Summary Of The Week
As the week started with a sea of green candles, bitcoin’s price breached $50,000 for the first time since early September and then went on to breach $55,000 for the first time since May. Bitcoin seems poised to rally throughout the rest of the year as more institutional support gathered over the last week, which is always a good sign. Here’s what happened in Bitcoin this week:
Bullish News To Drive The Price Up
Monday started off with bullish news from El Salvador when their president, Nayib Bukele, revealed that the country had seen over 3 million people sign up to use its Chivo bitcoin wallet in just 26 days, which means over two-thirds of adults in the country now use the app, which in itself is a remarkable feat.
Later in the day, Michael Saylor reiterated MicroStrategy’s intent to keep HODLing their bitcoin while revealing that the company inspired hundreds of letters to the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to adjust accounting standards in order to accommodate companies that hold bitcoin.
Also on Monday, Ultimate Fighting Championship legend Jorge Masvidal’s bare knuckle MMA promoter Gamebred Fighting Championship partnered with Legacy Records to award fighters with bitcoin, becoming the first MMA promoter to do so. Bitcoin surpassed the $50,000 mark for the first time in a month on Monday, which fueled an overall bullish week.
On Tuesday, billionaire Bill Miller spoke at the Forbes Summit saying that “Gold is a horse, bitcoin is a Ferrari.” Interestingly, bitcoin is up over 1,200,000% over the last decade, while gold has seen a dismal 1% increase in value during the same period of time. Bitcoin has surged over 6 billion percent in the last 12 years when New Liberty Standard provided the first pricing for bitcoin in 2009.
Also on Tuesday, the United States’ fifth largest retail bank, U.S. Bank, started offering bitcoin custody services through a partnership with NYDIG. Jack Mallers’ Strike app also made it possible for users to buy as little as $0.50 in bitcoin at a time through the app.
Wednesday started off bullish with Bank of America (BofA) launching its digital asset research with the publication of a report entitled “Digital Assets Primer: Only The First Inning,” saying “bitcoin is too hard to ignore.” The bitcoin price would surpass $55,000 later in the day, for the first time since early May.
Also on Wednesday, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, revealed that citizens who claimed their initial bitcoin provided through the country’s Chivo bitcoin wallet were up between 10% and 35% had they continued holding their stack. Bukele also stated that citizens were purchasing more bitcoin than selling on the platform, with income including remittances being four times as high as withdrawals as citizens learn how to stack.
Later in the day, Dawn Fitzpatrick, CEO of the $6 billion Soros Fund, confirmed that the fund owns some bitcoin, calling it more than just a hedge against inflation and stating that "Bitcoin has crossed the chasm to mainstream." Bullish much?
On Thursday, Leah Wald, CEO of Valkyrie Investments, stated that bitcoin "is establishing itself as one of the strongest monetary networks and absolutely a digital store of value." Wald went on to say that they “expect this bull run to take it to near highs during the fourth quarter." Bitcoin proponent and U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis disclosed a $50,001 to $100,000 bitcoin purchase according to CNBC.
Politician Andrew Yang, who’s recently started a new political party in the U.S. hoping to vie for the presidency, stated that he is a “big proponent" of bitcoin and that the newly-formed party would support bitcoin. Later on Thursday, a J.P. Morgan report stated that institutional investors see bitcoin as a "better inflation hedge" than gold.
On Friday, the amount of bitcoin held by major mining firms was confirmed to be over 200,000 BTC, equivalent to $1.1 billion. As miners continue to accumulate, and as both retail and institutional investors continue to stockpile bitcoin, it is very likely we’ll see a supply shortage later in the year, fueling this current bull run even more.
Bearish News Is Lame
As bitcoin continued to surge this week, the bears stayed at bay; however that doesn’t mean there wasn’t any news that could be considered bearish during the course of the week. Pepsi’s Vice Chairman and CFO, Hugh Johnston, said that bitcoin is “still too volatile and still too speculative” and that it would be “an awfully long time” before it could be considered a currency. However, he went on to say that he has “learned over time never to say never” when asked if the company would consider holding bitcoin on their balance sheet.
Verdict
Bitcoin is up more than 400% over the last year as the last week saw bitcoin jump over 20%, leading many, including myself, to believe the next phase of the current bull run is underway. I have said it before — bitcoin still has a lot of upward momentum left for the remainder of the year and it’s increasingly likely that bitcoin will hit the six-figure mark some time in December, perhaps even earlier if the current trajectory continues.
With both citizens and the government in the green in El Salvador, it’s likely that other countries will expedite plans to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, or at least introduce favorable regulations to encourage investment in their respective nations. Politicians across the world have been signalling support for bitcoin from countries such as Brazil, to Zimbabwe, which has spent decades facing financial turmoil and instability.
With more than enough momentum left in the current surge, bitcoin is likely to retest its current all-time high some time later this month. Perhaps there’s a bearish case that this may not happen until some time in November; however the upside is clear and both interest and support for bitcoin increases by the day.
This is a guest post by Dion Guillaume. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.