airline has already been accepting Bitcoin since 2014, making it the first airline company to accept cryptocurrency.
● Billionaire investor Mark Cuban is bullish on the future of cryptocurrency and frequently compares blockchain technology to the early days of the internet. That’s why, over the years, Cuban held onto the few digital coins he bought in the “early days,” Cuban said on a recent episode of “The Delphi Podcast.” Currently, his portfolio allocation is broken down as: “60% bitcoin, 30% Ethereum and 10% the rest.” According to Cuban, bitcoin is “a better alternative to gold, and it’s going to continue [to be],” he said. “That’s why I own bitcoin and why I never sold it.”
Bitcoin, in Switch From February, Keeps Bullish Tone as US Treasury Yields Rise
● About 87% of bitcoin’s performance was delivered while the U.S. 10-year bond yield has been rising, one observer said. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield is seen at 1.77%, the highest since Jan. 23, 2020. The benchmark yield has gained six basis points today and nearly 20 basis points since March 25. Despite historical correlations, bitcoin is bucking the trend even as gold sinks to below $1,700.
Aussie Beer Can Now Be Exchanged for Excess Solar in New Program Involving Blockchain
● One of Australia’s iconic beers can now be exchanged for excess power generated by solar and tracked with the help of blockchain technology. According to a press release on Wednesday, Victoria Bitter (VB) has launched its Solar Exchange program, allowing participants to exchange credit on their power bill generated from solar panels for slabs of beer. VB will receive the solar credits it obtains under the exchange from Diamond Energy. Power Ledger technology allows users to trace the transactions of rooftop solar energy on a public ledger and to trade excess energy produced on an open marketplace.
Bitcoin Has Best Start to Year Since 2013, as Gold Disappoints
● The debate whether bitcoin is stealing gold’s market share as a store-of-value asset could heat up as the biggest cryptocurrency heads for its best first-quarter performance in eight years, outperforming gold even as inflation expectations rise. That’s the biggest first-quarter gain since 2013 when prices jumped by a whopping 600% in the January-to-March period. An ounce of gold is currently changing hands at $1,685. The yellow metal has dropped 11% this quarter, marking its worst start to the year since 1982.
Bitcoin Miners Saw a Monthly Record $1.5B Revenue in March
● Bitcoin miners collected $1.5 billion in revenue in March, a monthly record for the 12-year-old blockchain network, as the price of bitcoin broke above $50,000. “Few had anticipated the scale of this bull run in September 2020. Back then, the monthly miner revenue sat at $329 million. Since then, the revenues have increased by 373%,” according to a new report by Arcane Research, a Norwegian analysis firm.
South Korea to launch blockchain-based vaccine passports
● South Korea will introduce blockchain-powered vaccine passports via a smartphone app later this month. Brazil is also using a blockchain-based system to track vaccinations, while IBM helped New York develop the Excelsior Pass, which uses blockchain technology for information security. China has implemented a system and the European Union plans to do so by June. The International Air Transport Association is developing an app called Travel Pass, which may become the standard for cross-border travel.
Teletubbies hint at becoming the next Bitcoiners
● A tweet with a “Bitcoin” hashtag from the British television series has piqued the interest of many in the crypto space. Teletubbies, a British children’s television series that has been on the air since 1997, is showing signs that its loveable characters may become the newest entrants to the crypto space.
Bitcoin on ‘inevitable path’ to reach gold’s market cap — Mike Novogratz
● Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz believes Bitcoin is on track to meet or exceed gold’s market capitalization amid a rapid wave of retail and institutional adoption of the digital asset. He said cryptocurrency “adoption’s happening much faster than I predicted,” adding that “it’s shocking to me how fast people are moving into the system.” Bitcoin’s emergence as “digital gold” has strengthened Novogratz’s conviction that the cryptocurrency will eventually reach or exceed bullion’s market value: “I do think bitcoin is on an inevitable path to having the same market cap and then a higher market cap as gold.”
One BTC will be worth a Lambo by 2022, and a Bugatti by 2023: Kraken CEO
● Appearing on Bloomberg, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell explained why he believes dollar-based long-term price predictions for Bitcoin are flawed, emphasizing the inflationary nature of fiat currencies. He said: “I think I said Bitcoin is going to infinity and that’s kind of hard to comprehend because I’m measuring it in terms of dollars.” Offering alternative measures for valuing Bitcoin, Powell speculated the value of Bitcoin may increase from its current ‘price’ or one BTC per Tesla Model 3 to “one Bitcoin per Lambo” by the end of the year, and to “one Bitcoin per Bugatti” by 2023.
Bitcoin market cap exceeds Canada’s M1 money supply once again
● M1, or narrow money, refers to the total supply of physical currency in circulation as well as traveler’s checks and other forms of demand deposits held by non-banking institutions, public firms and private sector organizations among others. The Bitcoin market capitalization is once again sufficient to cover the M1 money supply of either Australia or Canada. Another day of gains for Bitcoin has seen the price of the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization go beyond the $1.1 trillion mark — $1.105 trillion to be precise. This market capitalization growth now means that Bitcoin’s market size has surpassed Canada’s M1 money supply which stands at $1.104 trillion or the Australian dollar, which currently stands at $1.079 trillion.
PayPal to start letting US customers pay in Bitcoin at global merchants
● Online payments giant PayPal will start to accept cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange at its millions of global merchants. The new system is expected to feature a crypto checkout service where users can pay for goods and services at approved vendors using their stored coins. The system will reportedly see merchants receive equivalent funds directly in fiat currency after coins are subject to a quick transfer at the time of sale. The checkout service is expected to be available for all four of PayPal’s supported cryptocurrencies upon launch, consisting of BTC, ETH, LTC and BCH.
Bitcoin beats out final resistance as Ethereum returns to $2K
● The two largest cryptocurrencies revisit significant price levels with sellers rapidly disappearing from exchange orderbooks. The sustained higher levels mean that Bitcoin has effectively canceled out the flash crash from earlier this week, while still continuing to trade in a defined corridor. As Cointelegraph reported, price targets for Ether are now more bullish than ever, and include $2,600 next, with $5,000 and even $10,000 in play.
