Category: Crypto Videos

This section holds the video library. It consists of educational videos highlighting basic and, also, advanced cryptocurrency topics. Among others, we cover Bitcoin, Ethereum and smart contracts, blockchain, anonymity, wallets, how to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, wallets and address, security and vulnerabilities, exchanges, and DLT technologies.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Craig Wright (Claims To Be Satoshi Nakamoto) Threatens Legal Action Take my Bitcoin Whitepaper Down!

https://youtu.be/DEANKXHuobQ

https://youtu.be/DEANKXHuobQ


Craig Wright Threatens Legal Action: “Take my Bitcoin Whitepaper Down!”

Craig Wright, the self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, has threatened legal action against the owners of two Bitcoin websites he accused of stealing his whitepaper and his other intellectual property.

As announced on Jan 21, Bitcoin.org and Bitcoincore.org had received allegations of copyright infringement coming from none other than Craig Wright and his lawyers. The counsel reportedly claimed that Wright, as the inventor of Bitcoin, was the legal copyright holder of the official Bitcoin whitepaper, owned the Bitcoin name and trademark, and the two aforementioned websites.

While the owner of Bitcoin.org, a developer known only as Cobra, has stated that he refuses to be intimidated by the threat of “false allegations,” the owner of Bitcoincore.org has already adhered to the request.

Cobra then stated: “Unfortunately, without consulting with us, Bitcoin Core developers removed the Bitcoin whitepaper from bitcoincore.org, in response to the allegations of copyright infringement, lending credence to these completely false claims.”

He then added: “The Bitcoin Core website was modified to remove all references to the whitepaper, the local copy of the whitepaper PDF was deleted, and with under 2 hours of public review, the change was merged.”

Things got heated when the owner of Bitcoincore.org, as well as the current maintainer of Bitcoin’s code, Wladimir J. van der Laan, responded quickly, telling his Twitter followers that this issue was not something he cares deeply about. 

He stated: “So let this be clear: I’m happy to maintain Bitcoin core’s code, but I will not personally be a martyr for BTC. It’s completely up to you as Bitcoiners to protect it.”


Van der Laan added: “This thing is all about decentralization and distributed systems, rather than personal macho posturing. I have no interest in it and am definitely not paid enough to take a stance.”

As the two Bitcoin core websites decided to take vastly different approaches, we will see which one was better and why. In the meantime, the Bitcoin whitepaper will continue to be hosted on Bitcoin.org, which hopes that other websites would follow them in resisting Craig Wright’s attempts at intimidation.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Largest Russian Bank Sberbank Launching its Stablecoin in Spring 2021!

https://youtu.be/tOEN2T0igVs

https://youtu.be/tOEN2T0igVs


Largest Russian Bank Sberbank Launching its Stablecoin in Spring 2021

Sberbank, the largest Russian state-owned bank, has reportedly filed an application with the Bank of Russia regarding the launch of a blockchain platform for its “Sbercoin” stablecoin.

The director of the transaction business at Sberbank, Sergey Popov, announced the news on Jan 21 at a local financial event.

At the “Digital transformation and prospects for regulating the digital economy” event, Popov stated that Sberbank applied with the Russian central bank in early January, explaining that this kind of registration procedure usually takes no longer than 45 days. If everything goes by plan, the bank may launch its platform by spring 2021, the official said. However, Sberbank is still working on specifics about how to tax Sbercoin:

“There is a high probability of this project being launched in the spring. However, there is still one more issue that has not been fully resolved, and it is connected to the taxation of digital assets. We hope that this question will soon be resolved.”

Popov also added that Sberbank had completed internal testing to see if the solution they propose works, which it apparently did.

Sberbank broke the news on developing its own Sbercoin token at the end of November 2020, following long-running speculation about these plans. Its latest announcement comes shortly after Russia’s official adoption of the crypto law “On Digital Financial Assets” on Jan 1, 2021.


In late 2020, a member of the Russian State Duma, Anatoly Aksakov, said that the Duma’s Committee on Financial Markets expects that Russian crypto issuance will surge after adopting the country’s new crypto law.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Grayscale About To Unveil Chainlink?

https://youtu.be/9BtRDKZxy3Q

https://youtu.be/9BtRDKZxy3Q


Is Grayscale about to unveil a Chainlink (LINK) trust?

Rumors about Grayscale Investments being set to launch a raft of new products, including a Chainlink (LINK) trust, surfaced in the last week.

A statement from the State of Delaware’s Division of Corporations says that someone set up Grayscale Chainlink Trust on Dec 18, 2020. Basic Attention Token (BAT) trust, Livepeer (LPT) trust, Decentraland (MANA) trust, and a Tezos (XTZ) trust were also set up at the same time.


Grayscale Investments didn’t respond to the rumors and has yet to officially confirm it is behind the filings at all. Some reports tried to cast doubt on the legitimacy of this whole ordeal, as the registered agent for the trusts is not listed as Grayscale Investments, but rather as “Delaware Trust Company.” 

However, the Delaware Trust Company is currently listed on Grayscale’s website as one of its official service providers. On top of that, the same details were used when the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust was initially created in 2013.

With that being said, new trusts are far from certain to launch. A Filecoin (FIL) trust was established two months before the aforementioned trusts and still has not been made public.

Adding to all the uncertainty, a few weeks after the inception of numerous trusts, Grayscale founder and CEO Barry Silbert decided to step down from its position. He was then replaced by Michael Sonnenshein. It is unclear if Sonnenshein will continue with Silbert’s strategy or take the firm in a completely new direction.

Grayscale last made an official filing for a Stellar Lumen (XLM) trust in October 2018 — over two years ago. The Stellar trust was made public around six weeks after its inception.

The Chainlink army has been very vocal about the potential filing, showing its support and speculating on the effect this might have on the LINK’s price.

Chainlink recently flipped Bitcoin Cash and became the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, boasting a value of over $9 billion. 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Crypto News – The Davos Agenda!

https://youtu.be/bns9A2FMQg0

https://youtu.be/bns9A2FMQg0


Cryptocurrency on the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda

The World Economic Forum’s five-day Davos Agenda will include two separate sessions covering cryptocurrency, offering yet another compelling sign that digital assets have put themselves at the forefront of the mainstream consciousness. 

The cryptocurrency sessions, titled Resetting Digital Currencies, will be held on Monday and Thursday. The first one will feature five public speakers, including Hikmet Ersek, president and CEO of Western Union, and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey.

Thursday’s session features four speakers, including Zhu Min, chairman of the Beijing-based National Institute of Financial Research, and Tharman Shanmugaratnam, a senior minister for the government of Singapore.

