The Hoot #15

The 3rd Biggest Bitcoin Whale šŸ‹

Author

Matt Brimacombe
April 3rd, 2023

Scatt's Seeds for Thought:

šŸŒ± Is Apple a Bank? šŸ¦

šŸŒ± The 3rd Biggest Bitcoin Whale šŸ‹

šŸŒ± What is Web 3.0? šŸ•øļø

šŸŒ± Flybondi Issues Airline Tickets as NFTs šŸ›©ļø

Meme of The Week

Year-to-date Market Performance:

  • S&P 500: 7.03%

  • Dow: 0.38%

  • Nasdaq Comp.: 16.77%

  • Bitcoin: 71.56%

  • Ethereum: 51.49%

  • Scatt Capitalā€™s Fortune Strategy: 32.36% (Since Inception: 28.03%)

  • Scatt Capitalā€™s Flight Strategy: 4.10% (Since Inception: 4.10%)

  • Welcome to the 2nd Quarter! Check out our Instagram here for a Q1 recap.

  • 7-Day Change in Crypto Market Cap: +45bn

  • Pending Home Sales increased 0.8% MoM vs. an estimate of -2.3%.

  • Initial Jobless Claims came in at 198k vs. an estimated 196k.

  • Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index (PCE) data came in at a 5% YoY increase, vs. an estimate of 5.1%.

  • Personal Income MoM came in at 0.3%, vs. an estimated 0.2%.

  • Personal Spending MoM came in at 0.2% vs. an estimated 0.3%.

  • Data for the Week Ahead: Jobless claims, consumer credit, and U.S. trade balance for Feb.

Is Apple a Bank? šŸ¦

Apple is the most valuable company in the world, worth approximately $2.5 TRILLION šŸ‘€ People mostly know them to sell products like iPhones, iPads, and Macs, but around 20% of revenue is made through services (their most profitable division) like Apple Music, Apple TV, & iCloud. They also have another service which they launched a few years ago in partnership with Goldman Sachs: The Apple credit card. Last week, they announced a bolt-on to their 'finance' division, if you will, and launched a 'buy-now-pay-later' service (or BNPL). This is a type of installment loan whereby your purchase (which can be as simple as t-shirt) is divided into multiple equal payments, with the first due at checkout. The remaining payments are then billed until the full purchase price is fulfilled.

The significance? BNPL services have become INCREDIBLY popular over the last few years, particularly with the younger generations (like gens. Y & Z), and 'Apple Pay Later' carries 0% INTEREST šŸ¤Æ FYI...They make money by taking a cut from the retailer.

The Fine Print (Scatt knows that the devil is in the details): Apple will allow customers to split purchases UP TO $1,000 into 4 equal payments across 6 weeks. So unfortunately you won't be able to buy that Ferrari and pay it off over 82 years šŸŽļø

The crazy thing is that Apple has 1.8 BILLION active devices across the globe (and JPM Chase - the biggest bank in the world - only has 66m customers), so... did Apple just become the biggest financial institution (without a bank charter, might I add) overnight? šŸ§ CEO of JPM, Jamie Dimon seems to think so stating "If you move money, hold money, manage money, and lend money... you're a bank". All food for thought, I suppose šŸ’­ Lets see how it unfolds.

The Third Biggest Bitcoin Whale šŸ‹

If you're friendly with the crypto dictionary you've probably heard of the term 'Whale', and no I'm not talking about Free Willy. Crypto whales are either individuals or entities that own enormous amounts of a specific cryptocurrency - and when I say enormous, I mean they can significantly influence market prices by trading their positions (the whale threshold is 5,000 BTC, or $142m as of writing šŸ˜®). There are several whales out there, including Satoshi Nakamoto (the pseudonym for the creator of bitcoin), Brian Armstrong (CEO of Coinbase), The FBI (don't get me started), and Michael Saylor among others.

Michael Saylor is the co-founder and executive chairman of Microstrategy - a company that provides business intelligence, mobile software & other cloud-based services. It also happens to be the third biggest crypto whale out there, holding approximately 138,955 bitcoins šŸ˜³ as of March 27, 2023. Their average purchase price was $29,817/bitcoin, which brings their cost basis to $4.14 billion šŸ« .

This news comes after Microstrategy announced it repaid its Silvergate loan at a 22% discount, and in turn acquired an additional 6,455 bitcoins for ~$150m at an average price of $23,238 šŸ’° This brings Microstrategy's total holdings to approx. 0.7% of the total bitcoin supply (considering there will only ever be 21 million). This guy is either going to go down as one of the biggest fools in history, or one of the greatest investors of all time šŸŽ² We believe the latter is the case.

What is Web 3.0? šŸ•øļø

Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0... these concepts used to run through my head every time I read article titles that mentioned it because I had no idea what the hell they were on about. So how many 'webs' even are there and what do they actually mean/do? Here is a quick rundown to help you understand šŸƒšŸ»ā€ā™‚ļø:

  • Web 1.0: Take a dictionary, digitize everything inside it, and make it accessible to people online to looks at (but not interact with it) - and you've just built Web 1.0. It was often dubbed as the 'read-only' web as it lacked the necessary forms, visuals controls that we use on today's internet šŸ‘¾

  • Web 2.0: If Web 1 was the 'read-only' web, Web 2.0 is the 'read, write' web. It's essentially just a better, more-enhanced version of its predecessor, allowing users to interact with and generate their own content through things like Social media, podcasting, commenting etc. šŸ’¬ FYI... you're using Web 2.0 right now.

  • Web 3.0: Built on the foundation of concepts like decentralization, openness, and better user utility. Web 1.0 was 'read-only', Web 2.0 was 'read, write', Web 3.0 is 'read, write, execute'. Moves away from centralized platforms like Google, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube etc. and towards decentralized, anonymous šŸ‘¤ platforms, giving users more authority and control over their information and online interactions.

Me trying to explain this all...

Again, this is just a brief rundown of the differences... if you want to check out a full explanation, click here. When it comes to Web 3.0, however, it is slightly difficult to explain because there is still quite a way to go until reaching full realization, however the core principles are what truly matters. Web 3.0 is malleable, and accommodates innovative technologies, like blockchain, DAOs, & metaverses giving users an even better experience, all while increasing safety and security for users? Sounds like a no-brainer to me šŸ§ 

Flybondi Issues Airline Tickets as NFTs šŸ›©ļø

We've had the Australian Open getting involved in NFTs, Ticketmaster, Nike, the NBA, and now we've got Argentine Airline Flybondi coming to the party too. The low-cost airline is integrating Web 3.0 into its business, and announced a new system called 'Ticket 3.0'. The ticketing platform, which is built on the Algorand platform (another decentralized network), allows passengers to change the name, transfer or even sell their 'NFTickets' independently, according to CoinDesk šŸŽŸļø

The company said that the new system offer a more flexible travel experience, allowing passengers to even buy their tickets in advance without having a travel plan, let alone who the travellers will even be. Simultaneously, the airline is able to reduce costs relating to customer service, and increase top line from the trading fees associated. It's a win-win šŸ¤šŸ¼

Our thoughts? This is huge šŸ¤© We honestly believe that this will have a real net benefit, and overall positive impact on the aviation industry, hopefully encouraging other airlines to follow suit. Changing the rules of the game is never an easy thing, but innovation is a product of that process - and it happens one way or another šŸ› ļø

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See you next week šŸ¦‰

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.