Category: Crypto

As someone who has used Microsoft products my whole life, it pains me to see they are fumbling the bag on Bitcoin. The company’s $78 billion in cash reserves are losing value daily. Meanwhile, they stubbornly refuse to follow MicroStrategy’s proven winning strategy — convert those melting dollars to scarce Bitcoin!

Microsoft announced a couple of months ago that it would buy back shares up to $60 billion; it seems like this did nothing to increase the stock price. Imagine if they had bought Bitcoin instead. That money would have been much more powerful if allocated to Bitcoin. The company would likely have added hundreds of billions in market cap.

Just look at MicroStrategy. In just four years, they turned their $1 billion company into $100 billion by adopting Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset. They are now the most compelling and successful story in corporate finance, with the best-performing stock in the last four years, beating every US company – even NVIDIA.

Yet Microsoft clings to an outdated financial strategy, destroying shareholder value. Microsoft should follow its technology instincts, not faulty financial logic. There is no long-term viability in holding cash.

I was listening to X Spaces yesterday, during which MicroStrategy’s CEO Michael Saylor revealed that he offered to explain Bitcoin’s benefits privately, but Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella rejected the meeting. Now, he is making a last-ditch appeal by presenting a 3-minute Bitcoin proposal to Microsoft’s board.

Earlier, the board already advised shareholders to reject assessing Bitcoin’s potential upside. Nonetheless, I am interested to see how this meeting will turn out. Saylor is a great educator, so you never know.

They should realise that no corporate treasury asset like Bitcoin can enhance enterprise value. Even a small $5 billion Bitcoin allocation could add tens of billions in market cap.

Look, Microsoft, the choice is clear – hoard melting dollars or embrace uncensorable digital gold. Your shareholders are begging you to buy Bitcoin. It’s time to listen before that $78 billion completely disappears. This is your fiduciary duty as Bitcoin continues mass adoption.

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

BitVM earlier this year came under fire due to the large liquidity requirements necessary in order for a rollup (or other system operator) to process withdrawals for the two way peg mechanisms being built using the BitVM design. Galaxy, an investor in Citrea, has performed an economic analysis looking at their assumptions regarding economic conditions necessary to make a BitVM based two way peg a sustainable operation.

For those unfamiliar, pegging into a BitVM system requires the operators to take custody of user funds in an n-of-n multisig, creating a set of pre-signed transactions allowing the operator facilitating withdrawals to claim funds back after a challenge period. The user is then issued backed tokens on the rollup or other second layer system.

Pegouts are slightly more complicated. The user must burn their funds on the second layer system, and then craft a Partially Signed Bitcoin Transaction (PSBT) paying them funds back out on the mainchain, minus a fee to the operator processing withdrawals. They can keep crafting new PSBTs paying the operator higher fees until the operator accepts. At this point the operator will take their own liquidity and pay out the user’s withdrawal.

The operator can then, after having processed withdrawals adding up to a deposited UTXO, initiate the withdrawal out of the BitVM system to make themselves whole. This includes a challenge-response period to protect against fraud, which Galaxy models as a 14 day window. During this time period anyone who can construct a fraud proof showing that the operator did not honestly honor the withdrawals of all users in that epoch can initiate the challenge. If the operator cannot produce a proof they correctly processed all withdrawals, then the connector input (a special transaction input that is required to use their pre-signed transactions) the operator uses to claim their funds back can be burned, locking them out of the ability to recuperate their funds.

Now that we’ve gotten through a mechanism refresher, let’s look at what Galaxy modeled: the economic viability of operating such a peg.

There are a number of variables that must be considered when looking at whether this system can be operated profitably. Transaction fees, amount of liquidity available, but most importantly the opportunity cost of devoting capital to processing withdrawals from a BitVM peg. This last one is of critical importance in being able to source liquidity to manage the peg in the first place. If liquidity providers (LPs) can earn more money doing something else with their money, then they are essentially losing money by using their capital to operate a BitVM system.

All of these factors have to be covered, profitably, by the aggregate of fees users will pay to peg out of the system for it to make sense to operate. I.e. to generate a profit. The two references for competing interest rates Galaxy looked at were Aave, a DeFi protocol operating on Ethereum, and OTC markets in Bitcoin.

