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What Does Grayscale’s GBTC Falling Premium Tell us About Bitcoin Price?

What Does Grayscale’s GBTC Falling Premium Tell us About Bitcoin Price?

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The premium on Grayscale Bitcoin Trust shares has dropped despite the recent recovery in the Bitcoin price. Is this a bearish sign?

Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust shares (GBTC) are currently trading at $7.49 per share, a 15.81% premium of Bitcoin. GBTC is the first publicly quoted security “solely invested in and deriving value from” Bitcoin and since listing it has been known to trade at a high premium, having hit a 2020 high of 41.42% on Feb. 18. The premium is usually accentuated when prices are high.

The GBTC-BTC premium has dropped by over 30% since February this year, following Grayscale’s registration as a reporting company with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission as well as another private placement of its shares in February.

The Bitcoin price (BTC) is currently sitting at $7,058, having rallied by 21% in the last month. Although a pullback is still possible, Bitcoin price has recovered from the March 13 crash, and the reduced premium between GBTC and BTC is yet another bearish sign for Bitcoin as market sentiment continues to point toward extreme fear among investors.

GBTC Premium or Discount to NAV

GBTC Premium or Discount to NAV. Source: YCharts

Low institutional appetite?

The falling premium between GBTC and the Bitcoin price can be interpreted as a sign of reduced appetite from institutional investors who, according to Grayscale, make up 80% of its client base for the Bitcoin Trust. 

This perspective could be further backed by the lowered volumes in the CME regulated futures market which in March saw a 44% decrease from the previous month. This is despite volumes increasing in unregulated derivatives markets and in spot markets alike.

However, Grayscale has seen increased interest from institutional investors having reported investments reaching a record-breaking $171.7 million during a single month of private offerings in 2019. While the coronavirus and the Black Thursday crash may have shaken the market, Grayscale currently manages $2.1 billion in assets for GBTC and other developments like Qi3’s Bitcoin fund show that there is still institutional demand to be filled.

GBTC Cumulative weekly investment - 2019

GBTC Cumulative weekly investment - 2019. Source: Grayscale

There are other factors to consider in order to understand the GBTC-BTC premium and why it seems to be dropping ever lower. While the premium is generally accentuated or decreased in bullish or bearish markets, the dynamic of the GBTC premium may be changing permanently.

Increasing liquidity for GBTC

GBTC offers periodic private placement rounds that are available to accredited investors. In previous offerings, investors had a 1-year lockup period during which shares could not be sold since the products were not registered with the SEC. 

After this period, investors could sell shares in over-the-counter markets, given that Grayscale does not provide a redemption service for the underlying native asset.

This system creates a liquidity cycle and increases selling pressure one year after each private placement event. Coinmetrics co-founder, Nic Carter, pointed this out in a January tweet. Carter wrote:

“I'd be willing to bet that the GBTC premium will be crushed to single digits on the week of July 15 2020 and October 21 2020."

However, while Carter’s observation holds true, the date may come sooner than expected as Grayscale’s registration as a reporting company with the SEC would grant its products a reduced lockup period of 6 months. This could possibly result in increased liquidity and reduced premiums.

Hedge funds and risk-free arbitrage

Although GBTC is also available to retail investors, Grayscale’s recent report shows that overwhelming interest comes from institutional investors, particularly hedge funds

According to Keegan Toci, Partner at Vertical Ascent Capital Management, accredited investors have an excellent opportunity to short GBTC at a premium, buying it back at a discount for the NAV price in which private placement events are priced.

The selling pressure created by arbitrage, along with the possibility for early liquidity provided by the SEC registration and negative sentiment in the market have created the perfect storm for GBTC’s falling premium. 

The “days of high premiums are over”

While the premium in GBTC has usually increased after private placement events and especially during Bitcoin price rallies, it’s possible that the GBTC and Bitcoin price will see a narrower gap from now on. As new options for institutional investors appear in the market, competition may drive these premiums down. 

According to Nic Carter:

“I find it extremely plausible that in a flat market 100s of millions in sales of GBTC (look at the subscription volume) would crush the premium. plus, there's many other ways to get exposure to BTC than GBTC these days. days of high premium are over.”

As options for institutional exposure to the Bitcoin price continue to widen, one thing seems to be clear: the infrastructure required for the long-awaited institutional boom continues to become more robust and diverse.

Although the coronavirus has instilled fear in investors, Bitcoin may hold true as a store of value, much like gold, and the upcoming halving may jumpstart yet another bull rally for Bitcoin and pave the way for increased institutional interest.

