None of these financial giants were wrong about Bitcoin in 2020!
Between 2009 and 2020 many talking heads dismissed Bitcoin out of hand. They didn't understand it. But something happened in 2020 that made a lot of people question where the value of their wealth was heading. For those with war chests full of cash priced in $, it wasn't looking good, and they took a closer look at the funny internet money known as Bitcoin.
Michael Saylor's investment in Bitcoin
In the mid 2010's Saylor spotted the impact Amazon, Google and Apple would have on society way before the mainstream cottoned on to the far reaching wave of "digitisation of information". He earnt a fortune from that foresight. However he famously dimissed Bitcoin out of hand in 2015, not realising it was the ultimate attempt to digitalise money.
Events in 2020 changed his mind. He coined the phrase "melting Ice Cube" when talking about the portion of his company's treasury held in cash. His first dabble with Bitcoin was $250m. He has since used the dollar debt system against itself to accumulate billions in Bitcoin. His company, MicroStrategy, currently own 252,00 BTC. Accounting rules have even been re-written so corporations can handle BTC!
His views on Bitcoin as hope for all 8 billion of us have been reported across every media outlet since 2020. His greatest contribution to society to date is his incredible education foundation, providing free online education to hundreds of thousands of degree students. However, he has hinted that the simple act of dying with the code to his Bitcoin keys in his head would eclipse that. With less btc in circulation...
Cathie Wood's prediction in 2020 for Bitcoin's value by 2030 was...$1m
The CEO of Ark was reported in The Wall Street Journal as saying that $1m BTC was in her sights. Nobody knows what BTC will be worth against the dollar tomorrow let alone in a few years. She just predicted $1.5m by 2030. And so it goes on. But what is mathematically proven is the fact that as long as the US keep up their debt-based economic policies, the price of BTC in $ is only going in one direction. That was the "enlightened" thinking in 2020, and even moreso now.
Paul Tudor Jones' investment in Bitcoin
One of the "legendary investors", up there with the Buffets, his views on Bitcoin as an inflation trade made waves in 2020. 4 years on, BTC has grown from $20,000 to $60,000+ and he was right about persistent inflation, the hidden tax.
For the record, inflation is not the fault of greedy supermarkets, Vladimir Putin or you and me asking for a pay rise. It is the fault of central banks who print money. You understand this truth perfectly when you grasp how Bitcoin's main value proposition is the fixed supply of 21 million coins. No central controller can debase Bitcoin by making more of it. Putin may be a heinous pariah, but he doesn't print dollars.
Tudor Jones has reportedly lost his mojo investing the way that never failed him before. The word on the Wall Street, though, is that a tiny % of BTC in a portfolio will more than offset big losses in the stock market in the longer term.
Stanley Druckenmiller's investment in Bitcoin
Another legend, his views on Bitcoin as a store of value were a big topic of conversation in Forbes in 2020. However, the bright minds are realising that compared to the usual stores of value such as housing, land, art, or gold, Bitcoin is the superior asset. It was tagged the fastest horse in the race!
BTC is not just a lump of stuff that people will bid on, it is digital money, a currency that can be split down to millionths of a unit and sold at a moment's notice in the face of liquidity issues. Try selling your house to someone across the globe in 10 minutes through normal financial channels. On a Bitcoin blockchain that never sleeps, you can transact with anyone, friend of foe, anywhere, as long as you play by the immutable rules - not your keys, not your Bitcoin.
MassMutual's $100m investment in Bitcoin
This was big news because MM are a really old school institution.
MassMutual was founded on May 15, 1851, for one purpose — to help people secure their future and protect the ones they love. A lot has changed since that day, but our spirit of mutuality lives on in everything we do and everything we are.
If that isn't a Bitcoin motto, I don't know what to tell you. MM saw the writing on the wall and jumped into Bitcoin in 2020 in anticipation of corporate adoption. Correctly judged, the institutions are twigging what Bitcoin is and trundling into gear big time in 2024.
