It’s Fri-yay and our crypto menu is more appetizing than that juicy steak you’ve been dreaming about all week!
Folks – we’re about to take you on a time-traveling adventure! Let’s go back to the day when Warren Buffett called Bitcoin rat poison squared. While the famous investor scoffed at the idea of investing in Bitcoin, a $1,000 investment made on that day could have you swimming in a delicious pool of riches today! 💰
💰 BlackRock Jumps on Bitcoin ETF Bandwagon
💣 Can Banks Keep Up with the HKMA’s Demands?
🎨 The Rise and Fall of Celsius
💶 Own Vitalik’s Song For Free As An NFT
When Wall Street meets Bitcoin
So, BlackRock is making moves in the Bitcoin world, and some people are buzzing with excitement! It seems that BlackRock’s latest filing for a Bitcoin trust will drive investors’ confidence in BTC – which some people say could be “the best thing that could happen” to BTC.
Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz is even saying a “Hail Mary” every night in the hopes that BlackRock will pull off a Bitcoin ETF.
But hold on a second – not everyone is thumbs up on BlackRock’s move.
Some people think that BlackRock’s pushing forward with a Bitcoin ETF is a bit of a push away from the people who built the industry in the United States.
People are worried about BlackRock’s intention and whether the company’s entry may undermine the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies.
BlackRock’s partnership with Coinbase is also raising some eyebrows. Despite the SEC lawsuit, BlackRock has chosen Coinbase for custody and market price data, which may seem like a risky move. But hey, maybe they just like to live life on the wild side!
It could be some time before the SEC makes a decision on the application.
The SEC typically takes up to 240 days to review a proposal, which means the final verdict may come in February 2024, just one month before the next Bitcoin Halving.
But regardless of when the decision comes, if it’s in favor of BlackRock’s application, it could finally open the floodgates for institutional liquidity. That’s a lot of big words, but it just means big bucks!
Hong Kong Goes All-In on Crypto
Looks like the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is putting some serious pressure on HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Bank of China to take on crypto exchanges as their clients!
The HKMA is determined to make Hong Kong a global crypto hub and sees the importance of these banks playing a role for this aim. However, it seems that the banks are dragging their feet and have a bit of resistance from senior executives due to the traditional banking mindset. Come on guys, it’s time to step up your game and jump on the crypto bandwagon already!
Of course, banks and payment settlers have always had a tricky relationship with crypto companies. They fear the legal challenges involved and possible scams that could affect their reputation. But with more and more countries and regulatory bodies embracing crypto, it’s clear that it’s here to stay and needs a reliable banking infrastructure to support its growth.
Regardless of the challenges, it’s exciting to see Hong Kong taking steps to become a global crypto hub. Who knows, maybe one day the banks will look back and laugh at how hesitant they were to get involved. In the meantime, let’s hope they see the light and jump on board!
A $4.7 Billion Lesson in Risky Business
Let’s take a trip down memory lane to the summer of 2022, when Celsius, the king of crypto lending platforms with a whopping $12 billion in assets, made some serious waves in the industry.
Rumors started swirling that Celsius was illiquid, with even the Sahara Desert having more liquidity at the time – yikes!
Fast forward to when Celsius paused withdrawals on June 13, and everything went downhill from there. Bitcoin continued to freefall by 30% in just one week, and Celsius’ CEL token crashed by a whopping 70%. The crypto market also fell below $1 trillion for the first time since January 2021, with Celsius filing for bankruptcy in July and becoming known as one of the biggest failures in the industry.
But we’re a little bit wiser now, and we’ve learned some valuable lessons from Celsius’ demise. Lesson number one: do your own research! If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. High yield equals high risk, and it’s especially dangerous when the company offering it is worse at managing money than your 11-year-old sister. Celsius overleveraged and placed risky bets at the expense of their customers who are still collectively waiting to get $4.7 billion back – ouch!
Lesson number two: not your keys, not your cheese. If you have money deposited on a centralized platform, it’s not really yours, it’s theirs. Repeat after me: there’s no such thing as a safe CEX in crypto. Use a DEX instead and take control of your own keys!
Finally, lesson number three: crypto CEOs are always gonna be crypto CEOs. Alex Mashinsky of Celsius still thinks he did nothing wrong and that the sun shines out of his…well, you know where. And he’s not the only one – other CEOs like 3AC’s Kyle Davis and Su Zhu have similar levels of confidence despite their companies sinking faster than the Titanic.
Vitalik Buterin’s Song Goes Viral
It seems that Vitalik Buterin’s influence in the world of cryptocurrency has taken an unexpected turn – inspiring a Eurodisco dance track! The track, called “V Buterin,” draws inspiration from the infamous Russian mystic Rasputin and is available as a free-to-mint NFT on the Sound.xyz platform.
The track was brought to life by the co-founder of Sound.xyz, Gigamesh, and Ben Jones, co-founder of Optimism, an Ethereum scaling solution.
The “V Buterin” track has already sparked significant interest, with over 27,000 NFTs of the song being minted and distributed for free.
Listen to the song below:
Honorable Mentions 🏆
- 💰 Binance exits the Netherlands after failing to acquire regulatory approval
- 🚀 Voyager to Enable Customer Withdrawals This Month
- 🔥 Sotheby’s Second 3AC NFT Sale Nets $10.9M, With ‘The Goose’ Alone Netting $6.2M
Crypto Market Watch
Ah, good old Warren Buffett. In January 2018, he had some choice words about the world of cryptocurrency. He warned investors that almost all cryptocurrencies would come to a bad ending – yikes! But some investors didn’t take heed of his sage advice and chose to allocate a portion of their investments in the leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.
On the day of Buffett’s infamous “rat poison squared” comment on May 5, 2018, Bitcoin traded between $9,695.12 and $9,964.50. If an investor had purchased 0.1004 BTC at the coin’s high price of the day with $1,000, that investment would be worth $2,839.73 today! That’s a whopping 184% return since Buffett made his comments.
Twice weekly crypto goodness, coming your way! Catch us every Tuesday and Friday. And hey, don’t forget to check us out on Wednesdays for all the latest AI news – because why limit yourself to just one kind of intelligence?
