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The Node Ahead 39: Analyzing bitcoin as an ESG investment

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By Brett Munster

ESG investing, which stands for environmental, social and governance, refers to a set of standards used by socially conscious investors to screen potential investments. In addition to generating financial returns, ESG investors are concerned with investing in assets that will have a positive impact on the world. Based on that criterion, bitcoin should be considered as one of the greatest ESG investments of all time. Not only has bitcoin generated outsized returns for investors (at the time of writing this, BTC is up 71% year to date, 342% over the past 3 years, and a whopping 44,404% over the past 10 years), it is having enormous positive impacts throughout the world.

The following article is an attempt to lay out the case that bitcoin, perhaps more so than any other asset in existence, closely aligns with not just one or two, but all three aspects of ESG that socially conscious investors look for.

Environmental

Incentivizing the adoption of clean energy.

One of the biggest misconceptions about bitcoin is that it is bad for the environment when, in reality, the opposite is true. A recent report found that because much of bitcoin mining relies so heavily on off-grid power sources, 52.2% of the bitcoin network is currently powered by zero-emission energy. In fact, there are at least 29 mining companies that use 90-100% zero emission energy and another 12 that use emission negative sources. Compare that to the main electrical grid in the US in which only 36.7% comes from zero-emission sources. That means that nearly every other major industry within the US relies on a grid nearly two-thirds powered by fossil fuels. The Bitcoin network appears to be one of the few industries, both in the US and globally, that does not have coal as its primary energy source.

Not only is bitcoin already more eco-friendly, but it’s also becoming less dependent on fossil fuels faster than the current electrical grid. According to that same report, the amount of bitcoin’s network that is powered by zero-emission energy is growing at 4.5% per year. This is because an increasing number of mining companies are turning to renewable sources such as geothermal energy or solar energy to power their operations. It’s possible that in the next decade or so, the bitcoin network might become carbon negative and actively reduce the amount of global carbon emissions.

It’s worth remembering that an electric car, which is considered by most ESG enthusiasts to be good for the environment because it has zero emissions, gets its power from plugging into the grid and charging. Although the car doesn’t emit carbon, the production of the electricity used to power the car does. Bitcoin mining is the same. Bitcoin miners are just computers, they emit zero carbon just like electric vehicles. It’s the electricity generated used to power bitcoin miners that is the source of carbon emissions. As we just explained, bitcoin is already powered by a network that relies on a greater percentage of clean energy than the grid that is used to power EVs. In that sense, bitcoin is more environmentally friendly than electric vehicles.

In addition to relying mostly on clean energy, the bitcoin network is far more energy efficient than legacy financial systems. Bitcoin mining accounts for less than 0.2% of global energy usage and only 0.09% of the world’s CO2 emissions. Bitcoin, which is often compared to gold as a store of value, uses less energy than gold to mine and has none of the heavy metal pollutants caused by gold mining. And when compared to the current legacy financial system, bitcoin’s environmental impact really shines. According to a recent study, “At a single transaction level and with total volumes accounted for, Bitcoin produces equivalent energy efficiency rates or better [to the traditional banking system]. When Bitcoin Lightning is compared to Instant Payment scheme, Bitcoin gains exponentially in scalability and efficiency, proving to be millions of times more energy efficient per transaction than Instant Payments.” As we covered earlier,  the traditional system is mostly powered by an electrical grid that relies more heavily on fossil fuels than bitcoin’s network. Simply replacing gold or the legacy financial system with a bitcoin standard would be a huge net positive for the environment.

Even better is that the energy efficiency of the bitcoin network is getting better. As we noted earlier, bitcoin’s network is becoming less dependent on fossil fuels. Second, as specialized hardware continues to improve, miners are continually requiring less energy per terawatt of computational power. Third, the growth of the Lightning Network as a payment rail will offload the vast majority of smaller transactions over time which will further increase the energy efficiency since Lightning Network uses significantly less energy than the base layer network.

