Bitcoins - about to hit $5,000 per coin today!

[Griffith]

Good Lord!  I know nothing about this stuff.  What did early investors get in on it at?

I remember when I first heard about it in the UK, they cost a few pounds each 

[Griffith]

The full research paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis:

https://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/review/2021/02/05/decentralized-finance-on-blockchain-and-smart-contract-based-financial-markets

DeFi Offers Exciting Opportunities, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank Research Says

One of twelve reserve banks in the U.S., the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, has published a detailed and unbiased report to cover the merits and demerits of the rapidly developing sector of decentralized financial protocols (DeFis). In general, researchers are optimistic about DeFi's prospects in the modern financial system.

In terms of tokenized assets and decentralized exchanges, Ethereum (as a token and as a platform) retains supremacy.

Other use cases for decentralized finance include decentralized lending platforms, decentralized derivatives trading ecosystems and on-chain asset management tools.

The research underlines that DeFi instruments provide modern economic institutions with plenty of opportunities. The most notable advantages of decentralized financial protocols include efficiency, transparency and accessibility.

All in all, the impact of DeFi's progress on modern finance is going to be revolutionary, according to the seasoned researcher:

...DeFi may lead to a paradigm shift in the financial industry and potentially contribute toward a more robust, open, and transparent financial infrastructure.

[Griffith]

https://www.haveeru.com.mv/global-payments-giant-visa-partners-with-ethereum/

Global payments giant Visa partners with Ethereum

Visa, recently announced that it will be connecting its global payments network to the US Dollar Coin (USDC), which is a digital coin developed on the Ethereum blockchain.

This currency is now valued at nearly $3 billion, while Visa’s payment network has over 60 million merchants globally, which could increase the value of the coin by a huge rate, given just how many of them will be using any form of digital currency for the first time, thereby having a huge potential rate of growth.

Visa itself will not be the custodian for the currency, but in partnership with Circle, it will soon begin identifying Visa credit card issuers to start integrating the USDC software into their payment platforms, and therefore start to process payments using the currency.

Over time, businesses will be able to send payments in USDC to any business or merchant globally which is supported by Visa, and once those tokens are converted to the domestic currency, they can then be spent at any merchant which accepts Visa.

The company believes that since USDC will be settled almost instantly on the ethereum blockchain, transaction costs will be virtually zero, while traditional wire transfers can cost up to $50, regardless of transaction size, and so the coin will bring a lot of value for many merchants all over the world.

[B_MyT_2]

I remember when I first heard about it in the UK, they cost a few pounds each 

Thanks for the reply.  That is insane.  So probably about $10 US each.  So if a person invested just $1,000 for 100 shares at the beginning, they would now be worth almost $5,000,000.  I'd be fine cashing that out now, and assuming no further risk.  Even if it goes to $100,000 a share like some are saying, what's the difference between a $10,000,000 lifestyle vs. that 5 million if you are financially responsible?  You're set for life either way. 

I'll never understand/have compassion for pro athletes, artists, lottery winners, etc. who suddenly become millionaires and go broke.  No one NEEDS a Lambo, mansion, tons of customized worthless jewelry, or a tiger.  LOL!  People just being stupid.

[obsidian]

I remember when I first heard about it in the UK, they cost a few pounds each 

When I first heard about them they cost pennies! A friend suggested I get into it and I scoffed and ignored him! Regretting that big time!

[obsidian]

Thanks for the reply.  That is insane.  So probably about $10 US each.  So if a person invested just $1,000 for 100 shares at the beginning, they would now be worth almost $5,000,000.  I'd be fine cashing that out now, and assuming no further risk.  Even if it goes to $100,000 a share like some are saying, what's the difference between a $10,000,000 lifestyle vs. that 5 million if you are financially responsible?  You're set for life either way. 

I'll never understand/have compassion for pro athletes, artists, lottery winners, etc. who suddenly become millionaires and go broke.  No one NEEDS a Lambo, mansion, tons of customized worthless jewelry, or a tiger.  LOL!  People just being stupid.

The average guy that mined 5000-10,000 Bitcoin back in the day sold theirs a long time ago before the prices got as high as they are today. One guy bought two pizzas with over 10,000 bitcoin I recall. A few sold when it hit $100, $500,  $1000 etc.

