Ten31 Timestamp 841,097
Portfolio Company Spotlight
Start9 provides software and hardware to empower users to easily take control of their digital lives by self-hosting their own personal servers independent of third parties. With intuitive mass market software and one-click installations of popular programs like Bitcoin Core, Mempool.space, various lightning implementations, and 30+ other services, Start9 enables a move away from the current computing paradigm of custodial services that limit privacy, data integrity, and personal autonomy. The company’s exciting roadmap aims to do for personal servers what Microsoft and Apple did for personal computing, which we expect to become progressively more valuable over the coming decades as financial and tech counterparties become less reliable and more invasive.
Selected Portfolio News
Strike announced its launch in Europe, making the app available in nearly 100 countries:
Zaprite added a new integration for Mutiny Wallet:
Voltage also announced an integration with MutinyNet, Mutiny’s custom signet environment:
Primal added a “top zaps” feature that displays the five largest zaps on nostr posts:
Media
Strike’s European rollout was profiled in Fortune and CoinDesk.
Strike Founder and CEO Jack Mallers made an appearance on the David Lin Show to discuss the European launch and the market backdrop for bitcoin.
Bitcoin Magazine published a profile of Unchained featuring Co-Founder and CEO Joe Kelly.
Satoshi Energy Co-Founder and CEO Andrew Myers delved into the company’s solutions for bitcoin miners and power producers on the Energizing Bitcoin podcast.
Ten31 Co-Founder and Managing Partner Grant Gilliam joined the Build with Bitcoin podcast to discuss Ten31’s portfolio, investment process, and contributions to open source software.
Zaprite Head of Business Development and Ten31 Advisor Parker Lewis also appeared on the Build with Bitcoin podcast to discuss Zaprite’s work on bitcoin payments.
StatMuse published the latest edition of its monthly Muse Letter.
Market Updates
Macro updates continued to look mixed this week, as the latest US GDP figures for Q1 2024 came in below consensus – at +1.6% Y/Y against expectations for +2.4% – even after a hotter than expected retail print last week.
Several other metrics released this week pointed in the same direction, as Discover Financial reported an ongoing spike in credit card charge-offs to the worst levels since 2008. The most recent data out of the Philadelphia Fed showed a similar trend.
Meanwhile, the latest Manufacturing and Services PMI data came in below expectations (though also showed some concomitant reversal of the pickup in output prices from last month).
Concerningly, these softer updates were coupled with a higher than expected PCE inflation reading of +3.4% (or +3.7% excluding food and energy) for the quarter, up substantially from Q4’s +1.8% and the metric’s largest jump in a year.
With inflation looking progressively more entrenched, Bloomberg ran a piece this week suggesting a 4% reported inflation level could be the “new normal.”
On the back of these headlines, benchmark interest rates continued to march higher on the week, with the US 10-year Treasury yield nearly reaching 4.75% before retrenching slightly on Friday.
Despite the collection of negative updates on inflation and rates, equities largely reversed prior week declines, ending with their best week since November.
The closely-watched USDJPY currency pair continued to break down this week, with the rate weakening to more than 158 at the end of the week as the Bank of Japan once again declined to intervene on Friday.
Following the massive but short-lived spike in on-chain bitcoin fees in the immediate wake of the fourth block subsidy halving last week, mining hashprice has fallen back to earth and is now approaching an all-time low.
Regulatory Update
The US House of Representatives passed a bill to confiscate frozen Russian assets and transfer them for use in Ukraine, potentially another headwind to the dollar’s perception as a neutral international settlement asset.
President Biden signed a bill that would reauthorize and extend measures of the FISA Act that grant intelligence agencies substantial leeway to collect data on American businesses and individuals without a warrant.
Meanwhile, the EU enacted new rules that will require increased surveillance of customer accounts by financial service providers, as well as a €10,000 allowable cap on most cash payments.
Noteworthy
Block released an update on its new bitcoin mining chip, indicating that the company has completed development on the 3nm chip and is in the process of preparing the chip for production.
The release also announced that Block will offer the chip both on a standalone basis and as part of its own full mining system.
A new report this week indicated that Morgan Stanley may soon allow its network of 15,000+ brokers to begin marketing bitcoin ETFs to clients.
Travel
Austin BitDevs, May 16
Bitcoin Asia Conference, May 9-10
Bitcoin 2024, July 25-27
BitcoinMENA, Dec 9-10
I appreciate your timestamp every week. I’ve learned a ton from your company and your willingness to build out the ecosystem for the plebs. See you at the park.