They don't mention the original source of this information. I mean, they mention Matrixport, but not how them got that info and how reliable that info is. I think what's going on is that huge companies like BlackRock which are waiting for their approvals right now do what they can to increase their chances of getting one. Leaking info into the media can be done to aid that goal, so that the SEC feels public pressure to give an approval. I remain sceptical about a potential ETF approval from the SEC, and this article isn't convincing to me. But if the approval actually happens, I do agree it can spark BTC rally.

Okay, it's unclear who address it is, and it's not common to see such a huge accumulation of BTC that's been done so recently. But also, there's no guarantee that it's actually one individual and not a wallet address of a major company, simply undisclosed to avoid targeted attempts to attack it, investigate, etc. Or maybe the money was already accumulated elsewhere before, and a person's just putting it all together.
franky1 pointed out Microstrategy addresses as those that sent money to it, which may mean it's literally just another address of theirs.

I've heard the thing about OTC deals and that institutional purchases thus don't really fluctuate the price several years ago, and I still think that makes sense. However, it's not the whole story, as a simple way to impact the price is to make an official announcement or just leak into about the deal to the media. Once articles like "Tesla invested $2 billion into Bitcoin" appear, it's the news that triggers FOMO. So it's still related to the purchase, but conditional upon media coverage. So it's not that silent, really.
Another thing to account for in that some institutions don't necessarily need BTC price to rapidly go up. They may be charging customers for storing their funds, for example, and/or transaction fees. I'm thinking about Grayscale with their 2% annual fee and a minimum $50k investment.

I like the way animation is done on, like, a white room wall or something, and the video is just rolling over the appropriate places. I haven't seen things done this way before, so it looks very fresh, unlike typical financial animation styles. The same goes for the sound effects alongside the narrator's voice. Maybe sometimes it's a bit over the top, but again, so fresh compared to typical light tunes.
It's short, informative, and very creative. So I'd say it's not just for newbies, it makes a positive impression even on someone who generally knows all the stuff the video's talking about. Thank you for sharing it, op. Great job.

I'm happy to see I'm with the majority here. Of course, rich problems have their problems, some of them quite serious and unlike the things poor people face. But rich people also have financial resources, which in our capitalist world means that they can use the money to solve whichever problems they have by buying things or services. The poor, however, often have problems that are hard to solve without resources, and they lack resources. I also don't think that poverty is fair overall, so I believe we should strive towards making it a problem of the past. So I'd help poor people because that can drastically change lives of some people in a way that wouldn't otherwise be accessible to them.

That's sort of a fair concern, especially considering that inflation has been somewhat out of control lately, and since the market can stay bearish for years. People don't normally think that when Bitcoin was at almost $20k at the end of 2017, and then reached $20k at the end of 2020, these were not the same $20k because the purchasing power's changed. And equivalent of $20k of 2017 is $21.1k in 2020, and almost $25k in 2023, actually.
That's true, but the USD inflation is usually quite low, and when Bitcoin starts going up, it's usually easily above 100% of the previous ATH point, so inflation can be neglected at that point.
Inflation is very high in my country, but it feels like the price is calculated in the USD, and then the USD rate to local fiat is used to determine the price of Bitcoin. As a result, you can actually get a bit more in local fiat than you expect because the way it's losing its ground to the USD can be higher than inflation inside the country.

Turkey's inflation is terrible, so I guess using Bitcoin instead makes perfect sense, but I didn't know about that. Still, though, showing a couple of shops that have crypto logos on them doesn't necessarily mean that it's representative of the country or even its major cities overall. But the Reuters article also says that digital currency ownership in Turkey is the highest in the world by percentage of the population, so that's impressive and in that context, the Twitter video makes more sense, I guess. I'm still not fully convinced, as the article is about stablecoins, not decentralized cryptocurrencies.
I'm also grateful to stompix for drawing attention to the fact that it was short in Northern Cyprus, so it's not mainland Turkey, to say the least.

To me, the most valuable time of lessons was at the end of 2017 and the crash of 2018. I didn't sell anything at $18-19k back then because the fees were high and I was kinda greedy, assuming the price wouldn't go down while the fees would decrease. 2017 was also a time of mistakenly buying altcoins at their ATH point, believing that they'll go up even further. I didn't waste a lot of money on that, and I only bought coins that were in the top-50 by market capitalization, but still, a major mistake. And then the price went down at the start of 2018, to which I remember thinking that it'll go back up in a few weeks...
There were a lot of wrong assumptions there, so I've learned a lot of lessons:
- if the price is good for the time being, sell some when you feel like it;
- keep calm when the price is down for a couple of years, that's normal;
- Bitcoin matters, altcoins are safer left ignored like they don't exist.

If a person has, like, $100 to invest, it doesn't matter for much BTC that can buy, as there's always some amount, and unless it's one of those rare unfortunate periods of crazy fees, a person can invest comfortably at $25k or $250k. If someone's worried about the way it sounds, a simple solution is to use mBTCs or even sats to talk about the invested amount.
But there's another side to it, namely that since Bitcoin keeps growing, a lot of people don't want to spend it and consider it a valuable investment asset. That can increase the number of people who interact with Bitcoin but perhaps hinder global adoption of Bitcoin as a form of payment.

