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(Kitco News)-LunarCrush, a social intelligence company serving the crypto ecosystem, is preparing to send Bitcoin (BTC) on a moon mission literally with the launch of Nakamoto_1, a treasure chest of 62 BTC worth approximately $1.5 million that will be deposited on the moon in 2023.

According to the announcement from LunarCrush, the Bitcoin bounty will be unlocked by the first space traveler to reach the moon and obtain the wallet's private key, which will be etched onto a Lunar Outpost MAPP Rover launching into space later this year.

LunarCrush partnered with Lunar Outpost, a leader in commercial planetary mobility, animation studio Golden Wolf, and Bitcoin developer tools company Hiro to make Nakamoto_1 a reality. Together they have created an NFT collection that they plan to sell in order to fund the project.

The ultimate goal of the Web3-powered space race is to inspire the next generation of interplanetary exploration.

"When you put out a seemingly unachievable goal, the innovation that happens can be incredible, said Joe Vezzani, CEO of LunarCrush. Our goal is to inspire people to build communities that will unlock a new era of exploration. We envision classrooms, groups, companies, and even DAOs coming together to reach the Moon and split the treasure chest's rewards. It's like Willy Wonka's 'golden ticket' for the Web3 era, and we couldn't be more excited to see how it all unfolds.

The project plans to fully document the process of engraving the private key affixed to the rover as a way to ensure complete transparency and show that no one has access to the private keys.

Once Lunar Outpost's MAPP Rover lands on the moon, the bounty is available to anyone on Earth who can devise and execute a plan to reach it. A SpaceX rocket will deliver the rover to the moon in Q4 of this year, but the exact date has not yet been released for security reasons.

"What may sound outlandish to some will open new frontiers that haven't been explored outside the mind in a long time, said Dr. Forrest Meyen, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Lunar Outpost. Future generations will look to us as pioneers of interplanetary exploration and adventure. LunarCrush is using modern blockchain technology to deliver a treasure instead of organizing a prize committee. This structure incentivizes exploration while unlocking the best of human ingenuity.

The Bitcoin bounty will be funded by a special collection of Bitcoin-secured NFTs that will go on sale beginning March 28. 25% of the proceeds will go towards funding the treasure chest and 25% will go into a Community Marketing Wallet, which will go toward funding Bitcoin core development and STEM education-related causes.

Each NFT will be priced at $250, and all secondary sales, along with any contributions to the public wallet, will be used to further increase the value of the treasure chest. In addition, the teams will inscribe some of the NFT concept art as Ordinals and will include them in the treasure chest, the press release said.

The NFTs were designed by Golden Wolf, an award-winning creative studio known for design and animation. We loved the idea that the art could inspire a new generation of young people to look to the stars, like a contemporary version of an Apollo 11 poster on a bedroom wall, said Ingi Erlingsson, Founder and CEO of Golden Wolf. We wanted the aesthetic to feel modern and unique, with a hint of vintage sci-fi art.

The team selected Bitcoin as the reward for the bounty because it's the most long-lasting, secure, and future-proof form of money. Hiro provided technical support for the creation of the Bitcoin-backed NFTs that will fund the treasure chest.

"We're excited to inspire a new generation of space explorers as they make that next small step for the world," said Alex Miller, CEO of Hiro.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

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One giant leap for Bitcoin: Treasure chest of 62 BTC to be deposited ... - Kitco NEWS

As the cryptocurrency market continues to brave through the financial crisis that has already crushed several major banking institutions, Bitcoin (BTC) has recorded better results than nearly 100% of the 500 leading publicly traded companies in the United States during the third month of 2023.

Indeed, since March 10, the price of Bitcoin has increased by 37.06% and over 72% since the years turn, while the flagship cryptocurrency registered better year-to-date (YTD) returns than 488 or 97.6% of S&P 500 companies, including FedEx (NYSE: FDX), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), according to the data shared with Finbold by the crypto education platform CryptoManiaks on March 22.

