The Hoot #20

Scatt's Seeds for Thought:

🌱 Stripe Just Saved Crypto 🛟

🌱 $3.4bn, Bitcoin & South Africa 🇿🇦

🌱 Warren Buffett likes Dividends 👍🏼

🌱 A Decade of Financial Data 📊

Meme of The Week

Year-to-date Market Performance:

• S&P 500: 7.73%

• Dow: 1.59%

• Nasdaq Comp.: 16.90%

• Bitcoin: 78.44%

• Ethereum: 65.97%

• Scatt Capital’s Fortune Strategy: 33.81% (Since Inception: 29.44%)

• 7-Day Change in Crypto Market Cap: +$12bn

• The Fed raised interest rates by 25bps, as expected

• The ECB raised interest rates by 25bps, somewhat expected

• U.S. Job Openings for March came in slightly lower (9.6m) than expected (9.7m), hinting that the labor market is cooling

• Unemployment rate is at 3.4% - this is the lowest in 50 years. Good news for the economy = bad news for the market. A tight labor market screams policy tightening

• Data for the Week Ahead: Big inflation week with CPI (April) on Wednesday, and PPI (April) on Thursday

Stripe Just Saved Crypto 🛟

Silvergate, Signature and SVB served as the bridge between the fiat financial system (TradFi) and the world of crypto and DeFi, but that bridge is no longer 🪦💀 Cryptonians started to lose hope, but then...

Enter Stripe... the multinational payments services company. They operate in 47 countries, and processed $640bn payments in 2021 - and they've just created a fiat-to-crypto ON-RAMP 💰

This enables people to buy crypto with their fiat (easily), and either use or transfer it instantly. This comes at a crucial time where crypto businesses have few traditional banks/financial houses to turn to.

Huge credit to Stripe for leading the pack and offering these services, especially considering tons of companies are bailing/forgoing crypto-related plans☝🏼

$3.4bn, Bitcoin & South Africa 🇿🇦

South Africa is usually known for its beautiful beaches, the great food & wildlife tours, not billion dollar crypto lawsuits. Johann Steynberg decided to change that 👎🏼

Steynberg & Mirror Trading International were ordered to pay a total of $3.4bn in restitution and fines for a Bitcoin fraud scheme. This marks the highest ever civil-penalty amount charged in a CFTC case... Proudly setting records 🇿🇦

The charge comes from the CFTC (a U.S. regulating body) considering the company accepted payments from around 23,000 U.S. citizens without prior registration in the country... rookie move.

In December, 2020 he fled to Brazil which is where he was picked up by the local police. He's awaiting extradition to either the U.S. or South Africa. If he made it to Rio De Janeiro, I hope he prayed to the Jesus statue because I don't see him getting out of this one...

Warren Buffett Likes Dividends 👍🏼

Berkshire Hathaway had their earnings day this past weekend. As per usual, the company produced solid results. They sold some stocks, bought some stocks, and left a few positions unchanged.

The 1 interesting takeaway had to do with dividends... Buffett's favorite word. Apple just upped their dividend by 4%, paying out $214bn to Berkshire alone 🥲

Considering Buffett owns 915 million shares, he will earn approx. $860 billion IN JUST DIVIDENDS from Apple in 2023... 🫠

Another cool part is that Buffett officially announced his heir... Greg Abel. Check out his profile here. They're both great investors, and I have no doubt that Berkshire will be steered in the right direction 🚢

A Decade of Financial Data 📊

The simple 60/40 strategy is dead. FYI, I'm talking about the traditional 60% stocks, 40% bonds portfolio allocation. Whether you like it or not, crypto now has a seat at the table. Don't believe me? Here are the facts...

If you had invested in these assets 10 years ago, these would be your returns:

• BTC? +25,500%

• Tesla? +4,375%

• Apple? +1,108%

• Microsoft? +1,011%

• Amazon? +730%

• Google? +404%

• S&P 500? +205%

• Gold? +34%

It's true, hindsight vision is always 20/20 - and history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme. This might be the first, but I can assure you that it certainly won't be the last.

Still don't feel like including crypto in your portfolio?

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See you next week 🦉

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.