When NLW asked Crypto Twitter for recommendations of the best way to convince friends and family about bitcoin and crypto, one of the ideas was to review old articles that have stood the test of time.
With that in mind, NLW today reads Chamath Palihapitiya’s May 2013 piece for Bloomberg, “Why I Invested In Bitcoin.”
Even among prescient early pieces, this one is particularly salient.
Today’s Breakdown is a prep kit for the inevitable conversations about bitcoin as friends and family sit down at the Thanksgiving table this year.
NLW discusses arguments ranging from price action to who is buying to why they’re buying to good old-fashioned supply and demand. He leaves with one big conclusion:
If there was ever a year to discuss bitcoin, this is it.
Today’s guest is Lyn Alden. Lyn is the founder of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy and one of today’s best-known and most-respected macro analysts. In this conversation, she and NLW discuss:
AstraZeneca and University of Oxford release third positive COVID-19 vaccine trial data
Trump administration ratchets up pressure on China
Another DCEP lottery trial coming
Our main discussion: a narrative shift, growing attention and a bitcoin shortage.
What happens when demand exceeds supply and supply is being gobbled up aggressively by new market actors? That’s the question posed by Pantera’s recent investor letter and today’s Breakdown episode.
NLW also looks at
The reappearance of bitcoin in mainstream media, like today’s Wall Street Journal
The rise of celebrities coming out as HODLers
BlackRock’s CIO suggests bitcoin could replace gold for many
While we haven’t achieved the elusive $20,000 spot price all-time high yet, these other metrics show where bitcoin has grown far beyond previous peaks.
In this piece, NLW goes over those metrics that have achieved all-time highs, and adds one more that happened after Nic published his piece. The metrics include:
President Trump has nominated former Coinbase counsel Brian Brooks to a full five-year term as Comptroller of the Currency, but will he be confirmed in time?
Jobless claims rise for the first time in five weeks
China borrows at negative rates for the first time
Our main discussion: a crypto ally as top bank regulator?
Brian Brooks was an executive at Coinbase when he was tapped by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to be the number two at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the nation’s main bank regulator. Within two months he was acting Comptroller and now Brooks has been nominated for a full term.
In his short tenure, he has given banks the OK to provide custody of crypto and banking services to stablecoin issuers. In so doing, he has aroused the ire of congressional Democrats, who have accused him of acting too quickly and unilaterally on crypto.
In this discussion, NLW breaks down Brooks’ time at the OCC and asks whether he’s likely to be confirmed before the next administration early next year.
Vijay Boyapati’s “The Bullish Case for Bitcoin” is one of the most influential articles in the history of the industry – even being assigned reading from MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor as he tried to convince his board on the merits of what would become its big bitcoin move.
In this conversation with NLW, Vijay discusses his recent thinking around four valuation frameworks that help us understand 1) how people see bitcoin’s upside potential and 2) the likely values they suggest for bitcoin. We also discuss why state-level attacks are Vijay’s biggest concern for bitcoin’s future.
Our main discussion: HODL FOMO vs. Speculative FOMO.
The 2017-2018 bull run was driven by ICO mania and a relentless get-richism that was nothing if not short-term. As bitcoin passes $17,000 and questions of looming all-time highs start to make their way into mainstream press, it is a very new set of actors and a new set of thinking that is driving this movement.
