bitcoin investment

Bitcoin Becoming More Mainstream While Bond Trading Is Dying, Says Australian Investment Firm

One of Australia’s largest investment management firms by assets under management has recently converted to Bitcoin. On behalf of Pendal Group, Head of Bond, Income, & Defensive Strategies Vimar Gor said that he saw great promise in Bitcoin bonds.

In an interview with Financial Review media outlet, he said that Bitcoin is becoming more mainstream while government bonds are a dying asset class. Gor announced that Pendal Group Limited, Australia’s leading investment management company, is taking a stake in Bitcoin through futures contracts. The investment firm is set to join long-established futures markets like CME Group Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) in trading Bitcoin futures.

Gor said: “COVID just accelerated the large structural trends that were already in place. The first and main one was falling official interest rates and bond yields. With large scale central bank QE programs in place, bond yields are going to stay low for a very long time.”

He further explained:

“We think ultimately that government bonds will turn into a dead asset class, so we now have to imagine what it will be like for other assets classes when bonds are no longer relevant to hold in a portfolio.”

Gor regarded Bitcoin cryptocurrency as a social construct and a public commodity. He said that Bitcoin (BTC) was superior to gold and that traditional bankers were starting to recognize the role of the leading cryptocurrency in financial evolution. He mentioned that Bitcoin’s finite supply and its scarcity due to its constant decrease in supply and high demand made it the best medium as a store of value. According to him, Bitcoin is a decentralized commodity and this implies that there is no central authority governing the cryptocurrency’s functionality. Gor said:

“Bitcoin is a cockroach that exists. They can’t ban it out of existence.”

Bitcoin becoming a real player

Major financial institutions including big stock exchanges, banks, hedge funds, and fund management firms are increasingly making digital asset investments that imply that cryptocurrencies are here to stay. Investing in Bitcoin has become part of the mainstream trend, with institutions offering to sell and buy the crypto asset and BTC futures contracts.

In recent months, several financial pundits have come forward to claim that Bitcoin is not a speculative asset anymore. Instead, they see it replacing gold as a true store of value in the future. For example, BlackRock Inc., an American global investment management firm, said that Bitcoin was here to stay and that the cryptocurrency possesses the technical superiority to replace gold. Besides that, Grayscale Digital Asset Management disclosed that its clients consider Bitcoin as a store of value and a hedge against inflation. Other big companies like MicroStrategy, Square payments, and PayPal have recently invested in Bitcoin, thus making people more confident in the cryptocurrency and creating positive market sentiment.

Macro Investor Mike Novogratz Says MassMutual's Bitcoin Investment Could Be The Most Important One of 2020

Billionaire investor Mike Novogratz has described MassMutual insurance company’s Bitcoin purchase as the most important news in the cryptocurrency industry this year.

Novogratz said that in a year marked by an increased number of institutions adopting Bitcoin (BTC), the insurance investment could the largest Bitcoin news of 2020. He tweeted his views, saying:

“This might be the most important $BTC news of 2020. An insurance company buys Bitcoin for its general account. This needs Fed approval. It’s a HUGE deal.”

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, also known as MassMutual, had announced that it bought $100 million in Bitcoin for its general investment fund. The insurance firm also acquired a $5 million minority equity stake of the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) company, which offers crypto services to institutions. NYDIG already keeps over $2.3 billion in cryptocurrencies for clients and will now be offering custody services for MassMutual’s Bitcoins.

MassMutual Insurance has been operational since 1851 and has now become the latest mainstream company to invest in the leading cryptocurrency.

MassMutual decided to purchase Bitcoin, which represents 0.04% of its $235 billion general investment account, in the spirit of benefitting from new opportunities while remaining diversified.

Tim Corbett, the Chief Investment Officer at MassMutual, said that the investment is a vital part of the company’s portfolio. He mentioned the addition of the leading cryptocurrency would assist in delivering the company’s long-term value to its policy owners. Corbett further said that the firm intends to look for other innovative and diverse ways to bring value to its customers.

Robert Gutmann, the CEO and co-founder of NYDIG, stated that the insurance company’s purchase of Bitcoin is a crucial moment in the history of the largest cryptocurrency and the insurance industry.

