Mike Belshe
@mikebelshe
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If I had a nickel for every time I was buying a $16M mansion for the company, but accidentally closed escrow in my parents' names.
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By failing to create an ETF for #bitcoin, the SEC:. - allowed the grayscale -> GBTC trade to rip retail for 5+yrs. - created the GBTC negative premium. - forced most crypto trading outside US jurisdiction. - let FTX's fraud hit millions of Americans it shouldn't have. Ouch.
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Tesla execs, as fiduciaries to the shareholders, decided it is less risky to have $1.5B of bitcoin than $1.5B of cash on its balance sheet.
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This was planned. The Dems are instantly throwing Biden under the bus on every channel. This is not normal. If you didn't believe there was election interference before, you should now.
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A win for @ripple is a win for the whole industry.
Trying something new – some thoughts from me on the events (specifically the release of the Hinman documents) of this week. For me, this has all had a personal bent to it - and felt like it warranted some personal comments.
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As the world's largest and oldest digital custodian, @bitgo, with hundreds of exchange clients and hundreds of institutional clients, I believe our data forecasts that crypto winter is over. 2019 will be a strong year.
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I can’t express enough how upsetting this Fortress Trust episode is to me. I really don’t want to talk about it at all, because it actually has nothing to do with BitGo. But because Fortress was not forthcoming about what actually did happen, we are now indirectly affected -.
🚩🚩🚩Ripple (which now owns Fortress) says there was a loss of funds even though Fortress explicitly said there were no funds lost. 🚩🚩🚩.
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The reason people are so shocked by Bitcoin price is because we think we understand static supply but we don't. For centuries, humans thought various monies were effectively fixed supply. But they were not. Not even gold. And as the value of a money goes up, the temptation.
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Regulators say Facebook is bad because it lacks privacy controls. Regulators say ZEC and privacy coins are bad because they have privacy controls.
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Let's be clear: The virus is here to stay. It will be here forever. Unless you're prepared to be in quarantine until the vaccine is here (years!), you should agree to end the quarantine now. The virus will get you either way. Good news: it's not that bad!!.
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A year ago @CalvinAyre threatened @BitGo after we dropped BSV. We dropped it because the genius BSV devs broke their own blockchain. BSV has proven itself irrelevant and now has a mkt cap lower than even #WBTC, which only had a $10mil mkt cap at the time Calvin made his threats.
@CalvinAyre My biggest fear was that you might have said yes. To the contrary, it was a favor to offer to implement it at all, because there is certainly no business demand for BSV support. Team is happy to be working on more important things.
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If you're thinking of selling your digital assets, sell them for BTC instead of for USD.
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@Alfred_Lin I'm sure you were lied to. The whole point of DD is to figure out if you're being lied to. Would you be willing to share the DD process you did with SBF publicly?.
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Bitcoin dropping to $20k for 6-12 months would not be a bad thing at all, and would wipe out the weak coins and propel Bitcoin & Ether. By the end of the year we will have a healthy ecosystem.
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I'm incredibly risk averse. That's why I have all my money in Bitcoin.
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I'm not usually one to gloat. I post this due to Craig Wright's recent shenanigans against hardworking real bitcoin (BTC) devs. For the record, Craig is not Satoshi, has no claim to bitcoin trademarks, software, or white paper, and is a repeatedly convicted liar.
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The SEC should approve the Bitcoin ETF right now so that investors can work within the US system rather than outside of it. US firms like BitGo are absolutely working within the rules of law, and it's insulting to hear him claim otherwise.
There is a lot of noncompliance in the crypto space. It undermines confidence when so many people have been hurt and all they can do is stand in line in the bankruptcy court. Further, this can make it hard for the good faith actors to compete.
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Whenever I pay at restaurants and bars I ask, "Do you guys take Bitcoin?" I know they'll say no. But it's just my way of spreading the word.
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Honored to be working with @worldlibertyfi @ZachWitkoff and the USD1 team! Stablecoins are the banks of the future, and USD1 will lead the way.
Meet USD1 — the stablecoin your portfolio’s been waiting for. Built for institutions and retail alike. Backed by dollars. Custodied by BitGo. No games. No gimmicks. Just real stability.
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Scouting locations for 100% green energy #bitcoin mining today. Bitcoin will fund 100% green cities where man was never able to live before.
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@Jason Ignorant view. Go try to register a digital asset as a security before you make ridiculous statements like this.
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Bitcoin is the only form of money open to all people, of all colors, all religions, all economic classes with zero bias. Let's not create crypto regulation based on identity.
