🧠Quote(s) of the week:
'It is incredibly important to understand that Bitcoin is not a piece of software like Microsoft Word, to be endlessly tinkered with.
It is a protocol for value transfer; an immutable foundation on which to build a new monetary order.'
- Vijah Boyapati

'You do not custody the Bitcoin...you only custody the private keys that can spend the Bitcoin.' - Wicked

🧡Bitcoin news🧡

27th of May:
➡ $290 million worth of Bitcoin has been taken off from Binance in the last few hours.
*on the 29th of May Bitcoin whale withdraws 1,195 BTC ($81.95M) from Binance.

➡'El Salvador keeps stacking Bitcoin. As of May 27, the nation-state holds a total of ~5,763 BTC worth over $395.8 million.' - CarlBMenger

28th of May:
➡'BlackRock has been buying Bitcoin for its fund, the Strategic Income Opportunities Portfolio' - SEC filing

➡Bitcoin ETF Update:
Total Net Inflows +632 BTC ($43.3m)
- BlackRock +1505 BTC ($102m) (and flips GBTC!)
- Fidelity +505 BTC ($34m)
- Grayscale -1550 BTC ($105m)

BlackRock is now officially the biggest Bitcoin ETF after overtaking Grayscale.
Incredible achievement in just 4 months!
Grayscale started with OVER 600,000 BITCOIN 4 months ago.
Blackrock had 0. IBIT is killing it. IBIT, Blackrock spot Bitcoin ETF, will become the fastest ETF to reach $20b in assets, at 137 days.
Bitcoin ETFs have accumulated 250k Bitcoin (on top of Grayscale's 619k) since January.
BlackRock and Fidelity at the moment own a combined 451,338 BTC worth $30.9 billion for their spot Bitcoin ETFs. These ETFs now hold 236,938 more bitcoin than MicroStrategy.
Supply & demand people, supply & demand!

➡Health-Tech Semlar Scientific, a company specializing in developing healthcare technology, announced today that its board has adopted Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset.
Semlar Scientific Inc. has bought $40m Bitcoin and adopted a Bitcoin Treasury Strategy. They added over $70,000,000 in market cap on the 28th of May, just by adopting Bitcoin as their primary treasury reserve asset.
The market is trying to tell the 58,000 public companies a valuable lesson...
Corporate adoption of Bitcoin is accelerating...
If you don't believe read the Semler Scientific statement below: (picture 2)

➡Metaplanet directors authorize the purchase of an additional ¥250 million of Bitcoin.

➡The Nigerian Naira is now worth less than one Satoshi.

➡Someone just moved $3 billion worth of Bitcoin with $2.8 fees.
$2.8 FEES FOR $3 BILLION TRANSFER. Now try this with the current system, banks can't relate I guess.

➡El Salvador President, Nayib Bukele, met with Cathie Wood to discuss Bitcoin, new capital markets, and innovation opportunities.
CATHIE WOOD: “President Bukele's determination to turn El Salvador into an oasis for the bitcoin and AI communities - two of the biggest economic and technology revolutions in history - is the reason I believe that its real GDP could scale 10-fold during the next five years.”

The funny part about this statement and the meeting. Five days later she ditches the Ethereum ETF to focus on Bitcoin. Are you paying attention anon?

➡FINBOLD: “Perhaps the most interesting among the top stocks owned by Soros through the first quarter of 2024 is the shares of MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), valued at approximately $135 million.”

29th of May:
➡Jack Dorsey-backed Bitcoin mining company Ocean Mining has adopted El Salvador as its global headquarters.

➡'Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms acquires a 9.25% stake in Bitfarms, becoming a major shareholder, after Bitfarms rejected Riot's $950M acquisition offer.' - Bitcoin News

➡'Mastercard just launched Crypto Credential, which allows you to send Bitcoin to any customer at an exchange with a simple username, instead of a wallet address.' - Bitcoin Archive
I wouldn't use it because of KYC and still not your keys, but great news regarding the institutional adoption of Bitcoin.

30th of May:
➡In case you missed it, Alex de Vries (Digiconomist), the most quoted source in the Whitehouse's OSTP 2022 report on crypto-mining and historically the most referenced source for mainstream news reporting on Bitcoin and energy, had his methodologies fundamentally discredited in March this year in a peer-reviewed paper by Sai & Vranken:
https://twitter.com/DSBatten/status/1796232365544468899
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2096720923000441?via%3Dihub

Misleading journalism needs to continue to be punished by social ossification. 'De Vries was the SBF of the press'. The truth will always prevail!

➡A record $2 billion worth of Bitcoin taken off from Kraken yesterday. Bitcoin exchange reserves at the lowest ever.

31st of May:
➡'Legendary cryptographer Ralph Merkle on the power of Bitcoin at $500, exactly 8 years ago.
"It is a new form of life. It is unstoppable." - Pete Rizzo

➡'Bitcoin firm Unchained partners with the University of Austin to create a $5M endowment fund entirely in Bitcoin. The university plans to hold the Bitcoin for at least five years.' - Bitcoin News

1st of June:
➡Biden vetos the bill that would revoke the SEC’s SAB 121, maintaining the ban on large financial institutions from taking custody of Bitcoin.
'The President has decided to reject a bill, passed by the majority of US lawmakers in both the House and Senate. Does he think he represents the people’s interest better than those elected to make laws?' - Hunger Horsley

2nd of June:
➡'Donald Trump to accept Bitcoin Lightning payments for campaign donations.'
This wasn't on my Bitcoin 2024 bingo card, but just my two sats...I wouldn't pay one sat to a politician.
But do you think, that accepting Bitcoin Lightning payments, will change the landscape of politician campaign funding?

➡Marquette University professor emeritus David Krause describes the Wisconsin pension system's $160 million purchase into a Bitcoin ETF and why the small purchase matters.
Video: https://twitter.com/ts_hodl/status/1797364548388753664

'Worth watching this video, someone always has to go first and someone’s going next. 0.1% of Wisconsin state pension = $160 million. Fully funded pension, trial balloon. Other state pensions on notice.' -Parker Lewis

Do you still think Bitcoin is a Ponzi, now that one of the largest pensions, a well-run one that is fully funded, is allocating to Bitcoin?

3rd of June:
➡'Australia is set to launch its first spot Bitcoin ETF on June the 4th!
MonochromeAsset's ETF, trading as IBTC on CBOE, will offer regulated Bitcoin exposure with a 0.98% management fee.' - BTCTimes
I hope people 'Down Under' will stick to self-custody. Why...well just look at the next example:

➡'Japanese crypto exchange DMM confirms 4,502.9 BTC ($305M) hack.
They suspended crypto withdrawals and limited buying activity to "prevent further losses," and warned of delays in withdrawing Japanese yen.
DMM says it will reimburse affected users.' - Bitcoin News

Not your keys, not your coins people! Act accordingly.

💸Traditional Finance / Macro:
24th of May:

👉🏽Distinction with a difference...
'S&P 500 Total Return in USD terms since Jan 1, 2020: Up 75%.
S&P 500 Total Return in gold terms since Jan 1, 2020: Up 15%.
S&P 500 Total Return in BTC terms since Jan 1, 2020: Down 81%.

"US with Argentine characteristics." Argentine stocks have been up huge...in peso terms.' - Luke Gromen (Picture 3)

🏦Banks:
👉🏽 Unrealized losses in the U.S. Banking System increased to $517 billion in Q1. (Picture 4)
FDIC warns that 63 Lenders are on the brink of insolvency due to banks sitting on $517 billion in unrealized losses.

🌎Macro/Geopolitics:

On the 27th of May:
👉🏽'China creates $47.5 Billion fund to boost domestic semi-conductor industry after USA stopped selling advanced chips to China.' - Radar

👉🏽 'The Congression Budget Office forecasts that the US budget deficit will not fall below 5% of GDP in the next decade.' - CBO (picture 5)

On the 30th of May:
👉🏽A record $9.3 trillion in government bonds will mature and need refinancing within the next 12 months.
Did someone say debt spiral?
The US needs cheap refinancing, not with the current high rates.(5%) So cutting rates, yes. Print more money, yes. hello inflation (eventually), yes! Who is buying the new debt tho?

👉🏽'In today's post, the authors note that the narratives about declining dollar shares in official reserves, and increasing roles for gold holdings by central banks, inappropriately generalize the actions of a small group of countries.' -New York Fed
The Fed now admits some countries are moving to gold. But says it’s a small group.
The decline in the dollar preferences of a small group of countries (notably China, India, Russia, and Turkey)...'
These four countries make up:
37% of world population
25% of global GDP
19% of global exports
The Fed now admits some countries are moving to gold. But says it’s a small group.
So 37.5% of the world is moving away from dollars towards gold.

A small group of large countries will return to gold (India, China, maybe Russia) and a large group of small countries (like El Salvador) will move to the Bitcoin standard.
Now imagine what will happen when central banks start buying Bitcoin like gold. In almost every category Bitcoin is better than gold.
'So when we are told gold has a value of $15.76 trillion (https://companiesmarketcap.com/assets-by-market-cap/…), where does that number come from? How can all the gold ever mined over the past 10,000 plus years be accounted for? It can't. It's all nonsense in my opinion Bitcoin fixes this. It fixes the world of value. Every single satoshi ever mined is accounted for and the entire global supply is publically audited and made available for any human being to see and verify every 10 minutes, forever.
Now I ask you. Which seems more real to you and which seems bogus to you? I know. Bitcoin' - Oliver L. Velez

Anyway more on the Fed...
👉🏽FED'S WILLIAMS: 'MONETARY POLICY IS CLEARLY WORKING HOW THE FED WANTS IT TO WORK.'
Lemme quote market strategist Sven Henrich:
'Oh yea, it's clearly working how the Fed wants it to work.
The rich are richer than ever.
The middle class keeps shrinking.
Housing unaffordable for most.
And the poor and vulnerable are stuck with permanently higher prices.
Mission accomplished.
Bravo.'
Just to give you some context on the 'housing unaffordable for the most', and I do focus now only on the US housing market.
The median price of a new home is at $433.500 and remains near record highs. The number of new single-family houses for sale has surged to 480,000 in April, the highest since the 2008 Financial Crisis. This came after new home sales were down 7.7% year-over-year last month, the largest drop in 13 months. Excluding the 2008-2009 housing crisis this is by far the largest supply of new homes in US history.

The US economy now has:
1) Slowing GPD growth at 1.3% in Q1. (stagflation?)
2) Stated above, median home prices at all-time high of $434K.
3) 37 months of inflation above 3%.
4) $2 trillion deficits.
5) $34.6 trillion NATIONAL DEBT - record
6) 600k full-time jobs lost in the last 12 months.

On the 31st of May:
👉🏽'Eurozone's inflation rose faster than expected in May ahead of ECB meeting. Overall CPI accelerated to 2.6% in May YoY, up from April's 2.4%. Even worse: downtrend in core inflation reversed w/core CPI ticked up to 2.9% in May from 2.7% in April. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast that consumer prices would rise to 2.5% and predicted that core inflation would be stable.' Holger Zschaepitz

On the 2nd of June:
👉🏽S&P downgrades France’s credit score as the country’s general government debt will increase to about 112% of GDP by 2027 from around 109% in 2023.

