🧠Quote(s) of the week:

"The internet reorganized the world and started the transition from the Analog Age to the Digital Age.
Bitcoin is the logical next step and has already begun repricing the world.

This potent combination will have (is already having) significant implications for individuals, families, businesses, and even nation-states.

Long-standing power structures are shifting before our very eyes... And this is just the beginning.
The seeds for the coming Age of Legends have already sprouted.

Cling to the old ways and methods and social hierarchies and currencies if you want to, but it's much more interesting to help build a better tomorrow for humanity.

Bitcoin is Better Money for a Better World." - Dr. Jeff Ross

🧡Bitcoin news🧡

➡El Salvador is up $74 million (+60%) and now $200M on their Bitcoin holdings.
Their GDP is ~$30B and growing at 2% a 10x in Bitcoin would add 7% nearly quadruple GDP growth
Emerging economies are going to see this and say wtf are we doing? Hello, game theory!

➡Arkham claims to have identified Tesla and SpaceX's on-chain Bitcoin holdings.
"We believe Tesla currently has 11.51K (BTC $780M) across 68 addresses and SpaceX has 8.29K BTC ($560M) across 28 addresses, consistent with the financial statements of Tesla and SpaceX.”

➡Bitcoin privacy summarized:
1. Without KYC data your Bitcoin is pseudonymous.
2. Coinjoin, like Whirlpool, enables you to obscure your activity.
3. Running a node (over Tor) gives you protection at the network level, and eliminates trusted 3rd parties.

➡The latest Brave Wallet desktop update (v1.63) introduces all main Bitcoin address formats, including Legacy, Nested SegWit, Native SegWit, and Taproot.
Great step by Brave and I would recommend each and everyone to use Brave as your standard browser. The logical next step would be to incorporate Lightning into their wallet.

➡37 days to the Bitcoin halving when BTC inflation drops to less than half that of gold which makes it the hardest money in the history of humanity.
On top of that Bitcoin:
"ETFs are buying 10k Bitcoin per day and only 900 are mined. They get the rest from weak hands, pRoFiT takers, and people who broke even from the last bull run. These people will soon be empty. Then the ETFs will bid for the BTC held by laser-eyed 80 IQ psychopaths. Good luck!" Bitcoin for Freedom
Are you ready?

➡Do you remember how the ETC posted on Twitter that Bitcoin has failed to become a global decentralized digital currency, instead falling victim to fraud and manipulation?

The recent approval of an ETF doesn’t change the fact that Bitcoin is costly, slow, and inconvenient.
No, you don't remember it, and neither do I....haha
(picture 2)

➡The state of Louisiana becomes the eleventh state to officially introduce a bill to protect fundamental Bitcoin rights.

This bill, sponsored by @WrightLouisiana, protects:
Your right to buy, sell, and trade Bitcoin
Your right to mine & validate
Your right to self-custody Bitcoin
Your right to run a full node

The momentum for Bitcoin is building at an impressive pace, with Louisiana stepping into the spotlight as the eleventh state to introduce legislation aimed at protecting Bitcoin users' fundamental rights.

➡Stanford Endowment has bought Bitcoin at 45k.
In February, pitched IBIT to Blyth Fund, the student-run fund which manages a portion of Stanford's Endowment.
Bitcoin is now ~7% of the portfolio.
The thesis, which tried to remain as objectively bullish as possible while catering to an audience of skeptics, revolved around 3 key factors:
-ETF Inflows
-Cyclicality of Bitcoin
-Schelling Point For Monetary Chaos + War
Here's the pitch (25min) that convinced them to buy:
https://twitter.com/kolelee_/status/1764745867435921745

➡The whole world’s getting repriced in terms of Bitcoin…and there’ll only ever be 21 million…which means everything’s still overvalued by about 330x.
https://twitter.com/w_s_bitcoin/status/1764661974074286093

This means Bitcoin is undervalued by 330x.

➡"The Senator who said “Bitcoin can open the doors of corruption in El Salvador," was just indicted on 18 counts for obstruction of justice.

Federal Prosecutors seized $100,000 in gold bars and $480,000 in hidden cash from his home.

Quelle dommage…" - RaderHits

➡Germany's largest stock exchange Deutsche Börse has launched a Bitcoin and crypto trading platform for institutions.

➡On the 5th of March: "The ten Bitcoin ETFs did $10b in volume today, smashing the previous record set last Wed. Volatility and volume go hand in hand with ETFs so not totally surprised. That said these are bananas numbers for ETfs under 2mo old."
Although this sounds great, five companies (AAPL, MSFT, GOOGL, AMZN, and META) are hoarding a combined $517B of cash.
A mere 1.67% of that is equivalent to the $8.5B of total net inflows into the Bitcoin ETFs, so far.
Ask yourself what will happen if Blackrock advisors are talking to these five companies to allocate 1-5% into Bitcoin via IBIT.

We are not there yet, and I quote Joe Carlasara:
"The bigger the realized market cap of Bitcoin, the MORE attractive it becomes to big money.
Countless players still view the Bitcoin market as too small to merit attention. This changes when the market is 3x to 5x larger.
As a fund manager who I speak with regularly said, “If it can sustain itself above $100,000, we might start to nibble.”
Understanding this dynamic is key."

➡On the 7th of March, we received the news that BlackRock filed with the SEC to purchase spot Bitcoin ETFs for its $15B Global Allocation Fund. Its $36b Strategic Income Opportunities Fund will also buy Bitcoin ETFs, as announced last week.
"Blackrock has $10 Trillion in assets under management.
Another $20 Trillion of funds use their Aladdin platform to make portfolio allocations.
BlackRock has stated that the optimal Bitcoin allocation is 84.9% of a portfolio.
Of course, few will do this, but we now have the world's biggest fund manager telling investors to get off zero.
Ernst & Young estimates that $200 Trillion of Institutional assets could not touch Bitcoin until an ETF was approved. "

➡On the 8th of March: "BlackRock Bitcoin ETF is set to break $10 BILLION in total flows today.
Fidelity is a strong second place with $6 Billion.
Demand is strong and is set to grow as more investment platforms and banks allow these ETFs onto their platforms." - Bitcoin Archive
Just for some context on the Fidelity bit.
Fidelity Bitcoin ETF smashed through its former record high with $473 million of inflows on the 7th of March.

➡Today we received the news that VanEck drops Bitcoin ETF fees to ZERO until March 2025! You have no clue what is coming! Hell, game theory!

➡After the 8th of March, BlackRock passed Microstrategy on Bitcoin owned.
Microstrategy took 3.5 years to reach it, and BlackRock made it in less than 2 months. yikes
Blackrock saw its biggest one-day inflow ever this week, acquiring 12.6K Bitcoin ($842M).
Their total holdings on the 9th of March stood at 196K Bitcoin. (picture 8)

➡Saylor is a freaking Chad though. MicroStrategy approaching $8 BILLION in profit on their Bitcoin position. And today we received the news that
MicroStrategy acquired an additional 12,000 BTC for $821.7M MSTR now hodls 205,000 BTC acquired for ~$6.91B at an average price of $33,706 per Bitcoin.

Pretty crazy stats:
The New 9 have flipped GBTC.
IBIT has flipped MSTR.
In general, "the first two months are officially in the books (it's felt like six) and the ten bitcoin ETFs now have over $55b in assets with exactly double that in volume at $110b. If these were the numbers at the end of the year I'd call them a success. To do it in eight weeks is simply absurd." - Eric Balchunas
Wall Street is now in Control.

➡Billionaire entrepreneur, Mark Cuban, calls Bitcoin a great store of value and states that he expects the price to go up due to supply and demand. It wasn’t long ago he claimed Bitcoin was worthless.

Just remember, their change in tone didn't happen by accident. The narrative is changing.

➡“OurBitcoin price target is now well above $1M by 2030, and with our new expectations for institutional involvement, the incremental price that we assume for institutions actually has more than doubled," says ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood

➡Bitcoin miners recorded the second-highest daily revenue ever at $75.9M on March 6th, the same day Hut 8 closed a Canadian site due to power issues and high energy costs, according to CryptoQuant head of research Julio Moreno.

➡Bitcoin miners are returning to the market after bear market hibernation, burning record energy and buying $1B worth of mining equipment despite the impending halving, according to Bloomberg.

➡The only thing rising faster than U.S. debt is the Bitcoin hash rate.
Hash is the real thing! Everything else is just noise.

➡Bitcoin is demonetising Gold ETFs as the 'Store of Value' narrative takes hold.
Bitcoin ETFs are taking in billions, while Gold ETFs are bleeding assets.
Bitcoin ETFs are catching up to Gold ETFs for assets.
$54 for BTC
$96b for Gold
(picture 3)
Bitcoin ETF volume surpasses $100 BILLION
This exceeds total flows into all physical gold ETFs over the past five years

💸Traditional Finance / Macro:

What can you expect this week in the traditional financial market?
Main highlight ahead:
In the US, we have CPI, retail sales, and PPI. In Europe, it’s the euro area industrial production, Sweden and Norway CPI, and UK labor market data. In Asia, we have India and China's CPI and the PBOC’s MLF rate decision.

"The S&P 500 has hit a record 5180 and is now up an incredible 26% in just 4 months.
Since the October 2023 low, the S&P 500 has added nearly 1,100 points.
In just 88 trading days, the S&P 500 has added $9 TRILLION in market cap.
That's an average of $102 billion per trading day for 88 days straight.
Since the March 2020 pandemic low, the S&P 500 is up 137%." - TKL

👉🏽"Nvidia, the 3rd biggest company in the world, fell 10% in 30 minutes on the 8th of March.
That's a company with $2.3 trillion in market cap trading like a penny stock.
Is it weird that this feels completely normal now?" - TKL

🏦Banks:

👉🏽"New York Community Bank stock crashes 20%+ after reporting "material weakness in internal controls."
The weakness is reportedly related to loan review resulting from ineffective oversight and risk assessment.
NYCB is the same bank that acquired the collapse of Signature Bank during the regional bank crisis.
This comes just weeks after the bank posted an unexpected $260 million loss in Q4 2023.
The stock is now at its lowest level since 1997."

On the day I posted last week's Weekly Recap, see the part above, New York Community Bank crashed 42% and has trading halted. Yikes

🌎Macro/Geopolitics:

Last week we received the news that the US payrolls were revised, again! January payrolls revised from 353K to... 229K

How many illegal immigrants were hired in February to make the Bidenomics "beat by 30K then revise it down by 50K next month" quota? Take a guess...

in February 1.2 million foreign-born workers (immigrants, both legal and illegal) found a new job. Meanwhile, 500K native-born American workers lost their jobs. And the bide admin is bragging about 250K jobs last month.

So what does that tell us...the market / financial economy rallies on what turns out to be false data and then rallies some more on the new false data and ignores the corrected data.
Rinse & repeat. Numbers don't mean a thing.

