Week ending: 2022-02-11
Dan’s top 3 stories from the week:
- Lightning goes live on CashApp: On Monday, Cash App announced that the Lightning network could be used to transfer bitcoin through its app. With Lightning, Cash App users can send bitcoin to any Lightning or on-chain BTC address. Lightning is a “layer 2” technology that allows users to temporarily transact on a network separate from the BTC base layer - this allows for faster transactions and could facilitate wider scale adoption. Cash App and others - particularly Strike - are quickly adopting technologies that help bring more and more users into the Bitcoin network. As these platforms onboard more users, more people will see that the Bitcoin and Lightning networks offer the best system for escrowing and settling value on a global scale.
- Russia officially decides to regulate: On Tuesday, the Russian government published a brief overview of how they would handle cryptocurrencies. Rather than banning digital assets - which the Russian central bank suggested several weeks ago - they have opted instead for a regulatory strategy. Although the regulatory specifics have yet to be seen, this news is certainly more bullish than an outright ban. It should be noted that India, the country with the most cryptocurrency users worldwide, took a similar approach. Despite suggestions from their central bank to ban cryptocurrencies, India’s leaders decided to move forward with a tax structure for those transacting with cryptocurrencies.
- Two arrested in connection with Bitfinex 2016 hack: On Tuesday the U.S. Department of Justice announced that they arrested Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan in connection with a 2016 hack of Bitfinex, a popular cryptocurrency exchange. At the time of the hack, the 119,754 bitcoin stolen had an estimated value of approximately $60 million - at today’s prices, it’s worth approximately $4.5 billion. While the couple have not been charged with the hack itself, they have been charged with conspiracy to launder money and defraud the United States. If found guilty, they face up to 25 years in prison. Law enforcement was able to seize nearly $3.6B worth of stolen BTC, Look…watch the videos of these two and tell me whether you think they could have done something like this. Things seem a little off…
3rd party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Investing.com. See disclosure here or
remove ads
.
Brandon’s top 3 stories from the week:
- Valkyrie Funds launches Bitcoin Mining ETF (Ticker: WGMI): Valkyrie launches the first Bitcoin mining ETF available in the United States. This allows investors to get broad exposure to the market (which we wrote about Monday) and is focused on renewable energy mining. Although I believe the ESG narrative that bitcoin takes up too much energy is a load shit, I believe the companies that are able to find cheap and reliable renewable energy will last. This ETF gives you exposure to all of them (*both Dan and I own this ETF and this is not financial advice, please do your own research).
- Upcoming Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone Update Allows Merchants to Accept Bitcoin Payments :
A new Apple update will allow Apple to accept and send crypto payments through the Tap to Pay feature. I’m a little disappointed that Apple did not specify Bitcoin, but it is a step in the right direction. Apple can potentially cut out companies like Block and allow small businesses to accept payment directly from iPhone to iPad instead of requiring Square’s swipe tool. This will add competition in this space and I believe competition always is the best for the consumer and users of products. Dan and I get into what we think as to who is the winner in the battle between Block and Apple so check out our pod for our rants. - Inflation hits a 40 year high at 7.5%: The CPI numbers were released on February 10th showing a 7.5% inflation rate. In majority of places around the country this is greater than the reported 7.5%. Assets have massively increased, cost of living including food, rent, gas, and everyday products have increased, and salaries will not catch up anytime soon. People are being affected by this massive inflation everyday and bitcoin truly does fix this. The supply cap of 21 million btc will never allow a government or anyone in power to manipulate the supply and cause massive amounts of inflation affecting the lower and middle class.
3rd party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Investing.com. See disclosure here or
remove ads
.
A quick look on chain:
Current price: $43,059 (last week +15.6%; last month +1.5%; last year -9.3%)
Market Cap: $840.5B
Spent Output Profit Ratio: 1.0019
Current block height: 722693
Mean block interval: 9min 47sec
Stay up to date on Green Candle news by subscribing to our newsletter and following us on Youtube, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) and Instagram (both @Greencandleit)
Happy Friday everyone - get after it this weekend!
Dan and Brandon