Public Companies Buying Bitcoin as A Reserve Asset

Bitcoin has increased its price by more than double this year and hit an all-time high early this month. Advocates see the crypto asset as a kind of digital gold, functioning as a true alternative to hedge against inflation.

Institutional investors are increasingly embracing Bitcoin to hedge against inflation and currency devaluation, which is a significant factor driving up Bitcoin’s demand and Bitcoin adoption worldwide.

Recently, MicroStrategy business intelligence software company expanded its investment in Bitcoin and recently mentioned its plans to raise $400 million to make more purchases. Square Inc. also followed suit poured $50 million of funds into buying Bitcoins.

MicroStrategy Sells Off Convertible Debt Worth $1.05 Billion To Purchase More Bitcoin

MicroStrategy Inc. has completed its offering of $1.05 billion in convertible senior notes, a raise that would allow the business intelligence software company to purchase another $1 billion in Bitcoins. This week, the firm announced the debt sell-off of $600 million worth of convertible senior notes to qualified institutional buyers.

On Friday, February 19, MicroStrategy revealed that the publicly traded company has sold the convertible senior notes worth $1.05 billion in a private offering to qualified institutional buyers on “Rule 144A under the Securities Act.”

The firm said: “MicroStrategy estimates that the net proceeds from the sale of the notes will be approximately $1.03 billion, after deducting the initial purchasers’ discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by MicroStrategy.” The company further mentioned:

“MicroStrategy intends to use the net proceeds from the sale of the notes to acquire additional Bitcoin.”

As highlighted before, MicroStrategy emphasized that the notes would be convertible to cash or shares in the company’s stock. The notes can also be convertible to a combination of cash or shares of MicroStrategy’s “class A common stock, at MicroStrategy’s election.”

Sales like these can be an effective approach for a firm to raise money if it can handle the interest payment to investors.

The raise is part of MicroStrategy’s dual business strategy of boosting its software sales and also purchasing as much Bitcoin as it can.

Bitcoin for Corporations

This is not the first time when MicroStrategy has made this move. In December last year, the company sold $400 million in convertible senior notes and then purchased $10 million worth of Bitcoin. Earlier this month, MicroStrategy chief executive and Bitcoin evangelist, Michael Saylor, mentioned that 2021 is the year of institutional investment in crypto assets. With fiat currencies deprecating, Saylor stated that the simple most value-creating thing that companies could do is to convert cash from analog money into a digital asset such as Bitcoin.

Saylor said that there were 1000 firms that went through such transformation in 2020 alone. The Bitcoin evangelist has been pushing companies to move into Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation and a prospect of earning higher returns than other investments. Currently, MicroStrategy holds more than 71,000 Bitcoins, an amount worth an estimate of $3.8 billion. This makes the firm, the largest purchaser of the digital asset.

MicroStrategy CEO Says the Software Firm Is Considering Equity or Debt Financing to Purchase More Bitcoins

Michael Saylor, the chief executive of MicroStrategy Inc., has announced that the business intelligence software company is considering issuing more debt to help finance the firm’s purchase of more Bitcoins as part of its corporate strategy.

During an interview at the Bloomberg crypto summit on Thursday, February 25, Saylor said: “We’ve been pretty clear that we’ll consider equity and debt financings. It makes sense to buy as much of that asset class as we can.”

So far, MicroStrategy has issued two rounds of convertible senior notes to buy more of the digital assets. On February 19, the company completed its offering of $1.05 billion in convertible bonds, a raise that allowed the software firm to buy another $1 billion in Bitcoins. In December last year, the firm sold $400 million in convertible bonds and then bought $10 million worth of Bitcoin.

As of February 24, MicroStrategy owns 90,531 Bitcoins, after investing about $2.2 billion worth of Bitcoin in total since it began buying the cryptocurrency in August last year. Now, these holdings are worth around $4.5 billion.

During the interview, Saylor stated that the crypto’s finite number is one of the factors that made the leading cryptocurrency valuable. He described Bitcoin as “the scarcest asset in the world.” He added: “If you want to preserve shareholder value, you have to hold scarce assets. Bitcoin is the most liquid, scarce, uncorrelated asset you can buy.”

