The Hoot #31

Scatt's Seeds for Thought:

🌱 RFK & A Bitcoin Standard 🔥

🌱 FedNow’s Official Launch 👎🏼

🌱 Decentralized Green Energy ⚡️

🌱 Cathie Woods On Bitcoin 🎯

Meme of The Week

Year-to-date Market Performance:

• S&P 500: 18.15%

• Dow: 6.28%

• Nasdaq Comp: 34.07%

• Bitcoin: 80.61%

• Ethereum: 57.96%

• Scatt Capital’s Fortune Strategy: 9.32% (Since Inception (12/22): 4.98%)

Market News:

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

• RETAIL SALES RISE FOR 3RD STRAIGHT MONTH

• ONLY 1% OF HOMES HAVE CHANGED HANDS THIS YEAR

• BLACKSTONE FIRST PE GROUP TO HIT $1 TRILLION AUM

• $2.4 TRN IN OPTIONS EXPIRED ON FRIDAY: VOLATILITY CATALYST

• KUWAIT IMPOSES ABSOLUTE CRYPTO BAN

• RUSSIA HIKES KEY RATE FOR FIRST TIME SINCE SEP. 2022

• INDONESIA LAUNCHES NATIONAL CRYPTO EXCHANGE

• 25% OF WORK TASKS EXPECTED TO BE AUTOMATED BY AI

• MICROSOFT CEO AMASSES $1BN IN COMPENSATION

• TSMC DELAYS OPENING OF ARIZONA-BASED CHIP FACTORY

• ASIA PRIVATE CREDIT MARKET IS THRIVING

• AMAZON LAUNCHES PAY-BY-PALM IN ALL WHOLEFOODS STORES

• THE WEEK AHEAD: 

  • FOMC Rate Decision

  • PCE Index (Inflation)

  • Pending Home Sales

  • 20% of the S&P 500 Report Q2 Earnings

RFK & A Bitcoin Standard 🔥

The Bitcoin president.

Nephew of JFK, Democratic presidential candidate RFK is bold.

He just announced a proposed plan to exempt Bitcoin from capital gains tax (massive)….

AND… to back the USD with ‘real finite assets’ like gold, silver & Bitcoin.

We’ve seen the gold standard before… but the Bitcoin standard?

Very interesting, RFK. Very interesting.

The plan would be to start small with just 1% of T-Bills, and slowly roll it out.

He’s certainly setting himself apart from his competitors like Joe Biden, who just proposed a 30% tax on Bitcoin miners.

As we get closer to the election, expect this to become more of a focal point.

FedNow’s Official Launch 👎🏼

It’s here… The Federal Reserve’s new instant payment system AKA ‘FedNow’.

It essentially just allows banks to transfer money 24/7, instantly - meaning banks can now process transactions in seconds, not days.

Current facts as far as we know:

• 41 banks are signed up, including JPM, Wells Fargo, & USB

• It’s built on the Metal blockchain

• It plans to onboard all 10,000 financial institutions in the USA

Sounds great, right? Yeah not so much…

This is likely the first step to the implementation of CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) which are incredibly BAD news.

FedNow? FedNoThankYou.

Decentralized Green Energy ⚡️

The Sicilian islands are ‘postcard’ beautiful, and they’re now making headlines…

Energy companies on Lampedusa & Favignana are trying something new: microgrids that combine blockchain tech & solar panels ⚡️

How?

• Solar panels get installed on a house

• A blockchain-based energy management system also gets put in

• Any energy that ISN’T used by the house can be sold on the blockchain

How cool is that?

We hear it’s also being used at the University of Palermo.

This is a GREAT plan for countries that struggle to produce & manage their energy supplies.

Could certainly be put to use in South Africa.

Cathie Woods On Bitcoin 🎯

Cathie Woods & Michael Saylor. Investing Pioneers.

Woods runs ARK Invest, a large investment manager. She’s bullish on all-things technology & futuristic, including crypto.

In a recent quarterly report, ARK stated that they expect the price of Bitcoin to reach $1.5 million in the next 7 years 💰

She also just stated on live TV that they’re increasingly confident in that prediction.

If they’re right, you would turn a $10,00 investment into roughly $490,000 🚀

Boom! Let’s hope she’s right.

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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 researche Wo