Bitcoin—Headlines of 2021

My previous piece “Bitcoin — Bullish Catalysts of 2020” discussed some of the exciting developments in the Bitcoin world so far this year. Like most things about 2020, many of these would have been unheard of going into the year. With this in mind, I have created a brief list of possible headlines or announcements that we might see throughout 2021 as the Bitcoin narrative continues to dominate the world.

In no particular order and purely hypothetical in nature lets begin!

1. PayPal will enable their customers to withdraw digital assets from their accounts
2. PayPal will enable customers to purchase BTC and other assets directly from the Venmo app, similar to Squares CashApp function now
3. PayPal will acquire Bitcoin on their balance sheet
4. 10+ S&P 500 companies will acquire Bitcoin on their balance sheet. This will include one or more of the FANGMAN companies
5. Apple will build a digital asset wallet directly into the iPhone OS
6. Google will follow suite, integrating an Android native wallet on all phones
7. Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat will enable users to send Bitcoin through messaging channels using Lightning network
8. Coinbase will go public and their exchange will be down on the same day
9. BlockFi will go public (possibly via SPAC?)
10. We will see more regulatory scrutiny over altcoins (Ethereum) for unregistered securities offerings. This capital will flow into Bitcoin
11. Bitcoin will assume 80%+ market dominance and its market cap will surpass $5tn (10x from here)
12. Bulge bracket banks (JPM/GS/MS) will offer direct custody/prime brokerage solutions for digital assets to their clients. They will either build inhouse or acquire existing firms
13. A Bitcoin ETF will be launched, sponsored by BlackRock and using Fidelity as the custodian
14. Grayscale will surpass $500bn AUM. The premium associated with GBTC will remain elevated and the popular arbitrage trade even more crowded
15. MicroStrategy will use their enhanced balance sheet to issue more debt to fund further Bitcoin purchases. They will also use their strong positioning to partake in M&A activity to gain more market share in the business intelligence software industry
16. MassMutual will be joined by insurance giants like StateFarm, Geico and Allstate who will acquire Bitcoin on their balance sheet
17. CalPERS will allocate to Bitcoin with other pension plans and endowment funds following suite
18. Oil and Gas giants like BP/Shell will adopt Bitcoin mining as part of their capital allocation strategy. Companies such as Cruscoe Energy and Great American Mining will assist in the process, seeing immense growth in their underlying business
19. The Biden administration will announce a “Blockchain Initiative” task force that probably won’t do much but waste tax dollars
20. Cynthia Lummis will be joined by other pro-Bitcoin politicians in DC who will need our support to fund a better world. Shout out to Coin Center and others currently fighting the good fight
21. I will be working to build the Bitcoin native economy full time

I truly believe that the majority of these will come true next year but what is most exciting is that we will see even more headlines come across the tape that we can’t even fathom yet. Hodl on to your Bitcoin, the ride is just getting started.