Bitcoin Bounces Back After Shaky Start To The Week
“The computer can be used as a tool to liberate and protect people, rather than to control them.” — Hal Finney
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Is it just me or do you feel like we’re about to absolutely take off? Rip faces as they say. It’s funny how things change from one day to the next. What I know for certain is that I’m in a way better mood when Bitcoin is going up then down (and when the sun is shining).
Before we get to March highlights, we should quickly touch on a major event happening next week… no, Ontario will not be lifting it’s third gruellingly strict lockdown — Coinbase will be directly listing on the Nasdaq next Wednesday! A truly historic moment for the entire space. This listing will accelerate institutional adoption of Bitcoin and catalyze a host of complementary industry initiatives.
How might this listing affect Bitcoin price action? I mean, if I knew for sure then this would probably be the last of my weekly updates and you could find me on a beach sometime soon — kidding. Let’s just say, it would be in Coinbase’s best interest to be listing in a hot market and they have more than enough firepower to get the party jumpin’.
March Highlights
- Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management allows clients exposure to Bitcoin
- NYDIG raised $200m from Morgan Stanley, New York Life, MassMutual, Soros
- Visa to enable Bitcoin purchases at 70m merchants
- Hong Kong listed software company Meitu purchases $50m of ETH and $39m of BTC for treasury
- Beeple sells NFT for $69m
- Tether settled ending years of FUD
- Crypto exchange FTX purchases naming rights to Miami Heat Stadium
- Goldman Sachs restarts crypto trading desk
- Fidelity, SkyBridge, NYDIG, VanEck, and Valkyrie filed for Bitcoin ETF
- PayPal acquires crypto custodian Curv
There are many more highlights that could’ve been added to the list so I apologize in advance if I missed your favourite headline of the month!
What we saw at the desk
Not too much to report on this week. It was busy as per usual but nothing too standoutish. The key takeaway this week is that there were a lot of net new buyers and Bitcoin certainly led the way.
This time spent below $60k really reminds me of when we were bouncing around $17–20k mid-November to mid-December. At the time, our clients were at a standstill looking to buy a breakout so as to not catch a falling knife… we all know what followed.
NYDIG’s Bitcoin-Powered Insurance Strategy
There are so many Bitcoin related headlines nowadays that it’s really hard to find one to dive a bit deeper into. I did not have that problem this week. NYDIG is at it again. It was just a few weeks ago that they announced a whopping $200m raise from Morgan Stanley, New York Life, MassMutual, Soros Fund Management and others to bring Bitcoin to banks. In addition, they announced that New York Life Chairman and CEO Ted Mathas joined their board. Until then, other than MassMutual purchasing $100m in BTC last December, Bitcoin and insurance didn’t seem to fit together — one being extremely volatile, and the other being very conservative.
This week, NYDIG announced another 9-figure raise from strategic partners including property and casualty (P&C)-focused insurers Starr Insurance, Liberty Mutual Insurance, and other P&C insurers, who join NYDIG’s existing life insurance and annuity-focused strategic partners New York Life and MassMutual.
“The global property and casualty (P&C) industry is huge, paying out over $1 trillion in claims annually,” said Robert Gutmann, cofounder and CEO of NYDIG, said in the release. “I am excited to welcome Starr and Liberty Mutual to NYDIG, as part of our expansion of bitcoin into new areas of insurance.”
Something big is going on here…
I was exploring how Bitcoin could fit into life insurance a while back. Thinking about it very simply: let’s say I buy a $1m life insurance policy now at ~30 years old. I’m paying premiums now which means I’m foregoing the opportunity to invest that money into other assets that could appreciate. $1m sounds pretty good right now — my family could nearly buy themselves a 1 br condo in Toronto! Let’s say I live to ~80 (avg. life expectancy) — 50 years ago you could go to the movies for a nickel (remember those shiny pocket dwellers?). What I’m trying to say is, $1m 50 years from now might cover the costs of your funeral but it’s not exactly leaving your beneficiaries with much. So, my simple idea was to offer a product where individuals could buy bitcoin denominated insurance policies that may not suffer the same fate as anything denominated in fiat currencies.
Clearly, NYDIG is thinking much bigger and has got all the largest US insurance powerhouses on board with my, I mean, their vision.
Ross Stevens, CEO of Stone Ridge and Executive Chairman of NYDIG, commented:
“Fiat depreciation causes inflation in fiat premiums, while collapsing the purchasing power of claims. We see a brighter bitcoin-powered future for the billions who depend on the insurance industry every year. With the addition of Mike Sapnar, a trusted partner for years, and now with Starr, Liberty Mutual, New York Life, and MassMutual as shareholders of NYDIG, we will be working tirelessly to enable new bitcoin-denominated products for global insureds.”
In case you missed it…
- Coinbase announces mind melting 1st quarter results ahead of listing https://investor.coinbase.com/news/news-details/2021/Coinbase-Announces-First-Quarter-2021-Estimated-Results-and-Full-Year-2021-Outlook/default.aspx
- California real estate powerhouse Caruso Properties moves 1% of their treasury into BTC and accepts BTC for rent on all properties https://www.coindesk.com/caruso-properties-to-accept-bitcoin-for-rent-allocates-1-of-treasury-to-asset
- NBA’s Sacramento Kings to offer players the option to take salary in Bitcoin https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbrett/2021/04/05/sacramento-kings-will-offer-bitcoin-as-salary-to-players/
- $3.1 trillion AUM State Street to offer new bank-grade trading platform for digital assets https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/state-street-may-start-trading-crypto-on-platform-its-helping-build-2021-04-08
- HK-listed Meitu purchases another $10m in BTC for treasury https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/101124/meitu-btc-purchase-100-million-crypto-assets
- Bitcoin’s “Kimchi Premium” hits 15% = Bullish https://bitcoinmagazine.com/markets/bitcoins-kimchi-premium-hits-15-percent
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Satstreet serves private Canadian clients including some of the largest Bitcoin mining operations, institutions, and high net worth individuals. Satstreet has raised initial funding from Round13 Capital and several prominent investors.
