The Evolution Of The Cryptocurrency Industry
There are lots of ways to look at the cryptocurrency industry. One of the metrics we can use is who is involved.
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On Friday John McAfee was indicted on securities fraud by the SEC. This stems from his activity of being paid to pump cryptocurrencies, mostly during the ICO craze. The Securities and Exchange Commission considers these to be securities.
Remember when McAfee was one of the biggest names in crypto? He would make appearances to spread the word about crypto, often focusing upon Bitcoin. Of course there was the bold prediction of Bitcoin at $1 million by the end of 2020.
To say that McAfee is a bit different is an understatement. We now know his Bitcoin prediction was a farce. He also was a paid shill on Twitter to tout the crypto that he did. With his background, one could say character is certainly an issue.
Nevertheless, he was a huge name and crypto was looking for anyone to support it. McAfee filled that role.
My how far we come.
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Of late, we see a recent convert getting active in the promotion of cryptocurrency.
Mark Cuban is a billionaire who made his money during the early Internet boom. He now owns the Dallas Mavericks, a NBA franchise, and is a well known television co-host. He is also a venture capitalist, investing hundreds of millions of dollars over the years into tech start ups.
Also, to our knowledge, he is not under indictment by the SEC nor being investigated by the IRS.
While Cuban is not everyone's cup of tea, he is respected in many circles. He is an ardent supporter of Ethereum due to his belief in both DeFi and NFTs. Both have a huge, mainstream future in Cuban's opinion.
Unlike McAfee, he is not apt to make outrageous pricing claims. He does not go around shilling coins that he was paid to promote. Instead, he is investing in companies that will provide mainstream business solutions based upon blockchain and cryptocurrency.
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Then we have Michael Saylor who set off what might be the biggest Bitcoin rush we have seen to date.
The head of Microstrategy made news when his firm invested in Bitcoin. This was the first time, of note, that a major player actually bought Bitcoin with its reserve holdings. It is especially true among publicly traded companies.
His initial investment has now grown to over $1 billion. The purchasing continues as just this week, the company bought another tranche of BTC, increasing its stake. It feels so confident in this asset that the company floated bonds to raise money for Bitcoin purchases.
This opened up the doors for other companies to enter. Since Microstrategy's first announcement, a host of other companies including Square, MassMutual, and Tesla have added Bitcoin to their company's balance sheets.
All of this led to billions being purchased in Bitcoin. Saylor's company is now approaching 100,000 Bitcoin owned. Since Saylor owns 70% of his company's stock, that makes him a good sized Whale.
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Next up is our modern day "Iron Man".
Elon Musk is one of the most famous people on the planet right now. He is not only CEO for one of Wall Street's hottest stocks over the past couple years but also heads up the leading space company, SpaceX.
For a few years, Musk made headlines with his tweets about cryptocurrency. Periodically, he would drop a line or two about Bitcoin or some other crypto (DDGE). That said, there was no evidence that Musk was involved in any way or even interested. That did not stop some from speculating that Musk, himself, might be Satoshi.
All that changed when Musk made news by announcing that Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin to hold in its reserve fund. To date, this is the best known, and largest, company to get involved in Bitcoin.
Musk also claimed the company was working on setting up where people could use Bitcoin to purchase Tesla products.
When one of the most famous people in the world, running one of the best known companies, is involved, we can say a corner was turned. Musk's entry adds a bit more validation to what is taking place.
However, he is still known as a bit of a wild card. While it is easy to see how far we came when McAfee was one of the most recognized faces in crypto, there is still a bit further to go.
Which brings up the question, who is next?
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Speculation is rampant on this one. The truth is nobody is really sure. We can guess all we want yet that is all it is. Even this week, we heard rumors that Netflix is planning on throwing its hat into the ring and looking to buy Bitcoin.
All that aside, what we do know is we will see another company enter the mix. There is also people who are looking to Tim Cook and Apple as prime candidates to buy a lot of Bitcoin. After all, the company has close to $200 billion in reserves and is always looking for a way of enhancing its return. With money of that magnitude, one could say the company already operates as a hedge fund anyway.
