Just a log. #NFA #DYOR
Day 4, CNY 2024.
- Blockchain can unlock $400B in global financial innovation
- Bitcoin price rally to $50K puts spotlight on halving supply shortage and spot ETF inflow
- Bitcoin hits $50K for first time since December 2021
- Bitcoin soaring past $50K without retail FOMO and high leverage is good for BTC
- Bitcoin looks to surpass Meta in total value as crypto climbs
- Bitcoin trades above $50K again — but its very different this time
Blockchain can unlock $400B in global financial innovation
Blockchain technology is close to unlocking a $400 billion revenue opportunity for asset managers by enabling the tokenization and fractionalization of private assets. ~ Colin Butler, Polygon’s head of institutional capital.
Use Case:
1️⃣ “KKR tokenized their healthcare fund via Securitize on Avalanche and that really opened up the floodgates for tokenization and institutional adoption, using blockchain as a utility, as a software platform.
It has nothing to do with crypto and speculation. That was really the start, in my mind, of rewiring the global financial system on blockchain rails."
... the technology itself is driving the change as it offers solutions that are “orders of magnitude better” and, in some cases, offers a service or utility that did not exist, which is driving mass adoption from institutions into 2024.
2️⃣ German technology giant Siemens’ tokenized bond issuance on Polygon in Feb. 2023, which has reduced settlement times from seven days to one day. The result reduces costs by percentage points that equate to trillions of dollars annually...from their perspective, it de-risks their entire issuance process. It changes the dynamics of whole industries because they no longer have to tie up capital for a certain timeframe.
3️⃣ global asset manager Franklin Templeton, which tokenized its money market fund on Polygon in April 2023. The firm touted increased security, faster transaction processing and reduced costs when it announced the fund’s transition to Ethereum’s layer-2 scaling protocol.
... the move allows investors to continually transact within the blockchain system instead of having to constantly convert between cryptocurrency and fiat by settling with a money market fund based settlement token.
when you’re interacting in the blockchain ecosystem, is avoid off-ramping.
You’re getting current rates of 5%. You can use that settlement token to do additional transactions just on blockchain. I think that’s pretty important for the industry.
$400 billion revenue opportunity in private assets
Butler references investment manager Hamilton Lane, which has begun tokenizing funds targeting individuals with net worths between $1 million to $30 million to widen the distribution of private assets.
“By tokenizing and fractionalizing, you can lower the minimum investment from $5 million to $20,000 or $10,000. If you’re a private equity manager, you can widen your distribution.”
Citing Baine & Co’s 2023 private equity report, a $400 billion revenue opportunity represents a “giant addressable market” that is primed to be targeted by all players in the financial system.
“All of a sudden, you have a traditional financial system that’s heavily incentivized to create a parallel version of that with private assets on blockchain and incorporate it into the traditional system. So for the first time in history, you have a gigantic financial incentive for the largest players in the world to move on to blockchain,”
Bitcoin price rally to $50K puts spotlight on halving supply shortage and spot ETF inflow
The rally to a new two-year high was prefaced by a 16% gain over the past seven days.
Bitcoin’s strong performance comes as the inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs have increased over the past week.
Recent spot BTC ETF inflows and the uptick in Bitcoin’s price bring the total assets under management to $59 billion, the highest since early 2022.
Bitcoin last traded above $49,000 more than two years ago, on Dec. 28, 2021, when it reached a high of $50,720 before dropping toward a low of $15,522 on Nov. 9, 2022, following the FTX debacle.
“The signs were there.” ~ Rekt Capital
Bitcoin hits $50K for first time since December 2021
...market participants’ excitement over spot BTC exchange-traded fund inflows and the upcoming BTC supply halving in April lifted investors’ expectations.
With the $50,000 level achieved roughly two months before the Bitcoin halving, investors anticipate BTC price to make a stab at the $69,800 all-time high, last seen on Nov. 8, 2021.
Bitcoin soaring past $50K without retail FOMO and high leverage is good for BTC
Bitcoin price rallies above $50,300 in the absence of retail trader FOMO and the use of high leverage.
The world’s largest mutual fund managers — including BlackRock, Fidelity and ARK 21Shares — have successfully launched spot Bitcoin ETFs, and the instruments surpassed $10 billion in assets in less than a month.
Data suggests that retail traders typically lag behind bull runs, usually entering the cycle a couple of days or weeks after major price milestones.
Excessive retail demand for cryptocurrencies typically causes the stablecoin premium to soar above 1.5%, while bear markets lead to a discount.
Analysts can better gauge whether whales and arbitrage desks are leaning bullish or bearish by consolidating positions across spot, perpetual and quarterly futures contracts.
While macroeconomic uncertainty and weakness in Chinese real estate markets may pose short-term risks for Bitcoin’s price, they also open the door for investors seeking alternative investments to protect against inflationary pressure.
Bitcoin looks to surpass Meta in total value as crypto climbs
Bitcoin would need to reach somewhere around $100K per coin to start competing with Saudi Aramco, Microsoft, and Apple.
Once those mountains have been climbed, the only thing standing between BTC and the top spot is gold.
But, to stretch the metaphor, at a total market capitalization of $13.65 trillion, gold represents the Mount Everest of asset obstacles to overcome.
Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) is up 3.45% as of the time of this article’s publication. Its current market cap of $313.54 billion is good for 34th place, beating out Nestle’s ($294.8B) and Toyota’s ($307.81B).
Those are the only cryptocurrencies represented in the top 100.
Some analysts are imagining a rising tide scenario wherein Ethereum continues its upward momentum alongside Bitcoin’s trending gains.
That could position the second-most-valuable cryptocurrency in the world to take on big tech companies such as Tencent and Samsung — with both valued at less than $400 billion.
Bitcoin trades above $50K again — but its very different this time
Bitcoin (BTC)’s surge to $50,000 on Monday comes at a time of
- souped-up institutional demand,
- a possible pivot in interest rates, and
- incoming scarcity from the Bitcoin halving
— a stark contrast from just two years ago.
Data shows that the last time Bitcoin hit the $50,000 mark was in December 2021, a time when — unbeknownst to the majority of investors — crypto was just about to crumble into an enduring bear market marked by
- 11 consecutive interest rate hikes in the United States,
- the collapse several high-profile crypto institutions, and
- an exodus of retail investors from crypto
that saw Bitcoin crashing.
https://twitter.com/MitchellHODL/status/1757093864173609023
... this time, macro conditions are increasingly favorable for risk assets like Bitcoin.
“We’ve got four or five cuts lined up from the Federal Reserve in 2024, the fourth bitcoin halving that will enhance the asset’s scarcity, and further inflows to bitcoin ETFs after already seeing billions of dollars flow in just weeks after launching.” ~ eToro market analyst Josh Gilbert
Retail interest meanwhile, has remained low, with crypto market analyst Will Clemente suggesting this could indicate a more sustainable foundation for growth in the wider market.
Interest in the search term “Bitcoin” in Dec. 2021 was hovering at a score of 39, according to data from Google Trends. At the time of publication, interest in Bitcoin was sitting at just 19, suggesting a relatively low level of retail interest in the asset.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-btc-trades-above-50k-why-its-different
