A few weeks ago, my Chief Marketing Officer encouraged those under his wing at Visa to share our voices and engage more in social media, so I’m taking that as licence to start writing again. I’ve been absent over the last year, for a couple of reasons 1) I’ve had a lot going on at home and 2) with my role at Visa, I’m cautious about whatever I say here being misrepresented or taken as the official viewpoint of my employer, which it’s not. However, with CMO backing and encouraged by people saying the odd nice thing about these bullets, I feel it’s time for a comeback, albeit monthly rather than weekly. Let’s start by catching you up on an eventful 2023 in Bitcoin and crypto:
1. Sam got fried
A year ago, I wrote about Sam Bankman Fried (SBF), the CEO of the now defunct FTX, and cautioned against holding your assets on an exchange. Since then, SBF has been found guilty of fraud in the US and awaits sentencing, after leaving customers with losses of $8Bn. At the time of its collapse, FTX was one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, with ads featuring NFL stars and big sports stadiums named after it. Sam himself shared stages with the likes of Bill Clinton and was somewhat of a crypto icon, but he turned out to be a fraud and to say it rocked and undermined any good work in the industry is a huge understatement.
2. CZ put his hands up
Not to be outdone, Changpeng Zhao, the now ex-CEO of Binance, pled guilty to charges of breaking sanctions and money-transmitting laws, agreeing to pay a fine of $4.3Bn to US authorities in the process. Since FTX’s demise, Binance is now the world’s largest crypto exchange, boasting partnerships with the likes of superstar footballer Ronaldo and markets itself through major sports sponsorships around the world. If such criminality can happen in the 2 most well-known exchanges, then please take the warning, and know to be on your guard. You are not protected when holding any assets with exchanges. If you hold on an exchange, they own the assets, not you. Very similar to how a bank owns your money and not you, but at least the government promises to cover part of it for you if the bank does anything to lose your money.
3. All time high
Amongst all this turmoil and negativity, you would think that people would be running for the hills away from all things crypto. However, there is one thing that remains incredibly strong and got stronger, breaking all time highs in 2023. Bitcoin hash power marched forward powerfully over the year. Hash Power is the computing power supporting the security of the Bitcoin network. It’s a sign of confidence in the network that more resources than ever are being spent to participate in it.
4. Ethereum merged
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by value, completed something called The Merge, which meant it moved a core functioning part of it’s blockchain from something called Proof of Work to Proof of Stake. I won’t go into the details here, that’s worth bullets of it’s own, suffice to say supporters say it makes Ethereum more environmentally friendly, faster and cheaper, while detractors argue it makes it more centralised and controllable, which is against the ideas of crypto currency in the first place. Personally, I tend to side with latter.
5. Saylor still believes
Amid all the events of 2023, Microstrategy, headed by their CEO Michael Saylor, kept on stacking Bitcoin as part of their ongoing treasury strategy. One look at the share price will tell you that decision is paying off handsomely and they ended the year with 189,150 Bitcoin, worth $5.9Bn, which is 33% more than the USD they acquired it for, boosted by Bitcoin soaring back in USD value over the course of 2023.
6. 2024 is going to be big
By the time you read this, chances are that several Bitcoin ETFs will have been approved in the US. ETF stands for Exchange Traded Fund, and without going into the ins and outs of it, it’s basically the big financial institutions of the world, like Blackrock, bringing Bitcon based products to their investors, meaning that the institution offering the ETF does all the work to buy and hold safely the assets represented by the ETF. While a lot of Bitcoiners don’t see the point in an ETF, it adds Wall Street legitimacy to Bitcoin.
Also coming in 2024, we have the Bitcoin halving, predictions of new highs in $ value and US Presidential candidates openly talking about the benefits of Bitcoin. I’ll be returning to these topics during the year.
7. Visa and Solana
Visa made a major crypto announcement in 2023, by adding support for settlements on the Solana blockchain. You can read more about it here and it gives me the excuse to legitimately learn about these things as part of my job. It’s great to be working for a company actively experimenting and involved in this space.
The above is by no means an exhaustive list (I didn’t even mention Real Bedford getting promoted) but hopefully they capture a few key highlights for those not following developments regularly. My hope for 2024 and these letters is to be as informed as possible and ready to seize the opportunities personally and professionally. I’m sure my CMO would approve of that too.
Peace, love and Bitcoin,
Rob
Disclaimer: Whatever I present here are my own thoughts and opinions and not necessarily that of Visa.