“COVID-19 has sped up the shift from cash to digital,” reads the prospectus for both sessions. “Meanwhile, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are emerging, and will potentially transform how people use money worldwide.”

The prospectus continues:

“What policies, practices, and partnerships are currently needed to leverage the opportunities brought by the rise of digital currencies?”

Davos Agenda is a five-day summit that features some of the world’s leading figures in finance, as well as influential people from various governments. The cryptocurrency sessions fall under the summit’s “Fairer Economies” theme. Apart from this one, other themes include “Tech for Good,” “Healthy Futures,” and “How to Save the Planet.” 

The World Economic Forum is devoting more and more resources to understanding blockchain technology as well as cryptocurrency. The Geneva-based organization even created a cryptocurrency working group. This group published its inaugural review that focused on the various use cases for digital assets “beyond price and speculation” last month.

The Forum’s research stated that blockchain technology is a key driver of “sustainable digital finance.” Blockchain technology and its smart contract capability can unlock “hidden values of legacy digital systems.”


The Forum also devoted its resources to researching central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. In Jan 2020, the Forum made an announcement that it had developed a framework to help banks with “evaluating, designing and potentially deploying CBDC.” The framework was developed in conjunction with over 40 academic researchers, central banks, and financial institutions.

 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Crypto Ban Petition Attempt! Is He Just Serving His Own Interests?

https://youtu.be/Z1QA3yITU3Y

https://youtu.be/Z1QA3yITU3Y


British Financial Advisor Creates a Crypto Ban Petition

 

Neil Liversidge, a veteran financial advisor and the owner of the independent financial advisory firm West Liversidge, has called on the government of the United Kingdom to fully ban transactions in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Liversidge’s strong opinion on the topic goes as far as him starting a petition urging the local financial authorities to stop cryptocurrency transactions in the UK. The petition has the goal to:

“Legislate to prohibit the payment by or any form of acceptance of cryptocurrencies by UK resident businesses or individuals, and to require UK regulators (the FCA and PRA) to prohibit any transactions by UK financial institutions in cryptocurrencies.”

Liversidge cited an anti-crypto narrative common amongst crypto disbelievers, arguing that cryptos such as Bitcoin have no intrinsic value and that they “can be a destabilizing influence on society, and mostly used for criminal activity.” The financial advisor also thinks that cryptocurrency proof-of-work mining is “harmful to the environment.”

The aforementioned petition’s deadline is July 7, 2021, according to the UK Government and Parliament website. At the moment, the petition has collected 108 signatures.

In an interview with finance-focused publication Professional Adviser on Jan 13, Liversidge noted that a blanket ban on cryptocurrency transactions in the UK would help the enforcement reduce the power of criminals using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin for illicit activity. “Law enforcement will never catch all of the people that use crypto for illicit activities; it won’t even catch most of them. However, destroying their financial base reduces their power.”

Liversidge acknowledged that a crypto ban would immediately trigger a market crash: “If the UK government takes the lead and bans transactions on cryptos as my petition requests, that will surely set off a chain reaction, crashing cryptocurrencies overnight,” he said.

The IFA’s verdict is that all cryptocurrency investors should immediately sell their holdings: “If you’re holding cryptos now, my advice to you would be to find a bigger fool than you and dump it all quickly.” Liversidge also stated that he has “never owned any and never would own any” cryptocurrency, even if he knew it would net him hundreds of percent of returns.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Bitcoin is a Possible Reserve Currency – Former Canadian Prime Minister Says!

https://youtu.be/W8tMiwtcORo

https://youtu.be/W8tMiwtcORo


Bitcoin is a Possible Reserve Currency – Former Canadian Prime Minister 

Stephen Harper, a former prime minister of Canada, says there may be a place for Bitcoin as well as central bank digital currencies as part of a basket of reserve currencies that may replace the dollar.

In an interview with the investment service, Cambridge House’s Jay Martin Harper stated the possibility of the US dollar being completely replaced could only come from a large currency such as the Euro or Chinese Yuan. He expressed his doubts when it comes to either of them being a viable alternative currency given the uncertainty over the value of the Euro in the long term and the “arbitrary measures” that the Chinese government would take when it comes to guiding the value of the Yuan:

“It’s very hard to see what the alternative is to the US dollar as the world’s major reserve currency. Other than possible candidates such as gold, Bitcoin, a whole basket of things… I think you’ll see the sheer number of things that people use as reserves will certainly expand, but the US dollar will still be the bulk of it.”

The former prime minister then added that he thought central bank digital currencies were to some degree “inevitable,” but that they would likely be subject to monetary policy around the world. Harper stated his concern about central banks becoming “some kind of a general banker” rather than just a financial monitor that they currently are:

“Ultimately, if you have a digital currency that will be used by the central bank to control inflation and create a stable currency as well as priceability, then this digital currency is just a straightforward evolution of the marketplace,” Harper stated. “But if it is part of a series of what I consider as wild experiments as to the role of central banking… Well, then it worries me a lot.”

Stephen Harper served as the prime minister of Canada for nine years, from 2006 until 2015. Cryptocurrency and blockchain adoption in Canada has started expanding significantly since his departure, with the country getting its first regulated crypto exchange in Sept. 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Canada’s First Public BTC Fund Grows 900% Passing 1 Billion Dollars!

https://youtu.be/rC-f4NfsCEE

https://youtu.be/rC-f4NfsCEE


Canada’s first public BTC fund grows 900% as it passes the $1 billion milestone

Canadian regulated digital asset manager 3iQ has passed another massive milestone of its public Bitcoin fund. 

On Jan 14, 3iQ’s Bitcoin Fund hit the $1 billion mark, as the company announced the news on Twitter. The new milestone shows QBTC’s parabolic growth after 3iQ originally launched the fund in April 2020. QBTC is up 900% from its previous milestone of $100 million recorded in Oct 2020.

As previously reported, 3iQ’s BTC fund is the first public Bitcoin fund in Canada that got listed on a major stock exchange, the Toronto Stock Exchange. Gemini, a firm owned by the Winklevoss brothers, provides custody services for 3iQ’s QBTC fund.

QBTC.U is currently trading at $48.63, up 330% from the $11 price it was trading for when it got listed in April.

3iQ is one of the largest cryptocurrency firms in Canada. In Jan 2018, 3iQ reportedly became the first cryptocurrency fund regulated by the Ontario Securities Commission as well as the Canadian Securities Administrators. Two years after that, in Feb 2020, 3iQ partnered with the blockchain startup Mavennet to launch a stablecoin that would be pegged to the Canadian dollar. This stablecoin would be regulated by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC).

