🌀 The "Bitcoin spiral clock" is a graphical representation that shows its price cycles over time. It uses a spiral to illustrate how it has evolved in different phases of its market cycle that are generally associated with #halving (halving of the reward per mined block).
🔄 This event, scheduled approximately every four years, has a significant impact on the supply of new units and can therefore influence its price as in the different phases of the cycle:
🔸Accumulation: Post-halving period where the price is relatively stable.
🔸Rise: The price begins to rise as interest and demand increases.
🔸Euphoria: The price reaches historical highs, driven by speculation and high demand.
🔸Correction: The price corrects and stabilizes, starting a new market cycle.
⏰ This helps investors and analysts observe and understand cycles, allowing them to make informed decisions based on historical patterns. The phases are marked by recurring psychological states of investors, which adds a layer of emotional analysis to market behavior.
⌛ Dear reader, we have reached 1:30 on the spiral clock of #Bitcoin . Between 1:30 and 4:30 is when the true magic of the most perfectly designed architecture in cryptography happens, giving life and meaning to the authentic internet of money.
🌐 Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says it's "inevitable" that XRP will be offered via an exchange-traded fund (#ETF).
📝 After #Bitcoin spot funds took off, raising a whopping $17 billion since January, Brad notes that demand for crypto from institutions and retailers is undeniable.
⚖️ Despite #Ripple 's ongoing legal battle with the SEC, Garlinghouse is confident that ETFs will drive XRP's value up, just as we've seen with other cases. The question is: What could support this significant increase in its value in the ecosystem?
✒️ With Bitwise and Canary Capital already requesting these #ETF of #XRP , it seems that there are more financial institutions that could lead the way in this regard, even with the "legal battle" they have at hand. Whether it is a political strategy or not, Ripple operates in more countries and has more interests.
📊 #MicroStrategy shares are shining on the stock market. The company founded by Michael Saylor has appreciated more than 200% so far this year, influenced by the #Bitcoin effect.
🌐 This rise has caused many analysts to be very skeptical of the value, pointing out that it could be overbought, although Benchmark strategists distance themselves from this group.
✒️ The firm believes that the "unique value" that MicroStrategy represents for the company's shareholders, and the ability to generate a compound return on their#Bitcoinholdings, is being overlooked.
✍🏻 "Using what management describes as 'smart leverage', it differentiates its actions from other alternative means of gaining exposure to #Bitcoin, such as #ETF ," Benchmark points out.
✏️ It has reiterated its 'buy' recommendation on the company's shares, for which it has also raised its target price: from $215 to $245.
📉 Since the last closing prices ($206.19), the valuation of #Benchmark draws a potential revaluation of close to 19% for the American firm.
🌐 Bloomberg reports that BlackRock has started talks with major#exchangesto integrate its #BUIDL token as collateral for futures contracts. The token is a new#stablecoindesigned to offer stability and security. Here are the arguments:
🔹Backed by the fund that includes US dollars, short-term Treasury bills and repurchase agreements, providing a solid and liquid foundation for the #stablecoin.
🔹They anchor their value in low-risk liquid assets to offer an alternative for investors.
🔹 Alternative to the#stablecoinof Ethena is a synthetic dollar. While USDe uses a mix of cryptocurrencies and derivative strategies to maintain its peg, UStb offers a more traditional structure.
🔹Ethena Labs has designed UStb to be able to reallocate assets in the event of adverse market conditions, such as negative funding rates, as an additional layer of security and flexibility.
🔹Following the announcement of the launch of the Ethena governance token, it experienced a significant increase in value, with a strong market reception.
✍🏻 In parallel, the fund #BUIDL officially known as BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, is a fund of tokenized assets on the Ethereum network:
🔸Backed by US Treasury bills, repurchase agreements and cash.
🔸Represented by the token #BUIDL on the #blockchain of Ethereum, with greater transparency and accessibility for investors.
🔸Providing institutional liquidity offers daily paid yield through #blockchain
🔸 Collaborations with Securitize for tokenization and BNY as custodian of the assets.
🔸This fund is part of its strategy to integrate digital assets and traditional finance, offering a cutting-edge and efficient solution for asset management.
While some put doors to the field, Blackrock is not satisfied with accumulating #Bitcoin.