🎁If you have made it this far I would like to give you a little gift:
The theme of this year’s Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF): Reclaim Democracy.
What is the Oslo Freedom Forum? The Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) is an international human rights conference series hosted and produced by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF). Bringing together the world’s most engaging human rights advocates, journalists, artists, tech entrepreneurs, and world leaders, we aim to share their stories and brainstorm ways to expand freedom and unleash human potential across the globe.
Believe me...it's worth your time. Below you will find the link to their livestream.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMtqqP4X9Os&t=1239sOnly invest in Bitcoin what you can’t afford to have gradually stolen from you by the government.

Credit: I have used multiple sources!
My savings account: Bitcoin
The tool I recommend for setting up a Bitcoin savings plan: @Relai 🇨🇭 especially suited for beginners or people who want to invest in Bitcoin with an automated investment plan once a week or monthly. Hence a DCA, Dollar cost Average Strategy. Check out my tutorial post (Instagram) & video (YouTube) for more info.

Get your Bitcoin out of exchanges. Save them on a hardware wallet, run your own node...be your own bank. Not your keys, not your coins. It's that simple.

Do you think this post is helpful to you? If so, please share it and support my work with sats.
#zap 🧡 #weeklyrecap #nostr
  #plebchain

#BTC

#Bitcoin

#zap🧡

#plebchain

#grownostr

#stacksats

#bitcoineducation

#adoption
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🧠Quote(s) of the week:
'2024 is the year of Bitcoin mass adoption
- Bitcoin ETFs
- Bitcoin balance sheets
- Bitcoin nation state DCA
- Bitcoin elections'  - Tuur Demeester

'Return of a version of "The Delirium of the Milliards":
1924 Berlin was expensive for Germans but very cheap for Americans with their (gold-backed) USDs.
2024 America is expensive for Americans but very cheap for Bitcoiners.' - Luke Gromen

'The US ETFs hold 840,000 Bitcoin ($58B). They have bought this in 4.5 months. During this period the Halving happened, Trump supported it, Yen is collapsing, and M2 has started to increase. If you don’t hold any BTC now I don’t know what to tell you.' -Bitcoin for Freedom

🧡Bitcoin news🧡

21st of May:
➡'El Salvador crosses $400 million in Bitcoin holdings.
They are now $81 million in profit' - Bitcoin Magazine
The first governments that adopt Bitcoin as a treasury asset will have significant strategic advantages, and El Salvador is leading the pack!

➡On this day whales accumulated $6.3 Billion worth of Bitcoin.

➡Bitcoin ETFs bought 3520 BTC ($235m) yesterday (20th of May)
That's 8x ALL the Bitcoin mined. Supply & Demand people.

22nd of May:
➡'Since adding Bitcoin to their balance sheet, Metaplanet has become the best-performing stock in Japan this week, being halted at a maximum daily gain of +50%for two days in a row.' - Bitcoin News

➡450 Bitcoin ($31M) is mined every day. ETFs are buying between $200M and $300M of BTC every day. Are you paying attention anon?
For example, Jane Street Group manages 380 Billion Dollars and has 0.1% ($500m) sitting in Bitcoin ETFs. This ONE FIRM could send us to 100k Bitcoin by allocating 2%.
'The US Bitcoin ETFs now hold 850k BTC.
They have added 230k BTC since January 10th.
Only 105k BTC has been mined since then.
That means these ETFs ALONE have taken ALL freshly minted supply off the table, PLUS another 125k coins. They are on average eating double the new supply, every day.' - Hodlonaut
(Picture 1)

➡The BlackRock Bitcoin ETF sees the biggest inflow in nearly two months with $291 million coming in today.

➡Jack Dorsey on why Block got into making Bitcoin mining hardware:
"The reason why we want to build this is because it secures the network. It's not just about mining new Bitcoin. It's about validating transactions. And if we have a secure network, we have secure money. And secure money is something that people trust. Businesses can trust. People can trust."

➡'BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF officially overtakes Grayscale for the most assets under management.' -Bitcoin Archive

➡'WisdomTree got FCA approval to list Bitcoin-backed ETPs for professionals on the London Stock Exchange. Launch expected May 28th.' - Bitcoin News

23rd of May:
➡'Global bank Standard Chartered expects Bitcoin to break new all-time highs by this weekend and $150,000 price target by the end of this year.' - Bitcoin Archive

➡'Xapo Bank becomes the first fully licensed bank to integrate the Bitcoin Lightning Network for deposits.' - Bitcoin Archive

➡'In the past month, only ~6% of Bitcoin has moved—a level of HODLing behavior only surpassed once in October 2023, when Bitcoin was $27,000.
Despite being up 160% over the past year, hardly any coins are changing hands.' -Unchained

➡Moody’s upgrades El Salvador's credit rating to Caa1 from Caa3. The outlook remains stable. This upgrade reflects a significant decrease in credit risks and a lower likelihood of liquidity stress. Other countries will follow the same path, for example Argentina. More on that below, see the news on the 27th of May.

➡Bitcoin Whales have been on a WILD run.
+15k BTC in one week. (Picture 2)
Bitcoin's price is finding support from two key factors:
Long-term holders are not selling their Bitcoin as much as they were in March.
New whales are actively buying around $60K, suggesting this price point is a key support level. On top of that, we had a massive Bitcoin ETF inflow last week.

➡"The easier it becomes to buy Bitcoin, the greater potential for financial disaster," says  UK magazine The Spectator. (Picture 3+4)
Yes, that's the whole point! This reminds me of an anti-electricity cartoon from the past century: Same vibe, different day!

I am 100% sure they will blame the next financial disaster on Bitcoin / CrYpTo.

24th of May:
➡Kenya and Marathon Digital Holdings signed a historic deal for monetizing underutilized energy across Kenya and jointly developing technology projects.
'A lot of energy is stranded and thus wasted.
It’s becoming more and more apparent to smart policymakers to make use of Bitcoin mining to put it to economic use.
Things like AI, hydrogen production, and so forth can’t go to all the remote bandwidth-constrained sites as well.' - Lyn Alden

'Bitcoin mining's future entails
- The development of more renewable energy that otherwise would have been unprofitable to monetize (geothermal in Kenya's case)
- Economically benefitting entire nation-state
- More geographic diversity of hashrate' -Daniel Batten

Bitcoin Mining is still an undervalued real-world use case of Bitcoin. It allows any excess energy anywhere to be used to produce a top-tier, high-demand, global digital asset that can be sold 24/7/365 anywhere on Earth.

➡Bitcoin transaction fees are at their lowest since early November 2023, averaging $2.77.

➡'BlackRock and Fidelity now own a combined 445,429 BTC worth $30.6 billion for their spot Bitcoin ETFs. These ETFs hold 231,029 more bitcoin than MicroStrategy.' - Bitcoin Magazine

➡'This week an anon donated 3 Bitcoin to the Peer-to-Peer Rights Fund in support of the Samourai Wallet defense fund.' -Bitcoin News
Every contribution, big or small, makes a difference.
Donate here: http://p2prights.org

25th of May:
➡4 years ago 1 BTC = $8,904
Today 1 BTC = $69,032
That's a 675% increase or 67% CAGR

➡'Bitcoin hashrate moving average fell over 7% after hitting a peak of 633 Eh/s in the days following the halving.
However, there has been a steep rebound in hashrate moving average this week, rising from 586 Eh/s to 612 Eh/s.' - Bitcoin News

So a large increase in hashrate joins the Bitcoin network with the next difficulty adjustment anticipated to be between +5-11%. Ergo the hashrate is already exponentially rebounding post-halving. (Picture 7)

➡ Donald Trump says "I will ensure that the future of crypto and Bitcoin will be made in the USA…I will support the right to self-custody to the nation's 50 million crypto holders."
He also mentioned commuting Ross Ulbricht's sentence.  "He's already served 11 years. We're going to get him home."
First of all, stop conflating Bitcoin with snake oil. Yes, great news a major US presidential candidate committed to protecting the right to self custody.
May I remind everyone that Trump’s DOJ indicted Julian Assange under the Espionage Act, he didn’t free Ross when he was President, & he didn’t pardon Snowden.
Prove? For example Ross's case: https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-considers-clemency-for-ross-ulbricht-silk-road-kingpin-convicted-of-drug-and-money-laundering-charges
Bitcoin, he was calling it 'A scam against the dollar': https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57392734.amp

'US BITCOIN ELECTION AGENDA
- Buy 2 million Bitcoin for US national reserves
- Guarantee Bitcoin self-custody rights
- Ban Central Bank Digital Currency
- Free Ross Ulbricht
- Pardon Ed Snowden
- Drop charges against Julian Assange' -Bitcoin Archive

It's crazy to consider how far we've come. Bitcoin is a major topic in the US election. Bitcoin is on the ballot in an increasing number of countries, even the most powerful ones. Other G20 countries have no choice but to follow & discuss Bitcoin. Bitcoin game theory has just started playing out. Gradually then suddenly every country.
'Satoshi was an absolute genius for making the halving year the same as the US presidential election.
I don’t believe it was a coincidence, the man understood incentives!' -BitVolt (Nico)

25th of May:
➡Spot Bitcoin ETFs See Record Inflows for 9 Consecutive Days
Since the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January, these investment products have seen total net inflows of over $13.43 billion.

➡Crazy stat: If you bought Bitcoin with your $1,200 stimulus check in 2020 you'd now have over $12,390. That's quite the return on investment innit? But most people didn't. Now compare that stat with the devaluation (purchasing power) of the US dollar over the same period.

27th of May:
➡Argentina's Securities Commission met  El Salvador's Digital Assets Commission to discuss its experience with Bitcoin as a legal tender.
“We want to strengthen ties with El Salvador and consider a collaboration agreement with them,” said CNV president Roberto E. Silva.

➡'We have current sources within Greenpeace who have been leaking information to us about the 'change the code' campaign because while they believe in
Greenpeace's mission, they are

* not supportive of greenpeaceusa's campaign
* question the ethics of taking money from Ripple's executive chair Chris Larson
* think it is damaging the Greenpeace brand
* think either that there are bigger issues to fight, or that Bitcoin is a positive force for counteracting climate change. -Daniel Batten
Read the full thread here: https://twitter.com/DSBatten/status/1795128278493040830
TLDR: Eventually all will, also Greenpeace, bend the knee to the truth.

💸Traditional Finance / Macro:
24th of May:
👉🏽Nvidia stock, $NVDA, has officially joined the exclusive club of 250,000%+ in all-time returns.
$10,000 invested in Nvidia in 1999 is worth $25.3 million today.

👉🏽'The Group of Seven (G7) Finance Chiefs met in Northern Italy last week. The Discussion Agenda includes:
- Ukraine & The Handling of Russian Financial Assets
- The Role of AI in Finance
- The Global Economic Outlook
- Health Crisis Initiatives
- and International Taxation Policies
Yet, one important topic seems to have been overlooked and is not on the agenda. Again. Global Debt!' -James Lavish
More on the Debt part below segment Marco/Geopolitics.

🏦Banks:
👉🏽 No news

🌎Macro/Geopolitics:

On the 20th of May:
👉🏽'Further evidence that inflation is accelerating: The McChicken at McDonald’s is up 201% between 2019 and 2024.
The average price increase across the 5 following items is 141%:
- Medium French Fries
- McChicken
- Big Mac
- 10 McNuggets
- Cheeseburgers

But hey CPI says we only have like 2-3% inflation right? As it turns out money printing is a huge factor.
My advice, stop eating garbage.