There are only 21 million Bitcoins that can be mined in total and currently, 18 million have been mined so far. This leaves about 3 million Bitcoins that are yet to be introduced into circulation. The last Bitcoin will be mined on May 7th 2140.

Saylor further said that companies should keep up with the cost of capital and work with institutional-grade custodians to hold their Bitcoins safely.

Bitcoin as The Next Big Treasure

Saylor has been one of the greatest supporters of converting the company’s cash reserves into Bitcoin, saying that the Federal Reserve relaxing its inflation policy helped to convince him to invest his company reserves into the crypto asset.

Saylor views the cryptocurrency as a hedge against a potential devaluation of the US dollar. So far, a number of firms have followed his Bitcoin’s strategy. Early this month, Tesla announced that it invested $1.5 billion of its $19 billion cash reserve into Bitcoin.

Israeli Pension Firm Generates Huge Profit from $100 Million Investment in Bitcoin

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Altshuler Shaham, the largest pension firm in Israel, has doubled its money after investing $100 million into the shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).

According to Israel’s Globes publication, Altshuler Shaham investment house bought GBTC shares at the end of 2020 when Bitcoin was trading around $21,000.

Gilad Altshuler, the co-founder and co-CEO of Altshuler Shaham, said: “The $100 million investment has become $200 million, and of the $200 million we have already sold about a third.” He further stated: “This is a new investment for us. It took a few months until we got all the relevant approvals and all the opinions that approved our investment in the field.”

When Bitcoin hit new highs in early February, the asset manager sold profits of around a third of the initial investment. At the present time, the investment house holds an estimate of $150 million worth of Bitcoin, with Altshuler saying that it may add more investments, but that depends on the price. He stated that they are a little bit intimidated by the speed at which Bitcoin climbs to the current prices, with its global market cap crossing the $1 trillion mark.

Altshuler Shaham is one of the leading investment houses in Israel, managing about $51.5 billion in long-term savings for pension and retirement funds as of the end of January. Currently, the investment house is the only institution in Israel that has invested such huge amounts of funds into Bitcoin.

This is not the first time when Altshuler Shaham bets on cryptocurrency. The asset manager is known to have participated in some Israel initial coin offering in 2017.

The Smartest Investors Buying Bitcoin

The news concerning Altshuler Shaham’s involvement in Bitcoins comes at a time when an increasing number of institutions are embracing the leading cryptocurrency. Bitcoin and its offerings are growing in popularity across the world. The digital asset has become a main attraction for major public companies, with some viewing it as a hedge against inflation and as a new capital allocation strategy designed to maximize long-term value for shareholders.

Early this week, Meitu, a Chinese firm that makes a photo editing app, bought Bitcoin and Ether, becoming one of the latest company to invest in crypto assets. The Hong Kong Exchange-listed firm purchased $17.9 million worth of Bitcoin and $22.1 million worth of Ether on March 5.

The Chinese app maker follows the likes of MicroStrategy Inc, Square Inc, and Tesla electric car company in buying Bitcoin. However, Meitu appears to be the first major firm to purchase Ether, a crypto that is supported by the Ethereum blockchain. Meitu said that its bet on Ether will aid its general blockchain endeavours while the Bitcoin investment is part of its asset allocation strategy.

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Governments Are Considering Welcoming Bitcoin Investments, NYDIG CEO Reveals

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Robert Gutmann, the CEO of cryptocurrency investment firm NYDIG (New York Digital Investment Group), has revealed that governments are contemplating investing in Bitcoin.

In an interview with Raoul Pal, the founder and CEO of Real Vision, Gutmann disclosed that state-owned investment funds are making inquiries regarding the possibility of purchasing the leading cryptocurrency.

Gutmann said that unnamed sovereign wealth funds (state-owned investment funds) have been approaching NYDIG crypto investment firm with inquiries about making Bitcoin purchases.

Gutmann said what he believes makes investing in Bitcoin appealing to investors: “If you look at the world today on a forward basis, it is reasonable to be asking yourself as an investment committee or as an allocation committee [if] having all of [their] assets denominated in dollars against dollar-denominated liabilities is the right allocation mix.”