Just to give you some more info:
In the past year, the US has created 921,000 part-time jobs and lost 284,000 full-time jobs.
They just forget to mention this to the public. But Felipe, the headline jobs number says the US has added jobs for 38 straight months.
How is this possible?
Over the last 12 months, these full-time jobs have been replaced by 921,000 part-time jobs, according to Zerohedge.
The true number of workers employed in the United States right now is at its lowest since May 2023.
Last month, payrolls jumped by 275,000 but the total number of individuals employed fell by 184,000.
Just to give you some more details I quote Zerohedge:
"1. In the past year,
the US has lost 284K full-time jobs, these have been replaced with 921K part-time jobs

2. In February alone,
a record 1.2 million foreign-born jobs
were added.

3. In the past three months,
a record (ex-covid crash) 2.4 million native-born jobs have been lost,
including 494K jobs lost in February.

4. Most shocking,
since May 2018, there have been ZERO jobs created for native-born Americans. All jobs in the past 6 years have gone to immigrants, legal and illegal."

The US labor market is strong, right?
Here's a visual representation of the MASSIVE downward revisions in the jobs reports. (picture 4)

👉🏽"Credit card debt is now above the pre-covid trendline. The Savings rate... is not." - Zerohedge
(picture 5)

But hey, they say things like "the economy is strong", and "everything is fine.".
What you see is inflated debt from thin air using fake money. Eventually, UBI & CBDC will be offered in the depths of the crisis.

More on the DEBT bit...
"To put things into perspective: It took Uncle Sam 232 years to accumulate its first $10tn in debt, 9 years to accumulate its second, and 5 years to reach its third. The trip from $33 to $34tn in debt was a short one, requiring only 3 months, from Sep to Dec of 2023, Strategas has calculated."
(picture 6)

👉🏽ECB's Lagarde signals a June rate cut with 2% inflation in sight. Markets agree and price in 97bps cut for 2024.

At the same time in the US, FED chair Jerome Powell: "We are not looking for inflation to go all the way down to 2% but we do need more evidence".
Ergo: Grooming the sheep for 3% thievery,...I mean inflation.
I fully believe that the next decade(s) will be much more inflationary so the government continues to deficit spend 9print money to keep the economy artificially afloat.

👉🏽Gold has hit another record, but the volume of gold ETFs keeps falling. This indicates that demand is not coming from private or institutional investors, but that other players are stocking up on the precious metal. Central banks were a major driver of Gold prices in 2022/2023 and will likely continue to be so in 2024. This is ominous for the (current) monetary system.

👉🏽Meanwhile, in China, massive lines form across China as citizens rush to buy gold in an effort to preserve their wealth amidst a declining economy.
How long until they start finding ways to obtain Bitcoin?

👉🏽A couple of Weekly Recaps I shared some info on the average number of usual weekly hours of work in the main job across Europe.
"In the Netherlands, roughly half of all employees work 35 hours or less, and polls show that even more people would like to work less. The same trend occurs in many other Western countries as well. This is fine as long as you accept that GDP growth will be structurally lower because of this. Yet GDP growth remains one of the key ‘promises’ of every politician and central banker. To realize artificial growth, the same ‘magic’ ingredient is used over and over again. Debt! As a result, debt is now the primary ‘source’ of growth around the globe." - Jeroen Blokland (picture 7)
Now sometimes working less produces more. But that is not the case. Productivity has risen much faster in the US than in the Eurozone. So not only has the US a much stronger demographics than Europe, but also productivity is way better than Europe. Now the real question would be...how great is the quality of that productivity?
Source: https://www.ft.com/content/22089f01-8468-4905-8e36-fd35d2b2293e

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

A great What Bitcoin Did podcast. And please I urge you to watch the interview on YouTube because of the in-depth charts:
Bitcoin’s Biggest Bull Run with
@therationalroot
- The pace of this bull market
- Bitcoin ETF growth & flows
- What to expect post halving
- The changing dynamics of the market

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fuek7IalU8&t=1818s

“I think we’ll just get to prices from a million to 10 million at some point, and then Bitcoin is going to be such a big currency that it just becomes a better currency than the US dollar obviously…that will also be a gradual transition.”Free knowledge!

Anyway, that's it for today.
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://void.cat/d/BdimAjAFqXVnQfyaTQgGMg.webp
https://void.cat/d/YcQrb6FrGSy5ixQQcvKm8y.webp
https://void.cat/d/5uyFPidDeFNRotATz5kiTi.webp
https://void.cat/d/RLtZa6SbN3Bk3Doscf5K4V.webp
https://void.cat/d/JE6YV8sDP9Ngq4UFyUozvk.webp
https://void.cat/d/KdnqKMt2Cy4oaZGvpXNXv7.webp
https://void.cat/d/HaWdiv9kVTs6ehQeZLdVin.webp


When you live in the #Bitcoin world for a few years, it’s truly difficult to imagine that bad takes are not malicious. In truth, they are almost always merely just from ignorance.

Reminders that we are still so early.


“Bitcoiners become more conscientious consumers because they recognize the opportunity cost of parting with their bitcoin today.

They know that every particular purchase (e.g., dishwasher, laptop, holiday, etc.) will eventually become the most expensive one they ever make.” nostr:npub14hn6p34vegy4ckeklz8jq93mendym9asw8z2ej87x2wuwf8werasc6a32x

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.

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

#zap                🧡   #nostr                  #BTC                 #Bitcoin                #plebchain                   #grownostr    #stacksats #bitcoineducation #adoption #thepriceoftomorrow https://image.nostr.build/33992ad1a41d055bb416232b05d1d42cc8ceb517832ba0130c036d19ab548dac.jpg


Forget the numbers, but I agree with the logic, just do the math and follow the trend. Everything priced in BTC is getting cheaper.

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.

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

#zap               🧡   #nostr                 #BTC                #Bitcoin               #plebchain                  #grownostr    #stacksats #bitcoineducation #adoption #thepriceoftomorrow https://image.nostr.build/6986ad280dd1ec9249e340fd9b9d0b22d339f2a7b27469b3bb9a34a4f00ff8ab.jpg


GM freaks 🧡💙


“If you’re new here, just start stacking your heart out… get as much #bitcoin as you fucking can. This thing is a runaway freight train & you’re not going to be able to catch it… if people in your life are not showing active disdain, YOU’RE NOT STACKING HARD ENOUGH.” — nostr:npub1rtlqca8r6auyaw5n5h3l5422dm4sry5dzfee4696fqe8s6qgudks7djtfs on nostr:npub10qrssqjsydd38j8mv7h27dq0ynpns3djgu88mhr7cr2qcqrgyezspkxqj8
#AnotherFuckingBitcoinPodcast #Titcoin https://v.nostr.build/nQGd.mp4


🧠Quote(s) of the week:

"If the China mining ban and FTX selling billions of dollars of fake Bitcoin in 2021 did suppress the price, then it's likely that the real previous all-time high should have been > $100,000.

That would potentially explain how we're so close to new "highs" already.

If the price was suppressed in 2021, which it undoubtedly was to some extent, then maybe we’re just making normal progress back to the “would have been” all-time high of over $100,000.

It might be possible that bitcoin outperforms the muted returns seen last cycle. At the end of the day, bitcoin is objectively the world’s best money due to its superior monetary properties. 93% of all coins have already been mined and less than 1% of the world has a serious allocation. So get ready, this could get out of control quickly." - Joe Burnett

Very well put and succinct. I think Joe is right, I have been saying that last year also.

🧡Bitcoin news🧡

➡Let's start the Weekly Recap with the tweet that made me spit out my coffee:
"Let's be honest
A lot of people did not expect Bitcoin to get back to ATH territory with Fed Funds at 5.33% and the average mortgage rate at 7.27%
It was a speculative, zero-interest rate, easy money phenomenon, they said.
Boy, do we have news for you!" - Alex Gladstein

Just imagine what will happen if they (the FED) will lower rates...just imagine.

➡11 days ago, the European Central Bank said Bitcoin's fair value is zero.
Yesterday, BTC reached an all-time high vs the Euro.
Bitcoin is up 285% since the European Central Bank said Bitcoin was on "the road to irrelevance".
It was literally the bottom of the bear market.

➡UK authorities push for regulation to seize your Bitcoin.
„Authorities will be able to retrieve crypto assets directly from exchanges and custodian wallet providers.“ https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2024/269/made/data.pdf

Get your Bitcoin off exchanges and into cold storage, now!

➡ Australian bank, Commonwealth Bank, limits users’ ability to buy cryptocurrency as Bitcoin hits new ATH in the country.
"If they can control how you spend your money, it’s not your money."

➡Balance of Bitcoin on OTC desks hits lowest levels since Q4 2018.

More on that topic...

➡All in all last week Friday, just over $2.3B worth of Bitcoin left on exchanges. One of the biggest withdrawals in over 5 years. (Roughly $200M of this was sent to Coinbase Prime) so let’s call it $2B.
Binance saw about $400M and has seen fairly big outflows for the past few days. Coinbase saw the rest.
Binance outflows are the interesting ones because they have nothing to do with the ETF.

Talking about Coinbase...

➡Coinbase crashed again during the Bitcoin rally that hit $67,000, showing zero for customer balances.
Coinbase also crashed last week in the middle of a rally.

➡Bitcoin Inflows to accumulation addresses (never spend) reach an all-time high.

➡The price of a house has gone from 20 Bitcoin to under 7 Bitcoin IN LESS THAN A YEAR.

➡This was not on my Bitcoin 24' Bingo card and I still find it hard to believe, but the WEF finally shared something positive about Bitcoin. I guess that is the power of Larry Fink (BlackRock).
"Just remember, their change in tone didn't happen by accident.
CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink, is on the WEF Board of Trustees.
BlackRock is the largest spot Bitcoin ETF provider in the world and they are adding billions of dollars in Bitcoin every week to their fund.
Make no mistake: the narrative is changing." - The Bitcoin Therapist

In the video, the WEF shows how one of Africa’s largest natural parks uses hydroelectricity to mine Bitcoin generating $150,000 a month. It also uses the heat generated by Bitcoin mining ASICS to make chocolate.
https://twitter.com/gladstein/status/1763944314437009451

"I am not mentally prepared to deal with videos from the World Economic Forum that promote the positive social and sustainability benefits of Bitcoin mining. The cognitive dissonance is too much.
Is this the turn of the tide?" - Freddie New

Anyway, the truth will always prevail.

More on the mining bit...

➡1.5 GIGAWATTS of Bitcoin mining have officially reported their grid balancing activity to the ‘Curtailment Survey’.

That is enough power to heat 1.5 million small homes or energize 300 large hospitals.

It is critical now, more than ever that we help paint a clear picture for lawmakers and regulators on the value of Bitcoin mining as a large flexible consumer of power.