Aave at the time of their report earned lenders approximately 1% interest on WBTC (Wrapped Bitcoin pegged into Ethereum) lent out. OTC lending on the other hand had rates as high as 7.6% compared to Aave. This shows a stark difference between the expected return on capital between DeFi users and institutional investors. Users of a BitVM system must generate revenue in excess of these interest rates in order to attract capital to the peg from these other systems.

By Galaxy’s projections, as long as LPs are targeting a 10% Annual Percentage Yield (APY), that should cost individual users -0.38% in a peg out transaction. The only wildcard variable, so to say, is the transaction fees that the operator has to pay during high fee environments. The users funds are already reclaimed using the operators liquidity instantly after initiating the pegout, while the operator has to wait the two week challenge period in order to claim back the fronted liquidity.

If fees were to spike in the meanwhile, this would eat into the operators profit margins when they eventually claim their funds back from the BitVM peg. However, in theory operators could simply wait until fees subside to initiate the challenge period and claim their funds back.

Overall the viability of a BitVM peg comes down to being able to generate a high enough yield on liquidity used to process withdrawals to attract the needed capital. To attract more institutional capital, these yields must be higher in order to compete with OTC markets.

The full Galaxy report can be read here. 

The Bitcoin Pi Cycle Top Indicator has gained legendary status in the Bitcoin community for its uncanny accuracy in identifying market cycle peaks. Historically, it has timed every single Bitcoin cycle high with remarkable precision—often within just three days. Could it work its magic again this cycle? Let’s dive deeper into how it works and its significance in navigating Bitcoin’s market cycles.

View the Pi Cycle Top Indicator Chart Here.

What is the Pi Cycle Top Indicator?

The Pi Cycle Top Indicator is a tool designed to identify Bitcoin’s market cycle tops. Created by Philip Swift, Managing Director of Bitcoin Magazine Pro in April 2019, this indicator uses a combination of two moving averages to forecast cycle highs:

111-Day Moving Average (111DMA): Represents the shorter-term price trend.350-Day Moving Average x 2 (350DMA x 2): A multiple of the 350DMA, which captures longer-term trends.

When the 111DMA rises sharply and crosses above the 350DMA x 2, it historically coincides with Bitcoin’s market cycle peak.

The Mathematics Behind the Name

Interestingly, the ratio of 350 to 111 equals approximately 3.153—remarkably close to Pi (3.142). This mathematical quirk gives the indicator its name and highlights the cyclical nature of Bitcoin’s price action over time.

Why Has It Been So Accurate?

The Pi Cycle Top Indicator has been effective in predicting the peaks of Bitcoin’s three most recent market cycles. Its ability to pinpoint the absolute tops reflects Bitcoin’s historically predictable cycles during its adoption growth phase. The indicator essentially captures the point where the market becomes overheated, as reflected by the steep rise of the 111DMA surpassing the 350DMA x 2.

How Can Investors Use This Indicator?

For investors, the Pi Cycle Top Indicator serves as a warning sign that the market may be approaching unsustainable levels. Historically, when the indicator flashes, it has been advantageous to sell Bitcoin near the top of the market cycle. This makes it a valuable tool for those seeking to maximize gains and minimize losses.

However, as Bitcoin matures and integrates further into the global financial system—bolstered by developments like Bitcoin ETFs and institutional adoption—the effectiveness of this indicator may diminish. It remains most relevant during Bitcoin’s early adoption phase.

A Glimpse Into the Future

The big question now is: will the Pi Cycle Top Indicator remain accurate in this cycle? With Bitcoin entering a new era of adoption and market dynamics, its cyclical patterns may evolve. Yet, this tool has proven its worth repeatedly over Bitcoin’s first 15 years, offering investors a reliable gauge of market tops.

Final Thoughts

The Pi Cycle Top Indicator is a testament to Bitcoin’s cyclical nature and the power of mathematical models in understanding its price behavior. While its past accuracy has been unparalleled, only time will tell if it can once again predict Bitcoin’s next market cycle peak. For now, it remains an indispensable tool for those navigating the thrilling highs and lows of Bitcoin.

Explore the full chart and stay informed.

It’s been a good week for Bitcoin and its status in the eyes of federal deposit insurance corporations. (Well, there’s a weird sentence I never thought I’d write.)

On Tuesday, the anti-crypto U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairman, Martin Gruenberg, announced he’d be stepping down in January.

And yesterday, Heritage Falodun, CEO of DigiOats, Nigeria’s leading Bitcoin education and consultancy platform, educated members of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) about the benefits of bitcoin and other digital assets.