3iQ’s former senior executive Shaun Cumby is currently the CEO of Arxnovum, a company that filed an application with OSC for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund on Jan 11, 2021. Winklevoss’ Gemini will also provide its custody for the Arxnovum’s Bitcoin ETF.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Grayscale GBTC Faces Competition!

https://youtu.be/qqqAARVRbkY

https://youtu.be/qqqAARVRbkY


GBTC Faces Competition in the OTC Bitcoin Trust Market

Osprey Funds has just entered the crypto sector and is trying to become Grayscale’s competitor. The firm is offering an over-the-counter Bitcoin trust under the ticker symbol OBTC. The trust Osprey offer is similar to Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust, also known as GBTC.

“The Osprey Bitcoin Trust provides an easy access to Bitcoin,” the firm’s website says. They charge a 0.49% management fee, which is the lowest cost solution currently on the market. As they stated, Osprey is an entity that “builds digital asset solutions for intelligent investors,” with the OBTC trust considered its “flagship offering.”

“OBTC began operating and being quoted in the OTC market on Friday, Jan 15,” Osprey Funds’ CEO, Greg King, said, adding:

“As of Jan 14, the product met all the requirements to become quoted under the OBTC ticker in the OTC market. In the next 30 days, the fund will attempt to become DTC eligible, and after Feb 14, all additional market makers will be allowed to quote it. 

Osprey’s launch in the BTC trust market is a direct poke at the largest Bitcoin trust, Grayscale. Grayscale has become one of the largest BTC holders in the world, currently possessing over 500,000 BTC.

GBTC stepped into the market with the idea to provide the public with easier access to Bitcoin through more traditional avenues, all while not even requiring them to custody their own funds. GBTC comes with a yearly 2% management fee, which is where Osprey wants to step in and beat the competition. Osprey’s recently unveiled BTC trust announced a management fee of only 0.49%. 

“We are always happy to see cryptocurrency access products enter the market, especially here in the US,” CEO of Grayscale Michael Sonnenshein told Bloomberg.

Accredited investors will require a $25,000 minimum to buy directly into the trust. Additionally, OBTC shares have a lock-up period of one year before they can be sold in the secondary market. As a comparison, Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust requires a six-month lock-up. However, based on King’s comments to Bloomberg, the public may expect Osprey’s lock-up period to be cut in half in the near future.

Categories
Crypto Videos

JPMorgan Chase Executives Talk About Stablecoins!

https://youtu.be/kgR62JHSuv8

https://youtu.be/kgR62JHSuv8


JPMorgan Chase Executives Talk About Stablecoins

During a JP Morgan Chase’s Q4 2020 earnings call, the firm’s CEO Jamie Dimon and CFO Jennifer Piepszak discussed the OCC’s recent approval of banks being able to use stablecoins for payments, as well as whether or not this approval will have any significant impact on the development of JPM Coin, the company’s private digital currency. 

During the Q&A portion of the call, Portales Partners analyst Charles Peabody asked the executives about the OCC approval for banks to use various public blockchain networks for payments.

“That guidance enables an offering of stablecoins going on a public blockchain. That doesn’t impact the JPM coin. You should think about JPM coin as the tokenization of our customer deposits,” stated JP Morgan CFO Jennifer Piepszak, according to the call transcript.

However, she did not completely rule out the possibility of a stablecoin backed by JPM if customers showed interest.

“It’s obviously very early. We will assess the use cases and customers’ demands. But, it is still too early to see where everything goes for us.”

JPM CEO Jamie Dimon was quick to jump in and mention that the bank is currently “using blockchain for sharing data with banks,” and adding that their bank is at the forefront of development.

Debuted in Oct 2020, JPM Coin is used on the backend of JPM’s payments systems, helping the firm settle nearly $6 trillion in payments on a daily basis. 

Ultimately, Dimon seemingly implied that crypto payments settlement wouldn’t greatly change how JP Morgan operates.

“I do expect that stuff is coming soon, and it may not change our world all that much.”

However, Dimon may be underestimating the impact that crypto will have on the payments landscape. Paypal is one of the Fintech giants that Dimon mentioned by name as a direct competitor, confirmed that crypto payments would be available in 2021. The CEO — a former skeptic of cryptocurrencies — made it very clear that payments will become an increasingly crowded field over the next decade:

“I expect it to be a very, very tough competition in the next ten years. However, I expect to win. So help me, God.”

Categories
Crypto Videos

Is Bitcoin sucking the life out of the Forex market?

https://youtu.be/5sdgap9VQ44

https://youtu.be/5sdgap9VQ44


Is Bitcoin sucking the life out of the Forex market?

Thank you for joining this forex academy educational video.

In this session, we will be asking if bitcoin is having a negative impact on the forex market by reducing the volume of transactions?

In this daily chart of bitcoin to the US dollar, it was only back in October that we reported that bitcoin had found a support line at 10000, and at the time of writing, we suggested there could be a surge up to and above 12,000 by the end of 2020. A retest of the previous high in 2017 around the 19,500 level, shown here at position B, would have then been on the cards.

Here we can see a somewhat muted pullback to position C, but the 2017 crash to the 3,000 level was not repeated, and the price went on to find support above the key 20K exchange rate.

The acceleration during position d up to 42000 was a purely speculative fuelled bull run,  where most of this move can be put down to companies such as PayPal, the CME  clambering balls, the bitcoin euphoria bandwagon, and countries such as Switzerland  opening its arms too to companies in the bitcoin space.  These factors only go to legitimise bitcoin’s space in the investment market arena and where it has called a modern-day gold Rush with day traders in a spare room buying on the CFDs market, hedge funds, and banks and other institutions clamouring aboard the bull run in fear of missing out.

A potential side effect of this incredible move higher and interest in the bitcoin space may well be the reason why the currency markets seem to be flattening out. Certainly, cable,  seen here with its recent top of 1.3700, since leaving the European Union with an eagerly anticipated free trade agreements in place,  has flatlined since the beginning of January.  And while some of this might be attributed to the increased rates of Covid spreading through the United Kingdom, one has to wonder if some traders in the forex space are throwing caution to the wind to buy bitcoins while side-lining currencies.

The flatlining of the cable exchange rate also coincides with the most volatile period of buying activity for bitcoin, and this period is also reflected in this one-hour chart of the US dollar to Japanese yen, which is also trading within a fairly narrow range of just 146 pips during a similar timeline.

Again, this is repeated with the euro US dollar pair over the same timeline price is relatively flat and consolidating within a fairly narrow 145 pip range.

The similarity between the timelines of activity and flattening with the forex pairs while exponential growth in bitcoin to the upside cannot be ignored.  However, is this trend, if based on our hypostasis correct, likely to continue?