➡El Salvador’s congress passes a tax code amendment, changing the threshold for requesting buyer documents from $200 to $25,000. This helps maintain privacy for those who are using Bitcoin in the country. Great move by El Salvador. By implementing this tax code amendment BTC is treated more like a normal currency. If you exchange 25k USD worth you have to record the transaction and the bank needs to know who the customer is. Before it was a threshold of $200.

➡Texas Blockchain Council's lawsuit successfully stops the Biden administration from government data collection on Bitcoin miners.

The Government agrees to destroy the data collected.

➡Jack Mallers at Bitcoin Atlantis in Madeira says Strike will be available in Europe within a matter of weeks.

➡Feb 2024 printed a $19.84k Bitcoin candle, the largest monthly USD increase in history.
This added $390B to the Bitcoin market cap...
Up a remarkable 47%.

➡Bitcoin officially enters Bull market territory on Plan B's model with the first since 2021.
This usually marks the start of a parabolic move.
Although it is just a model, most of PlanB's forecasts were inaccurate. It tells you something... bull market is on. And it is already on for a couple of months.

➡"Bitcoin has already reached all-time-high prices in 11 of the top 20 global currencies.
The rest will follow as governments continue to print money to cover for their deficit spending.
People are opting out of this madness around the world, and we get called crazy for it." fellow Dutchie...Sam Wouters (picture 1)

When we talk about Bitcoin ATH, we usually mean in USD or if you are living in Europe in EURO. But in 11 of the top 20 fiat currencies, they have already hit a new ATH. Crazy don't you think? Bitcoin is the apex predator and you can't stop it. It is coming...it's coming to a currency near you!

➡Great tweet by Dennis Porter:
"Today, over $5.5 trillion in assets sits in state pension funds.
If even 3% of AUM in state pensions leaks into the Bitcoin ETF that would equal $165 billion of new inflows.
Since launching, the Bitcoin ETFs have attracted $8 billion of inflows.
I’ll let you do the math."

Dennis is spot on!

➡On the 26th of February GBTC sent only 776 Bitcoin to Coinbase premium ($39m).
Since the ETFs launch, the 11th of January is the lowest amount of Bitcoin so far that GBTC sent to Coinbase before the opening of the trading day.
The two trading days before GBTC sent more than $150m of BTC to Coinbase premium and the total outflow at the end of the day was $55m and $44m.

On the 2nd of March: "Today was another huge liquidation by Genesis out of GBTC: $492MM in outflows. But after this and yesterday's $600MM, there is almost nothing left of the $1.3BN Genesis was cleared to liquidate."

You might be saying, now that we witnessed a positive inflow last week, and the price of Bitcoin reacted accordingly last week.

More ETF news...

➡ BlackRock spot Bitcoin ETF "broke its personal record again" trading over $1.3 billion on the 27th of February. Before the market opening on the 27th...
"Another thing about IBIT volume that's notable is the amount of pre-market activity.. check this out, it's already seen $80m traded.. only 5 ETFs have seen more activity ahead of mkt open. Unprecedented for 2-month-old ETF."

Just to put it in perspective how fucking insane the IBIT ETF is:

"IBIT is the newest member of the $10 Billion Club, the fastest ever to get there. Only 152 ETFs in this club (out of 3,400) including $GBTC. First $10b so touch bc so much has to come from flows (in $IBITs case 78% of aum is flows). Second $10b is easier because market appreciation bigger variable." Eric Balchunas

"Let's not forget that in August 2022, 1.5 years ago, Black Rock and its wealthiest clients front-ran their own spot Bitcoin ETF announcement and ultimate approval. The price at this time was just over $20,000.
They also gobbled up the FTX dip down to $15,500. Like him or not, Larry Fink is playing chess while most others are still playing checkers"- Oliver L. Velez

More BlackRock Bitcoin ETF news:

➡Blackrock debuts the iSHARES Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT39) on B3, Brazil’s major stock exchange.
The initial management fee is set at 0.25% but will drop to 0.12% after the fund reaches $5 billion in assets under management (AUM).

➡Bitcoin is demonetising Gold ETFs as the 'Store of Value' narrative takes hold.
Bitcoin ETFs are taking in billions, while Gold ETFs are bleeding assets. picture 2+3
ETFs are catching up to Gold ETFs for assets.
$40.7 for BTC
$92b for Gold
After just 31 trading days! Mindblowing!

➡Coinbase reports that Texas voters are interested in presidential candidates' positions on Bitcoin.
4.7M Texas adults (21%) own 'crypto', and 74% of them are likely to support candidates who stand alongside the national cryptocurrency industry.

➡According to Bitinfocharts, Google Trends for Bitcoin is now back to 2015 levels (when Bitcoin was $200). It’s over $50,000 now and the general public couldn’t care less.

➡Mr. 100 bought 5x 100 Bitcoin on the 25th of February (USD 26m), after buying 4x 100 BTC the day before. Mr. 100 has purchased an average of 100 Bitcoin per day since November 2022. It now holds 51,164 BTC worth $3.1 billion. Mental!
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/mystery-whale-has-quietly-accumulated-over-3-billion-bitcoin-15-months

➡Tim Buckley is stepping down as CEO of Vanguard at the end of the year. Kind of a shocker tbh although he has been there 33 years. Greg Davis was appointed President. The board is on search now for a new CEO.

Now some people may say this all has to do with the decision not to start a Bitcoin ETF, others will say this has nothing to do with Bitcoin. In the end, I don’t see why it wouldn’t have to do with the Bitcoin decision. Being that it’s the hottest ETF product of our lifetime. And Vanguard would likely have been #1. Plus how many customers did they anger/lose by banning the other ETFs? It doesn’t help that Bitcoin mooned too. "Higher Bitcoin prices aren't the problem. Exposing yourself as knowing nothing about economics, finance, or technology.
That's the problem.

Vanguard had 3 options:
a) be right and make money
b) be wrong and make money
c) be wrong and lose money
They went with C."

➡Someone who just started DCA'ing $1,000 per week into Bitcoin will probably never reach a whole coin.

➡Some clown news from the crazy world called Ethereum. You know, the mother shitcoin from which all shitcoin sprung. Ethereum Foundation's Michael Neuder wants to change the issuance curve of Ethereum; takes inspiration from the Central Bank of Japan.
I am not surprised...if you are still investing in ETH... HFSP! I am not going to sugarcoat it anymore.

💸Traditional Finance / Macro:

What can you expect this week in the traditional financial market?
Main highlight ahead:

In North America, we have ISM and Payrolls, testimony from Fed Chair Powell and a Bank of Canada policy meeting. In Europe, the focus will be on the European Central Bank meeting and post-meeting press conference with ECB president Lagarde. In Asia, with inflation and earnings data in Japan, China aggregate financing and RBM loan growth, Korea industrial production and CPI, Australia GDP and the Bank Negara policy meeting.

👉🏽Nvidia is now worth more than the GDP of Russia, South Korea, Australia, Spain, Indonesia, Turkey,
Although Nvidia again skyrocketed last week we see that institutional money is rotating out of tech.
https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1762118405266563108

👉🏽Over the last 16 years, US stocks have gained 427% vs. 85% for International stocks and 36% for Emerging Markets. This is the longest cycle of US outperformance that we’ve ever seen.
This sounds great, but it is the biggest Ponzi scheme on earth. Currently DEBT/Ratio is at an unsustainable 137%. Now ask yourself? Did the market grow that much because of sheer productivity and technology or is it more based on liquidity (hence: DEBT)? More on this topic below, segment Macro/Geopolitics.
Oh regarding the unsustainable 137 % debt/GDP. In terms of debt-to-GDP, the last time the U.S. saw this level was during World War II.

🏦Banks:

👉🏽"New York Community Bank stock crashes 20%+ after reporting "material weakness in internal controls."
The weakness is reportedly related to loan review resulting from ineffective oversight and risk assessment.
NYCB is the same bank that acquired the collapse of Signature Bank during the regional bank crisis.
This comes just weeks after the bank posted an unexpected $260 million loss in Q4 2023.
The stock is now at its lowest level since 1997."

In general, the delinquency rate among large banks hits 3%, the highest in 11 years.
The delinquency rate among small banks hits 7.80%, the highest on record.

👉🏽On the first of March: THE WHITE HOUSE: THE BANKING SYSTEM REMAINS SOUND, AND IS RESILIENT.
Buckle up people, buckle up! haha

🌎Macro/Geopolitics:

In last week's Weekly Recap I already mentioned that the US borrowed a shit lot of money. This week... oh well they did the same:
"While everyone was busy talking about AI stocks this week, the US borrowed another $100 BILLION in 4 days. Currently, total US debt stands at a record $34.5 trillion, up $11.2 TRILLION since 2020.
At the current pace, the US deficit for this fiscal year will cross $3 trillion, nearly double the $1.6 trillion deficit that Congress estimated. Over the last 100 days, total US debt is up a whopping $1 trillion, an average of $10 billion per day.
We should see $35 trillion+ in US debt within a couple of months."-TKL

Now if you don't believe you need Bitcoin, here is a statement by the Bank of America:
"The US national debt is rising $1 trillion every 100 days, according to Bank of America. They estimate it will take just 95 days for the debt to climb to $35 trillion from $34 trillion, compared to the 92 days it took to grow to $33 trillion from $32 trillion.
This is making “debt debasement” trades attractive like bitcoin and gold says BoA."
Okay one more statement: The U.S. national debt is rising by the entire market cap of Bitcoin every ~100 days.
Opt-out: Bitcoin

👉🏽Another HUGE call from Apollo on the first of March:
"The Fed will not cut rates this year, and rates are going to stay higher for longer."
Apollo says the US economy is not slowing down, and the Fed pivot has provided a strong tailwind to growth since December. They also note that many measures of inflation are pointing higher again including Supercore Inflation at 4.5%.
Meanwhile, asking rents are rising, more cities are seeing rising rents and home prices are rising.
Just 2 months ago, markets were pricing in 6 rate cuts in 2024.
The Fed's job is far from done." - TKL

Ergo: the struggle for everyday people will remain. Inflation will remain, and the difference/gap between the financial economy and the real economy will remain. Higher for longer just like what happened in the 1970's. If breaking inflation was as easy as raining rates for a few quarters, everyone would do it. I have said it multiple times don't get surprised if inflation will re-accelerate in the upcoming year(s).

👉🏽"Good Morning from Germany, which is obviously in a recession. At least that is what many indicators suggest: economic slack – demand falling increasingly short of potential output – is reappearing, acc to HFE. Widening slack stabilizes or depresses prices because in such an environment pricing power of comps is weakened." Holger Zschaepitz

👉🏽"Eurozone CPI slowed less than anticipated in Feb, highlighting stickiness in inflation. Headline inflation eased to 2.6% YoY in Feb, above the 2.5% consensus estimate in the BBG survey. Core inflation came down by 0.2%-pt to 3.1%, also an upward surprise compared to a 2.9% consensus estimate.

