In a move that would've seemed wild just a few years ago, over a dozen states are seriously considering holding Bitcoin reserves as part of their fiscal strategy.

It began when Trump, not yet elected and on the campaign trail, mentioned the idea as part of his plan to make the US the 'crypto capital of the world'.  Since taking office, one of the executive orders he signed on the first day created the committee to propose new regulations, and to look into the creation of a national cryptocurrency stockpile.

Looking to capitalize on the creation of a Federal Bitcoin Reserve, 15 states have either passed or introduced state-wide Bitcoin reserve bills, including Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. Pennsylvania was the first to propose it, in a bill in November of last year. 

What Exactly is a Bitcoin reserve?

A Bitcoin reserve is basically a stash of Bitcoin owned and managed by a government, much like how many countries hold gold, silver, gems, or oil reserves.

The reasoning behind it - the most basic fundamental of investing; diversifying your investments. Like gold, Bitcoin has shown itself to be a hedge against inflation. When the dollar loses value, people look for alternative ways to store their wealth, ideally somewhere it isn't losing value.  In every major economic downturn, you'll see the charts for gold on the rise, and more recently, Bitcoin.  Earning the nickname 'digital gold' for this reason. 

How Exactly Would the State or Federal Government Acquire Bitcoin?

So far, proposals have included selling a portion of existing reserves, and using that to purchase Bitcoin. Other proposals involve changes to the State's annual budgets where they would reallocate funds, for example, lawmakers in Oklahoma, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania have proposed that up to 10% of public funds on a temporary basis until a set goal is reached. 

Other states believe their residents who are crypto fans would be willing to donate some of theirs, just to show their support for the concept. 

Lastly, Texas has floated the idea of allowing residents to pay taxes and fees in Bitcoin, and these  payments would go directly into a state reserve, where it couldn't be touched for 5 years. 

How Would this Effect the Market Overall?  

All analysis seems to conclude that this would trigger a significant spike, with a combo of factors working together in a way that could only send the price up.  There is a record number of wallets owned by investors who buy Bitcoin and hold it, leaving it untouched no matter what the market is doing. Then there's the growing number of companies with Bitcoin on their balance sheet.

This means governments, companies, and individuals would be holding Bitcoin for the long haul, with no intent to sell anytime soon. Now factor in that there is only 20 million Bitcoins in circulation, and an estimated 6 million of those sit in wallets where the owner lost the key to access them (many from the early days when Bitcoin was worth a few cents, people didn't carefully backup the key to wallets holding thousands of Bitcoin)

Now imagine with this: Those who hold Bitcoin aren't looking to sell,  limited supply of Bitcoin available, dozens of countries follow the US's lead and begin creating Bitcoin reserves of their own. If those holding Bitcoin aren't willing to sell, there's only one option left - change their mind by offering more. Some are citing this as the path to a $1M Bitcoin price, and while I think that number may be unrealistically high, I do agree it's the path to set new record highs. 

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News

Crypto liquidations are expected to decrease this month, and the market is predicted to bounce back from August onwards, according to a report from JPMorgan (JPMJPM) released yesterday.

The bank has lowered its estimate of how much money has flowed into the crypto market this year from $12 billion to $8 billion. JPMorgan doubts that the earlier estimate of $12 billion would continue for the rest of the year because the price of Bitcoin (BTC) is quite high compared to its production cost or the price of gold.

“The reduction in the estimated net flow is largely driven by the decline in bitcoin reserves across exchanges over the past month,” said analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou.

Combination of 3 Large Sell-offs are Holding Prices Down...

The sell off's by creditors of Gemini, the now-closed crypto exchange Mt. Gox, and the German government, which has been selling crypto it seized from criminal activities, increased supply, and held prices down.  

But all these sell off's are a one time thing, and have either recently finished selling or will be completed soon. 

