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BlackRock Held 37 Bitcoin Futures Contracts From CME

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Following the crypto revolution in 2021, many prolific institutions have embraced Bitcoin. In the latest development, the investments giant and the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock indicated that it could potentially include BTC futures in its funds in the coming days.

This was revealed in a regulatory filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC], as per which BlackRock held 37 futures contracts from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange [CME] that are worth approximately $360,458 earlier this year.

The latest figures regarding BlackRock’s holdings only represent a mere 0.0014% of the firm’s colossal Global Allocation Fund on reporting day of 31st of January. However, it is still not clear if the asset manager still holds any Bitcoin futures contracts. In addition, the original batch of futures contracts held by the company expired this 26th of March, as per the filing.

Dabbling in Bitcoin

This development comes almost two months after the multi-trillion-dollar asset manager had revealed that it has started to “dabble” in Bitcoin. While speaking about Bitcoin on CNBC, BlackRock’s chief investment officer of global fixed income, Rick Rieder had earlier stated that,

“I wouldn’t put a number on the percentage allocation one should have, depends on what the rest of your portfolio looks like. Today the volatility of it is extraordinary, but listen, people are looking for storehouses of value,” Rieder said on “Squawk Box.” “People are looking for places that could appreciate under the assumption that inflation moves higher and that debts are building”.

As mentioned above, BlackRock registers an astonishing $9 trillion in assets under management[ AUM], and happens to be the biggest investment management company in the world. Tailing behind it are other investment firms such as JPMorgan Chase, Fidelity, Vanguard, UBS, and BNY Mellon. Hence, the news is crucial for the cryptocurrency which has seen significant adoption this bull season.

In January this year, BlackRock had added Bitcoin futures as a potential investment for two of its funds. This was according to the company’s SEC filings. The two funds, in question, are BlackRock Strategic Income Opportunities and BlackRock Global Allocation Fund.

Fresh Drive Above $60K Reignites Bitcoin Mining And Its Environmental Impact Debate

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Bitcoin mining energy consumption debate is on the table yet again.

Bitcoin’s reign above $60K has reinvigorated debates surrounding negative environmental impact. Concerns regarding mining the cryptocurrency being harmful to the environment because it utilizes substantial energy have made rounds as experts continued to weigh in the matter.

The latest one to chime in the matter that has been making rounds was Bixin Group’s Mustafa Yilham. Bixin currently manages nearly 2.5% of the total global Bitcoin network through its mining operation. Yilham opined that a Bitcoin miner tries to use renewable excessive energy because they are environmentally friendly and cheaper.

He elaborated his first statement by explaining the migratory nature of Chinese miners wherein mining operations are mostly based in Sichuan. In winter, on the other hand, Bitcoin mining operations are moved to Xinjiang/Inner Mongolia where reportedly 43.4% of the energy on its electricity grid is renewable. During the rainy season, Sichuan produces “excessive hydro-power”. He Yiham concluded that,

“Bitcoin is probably one of the MOST Environmentally-friendly financial industries. Because we can migrate during seasons and maintain 100% renewable during summer and over 40% renewable during winter. The renewable rate will further increase soon.”

Bitcoin Mining and Gas-flare Recapturing

Bitcoin mining is also helping resolve gas-flare issues. Here’s how:

Gas flaring has been a concerning issue to the oil and gas industry. A combustion of associated gas is flared into the air which is generated during the processing of natural gas. This byproduct can be captured by the Bitcoin who can then use it for energy instead of releasing it into the open door.

This is not the first time that Bitcoin’s strikingly high carbon footprint has been a matter of debate. By its very nature, Bitcoin mining needs a lot of electricity along with sophisticated devices. However, with regards to energy consumption, ARK Investment Management revealed that traditional banking consumed 2.34 billion gigajoules (GJ) per year while gold mining 500 million GJ. Bitcoin, on the other hand, consumes 184 million GJ, less than 10% and 40% of traditional banking and gold mining, respectively.

