Bitcoin News Weekly #24

TDLR:

• Cashu unveils first bitcoin-backed USD Ecash.

• Hong Kong to announce spot Bitcoin ETF approval.

• Major Wall Street firms and banks purchase Bitcoin ETFs.

• Japanese firm Metaplanet buys Bitcoin, mirroring MSTR's strategy.

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LATEST NEWS

🙌 Adoption:

• Cashu introduces the first bitcoin-backed USD Ecash, enabling anyone to create a wallet and spend USD anywhere that BTC is accepted.

• Accumulation addresses are now demanding more Bitcoin than the supply being generated by miners for the first time in history.

• Demario Davis, captain of the NFL's New Orleans Saints, expresses interest in taking his NFL contract in Bitcoin.

⚖️ Legal:

• Hong Kong is set to approve a Bitcoin ETF from Chinese giants Harvest Fund and China Southern Fund this Monday. Trading is expected to begin two weeks later, and advertisements are already visible all over the subways.

• Genesis, the bankrupt cryptocurrency lender, sold 36 million shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) at $58.50 per share to purchase 32,041 BTC to repay customers.

• Wedmont Private Capital, a Philadelphia-based RIA, discloses owning 3,471 shares of the Fidelity spot Bitcoin ETF as of March 31st.

📈 Markets:

• Metaplanet, a Japanese firm, buys ¥1 billion ($6.5 million) of Bitcoin, mirroring MicroStrategy's strategy, and sees their stock price surge by 90% following the announcement.

• LCH SA, the London Stock Exchange clearing house, gets the regulatory nod to offer Bitcoin derivative products.

• 13F SEC filings reveal a list of buyers for Bitcoin ETFs, including US banks and the Royal Bank of Canada.

⛏️ Mining:

• Bitcoin mining costs to double after the halving, increasing from $40,000 to $80,000 for S19 XPs, a popular rig used by US miners.

• Auradine, a California-based Bitcoin mining rig producer, secures $80 million in a Series B funding round. 

• Paraguay postpones its 6-month Bitcoin mining ban due to concerns that the country could incur annual costs exceeding $200 million by halting the growing industry.

🗳️ Politics:

• The IMF reportedly requires revisions to El Salvador's Bitcoin legal tender law in exchange for a $1.4 billion credit line.

• The Democratic Party of South Korea wins control of parliament in the recent election, promising access to US spot Bitcoin ETFs.

• Bitcoin falls 10% in less than 30 minutes after the news of Iran’s attack on Israel.

Bam’s 2 Sats:

It's now widely recognized that BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF had the most successful launch in ETF history. However, before the approvals in January, some market participants doubted their potential to significantly impact the market. Today, the success is undeniable. Some argue that the price appreciation from around $40,000 to around $70,000 can indeed be directly attributed to these instruments. However, the lingering question in my mind has been: "Where is all this demand coming from?"

Initially, I believed that institutions were driving the price upwards by accumulating Bitcoin and seizing the opportunity to shift investments through ETFs. We've seen this with issuers like Fidelity and BlackRock seeking to include Bitcoin exposure in their "conservative" ETFs. However, it appears that my speculation was not entirely accurate:

“90% of spot Bitcoin ETF inflows come from retail” – Jan van Eck, CEO of VanEck

According to Jan van Eck, CEO of one of the spot Bitcoin ETF issuers, most of the inflows are coming from retail investors. If this is indeed the case, then we ain’t seen nothing yet.

Financial advisers in the US oversee $30 trillion in client assets and have been taking a wait-and-see approach during the first three months of the ETFs' existence. However, they now appear ready to enter the market due to the surge in Bitcoin's price generating significant retail interest and wirehouses such as Morgan Stanley preparing to offer the products. In fact, BlackRock is intensifying its efforts by launching advertisements all over Bloomberg's homepage.

It's difficult to predict just how high the price of Bitcoin will rise in the coming months or even years. However, one thing is certain: retail investors continue to have the rare opportunity to front-run institutions in this market. So let's continue to stack sats and hold onto them because if institutions are increasingly eager for them, there's no reason for us to ever sell.

Stay Humble & Stack Sats,
Bam

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