👉🏽A million seconds ago was May 8th
A billion seconds ago was 1993
A trillion seconds ago was 30,000 B.C.
The US national debt is now rising by $1 Trillion every 100 days

Now time is scarce, just like Bitcoin. Money's value changes every day. It's getting worse every day as well.

👉🏽Please check the following tweet by Craig Chapiro. The cliff is imminent, not because we as a Bitcoin community are saying it, no because the current financial system is saying it. Even the best-case scenarios (low likelihood compared to mean/worst-case scenarios) proposed by the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) put debt to GDP ratios at +115% by 2025.
That is if everything going perfectly. So no pandemics, no wars, no problems, nonnada niente. (Never gonna happen). Once debt/GDP exceeds a certain threshold (we already passed that), a self-sustaining debt spiral is created. Just like the Dutch Empire and the UK Empire witnessed once before.
https://twitter.com/ces921/status/1793296740050726972

Now I am not saying the US (empire) will fall shortly. I am just saying, 'that America's debt has risen from $10 trillion to ~$35 trillion in the time since Bitcoin was created.
That's an increase of 250% since Satoshi launched the code to the world.
More US debt was issued in the last few years than in America's first few hundred years.'
We have seen that pattern before...
Again, the cliff is imminent.

On the 22nd of May:
US Senator Cynthia Lummis says "We are building a pro-crypto army in Congress."
Congressman says CBDCs "threaten to destroy the American way of life. Unlike decentralized digital assets such as Bitcoin. The political landscape has changed in the US.
The next US election will be the first Bitcoin / CrYpTo election in history. More on that further on...
Eventually, Bitcoin is a Trojan Horse, Bitcoin is inevitable and the true path to (financial and maybe also privacy) freedom. Politicians will see the light, maybe at first only because they need votes (again more on that down below, the Trump part) but in the end, they will see the light.

On the 23rd of May:
👉🏽CHINA: Gold Trading Explodes 400% Higher!
- China's central bank bought more than 225 tonnes of gold in 2023.
- Gold price broke a 15-year record recently.

👉🏽'The US Composite PMI, reflecting business sentiment across the Manufacturing and Services sector, spiked to 54.4 in May, the highest level in over two years!' -Jeroen Blokland

👉🏽'30-year US Treasuries are on track for their 3rd worst annual return since 1919.
30-year Treasuries have declined by ~15% year to date after a slight gain of ~2% in 2023.
Over the last 105 years, only 2009 and 2022 have been worse for long-term treasuries.
Meanwhile, $TLT, a popular bond-tracking ETF has plummeted by 40% over the last 4 years.
Year to date, $TLT has fallen by another 6% as 4 interest rate cuts have been priced out from market forecasts. No one wants bonds anymore.' -TKL

On the 24th of May:
👉🏽'US national debt hit a new record of $34.6 trillion in April, up by $1.6 trillion since September 2023.
Total US debt has increased by 47% or $11 TRILLION in just 4 years.
In other words, there is now $267,000 of Federal debt for every US taxpayer.
US debt is on track to DOUBLE in just 8 years, rising from $20 trillion in 2017 to $40 trillion in 2025 if the current pace continues.
Meanwhile, annual interest expense could reach $1.6 trillion by the end of the year if the Fed leaves rates unchanged.' -TKL

For the first time in the history of the United States, interest payments will likely overtake defense spending in 2024. Yikes!

More US data:
👉🏽'New Fed data highlights consumer weakness:
52% of US adults could not handle a surprise bill of at least $2,000 using savings in 2023, the highest share since 2020.
42% of these people could not even cover a $1,000 surprise expense, according to a Fed survey.
Shockingly, almost 1 in 5 respondents could only afford an expense of below $100.
17% of surveyed Americans also said they did not pay all their bills in full in the month before the survey.
Meanwhile, 28% of adults financially struggled last year, the largest share in 7 years.' -TKL

On the 25th of May
👉🏽'Canada is having lots of fun with money printing.
The trend from 2000 - 2020 was a 6.89% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
The trend from 2000 - 2024 is 8.18% CAGR.  Your dollars are losing purchasing power faster lately.
Your Canadian dollars are now losing purchasing power 18.73% per year faster than 2000-2020.' - Tom Karadza
CAD is like a melting ice cube! And may I remind you that Canada is a G7 nation!

👉🏽 'The price for unlimited money printing by governments.' - CarlBMenger
(Picture 5) The debt problem is exponential, not linear.

On the 27th of May
👉🏽European Central Bank to cut interest rates in June.
“What we see right now is enough to remove the maximum level of restriction, equal to 4%.
Data over the coming months will help us determine the pace of further easing,” says ECB chief economist Philip Lane.

As mentioned before in my Weekly Recap I think we will see a rate cut by the Fed in Q4 / after the elections. Meanwhile is doing Yield Curve Control with treasury buybacks. Rate cuts are imminent. Ergo, more liquidity, more printing. Prices go up.

🎁If you have made it this far I would like to give you a little gift:
Great interview and worth your time/watching.
'Highly recommend this podcast, specifically to hear Saylor's views on changes to bitcoin, how important extreme conservatism is + how much thought should go into several orders of the derivative consequences & impact for all stakeholders, critical to benefit/risk calculus' -Parker Lewis

WBD817 - Bitcoin is Forever Money with Michael Saylor. They discuss:
- Balancing economics, ethics, & engineering
- Sound money, ossification, & sovereignty
- Funding Bitcoin development
- Bitcoin winning the political war.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwmyaxpJwocOnly invest in Bitcoin what you can’t afford to have gradually stolen from you by the government.

Credit: I have used multiple sources!
My savings account: Bitcoin
The tool I recommend for setting up a Bitcoin savings plan: @Relai 🇨🇭 especially suited for beginners or people who want to invest in Bitcoin with an automated investment plan once a week or monthly. Hence a DCA, Dollar cost Average Strategy. Check out my tutorial post (Instagram) & video (YouTube) for more info.

Get your Bitcoin out of exchanges. Save them on a hardware wallet, run your own node...be your own bank. Not your keys, not your coins. It's that simple.

Do you think this post is helpful to you? If so, please share it and support my work with sats.
#zap 🧡 #weeklyrecap #nostr
  #plebchain

#BTC

#Bitcoin

#zap🧡

#plebchain

#grownostr

#stacksats

#bitcoineducation

#adoption
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🧠Quote(s) of the week:
‘Nearly 1,000 firms have invested since January's launch. Owning $3.5 billion worth of Bitcoin ETFs as of last Thursday. By the May 15 filing deadline, we could see a total AUM nearing $5 billion.’
First, they said it's only crazy internet people who own Bitcoin or it is for criminals.
Then they said it's only retail that owns Bitcoin.
Now they see over 500 massive wealth firms, banks, & institutional investors bought Bitcoin in the first 2.5 months of ETFs. A majority (52%) of the US's largest hedge funds are betting on Bitcoin.
I wonder what they will say next...

🧡Bitcoin news🧡

This is an extended Weekly Recap version (6th of May - 20th of May). I hope you enjoy it.

6th of May:
➡'South Korea's new government will vote to allow spot Bitcoin ETFs in June.' - Bitcoin Archive

➡$130B wealth manager Hightower just reported owning $68m of Bitcoin through 6 ETFs.
➡'The US government holds ~212,847 Bitcoin as of April 2024' - Bitcoin News
MicroStrategy, after their latest purchase, now owns more Bitcoin than any country in the world.

7th of May:
➡Bitcoin exchange inflow hits lowest level since 2015 at 20K BTC. You might wonder if this all has to do with the offramps closing or if people just have 'diamond' hands.

➡'$429 BILLION asset manager Susquehanna International just reported owning $831M Bitcoin across 10 ETFs! The biggest ownership of Bitcoin ETFs reported to date.'- Thomas Fahrer
Their total ownership is ~$1.2 BILLION, including +$1b in GBTC.

➡Arkham identified a new US government wallet containing 3,940 Bitcoin ($251M) seized from drug dealer Banmeet Singh in a January hearing.

8th of May:
➡Argentina to mine Bitcoin using stranded gas with 1,200 Bitcoin mining machines - Forbes
Bitcoin miner Genesis Digital Assets Limited partners with  Argentina's YPF Luz to build a Bitcoin mining facility in Neuquén powered by wasted gas from oil fields.
This is the first of its kind in Argentina and turns a pollutant into a valuable energy source.

➡New research backs up every single major claim of the energy & environmental benefits of Bitcoin
Bitcoin for methane mitigation:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4810964

Bitcoin for renewable buildout:
https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/14/3/35

Bitcoin for grid balancing
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4634256

➡'Hong Kong firm Monolith Management, founded by ex-Sequoia China exec Cao Xi, revealed a $24M investment in BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF IBIT. This is their 5th largest holding, exceeding their Meta stake by double.' - Bitcoin News

➡ Bankrupt FTX to pay customers $15 billion in recovered cash - CNBC
'FTX is not paying customers in "FULL" as reported.
Bitcoin is up almost 4x since hitting a $15.5K low in the bear market and is now just above $62,000.
FTX will compensate customers in US dollars at prices set during the bear market, not like-for-like in assets stolen.' -Radar

9th of May:
➡The US House has voted to repeal the SEC ruling that blocks financial institutions (trusted custodians) from holding Bitcoin for their customers.

➡Biden Admin would veto proposed legislation that would allow highly regulated financial firms to custody. Joe is completely out of touch and is driving entrepreneurs out of the US.
Congressman Hill criticizes Biden for a veto threat that will effectively ban banks from holding Bitcoin for customers.  “Holding reserves against the assets held in custody is NOT standard financial services practice.” "The Biden Admin's SAB 121 is misguided and should be nullified."

➡European regulator considers allowing Bitcoin exposure to be added to the $12 TRILLION market for UCITS. UCITS are almost 2x bigger than US ETFs!

➡$570B insurance giant MassMutual reported owning Bitcoin through the Grayscale ETF.
MassMutual bought $100m Bitcoin for its balance sheet in 2021 and was founded in 1851.

10th of May:
➡Boston-based Bracebridge Capital owns over $307 million worth of Ark’s Bitcoin ETF. In total, they owe $433m in Bitcoin through ETFs.  ($100m Blackrock, $26m Grayscale). They went wild basically.
➡PNC Bank has $10m in Bitcoin ETF exposure across 6 ETFs, per SEC filings. PNC is the 8th biggest bank in the US.

12th of May:
➡An old Bitcoin wallet from 2011 just moved $30 Million worth of BTC. The owner of the wallet hodled all the way from $2 to $61000.

➡Over 2,000 investors from mainland China attended the Bitcoin Asia conference in Hong Kong. Total attendance: 5,500 - South China Morning Post.

13th of May:
➡Japanese public company Metaplanet released a white paper on their Bitcoin corporate treasury strategy.

➡Switzerland's biggest bank UBS owns the BlackRock Bitcoin ETF - SEC filing

➡El Salvador released a new website that tracks their Bitcoin Treasury. This allows users to view the Salvadoran government's BTC transactions and holdings in real time, enhancing transparency and enabling public auditing of these investments.
El Salvador is buying 1 BTC every day. DCA strategy is the way.
Find El Salvador's bitcoin treasury information here: https://bitcoin.gob.sv/nl/
Survival of the fittest and game theory are well underway. Just imagine if we had this kind of transparency to all government treasury.
https://btctimes.com/el-salvador-reveals-website-to-monitor-360-million-bitcoin-treasury/

More on El Salvador: They mined nearly 474 Bitcoin worth $29 million using volcano-fueled geothermal power in the last three years, Reuters reports.