By comparison, only 12 companies among the S&P 500 have managed to cross the threshold of 35% in YTD returns, which means that Bitcoin has outperformed the 27.2% YTD returns of FedEx, the 19.3% YTD returns achieved by Apple, and the 17.8% recorded by Amazon, as the table demonstrates.

It is also worth mentioning that the flagship crypto has outperformed commodities in 2023, particularly gold, the top-performing old-guard commodity, almost 10-fold, indicating it might be in a super cycle, according to Bloombergs commodity specialist Mike McGlone.

Elsewhere, Bitcoin is writing down successes in other areas, as more than 70% of its holders are currently in profit, and most of them have held on to the maiden decentralized finance (DeFi) asset for one year or longer, as Finbold earlier reported.

On top of that, investors who started dollar-cost averaging (DCA) Bitcoin at its peak price of $69,000 in November 2021 are currently recording 10% returns on their regular investment, despite the price of Bitcoin being significantly lower than its all-time high (ATH).

As things stand, the price of Bitcoin currently stands at $28,587, which represents an increase of 2.20% in the last 24 hours, in addition to the accumulated gains of 16.38% across the previous seven days and 18.89% on its monthly chart, as the latest CoinMarketCap data indicates.

As another one of its successes compared to traditional finance, the largest digital asset by market capitalization has added over $200 billion to its market cap in 2023, at the same time as the accumulated $100 billion was drained from five of the largest U.S. banks as the banking sector continued to suffer casualties.

Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.

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Bitcoin outperforms 97% of all S&P 500 companies in 2023 - Finbold - Finance in Bold

Bitcoin has regained its luster as digital assets outperform following traditional finances (TradFi) recent turbulence. With the collapse of Silvergate, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Signature Bank and most recently Credit Suisse, cryptocurrencies appear to have become a safe haven among the mismanaged TradFi establishment.

On March 8, rumors of trouble at SVB caused digital assets to become entangled in the situation. The announcement that $3.3 billion of Circle's dollar-backed USDC stablecoin was held at SVB caused the stablecoin to depeg from the U.S. dollar.This led to digital asset investors selling positions on major exchanges. Bitcoin dropped from 22,410 to 19,500, and ether slipped almost 200 points from 1,560 to 1,368, breaking below its 200-day moving average momentarily before recovering.

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By Friday, March 10, news of the largest bank failures since 2008 had consumed financial media outlets, and banking indexes plummeted on fears of widespread contagion. The S&P Regional Banking Index (KRE) lost over 28% in roughly five trading days, and has yet to recover.

On March 12, the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced they would insure the deposits of the failing banking institutions to prevent a deeper run on banks and quell fears of contagion. The actions were clear enough to stop a major failure but not enough to keep depositors from withdrawing billions of dollars. Ironically, the major winners in this recent debacle have been risk assets, most notably digital assets like bitcoin and ether.

While correlations between the stock market and digital assets have always remained in flux, one of the most consistent predictors of crypto prices has been the global money supply. This recent bout of bank insolvency has created a new mandate for central banks to stop the bleeding by printing more cash.

The chart of M2 and total crypto market cap says enough about how liquidity affects the net demand for digital assets. If the current rally since March 11 can be trusted, crypto is predicting that central banks are going to have to keep printing to avoid (another) financial crisis.

Not surprisingly, this deterministic view of M2 = bitcoin go up isnt as simple as it seems, as the Federal Reserve still has to compete with rising inflation, and hot unemployment levels. On March 10 payroll numbers came in above expectations, and just four days later the consumer price index showed a 0.5% increase in inflation. Neither of these figures has helped Chair Jerome Powell fulfill his mandate, but they have put pressure on the Fed to continue raising rates.

The conflicting data creates the question of how the Fed will react to both rising inflation and failing banks. Printing has already begun, but rate hikes would only exacerbate the problem, causing more banks to fail.

