Tea Company Pivots to Bitcoin Mining (Feb. 18, 2021)
What’s more interesting is that it isn’t the first tea company to do so.
Good morning. Welcome to Thursday Thoughts, part of our new series: BitPinas Daily. We will look at the price of Bitcoin, Ethereum and the major cryptocurrencies. Crypto is global, but sometimes news that matters happens while we sleep. So we bring to you what’s happening in our space here and abroad.
Market Price as of February 18, 2021:
| Bitcoin | $52,170 | +6.13% |
| Ethereum | $1,849 | +3.82% |
| Tether | $1 | 0% |
| ADA | $0.89 | +2.3% |
| DOT | $31.98 | +6.32% |
| SLP | $0.043 | -7% |
Bitcoin closed February 17, 2021, at $52,170 per BTC. We’re up 25% in the last 7 days and up 68% since the year began. This is a new all-time high.
Bitcoin’s market capitalization stands today at $974,276,969,651 which is 60% of the entire cryptocurrency market. The entire crypto market, by the way, now has a market cap of $1,611,573,610,131 (+6.1%).
On the table above, there’s the cryptocurrency SLP. If you wonder what that is, check out this article: Playing Axie Infinity vs Minimum Basic Salary in the Philippines.
Tesla
Coinbase Facilitated Tesla’s Bitcoin Buy
It does not come as a surprise to me that when all is said and done, we will find out that it was Coinbase that helped Tesla to buy its $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. Unfortunately, both companies did not respond to an inquiry from The Block, the publication that reported the news. But the Block found out that Coinbase executes Tesla’s Bitcoin purchase during the first week of February, over the course of several days.
This is exactly how MicroStrategy bought their Bitcoins. They bought Bitcoin in the open market!
They did it so carefully to ensure they wouldn’t impact the market (and that no one would notice.) This was Coinbase’s statement at that time: “We were able to buy a significant amount of bitcoin on behalf of MicroStrategy and did so without moving the market. MicroStrategy chose Coinbase because of our market leading tools, which include smart order routing and advanced algorithms as well as our white glove sales and trading services.”
Tea Company
Chinese Tea Company Pivots to Bitcoin Mining
What’s more interesting is that it isn’t the first company to do so.
Urban Tea, a public company in China engaged in baked goods and tea is pivoting to cryptocurrency mining, as per this report from Decrypt. The company has appointed a new chief operating officer and independent director who had previous stints with crypto and blockchain companies and organizations.
Decrypt noted that the pivot appeared uncharacteristic for Urban Tea. “Goin forward, we expect Urban Tea will start expanding into blockchain ecology, such as cryptocurrency mining, blockchain mine construction and maintenance, and cryptocurrency exchange operations,” the company’s CEO said. In 2017, a company called Long Island Tea Corp pivoted to blockchain. Its stock did pumped up but when the 2018 crash happened, the company had to forego its blockchain ambitions, and its tea business.
Robinhood
Robinhood announces plans for crypto deposits and withdrawals
MicroStrategy
MicroStrategy Raising $900M to Buy More Bitcoin
If this goes according to plan, MicroStrategy will be the only company that controls roughly 0.48% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply. The company has no plans to stop acquiring Bitcoins:
What else is happening
- Coinbase, Readying for Public Listing, Gets $77B Valuation From Nasdaq Private Market
- Motley Fool Drops $5 Million on Bitcoin, Aims to 10X in 15 Years
- BlackRock has started to ‘dabble’ in crypto, says CIO
- Can blockchain protect journalism and push back against censorship?
This article is published on BitPinas: Tea Company Pivots to Bitcoin Mining (Feb. 18, 2021)
