⌐◪-◪ → The Peregrine 1 spacecraft took off at 2:18 am ET today, carrying a Bitcoin private key engraved on a 43-gram physical coin with a public vanity address — 1MoonBTCixFH3XTrWRCbMpK23o74nQrA1Q.

The wallet holds 1.013 BTC ($45,677 USD), which was funded by BitMEX, Astrobotic Technology, Bitcoin Magazine, and Oxcart Assembly.

The 7-week cruise puts the spacecraft on course for a lunar landing on Friday, Feb 23.

I wonder if we’ll ever see the day where the cost of a trip to the moon < 1 BTC? The arbitrageurs would love that.

Also: the spacecraft contains some DOGE.

⌐◪-◪ → Normies always ask me, “but can you even spend Bitcoin?”.

And the answer is emphatically yes, although you should probably just HODL and avoid being the next infamous 10,000 BTC Pizza story.

On a more serious note, creating ways to spend/use Bitcoin is critical to mainstream adoption - as it removes the need to convert to fiat.

In 2009, there were zero businesses accepting Bitcoin. Fast forward to 2023, there are now 6,300 vendors that accept Bitcoin - with the vast majority in Latin America.

That total is nearly 3x more than the number of vendors who accepted Bitcoin in 2022, which was only 2,200.

Check out BTC Map’s website for real-time vendor adoption data.

⌐◪-◪ → Nothing beats some good ol’ fashioned healthy competition - as we watch the spot Bitcoin ETF applicants battle it out for the lowest ETF fees.

Here is the current fee schedule (as of 8:44 am ET) which ranges from 0.24-1.5%.

BitWise is in the lead at a 0.24% fee AND will waive all fees for the first 6 months. Meanwhile, Grayscale is sitting at a hefty 1.5%, yikes.

Remember, when fees are lower than costs, you have to ask yourself how the asset manager is actually making money. Usually the answer is securities lending, which carries hidden risks for investors.

Not your keys, not your coins.