Category: Bitcoin

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Bitcoin Market Analysis

Bitcoin Lending Grows to $24 Billion in Q4 2020

A recent report by Arcane Research shows that the crypto lending market is growing. And although it’s only around $20-30 Billion at the moment, experts are suggesting it could grow into the Trillions.

A growing lending market could be very bullish for bitcoin. Crypto-backed fiat loans allow users to employ their bitcoin to serve their everyday fiat-needs, without requiring the hodlers to sell and realize profits.

Put simply, the loans involves offering your Bitcoin to a company who in return loans you “dollars” (could be in the form of stablecoin such as USDC, USDT which you can sell for dollars). And then you pay interest on the loan (for example 36% per year interest paid in crypto). If the value of Bitcoin drops you may be asked to put more in to keep it above a specific loan to crypto collateral ratio. If you want your Bitcoin back you simply can pay the loan off.

Why Use BTC as Collateral for Loans?

There could be many reasons why you might not want to sell your crypto and get a loan instead, these include:

  • Tax deferment
  • The need for fiat
  • Leverage up and buy more crypto
  • Arbitrage
  • Market-making
  • Miners covering costs
  • Simply not wanting to sell your BTC
  • Loans without counter party risk and credit risk

Bitcoin can be transferred around the world, instantly, at almost no cost, any time of the day, and any day of the year, and with full finality. No other assets can match these properties today, making bitcoin the perfect collateral asset for the future.

Options to Get a Bitcoin Backed Loan in Australia

We’re doing some research into the best options for Australia at the moment, so stay tuned as we’ll publish this soon.

In the meantime checkout Binance Crypto Loans and BlockFi Crypto Loans.

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Australia Bitcoin

Aussies Aiming at AU$ 100K for Bitcoin by the end of the Year

Data reveals that Australians are more bullish than ever when it comes to crypto, and many of them believe Bitcoins bull run has not reached its peak yet.

While historical data shows that March is usually a bearish month for Bitcoin – over 75% of Australians believe the market price for Bitcoin could reach levels over AU$ 60k in the next six months, and some even are targeting AU$100k by the end of the year.

The Australian crypto-exchange, Coinspot, recently published a poll where nearly 1,200 voted in about BTC’s status in the next 6 months. By now, over 78% believe the price will reach over AU$ 60k —while only 22% believe the price will drop.

Bitcoin Adoption Still Growing

Although many believe that the current status of this market will turn negative in March, institutions are still buying it in big quantities. In February alone almost $3 Billion has been invested into crypto. And the number of active Bitcoin addresses continues to grow consistently, as shown in the graph below.

Number of Active Bitcoin Addresses – source

Even so, some Australians believe Bitcoin could reach levels overs AU$ 100k at the end of 2021.

The bullish sentiment of Aussies remains strong —even some are rushing in by using SMSF to buy crypto. Depending on demographics, some Australians are buying crypto as a retirement investment, like Baby Boomers, while younger Aussies want to be part of the process out of FOMO, and make profits along the way.

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Australia Bitcoin Crypto News Independent Reserve

Independent Reserve Set To Sponsor Australian Bitcoin Core Developer

Quantum Computers Are Not a Threat To Bitcoin (Yet), Expert Explains

Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve has collaborated with the operator of the United States’ BitMEX exchange, 100x Group, to sponsor a Bitcoin core maintainer in Australia named Michael Ford (known as @fanquake on Github).

This comes as part of the companies’ effort to support the development of the Bitcoin network. Per the announcement on Thursday, Michael will be sponsored by these two crypto companies for about one year.

Aussie Bitcoin Developer Gains Sponsors

Independent Reserve pledged to contribute AU$2,000 per month to the Australian developer, for a period of 12 months, while 100x Group will contribute a total of about AU$125,000 for the same period of months. The grant is provided without any condition, so Michael can be able to take on other projects of his choice. While commenting on the development, the CEO of Independent Reserve, Adrian Przelozny, commented:

“The confidence people have in Bitcoin is underpinned by its security and stability. The Bitcoin core developers play an integral role in safeguarding that stability. As an Aussie exchange, we’re excited to support a local developer.”

Why Sponsor Bitcoin Developers?

Sponsoring Bitcoin developers has been very fundamental to keeping the Bitcoin network running. Just like the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshis Nakamoto, the core developers are voluntarily working to update the Bitcoin software. They are the true believers of the network, and so, they really need sponsorship to keep the network running and up-to-date, since they work on a voluntary basis.

