In this together: Musk and Saylor down a combined $1.5B on Bitcoin buys

June 13, 2022 Coin Telegraph

In this together: Musk and Saylor down a combined .5B on Bitcoin buys

Tesla and Microstrategy have a combined impairment loss of almost $1.5 billion —will they HODL on?

As the bear market bites, holding crypto investments can be a tough pill to swallow. Consider two of the largest bag holders of publicly traded companies. They are down by almost $2 billion dollars on their Bitcoin buys.

According to Bitcointreasuries.net, the 130,000 and 43,00 Bitcoin (BTC) held by Microstrategy and Tesla respectively are worth considerable sums less.

The top "Hodlers" of Bitcoin according to Bitcointreasuries.net

For Microstrategy, Michael Saylor splashed out almost $4 billion ($3,965,863,658) on 129,218 BTC, approximately 0.615% of the 21 million total supply. The Bitcoin price nosedive has ripped away earlier gains: the investment is worth $3.1 billion ($3,074,987,824), a loss of $900 million. Plus, in premarket trading on June 13, Microstrategy stock (MSTR) plunged to its lowest levels in months.

For Elon Musk, whose Tesla automotive company bought over 40,000 Bitcoin during the 2021 bull market, his $1 billion profit has gone south. The cost basis of $1.5 billion for 43,200 BTC, or 0.206% of the total Bitcoin supply, is now worth $1 billion ($1,017,789,280), down almost $500 million.

The total impairment loss (the loss in value) shared between the billionaire Bitcoin believers is roughly $1.4 billion. Given that both companies are publicly traded, the July quarterly results will dissect precisely how much each company is down on its Bitcoin assets.

At one point during November last year, Bitcoin surpassed Tesla’s market capitalization. Currently, Tesla’s market cap is roughly $721 billion while Bitcoin languishes at less than half a trillion dollars. Equally, the total market cap for crypto is plummeting, falling below one trillion dollars.

For Microstrategy, the situation is darker still. Saylor will have to top up a loan if and when the price of Bitcoin hits $21,000.

little reminder that Saylor needs to add collateral around $21k $BTC

snippet from Q1 earnings: pic.twitter.com/OM7haXSk6A
— yeezus 幸栄 (@yeezuscapital) June 13, 2022

Saylor had previously patched things up with investors, sharing that the $205,000,000 loan it had taken out requires $410,000,000 collateral. Nonetheless, moneybags Microstrategy has more than 115,000 BTC it could pledge if the price continues to flatline.

Ultimately, if the fallout from Celsius' reported ‘insolvency’ spreads, there could be more pain on the horizon. For some Bitcoin believers, such as Bitcoin's first restaurant chain Tahini’s, “nothing has changed.” They will continue to accumulate, albeit at much lower prices.

Wealthy Coinbase clients are still ‘hodling’ Bitcoin since December 2020, data suggests

May 31, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

Institutions that reportedly purchased 10,939 BTC from Coinbase in December 2020 are not selling yet.

Bitcoin's (BTC) price dropped by more than 50% after peaking out at $69,000 six months ago but the plunge did little in forcing some of its wealthiest investors into selling.

Notably, the number of Bitcoin under Coinbase Custody for institutional clients rose by 296% since Q4 2020, showcasing the most investors decided to "hodl" onto their investments despite BTC price down well over 50% from its all-time highs.

JUST-IN: #Bitcoin under @Coinbase Custody for institutional clients increased by 296% since Q4'20. pic.twitter.com/iILge2Cane
— CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) May 30, 2022

For instance, institutions that deposited 10,939 BTC (~$335 million at today's price) with Coinbase Custody in December 2020, when BTC/USD was around $23,000, have not moved since, on-chain data from CryptoQuant shows.

Ki Young Ju, CEO of CryptoQuant, noted:

"For most cases, the same amount of BTC is still in the (custodian) wallets, which flowed out from Coinbase for highly likely institutional purchases in December 2020."

*Coinbase custodial wallets comparison. Source: CryptoQuant/Ki Young Ju*

If this is the case, then these institutions are currently sitting on 30% profits from their BTC investments. Meanwhile, their decision to not unwind their Bitcoin positions, even when BTC/USD has plummeted by more than half, underscores their strong "hodling" sentiment.

