Stacy Herbert Archives

A new investment fund, El Zonte Capital hopes to bring the Bitcoin Beach experience to the whole world. Controversial journalists and podcasters Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert joined forces with Swan Bitcoin’s Cory Klippsten to put their money where their mouth is. El Zonte Capital has $5M in committed funding, and that’s just the beginning.

Related Reading | Cool Valley Mayor Will Airdrop $1000 Worth Of BTC To Each Household

The place where El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law started, El Zonte AKA Bitcoin Beach is the inspiration behind the venture. “El Zonte is hyperbitcoinization. Hyperbitcoinization is economic freedom, and hyperbitcoinization is our main investment thesis,” Keiser said to Bitcoin Magazine.

Max Keiser & Stacy Herbert Launch El Zonte Capital https://t.co/tZvf7u7Pte

— El Zonte Capital (@ElZonteCapital) February 15, 2022

For the last two months, Keiser and Herbert experienced the bitcoin life first-hand by living in El Salvador. Speaking about their conversations with politician and merchants around the country, Herbert said, “We’ve been asking hard, deep questions to all of them and discussing their plans extensively. This is the place to be.” Keiser added, “After experiencing what it actually looks like, we see this as the inevitable near future for everyone else. We are riding this wave as any surfer would.”

What Will El Zonte Capital Do?

To get into the meat of things, we give the mic to Bitcoiner Ventures’ Cory Klippsten. He said, “We hope to facilitate a two-way exchange of ideas and resources, with companies around the world bringing their products and services to El Salvador, and companies based in El Salvador exporting their innovation to the rest of the world.”

The trio is no stranger to investing, nor to bitcoin-specific investment. As a partner in Bitcoiner Ventures, Klippsten has a stake in Impervious, social network Zion, the Breeze wallet; and giants like Galoy, Unchained Capital, and Bitrefill. For their part, Keiser and Herbert have investments in Kraken, Swan Bitcoin, and Bitfinex.

BTC price chart for 03/11/2022 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Should You Bet On El Salvador?

El Zonte Capital’s founding members couldn’t be more bullish on bitcoin and El Salvador. Keiser told Bitcoin Magazine, “The future is all around us. I haven’t been this excited about Bitcoin since I first heard about Bitcoin.” Herbert added, “El Salvador is drawing in the smartest, most creative people. Jack Dorsey recently said that ‘a big part of the future is happening in El Salvador,’ and he’s not wrong. The future is now and it is right here”

Bitcoin conversation was had

pic.twitter.com/kOdxvBC9yX

— Stacy Herbert (@stacyherbert) February 11, 2022

Their answer to the title’s question is a resounding yes. “We will look at education and education technology to onboard as many people as possible. El Salvador will be bigger than Singapore.” Keiser’s prediction here is ambitious, to say the least. But bitcoin is legal tender in El Salvador and not Singapore. And bitcoin companies know this.

Can El Zonte Capital Shake The Market?

What does “hyperbitcoinization is our main investment thesis” mean? It means that El Zonte Capital is betting on the whole world adopting bitcoin. Will that happen overnight? Probably not. So, the investment fund is playing the long game. Also, they’re funding companies that will probably take years to take off.

This is the move to watch. Our first true #bitcoin Citadel now has a warchest. Prepare yourselves https://t.co/LhpaumPmZm

— Ray Youssef (@raypaxful) March 11, 2022

So, no, El Zonte Capital will not immediately shake the market. However, if you lower your time preference, you’ll be able to see the importance of this investment fund. Their capital allocation aims to make El Salvador’s experiment successful. Plus, they’re not investing in the present of the bitcoin network. El Zonte Capital is looking at the future. Planting the seeds of what is to come.

Related Reading | The 411 On “Adopting Bitcoin,” A Lightning Network Conference in El Salvador

So, yes, El Zonte Capital and the companies they fund will hopefully affect the market at a future date. If everything goes according to plan, hyperbitcoinization will take over the world. That’s the day El Zonte Capital is betting on.