👉🏽A strong visual representation of the actual cost of corruption: https://twitter.com/MacroAlf/status/1763982945897906403

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

Very inspiring keynote by Daniel Batten at Bitcoin Atlantis in Madeira on the mitigation of methane emissions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bikLdxCKQjc

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://void.cat/d/JcxQNBsa97kg24JAfJvZVk.webp
https://void.cat/d/PAnttTW6bhC2r39wU7rYV1.webp
https://void.cat/d/2L8GCRsJeULAfQxgKDbcnP.webp
https://void.cat/d/WZuv4jrSj2k8odKTp95Zuo.webp


🧠Quote(s) of the week:

"People work 100,000 hours throughout their lifetime to earn money and then get robbed by inflation without knowing. If they’d spend 100 hours (0.1%) of that time to learn about money their lives would change drastically." - Bitcoin for Freedom

🧡Bitcoin news🧡

➡Satoshi Nakamoto's earliest collaborator Martii 'Sirius' Malmi just released their entire email history.
At 120 pages, it's the most significant addition to the archives of Bitcoin's unknown inventor.
Here are the most important new findings:
https://twitter.com/pete_rizzo_/status/1761040092087337196

I urge you to read that thread by Pete Rizzo. What you will learn, giving some insights into the mind of Satoshi, revealing early Bitcoin insights, including the origin of "cryptocurrency" terms and views on anonymity.
Caitlin Long is pointing this out oh so eloquently: https://twitter.com/CaitlinLong_/status/1761072087064629507

➡The Texas Blockchain Council and Riot Platforms are fighting back against the Biden Administration’s emergency request to collect sensitive data regarding Bitcoin miners' energy consumption by filing a lawsuit to halt the measure.

"The Bitcoin network is receiving an average of $607m per day of new investor demand while this is being met by $46m per day of new supply in the form of new coins being mined. New demand is calculated by a change in the realized cap, the accumulated price investors paid for their BTC. This method underestimates the true demand due to off-chain buy/sells not being accounted for." Willy Woo
Repeat after me, hello supply shock! We are now 60 days away from seeing the new supply being halved.

➡MicroStrategy acquires 3,000 Bitcoin for $155 million. This brings their total stack to 193,000 BTC, acquired at an average price of $31,544 per bitcoin.

➡"Today, over $5.5 trillion in assets sits in state pension funds.
If even 3% of AUM in state pensions leaks into the Bitcoin ETF that would equal $165 billion of new inflows.
Since launching, the Bitcoin ETFs have attracted $8 billion of inflows.
I’ll let you do the math." - Dennis Porter

➡"Fidelity and Accenture hosted 100 bank executives and asset managers in Paris last week to learn more about Bitcoin and how to prepare as an institution." -Bitcoin Archive

➡Bitcoin price surged 23% this month, driven by US ETF approvals and strong buying during US trading hours (12%), according to Matrixport. European (7%) and Asian (4%) markets also contributed to the gains.

➡Bitcoin has passed all-time highs in at least fourteen countries. In fourteen countries representing 1B+ people and $7T+ in GDP, Bitcoin is becoming lifeboat. https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1760638270462104048

This is the power of a decentralized, global store of value. Remember, Bitcoin has no top because fiat printing has no end.

➡"For those considering Bitcoin. Remember to hold for 4 years. It's never returned below 30% annualized for a 4-year investment, no matter how badly timed...

BTC: 30-60%, 75% drawdowns
SP500: 10%, 35% drawdowns
Real Estate: 10%, 30%+ drawdowns
VC Funds: 15%-27%, 10-year lock up" - Willy Woo

➡Last week we received the news that Reddit bought Bitcoin with its excess cash and may continue to do so with future cash flows.

➡The European Central Bank's Bitcoin bashing article gets Community Noted into oblivion. Gotta love it!
The bank claims Bitcoin has "failed on its promise" and that the ETF is proof. https://twitter.com/ecb/status/1760580254920212640

Meanwhile, the Euro has lost 99.5% of its value vs. Bitcoin in less than 10 years. (picture 1)
97% of all trading days are in profit for Bitcoin.

While the ECB's skepticism on Bitcoin is noted, it's essential to remember that value is often subjective and ever-evolving. The Euro vs Bitcoin chart can offer insights, but the true worth of Bitcoin goes beyond mere numbers.
"In politics, a common tactic of deflecting attention from your own non-performance is to spread misinformation about a competitor. With a renewed attack on Bitcoin on the same day as its worst performance in 2 decades, it seems the ECB is recycling the same strategy."

➡On the 23rd of February, someone sent 1.3 billion dollars of Bitcoin for a $2 fee, and no one could stop it. But he, the ECB said it's slow and expensive, right?! Now try that with fiat.

➡Non-ETF entity makes $1.3B Bitcoin purchase (26.2K BTC at $51K).

➡"Bitcoin as exponential gold: In the past I’ve explored Bitcoin mostly from a demand perspective, studying S-curves to generate a demand-driven valuation framework. Today I’m presenting my supply-driven approach, which is a variation on the stock-to-flow (S2F) concept."
Nice conceptualization of Bitcoin as digital gold on steroids from Jurrien Timmer. Read the full thread here: https://twitter.com/TimmerFidelity/status/1760677789865512980

➡Bitcoin whales move 18K Bitcoin ($1B) off Coinbase, splitting it into cold wallets ranging from $45M to $171M

➡Genesis is selling 1B dollars worth of Bitcoin this month and nobody seems to notice or care. Why not? $1B GBTC outflow = 2 days of ETF inflows.

- BlackRock’s Bitcoin holdings reach $6.5 billion. They now match 2/3 of MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin stack.

- "The Bitcoin ETFs bought $1,020,100,000 of Bitcoin this week.

That is $255,025,000 of bought Bitcoin per trading day.

That is $64,521,325,000 of demand per year.

There will be approximately 191,250 Bitcoin issued in the next 365 days.

That is $337,366 of ETF money coming in per Bitcoin issued.

What happens if there is a market multiple of 10:1, 100:1, or 500:1?...
What happens when demand for Bitcoin ETFs increases at all?...

What happens at the next halving?
Wake up. Get off zero."- Luke Broyles

➡BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF just broke $1 Billion in trading volume for the day.

➡BitWise Bitcoin ETF is now available for recommendation by Registered Investment Advisors of $30B in assets, one of the largest advisor networks in the USA- BitWise CEO

More ETF news...

➡Four spot Bitcoin ETFs have been approved on the $30 BILLION advisor network platform by the Carson Group.

➡Another week of Bitcoin ETF inflows ($777mm) vs Gold ETF outflows (-$608mm).
Bitcoin ETFs saw an additional inflow of $265mm, while Gold ETFs saw an outflow of -$124mm on Friday. Every passing day brings the flippening closer.

➡"Bitcoin as Legal Tender: El Salvador's Groundbreaking Decision and the Salvadorian Mainstream Media's Reaction"
Free report on El Salvador's Bitcoin adoption media coverage post-2021 law.
Insights from:
→ 1,440 articles
→ 5 major outlets
→ 152 reporters
Link below:
https://bitcoinperception.com/bitcoin-as-legal-tender-el-salvadors-groundbreaking-decision-and-the-salvadorian-mainstream-medias-reaction/

➡JP Morgan announced plans to offer an actively managed Bitcoin fund to its private wealth clients. Wait what? The man, CEO Jamie Dimon, who lied to your face about Bitcoin being a Ponzi and wanting the government to ban it just 3months ago is now offering Bitcoin services to his rich clients.
Shocking!

➡We've officially mined 93.5% of all the Bitcoin.

💸Traditional Finance / Macro:

What can you expect this week in the traditional financial market?
Main highlight ahead:

In the US, we have core PCE inflation, house prices, and consumer confidence. In Europe, it’s the euro area consumer confidence, French, German, and Spanish flash inflation, and UK lending data. In Asia, with the China PMIs, Indonesia, Japan CPI and the RBNZ meeting

👉🏽Nvidia is now worth more than the GDP of Russia, South Korea, Australia, Spain, Indonesia, Turkey, Netherlands, and Saudi Arabia.

👉🏽The top 10% of stocks in the US now reflect ~75% of the entire market.
This is, by far, the most concentrated stock market since the Great Depression in 1931. (picture 2)
In the Dot-com bubble of 2001, the concentration of the top 10% of stocks peaked at ~72%.
Even before the 2008 Financial Crisis, the concentration of the top 10% of stocks peaked at ~66%.
On average, the top 10% of stocks reflect 64% of the entire stock market. -TKL
"- Jeff Bezos sold $8.5B of Amazon stock
bbc.com/news/business-…
- Walton family members sold $4.5B of Walmart stock
x.com/TrackInsiders_…
- Meta insiders sold $232M of stock in 2024
marketbeat.com/stocks/NASDAQ/…
- Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO since 2006, first-time ever sold $150M of company stock. He announced in Oct he would sell 1 million of his 8.6 million shares for “financial diversification and tax-planning purposes”.
reuters.com/markets/us/jpm…
- Total household debt rose by $212B to $17.5T in Q4 2023 including $1.13T in credit card debt
newyorkfed.org/microeconomics…
- The US Government borrowed $260B last month equating to $3.1T annually with an overall debt of $34.3T
x.com/KobeissiLetter…
- The last time the market cap of the top 10% of stocks was this high was in early in the Great Depression
x.com/zerohedge/stat…
- The "Magnificent 7" have a market cap of $11.7T accounting for over 25% of the S&P 500 & more than that of Japan and Germany's exchanges combined

And, someone just bought 26,139 Bitcoin catapulting themselves to #29 on the rich list with $1.33B
bitinfocharts.com/bitcoin/addres…

What do the big boys know that we don't?"

🏦Banks:
On the 22nd of February: "It was a great day for the Swiss National Bank which first printed money out of thin air, then bought 148,900 shares of SMCI and today made a cool $36 million profit"- Zerohedge
This is the absurdity of fiat money just print some worthless money and buy real assets with them. (please read my weekly recap from the 19th of February, segment Bitcoin, the statement made by the Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. You will understand the above absurdity.) https://njump.me/nevent1qqsvzqrfawsca7eydfdgmsupyhxqfxrura28fdude4pvpmdwcm3mq0qzyq78msk9slhvupg0h3jcpxckp8geyplcyhwhva2tnyz7nj5q2ep2sqmlzax

🌎Macro/Geopolitics:

👉🏽"While everyone was busy watching Nvidia, the US borrowed another $260 BILLION last month.
On an annualized basis, this puts the US on track to borrow ~$3.1 trillion in 2024.
Total US debt now stands at a record $34.33 trillion, or 2.8 TIMES the market cap of the Magnificent 7. (picture 3)
Over the last 4 years alone, total US debt is officially up $11 trillion and counting.
At the current rate, we will see $40 trillion in US debt by 2026 and that assumes a "soft landing."
Just imagine what would happen if we entered a recession." - TKL
I don't think we will see a recession no sooner than Q4 24'. The market needs to be at its best during the US election.