Very few people just HODL'd all their Bitcoin.

I think the Winkelvoss twins are some of the few that have just been holding. They may have sold a few and then bought more at the bottom. They bought over $11 million Bitcoin when it was $11. So now Tesla buys Bitcoin at $30,000 lol!

[Bindare_Dundat]

The average guy that mined 5000-10,000 Bitcoin back in the day sold theirs a long time ago before the prices got as high as they  They bought over $11 million Bitcoin when it was $11. So now Tesla buys Bitcoin at $30,000 lol!

jesus.

[polychronopolous]

Thanks for the reply.  That is insane.  So probably about $10 US each.  So if a person invested just $1,000 for 100 shares at the beginning, they would now be worth almost $5,000,000.  I'd be fine cashing that out now, and assuming no further risk.  Even if it goes to $100,000 a share like some are saying, what's the difference between a $10,000,000 lifestyle vs. that 5 million if you are financially responsible?  You're set for life either way. 

I'll never understand/have compassion for pro athletes, artists, lottery winners, etc. who suddenly become millionaires and go broke.  No one NEEDS a Lambo, mansion, tons of customized worthless jewelry, or a tiger.  LOL!  People just being stupid.

All due respect but people like you would have sold out a LONG time ago, perhaps even at a loss. This fantasy of you holding onto a 48k bitcoin would have never happened.

People that have held on for this long have been able to do so because they have the temperament necessary and a strong fundamental understanding of the asset in which they own.

You look at the asset MUCH differently after several hundred hours of going down the rabbit hole versus a handful of hours or just reading through some goofy internet forum.

The talking heads on tv, the pointing and sputtering from the no-coin haters, and the shit-coiners with their greedy, flyby night schemes are just irrelevant white noise for the long time HODLers who see the role that Bitcoin is destined to fill as the ultimate digital store of value going forward.

Again my brother, no disrespect

[obsidian]

[Mayday]

Amazon, google, Apple and Microsoft at least have to counter now, the bloody, fresh kill has been thrown into the biggest shark tank on the planet

read those words carefully, every CFO now has a legal competitive advantage incentive to hodl btc on the balance sheet.

Could this be a share price bailout move?

Look at Tesla, apparently crazily overvalued and suddenly BAM into BTC in January at probably 32k blended for 1.5B and now it holds paper value over 2.1B..... a 600M asset value increase in a month on Tesla books. Suddenly that share valuation looks a lot more stable!

Could we see a large run in 2021 for crypto purchases driven by the need to validate and stabilise share prices? Having a few million suddenly appear is an instant bailout and these CEOs only care about paper valuation, they don’t need to sell it, just keep it on the books.

[SOMEPARTS]

Could this be a share price bailout move?

Look at Tesla, apparently crazily overvalued and suddenly BAM into BTC in January at probably 32k blended for 1.5B and now it holds paper value over 2.1B..... a 600M asset value increase in a month on Tesla books. Suddenly that share valuation looks a lot more stable!

Could we see a large run in 2021 for crypto purchases driven by the need to validate and stabilise share prices? Having a few million suddenly appear is an instant bailout and these CEOs only care about paper valuation, they don’t need to sell it, just keep it on the books.

Ding, ding, ding...we have a winner. I'm sure that is what they are thinking and they are just about out of ways to buy back shares, haha. The other benefit is people in crypto are generally going to be Tesla and Apple buyers. I'm sure Musk would sell a few cars to some newly rich nerds if the transaction could be done in crypto.

Flip side of course...your company loses half a billion overnight because of some viral bad news or a legit hack. Are the Apples and Teslas of the world too big to fail like the banks?

Question I have is - why would the Fed would allow another currency to run parallel to the dollar? There has to be a reason. The Fed is buying all asset classes to maintain the paper markets that are no longer tied to reality and earnings. Maybe it will be a sponge for all the printed money or something to blame a crash on. In the atmosphere where those in power just disappear dissent at will I find it hard to believe that BTC is still here at this value without a larger reason.

[B_MyT_2]

All due respect but people like you would have sold out a LONG time ago, perhaps even at a loss. This fantasy of you holding onto a 48k bitcoin would have never happened.

People that have held on for this long have been able to do so because they have the temperament necessary and a strong fundamental understanding of the asset in which they own.