Bitcoin is also good for our energy grid. As a persistent buyer of electricity, bitcoin mining stabilizes the electrical grid by absorbing excess energy created thus improving the operational efficiency of power plants and lowering energy prices for consumers. In addition, because bitcoin miners can be turned on or off at a moment’s notice, bitcoin miners represent “interruptible load,” which means that when energy is in short supply, bitcoin miners can turn themselves off and allow power to flow to the households that need it most. We saw this happen in Texas during the winter storms of 2022 in which bitcoin miners voluntarily shut down during peak demand proving that bitcoin mining can actually be an asset in helping to smooth out global energy markets.

This same feature that is already helping our existing electric grid is especially valuable for intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar. For example, wind farms in Texas are using bitcoin mining to absorb excess energy from the wind farm and prevent the need for curtailment when the wind is at full tilt. This improves the stability of the energy generation and economics of solar and wind farms. Nuclear produces constant clean energy even though our demand for that energy ebbs and flows throughout the day. Bitcoin mining can absorb that excess energy generated by nuclear power during low demand times and be turned off during high demand times thus improving the economics and operational efficiency of nuclear power plants. Bitcoin mining is even being explored to help unlock clean, continuous and year-round baseload power for one billion people by harnessing the thermal energy of the oceans.

But bitcoin’s potentially biggest environmental impact is that it incentivizes innovation and adoption of clean energy sources. Methane gas is about 25x worse for the environment than CO2 and according to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, “cutting methane is the strongest lever we have to slow climate change over the next 25 years.”  It turns out that two of the largest methane producers are oil fields and landfills which bitcoin mining is helping to address. Rather than venting or flaring the excess gas, the oil field operators are now funneling that Methane and using it to generate electricity to power bitcoin mining servers.  Bitcoin mining company Vespene has developed a method for converting the methane emitted from landfills into electricity to power bitcoin mining rigs in an environmentally friendly way, thus eliminating the methane emissions. And if that wasn’t enough, bitcoin mining using methane vented power is far more effective at reducing carbon emissions than any other renewable energy source we have. In fact, mining bitcoin from vented methane removes 13x more emissions out of the environment than coal puts into it. It’s possible that in a few years bitcoin mining might prevent more carbon from entering the atmosphere than the carbon emitted from creating the electricity it takes to power the network.

And the innovation goes far beyond just methane capture. In our February 14th edition of the newsletter, we highlighted numerous real-world examples of bitcoin mining incentivizing the development and use of clean energy sources in a practical way that most people are not aware of. Bitcoin is helping bootstrap local hydroelectric energy production in Sub Saharan Africa, save the Congo’s most famous national park and the endangered gorillas that live there, clean up millions of tons of leftover coal waste in Pennsylvania, restart abandoned hydroelectric plants in Costa Rica, and get rid of used tires in an eco-friendly manner. Bitcoin mining operations are even being put in volcanoes, utilizing 100% clean geothermal heat to generate electricity.

Although Bitcoin does use a substantial amount of energy, it’s still far less than legacy systems. The energy it does consume is increasingly coming from clean sources and it’s precisely this energy that provides security to the network. Because miners are economically incentivized to find the lowest cost energy, miners naturally gravitate towards cheaper energy sources thus spurring adoption and innovation within the renewable energy sector. Because of this property, bitcoin is one of the best tools we have to incentivize the adoption of clean energy.

Social

Fix the money, fix the world.

Bitcoin is the only form of money that is seizure-resistant, borderless, permissionless, peer-to-peer, and has a predictable monetary policy outside the control of any government. Because of these properties, bitcoin has numerous social implications for cross-border payments, citizens living under oppressive regimes, economies experiencing hyperinflation, and social equality.