13. Max Holloway
12. Ryan Spann
11. Giga Chikadze
10. Rinya Nakamura
9. Taila Santos
8. Junior Tafa
7. Waldo Cortes-Acosta
6. Toshiomi Kazama
5. Michał Oleksiejczuk
4. Rolando Bedoya
3. Yusaku Kinoshita
2. JJ Aldrich
1. Choi Seung-woo

NOT go the Full Distance 3

Binance is already facing some trouble with the lawsuit by the SEC, and there might be a mildly negative impact of it on the market. Of course, it's going to be a whole other story if Binance just collapses (exit scam, a huge hack they can't get out of, etc.).
Let's see what happened in another case to make an estimate. FTX collapse correlated with a drop from $21k to $16k last November, and then the price recovered in the middle of January. I think Binance has a better reputation, so its collapse might have a higher impact. So something like a sudden 25-30% price drop within a day or two is realistic, and then maybe a few months (around 4, maybe) of recovery.

I've got a different approach. To me, Bitcoin is more like savings than like an investment. So I try not to spend it, but I sell some when I need to, regardless of the price. Of course, when the fees spike too high or when the price is suddenly significantly lower than it's been lately, I try to sell less. However, if I got some things planned, and I could use some money for it, and the easiest source is BTC, I just use it, and I don't feel any regrets. If I could use it directly, I sure would, but that's just not an option most of the time, at least in my country.

I believe op's right that waiting for Bitcoin to reach the bottom without buying it in the meantime can easily lead to missing a chance to buy at a low price. The truth is, when Bitcoin's going down, people tend to wait for it to go even further down, but then when it's suddenly rising fast, people start buying at a significantly higher price than if they started when it was bearish. But there are different strategies and different goals, so things just don't work the same way for everyone. If a person's more comfortable with DCA, for example, that's perfectly fine as well.

Since it's the second mining centre launched in Oman, and the question is about its impact, I think we gotta ask whether the first one made a difference. I personally must have missed the news about the first one, and that one cost even more to open, according to the article. I tried looking for more info about Bitcoin mining in Oman but failed to find anything useful.
It's good that Oman is looking at other industries, but so far, these are just a couple of experiments to me, not a major policy change and not something that will affect mining globally.

a.  Draw
b.  2-2
c.  SPFC
d.  Over
e.  Yes
f.  SPFC

I'd say it had a significant impact, but largely indirectly, I guess. I've learned a lot about cryptos and about the economy that I probably would not have otherwise known, I got much more interested in following the news that are related to global economy as well. Moreover, I've learned about scams, basic security, became more mindful of my digital footprint. There were times when Bitcoin really helped me financially as well, hard times.
I don't think it made me more optimistic about the future, but it surely made me more aware of the flaws of traditional financial institutions.

a. Draw
b. 1-1
c. QPR
d. Under
e. Yes
f. 24'

Op suggest a very peculiar interpretation of events in all of these cases. Turkey has been struggling with devaluation of their fiat currency for years, although it has truly skyrocketed in 2022. A very high rate of inflation is bad for the country because it normally means the prices rise up too much, the salaries and other payments can't catch up, people are getting poorer. It's also unhelpful for popularity of a politician. DW article on Turkish inflation doesn't even mention the military, not does Euronews. In the meantime, the way op wrote about it being done intentionally to spend money on the military and actually being stronger while appearing weaker makes it sound as if it's an actual fact, not a mere assumption.
Even if it's related to military spending, one could easily argue it the other way around: Turkey might be overspending on the military, which has a negative impact on the economy (although in case of Turkey I'm not convinced in that). As for Russia, it managed to stabilize their fiat last year, following the invasion and sanctions, but there's only so much a country can do while facing heavy restrictions and vastly overspending on an imperialist war, so trying to portray Russian inflation as intentional is bizarre.

Thanks for this post. It's been somewhat confusing to me what some Bitcoin trusts are actually about as well, and it was interesting to read about various options combined in one post. I didn't think people bought things like Coinbase stocks if they were into the crypto market, and Grayscale's idea of "exposure to BTC" without "the challenges of buying, storing, and safekeeping" (taking it all from their official website) is still really weird to me. I don't get why a person can't just buy cryptos, store in a non-custodial wallet, and then sell when feeling like it. There are no challenges here, no need for a trust.

Making a realistic budget is a great tip. It's really important to understand what's possible to achieve, what's going to be a big strain on one's well-being or physical health to achieve, and what's not realistic at all.
Then as for the second one, there are things that a person should fight, but there are also those that might already be replacing worse tendencies, so perhaps allowing some expenses to counteract those other things can be reasonable and should count as medical expenses, pretty much, because you'd probably need those otherwise.
And sometimes a person isn't prone to luxury, and the opposite of only spending money on the things you really need can lead to a boring life.