🧠Quote of the week:

Thomas Jefferson stated – “To preserve their (the people’s) independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty…”

Now fast-forward some 200 years. Thomas Jefferson warned the nation to beware of the power of the banks.

In a letter John Taylor, he condemns the system of banking as “a blot” on the constitution, as corrupt, and that long-term government debt was “swindling” future generations (1816).

We should all meditate on that amazing prediction of things to come that are not necessarily beneficial to the 99%– but only to the 1%.

Bitcoin news🧡

➡️Let’s start this week’s Weekly Recap with a Financial Times headline: “SEC asked Coinbase to halt trading in everything except Bitcoin, CEO says.” That’s the first headline that every financial professional will read this week. Although the news isn’t news, as it is part of the same lawsuit from last month against Coinbase. FT is just a bit ‘slow’ with publishing ‘old news’. Still, a large inflow of capital will come soon. Anyway, I couldn’t care less about the SEC. While this does confirm the superiority of Bitcoin, it also demonstrates the corrupt nature of the SEC. Regarding Coinbase and matter of fact, every other shitcoin casino it demonstrates that they can’t make money on Bitcoin, but it’s easy and profitable to make money on shitcoins and rug retail. Bitcoin: digital commodity (private property) Everything else: digital securities aka shitcoins

➡️Number of addresses with more than 1 Bitcoin is now at an all-time high!

➡️On the 24th of July was my birthday, but also the day the Bitcoin network produced block number 800,000!

Bitcoin network keeps adding blocks, no matter what.

I quote Walker​ on Twitter:

“The Bitcoin network just produced block number 800,000.

800,000 blocks without a central bank.

800,000 blocks without a government.

800,000 blocks without a CEO.

800,000 blocks without asking for permission.”

➡️”The 46 million Argentines have lost over 96% of their value against the USD in only 5 years. 2018: 1USD = 20 Argentine Pesos. 2023: 1USD = 545 Argentine Pesos. Fiat economists still can’t explain why Bitcoin has increased by 3500% since 2020 in Argentina!” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

➡️Worldcoin launched last week. This will be the last time I will speak on Worldcoin and let it be a warning signal. Don’t get caught up! Remember: Worldcoin is an iris biometric cryptocurrency project developed by San Francisco and Berlin-based Tools for Humanity. Founded in 2019 by OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, Max Novendstern, and Alex Blania, it is backed by VC Andreessen Horowitz. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

One person is willing to sell their soul every 8 seconds for a shitcoin and cattle tag! We are living in a clown world. If you do this, I am sorry but you will get rekt/fucked on multiple dimensions! If you meet the orb on the road, smash it. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

➡️According to a 2022 paper by BlackRock entitled “Asset Allocation with Crypto” the optimal Bitcoin allocation is 84.9%. Three analysts at BlackRock published a study on Bitcoin in early 2022. The study concluded that the most ideal optimal risk vs. reward portfolio is: 84.9%: Bitcoin 9.06%: Stocks 6.04%: Bonds ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

BlackRock is the world’s biggest asset manager. The narrative around Bitcoin is shifting. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

➡️More on the above, a large inflow of capital will come soon: “Benefits of a spot Bitcoin ETF include first “likely boosting liquidity and improving price discovery. Second, it could potentially lead to increased institutional adoption, which could, in turn, contribute to greater market stability and less price volatility”.

➡️More positive news from institutional investors, in this case, TD Ameritrade: “A bullish view is warranted, in our opinion, because we believe bitcoin could ultimately represent a superior store of value relative to all other forms of money, whether fiat, metal-based, or digital”⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

➡️SBF will not face jail time for the billions of dollars illegally siphoned from customers and donated to politicians. His campaign finance charges got dropped. This is now the second set of charges that have been dropped on Sam’s bevy of fraud and misdeeds. Essentially politicians have stolen $93 million from those they serve. They are letting SBF walk free, for now, and keeping the money. Corruption coming to a full circle! With our current financial system, we will maintain “Infinite Corruption”! Our legal system, worldwide, is broken. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

I will use a line from the book ‘The Sovereign Individual’: “As technology (Bitcoin) revolutionizes the tools we use, it also antiquates our laws, reshaped our morals, and alters our perceptions.”

➡️Human Right Foundation (HRF) announces the Bitcoin Bounty Challenge. 20 BTC up for grabs for 10 UX improvements to Bitcoin (mainly focused on mobile wallets) requested by dissidents and human rights groups from across the world. I have massive respect for how much the HRF contributes to moving Bitcoin forward. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

➡️US Presidential Candidate Robert Kennedy Jr: “Right after The Bitcoin Conference, I decided to put my money where my mouth is and bought 2 Bitcoin for each of my 7 children.” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

➡️The Bitcoin network has now settled $110 trillion in transaction volume. Surreal the number of transactions that have already been made, and now with the lightning network and other network effects, it will only increase. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

➡️Bitcoin approaching an all-time high in Turkey. Inflation: ~40% Interest Rates: 17.5%

🏦Banks:

👉🏽Last week $139 million bank Heartland Tri-State was officially closed by regulators. The 5th US bank failure this year. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

👉🏽$44 billion bank PacWest Bancorp $PACW crashed over 27% on the 25th of July. After some quiet time on the banking front for a couple of months, PacWest crashed over 27%. Banc of California to buy Pacwest in an all-stock merger. On top of that, JPMorgan will buy almost $ 2 billion of Mortgages in the PacWest deal. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Ergo: The bigger banks keep getting bigger-er and bigger-er…and the Fed is complicit. With its rate hikes, more on that below in the segment Macro/Geopolitics, it is impairing smaller banks that don’t have the cushion to stomach duration losses.

