Foundry USA just reached a record number of Bitcoin blocks
New Hampshire Governor signed an Executive Order to attract more Bitcoin businesses
Senator Ted Cruz: I have been buying Bitcoin weekly for several months
Fidelity International Launches Bitcoin ETP In Europe
ConocoPhillips is selling extra gas to bitcoin miners in North Dakota
Warren Davidson introduces the “Keep your coins act”
The Belarusian President has signed a decree in support of Bitcoin circulating freely in the country.
Russia Ministry of Economic Development: Bitcoin miners should get LOWER electricity tax
El Zonte Capital launches with Hyperbitcoinization Investment Thesis
The RCMP orders blacklist of 29 Bitcoin wallets
The president of El Salvador told the US to ‘stay out’ of his country’s affairs
Colorado will accept Bitcoin for tax payments this year
Southeast Asia's largest bank (DBS) is launching Bitcoin trading
The Bitcoin-Gold breakup
Ukraine Parliament passes law to legalize Bitcoin
Spain’s Central Bank approves the country's first Bitcoin services provider
Deutsche Bank: Bitcoin could become 21st century gold.
US Federal Reserve Bans Its Officials From Trading Bitcoin, Stocks, Bonds
Binance joined the Russian Banking Association
Georgia and Illinois state lawmakers introduce bill to give tax breaks to Bitcoin miners
United Arab Emirates will begin issuing licenses to Bitcoin businesses
California has introduced a bill to make Bitcoin legal tender
Foundry USA just reached a record number of Bitcoin blocks
In a 24 hour term Foundry USA just reached a record number of Bitcoin blocks. As you see on the attached picture below, they mined 20.21% of that day’s blocks. The interesting part is, that one year ago they only had 0.8% of global hash rate. Just check the table below, how beautiful is that nowhere near is a 50% hashrate. As Russia will jump in the mining, these percentages will be even more distributed.
New Hampshire Governor signed an Executive Order to attract more Bitcoin businesses
Chris Sununu, Governor of New Hampshire, last week signed an executive order establishing a commission to investigate current Bitcoin-related laws and propose new ones as the state seeks to encourage innovation and attract businesses in the financial services sector. “New Hampshire is a hub of financial innovation, and this Executive Order will further our commitment to attracting high quality banking and financial businesses in a safe and responsible manner,” Governor Chris Sununu said in a statement.
Senator Ted Cruz: I have been buying Bitcoin weekly for several months Two weeks ago I wrote that Senator Ted Cruz has bought $50,000 worth of Bitcoin. He was very clever because based on this week's news, he bought this amount for several months, which means either with a DCA (dollar cost average) strategy or with minor trades when he got some extra amount to invest. I think he is really down the rabbit hole.
Fidelity International Launches Bitcoin ETP In Europe
“Fidelity International has launched its first bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) in Europe in what is the joint-cheapest offering available for investors in the old continent seeking direct exposure to the bitcoin price… The Fidelity Physical Bitcoin ETP will list on the Deutsche Börse Xetra today under the ticker symbol “FBTC” and on the SIX Swiss Exchange in the coming weeks. It will carry an ongoing charge figure (OCF) of 0.75%.” by Bitcoin Magazine
The most important part is that the FBTC will be “physically-backed” by bitcoin held in custody with Fidelity Digital Assets.
ConocoPhillips is selling extra gas to bitcoin miners in North Dakota
The oil and gas company that is selling their extra gas is not operating the Bitcoin mine itself. Instead, it sells gas that would otherwise have been burned off to a bitcoin processor that is owned and managed by a third party. This is called flare gas mining which is getting more and more attention across the states. It’s like mining with free energy while not polluting the air. It’s a win-win situation.
Warren Davidson introduces the “Keep your coins act”
The U.S. Congressman introduces a bill to protect bitcoin self-custody and conducting peer-to-peer transactions. If passed, the bill would prevent any agency head from prohibiting or otherwise restricting “the ability of a covered user to— (1) use virtual currency or its equivalent for such user’s own purposes, such as to purchase real or virtual goods and services for the user’s own use; or (2) conduct transactions through a self-hosted wallet.”
In the global political elite, more and more people like Warren Davidson should be needed!
The Belarusian President has signed a decree in support of Bitcoin circulating freely in the country.
The Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has signed a decree affirming the country’s formal support of free circulation of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
“Belarus is consistently developing the legal field for regulating activities related to digital assets, and, unlike many other states, allows free circulation of digital currencies.” according to the document from the Belarus’ Council of Ministers.
It’s interesting how after Russia, Belarus is opening to Bitcoin too.
Russia Ministry of Economic Development: Bitcoin miners should get LOWER electricity tax
Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development has greenlighted the concept of Bitcoin mining regulation in the country, proposing to allow mining operations in areas with “sustainable surplus in electricity generation,” local news agency Izvestia reported Tuesday. As part of the proposal, the ministry suggested introducing lower fees for setting up mining farms and data centers in specific Russian regions as well as offering reduced energy rates for such facilities.
El Zonte Capital launches with Hyperbitcoinization Investment Thesis
The Bitcoin famous Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert husband and wife stars of “Orange Pill Podcast” and RT’s “The Keiser Report” spearheaded the El Zonte Capital firm with a focus on advancing hyperbitcoinization around the world through strategic investments in startups building the future of the Bitcoin economy. The EZ Cap will begin with a $5 million committed capital seed-stage fund. Keiser and Herbert are the firm’s general partners (GPs), along with the founder of Swan Bitcoin and Bitcoiner Ventures, Cory Klippsten. The advisory board will include several of the most knowledgeable and connected Bitcoiners from around the world, according to the partners. “We will look at education and education technology to onboard as many people as possible,” Keiser said. “El Salvador will be bigger than Singapore.” So be it!
The RCMP orders blacklist of 29 Bitcoin wallets
“The Ontario Provincial Police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police are currently investigating cryptocurrency donations being collected in relation to illegal acts falling under the scope of the Emergency Measures Act,” the RCMP order begins.
Trudeau’s officers list 29 Bitcoin addresses and some other shitcoin wallets too. If the funds on those addresses weren’t held on a centralized exchange, there is no problem by spending them, just that they need to first “mix” with one of the anonymizing services. I’m sure any Bitcoiner will help.
The president of El Salvador told the US to ‘stay out’ of his country’s affairs
The interesting part is not that Mr. Bukele protected his country against the US pressure, but the site who wrote about it. RT (Russia Today) is well known and funded by the Russian Government. I think an article so pro Bitcoin couldn’t have been written just a month ago. The colossal change in the Russian standpoint with Bitcoin shows that they even support the only country who is fighting for Bitcoin against (FIAT) US tyranny. From a broader view the Ruble is not different from the USD, so without this common Bitcoin friendliness they would sympathize with the possible US sanctions. This article is good on multiple levels for Russia. On one hand it is good because they show that they would have some real sympathy for a country which is facing some US sanctions (maybe soon Russia will too). On the flip side, this article shows that they are planning long term with Bitcoin, so for their Bitcoin friendly propaganda they need some articles supporting it.
Colorado will accept Bitcoin for tax payments this year
Gov. Jared Polis during a CoinDesk TV appearance on Wednesday said Colorado will start accepting Bitcoin for tax and other payments to the state by the end of the summer. “We don’t want to take the speculative risk of holding crypto, so we will be having a transactional layer there,” said Polis. I hope this doesn’t mean that they will instantly sell Bitcoin for FIAT. That would be a dumb move.
Southeast Asia's largest bank (DBS) is launching Bitcoin trading
DBS, the largest bank in Southeast Asia by assets, is planning to launch Bitcoin trading services for retail investors this year. “What we will focus on in the first half, the first two quarters, of this year is to make access to digital assets a lot more convenient,” the CEO, Piyush Gupta, said during the bank’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Monday. The bank's brokerage arm has also secured approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the country's central bank, to provide crypto services.
The Bitcoin-Gold breakup
Last week at the Global Economic News I wrote about the Gold “gains”. I mean I quoted that Holger said that >3% Gold price gains were caused by some major conflict fear and other economic problems. Then I wrote that there is a much bigger gain in the Bitcoin story, but just very few people talk about it. Now I found this perfect picture where you can see why every Bitcoin Maximalist say “Gold is no more store-of-value option”:
Ukraine Parliament passes law to legalize Bitcoin
“A draft law legalizing and regulating cryptocurrency and other virtual assets like tokens in Ukraine has passed the parliament in the second reading on Sept. 8.” by KyivPost Ukraine "legalizes bitcoin" news being circulated without a source is in reference to a four month old bill that was passed but then vetoed by the president. Slight changes were made and approved. It legalizes bitcoin trading on registered exchanges but not as a means of payment for goods and services.
