I dug through the 13F filings and, by my count, there were 1,573 institutions with long exposure to Bitcoin in Q4 2024.

These include banks, hedge funds, RIAs, family offices, endowments, pensions, sovereign wealth funds, & other asset managers.

Below are some major findings 🧵 Before we get into it, I want to clarify what a 13F filing actually is.

Every quarter, large investment firms (>$100 million AUM) must submit this form to the SEC, disclosing their holdings of U.S. stocks and equity-related assets such as ETFs, REITs, options, and convertible bonds.

What's important to understand is a 13F filing ONLY contains a firm's long positions in U.S. equity-related assets.

So it excludes assets like: bonds, real estate, commodities, precious metals, private investments (hedge funds, venture capital, etc.), futures, spot Bitcoin, cash, foreign equities/currencies, and short positions.

As a result, a 13F provides an incomplete picture of a firm's total portfolio.

We don't know a firm's positions in other assets classes relative to its allocation to U.S. equity-related assets, nor do we know if a long position is just serving as a hedge against a short position elsewhere.

The ECB published an article at the bottom of Bitcoin's bear market titled, "Bitcoin's Last Stand."

Since that article was published, Bitcoin is up more than 200%. Now, the ECB is doubling down with a new post.

Let's debunk this new article point by point.👇 "We also showed that Bitcoin's second promise to be a financial asset, the value of which would inevitably continue to rise, was equally wrong."

I don't know what world the ECB is living in, but Bitcoin's value objectively continues to rise over time.

1. / The institutions are coming.

So let's take a trip down memory lane to see what these entities used to say about #Bitcoin, as retail investors ignored them and kept on accumulating.

"Good things might come to those who wait, not for those who wait too late." - Bill Withers First up - BlackRock (~$9 trillion AUM)

In 2017, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink called Bitcoin an "index of money laundering" and stated, “That’s all it is.”
cnbc.com/2017/10/13/bla…

The IMF recently presented a "new" blueprint for a cross-border CBDC system in a paper, but this isn't new.

It's the same CBDC system that the Bank of International Settlements has been designing since 2020.

One ledger. One rulebook. Controlled by unelected central bankers.🧵 The IMF wants you to believe this is blueprint represents a new system and that this system was proposed in September. But this couldn't be further from the truth.

Binance has been raising eyebrows since 2017.

One aspect of Binance that drives me up a wall is its false marketing around its BNB Chain and BNB token.

They claim both are decentralized and that they don't have any control of it, but that's nothing more than a boldfaced lie. 🧵 Binance origins begin with an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). ICOs are now synonymous with fraud as a majority of them have proven to be little more than pump-and-dump schemes and blatant scams.

However, CZ timed it right, and raised $15 million by launching his own token, BNB.

One benefit you'll often hear from Central Bank Digital Currency advocates is how CBDCs will promote financial inclusion.

It sure sounds good - but this couldn't be further from the truth.

CBDCs would create more barriers to financial inclusion, not less. Allow me to explain.🧵 Improving financial inclusion is cited as one of the main reasons why central banks worldwide are motivated to launch a retail CBDC.

This is especially true in Emerging Markets where this issue was deemed an "important" reason for issuing a CBDC.

U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing on the "Crypto Crash" is happening now.

banking.senate.gov/hearings/crypt…

Live updates 🧵 "While the crypto contagion didn't affect the broader financial system, thank God, we saw glimpses of the damage it could have done had crypto migrated into the banking system." - Senator Sherrod Brown

I read through the Bitzlato FinCen Order and it's a pretty crazy read.

There could be more to this action than originally expected.

FinCen labels Bitzlato as a convertible virtual currency (CVC) exchanger with operations in Russia that provides Peer-to-Peer (P2P) services. 🧵 A CVC exchanger is a type of Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP).

It's jargon for a P2P exchange, but remember these acronyms.

This FinCen order is all about Russian ransomware groups like Conti using Bitzlato for illicit purposes and money laundering.

Here are 10 reasons why I'm bullish on Bitcoin heading into 2023, and it hasn't nothing to do with its price.👇 1.) The Great Crypto Contagion has wiped out bad actors, highly leveraged players, and fraudulent operations. This has a healing, cleansing effect on the industry and was necessary. Plus, people have been spooked and more of them are now taking self-custody of their BTC. Bullish.

Now that @gladstein has put the IMF and World Bank back on people's radars...let me tell you about the Meltzer Commission of 2000.

This was a congressional hearing that looked into the purpose and effectiveness of these organizations after they played a key role in creating... ...and worsening the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-1998.

The outcome of the hearing was that the IMF & World Bank should undergo radical reforms. They should be shrunk, audited, and should reduce the harmful conditionalities and structural adjustment programs in their loans.

