WTFBitcoin Week 19, 2023
A bitcoin bull run driven by high-interest rates.
TLDR: Tether accumulates 1.5B in Bitcoin, More than 1 million whole coin addresses, HRF donates 16.5 Bitcoin, More than 10,000 applications for a Bitcoin Summer internship!
Hey there niblings, it’s uncle Bam again, with a summary of the most insightful events in the Bitcoin space. Last week we had a reminder of how our money in the banks isn’t safe, today your uncle Bam gets his speculative hat on, so bear with me and let’s get speculative as we kick through this week’s news.
One of the most bullish news I saw this week is the following:
Tether just started again to reinvest some of their excess profit/reserves into bitcoin, holding at the moment an equivalent of $1,5 billion worth of bitcoin, or around ~52,500 bitcoins. Profit some may ask? Well if you weren’t aware, tether is supposed to be backed by U.S. dollars, and naturally like any bank, those dollars are not only sitting in cash depreciating away, but are invested in short-term deposits or treasuries, allowing them to generate yield.
So not only does tether generate a profit, but given the current high interest rates, they do generate a big one, coming right from the government’s pocket. Just in Q1, they have made a $1.4B in Net Profit, and we all now know where it landed on, in Bitcoin.
Although depositors do not earn any interest on holding Tether, they still enjoy the benefits of holding USD on a blockchain, which is becoming increasingly attractive. This is evident from the fact that Tether's market capitalization is currently worth $82 billion and continues to grow.
Now lets from facts to speculation. If Tether continues their ‘Buying Bitcoin Spree’, and USDT continues to be leading as the most used stable coin, the company could be profiting around the same amount going forward, and continue getting bitcoin off the market potentially creating a supply shock or a massive appreciation.
By extrapolating Tether’s Q1 profit, they could be seeing a total of $6 Billion of Net Profit in 2023, and potentially acquiring more than 200,000 bitcoin. We shall see if Tether becomes or not the institution holding the largest amount of bitcoin by the end of this year. This could potentially fuel a bull run driven by high-interest rates from the central bank.
Now let’s now go on and enjoy more of these bitcoin bullish news 🗞️🗞️!
THE NEWS
1. The Principality of Liechtenstein seeks to allow using Bitcoin as a means of payment for government services.
2. The fees got so high last week that Binance started to work on enabling BTC Lightning Network Withdrawals.
3. Throughout the last week on freenzy fees, a couple of transactions had a fee higher than the subsidy. In block 788695, this occurred again for the first time in this epoch, with 6.7 BTC in transaction fees and a 6.25 BTC subsidy.
4. Azteco arrives in Mexico 🇲🇽 allowing customers to pay with cash at over 45,000 locations or online with a bank transfer, to buy azteco bitcoin vouchers. ( Yep, I go by bamthemexican and this news makes me happy..)
5. Summer of Bitcoin received 10,357 applications from 74 countries to the 45 students program! Check out the list of accepted projects ideas and proposals!
6. Mi Primer Bitcoin Crowdfunds 1 bitcoin on Geyser for 2023 Expansion.
7. Bull Bitcoin, a Canadian bitcoin exchange, becomes No-KYC allowing customers to have an option to buy bitcoin without using their identity.
8. The Real Bedford football team posted their strategic plan, where they shared that 10% of their revenue came in through Bitcoin. All this bitcoin is held in bitcoin on their treasury for long-term capital investments.
9. Human Rights Foundation gifts 16.5 Bitcoin via its Bitcoin Development Fund to support 12 projects worldwide targeting:
Scaling and privacy
Censorship-resistant communications
Education inside authoritarian regimes
Core development
Community building
10. Paypal crypto holdings increased by 56% in Q1 2023 to nearly $1B. The company holds $499 million in Bitcoin and $362 million in Ethereum.
11. Marathon Digital Holdiengs and Zero Two to develop and operate the first large scale immersion Bitcoin mining facilities in Abu Dhabi.
12. TBDxxx presents an innovative approach to achieve Chaumian e-cash-like behaviour without relying on a trusted mint.
13. BitLocal was just released, an app that helps you find local businesses that accept Bitcoin.
14. This beautiful condo is being sold in Stockholm and the owner is accepting Bitcoin.
(It seems that also an office in central Stockholm is for lease and payable with bitcoin too.)
15. Bitcoin subreddit reaches 5 million members!
FUNDAMENTALS
After a year of struggles, Bitcoin miners seem to be back at printing money as the demand for blockspace went parabolic last week. The Hashprice is now at levels not seen since June 2022. (This is bullish 👀)
Finally the number of whole coin addresses reaches more than 1 million!
And even after all the accumulation, it seems that the bitcoin supply continues to dry up, as a 68.21% of the existent bitcoin hasn’t moved for more than a year, with the number increasing constantly for the last couple of days.
Who might be selling at these times? Not me..
In another not so good news: USA Judge rules that BlockFi users gave up legal rights to their BTC by using the platform and all the $300 million of crypto deposits are now property of BlockFi.
Remember niblings, if its not in your wallet, you can’t call them YOUR bitcoins!
Have a great weekend.
Stay humble & stack sats.
Share some love with Uncle Bam for cup of coffee ☕ or a nice ribeye 🥩 <3
Lightning Address: rustybeam47@walletofsatoshi.com
Lightning URL: LNURL1DP68GURN8GHJ7AMPD3KX2AR0VEEKZAR0WD5XJTNRDAKJ7TNHV4KXCTTTDEHHWM30D3H82UNVWQHHYATNW3UKYETPD56RWT9G2XF