➡'A solo miner just mined a block worth 3.319 Bitcoin ($203,000)
The odds of this happening are less than 1 in 1,000' - Thomas Fahrer

➡'On the 13th of May two Bitcoin wallets, which had been dormant for over 10 years, transferred a total of 1K BTC ($60M). These wallets originally purchased Bitcoin in September 2013 at $124 per Bitcoin.' -BitcoinNews

➡Ethereum has spent three years above 0.05 BTC.
It's currently breaking down and ETH/BTC is testing its lowest levels in three years. Gotta love it!

➡'Vanguard and Blackrock have increased their MSTR (MicroStrategy) positions in Q1 2024 by 619,550 shares (28.5% increase over Q4, 2023). Watch what they do, not what they say!' -Jeff Punter

14th of May:
➡A Wisconsin State Pension Board announces a Bitcoin ETF purchase. They bought $99M of IBIT Bitcoin ETF and became the first state institution to go public with spot Bitcoin ETF holdings.
Believe me, things are warming up! It's only a matter of time before every single state pension fund makes the same move.
Michael Saylor: "There are thousands of pension funds in the United States managing ~$27 trillion in assets. They are all going to need some Bitcoin.

To put this in perspective, the ~27 trillion in assets is more than 2x bigger than Blackrock or roughly equivalent to all the USD in the world.

Why this is important:
Industry paper "Pensions & Investments" interviews Bloomberg's Eric Balchunas on Wisconsin investing into the Bitcoin ETFs: “Pensions are probably the hardest investor type to land,” who likened it to “landing a sailfish.”
Pensions are “very picky, they have access to everything and usually it takes a while for them to bite,"
“And so, the fact that (they) bit that quickly, is just a good sign,” he said.

➡Oklahoma has become the first State to codify the rights of its citizens to run a node, to mine, and to self-custody their Bitcoin.
Gov. Kevin Stitt put Oklahoma at the forefront of Bitcoin legislation by signing HB3594 into law. (Picture 1)
https://decrypt.co/230962/bitcoin-self-custody-right-law-mining-oklahoma
or read the following note/tweet by Dennis Porter:
https://twitter.com/Dennis_Porter_/status/1790529917199003836

15th of May:
➡nostr:npub1aa9whw34zlsckvy804y8ukt0u6yd9rkjgn0fnrdwdq3hy8pnqt5sk2v6sm , a great app to buy Bitcoin with, has acquired an additional 1.00295 BTC for ~€57,000 using proceeds from its operational business & excess cash for ~€56,605 per Bitcoin.

➡Bitcoin reserves at Coinbase gets drained, currently at ~267k, down from 418k early 2024.

➡Morgan Stanley reporting to have $243M in Bitcoin Spot ETF.
Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/895421/000089542124000355/0000895421-24-000355-index.html

➡Toronto Dominion Bank has Bitcoin ETF exposure, per SEC filings. Canada's second-largest bank!

16th of May:
➡'Cornell's BTPI announced a $1M project to research the relationship between Bitcoin and financial freedom across multiple countries.' -Lyn Alden
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2024/05/btpi-will-research-relationship-between-bitcoin-and-financial-freedom

➡The world's largest futures exchange CME Group, to launch Bitcoin trading.

➡'Top Bitcoin ETF Holders of Q1 (updated):
1. Millennium Management ($1.8B)
2. Susquehanna ($1.1B)
3. Bracebridge ($404m)
4. Boothbay ($303m)
5. Morgan Stanley (~$251m)
Bitcoin ETF holders bought $10 billion in Q1. Nearly all of that was in the USA' - Thomas Fahrer
(Picture 2)

➡'Bitcoin ETFs bought 11,188 BTC, ~5x more than estimated mined Bitcoin.' -BitcoinNews

19th of May:
➡Someone just moved 16,445 Bitcoin (over $1.1 billion worth) on a Sunday for $7.32.
Mempool tags the transaction as "Overpaid 2x", meaning they could have gotten into the block for only $3.66 in fees.' -BitcoinNews

➡'17.38% of all Bitcoin has not moved in over 10 years. This is up from 16.1% at the start of 2024.' -BitcoinNews

💸Traditional Finance / Macro:
8th of May:
👉🏽 The following thread is a good one by Sam Callahan: https://twitter.com/samcallah/status/1788015909497385409
'According to Nasdaq's Global Financial Crime Report, $3.1 trillion in illicit funds flowed through the traditional financial system last year alone. As in good old-fashioned dirty fiat flowing through dirty banks.'

3 things out of this report: https://nd.nasdaq.com/rs/303-QKM-463/images/2024-Global-Financial-Crime-Report-Nasdaq-Verafin-20240115.pdf

1. $3.1 trillion illicit through the traditional financial system.
2. Bitcoin is not even mentioned in the report as an issue.
3. KYC/AML policies have no measurable impact on stopping illicit transactions.

There is a lot of bluster from policymakers about the effectiveness of KYCL/AML. Does anyone know what's the process to implement metrics to measure the effectiveness of these KYC/AML policies?
Anyway, Bitcoin is the problem in our 'financial' world...right?

👉🏽Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services used 90 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2022, which is more than the country of Colombia - JPMorgan Chase
But noooo, Bitcoin is using way too much energy, innit?

👉🏽'MSCI just announced it is adding Microstrategy, Pure Storage, and Emcor to the MSCI ACWI Index along with a bunch of other adds/drops. Pretty big deal as ACWI has a little over $4T benchmarked to it. Popular with institutions.' - Eric Balchunas

👉🏽Salim Ramji will be the new Vanguard CEO. He used to head up BlackRock's global ETF business. First time ever Vanguard hired an outsider as CEO. Every other one was an internal star and former Bogle assistant.
Remember when we were assured that firing an old CEO had NOTHING to do with Bitcoin? You don't change Bitcoin, Bitcoin changes you!"

👉🏽‘The Big Short’ Michael Burry has bought a physical Gold ETF, which, at 7.4%, is now the 5th largest holding of his portfolio. Number six is Block (formerly Square), which recently announced a DCA program to boost its Bitcoin holdings further.
You see where I am going, right?' - Jeroen Blokland

🏦Banks:
👉🏽Goldman Sachs has appointed Robert Kaplan, the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, as its vice chairman.
Kaplan made multiple million-dollar trades in individual stocks and options in 2020.
Then, the Fed slashed interest rates and launched lending and liquidity programs that helped prop up the financial markets.
He quit due to the trades and the conflicts.
After, the Fed itself instituted new trading rules that prohibit officials from owning stocks, bonds, and crypto.' -Unusual Whales

Really! They must abolish the FED as they are not government entities. The Fed speeches are an orchestrated propaganda campaign designed to sustain confidence in a money system backed by nothing but confidence. Just one big revolving door of club members, good old business as usual.

👉🏽The GFC bailout looks like just a blip on the radar vs what the Fed is doing today to support the banks with liquidity via loans/facilities.
And we wonder why the market is up.
This chart blew me away. (Picture 3)

Ergo: The banking system broke in 2023

🌎Macro/Geopolitics:

On the 6th of May:
👉🏽'Most people have never seen this chart before.
The S&P 500 grows with the global money supply.
The S&P 500 is a way to concentrate wealth with the wealthy.' (Picture 4)

👉🏽Big Mac went from $0,50 to $8 and lost 40% of its since from 1980 - 2024.
'Further evidence that inflation is accelerating:
US labor costs in the last quarter rose by the most since Q1 2023.
The employment cost index is a broad measure of labor costs closely watched by the Fed.
The index surged by 1.2% in Q1 2024 after a 0.9% increase in Q4 2023, beating all expectations, according to the BLS data.
Labor costs are rising at a comparable pace to mid-2022 when inflation in the US was above 9%.
Wage pressures are accelerating.'- TKL

Inflation and years in which your purchasing power is halved:
2 %    35 years (The goal)
4 %    17 years (Officially we here)
7 %    10 years
10 %    7 years
14 %    5 years (In truth)
17 %    4 years
20 %   3.5 years

Inflation is theft. Bitcoin fixes this

On the 7th of May:
👉🏽US manufacturing and services employment has simultaneously contracted for 3 consecutive months. Over the last 20 years, this has happened ONLY twice, during the 2020 pandemic and 2008 Financial Crisis.
More than 800 companies from the manufacturing and services sectors claim that employment is falling. Meanwhile, according to US jobs data, the US job market has never been stronger. Data indicates that the US has added 100,000+ jobs in 40 straight months, the best streak in US history.

Another disconnect between data and reality.

👉🏽'Within a decade European Union lost about 120 Billion $ in annual foreign direct investment and the US gained about 90 Billion $ per year, but hey let’s regulate AI and introduce a four-day workweek. What needs to happen for European politicians to wake up?'- Michael A. Arouet

Remember this: regulation = uncompetitiveness = wealth migration
Just for clarification, I don't mind having regulations for AI. A vast majority of key experts see existential risk in using AI. But as always the EU is overregulating.
source: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.KLT.DINV.CD.WD?end=2022&locations=EU-US-CN-GB&most_recent_year_desc=false&start=2022&view=bar

More data on this topic. Germany's real household consumption per capita has not recovered from the pandemic and remains weak; household consumption in the US has grown much faster.

Q4 2019-Q4 2023 :  -3.4%; Germany  +9.0%  US

On the 8th of May:
👉🏽US and Japan reportedly agree on FX intervention.
Ergo: The Fed has to open a swap line and flood them (Japan / The World) with dollars.
By doing that they will bail out nation-states and further increase global liquidity.
For more info on this topic, I highly recommend the following article:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/japan-now-caught-doom-loop

👉🏽Argentina to print its first 10,000-peso note as a result of hyperinflation.

On the 9th of May:
👉🏽US net interest payments as a percentage of federal revenues are set to reach 34% by 2054.
This means that a third of all government revenue would be spent only to service the national debt.
Over the past 8 years, the percentage has already doubled to ~15% and is at its highest in 3 decades.
Meanwhile, nominal annualized interest payments have crossed above $1 trillion for the first time ever.
We could see $1.6 trillion in annual interest expense by the end of the year if the Fed leaves rates steady.
The US government needs lower interest rates more than anyone.

On the 11th of May:
'Shocking stat of the day:
$2.1 TRILLION of excess savings have been wiped out of the US economy since August 2021.
From March 2020 until August 2021, $2.1 trillion in excess savings were built up after $4 trillion of stimulus.
Since then, US households have depleted these savings at a pace of ~$70 billion per month down to -$72 billion in March 2024.
At the same time, US credit card debt has risen by $330 billion to a record $1.1 trillion.
Meanwhile, savings rates in the US declined from 3.5% in February to 3.2% in March, the lowest since November 2022.
Savings are now considered a luxury.' - TKL

On the 12th of May:
👉🏽That‘s the most scary chart I have seen in a while. Unfunded pension entitlements in major European countries are between 300% and 500% of GDP. Mixed with collapsing demographics it’s a recipe for debt disaster. (Picture 5…Unfortunately I can’t share more than 5 pictures on Nostr via Primal, see the article on my website)

👉🏽Data shows that the number of people in the US working 2 full-time jobs is at an all-time high.

