🚀 BlackRock’s Bitcoin Era

^{“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it”}

— Maya Angelou

👋 Friends, Rallie here. The newsletter injecting your day with all the hot crypto, finance, and tech goss.

On the menu:

• 🚀 BlackRock’s Bitcoin Era

• 🗞️ Headlines That Hit

• 📈 Refresh: Gold

• ✌️ Trivia Tuesday

• 💯 Top Tweets

The Rallie Recap

🤠 The digital asset ecosystem continues to solidify itself economically and politically. However, with crypto exchanges continuing to clash with the government, and scams still prevalent, how soon will mass adoption occur? Saddle up for this ride:

• Digital assets are “anything that is created and stored digitally, is identifiable and discoverable, and has or provides value.” The term includes: data, crypto, NFTs, security tokens and central bank digital currencies.

• Due to the volatility of these assets, investments in the space have typically been unsteady. For example, in the past few years, several brands invested heavily in the metaverse, but integration dramatically slowed down after almost 70% of crypto’s market valuation was wiped out last year.

• However, believers argue that digital assets and its infrastructure still need to be developed to have higher levels of stability and increased investments. 🌱

• Is that time now? This week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced it plans to develop a global infrastructure to “ensure interoperability of settlements between digital currencies issued by national central banks.” This comes as more banks are interested in the ability to issue a national digital tender due to a decline in the use of cash and increase in interest of crypto assets.

• And here’s the kicker: with a market cap of $519B, Bitcoin’s control over the crypto market has hit approximately 50%. 

• And then, some major players announced some big news: BlackRock has filed for a Bitcoin spot ETF and a crypto exchange is launching that it is backed by Citadel Securities, Fidelity and Schwab Starts Operations.

• With this announcement, some think that stablecoins and the majority of other crypto (excluding Ethereum) may fade out due to their positioning as an alternative to Bitcoin. And diversity in the crypto market’s ecosystem could be at risk.

• But… BlackRock’s announcement gives many hope that digital assets will be able to bounce back into the hearts of investors and other corporate players, despite large outflows.

• Still needs time to marinate? A recent survey of professional investors say their clients were considering investing in digital assets but there is a preference for regulated products.

• Regulations have started to develop in the crypto space while exciting investments are happening, so a more widespread adoption of digital assets could occur soon… 🤞

• Either way, digital assets are in motion to be revolutionary for the world. Keep up with it all here at The Weekly Rallie!

Interested in what crypto and NFTs can offer for you? Take our courses and read our blogs to learn more about digital assets and protect yourself against scams.

• 📈 How to Invest in Cryptocurrency

• 🔐 How to Set Up a Wallet

• 😲 NFTs Explained

• 🥸 An Introduction to Fraud

Headlines That Hit

• 🤝 Operations continue… SEC and Binance have reached an agreement to let the company operate in the U.S. while fraud charges continue.

• ⛓️ Dirty crypto cleaning. Germany seizes $5.5M in bitcoin after seizing the assets of a dark web exchange which peddled drugs and laundered blacklisted crypto.

• 🍁 The Canadian & U.S. appeal. The two nations compete to have clean Canadian tech companies stay or go south with new subsidies and incentives from both sides.

• 🇩🇪 Landmark German investment. Intel plans to invest more than $33B to develop two chip-making plants in Germany, the nation’s biggest foreign investment in history.

• 🌊 Unregulated no longer! The UN adopts the High Seas Treaty, establishing the first-ever framework for governing practices on international waters. 

• 👑 Rough split. Spotify executive calls Prince Harry and Meghan Markle “The F—king Grifters” after their $20M deal with Spotify ended on Friday.

Rallie Refresh: Gold as an Investment

💰 Gold, one of the few assets that has been used for centuries, has its own shine in many investors’ hearts. Let’s touch base with one of the OG investments and see if it holds up today.

🤩 What is gold?

• A durable and rare material, gold’s symbolic meaning and properties (ex: noncorrosive) converted itself into a material asset a millennia ago.

• Its limited supply and finite nature make gold a valuable asset.

• The value of the metal has also increased over time, due to its widespread use in various areas such as electronics and medicine.

• In finance, gold’s enduring track record as a currency and wealth storage add to its credibility, as it plays an important economic role for trade in times of currency collapse, overinflation and other instances.

🧐 Gold in times of inflation, stagflation and recession:

• Inflation: Historically, gold’s value increases when inflation occurs; however, that is only if interest rates aren’t too aggressive or if the dollar is not doing so hot.

• Stagflation: With high unemployment, practically no growth, and high prices for products and services, 📈 gold benefits the most from this type of economic uncertainty while stocks taking a beating. 📉

• Recession: Generally, the response to a recession, such as cutting interest rates and injecting liquidity, increases gold’s value because of the reduced opportunity costs of holding gold and overall increase of money in the economy.

✨ Gold still has relevance alongside the digital asset ecosystem despite its long history. So, DYOR in what you want to invest in for a diverse portfolio to fulfill your financial goals. Let us know what you think, and feel free to ask us any questions!

✌️Trivia Tuesday✌️

❓The answer for Thursday’s newsletter (when did the world’s first modern stock market start?) is the 1600s - 1700s! Tune in next time for today’s fun fact answer.

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That's all for today. Stay hungry & we'll catch you next time. ✌️

DISCLAIMER: This is not financial or legal advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions.JR