Bitcoin Forum

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200811005331/en/MicroStrategy-Adopts-Bitcoin-Primary-Treasury-Reserve-Asset

NASDAQ listed Microstrategy have bought 21,000 or so BTC.

“This investment reflects our belief that Bitcoin, as the world’s most widely-adopted cryptocurrency, is a dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash. Since its inception over a decade ago, Bitcoin has emerged as a significant addition to the global financial system, with characteristics that are useful to both individuals and institutions. MicroStrategy has recognized Bitcoin as a legitimate investment asset that can be superior to cash and accordingly has made Bitcoin the principal holding in its treasury reserve strategy.”

I'll be interested to see how many other stories of this nature pop into our consciousness in the coming months and years. I'll bet a fair few others are quietly building positions still.

The exact amount stated in the article is 21 454, which is really a little more than $250 million, which again means that it happened recently. Of course, this kind of news can only further strengthen the bull market, because it is more than obvious that the big players are buying BTC and have a very positive opinion about it.

What may surprise me a little is that such a serious company has only now decided to take such a step, and a few months ago they had the opportunity to buy more than twice the amount of BTC for the same amount. Although a partial explanation can be found in the article "MicroStrategy spent months deliberating to determine our capital allocation strategy. Our decision to invest in Bitcoin at this time was driven in part by a confluence of macro factors affecting the economic and business landscape that we believe is creating long-term risks for our corporate treasury program ― risks that should be addressed proactively." (https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200811005331/en/MicroStrategy-Adopts-Bitcoin-Primary-Treasury-Reserve-Asset)

One little thing I noticed is that this news is published on Businesswire - A Berkshire Hathaway Company, which should be part of Warren Buffett empire.

Wham, bam, thank you ma'am, they now own 0.1% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist. That building by institutions definitely began much earlier than we've been led to believe, but yeah, am sure the number slowly making their holdings public will grow over the next years. This cycle won't be as short or extreme as others, it seems.

P.S. Makes my 21 Club dream, already very unlikely unless I win the lottery, seem so tiny.

A company isn't necessarily an authoritarian dictatorship where every employee shares the same view as its leader or gets fired. When Jamie Dimon was bashing Bitcoin, some of the analysts and JPMorgan where bullish on Bitcoin. Same here, it's really not that strange. Even in governments you can hear a lot of different opinions about Bitcoin, so sometimes it's not better to assume that such organizations are a monolith.

I wonder whether 'institutions' go through the same emotions little people do. 'Man, they got the leap on me', 'It's too expensive now', 'How much upside is left?'

Certain people will look like goddamn geniuses eventually. Plenty of others will look like goats. Perhaps many are waiting for another and higher plateau in price before starting to take it properly seriously.

Many may feel it'll look more credible to their peers and clients if they lay out more in future. Fuck it, works for me.

MicroStrategy is a tech-related company mainly providing platform as a service as well as software as service so I think that they are more aware of digital assets and its potential as compared to other industries who aren't related to tech. Maybe that is the reason why they invested so much on Bitcoin even though it went back up from 4,800$ and for what other traders consider a too late move to buy, this is really a risky move and I don't know why they did it exactly as they might be thinking that Bitcoin might be headed more compared to it's current value now.

Agreed on their statement that bitcoin is a legitimate long term investment asset, however, I cannot agree on their statement that it can be better than cash. I wish everyone who came to the cryptospace recently stopped hyping it this way.

they are just a paid-for press release service like prnewswire or any of the others. microstrategy paid them to disseminate this story. it doesn't say anything about buffett or berkshire hathaway.

At least there was the word can.

And I agree with them. Various countries are now starting to do away with cash, that is, cash referring to bank notes and coins. Cards and online payments are now taking over commerce, not only due to convenience but also due to cash being prone to be used in illegal transactions.

Well, since the advent of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, the word cash should now evolve and include in its meaning its electronic or digital versions.

Cash in the context of a company is actual accessible and realisable money.

Regular cash slowly withers away. If your newly chosen form of cash does the exact opposite while remaining instantly accessible then that certainly sounds 'better' to me. Obviously that feeling is dependent on healthy rises.

And business banking has costs that regular banking doesn't, not to mention the spectre of negative interest rates which again commercial customers will be hit with before individuals.

It was just a small observation in the sense that someone is publishing positive news about Bitcoin, and in a way he is connected to a man who has been doing enormous damage to that same Bitcoin for years. Of course, there is no direct connection between WB -> Bitcoin in a positive sense, it is already clear to everyone that the old fart will go to the grave with the same opinion about BTC that he had until now.