Improving Cross Border Payments

Let’s start with cross-border payments and specifically humanitarian aid which research found that 15% of all donations never make it to their intended destination. Even the money that doesn’t leak has issues because most people for which this aid is intended likely don’t have bank accounts or access to the traditional financial system. Thus, most aid comes in the form of cash, which is difficult to move around, especially in disaster areas or war zones. Bitcoin solves all these problems because it can be sent directly to anyone in the world that has a smartphone regardless of whether they have a bank account and without any middlemen taking a cut. Furthermore, all transactions can be audited and tracked on the blockchain so it’s possible to verify the money went to the intended recipient.

For example, when Russia invaded Ukraine, bitcoin quickly became a lifeboat for Ukrainian citizens who lost access to the traditional banking system. More than 14 million Ukrainians have been forced from their homes in what the United Nations has described as “the fastest, largest displacement in decades.” In an interview with Bitcoin Magazine, an Ukrainian refugee tells the story of how he was able to escape the country with his savings stored on a bitcoin hardware wallet. “With Bitcoin, he was able to flee to a foreign country with the wealth that he was able to save from his job, with multiple options to be able to convert that to the local currency, if necessary, as opposed to fleeing with nothing but the clothes on his back.” But it was not just individuals, the Ukrainian government listed bitcoin and Ethereum wallet addresses on Twitter to collect donations and has received more than $70 million since the start of the Russian conflict. Most of the funds raised have already been spent on basic necessities and military supplies.

In 2022, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act and broadened the Terrorist Financing Act rules which allowed the Canadian government to freeze the bank accounts of its citizens and block donations on platforms such as GoFundMe, in an effort to stop truck drivers from peacefully protesting. The government not only froze the accounts of the protestors, but also retroactively froze the accounts of those who donated to the protestors even if it was not illegal to do so at the time they donated. In response, a Canadian bitcoin group started a campaign that raised more than $900k worth of bitcoin which was distributed to the protestors. The Canadian government could not freeze or seize any bitcoin held by the protestors nor could they prevent bitcoin being sent from one wallet to the next like they could with GoFundMe. 

In 2020, Belarusian activists used bitcoin to defy the regime by sending more than $3 million worth of bitcoin directly to striking workers protesting the country’s dictatorship so they could feed their families. A feminist coalition in Nigeria raised money using bitcoin to help pay for medical care, legal aid, and funeral funding for those hurt by police brutality in the country. Independent politicians, human rights organizations and independent media in Russia, who have been under increasing pressure from Vladimir Putin, have raised millions of dollars using bitcoin. When China started clamping down on Hong Kong’s media freedom, the Hong Kong Free Press began relying on bitcoin donations from readers.

Humanitarian aid isn’t the only form of cross-border payments bitcoin is having an impact on. A report by the World Bank stated that on average, global remittances cost the sender 6.01% and it’s often much worse than that. Depending on how much is being sent and to where, Western Union and MoneyGram can charge upwards of 15-20%. Unlike these for-profit companies that have enormous infrastructure costs to maintain, bitcoin allows for the transfer of money to anyone in the world instantly and for nearly free. This has huge ramifications for countries such as El Salvador where remittances account for 23% of the country’s GDP. Since adopting bitcoin as legal tender, the number of El Salvadoran citizens that use bitcoin is greater than the number who have a bank account. This is one reason the country has seen double digit growth in GDP.

