On 24 August 2023, Plan ₿, an initiative co-founded by Tether and the City of Lugano with the aim of leveraging bitcoin technology to transform the city’s financial infrastructure, has announced its official sponsorship of FC Lugano. This historic Swiss football club, established in 1908, is the sole top-tier club in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. With Swiss Championship wins in 1938, 1941, and 1949, and Swiss Cup victories in 1931, 1968, 1993, and 2022, FC Lugano has been a significant player in the Credit Suisse Super League since 2015 and has made its mark in Swiss football history.
This collaboration signifies a notable stride in enhancing cryptocurrency representation and deepening connections with the Lugano community. “Tether, as a part of Plan ₿, is excited to join hands with FC Lugano in a journey that combines the passion of football with the innovation of cryptocurrency,” remarked Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether. “This collaboration not only underscores our commitment to the vibrant Lugano community but also signifies our belief in the power of crypto to drive positive change locally and globally.”
Tether, the issuer of USDT, a pioneer in stablecoin technology, seeks to revolutionize the global financial landscape. As the creator of the industry’s most transparent and liquid stablecoin, Tether focuses on bridging the gap between traditional finance and the potential of decentralized finance. Their innovative spirit is evident in this partnership, which goes beyond conventional sponsorship.
In the foreseeable future, fans will have the option to purchase tickets, merchandise, food, and beverages within the stadium using Bitcoin, Tether USD ₮, and LVGA. This move aligns with Tether and the City of Lugano’s objective to promote cryptocurrency adoption in the region, collaborating closely with the local municipality to further these initiatives. The sponsorship will also feature front-of-shirt branding during international competitions, amplifying the global visibility of Lugano’s Plan ₿.
Martin Blaser, CEO of F.C. Lugano SA, expressed his enthusiasm, stating, “We are thrilled to welcome Lugano’s Plan ₿ as an official sponsor of FC Lugano. What began with an advertising presence at the 2022 Swiss Cup final in Bern will continue over the next two years in an attractive and innovative manner for both parties.”
Lugano’s Plan ₿, marked by a Memorandum of Understanding signed in March 2022, aims to integrate blockchain and Bitcoin throughout the city, impacting various facets of daily life for Lugano residents. This includes everything from small transactions with local merchants to larger endeavors like annual tax payments.
Quantitative analyst PlanB says he’s not concerned about predicting the exact market cycle top of Bitcoin (BTC).
In an interview with Will Clemente, the pseudonymous analyst says that Bitcoin’s current position is not in a bear market nor the “FOMO end of the bull market.” He argues that BTC currently sits somewhere in between, but he’s still not interested in predicting the exact peak of the bull market.
“I’m not interested in the top at all. When we get there, I know it. But I don’t know where it is, I’m not interested in that, because I know it will be probably a one-minute spike, right? I cannot trade it. I cannot sell or buy it at that price level. I’m more interested in the general level – where it moves around.”
PlanB says traders should be on the lookout for a supply shortage to gauge when Bitcoin’s top might be likely to arrive.
“I’m looking at it on an on-chain level, and then you see that shortage building to a moment where it pops. We’re still months away from that popping moment.”
The analyst thinks Bitcoin is still 3-6 months out from its top, and potentially longer.
“I really don’t think a crash is coming. I think we’ll see a bull market that goes on for at least six months and brings us into the $100,000-$200,000 [range].
I wouldn’t even be surprised with $500,000 Bitcoin in early 2022.”
PlanB predicts Bitcoin will surge to at least $98,000 by the end of November and then $135,000 in December.
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Featured Image: Shutterstock/IM_VISUALS/Vladimir Sazonov
The biggest property developer in China, Evergrande, seems to be on the verge of collapse. They apparently owe $300B. Is bankruptcy on the table? There’s a better question, though. Is Evergrande the only company in the sector with these kinds of debts? Or is Evergrande just a symptom of a widespread disease? And, how does this relate to Bitcoin? Do we present a valid case or are we reaching? Is this “China’s Lehman moment,” as the following Bitcoin analyst suggests?
Related Reading | New To Bitcoin? Learn To Trade Crypto With The NewsBTC Trading Course
What we know for sure is that “China’s major banks have been notified by the housing authority that Evergrande Group won’t be able to pay loan interest due Sept. 20,“ according to Reuters. Plan B’s comment sets the tone, and the video shows the intensity of the situation:
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China’s Lehman moment. The money printing will be massive, I repeat MASSIVE! This is good for #bitcoin https://t.co/lAdSMhnk3L
— PlanB (@100trillionUSD) September 15, 2021
Check yesterday’s date. Well, on September 15th, 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. Let’squote Investopediafor a quick recapitulation.