However, is bitcoin really as convenient similar to cash? Is bitcoin not also prone to illegal transactions? The darknet markets was possible because there was bitcoin.

Saw that news yesterday tho about a company purchasing 0.1% of total bitcoin.
Regarding this article they bought 1 bitcoin at the price of $11,653 (including fees) which is quite high nowadays but definitely will be cheap in the future imo!

In a way, yes and no. When you go into a convenience store or in a coffee shop and use cash instead of Bitcoin, transactions would be very quick. But when you send a relatively large amount of money from abroad to your family or friend in another country, Bitcoin would be a world better than cash. So one is better than the other in different aspects.

Both Bitcoin and cash are prone to illegal transactions. However, we cannot insulate any form of money from certain illegal transactions, or so I believe.

Finally, darknet existed way before the Bitcoin whitepaper was published, although Silk Road indeed somehow caused it to flourish being the first huge online darknet marketplace. But, again, illegal transactions and criminals have been part of humanity ever since; they were not creations of either Bitcoin or cash.

Decrypt has found the death of bitcoin prediction tweet from Microsystem CEO Michael Saylor which might have been deleted after the release of this article.

It appears that we should also be convinced that we are witnessing the beginning of another bull market hehehe.

https://i.ibb.co/XDnmKrL/12242-BB3-26-FA-4249-839-B-BFE1-F54-C5-A62.jpg

He’s not alone in the 180-degree-turn. This year, Mathew McDermott, the head of digital assets at US bank Goldman Sachs, said the bank is entertaining client requests for cryptocurrency transactions after a “resurgence of interest.” This is the same bank that flat out dismissed Bitcoin as an asset class in May 2020 during an investor call.

Source https://decrypt.co/38604/microstrategy-ceo-predicted-the-death-of-bitcoin-years-ago

I think many people today are a little embarrassed by the statements they have made in the past about Bitcoin and may learn something from this experience. If you don't understand something and you don't have enough knowledge about it, it's better not to even comment on it, because sooner or later that statement may seem very strange, to say the least. The specific statement even mentions the collapse of online gambling, and it seems to me that it is a very profitable industry today - especially when people cannot visit physical casinos.

Now we can only wonder who is next on the list of those who will change their minds when it comes to Bitcoin.

Yes. That's one of the odd things I've found about the rise of it. By all means express some scepticism but the hysterical and absolute doom shouted long and loud is daffy especially after you've made it clear you don't actually understand it properly. I would simply say I was yet to be convinced and was going to wait and see.

Re his tweet:
The problem with online gambling pre Tor etc, was the centralized domain name system where domain names could be seized and the owners arrested if used improperly. That is the reason that casino.com and gamble.com were sold in 1997 and to whom they were sold. Dealing with the Clinton administration and the potential illegality of doing anything with them while based in the US or even outside it, was a huge risk that torpedoed the business plans.

Since the "progressives" have tried to exert more control over everything over more than the last century, it inhibits progress. 

this

the story of the internet was always a story of the freedom of expression and the freedom to innovate mutually reinforcing one another (and I may venture to make a similarly bold prediction as this Saylor character), and always will be

Agreed.  Freedom in all walks of life is critical.  The internet was built on it, although it was also built on trust which ended up being problematic for some things - e.g. email spoofing, no initial S on http etc.  In the 1990s (even the late ones) the regulation that smothered projects was oppressive.  It still is.  And the monopolistic power to enforce groupthink from private companies is equally as bad.

(As an aside, unfortunately I think that with the so-called web 3.0 things like Solid, the lack of design level encryption is going to stifle the growth because people will be reluctant to store things on pods in an unencrypted form (not to mention the need for protocol level ability to migrate to a new pod).  )

Also, his statement about online gambling is also wrong. It is still an industry that earns billions of dollars every year so I do not know what he was telling everyone.

He might also have invested in online gambling stocks hehehehe.
 

With news like this emanating, I can only begin to reinforce my beliefs that 2020/21 is a Bitcoin year just like 2017 was. Perhaps this bull run could even lead to the mass adoption we all have been canvassing. This is great  Really, it's glad tidings to wake up to such news and not the constant and needless FUD from some American billionaires.

BTW, has anyone noticed that the total market cap is now above $370billion? It was $800bilkion + at ATH. We are closely getting there.

It’s impossible to know what the person in question was thinking at the time of that tweet, but he obviously had some sort of vision of his own future in which there was no room for Bitcoin and online gambling. Maybe he thought that the West would start censoring the Internet in the same way that China and Russia did, and then things would be much different from they are today.

