🚀 Welcome to Crypto Coinundrums Weekly Digest! 🚀
In this week’s edition:
💥 Bitcoin’s Ordinals Explosion & Blockchain Growth
- Bitcoin’s blockchain growth rate and predictions
- The balancing act of nodes in this data-heavy environment
🐶 The Rise and Impact of the Meme Economy
- Dogecoin and other meme-based cryptocurrencies
- Influences on financial markets and potential risks
📉 Silvergate Capital’s NYSE Surprise Exit
- Silvergate Bank’s crypto-related struggles
- The wider implications for the crypto industry
🐦 Musk’s Unexpected Twexit
- Musk’s short-lived tenure as Twitter’s CEO
- The aftermath and what lies ahead for Twitter
🎢 Hang on tight as we delve into a week filled with financial upturns, meme madness, and digital drama!
The Aftermath of the Ordinals Explosion: Bitcoin’s Big Bang
Think of Bitcoin’s blockchain in its infancy, a wee babe just toddling around the digital world. Well, time flies and toddlers grow, especially when they’re fed a steady diet of ordinal inscriptions. Now, this once pint-sized kiddo has matured into a hulking brute, adding a muscular 24GB of data to its stature since February. If you’re counting, that’s a 5.3% growth spurt in just a few months, and an impressive 18% growth from the previous year.
The Scale of the Beast: Bitcoin’s Blockchain Size
The Bitcoin blockchain size is hovering on the edge of 480GB – practically bursting at the digital seams. It first hit puberty, or 1GB, in February 2012, and it’s been hitting the digital gym ever since. Glassnode, our resident blockchain trainers, have been adjusting their size predictions faster than a reality show celebrity changes outfits.
Futures Market: Predictions for the Blockchain Size
With our current diet of 2.5MB blocks, our beloved Bitcoin blockchain is set to hit the 500GB mark by June. If we switch to the 4MB block size, we might see a mammoth 600GB by September, Glassnode forecasts.
The Nodes of Knowledge: A Data Balancing Act
As a node, you’ve got the weighty responsibility of carrying around a hefty load of data, almost half a terabyte. But you can trim down by pruning the Ordinals inscription transaction data. Currently, there are 17,112 nodes flexing their data muscles across the globe.
The Memecoin Madness: A Slight Reprieve
The frenzy of memecoin minting is showing signs of slowing down, with transactions and fees doing the limbo. Still, the party isn’t over with around 300,000 transactions waiting in line for the mempool dance floor. Moreover, daily transactions are still partying hard at around 533,000, according to BitInfoCharts.
Bitcoin’s Wild Ride: Fasten Your Seatbelts
In the thrill ride that is Bitcoin, we’re currently in a 13.7% dip from its 2023 peak of roughly $31,000 in mid-April, dipping towards the $26,000 range. With the fear and greed index dropping down from 69 to 48, we are seeing some more fear in the market. Which isn’t a bad thing, it’s all part of the cycle of bitcoin’s life.
A Doge-Eat-Doge World: The Unleashing of the Meme Economy
In the midst of 2020’s lockdown pajama parties, a peculiar phenomenon was taking the digital world by storm – memes. The pandemic-induced isolation turned the world into hermits, pushing us deeper into the abyss of the internet where memes, like the 50% off pizza flyers, were impossible to ignore.
The Rise of the Meme Maestro: Dogecoin
Back in 2020, while we were baking banana bread and perfecting the art of Dalgona coffee, a certain Shiba Inu dog was making waves online. Enter Dogecoin, the meme turned cryptocurrency, that started as a tongue-in-cheek commentary in 2013, had us laughing all the way to the digital bank in 2021. From being an internet punchline, Dogecoin catapulted itself to become one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies in the world, with a peak value crossing 69 cents.
Memes: The New Market Mavens
Traditionally, Wall Street brokers and business moguls were the market influencers. But now, we have a new player in town – memes. Imagine a world where the next Warren Buffet might just be a picture of a cat playing a piano. Unthinkable, right? But, that’s what the meme economy is all about.
Memes have morphed from being carriers of slapstick humor to potent vessels of cultural currency. They are the new-age conduits for expressing emotions, spreading ideas, and, most importantly, influencing financial markets. It’s like the Wi-Fi signals – invisible but omnipresent, connecting people and shaping public opinions.
Investor Alert: Uncharted Meme Territory
For investors, meme-based cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin are like riding a roller-coaster blindfolded. One moment you are on cloud nine, and the next, you’re plunging into the abyss. They are volatile, unpredictable, and packed with adrenaline. It’s like betting on a horse because it has the funniest name, and sometimes, just sometimes, it might end up winning the race.
The Business of Memes: Opportunity or Threat?
For businesses, memes are like that distant relative at a family gathering – they can either light up the room or create an awkward silence. Brands need to be attuned to how memes could potentially influence their image and bottom line. They could be a goldmine of virality or a ticking PR disaster waiting to happen.
