Dubai still shockingly relevant to crypto.
Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and the richest city in the entire world ($1.7T AUM) announced recently that their sovereign wealth fund acquired almost half a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin through the iBit ETF. Of course the very first thing out of everyone's mouth is, "OMG why didn't number go up... this is bad... are they printing paper Bitcoin?!?!?!?!!!1"
Once again this is the retort of a pouty child asking "are we there yet". It's a ridiculous question to ask for multiple reasons. First of all it assumes that billionaires are idiots and don't understand how to secure their own assets. This idea that Blackrock and Coinbase are just printing out paper Bitcoin left and right and are guaranteed to go bankrupt in the next bear market is a complete farce. It's not happening. This isn't FTX. The infrastructure in play here is beyond imagining, but because we can't see any of it many just assume it isn't there. It's there.
Many of these same people also automatically assume that these new entities entering the space don't own real Bitcoin and are just trusting a hedge fund with all their eggs in one basket. Is this a serious comment being made? Really? We seem to forget that sometimes decentralization means putting a chunk of money on centralized orderbooks. What's safer? Putting a billion dollars on a single hardware wallet? Or putting a billion dollars across 10 exchanges, multiple ETFs, single sig and multisig wallets, etc? I love how everyone automatically assumes they understand the operational security of a literal trillionaire entity because they made some headline announcement with zero pertinent information attached to it.
The other reason why this is such an annoying question (why number not go up) is because this sovereign wealth fund bought the BTC in Q4. What did Bitcoin do in Q4? It went x2 to all time highs. The children in crypto are so insufferable right now I swear.
Shocking discovery?
This announcement comes as a surprise because honestly I assumed we'd have to wait a little longer before sovereign wealth jumped onboard... especially one of the most influential ones. This just goes to show you that this bull market is in full swing, and the fact that number is not going up in the immediate short term is completely irrelevant. All of the stars have aligned for the 2025 cycle. The target of maximum gain has ALWAYS BEEN THE END OF THE YEAR NOT THE BEGINNING.
However we should be grateful that the naysays always pop in to rain on the parade because it probably would not happen if everyone was in on it. That's just basic market psychology. Smart money always knows how to exploit the paper hands. And right now smart money stacking... hard... while also fleecing people into thinking this is the top... even though everyone already knows about the four year cycle, they panic anyway.
Dubai
And while we are on the topic of the United Arab Emirates I would be remiss if I didn't mention one of the biggest crypto capitals in the world. What has Dubai done to differentiate itself at the top of the list? First and foremost they crated VARA, the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. This gives them one of the most clear and comprehensive guidelines in the entire world.
In addition Dubai has ZERO personal income tax on crypto and a low 9% corporate tax for profits over $100k. This, among innumerable other favorable policies, is why so much capital has flocked to the country, and this city, to take advantage of such a friendly atmosphere. Clearly, the sovereign wealth is just the icing on the cake when it comes to everything going on here, and half a billion dollars is barely getting their feet wet. Expect moar. We all know what happens when people start buying a little bit of crypto. A little turns into a lot is shockingly short amounts of time.
Conclusion
Didn't think I'd be reporting on sovereign wealth until the end of the year, but here we are. It's official: literally everyone wants Bitcoin now. Countries want it. Banks want it. Corporations want it. Plebs want it. The elite wants it. Hedge funds want it. Institutions want it. According to maximalists even aliens want it. And now, the richest city in the world wants. it. Prepare yourself.