Falodun, an indefatigable Bitcoin proponent, spearheaded a seminar for the NDIC entitled “Cryptocurrency in the Evolving Financial Industry”.

This week, @DigiOats alongside with #MassCyberTech completed a groundbreaking seminar for @NDICNigeria 🇳🇬on “Cryptocurrency in the Evolving Financial Industry”. We explored #Bitcoin adoption, regulation, and sustainable finance marking a key moment for Nigeria’s financial future pic.twitter.com/hpWQOqZt8L

— DigiOats⚡️ (@DigiOats) November 21, 2024

In it, he highlighted the following points:

Bitcoin can serve as a reserve asset for nation states, including NigeriaUsing bitcoin (and other digital assets), banks can reduce settlement timeBitcoin can reduce capital controls, as its censorship resistant

Falodun and his team also provided an overview on the evolution of money and financial systems and also touched on the ways in which bitcoin and crypto are already integrated into traditional financial structures in efforts to convince the NDIC of Bitcoin and crypto’s importance.

“Nigeria must adopt balanced regulations that protect citizens and foster innovation,” Falodun told Bitcoin Magazine. “By embracing Bitcoin’s uniqueness and engaging the Bitcoin community, Nigeria can lead the global financial revolution.”

Falodun knows that without properly educating government officials, Bitcoin runs the risk of being misunderstood and, therefore, regulated improperly.

“I would like regulators to understand that Bitcoin’s decentralized nature is not a flaw to be regulated out of existence, but a feature that offers unprecedented opportunities for inclusion, economic freedom and optimization of financial rails,” he added.

I respect Falodun’s efforts.

Before you go calling me a statist or some other silly reductive term, I’d like to remind you that even well-known cypherpunks like Adam Back have said that part of the struggle around greater Bitcoin adoption (and encryption in general) will include engaging with governments (and courts).

Proponents of Bitcoin should acknowledge our current political reality and make the case for Bitcoin to those in power if they want to see it flourish — or if they want to at least stop governments from crafting poor policy around Bitcoin and/or attacking the industry.

Take a cue from Falodun and do your part to educate local government officials, members of state-level administrative agencies or even Federal-level bureaucrats about Bitcoin.

It’s one of the most important things you can do to keep your country from falling behind.

Peak Bitcoin, hardly.

Follow Rizzo on X.

https://x.com/pete_rizzo_/

As I wrote in Forbes in 2021, the world is waking up to a new reality in regards to Bitcoin – the unlikely truth that Bitcoin’s programming has cyclical effects on its economy.

This has led to at least 4 distinct market cycles where Bitcoin has been branded a bubble, skeptics have rung their hands, and each time, Bitcoin recovers more or less 4 years later to set new all-time highs above its previously “sky-high” valuation.

I personally watched Bitcoin go from $50 to $1,300 in 2013. Then, from $1,000 to $20,000 in 2017, and I watched it go from $20,000 to $70,000 in 2021.

So, I’m just here to relate that, from my past experience, this market cycle is just heating up.

For those who have been in Bitcoin, there’s one tried-and-true and that’s Google Search. As long as I’ve been in Bitcoin, this has been the best indicator of the strength of the market.

Search is low, you’re probably in a bear market. Search heading back to all-time highs? This means new entrants are getting engaged, learning about Bitcoin, and becoming active buyers.

Remember, this is a habit change. Bitcoin HODLers are slowing shifting their assets to a wholly new economy. So, Google Trends search then, represents a snapshot of Bitcoin’s immigration. It shows how many new sovereign citizens are moving their money here.

And it’s something that all who are worried about whether bitcoin’s price topping out in 2024 should pay attention to.

Last year was the Bitcoin halving, and historically, the year following previous halvings has led to price appreciation. Maybe you’re tempted to think, “this time is different” – not me. I look at search and I see a chart that continues to accelerate into price discovery. Trust me when I say no one I know is selling bitcoin.

As shown above, buyer interest is accelerating, and these new buyers have to buy that Bitcoin from somewhere. Add nation states, US states, and a coming Trump administration set to ease the burden on the industry?

Well, I think the chart above says it all really. 

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

Follow Nikolaus On X Here

Today, MicroStrategy (MSTR) surpassed a $100 billion market cap to become the 93rd largest publicly-traded company in the U.S.

At the time of writing, MSTR has done more trading volume than both stock giants Tesla and Nvidia today, and has traditional stock traders like the Wall Street Bets community losing their minds.

