At the end of July 2023, marking Two Years And Five Months On, my bank stands at $584.46: a loss of $575.68 since the review started.

According to Michael Mac, the director of CTA, the conditions are now ripe for a new bull market. The on-chain metrics are in place, the market cycle picture is ready for the accumulation phase to end and the stock market is looking favourable. Black Rock, the world’s largest asset manager with US$8.59 trillion under management, apparently agrees. It has recently shown its confidence in the long-term prospects for Bitcoin by filing an application for a Bitcoin ETF (Exchange Traded Fund, see The Mini Glossary) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A Bitcoin spot ETF would be a huge deal. It would be a cost-efficient and regulated way for all pension funds, institutions and investors in the US to buy Bitcoin easily and safely through their trading accounts, or within their tax-protected structures like regulation pension/investment (ISA) funds.

In addition, there is growing speculation that an Ethereum ETF could be approved by the SEC as early as October 16th. Obviously, this would be a major milestone for the crypto industry, as it would make it easier for investors to gain exposure to Ethereum.

Furthermore, Paypal has just launched its own stablecoin, PYUSD. This is a big deal for two reasons. First, it shows that more financial institutions are taking crypto seriously. Second, it opens up the possibility for Paypal users to make payments with stablecoins.

Here are the latest stats and developments:

The Main Portfolio

Since my last update, the crypto market has remained in its accumulation phase, with a wee gain in my portfolio of $32.9. Two new coins have been added to the official portfolio and one advised for removal (cashing out).

Acquisition Cost: $1160.14 (Completed on February 11th, 2021)

Minimum Bank: $410.67 (Jan 1st, 2023)

Maximum Bank: $2197.55 (May 10th, 2021)

Number of Profitable Months: 14/29

Number of Crypto coins in the main portfolio: 14 (includes one stablecoin)

Current Bank: $584.46 (July 31st, 2023)

Profit/Loss Since Acquisition: -$575.68

Return on Bank since Acquisition: -49.62%

The graph below shows the daily value of the portfolio from March 1st, 2021 through July 31st, 2023:

We have been in an Accumulation Phase for about 390 days now (over a year!)

Airdrops

Five new airdrop-free tokens were reported. I qualified for one only; members of management qualified for all five as they have much bigger crypto investments.

There are also a total of 7 coins being staked that are associated with potential/acquired airdrops. Yearly rates for these coins are 2.6% to 48.3%. One coin, CRBRUS, was being staked but is now defunct. Total gains from my airdrop-associated staking are $10!

Staking

A total of five portfolio coins are currently being staked. The total profit to date from all my portfolio-staked coins is $27.7, equal to 4.7% of the current main portfolio value, $584.46. The annual interest rate on my portfolio-staked coins varies from 2.6% to 12.7%.

Short Term Trades (Buying and Selling the same crypto coin)

None reported.

In general, the best time to sign up for a crypto service is at or near the bottom of a bear market ( and during the accumulation phase) as this is the time when the coins are at their greatest value for long-term growth. So now is a good time. Here are the results of two additional portfolios that I have set up during the current accumulation phase. The first portfolio utilizes the three main CTA crypto coin holdings (Bitcoin, Ethereum and one other) and the second portfolio is the first plus two other CTA-recommended coins. They were set up using Dollar Cost Averaging (see The Mini Glossary) over a period of about 10 weeks. The graphs start at the date when the 10-week set-up periods were completed. The green lines are the highest reached values and the red lines are the lowest reached values. Both portfolios show significant gains even during the extant accumulation phase.

Three Coin Portfolio

Five Coin Portfolio

Note membership in CTA includes many introductory how-to guides. As well as primers on Crypto and Tax; Crypto Security; and Dollar Cost Averaging. In addition, there are spreadsheets to monitor portfolio performance, airdrops, and compounding.

You Can Sign Up Here For Full Membership

Important Addition: CTA has recently been offering a 5-Day Challenge for just seven quid (as Graham posted on an earlier occasion), where one can learn the basics of crypto trading in easily digestible chunks one day at a time. This includes setting up an account at an exchange, purchasing the core cryptos, understanding the crypto mindset, purchasing an altcoin, and how to stake coins. Currently, there is a waiting list for the next course. To join this waiting list, click here.

The next report will be delivered near the end of 2023.

Mini Glossary:

The Accumulation Phase typically happens before an uptrend. The Accumulation Phase is over when the market sentiment moves from a negative stance to a neutral one. During this phase, a lot of money is both entering and leaving the market at the same time.

Airdrops involve crypto projects sending free tokens en masse to their communities in a bid to encourage adoption.

Altcoin. If the entire cryptocurrency universe expanded from a single point, sort of like a big bang, that point of singularity would be Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency. Ethereum introduced another region to the blockchain universe: one that allowed for innovations such as smart contracts and decentralized applications (dapps) to flourish. An altcoin is every cryptocurrency that’s not either Bitcoin or Ethereum.

A Bull run is defined as a period of time where the majority of investors are buying, demand outweighs supply, market confidence is at a high, and prices are rising,

Dollar-cost averaging is the practice of systematically investing equal amounts of money at regular intervals, regardless of the price of a security. Dollar-cost averaging can reduce the overall impact of price volatility and lower the average cost per share.

An Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) is a type of pooled investment security that resembles a mutual fund but can be purchased or sold on a stock exchange like a regular stock.

NFT stands for “non-fungible token.” At a basic level, an NFT is a digital asset that links ownership to unique physical or digital items, such as works of art, real estate, music, or videos. Non-fungible more or less means that it’s unique and can’t be replaced with something else. For example, a bitcoin is fungible — trade one for another bitcoin, and you’ll have exactly the same thing. A one-of-a-kind trading card, however, is non-fungible. If you traded it for a different card, you’d have something completely different.

Spot Bitcoin ETF is an Exchange Traded Fund that tracks the price of Bitcoin directly.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that attempt to peg their market value to some external reference like the U.S. dollar.

Staking cryptocurrencies is a process that involves committing your crypto assets to support a blockchain network and confirm transactions. Staking can be a great way to use your crypto to generate passive income especially because some cryptocurrencies offer high-interest rates for staking.