“100x Group is pleased to provide long-term financial support for open source developers like Michael, who build the infrastructure on which our business and many others depend,” the CEO of 100x Group, Alexander Höptner, commented.

This news also follows a story we covered on Tuesday, where Twitter’s Jack Dorsey also donated 1 Bitcoin to a non-profit organization to support the development of the Bitcoin network.

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Australia Bitcoin Crypto News

Australians Replacing Gold For Crypto While Interest in Crypto Debit Cards Spikes

Australian investors are now choosing cryptocurrencies instead of gold, according to a new survey. Likewise, Australia has positioned itself as the second country with the most interest in crypto debit cards, surpassing the U.S. and standing behind Nigeria,

According to The Motley Fool —who also invested $5M in Bitcoin despite calling it a “terrible investment”— from 2,000 investors surveyed, at least 12.6% of them are now holding cryptocurrencies in their portfolio, while 12.1% of them are still holding precious metals like gold.

Aussies are Natural Hodlers

According to the survey, at least 51% of the interviewed stated they do not plan to sell their assets anytime soon, and at least 23% of them plan to hold their funds and sell in at least three years at best.

It seems logical that Aussies wouldn’t want to sell anytime soon, as a massive wave of FOMO —fear of missing out— kicked in at the beginning of February, with Australians buying cryptocurrencies more than ever, and just before Elon Musk announced that Tesla was investing $1.5B in Bitcoin.

“Crypto Debit Card” Spikes in Australia

Moreover, according to a report from Crypto Parrot, Australia is the second country with the most interest in Crypto Debit Cards. The term “Crypto Debit Card” in Australia has a total score of 45 Popularity Points in Google.

The interest in cryptos has significantly increased since March 2020, when all markets around the world crashed, and more Aussie investors —and Australians in general— were moving toward digital assets like Bitcoin.

The demand for cryptocurrencies in Australia such, that over 5,000,000 Aussies will own cryptocurrencies this year, and over 45% of Aussies are investing in Bitcoin merely because of the price increased.

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Bitcoin Market Analysis

Trends Show Bitcoin is Mostly Bearish in March – 80% Chance

Historically, the statistics show that Bitcoin monthly returns in March are mostly negative. To date, this is one the most consistent seasonal patterns shown in Bitcoin in terms of price return.

Although statistically there is an 80% chance Bitcoin will be negative returns for March this year, the sentiment going around is that March will still be bullish. Traders are saying that there is a bullish triangle breakout, exchanges are saying the demand is high, individuals are saying “buy the dip”, and institutions continue to buy BTC in the 1000’s.

Bitcoin Yearly Returns

Source

If you take a look at the yearly returns, they have slowed down from the 1000%+ gains of the early Bitcoin years. This is mainly due to the marketcap growing as it was easier to double from $1 to $2 then $10,000 to $20,000 and so on.

Over the decade, bitcoin has delivered a 370% compound annual growth rate (that’s the rate of return assuming you reinvest your profits at the end of each year).

Will this March show negative returns? tune in next month where we see if the trend continues!

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Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Institutions

Crypto Institutional Purchases List 2021

In this article we’ll keep track of all the recent Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency purchases being made by institutions, big companies and large investors.

