Fifth Era/Blockchain Coinvestors Update #15
At Fifth Era we make a point of reading through the newsletters of other Internet, Fintech and Blockchain investors and commentators, and we have been struck by the sudden swing in tone of many of their writings with specific regard to the building institutional acceptance and use of new digital monies and assets. We were very impressed by the way in which BlockTower and Bitwise synthesized the discussion.
BlockTower made a simple but important point during their quarterly update webinar. When some of the world's leading asset managers and investors start taking allocations in new asset classes such as Bitcoin, and advising their clients to do so too, the pendulum begins to swing from 'you can lose your job if you take this risk and it fails' to 'you can lose your job if you miss out when our competitors get superior returns', especially if you don't have a thoughtful narrative for why you remained on the sidelines when others were jumping in. The point of course, is that with voices like Paul Tudor Jones, Jefferies and Bloomberg starting to tell investors to buy cryptocurrencies, it becomes incumbent upon every other wealth manager in the world to at least understand the asset class and how to explain why they are not investing in it. Ignoring it is no longer acceptable. And as the laggards become educated, some increase in investing is inevitable.
Bitwise did a good job of synthesizing some of the most important recent announcements, and the following bullet points are taken from their most recent newsletter verbatim. We strongly encourage you to go to Bitwise site and sign up yourself for their periodic newsletter:
Unprecedented QE, with the Fed’s balance sheet growing by $1 trillion (more than the size of the entire balance sheet in 2007), raising concerns about long-term inflation;
Major investors, including hedge fund investor Paul Tudor Jones II, investing in bitcoin for the first time to capitalize on inflationary conditions (more of our thoughts on that here);
Open interest in our favorite real-time measure of institutional interest in crypto, the CME bitcoin futures contract, hit all-time highs, as did the total number of accounts set up to trade those futures;
Big-name Wall Street analysts like Jefferies’ global head of equity strategy and Bloomberg’s senior commodity strategist write research reports telling investors to buy crypto;
Libra—the Facebook-associated stablecoin, left for dead a year ago—announce changes providing a credible pathway forward that could put digital currencies into the hands of 1 billion people by November;
China launched a pilot project for its ”digital yuan,” with plans to replace cash with a fully digital currency by 2022;
And of course, bitcoin will go through its much-anticipated third “halving” event, reducing the new supply of bitcoin being mined each day by 50%.
As Bain Capital recently wrote, the coronavirus crisis is accelerating our progress to a digital future. In crypto, it certainly feels like we’ve made three years of progress in the past six weeks. Amid all the tumult in the world, it’s an incredible moment for crypto.
If you have time to read more, please email us and we can give you some other suggestions based upon your specific interests.
Fifth Era News: Alison Joins Silicon Valley Bank Board
We are excited to be able to announce that Alison is joining the Board of Silicon Valley Bank. SVB is the leading bank serving the global innovation ecosystem and has programs for entrepreneurs, emerging technology companies, VC's and their firms and funds, and later stage established technology companies. "At Silicon Valley Bank, we support the businesses that invent the future. We help innovators, enterprises and investors move bold ideas forward, fast."
This follows 9 years on the Board at RBS in the UK where term limits apply.
Free ebook - The Fifth Era
Please accept our free book which details the nature of the transition the world is passing through, and forms the first part of our best selling books, Build your Fortune in the Fifth Era and Corporate Innovation in the Fifth Era. Click here to download: https://www.fifthera.com/ebook
Upcoming Webinars
Please join us for an upcoming webinar by clicking on any of the following links:
Mastering Early Stage Investing - June 1st, 7am PST
Mastering Early Stage Investing - June 1st, 12pm PST
Investing In the Top Distressed Asset Managers - June 8th, 7am PST
Investing In the Top Distressed Asset Managers - June 8th, 12pm PST
Our webinar library can now be found at www.fifthera.com/webinars.
Upcoming Events
June 2nd - Global Investor Conference: Women Owned Businesses Thriving During Covid-19
Linqto presents a day-long, virtual conference exploring new investments that will thrive due to the world changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. Register now to learn more about 16 companies and funds making a difference as attractive investment opportunities helping us get through this crisis. Use promo code "BC100" at checkout for a registration discount.
Recent Appearances
Please use the links below to access our most recent webinar and podcast appearances:
We recently posted our popular Blockchain Coinvestors webinar on Family Office Blockchain Exposure at www.fifthera.com/webinars.
At the last Virtual Investor Conference, Matthew Le Merle had the opportunity - and pleasure - of interviewing Greg Kidd about early stage investing. Greg was an early investor and founder at Twitter, Square, Ripple, Coinbase, Robinhood, Uphold, Linqto and many others. Check out the virtual fireside chat to learn more about the best strategies to get in early.
Matt Walsh and Nic Carter are the General Partners of Castle Island which is one of our funds and is also backed by Fidelity and Highland Capital. They recently interviewed us for their own blockchain podcast series.
Stephanie Christopher, CEO at The Executive Connection (TEC), sat down with us to walk through the future of the digital economy in her podcast TEC Live - Business Leadership Insights.
Learn More
Also visit us at www.fifthera.com and www.blockchaincoinvestors. com to find more information and request our investor materials.
We thank you once again for your support, and we hope that in this challenging time you and your family and loved ones are staying safe and healthy.
Best wishes,
Alison Davis
Matthew C. Le Merle