Further debunking the misperceptions, ARK’s research stated,

“Additionally, Bitcoin mining’s estimated dollar cost per GJ expended is 40 times more efficient than that of traditional banking and 10 times more efficient than that of gold mining.”

Bitcoin [BTC] Bulls Remain Critical Despite The $50K Climb

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Bitcoin’s [BTC] price picked up late this weekend as it finally reclaimed the $50,000-mark. Following this, several technical pattern signals flipped bullish as it nears the $1 trillion market cap.

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Bitcoin amassed weekly gains of 5.48% received a major boost soon after the US Senate passed the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill on the 7th of March.

After a minor increase of 0.42% over the last, Bitcoin was trading at $50,780. At the time of writing, the crypto-asset recorded a market cap of $940 billion with a 24-hour trading volume of $45 billion.

Is Bitcoin ready to probe highs that has not been marked since the second week of Feb?

Bitcoin [BTC] Daily Chart:

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Despite coming close to the Bitcoin [BTC] candles, the moving averages continued to hover well below. Furthermore, the gauge between the 50 DMA [Pink] and the 200 DMA [Purple] continued to remain consistent depicting less signs of volatility.

The Fib retracement highlighted several points of resistance and support areas for the crypto-asset.

Patterns Indicate Receding Bearish Bias

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The Chaikin Money Flow [CMF] remained steady depicting a consistent flow of capital in the BTC market.

The MACD also depicted a potential bullish breakout in the near-term after treading on the negative side for nearly two weeks.

It is important to note that despite the king coin’s sluggish price movement, the pullback has managed to gain significant attention as many institutional and retail investors bought the dip. This was evidenced by the RSI which continued to remain afloat above the 50 median line even after taking plunge below $45K.

It also indicated a sentiment of buying pressure among the investors in the coin market.

As marked by Fib Retracement, the area at around $50,680 at 0.5 Fib remains highly decisive. If the bulls manage to hold this level, upward target for Bitcoin stands at $55,071 at 0.786 Fib, $58,344 at 1 Fib respectively.

Support levels, in case of a market downturn, that can also be targeted were found to be at $48,566 and $43,021 at 0 Fib.

Bitcoin Briefly Becomes More Expensive Than a 1 KG of Gold

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The buzz around the cryptocurrency space has intensified, thanks to Bitcoin’s record-breaking rally to a $1 trillion market capitalization.

Now the world’s flagship crypto is nearing yet another milestone of $60,000 after adding nearly $7K throughout the week. After smashing through the record high of $58,000, Bitcoin became more expensive than one kilogram of gold.

Around this time, last year, Bitcoin was under $5,000. But now it is well over $50,000. And this development is indeed a pivotal moment for Bitcoin especially at a time when debates on whether the cryptoa-asset is investment-worthy have flourished among investors, analysts, and the public.

Several BTC pioneers and advocates have long pinned for the crypto-asset to be a digital store of value. And its gains have been fueled by signs it is gaining acceptance among mainstream investors and companies, from Tesla and Mastercard to BNY Mellon. And its prominence this bull season was due to the entry of these institutional players who also believed the store of value narrative.

Gold’s market cap stands at around $9-10 trillion. If one were to consider that Bitcoin gets to half of gold’s market cap, that still signifies an astounding growth of 4X, or $200,000. Hence, there is a lot of upside to the crypto if the store of value narrative strengthens for it.

Rough Patches For Bitcoin?

The world witnessed Bitcoin fair against traditional assets in 2020 right after suffering one of the biggest crashes in its history. Its proponents argue the cryptocurrency is “digital gold” that can hedge against the risk of inflation sparked by the massive central bank and government stimulus packages designed to counter COVID-19.

The value of US dollar incurred a sharp fall as a result of quantitative easing measures. Around this time, gold and Bitcoin both went up too, which strengthened its cause.