It is completely natural for professional traders to bail out of one asset class a jump into another if they see potential to make money.  This is what training is all about recognising opportunities and jumping aboard.

Before we consider if this is likely to continue, let’s go back to our bitcoin US dollar daily chart, where we have highlighted the most recent candlestick.

This one single daily candlestick on the 7th of January shows a range between 42,000 at the top and 36,500 at the bottom, which is a huge 5,500 dollar move in a single date.

If institutional or retail traders get it wrong, the consequences can be grave, with enormous losses piling up. The problem at these levels is that traders will be wondering if this incredible bull run has reached the top of the market and is due for a crash, with memories going back to 2017 where bitcoin to the dollar crashed from 19,500 to just above 3000 in a short space of time.  Here we are seeing swings of over 5,000 points in a single day,  which is unnerving,  making it dangerous to trade. 

And this is why many investors in bitcoin will be dubious about buying at the current levels, which might see some inflows back into the forex currency space, with other investors In digital currencies looking for more opportunities with potential for long-term growth.

PLEASE LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEtlPyBDU3g

A few months ago, we reported on a new digital coin with its own ecosystem: the AXIA Coin, which might be a front runner for alternative investments in digital currencies.  We understand that the company is close to launching, so please watch out for updates, which we will bring you soon. Meanwhile, you can find more details about the AXIA coin at www.axiacoin.org.  

 Meanwhile, watch out for extra volume creeping into the forex space, causing currencies to break from their current consolidation trends, as we have demonstrated here.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Bitcoin Price Dump Shakes Investors!

https://youtu.be/EqE4lQmtsm4

https://youtu.be/EqE4lQmtsm4

Bitcoin price dump! was the writing on the wall?

Thank you for joining this Forex Academy educational video.

In this session, we will be looking at the recent bitcoin US dollar price dump and what might have been the possible contributing factors.

In this daily chart of bitcoin to the US dollar, we can see a steady bull run, as highlighted in section A, with a critical area of support on the $10 k line, which lends itself nicely for a price action move up to the resistance line, which was breached in section B, which coincides with the all-time high of around $19.5K from 2017, and where eventually price reaches the key $20K figure, and from there on over the Christmas period and into the new year, we see exponential growth, where bitcoin skyrockets to $42k.
With market analysts and investors talking up the value of bitcoin from anywhere in the region of $30 to 40K and even 140k, it’s hardly surprising that euphoria crept in and where everybody was buying, especially in the CFDs market.
This was a gold rush in all but name. And one has to ask oneself a question; when assets are being talked up by investors, or even talked down, what are the real motives behind this? Are they simply looking for a market reaction in favour of their own investment strategy, for example? This is a question for another day.
Getting back to the issue, was the writing on the wall all for a price collapse? Yes, it was, and for a number of reasons:
Firstly, when a market is moving steadily as in a trend, it is less likely to see extreme volatility unless there are fundamental reasons behind it. And because bitcoin is essentially a speculative instrument, fundamentals can be set aside in favour of a trending market.

The problem with this, as highlighted here, is that this is unchartered territory. We are looking at a $20,000 price increase in just a few days, which is almost unheard of. Technical analysis becomes difficult to gauge, and professional traders don’t know where to get in on the trend or place stops. Many are forced into buying for fear of missing out, and this is extremely dangerous.

Certainly, the writing was on the wall when on the 4th of January, we see a $6K price range move on this bearish daily candlestick. However, volatility continued with the bulls regaining control taking bitcoin to a record high of around $42,000.
Professional traders will know from history that a correction was on the cards, and with the UK FCA warning retail traders about the potential of losing all of their money trading bitcoin assets, it very likely contributed to price action hitting a brick wall all and to the collapsed….

Of around $12K in 24 hours. Many investors and retail traders were still buying well above $40,000, while the price was tanking, causing billions of dollars to be wiped off of the price, and where billions were lost in margin calls, with accounts being liquidated, because of the massive move lower.
Bitcoin should have a health warning on it, buyer beware, and with more and more weekend traders getting involved in this market, which operates 7 days a week, and where these part-time traders in there are spare rooms have a punt, with many losing their cash deposits, it is not a surprise that the FCA have banned retail traders from trading cryptocurrencies in the UK from the 6th of January this year, and where the EU are now calling for tighter regulation in this space.
Weekend bitcoin traders will be licking their wounds. But let’s not forget that a lot of people are still in the money and sitting back waiting to see if the price steadies itself and then continues to move higher, or if it will continue to slide.
Advice on this one would be too to look at trends on lower time frames…..

Such as this one-hour chart, while looking for support and resistance lines, and pick out trends that are set by big money investors, such as institutional traders, where they typically operate Monday to Friday. Be ultra-cautious when going long during aggressive rallies and around huge candlesticks, especially the bearish ones, as highlighted, which represents an overall move of $4000 dollars. They spell out danger. And set tight stop losses.

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic Crypto Videos

Pension Funds Are Investing In Bitcoin!

https://youtu.be/jVgRMjgyDbY

https://youtu.be/jVgRMjgyDbY


“Pension Funds are Investing in Bitcoin” – Grayscale

 

Grayscale’s newly-appointed CEO, Michael Sonnenshein, told Bloomberg that pension funds and endowments are actively investing in the Grayscale family of funds. Sonnenshein’s interview with Bloomberg came on Jan 7.

He further explained the statement: “We have started to see participation not just from the hedge funds, which we’ve seen participation from for a long time now, but now it’s recently coming from other institutions, pensions, and endowments. The sizes of allocations that they are making are also growing rapidly.”

Grayscale has been at the forefront of the recent Bitcoin buying spree, and its holdings now account for roughly 3% of the circulating Bitcoin. The fund manager continues to increase its position by buying even more cryptocurrencies as more institutional investors seek exposure to Bitcoin and other digital assets. 

Grayscale’s total assets under management, or AUM for short, have eclipsed $27 billion across ten different investment products. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust remains its most popular product by far, with over $23 billion in AUM. Its Ethereum trust is the second most popular product, and it is currently valued at around $3.7 billion, while its Digital Large Cap Fund holds somewhere in the ballpark of $340 million.

Pension funds are starting to follow a hoard of institutional buyers that started to enter the Bitcoin and crypto market in 2020. A survey conducted by Fidelity Investments in late 2020 found that 36% of financial institutions across both the United States and Europe said they own cryptocurrencies or derivatives. Over 25% of the respondents reported holding Bitcoin, while 11% said they own Ether.

According to Grayscale Investments, the institutional interest for cryptocurrency and Bitcoin is intensifying at an alarming rate, with pension funds and endowments being the most recent entrants into the space.

