The Bitcoin special: A record month for BTC, US gov’t sells $922M of Bitcoin, ETFs stacking sats

What an incredible week that was for Bitcoin and there are so many stories I Need to catch you up on that today is Going to be a Bitcoin Special good morning you're listening to The ryzen crypto podcast by coin Telegraph with me Robert bags steering You through the crypto Cosmos with daily Dispatches from the digital Frontier if You want to have an encyclopedic Knowledge of everything happening in Crypto you better click that follow Button okay grab yourself a coffee and Let's get into It the long and short of the rundown Today is Bitcoin we're going to cover Why February was a record-breaking month Bitcoin's price correction yesterday Courtesy of grayscale's massive spike in Outflows while the bit yci believes that The ETFs are only just getting started While the Bitcoin minor reserves Unexpectedly held steady in February and Finally the US government moved $922 Million worth of seized Bitcoin right the past 24 hours Price-wise we've seen a little bit more Stability according to coin Telegraph Markets data at 7:00 a.m. eastern we had 24hour highs of $3,611 and 24-hour lows of $6,295 so we haven't quite captured that New alltime high against the US dollar But as William suberg wrote we have

Already set a new record just a Different one Bitcoin closed February Out with an enormous green candle and Checkmates the pseudonymous lead onchain Analyst at glass mode pointed out its Significance in February Bitcoin gained Just shy of $20,000 and Checkmate wrote unreal February 2024 printed a $1,840 Bitcoin candle the largest Monthly USD increase in history this Added $390 billion to the Bitcoin market Cap up a remarkable 47% as William subber pointed out Bitcoin took nearly a decade to get a $20,000 price tag and when it finally Did at the end of 2017 it took another 3 Years to beat it now we've just seen Bitcoin's price go up $20,000 in a month Now it's not all roses as William Pointed out earlier this week as monthly Candles expire they can spark volatility Yesterday on the 29th of February we did See this a little with a 3.3% correction That Jesse cockland traced back to our Old foe with the outflows that grayscale Bitcoin trust gry scale according to Preliminary data from f side investor Had nearly $600 million exit narrowly Missing the daily record outflows of $64.5 million back on the 22nd of January now this is particularly Disappointing because on the 26th of February as I discussed earlier this

Week grecale had its lowest Daily net Outflow of just $22.4 million so we were Kind of lured into thinking that the Outflows were finally drying up but then It gushed Bloomberg's Eric balcon ass Wrote $600 million outflow for gbtc Today that's a lot two steps forward one Step back though it is worth reiterating That the flows of the spot Bitcoin ETFs As a whole are just fine yesterday saw The total volume drop right off from The Madness of the 28th that we discussed Yesterday but even with a huge dip in Volume they still recorded the second Best day by volume since the ETFs opened For trading balcon wrote hot but cooler Volumes for the nine came down today Although still clocked their second Biggest day ever but cooler after Yesterday's explosion they are going to End up trading more this week than their Entire first month on the market New Normal or temporary burst we will see Well New Normal or temporary burst might Be called a false dichotomy by one Person who believes that what we might Be in for is behind door three even Bigger inflows bit wise's CIO Matt hugan Was on CNBC for an interview yesterday And explained that the interest in the Spot Bitcoin ETFs came primarily from Retail hedge funds and independent Financial advisors the next even bigger Wave as he puts it could come from

Institutional capital and hugan referred To the ETFs as bitcoin's IPO moment Michael sailor posted the interview on X And quoted one standout line from hugan When he said with Bitcoin right now There is too much demand and not enough Supply hugan added that the supply Demand Dynamic is just off the hook now If you really want to fill bullet Bullish on this Friday morning hugan Stated that this institutional wave Could cause bitcoin's price to blow past His initial prediction for 20124 which Was $80,000 and put it somewhere between 100 and $200,000 I've discussed Bitcoin miners a Lot over the past few months for obvious Reasons the harving event few businesses Could stomach the harving of income Overnight though the mining firms have Had 4 years to prepare the difficulty is That doesn't tell the whole story in the Leadup to the harving the difficulty of Mining increases meaning you can't just Start scaling back and streamlining your Systems or you'll drop off completely This time last year mining difficulty Was 43 trillion now it's 62.5 trillion You may have just said to yourself 62.5 Trillion Watts well it's an indication Of how many attempts or hashes are Needed on average to find a valid block Under the current difficulty level so Right now that's 63.5 trillion hashes