🔴🟠 #Mastercard Crypto Credential, which helps verify interactions between consumers and businesses using#blockchainnetworks, will be integrated into the Stellar ecosystem as the exclusive credential solution to enable a variety of secure and compliant use cases for crypto wallet providers.
🌐 The work of both will initially focus on enabling credentialing for peer-to-peer remittances and transfers, combining the user-friendly experience of #Mastercard Crypto Credential with the fast settlement times and low fee structure of the Stellar network
⛓️ The #Stellar network has a large network of on- and off-ramps enabling cash-to-crypto transactions worldwide and an ecosystem of trusted financial institutions with a variety of regulated and tokenized real assets.
⚙️ This integration demonstrates the power of collaboration in developing the future of blockchain technology. This integration is helping to make the technology more accessible and appealing to a wider audience, with the goal of encouraging broader adoption and widespread use.
📊 On average, #Bitcoin bull cycles begin 170 days after the supply and demand shock caused by #halving , which means that the bull rally could begin this month.
⚙️ The machinery that is our friend's architecture has not stopped for a single moment, invulnerable to attacks and, as if it were a Swiss watch, it is preparing for its next move.
🔮 We cannot predict the future of #Bitcoin but we can observe what the big players are doing (and saying).
🏦 The National Bank of Bahrain has launched its first investment fund in #Bitcoin targeting institutional investors from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
⚙️ This fund was developed in partnership with ARP Digital, a firm specializing in digital assets, designed to provide exposure to Bitcoin, with gains limited to a predetermined limit and offering protection against falls.
🇧🇭 Bahrain has been working to attract digital asset companies, with the aim of creating a balanced environment for innovation in #Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and financial technology, establishing clear regulations that address both investor protection and business growth.
🇦🇪 The United Arab Emirates is also moving forward in this regard. In 2023, Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) issued comprehensive guidelines for #Web3 businesses including four mandatory rulebooks, seven activity-specific rulebooks, and one focused on virtual asset issuance.
📊 A Chainalysis report indicates that the Middle East and North Africa region accounted for 7.5% of the global #Bitcoin and cryptocurrency transaction volume between July 2023 and June 2024, a significant portion of institutional and professional investors via #CEX although they admit that #DEX is taking notable positions.
🌐 Although #PoW has its drawbacks such as high energy consumption, it is still one of the most reliable and widely used consensus algorithms in the digital asset universe, especially in our pioneer friend.
⚒️ Proof of work is widely considered one of the best due to several key reasons:
🔐 Security: It requires miners to solve complex mathematical problems to validate transactions. This process consumes a significant amount of computational resources, making it expensive and difficult for attackers to compromise the network.
⛓️ Decentralization: It allows anyone with the right #hardware to participate in mining. This reduces the dependence on a central authority and distributes power across many participants.
💱 Double-spending prevention: It ensures that transactions cannot be spent twice. Miners verify each transaction and record it in the #blockchain , ensuring that each unit can only be spent once.
🪙 Aligned Incentives: Miners are rewarded with new #tokens for their work, which incentivizes them to act honestly and keep the network secure. This reward system ensures that miners have a financial stake in the integrity of the blockchain.
⛔ Censorship Resistance: Due to its decentralized nature and the difficulty of tampering with the distributed ledger system, it is effective in favor of those attempting to support censorship. No single individual or entity can effectively control the network or censor transactions.
📊 The #M2 is a measure of the money supply that includes not only cash and demand deposits (as in #M1), but also time deposits, money market funds, and other types of short-term deposits. In the context of the#Bitcoinmarket, M2 can refer to the total amount of money that is available to invest in the market.
✍🏻 In simpler terms, it represents the total liquidity that investors can use to buy #Bitcoin. This is important because a higher #M2 can indicate more money available to invest, which can potentially influence asset prices. Let's take a look at it:
🔹Available Liquidity: When the money supply increases, there is more money available in the economy. This can lead to more investors having additional funds to invest in assets like Bitcoin, which can increase demand and therefore the price.
🔹Inflation and the Value of Money: An increase in the money supply can lead to higher inflation, which reduces the value of fiat money. Thus, investors may seek refuge in assets that they consider safer or with a limited supply, such as Bitcoin.
🔹Monetary Policy: Decisions by central banks such as money printing or interest rates can play a role, such as expansionary policies that can cause investors to look for alternative assets such as #Bitcoin to protect themselves against the devaluation of fiat money.