Whomever the next big fish is to jump into cryptocurrency, it is obvious that we have come a long way in a short period of time. While most of the focus is upon Bitcoin, Ethereum is also starting to garner some attention. This is starting to move the entire industry into another realm. No longer is this considered to be a fringe movement. When some of the biggest companies are involved, you know there is something to it.
Sometimes the best metric about the growth of an industry is to look at who is participating. It is safe to say that we are seeing bigger names entering the mix.
It is only going to continue from here. The industry is just getting started.
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BEER.Each of those big names is helping to drive crypto interest to new levels along with prices. I expect more and more big names to convert as time goes on. Cuban is an interesting one, as you say he made his money in the early stages of the internet, now he is getting in somewhat early in the crypto craze. I would expect him to do more than just buying crypto and expect we will see him backing some projects. Let's get him on Hive and Leofinance! Better yet, LeoFinance should get on "The Shark Tank"! Talk about an opportunity!
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Yeah Cuban is an interesting entrant because he does operate as a VC. He is presently funding different crypto projects that he believes will transform business. That is where his focus is because it is where the big money us.
For all the discussion within crypto about how we are changing things, the reality is that we need to focus upon business applications. That is where the big money is.
We saw it with the internet. Prodigy and others catered to individual users which was great but they are long gone because the real money was focusing upon how the Internet improve business processes.
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Yeah I remember when B2B became the big thing on the internet. At some point crypto will make that move too (I'm sure it already is).
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At least in the background, I am sure there are projects working in that direction.
B2B is truly where the big money is and blockchains need to think about how they are going to service that market. This is where people, I think, are missing the boat. All are trying to cater to individuals, which is a good starting point, but missing what can really make things grow quickly.
An application that solves a business problem could go viral almost overnight.
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The "I Will Eat My Own Dick" is still the biggest debt to get taken from Jhon McAfee for sure.
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LOL yes very true.
But how to collect. I guess if he is in custody, he could be held accountable for that one.
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I'd say Michael Saylor and Elon Musk are the most influential in crypto right now. I also believe Tim Cook won't be able to match these two. They're like the first NFTs of this space.
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That might be true from a personality standpoint but if Apple gets into Bitcoin, Cook is a bigger fish than either of them.
In fact, Saylor, from a Wall Street/public company point of view, he is actually a small fish. He was a big entrant but his company is still miniscule compared to others out there.
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Jhon Maccaffee the king of the industry jaaaaaaaaaa always controversial and in trouble.
I think that by now he should have eaten his balls as he promised if btc did not reach the million remember that true jaaaaaaaaaaaaa, well he should have done it to have credibility but hey, if it's fun to see how these great personalities like jhon mcafee are n in the industry, by the way thanks to musk and his doge pump I was able to earn a juicy 60 dollars that then went straight to hive, then to leo then to stake and today they are waiting for Monday to cub to learn about that new world defi that kal has promised to teach us how to use.
Hopefully we don't burn our eyelashes in the attempt.
But hey, these great people like Kal are doing great things, we have no choice but to support them, I say for their effort and dedication, that's why we come here late to morning.
About the others, well, we hope that your investments will bear fruit and those of us who are here, well, we could be involved in this for the benefit of the rest and of course us.
happy saturday best regard.
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Khal is our Elon Musk.
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Yes he Is, he give us the oportunity yo get big dreams.
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One company that is branched in so many industries and builds a lot of famous stuff, but it is always under radar is Samsung.
Even some of their phones come with a preinstalled crypto wallet. They research and invest a lot in blockchain technology and would not be a surprise to see them showing something in the next months.
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Sooner or later we're going to see them join. They can't afford to miss out, it's the future and the sooner they join, the better for them, and for us.
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Without a doubt they are a major technology player across many industries. They do not get the publicity because they are neither Chinese nor American. Yet they are at the forefront of a lot of interesting stuff.
They are going to be a massive player in 5G.
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@taskmaster4450le and that would be really interesting,i would love to see more players in the 5G scene and see how things play out....
this is so true
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what would happened if these big boys would start dumping bitcoin at the same time for whatever reason, do you think that is a possibility going forward ?
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It is always a possibility but highly unlikely, especially as more bigger players get involved. They all have different timelines and reasons for being in it (well they are all in it to make money obviously).
