A Coinbase report reveals that cryptocurrency and blockchain initiatives among Fortune 100 companies rose by 39% year-over-year, reaching a record high in Q1 2024. In addition, 56% of Fortune 500 companies are working on onchain projects. The report emphasizes the need for clear crypto regulations to retain talent and enhance U.S. leadership in crypto technology. […]
Bitcoin News
Satoshi’s Growing Fortune, JPMorgan Says Halving Priced in, Peter Brandt Raises BTC Price Target, and More — Week in Review
Bitcoin’s valuation surged past the trillion mark, significantly increasing the net worth of its elusive creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, by nearly billion in two months. JPMorgan Chase analysts have identified the Bitcoin halving event and an upcoming major Ethereum network upgrade as key drivers of cryptocurrency prices. Veteran trader Peter Brandt has revised his […]
Bitcoin News
Satoshi Nakamoto’s Growing Fortune Nears Entry Into World’s Top 25 Richest Individuals
2024 has unfolded as a flourishing year for bitcoin’s valuation, as its market capitalization breezed past the trillion milestone, positioning the cryptocurrency as the world’s tenth-largest asset by overall market valuation. This uptick in price has significantly boosted the net worth of Bitcoin’s mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, elevating the value of the inventor’s holdings […]
Bitcoin News
GBTC’s Mixed Fortune: 54% Market Share in ETF Trade Volume Accompanied by $2 Billion BTC Exodus
Over a span of six days in the U.S. market, nine newly launched spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), along with the recently revamped GBTC, collectively saw a trading volume of .53 billion. GBTC, commanding the majority of this trade volume, experienced a substantial reduction in its bitcoin holdings. In just the past 24 hours, the trust shed over 14,300 bitcoin, decreasing its total holdings to 566,973 bitcoin.
Billion in Bitcoin Depart Grayscale’s GBTC Since Jan. 12
GBTC, now recognized as a spot bitcoin ETF, maintains a considerable reserve of bitcoin (BTC). Since transitioning into a publicly traded ETF, the trust has experienced notable outflows. On Thursday, GBTC’s holdings decreased by 10,823.86 BTC, and following the trading sessions on Friday, the fund saw a further reduction of 14,300.52 BTC. Cumulatively, since Jan. 12, 2024, the trust has seen an outflow of 50,106.59 BTC, valued at slightly above billion, from its reserves.
WHEN WILL THE BLEEDING STOP? I don’t know, but this this is some serious daily outflows for The Nine to have to battle every single day.. they’ve done a great job so far but damn its a lot to ask.. pic.twitter.com/LqwPRETrQf
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) January 19, 2024
Several factors contribute to the intense selling of GBTC. Initially, GBTC shareholders might have felt constrained when the shares, initially trading at a premium to their net asset value (NAV), abruptly transitioned to a discount. This discount began in February 2021 and persisted almost until the onset of this year. Long-term investors might have been biding their time, waiting for an opportunity to sell once the discount narrowed. Additionally, investors who speculated that the discount would diminish and bought GBTC at a lower price may now be offloading their shares for substantial gains.
Another possible reason for the sell-off is that some investors in GBTC are exploring alternatives with more competitive management fees, given that Grayscale’s GBTC has the highest fees in its category. On the other hand, Grayscale’s bitcoin trust has seen the highest volume out of all nine newly launched ETFs with .97 billion of the .53 billion aggregate. This means GBTC trades accounted for 54.26% of all the trading action spot bitcoin ETFs recorded.
Before the mass approvals on Jan. 11, 2024, the prevailing narrative largely centered on the expected inflows, with little attention paid to potential outflows from GBTC. However, a modest semblance of equilibrium has emerged, as IBIT and FBTC now possess a combined total of 53,479 BTC, slightly surpassing the outflows GBTC experienced since Jan. 12.
Additionally, the cluster of ETFs vying with GBTC, IBIT, and FBTC have also witnessed growth in their BTC reserves, though not even close to a striking extent. Despite IBIT and FBTC holding significant amounts of bitcoin, these funds, along with the seven other ETFs, remain substantially smaller in comparison to GBTC’s vast reserve of hundreds of thousands of bitcoin.
What do you think about the outflow GBTC has seen since Jan. 12? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.
Trading Slump Wiped $12 Billion From Binance Founder’s Fortune, Bloomberg Says
Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has reportedly lost nearly billion from his wealth amid declining crypto trading volumes this year. According to Bloomberg’s estimates, the world’s largest trading platform for digital assets has seen a 38% decrease in revenues.
Bloomberg Estimates CZ’s Wealth at Over Billion in a Challenging Year for Binance
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index has cut its estimate of Binance’s revenues by 38% based on data showing that trading volumes on the platform decreased in 2023. This has erased .9 billion from the fortune of Changpeng Zhao, the exchange’s founder and chief executive.
