THE 2020 YEAR IN #BITCOIN

Ah yes, New Year's Eve. A time to reflect, look forward, celebrate, and throwback Long Reads Sunday style with the BEST BITCOIN TWEETS OF 2020.

Strap TF in, it's time for a thread!

👇👇👇👇
2) Let's start by going back to February.

Even before the full impact of COVID-19 kicked in, bitcoiners were thinking big about the epoch shifts we were in the midst of. https://twitter.com/hansthered/status/1231268307614883840
3) When the markets DID start to finally react, bitcoiners were quick off the draw to point out that, whatever the risk the virus posed, the economic threat was significantly predetermined by fragility borne of decades of decisions. https://twitter.com/CaitlinLong_/status/1236975182813605889
4) Focus quickly shifted to a global dollar shortage and what it might mean across industries - The "Dollar Wrecking Ball" as @RaoulGMI put it. https://twitter.com/RaoulGMI/status/1240330963508432896
5) As every market (including BTC) crashed on the infamous March "Black Thursday," Coinbase buying told a story that would be persistent throughout the year - the bitcoin community scooping underpriced corn as others fled to safety. https://twitter.com/HHorsley/status/1240389839234752522
6) @scottmelker had easily one of the most prophetic tweets of the year, presaging the massive institution demand that would start flowing in just a few short months. https://twitter.com/scottmelker/status/1239555345594421248
7) @prestonpysh meanwhile explained how the veneer of market independence was crumbling around us, and why we're careening toward a very different market model. https://twitter.com/PrestonPysh/status/1247252222066536453
8) Back over in the land of #bitcoin , we were discussing the upcoming halving, or as some started to refer to it, "Quantitative Hardening" - a direct contrast to Quantitative Easing that would become increasingly important to the bitcoin narrative.

https://twitter.com/TuurDemeester/status/1245746303533035520
9) By the end of April, a new player had entered the stock game, finally realizing a fundamental truth of QE world. https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1254770599647301632
10) @krugermacro articulated macro drivers of #BTC that continues to remain relevant to now. https://twitter.com/krugermacro/status/1258154710181253120
11) The Halving was a chance to reflect on how far bitcoin had come. @coinmetrics put together a phenomenal thread of data from Epoch III. https://twitter.com/LucasNuzzi/status/1260598732342595587
12) @balajis used a phrase to describe the halving that perfectly illustrated why it was such a seminal narrative moment, especially in the face of wild "unlimited" central bank intervention. https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1259935376988188674
13) Right around the same time, one of the first Wall Street legends who would convert to the BTC cause this year announced himself - Paul Tudor Jones who came out with his "Great Monetary Inflation" thesis, with #bitcoin at the center of it. https://twitter.com/APompliano/status/1259839737554251784
14) In May, the @stoolpresidente Davey Day Trader effect became a major subject of discussion in financial media. https://twitter.com/sentimentrader/status/1261641345615216641
15) Meanwhile, @jk_rowling got bored on lockdown and started trolling us. https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1262332956208762881
16) Around that same time, we started all realizing that @LynAldenContact was going to be the breakout macro mind of 2020. https://twitter.com/LynAldenContact/status/1265428373255454721
17) We also saw the start of another trend which would get more poignant throughout the year.... @BarrySilbert and Grayscale buying more #BTC than was being minted. https://twitter.com/kerooke/status/1265779970183495680
18) As civil unrest gripped the nation, many pointed out that, while the cause was immediate, there was a larger legacy of inequality of opportunity in which central banks were complicit. https://twitter.com/vol_christopher/status/1267434329279430659
19) Around the world, #bitcoin was proving its mettle not only as a speculative investment. https://twitter.com/LucasNuzzi/status/1266402529803460610
20) Early June saw one of the more remarkable bubbles - a retail/Robinhood driven flood into bankrupt stocks. Fundamentals be damned! https://twitter.com/TheStalwart/status/1270130300702593024
21) It was also around this time that a lot of folks were wondering, with such a juicy macro backdrop, why wasn't going up more?

Sitting where we are today, there are only two things to say:

