Total crypto hits $1.5T

It's freezing outside but wow, how green our valley: Bitcoin is back above $38,000; Solana surged 8% in 24 hours, reaching $58; and just now, as we were scouring headlines as of 7:45 a.m. (EST), we saw IOTA jump 25% in one hour.

The hype probably behind the spike: Iota network just announced the creation of a $100 million foundation in Abu Dhabi to help fast-track use of its distributed ledger technology in the Middle East.

The whole enchilada of digital assets, as measured by CoinGecko, hit $1.5 trillion. That's a re-test of a recently reached high-water mark for 2023 as the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies rose by 2.4%.

Other impressive gainers include Stacks (+21% in 24 hours) and THORChain (+14%). Terra Luna Classic is back in the gymnasium, pumping 18% since this time yesterday. LUNC sprang to life on Sunday into Monday then somersaulted backwards, only to regain footing and rock a cartwheel.

Crypto market momentum started to gather steam late yesterday afternoon after one of the Fed's governors, Chris Waller, in a policy utterance interpreted as dove-like, said recent data suggested a slowdown in the economy (CoinDesk).

It was centuries ago when money first started to become widely known as the root of all evil. Subsequent barbs over the years almost seem superfluous.

The root/evil phrase traces to New Testament scribe St. Paul who per most translations actually only meant to say that the love of money is a root of much evil.

Charlie Munger, aide de camp to Warren Buffett, never minced words when it came to his condemnations of digital dough. He famously called Bitcoin "rat poison." When BTC skyrocketed to ROI levels that would make even the most iconic capitalist blush, Munger doubled down, calling the new form of currency “expensive rat poison” and “rat poison squared.”

Munger left us yesterday at the age of 99. Among older generations, he will be remembered as a shrewd operator, the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, venerated multinational holding company. Middle-agers know Buffett and Berkshire for reaping nearly $4 billion in profits via preferred stock in Goldman Sachs at the height of the investment bank's mortgage market pillaging hey-day circa 2008, a monumental pig-out that inspired journalist Matt Taibbi to famously refer to Goldman as a "vampire squid" (and ultimately partly led to the creation of Bitcoin).

Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meetings in Omaha earned the nickname, "Woodstock for capitalists."

As Decrypt noted, simply asking the cantankerous nonagenarian about crypto was guaranteed to provoke the kind of colorful language with which younger generations will associate Munger.

"I'm not proud of my country for allowing this crypto $h!+," Munger recently said.

Forbes has estimated Munger's net worth to be $2.6 billion.

He and his pal Warren, seven years younger, were “creatures of a particular time and a perfect set of opportunities,” he told the FT this year.

Munger felt certain he'd lived during “a perfect period to be a common stock investor."

“A very intelligent man working hard maybe gets three, four, five really good long-term opportunities of buying great companies at a cheap price,” Munger recently told the FT. “It happens rarely.”

Earlier this year, Munger told shareholders: “I think the best road ahead to human happiness is to expect less. I think it’s going to get tougher."

Standard Chartered came right out and said it. Bitcoin will reach $100,000 by the end of next year.

The bank's research team is convinced that A) several U.S.-based spot BTC ETFs will meet with SEC approval and B) this will be a catalyst as more institutional investors wade in.

BTC halving – a supply tightening mechanism set for April 2024 – will be another source of price upside (CoinDesk).

"We think a number of spot ETFs will now be approved in Q1 for both BTC and ETH," Standard Chartered said.