On the 13th of May:
👉🏽'Official world gold reserves have reached 1,170 million fine troy ounces, the most since the 1970s.
Over the last 13 years, world central banks' gold holdings are up roughly 21%.
Global gold reserves are now even higher than just before President Nixon broke the US Dollar's link to gold in 1971.
In 2022 and 2023 alone, world central banks bought 1081 and 1037 tonnes of gold, respectively.
Meanwhile, gold is up 15% year to date and 85% over the last 5 years.' -TKL

👉🏽Janet Yellen admits that higher interest rates make the "fiscal challenge" worse. By fiscal challenge, she means the massive deficit, $34 TRILLION debt and it is (too) expensive for the US government to pay its debt at the current interest rate.
FYI: Bloomberg reports the Treasury Department paid '$2 million per minute' in interest to debt holders in March.
In the near future, this will be $2 million per second.

Her colleague in Canada mentioned the following:
👉🏽The governor of the Central Bank of Canada, Tiff Macklem issued a warning of the financial collapse of the fiat system:
“The valuations of some financial assets appear to have become stretched. This could increase the risk of a sharp correction that could generate system-wide stress.”

👉🏽The BLS, Bureau of Labor Statistics is a unit of the United States Department of Labor, is removing coffee prices from CPI inflation data. Since Q3 2023, coffee prices surged 78%. More fiat manipulation games are at play.
Meanwhile Coffee is down 72% over 5 years in Bitcoin terms, and it is up 129% in dollar terms. Go figure!

On the 15th of May:
👉🏽US core inflation came out in line with expectations, down to 3.6% y/y from 3.8%
The last time Core CPI was 3.6% the Fed funds rate was 0.08% and a rate hike was a year out.
Today it’s 5.33%. The US Inflation Rate has now been above 3% for 37 consecutive months, the longest period of high inflation since the late 1980s/early 1990s.
1. This means that these inflation numbers are building on multiple years of already inflated prices.
2. This means that overall prices are up over 19.5% in less than 4 years.
1. That is an average of 5.5% per year effectively wiping out ONE FIFTH of the US Dollar's purchasing power. Inflation is now building on previous years of inflation; we effectively have compounding inflation.

In other words, one year ago, the inflation rate dropped to 3% and has averaged 3.3% since then. At this rate, the USD will lose 48% of its purchasing power over the next 20 years.
That's all you need to know. Buy Bitcoin.

👉🏽Treasury bonds have experienced their greatest four-year loss in over 100 years from April 2020 through the recent lows. (Picture 6, Unfortunately I can’t share more than 4pictures on Nostr via Primal, see the article on my website)

Are we shifting from inside money (treasuries) to outside money (hard money like gold or Bitcoin)?
Central banks are buying TWICE as much gold as before.

ETFs are buying 4.5x more Bitcoin than is being MINED/
It's the era of hard money, and there is no second best:
Bitcoin

🎁If you have made it this far I would like to give you a little gift:
"In modern times, our money has been broken, because it has been centralized, closed, and corrupted in 160 different ways

If we’re going to fix it in the digital age, a powerful method would be to make it more decentralized, open, and transparent so that it can strengthen people as individuals while at the same time shattering the financial silos that separate us
With open-source money, anyone can hold it, anyone can send it, anyone can bring it with them, anyone can build new technologies that make it better, and everyone across borders can be connected by it"
Impossible not to be bullish on the future after watching Lyn's masterful video
Fix the money, fix the world - Alex Gladstein

Or to put it in Lyn Alden's words:
'I produced a half-hour animated overview of the Broken Money subject matter.
It covers the history of money, the development of banking, and how new technology changes the way we interact with money over time.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk_HWmmwiAs
On top of that the latest newsletter by Lyn Aldens, discusses money-printing, price inflation, and the bond market's inability to forecast it.
https://www.lynalden.com/may-2024-newsletter/

Only invest in Bitcoin what you can’t afford to have gradually stolen from you by the government.

Credit: I have used multiple sources!
My savings account: Bitcoin
The tool I recommend for setting up a Bitcoin savings plan: @Relai 🇨🇭 especially suited for beginners or people who want to invest in Bitcoin with an automated investment plan once a week or monthly. Hence a DCA, Dollar cost Average Strategy. Check out my tutorial post (Instagram) & video (YouTube) for more info.

Get your Bitcoin out of exchanges. Save them on a hardware wallet, run your own node...be your own bank. Not your keys, not your coins. It's that simple.

Do you think this post is helpful to you? If so, please share it and support my work with sats.
#zap  🧡 #weeklyrecap #nostr
  #plebchain

#BTC

#Bitcoin

#zap🧡

#plebchain

#grownostr

#stacksats

#bitcoineducation

#adoption
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MSCI has added 42 securities, including Microstrategy, to the MSCI Global Investable Market Index.

Your friends, colleagues and parents will ‘own’ Bitcoin and they even don’t know it. 🤣

Gradually, then suddenly!🧡

Study, learn, hodl, decouple.
#bitcoin                    🧡
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My savings account: Bitcoin
The tool I recommend for setting up a Bitcoin savings plan: @Relai 🇨🇭 🇨🇭 especially suited for beginners or people who want to invest in Bitcoin with an automated investment plan once a week or monthly. Hence a DCA, Dollar cost Average Strategy. Check out my tutorial post (Instagram) & video (YouTube) for more info.

Felipe - BitcoinFriday

#zap                      🧡   #nostr                        #BTC                       #Bitcoin                      #plebchain                         #grownostr    #stacksats #bitcoineducation #adoption
https://m.primal.net/IGqj.jpg


Due to some personal stuff,
No weekly recap this week.🧡

Study, learn, hodl, decouple.
#bitcoin                   🧡
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

My savings account: Bitcoin
The tool I recommend for setting up a Bitcoin savings plan: @Relai 🇨🇭 🇨🇭 especially suited for beginners or people who want to invest in Bitcoin with an automated investment plan once a week or monthly. Hence a DCA, Dollar cost Average Strategy. Check out my tutorial post (Instagram) & video (YouTube) for more info.

Felipe - BitcoinFriday

#zap                     🧡   #nostr                       #BTC                      #Bitcoin                     #plebchain                        #grownostr    #stacksats #bitcoineducation #adoption
https://m.primal.net/IGlk.jpg


🧠Quote(s) of the week:
'Replacing the failed illegal, immoral, illegitimate Ponzi scheme called the US$ is already happening. In case you missed it, the US$ is at least 2 years into an unwinding debt/death spiral that cannot be stopped. Bitcoin replaces the greatest fraud in human history. Period.
The world is moving away from fiat currencies that can be printed and confiscated. While central banks embrace the old (gold) or create a new (digital) fiat-currency (CBDC), I hope the people will be embracing the future with Bitcoin' -Bitcoin Friday

'Over the last year, the US Government borrowed approximately $99,802 per second.' -James Lavish

🧡Bitcoin news🧡

29th of April:
➡'A solo miner just mined a block worth 3.433 Bitcoin worth $218,544.
The odds of this happening are around 1 in 5,000.' - Bitcoin Magazine

30th of April:
➡'Hong Kong Bitcoin ETFs were predicted to have $300 million inflows on the first day.
Instead, they merely had $11m in total trading volume.'
This is in comparison to the $655 million in first-day cumulative volume for the US-based Bitcoin ETFs.

For me, the whole Hong Kong Bitcoin ETF was already way overhyped, but liquidity is liquidity, supply & demand is supply & demand. It is still a demand that wasn't there before, Bitcoin is a global asset. A bit further in this segment, you will see that the Hong Kong ETF is catching up though.

➡If you are a lawmaker, think tank, or policymaker, take a look at this important resource from Satoshi Action. Their latest paper, "Promoting State Financial Innovation: Enhancing State Banking Powers," delves into the federal government's control over the banking sector and explores potential strategies to counteract these challenges:
https://www.satoshiaction.io/debanking
Thread: https://twitter.com/Dennis_Porter_/status/1785343073490284780

➡ Coinbase rolled out Bitcoin Lightning Network integration.

➡'Nasdaq-listed Alliance Resources, a $2.8b coal mining company, is mining Bitcoin and currently holds 425 Bitcoin on its balance sheet. The company has additionally adopted the new FASB accounting standards for its holdings.' -Dylan LeClair
I am not surprised though, this is just inevitable. Any energy company should follow suit if they have a surplus of energy (stranded energy) you can convert (monetize) that instantly and profitably into cash for your balance sheet. The new FASB standards allowing fair value accounting for Bitcoin will encourage greater adoption.

2nd of May:
'MicroStrategy launches an enterprise platform for building decentralized identity applications on Bitcoin — MicroStrategy Orange.
The Bitcoin Inscription DID method (did:btc) uses inscriptions in witness data to store and manage DIDs, leveraging UTXOs for DID control.' - Dylan LeClair.
"The Bitcoin Inscription DID method (did:btc) uses the Bitcoin blockchain exclusively to store and retrieve DID information. UTXOs on the chain are used to control DIDs. Inscribing data in the witness of transactions allows for greater extensibility and verbosity when creating DID documents while reducing fees and block space consumed."
Source: https://microstrategy.github.io/did-btc-spec/
Personally, I think it is interesting to see MicroStrategy beginning to deploy products for Bitcoin. If that's a good thing, dunno, I am not a programmer. But this sounds and feels like Nostr, so why not just use Nostr...?

➡'Jack Dorsey announces that each month Block will be DCA'ing 10% of their monthly gross profit from Bitcoin products into purchases of Bitcoin for investment.
They plan to purchase Bitcoin on a monthly cadence utilizing TWAP orders, starting April 2024.' -Bitcoin News

➡Senator Cynthia Lummis dares the US Department of Justice about Bitcoin self-custody.
"COME AND TAKE IT"
Power move, your keys...your coin!

➡ Sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and endowments will start trading Bitcoin ETFs in the coming months - BlackRock's Head of Digital Assets

3rd of May:
➡'Bitcoin is at 4.7% world adoption, this is the same as Jan 1999 for Internet Adoption.
You are still early... and that's backed by the best data available.'
This is using the latest data available across many studies. See: https://woocharts.com/bitcoin-total-users/…
- Willy Woo

➡'Hong Kong asset manager Yong Rong just reported owning $38m of BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF.
The largest holding by an asset manager in quarterly filings so far.' - Eric Balchunas

➡Jack Dorsey pens a letter to shareholders of Block, explaining "why the hell [the company] is spending so much time on Bitcoin. (Picture 2)

4th of May:
➡More on Jack Dorsey, whether you like him or not, Bitcoin is powered by philanthropy, not VC funds.
'OpenSats has received an additional donation of $21M from startsmall - Jack's philanthropic initiative.
$15,000,000 going to our General Fund.
$5,000,000 to our Nostr Fund.
$1M to our operations budget.'

This is what 'putting your money where your mouth is' looks like. This is massive and extremely generous. A+ for supporting Bitcoin development and Nostr (open protocols).

➡ 'Last week on Friday marked the first time none of the Bitcoin ETFs saw negative flows.
In fact, GBTC saw over 4X in the inflows of BlackRock.' - Bitcoin News

5th of May:
➡'Total Bitcoin held on exchanges has fallen by 360,000 ($22.9B) over the last year. ' -Thomas Fahrer

6th of May:
➡'Bitcoin whales accumulated 47K Bitcoin in the past 24 hours. We’re entering a new era," CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju said on Saturday.' - Bitcoin News

➡Today an old wallet from 2011 just moved $44 Million worth of BTC. The owner of the wallet hodled all the way from $2 to $65000.