In the same conversation during the interview, the former hedge fund manager and founder of Real vision media company, Raoul Pal, revealed that Singapore Exchange (SGX) and state-owned investment firm Temasek Holdings has been purchasing Bitcoin. Pal revealed that Temasek Holdings has been purchasing virgin Bitcoin from miners – virgin Bitcoin tokens that have never been used for any transaction.

Temasek Holdings is a private company, wholly owned by the Singapore government, which was formed as an investment holding concerns to own and manage the State’s equity investments in local firms. Temasek has a portfolio of about $226.6 billion and manages a wide range of investments and financial services including technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, agribusiness, energy, real estate, consumer, industrials, transportation, and resources.

Last month, GIC Singapore state-owned sovereign wealth fund investment firm led $80 million funding in US cryptocurrency platform Anchorage so that the crypto firm could expand its crypto bank services to meet the increasing demands especially among corporations and traditional financial institutions. Anchorage officials revealed that several state-owned sovereign wealth funds including GIC are finally warming up to cryptocurrency and are looking at it as an opportunity.

Anchorage officials said that the crypto custody firm is holding talks with many state governments regarding adding Bitcoin to their treasuries.

Additionally, Norway’s oil fund, a sovereign wealth fund owned by the government of Norway, could be the next state-owned investment fund to make a Bitcoin purchase. Norway’s oil fund currently holds Bitcoin indirectly through its 2% stake in MicroStrategy intelligence firm.

Why Publicly Traded Companies Consider Bitcoin

State-owned funds are showing interests in Bitcoin as Wall Street institutions have decided to embrace the crypto world. A new trend of publicly-listed firms has been seen holding Bitcoin on their balance sheet. MicroStrategy adopted Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve, purchasing 38,250 Bitcoins for $425 million between August and September last year. Similarly, Square payment firm bought $50 million worth of Bitcoin in October 2020. Furthermore, institutional investors and companies like Tudor investment corporation, Mode Global Holding PLC, Stone Ridge asset management firm, Tesla electric vehicle manufacturer, and others also announced holding Bitcoin on their balance sheet.

Traditionally, public companies have managed cash conservatively, by allocating the majority of capital to low-risk assets (like treasury bulls, money market funds, bank deposits, repurchase agreements, and commercial paper). But with the evolving economic climate, risks caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and historic fiscal and monetary policy expansion are forcing public companies to a balance sheet allocation to Bitcoin.

Bitcoin investment has better returns than the above mentioned low-risk assets and has the potential to address challenges caused by the current difficult economic environment. This explains the reason why a rising number of publicly-listed firms are holding Bitcoin on their balance sheet, and even governments are considering following suit.

New Zealand Wealth Management Firm Invests 5% of Its Retirement Funds into Bitcoin

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New Zealand fund management firm – NZ Funds wealth management firm – has invested 5% of its Growth KiwiSaver Scheme fund in Bitcoin.

Growth funds is a scheme suitable for investors looking for fairly high growth over the long term. The fund mainly invests in growth assets like equities, listed infrastructure, and listed property.

The Growth KiwiSaver Scheme fund, which had $244 million in assets at the end of December 2020, started investing in Bitcoin in October last year.

Many fund managers from other investment schemes of the firm were not happy with the company’s decision, saying that Bitcoin did not have several use cases and at this moment was too volatile.

However, James Grigor, the Chief Executive Officer at NZ funds wealth management firm said: “If you are happy to invest in gold, you can’t really discount Bitcoin.” He compared Bitcoin with gold and described Bitcoin as a commodity and a good store of value against fiat inflation.

KiwiSaver is a retirement plan from New Zealand Wealth Funds Management. The fund majorly deals with traditional assets, shares and bonds, with $244 million under management. Grigor expects Bitcoin to feature more within the fund and expand to other investment schemes within the next five years.

The fund had to change its documents in October, 2020 – during that time it was investing in Bitcoin when the leading crypto asset was trading at around $10,000. Since last month, the cryptocurrency has surged to above $50,000, which means that KiwiSaver scheme fund has made 5x on its investments.

