Dispatch #129: The Apes Are No Longer Bored with Bitcoin

In this patch of your weekly Dispatch:

• Yuga Labs 🤝 Bitcoin NFTs
• Mastercard & Visa snap back
• Securities according to Gensler

The Big Idea

Yuga Labs Gets Ordinal

We first told you about Ordinal inscriptions, aka Bitcoin NFTs, about a month ago in Dispatch #125.

Since then, they’ve completely caught the attention of the Bitcoin community, not to mention bringing some new faces to Bitcoin for the first time.

One of those new faces is Yuga Labs, the creator of Bored Apes Yacht Club and steward of Crypto Punks. This week, Yuga announced Twelvefold, a 300-piece generative art collection exploring the structure of time that will be inscribed directly to the Bitcoin blockchain.

As you might expect, some NFT diehards accused Yuga of perpetrating a cash grab, while some Maxis squawked about the proper use of Bitcoin.

However, the Bitcoin and broader NFT communities saw the move as highly validating of the nascent ordinals movement, and likely to drive even more excitement to the space. 🤜

With more than 200,000 inscriptions, premier NFT communities moving in, and even some new infrastructure being built, Ordinals strike us as being just at the beginning of their journey.

The Latest In…

Corporates Haven’t Abandoned Crypto

Remember the past few years when a string of giant corporations got involved in crypto? One notable 2022 example was when we tied up with Mastercard for the launch of the Nexo Card.

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that Visa and Mastercard were “slamming the brakes” on their crypto efforts. But then both companies denied the report.

Visa called it inaccurate, and Mastercard – when contacted by us – said: “(w)e continue to work with our partners to bring relevant payments solutions and programs to market, guided by Mastercard's foundational principles in the digital assets and blockchain space - stability, regulatory compliance, and consumer protections.”

Nice try to spook us.

The Latest In…

Regulatory Machinations

Another week, another set of battles on the regulatory front for crypto companies who just want clear paths to compliance:

• SEC Chair Gary Gensler told NYMag that he believed everything except Bitcoin was likely a security.
• G20 announced forthcoming crypto rules.
• The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has agreed to an action plan to implement its global crypto standards.
• New Broker rules from the White House.
• Grayscale’s suit against the SEC around a spot Bitcoin ETF begins next week.

The Week’s Most Interesting Data Story

The Bitcoin That Hasn’t Moved in a Decade

One of the things that makes Bitcoin so unique is the long-term faith and conviction of its holders. Along those lines, we were pretty blown away by the following fact.

At this moment, there is more BTC that hasn’t moved in a decade (2.6M) than there is Bitcoin on exchanges (2.2M).

Of course, there are plenty of reasons people might want to have their Bitcoin on platforms – for trading, earning yield, borrowing against, or something else. But Bitcoin tends to move off exchanges when people are accumulating for the long term.

Still, if you need a picture of Bitcoiner conviction in a single chart, this is it:

Hot Topics

What the Community Is Discussing

We like that vision for the future.

Interesting inscription stats.

Do you agree?

What to Watch for Next Week:

• Will another big NFT creator come to Bitcoin?
• Will we see any more regulatory enforcement actions?
• Will there be more moves on a US CBDC?