➡Hong Kong's new spot Bitcoin ETFs attract  $230M in assets under management (AUM) during their first week.

China AMC was the most successful with $116M, followed by Bosera International & HashKey Capital at $57M, and Harvest Global Investment also at $57M.
➡ 'Bitcoin has officially processed over 1 BILLION transactions all time.' -Pete Rizzo (foto)

💸Traditional Finance / Macro:
👉🏽 Berkshire Hathaway’s cash pile reached a new all-time high of $189 BILLION in Q1 2024.
This is a $19 billion increase from their cash balance seen in Q4 2023 and a 70% increase in cash since 2022. To put this in perspective, Berkshire Hathaway’s cash balance is larger than the market cap of Starbucks and Target combined.
When asked about this, Warren Buffet said "I don’t mind at all, given current conditions, building our cash position." - TKL

🏦Banks:
👉🏽no news

🌎Macro/Geopolitics:

On the 30th of April:
👉🏽'Current US Debt is 34.7 trillion.
To give an idea of how big that is, if you stacked $1 bills, you would have enough money to stack from here to the moon 9.86 times.

The math below for the data geeks:
The thickness of a US dollar bill is 0.0043 inches.
Average distance to the Moon: 384,400 km.
1 inch = 2.54cm so 1000 dollar bills stacked is 0.0043x2.54x1000 = 10.922cm
so 100,000 is 10.922m
so 100,000,000 is 10922m (10.92km)
so 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) is 10922 km
so 1,000,000,000,000 (1 trillion) is 109,220km
so 34.7 trillion is 34.7x109,200 = 3.790million km =
9.86 trips to the moon.'

9 times people, too big to comprehend and everyone just thinks: 'Oh well. Doesn't affect me.'
The debt will get bigger & bigger and the Ponzi scheme will keep going as long as citizens stay uneducated regarding Monetary History and what money is. The fall of empires (the Romans, the Dutch, the UK, and now the US) is directly correlated to the debasement of money.

On the same day...
👉🏽US TREASURY SECRETARY YELLEN: I AM CONCERNED ABOUT WHERE WE'RE GOING WITH THE US DEFICIT.

The main question should be...at what point are they alarmed or panicked? And when the shit is hitting the fan are they going to warn you?
Just a thought.

1st of May:
👉🏽'The US economy LOST 192,000 jobs in Q3 2023, according to the BED report released by the BLS last week.
BED data tracks quarterly changes in employment at all private businesses in the US economy.
Meanwhile, US nonfarm payroll data showed that the US labor market added 494,000 new jobs in Q3 2023. This is a WHOPPING 686,000 difference in job count over just one quarter.
The BED data from the BLS suggests that the final labor market revisions released in 2025 will be MUCH lower than the headline-reported job numbers.'- TKL

TLDR: The numbers are fake. What is happening is outright data manipulation and nobody gaslights harder than the government... apparently or they aren't capable enough. Pick one.

'US Treasury announces first treasury buyback operation since 2002
The US Treasury is launching its first buyback program since 2002, scheduled to start on May 29, 2024. The program is designed to improve liquidity in the Treasury market and is expected to run through July 2024. During this period, the Treasury plans to hold weekly liquidity support buybacks of up to $2 billion per operation, with up to $500 million allocated for TIPS (Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities). This initiative aims to ensure the Treasury market remains the deepest and most liquid in the world, addressing concerns about market functioning and resilience.'  - MartyParty

IMO: This is a bank bailout. Treasury QE is on its way.

3rd of May:
👉🏽M2 Money Supply has flipped positive. (Picture 3)
The last time M2 increased, the Bitcoin bull market ripped.

👉🏽Everyone and their mother is talking about unsustainable US fiscal deficit and debt.
Take a look at off-balance-sheet pension entitlements in Southern Europe at 500% of GDP. Combined with collapsing demographics it’s a severe debt crisis in the making. What’s the solution? (Picture 4)

Why Bitcoin is my pension. Well, most of the people in my generation understand that the pension system is a Ponzi scheme. The boomers enjoy on average 1800 €/month pension. My generation might get even more in nominal terms in 20 years, but the real purchasing power of those future pensions is weak to at least. With Bitcoin, my purchasing power is getting better and better. As a European with kid(s)...the solution is leaving at some point before the collapse because they probably will port over the Dutch pensions into the European ones. The question is though, where? With Bitcoin, I will grant myself and my family some optionality.

👉🏽"This is absolutely priceless. And probably the most frightening clip you'll ever watch on the people in charge of the US economy.

Jared Bernstein is literally the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, the main agency advising Biden on economic policy, and he can't even explain why governments borrow money in the currency they print out of thin air.
https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1786277466824466896
It's a clip from the award-winning documentary "Finding the Money". - Arnaud Bertrand
Honestly one of the best motivational speeches for Bitcoiners I’ve ever seen. When this is all said and done everyone will agree once again that fiat money is a Ponzi and pretend like they held that opinion the entire time. If this video doesn’t convince you to buy Bitcoin you’ll never understand it.

4th of May:
👉🏽'The cost of buying a home in the US rises to $2,750/month, the second highest ever recorded, according to Reventure.
Before the pandemic in 2022, the average home in the US would cost $1,400/month.
In other words, it is now 100% MORE expensive to buy a home in 2024 compared to 2020.
Even at the peak of the 2008 Financial Crisis, the average home payment peaked at $1,550/month.
The average US family would need to spend 44% of their PRE-TAX income to buy a home today.' -TKL

Remember: The United States dollar has lost over 25% of its purchasing power since January 2020. The US government has issued a whopping $11 TRILLION of debt over the last 4 years.
By comparison, it took the US 220 years to add the first $11 trillion of Federal debt.
Unsustainable!

👉🏽The US has added $100,000 in Federal debt EVERY SECOND over the last year.
Since March 1st, the US has been adding a staggering $10 billion in debt PER DAY.
That's $417 million per hour, $6.9 million per minute, and $115,740 per second.
As interest rate cuts are priced out, we could see $1.7 TRILLION in annual interest expense just one year from now.
Even if the Fed cut rates 6 times this year, interest expense will still hit $1.2 trillion next year.
Ironically, the US government needs lower interest rates more than anyone.

And in March, the Treasury Department paid out about $89 billion in interest to debt holders — or roughly $2 million per minute.
Source: https://archive.ph/7MzeX

🎁If you have made it this far I would like to give you a little gift:
Great panel discussions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA4jzHIPj7A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ0o2Do4n5k

Only invest in Bitcoin what you can’t afford to have gradually stolen from you by the government.

Credit: I have used multiple sources!
My savings account: Bitcoin
The tool I recommend for setting up a Bitcoin savings plan: @Relai 🇨🇭 especially suited for beginners or people who want to invest in Bitcoin with an automated investment plan once a week or monthly. Hence a DCA, Dollar cost Average Strategy. Check out my tutorial post (Instagram) & video (YouTube) for more info.

Get your Bitcoin out of exchanges. Save them on a hardware wallet, run your own node...be your own bank. Not your keys, not your coins. It's that simple.

Do you think this post is helpful to you? If so, please share it and support my work with sats.
#zap  🧡 #weeklyrecap #nostr
  #plebchain

#BTC

#Bitcoin

#zap🧡

#plebchain

#grownostr

#stacksats

#bitcoineducation

#adoption
https://m.primal.net/IEDc.jpg
https://m.primal.net/IEDd.jpg
https://m.primal.net/IEDe.jpg


🧠Quote(s) of the week:
'The road to independence and autonomy from all kinds of systems is a journey that needs effort and time on your part. Bitcoin is the same.' -Bitcoin Friday

'Over the last year, the US Government borrowed approximately $99,802 per second.' -James Lavish

🧡Bitcoin news🧡

Before we start I want to share some deep knowledge:
'If, like many of us, you feel a bit taken aback by events of the past week in Bitcoin, you may be wondering about what you can do, practically, to maintain your ability to transact freely and to preserve your privacy.'
Great thread by Freddie New, worth your time: https://twitter.com/freddienew/status/1784218269542498318

22nd of April:
Swiss Bitcoiners to launch a petition for the National Bank to buy Bitcoin for its national reserves.
"By including Bitcoin in its reserves, Switzerland would mark its independence from the European Central Bank. Such a step would strengthen our neutrality."

They need over 100K signatures to trigger the vote. Technically, it's not a petition, but a Popular Initiative, which is quite different. This concise amendment allows the Swiss National Bank flexibility in implementation. The initiative aims to spark a debate about Switzerland's future amid global uncertainties, emphasizing sovereignty and neutrality.

But the Chairman of the Swiss National Bank said the following: "We have not yet decided that we want to invest in Bitcoin.
Currency reserves are international payments:
1. They have to be liquid.
2. They have to be sustainable.
3. And we have to be able to see and buy them." -Bitcoin Archive

➡In 2023 I have said the following multiple times regarding politicians & Bitcoin: "My personal opinion. Be wary of politicians who promise to give you exactly what you want. Politicians are just politicians! Bitcoin doesn't need politicians, politicians need Bitcoin (and votes). Don't lose the plot. And stop larping! Stay humble & stack sats."

A lot of people on Bitcoin Twitter, telegram, and so on were larping and routing for RFK. jr.
Last week he made the following statement:
“I’m gonna put the entire US budget on blockchain", “Every American can look at every budget item in the entire budget, anytime they want, 24 hours a day.”
“We’re gonna have 300 million eyeballs on our budget!”
This kind of statement reveals he doesn't get any of this, does he? On February 24' he also mentioned that he is buying ETH for his kids. Time to study Bitcoin RFK or is it just another fiat politician like Javier Milei (yes I am still not convinced)? Trying to gather as much support as possible, then crawl back to central bankers if elected.
'If the government wants to publish real-time budgets they can already do this on their websites. The blockchain adds nothing to this. The problem is reporting, not storage. This is no different than saying the government will publish their budget to “the cloud”.'- Yan

➡Bitcoin may be due for a surge, as the MVRV ratio dips below its 90-day average again.
Historically, this has led to a 67% gain on average.

➡ 'BlackRock now holds 273,596 Bitcoin worth $18 billion for its spot Bitcoin ETF.
BlackRock's ETF holds 59,350 more bitcoin than MicroStrategy.' - Bitcoin Magazine

➡ S&P 500 company Raymond James subsidiaries declare holdings of Bitcoin ETF GBTC worth $3m.
Combined AUM $625B.'- Julian Fahrer
Although it is only $3M to me it's a sign, that the institutions are coming.

24th of April:
➡26+ Bitcoin companies signed a letter to FinCEN against proposed surveillance rules that would seriously harm privacy by effectively prohibiting basic Bitcoin best practices such as not reusing addresses and collaborative Bitcoin transactions. (Picture1)

25th of April:
➡FBI warns Americans against using non-KYC Bitcoin and crypto money transmitting services.
It's becoming clearer that the U.S., but also here in the EU governments pursue surveillance policies and work to suppress the rights of their citizens to (financial) privacy and financial opportunity. They don't like competition. They don't believe in a real free market.

Remember "KYC is a security hole. Businesses are just bullied/forced by governments to collect customer information. It’s really difficult to secure information in the internet age. Some of the largest and most capitalized companies still get hacked regularly." - Gabor Gurbacs

1. Approve ETFs to create a honeypot.
2. Criminalize privacy tools by labeling it ML.
3. Go after self-custody Bitcoin by labeling it black market.
4. Execute 6102 on ETF honeypots.
*all while the price of real BTC pumps really hard and game theory plays out on the global stage.
It is so freaking obvious.