Companies Moving to Protect Wealth

The latest announcement by KiwiSaver scheme fund comes at a time when several institutions across the globe have revealed their Bitcoin exposure to bolster their treasuries. MicroStrategy business intelligence software firm bought over $1 billion in Bitcoin in 2020. Last month, Tesla electric car manufacturer purchased $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and have started accepting it as a payment. Other publicly listed firms such as Square, Meitu, Mode Global Holdings, Ruffer investment company, and others have bought Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset designed to protect investors’ assets against fiat inflation and to maximize long-term value for shareholders.

General Motors May Follow Tesla in Accepting Bitcoin Payments but Will Not Invest in Bitcoin – GM CEO

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General Motors Company may be open to accepting Bitcoin as an official method of payment in the future.

During the firm’s fourth-quarter earnings call conference, General Motors CEO, Mary Barra, disclosed that the automobile company may accept the crypto as a form of payment. Barra revealed this probability when she answered an inquiry initiated by an analyst at Morgan Stanley, Adam Jonas. He asked whether GM might follow other firms, notably Tesla in adding Bitcoin to their balance sheet or accepting it as a payment method for automobile purchases.

Jonas asked: “…a $45,000 BTC is optimal for a big-ticket purchase like a car. So how does GM think about this opportunity?”

Barra responded that General Motors has no plans to invest in Bitcoin, but said that the manufacturer would monitor customer demand for crypto as a method of payment for vehicles and services. Barra told reporters during the earnings call conference: “We don’t have any plans to invest in bitcoin, so full-stop there. This is something we’ll monitor and we’ll evaluate. If there’s strong customer demand for it in the future, there’s nothing that precludes us from doing that.”

During this discussion, it was revealed GM has been seeking out customer feedback on the use of crypto as a form of full or part payment.

The Detroit-based motor vehicle producer was one of the first manufacturers to begin investing heavily in the blockchain space. The company started patenting blockchain uses for personal security data and driverless vehicles. GM partnered with blockchain specialists “Spring Labs” in 2019.

Crypto Making Way into Traditional Finance

Based on its announcement, GM is being tapped as the likely car manufacturer to follow Tesla’s footsteps and accept cryptocurrency as payment. Last month, Tesla moved $1.5 billion worth of its capital into Bitcoin, amid CEO Elon Musk repeatedly showing admiration of the leading crypto asset alongside altcoin Doge. Last week, Musk tweeted: “You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin”.

Although Musk did not provide several details of the methodology of the crypto payments, he stated that Bitcoin paid to the car producer won’t be converted to traditional fiat currency and the firm would use internal and open-source software to process the payments.

Cathie Wood, the CEO of ARK Investment Management LLC, which is a prominent investor in Tesla car producer, recently said that we should expect tech companies to add Bitcoin to their balance sheets in the near future. She revealed that big firms have been asking her whether it was a good idea to allocate huge sums of cash to Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

Firms outside the US are now following MicroStrategy and Tesla in purchasing cryptocurrencies. For example, Hong Kong-listed Meitu bought $22 million of Bitcoin and $18 million of Ether to diversify its cash reserve into cryptocurrencies. Aker Norwegian oil service company also recently invested $58 million in Bitcoin and related blockchain services.

JPMorgan CEO Warned Investors Against Bitcoin Investment, Calls for Clear Regulations to Crypto Trading

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase Bank, once again reiterated his stance on Bitcoin cryptocurrency, still believing that people should not invest in crypto. The US billionaire investor’s view on Bitcoin did not change much over the previous few years.

While speaking at a virtual hearing organized by the US House Committee on financial services on Thursday, May 27, Dimon stated that Bitcoin is not supported by an asset and therefore said: “Something that’s not supported by anything I do not believe has much value.”

The chief executive officer warned people against purchasing cryptocurrencies. He stated that stablecoins and blockchain are not in this group, and his opinion does not dictate whether his company embraces cryptocurrency.

“My own personal advice to people is to stay away from it,” Dimon stated as a response to a question raised by Ohio Representative Warren Davidson, a crypto-friendly congressman.

Although Dimon’s personal views on Bitcoin have not changed much, it appears that there is a significant change in his tone about cryptocurrency. He stated that his opinion does not imply that JPMorgan clients don’t want exposure to Bitcoin.

This is based on how one has to run a business; Dimon stated that while citing an example of Marijuana.