JPMorgan’s reduced estimate of $8 billion accounts for $14 billion in new investments into crypto funds by July 9, $5 billion from Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) futures, and $5.7 billion raised by crypto venture capital funds this year. These amounts are then adjusted by subtracting $17 billion, which accounts for the shift from wallets on exchanges to new spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

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Author: Mark Pippen
London Newsroom
GlobalCryptoPress | Breaking Crypto News

In what was billed as the "biggest bitcoin vs gold debate in history," and moderated by Ran of Crypto Banter, the event featured four financial heavyweights squaring off to argue the merits and flaws of bitcoin and gold as potential future stores of value and mediums of exchange. 

In one corner were the bitcoin backers - Eric Voorhees, an early bitcoin adopter and founder of ShapeShift, and Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital and former White House spokesman. They championed bitcoin as a revolutionary, decentralized digital currency outside government control.

"Bitcoin is radical, it's rebellious, it's non-compliant, it's American," Scaramucci proclaimed. Voorhees added "Anything that moves the world away from centralized control of money to market-based control of money is something I would be in favor of."

In the other corner were gold advocates Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Asset Management who famously predicted the 2008 housing crash, and economist Nouriel Roubini. They argued bitcoin has no intrinsic value and is essentially "digital fools gold."

"Bitcoin can't do anything that gold can do...You can't have digital gold, you can't make jewelry out of it," Schiff stated. Roubini bluntly called bitcoin "a damned speculative asset - that's it."

Schiff and Roubini repeated the same anti-crypto talking points they've been saying for the last 10 years... unfortunately, in 7 out of those 10 years Bitcoin outperformed all other investments.

How can anyone with a track record that includes 7 years of advising investors to avoid the most profitable investment still be taken seriously?

The intense 2+ hour debate covered a wide range of topics around modern monetary theory, inflation, the economic outlook, role of governments, and the fundamental value propositions of bitcoin vs gold.

Voorhees and Scaramucci made the case that bitcoin's fixed supply of 21 million coins and properties like pseudo-anonymity give it immense value as "a non-debasable monetary commodity." As Scaramucci said, "We took [the working class] from aspirational to desperation in 35 years" due to currency inflation.

However, Schiff and Roubini countered that bitcoin fails all the tests of being a true currency. "It's not a unit of account, not a scalable means of payment, and not a stable store of value...it can never be money," Roubini argued.

While no minds seemed changed by the intense back-and-forth, it encapsulated the broader ideological battle between bitcoin's freedom philosophy and gold's traditional role. 

With bitcoin's market cap over $1.2 trillion, this debate is no longer hypothetical. Its outcome will shape monetary systems, investing, privacy and decentralization for years ahead.

I tried my best to summarize the debate that ran slight over 2 hours long, but if you want to see every minute for yourself, you can view an archive of the live stream on Crypto Banter's Youtube Channel. 

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News

The announcement couldn't have happened any weirder, as the Bitcoin ETF's that were approved today were first announced by the SEC on X (Twitter) two days ago... but then they claimed their account was hacked, and stated that no ETFs had been approved.

Now that we know the supposed 'hack' simply posted accurate information before it was official, some are questioning if it was an error all along.

But how we found out doesn't really matter anymore, because it's now confirmed and re-confirmed that the Securities and Exchange Commission officially approved 11 applications for Bitcoin ETFs, the largest firms among them include BlackRock, Ark Investments/21Shares, Fidelity, Invesco, and VanEck.

Trading Begins...Now!

Because the SEC must respond to applications  ETF applicants were anticipating an answer from the SEC at any moment, they were ready to go before officially receiving approval - because of this, they went live the next day.

In their first day, the newly approved Bitcoin ETFs saw a combined $5 billion in volume, top performers so far are BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust which is trading under "IBIT.O", Grayscale Bitcoin Trust "GBTC.P", and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF with symbol "ARKB.Z".

They Say It's a "Game Changer" - But To Who?

Traders from both the stock and crypto world have repeated the words "game-changer" when describing the impact this could have on cryptocurrencies, citing the new investors who now have exposure to the world's largest cryptocurrency. So who are these investors? If they're interested in Bitcoin, what were they waiting for?

The newly launched ETFs all fighting over what they believe is a large segment of both individuals and companies that are interested in investing in Bitcoin, but hesitated to pull the trigger and buy some. Many potential investors cite their main concern is simply how to securely hold worth of a digital assets, which can be intimidating on a technical level.

