Legendary macro investor Paul Tudor Jones revealed that his Tudor BVI fund would be investing a “low single-digit percentage” of its assets under management in Bitcoin.
Says BTC is the fastest horse in the inflation hedge race and says BTC Reminds him of gold in 1976.
The Bitcoin halving came on May 11, reducing issuance per block from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.
Despite all the hype around the halving it was ultimately uneventful...
Despite all the action in Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem and broader financial markets, Bitcoin traded range bound between $9,000 and $10,000 for 60 days starting at the end of May.
It was kind of eerie.
Jul.
The OCC granted national banks and federal savings associations authority to provide cryptocurrency custody services to customers.
This provided regulatory clarity for banks and paved the way for them to launch cryptocurrency products.
MicroStrategy (MSTR) announced it purchased $250mm worth of Bitcoin (21,454 BTC) as part of a new capital allocation policy aimed at hedging inflation.
MSTR would go on to purchase 70,470 BTC over the next few months.
Its current holdings are worth over $1.7 billion.
Sep.
Bitcoin tokenized on Ethereum reached over $1 billion (~92,600 or 0.5% of the total Bitcoin supply).
This growth was primarily fueled by yield opportunities in Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem.
There is now nearly $3.5 billion of BTC on Ethereum.
Oct.
First day of the month, the DOJ and the CFTC filed charges against BitMEX.
The group was accused of operating an unregistered trading platform and violating CFTC rules, including AML and KYC regulations.
BTC surprisingly barely flinches on the news.
On Oct 8, Square announced it had purchased $50 million worth of Bitcoin (4,709 BTC) for its treasury.
On Oct 21, PayPal launched a new service enabling its 325 million users to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrency.
At the end of November Bitcoin begins flirting with all-time highs off the strength of increased institutional interest.
Dec.
MassMutual becomes 1st insurance firm to buy Bitcoin.
UK based investment manager Ruffer Investment buys Bitcoin.
Guggenheim CIO Scott Minerd stated that the BTC could reach over $400,000 based on the assets scarcity and the relative value to gold. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
On December 16, Bitcoin finally breaks all-time highs and blows past the $20k psychological barrier.
It was the biggest sign that a new era for Bitcoin had arrived - market validation.
In the years leading up to 2020 it was clear to many that Bitcoin 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 become valuable as a fixed supply digital store of value, but it was unclear when it 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 become so.
As Covid-19 came into the picture this year the “when” question became more discernible.
In response to the economic effects of Covid-19 governments around the world have inflated money supplies at historic rates, causing many to begin to question the value of fiat currencies.
This has accelerated the timeline for when Bitcoin matters as investors search for inflation resistant assets to hedge against potential fiat currency devaluations.
Bitcoin has the added kicker that it’s an inflation hedge fit for the Digital Age.
#BTC is playing an increasingly important role in the global monetary system, and with institutional grade infrastructure and regulatory clarity, the pathway for increased institutional adoption of Bitcoin in 2021 is clear.
Index protocols are the latest attempt at DeFi aggregation - a topic we’ve explored multiple times.
The reason why is simple - Web2 aggregators have accrued trillions of $$$ in value by occupying powerful positions in value chains throughout the economy.
There’s a growing dichotomy between tokens championed by venture funds vs tokens championed by hedge funds.
VC tokens:
- larger insider allocations
- more core team driven
- methodical iteration
HF tokens:
- little to no VC backing
- more community driven
- rapid iteration
I don’t think one class is necessarily better than the other.
But one of the most important features of DeFi is the democratization of financial opportunities.
And the clearest benefit of projects HFs like right now (YFI, SUSHI, AAVE, SNX, etc) is that their communities got in on the ground floor and feel empowered.
When tokens are only available to the public after 10x - 100x it’s just not that same.
There’s been a ton of development in the Yearn ecosystem recently to the point where it’s worth asking again:
What the hell is Yearn?
@jotto and I did a deep dive into the theory of Yearn to breakdown what Yearn is and where it’s going.
1/
It all starts with the theory of the protocol.
Protocols are coordination mechanisms that define rules and provide incentives for market participants to facilitate economic activity at a global scale.