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⌐◪-◪ → The Emir of Qatar just flew to El Salvador and met with President Nayib Bukele, a Bitcoin bull purchasing 1 BTC/day for El Salvador since November 2022.

This led to the continuation of rumors that Qatar is secretly accumulating Bitcoin, which if they are is probably on a scale much larger than 1 BTC/day.

In fact, it could very well be this wallet purchasing 100 BTC/day.

Now if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll remember that yesterday we wrote about Arizona adding Bitcoin to their state retirement funds, and how that could not only set off a race among States to purchase Bitcoin, but a race between Nations.

If we can confirm Qatar is accumulating Bitcoin, then the Great Bitcoin Race may be closer than we think.

Per usual, Snowden was right.

⌐◪-◪ → The spot Bitcoin ETFs continue accumulating Bitcoin, now holding roughly 4% of the entire 21 million Bitcoin supply. BlackRock alone holds 0.89% of the total supply.

This news is exciting, but it’s a double-edged sword, and here’s why.

• On one hand, it’s bringing a lot of fresh capital into the market, which is good for Bitcoin’s price and market cap.

• On the other, it means an increasing portion of Bitcoin’s supply is controlled by the same financial incumbents Bitcoin was designed to displace.

I’m beginning to think this cycle will be our longest ever as we see corporations, banks, states, and entire nations fight to accumulate a very finite supply of Bitcoin.

⌐◪-◪ → Yesterday evening there were 435+ leveraged Pudgy Penguin loans on Blur and another 300+ on other platforms.

Like any leveraged bet, if the price of the collateralized asset drops, then the asset gets liquidated to cover the loan. Of course, this can lead to a downward death spiral, where loan liquidations continue to drive the underlying asset’s price lower, triggering further liquidations.

This is exactly what’s happening to Pudgy Penguins, with the floor plummeting from 20 ETH to 10 ETH in just a few days.

It’s so bad that David Choi, the founder of NFT lending protocol MetaStreet, decided to inject $2M of personal funds to stop the death spiral. This could prove to be a pretty brilliant marketing stunt IMO.

Anyway, this is why most people should never use leverage.

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