Harris Proposes Regulatory Framework To Support Black Crypto Investors. Today, three weeks before the election, Kamala Harris announced her "Opportunity Agenda for Black Men," which includes a proposed regulatory framework for crypto that aims to protect Black investors. The plan
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The only position that matters is the President's. The house issued a whole resolution that SAB 121 should be repealed, and Biden immediately announced he would veto it. The prior administration opened the OCC to crypto. This administration repealed all of it. Voting for.
I know certain factions in the Biden administration have made it seem like crypto is a political issue. But a lot of Dems are pro-crypto and have crossed party lines multiple times (including just this week!) to express their support for crypto. IMO, it’s not a good idea for.
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While @SenWarren complains that Bitcoin is not transparent and higher risk than traditional finance, Bitwise publishes the first ever real-time ETF proof of reserves. Traditional finance was designed at a time when this was not possible, and cannot be upgraded or fixed. The.
Announcement: Today the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) becomes the first U.S. bitcoin ETF to publish the bitcoin addresses of its holdings. Now anyone can verify BITB's holdings and flows directly on the blockchain. Onchain transparency is core to Bitcoin's ethos. We're proud to
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If @bitgo has been acquired by PayPal, that is news to me.
If paypal buys bitgo, and it looks like that has happened, it's not clear to me how comfortable bitgo crypto clients can be about the security of their assets. Paypal isn't known for its transparent policies around freezing accounts.
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@CalvinAyre My biggest fear was that you might have said yes. To the contrary, it was a favor to offer to implement it at all, because there is certainly no business demand for BSV support. Team is happy to be working on more important things.
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"Bitcoin is the greatest form of money the world has ever seen." Let's make it reach more people.
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Trump won this debate. If you care about crypto and freedom, you have to vote Trump.
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Unpopular opinion: Public blockchains today (without privacy like ZEC) are the epitome of financial surveillance. State of the art in Blockchain is law enforcement's wet dream. We can do better.
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@mikealfred I can take your BTC off your hands now for $56k each and help you save $40k per coin.
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If you want to add Bitcoin to your company's treasury, contact me. @BitGo specializes in this and provides institutional buy/sell, portfolio mgmt, regulated custody and cold storage, tax reporting, and can advise on best practices.
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The @BitGo story is a bit different. We lost one bank account in the early days for no reason. But it put us on a path where today we use 10+ banks. But that is super hard work and sacrifice. We've been denied far more than we've been accepted- told to not bother applying at.
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We need leaders that are going to lead America back to work. We don't need leaders that will lead us into fear, uncertainty and economic collapse. We can control this virus:.
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0% of FTX creditors agree that receiving $16800 for your bitcoin is fully compensated. I understand why the bankruptcy process needs to work this way but let's not pretend victims are getting their money back or that FTX wasn't as awful as it was.
FTX plans to pay billions more to creditors for compensation
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I'm not scared of COVID; I'm only scared of regulators. I'll travel anywhere; I don't care if you're vaccinated, wear a mask, shake my hand or if we meet in large groups. But regulators? They can take my freedom and lock me in a foreign country indefinitely. SCARY!.
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When spending other people's money. .
🚨 🇺🇸 EXPOSED: USAID'S HAITI SCAM - $4.4B SPENT, SIX HOMES BUILT. USAID and partners funneled billions through multiple "administrative fees," with DC firms pocketing 56% of contracts while Haitian companies got just 2%. The Red Cross's numbers tell the story: $500M raised,
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My dry cleaner called today to tell me they are out of business and I had to pickup. This is a growing trend - one of several restaurants and small businesses that I used to frequent are dying. This is caused by the lockdown, not the virus. We're now. .
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Imagine if, instead of having just 1 crypto friendly bank carrying 100% of the weight of the crypto industry, we had 100 banks, each carrying 1% of the crypto industry?. Regulators created a tinderbox for a bank run by not enabling and encouraging more banks to participate in.
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The infrastructure bill's poor drafting will collect some pennies in taxes now, but may also kill innovation. A smarter approach would be to make Bitcoin be tax deferred in the US, let business thrive and innovate, and generate trillions in tax revenue in just a few years.
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My prediction: there was no hack. The government just did what the government always does: bungled it up.
The @SECGov twitter account was compromised, and an unauthorized tweet was posted. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products.
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"Any regulator can submit a pull request. That they don't is telling." -- @ErikVoorhees . I've been saying this for years also - the regulator of the future should be a code reviewer - verifying the smart contracts and blockchain code which operates our financial systems. That.
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Fact: Bitcoin is the only currency in the history of mankind to maintain a consistent monetary policy for over 10 years.