Last updated: 01/01/2022

DateInvestorAmount
22/01/2022El Salvador $15 Million
29/12/2021 El Salvador$1 Million
29/11/2021MicroStrategy$414 Million
27/11/2021El Salvador $6 Million
28/10/2021El Salvador$24 Million
07/10/2021*Unknown$1.6 Billion*
21/09/2021*Sky Bridge$700 Million*
21/09/2021 El Salvador$10 Million*
14/09/2021MicroStrategy$240 Million
08 Sep 2021Unknown$24 Million
08 Sep 2021 El Salvador$7 Million*
07 Sep 2021El Salvador$10 Million*
24 Aug 2021MicroStrategy $177 Million*
28 Jul 2021Genesis Digital Assets$125 Million
25 Jun 2021*Ricardo Salinas$1.5 Billion*
22 Jun 2021MicroStrategy$489 Million
14 Jun 2021MicroStrategy$500 Million
26 May 2021*ARK Invest$20 Million*
20 May 2021Justin Sun$135 Million
20 May 2021Justin Sun$150 Million
18 May 2021MicroStrategy$10 Million
13 May 2021MicroStrategy$15 Million
07 May 2021*MercadoLibre$7.8 Million*
28 Apr 2021Nexon$100 Million
8 Apr 2021*Meitu$100 Million*
5 Apr 2021MicroStrategy$15 Million
18 Mar 2021Meitu$49 Million
12 Mar 2021*Purpose Bitcoin ETF AUM$900 Million*
12 Mar 2021MicroStrategy$15 Million
8 Mar 2021*Aker ASA$58 Million*
7 Mar 2021Meitu$40 Million
5 Mar 2021MicroStrategy$10 Million
24 Feb 2021MicroStrategy$1 Billion
23 Feb 2021Square$170 Million
23 Feb 2021Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund$1 Billion
17 Feb 2021 *The Motley Fool$5 Million
8 Feb 2021Tesla$1.5 Billion
Jan 2021 *GreyScale$1+ Billion*
10 Dec 2020MassMutual$100 Million
1 Oct 2020Square$50 Million
Jun 2020 *Galaxy Digital Holdings$150 Million
Jan 2020 *Ruffer Investment Company$745 Million
2020 *Skybridge Capital$310 Million *
2020 *GrennPro Capital$100 Million
* approximate dates and amounts

Who’s next?

DateInvestorAmount
2021*Ray DalioTBD
2021NYDIG$300 Million *
2021 *SynBiotic SETBA
2021 *Canadian ETFTBA
2021 *BlackRockTBA
2021 *PaypalTBA
2021 *MetLifeTBA
* approximate dates and amounts

Obviously, it is tough to keep a record of all the investments made recently as they are flooding in. If you spot a recent one we haven’t added please let us know on the Twitter thread.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

MicroStrategy Buys Additional $1 Billion Worth of Bitcoin

Bitcoin Outperformed Oil, Gold With Over 100% Increase in Q1 2021

Just recently, MicroStrategy was rumored to have bought Bitcoin, as lots of BTC were being moved from Coinbase to an unknown wallet. The company was suspected of making the transactions because it recently raised capital to buy more Bitcoin, and Coinbase has been its go-to exchange for purchases. The report has been confirmed, following an announcement on Wednesday that MicroStrategy purchased over $1 billion worth of Bitcoin.

For the record, this is the single largest purchase it has ever made. Of course, the company remains the largest corporate Bitcoin investor, followed by Elon Musk’s Tesla.

MicroStrategy now Holds Over 90,000 BTC

As reported, MicroStrategy purchase about 19,452 BTC at an average price of US$52,765 per coin. In total, the aggregate cost of the cryptocurrencies was US$1.026 billion, which also covers the expenses and transaction fees. Such a massive purchase shows the level of confidence Michael Saylor, the CEO of MicroStrategy, and the rest of the executives, have in the cryptocurrency as a store of value.

Overall, the company currently holds 90,531 BTC in its balance sheet, all of which were purchased at the aggregate cost of US$2.171 billion. This means that each coin was purchased at the average price of US$23,985. As it stands, the company is obviously not going to sell these cryptocurrencies any time soon. In fact, MicroStrategy plans to hold more Bitcoin as part of its corporate strategy. 

Corporate Investors are Taking Over

“The company now holds over 90,000 bitcoins, reaffirming our belief that bitcoin, as the world’s most widely-adopted cryptocurrency, can serve as a dependable store of value,” Saylor noted in the report. “We will continue to pursue our strategy of acquiring bitcoin with excess cash, and we may, from time to time, subject to market conditions, issue debt or equity securities in capital raising transactions with the objective of using the proceeds to purchase additional bitcoin.” 

Early Wednesday, Jack Dorsey’s Square Inc. also announced they bought an additional US$170 million worth of Bitcoin. We can only expect more Bitcoin purchases from companies at this point.

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Bitcoin Market Analysis

What Caused the Recent Crypto Market Drop – Whales, Elon, Kraken

Lets take a look at what might have caused the recent drop in the crypto market – with Bitcoin dropping from around A$70k to A$60k.

Please feel free to leave comments on the Twitter thread if you think we may have missed something.

Bitcoin Whales

Big Whales (over 100 million to 1 billion dollars) transferred from unknown wallets (presumably cold storage) into crypto Exchanges on 23rd February, where they could be selling or trading in the open market – affecting the crypto prices. Here are some of the recent ones.

