The Wolf Den #145 - Buying Fear
Bitcoin Thoughts And Analysis
Before we dive into the charts (which are a bit boring), I wanted to highlight a tweet yesterday shared by Jameson Lopp.
As you can see, the amount of Bitcoin sitting on exchanges has dropped dramatically, which is incredibly interesting considering the trading interest in the asset at this point in time. What does this mean?
Well, it means that people are not selling. They have bought and moved their coins off the exchange. It also indicates that much of the supply is likely in the hands of big players like Grayscale and other insitutions, who do not use exchanges and would not be likely to sell them on a retail platforms.
This is incredibly bullish. There is almost not supply sitting on exchanges with markedly increased demand.
Not much to see on the chart since yesterday. Fake out above the blue line - price went above but then closed below. A great example of waiting for confirmation to trade. I don't see much on the chart at the moment, no reason to be jumping into trades in either direction. Today is just not a day with many charts worth sharing!
More Bad News For XRP
The rumors have come true and Coinbase has officially announced it will be delisting Ripple’s native token, XRP. Now that America’s largest domino has fallen, it's only a matter of time for other exchanges to follow suit. This should go without saying, but holding XRP as an investment right now is beyond risky. The ugliest part of the fiasco isn't the fact that some people will hold onto their bags no matter how deep they plunge, it's that a lot of power was handed to the SEC with this lawsuit. XRP, under US law, is innocent until proven guilty and now every exchange and fund is on their way to disavow the coin before the lawsuit even begins.
What if the SEC made such a case for other prominent coins like Tezos, Link, Cardano, or Polkadot that lack a community of haters? Would there be a different response or would exchanges chalk it up as another loss and move onto the next best asset that provides volume. This lawsuit is a direct case study on the power our regulators hold. If the crypto community was designed to be a new financial system and not rest upon the beliefs of governments and regulators, then it's time we act on our own accord and not on that of outdated legacy overlords.
Cover Protocol Coin Hack
In a series of strange events, DeFi coin Cover Protocol underwent a million-dollar hack, lost $3 million in funds, then received back the stolen coins a few hours later. The hacker either wanted to give a scare or had a change of heart. Despite the coins being given back, Cover lost 96% of its value from the hack. Ironically, Cover Protocol is a platform for protecting users in the DeFi space, offering “peer-to-peer insurance and risk coverage for Ethereum based smart contracts.” With DeFi being all the rage and center of development attention, many of the stories I hear remind me of when I first got into crypto back in 2016 - this is still the wild west. Your DeFi bag might be your most profitable play but it comes with serious risks like this.
Grayscale AUM Up 2.5X Since November 1
This is absurd growth for a company that was already growing at the speed of light. Grayscale now had almost 20B in assets under management, up from 7.6B at the beginning of November. This is as good of a metric for crypto demand as you will find anywhere, especially since a huge swatch of this money is from institutional investors.
They were at 16.4B... last week!
Russell Okung Takes 50% Of Salary In Bitcoin
Russell Okung has long been a Bitcoin advocate and an outspoken critic of legacy financial systems and central banks. It's amazing to see him pull this off - he will be receiving 50% of his salary in Bitcoin. Of course, they are really paying him in USD and that is being converted, but the premise is incredible and his conviction is inspiring. We are going to see a lot more of this moving forward.
The Wolf Of All Streets Podcast Ft. Kevin Wang
Just like myself, Kevin Wang attended the University of Pennsylvania and loved to play video games as a kid. With a desire to explore what was below the digital surface, Kevin learned to code and develop, becoming extremely proficient along the way. Upon discovering blockchain and Bitcoin Kevin Wang co-founded Nervos to solve blockchain interoperability and improve upon the existing proof of stake and proof of work protocols. The way Kevin sees it, blockchain is on a journey of world domination just like the internet once was decades ago.
Kevin and I further discuss managing a team around the world, the advantages of proof of work, a multi-asset store of value, tokenizing everything, the Nervos vision, the centralization of mining, living in virtual reality, China’s digital Yuan, teaching kids to code, web 3.0, where Bitcoin is headed, Bitcoin’s rising price and network security, Ready Player 1, China’s volatile regulation, blockchain in 5 years and more.
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The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own and should in no way be interpreted as financial advice. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision. I am not a financial advisor.