📔 Weekly Journal: Just a Matter of Time ⏳
[6 min read] Your guide to getting ahead on the digital frontier (& the weekend!). Today, the usual market news as well as how the Bitcoin ETF will affect prices over time
Welcome to this week’s Weekly Journal 📔, your guide to the latest news & innovation in emerging technology, digital assets, and our exciting path to the Metaverse. This is week 59 of the 520 weeks of newsletters I have committed to, a decade of documenting our physical and digital lives converge.
New subscribers are encouraged to check out the history & purpose of this newsletter as well as the archive.
Enjoy your weekend! 😎
Ryan
Here’s what you’re getting today:
📈 Market update: ETF win - BTC now bigger than Silver!
🗞️ Interesting news: The US $78m pro-crypto lobbying group, Crypto crime reduced in 2023, and the online church that released a scam token.
👓 Read of the week: Nike’s plans for its Web3 platform ".SWOOSH"
🎥 Video of the week: Top 20 Emerging Technologies” set to change our world.
🤖 AI:Why Deepmind’s ability to solve complex geometry problems is important.
🤑 DCA with me: Follow my regular $50 weekly investing in an emerging asset class.
Market Update
Last week’s Weekly Journal title was “Bitcoin Enters Mainsteam Finance”, and boy has it been making a splash!
In just a week, significant inflows have propelled the spot Bitcoin ETF sector to an impressive $27.7 billion in assets under management (AUM). Bitcoin funds now stand as the second-largest commodity ETF class, surpassing silver at $11.3 billion but trailing behind gold's $94.8 billion. Notably, this milestone is largely attributed to Grayscale's substantial Bitcoin holdings, constituting 89% of the combined spot Bitcoin ETF AUM with over 581,000 BTC. James Seffart's analysis suggests that futures and spot Bitcoin ETFs collectively contribute to a combined $36.9 billion in AUM.
Its just a matter of time until this supply shock hits the market, more on this below.
🔥🗺️ 7-day heatmap below, relatively flat week on week. Its taking longer for the Bitcoin ETFs to buy through the supply off market, but its only matter of time.
🎭 Crypto Fear and Greed Index is based on volatility, social media sentiments, surveys, market momentum, and a few other bits and pieces. Given the fact that BTC hasn’t skyrocketed overnight, some disappointment coming through
Interesting news from this week🗞️
🦅 Blockchain industry leaders, backed by prominent supporters like Andreessen Horowitz, Circle, Coinbase, Paradigm, and Jump Crypto, have raised $78 million through Fairshake Super PAC. The funds, accumulated in Q4 2023, aim to support pro-crypto politicians in the 2024 congressional elections. Fairshake plans to endorse candidates irrespective of their political affiliations, focusing on those advocating for U.S. crypto and blockchain innovation with responsible regulations. The PAC's strategy involves independent advertising and lobbying for a clear regulatory framework, essential for the full realisation of the blockchain economy.
💒 Colorado pastor Eligio “Eli” Regalado and his wife Kaitlyn allegedly defrauded investors by raising $3.2 million through the sale of INDXcoin, a crypto token tied to their online church, Victorious Grace. The state claims they falsely represented the token as backed by a cryptocurrency index, while, in reality, it was allegedly backed by nothing but God’s word. The Securities Commissioner filed a lawsuit, resulting in a judge freezing the church's assets based on accusations of fraudulent activity and illegal securities sales. The Regalados argued the coin was a utility, not a security, invoking faith to guarantee its success.
🦹♂️ In 2023, crypto crime decreased by 29%, with illicit revenue dropping over 54%, according to a Chainalysis report. Stolen cryptocurrency accounted for 0.34% of total on-chain transactions, totaling $24.2 billion, compared to 0.42% ($39.6 billion) in 2022. FTX's conviction of Sam Bankman-Fried influenced the 2022 figure, including $8.7 billion in FTX creditor claims. While Bitcoin is no longer scammers' top choice, stablecoins dominate illicit transaction volume. Despite a decrease in crypto theft, criminal activities like ransomware and darknet markets saw significant revenue increases. Senator Elizabeth Warren urged regulators to address crypto's role in financing terrorism. The UNODC reported a rise in money laundering through online casinos in East and Southeast Asia.
👓Read of the Week
Marc Baumann is one of my favourite minds in the Web3 space, and he wrote an excellent article about Nike’s plans for its Web3 platform ".SWOOSH". It’s a great summary of the updates along with the strategic take-aways.
🎥 Watch of the week
Kicking off 2024, I enjoyed this watch exploring the “Top 20 Emerging Technologies” set to change our world. Recent progress has been swift, envision 3D printing creating prosthetics in mere hours and robots aiding in household tasks. These innovations have the potential to reshape our lifestyle, work, and leisure, marking an exciting era of transformative change.
AI 🎨🤖🎵✍🏼
Google has developed an advanced AI system proficient in solving intricate geometry problems, a domain traditionally challenging for AI due to limited data availability. To overcome this hurdle, Google's AI models underwent training using language data, synthesising millions of theorems for comprehensive understanding.
That’s all for the free version this week! If you have any organisations in mind that could benefit from learning about emerging technology, be sure to reach out. Educational workshops are one of many consulting services I offer.
DCA With Me 🤑
Dollar Cost Averaging is an investment strategy in which an investor regularly invests a fixed amount of money into a particular asset/asset class at regular intervals, regardless of its current market cycle. By doing so, the investor can reduce the impact of market volatility and potentially earn a better return over time. Motto = time IN the market beats trying to time the market
To experiment with this, I invest $50 NZD into a Digital Asset every week. Each week I will choose an asset that seems underpriced in the short term and has positive long-term potential. My timeframe is 3-5 years. I don’t give financial advice but if you want to follow along with me you can use my easycrypto.co.nz referral link to support this newsletter. Let’s dive into this week’s pick:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Metaverse Field Guide to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.