You look at the asset MUCH differently after several hundred hours of going down the rabbit hole versus a handful of hours or just reading through some goofy internet forum.

The talking heads on tv, the pointing and sputtering from the no-coin haters, and the shit-coiners with their greedy, flyby night schemes are just irrelevant white noise for the long time HODLers who see the role that Bitcoin is destined to fill as the ultimate digital store of value going forward.

Again my brother, no disrespect

Non taken.  I don't know shit about trading, and especially don't get cryto currency.  You're wrong though about my strategy.  My 401K was set to the best performing index I could find, and I look at it once a year to make sure it is still the top performing one.  It's been 1 or 2 for 20 years, so I have just left it alone through the ups and downs.  I'm just saying if I knew anything about it and got in at the bottom that yeah, right now I'd feel comfortable selling if I made 5 million vs. hoping it got up to 10 million and risking a crash. 

I live in the midwest, never want to marry, and damn sure ain't having kids at my age so don't need much.  A $500,000 house here is probably worth at least 2-3 million compared to the west coast/big city type places and with more land.  Get a couple nice cars, and my only bills would be utilities, around 5 grand a year in property taxes, along with groceries and such.  I'd be left with well over $4 million to live life out.  Just open a bunch of high interest 3 year cd's that are staggered to come up at different years and under the FDIC insured max, and I could probably just live off of the interest alone.

[Bindare_Dundat]

Ding, ding, ding...we have a winner. I'm sure that is what they are thinking and they are just about out of ways to buy back shares, haha. The other benefit is people in crypto are generally going to be Tesla and Apple buyers. I'm sure Musk would sell a few cars to some newly rich nerds if the transaction could be done in crypto.

Flip side of course...your company loses half a billion overnight because of some viral bad news or a legit hack. Are the Apples and Teslas of the world too big to fail like the banks?

Question I have is - why would the Fed would allow another currency to run parallel to the dollar? There has to be a reason. The Fed is buying all asset classes to maintain the paper markets that are no longer tied to reality and earnings. Maybe it will be a sponge for all the printed money or something to blame a crash on. In the atmosphere where those in power just disappear dissent at will I find it hard to believe that BTC is still here at this value without a larger reason.

I think you guys overthink things way too much.

[Mayday]

Question I have is - why would the Fed would allow another currency to run parallel to the dollar? There has to be a reason. The Fed is buying all asset classes to maintain the paper markets that are no longer tied to reality and earnings. Maybe it will be a sponge for all the printed money or something to blame a crash on. In the atmosphere where those in power just disappear dissent at will I find it hard to believe that BTC is still here at this value without a larger reason.

I pondered this as well and my conclusion was i think I may have looked at this all wrong.

To set the state of play:

2017 and on many large countries banned crypto due to it’s threat to sovereign currency. The US and a handful allowed it to continue and then increased it’s regulation and legitimacy.

Fast forward to 2021 and We have an utterly fucked global financial system. Record debt for households and govts in general. Zero or negatives rates. No wage growth. High unemployment. Pandemic.

We see loads of QE and a fight against deflation. We see handout stimulus for trickle up economics and working subsidies.

We know the global financial system will be transformed -
Countries will create their own digital coins is confirmed. This is going to be used for those trickle up economic policies and works alongside existing currency. These will be controlled by central banks and can be created instantly and deposited into bank accounts. The impact on the bond market could be massive as not only will huge amounts of spending Bono linger require bonds but the rates are zero or negative.

Move onto Libre which will be a basket of global currencies. Created by an American company and now everybody can do business around the globe. What does this do to the Forex market? Does it even need to exist anymore?

So that puts us looking at a possible massive bond market decline followed by a possible forex market decline. Where does the money go?

Move to crypto where the Americans allowed it to flourish and all the American companies are first on the boat......


Meanwhile all the countries that banned it will be left with a tiny bond market and a tiny forex market and nowhere to make money for their banks.

Enter crypto..... now owned by the Americans and everybody else has to buy from them.......


I don’t want to sound like the tin foil man but what do you guys think?

[Griffith]

With the recent Tesla example, it would seem that any large company, especially popular tech ones, like Apple or Microsoft, could now buy any cryptocurrency and expect a massive pump in price after the announcement.