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It’s just a number that has little to do with reality, especially when it comes to altcoins. The total amount of Bitcoin mined times the current price does not mean that there is actually so many Bitcoin on the market, one significant percentage has been lost over time - especially in the first years of its existence when few understood the value of BTC. Still, I have no doubt it will be big news when the market cap for all cryptocurrencies reaches $1 trillion.

Another company does this - https://twitter.com/TheRealTahinis/status/1295770434349281281 - a tiny one this time and it reads more like someone's personal preferences spilling over. Maybe they're doing it for an injection of attention.

If I were a small business conscious of cash flow I'd feel like a right twat if my 'bold move' sank me and got everyone fired but hopefully they've run the numbers without emotion.

I reckon his no action might cause a series of overreactions hehehe. He will be holding internet gambling stocks, bitcoins, altcoins, ICO tokens, Defi yielding tokens, all of them! I will not be surprised.

Doesn't surprise me at all. Many people called the Internet a nerd's paradise and eventually every on got on board the Internet space shuttle.
The same is happening with Bitcoin today, now the incumbents try to get on board.

The Barstoolsports CEO is also having quite an experience with bitcoin and the cryptospace with a small difference. He was gambling on Link and Orchid then lost $25k when the market pumped and dumped on him hehehehe.

This is the Winklevoss twins' doing. They introduced him to bitcoin hehe

He wanted to put 50% into that crap but they talked him down to 10%.

It's been an interesting real time psychology demonstration. Even a hardened businessman who must've seen it all over the years got sucked in by the idea of shitcoins and their mad gainz. And ruin.

https://chrisgimmer.com/bitcoin-reserve-asset/

Another one does it. This is https://snappa.com

Never heard of 'em. Have now.

He's certainly done his homework and it's a neat overall summary. I can see this becoming more of a thing as attention grows and then there will be some bitter regrets if they buy at the wrong time and have a need to access the funds when things tighten on a downtrend.

@gentlemand. I created a thread arguing that bitcoin and the cryptospace might be in the early phase of a big short scenario similar to what occured in the movie of the same title. Many disagreed with my argument and they were close to call it fud.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5250676.0

Now that you see the printing of billions of tether and the hoarding of bitcoin by unknown companies, how do you see this ending?

I'm past caring about Tether myself. They have 'won' and become a fact of life.

I absolutely do not believe it arrives out of thin air. If that was true it would've lasted a few days at most, not several years. I'm sure there have been periods of time where they played fast and loose with reserves but they make it up again.

Their real genius is offloading the backing onto everyone else too. Every person who trades USD/USDT is now their backer. Every exchange who says they'll make good on the peg even if Tether don't is their backer as well.

What exchange is promising that? If the value of USDT goes to $0, I assume Kraken will let their customers withdraw all the USDT they want -- but they won't be making good on any peg. :D

Dunno about now, but at one slightly shaky point I remember someone like Okex saying they'd make good on the peg even if Tether themselves ballsed up. I might be completely imagining it.

You might not care, however, we should be aware of the transition that Tether has become similar to banks and fractional reserve banking. They can manipulate the money supply to pump the cryptospace economy and this always ends in a big short similar to the different financial crisis that have occured in the past.

Has this community given up on the ideals of bitcoin's creation?

I said I was past caring. I also said I believe they are what they claim to be - backed by tangible cashola.

If I thought it was one crypto bro magicking up a few hundred million on his laptop every week I'd articulate that.

Bitcoin is already a treasure to some extent. But it is still unclear whether it will become the second gold or not.

Shortly after the miners' dump, we might have some good news from Microstrategy hehe. I reckon that the insitutions applying for an ETF and hoping for approval should move quickly. There might not be plenty of pumps left for them hehehehe.



MicroStrategy had previously indicated that it saw bitcoin and other alternative investments as a means to avoid inflation, noting that "it makes sense to shift our treasury assets into some investments that can't be inflated away or are less likely to be inflated away."

A new filing from September 14 indicates that the company might be eyeing additional bitcoin purchases.

Source https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/77719/microstrategy-bitcoin-reserve-purchases-250m

This is a juicy update that shows how the first press release on the subject was not intended for marketing purposes only. Microstrategy is really betting hard on bitcoin. Well done

I think this is the most important thing to see for their treasury policy. Yes we all know that MicroStrategy is buying Bitcoin as a means of alternative cash reserve but it clearly states in their policy that their Bitcoin reserve is subject to market conditions which as of right now they are eyeing another Bitcoin purchase because there was a significant price decrease on Bitcoin's value. Now they are just taking advantage of the market but it is also stated in there policy that their reserve can also be used for share repurchasing which they will likely liquidate their Bitcoin for that kinds of plan.

However, it appears that despite their strategy of making their purchases without pumping the price, this caused them to have bought the high hehehe.