This news also follows some recent related news we covered, where a Bitcoin Whale Moves AU$1 Billion of BTC into Storage.

Elon Musk and Peter Shifft

In a friendly conversation on Twitter, Elon suggested that Bitcoin price might be high. Peter has been tweeting to everyone famous recently saying how much he hates Bitcoin and loves Gold. There is nothing new there, but when Elon says the price might be a bit high, that could have prompted some people to take profits. Also on a side note, Elon called Peter an eggplant emoji – which everyone found hilarious. And now it seems Peter has put it in his profile name. Haha.

Kraken BTC Sell off

Kraken is investigating the Bitcoin sell off with CEO Jesse Powell stating in a Bloomberg interview (below) that there was a massive Bitcoin sell off on Kraken in the past few days, which caused many liquidations on margin positions. He stated that Kraken might have been hit harder than other exchanges because it provides margin trading. And they would investigate why this happened…

YouTube – Bloomberg Interview with Kraken CEO

Conclusions

This recent pull back might be the first time new crypto traders have seen such a “big” drop. Having been studying this market for quite a few years now and seeing many drops before – has led me to be humble, take profits and never over extend my positions.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey Donates 1 BTC to Non-profit to Support Developers

Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey Donates 1 BTC to Non-profit to Support Developers

Again, the tech billionaire and CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, has demonstrated his strong support for the development of Bitcoin (BTC). On Tuesday, he donated Bitcoin to Brink, a non-profit organization focused on funding BTC developers. This is coming a few days after Dorsey teamed with Shawn Corey Carter (a.k.a Jay Z), to launch a new endowment trust aimed at funding the cryptocurrency developers in different countries in Africa, including India.

Brink Receives Over $45K Donation From Twitter CEO

The non-profit organization announced the development on Twitter, saying that Dorsey donated 1 BTC in support of their BTC developers funding efforts. “Honored to have received a 1 BTC donation to our developer funding efforts from none other than @jack!,” Brink precisely wrote. The organization actually holds a 503(c)(3) non-profit status from the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This means they don’t have to pay tax on the cryptocurrency received.

At the time of writing, one Bitcoin was worth US$47,149. This fund will be committed to further strengthen the development of Bitcoin, as Brinks pledged on its website:

“Brink exists to strengthen the Bitcoin protocol and network through fundamental research and development, and to support the Bitcoin developer community through funding, education, and mentoring.”

Dorsey: A Big-time Bitcoin Supporter

Unarguably, the CEO of Twitter is one of biggest individuals quietly supporting the development of Bitcoin around the world. Following his partnership with the American rapper, he precisely raised about 500 BTC to fund Bitcoin developers in Indian and Africa countries. These coins would be worth over $23.5 million in today’s price.

It might also interest you to know that Jack Dorsey recently set-up his own Bitcoin node, and so, he’s now among the active persons who are helping to keep the crypto network more secure, as Crypto News Australia reported.

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Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Investing

Pizza and Bitcoin Meet Again: A $2850 Tip

During the unfortunate situation the world has found itself in for over a year now, I daresay we all may have ordered one too many pizzas – however, we probably haven’t been tipping in BTC.

$5 or BTC?

The story of the guy who bought 2 pizzas for 10k Bitcoins back in 2010 is well-known – however, it seems this isn’t the only pizza-related story of Bitcoin payments that have seen the HODLer come out on top.

Although not as dramatic and high-value as that story or as the windfall received by the kid who accidentally HODLed for several years while originally planning to buy in-game currency with BTC, a recent story has surfaced on Reddit of a 0.05 BTC tip for a pizza back in 2013 that is now worth $2850.

At the time, the redditor who goes by the alias btcbible offered the pizza delivery guy a choice between a 5$ tip – or the going equivalent in Bitcoin at the time, written down on a paper wallet. According to the redditor, the pizza delivery man had heard of Bitcoin, but didn’t know much about it. Nevertheless, he certainly made the correct choice.

The pizza delivery driver has since contacted the redditor for assistance on getting his BTC into a hot wallet so he can cash out – and assistance was offered.

“I let the pizza guy choose between $5 in fiat or BTC. Needless to say, he chose wisely. I’ve responded with instructions on how to import the private key via Electrum.”

Btcbible has clarified that he is no longer rich in crypto, having liquidated most of his holdings in order to buy a house.

However, he’s definitely made another person at least a little bit richer on his way to home ownership.