Despite an overall macro bullish trend, there are several hurdles that BTC has to cross. For instance, the asset class, in general, is patchily regulated and happens to be a highly volatile digital asset that is used very little for commerce.

While the latter has been changing slowly, many analysts and investors still remain skeptical.

Canada’s First Bitcoin ETF Collects $421M In First 2 Days

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Times are changing and Bitcoin ETF’s long-term outlook is brightening, at least in North America. The first-ever Bitcoin ETF that was launched earlier this week has reportedly collected an astonishing $421 million in assets in the first two days of its launch.

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This was revealed by Bloomberg’s Analyst Eric Balchunas in his latest tweet about the world’s first Bitcoin ETF by the asset management company, Purpose Investments Inc. It made a debut on the Toronto Stock Exchange on the 18th of Feb.

Soaring Bitcoin ETF

Here’s what Balchunas had to say about the latest figures of the Bitcoin ETF,

“Proportionally speaking it is the equiv of a US ETF taking $8 billion in first two days. If it were to keep up this pace it will be the biggest ETF in Canada in 20 days.”

He also went on to add,

“The premium on this puppy was a mere 0.40% on Friday, or 250x less than $GBTC on Day Two. The beauty of arbitrage. This is about what we thought it would be, 20-60bps depending on day and poss over 100b on crazy days. In short, working as designed”

The figures show the popularity of Bitcoin ETFs in the country as its underlying crypto-asset continued to conquer new highs every week as it sits above the $1 trillion market cap.

The immense popularity can be attributed to the fact that these vehicles offer investors looking for a low risk way of reaping the profits Bitcoin’s bull run.

For the uninitiated, two Bitcoin exchange-traded funds were launched back to back on the Toronto Stock Exchange this week. Leading the charge was Purpose’s ETF, under the ticker “BTCC” launched this Thursday.

The fund witnessed a monumental interest, as it was found to be trading more than $100 million shares on its first day alone. If this continues, the ETF could potentially reach $1 billion in assets by the end of next week.

Just a day later, Evolve Funds Group Inc which happens to be yet another Canadian platform with $1.7 billion in assets under management [AUM], announced the launch of the Bitcoin ETF – EBIT. This Bitcoin ETF, on the other hand, was trading at $1.271 million AUM.

The latest news definitely raises stakes for the US policymakers especially the SEC which is yet put a stamp of approval to a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

The Motley Fool Is Not A Bitcoin Sceptic Anymore

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The financial and investment advisory giant The Motley Fool revealed that it is all set to add $5 million of Bitcoin to its own balance sheet as part of its real-money 10X portfolio.

According to the announcement on the 18th of Feb, it also plans to hold the cryptocurrency purchase for several years.

In a series of tweets, the firm asserted that it believes Bitcoin would store value more effectively than gold over the long term. It opined that Bitcoin might become a medium of transactions when its “price stabilizes in a decade”.

Motley also said that it could be a productive hedge against inflation.

The Motley Fool’s tweet read,

“Since we’re focused on the long-term opportunity, we don’t worry much about the volatility in the short term. We plan to hold this Bitcoin investment for many years and we’ll wait for all of our members in our new 10X service to be able to buy before we do.”

The firm had previously confirmed that it won’t be buying “overpriced ETFs” but will be “buying Bitcoin directly”. Not just that, it also asked its readers to buy the cryptocurrency.

The Motley Fool Was Not always a Big Fan of Bitcoin

It has been critical of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency industry by extension.

The latest news comes as institutions continued to pour capital into space. Firms such as Tesla and MicroStrategy have also upped their game by making multi-million dollar Bitcoin investments in the recent weeks.

And the move by The Motley Fool is crucial because the firm happens to be one of the most popular financial advice companies that have been in operation since 1993.

It can safely said that Bitcoin continues to win over more corporate endorsements.