I saw some tweets from ETH proponents saying that Bitcoiners were cherry-picking when we posted a picture of the World Economic Forum shilling ETH.

They argued, "WEF has shared Bitcoin pieces too."

True...just not positive ones! The WEF has been attacking PoW for years now.🧵 The first Bitcoin mention on the WEF's website is from 2017.

It's hilariously titled, "In 2020 Bitcoin will consume more power than the world does today."

The WEF has been known to delete articles, so I can't believe this is still on their website.😂
weforum.org/agenda/2017/12…

Innovation is the main driver of long-term productivity and economic growth.

New businesses are disproportionately responsible for this innovation, and they account for virtually all net new job creation.

The problem is..the % share of new firms has been dropping for decades. In a dynamic economy, businesses are born, grow, and die. Jobs are created and lost. And resources are reallocated to better capital operators in the process.

If there are fewer new companies being created, the economy is not refreshed, and economic growth grinds to a halt.

Everyone's talking about the strong payroll numbers, but that doesn't really tell the whole story.

To understand why these numbers are not as strong as they appear on the surface, we need to take a look at the methodology of the data.

Let's look at how the sausage is made.👇 Most market participants were shocked when the labor data came today.

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 528k in July, and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5%.

Maybe things just aren't as bad as they feel? We're seeing news of job cuts daily, but the data is..good?

Allow me to share an article I wrote that looked into how shitcoins perform after being listed on Coinbase.

After digging into it, I remain highly critical of Coinbase's questionable listing policies and marketing strategies.

TL;DR - Coinbase is the woooooooorst 🎶 I was motivated to write this after Coinbase recommended "Top 10 Picks" to their customers that didn't include Bitcoin despite Bitcoin outperforming 99.9% of shitcoins long term.

They even recommended AXS over BTC two weeks AFTER its Ronin Bridge suffered a $625 million hack.

I’ve been behind enemy lines reading everything the IMF has put out in the last 2 years.

Here are 10 pieces I found most relevant to Bitcoin.

“When you are thoroughly conversant with strategy, you will recognize the enemy’s intentions and thus have many opportunities to win."👇 1)imf.org/en/Publication…

Let’s start with the IMF's note titled “Blockchain Consensus Mechanisms: A Primer for Supervisors”

It might as well have been titled “Slander Proof of Work and Promote Proof of Stake”.

Here is an excerpt that sums it up in a nutshell👇

A fun stacking story [1/8]

In 2018, I was fully orange-pilled and I was scrambling to stack as many sats as possible.

I sold instruments.
Downgraded by apartment.
Drove Lyft on the side.
Pick up a third job.
Busted on the street with my guitar.
And did various side gigs. The funniest side gig by far was when I was asked to model for the Colorado Opera.

They told me they needed a picture of someone in a suit to put on pamphlets and stuff for a show.

It paid $3,000, which was almost a full bitcoin at the time, so I said hell yes, & off I went.

Investors these days are always chirping about how fragile the financial system is right now.

They argue that the Federal Reserve can't raise rates to combat inflation without causing chaos.

Here are 3 charts that help explain why... 1.) Global debt is at historically high levels

According to recent data released from the IMF, Global debt levels now stand at a historic high of $226 trillion or 256% of GDP.

source: blogs.imf.org/2021/12/15/glo….

I've been behind enemy lines, reading everything published by the Bank of International Settlements in 2021.

Here are 10 pieces that I found the most alarming and most relevant to Bitcoin.

"Know thy enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated." 👇 1.) bis.org/publ/arpdf/ar2…

Some key takeaways from their 2021 Annual Report:

- They advocate for a global digital identity system
- Vaccine rollouts are a focus for them for the economic recovery
- They recommend that CBDC accounts be directly tied to a person’s identity

Bitcoin's Proof of Work architecture creates Seven Layers of Security and serves as the foundation for the world's first & greatest digital monetary network.

A framework from the mind of @saylor...

An absolute gigathread [1/52]👇 PoW sets BTC apart from every other asset.

The use of energy combined with the monetary network forms 7 layers of security.

Each layer acts as a point of resistance to disruption and nurtures the growth of the network.

The more users of the network, the more resistant it is.

When someone first discovers Bitcoin there are two phases that typically occur-

1. They wish bitcoin was ‘cheaper’.
2. They wish they got in earlier.

Today, less than 2% of the world owns bitcoin & its price is ~$58,000.

Not convinced you’re early to Bitcoin? Keep reading 👇 Everyone feels like they’re late to the game when they find out about Bitcoin.

They feel like Bitcoin is too expensive and that they missed the boat, but this is flawed thinking.