The company’s aggressive Bitcoin buying is likely contributing to the digital currency’s rapid price increase. With more Bitcoin taken out of circulation and miners not being able to produce as much Bitcoin as it is requested, the already scarce asset is becoming even more difficult to get at current prices. Sonnenshein stated:

“This is a verifiable scarce asset, so when there are mechanisms that are removing Bitcoin from circulation, that’s inherently making it an even more scarce asset.”

Categories
Crypto Videos

Crypto User Recovers Lost Private Keys to Over $4M in Bitcoin! $$$

https://youtu.be/kcSr1XoonW8

https://youtu.be/kcSr1XoonW8


Crypto User Recovers Lost Private Keys to Over $4M in Bitcoin

A student has claimed to have found their long-lost private keys that accidentally HODLed Bitcoin starting as early as 2011. By finding the keys, he will be able to unlock more than $4 million in Bitcoin.

According to a Reddit throwaway account from BitcoinHolderThankU, they were able to cash out roughly $4.2 million in Bitcoin after finding the lost keys to 127 BTC on Dec 22, 2020. At that time, the price of the crypto asset was in the $23,000s. The user stated that they later liquidated the coins somewhere in the bull run.

“I spent the next week just trying to figure out how to safely and securely liquidate such a large Bitcoin position for the lowest price possible,” stated the Redditor. “I went back and forth between different OTC principal desks and ultimately ended up selling every single one of my 127 Bitcoin for a price of $33,439.02 per coin. The net was roughly $4.24 million.”

They claim to have earned the aforementioned Bitcoin in 2011 or 2012 through various “surveys, watching videos, as well as completing random tasks” to ultimately use the Bitcoin for purchasing in-game currency for the online game DarkOrbit. The lost private keys were reportedly never really missing, but rather forgotten on an older model Dell computer.

Unfortunately, if the Redditor’s story is true, they missed out on $1 million in additional profit by not just holding for a few more weeks. Since December 2020, the price of Bitcoin has experienced a lot of volatility and even hit $42,000 to reach new all-time highs. BitcoinHolderThankU stated that they “would not have sold all 127 Bitcoin” if the same situation presented again.

“To give myself credit, I did hold it for 8-9 years, which is more than the vast majority of cryptocurrency users,” they said. “I definitely would’ve done things a bit differently if I were given a second chance.”

Despite their sudden fortune, they said that they would avoid “expensive luxuries,” as well as that they intend to put the bulk of the funds into the S&P 500 index, adding:

“I don’t want to end up like one of those people who happen to win the lottery and then blow it all in a matter of months or years. I’m going to continue living my life the same way I was living it on Dec 21 and every day before that.”

Categories
Crypto Videos

Morgan Stanley Bought 10% Stake in Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy!

https://youtu.be/rVWnfNJnCRY

https://youtu.be/rVWnfNJnCRY


Morgan Stanley Bought 10% Stake in Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy has been in the crypto news for months now – this time regarding a major player joining in on their venture to become a major Bitcoin HODLer. Per a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission released on Jan 8, an investment bank mogul Morgan Stanley had acquired 792,627 shares in the business intelligence firm MicroStrategy. This massive investment represents a 10.9% stake in the company that has recently made astonishing investments in Bitcoin. 

While the purchase itself mostly likely happened on Dec 31, the news was released to the public nine days after that. The Morgan Stanley investment into MicroStrategy came after Michael Saylor’s company performing incredibly and its shares moving from $289 on Dec 8 to a whopping $545 as of Jan 8.

In August 2020, MicroStrategy took some very bold steps by investing crypto, making Bitcoin its primary reserve asset. At the time of investing, CEO Michael Saylor talked about why his company decided to invest so much into Bitcoin:

“This is not a speculation, nor just a hedge. It is a deliberate strategy to adopt the Bitcoin Standard.”

Just a couple of weeks ago, MicroStrategy announced a whopping $400 million securities offering, stating that the purpose of raising funds is to buy even more Bitcoin. As of Dec 21, 2020, the firm had managed to stockpile 70,470 Bitcoin. 

At current prices, MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin holdings came up to a worth of over $2.8 billion. 


Institutional investors such as Morgan Stanley have warmed up to cryptocurrencies considerably over the past year. Many analysts have attributed Bitcoin’s recent bull market to this institutional uptick, compared to the FOMO coming almost strictly from the retail market that was so critical to Bitcoin’s 2017 highs, which subsequently fell apart. 

 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Biden’s $3T Stimulus Bill Could Make Bitcoin Explode!

https://youtu.be/DhlbBAIT50Y

https://youtu.be/DhlbBAIT50Y

 

Biden’s $3T Stimulus Could Create Another Bitcoin Skyrocket Scenario


The incoming Biden administration’s plan to print almost an infinite amount of money into the US economy and supply it with trillions of dollars could likely ignite the next leg of the Bitcoin bull market, as more investors seek refuge from the United States dollar.
Aan Arlington-based news outlet Axios reported that Joe Biden had asked Congress to provide Americans with a stimulus check of $2,000 to help offset the economic devastation caused by Covid-19. The incoming president has also proposed a tax and infrastructure package as part of his “Build Back Better” program. The package would be worth $3 trillion.

Biden also doubled down on his call for more direct relief to American citizens after Jan 8 disappointing jobs report showing a loss of over 140,000 positions in the last month of 2020.
He stated: “Economic research confirms that, with the current conditions such as the crisis today, especially with such low-interest rates, taking action immediately– even with deficit financing – is certainly going to help the economy overall.”
If 2020 is anything to go by, the new wave of stimulus could be another catalyst for Bitcoin’s rise as more money floods the market and makes prices into assets.

Even the current president Donald Trump, a Republican, has played a role in vast government outlays. Under his leadership, the US passed a historic $2 trillion stimulus package bill in March. Trump also signed a relief package worth $900 billion in December. This document would then pave the way for $600 stimulus checks coming to every American citizen.
The federal government’s inflation-increasing policies have coincided with interventionism coming from the Federal Reserve, which deployed trillions of dollars in 2020 to combat a liquidity crisis and keep overnight rates somewhat under control.

Although the aforementioned policies provided a strong backstop for risk-on assets – a category that has previously included Bitcoin – the emerging narrative surrounding Bitcoin is that it’s a hedge against inflation.
Institutions are currently buying Bitcoin with a clear purpose and are hoping to one day become the industry’s whales.