These are signs of a widening embrace across the financial services industry that has managed to send the flagship cryptocurrency to new heights even as it still remains lightly regulated and controversial among policymakers.

Yet Another Bitcoin Theory Gains Prominence

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Bitcoin has been shrouded in mystery and has become a target of a number of theories since its inception. Its rise to prominence yet again has triggered massive room for wondering.

For years, the community has been intrigued with the presumed pseudonymous person [s] who developed BTC, authored the white paper, and created and deployed Bitcoin’s original reference implementation. Alas, all efforts have failed and no one the real identity [s] behind the creator.

However, a new crypto theory emerged. A few individuals on the BitcoinTalk forum believe that hundreds of thousands of BTC mined by the infamous Satoshi Nakamoto are giveaways in the world’s greatest prize competition.

According to a series of recent posts published, members on the forum were now hunting for clues left by the creator in hopes to somehow piece together Satoshi’s private keys needed to unlock the alleged huge stash of Bitcoin mined in the early days.

Bitcoin’s epic bull run is winning more attention across the globe who are now keen on solving the treasure hunt. But this theory is originally based on a research paper that was published by crypto expert and RSK Labs chief scientist Sergio Demian Lerner about the BTC holdings in question.

The scientist allegedly uncovered a statistical imbalance in the blocks mined by Satoshi. One of the four reasons for the imbalance, according to Lerner, was:

Satoshi left a message fingerprinted in the nonces. A Message for us to see in the distant future.

Taking the theory further the members of the BitcoinTalk forum and are of the opinion that the alleged encrypted treasure hidden is the greatest prize competition.

One user also posted a roadmap on the same which includes discovering how Satoshi implemented the private keys of the early mined coins into the blockchain.

Secondly, solving the private keys.

Thirdly, transferring the BTC from P2PK to the P2PKH address with the same Privatekey to let Satoshi and the community know that somebody has solved the keys in question.

Lastly, transfering these coins to another address a week later.

The user also went on to add,

“We think that Satoshi is waiting.”

As wild as it sounds, if the claims are to be believed, it could lead to unlocking of wallets containing an estimated amount of 750,000 mined BTC which is worth over $35 billion at press time price.

Bitcoin’s Pullback Slashes Over 23% From Michael Saylor’s Microstrategy

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Microstrategy, which happens to be the crypto bull Michael Saylor’s business intelligence firm, and Bitcoin’s price appeared to be intertwined. Here’s what happened yesterday:

Shares of MicroStrategy retraced significantly on the 10th of February. This came right after a fresh sell-off sparked in the price of Bitcoin which fell by more than 7% from its all-time high.

The cryptocurrency market-wide downturn apparently hurt Microstrategy’s stock which fell by more than 23% and went on to become one of the worst assets in the last 24-hours.

Interestingly, Saylor’s company has seen a meteoric rise of more than 700% in share prices during the past six months in tandem with Bitcoin’s price movement which was found to be raging bulls for the past several months now.

Why is this important?

It is without a doubt that Saylor has been at the forefront of the institutional adoption of Bitcoin. It all started in mid-2020 when Microstrategy acquired the majority of its Bitcoin at prices well below the current levels. Since then, it has almost tripled its investment in a short span of time.

Moreover, Microstrategy’s policy is to convert any cash that is not immediately required for operations into Bitcoin. If its latest update is to be taken into account, the firm reportedly had 71,079 Bitcoin tokens. Despite the value of the holdings going down following the correction, the business intelligence firm’s holdings are still worth well over $3 billion.

To top that, Microstrategy’s market cap is nearly $10 billion. Meaning that one-third of the company’s total value originates from none other than its Bitcoin holding. This explains why the shares took a double-digit plunge mimicking BTC’s price action.

Saylor’ optimism

The exec is not yet done with promoting Bitcoin. So much so, that just before the crash, Saylor reportedly unveiled a new online course about Bitcoin.