In a report this week, Bloomberg said that CZ’s wealth has dropped to .2 billion. The news agency also noted it’s using spot and derivatives trading data from the crypto tracking services Coingecko and Coinpaprika to calculate Binance’s revenue.
In the first quarter of this this year, the leading crypto trading platform’s market share reached 62% of total crypto trades on exchanges. The report attributes the increase to the offering of zero-fee trading of popular pairs. When the promotion expired, Binance’s share dropped to 51% at the end of Q3, Bloomberg explained, quoting research firm Ccdata.
Binance is not the only major player in the industry affected by the crypto market which has suffered from high-profile collapses, like that of crypto exchange FTX, regulatory uncertainty, and rising interest rates in the fiat world that have increased the attractiveness of other investments. In the third quarter, the spot trading volume on Coinbase, America’s leading crypto exchange, fell 52% from a year earlier.
Besides declining trading volumes, has been dealing with heightened regulatory pressure as well. In the U.S., both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sued the crypto giant for alleged violations of securities and derivatives laws.
Regulators also accused the cryptocurrency exchange of circumventing rules to allow U.S. users to access its platform, lacking adequate money-laundering controls, inflating trading volumes, and mishandling customer funds.
This year, the trading volumes and market share of Binance’s American arm shrank when it announced it’s transitioning to a crypto-only platform that would no longer process U.S. dollar transactions. Bloomberg’s wealth index slashed its value to zero. In March 2022, Binance US had been valued at .7 billion and in January of that year, CZ’s net wealth had peaked at an estimated billion.
Do you expect CZ’s wealth to increase with the end of the crypto winter? Tell us in the comments section below.
Man Makes A Fortune With $22 In Bitcoin: 3 Altcoins For October 2023 That Can Do This
Bitcoin’s history is filled with stories of people who put small, disposable amounts of money into the crypto and ended up making a fortune. This has been no different from the case of one Norwegian man, whose throwaway Bitcoin investment has turned into a life-changing sum.
When Kristoffer Koch had originally invested in Bitcoin back in 2009, the cryptocurrency was only trading for a few cents. Koch, at the time, was intrigued which is why he said he made the purchase. He got 5,000 BTC for around at the time, although this figure often varies.
Nevertheless, Koch ended up forgetting about this purchase until four years later when Bitcoin had blown up. By the time the Norwegian man got into his Bitcoin wallet, his initial purchase had ballooned into 0,000. Upon seeing the life-changing sum, Koch revealed that he had used part of the money to buy himself a flat in Oslo.
As stories like these continue to make the rounds, a question on the lips of investors, especially those who came in later than the likes of Koch, is which cryptocurrencies could replicate such growth. So here are some picks that look good.
Fetch AI (FET) Brings AI To Crypto
The AI narrative is still holding strong both within and outside the crypto market and this has positioned some projects to be able to take advantage of its expected growth. Fetch AI’s native FET token has already shown the opportunity that lies in this space but that was only in a bear market. A bull market could see FET’s price rise further and do numbers.
The project is looking to democratize AI access through a crypto economy. This means users will be able to access AI in a completely decentralized and permissionless way unlike the AI products seen in traditional spheres.
Secret (SCRT) Challenges Bitcoin With Privacy
Presently, when the topic of privacy coins comes up, two names tend to pop up quickly, which include Monero’s XMR and Secret’s SCRT. Secret actually users ‘Secret Contracts’ to allow decentralized applications to offer completely private transactions.
As the demand for privacy grows among crypto users who constantly have to be aware of the government’s encroachment, SCRT’s value proposition becomes even more important. Added to its low million market cap, SCRT could see a rally similar to that of Bitcoin.
Radiant Capital (RDNT) With Fragmented Liquidity
When it comes to carrying out transactions on-chain, liquidity becomes king, and this is where Radiant Capital (RDNT) comes in. The project is looking to consolidate fragmented liquidity in a bid to enhance the available liquidity for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
This will work across a number of lending protocols regardless of the blockchain that they are on. So instead of hopping from one protocol to another, DeFi users can take advantage of this using a single protocol.
Radiant’s value proposition in a sector that is continuously evolving and growing could see it put on a Bitcoin-like rally. This could see its market cap go from its current million to billions of dollars.
No Barrier to Fortune: It’s Not Too Late To Be a Crypto Billionaire
It’s an interesting time for crypto. As more and more institutional investors buy into Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and other cryptocurrencies, there might be some investors wondering if they have missed the boat, especially as the dizzying market heights of 2021 gave way to the sobering slump at the start of 2022.
In its earlier days, cryptocurrency was famous for creating Bitcoin billionaires from young, free-thinking individuals who didn’t come from traditionally wealthy backgrounds. Now that crypto can be said to be going mainstream, has crypto wealth become the preserve of the besuited financial magnates that Bitcoin once tried to defy? The evidence doesn’t seem to bear this out. In fact, the biggest crypto influencers of today are still inspirational and come from a range of backgrounds, ages and countries. Let’s take a look at some of the most inspiring crypto influencers in the field right now.
