#15 Covid and Brexit combo has serious consequences
New solar EV, Airlines to create Covid app and insurance companies are buying bitcoin.
Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws!
— Mayer Amschel Rothschild
A combination of Covid and Brexit will likely mean that non-essential travel to the European Union will not be possible from the end of this year. The end of the Brexit transition period will mean that UK citizens will no longer be exempt from Covid restrictions. In real terms this means that British citizens will be able to access the bloc only for essential work reasons.
Markets
Nothing much happening on the global markets this past week, however, the below two tweets are worth noting.
Tech
This new solar EV has a 1,000-mile range—but you may never need to charge it. Range is arguably the biggest hurdle when it comes to developing an EV, but one startup thinks it has cleared it—in more ways than one.
Health
A lobby group that represents airlines worldwide has said that it is creating a mobile app to help passengers show they are Covid-free, as coronavirus vaccinations are expected to become mandatory for international travel.
I don’t have a strong opinion of the the COVID situation - but I have noticed an increase in comments like the the below for what it is worth.
Bitcoin
France declares war on crypto anonymity, cites “Terrorism” in KYC mandate. All virtual asset service providers must immediately begin checking their customers’ identities, verifying “beneficial owners” and prohibit anonymous crypto accounts, according to the press release from Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.
Meanwhile in the US, congressmen are standing up.
Insurance company MassMutual buys $100M worth of bitcoin. MassMutual is a life insurance provider servicing five million clients. It was founded in 1851 and its revenue in 2019 was nearly $30 billion.
Note the dates of the following 2 tweets:
And then a few days later…
Is the MicroStrategy $400m convertible note (ending up being $650m) with the intention of buying bitcoin a so-called “speculative attack”?
Preston Pysh and Mark Moss discuss this in the below video.
This fireside chat with Binance CEO CZ and Michael Saylor is probably my favorite video of the week - try your best to challenge these arguments.
Below a fresh discussion with “Plan B” who is a Dutch institutional investor with a legal and quantitative finance background. He created the bitcoin Stock-to-Flow (S2F) model where he uses scarcity to quantify bitcoin value.
Other headlines this week:
Billionaire Ray Dalio Recognizes Bitcoin as Gold Alternative
Fidelity Digital to Hold Bitcoin as Collateral for Cash Loans
Notable tweets the past week:
This newsletter is for informational purposes only. Individuals and entities should not construe any such information as legal, tax, investment, financial, accounting or other advice. Nothing contained in this newsletter constitutes a recommendation or endorsement by the author to buy or sell bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, music rights or other financial instruments. #DYOR
Don’t trust. Verify.
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