“At the time of its collapse, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States with 25,000 employees worldwide. It had $639 billion in assets and $613 billion in liabilities. The bank became a symbol of the excesses of the 2007-08 Financial Crisis, engulfed by the subprime meltdown that swept through financial markets and cost an estimated $10 trillion in lost economic output.”
Is China living through a similar situation right this minute?
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How Did China Evergrande Get Here?
A few days ago, on September 13th, theSouth China Morning Postseemed cautiously optimistic about the situation. They explained the root of the issue:
“Reports about missed payments to contractors, attempts to reschedule payments on wealth management products, and failure to sell assets have prompted Chinese regulators and the central bank to intervene to prevent a shock to the financial system.”
At the time, the big news was that they hired “Houlihan Lokey and Hong Kong-based investment bank Admiralty Harbour Capital to assess its capital structure, evaluate the liquidity and explore ways to ease its current liquidity crunch.” And you know what that meant:
“Hiring such financial advisers means Evergrande has come to a serious stage of listing what it owns, what it owes and what are the best plans” to extricate itself, said Lung Siu-fung, an analyst with CCB International.
The writing was on the wall.
Evergrande price chart on HKEX | Source: 3333 on TradingView.com
Where Are We Now? Is China Really In Trouble?
Apparently, China Evergrande was caught in a loop. The company was pre-selling apartments and using that money to fund other projects, in which they also pre-sold the apartments and the cycle started again. Evergrande bonds are suspended, and there’s a chance they’re worthless. The stock is near its all-time low, it has lost nearly 80% of its value this year.
Completing the story,CNBC informs:
“The company warned investors twice in as many weeks that it could default. On Tuesday, Evergrande said it’s at risk of a cross default, which means such risks could spill into other related sectors.
Evergrande said Tuesday its property sales would continue to deteriorate significantly this month, adding to its severe cash flow problems.”
Is there a possibility that Evergrande’s problems are the symptom of a widespread disease? That’s the $1M question. Is the real state sector really in trouble? For that answer, we have to go toZeroHedge’s report:
“Country Garden, the nation’s largest developer by sales, plunged 16% in the past two days, while Gemdale slumped 12% as a gauge of property shares in Shanghai tumbled almost 5% in the period, with valuations firmly below book value. Following the news, Guangzhou R&F Properties drops 10.8% to the lowest since Dec. 2008 while Greentown China -9.1%. At this point, one can safely call it a crisis.”
How Does Evergrande Relate To Bitcoin?
China’s Bitcoin policy doesn’t make sense. Regulating themselves out of the leadership position in the most important industry of our times is a hard pill to swallow. There has to be something else going on. We at NewsBTC have been on the case. We exploredthe Digital Yuan CBDCangle. We looked at ads sellingsmall hydropower stations. We discoveredChina’s dominance over the Bitcoin hashratewas waning before the ban. And we detailedthe so-called new “China Model.”
The guaranteed outcome of fractional reserve banking: Impairment of promises. It’s just a matter of when and at what magnitude. The impairment of credit will cascade to other balance sheets unless central planners debase the currency via QE, UBI, and/or debt forgiveness. BRRRRR
— Preston Pysh (@PrestonPysh) September 15, 2021
Under Plan B’s original tweet, two comments attract attention. Investor and podcaster Preston Pysh feels that the situation is “The guaranteed outcome of fractional reserve banking: Impairment of promises. It’s just a matter of when and at what magnitude.” And the person behindDocumenting Bitcoin goes conspiratorialand says, “They knew this was coming. Perhaps this is why they “banned” bitcoin.” That, as you might imagine, opens a huge can of worms.
Related Reading | Since China’s Mining Ban, Bitcoin Hashrate Has Recovered by 68% And Counting
Full of confidence, Plan B responds, “Yes, and they closed the exits, typical they always do that.” Bad for the people in China but, in general, bullish for Bitcoin. To recap: the government saw this coming from a distance. They knew the crisis was going to repeatedly hit the country and banned Bitcoin mining to scare the population into not buying the hardest asset ever created. Bitcoin, the true hedge against the collapse of every economy. In any case, the Chinese government will probably try to print its way out of this one. And somehow it’s going to use this crisis to unveil their Digital Yuan CBDC.