Carl ‘The Moon’ Runefelt – from bagging to balling
Carl Runefelt, better known by his social media handle ‘The Moon’, is one of the most popular current crypto influencers, with over 500K subscribers on YouTube and more than one million followers on Twitter.
Runefelt is notoriously bullish on Bitcoin and has made a considerable amount of money on the original cryptocurrency. He isn’t shy of flaunting his wealth, either, snapping up rare NFTs for millions of dollars and showing off his new Bugatti (bought with ETH trading profits) to his followers while the market was crashing at the end of 2021. But doesn’t Runefelt have a right to be proud of his wealth? After all, he came from humble beginnings and has said in interviews that he wanted to inspire his followers to achieve the same.
Before getting into crypto, Runefelt actually worked at a groceries store in his home country of Sweden. At 22, the young grocery worker was bored and frustrated with life and his career prospects. He started investing his savings in gold and precious metals but became disillusioned by the corruption and inefficiency of the banking system. Seeing a crypto video on YouTube inspired him to invest in crypto and start his own YouTube channel in 2017.
Runefelt’s crypto investments were a success, and so was his channel ‘The Moon’. By investing, trading and giving advice on the same to his followers, Runefelt completely changed his life. He credits the Law of Attraction and the power of visualization as key parts of his journey to the lavish lifestyle that he enjoys today.
Runefelt now lives in the playboy paradise of Dubai and continues to be active in crypto and NFTs, as well as promoting his own payment app, Kasta. Despite expanding into other areas of the crypto industry, the Swedish rags-to-riches star is still bullish on the original cryptocurrency, claiming that BTC will never go back down below ,000 and may even reach 0K in the next three years.
Hold on to your dreams – crypto stars are still being made
The story of Runefelt, who managed to turn his life around completely in his twenties, is an inspiration to crypto traders today, and the crypto world continues to be a way for people to make money outside of the traditional track to wealth.
While many famous investors do study at elite colleges, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin famously dropped out of university to focus on crypto. In 2012, a 12-year-old Eric Finman spent a family gift of ,000 buying Bitcoin at prices ranging from to , trades that made him a millionaire by 18 and even richer today.
The volatility of altcoins still presents an opportunity for such huge returns today, with new crypto influencers emerging from humble backgrounds all the time. Rachel Siegel was a struggling substitute teacher. At 29 and without any tech knowledge, she started investing around a week into crypto and turned that into a seven-figure return, homeownership and a new career as a crypto influencer under the handle @CryptoFinally.
Kane Ellis was only 18 and a high school dropout when he learned how to mine cryptocurrency and used those Bitcoin earnings over the years to found the online auto marketplace Carswap, as well as to buy a fleet of exotic cars for himself (unlike, Runefelt, he prefers a Maserati).
These are just two more examples of crypto fans who struck it rich and built well-known profiles on top of that. Don’t forget all of those who make money but decide to avoid the spotlight and live less public lives. The truth is, the majority of wealthy crypto traders are ones you never hear about but are focusing on their own lives.
Access to crypto wealth has never been easier
The main reason crypto is still a great tool for building wealth is that almost anyone with a smartphone and internet connection can access the market these days, and this empowers a great part of the population that did not have access to traditional wealth-building products.
StormGain remains the best all-in-one platform for crypto trading and investments, with over 60 digital assets to trade, including cryptocurrencies, indices, DeFi, metaverse tokens and more, in one easy-to-use app you can access from your smartphone or the web. With a low-commission, profit-sharing trading model and extensive suite of educational articles and videos, StormGain is one of the best entry points into crypto for new traders. The platform is also offering a +20% deposit bonus boost for new users till April 25, 2022.
Family That Went “All-In” On Bitcoin At $900 Stores Fortune On Four Continents
Meet “The Bitcoin Family” that lives a decentralized nomad life solely on Bitcoin. 43-year-old Didi Taihuttu has a wife and three kids. They are known as the family that liquidated all their assets in 2017 to buy Bitcoin back when it was trading at around 0. Taihuttu is a true example of a Bitcoin enthusiast. According to him on his website, after losing his mother, and later his father, he “started reflecting life more and more and discovered that the life I was living was not the life I wanted to live. I experienced that Life could go very fast and that I needed to change.”
Related Reading | By The Numbers: What In Bitcoin Each Day Would Net Investors
The Dutchman sold his 11-year-old business along with everything he owned – from his house down to his children’s toys. Then he bought a van hit the road with his family to live a minimalistic nomad life, waiting for a crypto boom to happen. This was in 2017.