Bitcoin is a lifeline in Cuba where strict repressive state financial controls and US sanctions have caused the worst economic struggle since the early 1990s. It is estimated that $3 billion per year is remitted from family members living in other countries, mostly the US. However, to convert dollars to local currency, there is a minimum 10% state tax in addition to whatever fee money transfer system such as Western Union or MoneyGram charge (assuming they do not get shut down again from US sanctions). Because of U.S. sanctions, Cubans cannot access a wide range of popular American products like Transferwise, PayPal, Venmo, Revolut, Stripe, Cash App, Zelle, GitHub, Adobe, Dropbox, Lyft, Uber or Amazon. Using bitcoin, citizens can receive money from family anywhere in the world without the need of a bank account or Western Union, without providing identification to the state, and without paying the tax or fees. In his book Check Your Financial Privilege, Alex Gladstein chronicles real world stories from citizens in Cuba who say “We do not have access to American financial apps. Our families in the US have a very hard time sending US dollars. Bitcoin helps ease the pain. Bitcoin allows you to control your money, your spending, and by extension, your life…my future is finally in my own hands.” Other Cuban citizens, such as Lucia have started “stacking sats” (as bitcoin saving is often referred to), because they trust bitcoin more than the peso. “There is no currency,” Lucia says “that would have helped you navigate the oscillations of U.S.-Cuba policy over the last five years better than Bitcoin.” According to another Cuban citizen Jorge, many people’s lives “have been improved dramatically” through bitcoin. “This technology goes around blockades and government restrictions, it allows you to move value without trusting anyone, it connects you to the world, and it allows you to empower yourself and do things that are otherwise impossible,” he said. “It has created hope for those who want change.”

It’s a similar story in Palestine where bitcoin has become an economic lifeline to the outside world. Sending money across the border traditionally requires routing it through a currency office in Gaza where they take a cut leaving the recipient with only a percentage of what was originally sent. For his book, Gladstein also spoke with Palestinian citizens who have been subjected to proof of blood relations, interrogations, and confiscations even when using Western Union. “With bitcoin, I don’t need to pass any tests or check any boxes. I can just use it.”

Lifeline for those living under oppressive regimes and corrupt governments

Alex Gladstein (who was referenced in the previous section) is the Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation and vice president of the Oslo Freedom Forum. Working with refugees and humanitarian groups throughout the world, Gladstein is uniquely positioned to comment on the impact bitcoin is having across the globe. In Check Your Financial Privilege, Alex chronicled numerous real-life examples of bitcoin improving the lives of citizens living under the harshest of conditions. Many of the following examples are taken directly from Alex’s book.

Only 13% of the world’s population is born in geographies that operate on the most stable currencies such as the dollar, euro, yen, pound, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, or Swiss Franc.1 The other 87% are born into considerably less trustworthy financial systems and 55% of the world’s population (4.3 billion people) live under authoritarianism.1 It’s precisely this group that bitcoin is having the biggest impact on.

In Nigeria, there is massive corruption, inequality, and an inflation rate of 15% with food inflation even higher.1 Only the elite are allowed to keep their money in dollars, send it abroad, or buy real estate. Now, every Nigerian with internet access has “an escape from their unreliable, unequal, exploitative national monetary system.” Bitcoin is providing jobs through entrepreneurial activities, helping people convert their naira to other currencies and enabling commerce where it was not previously possible. 

Sudan has been in a vicious cycle of military coups and authoritarian rule for decades, with bloodshed peaking in Darfur in the early 2000s. As a result, the US and European Union increased sanctions against Sudan, cutting its citizens off more deeply from the outside world. Bitcoin is rebuilding those ties and providing greater financial access to Sudanese citizens. Bitcoin users in Sudan can now easily send money back and forth to family throughout the world and the Lightning Network is enabling local commerce that has never before been possible.1

More than 70% of Ethiopians do not have access to a bank account nor do individuals have any method for freely exchanging their national currency, the birr, with dollars or vice versa.1 Many use cattle or sheep to store their savings as dollars are officially illegal to hold in the country for more than two months. In Ethiopia, people are jailed for simply using a better currency. However, bitcoin and the Lightning Network not only allow Ethiopians to store their value but transact without the government stealing a cut through artificial exchange rates. Kal Kassa, an Ethiopian citizen that uses bitcoin to run his business, does not have to worry about anyone debasing or confiscating his earnings. “This” Kassa said, “is a revolution.”

