The 54th Hoot

🎊HAPPY 2024, EVERYONE 🎊

Scatt's Seeds for Thought:

🌱Top Crypto Stories of 2023 🔝

🌱Ethereum☝🏼& Bitcoin👇🏼

🌱$10 Billion Invested in Crypto 🤑

🌱Ethereum’s Big Upgrade 🛠️

Meme of The Week

Year-to-date Market Performance:

• S&P 500: 24.23%

• Dow: 13.70%

• Nasdaq Comp: 43.42%

• Bitcoin: 153.36%

• Ethereum: 91.98%

• Scatt Capital’s Fortune Strategy: 56.42% (Since Inception (12/22): 55.93%

Market News:

• 7-DAY CRYPTO MARKET CAP CHANGE: -$1bn

• CRYPTO HEDGE FUNDS SAW BIG RETURNS IN 2023

• BITCOIN HAS A NEW COMMERCIAL FOR ITS ETF

• CREDIT CARD SPENDING PILES UP AS SAVINGS DWINDLE

• NIGERIA TO ALLOW LENDERS TO DEAL WITH CRYPTO COMPANIES

• OPTIONS SHOW TRADERS HEDGING BTC ETF APPROVAL BETS

• MICROSTRATEGY BUYS 14,620 BITCOIN FOR $616M

• U.S. HOLIDAY RETAIL SALES GROW 3.1% DOWN YEAR PRIOR

• BINANCE CEO FORTUNE ROSE $25BN ON BTC REBOUND

• SPOT BTC ETF DECISION COMING IN 10 DAYS

• BARRY SILBERT RESIGNS FROM GRAYSCALE INVESTMENTS

• BULLISH BTC BETS BY INSTITUTIONS REACH ALL-TIME HIGH

• JAPAN SEEKS TO EXEMPT COMPANIES FROM TAX ON CRYPTO

• PAXOS GETS APPROVAL FROM NEW YORK TO EXPAND TO SOL

• CATHIE WOOD SAYS BITCOIN WILL REPLACE GOLD

• CRYPTO USERS LOST $2BN TO HACKS, SCAMS & EXPLOITS

• INDIA LOOKS TO BLOCK LOCAL ACCESS TO CRYPTO EXCHANGES

• BINANCE USER BASE GREW 30% DESPITE LEGAL TROUBLES

• DONALD TRUMP CRYPTO WALLET SOLD ETH WORTH $2.4M

• THE WEEK AHEAD: 

  • New Years Holiday: Market Closed

  • Construction Spending

  • U.S. Job Openings

  • U.S. Unemployment Report

Top Crypto Stories of 2023 🔝

2023 was a pretty crazy year. Here’s a quick rundown of the main events:

• Taylor Swift raised concerns about FTX, unlike other celebrities

• Sam Bankman-Fried faces up to 115 years in prison

• Several financial corps. Incl. BlackRock filed for a BTC ETF

• Binance settled a $4.3bn DOJ lawsuit for money laundering & sanctions

• Binance CEO, CZ, pleads guilty and faces 18 months in prison

• USDC depegs against the dollar

• Euler Finance attacked resulting in a $197m loss

• SEC sued Binance & Coinbase for securities law violations

• Ripple won a partial victory against the SEC

• Three Arrows Capital (crypto hedge fund) founder arrested and released

And despite ALL of that…

Bitcoin is up % and Ethereum is up %.

We are so back.

Ethereum☝🏼& Bitcoin👇🏼

Ethereum is king.

The amount of ETH owned by LONG TERM HOLDERS just passed 70%…

Long term refers to more than 1 year.

The best part?

There are MORE long term ETH holders than there are Bitcoin.

This is a hugely positive sign.

You heard it here first: 2024 is Ethereum’s year.

$10 Billion Invested in Crypto 🤑

I had mixed emotions learning this.

The good part: VC firms invested $10.7bn into crypto startups in 2023

The bad part: That’s a bucket load less than 2022.

Over $33.3bn was raised the prior year, making 2023’s figure 68% smaller.

Although almost a 70% drop, $10.7bn is still a decent amount of money.

We think 2024 will be the biggest year yet though.

Ethereum’s Big Upgrade 🛠️

Ethereum is scheduled for yet ANOTHER upgrade.

This one will commence early 2024, however will be in phases:

• Phase 1: ‘Goerli’ (Jan. 17th)

• Phase 2: ‘Sepolia’ (Jan 30th)

• Phase 3: ‘Holesky’ (Feb 7th)

• Phase 4: Mainnet (Not scheduled yet)

What’s the upgrade called?

Dencun.

What’s the point of it all though?

Just know this 1 thing for now: It aims to significantly reduce gas fees for Layer 2 rollups (Optimism, Abritrum, Polygon etc.)

FYI… ‘gas fees’ are transaction costs to use the blockchain.

This thing just gets better and better each time.

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial 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. Please be careful and do your own research.