US national debt is $30.5T. That's $305B in *just interest* for every 1% rise in rates. 5% rate = $1.525T interest. That's more than we spend on:.-Military.-Social Security.-Medicare+Medicaid.-All federal agencies *combined* (incl dept of defense). There's a hard ceiling to rates.
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In 1995 I was lucky to be 24 and join Netscape to help usher in the Internet era. Today, if you're 24 and have the opportunity to join the crypto era, don't miss it. This is a life changing moment. @GalaxyDigitalHQ @bitgo.
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Kenya's regulators are smarter than the SEC.
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Hard to believe it has been 10yrs since we launched chrome. Congrats @googlechrome - amazing work and team that changed the world. Proud to have played a part.
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I don't think CT appreciates how much companies like @bitgo spend annually on insurance, SOC2s, regulatory reserves, and financial audits. It's staggering. I want to do even better. 100% on-chain proofs. We need it as an industry. Easier than it sounds but we will get.
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@DU09BTC This is like saying "Alameda bought lots of ETH so sell all your ETH.". Yes, Alameda minted a lot of WBTC. But that doesn't affect your WBTC. The backing of it is at BitGo in 100% reserve and you can see it here:
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We don't always announce our Assets-Under-Custody numbers, but when we do it's in powers-of-2. $64B! .
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The Craig Wright of email.
Thanks for your support on my recent tweet @elonmusk re: the CEO position @Twitter. I believe anyone wanting THIS role must be fully transparent and publicly post their qualifications. My experience began when I invented email at age 14, long before I earned 4 degrees from MIT
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It's time to applaud exchanges like @Bitstamp that already store client funds in a qualified custodian.
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Either @secgov was hacked, or @garygensler was hacked, or the SEC just bungled their own announcement. All 3 possibilities are the same - the SEC was responsible for this one.
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@RepRaskin We, The People, support freezing of obviously wasteful spending. Your arguments are vague. We demand congress tear down all USAID and other frivolous spending.
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@BillAckman @Nike Until reading this post I had no idea that "never again" had anything to do with the Holocaust. Call me ignorant or naive, but why do you think this was about the Holocaust?.
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By the way, if you've got proof of reserves on chain, do you even need an SEC? The blockchain is mathematically provable and does not make mistakes. The SEC can't even keep its Twitter account secure. Finance is about to radically change. (PS: We need the SEC, but it's job.
While @SenWarren complains that Bitcoin is not transparent and higher risk than traditional finance, Bitwise publishes the first ever real-time ETF proof of reserves. Traditional finance was designed at a time when this was not possible, and cannot be upgraded or fixed. The.
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If we move trading & lending into smart contracts, will regulatory "oversight" be reduced to code reviews & audits? . Smart contracts are open-and-transparent by definition and have no curtain to hide behind. Consumer & institutional disclosures can be built-in.
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Unpopular opinion: Forced economic shutdown due to quarantine may lead to more long term human suffering than the virus itself. Effects won't be immediate- but poverty will surge, economies will stall, borders will close and the global quarantine will be the primary cause of ww3.
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@twobitidiot It is hard to imagine anything bad that would happen if we just got rid of the SEC. DeFi and crypto markets have proven that we can have fairer, more transparent, more orderly and efficient markets than the SEC's equities markets. We don't need an elderly nanny.
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Walk in to restaurant:. "You need to wear a mask". "Oh sorry! I forgot it" <I turn to leave>. "No problem, I'll get you one". "Thanks" <I put on the mask>. <I order food; 2mins later sit down; take off mask and dine in for an hour with no mask>. This is security theater.
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If I were tether / bitfinex, and I believed my own story that every tether is backed by $1, I'd be buying every token I could right now for for $0.978! A risk-free 2% return. Unless I knew it wasn't actually backed, of course.
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I completely agree with all of this. As @VitalikButerin says, "A government that is trustworthy today may not be trustworthy tomorrow." This is true of companies & individuals also. We've already been way to lax on privacy in our industry.
Why I support privacy:.
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Valkyrie has added @BitGo as a custodian for their #Bitcoin ETF. This is a huge win for the industry as we partner to secure their assets. Kudos to @valkyriefunds, @LeahWald and @stevenmcclurg for leading the industry with the best approach to mitigate risk in ETF custody.
@ValkyrieFunds @BitGo I think this is a diversification of their custodian(s). At initial ETF filing & approval every ETF only had one custodian -- Valkyrie had Coinbase. I think this means Valkyrie assets will be custodied by both BitGo and Coinbase? Not certain yet.
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Was just talking with @iampaulgrewal last night. Seems like tides are turning on the crypto regulatory front. America is such a great country.
JUST IN: Crypto asset manager Grayscale wins lawsuit against SEC.
