Date: 05/24/2021
“Bitcoin’s greatest risk is its success.” — Ray Dalio, founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates
Weekly News Report:
1. Elon Musk and Michael Saylor lead an effort by bitcoin miners to address environmental concerns. On the announcement, the price of bitcoin jumped from $37,940 to $39,405.
2. MicroStrategy CFO says corporate treasurers have an “imperative” to hold bitcoin if they hail from the technology industry. “I’m not saying you should put all of your corporate treasury in bitcoin,” he said. “But if you’re not putting any of it into bitcoin, I don’t think you’re doing your fiduciary responsibility, which is maximizing shareholder value.”
3. Billionaire investor Ray Dalio, the founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, reveals he owns bitcoin and he’d rather have bitcoin than a bond.
4. Asset Manager One River Files for Carbon-Neutral Bitcoin ETF in the US. The ETF would buy and dispose of blockchain-based carbon credit tokens to account for the emissions associated with its bitcoin holdings.
5. Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon revealed he owns cryptocurrencies during his appearance at CoinDesk’s Consensus virtual conference Monday. Gordon said the Cowboy State’s $60 billion broadband expansion program and regulatory groundwork are helping to attract blockchain-focused startups. The state will continue to “push to make sure that entrepreneurs have a fertile ground on which to build these new types of structures.”
6. CoinShares, the Jersey-based digital-asset investment company, announced Monday a £24.7 million ($34.9 million) year-on-year increase in comprehensive income, meaning the first-quarter earnings are more than quadruple.
7. South Korea’s central bank took another step toward developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) with plans to build a pilot platform. The Bank of Korea (BOK) said it intends to select a technology supplier through an open bidding process to research the practicalities of a CBDC.
8. A Domino’s Pizza franchisee in the Netherlands is offering to pay its employees in BTC — appropriately starting on Bitcoin Pizza Day. The franchisee with 16 Domino’s stores is partnering with BTC Direct to offer the salary option to its 1,000 employees.
9. Altcoins and DeFi sprang back to life on May 24 after a handful of decentralized finance tokens saw their prices increase by more than 60% as Bitcoin bulls pushed the BTC price to the $38,000 level. Total crypto market cap gains $400B as DeFi tokens lead the recovery.
10. VORTECS Report: While Bitcoin gained just 10% since Jan 3, this crypto trading strategy netted 2,150% ROI. As the crypto market plunge takes its toll on Bitcoin profits, some traders are using strategies based on sentiment and trading data to secure outsized gains.
11. The Goldman report notes: “Given the importance of real uses in determining the store of value, Ether has a high chance of overtaking Bitcoin as a dominant store of value.”
12. Canada’s Purpose Bitcoin ETF continues its massive ETH accumulation. Just over the last 15 days, Purpose has added nearly 15K ETF taking its total holdings to 46,600 ETH coins.
13. Dubai launches its own cryptocurrency, set to become the city’s de-facto digital currency. DubaiCoin international starting price is $0.17 per one coin. DubaiCoin will soon be able to be used to pay for a range of goods and services both in-store and online, with the clear intention for the coin to be used in place of traditional bank-backed currencies.