Meanwhile, the Fed's balance sheet is now at its lowest level since March 2021, down $1.4 trillion from its peak in April 2022.
How much more QT is needed to unwind the massive QE from March 2020- April 2022?
$3.4 trillion.
Never gonna happen!
I don't put a date on it, but we will see a FED balance sheet hit $15 trillion in the 'nearby' future.

👉🏽Germany's manufacturing downturn unexpectedly deepens amid falling demand at home and abroad. S&P Global’s PMI for the country’s industrial sector dropped to 42.3 from 45.5 the previous month – well below any economist estimate in a Bloomberg survey. The picture was brighter in France, where the contraction eased much more than analysts had predicted. Companies reported improving demand while expanding their workforce.
Read the full article here: https://archive.ph/2tQRL
The funniest part of the above statement..." unexpectedly".
"As if Germany wouldn’t have enough problems, in just a few years it will be hit by a massive pensions and healthcare entitlement crisis" (picture 4)

Now I might go a step too far but the picture below is (maybe) the reason why 'refugees are welcomed' in (West) Europe. Just a thought...
A dangerous cocktail, an energy cliff, a demographic cliff, and a cultural cliff hitting at the same time.

Europe right now: Either entitlements gonna be cut or taxes and/or immigration will be increased.

Oh by the way... one more fun fact about Europe...
"A reminder that as a European you aren't allowed to buy

SPY ETF
GLD ETF
SLV ETF
Any American Bitcoin ETF
What a world we are living in... Europe is becoming more and more totalitarian, opt out while you can.."

👉🏽https://twitter.com/LynAldenContact/status/1760015120829165877
In other words, the government is going to continue f***ing up the economy until society reaches its breaking point. Noted!

👉🏽"In case you missed it: Global debt surged by >$15tn in 2023 reaching a new record high of $313tn. 55% of this rise originated from mature markets, mainly driven by the US, France, & Germany. BUT the global debt-to-GDP ratio saw a decline of ~2ppts to 330% in 2023, according to IIF. This marked the third consecutive annual drop." - Holger Zschaepitz.
(picture 5)
Now let's do the increase in asset values....sure that is driven by technology and productivity right? Yes! but don't count out the fact that the global debt is up almost $250 trillion over the last 20 years. I firmly believe that the developed world (debt) is going to sink into the developing world...eventually.

I am just going to leave this here.
https://twitter.com/LynAldenContact/status/1761492225542717526
Nothing stops the train!

What the world needs:

👉🏽"President of Argentina Javier Milei will be introducing a bill to Congress to jail any Central Bank official who orders the Central Bank to print money to cover Argentina's deficits.

Milei will be defining seigniorage as a criminal offense with the objective of not being "able to issue money to finance the Treasury."

"The bill will define seigniorage as a criminal offense and in case the Central Bank finances the treasury, either directly or indirectly, the president of the Central Bank, the board of directors, the president of the Nation, and the officials who vote for it would end up in jail," Milei said during an interview.

"We have a strong commitment in the fiscal area, zero deficit is not negotiable."

"If you have zero deficit, you do not take on more debt. By not taking on more debt, the debt–product ratio becomes constant or decreasing and the counterpart of that is that you become more solvent." - Collin Rugg

Ergo: No more printing. No more spending. Learn to manage money better.

🎁If you have made it this far I would like to give you a little gift:
Another great newsletter by Lyn Alden
https://www.lynalden.com/february-2024-newsletter/
"The tighter the Fed gets in terms of monetary policy, the more it increases the government's interest expense, which leads to larger overall deficits, which is generally stimulatory and inflationary for the economy!"
Free knowledge!

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://void.cat/d/3gwCFaiB5Czex9SQByvy6u.webp
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https://void.cat/d/VE38pAZfqwaMx4uQr2NDeQ.webp
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https://void.cat/d/GNyWbp5prb1HAZzPxVfLvB.webp
https://void.cat/d/E2zoZpqMoxPeCixKXc25FV.webp


Weekly Recap: 20.02.2024

🧠Quote(s) of the week:

"The scarcity of money controlled by no human being vs. the infinity of money manipulated and controlled by a small group of privileged men we don't even vote for.

I know which one I choose.
Bitcoin only." -Oliver L. Veleze

🧡Bitcoin news🧡
➡https://www.pricedinbitcoin21.com/chart/housing/MSPNHSUS
The prices of homes just keep getting more and more affordable...
Affordable in Bitcoin terms.
This is exactly what Jeff Booth is talking about when he says Bitcoin is repricing everything…This is what happens when technology drives prices down and you have a currency that doesn’t steal from you. I urge you to read his book 'The Price of Tomorrow': https://cryptofriday.eu/index.php/books-articles/

➡Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, made headlines on Wall Street in 2020 by converting his company's cash reserves to Bitcoin.
Financial experts laughed at the idea.
Today, his Bitcoin is worth $10,000,000,000.

➡"Last week's (tweet by therationalroot) Bitcoin ETF data is in:
- ETF Net In-Flows consistently over +6K BTC this week
- Cumulative holdings at All-Time-High of 726K BTC
- Cumulative holdings up 100k BTC since launch
- BlackRock alone added over 30k BTC this week
- Grayscale down 166k since launch"

Bitcoin ETFs have taken in over $3 BILLION of new funds in just the last 7 days. On the 14th of February, it was the biggest day of inflows since launch day, with $631m!
Bitcoin ETFs are catching up to Gold ETFs for assets.
$37b for BTC $93b for Gold; After just 25 trading days!

"Blackrock doesn't care about sound money or ending the Fed.
But when Blackrock ETF buys up 500K Bitcoin, the price goes to 1M.
Blackrock makes $1.25B in annual fees - forever.
Follow the money." - Thomas Fahrer

More on Blackrock...

➡Bloomberg's Eric Balchunas reports that BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF has taken in $5.2 billion YTD, representing 50% of BlackRock's total net flows for their 417 ETFs.

More ETF news...

➡A little perspective...
Bitwise the fourth largest of the new Bitcoin ETFs is buying up 880 BTC Per Day on Average.
Soon to be double the rate of Bitcoin mining supply.

➡https://twitter.com/BitcoinNewsCom/status/1759027406956900716
Supply & demand. Please watch that clip. After watching that clip please have a look at the following tweet:
https://twitter.com/BLACK1W1/status/1758793481756307814
It boggles the mind. Really, please read the tweet.

➡Bitcoin has officially crossed above $1 trillion in market cap for the first time since December 2021.
Since December 2022, Bitcoin has added ~$700 billion in market cap. Bitcoin is back.

➡94.5% of the Bitcoin supply is now in profit. Despite Bitcoin moving from $16.5k to $52k in 13 and half months, the amount of coins that didn’t move in the last 12 months remains close to the ATH at 70%.

➡Coinbase's Bitcoin supply plunges to the lowest since 2015 after 18K BTC (~$1B) withdrawal.
In general, Bitcoin on exchanges falls significantly over the weekend. Bitcoin on all exchanges even hit the lowest level since 2017. In connection with the increased demand by ETFs and the upcoming Bitcoin halving, there will be even fewer coins in circulation. Hello, supply SHOCK!

➡Bitcoin is at all-time highs in the following countries:
Laos
Burundi
Malawi
Nigeria
Myanmar
Ethiopia
Pakistan
Cuba
Ghana
Egypt
Congo
Iran
Suriname
Sierra Leone
Turkey
Sudan
Syria
Argentina
Lebanon
Venezuela

➡"It's a great business to be in, Central Banking, where you print money and people believe it"
"We are 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 on being the most cost-effective, fit-for-purpose Central Bank we can be. We are a full-service bank."- Adrian Orr
https://twitter.com/MikeStillBTC/status/1757329415489401152
The person in the video is the Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. The same guy claimed that ‘bitcoin is neither a medium of exchange, a store of value or a unit of account’.

Anyway, once you learn how the system works...
Bitcoin.
"Central Bankers think YOU are so dumb that they can just say this kind of stuff out loud.
Bitcoin is YOUR proof that they can't keep getting away with this theft." - Preston Pysh

➡Elizabeth Warren's inflated claims of crypto's use to fund terrorism were debunked at a Congressional hearing "Committee members put the final nail in the coffin of the hyperinflated fears surrounding crypto and illicit finance" said Taylor Barr.

Meanwhile...

➡Three more US states (Ohio, South Carolina, Mississippi) introduced the Blockchain Basics Act, aiming to protect citizens' Bitcoin rights at the state level.

➡All-time high: Bitcoin Mining now offsets 7.5% of its emissions through methane mitigation.

Why it matters: COP28 was all about methane mitigation. Bitcoin Mining is uniquely poised to mitigate methane profitably
Full story & source: by Daniel Batten:
https://www.batcoinz.com/p/issue-002-all-time-highs

Bitcoin mining according to former CEO ERCOT (the guy who ran de grid of Texas. The reason why I am reposting so much stuff from Daniel Batten is that Bitcoin mining is so complex but also so important for Bitcoin but also our world.
https://twitter.com/DSBatten/status/1759107766189461916\
Please read his tweet and the provided sources. Literally every day there's new data, and new analysis showing how Bitcoin mining is a net positive green tech/user of energy.

➡"The FTX bankruptcy estate sold more than $1 billion worth of GBTC.
Many have celebrated as GBTC Outflows have recently slowed, but unfortunately, there's more selling on the horizon.
Another bankruptcy estate plans to sell billions worth of GBTC soon- Genesis."
For more info, I urge you to read the following thread:
https://twitter.com/samcallah/status/1757445720880140555

➡Bitcoin hit $50k.
Meanwhile, Google search volumes relative to price are at all-time lows. In other words, there is no retail FOMO buying.

➡A coalition of leading banking and financial institutions has petitioned the SEC for an amendment to “SAB 121,” a regulation that has restricted banks from participating in the digital currency space.

💸Traditional Finance / Macro:

What can you expect this week in the traditional financial market?
Main highlight ahead:

In the US, we have the latest Fed meeting minutes and jobless claims, Fed-speak, and PMI data. In Europe, the focus will be on inflation expectations, PMI data, and communication from ECB officials. In Asia, with central bank meetings in Indonesia and Korea, and Australian wages data and RBA meeting minutes.