🌎Macro/Geopolitics:

👉🏽The Fed raised interest rates to the highest level in 22yrs as expected and left the door open to additional increases as officials fine-tune their effort to further quell inflation. The rate hike was a “unanimous” decision and lifted the target range for the Fed’s benchmark federal funds rate to 5.25% to 5.5%, Interest rates are now at their highest since 2001 and it marked the 11th increase since March 2022, when the rate was near zero. From this angle, this is the biggest tightening cycle in over 40 years. That’s what you call soft lading!

👉🏽The Fed says they are no longer forecasting a recession. Of course, they will say that. No government official will dare say otherwise. Remember how they downplayed inflation back in 2021/2022? I love how the Fed is now forecasting that there won’t be a recession when their own very own recession gauge is at a 40-year high! Classic! Remember how they downplayed inflation back in 2021/2022!? Talking about inflation, they don’t see inflation coming down to 2% until 2025. Inflation is likely going to see a second and third wave sending it higher than pandemic levels. Opt-out Bitcoin Remember in 2008 Bernanke said the same thing, we all know what happened after that. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

👉🏽Here in Europe, the ECB raises all rates by 25bps as expected. Deposit rate to 3.75%, the highest since Apr2001, and main refinancing rate to 4.25%, the highest since 2008. It’s 9th consecutive hike in a cycle that started exactly one year ago. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

👉🏽Germany is becoming a joke and remember, Germany is Europe’s engine and number one economy.

“Risk of German de-industrialization ‘Very Great’ due to ‘Problematic’ energy transition” Last week, a survey by the Federal Association of Medium-Sized Businesses (BVMW) revealed that 26 percent of all medium-sized company directors across Europe’s powerhouse have considered shutting down their business, while 22 percent have expressed interest in moving their operations abroad.

Germany’s economy minister, Rober Habeck, warns that Germany could face 5 tough years and that Berlin should borrow money to subsidize energy for companies or risk losing its industry. Subsidize, borrow money? As soon as the disastrous consequences of their own policies and decisions materialize red greens have always two answers:

1. More debt/printing 

2. Tax the „rich“ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Oh, by the way, Haback, is the same guy who closed German nuclear plants this year and requests now debt-financed electricity subsidies. Before becoming an economy minister he was writing children’s books. This is the level of absurdity we face in Europe! If you go woke, you go broke! Next! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

👉🏽US Bond yield spiking on news that the Bank of Japan is considering modifying their YCC (Yield Curve Control). Now why is this important? If Japan allows Yen to rise and raises interest rates, then Japanese investors will sell EURO and USD bonds, creating a debt tsunami in the West. There will be even fewer UST buyers, forcing the yields higher. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

👉🏽Current US federal government interest rate expenditures are still going parabolic! The US is now paying $970 billion in interest payments—up $41 billion in Q2. At this rate, it will hit $1 trillion soon. Just fine!

👉🏽The IMF expects inflation in Egypt, which hit a record high last month, to stay above 30% through 2024, almost twice as high as what it projected in April. It also lowered the country’s growth forecast from 5% to 4.1%.

I hope Egypt opts out, Bitcoin. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

👉🏽The UK is on track to incur the highest debt interest costs in the developed world this year as persistently high inflation and an unusually large proportion of government bonds linked to price rises damage the public finances. “The Treasury will spend £110bn on debt interest in 2023, according to a forecast by Fitch. At 10.4 percent of total government revenue, that would be the highest level of any high-income country”. Source FT ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

I will end this weekly recap with a brilliant tweet/conversation by Joe Carlasare on Twitter: @joecarlasare⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Joe: “Economic growth is hamstrung by too much debt, which was stolen from future consumption for decades to avoid a deleveraging event. This makes the system more fragile and desperate for more stimulus (I.e. debt). When a triggering event raises the specter of deleveraging, we add more debt, which diminishes future growth potential. This vicious cycle requires more debt —-> until no amount of debt will lift growth. Then, the deleveraging.” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Reply by user Joel: “Explain it to me like I’m 5 years old – Jonny has a cookie jar where he keeps his cookies for later. Economic growth is like having more and more cookies in your cookie jar. But if you borrow cookies from the cookie jar now, you won’t have as many cookies for later.” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Answer Joe: “Not quite. Imagine if you had to work for each cookie, to begin with. You do chores like cutting the lawn for 1 cookie. But you can eat infinite cookies by keeping a “cookie IOU tab” with your parents. Over time, you eat far more cookies than you are earning each day. Soon, you have a balance of hundreds of cookie IOUs and you’re too obese to cut the grass anymore. But you keep eating more cookies… until you can’t move and die” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Credit: I have used multiple sources!

My savings account: Bitcoin

The tool I recommend for setting up a Bitcoin savings plan: The Relai app is especially suited for beginners or people that want to invest in Bitcoin with an automated investment plan once a week or monthly. Hence a DCA, Dollar cost Average Strategy.

For new users, the app can be downloaded from all Play Stores. The iOS version is only available in Swiss, Austrian, German, and Italian App Stores. If you set up a Bitcoin Savings Plan (weekly/monthly) you can use my code CRYPTOFRIDAY and your fees will be reduced by 0.5%!

Check out my tutorial post (Instagram) & video (Youtube) for more info. ⠀

Get your Bitcoin out of exchanges. Save them on a hardware wallet, run your own node…be your own bank. Not your keys, not your coins. It’s that simple. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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