Spain’s Central Bank approves the country's first Bitcoin services provider
Bit2Me has obtained an approval from the Bank of Spain to be the first service provider for bitcoin exchange and for digital wallets custody. What does this mean? The Spanish government uses Bit2Me as a “KYC Trojan horse” to know who's investing into Bitcoin and other shitcoins. Because it’s a custody solution, in their final play maybe there will be a good old confiscation trick too. We all know how shitty the Spanish economy is, so be aware of not trusting in these kinds of service providers.
Deutsche Bank: Bitcoin could become 21st century gold
Just a Boomer can say these kinds of words because Bitcoin and Gold are two different things. I mean really, no real connection between them! It’s like saying electricity is like a digital candle. Shitty, not? Gold’s basic fundamentals have big flaws. Just think about the opposite incentives between the holders and miners. Or just the divisibility and transportability problems. We haven't even talked about counterfeiting. Bitcoin doesn’t have these major flaws so there is NO DIGITAL GOLD! Bitcoin is Bitcoin. It’s time to learn Deutsche Bank.
US Federal Reserve Bans Its Officials From Trading Bitcoin, Stocks, Bonds
When I first read this news, I was thinking that the FED heads knew exactly how fragile the USD monetary system is, so the captain just banned using lifeboats for their sailors. These are evil people because they don’t even allow their own workers to have sound money. The bullshit announcement sounds the following:
“The rules, which were first announced in October 2021, aim to support public confidence in the impartiality and integrity of the Committee's work by guarding against even the appearance of any conflict of interest,” the statement said.
Of course without KYC they can still buy Bitcoin, just don’t tell anyone!
Binance joined the Russian Banking Association
Binance the leading Bitcoin and shitcoin exchange officially announced on February 18th that it has joined the Russian Banking Association, becoming the first crypto organization to join the association. The Russian Banking Association was established in 1990 and is the largest banking association in Russia. I’m waiting for a big announcement from Russia either in Bitcoin mining or in general with Bitcoin.
Georgia and Illinois state lawmakers introduce bill to give tax breaks to Bitcoin miners
According to a bill introduced on Thursday, House representatives in Georgia are proposing tax exemptions for the sale or use of electricity in Bitcoin mining activities. The four Republican lawmakers in Georgia who introduced the bill are seeking to amend the state’s official tax code to include “exemptions from sales and use tax, so as to exempt the sale or use of electricity” used in the commercial mining of digital assets.
An Illinois Senate bill introduced in late January is also looking to extend an existing tax incentive for data centers to Bitcoin mining. The tax incentives program cited in the Illinois bill has existed since 2019. According to a report from mid-2020 prepared by the Illinois Department of Commerce, tax incentives worth more than $160 million have been extended to six data center operators. The report cites the creation of 120 jobs and $1.6 billion worth of investments.
United Arab Emirates will begin issuing licenses to Bitcoin businesses
By the end of Q1 the United Arab Emirates will begin issuing licenses to Bitcoin businesses. The Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) is in the final stage of setting up a framework allowing VASPs to set up shop in the country. The SCA and central bank will be responsible for regulation, with regional financial centers determining their day-to-day procedures on licenses and the government also wants to create a favorable environment for crypto mining, according to Bloomberg.
California has introduced a bill to make Bitcoin legal tender
Three weeks ago I wrote that Arizona wants to make Bitcoin a legal tender. Now California introduces the same thing. Sadly as I found details on the internet it is against the constitution to issue any kind of legal tender other than silver and gold coins. Now you can ask what’s with paper dollars? Yeah, through time they made it “compatible” to the constitution. Anyway will see how the Biden admin will react, but I think they will easily wash away this bill and the other too. Hope I’m wrong now!
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Global Economic News
TL;DR
Goldman has cut end-2022 S&P 500 target to 4900 from 5100
Last week global stocks lost $650bn in market cap
Germany: Exports to Russia rose to €26.3bn
Japan returned to growth
Germany housing boom continues
The U.S. Equity market liquidity has absolutely collapsed
How big is the US Public debt?