He also asserted that there will soon be an ‘avalanche’ of companies buying the crypto-asset. Saylor was also quoted saying,

“The pitch is Bitcoin is digital gold, and it’s sitting on the world’s first digital monetary network,”

Musk-Effect: Bitcoin [BTC] Blasts Off As Price Nears $50K

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Bitcoin’s [BTC] frenzy has kicked in yet again, this time leading to another powerful surge close to $50,000. It was not just an ordinary industry-induced rally. The latest bullish price action was accompanied by a massive endorsement by none other than Tesla CEO, Elon Musk.

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So what’s the news?

Tesla just announced in a US Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] Form that the car-maker not only purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin but was also planning to incorporate Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies into their payment mode.

However, for most of February, it was Dogecoin [DOGE] that gained much traction after a series of tweets where Tesla and SpaceX exec. But his bets on Bitcoin was no less game-changing.

The tech giant first publicly announced support for BTC was on the 29th of January this year when he said that Bitcoin’s growth “was inevitable” shortly after changing his bio on the micro-blogging site to ‘Bitcoin’.

The FOMO has not just bolstered BTC to successfully breach its all-time high but has also induced the entire crypto market to go on a wild ride to levels never seen before.

Hence, this might be the most important bull market in BTC’s lifetime. Even as the crypto-asset dipped last month, the investor sentiment had stayed positive throughout the week which prompted the price to recover and trend higher.

One of the most important development was the fact that MicroStrategy continued its goal of pushing crypto to institutions as it hosted its first-ever Bitcoin for Corporations event last week. Thus paving the way for a new set of investors to enter the cryptocurrency industry.

BTC Tweet Volume

According to the data compiled by ‘The Tie‘, Bitcoin’s tweet volume hit a new all-time high with over 143K tweets sent over the last 24 hours, alone. The previous all-time highs were on the 2nd of January 2020 and the 22nd of December 2017.

The Tie

Glassnode Co-founder had recently revealed that the supply of Bitcoin on cryptocurrency exchanges has dropped to levels last seen back in January 2018 right at the peak Since then another 1.8 million BTC have entered circulation, all of which have gone to strong hands accumulating.

Miller Value Fund Files With SEC To Buy Bitcoin Via GBTC Trust Fund

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Bitcoin’s adoption is rising and several new institutions are jumping the bandwagon to reap profits out of the world’s flagship cryptocurrency. BTC Trusts have become wildly popular as it paved the way to ride the growth of the crypto markets by gaining indirect exposure to the crypto-asset.

In the latest development, the asset management fund, Miller Value Fund is all set to enter the cryptocurrency realm.

According to reports, Bill Miller’s investment trust has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] seeking investment exposure to BTC indirectly by investing in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.

The company’s official filing, which was released this week, entailed extensive discussions on the cryptocurrency and also stated that their ‘Opportunity Trust Fund’ is getting into BTC.

The edit explained

“The Fund may seek investment exposure to BTC indirectly by investing in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, an entity that holds BTC. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is a privately offered investment vehicle, the shares of which are also available over-the-counter. BTC is a digital commodity that is not issued by a government, bank, or central organization.”

The official filing also disclosed that the firm is looking for a 15% exposure via the GBTC trust fund and would stop purchasing once the said cap is reached. Noting the same, Ben Miller’s Trust further detailed,

“BTC has no physical existence beyond the record of transactions on the Blockchain. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust invests principally in bitcoin. The Fund will not make any additional investments in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust if, as a result of the investment, its aggregate investment in bitcoin exposure would be more than 15% of its assets at the time of investment.”

A quick primer: The Miller Value Partners has $3.5 billion in assets under management [AUM] is essentially operated by Bill Miller, a veteran investor and asset manager.

Miller has been a BTC investor for quite some time now. The news came hours before he penned down a letter touting the premier cryptocurrency as a growing investment. However, the latest announcement will be the company’s first tryst at managing a BTC portfolio for a publically traded fund.