Memes at the Wheel: Driving Financial Markets
The meme economy has made its debut and it’s turning heads. Take the Dogecoin pump-and-dump scheme of 2020, where online investors used memes to drive the price sky-high before cashing out, leaving others in the dust. Then there was the GameStock saga of 2021, where memes fueled an unexpected stock price surge, causing hedge funds to lose billions.
The Future of the Meme Economy: Memes as Global Connectors
As we look to the future, one thing is clear: the meme economy is becoming a global phenomenon. Memes are breaking down language barriers and reaching audiences worldwide. They are a new form of communication, one that transcends cultural and geographical boundaries.
With the increasing sophistication of memes, we can expect them to play an even more significant role in shaping public opinion, influencing markets, and even driving social change. The meme economy is here to stay, and its impact will only grow in the years to come.
The future of the meme economy is bright, but it’s also unpredictable. So, whether you’re an investor looking for the next big thing or a business trying to stay relevant, remember: in the meme economy, the only constant is change. And a good sense of humor.
Silvergate Capital Bids Adieu to NYSE, Crypto Space Left Bewildered
Silvergate Capital, the proverbial apple tree from which Silvergate Bank fell, has just decided to play a thrilling game of “musical chairs” with its NYSE listing. The music stopped, and alas, they’re left standing, announcing a prompt delisting from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Simultaneously, they’re planning a “not-so-fond” farewell to 230 employees as part of a plot twist known as restructuring
Crypto’s Wall Street Darling Takes a Tumble
Silvergate Bank is the cool aunt in the traditional banking family, focusing on providing services to cryptocurrency businesses. However, Auntie Silvergate has hit a rocky patch, thanks to Bitcoin and its crypto comrades taking a nosedive in the markets. Back in March, Silvergate announced its plans for a “voluntary liquidation” of the bank.
The departure of Silvergate Capital from the NYSE is akin to losing a VIP guest at the crypto party. As one of the few publicly traded companies that dared to dance with the crypto devil, its delisting could create hurdles for crypto companies looking to raise capital.
A “Wake-Up Call” from WEF
According to a tweet from the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Silvergate delisting serves as a morning alarm for the crypto industry. The WEF suggests this event underlines the “highly volatile” and “unregulated” nature of the crypto market. Thanks, WEF, for reminding us that investing in crypto is like bungee jumping without a safety harness.
Investors, Beware
The Silvergate delisting is a critical juncture for the crypto universe. It highlights the volatile and unregulated characteristics of the crypto market. However, let’s not forget that despite its infancy and associated risks, crypto has the potential to redefine our understanding of money. Faster, cheaper, and more secure transactions – who wouldn’t want that? The future is murky, but the allure is undeniable.
The Nitty Gritty
Silvergate Capital’s stock will be unceremoniously removed from the NYSE guest list on June 15, 2023. The company plans to bid adieu to 230 employees, which is about 10% of its workforce. Both the delisting and layoffs are part of Silvergate Capital’s extreme home makeover: business edition.
The delisting of Silvergate Capital might feel like a slap in the face for the cryptocurrency industry, but it’s not necessarily a sign of doom. The crypto market is still a youngster, and like any growing entity, it will have its ups, downs, and awkward phases. So, while the potential benefits are worth considering, investors should also always mind the risks before diving headfirst into the cryptocurrency pool.
Elon Musk’s Twexit: The Tweetstorm Aftermath
Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!
My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2023
He came, he tweeted, and he conquered. And now he’s leaving. In a twist of events that even Nostradamus wouldn’t be able to predict, SpaceX and Tesla maverick, Elon Musk, announced his stepping down as CEO of Twitter. He had only just warmed his seat in October 2022, after orchestrating a cool $44 billion acquisition.
The New Tweet-Master
In a typical Musk-esque tweet, he revealed the appointment of a new CEO for X Corp., Twitter’s parent company. The identity of this mysterious lady by now has been revealed to be Linda Yaccarino, former chair of advertising sales for NBCUniversal. She is set to take the reins in late June or early July, following the firing spree Musk initiated with former CEO Parag Agrawal.
Elon’s Continued Tweet-Spree
Fear not, Musketeers! Our tweet-happy billionaire assured his legion of followers that he’s not completely abandoning the Twitter-ship. He plans to stick around as a member of the board of directors, ensuring his continued involvement in Twitter’s future.
A Tweet-Storm of Controversy
Musk’s decision trails behind a whirlwind of controversy at Twitter, including his dramatic firing of Agrawal and his intriguing attempt to privatize the platform.
Musk’s abrupt departure is like dropping a tweet-bomb in the social media landscape. As the dust settles, it’s clear that reactions will be as mixed as a bag of skittles. Stay tuned, folks, the next chapter in the Twitter saga promises to be a real tweet-turner!
Well folks, that about sums it up for the week. Subscribe to the HODL.fm newsletter and stay tuned for more wacky, interesting and exciting crypto related content!