1) Travis was right
2) lol https://twitter.com/Travis_Kling/status/1272723767433629697
22) News also broke that month (confirmed much later) that PayPal would be rolling out crypto features. https://twitter.com/TheCryptoDog/status/1275113435815129089
23) Let's pause now to acknowledge the emergence on the scene of one of the year's best new Twitter follows, @SahilBloom whose 101 threads on financial concepts are better than most business schools for learning the basics. https://twitter.com/sahilbloom/status/1276913368083730432
24) @DTAPCAP also through out the interesting idea that, given the macro context, we might be heading into an unbelievable golden age for gold, bitcoin and equities. https://twitter.com/DTAPCAP/status/1276608634626113536
25) Again, we saw the official story of inflation remaining low not matching the lived experience of people. https://twitter.com/KeithMcCullough/status/1279822653910650880
26) It was around this time that "DeFi Summer" started - an emergence of a whole new modality in that space that would drive billions of speculation and experimentation over the course of the next few months particularly. https://twitter.com/QWQiao/status/1283129105874128897
27) When Twitter was hacked and everyone from Elon Musk to Barack Obama was asking for people to send bitcoin, it took a Congressman to make the point about what the real issue was. https://twitter.com/RepTomEmmer/status/1283560177489379330
28) In July, the OCC clarified that banks could custody crypto assets. While this hit the Twitter-sphere as medium-sized news, behind the scenes I heard over and over from institutional players what a huge deal this was. https://twitter.com/fintechfrank/status/1285983209361203202
29) Another prophetic tweet came from @pete_rizzo. We're still in uncharted territory today, but getting some first glimpses. https://twitter.com/pete_rizzo_/status/1287900406459305984
30) One of the somehow massively under the radar stories throughout the year was just how much the supply of and volume on stablecoins grew. This was driven in part by DeFi and crypto trading but also by adoption in the context of global dollar demand. https://twitter.com/jp_koning/status/1298328232253587458
By the end of August, we were getting a much clearer picture of just how much energy was going into DeFi https://twitter.com/haydenzadams/status/1300034164830408704
32) At the beginning of September, legendary investor Stan Druckenmiller started talking about the possibility of 5-10% inflation. https://twitter.com/SquawkCNBC/status/1303665278262353920
33) Underneath the return of the stock market lurked a larger structural issue showing just how tied the Fed's hands are. https://twitter.com/nic__carter/status/1305504208951693314
34) Also in September, Wyoming became the first state to approve a banking charter for digital assets. Kraken and Avanti would go on to get licenses under the new regime. https://twitter.com/GovernorGordon/status/1306349561686892544
35) But of course, the biggest news of that month was the entrance onto the scene of the gigichad himself. https://twitter.com/michael_saylor/status/1305850568531947520
36) Another breakout voice of 2020 @JeffBooth explained the need for a currency that enables deflation. https://twitter.com/JeffBooth/status/1311044868882325504
37) ...and while some were claiming boredom with bitcoin's price, others were noting that we were in the midst of the asset's longest run above $10k https://twitter.com/blockfolio/status/1310595250218504192
38) In October, Square became the second public company after MicroStrategy to announce a balance sheet move into BTC - this one both smaller but also more easier to imitate for CFO's than MSTR's all in play. https://twitter.com/Melt_Dem/status/1314276364883820546
39) Another lurking story of 2020 that I anticipate we'll hear much more of in 2021 is the rise of central bank digital currencies. China moved the quickest, but others are working diligently to catch up. https://twitter.com/ErikVoorhees/status/1315859375962161152
40) With a slew of regulatory action coming around this time (something that has continued to now) @jchervinsky framed the battle as around self-custody and privacy - perfectly put. https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1315758137903902721
41) Also in October, PayPal confirmed that it was entering the crypto space in a significant way. https://twitter.com/chamath/status/1319043760831909894
42) Throughout the fall, reports from banks and financial institutions showed just how significantly the tenor of the bitcoin conversation was changing. https://twitter.com/krugermacro/status/1319793505703776259
43) Remember Druckenmiller discussing inflation in September? Well, by November, he was long #btc (publicly). @RaoulGMI nails the significance. https://twitter.com/RaoulGMI/status/1325873370207051776
44) Seriously...for those keeping track at home... https://twitter.com/jasonyanowitz/status/1325891914319749125?s=12
45) In the lead up to what we now know would be bitcoin's smash through new ATH's @nic__carter put together a list of 9 metrics other than price where bitcoin was thriving. In many ways, these tell a more complete story. https://twitter.com/nic__carter/status/1328696677885153282
46) We also saw a new wave of celebs get into the space -- and this time, it wasn't random named cryptocoins but the king itself. https://twitter.com/Maisie_Williams/status/1328784499061223428
47) @CitizenBitcoin wrote perhaps my favorite thread of the year on the concept of HODL FOMO - a totally different basis for a new bull run with massively more strength than anything we've seen previously. https://twitter.com/CitizenBitcoin/status/1327276810363670529
48) We also started to notice something of a shortage in available corn, thanks to the likes of CashApp, PayPal, GBTC and others... https://twitter.com/anilsaidso/status/1329868868785901568
49) Around Thanksgiving, warning bells rang around impending last minute regulations around self-hosting. https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1331744884856741888
50) We started to see a more crisp picture of what @Travis_Kling aptly called "The Traditional Onslaught." https://twitter.com/travis_kling/status/1333540445213716480?s=12
51) Some very thoughtful and very juicy prediction threads started as December rolled around.

"I've never been so bullish for 2021" https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1333826694109569025
52) A little company called Visa plugged stablecoins into their infrastructure https://twitter.com/cuysheffield/status/1334150440821243904
53) The US Govt's regulatory shenanigans continued with the introduction of the STABLE Act, which @jerallaire explains as a major step backwards. https://twitter.com/jerallaire/status/1334277520695431169?s=12
54) As bitcoin and stablecoins become more prominent, we're also starting to see the brewing battle lines of the future. https://twitter.com/Melt_Dem/status/1336001472245456899
55) Travis came back with another quick recap of the recent history of Fed action, and why it sets the context for bitcoin going forward. https://twitter.com/Travis_Kling/status/1339227582428934144
56) As if big hedge funders and corporate treasuries scooping bitcoin wasn't enough, then we learned that a storied 169-year old insurance firm - one of the most risk averse types of institutions on the planet - had bought $100m #BTC https://twitter.com/QwQiao/status/1344482871717740547
57) The end of the year has been a flurry of bullish news. @Coinbase capturing the hype to IPO is exemplary. https://twitter.com/nic__carter/status/1344357231865847809
58) To me, however, the real big story of this year is the setup for next year.

What players are quietly accumulating even as you read this?
What news will trigger a new flow in?

The possibilities have never been brighter. HAPPY NY2021 ALL! https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1340678358456274948?s=12
You can follow @nlw.
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