Wow $MSTR is the most traded stock in America today.. to best $TSLA and $NVDA is crazy. It’s been years since a stock has traded more than one of those two (it may have actually been $GME to last do it). It’s also about double $SPY! Wild times.. pic.twitter.com/bUr8nycMX3

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) November 20, 2024

 This is absolutely mindblowing considering MicroStrategy was a mere $1 billion company when it first bought bitcoin for its treasury about four and a half years ago.

MicroStrategy’s market cap from when they first bought Bitcoin to now

The big question I’m asking myself is, how and when does this end? Assuming MSTR continues to pump until the peak of this bull market, it’s anyone’s guess on how high MSTR may go.

But how hard will it crash in the bear market, considering it is essentially a leveraged trade on bitcoin? Dare I even suggest that this time may be different, and that the downside of the next bitcoin bear market won’t be as brutal as the 70%+ corrections we’re historically used to seeing?

Even with the spot bitcoin ETFs, and the notion that the US may lead the charge of nation states buying up mass amounts of bitcoin, I’m still not convinced that we don’t eventually see a massive downturn in bitcoin’s price. And I’m mentally preparing for a normal bitcoin bear market to commence after this bull market finishes sometime in the next year or so.

But back to MSTR — Michael Saylor has thus far proven that the Bitcoin for Corporations strategy works in stunning fashion. Public companies have been coming out of the woodwork this past week announcing that they’ve purchased bitcoin for their balance sheet or plan to do so, and it seems this trend will continue as the CEO of Rumble asked his X audience if he should add BTC to their balance sheet (almost 94% of his 42,522 voters voted “yes”).

Lets put this in a poll format…

Should Rumble add Bitcoin to its balance sheet?

— Chris Pavlovski (@chrispavlovski) November 19, 2024

 Michael Saylor even offered to help explain how and why Rumble should adopt a corporate BTC strategy.

Institutional bitcoin adoption is here and it’s only going to grow for the foreseeable future. As companies figure out the logic behind adopting bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset, the number of publicly-traded companies that adopt this strategy is going to explode.

Companies that add bitcoin to their balance sheet will rise above most other companies — even top big tech giants — in terms of trading volume, as MicroStrategy has, until all companies add bitcoin to their balance sheet. I try to put myself in the shoes of a trader, with knowledge on Bitcoin and think to myself, “Why on earth would I buy any company’s stock if they don’t have bitcoin on their balance sheet?” I wouldn’t — it would be way too boring.

Putting BTC on the balance sheet helps create volatility, and therefore opportunity for stock traders, which is good for the traders, stock price, and company overall. If you are a publicly-traded company, it is a no brainer to adopt bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset.

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

Today’s modern Bitcoin exchanges have drastically improved access to Bitcoin ownership in 2024. Gone are the days of janky peer-to-peer (P2P) trade forums and questionably secure early exchanges like Mt Gox. Instead, a legion of Bitcoin on-ramps focused on superior security and user experience (UX) has made purchasing your first Bitcoin a breeze. Many of these services have even embarked on education-focused initiatives to encourage greater adoption during Bitcoin’s most recent bear market. In November 2023 Swan launched Welcome to Bitcoin, their free introductory 1 hour course about Bitcoin. In December 2023, Cash App released BREAD, a free, limited-edition magazine that uses design to tell stories and educate readers about Bitcoin in a relatable and accessible way.

What these initiatives show is that Bitcoin adoption is approaching a turning point. These two major Bitcoin exchanges, along with the industry as a whole, are discovering that easy access to a smash buy button does not guarantee purchase. Numerous barriers to entry still exist for nocoiners, which provide significant constraints to understanding Bitcoin, and thus throttle Bitcoin’s growth and adoption. As we approach a steeper incline in Bitcoin’s bell curve, throwing novices into exchange apps without sufficient education and cultivation is no longer a strategy for success.

@Vivek4real_

What once was a far simpler task of energizing early adopters and cypherpunks around Bitcoin’s clear value proposition, is evolving into a more complex and convoluted process of orange-pilling the early majority of future Bitcoin holders. This, we hope, will then lead to widespread Bitcoin mass adoption as society en masse chooses to store its time and energy in the best money ever created. For this hyperbitcoinization to occur, more people need to understand the intricacies of Bitcoin. This is easier said than done because Bitcoin still has an education problem:

An Economist Intelligence Unit study reported that 51% of people said a lack of knowledge is the main barrier to Bitcoin ownership.A YouGov survey found that 98% of novices don’t understand basic Bitcoin concepts. A nationwide survey from the Yale Center discovered that 69% of young people find learning boring.

