Elon Likes Bitcoin Again | Tiger King Turns To NFTs

ELON AND BITCOIN MAKE NICE

After weeks of critical social media posts about bitcoin’s energy consumption and the unexpected announcement that Tesla would stop accepting bitcoin as payment, it appears that Elon Musk is looking to make amends. Earlier this week he posted on Twitter, "When there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing bitcoin transactions." Although this announcement is vague, and it is unclear how Musk/Tesla will make such a determination, it was enough to move the price of bitcoin (as are all of Musk’s tweets), adding to the bullish momentum started when El Salvador became the first country to accept the cryptocurrency as legal tender.

INSTITUTIONS APPEAR UNDAUNTED

Additionally, despite the recent market turmoil it appears that institutional interest in crypto remains elevated. Earlier this week business analytics firm MicroStrategy, which owns more bitcoin than any other corporation in the world, raised $500 million in bonds to acquire more of the world's largest cryptocurrency. In a sign of massive interest from institutional investors, the firm reportedly received more than $1.5 billion in orders for the offering. Additionally, a few months after Goldman Sachs relaunched its crypto trading desk and started providing bitcoin exposure to key clients, it is expanding into ether, the native token for Ethereum, by offering cash-settled futures and options contracts.

SHAKEUP FROM THE FED

However, it was not all good news for bitcoin and crypto. In comments that surprised virtually nobody that had been paying close attention to rising inflation data over the past couple of months, the Fed signaled that it is planning to raise their benchmark rate to 0.6% from near zero by the end of 2023. This is a reversal from earlier this spring, when it indicated that interest rates would remain the same through the entirety of next year. As expected, this had a negative effect on markets, including bitcoin which has been unable to decisively break past $40,000.

$31 BILLION BLOCKCHAIN PROJECT YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF

A new distributed-ledger technology (DLT) platform for the trillion-dollar global repurchase agreement (repo) market created by Long Island, N.Y.- based proxy communications giant, Broadridge Financial is already handling $31 billion worth of transactions daily. Although a niche element of finance, repos are critical sources of liquidity for the industry. Through increased efficiency and utility of collateral, platform users could see savings estimated to be $1 million for every 100,000 repo trades per year, depending on volume, types of trades, and operating model, according to Broadridge’s head of digital innovation for capital markets and developer of the platform, Horacio Barakat.

TIGER KING NFTS

Joseph Maldonado-Passage—more commonly known as the star of Netflix’s “Tiger King,” Joe Exotic—is the latest viral sensation to cash in on the non-fungible token (NFT) craze, auctioning off a suite of digital and physical assets from federal prison, including autographed photos, an adult film star’s bikini and his Smith & Weston pistol. The digital tokens are due to go under the hammer Friday on NFT marketplace Mintable, with winners of some auctions set to receive physical items along with the digital artwork. In a press release, Exotic said being able to auction off his collectibles makes him “feel connected with the outside world, especially without my cats by my side.”

FINTECH 50 SPOTLIGHT

Fintech 50 newcomer Anchorage is a regulated custodian offering institutions lending, trading, financing and staking of crypto. In January, it also became among the first crypto-native firms to be granted a conditional national trust bank charter by the Comptroller of the Currency. Additionally, it worked with partner (and investor) Visa to support the first stablecoin payment processed on the network.

ELSEWHERE

SEC Again Delays VanEck Bitcoin ETF Decision [CoinDesk]

US House Republicans' campaign arm to accept crypto donations [TheBlock]

Mark Cuban Calls for DeFi Regulation After Crypto Investment Goes to Zero [Decrypt]

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