Square's $50m investment in Bitcoin
This was notable because of Square's owner. Jack Dorsey is the founder of Twitter and knows a thing or two about network effects and exponential adoption of big ideas whose time has come. He dropped $50m on BTC in 2020, again seeing what others didn't. You see a pattern here?
Dorsey is now a big supporter of Nostr, the privacy-focused communication protocol that integrates Bitcoin payment systems into its core. Safe social media where you can tip and pay businesses and set up the new Amazons and Googles without the integrated control and surveillance. Now that's a big idea that we can all participate in.
PayPal's integration of Bitcoin payments
In the 2020 BBC article, it is interesting how they frame the title. Paypal allows Bitcoin. That is hysterical. Of all the permission-less things on earth, there is none so permission-less as BTC. Not even China could ban it and certainly no cypherpunk asked or asks for permission to develop, use or store Bitcoin. As an Open Source protocol it is nobody's to permit. BTC is being mined every 10 minutes until 2140 regardless of what anyone thinks, says or does.
Can the PayPals and other off-ramps make it hard to use Bitcoin, by refusing to exchange it, or only accept it with onerous conditions? Of course. But that is the big red flag, the big alert to the world that Bitcoin is really valuable and why even bother trying to trade it in for increasingly worthless $€£.
Change your mind time?
These have been big names in recent Bitcoin history. They are bright and insightful people who got it, and probably thought at some point they were going to dominate Bitcoin for their own ends. Don't forget, Bitcoin is a decentralised network, no leaders, and all participants globally are incentivised to make sure BTC does not go to zero.
Pleb Bitcoiners have been seeing the light for 10 years before the brightest financial minds tuned in. Millions have been accumulating BTC slowly slowly. As a group of millions, they own more bitcoin than god and it is they who ultimately control the destiny of Bitcoin as a financial asset. It will never go to zero, and after the manipulators have tried and failed, Bitcoin wins. It's maths.
Oh oh. The biggest fish in the US economic system has just discovered Bitcoin.
There is a CEO who can claim to be in charge of more money than anyone on earth. That is Larry Fink, founder of the world's wealthiest asset manager. A gentleman whose business soared from zero to $11 trillion, he has not just the ear of government but likely he holds a knife to the heart of government too. We better listen to what he has to say, because he poses the biggest fleeting challenge to Bitcoin so far.
Mr Fink now seems to be a bigger Bitcoiner in 2024 than any financial whizz alive. He admits he was wrong 5 years ago and changed his mind. We are all allowed to change our mind, particularly after doing the work!
He has plans for Bitcoin, modest aims. I believe he wants to tokenize the world. In other words, make an inventory of every tree and plant and rock and bird and put a price against it. From there, create a token out of thin air and then sell that token - backed by BTC. The Bitcoin blockchain could handle that. Not sure everyone's moral compass could handle that idea, though.
Hmm. So you may own a fraction of a tree in Amazonia, without ever going there. And without the indigenous natives having any say in the whole idea?
BTC is a tool. Will it be used for good? Absolutely, if you never sell Bitcoin to Larry Fink. Bitcoin is a bottom up asset, of the people for the people by the people. Fink is very late to the show, even though he thinks he is early because at most 5% of the world's population have anything to do with Bitcoin right now. The thing is, most current holders of Bitcoin are not wired like Fink. They saw a glimmer of hope back when there was almost nothing to hold on to, and time has rewarded their patience. The majority of Bitcoin is not in the hands of successful, vicious VCs and c....captains of industry. BTC holders are "normal" and want to put their wealth to good use. It has endured many disparaging labels, but Bitcoin is the money of humanitarians.
So how is the Bitcoin scene shaping up, now the corporations and even sovereign nations are into it? Well, the good news is, 74% of Bitcoin has not moved in 6 months, the 6 months since Fink and his Blackrock ETF brigade have been trying to buy every bitcoin around.
Bitcoin doesn't solve everything, but if it solves 74% of the world's problems, I'm up for participating in that project. What do you think? Let me know on Nostr. My nPub to search by:
npub10dpmrjay77xcu6z2sxsv7h7dfl6puzcxgyd6ssxkwh9th8sdgk3sj39zws
Zap me a few sats if you found any value in this article.