👉🏽"The combined revenue of the 4 largest US companies hit a record $1.5 trillion over last 12 months...
Amazon: $575 billion
Apple: $386 billion
Google: $307 billion
Microsoft: $228 billion
That's larger than the GDP of all but 14 countries." - TKL

👉🏽"Since February 2023:

1. Magnificent 7: +77%
2. S&P 500: +20%
3. Russel 2000: +5%
4. S&P 500 Equal Weight: +4%

If you remove the Magnificent 7 from the S&P 500, the index is barely up 5% over the last year.
n other words, if you bought all S&P 500 stocks other than tech last year at this time, you're almost breaking even.
The top 10 stocks in the S&P 500 now account for a record 35% of the ENTIRE index." - TKL

🏦Banks:
no news

🌎Macro/Geopolitics:

👉🏽US inflation: Both headline and core CPI came in above consensus expectations.
Core CPI growth is proving particularly sticky. The money supply is soon expected to return to growth again. The potential risk of inflationary impulse remains.
This is super core inflation - a measure of sticky inflationary pressures Powell & Co. often refer to:
https://twitter.com/MacroAlf/status/1757414499684905372

Ergo: we are not out of the (inflation) woods!

👉🏽"Prediction markets are now pricing in just 4 rate cuts in 2024 after January CPI inflation hits 3.1%.
This is a huge slide in expectations as markets were pricing in 6 rate cuts just over a month ago, according to Kalshi. The most recent Fed guidance was for 3 interest rate cuts in 2024.
Odds of a March interest rate cut are below 10% and odds of a May rate cut are plummeting." - TKL
Personally, I think with the upcoming US election I don't expect any rate cuts till Q4 24.

👉🏽German banks prepare for huge loan defaults in ‘greatest real estate crisis since the financial crisis’ - CNN

Now you might think this is a German bank's problem. Well, that's true. But it is the US Commercial Real Estate defaults that are putting pressure on German banks if anyone is wondering:
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/07/business/pbb-bad-loans-real-estate-crisis/index.html
Something (CRE) I discussed in my recent Weekly Recaps. The main question is, how many other countries will experience this?

👉🏽https://twitter.com/jameslavish/status/1757535468449865801
(picture1)
Total debt +$31BN today to a record high of $34.229 Trillion.
BTC is worth less than 3% of the US national debt. Humanity holds ~37x more wealth in debt from a bankrupt government than in the world’s best money. we are so early!

👉🏽Current economies in recession:

Peru
Japan
Ireland
Estonia
Finland
Moldova
Denmark
Luxembourg
United Kingdom
China and Germany are in trouble.

👉🏽After 2 months of the Milei presidency:

- Financial surplus: “Argentina Sees First Monthly Budget Surplus In 12 Years”.
- 7 billion USD in reserves
- BCRA's liabilities are being liquidated
- Monetary base almost stalled in nominal terms
- Lower exchange rate gap
- National public spending is down
- Provinces are also beginning to spend less
- Inflation is slowing
- Country risk index lower
- S&P Merval strong pump in USD

👉🏽Direct foreign investment into China slumps to 30y low. Foreign firms only added $33bn to their FDI liabilities, the lowest since 1993, indicating a lack of confidence. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments stood at $33 billion last year, according to data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange released Sunday. That measure of new foreign investment into the country — which records monetary flows connected to foreign-owned entities in China — was 82% lower than the 2022 level and the lowest since 1993.
source: https://archive.ph/R7dOj#selection-4869.0-4879.263

🎁If you have made it this far I would like to give you a little gift:
The Bitcoin Scaling Dilemma with Shinobi.
- Scaling Bitcoin with covenants
- A path to Bitcoin upgrades
- Ossification vs scaling sovereignty
- Risks for Bitcoin developers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seOK8CujQQI

Free knowledge!

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://void.cat/d/SDFK78nG8n7DZHPQPgUX43.webp
https://void.cat/d/JKxyFvZiLpWttvcYR3eap3.webp


Supply shock
Supply shock
Supply shock
Supply shock

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.

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

#zap               🧡   #nostr                 #BTC                #Bitcoin               #plebchain                  #grownostr    #stacksats #bitcoineducation #adoption #supplyanddemand https://image.nostr.build/5eb99f8ff97c171ac3e270011a8fd6f916b3b96135854a7c56809b337779b60f.jpg


The demand for Bitcoin is outpacing every other ETF, and it’s the only one with a fixed supply. You do the math!

It is just freaking basic math anon!

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.

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

#zap              🧡   #nostr                #BTC               #Bitcoin              #plebchain                 #grownostr    #stacksats #bitcoineducation #adoption #supply&demand https://image.nostr.build/d15e1994bddafdafe43706e4e2d3813a3deaf7539ab3ecec4bc62fd025bf56df.jpg


🧠Quote(s) of the week:

"How it will play out:

1. Bitcoin Halving in 67 days; Bitcoin halving sparks anticipation and price speculation.
2. BTC surpasses the market cap of gold; Bitcoin's market cap surpasses gold, signaling a significant milestone.
3. Game theory between countries starts; Strategic game theory dynamics emerge among nations regarding Bitcoin.
4. Every Central Bank starts to print; Central banks resort to increased money printing, potentially fueling inflation fears.
5. BTC gets seized on exchanges and ETFs; Regulatory scrutiny intensifies, leading to the seizure of Bitcoin on exchanges and ETFs.
6. Self-custody becomes illegal; Authorities impose restrictions on the self-custody of cryptocurrencies.
7. CBDC gets introduced; Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are introduced, challenging Bitcoin's decentralized nature.
8. Plebs move to countries that allow BTC; Individuals seek residency in countries with favorable Bitcoin regulations.
9. Woke people lose trust in the CBDCs; Growing disillusionment with CBDCs among informed individuals.
10. BTC becomes global money; Bitcoin gains broader acceptance as a global medium of exchange and store of value."

🧡Bitcoin news🧡
Before I kick off with today's Weekly Recap I start with a great quote by Dr. Jeff Ross:

"I’m not sure who needs to hear this today, but the Bitcoin bull market hasn’t even started yet.
Instead of fixating on price, I suggest the following:
- Head down
- Work hard
- Stack sats (while they’re still super cheap)"

➡Bitcoin Market Cap is now the 10th largest asset in the world by market capitalization, surpassing giants such as JPMorgan, Berkshire Hathaway, Tesla, and Visa.

➡Wall Street ETFs are buying 12.5x more Bitcoin per day than the network can produce, increasing the demand and price. Hello, supply shock!

➡Bitcoin ETF inflows are accelerating and so is the price of Bitcoin. Today ETF inflows broke $500m in one day. Meanwhile, retail is completely sidelined. Wait before the FOMO really kicks in. (picture 4)

➡BlackRock now holds $4.1 billion worth of Bitcoin.
The 9 new Bitcoin ETFs now hold more than $10 BILLION in assets.
Ergo: Wall Street loves Bitcoin.
"Proof: There’s been over 5500 ETF launches in history.
NEVER before has an ETF reached $3 Billion AUM in less than 30 days… until now.
Both Blackrock and Fidelity’s Bitcoin spot ETFs have just done it."

➡"Bitcoin has had a great run of +20% in 18 days. What happens next? This type of rally has happened 440+ times in the past 9 years.
-> continued up 88% of the time
-> typical gain +20% => $60k
-> only 6-12% downside historically.
So a non-trivial possibility of a new ATH in perhaps 30 days?" -Timothy Peterson

➡92.75% of the Bitcoin circulating supply is now in profit.
Values above 95% have historically indicated local tops, and the last time this threshold was reached was during November 2021's all-time high of $69K.

➡"This is what Bitcoin looks like for the citizens of Turkey, Egypt, Nigeria, Argentina, Lebanon, and Pakistan.
A combined population of 725 MILLION people.
Nigeria and Argentina prices more than doubled since I posted this 2 months ago."
https://twitter.com/TheRealTahinis/status/1756709193904439560

➡Less than 10,000 blocks remain until the Bitcoin halving. The halving is scheduled for April 2023.
"There is an absolutely relentless pursuit for blocks with a block subsidy of 6.25 BTC.
In a couple of months, miners will be forced to only reward themselves with a subsidy of 3.125 BTC.
Bitcoin is in high demand, and it's about to get even more scarce." - Joe Burnett

➡79.26% of Bitcoin haven't changed hands in the last 6 months.

➡Americans could have saved at least $74 billion in 2022 by using cryptocurrency payment systems instead of credit cards, according to Coinbase’s “State of Crypto” report.

➡On the 10th of February, Ark became the third Bitcoin ETF to pass $1 billion in Bitcoin holdings.

➡ World's largest asset manager BlackRock says Bitcoin is creating a "global internet of value."

➡Bitcoin hashrate at a new all-time high! (picture 3

➡The world’s largest Bitcoin mine begins construction in Texas.
Riot's Corsicana Facility will harness an impressive one gigawatt of electricity. The project will cost an estimated $333,000,000.

More miner news:
➡America’s first nuclear-powered Bitcoin computer mine is online at the 2.5 gigawatt Susquehanna power plant in Pennsylvania.
Located at the 2.5 GW nuclear energy facility in the PJM interconnection is Nautilus Cryptomine, a Bitcoin mining facility jointly owned by
TeraWulf and Talen Energy.

- 16,000
Bitcoin machines
- 1,900,000,000,000,000,000x hashes per second at total capacity.

More miner news, now from Africa:
https://twitter.com/GridlessCompute/status/1756164755398578542
Nice drone shots of a hydropower station in Kenya by Gridless.

More miner news:
"Bitcoin mining now has lower emission intensity than any other industry.
It is literally the "Roger Bannister" of emission reduction, showing other industries that what was once thought impossible is possible.
full story and source data": - Daniel Batten
https://www.batcoinz.com/p/issue-001-the-narrative-is-shifting

➡ Bitcoin whales are on the move as 1K-10K BTC wallets hit the highest since Nov '22 (1,958), while 100-1K BTC wallets see a new low (13,735). Bitcoin
whales have acquired 140K BTC ($6.16B) in the last three weeks.

➡On the 6th of February: BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF is now among the Top 5 ETFs in year-to-date flows, indicating that it has attracted more cash than 99.98% of ETF

➡ Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy just bought another 850 Bitcoin worth $37.2m and now holds 190.000BTC.
The company is now at a $3,500,000,000 unrealized profit.

➡El Salvador's Bitcoin portfolio is in the green with ~$21 million in gains.

💸Traditional Finance / Macro:

What can you expect this week in the traditional financial market?
Main highlight ahead:

In the US, we have CPI, retail sales, industrial production, and PPI. In Europe, it’s the UK CPI, GDP, labor market data, and the German ZEW. In Asia, we have the Australian labor market report, India CPI, and Japanese GDP

👉🏽"The combined revenue of the 4 largest US companies hit a record $1.5 trillion over last 12 months...
Amazon: $575 billion
Apple: $386 billion
Google: $307 billion
Microsoft: $228 billion
That's larger than the GDP of all but 14 countries." - TKL

👉🏽"Nvidia, NVDA, is now the 4th most valuable public company in the world, worth $1.84 trillion.
Today, Nvidia's market cap passed both Google and Amazon for the first time in history.
Since January 1st, Nvidia has officially added $650 BILLION in market cap.
That's more than the entire value of Tesla in less than 6 weeks." - TKL

🏦Banks:

Last week I mentioned that the FED announced that the Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) will cease making new loans as scheduled on March 11.

