🐸 Bull Market Back On? These Whales Say YES...

Gm ser,

State of the Market: Bad News is Good News, Whales Feast, and Bitcoin Gets a Tattoo.

Okay, so the US jobs report was a bit of a dud, which is absolutely fine. They added way fewer jobs than expected, and the unemployment rate even ticked up a bit. The thing is, in this market environment, bad news is good news. Weird, right? 🤷‍♀️

So get this, Bitcoin actually went UP after the news. Apparently, investors think this means the Fed won't freak out and raise interest rates super fast, which is good for risky stuff like crypto. 👍

Speaking of risky stuff, those Bitcoin whales are going on a shopping spree! They scooped up billions worth of Bitcoin recently, which means they're feeling pretty confident about the future.

Finally, all the chart nerds are getting excited about some "inverse head and shoulders" pattern they see forming. This is supposed to be a super bullish sign but remember, chart patterns aren't magic.  It could totally fall apart. 📉

Chart of the day

Alright, listen up degens! Bitcoin just hit a major milestone – it's processed over one BILLION transactions since it started back in 2009. That's a whole lotta digital money changing hands! 🎉

This just shows that Bitcoin isn't going away anytime soon. It's survived all sorts of craziness over the years and is still being used by more and more people. Who would've thought this internet money experiment would actually become a thing? 🪙

Most important news of the day.

That Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), the biggest Bitcoin ETF, is finally seeing some money flow back in. Guess investors are getting over their winter blues. ❄️➡️☀️

Those crypto whales (aka rich folks with way too much risk appetite) are gobbling up a bunch of altcoins like PEPE, LINK, UNI, MKR, and ENS. Get ready for some price action if they keep buying! 🐳

LayerZero Labs (one of our latest picks) is dealing with those pesky sybil farmers (people trying to game airdrops). They're offering a reward if folks fess up, hoping to keep things fair. We'll see if that works...🤔

Some poor soul lost over $71 million in wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) by sending it to the wrong address. This is a brutal reminder to triple-check those addresses before hitting send! 😬

Our Daily Pick: Ordinals, the Bitcoin NFTs you didn’t know you needed.

Okay, so Bitcoin has been getting awfully expensive lately, and all those purists are losing their minds. Why? Blame it on Runes, the new hotness in crypto. But before all of that, this Casey Rodamor developer guy deployed a protocol to print inscriptions on Bitcoin: the Ordinals.

Think of them like digital graffiti on the Bitcoin blockchain. Basically, you can take a tiny piece of Bitcoin (a satoshi) and slap some data onto it – like an image, a bit of text, or maybe even a small program. This inscription then exists forever within the blockchain, like a prehistoric cave painting no one can erase. 🦖

How the Heck Does This Work?

Those sophisticated Bitcoin upgrades, SegWit and Taproot, made this gimmick possible. They basically allowed for bigger chunks of data to be attached to transactions. Ordinals came along and figured out how to use this to track individual satoshis and the stuff attached to them.

Why are these different from regular NFTs?

Unlike those Ethereum-based NFTs that are basically just links to pictures on some random server, Bitcoin Ordinals are baked right into the blockchain. This makes them super permanent and way harder to destroy...or lose if your favorite NFT marketplace gets hacked. 🔐

So...what's the catch?

Cost:  Making an Ordinal is expensive. This is making regular Bitcoin transactions a pain in the wallet, and those Bitcoin diehards are ready to revolt. 😡 

Miners have to process all that extra data, so you gotta bribe them with hefty fees. 💸

Size Matters: Forget about storing your high-res vacation photos on the blockchain. Ordinals are mostly limited to tiny images and stuff.

Bitcoin Purists Hate It:  These things are clogging up the blockchain, making regular Bitcoin transactions more expensive, the same way Runes did. Some folks are already grumbling and want to squash Ordinals altogether. Get ready for a crypto civil war! ⚔️

Is there anything cool about Ordinals?

For now, they're mostly just meme-y knockoffs of Ethereum NFTs. But there's potential for some interesting stuff:

🚨 Dissidents in nasty countries could use Ordinals to spread messages the government can't delete.

🎨 Imagine an artist creating a piece of art that evolves over time with each transaction of the inscribed satoshi.

🧑‍ 🍼 Sentimental types could store memories on the blockchain (though those baby photos might be a bit pixelated).

Bottom Line

Ordinals are a weird new experiment in the world of Bitcoin. They're controversial, potentially useful, and definitely a sign that crypto is still in its wild and wacky early days. Let's see if they become anything more than just a passing fad!

Until Wednesday,

-Pep