That also points to institutions' ability to withstand additional declines in the Bitcoin price, at least until it drops below the investors' breakeven level of $23,000.

Bitcoin bear market not over?

Bitcoin's price has been fluctuating inside the $29,500-$30,500 range since May 12, underscoring the market's indecision in a higher interest rate environment.

But several technical analysts anticipate that BTC's price would continue its prevailing downtrend.

For instance, PostyXBT, an independent market analyst, argues that the token could fall toward its 200-week moving average (the $20,000-22,000 range) next, as shown in the setup below.

*BTC/USDT weekly price chart. Source: PostyXBT/TradingView*

Meanwhile, Popular analyst Rekt Capital adds that a drop toward the 200-week MA could also have Bitcoin form a bearish wick, which might take its price to as low as $15,500-$19,000.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Youtuber NasDaily’s Bitcoin buy is $200K underwater: ‘Be greedy and HODL’

May 30, 2022 Coin Telegraph

<div>Youtuber NasDaily’s Bitcoin buy is 0K underwater: 'Be greedy and HODL'</div>

Bitcoin Price

Bear market advice from Youtuber NasDaily, whose “once in a generation” bet on Bitcoin is down roughly $200,000.

Youtuber NasDaily endured a Bitcoin (BTC) baptism by fire. The entrepreneur and influencer with over 50 million followers invested $500,000 in Bitcoin —right before the bear market kicked in.

Cointelegraph spoke to NasDaily (whose real name is Nuseir Yassin) during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. Yassin told Cointelegraph that the half a million dollars he saved in Bitcoin is now worth $300,000, adding with a smile that “it’s a great test of conviction.”

Despite the paper loss, he’s more convinced than ever that crypto is the future:

“Even if it goes down to zero, I think I do believe there needs to be a way to capture value on the Internet. And I'm taking a bet that Bitcoin is a once in a generation thing.”

Yassin smash bought over 10 BTC ($500,000) at the tail end of March when the price was around $40,000. Gripped by the “revolution that’s happening in the world,” Yassin bought Bitcoin at the same time his Youtube content took on a crypto focus.

A NasDaily thumbnail from a March 2022 video. Source: Youtube

Indeed, Yassin told Cointelegraph that while his motivation is sharing stories that matter with his audience, “We must talk about it [crypto].”

“Crypto opened up my mind into the problems that exist today and how we can collectively fix them tomorrow. That's why I'm excited–and therefore I should try to educate my audience about it as well.”

Yassin jokes that the digital currency revolution is so important that he had to “force crypto down the throat of anybody that follows NasDaily,” as he educates his audience with daily videos.

Unphased by the $200,000 paper loss in his Bitcoin investment, Yassin is buying more, adding another 3 BTC to his stack in the days prior to the WEF. In the below tweet, Yassin receives a Cointelegraph hat in front of the exclusive Hotel Europe on the WEF's promenade.

"I bought 3 Bitcoin a few days ago" - @nasdaily, internet sensation and content creator with over 50 million followers on various platforms combined. #WEF22 #Davos2022

Are you also buying the #Bitcoin dip? pic.twitter.com/KsKJHLMNeO
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) May 24, 2022

A HODLer with conviction, Yassin offered advice to those new to Bitcoin and bear markets:

“It's time to be greedy. So if you have anything you've wanted to build, do, invest in whatever. Everything now comes at a flash sale. I'm greedy today and for the next 12 months.”

Yassin is a fan of the Sage of Omaha, AKA Warren Buffet, the billionaire business magnate in charge of Berkshire Hathaway. In 1986, Buffet penned an investor letter that coined a popular investor cliché.

According to Buffet, investors should be “fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.” The popular investment strategy has since been hijacked and meme-ified by the crypto world. The phrase roughly translates to “buy the dip”.

As for Yassin, he jokes that he’s “good for Bitcoin now,” after adding 3 BTC to his stash when the price was sub $30,000. In the meantime, he’s excited to build out a crypto community, and undoubtedly take his audience on a journey further down the Bitcoin rabbit hole.

The video interview will be shared on the Cointelegraph Youtube channel. Subscribe here.

Bitcoin Pizza Day rewind: A homage to weird and wonderful BTC purchases

May 22, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Community

In recognition of Bitcoin pizza day, the first-ever real-world transaction using Bitcoin, Cointelegraph speaks with the crypto community about their historic BTC purchases.

Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day! Before you dial for a Margherita to commemorate the world’s first real-world Bitcoin transaction, here’s a slice of trivia:

What do a family holiday to Japan, a 50 Cent album, a steak dinner, and a framed cat photo all have in common?

They were all paid for with Bitcoin (BTC) by members of the Cointelegraph Bitcoin community! And just like the Bitcoin pizzas that cost 10,000 BTC, which are now worth more than $300 million, the community’s Bitcoin purchases have also skyrocketed.

Benjamin de Waal, the VP of Engineering at Bitcoin exchange Swan Bitcoin told Cointelegraph, “I spent 7 BTC on a family trip to Japan a few years back.” In today’s value, 7 BTC is worth well over $200,000 — but Ben’s happy because his kids are happy:

“It would have been worth a lot more now; but I don't regret it at all. A good childhood full of adventure, fun, and learning is priceless.”

Felix Crisan, the scammer vigilante, told Cointelegraph how he once spent 50 BTC (worth $1.5 million) developing a new software module for his company in 2015. Crisan added that in 2016:

“Let's not forget some almost 1BTC 'spent' betting who the next US president's going to be.” [...] Of course, I didn't win.”

That’s a $30,000 bet at BTC's current market price.

Jeffrey Albus, Editor at Cointelegraph, shared that he splashed out on a steak dinner to demonstrate Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer capabilities "sometime in 2011 or early 2012."

"We paid 15 BTC — 12 for the meal, plus 3 BTC left as a tip (which the waitress probably threw away.)"

Worse still, the value of 15 BTC back over ten years ago was so small that it fell short of the total bill: Albus had to top it up with good old greenbacks. The value of the Bitcoiner-appropriate steak dinner is now worth shy of half a million dollars.

In a word to the wise, Julien Liniger, CEO of Swiss Bitcoin exchange Relai–and a Bitcoin maximalist through and through, told Cointelegraph that he “bought a bitcoin hoodie for 0.1 BTC back in the days, but that was the last thing” — a roughly $3,000 hoodie. He explained that “it then became too stupid of a thing to me to spend instead of stack sats.”

Meanwhile, the team at CoinCorner, the UK Bitcoin exchange behind the contactless Lightning Network payment card, shared a few stories. Danny Scott, the CEO, bought the 50 Cent album “Animal Ambition” with Bitcoin when the market price was around $600. 50 Cent famously “forgot” he accepted 700 BTC for the album — let’s hope Scott forgets the missed gains, too!

Molly Spiers, CoinCorner's Head of Marketing, told Cointelegraph, “I bought a photo postcard of my cats [...] for 0.009 BTC.” The $270 postcard was sadly not enough for Spiers to keep a hold of it; ‘I've lost them somewhere over the years - I'd have framed them with pride!”

Fortunately, there are “no regrets,” as it does “make for a good story.” Plus, she shared a picture of the cats:

Molly Spier's cats. The photo postcard is sadly lost. Source : Molly Spiers

While “experimenting with Bitcoin as a currency,” Matthew Ward, CoinCorner’s software developer, told Cointelegraph that he “bought the game Cities Skylines back when it launched on Steam in March 2015 for 0.108 BTC.” You can be the judge of whether the graphics merit a $3,000 price tag:

Cities Skylines gameplay. Source: themacgames.net

Finally, Didi Taihuttu, known as the father of the Bitcoin Family and sometimes the Bitcoin tattoo guy, spent 2.75 BTC on a Bitcoin miner in 2014. Taihuttu told Cointelegraph that “the strangest part is that when BTC hit around $200, I gave up mining BTC and started to mine dogecoin (DOGE).” Had he held the BTC, he would have over $180,000.

Taihuttu also shared that during his adventures as The Bitcoin Family, he’s parted with over 9 BTC ($270,000), which he describes as “losing 9 BTC but gaining an amazing adventure.”

And for those wondering what happened to the 10,000BTC Hanyecz spent on the pizzas, according to Cointelegraph research, 5% of the total landed in a very wealthy wallet, while “some of the funds were seemingly liquidated” on a failed crypto exchange.

The wealthy wallet that chowed down on some of Hanyecz’s BTC is in the top 15 richest wallets in Bitcoin, accumulating over 53,000 BTC. The total spent or sent from the wallet is 0 BTC: a certified Bitcoin hodler.

