GM.

Welcome to Bitcoin Therapy. The newsletter that’s almost as good as the smell of fried bacon in the morning.

First, happy and relaxing Sunday to 2,109 of you reading today.

I had two readers reach out to me about font size. One said it was too big, and the other said it was too small. What do you think?

Alright, let’s get to the juicy stuff.

Here’s what I got for you this week:

• Trouble in paradise: Binance selling off customer deposits?

• Oil titan Saudi Arabia joins BRICS - USD fanboys in disbelief

• Oman plans to invest $1.1 Billion in Bitcoin mining

Estimated read time: 3 minutes and 54 seconds

BINANCE IMPLOSION IMMINENT OR FUD?

“Mom, is that a meteor falling?”

“No, Billy, that’s BNB.”

As of writing this, Binance’s BNB token has fallen to $216 - the lowest it has been in 14 months.

The rumor: Binance is selling off large amounts of Bitcoin to prevent BNB's price from falling below $212.

Why $212? Because this is where some of Binance’s BNB DeFi loans will be liquidated. And allegedly, they’re selling customer deposits to sustain the price of BNB.

But that’s not the only worry. Binance has more red flags than my ex-girlfriend:

• 🚩CZ is prosecuted (no biggie, just 13 securities law violations)

• 🚩CZ accused of trading against his users

• 🚩Banking partners cut off Binance US

• 🚩Binance is cut off from depositing via SEPA

And the biggest one:

• 🚩 Binance is not allowing Euro withdrawals

And as the cherry on top, they quickly deleted this comment when a user asked why they couldn’t withdraw their money:

Not a good look, CZ.

They went from funds being SAFU —> SEIZU real quick.

So what’s next for Binance? Well, implosion. Okay, maybe not. Yet.

Important distinction: Binance’s shady token going to zero ≠ Binance being insolvent.

The truth is that we don’t know how vital BNB is to Binance’s health. Also, Binance’s public on-chain wallet has 18.2 million BTC. So they’re not running out of cash just yet.

But Binance going bust would not surprise me. After all, BNB is a copy of FTT (FTX token) - a hot air token issued from nothing and propped up by customer deposits.

And if you look at the BNB chart, it seems eerily familiar…

Withdraw your coins from Binance and thank me later.

29% OF BTC IS LOST FOREVER. DO THIS TO AVOID 👇

Yup, the title is correct. Why? Poor seed phrase security.

This is why I use our partner Stamp Seed - a titanium seed storage solution.

• 100% offline cold storage =100% peace of mind

• Indestructible (trust me, they’ve tried destroying it lol)

• No loose pieces - no risk of losing crucial parts

Be your own bank, anon. Get your Stamp Seed here.

PS: You get 15% off your purchase with the code ‘Therapy15' 👀

SAUDIS JOIN BRICS - FINAL NAIL IN THE COFFIN FOR USD?

"You too, Saudi Arabia?"

What’s going on? The global oil superpower Saudi Arabia just backstabbed the US by joining BRICS.

Saying that this is a big blow to the US is an understatement. After all, a big reason why the US Dollar is the global reserve currency is because of their oil deal with the Saudis:

The US helps Saudis drill oil and supply them with weapons 🤝 Saudis denominate ALL oil trade in USD and thus create demand for it.

No oil trade in dollars —> less demand for dollars —> weaker US economy

And Saudis are not the only newcomers to the anti-USD club. 5 more countries are set to join in January 2024: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and UAE.

What does this mean? Now, six of the world's nine largest oil producers are members of the BRICS:

1. 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia

2. 🇷🇺 Russia

3. 🇨🇳 China

4. 🇧🇷 Brazil

5. 🇮🇷 Iran

6. 🇦🇪 UAE

In total, the BRICS countries account for 52% of global oil production.

But what about the money? What currency will the BRCIS user? After all, the members are a disparate group of countries with equally disparate geopolitical goals.

Well, it’s still in the open. They said there would be no common currency just yet. But hints about developing an "accounting unit," aka alternative to the dollar, are being dropped left and right.

It seems that the BRICS is looking into developing a gold-backed digital currency.

My opinion? This will never work: You 👏 can’t 👏 back 👏 fractional-reserve 👏 system 👏 with 👏 gold

The brickbucks would multiply faster than the backing gold reserves. It always goes like that.

I see two options, both of which are bullish for Bitcoin:

1. Bricks Bucks fails, and they realize they need to adopt hard money like Bitcoin

2. Bricks Bucks succeeds in dethroning USD and opening space for Bitcoin

Either way, more competition is good for Bitcoin.

RECLAIM YOUR PRIVACY

Let's be real: Bitcoin has weak privacy. Without proper privacy tools, you're inviting criminals to steal your Bitcoin.

This is why I use Wasabi Wallet to keep my Bitcoin private.

• Beginner friendly

• Privacy by default

• No minimum Coinjoin amounts

What are you waiting for? Take back control of your privacy and freedom.

Join 500,000+ Wasabi users by downloading it at wasabiwallet.io

OMAN PLANS TO INVEST $1.1 BILLION IN BITCOIN MINING

Oman? More like, ‘oh man, what a move.’

The oil-rich Oman just announced they would invest $1.1 Billion in Bitcoin Mining Infrastructure.

The computational power of the mining is estimated at 800MW (that is 206819443x more power than the device you’re reading this on).

Those are some wild numbers. Here’s why Oman is doing this:

• Help wean its economy off its oil dependence

• Support renewable energy (such as flare gas mitigation)

• To signal readiness to embrace future

And the timing is perfect. Too perfect.

Oman just happened to start building a massive Bitcoin mining facility when the hash price is near all-time lows and a halving is 8 months away?

Oman knows what's up (and what will go up).

Anyways. The game theory is playing out in front of your eyes: the more countries publicly go pro-bitcoin, the more FOMO other countries will have to follow suit,

Here’s a list of countries that have embraced bitcoin:

1. El Salvador

2. Bhutan

3. Oman

3 countries in the bag. 192 to go.

But remember, those are just the ones who are publicly about it. How many more are secretly accumulating Bitcoin or investing in infrastructure?

And you know how it goes: small dominoes fall first, large ones later.

Jon Snow: The winter is coming

Bitcoin Therapy: The nation-states are coming

RABBIT HOLE READS 🕳️……🐇

• Chad Solo Bitcoin miner finds a block and earns 6.25 BTC (this is rarer than finding that golden hologram Charizard card)

• Two Tornado Cash founders charged and arrested for laundering $1B+ in illicit funds

THIS WEEK IN A MEME 📅

FROM THE ARCHIVE 📁

2 years ago, The Simpsons predicted the price of Bitcoin: infinity

PATIENT REVIEW 🧠

That’s it for this one. Big thanks to our sponsors, Wasabi Wallet and Stamp Seed, who allow us to write Bitcoin Therapy.

If you like what you read, please reply to this to this email (it helps with email deliverability). And if you don’t, you can unsubscribe below.

See you next Sunday,

Bitcoin Therapy Team

PS: Enjoy the newsletter? Please forward it to a bitcoiner. It only takes 5 seconds. Writing it takes me 5 hours