Featured Image by 12019 on Pixabay | Charts by TradingView

Surprising the world, Fidelity predicts what Bitcoin’s game theory implies. It’s as Satoshi Nakamoto said, “It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on.” That’s the exact same conclusion that Fidelity reaches in its “Research Round-Up: 2021 Trends And Their Potential Future Impact” report. Take into account that Fidelity is a multinational financial services corporation, it doesn’t get more mainstream than this.

I agree with @Fidelity, of course, but still astonishing to read this on Bitcoin adoption game theory in such a mainstream financial report: pic.twitter.com/7zRO9rEele

— Alex Gladstein (@gladstein) January 13, 2022

What did Fidelity say about Bitcoin adoption at the nation-states and central bank level?

They put it very clearly:

“We also think there is very high stakes game theory at play here, whereby if bitcoin adoption increases, the countries that secure some bitcoin today will be better off competitively than their peers. Therefore, even if other countries do not believe in the investment thesis or adoption of bitcoin, they will be forced to acquire some as a form of insurance. In other words, a small cost can be paid today as a hedge compared to a potentially much larger cost years in the future.”

In other words, It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on. And, as Stacy Herbert said, “First mover advantage goes to El Salvador”. At least if we’re talking out in the open, because other countries might be accumulating Bitcoin on the down-low. For example, Venezuela seized a lot of ASICs from private miners. Chances are those are active in a warehouse somewhere. And, of course, there are rumors that the USA is already mining.

Fidelity is one of the biggest asset managers in the world

They see what ID-10ts fail to understand

First mover advantage goes to

Game over for fiat, game on for #bitcoin

pic.twitter.com/I0Jlp8baVY

— Stacy Herbert (@stacyherbert) January 13, 2022

In any case, what does Fidelity conclude?

“We therefore wouldn’t be surprised to see other sovereign nation states acquire bitcoin in 2022 and perhaps even see a central bank make an acquisition.”

If those players do it in the open, it will probably trigger a race like no other. A race in which it will be too risky not to participate.

Speaking About Bitcoin Mining…

Fidelity’s report summarized 2021, it goes through most of the major stories that NewsBTC has covered ad nauseam. The company doesn’t try to figure out why did China ban Bitcoin mining, but it highlights how fast the hashrate recovered.

“The recovery in hash rate this year was truly astounding and one that we think demonstrates several issues that will be important to keep in mind for 2022 and beyond.”

The Fidelity report also highlighted how well the network responded. “This has now been tested and bitcoin’s network performed perfectly.”

BTC price chart for 01/17/2022 on Eightcap | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
What Does Fidelity Say About The Ecosystem In General?

The report wasn’t exclusively about Bitcoin, they also identified the biggest trends in the wide crypto sphere.

“The biggest non-Bitcoin themes put on display this past year included the massive issuance of stablecoins, the maturation of decentralized finance, and the early days of non-fungible tokens.”

And about those trends, Fidelity predicted:

“The growth in interconnectivity between siloed blockchains”
“Traditional fintech companies partnering or building capabilities to interact with DeFi protocols”
“The dawn of decentralized algorithmic stablecoins has officially begun.” Responding to the “growth in demand for more regulated, centralized stablecoins.”
“While the long-term value of these NFTs is not known, the impact of increased digital property rights for art, music, and content is likely to be meaningful in some form.”

In general, Fidelity thinks that investment in digital assets will keep growing:

“Allocating to digital assets has become far more normalized over the past two years for all investors. The Fidelity Digital Assets 2021 Institutional Investor Survey found that 71% of U.S. and European institutional investors surveyed intend to allocate to digital assets in the future. This number has grown across each individual region of the survey for the past three years, and we expect 2022 to show another year of higher current and future asset allocations to digital assets amongst institutions.”

However, something has to happen to catalyze widespread institutional adoption. “The key to allowing traditional allocators to continue to pour capital into the digital asset ecosystem revolves around regulatory clarity and accessibility.”

Is 2022 the year of regulatory clarity? What will happen first, institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies or nation-states adoption of Bitcoin? What central bank will earn first-mover advantage? Burning questions for the year ahead.

Featured Image by Damir Spanic on Unsplash | Charts by TradingView