The Economic Outlook
Congress has authorized an additional $900 billion in additional stimulus spending that Fed officials have so desperately sought since last summer.
President Joe Biden is asking for even more relief for struggling Americans, in the form of a $1.9 trillion bill.
Fed will likely expand it’s balance sheet to between $8.5 trillion and $10 trillion by the end of 2021.
Endless money printing….endless debt.
In December the world’s negative-yield debt pile hit $18 trillion for first time.
A negative bond yield is when an investor receives less money at the bond’s maturity than the original purchase price for the bond. … In other words, the depositors, or buyers of bonds, are effectively paying the bond issuer instead of earning a return through interest income…
In this world, companies, institutions, pension funds, and endowments are all seeking a hedge with Bitcoin.
Ray Dalio is the founder of the world’s biggest hedge fund firm, Bridgewater Associates, which manages roughly $140 billion. He recently announced that he is now considering Bitcoin as a store of value.
Bitcoin “could serve as a diversifier to gold and other such stores of wealth assets,” said Dalio. “The main thing is to have some of these type of assets … including stocks, in one’s portfolio and to diversify among them.”
This seems to be a trend among many prominent wall street legends like Paul Tudor Jones and Stan Druckenmiller, in support of Bitcoin.
Bill Miller plans $300M Bitcoin investment via GBTC
Bill Miller (AUM: $2.25B) is set to increase his Bitcoin exposure by plowing 15% of one of his portfolios to buy Grayscale Bitcoin Trust shares.
Miller is himself a noted Bitcoin proponent. Back in 2016, the legendary Wall Street investor committed 30% of his hedge fund into Bitcoin. This proportion has since increased to over 50% with the BTC play contributing to massive growth in the value of Miller’s hedge fund.
According to the Bank of Singapore, Bitcoin and other digital cryptocurrencies could replace traditional safe haven assets like gold
Bank of Singapore: — $116 billion USD AUM
Visa CEO agrees Bitcoin is digital gold, affirms readiness to partner with crypto exchanges
In a recent earnings call, Visa CEO, Alfred Kelly said,
“We think of the crypto market in two segments. First, there are cryptocurrencies that represent new assets such as Bitcoin. Second, there are digital currencies or stable coins that are directly backed by existing fiat currencies. We see all currencies in that first segment as digital gold. They are predominantly held as assets that are not used as a form of payment in a significant way at this point.”
Visa to Allow Cryptocurrency Purchases at US Banks
- Visa is planning to launch a suite of software applications for banks to enable crypto trading.
- The card issuing giant has partnered with Anchorage for custody and executing crypto trades.
- U.S.-based bank First Boulevard will be the first bank to integrate Visa’s services.
- Visa plans to eliminate a big hurdle for banks in offering crypto-related services due to lack of expertise and security concerns.
Elon Musk’s Tesla Has Invested $1.5 Billion Into Bitcoin
“Thereafter, we invested an aggregate $1.50 billion in bitcoin under this policy and may acquire and hold digital assets from time to time or long-term,” the filing said.
Tesla expects to begin accepting Bitcoin as payment for its products, including its cars, in the near future. This is a huge move by Elon and will spark even more interest from intuitional money and corporations alike.
MicroStrategy went all in, now holds $2.5 Billion worth of Bitcoin
The largest independent publicly-traded business intelligence company had purchased an additional approximately 29,646 bitcoins for $650 million in cash in accordance with its Treasury Reserve Policy, at an average price of $21,925 per bitcoin.
As of December 21, 2020, the Company holds an aggregate of 70,470 bitcoins.
In 2021, MicroStrategy has bought 609 more Bitcoin.
This brings MicroStrategy’s total bitcoin holdings to 71,079 bitcoin, worth about $2.5 billion at current prices.
CEOs Interested In MicroStrategy’s BTC Educational Campaign
CEO Michael Saylor is holding a virtual conference for CEOs and executives of 1,400 public companies, aiming to educate corporations on how they can take advantage of investing in bitcoin or make it their primary treasury reserve asset.
Check out the Interview with CEO Ross Stevens of NYDIG
@ the 39min mark: Some of the most conservative companies, and careful, sophisticated investors, like AAA life insurance companies have more than $500million of Bitcoin exposure through NYDIG. Within a year, American is going to be able to get a portion of their income annuity paid out in Bitcoin, a portion of salaries paid in Bitcoin…
There will be a wave of new corporate buyers…but there will only ever be 21million Bitcoin.
Marathon Becomes the Second Corporation to Hold Bitcoin as a Treasury Reserve Asset
Marathon Patent Group, Inc. one of the largest enterprise Bitcoin self-mining companies in North America, announced on January 25th, that it has purchased 4,812.66 BTC in an aggregate purchase price of $150 million. As a result, the Company has strengthened its position as one of the only Nasdaq-listed, pure-play investment options for individuals and institutions seeking exposure to Bitcoin.
“By purchasing $150 million worth of Bitcoin, we have accelerated the process of building Marathon into what we believe to be the de facto investment choice for individuals and institutions who are seeking exposure to this new asset class. We also believe that holding part of our Treasury reserves in Bitcoin will be a better long-term strategy than holding US Dollars, similar to other forward-thinking companies like MicroStrategy,”
Merrick Okamoto, Marathon’s chairman & CEO.
