18th December 2023 > > Saga, Uphold, & the SEC.

tl;dr

Solana Saga phones sell for up to 5x the retail price. The UK has been infantilised by the ruling political elite. Gensler proves once again he is the leading proponent of Warren’s anti-crypto army. We will not forget.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein (who has a lot of skin in the game) has made the startling claim that spot BTC ETFs will unleash $30 TRILLION of advised wealth into BTC. Ignoring the demand shock and ignoring the 20% or so of coins that have been lost forever, this would give a market price for BTC of $1.6mm. I assume he doesn’t mean it all at once.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Solana Saga

That brief heads up about the Solana Saga phone two days ago from the CCC was well-timed. If you recall, buyers get an airdrop of 30mm BONK currently valued at £600 compared to a UK door delivery price of £600. Buyers will also have access to future airdrops and other incentives (https://store.solanamobile.com/eu) whilst phones are still available in the EU (or at least they were, last time I looked).

The floor price on eBay is now $2,000 with confirmed sales at $3,361 and $5,000 – probably into the U.S. – which has sold out of these phones.

Glad to be of help.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Uphold wallet

Those who use Brave Browser to be rewarded with BAT (Basic Attention Token) with no tracking, and without allowing Big Tech monetisation of your own personal data, probably use Uphold.

The FCA’s ongoing campaign to sideline cryptos in the UK (despite Rishi Sunak’s public pledge to make the UK a crypto hub, though this hasn’t been his only foray into making promises he never intended to keep) continues apace. Unless you provide some personal information and answer other questions, your ability to access your Uphold wallet if you are UK based will be restricted from 8th of January 2024.

The common theme of overbearing and pointless bureaucracy is the failure to have any sense of proportionality or to consider any form of risk assessment. Previously, The UK didn’t suffer from this mindset that everyone must always be looked after in case they make a mistake. I think the rot set in with the coalition government of 2010, a government which promoted and encouraged a technocratic approach to political problems, building upon the culture of their direct predecessors. This unhappy direction of travel was sharply accelerated by the draconian, illiberal, and illegal response to the pandemic.

Where have all the adults gone?

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – The SEC is sore

It has been reported that the SEC is insisting on cash redemptions, not in-kind redemptions, for a spot BTC ETF, according to fortune.com. This is at odds with other ETFs and is costly for investors.

As Fortune points out:

“If that’s the case, it’s possible that the head of the agency – stung by his defeat in court – is going to allow Bitcoin ETFs, but on terms that will make them more expensive and less attractive to buy. That’s an odd position for an agency chairman who claims his top priority is looking out for the little guy”.

The key reason why ETFs are so successful, and why they have made BlackRock the largest and best asset manager ever in just 35 years, is because of one of the wonders of market forces – arbitrage. Market-makers can create or destroy units of ETFs by supplying or receiving the underlying security. This mechanism ensures that the price of the ETF closely tracks those securities, allowing investors unprecedented access to what can be illiquid, and volatile securities, with full SEC registration (and all the protections that implies), and with full custodial solutions. This mechanism allows investors to construct a portfolio that fits extremely specific criteria, at costs that would make that construction non-viable outside of an ETF vehicle.

Gensler’s stance of cash-only redemptions is a belated attempt to hole the spot BTC ETF under the waterline. He will not succeed.