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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:
El Salvador Hosts 44 Countries To Discuss Bitcoin: On Sunday May 15th, President Nayib Buekele and El Salvador hosted 32 central banks and 12 financial authorities discuss “financial inclusion, digital economy, banking the unbanked, the Bitcoin rollout and its benefits in our country”. Over 20 of these countries are located in Africa. Africa, similarly to Latin America, has seen currency debasement and massive amounts of inflation and corruption. The Central African Republic has made Bitcoin legal tender, although Paco from my last podcast episode hinted CAR will create their own coin similar to Miamicoin, and it seems like other countries in Africa are curious to learn about the capabilities of Bitcoin. Big Balls Buekele is continuing to be a great voice for the Bitcoin space and is now orange pilling countries across the world while Bitcoin has been legal tender in El Salvador for less than a year.
China Still Holds 21% of Hashrate Despite Ban: Last year the Chinese government banned Bitcoin mining and videos went viral of construction equipment running over Bitcoin miners. Turns out China is second with 21% of the hashrate behind the United States who holds 33.8%. China once held 75% of the hashrate prior to the ban and is now promptly in the second spot. China has always been at the forefront of the Bitcoin industry, but now it has its own CBDC. The Chinese citizens may be looking for a way out of the potential manipulation. Although China has banned Bitcoin mining, it has not been able to stop it completely. It will be interesting to see if the Chinese government responds to the publishing of this data.
Block to create economic empowerment with Bitcoin: Block’s investor day was earlier this week and both CEO Jack Dorsey and Finance Lead Amrita Ahuja hammered home the point that Block wants to be the go to source for all transactions. Dorsey is a noted Bitcoiner and has continually gone on Twitter to rip on shitcoins and he is now diving into Bitcoin even more with Block. Block is developing Bitcoin miners and hinted at developing more Bitcoin hardware and Bitcoin wallets. Dorsey has continued to push the Bitcoin space forward and I look forward to seeing all that he continues to do in the space of payments (full disclosure I am a SQ shareholder so please do you own research as I am not a financial advisor and everything is strictly my opinion and should not be taken as financial advice).
Coinsource partners with KwikTrip to put Bitcoin ATMs in stores: Coinsource is known for their Bitcoin ATM machines and now Coinsource will be partnering with KwikTrip who owns the Kwik brand gas stations and convenience stores around the country to put 800 Bitcoin ATMs into their convenience stores. From USD cash ATMs to Bitcoin ATMs seems like the transition is being made at gas stations, which in my opinion shows that consumers are using ATM machines less and less as time passes. This theory is due to the increasing use of online payments and acceptance of credit cards across the country. More and more consumers are finding ways to get Bitcoin and this is another way to achieve that. You can also get non-KYC BTC through the use of Bitcoin ATMs and that was explained in my podcast episode with Heady Wook, check it out here!
NFL DE Alex Barrett takes full NFL Salary in Bitcoin: More and more athletes are jumping on the train of getting their salary in Bitcoin and another NFL star Alex Barrett is taking 100% of his salary in Bitcoin by partnering with Bitwage. Barrett was amongst the crowd in Bitcoin Miami 2022 and was amazed at the amount of people and met with the Bitwage team after hearing them via Twitter Spaces. The interesting part of this is Barrett is no superstar by any means. Last year Barrett played in 7 games for the SF 49ers and only had 5 assisted tackles. Granted it is extremely difficult to make it to the NFL, but I am saying this to point out that he is not a superstar like Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Saquoun Barkley, and Odell Beckham Jr who have taken some of their massive amounts of earnings and put it into Bitcoin. I believe it is more of a statement for a player like Barrett to take payment than the others listed, so good on ya Alex and keep orange pilling the masses!
Texas Land Owner to Mine Bitcoin: The state of Texas has been extremely friendly to Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining as a whole. The companies: Texas Pacific Land Corporation (Ticker: TPL), Mawson Infrastructure Group Inc. (Ticker: MIGI), and JAI Energy have joined forces to develop 60 megawatts of Bitcoin mining on TPL’s land in West Texas. This partnership is lined out as follows: Mawson will own and operate Bitcoin miners up to 2.0 Exahash while TPL and JAI will earn royalty interest and keep an option to acquire equity in Mawson. JAI energy is run by former oil and gas professionals of West Texas and the influence of the oil and gas industry has JAI bullish on the Bitcoin industry. I see Texas being one of, if not the, leader in all aspects of Bitcoin in the near future. Some might argue it is right now.
Quick word about stacking tax-advantaged sats!
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A quick look on chain:
Current price: $29,260
Market Cap: $557.1B
Spent Output Profit Ratio: 0.9994
Current block height: 736122
Mean block interval: 10min. 38sec.
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 @PrestonPysh 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.