Thousands of refugees in Afghanistan have fled the country to escape the Taliban. Dishonest middlemen and thieves often steal everything these refugees take with them by the time they end up in their final destination. But such was not the case for Laleh Farzan who was able to hide a tiny piece of paper with her bitcoin wallet seed phrase on it. Once Farzan got to Germany, she was able to sell some of her bitcoin and start a new life. Those that remain in Afghanistan also benefit as sanctions against the country have cut off humanitarian aid and forbid MoneyGram and Western Union from servicing Afghan citizens. In a country where only 15% of the population has a bank account and most are losing access to the outside world, bitcoin is quickly becoming an economic lifeline.1

In China, if an individual says or does something the government doesn’t like, it has the ability to eliminate citizens’ access to financial services. In 2022, Chinese citizens demanding their money back from their bank were beaten, kicked to the ground and dragged away in the city of Zhengzhou. The Chinese bank scandal resulted in millions of bank accounts being frozen and citizens unable to access their money. Even today, restrictions on customer withdrawals from Chinese bank accounts are increasing as the CCP tries to limit capital leaving the country. One Chinese student “revealed she had been unable to withdraw or transfer any cash to the local currency so far in 2023 and has been forced to rely on digital payments.” Despite government crackdowns on bitcoin mining, usage of bitcoin in China continues to grow precisely because bitcoin can’t be confiscated or censored.

In Iran, citizens are forced to deal with the ramifications of sanctions and embargoes due to the misdeeds of their government. Bitcoin gives these citizens a lifeline for earning income, receiving remittances from abroad and protecting against inflation. Ziya Sadr is a Bitcoiner who lives in Tehran and has never left the country because the government “won’t give [him] a passport.” However, Sadr is optimistic about the growth of bitcoin among everyday Iranians and points to the fundamental economic problems in the country as the primary driver. “Regarding income and revenue, you’re better off with bitcoin than fiat currency here in Iran and people are understanding this now,” Sadr said. “With regard to inflation, people have no other way but Bitcoin.”1

Escaping Hyperinflation

There are approximately 1.6 billion people that currently live in regions that have official inflation rates in the double or triple digits.1 In these economies, bitcoin is providing an alternative to broken financial systems that constantly debase the local currency.

The World Bank has described Lebanon’s economic crisis as one of the worst in more than a century. Lebanon’s annual inflation rate increased to 123.5% in January 2023, its currency has lost 95% of its value since August 2019 and due to cash shortages, banks have imposed informal limits on withdrawals. In just the last year, millions of Lebanese citizens have been locked out of their bank accounts indefinitely because many were trying to pull their funds out of their banks in order to protect themselves from the currency’s collapse. As a result, many Lebanese citizens have turned to bitcoin as their only option to escape a failing economy. To make ends meet in a financial system that no longer makes sense, local citizens are mining bitcoin and using it to store whatever wealth they have. Research from blockchain data firm Chainalysis shows that Lebanon’s crypto transaction volume is up 120% year-over-year. There are numerous examples similar to Georgio Abou Gebrael, a Lebanese citizen, who receives 90% of his income in bitcoin. In addition to the inability to debase bitcoin, Gebrael says the appeal of bitcoin has a lot to do with the fact that he doesn’t have to share his identity to get paid, which helps protect him from being caught in the crosshairs of government-issued sanctions.

Argentina’s situation isn’t much better. As of a month ago, the country’s annual inflation rate was just shy of 100%. The South American country, which has battled spiraling prices for years, saw monthly inflation speed up in recent months to the highest levels since the 1990s. It should be no surprise that the region also has a relatively high bitcoin adoption rate, ranking 13th in Chainalysis’s 2022 crypto adoption index, despite the nation’s central bank clamping down on crypto-related services. Even when bitcoin was down 64% in 2022, many Argentines still viewed bitcoin as less risky compared to their own currency. Jerónimo Ferrer, an Argentinian citizen that saves in bitcoin said in an interview with the BBC, “When you have restrictions, you need tools for freedom. I trust mathematics and software more than I trust politicians.”