These actions directly incentivize the development of decentralized protocols by anonymous devs. Instead of scaring people, they lit the fire.

"They're going to go after self-custody because they need capital controls to properly execute financial repression. Capital is sufficiently captured in walled-garden ETFs. Widely adopted self-custodial Bitcoin used as an MoE with privacy tools present an existential threat."

Anyway why do we need privacy, why does the world need privacy, and why do we need uncensorable money:
https://journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclusive/how-to-dictator-proof-your-money/

➡"The State of Ohio has officially introduced a bill to protect 'fundamental Bitcoin rights'.
The right to buy & sell Bitcoin.
The right to mine Bitcoin
The right to run a full node
The right to self-custody your digital assets" - Dennis Porter

➡ "Morgan Stanley is shifting to enable its 15,000 brokers to recommend Bitcoin ETFs to their clients.
This is a big change from their "if they ask" approach, which is how they've managed ETF allocations thus far." -Thomas Fahrer

➡BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF sees its streak of 71 straight days of inflows come to an end, bringing in $0 yesterday.  IBIT had the 10th longest streak of inflows in ETF history.

➡ '$140B Global Retirement Partners has reported exposure to 7 Bitcoin ETFs + 1 Bitcoin mining ETF in SEC filings. GRP has more than 1.6 MILLION retirement accounts.' - Bitcoin Archive

26th of April:
➡Japanese public company Metaplanet has announced it purchased ¥1b ($6.25m) of Bitcoin, equivalent to ~30% of the company's current market cap.

➡ BNY Mellon reported owning shares in BlackRock and Grayscale Bitcoin ETFs - SEC filing
America's oldest bank is buying Bitcoin...

💸Traditional Finance / Macro:

👉🏽 no news

🏦Banks:
👉🏽US prepared for the potential failure of a major Wall Street bank, says FDIC.

👉🏽Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Bank Failures (March, 2024):
"I’m sure there will be bank failures, but this is not the big banks."
Last night, the 26th of April, Republic First Bancorp officially collapsed and was seized by regulators.

🌎Macro/Geopolitics:
On the 22nd of April:
'Emerging market countries (excluding China) owe a staggering *$421 billion* of government debt this year
The majority of this is owed to multilateral institutions, foreign creditors, the IMF, and the Paris Club (deferred debt from the IMF, etc)'

You can also call this financial slavery or financial colonialism.

On the 25th of April:
👉🏽'For those who do not understand what just happened:
First, Q1 2024 GDP growth slowed to just 1.6% which is less than HALF of the 3.4% Q4 2023 number.
This reading is roughly 50% BELOW Goldman Sachs's expectations.
But it gets even worse.
At the same time, the US Core PCE Price Index soared from 2.0% to a staggering 3.7%.
This crushed estimates of 3.4% and further suggests that inflation is on the rise.
We have a weakening economy with rising inflation.
The worst possible outcome for the Fed.' - TKL
(Picture 2)

Ergo from "transitory" to "soft landing" to stagflation.
the work product of academics with over 800 PhDs at the Federal Reserve.

I let James Lavish do the talking:
"A Fed nightmare. When GDP (economic activity) slows down, yet prices continue rising (stagflation), and the government refuses to curb reckless deficit spending, this puts the Fed and Treasury in an impossible position that no matter what they do, it will lead to issuing more and more Federal Debt. This leads to the need to monetize the debt with more money printing, inflation surges, rates rise, and we do it all again."
QE Forever!

Now have a look at the following chart posted by Luke Gromen. (Picture 3)

The rest of the world started to wise up back in 2024. (remember the clip by Putin in 2014 saying how the Dollar/the US is a weapon and fucking everything up), moving away from continuing to fund US government spending & stupidity. This trend has intensified after Covid, countries are now parking their savings in Gold and eventually in Bitcoin.
"The Dollar is the emperor walking down the street naked."
Who is buying post-2014 (red line): The Fed, US banks, MMFs, and foreign tax shelters.

👉🏽President Biden proposes a 44.6% capital gains tax, the highest in history.
The proposal also includes a 25% tax on unrealized gains for high-net-worth individuals.

👉🏽'Savings rates in the US fell from 3.5% to 3.2%, the lowest since November 2022, according to Zerohedge.
Over the last year, savings rates have fallen from 5.2% to 3.2%.
All as credit card debt continues to push above a record $1.1 trillion with 25%+ interest rates.

On the 26th of April:
👉🏽 Currently the Yen is imploding. Japan's bonds and currency are crashing again. Now the following thread will give you a great overview and help people to understand why this is important and what is happening. https://twitter.com/peruvian_bull/status/1784020167141318860

The Japanese have lost 6% of their purchasing power in the last 3 weeks.
The Japanese were the first to "experiment" with QE, in their 1989 property crash. The US, then the UK then the EU copied them in 2008-2010 as they had no better ideas. So, the demise of Japan today, we can see happening to the rest of us in 10-15 years... or maybe less.
Read the thread, because it will show you why it is important to self custody your Bitcoin, and why Bitcoin is important.

On the 27th of April:
👉🏽The United States dollar has lost over 25% of its purchasing power since January 2020.

On the 28th of April:
'The US government has issued a whopping $11 TRILLION of debt over the last 4 years.
By comparison, it took the US 220 years to add the first $11 trillion of Federal debt.
Within the next 2 months, total US debt is on track to cross above $35 trillion for the first time in history.
Since June, the US debt has been rising by $1 trillion every 100 days.
If the current pace continues, another $11 trillion will be added in just three years putting us at ~$45 trillion by 2027.' (foto)

Anyway to put it in some perspective, over 75% of U.S National Debt was created after Bitcoin’s 1st block….
(Picture 4)

🎁If you have made it this far I would like to give you a little gift:

A masterclass by Saylor. (16min) This is next level. This is a lesson in financial literacy.
https://twitter.com/bleighky/status/1783551971682640241

TLDR: He is playing chess while everyone else plays checkers.
Full interview: https://youtu.be/bUfVLzNdOyc?feature=shared https://youtu.be/bUfVLzNdOyc?feature=shared

Only invest in Bitcoin what you can’t afford to have gradually stolen from you by the government.

Credit: I have used multiple sources!
My savings account: Bitcoin
The tool I recommend for setting up a Bitcoin savings plan: @Relai 🇨🇭 especially suited for beginners or people who want to invest in Bitcoin with an automated investment plan once a week or monthly. Hence a DCA, Dollar cost Average Strategy. Check out my tutorial post (Instagram) & video (YouTube) for more info.

Get your Bitcoin out of exchanges. Save them on a hardware wallet, run your own node...be your own bank. Not your keys, not your coins. It's that simple.

Do you think this post is helpful to you? If so, please share it and support my work with sats.
#zap  🧡 #weeklyrecap #nostr
  #plebchain

#BTC

#Bitcoin

#zap🧡

#grownostr

#stacksats

#bitcoineducation

#adoption
https://m.primal.net/IBSs.jpg
https://m.primal.net/IBSt.jpg
https://m.primal.net/IBSv.jpg
https://m.primal.net/IBSy.jpg


🧠Quote(s) of the week:
'If you made $500.000 per day, every single day since the Great Pyramids were built, you would have less than half of what the US government has borrowed since June.'
Although this quote is a bit outdated it is actually nuts when you contemplate it...perspective is nice when it comes to large numbers.
Let me do the math for you: 4.700(years) * 365 (days/year) * 500.000$ (/day) = 857.750.000.000 - Less than a Trillion
(barring the likely inaccuracy of our understanding of the Pyramids timeline)
Which means you would still have less than 3% of what the US government has in total debt.

No matter your thoughts on Bitcoin, think about those numbers for a minute and let that sink in.
After that, you should probably buy some Bitcoin.

🧡Bitcoin news🧡

Before we start I want to share some deep knowledge:
"Bitcoin didn't appear out of thin air - it is the result of decades of work. Many digital currency projects failed before they succeeded. Understanding how we got here will help you understand where we're going. Learn the history behind Bitcoin here:" - Jameson Lopp
https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information/history.html

16th of April:

➡Bitcoin Core 27.0 released:
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/release-notes/release-notes-27.0.md

TLDR: Bitcoin has now better privacy by default. An important and welcome change to Bitcoin core, by finally supporting encryption between nodes. This is a massive improvement.
For the technical readers of the Weekly Recap, I would recommend to following article and podcast
https://stephanlivera.com/episode/433/
https://bips.dev/324/

➡Google has opened a new office in El Salvador to support the country’s digital transformation and modernization of government services. Furthering President Bukele’s goal of turning the country into a tech hub. Bukele managed to lower crime, a growing economy, and higher foreign investment + more tourism.
Eat that IMF

➡BYBIT RESEARCH: "With only 2 million Bitcoin left, if we assume a daily inflow of $500 million to Bitcoin Spot ETFs, the equivalent of around 7,142 bitcoins will leave exchange reserves daily, suggesting that it will only take nine months to consume all of the remaining reserves." -Bitcoin News

➡ "$400 Billion Banco Do Brasil holds BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF
It is the BIGGEST financial institution in Latin America!"- Bitcoin Archive

➡"Mr. 100" is an unknown entity known for buying 100 Bitcoin every day since Nov 2, 2022. They now hold 60.600 BTC (!) worth $3.8 Billion ($1.6 Billion in profit)
Due to the size of the investment, many people speculate this is a nation-state buying Bitcoin. But who is it?" - Bram Kanstein

Great thread: https://twitter.com/bramk/status/1780243283060371717

I personally and I really do hope it is Brunei. They are mining Bitcoin and hopefully also buying Bitcoin.
But probably it is an exchange. Some people say this is an exchange wallet by Upbit Global.

17th of April:
➡'Hong Kong Bitcoin ETFs to start trading by 30th April and could bring in $25 billion: Matrixport and OSL reports.' -Radar

➡Last week I wrote a bit on UFC lightweight Renato Moicano: "If you care about your country, read Ludwig Von Mises' 6 lessons of the Austrian Economic School motherf*ckers".
He was referring to, it’s a series of six lectures Mises gave in Argentina in 1958, later combined into a book: “Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow”.

'Fifty years after his death, Mises gets more downloads in three days than what 95% of living economists get in their entire lifetime. Regurgitating fiat propaganda may give you fiat jobs & titles, but pursuing truth gives you immortality.'- Saeifedean Ammous

➡Blackrock spot Bitcoin ETF IBIT closing the $2.3B gap on Grayscale's GBTC in assets, could be ahead by month's end, according to Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas

➡ Now that the halving has passed us, and Bitcoin has become the hardest money in the world. Bitcoin’s most explosive gains are typically post-halving. Great chart from VanEck. (Picture 1)

18th of April:
Just the IMF putting time, effort, and money into reporting on Bitcoin.
They published a paper on Bitcoin cross-border flows, and here are three major takeaways:
'1.) The study provides evidence that increased Bitcoin activity occurs as investors move away from risk assets and supports the findings of other studies that Bitcoin can be used to hedge global uncertainty.'
2.) The study concludes that people appear to be turning to Bitcoin to flee instability in their local economies and currencies and to circumvent capital controls.
3.) The findings highlight that Bitcoin flows are typically larger in emerging and developing markets, like Argentina and Venezuela, compared to advanced economies with sophisticated financial markets.' - Sam Callahan
Source: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2024/04/05/A-Primer-on-Bitcoin-Cross-Border-Flows-Measurement-and-Drivers-547429#:~:text=Bitcoin%20cross%2Dborder%20flows%20respond,to%20avoid%20capital%20flow%20restrictions

To sum it up the IMF just said :
1. Bitcoin is increasingly used as a hedge against risk
2. Bitcoin is used as freedom money in autocratic regimes
3. Bitcoin’s biggest use case is the global south to protect against currency debasement and financial instability
Cope from the IMF? The IMF just realized that Bitcoin nullifies the need for their existence.
For sure it is a surprising study, but I am not surprised by the outcome.