🔹Market Expectations: If investors anticipate that the supply will continue to increase, they may choose to invest in Bitcoin in anticipation that its value will increase compared to fiat money.
🌐 These factors may make it seen as an attractive store of value in times of economic uncertainty. If #Bitcoin continues to follow the trajectory of the global#M2money supply, it is highly likely that we will see a new all-time high by the end of this year.
🌐Stellar and the Global Currency by The Economist🌐
🔎 In this post we will analyze the alleged relationship with two images separated in time and a third, from one of the magazines with the most "influence" in society. This magazine comes from pressure groups in the world related to the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) and the Bilderberg Club. Symbolism has always been present on its covers. Let's see:
📃 1988 cover: "Get ready for a world currency”
1️⃣ Currencies: Various types of burning bills appear.
2️⃣ Phoenix: The mythological bird represents the resurgence, the rebirth resulting from the burning of world currencies, holding a coin around its neck.
3️⃣ Currency: Represents that all those bills merge into a single currency, possibly a cryptocurrency.
3️⃣.1️⃣ Symbol: Refers to the golden number or the “golden number”. It represents perfection.
3️⃣.2️⃣ Year: As you can see, “2018”: and the article quotes: “Within thirty years, Americans, Japanese, Europeans and people from many other rich countries, and some relatively poor ones, will probably pay for their purchases with the same currency.”
4️⃣ Crown: Represents leadership. Also add that a single world currency would imply a single world bank.
In 2014, Jed McCaleb, founder of Mt. Gox and co-founder of Ripple, launched the Stellar network system with former lawyer Joyce Kim. Before the official launch, McCaleb created a website called "Secret#BitcoinProject" in search of alpha testers.
In 2018, Stellar temporarily reached a market cap of over 12 billion $ and rose to its all-time high of 0.94
⚖️ On October 7, the Security Exchange Commission will make public its intention to appeal (or not) the ruling issued by Judge Analisa Torres, who fined the Ripple company, issuer of the cryptocurrency #XRP , for 125 million dollars. In addition, it prohibited it from "continuing to violate the securities laws of the United States."
🗓️ This ruling was announced on August 7, 2024, after 4 years of litigation. In short, the court determined that institutional sales of #XRP did constitute securities, while programmatic sales and other distributions did not. Therefore, #XRP can be considered a security in certain circumstances (such as institutional sales), but not in others.
🧩 And while they play for time, both Ripple and the Stellar Development Foundation continue with their financial and technological developments, with their business alliances and with their agreements with other governments of the Planet.
🇺🇸 Dear reader, the problem will be for the United States if it does not join the rest of the global alliances to have a cross-border payment system supported by Ripple for Central Banks, and for the movement and liquidity of the same with Stellar. Do you really think that will be the case?
🌐 #MicroStrategy #Bitcoin business intelligence and development company has announced a plan for a private offering of $700 million of convertible senior notes, maturing in 2028.
✍🏻 The offering will be available to institutional investors pursuant to Rule 144A of the Securities Act, and will also offer purchasers the option to purchase an additional $105 million of these notes.
📁 These will be senior unsecured obligations of MicroStrategy with interest paid semi-annually, investors will have the option to convert them into cash, MicroStrategy Class A common stock, or a combination of both, and the terms will be determined at the time of pricing.
📉 The proceeds from the offering are expected to be used to redeem $500 million of the Company's existing 6.125% Senior Secured Notes due 2028. The remaining funds will be used to purchase additional Bitcoins.
📊 #MicroStrategy announced that on September 16, 2024, it issued a notice of redemption for its Senior Secured Notes. These notes will be redeemed on September 26, 2024 (the "Redemption Date") at a price of 103.063% of the principal amount, plus any accrued and unpaid interest to the Redemption Date.
🪙 The aggregate redemption amount is approximately $523.8 million. However, it is subject to the successful closing and settlement of the sale of the new notes. Once redeemed, all collateral attached to them will be released, including approximately 69,080 #Bitcoin
⚖️ The offering is subject to market conditions and its completion is not guaranteed. The bonds will remain private under the Securities Law and will not be offered for public sale.
🇸🇻 Tether announced that the Plan ₿ forum will take place on January 30-31, 2025 in El Salvador. Held at the Museum of Art and the Sheraton Presidente Hotel, it will bring together innovators, thought leaders, and key stakeholders of #Bitcoin, #P2P , and digital assets for enriching discussions, networking opportunities, and unique presentations.