Extreme HODLing Could Completely Destroy Bitcoin (BTC), According to Ex-BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes

April 28, 2022 The Daily Hodl

Bitcoin hodlers targeting $100K is what’s preventing 40% price drawdown, data suggests

April 19, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

Long-term holders are in command amid a lack of speculators — and they're showing little interest in selling.

Bitcoin (BTC) dropping to $25,000 or lower is unlikely thanks to hodlers hoping for all-time highs, not speculative traders, new research says.

In a series of tweets on April 19, popular analyst Root argued that there is “no real reason” for a dramatic Bitcoin sell-off.

No major selling from "maturing" hodlers

Bitcoin has yet to wow the market with its all-time highs this halving cycle, and this has contributed to a loss of faith among some investors.

At the same time, on-chain indicators remain much more bullish than spot price action, and those investors still in the market support the idea that BTC/USD will go far higher in the future.

This is thanks to a lack of short-term holders (STHs) on the market, Root notes. Even the most recent all-time highs of $69,000 last November came with relatively few speculatory bets — something which contrasts strongly with the all-time high during the last halving cycle in December 2017.

What is more, it is long-term holders (LTHs) hoping for fresh price discovery who are now supporting the market, not new STHs looking to “buy the dip.”

“With the HODL Army growing it's allowing us to make new ATH's (69k top) without barely any STH's in the market,” Root explained.

“Since we didn't reach prices above 100K, which so many expected, many still believe this will eventually happen and might therefore hold on to their coins.”

*Bitcoin hodled or lost coins chart. Source: Glassnode*

As such, Bitcoin’s realized price — the average price at which all coins last moved — at around $25,000 seems an unlikely target thanks to LTHs’ unwillingness to sell.

While some chose to do so recently, this was thanks to them buying in at highs earlier in 2021 and wanting to cut their losses, Root continued. More broadly, however, those who purchased during Bitcoin’s first trip above $60,000 have chosen to hodl, not sell.

“Conclusion: Some exhaustion coming from the people that bought the run to first 64k peak, but many still holding,” the Twitter thread read.

“Older LTH's mainly holding strong. No real reason to see a drop below realised price.”

*Bitcoin realized price chart. Source: BuyBitcoinWorldwide*

Plenty of cold feet over Q2 price action

As Cointelegraph reported, some market participants remain extremely wary about a capitulation event occurring in the coming months for Bitcoin.

Driven by macro, this could see $30,000 return, or worse, the 200-week moving average at $21,000 coming in as support.

All depends on the United States Federal Reserve and its reaction to inflation, they say, this far from clear thanks to the limited scope for containment measures.

Should heavy-handed policy become the norm, however, stocks, commodities and risk assets would be hit hard — heavy headwinds for crypto.

Three Indicators With Historic Track Record for Calling Bitcoin (BTC) Rallies Flash Bullish: Crypto Analyst

April 18, 2022 The Daily Hodl

Here Are Three Reasons Crypto Markets Are Correcting, According to InvestAnswers

April 13, 2022 The Daily Hodl

67% of Cardano holders underwater and most bought less than 1 year ago

April 8, 2022 Coin Telegraph

ada

ADA prices are sliding back towards a dollar, putting more holders in the red as gains are eroded.

As Cardano (ADA) prices fall back towards the psychological one dollar level, more and more investors are finding themselves with unrealized losses by holding on to the digital asset.

Cardano’s ADA token has had a bearish week. The price has fallen 11.4% since Monday resulting in more holders being in the red. More significantly, ADA is now 64.7% below its September 2 all-time high of $3.09 and is in danger of falling below a dollar over the next few days should the trend continue.

According to IntoTheBlock’s “in/out of the money” indicator, more than two-thirds, or 67% of ADA holders, are underwater. A quarter of Cardano investors are in the green, and 9% of them are at a breakeven point.

The indicator identifies the average cost at which the tokens were purchased and compares it to the current price, which was $1.09 at the time of writing.

The analytics provider reported that 3.41 million ADA addresses are in the red compared to just 1.25 million in the green.

A related metric is the amount of time the token has been held. The vast majority, or 76% of ADA holders, have held it for between one and 12 months. Just 11% of Cardano investors have held the token for more than a year, and those are the ones that are still in profit.

