Author Archives: Danzig

David Sinclair resigns as President of the Academy for Health & Lifespan Research – Longevity.Technology

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On Wednesday, Dr Nir Barzilai, one of the co-founders of the Academy for Health & Lifespan Research took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to announce that Dr David Sinclair, also a co-founder of the Academy, had resigned as President.

Sinclair, who is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, had been chosen by his peers for the position in June of last year, succeeding Dr Felipe Sierra (now Chief Science Officer at Hevolution).

Longevity.Technology: The Academy for Health & Lifespan Research (AHLR) is dedicated to studying the mechanisms of aging and developing interventions to slow and reverse the process. With a current membership of 60 of the worlds foremost researchers and geroscientists, it elects members annually based on their scientific contributions and commitment to the community.

Barzilai made Wednesdays announcement on behalf of Eric Verdin, Laura Neiderhofer, Andre Bertram and himself. He thanked Sinclair for his service, and indicated that the academys Executive Director Risa Starr will temporarily handle the administrative responsibilities of the Presidency until its board can confirm a new president. Barzilai also asked members of the academy to immediately submit their nominations, either for others or themselves, and said the academy plans to announce the new president at its meeting on 3rd April.

We regret all the events that led to Davids resignation and take the lessons to heart, wrote Barzilai in his tweet. We hope we can move past these events. The Academy is about science and scientists; all else is secondary [1].

He added that the academy has decided to postpone its 2024 election of new members until after the confirmation of its next president.

Sinclairs resignation comes a week-and-a-half after former academy member Dr Matt Kaeberlein tweeted that after careful consideration he was renouncing his academy membership, citing ongoing behavior by Academy President Dr. David Sinclair that I find both personally and professionally unacceptable [2].

Commenting on Wednesdays announcement of David Sinclairs resignation, Longevity.Technology CEO and founder Phil Newman said: Strong personalities are important in the early stages of a new industry some lead, some challenge, and some both lead and challenge; either way, we need to thank these individuals for their contributions and preparedness to take the lead publicly. This exposure brings the benefits of social followers and commercial opportunities, but it also brings the challenges of scrutiny.

[1] https://twitter.com/NirBarzilaiMD/status/1767981636405043227 [2] https://twitter.com/mkaeberlein/status/1764361555557380198

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David Sinclair resigns as President of the Academy for Health & Lifespan Research - Longevity.Technology

Bitcoin Crash Triggered By Failed $1 Billion Hedge Fund Spread Trade: Expert – TradingView

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The Bitcoin price has crashed from over $72,000 yesterday to as low as $65,500. As reported earlier today, there are several obvious reasons for this, such as the liquidation of extensive long positions on the red-hot futures market, expectations of a higher for longer policy by the US Federal Reserve as a result of hotter than expected inflation data and a relatively weak inflow day for the spot ETFs yesterday.

Did This Trigger The Bitcoin Crash?

However, there is also a rumor that reveals yet another hidden reason for the crash: a failed spread trade by a hedge fund that resulted in over a billion dollars in losses. Andrew Kang, the founder of Mechanism Capital, revealed on X the intricate details of this debacle.

Apparently a fund blew out $1b+ on the MSTR-BTC spread trade today. They covered into the close which is why BTC dumped and MSTR premium went to the highs. PNL pocketed by based Saylor and will be put back into BTC.

Kang had earlier elucidated the precarious nature of market transitions, citing the downfall of several major players due to flawed delta-neutral strategies. You get some really wonky stuff that happens in market trend transitions. Like large delta-neutral funds/institutions getting blown out on risk-free spread trades, Kang remarked, pointing to past failures of notable firms like Blockfi, DCG, Genesis, Three Arrow Capital and Alameda.

MicroStrategy, under the leadership of Michael Saylor, has notably been a leveraged play on Bitcoin, with its substantial holdings often leading to significant interest from short sellers. According to Kang, MSTR currently has $3b of short interest roughly 20% of its float. I imagine a lot of that float is angry tradfi boomers trying to capture the premium to NAV.

The premium discrepancy Kang refers tosurging from 50% pre-ETF to 13% post-ETF, and recently peaking at 70%illustrates the volatile dynamics at play between MicroStrategys stock value and its underlying Bitcoin holdings.

Trade Gone Wrong

Renowned Bitcoin analyst Bit Paine and German crypto analyst Florian Bruce corroborated the narrative, pointing to the unwinding of a significant spread trade as the catalyst for the market movements. That dip was because a fund blew up on their MSTR/BTC short, Bit Paine remarked.

Bruce provided a clear exposition of the strategy gone awry: A hedge fund set up a spread trade shortly before the ETF approval: Long BTC & Short MSTR. The idea behind it was that MSTR will fall through the ETF while BTC rises. This explanation lays bare the hedge funds miscalculation, as the actual market response saw MSTR outperformed Bitcoin, necessitating a rapid unwinding of positions that contributed to Bitcoins sharp price decline.

BTC was sold and the shorts on MSTR were closed (MSTR bought). This is probably also the reason why MSTR has just had a small mini rally and is doing less badly than other BTC ETFs. Enjoy the dip. I dont think it will last long, Bruce stated.

The supposed hedge fund in question, North Rock Digital, had previously outlined its contrarian strategy on X, expressing skepticism towards the valuation of crypto equities in the lead-up to ETF approvals.

The contrarian idea [] was to short crypto equities vs long spot crypto. In our view, as we approach the ETF, crypto equities have been being used as proxies for spot exposure [] once the ETF becomes available we expect this flow to reverse as many of these holders rotate exposure into the ETF. Given the dislocated nature of many of these names (MSTR, MARA and COIN are our three favorite shorts), we believe there are several attractive shorts to pair against long spot exposure, North Rock Digital stated in January.

At press time, BTC traded at $67,588.

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Bitcoin Crash Triggered By Failed $1 Billion Hedge Fund Spread Trade: Expert - TradingView

Vanguard’s perspective on bitcoin ETFs – Vanguard

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Tim Buckley: It's in the news spot: bitcoin ETFs. A question came in, "Hey, we know you're not offering one. Have you changed your mind? What would it take for you to change your mind?" We don't plan to, and we're not going to change our minds around this unless the asset class changes.

For why, first of all, we don't believe it belongs, like a bitcoin ETF belongs in a long-term portfolio of someone saving for their retirement. It's a speculative asset.

Greg Davis: That's exactly it.

Tim Buckley: And the funds that we offer invest in asset classes that actually have underlying cash flow. So like we mentioned stocks, you're buying the forward earnings of a company.

Greg Davis: Of a company, that's right.

Tim Buckley: And that bond, I mean

Greg Davis: Has coupon and principal payment.

Tim Buckley: Hey, you're going to pay me back and you're going to pay me something for lending you the money. So they both could be valued. And for us, I don't understand why they would rise up in a portfolio and the role that we're playing we can model them. Something like bitcoin is just too volatile and it's not a store of value. It hasn't been and it's very volatile. When stocks got hammered in the recent crisis, bitcoin went right with them. And so it is speculative. Really tough to think about how it belongs in a long-term portfolio.

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Vanguard's perspective on bitcoin ETFs - Vanguard