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Low Iron Levels In Blood Could Trigger Long COVID: Study

Low Iron Levels In Blood Could Trigger Long COVID: Study

Authored by Amie Dahnke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

People with inadequate…

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Low Iron Levels In Blood Could Trigger Long COVID: Study

Authored by Amie Dahnke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

People with inadequate iron levels in their blood due to a COVID-19 infection could be at greater risk of long COVID.

(Shutterstock)

A new study indicates that problems with iron levels in the bloodstream likely trigger chronic inflammation and other conditions associated with the post-COVID phenomenon. The findings, published on March 1 in Nature Immunology, could offer new ways to treat or prevent the condition.

Long COVID Patients Have Low Iron Levels

Researchers at the University of Cambridge pinpointed low iron as a potential link to long-COVID symptoms thanks to a study they initiated shortly after the start of the pandemic. They recruited people who tested positive for the virus to provide blood samples for analysis over a year, which allowed the researchers to look for post-infection changes in the blood. The researchers looked at 214 samples and found that 45 percent of patients reported symptoms of long COVID that lasted between three and 10 months.

In analyzing the blood samples, the research team noticed that people experiencing long COVID had low iron levels, contributing to anemia and low red blood cell production, just two weeks after they were diagnosed with COVID-19. This was true for patients regardless of age, sex, or the initial severity of their infection.

According to one of the study co-authors, the removal of iron from the bloodstream is a natural process and defense mechanism of the body.

But it can jeopardize a person’s recovery.

When the body has an infection, it responds by removing iron from the bloodstream. This protects us from potentially lethal bacteria that capture the iron in the bloodstream and grow rapidly. It’s an evolutionary response that redistributes iron in the body, and the blood plasma becomes an iron desert,” University of Oxford professor Hal Drakesmith said in a press release. “However, if this goes on for a long time, there is less iron for red blood cells, so oxygen is transported less efficiently affecting metabolism and energy production, and for white blood cells, which need iron to work properly. The protective mechanism ends up becoming a problem.”

The research team believes that consistently low iron levels could explain why individuals with long COVID continue to experience fatigue and difficulty exercising. As such, the researchers suggested iron supplementation to help regulate and prevent the often debilitating symptoms associated with long COVID.

It isn’t necessarily the case that individuals don’t have enough iron in their body, it’s just that it’s trapped in the wrong place,” Aimee Hanson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge who worked on the study, said in the press release. “What we need is a way to remobilize the iron and pull it back into the bloodstream, where it becomes more useful to the red blood cells.”

The research team pointed out that iron supplementation isn’t always straightforward. Achieving the right level of iron varies from person to person. Too much iron can cause stomach issues, ranging from constipation, nausea, and abdominal pain to gastritis and gastric lesions.

1 in 5 Still Affected by Long COVID

COVID-19 has affected nearly 40 percent of Americans, with one in five of those still suffering from symptoms of long COVID, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Long COVID is marked by health issues that continue at least four weeks after an individual was initially diagnosed with COVID-19. Symptoms can last for days, weeks, months, or years and may include fatigue, cough or chest pain, headache, brain fog, depression or anxiety, digestive issues, and joint or muscle pain.

Tyler Durden Sat, 03/09/2024 - 12:50

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February Employment Situation

By Paul Gomme and Peter Rupert The establishment data from the BLS showed a 275,000 increase in payroll employment for February, outpacing the 230,000…

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By Paul Gomme and Peter Rupert

The establishment data from the BLS showed a 275,000 increase in payroll employment for February, outpacing the 230,000 average over the previous 12 months. The payroll data for January and December were revised down by a total of 167,000. The private sector added 223,000 new jobs, the largest gain since May of last year.

Temporary help services employment continues a steep decline after a sharp post-pandemic rise.

Average hours of work increased from 34.2 to 34.3. The increase, along with the 223,000 private employment increase led to a hefty increase in total hours of 5.6% at an annualized rate, also the largest increase since May of last year.

The establishment report, once again, beat “expectations;” the WSJ survey of economists was 198,000. Other than the downward revisions, mentioned above, another bit of negative news was a smallish increase in wage growth, from $34.52 to $34.57.

The household survey shows that the labor force increased 150,000, a drop in employment of 184,000 and an increase in the number of unemployed persons of 334,000. The labor force participation rate held steady at 62.5, the employment to population ratio decreased from 60.2 to 60.1 and the unemployment rate increased from 3.66 to 3.86. Remember that the unemployment rate is the number of unemployed relative to the labor force (the number employed plus the number unemployed). Consequently, the unemployment rate can go up if the number of unemployed rises holding fixed the labor force, or if the labor force shrinks holding the number unemployed unchanged. An increase in the unemployment rate is not necessarily a bad thing: it may reflect a strong labor market drawing “marginally attached” individuals from outside the labor force. Indeed, there was a 96,000 decline in those workers.