This research outlines the struggle of onboarding and educating the next generation of Bitcoiners, most notably younger generations who have been shown to possess a limited attention span of 8 seconds. For inspiration to help solve this problem, we can look at one of the most popular mobile games of all time… Pokémon GO.

pokemongolive.com

Pokémon GO was and remains to be, a global phenomenon. This beloved app caught the attention of Gen-Z, millennials, and Gen-X alike, boasting record-breaking engagement stats:

In 2016, the game peaked at 232 million active players.Pokémon GO has grossed over $6 billion in revenue.In 2024, 24% of 18–34-year-olds in the US are playing Pokémon GO, while 49% of 35–54 year-olds are playing.

We at Jippi believe that the success of this award-winning game can illuminate the path forward for Bitcoin adoption. So we have set upon the electrifying task of building Tribe Clash–the world’s first Pokémon GO-inspired Bitcoin education game. The rules are simple, create or join a Tribe and battle for dominance over a city with your friends by catching a Bitcoin-themed Beast in every Territory.

Each week Jippi will release a new Territory to be claimed. A Tribe member will explore that Territory with their phone, where they will discover a Bitcoin Beast to catch. If they successfully answer all Bitcoin quiz questions correctly the fastest, they will then catch that beast. The Tribe with the most Territories and Bitcoin Beasts at the end of the game will win $30k worth of Bitcoin to be dispersed equally to each Tribe member.

Our vision is for Jippi to become the largest, most popular platform for beginners to gather, educate, and accumulate Bitcoin. We see Jippi as the most accessible on-ramp into the industry, where we can educate a whole new generation of Bitcoiners from novices to experts by lowering the barrier to entry.

You can support the development of Tribe Clash by contributing to our crowdfunding campaign on Timestamp. Timestamp enables investors of all backgrounds to support Bitcoin-only companies and make an impact. Our campaign is open to both the general public and accredited investors, so we would love for you to join us on this journey.

This is a guest post by Oliver Porter. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

Follow Frank on X.

Martin Gruenberg, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), announced today that he’ll be stepping down on January 19, 2025, one day before Trump takes office.

I’d like to take this opportunity to tell Mr. Gruenberg not to let the door hit him on the way out.

The FDIC chair was one of the key players behind Operation Chokepoint 2.0 (as well as the first Operation Chokepoint), which included the unlawful debanking of a number of Bitcoin and crypto companies, which almost spurred a global financial crisis.

During this tenure, Gruenberg directed the FDIC to take unlawful action against banks that served the Bitcoin and crypto industry seemingly because the industry was politically unfavorable.

Gruenberg said he’d be leaving his post in May of this year, after reports of sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination occurring within FDIC under his watch surfaced but didn’t offer a date for his departure until today.

A number of prominent voices in the Bitcoin and crypto industry spoke out against Gruenberg, over the past two years. Most prominent among them was Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter.

The resignation of choke point Marty was bigger news than the ETH ETF. Here’s why: https://t.co/g1KVX4ASMn

— nic carter (@nic__carter) May 21, 2024

While Gensler will likely be remembered as the most disliked regulator by the Bitcoin and crypto industry under the Biden Administration, Gruenberg will be a close second.

As we move forward with a new administration that has pledged to be more fair to the Bitcoin and crypto industry, let us take a moment to celebrate the exit of Gruenberg, a corrupt bureaucrat who tried and failed to stop a burgeoning industry by abusing his power.

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

Let’s get one thing out of the way – The United States already holds more bitcoin than any government in the world.

Follow Rizzo on X.

https://x.com/pete_rizzo_/

While this data is true, you wouldn’t exactly know this from the obscene amounts of FOMO being generated by industry lobbyists on social media.

On X, BTC Inc CEO David Bailey, has been pushing for an Executive Order by President Donald Trump that would put this in place on day one, while Satoshi Action Fund founder Dennis Porter has been stoking state-level enthusiasm, pledging to get states active in purchasing before the federal government as some act of patriotic frontrunning.

Look, I’m into the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Yes, the United States needs a long-term plan for the dollar, one that finds it (in all likelihood) giving up its status as a global reserve currency. 