A look at the rate hike prediction since March 6 paints a good picture of how rapidly the situation is evolving.

What was widely predicted to be a year of higher for longer rate policy has shifted drastically to pause, and ultimately pivot, in the coming quarters. Policy anywhere in between is possible at this point. The Feds dot-plot forecast released on March 22 will provide a critical window into the confidence of Federal Open Market Committee members as they try to anticipate how effectively central banks can navigate hot macro data while safeguarding financial institutions.

In the middle of all this confusion sits crypto, which has steadily rallied and is now seen by many investors as a bulwark against another financial crisis. But can digital assets fully escape the trajectory of economies in decline? Should a banking crisis, inflation or further rate hikes deliver the hard landing that many assume is inevitable, will bitcoin be the escape pod?

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Bitcoin Emerges as Safe Haven as Traditional Finance Faces Turmoil - CoinDesk

Bitcoin is up 50% so far in 2023, beating major commodities and stock indexes. Industry insiders said the bank collapses have sent investors looking for alternatives to the traditional banking system and there is also anticipation of a slowdown in interest rate rises, which is helping bitcoin.

Filip Radwanski | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Bitcoin climbed past the $28,000 level over the weekend as investors rediscover its appeal as an alternative banking system.

On Monday, the cryptocurrency had pulled back a bit. Bitcoin fell more than 2% to $27,705.23, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier in the day, it hit $28,554.07, it's highest level in nine months. Meanwhile, ether fell 3.5% to $1,765.60.

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Bitcoin (BTC) this month

The weekend rally in bitcoin came amid continued turmoil in the global banking sector. On Sunday, UBSagreed to buy Credit Suissefor 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.2 billion) in a deal partly brokered by the Swiss regulators looking to stem contagion.

"Bitcoin continues to trade like a leading risk-on asset, like it has for the past two years," said James Lavish, managing partner at the Bitcoin Opportunity Fund. "The rescue of Credit Suisse has put out a large credit fire ... this emboldens bitcoin buyers who are now anticipating the Fed slowing the increase in rates and signaling a coming pause this week."

As of Monday afternoon, there is about a 72% chance of a quarter-point increase by the Fed, according toCME Group's FedWatch tool. The other 28% anticipates there will be no hike and that Chairman Jerome Powell may start to ease his aggressive tightening campaign due to the emerging financial contagion.

Bitcoin is coming off its best week since January 2021, which was right before the first bull run that year, while ether just posted its best weekly gain since August 2021. The two are up for the year by 67% and 46%, respectively.

Advocates of bitcoin have often dubbed it "digital gold" referring to it as a store of value, particularly in moments of global turmoil, and one that is uncorrelated with other asset classes.

Now, there are signals bitcoin's price movement is beginning to decouple from stocks, for now. The cryptocurrency's correlation with the S&P 500 is now at its lowest since September 2021, after reaching its highest in 2022, according to Coin Metrics.

"If one looks at the history of bitcoin and why it was created in the first place, it was precisely for events like this where the current system shows signs of weakness and hence owning an uncorrelated asset helps," Vijay Ayyar, vice president of corporate development and international at crypto exchange Luno, told CNBC. "Over the years, this argument of bitcoin being an uncorrelated asset class has been debated quite a bit, but we are now potentially seeing that viewpoint being vindicated."

Bernstein analysts Gautam Chhugani and Manas Agrawal argued in a Monday note that the market has been trading closer to its "uncorrelated non-sovereign roots" since the demise of FTX and the market structure "feels a lot healthier, with no more distortions caused by FTX and Alameda."

In contrast to bitcoin and ether's year-to-date gains, returns on gold, the dollar, U.S. equities and bonds were "less impaired last year, but have not bounced back as sharply" either, and tech-dominated indices have performed only marginally better when high growth assets were beaten down during the rising rate cycle, they added.

