As with all things 2020, Thanksgiving week offered up a crazy dish of WTH with wild volatility surrounding Bitcoin price movements and Cannabis equity valuations, both tying into rapidly evolving payments trends.
Bitcoin showed extreme volatility as it inched very close to its all-time-high on Wednesday, sniffing $19,500 USD on Coinbase only to cough-up a cold, T-Day dinner with a 17% mini-crash less than 24 hours later. Although the store of value has rebounded (somewhat) since then, Bitcoin’s inherent volatility was on full display this week leaving new converts questioning, “do I really have the intestinal fortitude to invest in this?” In Twitter’s financial community (FinTwit), the exponents and naysayers were trading cutting remarks regarding the bull and bear case for the controversial store of value going forward. The most bullish coming from ex-hedgie Michael Novogratz and the most bearish coming from NYU economics professor and long-time BTC hater Nouriel Roubini, who ripped a 12-part rant in a thread.
To my mind the Bitcoin case still comes down to adoption in mainstream commerce. As such, the most interesting development I saw this week was that all Pizza Huts In Venezuela accept crypto now. Though I haven’t seen much additional reporting on this to verify, this development, if true, is something to watch.
One particularly relevant byproduct of the MORE Act would be to finally free up the US banking system to process credit card payments for cannabis commerce, opening up a slew of opportunities to payments processors who have been waiting to capture this business segment.
All in all, Thanksgiving Day week did not disappoint – it served up a delicious dish of crazy, perfectly embracing the essence of 2020.
– Adam T. Hark, Managing Director, Wellesley Hills Financial, LLC
