Date: 02/09/2021
Weekly Headline News
1. Tesla Invests $1.5B in Bitcoin, Plans to Accept Crypto Payments
Coindesk
2. Ex-OCC Chief Brooks Calls Tesla’s Bitcoin Buy a Bit ‘Scary’ for Rest of World
Coindesk
3. Apple Should Launch Own Crypto Exchange, RBC Analyst Says
Coindesk
4. Children’s Charity Creates Bitcoin Superhero to Attract Crypto Donations
Coindesk
5. Bill Miller’s Flagship Fund May Now Buy GBTC to Gain Bitcoin Exposure of Up to 15%
Coindesk
6. Bullish $10K Ethereum call options excite traders but there’s a catch
Cointelegraph
7. Bitcoin eyes $50K less than a month after BTC price broke its 2017 all-time high
Cointelegraph
8. Ether price breakout to $1,750 sees Ethereum network fees hit all-time high
Cointelegraph
9. Growing list of billion-dollar crypto ‘unicorns’ suggest the best is yet to come
Cointelegraph
Summary
Tesla Invests $1.5B in Bitcoin, Plans to Accept Crypto Payments
● The announcement that much of the crypto world has been hoping for is here: Tesla has invested in bitcoin. It has put an aggregate of $1.5 billion into bitcoin under a new investment policy and that the company may “acquire and hold digital assets from time to time or long term.”
● Bitcoin’s price shot up more than 14% after Tesla’s disclosure to a new all-time high of $44,801, based on CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index. The jump pushed bitcoin’s year-to-date return to about 50%, versus 3.9% for the Standard & Poor’s Index of large U.S. stocks. The 12-year-old bitcoin, which is the oldest and largest cryptocurrency, now has a market valuation of $818 billion, just behind Tesla’s $823 billion but ahead of Facebook’s $757 billion.
Ex-OCC Chief Brooks Calls Tesla’s Bitcoin Buy a Bit ‘Scary’ for Rest of World
● The debasing of global currencies is why companies like Tesla (TSLA) and MicroStrategy (MSTR) are investing in bitcoin and that should be troubling for the rest of the world, former acting U.S. The former acting comptroller noted the U.S. money supply has risen 25% since the start of the pandemic and will be up 40% compared with a year ago once the most recent round of stimulus is done in the next few days.
● Brooks was responding, in part, to Tesla’s announcement Monday it has invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin and would be looking to acquire more digital assets. That news sent the price of bitcoin to a new all-time high.
Apple Should Launch Own Crypto Exchange, RBC Analyst Says
● Apple (AAPL), the maker of hot-selling items from iPhones to tablets, is the world’s largest publicly traded company, with a market capitalization of $2.3 trillion. A new report from the brokerage firm RBC Capital Markets posits that Apple, which already provides payments wallets for millions of consumers in an economy that’s gone increasingly cashless since the coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020, might be able to easily generate more than $40 billion from the cryptocurrency business. The company’s move could also help to make the U.S. a technological leader in cryptocurrencies for the next decade or two.
● There’s even a trick that Apple might pull to finance the project’s development: Bet money on bitcoin. The analysts proposed that Apple pay for the cost of developing an Apple crypto wallet or exchange (around $500 million, per their estimates) by adding bitcoin to the tech giant’s balance sheet.
Children’s Charity Creates Bitcoin Superhero to Attract Crypto Donations
● A U.S.-based children’s charity, the Songs of Love Foundation, has created a bitcoin superhero to help boost its fundraising profile. Launched Friday, the “Billy Bitcoin” superhero is part of the charity’s efforts to increase donations through cryptocurrency, which it said on its website is “even more efficient than donating cash.”
● Crypto donations to charities are not taxed in most jurisdictions around the world. In the U.S., a person does not owe capital gains tax on the appreciated amount and can deduct his or her donation.
“This win-win solution means you have more money available to donate to charity and can deduct more on your tax return,” the charity’s website reads. “The difference can amount to more than 30%.”
Bill Miller’s Flagship Fund May Now Buy GBTC to Gain Bitcoin Exposure of Up to 15%
● Miller Value Funds, run by the veteran hedge fund manager and bitcoin bull Bill Miller, may invest in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust through its flagship fund, the Miller Opportunity Trust.
● The Fund will not make any additional investments in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust if, as a result of the investment, its aggregate investment in bitcoin exposure would be more than 15% of its assets at the time of investment.”
Bullish $10K Ethereum call options excite traders but there’s a catch
● Ether’s (ETH) $10,000 Dec. 31 call options recently came under the spotlight after surpassing $15.2 million in open interest (8,400 contracts). These instruments give the buyer the right to acquire Ether at a future date for a fixed price and the seller is obliged to honor it.
● For this right, the buyer pays an upfront fee (premium) to the call option seller. For this reason, call options are deemed neutral-to-bullish as they give its buyer the possibility of high leverage with a little upfront investment.
Bitcoin eyes $50K less than a month after BTC price broke its 2017 all-time high
● The Bitcoin dominance chart is a beautiful chart demonstrating how market cycles work. In recent years, the Bitcoin dominance has topped out in December, following by an altcoin surge led by Ethereum. This trend was repeated again this year with altcoins going parabolic, hitting new all-time highs as Bitcoin consolidated within a range.
● The daily chart of Bitcoin can be used to define the next targets for Bitcoin’s price. If Bitcoin’s price can break through the $40,500 area, the following points of interest can be defined through the Fibonacci extension tool. By using that indicator, the most common Fibonacci level is the 1.618 Fibonacci level. This level puts the potential price target for Bitcoin at $50,000, once it breaks the recent high.
Ether price breakout to $1,750 sees Ethereum network fees hit all-time high
● It’s not just the Ether price itself setting records on Friday — users are having to pay more than ever to send transactions and some exchanges can’t cope. The move came on the back of intense trading interest in DeFi coins, many of which use the Ethereum network as their basis. DeFi produced many of the best movers on weekly timeframes.
● Ether meanwhile had already seen brisk upside as anticipation built over the launch of dedicated futures from CME Group, one of the pioneering Bitcoin futures operators. While some well-known cryptocurrency figures, including Gemini exchange co-founder Tyler Winklevoss, celebrated price performance, the highs were accompanied by another record — transaction fees. As Cointelegraph reported, gas fees on the Ethereum network became so high this week that some exchanges were forced to halt ETH withdrawals altogether.
Growing list of billion-dollar crypto ‘unicorns’ suggest the best is yet to come
● More than 53 blockchain projects have emerged as multi-billion dollar market cap crypto unicorns, a signal that the 2021 bull market is just getting started.
● Bitcoin is the ultimate first-mover in the crypto space as it paved the way for the rest to come into existence and holds more than 61% of the total market value with a current market cap of $843 billion. Ethereum, with a current market cap of $196 billion, is the obvious second choice as it is the most-utilized smart contract platform and home to a majority of the top DeFi protocols that have surged in popularity in recent months. The herd of unicorns is likely to expand and considering that the decentralized finance sector is still in a very early growth stage, there’s plenty of value to be found in these unicorn projects.