Yes, the U.S. should be actively boosting the Bitcoin market and industry. But, this sky-is-falling approach just couldn’t be more at odds with all reason.

There are no other governments buying Bitcoin, nor with any (public) plans to. The next largest state holder of Bitcoin is apparently China, which has formally banned its use.

Of the countries that are actively buying Bitcoin with intent – Bhutan has just over 10,000 BTC, while El Salvador is stuck around 6,000 BTC. Neither are going to purchase more Bitcoin than the U.S. government already has – nor does either have a widely popular money printer.

Full stop – even if the U.S. government didn’t buy Bitcoin for a decade, its stockpile would be sizable. Sure, you may argue that it’s about sending a message, about showing leadership in the world, but there are many ways this can be done without blowing political capital.

Is a Strategic Reserve more important than regulation that will actually ease barriers to our industry? That will empower businesses to actually grow the sovereign use of the currency?

Let’s not forget the horrible taxation laws that make bitcoin holders think twice before using bitcoin for purchases..

All this is to say, Strategic Bitcoin Reserve advocates shouldn’t overplay their hand – a lot can be gained just by getting the U.S. government to stop selling the Bitcoin it already has, and there are arguably bigger gains to be had, or at least much worse laws to erase.

Would it be great if the U.S. government started buying Bitcoin? Surely. The industry has political capital to cash in, but let’s use it to spread Bitcoin adoption, not just pump our bags.

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

Stablecoins are often pitched as a stopgap method, or a friendly tool for people in the developing world who cannot handle the volatility of Bitcoin. They are framed as something complementary to Bitcoin, not in competition with it. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Bitcoiners have commonly used the meme of a trojan horse to justify many things over the years, rationalizing many shortcomings and compromises made over time as what is necessary to sneak Bitcoin into the legacy system to ultimately take over and win. That is exactly what stablecoins are, except in the reverse direction.

Stablecoins are the trojan horse into Bitcoin.

Bitcoin’s volatility makes using it challenging if you do not have the net worth to weather it, but there are mechanisms to handle this. Centralized schemes like Stablesats by Blink have been built to use bitcoin collateral to lock in a dollar value without needing to actually hold dollars. Discreet Log Contracts (DLCs) offer another mechanism for accomplishing the same thing in a decentralized fashion.

Instead we are propping up the US Dollar. Stablecoins are a solution to volatility, but they are a non-Bitcoin native one. They are the US Treasury’s trojan horse into the Bitcoin space. They do more to control and prop up the dollar than they do to “help” Bitcoiners handle the issue of volatility, which can be done while only holding bitcoin.

Stablecoins give the Treasury a new lifeline to sell treasury bonds. Foreign countries have lowered demand and sold existing treasuries for some years now, and stablecoin issuers have stepped up to pick up the slack. The bigger demand grows for stablecoins, the more of a drop in foreign government demand for treasury bonds the US Government can handle. At a time where BRICS is planning more and more to shift away from their dependence on the US dollar, stablecoins represent a vehicle to ameliorate this issue.

They also, unlike Bitcoin native solutions such as DLCs, present a security risk to holders. To my knowledge, aside from the Liquid Network, every network stablecoins are issued on come with a seize and freeze functionality built into the smart contract the issuer uses to create them. Almost all stablecoins support the arbitrary freezing and seizure of users balances on the different networks they circulate on.

Surveillance is another aspect of stablecoin proliferation. The more that dollar stablecoins are adopted around the world, without needing to politically convince any government to officially dollarize I might add, the more the US Government’s ability to directly surveil foreign financial activity expands. Chainalysis and other companies become a de facto government surveillance system for foreign financial activity, with no need to subpoena or gather records first. It’s all right there on the blockchain.

All the while, it propagates the idea that “blockchain” is a useful technology disconnected from Bitcoin, pushing the idea to your average person that bitcoin is simply an asset like gold to invest in. It creates a psychological narrative of “invest in Bitcoin, use your surveillance money when you need to spend.”

Overall stablecoins are going to be one of the most epic unforced errors that have occurred in this entire ecosystem. People need to wake up before it becomes embedded so deeply into their lives, and the financial world in general, that it becomes difficult to disentangle ourselves from.

People should be spreading and building on Bitcoin, a money built to enable freedom and sovereignty, not these cheap imitations called stablecoins that are nothing more than an extension of the surveillance and tyranny of the legacy financial system. 

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.