Bitcoin’s digital gold narrative has recently been one of the biggest catalysts for Bitcoin’s price increase, as well as the institutional shift towards it. This narrative helped fuel BTC’s 300% rally in the previous year, as well as it more than doubling in price in this year alone. This trend could increase in intensity in 2021 as the purchasing power of the US dollar continues to erode.
Even a giant such as JPMorgan Chase publicly acknowledged that Bitcoin is taking market share from gold.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Experts State Investors Are Dumping Gold For BITCOIN!

https://youtu.be/JQYoU1hgp-o

https://youtu.be/JQYoU1hgp-o


Experts State – Gold outflows “ALL Going into Bitcoin”

According to multiple experts in the crypto sector, one possible reason for Bitcoin’s incredible recent price rise is massive investor outflows coming from another popular hedge from inflation: gold. 

Spot gold dipped heavily over the past week, losing 4.62% of its value, bringing it to $1,857. The asset has previously been surging in unison with Bitcoin, which managed to increase its price by 40% from $28,000 lows.

In a Tweet that came out on Friday, Jan 8, Charlie Morris, founder and CIO at ByteTree Asset Management, stated that the pullback in gold might be attributable to investors moving from it and into Bitcoin:

Likewise, earlier that week, CNBC’s Mad Money host Jim Cramer stated that the massive outflows coming from gold ETFs are “all going to crypto.” If we track inflows and outflows from Grayscale’s Bitcoin investment trust and gold ETFs back this assertion, as Grayscale has eclipsed gold: 

The moves could possibly be a sign of Bitcoin’s status as a legitimate asset class is on the rise. Gold and Bitcoin have been linked for a long time as both are seen as a way to hedge against inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty. However, if the price movements in the previous period are any indication, Bitcoin may be winning the narrative race due to its unprecedented gains. 

In an interview with Bloomberg, chief revenue officer at Coinshares, Frank Spiteri, said that the narrative surrounding Bitcoin being an inflation hedge is quickly gaining legs “in the face of an environment with highly unconventional monetary policies.”

“It seems like we are in the middle of an awakening among institutions to Bitcoin as a fairly uncorrelated store of value,” he said.

The observations from experts come after a very unique flippening that happened a while ago: as of Friday, Jan 8, a single Bitcoin is worth more than a 20-ounce gold bar.

With that being said, for all the bearish price action and Bitcoin’s skyrocketing, certain high-profile gold bugs still refuse to budge on their positions. In a tweet coming from a longtime Bitcoin skeptic and gold investor Peter Schiff, he claimed that once investors “understand” the risk of inflation, they’ll return to bullion.

Categories
Crypto Videos

IRS Will Start Enforcing Crypto Trading Laws Starting Now!

https://youtu.be/4xRQ988a2Zk

https://youtu.be/4xRQ988a2Zk


IRS Will Start Enforcing Crypto Trading Laws – Says Former Division Chief

A former top investigator has sent out a warning, claiming that “a high-stakes game of chicken” that’s currently happening between the Internal Revenue Service and cryptocurrency holders who fail to properly report their earnings will soon be entering a new phase. The warning stated that 2021 would be the year when the tax collection agency will begin to focus on pursuing “civil and, even criminal penalties.”

In an article co-authored by Don Fort, the former chief of the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation division said that while the agency was focusing its resources on informing the public of proper reporting guidelines until now, it will now be turning to more stringent “enforcement.”

As he stated, “The IRS has been not-so-quietly positioning itself for a transition from education to enforcement in 2021.”

The article notes that the IRS will certainly enforce the law, starting with Coinbase. Coinbase answered a “John Doe” summons back in 2018 and handed over account information on close to 13,000 users, which could soon lead to crackdowns. 

The focus on crypto holders is partly due to a widening “tax gap,” meaning that the rift between the total income the Treasury gets from crypto taxes versus what the Treasury actually receives is larger and larger.

Ultimately, the article concludes that major trends, such as the addition of a question regarding cryptocurrency holdings now being prominently placed at the top of form 1040, only indicate that the IRS is slowly but surely gearing up for widespread efforts to root out tax underpayment.

“Even though the IRS has not yet made an announcement regarding mainstream tax evasion or money laundering cases involving digital currency, that trend should change in 2021.”

He ended the report by saying that “History has shown that underestimating the government is a fool’s game.”

Categories
Crypto Videos

Dash Is Selling Out It’s Privacy Focus In The Hope It Won’t get Culled!

https://youtu.be/4fG-Hqc4snM

https://youtu.be/4fG-Hqc4snM


Is Dash a Privacy Coin?

A recent tweet coming from Dash’s official Twitter account has invited much criticism. The outlash from Dash’s supporters is directed towards the fact that the cryptocurrency, which was once advertised as a privacy coin, is now wilting in the face of possible regulatory scrutiny and trying to pivot to non-privacy-focused crypto waters. 

On Jan 1, the US-based exchange Bittrex announced in a tweet that it would be delisting top privacy coins, including Monero, Zcash, and Dash.

The delistings of the top private coins follow a similar Dec 29, 2020 announcement that Bittrex would be delisting XRP as a result of an SEC lawsuit against Ripple, prompting further speculation that the exchange preemptively delisted the aforementioned privacy coins in anticipation of a wider regulatory crackdown. 

In response to the delisting, Dash announced in a tweet that they had immediately “reached out to Bittrex Exchange to request a meeting,” and that referring to the DASH cryptocurrency as a “privacy coin” is not exactly right. They added:


Taking a look back at 2017, on the other hand, archived screenshots from the Dash Foundation website show that the company advertised DASH as “the world’s first privacy-centric cryptocurrency.” The current Dash Foundation website has changed since and now says that Dash is “the leading payments cryptocurrency,” and doesn’t mention its privacy functionality anywhere.

In a recent tweet regarding the delisting CEO of DashPay, Ryan Taylor also minimized the cryptocurrency’s privacy features:

While the whole situation regarding Dash’s stance has prompted criticism on Twitter, proponents have noted that the cryptocurrency has released guidance on its privacy features in August. Official Dash website blog post shows that Taylor wrote that “regulators are concerned with exchanges possibly being unable to comply with KYC/AML regulations when transacting coins that offer privacy features,” because Dash is “often found on lists of cryptocurrencies with privacy enhancements.”

However, Taylor also wrote that Dash has been very successful in convincing exchanges as well as regulators that Dash is not a privacy coin.

The clarifications about Dash’s core focus come as a follow-up to an announced upgrade to Dash entering the testnet phase. This upgrade will include DashPay, a “social crypto-payments wallet.” 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Another Boom For BTC As Retail Interest Is Bitcoin on the Rise!

https://youtu.be/wNo1zEC5cHw

https://youtu.be/wNo1zEC5cHw


Retail Interest for Bitcoin on the Rise as the Cryptocurrency Reaches New All-Time Highs

Twitter analytics data indicates an increase in interest in Bitcoin. Social media interest in the largest digital currency by market cap sets new records across numerous key metrics as Bitcoin continues to post new all-time highs well into the $30,000s.

