2022W18 - WTF happened in Bitcoin this week?
Bitcoin is not done yet.
TLDR: Bitcoin price plunges, adoption continues rising, hashrate continues rising, and the number of hodling bitcoins are increasing too.
Hey there niblings, it’s uncle Bam again, with a summary of the most insightful events in the Bitcoin space. Back at it again digesting all the important news for you.
Let’s talk about price for once, as I often get asked by friends and family of how is bitcoin looking from here moving forward, “Will it continue to go down?”, “Should I buy now or wait?” and of course.. “Is this a bear market?”.
The truth is that no one knows for sure, and it is impossible to guarantee anything. The best thing we can do is to take informed decisions. One of the beautiful things from bitcoin, is it’s transparency and in some way we could use information this information in our favour, to take an educated guess concerning how is everyone else feeling in the space?
So what do we know?
Bitcoin is trading around 50% of all time high.
Bitcoin was trading around $58,000 a year ago
Interest rates have risen, as inflation is peaking throughout the world.
Ok so how does the network looks?
An all time high with over 64.9% of the bitcoins (and growing) are intentionally being holded for more than a year. Keep in mind that these people could have sold for $58,000, experience a draw down to $29,000, could have then sold around $69,000, then experience another draw down to $34,000 and did not flinch.
Hashrate is in all time high, with new machines being plugged on a daily basis, as miners becoming creative on how to get cheaper energy, eyeballing stranded one and unprofitable renewable installations.
The amount of addresses with a balance, or we could call it adoption, continues to increase.
Now think about it, does this really look that grim? These moments are exactly the ones where one should be accumulating as much as possible, specially because miss representation of the price, given the fundamentals we are experiencing. After continuously seeing good news and adoption in multiple countries, on a weekly basis we can be certain that at least we are going in a good direction.
In my humble opinion, it seems a little far fetched to believe the price is heading to low $20,000s given how the world and the bitcoin space have changed in the last couple of years. To shed some perspective, the last time we had prices under $30,000, we:
Didn’t have 2 countries with bitcoin as legal tender.
Few others countries or cities with defacto legal tender.
Governments pushing friendly regulations on bitcoin and/or the mining industry.
A flourishing mining industry and more distributed hash rate.
Many companies with bitcoin on their balance sheet.
Strike or akin implementations allowing users to interface between bitcoin and the traditional financial system.
The lightning network empowering people to move bitcoin on a daily basis and close to no fees.
It is natural to feel some fear given the price action, whether your entry point is underwater, or you were just expecting higher prices after diligently stacking for some time. I feel it too, and by weekly writing about the continuous progress on the space, helps me maintaining a low time preference, and remember the main reason why I am here.
“Fix the money, fix the world”
Now let’s get on some news and remember why we should not worry, and just keep stacking and sharing the gospel.
THE NEWS!
1. Luna Foundation Guard has acquired an additional $1.5 billion of BTC, surpassing Tesla as the second largest corporate holder of BTC valued over $3 billion.
2. Tesla stated that bitcoin has a long-term potential and classified it as a liquid alternative to cash.
3. Tauros, a Mexican cryptocurrency exchange has partnered with IBEX Mercado, and became the first Lightning-enabled bitcoin exchange for the mexican citizens.
“If 2021 was the year that Lightning burst into the Bitcoin ecosystem, 2022 will be remembered as the year Bitcoin truly became transactional and started transforming people’s financial lives” – Mario Aguiluz, VP of Latin America (LATAM)
4. Banco Galicia, the largest private bank in Argentina, is allowing its users to buy, sell, send and receive bitcoin on its mobile application.
5. Over 100,000 Cubans are using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to escape harsh conditions created by international sanctions.
6. Coinbase borrowed an undisclosed amount of cash that was collateralized by bitcoin in a historic transaction from Goldman Sachs.
7. LGT Bank now offers select clients direct investments in bitcoin and another cryptocurrency through a partnership with SEBA Bank.
8. Mode has relaunched an affiliate program allowing users to earn up to 12% cashback in bitcoin on eligible online purchases.
9. Gucci, the luxury brand, is launching a pilot to accept Bitcoin payments in five U.S. locations, including New York, Los Angeles and Miami.
10. Swan Bitcoin is officially releasing its Bitcoin Benefit Plan which automates the purchasing of bitcoin for employees electing to use the program.
11. The governor of California signed an executive order to drive innovation for bitcoin and other cryptocurrency-based businesses with transparent regulation.
12. Bitcoin mining company, Luxor, has launched indices that track hash rate price and cost of ASIC miners in order to analyze the various costs related to mining.
13. Bitfarms increased their hashrate 22% month over month, and announced to have mined 405 bitcoin in April, holding now 5,646 BTC on their balance sheet.
14. Marathon Digital Holdings announced its April 2022 mining production updates noting over 9,000 BTC held in reserves and plans for a total mining fleet of 199,000.
15. A house was sold for 3 BTC in Portugal, becoming the first real estate purchase fully in bitcoin, without needing a conversion into euros.
16. Hotel Princess in Plöchingen is giving away “The Little Bitcoin Book” to their guests as a way of sharing adoption.
17. East Belfast coffee company, Root & Branch, will offer staff to be paid in Bitcoin.
18. The first bitcoin ATM was installed inside the Mexican senate.
(Also Nayib Bukele just visited Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the mexican presdident. Interesting…)
As a summary note..
The IMF just made their stance against bitcoin even more clear. Starting by low-key threatening El Salvador on no more funding, or let’s call them coercive loans, if they didn’t remove bitcoin as a legal tender, to which they didn’t give in.
Then they recently bailed out Argentina as they couldn’t come with their March payment, loaning them $45 billion dollars, to which naturally they don’t expect to have the country pay them back, as it isn’t the first time they bail them out, but this time they impose a clause where Argentina must completely forbid cryptocurrencies in the country.
And now they attempt to do the same thing to the Central African Republic.
I guess we could say that some one is scared, and it isn’t the bitcoiners.
Have a great weekend niblings.
Stay humble & stack sats.
Supported by:
How to buy bitcoin? (With Relai through Revolut)
If you are in Europe, I made a pretty simple guide with 3 steps, which avoids you having to set up an account on an exchange, give them all of your personal information, plus custody of your funds.
Did you find value on this? You want to contribute to Uncle Bam?
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Lightning Address:
cherryskate01@walletofsatoshi.com