While financial institutions like JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citi and now UBS are leaping into the space, there is also a lot of less traditional news happening.
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Elon Musk wants to literally bring Dogecoin to the moon, Mark Zuckerberg has apparently named his goat Bitcoin, Tom Brady may be buying Bitcoin and Carole Baskin is starting her own cryptocurrency.
Fast Facts
- UBS is now considering Bitcoin investments for its rich clients. Anonymous sources suggest that it fears losing clients if it does not offer such a product.
- Dogecoin’s meteoric and social media-fueled rise has led many to question whether or not it is a safe investment.
- Mark Zuckerberg revealed that his two pet goats are named Max and Bitcoin, leading some to speculate that he owns Bitcoin and could be a Bitcoin Maximalist.
- Is Tom Brady buying Bitcoin? Well, he changed his Twitter profile picture to include the infamous laser eyes. He is also starting his own NFT platform called Autograph.
- Palantir joins the growing list of companies to accept and hold Bitcoin after it announced in its earnings call that they accept crypto.
- Carole Baskin announced that she is launching her own crypto that will include NFTs. The Tiger King reality star called it a new “purr-ency.”
UBS May Enter The Crypto Game
UBS recently said in a statement that it is considering offering cryptocurrency investment products for its clients.
“We are monitoring the developments in the field of digital assets closely. Importantly, we are most interested in the technology which underpins digital assets, namely the distributed ledger technology.”
According to Bloomberg, the company has concerns that it could lose clients should it not offer crypto products. In the last year, nearly every large financial institution has announced some level of crypto products for its investors either directly or indirectly through third parties.
UBS joins in on the trend of adoption among the largest financial institutions in the world.
Dogecoin Goes to the Moon, Literally
Dogecoin has exploded in value over the last few months. At one point last week, the crypto was up well over 20,000% on the year. Now, some have had expressed concern over its massive increase.
These concerns range from its fundamentals when compared to other more popular cryptos like Bitcoin as well as the fact that 0.002% of Dogecoin wallets hold 2/3rds of the coin’s total supply. With so much of the supply in so few people’s hands, fears of centralization and whale pump and dumps are growing.
But Dogecoin’s shaky fundamentals and meteoric rise aren’t the only things getting the crypto in the headlines. Elon Musk has constantly been referencing the crypto, even using it as a topic in skits during his SNL appearance.
Recently, SpaceX announced that it would begin accepting Dogecoin as payment for its ‘DOGE-1’ mission. The Dogecoin-funded mission will launch a satellite with the company’s Falcon 9 rocket to “obtain lunar-spatial intelligence from sensors and cameras on-board with integrated communications and computational systems.”
SpaceX’s vice president, Tom Ochinero, said that DOGE-1 “will demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency beyond Earth orbit and set the foundation for interplanetary commerce.”
Musk even sent a tweet saying that SpaceX would literally put Dogecoin on the moon.
SpaceX is going to put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 1, 2021
Mark Zuckerberg Has a Goat Named Bitcoin
The cryptocurrency community has always drooled over the news of the next billionaire or company to buy Bitcoin. Recently, people have been wondering if Facebook could be getting involved. There were lots of rumors that Facebook would reveal Bitcoin holdings in its latest earnings report, but those rumors turned out to be false.
Yesterday Mark Zuckerberg posted a picture to his Facebook of his goats who he has named Max and Bitcoin, which only fueled the speculative fire.
https://twitter.com/DocumentingBTC/status/1391887632322473984/photo/1
This post caused a Twitter storm from the crypto community. Popular crypto-Twitter influencer, Anothony Pompliano, thought that the combination of the names ‘Max’ and ‘Bitcoin’ could be a hint that Zuckerberg is a Bitcoin maximalist.
Is Mark Zuckerberg telling us he is a bitcoin maximalist with the names of his goats? ? pic.twitter.com/GKlMdqdeXJ
— Pomp ? (@APompliano) May 10, 2021
Others feared that Zuckerberg could eat the goats after it was brought up that he had once butchered and served a goat for a meal with Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey. At the time, Zuckerberg was only eating meat that he himself had butchered as opposed to purchasing meat at the store.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Dorsey said, “We go in the dining room, He puts the goat down. It was cold. That was memorable. I don’t know if it went back in the oven. I just ate my salad.”
Does Tom Brady Own Bitcoin?
Tom Brady recently added the classic crypto-Twitter laser eyes to his profile picture. The trend started on Twitter when crypto influencers began saying #lasereyesuntil100. This meant that they would have laser eyes until Bitcoin reached $100,000. But why does Tom Brady have them?
#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/W1UQ4yoQHz
— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) May 10, 2021
Jason Yanowitz, the co-founder of Blockworks, sent a tweet out saying “Rumor has it @TomBrady is loading up on Bitcoin. Retweet if you think the GOAT should turn on laser eyes. Let’s make it happen.”
Attached to the post was an edited picture of Brady with laser eyes which Brady later made his profile picture. While Brady could very well own some Bitcoin, he could have chosen the new picture due to his new NFT platform called Autograph.
Autograph’s CEO and co-founder, Dillon Rosenblatt, said that “Autograph will bring together some of the world’s most iconic names and brands with best in class digital artists to ideate, create and launch NFTs and ground-breaking experiences to a community of fans and collectors.”
Palantir Accepts Bitcoin and May Hold It on Its Balance Sheet
During the Q&A section of Palantir’s earnings call, an investor asked if the company would consider holding Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies on its balance sheet.
In response, Palantir’s CFO, David Glazer said, “The short answer is yes. We’re thinking about it and we’ve even discussed it internally.”
Glazer also noted that the company accepts Bitcoin as payment already.
“On the other side of that, in terms of accepting Bitcoin from our customers, we do accept it as a form of payment. We’re open for business there.”
Glazer’s comments solidify the company’s name on a growing list of companies that accept and hold Bitcoin.
Carole Baskin’s New ‘Purr-ency’
On Wednesday of last week, some strange news hit the crypto world. Carole Baskin, the reality star made famous from the hit show, Tiger King, which aired on Netflix early in the pandemic, announced that she is launching her own cryptocurrency.
Baskin said her new crypto, known as $CAT, “is not a currency for investment, but rather is a purr-ency of our fans to show their love for the cats. Future plans include a big cat metaverse for virtual visits with the cats … and NFTs, which are launching in about two weeks.”
Baskin’s new coin is listed on Rally.io, a platform that lets creators and artists launch NFTs and cryptocurrencies using the Ethereum blockchain.
“I’m investigating cryptocurrencies because I am concerned about the volume of US dollars that are being printed and distributed with nothing to back them up. I like the idea of putting the power of money in the hands of the people, rather than banks and governments,” said Baskin.