WTFBitcoin Week 35, 2023
Bitcoin's self custody is improving.
TLDR: Oman to begin Mining, High Chances of Bitcoin Spot ETF, Massive Accumulation & Infrastructure Investments
Hey there niblings, it’s uncle Bam again! I’ve been taking a break writing the newsletter, and who knows maybe in the short term future it might take a break, reduce the frequency to every two weeks, or maybe I’ll just continue with the weekly grind bringing the moral up regardless of the current price.
If you are one of those that doesn’t dwell into the corners of bitcoin twitter (now X) to look for alpha, waits for uncle Bam to digest it for you and are now wondering why we had a sudden spike up and came back down to prices not seen since.. a week ago? Then let’s begin.
In the last week we had a massive surge just right after the Grayscale had won its appeal against the SEC. This might have lead people to think that the company would immediately convert to an ETF, but that wasn’t and isn’t the case. Not long after, the SEC decided to delay most of the other fillings, including BlackRock’s.
Is this bad news? Well it is true that many people are eagerly waiting for institutional money to hit the market and make us all rich, but let’s remember that bitcoin isn’t a get rich quick scheme. Bitcoin is just a way to not lose your wealth quick by the hands of the mighty money printer which debase our currencies without any remorse and no way of voting against it.
This naturally means that we should have a big focus on one bitcoin’s main features: Taking custody of our bitcoin.
The problem of the ETF is that it might allow a big inflow of funds to the bitcoin ecosystem, but quite risky if it incentivises people to let other people hold their funds.
The good news is that despite the price not validating our biases, as we naturally all think bitcoin should be worth way more by now, there is a clear pattern of adoption growth, where small addresses have taken this opportunity of low prices to accumulate as much as possible.
At the end of the day, the Spot Bitcoin ETF is just a matter of time. The intention of BlackRock and other institutions is crystal clear. The narrative continues to change seeing Bitcoin as positive for the environment. And the human desire of accumulating the hardest asset on earth is hard to beat.
But now, its time to read some bullish bitcoin news!🗞️🗞️
THE NEWS
1. Grayscale wins appeal against SEC overturing its decision on Bitcoin ETF.
2.Oman attracted earlier this month $370mln investment in new data hosting, bitcoin mining centre. Now Oman’s Minister of IT and Communications inaugurated the launch of project with 200MW of Bitcoin mining.
3. Bloomberg ETF analysts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart raised their odds of a spot Bitcoin ETF approval by the SEC to 75% by the end of this year, and 95% by the end of 2024.
4. X, previously Twitter, obtains license to store, transfer, and trade Bitcoin and other digital assets on behalf of its users.
5. Blockstream has introduced the 'Splicing' feature in its Core Lightning implementation, enabling liquidity changes to Lightning channels.
6. Blockstream has also recently launched The Blockstream ASIC (BASIC) note, a new investment vehicle on Liquid, whose aim is to acquire undervalued ASICs now for resale during an upcoming bull run.
7. CoinCorner, a global leader in Bitcoin and Lightning Network services, and Lolly, the hospitality software house, have joined forces to bring Bitcoin payment functionality to the LollyPoS platform.
8. Bitcoin ATM network company ByteFederal Australia has officially launched in Australia
9. Unchained, a leader in financial services tailored for bitcoin holders, has seen a 170% upsurge in loans backed by bitcoin from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2023.
The company also saw a 88% spike in institutional and corporate accounts, a 67% leap in private client subscriptions, and a 260% surge in its inheritance service clientele.
10. Colorado’s Department of Motor Vehicles now accepts bitcoin payments.
11. Genesis Digital Assets (GDA), one of the worlds largest Bitcoin miners in terms of hash rate, has announced the inauguration of its new mining facility situated in the northern reaches of Sweden.
12. Nodal Power, who mitigates methane at landfills by powering Bitcoin mining data centers, announced that the company has successfully raised $13 million in a seed funding round aimed at aggressively curbing methane emissions from landfills while harnessing their latent energy potential.
13. Bloomberg covers Bitcoin Mining in Iceland using geothermal and hydro-powered electricity. (Watch video)
14. Trezor Model One introduces coinjoin, enhancing Bitcoin transaction privacy and security for all users.
15. BitGo, a leading Bitcoin and cryptocurrency custody firm, announced that it has successfully raised $100 million in its Series C financing round, bolstering its valuation to $1.75 billion.
16. Binance’s Lightning node has grown from 6 to 31 public channels and from 34 BTC to 75.2 BTC becoming one of the largest lightning nodes on the network.
17. Lynxabi reports to have given The Bitcoin Standard to every guest in his wedding. Mainsteam adoption starts by spreading awareness.
FUNDAMENTALS
The number of bitcoin holders continues to grow, reaching more than 12,286,000 addresses with more than 0.1 bitcoin. Although this does not represent the number of persons, it does signal continues adoption.
The Hodler Growth Rate, the 1-year growth rate and 2+ year Bitcoin holders has completed the bear market rapid growth phase and its plateuing. This often happens at the end of the bear market, before bitcoin goes on a massive appreciation spree.
Now we obviously can’t predict the future, but we continue to see accumulation, strong holders and people learning self sovereignty by removing their coins from exchanges. In fact, in this last cycle the exchanges have lost a significant amount of coins.
And if we take a short term view, the last three months Bitcoin exchange withdrawals has been surpassing deposits for three consecutive months!
These naturally signifies two things to me: 1. people are learning to hold their own keys, 2. and people getting ready for the mighty bull run which often comes after the halving.
You know what they say.. “The rug pulls will continue until self custody improves.” – Matt Odell.
Stay humble out there.. and stack sats.
Have a great weekend niblings.
Stay humble & stack sats.
Share some love with Uncle Bam for cup of coffee ☕ or a nice ribeye 🥩 <3
But more importantly, buy some sats for yourself.
Lightning Address: bamthemexican@noah.me