Bitcoin News Weekly #15

TDLR:

• MicroStrategy commands 190,000 bitcoin on its balance sheet.

• Novel scaling solution maintains Bitcoin’s security with ZK proofs.

• Fidelity announces a 1-3% BTC allocation in its All-in-One ETF.

• Bitcoin mining upgrade kit enables a fully portable home heater.

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LATEST NEWS

🙌 Adoption:

• PickNPay, a South African grocery store chain, introduces a unified QR code system. Customers simply scan the code to pay, seamlessly accessing their Lightning Wallets.

• Replit, a software development platform, offers its first Bitcoin-native bounty: create a Web5-enabled Bitcoin app for transactions and get paid Bitcoin.

• Citrea, Bitcoin’s first ZK rollup, enables complex applications without compromising security or changing consensus rules, by leveraging zero-knowledge proofs.

⚖️ Legal:

• Fidelity Canada announces a 1% Bitcoin allocation in their All-in-One Conservative ETF, while dedicating 3.1% to the aggressive portfolio and 2.5% to the balanced portfolio.

• Missouri State Representative Phil Christofanelli introduces a bill to prohibit local governments from restricting Bitcoin mining locations or imposing biased noise regulations.

• New York Attorney General Letitia James broadens the civil fraud lawsuit against Digital Currency Group, claiming the company is accountable for $3 billion in investor losses linked to investment products like Gemini Earn.

📈 Markets:

• MicroStrategy acquires an additional 850 bitcoins for $37.2 million, bringing its total holdings to 190,000 bitcoin.

• Tether leads Oobit’s $25 million Series A round, aiming to propel bitcoin & crypto adoption via Tap & Pay mobile solutions.

• The Real Tahinis, a Canadian restaurant inspired by MicroStrategy's adoption of Bitcoin, adds more Bitcoin to ts treasury,“because it’s the smart thing to do.”

⛏️ Mining:

• Home Bitcoin mining upgrade kit enables your S9 to be a fully portable heater with no ethernet cable or 240v power outlets necessary.

• Iris Energy, a bitcoin miner utilizing 100% renewable energy, unveils a partnership with AI company Poolside, offering GPU cloud services with a 3-month contract for 248 Nvidia H100 GPUs.

• Bitcoin's emission intensity, a gauge of emissions per unit of power, reaches its lowest level ever, plummeting 18 times faster than the banking sector over the span of four years.

🗳️ Politics:

• SEC Chair Gary Gensler confirms his intention to continue his role if President Joe Biden is re-elected.

• Republican Senators raise concerns to SEC Chair Gary Gensler over the handling of the DEBT Box case, citing ‘questionable’ proceedings.

• Bank of England policymaker Sarah Breeden says victory in the war on inflation requires British workers to accept lower pay deals and companies to rein in their profits.

Bam’s 2 Sats:

This week, the momentum shift has been unmistakable, marked by ETFs experiencing record volumes and unprecedented net inflows of Bitcoin. In response, the price of Bitcoin has surged back to levels last seen on the day the ETFs were approved.

It all began this Thursday when ETFs experienced their second-largest day of inflows, amassing a total of 8,881 bitcoin.

The momentum continued into Friday, propelling Bitcoin's price from $44,000 to $48,000. By the market close on Friday, Bitcoin ETFs had accumulated $500 million in net inflows, with only $50 million in outflows from GBTC.

If we crunch the numbers (bearing in mind Friday's bitcoin total is pending confirmation), between those two days, we likely saw over 19,000 bitcoins accumulated by the ETFs. This equates to roughly 21 days' worth of Bitcoin issuance.

One of the most intriguing developments was Fidelity's decision to allocate a 1-3% position in Bitcoin across their All-in-One portfolios. While this decision originated from their Canadian branch, it sends a clear signal to all investment funds: it's increasingly deemed irresponsible not to allocate Bitcoin, even in conservative portfolios. Multiple analyses have demonstrated that even a 1% Bitcoin allocation can reduce portfolio volatility while optimizing returns, leading to a favorable Sharpe ratio, as they say on Wall Street.

As other funds strive to catch up to Fidelity, a pioneer in this realm, it appears that our friend FartFace2000 provides a realistic depiction of how Bitcoin will gradually and effectively find its way into everyone's pension fund.

It’s pretty wild, isn’t it? This just further strengthens my conviction that we are on the cusp of an unprecedented bull run reminiscent of 2017, where new highs were consistently attained, from well before the halving to nearly a year afterward. This suggests that we might see new highs in the near future. Even esteemed cypherpunk, Adam Back, highlights that in 2021, Bitcoin took just 41 days to surge from $47,000 to $69,000. For those who lost count, we are still roughly 70 days away from the halving.

Naturally, this doesn't guarantee a repeat of 2017's pattern, but what's evident is the ongoing rise in demand for Bitcoin. Additionally, there's no lever to pull that can produce more than 900 bitcoins per day, a figure set to halve to 450 after April's halving.

Stay Humble & Stack Sats,
Bam

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