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If SBF's investments were all made with stolen money - will the receivers of that investment money be returning it to the rightful owners - the users of FTX?.
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There is something courageous about using your real name and your real reputation on twitter. I don't mind that some are anonymous, but the fact they choose fake names reduces their credibility.
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Before approving a Bitcoin ETF, the SEC wants transaction surveillance to compare ETF trade prices to market prices of US exchanges. But BTC trades globally more than locally. And the surveillance will undoubtedly be US only. Does this type of surveillance even work in a global.
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Vaccinated people have a 0.0054% chance of dying. 2x more people die in the US per day in auto accidents than vaccinated people die from COVID-19. If you're too scared to end the lockdown now, you should be terrified of getting in a car.
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BitGo isn't a run-of-the-mill ZCash implementation - this is the FIRST multi-signature ZCash wallet. Technical folks will know that multi-sig in ZCash is different from other blockchains and it does affect privacy. But finally - a secure platform for ZCash is here! @bitgo
Another industry leader, @BitGo, announces support for Zcash.
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Congrats Brave! Imagine trying to reinvent the fundamental revenue model for all websites in a way that restores your privacy - all while competing against giants like Google, Apple and Microsoft? Audacious but courageous. I guess that is why we call them Brave!.
Huge day at Brave: 1.0 is out, ready for all users! With 3-6x faster browsing, unmatched privacy, and opt-in ads that pay users 70% of revenue, it's time to switch and end surveillance capitalism. Also, Brave Rewards now on iOS!
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If you are excited about BCH price or future prospects, be careful to evaluate cautiously - the transaction volume is extremely small still.
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We lament that US crypto is leaving the US - but the far bigger opportunity lost is the foreign money that could have come to US crypto companies if our regulations were friendly. #givingitaway.
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It's such an obviously good time to be building and investing in crypto. It may go lower, but not much. Be long term and you won't care.
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Segwit2x's 91% miner support is strongest consensus signal ever for blocksz growth. Hard work is just beginning.
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Do you think we should separate custody from exchanges now?.
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Fastest stablecoin to go $0 to $1b!.
$1B and growing! 🦅.
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For what it is worth, SAB-121 is still a side-show. The GAO already ruled that the SEC can't issue it without congressional approval as per the CRA. That approval has never been granted. SAB-121 remains inapplicable as per Congress.
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"We [crypto] are not agents of chaos but agents of order.". Erik's talk at the Bitcoin 2013 conference years ago was an inspiration to me and so many others. He does it again in his latest eloquent talk this week. Everyone should watch this and then watch it again. Teach it to.
Why are we here?. Permissionless II opener from @ErikVoorhees that got an entire crypto conference on their feet
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Failure to federally protect SVB will lead to bank runs at many small to midsized banks in America. Note: I have no personal funds nor does @bitgo have any funds at SVB.
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I believe the bitcoin community can become stronger if we use real names on twitter.
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Forced economic shutdown due to quarantine will lead to more long term human suffering than the virus itself. Get everyone a mask and send them back to work. US can come out way ahead if we do this now.
Unpopular opinion: Forced economic shutdown due to quarantine may lead to more long term human suffering than the virus itself. Effects won't be immediate- but poverty will surge, economies will stall, borders will close and the global quarantine will be the primary cause of ww3.
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Many people seeing the chess board now, but here you go:. Move 1: US tariffs. Move 2: CNY devalues.Move 3: USD follows suit.Result: BTC 🚀🚀🚀.
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Proud to be working with the excellent team at INX who have been building this product the hard way, the right way, for so long!.
Proud to collaborate with @BitGo & introduce an institutional-grade #wallet management solution for #security #tokens, and enable institutional investors to take full advantage of the opportunities in the tokenization ecosystem.
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Congrats @HesterPeirce ! If you don't know Commissioner Pierce, she has been working on level headed policy for crypto, including innovative safe harbor provisions for years. Had she been in charge for the last 4 years, America could be in a much better place.
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@iampaulgrewal No need to wait for court. You could share them now, along with what standard WBTC did not meet.
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$68k!. As Bitcoin grows, it is increasingly attractive to well funded attackers. More than ever we must double down our investments in security & decentralization. Never let your guard down because of the price!.
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Thanks @ThinkingCrypto1 - enjoyed the chat let's do it again!.
My interview with @BitGo CoFounder & CEO @mikebelshe is live!. WATCH ▶️ Topics:.- Mike's background at #Netscape & #Google.- #BitGo's #Crypto Wallet & Custody Solutions.- Institutional Crypto Adoption.- #Bitcoin ETF & El Salvador.- US Crypto Regulations
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