The economic situation in Venezuela has been deteriorating steadily for many years, as the country is under sanctions. Last October, the Venezuela Central Bank said annual inflation hit 155%, one of the highest rates globally, but has not released consumer price data since then. According to Reuters, some estimates believe the inflation rate could now be as high as 300%. Because they live under authoritarianism, Venezuelans can’t hold their rulers accountable through elections or campaign for change without fear of reprisal. However, Venezuelans are adopting and using bitcoin to evade hyperinflation, high fees on remittances and strict financial controls. Venezuelan economist Carlos Hernandez says “I keep all of my money in bitcoin. Keeping it in bolívars would be financial suicide.”

Cuba’s inflation rate increased to 42% in January 2023. As a result, Cuban citizens have lost nearly two-thirds of their purchasing power since the end of 2020, as the price of $1 has gone from the official rate of 24 pesos to costing as much as 70 pesos on the black market. Erich García Cruz, a popular Cuban media personality who has lived in Havana his whole life, says “The system isn’t working, so people are turning to Bitcoin to escape.”

Promoting Social Equality

The beauty of bitcoin is everyone plays by the same set of rules. Bitcoin doesn’t care if you are rich or poor, what race or gender you are, or where you live. Bitcoin doesn’t discriminate.

In a recent article, Maia Naor and Itai Averneri argue that digital finance tools have the potential to increase financial inclusion for women across the globe, who are often excluded from traditional financial systems. According to a report by the World Bank, women are nearly 10% less likely than men to have a bank account, and in some regions, the gender gap is even wider. Bitcoin can facilitate cross-border transactions and the ability to invest without the need for traditional banking systems giving more women financial autonomy.

In Afghanistan Roya Mahboob became the first female tech CEO in the country and one of TIME’s most influential people in the world through her bitcoin efforts. Mahboob started a software company and hired mostly women. The problem, she quickly encountered, was that women are not allowed to open bank accounts without their father’s or husband’s permission. “If I gave them cash, their fathers or husbands or brothers might find out and take it away.”1 So Mahboob taught her employees and contractors how to use bitcoin wallets on their phones. “The girls were happy to finally have a money that the men in their lives could not take from them. It gave them security, privacy, and peace of mind. When they earn money, they can convert that into radical self-reliance and power that they can use to escape the traditional role of Afghan women in the home.” 1

And it’s not just gender equality bitcoin is having an impact on, its racial equality too. In his book Bitcoin and Black America, author Isaiah Jackson argues that bitcoin is a way for African Americans to opt out of a financial system that has systematically discriminated against the black community. In the book, Jackson tells stories of how bitcoin has had life changing impact on people of color.  One of Jackson’s stories is about a “15-year-old kid, who came to one of Jackson’s presentations in 2016 with his mom. The kid ended up buying bitcoin after working small jobs and by the time he was 17, he had made enough money through bitcoin to pay for college. Now he is 22 and runs his own web development company.”

Though much of the media coverage centers around price in the US, the truth is that bitcoin is increasingly becoming a tool for protecting human rights.

Governance

A system of rules without rulers.

Cathie Wood, founder of ARK Invest, calls bitcoin the first global, private, rules based digital monetary system in the history of the world. The fact that bitcoin operates by a set of known rules, that those rules apply to everyone who uses bitcoin, and those rules cannot be changed by a single party means bitcoin has created the most inclusive, fair, and trustworthy financial governance system that has ever existed.

Because bitcoin is peer-to-peer, transactions don’t go through banks or financial intermediaries meaning there is no approval process required as is the case with opening a bank account. You don’t need to reveal your name or address or telephone number to send money anywhere in the world. Anyone with a smartphone or internet access can participate in the bitcoin network. Because of this, bitcoin does not discriminate based on wealth, race, sex, age, geography, religion, or any other characteristic. It’s the most inclusive financial system ever created.