Earlier in the week, the BLS announced JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) data for January. There isn’t much to report here as the job openings changed little at 8.9 million, the number of hires and total separations were little changed at 5.7 million and 5.3 million, respectively.

As has been the case for the last couple of years, the number of job openings remains higher than the number of unemployed persons.

Also earlier in the week the BLS announced that productivity increased 3.2% in the 4th quarter with output rising 3.5% and hours of work rising 0.3%.

The bottom line is that the labor market continues its surprisingly (to some) strong performance, once again proving stronger than many had expected. This strength makes it difficult to justify any interest rate cuts soon, particularly given the recent inflation spike.

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Spread & Containment

Another beloved brewery files Chapter 11 bankruptcy

The beer industry has been devastated by covid, changing tastes, and maybe fallout from the Bud Light scandal.

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Before the covid pandemic, craft beer was having a moment. Most cities had multiple breweries and taprooms with some having so many that people put together the brewery version of a pub crawl.

It was a period where beer snobbery ruled the day and it was not uncommon to hear bar patrons discuss the makeup of the beer the beer they were drinking. This boom period always seemed destined for failure, or at least a retraction as many markets seemed to have more craft breweries than they could support.

Related: Fast-food chain closes more stores after Chapter 11 bankruptcy

The pandemic, however, hastened that downfall. Many of these local and regional craft breweries counted on in-person sales to drive their business. 

And while many had local and regional distribution, selling through a third party comes with much lower margins. Direct sales drove their business and the pandemic forced many breweries to shut down their taprooms during the period where social distancing rules were in effect.

During those months the breweries still had rent and employees to pay while little money was coming in. That led to a number of popular beermakers including San Francisco's nationally-known Anchor Brewing as well as many regional favorites including Chicago’s Metropolitan Brewing, New Jersey’s Flying Fish, Denver’s Joyride Brewing, Tampa’s Zydeco Brew Werks, and Cleveland’s Terrestrial Brewing filing bankruptcy.

Some of these brands hope to survive, but others, including Anchor Brewing, fell into Chapter 7 liquidation. Now, another domino has fallen as a popular regional brewery has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Overall beer sales have fallen.

Image source: Shutterstock

Covid is not the only reason for brewery bankruptcies

While covid deserves some of the blame for brewery failures, it's not the only reason why so many have filed for bankruptcy protection. Overall beer sales have fallen driven by younger people embracing non-alcoholic cocktails, and the rise in popularity of non-beer alcoholic offerings,

Beer sales have fallen to their lowest levels since 1999 and some industry analysts

"Sales declined by more than 5% in the first nine months of the year, dragged down not only by the backlash and boycotts against Anheuser-Busch-owned Bud Light but the changing habits of younger drinkers," according to data from Beer Marketer’s Insights published by the New York Post.

Bud Light parent Anheuser Busch InBev (BUD) faced massive boycotts after it partnered with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney. It was a very small partnership but it led to a right-wing backlash spurred on by Kid Rock, who posted a video on social media where he chastised the company before shooting up cases of Bud Light with an automatic weapon.

Another brewery files Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Gizmo Brew Works, which does business under the name Roth Brewing Company LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on March 8. In its filing, the company checked the box that indicates that its debts are less than $7.5 million and it chooses to proceed under Subchapter V of Chapter 11. 

"Both small business and subchapter V cases are treated differently than a traditional chapter 11 case primarily due to accelerated deadlines and the speed with which the plan is confirmed," USCourts.gov explained. 

Roth Brewing/Gizmo Brew Works shared that it has 50-99 creditors and assets $100,000 and $500,000. The filing noted that the company does expect to have funds available for unsecured creditors. 

The popular brewery operates three taprooms and sells its beer to go at those locations.

"Join us at Gizmo Brew Works Craft Brewery and Taprooms located in Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Find us for entertainment, live music, food trucks, beer specials, and most importantly, great-tasting craft beer by Gizmo Brew Works," the company shared on its website.

The company estimates that it has between $1 and $10 million in liabilities (a broad range as the bankruptcy form does not provide a space to be more specific).

Gizmo Brew Works/Roth Brewing did not share a reorganization or funding plan in its bankruptcy filing. An email request for comment sent through the company's contact page was not immediately returned.

 

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