Biweekly Headlines 2024 Mar W3 – W4
“Bitcoin Is Going to Eat Gold” – Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy CEO
Biweekly News Roundup
1. Bitcoin’s Market Performance and Valuation
● Bitcoin surpassing silver in market cap: Bitcoin on March 11 became the world’s eighth most valuable asset, surpassing silver as its market cap rose above $1.4T.
● Record high weekly inflows into crypto funds: Digital asset investment products saw record weekly inflows totaling US$2.9B, beating the prior week’s all-time record of US$2.7B.
● Bitcoin’s price movements and futures open interest: BTC retreated more than 15% from its record high of $73,798 on Mar. 14. On the same day, the open interest in BTC futures hit a record high in March, increasing from $22.2B on Feb. 25.
● Historical growth in Bitcoin’s market cap compared to Nvidia: The correlation between BTC and Nvidia has hit its highest in over a year. Over five years, BTC’s market cap soared to $1.43T from $70B, while Nvidia’s market value rose to over $2T from about $100B.
● Cathie Wood’s price target for Bitcoin: Cathie Wood calls Bitcoin a “Financial Super Highway” and reiterates $1.5M price target.
2. Investment in Bitcoin and Digital Assets
● Capital flows into Bitcoin ETFs and other investment products: A total of $13.2B in new capital has flowed into investment products such as spot Bitcoin ETFs year-to-date, with $74.61B worth of Bitcoin now under custody. Bitcoin products accounted for 97% of the total inflows.
● Galaxy Asset Management’s AUM milestone: Galaxy Asset Management reaches $10B AUM milestone, marking a substantial 24.8% increase compared to the previous month.
● Growth in tokenized U.S. Treasury securities: In 2023, tokenized Treasurys went from $114M in January to $845M by the end of the year. This shows that blockchain-based digital tokens representing U.S. Treasury securities gained a 641% growth within a year.
● BlackRock’s entry into asset tokenization: BlackRock officially unveiled its tokenized asset fund on the Ethereum network, entering asset tokenization race.
3. Regulatory and Industry Developments
● Ethereum Foundation’s confidential inquiry and SEC’s examination: The Ethereum Foundation faces a confidential inquiry, and the SEC is examining whether ETH is a security. Ether-based spot ETFs likely won’t get approved by the SEC in May, Bloomberg said.
● Coinbase’s court action for digital asset regulation: Coinbase has been bolstered by Paradigm and other groups in its federal court action to get the Securities and Exchange Commission to work on tailored regulations for digital assets.
● Predictions and expectations for Bitcoin’s price from various firms
– Binance CEO Richard Teng expects BTC to blow past the $90K mark by the end of this year.
– Standard Chartered increased its year-end bitcoin price forecast by 50% to $150K and predicted 2025 high of $250K.
– Bernstein is now convinced that Bitcoin will hit $150K by mid-2025.
4. Technological and Network Updates
● Transaction cost reductions after Ethereum’s upgrade: The average transaction costs on layer solutions slide after Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade on March 13.
– Arbitrum was around 5.8 cents down from about 40 cents just before the upgrade.
– Optimism was seeing fees around 0.7 cents, down from about 50 cents.
– Base dropped from about 30 cents to about 0.6 cents.
● Predictions for Ethereum’s price: On-chain data suggests that Ethereum price could target $5.4K in 2024.
● New blockchain technology updates and the potential for disruption: Elastos introduces BTC Oracle, signaling advancements in blockchain with new investments and deals. EY’s blockchain head notes a disruptive era beginning, powered by public blockchains and process tokenization, reshaping business economics.
5. Public and Institutional Adoption
● Increasing transactions and users in Indonesia’s crypto market: Indonesia’s crypto market booms as transactions hit $1.92B in February and registered crypto investors also surged to 19 million users.
● National strategies for Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador and Argentina’s Bitcoin transaction surge amid inflation: El Salvador plans to buy one bitcoin every day, pushing the nation’s bitcoin holdings to a substantial total of 5,690 BTC, valued at approximately $400M. In Argentina, as inflation skyrockets to 270%, a sharp rise in Bitcoin transactions nears a 20-month high.
● Pension funds investing in Bitcoin and crypto-related assets: Pension funds, including Houston Firefighters and South Korea’s National Service, invest in Bitcoin and crypto assets. The world’s largest pension fund, Japan’s GPIF, with $1.5T in assets, cautiously diversifies into Bitcoin for long-term planning.
6. Expert Opinions and Sentiment
● Comments from JPMorgan on Ether and Coinbase: JPMorgan said that Ether could be a driver of Coinbase earnings and raised its price target for Coinbase to $150 from $95.
● Ruchir Sharma’s statement on Bitcoin as a long-term investment: “The bitcoin bulls have been proved mostly right about its prospects as a long-term investment,” Rockefeller International Chair Ruchir Sharma said.
March 23, 2024