Taihuttu’s Long-Running Involvement In Bitcoin
Before he became popular, Didi had learned about Bitcoin as far back as 2013. He, along with two of his friends, started mining for Bitcoin. In Taihuttu’s words: “I am an entrepreneur, so when I first heard about bitcoin, I said: Let’s do this.” Unfortunately, that venture was unsuccessful, so he shut it down. According to him, he lost his faith in BTC during the crash in 2014.
BTC price now trending around ,000 | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
But that was not the end of his relationship with Bitcoin, as he kept crossing paths with the cryptocurrency. When he saw that more people started to buy Bitcoins, he deduced that what would follow would be a monetary revolution. And he was not wrong. This revelation was what prompted him to go all in. It is estimated that at that time, after selling all his assets, he managed to acquire about 100 Bitcoins valued at roughly 0k.
The family’s Secret Crypto Vaults
The family has made a fortune from their investments and has decided to store this fortune in secret vaults. These vaults are located in different countries on four different continents. Taihuttu has two hiding spots in Europe, another two in Asia, one in South America, and a sixth in Australia, according to this CNBC article.
Related Reading | How Samsung Will Help The Bank Of Korea With CBDC Development
“I have hidden the hardware wallets across several countries so that I never have to fly very far if I need to access my cold wallet to jump out of the market,” said Taihuttu of the Bitcoin Family. The family told CNBC that the crypto stashes are hidden in different ways and a variety of locations, ranging from rental apartments and friends’ homes to self-storage sites. Taihuttu explained: “I prefer to live in a decentralized world where I have the responsibility to protect my capital.”
Didi Taihuttu And His Family’s Nomad Life
In 2017, the Dutch family embarked on a new life, documenting their travels on YouTube and other social media platforms. “My wife agreed that we were very happy as a traveling family and that we needed to teach the kids that they can be very happy without all the luxury we used to have,” explained Taihuttu.
Featured image from yolofamilytravel.com, chart from TradingView.com
NewsBTC
Millions Learn About DeFi From Wheel Of Fortune Contestant
Last night on the Monday night live airing of the popular TV game show Wheel of Fortune, a contestant named Jeremy introduced viewers to DeFi for the first time, while in the same breath mentioning Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a whole.
Here’s why this is only the start of decentralized finance tokens generating enough fortune to leave heads spinning, along with a look at how they’ve performed thus far.
Game Show Contestant Teaches Millions Of Americans About Decentralized Finance, Bitcoin, Crypto
As meaningless as it may seem at the surface, when something makes it on primetime television, is has “made it” in general. When Bitcoin and crypto began appearing as an answer on America’s favorite game show Jeopardy, it was undeniably significant due to the sheer audience size alone.
Jeopardy gets upwards of ten million viewers per episode, and it shares a one-hour block on TV with another extremely popular game show, Wheel of Fortune. Wheel of Fortune lets contestants take a spin on a wheel for a chance to win big.
Related Reading | Analyst: Post Bitcoin, Traditional Finance Will Flock To DeFi, Not Ethereum
On last night’s airing, contestant Jeremy revealed to host Pat Sajak that he works in “decentralized finance” or DeFi, as its commonly referred to. He likened the industry to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies for those who would be more familiar with those terms.
The mere mention of DeFi on TV could lure those with their curiosity piqued to Google much like the uninformed did in reference to Bitcoin in 2017. Today, not as many need to learn about Bitcoin. Could this be the path that DeFi is on? And if so, what could this mean for investors?
Millions of Americans just learned about DeFi on Wheel of Fortune. Jeremy’s not the hero we deserve, but he’s the hero we need.
I’ll say it again – we’re just getting started friends. pic.twitter.com/dQws1tScGk
— Daniel Armitage (@dcarmitage) January 26, 2021
Before And After: DeFi Tokens Take Investors For Spin On Wheel Of Fortune
Altcoin season is here, but it isn’t the same as it has always been. Not all boats are rising with this tide. Instead, there’s a focus of capital flowing into real value versus untested and freshly minted altcoins in 2017.
Related Reading | Altcoin Expert: Buy Crypto That Holds Up During Bitcoin Breakdown
DeFi has staying power, and is still very early in terms of what the assets are capable of. Taking just one of the standout DeFi tokens shows in just two month’s time, the fortunes that have been made.
Stand out star AAVE has grown 1000% in two months since its November 2020 low | Source: AAVEUSD on TradingView.com
Since the November low in DeFi token AAVE, it has risen 1000% against the dollar. Several other coins from the category have performed equally or nearly as well.
Ethereum, the primary cryptocurrency network most DeFi tokens are built upon, also has brought investors significant returns thus far in 2021.
The trend in DeFi is only beginning, and with a max supply much less than Bitcoin’s, tokens like AAVE have a lot more to climb before its all said and done.
Featured image from Deposit Photos, Charts from TradingView.com