23rd May 2022 > > Bitcoin Pizza Day.

tl;dr

Bitcoin Pizza Day and the EU is backsliding on its previous positive regulatory stance.

Market Snap (at time of writing)

Market Wrap

BTC regains the 3-handle but the outlook for risk assets remains desperately uncertain with treasuries widening again overnight in Asia.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Bitcoin Pizza Day

Apologies for yesterday’s interregnum but sometimes life gets in the way of the CCC.

For the enthusiasts, yesterday was Bitcoin Pizza Day, an annual celebration of the day that Laszlo Hanyecz paid $10,000 BTC (now worth $300mm) for two pizzas, the first known commercial transaction executed using cryptos.

Laszlo estimates he spent 100,000 BTC with a value of around $3bn now on pizzas alone in 2010.

One of the recipients – it is not known who exactly – has accumulated nearly 54,000 BTC in their wallet putting this wallet in the top 15 in terms of the size of holding:

https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1LdRcdxfbSnmCYYNdeYpUnztiYzVfBEQeC

Total BTC spent in that time? Precisely zero. That is my kind of BTC maximalist.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – EU regulation

After the recent legislation known as Markets in Capital Assets (MiCA) – see CCC 14th and 15th March 2022 amongst others – for a brief and glorious period it looked as though the EU had reversed course and was starting to become not only accommodating but also embracing of cryptos.

Our hopes started to be dashed on the 22nd March 2022 when Fabio Panetta, a member of the Executive Board of the ECB, who reports to Convicted Criminal Christine Lagarde, stated:

“We need globally coordinated regulatory action …” in an exact parroting of previous utterances of his boss.

Lagarde herself has got back on the warpath against cryptos in a disappointingly predictable fashion claiming that cryptos are worth “nothing”. Just because she wishes it to be so, does not make it so.

Laughably she criticises BTC as being used for “reprehensible” money laundering, almost as if the EUR 500 note did not become the drug barons’ choice for moving large amounts of ill-gotten gains.

And of course, she sings the praises of the digital Euro, labouring as she is under the misapprehension that Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are themselves cryptos, when plainly they are not.

Going forward we will have to continue to look to Germany for regulatory leadership in Europe that fosters and develops innovation and growth for crypto businesses.