For a company, acquiring crypto comes with all new cyber-security concerns, where every employee is a potential security hole. Stocks can't really be 'hacked' and stolen, gold and silver can be stored in any bank vault - while storing crypto safely and securely is easy to do, people who aren't experienced with tech are often too intimidated by the risks.

Now, individuals, companies, and even smaller investment firms can pass the responsibility of storing Bitcoin securely on to the industry giants, who have the budget necessary for hiring cybersecurity experts and the tech needed to implement multi-level security systems.

A Tsunami of Money Headed Towards Crypto?

Many believe the floodgates are now open for massive amounts of institutional investment funds to enter the market, and their reasoning actually makes a lot of sense.

The companies that were just approved to offer Bitcoin ETFs represent $20+ trillion in assets under management - meaning if just 2% of that goes toward crypto we'll see $400,000,000,000 (400 billion) injected into the market. 

The crazy thing is, that estimate may be way too small, as we've talked with multiple financial advisors at multiple firms over the past few years when covering various stories about crypto being implemented into their business - one thing we repeatedly heard was that they recommend their client's portfolio to contain anywhere from 5% to 10% crypto.

A recent survey of financial advisors conducted by VettaFi and Bitwise found that 88% said they support investing client's funds in bitcoin, but were waiting for spot bitcoin ETF to be approved.

Then Why Did Bitcoin DROP Following ETF Approval?

With the overwhelming opinion being that the ETFs would be approved, along with the deadline of Jan 10th being public, by the time the ETFs were officially approved every investor who bought more bitcoin with this in mind bought days or weeks ahead. 

Which is why the quote "buy the rumor, sell the news" is something most in the crypto world are used to seeing.  Most buying relating to a news story happens as speculation grows, once that speculation becomes fact, people sell.

Massive Bull Run About to Begin... VERY Soon?

In closing, the only thing we've officially gained this week are new possibilities, a 'reasonable expectation' for Bitcoin's future price just went up.  But if there's one thing I've learned in my 6 years in the crypto world; prepare for what COULD come next, and never believe you know what that will.

With that said, prices have returned to where they were before ETF hype took over the headlines - so if the 'sell the news' process is complete, the market is probably about to turn positive. If it does, I believe it'll have some strength behind it - many people recently took some profits, and in the Bitcoin world a lot of selling is followed by lot of buyers looking to buy more at a lower price. 

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News

Bitcoin might just soar to a whopping $120k by 2024's finale. That's what the big brains at Standard Chartered Bank are saying. Those outside of the UK may not understand exactly who that is - this bank is massive here, with 85,000+ employees and locations across the country.

They reckon Bitcoin's price rises, miners will be stashing away more than they're selling. Throw in all the new instructional investment coming in - and you end up with a lot of buyers fighting over a very small, and shrinking supply of BTC being sold. 

Back in April, the same bank forecasted Bitcoin could hit $100k by 2024, thinking we were out of the dreary 'crypto winter'. But now, the bank's head of crypto research, Geoff Kendrick, says there's a chance it could go beyond that.

Why's that? Well, Kendrick explains, with every Bitcoin they mine being more valuable, miners can sell fewer of them and still keep the cash flowing in. This means less Bitcoin in the market, pushing the price even higher. Simple supply and demand.

Bitcoin's had a strong year, rocketing up 80%...

But at the current price of $30k and change, we're till a far cry from the record $69k it hit last November.

2022 was rough, with heaps of dollars wiped off the sector as central banks got tough with interest rates and big crypto names like FTX exchange crashed and burned. But surprisingly, this year's failure of some old-school banks has actually helped crypto bounce back.

The More Bitcoin is Worth, the Less Miners Sell to Cover Costs...

The bank thinks the predicted price hike is because Bitcoin miners, who create about 900 new Bitcoins a day globally, might soon need to sell less of their stash to cover their costs - mostly the electricity needed to power their monster network of mining rigs..