🇨🇭 After its success in Lugano, Plan ₿ is expanding by marking a significant milestone with its first-ever Spanish-language conferences and will emphasize the importance of education on #Bitcoin covering technical aspects and their impact on the economy, society, and personal life.
🌐 It will feature four stages packed with sessions from top-tier speakers, with two stages presented entirely in Spanish and two stages in English with live translation. A representative from the Lugano government will also be on hand to showcase how Plan ₿ has transformed the city into one of Europe’s leading #blockchain hubs.
🤝🏻 Through its ongoing collaboration with El Salvador, a global pioneer in adoption, Tether aims to highlight the transformative potential of Bitcoin, peer-to-peer, #stablecoins , and AI technology in emerging markets.
✍🏻 “We are thrilled to announce the first forum in El Salvador. It represents an important milestone in our mission to promote financial freedom and innovation around the world,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether. “We look forward to hosting industry leaders, AI enthusiasts and synergies enthusiasts in one of the world's Bitcoin capitals to discuss and shape the future of the industry.”
🌐 #Swift announced a new initiative to streamline global transactions and enable its members to use their connection for transactions involving traditional and emerging asset types, such as digital assets.
💱They plan to test delivery-versus-payment (#DvP) and payment-versus-payment (#PvP) transactions across multiple ledgers on their global platform. This could enable securities buyers to simultaneously pay for and exchange tokenized assets in real-time.
🪙 The new initiative will focus primarily on global real-world asset (RWA) trading, as the industry is expected to reach a market capitalization of $30 trillion by 2034.
✍🏻 Tom Zschach, Chief Innovation Officer at Swift, said: “Digital currencies and tokens have enormous potential to shape the way we pay and invest in the future. But that potential can only be realized if the different approaches being explored have the ability to connect and work together.”
🏦 #Swift said it had achieved successful results in value transfer trials involving tokenized assets, and mentioned the two sandbox environments that included banks from Europe, Asia, and North America. They also aim to address how to integrate different digital assets with their respective bank-led networks.
⚖️ Since each financial institution exploring #RWA's might be using different distributed ledger technologies, lack of compatibility could hamper global interoperability. Additionally, divergence across regulatory environments can also create challenges.
🇬🇧 The UK Parliament introduced the Property (Digital Assets etc.) Bill, which aims to officially recognise #Bitcoin and other digital assets as personal property.
⚖️ The proposed legislation would for the first time provide legal protection to digital assets such as Bitcoin, non-fungible tokens (#NFT ) under UK law.
✍🏻 Justice Minister Heidi Alexander said that "it is essential that the law keeps up with evolving technologies and this legislation will mean that the sector can maintain its position as a global leader in crypto-assets, and bring clarity to complex ownership cases."
🔐 She also highlighted the role of UK legal services in supporting the economy and the country's position within the international legal industry.
📖 Currently, digital assets are not explicitly covered by English and Welsh property law, leaving owners with limited legal recourse in cases of fraud or interference.
⚙️ The bill aims to address this gap by classifying digital assets as a third category of property, thereby strengthening legal protections for asset owners and helping courts resolve disputes related to #Bitcoin and digital assets, including divorce proceedings and business agreements.
🏛️ The UK government also stressed that the bill would enable the country's legal services to better handle #Bitcoin and other digital technologies, potentially attracting more business and investment in this sector.
✍🏻 The UK Ministry of Justice claimed that the bill would give digital asset owners legal protection against fraud and theft.
🇯🇵 Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), Japan's largest electricity provider, has begun mining Bitcoin through its subsidiary Agile Energy X, using surplus renewable energy that would otherwise go unused, according to a report by Asahi.
🌐 #TEPCO , which serves over 27 million residential and commercial customers, established Agile Energy in 2022. The subsidiary is now using excess renewable energy to power Bitcoin mining operations, with mining rigs installed near solar farms in Japan's Gunma and Tochigi prefectures.
⚡ The project seeks to address the problem of energy waste from solar and wind farms, which are sometimes forced to reduce output to avoid overloading Japan's power grid. Instead of being wasted, surplus energy is redirected to Bitcoin mining.