Last week we witnessed how New York Community Bank stock, NYCB, the bank that acquired the collapsed Signature Bank, fell 40% after earnings.
"On the 6th of February  New York Community Bank stock NYSB, the bank that acquired the collapsed Signature Bank, crashed another 25%.
The stock is now down a massive 61% in 2024 to its lowest level since June 2000.
Currently, roughly 40% of NYCB's assets are not under FDIC insurance.
The stock's decline accelerated after the bank posted an unexpected $260 million loss in Q4 2023." - TKL

Please read the bit on commercial real estate in last week's Weekly Recap and... check out the picture. (picture 1)

US Regional Bank Stocks 1 Month Into 2024:
1. NY Community Bank, NYCB: -60%
2. Valley National Bank, VLY: -25%
3. Metropolitan Bank, MCB: -15%
4. HarborOne, HONE: -14%
5. Comerica Bank, CMA: -13%
6. Zions Bank, ZION: -12%
7. Western Alliance, WAL: -11%
8. Citizens Financial, CFG: -6%
9. KeyCorp, KEY: -5%

Regional bank worries resurfaced as New York Community Bank which acquired the collapsed Signature Bank, cut their dividend by 70%.
These are the same banks that hold nearly 70% of commercial real estate loans.
Just 10 months ago, the regional bank crisis "ended." - TKL

🌎Macro/Geopolitics:

👉🏽Another reason there's so much pressure for rate cuts:
Debt servicing costs on US debt have skyrocketed since the pandemic.
Servicing costs have gone from ~1.5% of GDP to nearly 3.0% of GDP since 2020.
According to US projections, debt servicing costs are set to rise by 3.5%.
For years, low-interest rates meant deficit spending was fairly "cheap."
Now, we are paying for years of historically low-interest rates.
The era of "free" money is over." - TKL

Total debt +$31BN today to a record high of $34.229 Trillion.
+$229 Billion since Jan 1
+$2.8 trillion in the past year.
$35 trillion by June.
BTC is worth less than 3% of the US national debt. Humanity holds ~37x more wealth in debt from a bankrupt government than in the world’s best money. we are so early!

"It took 17 years for the US to add $3.4 trillion of credit card debt, but less than 4 years for it to add another $340 billion.
Price increases are outpacing wage gains, and people are resorting to piling on credit card debt to pick up the difference."
(picture 2)

“The U.S. federal government is on an unsustainable fiscal path. And that just means that the debt is growing faster than the economy… We're borrowing from future generations,” says Fed chief Jerome Powell.

👉🏽Combine the above with the following statement:
The US Office of Management and Budget has said they see a deficit at 5%+ of GDP through 2033.
This means that a budget deficit of $1.4 trillion is expected in 2024.
By 2033, projections show that deficit spending will equal 6.9% of GDP.
There have only been 5 times in US history where deficit spending hit 6.5%+.
In 2033, this would imply an annual budget deficit of $2.7 trillion.

I don't want to be doom & gloom, but can anyone tell me how this can end well?
The debt is growing at ~10% per tear, plus a debasing currency, plus global competition intensifying.

👉🏽"While the rest of the world battles inflation, China is battling DEFLATION.
China's CPI just fell by 0.8% with prices suffering their biggest drop since the global recession in 2009.
This also marked the 4th consecutive monthly decline in China's CPI.
Weak consumer demand has been weighing on prices with prices of many food items falling by double-digit percentages.
The price of pork plunged by 17% and vegetable prices slid nearly 12%.
The economic slowdown continues." TKL

👉🏽Everyone could have seen this a mile away. Many choose not to look:
https://twitter.com/LukeGromen/status/1756343413253812722

More news on the sick man of Europe, Germany.
Its days as an industrial superpower are coming to an end. As pol paralysis grips Berlin, the energy crisis was the final blow for a growing number of manufacturers. German comps pay some of the highest electricity prices in the EU. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-02-10/why-germany-s-days-as-an-industrial-superpower-are-coming-to-an-end

The risk of recession has increased significantly. Economists polled by BBG see the probability of a recession happening over the next 12 months at 75%.

"While US growth continues to positively surprise, the Eurozone goes in the opposite direction. But hey, let’s add some more regulations in Europe and decrease working time to four days per week." - Michael Arouet
(picture 5)

This chart ends in 2000, but I believe what it illustrates remains true today.
https://ourworldindata.org/working-hours

👉🏽https://twitter.com/LukeGromen/status/1757076757977387164

🎁If you have made it this far I would like to give you a little gift:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnBuIla9nGU&t=3s

Free knowledge!

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://void.cat/d/XrWehT4qzhVakdCkrripE.webp
https://void.cat/d/6eHcx5CPLAs3oTDFdAGLaR.webp
https://void.cat/d/DCcR6jm9d14qqW9f5w4tTN.webp
https://void.cat/d/46TfTZwG7g7okinjWzdKWc.webp
https://void.cat/d/Wf2Sc15ar4Y144Pzpinthj.webp
https://void.cat/d/XjGmqkhXSrPeMaR8y996e6.webp


🧠Quote(s) of the week:

"FED Chair, Jerome Powell on the US national debt:

• We’re on an unsustainable path
• Debt is growing faster than the economy
• We’re borrowing from future generations

Projected debt in 30 years: $144 Trillion"

We need Bitcoin now more than ever!

🧡Bitcoin news🧡

➡ Satoshi Act Fund aids in introducing pro-Bitcoin legislation in Tennessee, marking the fifth state this year so far. The bill safeguards the rights to custody, mine, and run a node.

The Governor of Texas announced, “We want to be the home of innovation and Bitcoin is the cutting edge of innovation”.

➡ Ark Invest’s “Big Ideas 2024 research report visualizes the long-term returns of buying and holding Bitcoin.
“Historically, investors who bought and held bitcoin for at least 5 years have profited, no matter when they made their purchases.” Next to that according to ArkInvest’s “Big Ideas 2024” report, the price of 1 Bitcoin is projected to reach $2.3 million if 19.4% of the $250 trillion global investable asset base is allocated to Bitcoin.

➡All-Time High for Bitcoin Network Difficulty & New Record Bitcoin Hashrate! 550,000,000,000,000,000,000x per second

➡A report by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reveals Bitcoin mining uses 0.6-2.3% of US electricity, and 0.2-0.9% globally.
2% to secure the world's next reserve currency. Less than 1% for powering the world with the only truly free, sound version of money while wasting over 1% on appliances like TVs on standby... I'd call that good numbers (picture 1)

➡BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF IBIT now has +$3.1 BILLION Bitcoin in just 3 weeks since launch. They currently hold >72,466 BTC.

➡Over the last decade, Bitcoin has ridden on the back of global liquidity as the world's M2 money supply increased from $56 trillion in 2014 to $92 trillion today. And the printing will only continue, more on that in the segment below (macro-economics)
(picture 3)

➡Cathie Wood's ARK says optimal Bitcoin allocation for portfolios is 19.4%.
Up 3x from 6.2% in 2022.

➡The Biden Administration has issued an "emergency" data collection initiative to identify the electricity usage of the Bitcoin mining industry in America
Miners who do not comply are threatened with fines of up to $10,633 for EACH DAY they do not respond
This is the type of stuff you would expect in countries like Iran, North Korea, and China. Countries that would not allow any progress outside what the state deems within its plans for the people. I am sure the EU will follow suit. Unfortunately.

➡UK police have seized £1.4 BILLIONBitcoin during an attempt to launder proceeds of a £5b investment fraud carried out in China.

➡Milei strategically removes Bitcoin taxes from the "Ley Ómnibus" reform, aiming for swift approval.
The bill initially demanded the declaration of undeclared assets, including cryptocurrencies.

In his first 50 days as president, this man has:
👉🏽Fired 50,000 government employees
👉🏽Deregulated legal tender laws
👉🏽Abolished taxes on Bitcoin

But sure, Javier Milei is "controlled opposition."

➡Someone just moved 35,049 Bitcoin worth $1.5 billion for a transaction fee of $3.21.

➡According to Tether's latest Q4 attestation, the company holds $2.8 billion worth of Bitcoin on its balance sheet.

➡REKT! Great post and great chart for everyone who is considering enjoying the pump & dumps in the world of altcoins. Please reconsider.
The point of this post is that these coins weren't considered shitcoins by most people, they were contenders to be the next big thing. Almost all shitcoins will trend toward zero, especially as priced in Bitcoin.
https://twitter.com/duczko/status/1752574281610051800

➡Entities holding at least 1K Bitcoin are up 4.50% over the past two weeks.

➡Putting it in perspective.
The 9 New ETFs hold more Bitcoin than Tether, Tesla, Block and all the of the Public Miners combined.
Soon they eclipse MSTR. Later GBTC. Regarding GBTC, the dumping of GBTC by FTX is over and bitcoin ETFs see a big whoosh of net inflows.

➡Education will be the key to resisting CBDCs. Great thread by Daniel Batten:
https://twitter.com/DSBatten/status/1752262434264604844

➡BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF becomes first to break $2b in assets and now holds more than 52,000.

➡https://twitter.com/TuurDemeester/status/1752075827804516392
Please also read Samson Mow's explanation Tuur is referring to.

Another great explanation by Samson...

➡UTXO Management for Dummies: If everyone pays you in quarters you’ll have to lug around a big heavy bag. It’ll also cost you more time to spend as you have to count quarters when paying. So ask for $20s or $100s as payment, or change your quarters into bills from time to time.
Now I hear you say...wtf is a UTXO?
A UTXO stands for unspent transaction output. Don’t worry about those unnecessarily complicated words. Just use “UTXO” and understand the concept of what it is…
If you want to learn/study the topic: https://armantheparman.com/utxo/

➡ "CBDC Is a calamity for human and civil rights. Bitcoin gives you better protection than cash. It also gives you protection from inflation and all of the other hazards that come along with FIAT currencies," says US Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

➡"One of China's largest fund managers, Harvest, to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF in Hong Kong after the Securities Commission said it is ready to accept applications.
China coming to the party!" - Bitcoin Archive

💸Traditional Finance / Macro:

What can you expect this week in the traditional financial market?
Main highlight ahead:

In the US, we have the service sector ISM report and the Fed’s latest Senior Loan Officer survey. In Europe, the focus will be on German industrial production, the February Sentix survey of investor sentiment, and the latest ECB bulletin. In Asia, we have China CPI and Japan earnings data, along with central bank meetings in India and Australia.

👉🏽Meta just gained $200 billion in market cap.
It's the biggest one-day gain in stock market history. CEO Mark Zuckerberg stands to receive a payout of ~$700 Million a year from Meta's first-ever dividend which was announced today - Bloomberg

🏦Banks:

Last week I mentioned that the FED announced that the Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) will cease making new loans as scheduled on March 11.

