A Bitcoin Mining OPEC? | Bitcoin’s Dead Cat Bounce?

FIRST BIG OIL, NOW BIG BITCOIN?

Two weeks after Elon Musk made the surprising announcement that Tesla would stop accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for its electric vehicles, citing concerns over “the use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining and transactions, the eccentric billionaire revealed that he and Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, forged an alliance with executives of North America’s major bitcoin mining operators called the Bitcoin Mining Council to address the industry’s carbon footprint.

The council will focus on promoting “energy usage transparency” and sustainable mining initiatives. Its first order of business will involve the creation of a “benchmark” protocol that would standardize energy reporting requirements for the miners as well as discussions about industry-wide environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) goals.

Still, the council’s intentions immediately fell under scrutiny. Despite the fact that the participants collectively control less than 10% of the global computing power on the bitcoin network, critics raised concerns that the council may try to apply pressure on the industry or “compel the members to act in certain ways,” which could harm Bitcoin’s decentralized ethos. In response, on Tuesday, Michael Saylor asserted the council is merely trying to defend bitcoin against the “hostiles” and make sure they aren’t “defining the narratives, models and metrics.”

CRYPTO RISING, BUT NOT TOO QUICKLY

After falling below $32,000 amid last weekend’s selloff, bitcoin rebounded to trade at $38,045 on Monday morning, setting a positive trend for the broader market. Other major cryptocurrencies, including ether, binance coin and cardano, also posted significant gains. The recovery further gathered steam on Wednesday, following the announcement of the Bitcoin Mining Council, with prices rising above $40,000, but ultimately failed to maintain the momentum. Bitcoin was trading near $36,000 for most of Friday morning. The cryptocurrency is down by 33% on the month. Ether and binance coin are down by 7% and 40%, respectively.

HOW TO GET THE BEST ROI ON LIFE

On Tuesday, the 29-year-old founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, spoke with Forbes chief content officer Randall Lane at the 2021 Forbes Under 30 Summit Kickoff. Crypto’s wealthiest billionaire, valued at more than $10 billion, shared how the philosophy of effective altruism led him to crypto. While still in college, Bankman-Fried says he methodically analyzed his own life to determine whether working for a cause he believed in or founding a company was the best way to do the most good. Now, FTX and a few other ventures Bankman-Fried owns form the foundation of a nearly independent financial ecosystem, in which his firms are better able to capture the value they create.

In February he launched the non-profit FTX Foundation, which has the mandate to give away 1% of FTX net fees and has already earmarked $8.9 million for donations, including six million dollars from other donors looking to follow Bankman-Fried’s lead. The billionaire is also establishing himself as a strategic political donor, having given  $5 million to a super-PAC supporting U.S. President Joe Biden’s successful 2020 campaign.

BLOCKCHAIN 50 SPOTLIGHT

South Korea’s dominant messaging app, KakaoTalk, with 52 million users, has a Ground X blockchain unit that has developed its own public blockchain with its own cryptocurrency, klay. So far 370,000 verified KakaoTalk users have opened digital wallets; 10% of them use the wallet every day.

ELSEWHERE

WisdomTree Files Ethereum ETF Application as Bitcoin Bids Await SEC Decision [CoinDesk]

Opinion: Cryptocurrency has an Elon Musk problem [The Washington Post]

Whales bought $3 billion of Bitcoin when its price fell, says Chainalysis [The Block]

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