In a tweet that came out on Jan 2, the official handle for The TIE, a cryptocurrency data analytics firm, showed that the number of unique Twitter handles tweeting about Bitcoin has hit a new all-time high. The previous number was set during the peak of the 2017 bull run and counted around 64,000 daily tweets at that time. However, the current number eclipsed that.

Joshua Frank, CEO of The TIE, posted additional information indicating that the interest is just starting to grow. It is not limited to Bitcoin but rather extends to most cryptocurrencies.

According to Frank, since The TIE’s post on Twitter that showed the number of unique handles posting about Bitcoin rising above 70,000 in one day for the first time ever, the new total monthly tweet volume has eclipsed the December 2017 tweet count high of 135,000 and reached 140,000. In addition to this, the overall number of tweets about crypto has also hit a new high of nearly 250,000 in a 24-hour period.


The increased volume isn’t limited only to Twitter, however. Google search volume for the term “Bitcoin” is slowly climbing in stride with the cryptocurrency’s price. On top of that, phrases such as “how to buy bitcoin” are soaring as well.

On the other hand, searches for “how to buy Ethereum” remain rather low, despite a 24-hour gain of 20% to as high as $950.

Many have speculated that the increase in interest is due to “FOMO” coming from institutions, which, alongside with a large supply shortage, further pushed the price up. 

 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Miners Can’t Produce Enough BTC – The Reason BTC is Skyrocketing!

https://youtu.be/_5GMbTl3vns

https://youtu.be/_5GMbTl3vns


Miners Can’t Produce Enough BTC – The Reason BTC is Skyrocketing

Institutional crypto investment company Grayscale now has $20 billion under its control as its consistent Bitcoin buys heavily outstrip production. The ratio of Grayscale Bitcoin buys to BTC production is has now increased to almost three to one.

 

As noted by data analytics firm Coin98, Grayscale bought close to three times more Bitcoin than the amount miners added to the market in December 2020.

Miners can’t produce enough Bitcoin

In Dec, Grayscale added a total of 72,950 BTC to its assets under management (AUM). Over the same period, miners generated just 28,112 BTC, being only 38.5% of Grayscale’s buy-in.

These figures underscore what many currently describe as an ongoing liquidity squeeze in Bitcoin, where large, mostly institutional buyers, suck up any available supply and completely remove it from circulation, sending it to cold storage for long-term holding. This then creates a lack of supply while the retail demand remains constant of increases, causing the price of Bitcoin to rise exponentially, just like it did on Jan 3, where Bitcoin’s price skyrocketed and reached past $33,000.

The phenomenon of institutional investors sweeping the available supply was already visible in Nov 2020, but Dec 2020 saw a clear increase in demand from both Grayscale and other institutional entities.

Grayscale controls over $20 billion in crypto

Grayscale CEO Barry Silbert celebrated the end of 2020 by bringing the company’s total assets under management across its various crypto funds to over $20 billion. Looking back just one year ago, the figure stood at, compared to now, a mere $2 billion.


The company remains the single largest institutional player on the Bitcoin scene, far outstripping any other market participant. Its BTC holdings were coming out to $17.475 billion on the first day of 2021, with this number growing to an even higher dollar value as Bitcoin pumped to over $34,000. Newcomer MicroStrategy, while not an investment-focused company, now controls 70,470 BTC.

Going forward, analysts predict that the increasing demand for the fixed supply of newly mined Bitcoin will only create a bidding war and push the price further up. 

 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Privacy Is Dead – Bittrex to Remove the US Privacy Coin Markets! Withdraw Your Tokens Or Lose Them!

https://youtu.be/rwGDStC_HTE

https://youtu.be/rwGDStC_HTE


Bittrex to Remove the US Privacy Coin Markets – No More Monero, Zcash, and Dash Trading

Bittrex announced on Dec 29 that its exchange will soon be removing the US markets for the three of the largest privacy coins by market cap. The privacy coin market removal will happen on Jan 15.

In the announcement, Bittrex stated it is giving its users up to 30 days to withdraw their holdings:

“After the markets are removed, Bittrex would seek to provide its users with up to 30 days to withdraw any delisted tokens. However, in certain instances, the withdrawal period may be shortened. Users are advised to withdraw any tokens before the aforementioned withdrawal deadline.”

While a specific reason for the delisting wasn’t announced in the post, The Block’s Director of Research Larry Cermak speculated that the delisting is coming as a response to the latest FATF (Financial Action Task Force) pressure talk regarding AML regulations recommendations.

According to Bloomberg, all “virtual/digital asset service providers” (VASPs) will be obligated to collect information about their customers as well as the recipients of funds, and then send that data to the receiver’s service provider with each transaction.

As FATF recognizes cryptocurrency exchanges as virtual asset service providers, they will essentially be held to the same standards that banks and other financial service providers are held to. The new standards, published on Friday, Jun 21, 2020, are the officialization of FATF’s proposal made earlier in February 2020.

The controversial rule caused turmoil and was not well received by the crypto industry, as many crypto exchanges and wallet providers simply aren’t equipped to collect and send the data that would be required by FATF.

In response to the announcement that Bittrex shared on its official Twitter account, the prices of top privacy coins such as Monero, Zcash, and Dash all dropped in the range of 7 to 15 percent.

Categories
Crypto Videos

MoneyGram Distances Itself from Ripple!

https://youtu.be/LwPWHgzb680

https://youtu.be/LwPWHgzb680


MoneyGram Distances Itself from Ripple

 

Global money transfer service MoneyGram has updated its stance on its relationship with Ripple by clarifying the nature of their collaboration. The changed stance came as a response to Ripple’s recent lawsuit by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

MoneyGram issued a press statement on Dec 23, revealing that it has never utilized Ripple’s counterparty services, more specifically its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) and RippleNet, for forex transactions. They stated: 

“As a reminder, MoneyGram doesn’t utilize the ODL platform or RippleNet for any form of direct transfers of consumer funds – digital or other. Furthermore, MoneyGram is not a party to the Securities and Exchange Commission action.”

The company also added: 

“We have continued to use other traditional trading counterparties even throughout the term of the agreement with Ripple, and isn’t dependent on the Ripple platform to accomplish any of its FX trading needs.”

Looking back in June 2019, MoneyGram and Ripple entered into a strategic partnership that planned to tackle MoneyGram’s cross-border payments. As part of this collaboration, Ripple was obliged to invest up to $50 million in exchange for the MoneyGram stock.