✍🏻 “Green energy producers have to operate their businesses assuming that some of the energy they generate is wasted,” said Agile Energy President Kenji Tateiwa. “If Bitcoin were to provide a new revenue stream for similar energy producers, who are exposed to overinvestment, that would drive the introduction of more green energy.”
⛏️ This approach demonstrates one way Bitcoin mining could be used to support renewable energy producers by creating an additional revenue stream. Tateiwa also mentioned that profits from Bitcoin mining could incentivize further investment in renewable energy infrastructure.
🌎 Other countries have also begun using excess renewable energy, such as geothermal energy, for Bitcoin mining. These initiatives suggest that surplus energy, which would otherwise be wasted, can be repurposed for Bitcoin mining.
🏛️ The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (#FDIC ) is an independent federal agency of the United States and was formed as a result of the Crash of 29. It was created after the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 was passed, which among other things established the creation of the FDIC, which must guarantee the recovery of money to its depositors if a bank fails.
🇺🇸 The FDIC provides money when financial institutions fail, inspiring confidence in banks and customers. The agency guarantees deposits of up to 100,000$ in member commercial banks, contributing to the solvency of the United States financial system and ensuring that savers and depositors do not have to worry about their money.
📊 The chart exposes a terrifying reality: the unrealized losses now plaguing FDIC-insured institutions are exceeding those seen during the 2008 crisis. By far.
✍🏻 The data underscores the severity of the situation and serves as a dire warning of the storm brewing in the financial sector. It's not a crisis. Nor is it a recession scenario. This is an eerie replication of what happened in 2007-2008, but on a far more dangerous scale.
🏦 Now tell me what you think about Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen saying the US economy "is healthy" and that the past few months of cooler jobs data are a sign of a "soft landing," not a recession, and that the economy is "deep in a recovery."
🌐 We generally assume that the world is becoming a better place every year, but when it comes to individual freedoms, the opposite is true. Most studies show that humanity is now less free than it was several years ago.
⏳ Twenty years ago we had a decentralized Internet and a relatively unrestricted banking system. Today, Apple and Google censor information and apps on our phones, while Visa and Mastercard restrict goods and services. We cede power and control to irresponsible people we don't elect.
🛰️ Most of us wear tracking devices and allow corporations to use our private data to bombard us with content that distracts us with low-quality entertainment. Now we are surrounded by surveillance cameras, remember: All for your safety.
🇨🇳 In 2017 China overtook the United States as the world's largest economy by purchasing power, showing the world that individual freedoms are not necessary for economic development. Watching China's success, more countries are turning authoritarian, curbing essential human rights like freedom of speech, movement, and assembly.
🧠 The most active and creative minds are too busy playing in the "free enterprise" bubble or churning out digital content to keep everyone else glued to their devices for longer. The rest seem too distracted by the abundance of cheap digital entertainment to critically assess the trend and take action.
🤔 And I wonder what the legacy of our generation will be. Will we go down in history as those who let free societies turn into dystopian nightmares? Or will we be remembered as those who stood up for the freedoms that previous generations fought so hard for?
⚡MasterCard & Bitcoin: From Adaptation to Non-Custodial Adoption⚡
🔴🟠 Mastercard has partnered with #Mercury , a #Bitcoin cryptocurrency and payment provider, to launch a 🇪🇺 euro-denominated debit card that allows users to spend Bitcoin and other digital assets directly from non-custodial wallets.
🏧 The card allows European Bitcoin users to make payments from wallets hosted at any of the more than 100 million merchants in the Mastercard network around the world, without the need for users to store their funds with an intermediary.
🌐 #Mastercard , one of the leading companies in the payments sector, currently serves nearly one billion customers in more than 210 countries. This initiative reflects the company's broader strategy to integrate Bitcoin into its existing payments infrastructure.
✍🏻 “We offer consumers who want to spend their digital assets an easy, reliable and secure way to do so anywhere Mastercard is accepted,” said Christian Rau, Senior Vice President of Mastercard’s Digital Assets Unit.
💱 The card allows users to link their wallets in a non-custodial manner, allowing them to spend #Bitcoin and other digital assets directly, without needing to sell their assets on an exchange beforehand.
💳 It has associated fees, including a €1.6 issuance fee, a €1 monthly maintenance fee, and a 0.95% transaction fee. This development responds to those who prefer to transact from wallets hosted on their own server rather than centralized exchanges.