Morning Minute | Bitcoin as 'Digital Gold' Narrative Strengthens

TylerD's Market Summary

🥇 U.S. Treasury Calls Bitcoin 'Digital Gold'

It was a big weekend for Bitcoin.

Last night, Bitcoin closed its highest-ever week with a $101,000 close.

But a few major headlines were even more bullish than the number going up.

What Happened?

The U.S. Treasury officially referred to Bitcoin as "digital gold" in a recent report, acknowledging its primary use as a store of value in decentralized finance.

This statement followed Bitcoin’s price crossing the $100,000 milestone, clearly a very significant milestone.

Other highlights from their report:

• Rapid growth in digital assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum and stablecoins
• To date, adoption has been limited to investment purposes
• Digital asset market cap is low relative to other asset classes 
• Use cases for digital assets are progressing on two tracks - store of value (i.e. Bitcoin) and improving legacy financial markets via blockchain and distributed ledger technology 

What Are They Saying:

• The Treasury report stated: "The primary use case for bitcoin seems to be a store of value aka 'digital gold' in a decentralized finance (DeFi) world; speculative interest seems to have played a prominent role in the growth of digital tokens thus far."
• Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell earlier echoed similar sentiments, saying Bitcoin is "just like gold, only it’s virtual," adding that "It’s highly volatile. It’s not a competitor for the dollar, it’s really a competitor for gold."
• Peter Chung, head of research at Presto Research, commented: "Bitcoin crossing $100,000 is an incredibly important milestone from a psychological perspective as people are programmed to think in 10s. With bitcoin hitting $100,000, expect to see a lot of general interest pick up from individuals and broader media attention as well."

Why It Matters:

Slowly, then all at once.

It's no coincidence that as soon as Bitcoin hit $100k the narrative machine moved into overdrive.

The Lindy effect has fully kicked in. Bitcoin isn't going to 0. It's too valuable now.

And the more major players that acknowledge Bitcoin as "digital gold," the more the message will propagate and drive adoption.

It's a simple message to understand and makes Bitcoin stand out against other crypto assets (which require a bit more of a learning curve).

$100,000 is just the beginning...

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

• Ethereum led NFT trading volume with $28M on the day; Bitcoin was next with $7.7M and then Solana with $2.8M
• ETH NFT leaders were mixed with Pudgy leading; Punks -2% at 39 ETH, Pudgy +5% at 22.2, BAYC -2% at 19.7 ETH, Azuki -2% at 7.05; Milady -18% at 5.2
• Pudgy Penguins saw several grail sales in the past day including a 50 ETH Pudgy Man, a 45 ETH Gold and a 30 ETH Star-eyed
• The Milady's $CULT token dropped on Sunday evening and opened at a $650M mc
• Ninja Squad (+70%) and Sugartown Oras (+50%) led notable top movers
• BTC NFT leaders were very green; Bitcoin Puppets +13% at 0.19 BTC, NodeMonkes +12% at 0.142, OMB +9% at 0.14, Quantum Cats +8% at 0.2
• The Runes leaders were mostly green; DOG even at $840M mc, PUPS even at $255M, BDC +7% at $118M, GIZMO +30% at $37M, CYPHER +10% at $21M
• An Ether Rock sold for 235 ETH ($945k) over the weekend

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here's a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:

🌎 Macro Crypto and Web3

A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Crypto majors are red this morning after Bitcoin made its highest-ever weekly close last night; BTC -1% at $98,400, ETH -3% at $3,60, SOL -4% at $227, XRP -7% at $2.39
• Most alts were red on the day with only LEO (+3%) in green
• Memecoin majors are very red; DOGE -5% at $0.433, SHIBA -7%, PEPE -2%, WIF -10%, BONK -6%, MOG +1%
• PEPE briefly hit a new ATH at $11.5B on Sunday before retracing this morning (now $10.5B)
• The US Treasury compared Bitcoin to digital gold in a recent report, stating that the "primary use case for Bitcoin seems to be a store of value aka digital gold"
• Amazon shareholders have asked their board to review the purchasing of Bitcoin for their treasury
• Financial Times references memecoins soaring in value, superficially mentions Chillguy, PNUT, BONK & PEPE

🚀 Memecoin Movers 

• $JAIL (+14,000% to $15M market cap, SOL)
• $APPLE (+600% to $26M market cap, SOL)
• $REALIS (+80% to $33M market cap, SOL)
• $CULT (+50% to $635M market cap, ETH)
• $PATRIOT (+50% to $10M market cap, ETH)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

• Closed Circuit (120%, 15.5 ETH Floor)
• Ninja Squad (67%, 0.27 ETH Floor)
• Synthetic Dreams (65%, 3.95 ETH)
• Sugartown Oras (47%, 0.11 ETH)
• Deep Black (40%, 1.05 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming Mints and Events

Folks - my source for daily mints and events has shut down operations.

Given the general lack of interest in new mints on a daily basis, I'll be discontinuing this section of the newsletter, at least for now.

If I can find a good source for daily events, I will look at turning it back on.

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