According to Kendrick, miners are currently selling most of their newly minted coins. But if the price reaches $50k, they'd probably only need to sell 20-30%. So instead 900 new bitcoins hitting the market daily, only 180 to 270 would.

"Over a year, that's like reducing the number of coins miners sell from 328,500 to somewhere between 65,700 and 98,550 - meaning about 250k less Bitcoins flooding the market each year," Kendrick explains.

250,000 Less Bitcoins For Sale Means Buyers Will Have Convince Others to Sell - That Means Offering More Money...

And in another twist, come next spring, the total number of Bitcoins that can be mined each day is set to halve. It's part of Bitcoin's in-built design to limit the supply and keep its appeal.

But let's not forget that Bitcoin has a history of wild price guesses. Back in November 2020, a Citi analyst said Bitcoin could climb as high as $318k by the end of 2022. It ended up closing that year down about 65% at $16,500. So take all these predictions with a pinch of salt.
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The amount of 'saved Bitcoin' (coins being kept at a single wallet address for at least two years) has reached a new all-time high.

According to data compiled by the analytics firm Glassnode, these coins total over 49% percent of the total Bitcoin supply, which comes to 9.45 million BTC. Nearly half of all Bitcoin's are in the hands of long term investors.

Soon the majority of all BTC will have not moved in over 2 years - an extremely bullish indicator...

The previous record amount of saved Bitcoin was set between the end of 2020 and the start of 2021. This coincides with the start of the bull market that year - with the rising price being driven by a lack of people willing to sell their BTC.

So far, we're seeing a similar path ahead now, as Bitcoin and the rest of the cryptocurrency market appear to be beginning a price recovery cycle.

Since the beginning of this year, bitcoin has increased by almost 40%. and is hanging around $23,000 -reclaiming a price not seen since August 2022.

Last week it became official that the majority of Bitcoin holders have made a profit at current prices. 

Predictions for the year...

So far, are bullish, according to a majority of analysts.

However, you may not be feeling it yet - the first few months of 2023 are anticipated to be slow,  followed by a large increase in the price of BTC in the second half of the year.

Will Bitcoin repeat its traditional cycle of crashes, followed by setting a new all time high?  That would mean Bitcoin breaking the $70,000 ceiling. 
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Author: Justin Derbek
New York News Desk
Breaking Crypto News

For those of us who have been around awhile, it takes more than another bear market to change our long term expectations for cryptocurrencies. 

I've been through three crashes - the first one really had me questioning things, the second time I was more willing to ride it out, 'hopeful but not certain' was my outlook on crypto's future. In both cases the crashes were followed by hitting new all time highs, and this pattern wasn't new, it's what Bitcoin historically had always done, and more recently, the top altcoins were included as well. 

So, this time around I feel like I'm just waiting... for our largest bull run yet. Not wondering if it's coming - waiting for it to get here.

Some of the Biggest Names in Investing and Wall Street are Quietly Preparing for a Crypto Boom...

Thankfully, it looks like I'm not the only one making this prediction. In fact, the biggest firms from the world of investing and Wall Street seem to be anticipating this too.

Keep in mind, the firms I'm about to mention don't throw millions at something because one or two executives believe it will pay off - before they invest, teams of analysts with specialists covering multiple aspects, and algorithms pumping out multiple models of possible outcomes, are involved.

Let's look at some of what is happening quietly behind the scenes right now - and ask yourself: does it seem like they see something coming?

Major Investment Firms:

Between just these 2 firms you're looking at over $2 TRILLION in assets under management, twice the size of the entire crypto market currently. 

When these firms enter a sector, countless smaller ones follow. 

Payment Processors:

The big 3 are all in.

In addition to this, both Visa and Mastercard will expand their current role of providing cards that allow people to spend crypto anywhere that accepts their credit cards.  This has become a standard offering from most major exchanges now, and accounts for over $1 billion in transactions for Visa alone. 

Start-Ups:

When it comes to startups, those that truly serve a purpose are not struggling to find funding. Here are some of the projects that held investment rounds over just the last month - all hit their targets:

Nillion, a decentralized file storage network, raised $20 million in its latest funding round led by Distributed Global.

