Kalam Crypto #133: Bitcoin Rockets Past $71k & Microsoft Considers Buying BTC

If you don’t believe it or don’t get it, I don’t have the time to try to convince you, sorry. - Satoshi Nakamoto

Ahlan wa sahlan, and welcome to the 133rd edition of CoinMENA’s weekly newsletter, Kalam Crypto! This week, Bitcoin soars above $71k, Microsoft considers adding Bitcoin to its balance sheet, and Tether responds to irresponsible reporting from the Wall Street Journal. All this and more in this week's edition of Kalam Crypto!

Global News 🌍

Tether responds to WSJ’s "irresponsible" report: Tether criticized the Wall Street Journal for "irresponsible" reporting, accusing it of publishing unverified allegations about federal investigations into Tether for anti-money laundering and sanctions violations. In a blog post, Tether condemned the WSJ’s lack of named sources or official confirmation. Meanwhile, at the Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano, Tether’s CEO Paolo Ardoino disclosed that the company’s reserves include 82,452 BTC, 48.3 tons of gold, and around $100 billion in U.S. Treasuries.

Microsoft is considering buying Bitcoin. On December 10th, Microsoft will hold a shareholder meeting featuring resolutions, including an "Assessment of Investing in Bitcoin." It’s remarkable to see this topic on the agenda for the world’s second-largest company by market cap. This appears to be the first case of a Bitcoin activist investor, as the proposal was added at the insistence of a major shareholder. The Microsoft board is recommending that shareholders vote against this proposal.

Lightning Round ⚡️

Metaplanet Now Holds 1,018 BTC: The Japanese investment firm Metaplanet recently acquired 156.78 BTC, bringing its total Bitcoin holdings to 1,018.17 BTC (around $68 million), making it Asia's second-largest corporate Bitcoin holder after Boyaa Interactive. The company seems to be following Microstrategy’s playbook, and buying up as much bitcoin as they can. Seems to have worked out nicely for Microstrategy, as it has outperformed every other stock in the market since adopting the bitcoin standard.

Lightspark Introduces Spark: Lightspark launched an alpha version of Spark, a statechain-inspired solution to scale Bitcoin and enhance the Lightning Network. This development is a strong step toward building out the infrastructure for Bitcoin as a reliable medium of exchange.

Blog of The Week ✍️

CoinMENA CEO, Talal Tabbaa attended the Plan B conference in Lugano, Switzerland, and came back even more bullish about Bitcoin, posting a blog titled “Bitcoin has already won—and it’s wild how early we still are.” 

Tweet Of The Week 🐥

CoinMENA News 🗞️

Zero Trading Fees Uptober Celebration: Uptober did not disappoint, bitcoin is up 17% this month! To celebrate, we’re offering zero trading fees for the entire month of October! Take advantage of the last few days of zero fees and enjoy the best crypto-to-fiat rates in the market.

Quiz Corner ✅ 

Last week’s question: What does an increase in Bitcoin's hashrate primarily indicate? The correct answer is B, increased security of the bitcoin network.

This week’s question is, Which of the following companies recently considered adding Bitcoin to their balance sheet?

A) Amazon B) Microsoft C) Google D) Apple

See the answer in next week’s newsletter. Or check out our new learning platform https://university.coinmena.com/