We kicked off the inaugural Iconic Insider in July to give our community a general update on all things Iconic as well as reflect back on what transpired in crypto during the prior month. July may be the hottest month of the year, but August was even hotter for Iconic and crypto!
I see the biggest news for crypto in the month of August being the validation of Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset by MicroStrategy, a Nasdaq-listed company. MicroStrategy announced it had purchased 21,454 Bitcoin, or roughly .1% of the total amount of 21,000,000 Bitcoin that will ever exist, making Bitcoin its primary treasury reserve asset. The stock jumped 9% that day! Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy CEO, said “This investment reflects our belief that Bitcoin is a dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash. Our decision to invest in Bitcoin at this time was driven in part by a confluence of macro factors affecting the economic and business landscape that we believe is creating long-term risks for our corporate treasury program ― risks that should be addressed proactively. Those macro factors include, among other things, the economic and public health crisis precipitated by COVID-19, unprecedented government financial stimulus measures including quantitative easing adopted around the world, and global political and economic uncertainty.”
Apologies for the long quote from Mr. Saylor, but it is too perfect to not present in its entirety. Earlier this year I posited the economic crisis caused by COVID and the endless money-printing to combat the economic fallout of the pandemic would create Bitcoin’s Perfect Storm. Mr. Saylor must have either read my article, or he has some great financial minds advising him over at MicroStrategy (obviously it’s the latter). Following Paul Tudor Jones’ dive into Bitcoin, MicroStrategy is now the glowing example for how EVERY PUBLIC COMPANY will inevitably be managing its treasury and capital reserves, at least partially, with Bitcoin. Expect a significant number of companies to follow in 2020.
Heck, even Mr. “Stonks Only Go UP”, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, has gotten into the crypto scene. After recording a well-circulated interview he did with the Winklevoss twins, who foolishly attempted to convince Dave that Bitcoin was worth investing in because “Elon will mine gold in space”, Dave invested heavily in Bitcoin and Chainlink, a well-known and pumping “altcoin.” Frustrated by crypto’s volatility (it does not always, and only, go up), Dave exited and has been merely teasing interest to reenter the crypto market.
Why am I mentioning this? Well, Mr. Portnoy has become a well-followed day trader of stocks in his new DDTG segment he has launched while bored at home during COVID. While this enhances crypto’s visibility to retail investors, it is a cautionary tale for those entering crypto who cannot stomach the volatility, especially if you do not fully understand what you are investing in and don’t have excess capital to lose. As we say in crypto, DYOR!
To close the month, it was announced Fidelity’s President had filed for a new Bitcoin fund with the SEC. While details are currently scarce, the fund is seemingly for accredited and institutional investors only. Fidelity, the manager of roughly $8.3 trillion of client assets, ventured into crypto a few years back, offering fund managers, such as our good friends at Nickel Digital Asset Management, institutional-grade custody and trading facilities. It was inevitable the asset management behemoth would begin launching their own funds, and it is a welcome sign for a crypto industry which has been clamoring for institutional adoption for years. The institutions are officially here, and things are only heating up as other large players will begin entering in the near future.
Things were insanely hot for Iconic in August as well! After unveiling Iconic’s Multi-Manager platform in July, we were quickly able to announce Napoleon as the first manager to join the platform, as well as a partnership with Enigma Securities, a technology-driven financial institution dedicated to corporate client solutions for cryptoassets. Enigma offers immense value to the managers who join the platform, offering technical solutions for liquidity and trading as well as fund distribution through their FCA-regulated broker-dealer. We are excited to work together, and equally as excited to add a second crypto asset manager to the platform in August! Interest in the Multi-Manager is going exponential, with the Iconic team currently diligencing over a dozen managers and their strategies as well as receiving immensely positive feedback from family offices and fund-of-fund investment groups.
Iconic Lab’s portfolio company, Captain Bitcoin, skyrocketed to 100,000 users while still in Beta. The tremendous work of the team has quickly, and quietly, made Captain Bitcoin the world’s #1 dApp! The Captain is inching closer to enabling the withdraw of the CAPT token from the platform, at which point, all dApp sites will register the CAPT smart contract interactions and recognize the platform in its rightful place as a leading dApp. Prior to the withdraw, The Captain made trading pairs to ETH, BTC, ICNQ and UBT on Uniswap and Jelly.Market, as well as released his whitepaper for the CAPT token (I LOVE the staking mechanism!). I see big things for CAPT in the very near future!
The ICNQ token was also matched with a few trading pairs on Uniswap. This has brought much needed liquidity to its holders and, in my personal view, will prove to be valuable to the ICNQ community as the business side of Iconic goes into hyperdrive over the coming months! Big things are on the horizon.
As we turn the page to September, I am overly excited to continue working with the Iconic team to deliver novel, innovate investment products for investors seeking exposure to various facets of the crypto space. These are exciting times, indeed, and it should only be a short matter of time until we can share more information with the general public. You are also welcome to consider this your final warning on Unibright’s native UBT token as I suspect there is massive news on the horizon. After all, UBT is VIP.
I hope you have all had a great summer and have been able to stay safe! Cheers!
- So, you wanna go to a DeFi Party?
- Dr. Satoshi or: How I Learned to Double (Risk-Adjusted) ROI and Love the Bitcoin
- Bitcoin’s Perfect Storm
- The Impact of Crypto Currencies on the Sharpe Ratio of Traditional Investment Models
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