"This week we witnessed how New York Community Bank stock, NYCB, the bank that acquired the collapsed Signature Bank, fell 40% after earnings.
The bank announced they will cut their dividend by 70% to meet regulatory requirements.
They also reported a 4th quarter LOSS of $260 million while expectations were for a GAIN of that size.
This comes just a few weeks before the Fed's emergency loan program is set to expire. Many of these small banks hold tons of exposure to commercial real estate loans.
70% of all CRE loans in the US are held by small banks.
If CRE project defaults continue, we could see more pressure on banks." - TKL

Are (small) banks still feeling the pain? I guess so...why? What is predominantly in their (NYCB) loan portfolio? It's the same thing that's in basically every bank portfolio - a large % of CRE & USTs? And it is not only in the US.
Shares of Japanese bank Aozora are collapsing. The stock's on the steepest 2-day drop since it became a public company.
Why? The Bank reported massive exposure to US commercial real estate.
(picture 4)

Regarding CRE. "Another sign the Commercial Real Estate (CRE) crisis is worse than we thought?
The Xerox building in Washington DC just sold for $25 million.
It was last purchased for $145 million just over a decade ago, in 2011.
This reflects an 83% LOSS on the 19-story office building.
The buyer of the property plans to convert it to an apartment building."
"44% of office loans carry outstanding loan balances higher than the property value and are at risk of default according to the NBER."

🌎Macro/Geopolitics:

👉🏽"SUMMARY OF FED DECISION (1/31/24):

1. Fed leaves rates unchanged for 4th straight meeting
2. The Fed does not expect rate cuts until "greater confidence" inflation is moving to 2%
3. "Highly attentive" to inflation risks with economic uncertainty
4. Job gains have moderated but remain strong
5. Upcoming policy will be based on incoming data
6. Fed sees evolving outlook while balancing risks.

This seems to be a different tone than their December meeting.
Particularly, the new statement about not expecting rate cuts until "greater confidence" about inflation."- TKL

It seems like they are backtracking. The FED is really caught between a rock and a hard place of its own making.
1. election year pressure to cut rates.
2. Govt cost of debt increasing, pressuring rate cuts. (the banks and national budget, and other parts of the indebted economy)
3. The FED knows inflation still has the potential to tick up.

👉🏽The U.S. added a blowout of 353,000 jobs in January, far above the 185,000 expected.
November and December growth were also revised up substantially. BUT... it seems like all "jobs" added in the past year have been part-time workers.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS12500000

Especially if you read the following bit:
Latest List of Layoffs Over Last 3 Months:

1. Twitch: 35% of workforce
2. Hasbro: 20% of workforce
3. Spotify: 17% of workforce
4. Levi's: 15% of workforce
5. Zerox: 15% of workforce
6. Qualtrics: 14% of workforce
7. Wayfair: 13% of workforce
8. Duolingo: 10% of workforce
9. Washington Post: 10% of workforce
10. eBay: 9% of workforce
11. PayPal: 9% of workforce
12. Business Insider: 8% of workforce
13. Charles Schwab: 6% of workforce
14. Macy's: 4% of workforce
15. Blackrock: 3% of the workforce
16. Citigroup: 20,000 employees
17. UPS: 12,000 employees
18. Deutsche Bank: 3,500 employees
19. Pixar: 1,300 employees
20. Salesforce: 700 employees
21. American Airlines: 650 employees

January 2024 saw a total of 82,000 layoffs, the second-worst January since 2009. Meanwhile, the US just reported that 353,000 jobs were created in January.
The jobs at all of these companies seeing layoffs tend to be full-time, high-pay, high-benefit jobs. The jobs number from yesterday includes many more part-time, lower pay, smaller benefit jobs than the ones mentioned above that have been lost.
If you lose your full-time job and have to take 2 or 3 part-time jobs to keep paying your mortgage, the current administration counts that as job growth.
That's how messed up the system is right now.
Just going to leave this here:
https://twitter.com/mtmalinen/status/1753700241465835732

👉🏽"BTC has allowed anyone to cut to the front of the “fiat currency Cantillon Effect benefit line”. - yes!!
Please read both tweets: https://twitter.com/LukeGromen/status/1753854390367039907

To make it extra 'special': "10% of the world‘s population own 75% of all wealth, get 50% of all income and account for nearly half of all CO2 emissions.
source IMF: (picture 5)

👉🏽Germany: Retail sales have fallen by 4.4% in Dec YoY. This means that even Christmas sales fell through. Germans have gone on a buyers' strike since the outbreak of inflation and have even cut back on gifts for children during the Christmas season. This also explains why Germany has some of the toughest competition in the retail sector and the lowest profit margins there." Zschaepitz
Basically, all categories are down except gas stations and clothing & textiles. Hello, buyers strike!

German inflation slows to 2.9% in January from 3.7% in December, the lowest level since June 2021. Core CPI slows to 3.4% in Jan from 3.5% in Dec, lowest level June 2022. Energy in deflation, Energy prices dropped -2.8% YoY, while Food CPI slowed to 3.8% from 4.5% in Dec.

👉🏽 The two largest economies in Africa are under huge financial strain.

On the 30th of January, Nigeria de facto devalued the naira by ~30% (after another ~30% devaluation in June). And Egypt is under pressure to devalue too, with the pound ~50% weaker in the black market. The Naira has moved from ~470 vs the USD in June last year to now at 1452 as of the 1st of February.
Bitcoin could step in as an economic life raft. It offers a robust alternative to national currencies prone to devaluation, providing a measure of financial sovereignty to individuals.
I will quote Alex Gladstein on this topic:
"In neither case did the government ask the people for permission to dramatically reduce their wages, purchasing power, or living standards.

Now hundreds of millions will suffer

Currency devaluation is a crime against humanity."
https://twitter.com/DSBatten/status/1753171731521691872

👉🏽US Treasury Department cuts Jan-Mar borrowing estimate to $760 billion from $816 billion and estimates $202 billion net borrowing for Apr-Jun, per Bloomberg.
Are they smoking crack?
The Treasury has issued $134BN in debt in the past 4 weeks but expects to issue $202BN in all of Q2.
"if anyone expects any econ data in the election 2024 year to be i) accurate or ii) make any sense, you will be severely disappointed."

👉🏽https://twitter.com/jameslavish/status/1753804440166125702
"We're getting to the point now where the interest expense on the debt is so high that it's going to eat up our ability to basically service the next generation"
"I'm not even sure about the current one"
"We are in deep trouble"
"By 2027, the interest expense alone on the debt eats all healthcare spending"
"By 2047, it eats all discretionary spending"

👉🏽"A record $8.9 trillion of government debt will mature over the next year.
Meanwhile, the government deficit in 2024 is projected to be $1.4 trillion.
This means that someone will need to buy more than $10 trillion in US government bonds in 2024.
That's nearly a third of all outstanding US federal debt right now.
All the while the Fed is expected to start cutting rates, making buying these bonds less attractive.
One of the biggest issues with a higher for the longer environment is US debt.
Debt service costs for the US government have more than doubled since the Fed started raising rates."

Yesterday Fed Chair Powell said it best himself:
Scott Pelley (60 Minutes): “Is the national debt a danger to the economy in your view?”

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on the US national debt:

• We’re on an unsustainable path
• Debt is growing faster than the economy
• We’re borrowing from future generations

Projected debt in 30 years: $144 Trillion"

We need Bitcoin now more than ever.

"Under current fiscal policies, the Debt to GDP ratio in the US is projected to hit 200% within 20 years.
Before 2020, Debt to GDP in the US was ~100% and before 2008 it was ~60%.
Current estimates show the US hitting $50 trillion in total debt by 2033.
This means that the US will add $218 million in debt EVERY HOUR until 2033.
Just imagine what would happen if the Fed doesn't in fact achieve a soft landing."- TKL

This is unsustainable.

👉🏽Nearly 30% of ALL stocks in China have trading stopped as the CSI 1000 index falls 8%. Healty world economy, right?

🎁If you have made it this far I would like to give you a little gift:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyMKjrNxaGo
Free knowledge!

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://void.cat/d/KMeCzUjTw546VNFZXp2sfH.webp
https://void.cat/d/6zWM9muJ5vrYTZpZLiRcC2.webp
https://void.cat/d/5v2jTLuun4MXh4NZptnWBW.webp
https://void.cat/d/DLzsyo9n6Gf7bJXxAy5QmC.webp
https://void.cat/d/PTDQ1a9iNcESRCaZqrtyP6.webp


GM #nostr! Today the Damus team is celebrating one year on the App Store! We are so excited that you're here, having fun while supporting freedom! Our dear friend l nostr:npub1lelkh3hhxw9hdwlcpk6q9t0xt9f7yze0y0nxazvzqjmre3p98x3sthkvyz  has summarized the last 365 days with the help from many of you sharing your memories! Thank you so much!

https://cdn.jb55.com/s/damus-frens-2023-720p.mp4

We are also pumped to announce the launch of Damus Purple! You can be part of the roadmap for the year to come and beyond, by supporting our team with this optional membership. Currently it’s open to TestFlight users only but will be on
the App Store shortly. Thanks for joining us on this wild ride 🤙 https://damus.io/purple


At the Bitcoin conference 23’in Amsterdam, I had the pleasure of having a chat with an old chap called Bert. It was his second time at the conference. He had a spot at the expo area with his mobile espresso bar.

I showed him the beauty of Bitcoin and insisted on paying for a coffee with Bitcoin.
After that, a quick demonstration of Breeze and he received his first 'coffee' sats.

Now fast forward to the beginning of 2024.

I met him in Amsterdam, at his 'normal' spot at the entrance of the Vondelpark, near Vondelchurch.
https://btcmap.org/merchant/node:11380255884

I helped him to set up Breeze - items and had a nice chai latte.
Unfortunately, people didn't know that you can pay for your coffee with Bitcoin/sats. No problem, after our appointment, I sent him some stickers. Look at the result.

So please plebs...if you are visiting Amsterdam. Check out the Vondelpark ,and whilst doing that, get yourself a coffee at First Coffee and drop some sats.

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.

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

#zap              🧡   #nostr                #BTC               #Bitcoin              #plebchain                 #grownostr    #stacksats #bitcoineducation #adoption #🍊💊 #orangepilled https://image.nostr.build/4ad08d47b8530ac7b1cc17693c48c1d3c4d9ae7ab08e96eda8cce580bdc8651c.jpg https://image.nostr.build/08ef89aa572066fbc524bf1adb937a8ef3823fb7603a4971a8ef39c8b3a4afb7.jpg https://image.nostr.build/b9311e4317e1039cc54b9cba2ab22afefed7fc486e180520d70df99d398018c5.jpg https://image.nostr.build/99b2e361d58f1e71de3c2f62b7df37b9a03a42827134421e31097c856da0ca9c.jpg