Does the theory sound coherent to you? Or is there even more to this story?
Featured Image by Li Yang on Unsplash - Charts by TradingView
For a network that allows final settlement of sound money, there’s no better marketing tool than a central bank balance sheet. That’s the reason for this popular saying in the Bitcoin community: Central bank policies are Bitcoin’s ad campaign. Governments keep printing money, causing inflation, and devaluating the bills in your pocket. As long as that keeps happening, Bitcoin will become more attractive.
Related Reading | BItcoin’s Sudden Drop to $9k Coincides With Fed’s Balance Sheet Contraction
Bitcoin’s price chart might be vertical right now, but governments all over the world are printing and printing as you read these lines.
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Let’s look at the Dollar, for example:
Best bitcoin chart ever. pic.twitter.com/RwLGAATcju
— log scale (@_log_scale_) July 12, 2021
How Does This Central Bank Balance Sheet Relate To Bitcoin?
The pink line and the yellow candles are inversely correlated. This goes hand in hand withPlan B’s infamous S2F model, Bitcoin’s supply and Bitcoin’s price are locked in so far. This speaks to digital scarcity and to the unmovable fact that there will only be 21M bitcoin. How many Dollars will there ever be? Nobody knows. But “an incredible ever-increasing amount” is a fair bet.
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The blue area inside the white line is a representation of the central bank balance sheet. The steep line unnaturally pointing up that begins in 2021 corresponds to the stimulus packages in response to the COVID crisis. The already rampant money printing got to an extreme only seen in developing economies that don’t control their own destiny.
As long as Central Banks are printing trillions in fiat no one can stop #Bitcoin #Bitcoin is the consequence of irresponsible Government policies and Central Bank printing pic.twitter.com/GJMfFL1nkC
— George Kikvadze 🇸🇻🇵🇾 (@BitfuryGeorge) February 17, 2021
Make no mistake, unlike other currencies, increases in the US Dollar’s money supply affect the whole world. Directly to dollarized countries like El Salvador. Indirectly to every country that uses the dollar as a reserve currency. And people from these countries don’t even get a stimulus check in the mail as a consolation prize.
Another interesting thing about the chart is that, lately, Bitcoin’s price seems to have lost correlation to the dollar’s rampant money printing. Does that speak to a coordinated attack to sink bitcoin’s price? One could argue the point.
One could also argue the point this reader makes:
Log if I am interpreting this right, Bitcoin always overshoots the G4 total balance sheet and this if repeats, will easily take Bitcoin across to 1 million.
— Resh (@Sureshsinghn) July 12, 2021
But take that last one with a grain of salt. And remember that these articles are never financial advice. Do your own research.
BTC price chart on Currency.com | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
What Can We Do To Safeguard Ourselves From Money Printing?
Governments around the world will keep printing bills and more bills, there’s not much anyone can do about that. However, you can safeguard your money from debasement by investing it in a hard asset. And what’s the hardest asset that humanity has ever created? You guessed it, it’s Bitcoin. To put this into perspective, let’s quote Saifedean Ammous’“The Bitcoin Standard”:
“The ratio between the stock and flow is a reliable indicator of a good’s hardness as money, and how well it is suited to playing a monetary role.”
And TheBitcoinist Book Club’s take on that quoteand book:
If it’s difficult to produce new “monetary units,” that’s “hard money.” If it isn’t, then it’s “easy money.” Over time, people who use hard money will tremendously outperform people who use easy money. A constant increase in the supply will erode the purchasing power of the easy money, it’s as simple as that. The law of supply and demand never fails.
Related Reading | Central Banks’ “Free Money” is Behind Bitcoin Bull Run: Mati Greenspan
Bitcoin is “difficult to produce,” that’s one of the reasons it works. The energy it takes to produce bitcoins, and to sustain and protect the Bitcoin network, give each coin its value. Or, as Saifedean Ammous himself put it:
Replacing the easy money of central banks & the unlimited power it’s given to modern governments over their citizens with a free market automated monetary system is truly priceless. No amount of electricity consumption is too high a price to pay.
— Saifedean.com (@saifedean) November 16, 2017
And now you know why Bitcoin is so important to humanity. And why your fellow men’s purchasing power keeps decreasing over time.
Featured Image by Christine Roy on Unsplash - Charts by TradingView
