Category: Investment Discussions

Currently, there are Helium hotspots deployed in 119 countries worldwide. Breaking down this network data, 25 countries around the world represent roughly 96% of the network. Although the US currently has the largest share of hotspots at around 54%, Helium cannot be labeled a local phenomenon. The remaining hotspots have been popping up all over North America, Europe, and Asia.

Digging into the network data further, Helium hotspots can be found in every US state and almost every major US city. The network growth correlates to the population of the state- the larger the population, the more hotspots are required. This is a sign of healthy network growth naturally distributing itself to states with larger areas to cover.

https://messari.io/article/helium-exponential-coverage

The foundation behind the Avalanche blockchain said it received a $230 million investment from a group led by Polychain and Three Arrows Capital, through the private sale of its surging AVAX cryptocurrency.

R/Crypto Fund, Dragonfly, CMS Holdings, Collab+Currency, Lvna Capital and a group of angel investors and family offices also participated in the investment, according to a statement. The Avalanche Foundation will use proceeds from the token sale — which was completed in June — to support and accelerate the rapid growth of decentralized finance or DeFi, enterprise applications, and other use cases on the Avalanche public blockchain.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-16/avalanche-raises-230-million-from-sale-of-surging-crypto-token?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_content=business&utm_medium=social&sref=PXN7mzI6

Attempts to transfer money of this value in traditional fiat markets would simply be futile. Anchored to anachronistic models, the financial ecosystem stands as a stark outlier to the instantaneous, largely inclusive modern information services experience.

An international fiat transfer often takes one to four working days to process and includes a hefty transaction fee of 1-3%. For a transaction worth $2 billion, this would come at the cost of between $20 – $60 million.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-worth-2-billion-moves-for-just-78-cents

Steven Cohen, the billionaire hedge fund manager and onetime crypto skeptic, has jumped into the NFT market in a move that could shake up sports marketing, as well as the Metaverse.

DIGITAL, a Metaverse investment venture backed by Cohen, has led a $50M Series A fundraising round in RECUR, a tech startup that develops “on-chain branded experiences” and enables customers to buy, collect, and resell NFTs. The deal bestows RECUR with a valuation of $333M, the company said in a statement released Monday. Cohen is joining RECUR’s board.

https://thedefiant.io/steven-cohen-point72-recur-nfts/

Sept 13 (Reuters) – Coinbase Global Inc (COIN.O) is planning to raise about $1.5 billion through a debt offering to invest in product development and potential mergers and acquisitions, the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange said on Monday.

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/coinbase-looking-raise-15-billion-through-debt-offering-2021-09-13/?taid=613f8aa28673f2000160b5bd&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

MicroStrategy has purchased an additional 5,050 bitcoins for ~$242.9 million in cash at an average price of ~$48,099 per #bitcoin. As of 9/12/21 we hodl ~114,042 bitcoins acquired for ~$3.16 billion at an average price of ~$27,713 per bitcoin.

https://www.microstrategy.com/en/investor-relations/financial-documents/microstrategy-acquires-additional-5050-bitcoins_09-13-2021

These projects have gained traction — crypto-linked Visa debit cards facilitated over $1 billion worth of transactions across Visa’s 70 million merchants worldwide in the first half of 2021 alone.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilymason/2021/08/17/visas-54-bitcoin-linked-cards-pave-the-way-for-younger-generations-to-spend-growing-crypto-wealth/?ss=crypto-blockchain&sh=5d9a454212e8&utm_source=TWITTER&utm_medium=social&utm_content=5332254105&utm_campaign=sprinklrForbesCrypto

For years I have been listening to CZ. He is one of the more astute people in the Crypto world. He additionally cares deeply about doing good for humanity. He is reasonable in working with regulators and describes in this interview, in a discussion format that is like sitting on the couch in a casual conversation, insights that are critical to the maturity and adoption of this new asset class that is being built on incredible technology.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2021-08-17/binance-to-seek-regular-meetings-with-regulators-says-ceo-video?sref=PXN7mzI6

This is a fascinating article from Bloomberg. If you do not want to read the history section, skip about half-way down in the article, but to be honest the entire editorial is a worthwhile read. The below extract is spot on!

As Harold James says, we are living through a monetary revolution as profound as the one that swept away the remains of the gold standard. But there is a difference. In the 1970s and 1980s, the attempts by governments to regulate the revolution were swept away. Nixon’s price and wage controls were an abject failure, just as the economist Milton Friedman (and Shultz) had foreseen. Under Reagan, it was deregulation that enabled American financial institutions to become the dominant players in international markets.

The winners of my boyhood have become the bloated incumbents of my middle age. The innovative energy has passed to the crypto bros, leaving the established banks and their friends in Washington scrambling to make the barriers to competition even higher. If cryptocurrency is indeed the internet of money, then we are still at quite an early stage of its development. Restrictive regulation in the mid 1990s might have strangled in its infancy the commercialization of the world wide web. Restrictive regulation of crypto could turn out to be a very expensive mistake.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-08-15/niall-ferguson-nixon-the-gold-standard-and-a-bitcoin-bonanza?sref=PXN7mzI6

Helium Inc., a decentralized peer-to-peer 5G wireless network firm, has raised $111 million in a token sale led by Andreessen Horowitz.

The transaction was structured as a purchase of Helium’s native token, HNT, and included participation from Ribbit Capital, 10T, Alameda Research and Multicoin Capital, according to a statement. The native token is structured to give incentives for the expansion of Helium’s 5G network that provides internet access.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-10/andreessen-backed-5g-blockchain-firm-helium-raises-111-million?sref=PXN7mzI6