Bitcoin saw a near immediate pump of 20%, so as mentioned by Mayday, this near immediate increase in their holdings would look good on their books. And of course if they later decide to sell, any or all of it, they make a huge profit in fiat currency.

Even Elon Musk’s trolling with Dogecoin caused a massive pump and increase in price, which is still ongoing.

ETH is still very affordable to retail investors and especially younger people, so could be another option as well, a slightly different strategy as this would tap into the more casual buyers as well and be low risk for most, as they could buy at least a coin or several.

[Griffith]

I pondered this as well and my conclusion was i think I may have looked at this all wrong.

To set the state of play:

2017 and on many large countries banned crypto due to it’s threat to sovereign currency. The US and a handful allowed it to continue and then increased it’s regulation and legitimacy.

Fast forward to 2021 and We have an utterly fucked global financial system. Record debt for households and govts in general. Zero or negatives rates. No wage growth. High unemployment. Pandemic.

We see loads of QE and a fight against deflation. We see handout stimulus for trickle up economics and working subsidies.

We know the global financial system will be transformed -
Countries will create their own digital coins is confirmed. This is going to be used for those trickle up economic policies and works alongside existing currency. These will be controlled by central banks and can be created instantly and deposited into bank accounts. The impact on the bond market could be massive as not only will huge amounts of spending Bono linger require bonds but the rates are zero or negative.

Move onto Libre which will be a basket of global currencies. Created by an American company and now everybody can do business around the globe. What does this do to the Forex market? Does it even need to exist anymore?

So that puts us looking at a possible massive bond market decline followed by a possible forex market decline. Where does the money go?

Move to crypto where the Americans allowed it to flourish and all the American companies are first on the boat......


Meanwhile all the countries that banned it will be left with a tiny bond market and a tiny forex market and nowhere to make money for their banks.

Enter crypto..... now owned by the Americans and everybody else has to buy from them.......


I don’t want to sound like the tin foil man but what do you guys think?

I posted an article above which mentions that Visa will now be accepting USDC, a digital dollar which can be used for purchases across the world, new Visa cards will support it and will be able to be used anywhere, including locally.

I think this will be a huge development, as people especially from emerging markets, will no longer be held hostage to their massively fluctuating, depreciating local currencies and archaic forex and capital control laws which make it difficult to obtain hard currency or even move money abroad.

They could now choose to do business in a hard currency locally, and hedge against currency devaluation and swings in prices when placing orders.

USDC’s are backed to the USD, so perhaps it will be tacitly supported as it would help maintain the USD as the world’s reserve currency and main currency of international business and trade?

[SOMEPARTS]

I posted an article above which mentions that Visa will now be accepting USDC, a digital dollar which can be used for purchases across the world, new Visa cards will support it and will be able to be used anywhere, including locally.

I think this will be a huge development, as people especially from emerging markets, will no longer be held hostage to their massively fluctuating, depreciating local currencies and archaic forex and capital control laws which make it difficult to obtain hard currency or even move money abroad.

They could now choose to do business in a hard currency locally, and hedge against currency devaluation and swings in prices when placing orders.

USDC’s are backed to the USD, so perhaps it will be tacitly supported as it would help maintain the USD as the world’s reserve currency and main currency of international business and trade?

Okay, yes...this is good stuff. The truth is we already have one world money and it is the petrodollar. Any crypto related to the current system makes much more sense both for the stability and the chances that it will transition slowly. 

[SOMEPARTS]

I think you guys overthink things way too much.

Cult followers don't think much.

[SOMEPARTS]

I pondered this as well and my conclusion was i think I may have looked at this all wrong.

To set the state of play:

2017 and on many large countries banned crypto due to it’s threat to sovereign currency. The US and a handful allowed it to continue and then increased it’s regulation and legitimacy.

Fast forward to 2021 and We have an utterly fucked global financial system. Record debt for households and govts in general. Zero or negatives rates. No wage growth. High unemployment. Pandemic.

We see loads of QE and a fight against deflation. We see handout stimulus for trickle up economics and working subsidies.

We know the global financial system will be transformed -
Countries will create their own digital coins is confirmed. This is going to be used for those trickle up economic policies and works alongside existing currency. These will be controlled by central banks and can be created instantly and deposited into bank accounts. The impact on the bond market could be massive as not only will huge amounts of spending Bono linger require bonds but the rates are zero or negative.