169-Year-Old MassMutual Invests $100 Million in Bitcoin
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. has purchased $100 million in Bitcoin for its general investment fund, the latest mainstream firm to acquire the digital asset.
The mutual insurer also acquired a $5 million minority equity stake in NYDIG, a subsidiary of Stone Ridge that provides cryptocurrency services to institutions, according to a statement. NYDIG, which already keeps more than $2.3 billion in crypto assets for clients, will provide custody services for MassMutual’s Bitcoins.
“MassMutual’s Bitcoin purchases represent another milestone in the Bitcoin adoption by institutional investors,” strategists from JPMorgan said in a note reported by Bloomberg. “One can see the potential demand that could arise over the coming years as other insurance companies and pension funds follow MassMutual’s example.”
Square, Inc. Invests $50 Million in Bitcoin
In October Square announced it had purchased approximately 4,709 bitcoins at an aggregate purchase price of $50 million. Square believes that cryptocurrency is an instrument of economic empowerment and provides a way for the world to participate in a global monetary system, which aligns with the company’s purpose. The investment represents approximately one percent of Square’s total assets as of the end of the second quarter of 2020.
With Bitcoin currently around $30k, the initial $50 million investment is now worth $141,270,000
Other companies are starting to see the massive asymmetric gains by holding Bitcoin.
Paypal Bought 70% of All Newly Mined Bitcoin in October
Paypal bought up to 70% of all the newly mined bitcoin since the payments giant started offering cryptocurrency services in October.
According to estimates by hedge fund manager Pantera Capital, together with Square’s Cash App, the two companies are buying more than 100% of all newly issued virgin bitcoin (BTC), the report says.
“When other, larger financial institutions follow their (Cash App) lead, the supply scarcity will become even more imbalanced. The only way supply and demand equilibrates is at a higher price,” it explained.
Can miners keep up with all this buying!?
Institutional crypto investment giant, Grayscale, bought nearly 3x the BTC mined in December. Grayscale now holds roughly 3% of the BTC in circulation. The fund manager continues to accumulate large positions in the digital asset as more institutional investors seek exposure to Bitcoin.
“We’ve started to see participation not just from the hedge fund segment, which we’ve long seen participation from, but now it’s recently from other institutions, pensions and endowments. […] The sizes of allocations they are making are growing rapidly as well.”
Current Assets Under Management: $27.5 billion
Just one year ago, the figure stood at a mere $2 billion.
Harvard, Yale, Brown Endowments Have Been Buying Bitcoin for at Least a Year
According to two sources familiar with the situation, Harvard, Yale, Brown and the University of Michigan as well as several other colleges have been buying crypto directly on exchanges. (Several Ivy League endowments took an interest in blockchain technology via crypto-focused venture capital funds back in 2018.)
Harvard has the largest university endowment of any with over $40 billion in assets, and Yale is close behind with more than $30 billion.
It’s a key development because digital-market analysts say growing interest from big institutional buyers has been a major factor in bitcoin’s quadrupling in price last year, with another 11% gain just in January alone.
BlackRock Files To Add Bitcoin Futures To Funds
Investment giant BlackRock filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission showing that it wants to include cash-settled Bitcoin futures as eligible investments for two of its funds
Three years ago, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink called bitcoin an “index of money laundering.” He’s since changed his tune, suggesting in December that the cryptocurrency could “possibly” evolve into a global market one day.
BlackRock’s assets under management total US$6.84 trillion
According to ARK investment — Corporate buy-ins could take Bitcoin price over $500K
Based on ARK’s simulated portfolio allocations, institutional allocations between 2.5% and 6.5% could impact bitcoin’s price by $200,000 to $500,000.
Guggenheim CIO Says Bitcoin Could Eventually Climb to $600,000
Scott Minerd, chief investment officer of the $230Billion dollar investment firm Guggenheim Partners, who has revised his previous prediction for bitcoin’s long-term price potential to $600,000.
“Cryptocurrency has come into the realm of respectability and will continue to become more and more important in the global economy”
A Look at Bitcoin Metrics
The number of wallet’s with more than 1000 Bitcoin has skyrocketed.
Bitcoin’s liquid supply is being bought up, less supply is entering the market and institutional demand is increasing = higher prices
Global Bitcoin News
Russian Hydropower Giant Opens Bitcoin Mining Farm
The public company is a rare example of a large, mainstream industrial firm entering the crypto world. In this case, it seems like a natural fit: En+, owning four major hydropower plants in Russia’s Siberia, is producing about 7% of the country’s electricity and has resources to become one of the leading players in the market.
Ukraine Considers Building a Bitcoin Mining Center Based on Nuclear Power
Officials of the ministry held a discussion last week with Yevhen Vladimirov — Ukraine’s deputy energy minister for digital development, Energoatom — the country’s state-owned nuclear energy company, and Hotmine — Ukraine’s bitcoin mining machines manufacturer to move the proposal forward.
Pakistani Government Now Mining Bitcoin Directly
Authorities in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan have launched two state-owned bitcoin mining farms. Pakistan, which used to have a harsh stance towards bitcoin and other cryptos just like India, is now embracing the revolutionary digital asset class with open arms.
Iran Legalizing Bitcoin to Pay For Imports
Iran is hoping to sidestep US sanctions by becoming the first country in the world to use the digital currency to pay for imports. Iran has legalized Bitcoin as a reserve currency, and is looking at integrating the cryptocurrency into its struggling national economy.
