Continue reading →

The article below accuses BlackRock of pushing the price of Bitcoin lower in a process of accumulation shares prior to a Bitcoin ETF approval. We find the claim credible and even normal process of large players when accumulating shares of an illiquid investment. There is nothing illegal in this. It is even normal procedure in the markets. Lets say I a Big Investor and want to accumulate a position in illiquid stock. I would call my broker/ market maker and place the order. The broker/market maker would check the street for other bids and offers. This is a pretty close group who is talking and dealing with each other frequently. One or more of these market makers might pull their normal bid from the group. This removes some support from the position. This pulling of the bid allows a vacuum to form in which the share price falls allowing the price to drift or fall lower. In the old days a well-known market journalist would write a negative article for pay to “help” the share price fall. This is called “Yellow Journalism”. This journalist was fined for such writing and though not often enforced, is illegal. Continue reading →

By this title, LOTM is saying that the SEC never intended to stop Blockchain or crypto movement but rather is throwing up road blocks to allow the Traditional Financial (TradFi) industry time to try and catch up.

To allow a Futures ETF in Bitcoin (leveraged) while saying a cash owned “Spot” Bitcoin ETF is dangerous to the public is the height of misinformation, outright lying, and hypocrisy. The courts recognized this and said exactly that in siding with Grayscale. Now the SEC could still not approve a Spot Bitcoin ETF. That is its right. But lets be clear on why – it is not to protect the public. Continue reading →

I’m more comfortable being long bitcoin today more than 6 months ago:

Galaxy Digital CEO Novogratz – six minute Video. 7/20/23

Gold, Silver, Bitcoin, I put them all in the same basket. Mike Novogratz, paraphrased from above interview.

Bitcoin one-year chart:

“Instead of investing in gold as a hedge against inflation … or the devaluation of your currency … [bitcoin] can represent an asset that people can play as an alternative,” Fink stated. The description reinforces the perception of bitcoin as a store of value, akin to the role gold has traditionally played in investment portfolios. Continue reading →

LOTM Has been vocal on the Fintech Industry as benefiting from change coming due to Blockchain technology. Blockchain is changing how money transfers are made. This is a distinct challenge and risk to TradFi (traditional Finance). The short version is Blockchain is very secure way to transfer currency and documents (read title companies) that eliminates the middle men – TradFi. It is estimated that the global revenue generated by TradFi industry is $7 Trillion (source Morgan Creek Capital’s Mark Yusko) a year globally. Therefore, it is very clear why the Banking, Insurance, finance and title companies don’t want Crypto and Blockchain to progress or progress rapidly.

Favorite names to LOTM in no particular order, the symbols COIN, SHOP, STNE, PAGS, SQ, MQ and GLBE. Do your own due diligence from the list below. Long time readers know where we stand on this list. Some of these names have doubled or more from their two year-low price. We suggest that if interested in this group, you buy a package of five stocks or more, equal dollars invested in each name. Dollar cost average in the same way with three to four group purchases over your allocated time-line for buying. Once you are fully invested, use a trailing stop loss on the entire package at your predetermined percent loss. 10% or 15% are common stops. Your risk tolerance might be less or more than these common stop-loss numbers. Continue reading →

Sovereign investors, concerned about the precedent of sanctions,
prefer the physical metal to derivatives or ETFs

https://www.ft.com/content/76bddb74-4ddb-4e36-b70c-c0e26d8bf557 – July 10, 2023
A growing number of countries are bringing their physical gold reserves back home to avoid Russian-style sanctions on their foreign assets, while increasing their purchases of the precious metal as a hedge against high levels of inflation. Central banks globally made record purchases of gold in 2022 and into the first quarter of this year, as they hunted for safe havens from high inflation and volatile bond prices, according to a survey of sovereign investors by asset manager Invesco. China and Turkey together accounted for almost one-fifth of these purchases. Concerned by the decision by the US and others to freeze Russian assets, central banks opted to buy physical gold rather than derivatives or exchange traded funds that track the metal’s price. They also preferred to hold it in their own country as global tensions increased. Invesco’s survey found that 68 per cent of central banks held part of their gold reserves domestically, up from 50 per cent in 2020. In five years, that figure is expected to rise to 74 per cent, the survey showed. “Up until this year, central banks were willing to buy or sell gold through ETFs and gold swaps,” said Invesco’s head of official institutions Rod Ringrow. Continue reading →

Rightly or wrongly, I have personally come to the conclusion that the gameplan of the US Government is to transition, over-time, from the current debt based, fiat system, started in 1913, and then taken off the gold standard in 1971, to a new digital / crypto based system. My estimate is that with Blackrock filing for a Bitcoin Spot ETF, the race is on. My guess is three to eight years for the complete transition in the USA. Other countries are ahead of the USA in this transition. Switzerland, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore are among the concentrated centers for crypto and blockchain.

The top five countries with the most substantial rates of crypto adoption are #1 – Vietnam, #2 – Philippines, #3 – Ukraine, #4 India and #5 – United States. See: Crypto around the world.  Continue reading →

There is a bigger story developing than just what the price of Bitcoin’s price is doing. The back story sounds more like a “Conspiracy Story” than a “Truth Story.” Many “Truth Stories” cannot be proven, so of course they evolve under the Conspiracy Story line. It is a headscratcher. What it boils down to is “don’t believe the words” but watch what “they do.” If you watch closely and participate so you experience, you can know the truth, but not prove the truth.

I have linked two short videos from one of the best investment truth tellers on the public airwaves today. Each Video is less than fifteen minutes. The speaker in the video’s has been temporarily censored from a popular media channel, yet he manages money for two large university endowment funds and institutional investors for decades. I don’t want to mention his name to avoid drawing attention to him. I am not asking you to believe his story on how the system works, but it is the truth as I have come to understand how government and established powers operate. Consider the information. Decide for yourself. We all need a belief foundation from which to build our business operation. Like layers of an onion, life has multiple operating levels. These two videos help see into the deeper levels of what might be happening in the crypto market and does happen in financial markets in general. I suggest listening to the Vids Continue reading →