The 71st Hoot

Venezuela Shifts Oil Trade to Crypto šŸ¤©

April 30th, 2024

HAPPY TUESDAY, FAMILY šŸ˜Ž

WE MISSED YOU.

CAN YOU BELIEVE TOMORROW IS MAY?!

Scatt's Weekly Seeds:

šŸŒ±Venezuela Shifts Oil Trade to Crypto šŸ¤©

šŸŒ±Cryptoā€™s New $1 BILLION Fund šŸ’µ

šŸŒ±The Entire U.S. Budget on the Blockchain? šŸ‘€

šŸŒ±Stripe is Back in Crypto šŸ¤šŸ¼

Meme of The Week

Year-to-Date Returns:

  • Dow: 1.46%

  • S&P 500: 6.92%

  • Nasdaq Comp: 6.11%

  • Bitcoin: 52.03%

  • Ethereum: 46.00%

  • Solana: 37.09%

News Breakdown:

Crypto Market:

  • 7-DAY CRYPTO MARKET CAP CHANGE: NO CHANGE

  • CRYPTO INVESTMENT PRODUCT FLOW: $206M

  • SEC IS SEEKING $5.3B FINE ON TERRAFORM LABS AND DO KOWN (FOUNDER)

  • FORMER BINANCE CEO AND CO-FOUNDER CZ IS FACING UP TO 3 YRS IN PRISON

  • 2 FOUNDERS OF SAMOURAI CRYPTO WALLET SERVICE CHARGED WITH HELPING CRIMINALS LAUNDER $100M

  • SAM ALTMANā€™S WORLDCOIN EYEING PARTNERSHIP WITH OPENAI

  • DAILY INFLOWS TO BLACKROCKā€™S BITCOIN ETF DROPPED TO EFFECTIVELY ZERO

  • BITCOINā€™S EFFECTIVE INFLATION RATE IS 0.85% AFTER A SUCCESSFUL HALVING

Credit & Debt Markets:

  • 10-YR TREASURY YIELD: 4.

  • INTER MILAN NEGOTIATING NEW LOAN UP TO $426M FROM PIMCO

  • CITI AND WELLS FARGO PREPPING $2B DEBT PACKAGE TO SUPPORT BERRY GLOBAL SPINOFF OF GLATFELTER

  • RBC LEADS $365M BOND SALE TO OFFLOAD DEBT RELATED TO APOLLOā€™S LBO OF TENNECO IN 2022

  • QUINCY, MA ISSUES FIRST BLOCKCHAIN-BASED BOND DEAL IN USA

  • COPPER MINER ANTOFAGASTA MULLING FIRST DOLLAR BOND SALE IN 2 YEARS

This Weekā€™s Economic Calendar:

  • FOMC Interest Rate Decision (Wednesday)

  • Fed Chair Press Conference (Wednesday)

Venezuela Shifts Oil Trade to Crypto šŸ¤©

Whatever the reason, crypto will find a way.

In this case: Sanctions.

Venezuela is an oil-rich nation, however theyā€™re not great friends with the U.S.

The U.S. recently reimposed sanctions on Venezuelan oil trade, and for those that donā€™t knowā€¦ ALL global oil trade is settled in USD.

Itā€™s part of the reason that makes the Dollar so powerful.

Anyway, Venezuela decided to slap back and is increasing their reliance on digital currencies to settle their oil exports.

Thereā€™s always interesting components to consider, but the 2 things weā€™re seeing is:

  • There is now 1 currency in play and the need to hedge/manipulate FX markets to buy/sell a product is not necessary

  • The transactions are completely transparent and settle much faster

Something like this would take time to build out, but once its thereā€¦ man it could be game changing not just for oil, but trade on a global scale.

Cryptoā€™s New $1 BILLION Fund šŸ’µ

Pantera is back in the headlines.

My 6th sense is telling me that bull is starting to warm upā€¦ we are on the cusp.

In case youā€™re not familiar with Pantera:

  • Launched the first crypto fund in the US 10 years ago

  • Invested in Bitcoin since 2013

  • Fundā€™s lifetime return is more than 10,000%

And they are now looking to raise a new $1 BILLION purely crypto fund.

The fund will be called Pantera Fund V & will focus on startup equity, early stage tokens and liquid tokens

Pantera is a huge name in the space having invested in more than 180 startups

So therefore, the more Pantera raises = the more money that goes into crypto startups and the broader ecosystem

Simple math.

The one time that politics might result in something positive.

Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr recently said in a Michigan rally that he was going to:

ā€œPut the entire U.S. budget on the blockchainā€¦ that way any citizen can track the budget and see spending in real timeā€

He then went on to say ā€œā€¦ If somebody spends $16,000 for a toilet seat, everyone (300 million people) is gonna know about itā€

All of a sudden those government officials start to reek of fear and guilt.

Now THIS is interesting, folks. Itā€™s for transparency purposes like this that the blockchain was created.

I know I know.. this sounds ridiculous. But you know whatā€™s worse?

The Pentagon has failed 6 auditsā€¦ IN A ROW.

They could only account for HALF of its $3.8T in assets. So essentially just $1.9T gone into thin air?? šŸ˜³

A blockchain might help us fix this.

Will it happen?

Unfortunately, very unlikely.

Stripe is Back in Crypto šŸ¤šŸ¼

6 long years.

Stripe has finally made its way back to crypto.

The FinTech giant will begin supporting USDC as a payment method

These transactions will then settle instantly on chain, and then automatically convert to fiat (government currency)

These payments can be settled on Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon networks

And this will all be integrated in the next few weeks!

Stripe is a behemoth of a company.

They currently have a $65bn valuation and processed over $1T in transactions last year.

The best part about this all is NOT that you pay in crypto, its that the SELLER recieves normal fiat currency (ie. USD) and has no idea or the need to know that you paid in crypto.

So in simple terms, USDC will become a completely normal part of the economy without everyone even fully realizing it.

Beautiful to see.

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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, sell or hold any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.