I doubt there's anyone in this world who doesn't have at least one item at home that was manufactured in China. If you have an iPhone, you're holding an American-branded product that was manufactured in China. The Chinese can produce insanely high-quality products, but they can also mass-produce all sorts of garbage products that will only last you a day or two.
When I was living in Bucharest, I had a colleague who, for a while, was doing business with some Chinese, and at some point, he was invited to the mainland to visit a giant "all sorts products market." What amazed him the most there was not the fact that you could easily get lost, but seeing some merchants selling a type of product line that was identical in form or shape but had different prices.
When he asked why, the answer was that the price depends on the quality of materials; other than that, all of them were identical. China offers cheap services for mass-producing all sorts of items and thus is a hard-to-beat competitor for many manufacturers worldwide, no matter what industry you can think of.
China has aggressively entered the EV market in the past few years with its cheap alternatives to well-renowned brands that produce the same type of cars. However, it has ramped up its production so much, expecting the demand for EVs to skyrocket, that it now faces overproduction. Its real estate market suffers from the same issue, and whoever believes China is still a great economic power is going to be surprised at how much its greatness has been trimmed down over the past couple of years.
China banned Bitcoin in 2017, and the day it did, BTC literally fell by something like $1,000 in dollar valuation, which back then was a significant dip. In 2021, if I remember correctly, the Chinese government also banned Bitcoin mining, forcing the biggest Bitcoin miners to move overseas.
Fast forward to 2024 and...
More wild stuff in China as local investors pile into a gold stock ETF pushing its premium to 30% and forcing it to halt trading. Investors there are so desperate to buy things that are not linked to their own economy/stock mkt, which has been in the gutter.
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The big players in China know something; they see the mold erecting from the trash hidden in the backyard. China has missed out on insane opportunities as an economy by banning Bitcoin entirely on the mainland, but...
There's always a 'but'... Sometimes that comes with a double 't,' though...
The Hong Kong subsidiaries of two China-based asset management firms have submitted applications to offer spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the administrative region.
Harvest Fund and Southern Fund, both located in Hong Kong and each managing assets worth more than $200 billion, filed requests on Monday to offer the funds, Bitcoin Magazine reported, citing the state-owned Securities Times. Due to severe restrictions on cryptocurrency trading and mining, asset managers cannot offer ETFs in mainland China.
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China needs exposure to Bitcoin, especially now during the everything bubble season when every commodity and asset seems to be appreciating in value, from cocoa to coffee, silver, and Bitcoin itself. The Chinese government would rather starve their people to death than let them transact freely and live a democratic life. However, not everyone is treated equally in China, just as in any other communist country (cough Russia).
China needs exposure to Bitcoin, and they will likely have it this year, but the exposure won't cover everyone. I have stated several times on my blog that I believe the current bull market looks more similar to that of 2017 rather than 2021, but a bit more accelerated and aggressive. As in the case of 2017, Asia (especially China) will do its part in making us rich.
The heavy burden of taking BTC to $150,000 and beyond won't be left solely on the shoulders of the American ETFs... What do you think?
Thanks for your attention,
Adrian