Move onto Libre which will be a basket of global currencies. Created by an American company and now everybody can do business around the globe. What does this do to the Forex market? Does it even need to exist anymore?

So that puts us looking at a possible massive bond market decline followed by a possible forex market decline. Where does the money go?

Move to crypto where the Americans allowed it to flourish and all the American companies are first on the boat......


Meanwhile all the countries that banned it will be left with a tiny bond market and a tiny forex market and nowhere to make money for their banks.

Enter crypto..... now owned by the Americans and everybody else has to buy from them.......


I don’t want to sound like the tin foil man but what do you guys think?

I think some people understand that Satoshi Nakamoto is probably a pen name for an American Corp, American/Central Bank or an American alphabet agency. 

USA allowing crypto enables capital to flow, even if it ends up being a beta test for something else. Why let anarcho-capitalist money exist right under their noses? You can't even transact 10k at the bank without generating an IRS report. Something is off here.

The bond market is the elephant in the room, anything they can do to transition or reset away from derivatives would be beneficial given how screwed up the whole thing is.

[Mayday]

I think some people understand that Satoshi Nakamoto is probably a pen name for an American Corp, American/Central Bank or an American alphabet agency. 

USA allowing crypto enables capital to flow, even if it ends up being a beta test for something else. Why let anarcho-capitalist money exist right under their noses? You can't even transact 10k at the bank without generating an IRS report. Something is off here.

The bond market is the elephant in the room, anything they can do to transition or reset away from derivatives would be beneficial given how screwed up the whole thing is.

Imagine Americans looking like they are about to lose super power status only to emerge as the strongest country on the planet?

If the bond market and forex market go, crypto is the new emerging market and China will come to the door begging to be let in.

I won’t be surprised to see ETh hit 3k this month.

I am already in ADA. The 3rd-5th market places are incredibly important and XRP has caused a significant lag due to it’s legal problems. I think a new 3rd place will have a ballistic rally this year as it will close ground to ETH.

[gib]

If any of the following happen we could be well on our way to seeing 50+K BTC.

Larry Ellison confirms he is onboard. 50K easy.
Buffett and/or Apple confirm they are onboard. 100K easy.

Still very early days, but exciting times nevertheless.

Oh, and for those who say US will dominate BTC, trust me on this - China is rapidly and stealthily accumulating Bitcoin. And by China, I mean the CCP, as well as CCP funded or sponsored companies and Chinese agencies.

[gib]

ETH is still very affordable to retail investors and especially younger people, so could be another option as well, a slightly different strategy as this would tap into the more casual buyers as well and be low risk for most, as they could buy at least a coin or several.

Sats are still very affordable to retail investors and especially younger people, so could be another option as well...

[Griffith]

Sats are still very affordable to retail investors and especially younger people, so could be another option as well...

Most people would rather own a full coin or several coins, and Ethereum makes that a very affordable option for retail investors and especially younger people.

[FitnessFrenzy]

[B_MyT_2]

If any of the following happen we could be well on our way to seeing 50+K BTC.

Larry Ellison confirms he is onboard. 50K easy.
Buffett and/or Apple confirm they are onboard. 100K easy.

Still very early days, but exciting times nevertheless.

Oh, and for those who say US will dominate BTC, trust me on this - China is rapidly and stealthily accumulating Bitcoin. And by China, I mean the CCP, as well as CCP funded or sponsored companies and Chinese agencies.

I just don't get it?  It's not tangible like cash or a credit/debit card.  How do you spend it a $47,000 "dollar bill" and make sure you get your change.  Someone earlier said that someone in the UK gave a whole bit coin on accident for a burger or something.

I started watching some vids on YT about it, and the volatility....some swear it's going up, some say it's doomed to crash.  I don't understand how you spend something that has an ever changing value.  The second thing that was peculiar to me is that one vid mentioned how PayPal had started taking it, but the turn around and turn it into USD on their side right away specifically because of the volatility of it.  So confusing?  Seems like only techies, and very knowledgeable people in the markets understand it.

And I agree with you that the CCP is probably buying the shit out of it with one of their shell companies in the U.S.  It's too bad our lawmakers don't start actually making anti-corruption, fraud, and electoral mandates instead of pursuing a vendetta against someone they've already "defeated"