From a technical standpoint, ADA has turned bearish and could quite quickly revisit its 2022 and yearly low point of around $0.80, which occurred in mid-March. This would plunge even more investors into the red unless they sell at a loss.

The slide in prices could be tied to the network not living up to high expectations set around the launch of smart contracts. In terms of the numbers of decentralized applications (DApps), Cardano is still something of a wasteland with DeFi Llama reporting that there are just ten DeFi protocols running on the network with a combined total value locked of around $233 million.

Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson however believes that many Cardano dApps are waiting for the Vasil hard fork in June to launch. The "Basho" phase of the Cardano upgrade roadmap will focus on scalability and smart contracts with new technology called Hydra to boost network throughput even further.

In terms of other fundamenta Cardano is looking relatively strong. Network demand surged to record capacity earlier this year when the much-hyped SundaeSwap decentralized exchange was launched.

Santiment reported that Cardano was the most developed crypto project on GitHub in 2021, and Cardano NFT bonds were unveiled this week, providing another investment vehicle on the network.

However, unless there is a significant turnaround in trading sentiment, the ADA selloff may start to accelerate, putting more holders deeper underwater.

Did rapper YG just flex a $30M Bitcoin stack in his new music video?

March 25, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

YG is seen in the music video holding a Ledger cold storage USB close to a smartphone which has a screen bearing a wallet app with more than $30.6 million worth of BTC in it.

Keenon Dequan Ray Jackson, the rapper who goes by the name YG appears to show off a fat $30 million stack of Bitcoin (BTC) in his latest music video.

The reveal appears to either be an eye-watering — but possibly fake — flex, or a crafty bit of product placement, as a cold storage device from crypto wallet provider Ledger is featured prominently in the video. The social team from Ledger was on it immediately too:

We see you! @YG knows how to secure those bags of #bitcoin … not your keys, no your coins.
— Ledger (@Ledger) February 11, 2022

In one of the scenes of the music video for the song titled “Scared Money” featuring J. Cole and Moneybagg Yo, YG is seen holding a Ledger wallet close to a smartphone which has a screen bearing a wallet app with more than $30.6 million worth of BTC in it.

While the image could have easily been faked, rappers are well known for flaunting their wealth and success, especially so in this song which has a theme focused on spending money, investing and wearing half a million dollars worth of jewelry around one's neck.

YG is quite the BTC proponent, as he has mentioned owning digital gold in multiple other songs such as “Big Bank” from 2018, and also in an interview with RollingStone from mid-2021.

During that interview YG said that he liked the simplicity of hodling crypto as he could invest his money into the asset class without being distracted from his music career. He drew comparisons to the real estate market, where he would have to spend a lot time working and learn to do it successfully.

“I f*ck with Bitcoin. [...] I got Ethereum recently and I got Dogecoin recently but I’ve had Bitcoin for about three years. [...] Bitcoin came around and it was like ‘what?’ and I can just do it and it turns into that?” he said in reference to the booming price of the asset last year.

In a Reddit post on the r/Bitcoin Reddit community earlier today, users were questioning YG’s mammoth BTC stack, with AvoidMyRange stating that “the chance of all these ending at 0 and the cents ending in .00 is incredibly low. This is obviously fake.”

“It is fake because that isn’t even the layout of the ledger app,” user AKeveryday responded.

Other users saw the funny side of YG’s music-based BTC antics, with Redditor Lexstell11 doing the math on the lyrics from the Big Bank song when BTC was priced around the mid $7,000 range.

“In YG’s song Big Bank, he says ‘I might buy her red bottoms with the crypto- 3 coins that’ll pay your whole semester…’ the song was released on 5/25/2018 when BTC was $7,459 at close. So presumably YG paid $132,000 by today’s conversion for a girl's semester at what I’m assuming was University of Phoenix. I think about this a lot.”

Crypto has attracted a strong cohort of rappers over recent years, with icons such as Jay Z and NFT-bull Snoop Dogg both making heavy plays in the sector. Other well-known figures to jump on the gravy train include Meek Mill who snapped up Dogecoin amid the hype last year, Nas who tokenized his music as NFTs earlier this year, and Post Malone who featured a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT in one of his recent music videos.

HODL

Bitcoin bear market not over?

No major selling from "maturing" hodlers

Plenty of cold feet over Q2 price action

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