Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, just hit its all-time high price on Monday.
My wife and I have owned Bitcoin since early 2017 and have added to our position over time.
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, here are a few key notes about Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is a digital currency. Think of it like digital gold. A few years back it was almost impossible to use Bitcoin to pay for anything, but that is changing rapidly.
It was created in 2009 following the housing crash as an alternative to the excess in money printing from the United States and most other large countries. Bitcoin is limited (programmed) to 21 million and there will never be any more.
Bitcoin is non-sovereign, which means no country has control over it. The currency is maintained by a network of millions around the world.
Here’s a very simple overview from Coindesk that, they say, even a five-year-old can understand.
Why is Bitcoin all the rage right now?
Well, a couple reasons.
First, Bitcoin is a hedge against massive money printing and inflation. Just about every major country is going into debt, printing money at will to get us out of the pandemic recession. That leads to inflation where the money you have (say dollars) won’t buy as much as it used to. Thus, right now, Bitcoin is the soup-du-jour.
Second, the big institutions are starting to invest in Bitcoin. When Bitcoin made its first major run (at least that the public was aware of) in 2017, most of the run up came from smaller, retail investors. This time, major companies like PayPal, Square and Microstrategy are investing heavily in Bitcoin.
For example, Microstrategy, a mid-sized tech company, invested its cash reserves into Bitcoin a few months ago when Bitcoin was at $10,000 (currently it’s about $19,000 USD). That was $425 million dollars into Bitcoin. CEO Michael Saylor calls holding cash like “melting ice” where the value continues to deteriorate. Not only is Microstrategy’s $425 million about $800 million now, but their stock price went from $100 per share to almost $350 per share, adding about $2 billion dollars to their market cap. Amazing.
In addition, big traditional investors like John Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller have started to push Bitcoin.
Long-story short, I believe Bitcoin is here to stay and that all investors should have at least two percent of their assets in Bitcoin (I am not a licensed financial professional and if you invest in Bitcoin you do it at your own risk).
I believe in the next few years, Bitcoin will be a similar size to the market capitalization of gold, which is about $9 trillion USD. The Winklevoss twins (remember them from the movie The Social Network?) believe the same thing. For that to happen to Bitcoin, each Bitcoin will be worth about $500,000 each.
Now, if you really want to go down the rabbit hole, here is an amazing article from Lyn Alden on three reasons to invest in Bitcoin. At the end of that article, there is a follow up piece about seven Bitcoin misconceptions.
One of my favorite Bitcoin podcasts is The Breakdown with NLW (a case study in the upcoming version of Content Inc.).
Is Print Making a Comeback?
According to Media Voices, “Hearst UK recently announced that women’s lifestyle magazine Prima would increase its print edition from 12 to 13 issues a year, following a 68% surge in subscriptions this year.”
One of the behavior changes resulting from the pandemic is that people want (or need) time off their devices and, in some cases, are turning to print.
Personally, I think there is a huge opportunity here. Many people still love to engage in print, yet too many publications ceased printing their content because of financial constraints. Those who can figure out a proper revenue model here will prosper.
All-in Email?
As we’ve discussed, Business Insider purchased one of my favorite email newsletters, The Morning Brew, for $75 million dollars. Self-contained email newsletters are here to stay.
I think it will be here for a long, long time. Need proof? I just finished reading Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline, the sequel to the amazing Ready Player One.
You know what they still do in the year 2046 (at least according to Ernest)? Use email. The way media, from videos to articles to texts to email, is used in the book astounds me…and seems plausible.
So don’t be afraid email will go away anytime soon.
Local News Needs a Business Model
According to Poynter at least 60 local newsrooms disbanded since March.
While large national newspapers like the New York Times, Washington Post and Financial Times are thriving, local seemingly can’t make it. This has left a rather large content gap that needs to be filled.
The New York Times thinks that local news can be supported through giving and philanthropy, like we generally support the arts.
Speaking of #GivingTuesday, The Land is a local news organization that covers Northeast Ohio. My friends there are doing a fantastic job. If you’d like to support local news, click here and give them a few bucks.
The following was an excerpt from Joe’s newsletter. Only subscribers receive the full version.