Thriller "A Bitcoin Zine"

News gathered from every Bitcoin OG

A Repeat of 2013…

Bitcoin's parabolic rise during 2013 from $13 to $1,100 caught the attention of the mainstream media and brought many new investors to the market. For those who bought in at the top, the sudden crash to below $700 and the continuing slide downwards to a low of just over $200 by mid-January 2015 hit hard. Many of these people decided to cut their losses and cash out during this period, thinking that it was the end of the road for Bitcoin.

2013: "Becoming next bubble"

2021: "Integrated into financial system"

Lets Talk Tether…

Tether Passage via Dan Held

Bitcoin to 75K by April?

Bitcoin Charts by Bitcoin Jack via Twitter

What to make of all this?

JP Morgan Bets Big on Bitcoin

news coming from M. Corey Goldman via The Street

In a research note to clients, analysts at JPMorgan Chase predicted a long-term bitcoin price target of more than $146,000 based on the assumption that the cryptocurrency will grow in popularity as an alternative to gold, which has traditionally been used as an inflation and volatility hedge, as well as protection against a falling U.S. dollar.

“A crowding out of gold as an ‘alternative’ currency implies big upside for bitcoin over the long term,” wrote JPMorgan Chase strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou. However, “a convergence in volatilities between bitcoin and gold is unlikely to happen quickly, and is in our mind a multiyear process.

TradingShot Chart via Trading View

“This implies that the above $146,000 theoretical bitcoin price target should be considered as a long-term target, and thus an unsustainable price target for this year,” they said.

US Federal Regulator Says Banks Can Conduct Payments Using Stablecoins

news coming from Nikhilesh De via CoinDesk

Brian Brooks, the Acting Comptroller of the Currency, said in a statement that while other nations have built real-time payments systems, the U.S. “has relied on” the private sector to create such technologies, seemingly endorsing the use of cryptocurrencies – specifically stablecoins – as an alternative to other real-time payment systems.

Brooks has overseen the publication of two other interpretative letters and a number of other crypto-friendly moves during his time overseeing the agency, including a letter telling federal banks they can provide services to stablecoin issuers and store reserves for stablecoins.

Last month, Brooks announced his support of a letter by the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets that outlined how stablecoins should be regulated within the U.S.

President Donald Trump has twice nominated Brooks to serve a full five-year term heading up the agency, including earlier this week. However, it’s unclear whether the U.S. Senate will schedule a confirmation vote. As of press time, it does not appear likely it will do so before President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20.

Bitcoin Fighting Regulators 👀

news coming from CoinDesk

11th hour?A comment period for a proposed set of rules that would increase reporting requirements for crypto exchanges and minimize blockchain user privacy closed yesterday, with many major crypto firms rejecting the maneuver.

Spearheaded by the U.S. Treasury Department in December, but shaped primarily by the global Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the set of rules would see exchanges implement know-your-customer (KYC) requirements for transactions sent to unhosted wallet addresses, or addresses that exist outside a centralized or custodial setting.

This would mean many types of personal wallets as well as counterparties to exchanges’ customers would need to be identified. Reporting limits would be set for private wallets that receive more than $10,000 in 24 hours, and record-keeping rules for transactions valued at over $3,000. FinCEN and the Treasury Department claim the increased surveillance will aid criminal enforcement and reduce financial malfeasance.

The proposal was rushed out late on Friday, Dec. 18 – a week before many U.S. employees might expect to break for the winter holiday season – with the Treasury setting…

Today we discuss Bitcoin in January

TradingShot Chart via Trading View

Bitcoin Market Health

BTC Past in Repeat?

2016 into 2017

2011 into 2012

2020 into 2021 - Will we see another 30% drop?

Charts via Glassnode Studio

More Institutional money is flowing in 2021…

Grayscale up and over 2 Billy from last year!

Charlie Morris from ByteTree has identified 50 companies, with a surplus of cash. “They are growth companies and aren’t naturally high dividend payers. Their capital-light businesses are so profitable that they don’t need the…

Subscribe via iTunes or Substack. Also follow on Twitter and Medium.

"If you enjoyed listening to this episode and you want a really easy way to support Thriller Premium, why don't you head over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a quick rating or even a review?

Please leave a Review. Just go to ThrillerRating.com and that should open up Apple Podcasts.

Podcast reviews are pretty darn important and the more reviews we receive, the more likely we'll be able to get Thriller Premium in front of more people.

I am…

Subscribe via iTunes or Substack. Also follow on Twitter and Medium.

"If you enjoyed listening to this episode and you want a really easy way to support Thriller Premium, why don't you head over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a quick rating or even a review?

Please leave a Review. Just go to ThrillerRating.com and that should open up Apple Podcasts.

Podcast reviews are pretty darn important and the more reviews we receive, the more likely we'll be able to get Thriller Premium in front of more people.