For example, a Mass Mutual takes a totally different approach than a Tesla or a Microstrategy.
What is more likely to happen, instead of selling, is that they will leverage the Bitcoin holding via collateralization. That way they dont have to pay tax on the gains and can get liquid money against their holdings for other purposes.
If Bitcoin truly does become a store of value while holding strong, then that is a realistic possibility for these companies.
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I see, but if their collateral ( i.e bitcoin) halves in value which is totally possible with bitcoin's swings. How does that affect things?
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Yes, these are just the tip of the iceberg. I would have to imagine there will be a LOT more in the coming months. Remember, it took Michael Saylor around 8 months to jump through all the legal, accounting, and regulatory hoops in order for his company to buy in. We are just over a month removed from his "executive" conference so even if he convinced 1000 companies to get involved, we probably couldn't expect to see the fruits of that labor for at least another couple months. He said he was giving everyone his "playbook" on what they needed to do but I can't imagine these company bureaucracies could move much faster than 90 days.
Also, none of them are going to tip their hands before acquiring what they want to acquire. I'm sure there are already companies out there buying right now but we won't hear anything until they actually finish accumulating their positions. So, while it wouldn't surprise me to see another "name" or two enter in the next couple months, I think the real announcements won't start coming until late spring/summer. Just my opinion. But it IS coming.
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No doubt. Tesla announced that they had bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin. They did it the month previous to the announcement. They didnt let it be known as it was happening.
I agree there are likely dozens of other companies, if Saylor was preaching to 1,000 of them, that are active in buying. They all might not be household names either. A lot of companies have some bucks yet are not on the tip of people's tongue.
Either way, we can expect this process to likely continue through the rest of the year.
Oh there is also the exposure many companies are getting through GBTC. A lot are simply opting to buy on that end.
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If I were to make a prediction I'd say Tim Cook and Apple. But I don't mind if it's another big fish or more than one. The most important hing is that it started, they are joining one by one. The truth is, pretty soon they will have to join.
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Well written. I wrote last year that this bull run felt different because of the entrance of Institutional money for the first time publicly, and as you correctly point out, those big companies are likely only to be the first of a windfall of others.
That said, Saylor has expressed McAfee like confidence that $1-2Million per BTC is likely within our lifetime, which is very possible, but I still think we are quite far away from anything near that. Will a few more companies add BTC to their balance sheet this year? Almost certainly. Apple does seem to be a likely candidate and would certainly open the door to a wave of other companies as well as Retail investors should the put out an Apple wallet. Somehow when Apple puts its name on something there is a sense of "legitimacy" in the eyes of the masses. However, there are still major obstacles to BTC ever becoming anything more than a temporary storage of value and while I believe strongly in the entire Crypto space, I'm not certain that with all of the rising competition that BTC will ever be able to achieve the marketcap predicted by Saylor. I'm rooting for it though...
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Just wait til one of these whales discovers our ecosystem. They’ll curate and post then the light bulb will go off. It’s only a matter of time.
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This guy is dumb. Who goes on live and tells people how much he would never pay taxes? It's punching the IRS in the face and I have no doubt they will punish him to make an example of others. Those feds hate to lose face when there's someone publically provoking them so I am not surprised by the result.
As for the other big guys, I see little issue for them being convicted. It's not like they are avoiding any regulations by entering the crypto space and I think it's good for us in general. If these guys push then the feds attention will be on them rather than us retail guys.
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Everything needs influencers whether you like them or not. I am not a fan of any of them to be honest but they just serve a purpose. Musk I believe is treading on dangerous ground promoting Dogecoin the way he does and in many ways is similar to what McAfee did except he doesn't get paid for shilling. I just think shilling something because you believe in something is way different to trying to pump something that is useless like Doge.
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When big names become supporters of a project, marketing is kinda insane and the results (for better or for worse) are always impactful.
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McCafee was such a bad influence over the industry, I am glad that he is gone tbh.
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I have no idea about other ventures of Mark Cuban other than Dallas Mavericks. I often see him with overreaction whether his team is losing or winning. Lol! Now that he has expressed interest with crypto, as well as other big names in business, let's see who will be next.
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