There's only one reason any firm would be investing in new companies that could still be years away from seeing profits - again, the long term outlook.

The Path from Here, to There...

The road from bear to bull market is surprisingly short and straight - plus, following the collapse of FTX, a come-back for crypto also means washing off  some of the mud currently splattered on crypto's public image.  But all of this is doable, here's how it will go;

Crypto regulations are coming, discussing if you're for or against this is officially a waste of time - we're getting them.

However, the industry has gotten smarter over the last few years and regulations no longer mean a 'crack down' on crypto. 

As politicians began considering passing finance laws specific to crypto assets, the crypto industry became major Washington DC influencers, and almost overnight began supporting pro-crypto politicians campaigns at such large amounts that crypto is outspending the industries that have typically spent the most for decades, the defense industry and pharmaceutical companies.

Until recently we were truly were at risk of tech-illiterate politicians passing poorly-written regulations that could bring everything to a halt, that no longer longer seems possible. This level of involvement has given the industry a place at the table with lawmakers.

If you're outside of the US thinking this doesn't involve you, I wouldn't count on that.  Some regulations will address the situation FTX is in, requiring exchanges to prove the assets they hold and auditing their total value regularly.  It wouldn't surprise me if US companies and investors could only do business with foreign firms that follow similar guidelines - setting a standard that will quickly become global.

Over the span of just a few days:  Crypto's current public image gets fixed as politicians pat themselves on the back for 'fixing crypto' with 'new investor protections'.  The largest investment firms have citied the lack of these regulations as the only reason they haven't yet gotten involved - so now the floodgates open. 

I believe the next bull market doesn't just set new all-time highs for the top cryptocurrencies, but does it at record speed as well - Bitcoin gaining $10,000 per week for 5 weeks would get us past it's previous high, and it wouldn't surprise me if that's how it went.

Remember - there's never been so many people and companies aware of what a Bitcoin bull run can do, and it will be a lot harder to justify sitting it out.

In Closing...

There's nothing fun about a bear market, except looking forward to it ending. Based on current indicators, it seems we may have a lot to look forward to!

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Author: Ross Davis
Silicon Valley Newsroom
GCP | Breaking Crypto News

There are more than 900,000 wallets with at east 1 full Bitcoin in them, according to data from the blockchain explorer Glassnode. 

In addition to this, wallets holding at least 0.1 BTC are also at an all-time high.

This is considered major long-term bullish indicator...

This reflects that investors are taking advantage of the current bear-market low prices, as they continue to accumulate Bitcoin with a plan to hold it for months, or even years.

Bitcoin's price is 72% below its historical maximum reached 10 months ago in November 2021, at almost USD 69,000.

If you believe Bitcoin will return to previous highs (as it always has), then you understand why someone would want to take advantage of the current price. 

Here's where things get weird...

In 2021, while Bitcoin's price was on the rise with heavy demand fueling price gains, the number of wallets holding 1 Bitcoin actually declined.

But as you can see from the chart, the amount of 1 or more Bitcoin has been steadily increasing throughout 2022... as the price dropped. 

Wallets Holding 1BTC or more on the rise (yellow) while price declines (black)

What does this mean?

These are the smart traders. Those with experience learn to buy at the bottom, and sell at the top. 

 As Wall Street traders continue to cross over into crypto, it's no surprise that we're seeing more experienced investors in the crypto market.  Where many see a 'crash' they see an 'entry point'.

Remember Warren Buffet's famous piece of advice - “Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Greedy When Others Are Fearful” - in other words, buy when everyone else is selling. 

But even with a record number of savvy traders, there isn't enough of them to move Bitcoin's price upwards, but they do probably deserve some credit for Bitcoin staying stable in its current $18k - $21k range.  So far, when Bitcoin has gone below $20k, it soon finds people ready to buy.  

A return to a bull market will be fueled by tens of thousands of people buying hundreds of dollars' worth of Bitcoin, not hundreds of people buying thousands worth. 

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Author: Justin Derbek
New York News Desk
Breaking Crypto News