I am…

News gathered from Decrpyt and Bloomberg

JPMorgan Chase: Bitcoin Will Chip Away at Gold’s Value for Years to Come

Strategists at JPMorgan Chase predict that institutional investors are moving from gold to Bitcoin.

Since October, investments in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust grew by $2 billion while gold-backed ETFs lost $7 billion.

If the current trend continues over the coming years, Bitcoin's detrimental effect on gold's price would become much bigger.

However the Chief Global Strategist at Morgan Stanley, Ruchir Sharma, says bitcoin’s rise is more due to the dollar.

“Money printing is likely to continue, even when the pandemic passes,” Sharma says in an editorial for FT. “Trusted or not, bitcoin will gain from widening distrust in the traditional alternatives.”

“Do not assume that your traditional currencies are the only stores of value, or mediums of exchange, that people will ever trust. Tech-savvy people are not likely to stop looking for alternatives, until they find or invent one. And stepping in to regulate the digital currency boom, as some governments are already considering, may only accelerate this populist revolt,” he says.

Other Bullish News…

Ray Dalio, the founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, has offered a more positive stance on bitcoin than in comments that made headlines last month.

In a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Tuesday, Dalio said he thought bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies had “established themselves” over the last 10 years and were interesting “gold-like asset alternatives” share similarities and differences to gold and various “limited-supply, mobile (unlike real estate) store holds of wealth.” Bitcoin “could serve as a diversifier to gold and other such store hold of wealth assets,” said Dalio. “The main thing is to have some of these type of assets … including stocks, in one’s portfolio and to diversify among them.”

Bitcoin has become the largest bank in the world for the first time, overtaking JP Morgan in market cap after it rose above $18,900.

That gave bitcoin a market cap of $350 billion, an all time high, beating JP Morgan’s $349 billion.

Bitcoin to 21K still?

Bitcoin Chart by TradingShot via Trading View

Long-Term Holders Are Selling BTC

via Glass Node Insights

Fink of BlackRock Sees Bitcoin as ‘Global Market’ Asset

news coming from Shaurya Malwa via Decrypt

BlackRock, the world’s largest fund manager with $7.2 trillion in assets, caters to family offices, retail investors, fund managers, and pension funds. And while it has yet to dip its toes in the crypto market, some of the firm’s top executives have previously spoken positively about cryptocurrencies.

The upside predictions are not humble either. Just last month, BlackRock CIO Rick Rieder went as far as stating that Bitcoin could replace gold and was “here to stay,” adding the asset showed incredible staying power and was generally well received by millennials, as opposed to the yellow metal.

Larry Fink, CEO of asset management firm BlackRock, said in a speech at the nonprofit body Council of Foreign Relations earlier this week that Bitcoin had “caught the attention and imagination of many people” and was poised to grow as an asset class.

Mentioned during episode. 👇

The Herd is Still Coming in 2021

news coming from Frank Chaparro via The Block

Lookout 👀Stablecoin Bill entered into Congress

news coming from Jeff Benson via Decrypt, Naomi Brockwell of NBTV

Three members of Congress have proposed a bill to regulate stablecoins.

The STABLE Act would hold stablecoin issuers to some of the same standards as banks.

Some cryptocurrency advocates think it will stifle innovation and further marginalize underbanked communities.

It's the dying days of the 116th Congress, which ends on January 3, 2021. Any bills that haven't become law by then will die with it.

But that's still plenty of time to kick the hornet's nest that is Crypto Twitter!

Today, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib announced the Stablecoin Tethering and Bank Licensing Enforcement (STABLE) Act, which is co-sponsored by Representative Jesús “Chuy” García and Representative Stephen Lynch.

Today we discuss Bitcoin in December

TradingShot Chart via Trading View

Bitcoin Market Health

Charts via Glassnode Studio

FedCoin Revisited…

The International Business Times reports that the Fed “would be open to collaborating with private business on the creation of a digital currency but emphasized that they were not yet making any commitments.”

90% of the investment world seemingly ignored both gold and Bitcoin. Most people believe in the “Fed system,” for if they didn’t, it would already have failed.

Microstrategy was just the first now…

News gathered from Coindesk, CNBC

PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said bitcoin’s usefulness as a currency will ultimately prevail over the buy-and-hold ethos, in an interview with CNBC Squawk Box on Monday.

"I think that there'll be more and more use cases for cryptocurrencies," that make bitcoin (BTC, +4.55%) more widely accepted, more stable and probably "more valuable" over time.

PayPal will begin allowing users to transact with crypto as a funding instrument across 28 million businesses early next year.

Schulman said central bank digital currency is a global inevitability. As that happens, "you'll…

Promised Facts to give: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Letter

Subscribe via iTunes or Substack. Also follow on Twitter and Medium.

"If you enjoyed listening to this episode and you want a really easy way to support Thriller Premium, why don't you head over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a quick rating or even a review?

Please leave a Review. Just go to ThrillerRating.com and that should open up Apple Podcasts.

Podcast reviews are pretty darn important and the more reviews we receive, the more likely we'll be able to get…