In the bitcoin network, no single authority holds financial power over any other entity thus ensuring that everyone that holds or uses bitcoin is on a level playing field. Bitcoin, when self-custodied properly, cannot be confiscated thereby enshrining property rights to individuals regardless of what jurisdiction they may live in. Transactions are verified by a decentralized global software network, not regulated entities that have the power to void transactions, delay payments or freeze accounts. BTC has no CEO or board of directors. Changes and updates are made democratically and any changes to the rules have to be agreed upon by the majority of the network rather than instituted top down. Bitcoin is simply the most fairly governed network in existence, more than any company, any city, any state, and any country.

Bitcoin is also far less susceptible to political whims because the rules by which it operates are not controlled by any central party. The interest rate or inflation rate of bitcoin is not determined by a small, unelected group of old white men making decisions behind closed doors that have ramifications for the entire global financial system. How strange is it that an institution in the traditional financial system as important as the Fed, is so opaque that thousands of analysts waste countless hours analyzing and interpreting every word Fed officials say (or don’t say) to ascertain some meaning and guess what their next move will be? There is no guessing required with bitcoin. There is only one asset globally that has not changed its monetary policy over the last two years, let alone for the last ten. There is only one asset that we can verify the exact number in existence today and know for certain what the supply issuance rate will be for the next 100+ years. Only one with a monetary policy that is independent, predictable, and reliable. That programmatic predictability creates a level of trust that the traditional financial system can’t match.

Perhaps Alex Gladstein has the best description of bitcoin’s governance system. “Bitcoin is the instantiation of a revolutionary idea: a system that cannot discriminate; that does not wield violence; that does not have special rules for the rich; that does not require identification or a particular status or level of wealth or race or creed to use; and whose rules cannot be manipulated by governments. Satoshi arguably took the best ideas from Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and their colleagues and gifted them to people around the world.”

Conclusion

In addition to being the best performing asset over the past decade, bitcoin resoundingly aligns with all three goals of the ESG initiative. Being pro ESG and anti-bitcoin is simply a contradictory and illogical stance. You would be hard pressed to find another asset that simultaneously delivers financial returns, economic empowerment, and property rights to 8 billion people throughout the world. Because of that, bitcoin has to be considered one of the greatest ESG investments of all time.

1 Alex Gladstein, Check Your Financial Privilege (BTC Media LLC, 2022)

In Other News

Barney Frank, the man behind the Dodd-Frank Act, said Signature Bank was financial stable and was shuttered in part to attack the digital asset industry. 

The way the SEC is approaching crypto regulation in the U.S. is “pretty broken,” according to Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal.

Filecoin update makes its blockchain compatible with Ethereum apps.

Following the FDIC’s forced shut down of Signature Bank, GOP Majority Whip Tom Emmer, sent a letter to the FDIC on which he cited reports that the government “effectively weaponized” its powers to crack down on crypto. 

BlackRock CEO touts tokenization and warns that the US is lagging in innovation.

Fidelity Crypto quietly went live, giving millions of retail customers access to bitcoin and ether

SEC Chair Gary Gensler suggests proof-of-stake tokens are securities. Gensler made the remarks after being asked for his reaction to statements made last week by CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam, who reiterated his own belief, and that of his agency, that ether is a commodity.

Bitcoin rallies into a new bull market, how crypto could beat the S&P 500.

Cryptoasset outlook is strengthened by U.S. banking turmoil.

The White House put out its annual 2023 Economic Report in which the administration appears to be openly hostile to the crypto industry.

Coinbase received a “Wells Notice” from the SEC to which the company had a lengthy response.

Do Kwon, the founder of the Terra ecosystem that collapsed last year, has reportedly been arrested in Montenegro

Arbitrum, the popular Ethereum Layer 2 network, made its transition to a DAO by airdropping 12.75% of its total token supply to users.

Disclaimer:  This is not investment advice. The content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. All Content is information of a general nature and does not address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of Blockforce Capital or Onramp Invest.

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. The content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. All Content is information of a general nature and does not address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of Blockforce Capital or Onramp Invest.


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