“My own personal advice to people is to stay away from it. But that does not mean the clients don’t want it – this goes back to how you have to run a business. I don’t smoke marijuana, but if you make it nationally legal, I’m not gonna stop our people from banking it,” Dimon said.

The administrator admitted that JPMorgan was examining ways to allow its clients to purchase and sell cryptocurrency safely and have Bitcoin appear on their bank statements.

However, the bank executive emphasized that cryptocurrencies have many risks and are inferior to traditional assets.

“It’s nothing like a fiat currency; it’s nothing like gold,” Dimon stated. “Buyer beware.”

Dimon also lamented the lack of regulations in the cryptocurrency space, which he termed a “serious emerging issue.” The executive thinks that regulatory authorities should step in and regulate the crypto industry.

Banks Eyeing Bitcoin

The latest development about Dimon’s scepticism about cryptocurrency comes when JPMorgan is planning to provide a Bitcoin fund for its premium clients.

Last month, JPMorgan Chase announced that the institution is preparing to provide an actively managed Bitcoin fund to wealthy clients.

The JPMorgan Bitcoin funds could be launched as soon as possible as this summer. The bank plans to offer an actively managed Bitcoin fund, which is a significant break from the passive fare offered by crypto industry supporters like Galaxy Digital and Pantera Capital, which allow wealthy clients to purchase and hold Bitcoin through funds without ever touching it themselves.

NYDIG and Digital Galaxy are currently providing Bitcoin funds to Morgan Stanley clients.

Although Dimon is still not a Bitcoin supporter and has no interest in it, he admits that JPMorgan clients might force the bank to offer services associated with the cryptocurrency.

Horizon Kinetics Bets on Bitcoin as Inflation Bites

US-based asset manager Horizon Kinetics is the latest investment firm to bet on the Bitcoin bandwagon.

Speaking in an interview with the Financial Times, Peter Doyle, the co-founder of the US-based investment firm Horizon Kinetics, revealed that they are playing their bets on two hedges against inflation: property and cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin.

Horizon Kinetics’ preferred hedge against inflation still appears to be property, with a majority of their capital invested into the property (Texas Pacific Land Trust corporation (NYSE: TPL), real estate (the Howard Hughes Corporation (NYSE: HHC), and also betting on cryptocurrency (Bitcoin BTC-USD), among others as a hedge to protect its investors from dangers of rising inflation and currency debasement.

Horizon Kinetics is a $7 billion company headed by three veteran managers: Peter Doyle, Steven Bregman, and Murray Stahl.

“There is no turning back after the pandemic, and globally there is a debt problem, and it means either default or currency debasement,” Doyle said.

Talking to cryptocurrencies, Doyle stated: “people should have exposure to the asset class.” He further added that Bitcoin has scarcity due to its limited supply, which is completely opposite of what is happening with fiat money, which is sharply losing value as more and more fiat notes come into existence.

Horizon Kinetics initially allocated 1% of its portfolio to Bitcoin through the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust in 2016. Since then, the allocation has increased to 10% of their Paradigm fund and this year. This fund has recorded almost 48% gains.

Horizon Kinetics has three of the top 10 best-performing mutual funds for 2021, according to Morningstar.

Crypto on Balance Sheet

Horizon Kinetics is the latest in a recent string of traditional investment and tech companies to hedge their bet with Bitcoin.

An increasing number of listed US firms continue to allocate a proportion of their balance sheet to the flagship cryptocurrency. The high volatility level of Bitcoin ignites interest in companies whose stocks may have been languishing or potentially putting the entire balance sheets at risk.

The efforts by business software maker MicroStrategy (whose shares had been languishing for years) investing in Bitcoin made a handful of other CEOs noticing the relevance of cryptocurrencies.

Last year, Square payment firm headed by crypto advocate Jack Dorsey converted as much as US$50 million of its total assets into Bitcoin. In February 2021, Tesla invested $1.5 billion of its balance sheet into Bitcoin. In April, Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, sold 10% of its Bitcoin holdings in Q1 2021 to prove the liquidity of Bitcoin as an alternative to holding cash on the balance sheet.

Of course, interest in cryptocurrencies among institutional investors remains strong and more corporate treasuries allocated reserves to crypto assets have increased despite volatility.

Image source: Horizon Kinetics Facebook page