Crypto portfolio update

Invested in: Jewel (JEWEL), Bitcoin (BTC)

Net return: 65.0%

Comments: September was a big month for me, as I sold most of my prior crypto holdings and went heavily into DeFi Kingdoms (DFK). I'd been actively participating in the community chatrooms and the more I learn about the game/DEX/developers, the more confident I am about its legitimacy and potential.

Over the past two weeks, interest in the game has grown rapidly. I was lucky to have taken part in the launch of their first generation hero NFTs, and their price shot up +150% overnight (I've excluded the paper gain of these NFTs to be conservative).

Also, since the time I got in, the price of Jewel has gone up approximately 100%. It's rare to find a project that's both fun and profitable, and my hope is that being an early investor will pay large dividends in the future.

Another reason my crypto portfolio is doing well is because I caught the Bitcoin rally that started about a week ago. You can see me make the call in this video. It seems that Bitcoin season is now underway and I'm happy to hold some exposure in the undisputed king of cryptocurrencies.

For now, I'm happy with my crypto allocation... but the crypto space moves fast. The whole market situation is highly fluid and I could be making multiple moves within the same week.

So if you'd like to receive more timely updates, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Admin update

• If you missed the previous newsletter, you can read it here.

₿ Crypto news

• Bitfinex paid $23.7 million in fees while making a $100k transaction
  • This was clearly a mistake made by someone in the company. When I first saw this, I thought to myself "well someone's getting fired"
  • And that's the thing about operating in the crypto space today... you are responsible for the results of your actions, both good and bad.
• The SEC is coming for stablecoins and centralized exchanges
  • As is to be expected, the people in charge of the legacy financial system are trying to put themselves in charge of the next financial system.
  • This is a battle that will lead to a polarized ecosystem: one that is under the influence of regulators, and one that is not.
  • In my mind, the regulators are saying, "ok we know we screwed up the financial system over the past 20 years (while making ourselves and our wealthy buddies richer at the expense of everyone else), but hey, you need to be protected from yourself, so please let us control the next financial system, we pinky promise we have your best interest at heart."
    • Yeeaah... okay, but that's a hard pass for me.
  • The harsh truth: It's likely most centralized stablecoins and exchanges will (eventually) be forced to operate under the SEC's regulations.
  • Thankfully, there are alternatives that remain outside the purview of regulators. The DeFi industry is growing at a blistering pace, and I don't think the SEC can move fast enough to keep up.

 In other news

• When the pandemic hit in 2020, the US Federal Reserve reacted by printing trillions of dollars.
  • When inflation concerns were brought up, they were quickly brushed aside. The Fed claimed that there was no inflation.
  • Then, when it became apparent that inflation was indeed building up in the economy, the Fed said it was "transitory".
  • And now, with inflation now clearly pushing up food, housing and energy prices the Fed is calling it "frustrating".
  • While all of this is going on, the massive amount of easy cash circulating in the economy has also pushed stock prices up, benefiting stock holders at the expense of the average guy on the street.
  • And guess who owns the most stocks? Yup, the rich! People like the members of the Federal Reserve are among the 10% of Americans that own 89% of all US stocks. The whole time they were insisting on keeping the printing presses running, they were getting richer from it.
  • And not only that, it has been revealed that members of the Fed had access to inside information and sold millions of dollars of stocks before the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped in October 2020. If any other person did this, they have been arrested. When it comes to the political/financial elite, it's "rules for thee, but not for me".

• In the past, we had no choice but to play along because there was no alternative. Today, we have an alternative in the form of Decentralized Finance (DeFi). Learn how it works and use it to benefit yourself. Or, you can keep playing the rigged game the financial elites have prepared for you. If you still don't realize you're being fooled... you're not going to make it.

 A parable

A man found an eagle's egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chickens and grew up with them.

All his life the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet into the air.

Years passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky. It glided in graceful majesty among the powerful wind currents, with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings.

The old eagle looked up in awe. "Who's that?" he asked.

"That's the eagle, the king of the birds," said his neighbor. "He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth—we're chickens."

So the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that's what he thought he was.

- Anthony de Mello on the stories we tell ourselves

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend.

Cheers,
Slowmad

P.S. If you have any questions or feedback, let me know at: chris[at]digitalslowmad[dot]com