Date: 02/02/2021
The motto of the Week: In Retrospect, It Was Inevitable. - Elon Musk
Illustration of the Week:
Weekly Headline News
- Blockchain Bites: DOGE, Musk, Robinhood, GameStop and Crypto’s ‘Populist’ Revolution
Coindesk - Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Says CEO
Coindesk - Ray Dalio says Bitcoin is a “long-duration option on a highly unknown future”
Moneycontrol - All Over the World, Small Investors Jump Into the GameStop Frenzy
Coindesk - Top 5 Dogecoin Pumps Through the Ages
Coindesk - In Retrospect, It Was Inevitable: Elon Musk Pumps Bitcoin to Space — [CoinDesk Podcast Network, EP. 496]
Coindesk - Thanks Bitcoin, MicroStrategy stock is up 113% since being downgraded by Citigroup
Cointelegraph
Summary
Blockchain Bites: DOGE, Musk, Robinhood, GameStop and Crypto’s ‘Populist’ Revolution
● A renewed the pitch to create open access and decentralized standards is much bigger than what’s happening to a few stocks. The retail-driven rally across several “meme stocks” has become a narrative opportunity for calls to “decentralize.” Painting with broad strokes, crypto influencers have viewed the week’s events as the power of the masses rising up against centralized gatekeepers and legacy institutions.
● Three stories:
1. Elon Musk changed his Twitter bio to #bitcoin and the crypto jumped 20%, to highs last seen on Jan. 19.
2. In another story about meme-driven market mayhem, Robinhood has limited cryptocurrency buying due to “extraordinary market conditions.” Traders can “still use settled funds to buy crypto,” a spokesperson said.
3. Coinbase is about 3.5 times the size of Robinhood, which is definitely notable and also a lame way to segue into news that the massive exchange intends to go public through a direct listing.
Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Says CEO
● Visa CEO Al Kelly said the payments giant is in a position to make cryptocurrencies more “safe, useful and applicable” and may add them to the company’s payments network.
● The payments executive also said stablecoins could be used for “global commerce” and that “digital currencies running on public blockchains as additional networks just like RTP or ACH networks.”
Ray Dalio says Bitcoin is a “long-duration option on a highly unknown future”
● Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio said that bitcoin looks like a “long-duration option on a highly unknown future”, hailing the digital currency as “one hell of an innovation” and a storehouse of wealth.
● Dalio said in a Linkedin post, “Bitcoin looks like a long-duration option on a highly unknown future that I could put an amount of money in that I wouldn’t mind losing about 80 percent of.” And those who created bitcoin had “done a fabulous job” of sustaining it and turning it into an alternative gold-like asset.
All Over the World, Small Investors Jump Into the GameStop Frenzy
● The world is watching U.S. markets with great interest, and more than a little FOMO, as Reddit investors continue to test their might against Wall Street. Meanwhile, some see what happened with GameStop as a more global story of ordinary investors taking on the power of big institutions.
● The turmoil didn’t stop there. Soon, Reddit investors were pumping other shorted or meme stocks including DOGE. “We are definitely feeling the spillover in crypto as people move to buy DOGE as a reaction to what’s been happening in the U.S.,” Yele Bademosi, chief executive officer of Bundle, told CoinDesk via Twitter.
Top 5 Dogecoin Pumps Through the Ages
● Dogecoin, the popular meme cryptocurrency, hit a new all-time high on Jan. 28 following a meteoric 1,100% gain. Here’s a breakdown of every time dogecoin has shot for the moon.
1. 2017 crypto boom
2. Bitcoin breaks $19,783, lifts Dogecoin
3. Crypto markets rebound
4. Ethereum/Dogecoin bridge test
5. WallStreetBets mania, Elon Musk tweet
● In this episode, NLW breaks down the market reaction to Musk, the significance of the tweet and why it all connects to the larger story of WallStreetBets, Robinhood and shifting financial power. The price action is fun, but the larger significance is about decentralized alternatives to today’s financial system.
● Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk changed his Twitter profile to a single word: “bitcoin.” He also tweeted a cryptic message: “In Retrospect, It Was Inevitable.”
Thanks Bitcoin, MicroStrategy stock is up 113% since being downgraded by Citigroup
● On Dec. 8, 2020, Citigroup, one of the largest banks in the world, downgraded MicroStrategy’ss stock (MSTR). Since then, MSTR stock has surged by roughly 113%.
● In an official statement, MicroStrategy explicitly said that it intends to invest in Bitcoin with the proceeds of the bond. The statement read: “MicroStrategy intends to invest the net proceeds from the sale of the notes in bitcoin in accordance with its Treasury Reserve Policy pending the identification of working capital needs and other general corporate purposes.”
● Michael Saylor, the CEO of MicroStrategy, wrote: “Going forward, we continue to plan to hold our bitcoin and invest additional excess cash flows in bitcoin. Additionally, we will explore various approaches to acquire additional bitcoin as part of our overall corporate strategy.”