➡Riot has started mining Bitcoin at its new Corsicana Texas facility.
With a capacity of 1 GW, it is projected to be the biggest in the world.' - Pierre Rochard

➡ Jamie Dimon says Bitcoin is a fraud and a Ponzi scheme.
- JP Morgan funds hold Bitcoin
- JPMorgan, His firm is an Authorized Participant (AP) for the BlackRock spot Bitcoin ETF and gets paid for trading “fraud”.

➡Binance dumps over 16,000 Bitcoin to back up their SAFU fund with ~$1 billion USDC

➡'When Nobel Peace Prize nominee Félix Maradiaga tells you that Bitcoin is truly a tool for freedom after discussing the egregious human rights violations carried out by the Ortega regime, you listen.'
https://twitter.com/btcpolicyorg/status/1780983728858087893

Bitcoin serves as a tool to ensure human rights. Important for all world citizens, but especially for those living in Africa & South America.

19th - 20th of April:

Now I can explain to you what the halving is, but I rather let some Bitcoin OG's do that:
'The Bitcoin halving is not a day to celebrate because the price will immediately go up (it probably won't) but because it's a quadrennial reminder that we now have a means of saving free of debasement and resistant to censorship. For that I'm thankful.
Thank you, Satoshi' - Vijay Boyapati

'The Bitcoin halving is an anticipated event, one of those Bitcoin holidays that happen every once in a while. Along with Soft Fork Activation and various financial instrument introduction days, it's one of those not-quite-predictable days that occur every few years which give Bitcoiners reason to pay attention and mainstream media to speculate.'- Jimmy Song.

'Every node on the Bitcoin network divides the block height by a fixed issuance halving interval, 210,000 blocks. Rounding to the nearest whole number gives us how many halvings to apply to the 50 BTC initial per-block subsidy.
Halvings are applied by "right shifting" the binary representation of the subsidy, where the last bit is dropped and a zero is prepended in front. Each right shift applied causes a halving of issuance.' - Pierre Rochard (picture 2)

Andreas Antonopoulos explaining the halving:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwkRsp0gqX4&feature=youtu.be
The halving block, block 840.000, had 37.6 Bitcoin worth of fees... It wasn't just blocked 840,000 that had high fees, over the next 5 blocks, we had fees of 4.486, 6.99, 16.068, 24.008, and 29.821 BTC respectively. The fees are the highest it's ever been. This situation in Bitcoin is unprecedented.

If you want to know more on this topic (high fees - post halving) I highly recommend:
https://twitter.com/jimmysong/status/1781518918001078441

➡'In the first 60 blocks since the 4th Bitcoin halving, miners have collected 860.2 BTC in transaction fees alone. Equivalent to over $54m, this has already smashed the previous single-day all-time high transaction fees of $24m.' - Jameson Lopp

21st of April:

'In the 130 blocks post-halving, Bitcoin miners earned 1,675 BTC ($109 million)
Of this, 75% (1,262 BTC worth $82 million) came from transaction fees.
For context, miners received 1,349 BTC in fees from April 1 to April 19.' - Bitcoin News

💸Traditional Finance / Macro:

👉🏽 'US Treasury Bills now yield 4 TIMES more than the S&P 500's dividend, the most since the Dot-com bubble.
Over the last 100 years, a multiple this high has only been seen ONE time.
By comparison, even in the 2008 Financial Crisis, this metric peaked at ~3x.
With interest rate cuts being priced out, we likely see interest rates on bonds continue to push higher.
This will keep US T-Bill rates elevated and perhaps push this ratio to its 2000 highs.
Yet another Dot-com bubble similarity.'- TKL

🏦Banks:
👉🏽no news

🌎Macro/Geopolitics:

On the 16th of April:
👉🏽You are being told that we are in the greatest economy ever. Yet, every indicator shows we are in a terrible failing economy across the board, the US, Europe, etc. Stagflation is here and will only accelerate.
Although this is just a graph/ratio, AI will surely save us, right guys? (Picture 3)
We all know what followed, right? Populist leaders (please look around in your country) and a world war...

“The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.”

- Ernest Hemingway
The US military is in a symbiotic relationship with the Dollar. If one part fails, it will drag the other down. Do understand that once Rome also spent more on 'defense' than others. Fiat currency is always about political faith. Always.
(Picture 4)

👉🏽"The IMF has cut Germany's economic growth in 2024 to 0.2%, after projecting a 0.5% rise in its January forecast. Europe's biggest economy is predicted to have the weakest growth of all G7 industrialized nations for the current year. For 2025, the IMF revised German growth to 1.3% from the previous 1.6%. IMF said this is due to persistently weak consumer sentiment. In the long term, the IMF's main concerns for Germany are structural problems such as the decline in the working population and obstacles to investment." - Holger Zschaepitz

I think the first time I spoke publicly on this matter was like three years ago. Germany is a slow-motion train wreck without cheap Russian natural gas. The green agenda isn't working, closing nuclear power plants isn't working...Europe's engine is on the ropes.

Oh well, this is an IMF so-called forecast.

👉🏽'The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage in the US rises to 7.43%, a new 2024 high.
We have not seen mortgage rates this high since early December 2023, when the Fed said rate cut talks were "premature."
This means that the monthly mortgage payment on a $500,000 house with 20% down is now $3,500/month.
The $3,500/month figure also does not include property taxes, insurance, or maintenance.
Meanwhile, the median US home is now selling for a whopping $417,700.'- TKL

I guess it is a great time to be a rental property owner. Yikes!
This thought-provoking thread has a very counterintuitive, contrarian take:
https://twitter.com/VincentDeluard/status/1780679971146731837
TLDR: 'This sums it up pretty well. Sound money helps slow the process, too. The fiat advent coupled with Keynesian asset inflation policies created a perfect storm. The rise of Chinese deflation exporting was the nail in the coffin because it made this reflexive.' -Nelson Alves

On the 17th of April:
👉🏽'The US is expected to collect $2.9 trillion in tax receipts during FY2024 as of Q1.
Government expenditures over that period are expected to be over $9.7 trillion.
The thousands of dollars you remitted to TurboTax today won't cover even 1/3rd of US expenditures.'- Joe Consorti

👉🏽UK Inflation at 3.2% — the lowest in more than 2 years from a peak of 11.1%

On the 18th of April:
👉🏽'Want to be in the top 1% in the United States?
You now need a net worth of a whopping $5.8 MILLION.
This is up 15% from the $5.0 million threshold seen just one year ago.
The top 1% threshold in the US is only lower than Monaco, Luxembourg, and Switzerland.
As equity markets and real estate prices have skyrocketed, the wealth gap is widening.
Since 2020, the wealth of the top 1% in the US has risen by almost $15 trillion to a record $44.6 trillion.
The rich are getting richer faster than ever before.' -TKL

👉🏽IMF Prepares Financial Revolution – Say Goodbye To The Dollar
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/imf-prepares-financial-revolution-say-goodbye-dollar
The only thing I can say on this is:
- I am not surprised
- Please reject CBDCs with everything you have. The centralization of digital currencies will never work!
- The IMF is not elected!

Anyway, no need to panic whatsoever. The IMF probably goes before the dollar. The dollar is and will be the number one (fiat) currency of the world.

On the 20th of April:
👉🏽'The Congressional Budget Office expects that about $20 trillion in net new federal debt will be issued over the next decade.
As part of this, they assume 1) no recessions but also that 2) that interest rates will go down starting here in 2024.
Otherwise, probably >$20 trillion.'
Now go back to the top of this article and read the start quote.
(Picture 5)
'Over the same next decade:
At current production rates and prices, about $2.5 trillion in new refined gold will be created. Prices and supply rates could change.
At current prices, about $70 billion in new bitcoin will be created. Prices could change, but not supply rates.' - Lyn Alden

On top of that:
👉🏽'The U.S. has $4.4 Trillion annual revenue, prints $1 Trillion every 100 days and there is still somehow a need to vote for $100 Billion aid to countries on top of everything else. House approves aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. House Rejects Border Security Bill.
The U.S. doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a government spending problem.
'A child born in 2024 in the U.S. is born with ~$85,000 debt.
The median U.S. bank account balance is $8,000 and over half of the population has less than $500 in savings.
So, printing $ Trillions and sending $100s of Billions abroad is not without consequences.' - Gabor Gurbacs

Politicians celebrating sending another $60B to fund a foreign war. Perfect more DEBT!
Context:
$34.6 trillion in debt.
123% Debt to GDP
Nearly a $3 trillion deficit this year.
video:  https://twitter.com/MDBitcoin/status/1781786149071032712

Separate money and state.

To sum everything up from above:
The US hasn’t generated a surplus consistently since the 1990s.
The trend over the past 50 years has been:
Larger and larger monthly deficits.
Monthly surpluses are getting few and far between.
That’s why the debt can only continue rising exponentially.
Deficit is destiny. That means increasing the rate of debasement of the US$.

21st of April:
'Who is supposed to pay for pensions and healthcare entitlements in Italy in a few years?
BTW, it’s a similar picture in Germany. Demographics is one of the main reasons why the US will be much better off than Europe as we go forward.' -Michael A. Arouet

If I were 50 years old in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands we are starting to see the same effect, I'd start wondering who will pay my state-funded pension.
You need either economic growth, acceptance of high migration, or healthy demographics. Italy has none of the three. What will give?

https://twitter.com/MichaelAArouet/status/1781978599391674470
Please click on the link and have a look at the graph.

🎁If you have made it this far I would like to give you a little gift:

Lyn Alden's April newsletter is out. Well, worth your time to read this:
https://www.lynalden.com/april-2024-newsletter/

Only invest in Bitcoin what you can’t afford to have gradually stolen from you by the government.

Credit: I have used multiple sources!
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The tool I recommend for setting up a Bitcoin savings plan: @Relai 🇨🇭 especially suited for beginners or people who want to invest in Bitcoin with an automated investment plan once a week or monthly. Hence a DCA, Dollar cost Average Strategy. Check out my tutorial post (Instagram) & video (YouTube) for more info.

Get your Bitcoin out of exchanges. Save them on a hardware wallet, run your own node...be your own bank. Not your keys, not your coins. It's that simple.

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My savings account: Bitcoin
The tool I recommend for setting up a Bitcoin savings plan: @Relai 🇨🇭 🇨🇭 especially suited for beginners or people who want to invest in Bitcoin with an automated investment plan once a week or monthly. Hence a DCA, Dollar cost Average Strategy. Check out my tutorial post (Instagram) & video (YouTube) for more info.

Get your Bitcoin out of exchanges. Save them on a hardware wallet, run your own node...be your own bank. Not your keys, not your coins. It’s that simple.🎯

Do you think this post is helpful to you? If so, please share it and support my work with sats. 🧡

Felipe - BitcoinFriday

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