• Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, reached an all-time high value of $69,202 on Tuesday. The previous record was $68,999 in November 2021. Reuters.com
• Following the US Securities and Exchange (SEC) approval of the first spot bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) this year, investment firms have poured billions into the new digital assets. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, for example, broke $10B on Monday. FOX News
• A spot Bitcoin ETF, unlike Bitcoin itself, allows investors to earn money without actually holding any currency. Each ETF is owned by a particular firm that issues shares of its own Bitcoin holdings. CBS (LR: 2 CP: 5)
• Bitcoin had been on the rise prior to this after enduring a “crypto winter” crash in 2022 due to the collapse of crypto exchanges such as FTX, as well as other financial issues. The day after the SEC’s January approval, Bitcoin rose to $47K. Washington Post (LR: 2 CP: 5)
• Following the year-and-a-half decline in Bitcoin, it has risen almost 160% since October, 44% of which was seen just last month. Besides investment firms’ emerging interest in the cryptocurrency, reports of the Fed lowering interest rates have also boosted investors’ confidence. New York Post (LR: 5 CP: 5)

Pro-establishment narrative:

• Beyond its proven usefulness as an investment, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have the ability to democratize global finance. Most of the developing world, as well as 20% of Americans, either have no bank account or are underbanked, which leads to economic inequality. However, most people across the world do have cell phones, which means digital currency can help members of struggling economies gain access to powerful ones such as the US. As we inch closer to a digital banking system, everyone will have an opportunity to build and grow wealth.
  WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

Establishment-critical narrative:

• While Bitcoin was once full of hope for all global citizens, it has since been taken over by the most powerful and nefarious banking institutions in the world via ETFs. One frightening example is the emergence of Natural Asset Corporations, which, through digital currency, take over the rights to natural resources and then charge the average person for their respective consumption of resources. This is already underway in vulnerable poor countries like the Central African Republic, but the financial elites want to launch it everywhere — quite the opposite of a global financial democracy.
  UNLIMITED HANGOUT

Nerd narrative:

• There is a 25% chance that one Bitcoin will be worth at least $100K before January 2025, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
  METACULUS (LR: 3 CP: 3)