Tom Lee: 'the chances of an ETF happening are 100%' | Hodler's Digest

Hodlers, we're here filming from Las Vegas. You know, when the market is in decline, just ask your boy Trump or ask the man in Portugal that literally fell into a hole this week in this situation. You can either blue pill it, deny everything.

Oh, it isn't truth.

Truth isn't truth.

Or you can take the red pill, accept the bearish market and talk to Fundstrat's Tom Lee or Forbes Naima Slaan. You don't have their number. Don't worry, guys, we have it.

So what's up with the market panic that describes everything. If you're a believer, you will still hold or most importantly, you will take this opportunity to buy more.

I mean, I think the crypto market's still kind of suffering from like a lingering bear market. And it's a consequence of a few things. One was just the massive speculation that started last year. The banking systems, particularly in the U.S. you know, cutting off access to credit card usage to buy crypto. The SEC really started to raise questions about the regulatory and legal framework for a lot of alternative tokens. The dollar has been strong. So I think those factors have actually all contributed to, you know, the misery that we've seen in the bear market.

But wait, there's some good news.

Bitcoin now looks like the selling intensity has exhausted itself. And I think there's finally some buying. So it's kind of a mistake to be bearish now.

Ladies and gentlemen, here is your weekly Hodler's Digest.

Mixed signals from the SEC. The SEC has again denied nine proposals for a Bitcoin et two filed by.

ProShares, one from GraniteShares and five from Direction. This result was predicted by many.

But then, somewhat unexpectedly, the SEC released a letter saying they were reviewing all.

Nine applicants despite expressing concern the previous day about fraud and manipulation of bitcoin markets, as they did with the Winglebuy application. On the ProShares application, they wrote that a national securities exchanges rules be designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative action practices, among other things. The exchanges offered no record evidence to demonstrate that bitcoin futures markets are markets of significant size. The SEC made it clear that rejection does not depend on whether they think bitcoin or blockchain technology has value as an innovation or investment. The review did not specify a deadline, nor did it say what it would entail. The big one coming up, of course, is the VanEck ETF, which the SEC announced it was delaying a decision to until September 30th.

You know the chances of an ETF approval happening in crypto eventually is 100%. We're getting every month closer to the launch of Bakkt. And you know, Bakkt is going to be, I think it's going to become a very regulated and large pool of liquidity.

The message is go back, do your homework, submit us a proper paperwork that we can verify and we can legitimize that and then yes, we will approve it. Is there a demand? That is the question.

Okay guys, no one tell Roger Ver in case he gets angry. But less and less people are now using Bitcoin cash.

A review of the world's 17 largest crypto exchanges has revealed that Bitcoin cash use in commerce has decreased. Bitcoin cash payments dropped to 3.7 million in May from 10.5 million in March. While the volume of Bitcoin payments was estimated at 60 million in May, down from a high of 412 million in September. Bitcoin Cash decreased by 75% in comparison to Bitcoin which dropped by about 55%. Concentrated ownership is believed to be the reason for the low BCH adoption rate. Between 10,000 and 100,000 Bitcoin Cash are held by just two wallets. The review claims the wealthiest holders are the ones sending a lot of traffic to merchant services. The concentration of wealth among a few investors is a worrying sign and a familiar story in the traditional banking world. What good is a transfer of wealth from the 1% to a new 1%?

There's a lot of FUD out there surrounding Bitcoin energy usage. Well, fudmeisters, get ready to fear yourselves, feel uncertain and doubt Bitcoin energy usage.

A clean energy expert hits back at critics of Bitcoin's high energy consumption. Katrina Kelly, strategy manager at the University of Pittsburgh center for Energy, says that we need to shift the debate around Bitcoin mining away from energy intensity and towards where that energy is produced and how it is generated. China is a crypto mining superpower and uses largely fossil based sources, which Kelly notes is highly problematic.

But in ICELAND and the U.S. pacific Northwest, the story is much different.

Iceland relies on almost 100% renewable geothermal and hydropower energy sources sources and the US counterpart on low carbon energy sources. In these cases, Kelly argues, miners power demands are merely irrelevant to the health of the environment. She says even if Bitcoin technology were to mature by more than 100 times its current market size, it would still equal only 2% of all energy consumption. As a recent Cohen Telegraph analysis noted. Some have argued that energy intensive and profit driven Bitcoin mining could inadvertently drive innovation to further develop clean energy sources. Mark Bevelin from Google told cointelegraph earlier this year, because miners are so sensitive to electricity prices, they are often a driver, pushing utilities to further develop renewables, which are now the cheapest source of energy.

Bitconnect. Indian police have arrested a man allegedly involved in and promoting BitConnect.

The suspect, Divyash Darjeev, was believed to be the India head of what is now widely believed to be a Ponzi scheme. He was arrested in the Delhi airport after a tip off from local immigration services. This is apparently the third case under investigation. Local promoters of BitTonex are alleged to have fled with $11.4 million worth of Bitcoin from one investor. Law enforcement claims that staff at the BitConnect office in Surat admitted that promoters had amassed millions overall from more than thousands of investors. In the midst of investigations into this web of incidents, BitConnect suddenly ceased its operation, meaning that scores of investors were no longer able to redeem or trade their holdings. Since then, former BitConnect investors have been pursuing a class action lawsuit seeking compensation from the company. If only there was a warning sign for investors. You know, something like this.

Be Connect. Wow. Be connected.

Chinese Police have arrested three highly experienced, experienced hackers suspected of stealing up to $87.3 million worth of yuan in crypto. The alarm was reportedly first raised on March 30th when the first victim claimed that his computer had been hacked and $14.5 million in various crypto holdings was stolen. Initial investigations indicated the suspect used a remote attack to transfer funds into the victim's computer without leaving a trace. Authorities received assistance from several local Internet providers, allowing them to identify all three suspects within five months. The three suspects have been charged with coordinating a wider series of remote attacks totaling about $87.3 million. The investigation is still ongoing. We leave you with some final thoughts from Tom on mass adoption.

At the moment, Bitcoin is still not well understood by the public, right? I think people think of it as either, well, look, the definitions are not even universal, right? Because you've got economists saying bitcoin is a scam and it's fake money. And then you have a lot of folks who believe crypto and digital assets represent not only an innovation in a digital economy, but also, you know, basically the definition of future money. So I think until that there's some consensus and agreement on what that means, the public is going to rely a lot more on price to tell them.

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