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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:
$430 Billion Inflation Reduction Act Signed by President: This bill includes $369 billion to invest in climate and energy policies, $64 billion to extend a policy under the Affordable Care Act, and a 15% corporate tax aimed at companies that earn more than $1 billion a year. As covered last week, $124 billion is expected to increase IRS enforcement that allegedly is to audit the rich. This is simply a farce. The Inflation Reduction Act will increase inflation, there is no doubt in my mind. As shown on the maps below, audits occur in the areas of the United States with the highest poverty rate. The rich have access to money to avoid and get around audits, but the average American does not. This will hurt the average American as there will need to be a way for the government to obtain this money. I wonder after what we saw in 2020 what the FED will do to try to combat this one?
Bankrupt Celsius given clearance for Bitcoin mining operation: Celsius Networks has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after stopping withdrawals from its platform. Celsius developed a plan for restructuring that would include Bitcoin mining and it has received permission to spend $5.2 million on this effort. Bitcoin mining is an extremely difficult business, it requires maximizing miners output while minimizing the amount spent on energy. Celsius does not have room to experiment or figure out this Bitcoin mining business. To me, this seems like a shot in the dark. I hope for every Celsius user this mining operation works in order for every user to be given the ability to withdrawal their assets from the platform.
Tornado Cash developer arrested: Last week I covered the blacklisting of Tornado Cash in the United States. Now, a developer of Tornado Cash was arrested by Dutch authorities. For quite sometime coders have operated under a gray area of the law. Is code free speech? I do not see how it could not be. How is assisting in developing a crypto mixing service against the law? People who have scammed crypto and Bitcoiners alike for millions of dollars are roaming free and still operating businesses, but a coder is now behind bars. This seems like a clear message from governments around the world that code does not fall under free speech and that there will be an attempt to regulate code in this growingly digital world.
Latin America’s Largest Investment Bank launches Bitcoin & Crypto exchange: BTG Pactual, which is the largest investment bank in Latin America, has launched a Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange in Brazil called Mynt. Latin America has been at the forefront of Bitcoin and crypto adoption. This is due to a large amount of unstable currencies throughout the region and corrupt leadership. This adoption is rapidly spreading. LatAm will continue to adopt Bitcoin as it could open up numerous doors for countries and people of these countries alike.
Houston Texans accept Bitcoin as Payment for Suite: The Houston Texans become the first NFL team to accept Bitcoin as payment for a suite after a partnership with BitWallet. It seems that the NFL was the last professional sports league in the US to adopt Bitcoin, but it is also the largest money maker. The Texans are not exactly the biggest franchise in the league (according to Forbes the Texans are the 11th most valuable franchise in the NFL) but this is substantial nonetheless. Currently, Bitcoin and other cryptos can only be used to purchase suites but I’ll be looking to see how many are using this feature and if it expands to all seats in the future.
Ethereum Merge inches closer, or does it?: I’m not going to pretend like I’m extremely well versed in the Ethereum merge and this whole process in general, but this seems to be all over Twitter lately. There has been countless red flags with this merge. First it will not lower the gas fees according to the devs. What I think is the biggest red flag is that it cannot be unstaked for at least 6 to 12 months, meaning if you put your money into ETH2.0 you won’t be able to touch it. This means there is danger that any coin that is staked with a validator that follows certain restrictions can get punished for censoring transactions and their stakes getting burned. Shoutout to Bitcoin Gandalf for breaking it down here.
A quick look on chain:
Current price: $23,318
Market Cap: $445.9B
Spent Output Profit Ratio: 0.9973
Current block height: 749889
Mean block interval: 11min. 12sec.
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 @SimplyBitcoinTV 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.