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Bitcoin briefly tops $28,000 for the first time in 9 months after bank crisis sparks weekend rally - CNBC

03/20 update below. This post was originally published on March 19

BitcoinBTC, ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies have seen a $200 billion boom in the last two weekstriggering a shock bitcoin price price prediction.

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The bitcoin price has come within touching distance of $28,000 per bitcoin, its highest since last summer. The bitcoin price rally has also boosted the ethereum price and other top ten cryptocurrencies BNBBNB, XRPXRP, cardano, dogecoin, polygon, and solana.

Now, after almost 200 U.S. banks were found to be dealing with similar pressures as the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank (SVBVB), the U.S. Federal Reserve is under pressure to ease back on its inflation-busting interest rate hike programsomething that could push the bitcoin price and crypto market even higher.

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"As if they did not have enough with which to contend in the face of fighting inflation on one hand and fending off recession on the other, central banks must now confront the failure of SVB and any wider implications that has for the banking system, given that higher interest rates have played some role in putting the squeeze on that banks customers and then ultimately the bank itself," Russ Mould, investment director at brokerage AJ Bell said in emailed comments.

"We will find out just how perturbed officials areif indeed they are perturbed at all."

03/20 update: Goldman Sachs analyst David Mericle has predicted the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates where they are when the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meets this week. "While policymakers have responded aggressively to shore up the financial system, markets appear to be less than fully convinced that efforts to support small and midsize banks will prove sufficient," Mericle wrote in a note to clients seen by Marketwatch, adding the link between a single quarter-point hike and future inflation is "very tenuous."

The Fed's two day policy meeting starts on Tuesday with the announcement followed by a Fed chair Jerome Powell press conference on Wednesday.

Traders now expect the Fed to hike interest rates by just a quarter of a percentage point next week before rapidly reversing course and cutting rates later this year.

The shock collapse of SVB last week, as well as the closure of crypto-friendly Signature Bank, sparked fears other banks could suffer a similar fate. Economists wrote in a study out this week that 186 banks across the country could be prone to similar risks as SVB. Troubled First Republic Bank was extended a lifeline by almost a dozen of its larger rivals in order to avert its implosion.

The bitcoin price has fallen sharply over the last year as the Fed ramped up interest rates at a historic pace to drive down soaring inflationwiping around $2 trillion from the combined price of ethereum, BNB, XRP, cardano, dogecoin, polygon, solana.

The Fed's response to the SVB-led banking crisis has caused expectations to surge the Fed is poised to reverse course and has already restarted quantitative easingsomething some fear could trigger U.S. dollar hyperinflation and ultimately the collapse of the entire financial system.

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"Concerns stemming from a series of U.S. bank closures have subsided thanks to the Feds aid and now, with their balance sheet expanded about $300 billion in a week, the market is welcoming an effective end to the Feds quantitative tightening," Yuya Hasegawa, crypto market analyst at Tokyo-based Bitbank, wrote in an emailed notepointing to bitcoin's latest rally as potentially signaling the beginning of a new bull market.

"Although yields on treasury bonds have rebounded due to decreasing concerts for the economy, which leaves some room for the Fed to continue hiking rates. However, the reversal in the stock market sentiment has improved risk appetite, and it could boost the price of bitcoin further in the short term."

I am a journalist with significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business around the world. As the founding editor of Verdict.co.uk I reported on how technology is changing business, political trends, and the latest culture and lifestyle. I have covered the rise of bitcoin and cryptocurrency since 2012 and have charted its emergence as a niche technology into the greatest threat to the established financial system the world has ever seen and the most important new technology since the internet itself. I have worked and written for CityAM, the Financial Times, and the New Statesman, amongst others. Follow me on Twitter @billybambrough or email me on billyATbillybambrough.com.Disclosure: I occasionally hold some small amount of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

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Goldman Sachs Bets Bitcoin And Crypto Are Braced For An Epic Fed U-Turn After $200 Billion Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Cardano, Dogecoin, Polygon And Solana...