El Salvador’s GDP grew 10.3% in 2021
Goldman has cut end-2022 S&P 500 target to 4900 from 5100
“Goldman has cut the end-2022 S&P 500 target to 4900 from 5100 due to higher rates & lower valuation. Stick to 2022 S&P 500 EPS est of $226 (+8% YoY) & lift 2023 EPS est to $240 (+6% YoY). BUT higher inflation will lead to lower forward P/E multiple of 20x, below prev forecast of 22x.” by Holger Zschaepitz
Last week global stocks lost $650bn in market cap
“Global stocks lost $650bn in market cap this (last) week as investors react to further signs of accelerating inflation & correspondingly rising rates. Goldman raised Fed forecasts to 7 consecutive 25bps rate hikes in 2022. Global stocks now worth $115tn, still equal to 136% of global GDP.” by Holger Zschaepitz
Germany: Exports to Russia rose to €26.3bn
Germany (and Europe too) is not just by Energy sources, but by exports is totally subordinate to Russia. Exports to Russia most recently rose to €26.3bn in the past 12mths.
Japan returned to growth
“Japan returned to growth at the end of 2021, as a lull in virus cases allowed the recovery to resume before the omicron wave of the virus hit. GDP expanded at a slightly slower-than-expected annualized pace of 5.4%. For the whole year, Japan expanded in 2021 for 1st Time in 3yrs.” by Holger Zschaepitz If we check the chart below it shows that Japan's economy is not going anywhere. On the flip side if you check the second chart you will see that in just 4 years the Bank of Japan’s balance sheet was expanded by 50%. It means that inflating the CB balance sheet and the money supply too by 50% was good enough to stagnate the economy. That’s why printing money could be a short term solution, but a disaster in the long term.
Germany housing boom continues
While Germany's inflation forecast goes to >4% the housing boom continues. These things go hand-in-hand in most of the countries now. The average citizen knows nothing about investment, so they can only buy houses because their “prices go up only”. Except when they don’t, but we see from the chart below that this is not that point.
“... Germans buying real estate fearing rising inflation, rents & interest rates. Europace House Price Index rose 0.5% in January to hit fresh ATH. Housing Index has risen in tandem w/ECB balance sheet to ever new ATHs” by Holger Zschaepitz
When people realize that housing’s market is not a good investment market, just a market for selling houses where to live, then the market will tank and money will flow into hard assets. We can speculate where the housing’s market crash point is, but for that it’s needed to turn off the printing press or reach the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin.
The U.S. Equity market liquidity has absolutely collapsed
Are we there yet? Is this the tip of Everest?
“Equity market liquidity has absolutely collapsed. Markets entered a new volatility regime following Volmageddon –– evaporating liquidity reflects this. Volatility is expanding and this is just systematics pulling. Bids are vanishing & real deleveraging will trigger feedback loops” by @FadingRallies
How big is the US Public debt?
With the chart below I want to illustrate how big is the debt (sh*t) in the US:
El Salvador’s GDP grew 10.3% in 2021
“El Salvador’s GDP grew 10.3% in 2021. And now its exports (a main driver of economic growth) grew 13% this January, compared to January 2021. Are we looking at another double digit GDP growth this year? By the way, El Salvador never had a double digit GDP growth before 2021.” by Nayib Bukele (President of El Salvador)
El Salvador is a small country related to the “Global Economics”, but it’s kinda a pilot program, where since September the Bitcoin is a legal tender next to the USD. Interesting how many of the Keynesian economists said that making Bitcoin a legal tender was a bad move. Not even Mr. Bukele the President says that this economic growth is because of Bitcoin, but I’m sure in the upcoming months/years it will take a major role.
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These are just speculations, no investment advice!
“When you look at this chart. What do you think is missing? $BTC” by Miles J Creative
“Instead of a lengthening cycle we might as well call it the beginning of a new cycle. “ by Root
“Many saying Bitcoin depends on macroeconomic conditions. While this is certainly true, how bad can it get? Here are the 2 levels I am watching: 🟥 Base case >= mezzanine, 36.3k ⬛️ Worse conditions >= floor, 28.4k Below that - even with crazy macro - is historically unlikely.” by Root
“60.61% of the #bitcoin supply has not been transacted with for a year or more. That's the very definition of "diamond hands".” by Documenting Bitcoin
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Bitcoin Shorts
Funny Bitcoin short stories
“On this day [February 15th] 13 years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto explained to the world why Bitcoin *is* different.” by Documenting Bitcoin
“I think I might have found the first ever Bitcoin Bear” by Matthew Hyland
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