Weekly Rundown - March 5, 2023
Merhaba!
Who’s worried about Silvergate Bank’s imminent failure?
As the Average Joe newsletter puts it:
Crypto folks: Just another day in crypto.
Non-crypto folks: Enjoying the chaos from afar.
While Silvergate’s a big deal, it doesn’t touch the spot market, it provides specialized banking services to crypto businesses. What is Silvergate and Why Does it Matter?
Binance, on the other hand, is a big deal and touches the spot market.
In my most recent update, I included a section called “Bad stablecoin news and Binance’s $1.8 billion shortfall: a conspiracy theory.”
You might want to read it, along with the metrics, strategy, and analysis I provided in that update.
We know Binance is monkeying around behind the scenes, the only question is whether they’re doing anything that puts your crypto at risk. What have you heard lately?
Scroll down for poll results, some news, articles, and job listings.
In last week’s poll, I asked “Will bitcoin's price ever go lower than $15,600?”
The results split 50/50.
What do I think?
I’ll let the market decide. $14,000 bitcoin is realistic, but if you’re waiting for that price, you might be waiting forever.
With every passing day, $14,000 feels more like $100,000 felt towards the end of 2021—realistic, reasonable, easy to do, and within the range of normal volatility, but it doesn’t happen.
I wrote about this a January 2023 post, Is $14k Bitcoin the New $100k Bitcoin?
Mt. Gox update!
Distribution moved to September at the earliest and only for those who chose to take an early payment in bitcoin rather than wait for the legal process to settle (which could take years).
Bitcoinica and MtGox Investment Funds (MGIF), two entities that account for 20% of the bitcoin, already said they’ll take the bitcoin, not the cash. That’s almost 30,000 bitcoins going to two entities, combined.
If they intended to sell, why take the BTC instead of the cash option? Will they skim a little off the top? HODL it all?
What about the other 80% of bitcoins due to hit the market? That’s found money and worth way more today than when they lost it.
I guess we’ll find out in September.
That tweet comes from the great Sylvain Saurel. If you’re not reading his newsletter, In Bitcoin We Trust, you’re missing out!
Coincidence or Coordinated? The Administration’s Attack on the Digital Asset Ecosystem
One of the US Congressional subcommittees will yell at Biden officials and other people on March 9 during a hearing titled Coincidence or Coordinated? The Administration’s Attack on the Digital Asset Ecosystem.
One of the more bizarre titles for a hearing. No political bias there!
March 9 is the same day as the 3rd anniversary of Crypto is Easy, but I’ll bet you nobody will say anything about it. Kinda rude, don’t you think?
Tap this button to watch the hearing live.
If you do that, you might hear people say things that make you mad. Fear not! Congressional hearings don’t matter, they’re all for show.
When I worked on Capitol Hill, we called them Kabuki Theater. They’re opportunities for Congressmembers to get witnesses to say the things they want them to say or make whatever point they want them to make. All the important work happens in private conversations that we will never know about unless somebody tells us.
Let’s hope we get some people to say positive things about crypto.
Jobs Corner
Ethereum Foundation | Rust Engineer | Link to position
Nansen | Customer Success Manager | Link to position
Ankr | Sales Development Representative | Link to position
Celestia Labs | Security Engineer | Link to position
Opensea | Senior Full Stack Engineer | Link to position
Kraken | US Strategy Director | Link to position
Wintermute | Algorithmic Trader | Link to position
Moonpay | Lead Product Manager | Link to position
Web3Auth | Developer Relations | Link to position
Certik | Security Research Internship | Link to position
These jobs come from the ToolsForCrypto newsletter. If you’d like to post a vacancy here (for free), email mark@markhelfman.com.
Relax and enjoy the ride!