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In our Friday articles, we take a deep dive into the current state of Bitcoin. Every Friday we will continue to publish brief State of Bitcoin newsletters to keep subscribers up to date on news from the Bitcoin industry. For full disclosure, Brandon is a strong believer in Bitcoin and has allocated portions of his portfolios to BTC (HODL baby).
Top stories from the week:
FED raises interest rates 75 bps yet again: For the second meeting in a row the Federal Reserve raises interest rates by 0.75% or 75 bps making it more difficult for people and businesses to acquire money and in turn raising interest rates on various loans. This seems like another last ditch effort to battle inflation, but will it actually work? I’m in the camp that believes that this recession, yes I said recession, is caused by a combination of the money printing and shutting down the economy for months at a time. There are still supply chain issues and lack of work and with less access to capital that problem won’t be mitigated. The supply chain issues will continue to persist and I believe that raising interest rates will just make the US dollar stronger and other fiat currencies weaker, which could be J. Powell and the FEDs plan.
Former Coinbase manager arrested for Insider Trading: Former product manager at Coinbase Ishan Wahi was detained on the 21st for an insider trading scheme while he was working at Coinbase. The FBI has said that the Wahi and others have gained over $1.5 million by utilizing insider information to trade over 25 different cryptocurrencies which were going to be listed on the Coinbase platform. There has been a ton of smoke around exchanges and this just adds to it. When there’s smoke, there’s fire in this industry. I find it hard to believe that these people gained only $1.5 million, but we shall see if more information comes out. Shady businesses like Coinbase are hurting now and consumers are losing more trust in them by the day. Brian Armstrong had the first mover advantage but that lead has quickly gone away.
Three Arrows Capital Founder speaks out: The founders of Three Arrows Capital (3AC) finally broke their five week silence with an interview with Bloomberg. Both Su Zhu and Kyle Davies stated that the 3AC demise was mainly due to their trades involving Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), Terra’s Luna (LUNA), and UST tokens. 3AC claims they lost over $200 million to the LUNA crash and that is the straw that broke the camel’s back. As other details have come out, I for one do not believe what 3AC has said. Obviously, they are going to try to paint themselves in a better light than purchasing a $50 million yacht would but come on. It is rumored that 3AC still owes $3.5 billion to 27 different companies including $2.3 billion to Genesis Global Trading. If 3AC owes you money, I do not think you’ll ever see it.
Senate to eliminate taxes on $50 Bitcoin transactions: Another bill has been introduced to limit capital gains taxes from Bitcoin and crypto transactions up to $50. This time the bill was introduced by Senators Patrick Toomey a Republican from Pennsylvania and Kyrsten Sinema a Democrat from Arizona. The “crypto” bill dynamic is becoming very interesting because on both occasions it is a Democrat and Republican working together to draft the bill so we could be seeing a shift in the 2 party system to more “pro Bitcoin” and “anti Bitcoin”. The amount of $50 is insignificant to me and could barely afford a meal in some places, but there has to be a start somewhere I suppose.
El Slavador has liquidity to avoid defaulting on debt: President Nayib Buekele took to Twitter to dispel the rumors that El Salvador was going to default on their debt due to the country’s Bitcoin holdings. Buekele detailed a plan of purchasing their own sovereign debt bonds from 2023 to 2025 at market price and the purchasing would begin in about 6 weeks. There are a lot of haters that want to see El Salvador fail because of Bitcoin, well it does not seem like this is the case yet. The move to Bitcoin has marketed El Salvador and is getting more people to talk about El Salvador which in my opinion is a good thing.
Bitcoin Twitter starts Stack Chain movement: Arizona HODL (@AriZonanHODL) started a movement saying that no matter what he purchases Bitcoin no matter how hurt his wallet is. This started a #stackchain movement on Twitter and has gone completely viral. This is part of what I love about the Bitcoin community. Everyone is coming together and stacking and supporting Bitcoin. Plebs rally together. Stay strong in this bear market plebs, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
A quick look on chain:
Current price: $23,829
Market Cap: $445.6B
Spent Output Profit Ratio: 1.0031
Current block height: 747001
Mean block interval: 10min. 7sec.
Meme of the Week
What would the BTC community do without memes? Every week on State of Bitcoin, we feature our favorite meme of the previous week. If you create or see a meme that you like and want us to consider featuring it, tag us on Twitter or instagram (both @Greencandleit)! This week we’re featuring a meme we came across on the @zerohedge page:
Video Version!
For our complete rip, check us out on the pod:
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Happy Friday everyone - get after it this weekend!
Brandon
Disclosure: The authors of this writing hold positions in cryptocurrency mentioned in this article. That cryptocurrency is Bitcoin. The article was written by Brandon Keys and occasionally a guest writer; it expresses the author's own opinions. They are not receiving compensation for it. The information presented in this article is for informational purposes only and in no way should be construed as financial advice or recommendation to buy or sell any stock or cryptocurrency. None of the authors of this article are financial advisors. I encourage all readers to do further research and do your own due diligence before making any investments.