But really you don't need to know this To know that mining is significantly More difficult now than a year ago and The mining firms have to keep up despite Knowing that around the 19th of April The block rewards for their efforts will Be slashed from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC And on top of that the cost to mine Isn't likely to go down straight away Some believe it may even increase Analysis from the asset manager coin Shares said the following we think Riot Terror wolf and cleanspark are the best Positioned go going into the harving one Of the main problems miners have is Large SG and a selling General and Administrative costs for miners to break Even the harving will likely force them To cut SG and a costs otherwise they Could continue to run at an operating Loss and having to resort to liquidating Their hoddle balances and other current Assets Now one way to offset the harving Is for mining firms to line their Coffers beforehand this is all the more Attractive when Bitcoin is chasing its All-time high price as we've seen this Week so you would have expected a mass Exodus of coins from the miners but Curiously we've not had one according to Data from crypto Quant on the 1st of February miners wallet reserves held 1.82 million Bitcoin at the other end of The month on the 28th of February as we

Now chase the all-time high those Reserves held 1.82 7 million Bitcoin so Very little difference indeed Nevertheless crypto Quant shows that at Least 40,000 Bitcoin was sold by miners On the 26th of February but it seems That the miners may have got a lot of Their selling out of the way in January And now they're in hodle mode for the Most part as Bitcoin goes through Different price thresholds all sorts of Consequences take place people set Themselves price targets often Arbitrarily to buy in or to sell and Take profits and sometimes what makes This interesting is not necessarily the Threshold but who reacts to it on Wednesday the 28th of February Bitcoin Passed that $60,000 milestone for the First time in 2 years to the Elation of Us crypto folk it seems though it acted As a prompt for the United States Government to make a move of their own What you may or may not know is that as Difficult as the US has been for crypto Companies with regulatory uncertainty The US government is one of the biggest Bitcoin whales on the planet and all Without ever purchasing so much as a Satoshi the US is believed to have Around 200,000 Bitcoin in its Reserve Valued at around $12.3 billion at the Time of recording to put that in context Micro strategy the biggest publicly

Traded holder of Bitcoin has been Aggressively buying Bitcoin for years And they've only just hit 193,000 so how does the US have so much Well in 2016 a good portion of it was Secured after a high-profile seizure From the bit Forex hacker the bit Forex Exchange was hacked for approximately 119,50 4 Bitcoin which is worth over $7.4 billion today and is from this pool Of seized Bitcoin that the US government May be looking to sell from at 3:39 p.m. On the 28th of February a test Transaction of one Bitcoin was made from A US Government labeled wallet shortly After a transaction of 2,817 Bitcoin worth around $172 million Was made this was followed by a third Transaction of 0.01 Bitcoin and finally A fourth transaction of 12,2 67 Bitcoin Which is worth a staggering $748 million and this was all tracked by Data from Arkham intelligence this Brings the total to $922 Million worth Of bitcoin transferred from the two Government-owned wallets that held the Funds seized from the bit Forex hack the Timing of this is probably to do with Bitcoin's price but there is another Little coincidence that adds a bit more Intrigue the fund started moving a day After Ilia lonstein the hacker who stole And laundered north of $4.5 billion Worth of bitcoin from bitfinex appeared

In a court in Washington where he laid Out how he pulled off one of the largest Bitcoin heists in history lonstein and His wife Heather Morgan who's also known As the rapper Razzle khah were arrested In February 2022 over this hack and it Led to the largest government seizure in History as the Bitcoin was worth $3.6 Billion at that time the couple have Pleaded guilty to money laundering Conspiracy in connection with the bit For next hack incidentally the New York Times wrote an article back in 2022 that Branded the pair as bitcoin's Bonnie and Clyde which has inspired Amazon to start Working on a movie about them so the Message there kids is if you want a Movie made about you you need to steal a Lot of money best of luck please don't Steal money okay that is it for today I Hope you enjoyed this Bitcoin special It's been one hell of a week and Everything is pointing to another not Quiet weekend and I will catch you up on On everything that happens bright and Early Monday morning but that is it for Today so consider yourself informed Thank you for listening to the ryen Crypto podcast by coin Telegraph if You're enjoying these daily updates Please make sure you let us know by Following subscribing or leaving a Review have a great weekend let's do This again

[Music] Monday