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Temasek among investors in crypto exchange FTX US now valued at $10.8b (JAN 27, 2022)
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/co...ed-at-108b
Temasek is engaging with FTX after potential Binance bailout (WED, NOV 09, 2022)
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/garage/...ce-bailout
“If you buy a business just because it’s undervalued, then you have to worry about selling it when it reaches its intrinsic value. That’s hard. But if you can buy a few great companies, then you can sit on your ass. That’s a good thing.” - Charlie Munger
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02-12-2022, 03:44 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-12-2022, 03:44 PM by weijian.)
Satoshi's invention will probably stay on, but as a gambling chip.
FTX contagion has hints of 2008 global financial crisis – and that is bad news for Bitcoin
Crypto companies have quietly mimicked the structure of “fractional reserve” banks, he added, holding assets that are a fraction of client deposits. “We’re not going to find out until it’s too late.”
The irony is that cryptocurrencies were invented to take trust – and contagion – out of money and banking. Satoshi Nakamoto, in his white paper on Bitcoin in 2009, responded directly to the wipeout of ordinary people’s wealth caused by the fractional reserve banking system.
Nakamoto thought it was absurd, in a modern society with high-powered computers and advanced mathematics, that so much of finance was based on blind trust. To transfer one Bitcoin from one person to another, no trust is required. It is a self-verifying mechanism, mathematically impossible to fake or complicate.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/wealth/...d-bad-news
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Mark Cuban wants to buy more bitcoin, says gold investors are 'dumb'
Cheyenne DeVon
Published Wed, Dec 28 202211:50 AM EST
Billionaire Mark Cuban is doubling down on bitcoin and says he even prefers investing in the digital asset over gold.
The longtime cryptocurrency advocate said he hopes the price of bitcoin goes down further so he can buy more during a Dec. 26 episode of Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast.
Bitcoin has lost over 60% of its value in 2022 and prices were hovering just below $17,000 as of Dec. 27 – far below the digital coin’s 2021 highs.
Financial experts typically consider gold to be a good way for people to protect the value of their investment portfolio from declining due to inflation. However, Cuban called gold investors “dumb as f---” during his interview with Maher.
“If everything went to hell in a hand basket and you had a gold bar, you know what would happen? Someone would beat the f--- out of you or kill you and take your gold bar,” he explained.
When comparing the two, Cuban said that both gold and bitcoin are a “store of value”, meaning he believes that both assets maintain their value rather than depreciating.
However, there is a key difference between how gold and bitcoin derive value.
Gold’s value is derived from its relative scarcity and its long history of being traded for goods and services.
On the other hand, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are a relatively new form of payment.
Most digital coins don’t derive their value from an underlying entity which makes them subject to unpredictable fluctuations in price.
Bitcoin prices are currently trending far below their January prices while gold has only diminished by a little over 1% year to date as of Dec. 27.
More details in https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/28/mark-cub...-dumb.html
Specuvestor: Asset - Business - Structure.
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27-12-2023, 02:03 PM
(This post was last modified: 27-12-2023, 02:03 PM by weijian.)
My personal opinion is that crypto prices are simply a proxy to risk taking in the markets.
Bitcoin’s 160% rebound in 2023 is a gamble on ETF ‘demand shock’
Bitcoin stormed back with a more than 160 per cent advance this year that added some US$530 billion to its market capitalisation. In its wake, myriad smaller tokens ranging from Sam Bankman-Fried-backed Solana to dog- and frog-themed memecoins took off as investors embraced risk again. An investor who bought US$100,000 of Solana at the start of 2023 would now be sitting on a more than US$800,000 gain.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/compani...mand-shock
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12-03-2024, 10:37 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-03-2024, 10:37 AM by weijian.)
So after a +160% in FY23, 2024 YTD bitcoin is "already" +70%. Plenty of paper millionaires around but understandably more caution this time around, since the memories of the last crash is still fresh. Will these paper wealth convert to real wealth and then start to buy more Rolexes/yachts etc? The Bloomberg subdial is still dropping and needs some help!
https://subdial.com/market
Bitcoin’s rally is creating around 1,500 ‘millionaire wallets’ daily
BITCOIN’S record-breaking rally appears to be creating around 1,500 new “millionaire wallets” daily, according to crypto analytics firm Kaiko Research.
The original cryptocurrency has soared around 70 per cent already this year amid exuberance over surging demand for US exchange-traded funds that were first allowed to hold the tokens in January. Even so, the pace of new millionaire wallets being created is lower than during the last bull-market run of 2021, when more than 4,000 wallets were reaching the million-dollar mark daily. The high for the current year was 1,691 wallets on Mar 1.
The slower pace could be due to a few things. Fresh capital has yet to arrive in full force; large so-called whales are taking profits while Bitcoin hits new highs; whales are storing their holdings with custodians, rather than personal wallets, Kaiko said in a report on Monday (Mar 11).
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/compani...lets-daily
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12-12-2024, 05:44 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-12-2024, 05:47 PM by weijian.)
Issuing expensive equity (in the form of convertible bonds that maintain its "in the money") to acquire assets that are cheaper than the (expensive) equity is actually brilliant finance engineering. On the local bourse, REITs trading at >NAV have this privilege to continue such a virtuoso cycle. Although an outsider can't understand why folks are getting their bitcoin exposure through MicroStrategy rather than all the currently available bitcoin ETFs, but this can go on for a long time (until it doesn't).
A bitcoin bank that digitizes financial markets and will spearhead the new frontiers of digital asset mgt - To be honest, that's really sexy talk and even the crypto critic in me, is moved. 
MicroStrategy's Bitcoin Scheme Isn't an 'Infinite Money Glitch', Says Michael Saylor
MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor dismissed criticism over the firm's $16 billion Bitcoin haul, saying it's driving BTC scarcity.
The company has issued convertible note offerings using its Nasdaq-listed stock to finance additional Bitcoin acquisitions. While some have dubbed this strategy an "infinite money glitch," Saylor refuted the characterization.
"It's not a money glitch; it's a digital transformation of the capital markets," he said.
Earlier this month, Saylor also said that MicroStrategy aims to become a “Bitcoin bank” with a potential trillion-dollar valuation. He explained that the firm would create capital market instruments tied to Bitcoin that can be offered to investors.
https://decrypt.co/287163/microstrategy-...ney-glitch
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12-12-2024, 08:08 PM
@wj, agreed. let's not be greedy. buying BTC is enough. are you riding the wave?
Virtual currency is worth virtually nothing. 
Enjoy:
Gratitude!
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(12-12-2024, 08:08 PM)¯|_(ツ)_/¯ Wrote: @wj, agreed. let's not be greedy. buying BTC is enough. are you riding the wave?
hi ¯|_(ツ)_/¯,
To be honest, I am not competent enough to figure out whether I am the fool or greater fool in this crypto game. I am glad there are other games available that takes my attention away, regardless of how this crypto wave runs up or down.
These other games may not be profitable immediately. I like to refer them in accounting terms - The time/effort investments do not show up on the balance sheet, like R&D spending been expensed rather than capitalized. In essence, I hope my balance sheet is a very conservative one that has high replacement value (this is for the accounting geeks )
That said, there is always something to learn by observing this crypto wave from a behavorial perspective - whether is it in folks losing or earning a fortune.
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