BMJ Reward Tokens: 43,550

Health, Wealth, and Happiness

October 28, 2024

“The secret to change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”



- Socrates, "Way of the Peaceful Warrior"

Thank You and Good Night

A message from the publisher of Bitcoin Market Journal.

After seven years, we are shutting down Bitcoin Market Journal. (Read the announcement here.)

 

As publisher, I am focusing on my next book, The Intelligent Crypto Investor, which will be the definitive reference guide for crypto investing, based on principles we developed here.

 

Bitcoin Market Journal has been a very special publication. There is nothing else quite like it. There are plenty of crypto news sites, and lots of speculative investing sites. But no one, to my knowledge, has developed a steady, patient, long-term approach to investing in this new asset class.

 

And it was only possible through the thoughtful comments, feedback, and suggestions from the BMJ community. Thank you, thank you for your collaboration. Our work together has been a tremendous good for the world.

 

 

What We Got Right

 

Pretty much everything.

 

Together we created this approach of investing a small percentage into crypto, while keeping the rest in traditional investments. This has not only been a powerful method of managing risk, but has also allowed us to track our performance against traditional investors:

 

“Big Believers” who invested just 10% in quality crypto assets have outperformed “Non Believers” by +44%.

 

 

We have been long-term believers in both bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), which remain at the top of the pack for crypto investments. We also have included BNB and Uniswap (UNI) in our top picks, which has helped our Future Winners Portfolio outperform the S&P 500:

Together we invested in upcoming trends, like the Ethereum Merge, the rise of bitcoin ETFs, and -- my favorite -- the pandemic portfolio (which performed exceptionally well for those of us who jumped on it quickly).

 

We should be proud that we’ve forged a model of crypto investing that integrates new finance with traditional finance, which is of course the way that things are playing out. No one is dumping their bank accounts for bitcoin; but bitcoin (and crypto in general) are becoming part of bank accounts.

 

That’s the big shift that we predicted – so different from the bitcoin maximalists and the crypto sites today – and it’s finally coming true!

 


All this, before we have regulatory clarity in the United States. Once we get better laws in place (which will happen), get ready for the tidal wave.

 

 

What We Got Wrong

 

Any time we tried to predict prices, or predict timing.

 

In a classic example, we asked our community to predict, toward the end of 2018, whether bitcoin would touch $10,000 by the end of the year. Opinions were pretty much split 50/50, with the optimists winning slightly:

Bitcoin closed the year at $3,750.

 

This is why we’re such fans of long-term investing. You can often see long-term trends, but you never know how long. Too many variables!


Even our excitement about the Ethereum ETF has not played out yet: the price of ETH is down since July. (Be patient; it will come.)

 

There’s a philosophical difference between the short-term predictors and the long-term HODLers. The predictors are looking to make a quick buck, while the HODLers are willing to wait.


We are squarely in the HODLer camp – and so far, by far, HODLers have been the winners.

Many, Many Thank Yous

 

Besides the community, there have been many, many people who have helped make Bitcoin Market Journal a pioneer in this new discipline of crypto investing.

 

  • Wendy Grieco has served as our Producer since the beginning, a job that entails a million details, which she choreographs beautifully. We couldn’t do it without her.
  • Lucas Healy, who heads our development efforts, is responsible for most of the website, which is a work of art and works like a dream.
  • Rob Montepeluso was instrumental in getting the first website off the ground, and leading operational efforts in the early years. He’s a gem.
  • Pete Angus was responsible for much of the early business development behind Bitcoin Market Journal, as recounted in my book.
  • Our heads of editorial played an enormous role in managing our rapidly growing team of analysts: Lisa Strickland, Patrick Houston, Alex Lielacher, and Steve Walters.
  • Mati Greenspan did an incredible job writing the primary column for BitcoinMarket Journal for several years, and remains an industry thought leader.
  • Evan Karnoupakis, in addition to his contributions to BMJ, was my co-author for Blockchain Success Stories, and is a terrific collaborator to this day.
  • Our faithful social media team, Cliff Robinson and Mauricio Nogueira Silverio, helped grow our online following with passion and purpose.
  • Our blockchain development team, Shankar Mohanakrishnan and Dan Hepworth, built the innovative BMJ Reward Token and reward system.
  • Our early video analyst team, Kevin Kelly and Jessica Ridella, were terrific; thanks also to Kevin for creating the models that power our portfolios.
  • And huge thanks to our amazing team of analysts and writers: Anatol Antonovici, Evamarie Augustine, Charles Bovaird, Justin Caldwell, Adam Carpenter, Matthew Du, Danielle Greving, Lucas Hahn, Neville Hiatt, Alexandre Lores, Gerald Jackson, Daniel Joel, Preetam Kaushik, Nick Marinoff, Eddie Mitchell, Sharon Moran, Don Pendergast, Eric Reed, Frederick Reese, Stephen Robert, Dan Seitz, Syed Shoeb, Kyle Torpey, Chris Tozzi, and James West.
  • Finally, my wife Jade Hargrave who just looked over this list and said, “Good Lord, are you going to thank Jesus as well?”


I ask your forgiveness if I’ve left your name off the list. The tears are making my vision blurry.

 

 

On to the Next Chapter

 

With this chapter closed, I’ll be hunkering down to work on my next book, The Intelligent Crypto Investor. With crypto investing just about to crack open to the mainstream, the time is right.

 

And don’t worry: the Bitcoin Market Journal mailing list will still be here. If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe.

 

Thank you, and good night.

John Hargrave

Publisher

Bitcoin Market Journal

Bitcoin Market Journal is the premiere newsletter to make you a better crypto investor. It has been created by John Hargrave, Steve Walters, Anatol Antonovici, Matthew Du, Daniel Joel, and Preetam Kaushik. We thank you for your readership and support.

Twitter  Linkedin