Bitcoin news you didn’t see in the Fin Review

If you missed last month, you can catch up here.

Top Events

• October saw a significant upturn in digital asset markets, primarily driven by growing anticipation around a spot Bitcoin ETF and a combination of other tailwinds. Bitcoin’s price rose 28% from US$27k to over US$34k.

• The digital asset exchange landscape has also garnered significant attention due to the continued friction with the SEC. This is visible in the changing market share of spot volumes by exchange. For example, Binance—which started the year off with a 68% share of spot volumes has seen its market share reduce to 43% as of Q3. Market share of Binance US has completely evaporated on the back of increased regulatory pressure.

Lightning Network Updates

• Overall growth of the Lightning Network continues to accelerate at a phenomenal pace with network transaction volumes growing by 1,200% over the past two years.

• The average Lightning transaction size on the public network was around 44.7k satoshis, or US$11.84. Nearly all Lightning payments are unaffordable on the Bitcoin blockchain. Lightning is effectively extending Bitcoin’s utility by enabling low-value payments over the Internet.

• US$530.93 million was raised by 39 Lightning companies between 2018 and the end of 2022. The largest 3 rounds were Lightspark’s $175M Series A, Strike’s $80M Series B, and Lightning Labs’ $70M Series B.

Bitcoin Mining

• Bitcoin’s hash rate shows no sign of abating. Recently touching 420EH/s; it’s an incredible level.

• Texas is Bitcoin Country. This can largely be attributed to lower electricity prices of $68 per MWh compared to the US’s average all-in industrial electricity price of $86 per MWh in Q3 2022. See where in the US the public bitcoin miners are operating:

Best Articles and Podcasts

• Every single currency in the world is down over the last decade against the US Dollar. One way of explaining this is the Dollar Milkshake Theory (the video is four years old but it got a lot right). With US rates now relatively high it’s attractive to hold them and get paid nearly 5% on US treasuries. This attracts capital, pushing the USD up and making the trade even more attractive.

Macro and Politics

• US national debt is exploding higher. In October, we saw an increase of US$275 billion added to the debt in a single day and as it was pointed out online, the US is on track to add $1 trillion to the national debt in a single month.

• If you're saving in dollars, life is getting harder. If you're saving in Bitcoin, life is getting easier. This trend will continue.

Meme of the month