In February 2020, MoneyGram also revealed an additional $11.3 million investment from Ripple on top of the agreed $50 million. However, Ripple has now sold about $15 million of its stake in MoneyGram.

MoneyGram’s current statement of not being dependent on Ripple’s services corresponds to the narrative that previous events have set. Earlier in the year, the company debuted a real-time remittance service based on Visa rather than its blockchain partner.

Another Ripple partner Intermex also revealed back in March of this year that it wasn’t using the Ripple’s platform for remittance in its “core market.”

MoneyGram’s press release is just the latest in a series of actions taken by companies regarding either Ripple or XRP, with all of them backing out from the company due to the SEC lawsuit. On Dec 23, investment fund Bitwise Asset Management liquidated its position in XRP, while several cryptocurrency exchanges have also started to delist the XRP token. The fallout that came from the SEC lawsuit has also exerted strong negative pressure on the XRP price action, where the cryptocurrency dipped over 30% on Dec 23.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Binance Enables SegWit Support for BTC Deposits as Adoption Skyrockets!

https://youtu.be/FeqnIgIeYgk

https://youtu.be/FeqnIgIeYgk

Binance Enables SegWit Support for BTC Deposits as Adoption Skyrockets

Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges by volume in the world, has incorporated Segregated Witness, better-known as SegWit, support for Bitcoin deposits. 

The SegWit support was finally enabled for incoming deposits on Christmas Eve, Binance said in an official statement. Until this announcement, the protocol upgrade was enabled only for withdrawals. Effective immediately after the announcement, Binance users got the option to transfer funds to a SegWit address by selecting the BTC (SegWit) network. Binance further explained in the statement:

“Please note that SegWit should help reduce fees; however, if you incorrectly send incompatible assets to the desired address, your funds will not be recoverable, and therefore will result in permanent loss.”

SegWit

Implemented back in 2017, SegWit is a Bitcoin protocol upgrade designed to help with network scaling. Besides that, SegWit was implemented to help with fixing several associated bugs. This upgrade is known for the way it updates data on the blockchain, namely, by segregating signatures from transaction data. SegWit upgrade allows more transactions to be stored in a single block, thus doubling Bitcoin’s transaction capacity.

Data from transactionfee.info show that somewhere in the ballpark of two-thirds of Bitcoin payments currently use SegWit. However, even with SegWit implemented, Bitcoin continues to face scalability limitations, which many argue has impeded adoption for everyday use. Exactly those scalability limitations have transformed Bitcoin from a possible means of payment to a store of value. However, developers have not given up on BTC becoming a viable payment protocol.

Light Network

The Lightning Network has been proposed as a viable second-layer scaling solution for Bitcoin as a payment protocol. Unlike SegWit, which got implemented via a soft fork to the Bitcoin protocol, the Lightning Network is a layer that goes on top of Bitcoin, and that could enable instant and almost cost-free transactions.

Despite current limited transaction capacity, Bitcoin remains the uncontested leader of the digital currency market, with its dominance over other crypto assets recently hitting one-year highs and approaching dangerously close to 70% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Turkey Are Already Pilot Testing There CBDC In Mid 2021!

https://youtu.be/efxPyjMcX8o

https://youtu.be/efxPyjMcX8o


Turkey Announces CBDC Pilot Tests Planned for Mid-2021

Turkey’s Parliament central bank governor Naci Agbal updated the public on the development of its central bank digital currency (CBDC for short), revealing that the “conceptual” research had been completed and that the public can expect practical tests for such a currency in the latter half of 2021. This announcement came at a time where Turkey struggles with soaring consumer prices and an inflation rate currently in the double digits.

“There is a research & development project initiated on digital money,” said Agbal, according to two local news outlets. “Currently, the conceptual phase of the project has been completed. We aim to start the pilot tests in the second half of the next year.”


While this announcement came as a surprise to those that didn’t follow Turkey’s stance on CBDC’s in the past, the country was actually researching the possibility of implementing some form of a digital currency since mid-2019. In addition to that, a 2021 rollout of a digital Lira is not a new concept but rather an already expected but delayed scenario. Turkish president Recep Erdoğan announced in Nov 2019 that tests for a digital Lira would be complete by the end of 2020. The reason for the delays was most likely tied to Turkey changing its central bank head in Nov 2020.

The progress regarding digital Lira comes as the country’s central bank grapples with inflation being as high as 14%. In an official statement to reporters last week, Agbal – who got appointed as the central bank’s governor just last month — that the central bank is “determined” to reduce inflation and meet its year-end target of 9.4%. 


As we have stated before, Turkey is not new in the cryptocurrency sector. In fact, it is considered one of the most active countries in the world for cryptocurrency and digital transformation industry as a whole, with over 20% of its population holding some form of digital money. 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Miami To Become The First Crypto-Centric City? Winklevoss Twins Backing The Mayor!

https://youtu.be/w5Lx2O69oVo

https://youtu.be/w5Lx2O69oVo


Will Miami Become the First Crypto-Centric City in the US?

Miami mayor Francis Suarez has joined the Bitcoin advocates “club” as he offered more evidence that mainstream adoption is accepting the largest cryptocurrency.  

In a tweet that came out on Dec 24, Suarez stated that Bitcoin is a “stable investment during an incredibly unstable year,” then adding that he has just started learning about the best-known digital asset through figures like the Winklevoss brothers and Anthony Pompliano.

Cameron Winklevoss, left, and his twin brother Tyler leave a federal appeals court in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2011. Facebook Inc.’s settlement of claims that its founder Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for what became the world’s largest social-networking website should be undone, former college classmates of Zuckerberg told an appeals court. Photographer: Noah Berger/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Tyler Winklevoss and Pompliano responded to Suarez’s tweet, with Tyler saying he and his brother Cameron will bring the mayor of Miami a “signed copy of Bitcoin Billionaires,” a book written about the aforementioned twins, while Pompliano called Miami a future Bitcoin city.

Suarez also indicated that his administration is currently exploring the idea of Miami truly becoming the first crypto-centric government in the US. However, he provided no further details on the topic.

Francis Suarez was elected the mayor of Miami in Nov 2017 after running his campaign as a nonpartisan candidate. Before entering politics, he founded a real estate title company, but also worked as an attorney.

Miami has often been described as one of the US cities with the biggest potential of becoming crypto-centric by some news outlets, mostly due to its lax state oversight and a large influx of foreign capital. The North American Bitcoin Conference, which featured figures like Charles Hoskinson, Riccardo Sagni, and Roger Ver, was held in Miami at the start of 2020.

Bitcoin’s explosive rally and bull trend, which it is currently in, is certainly driving new conversations about the digital asset to the table. This is especially true as this rally, unlike the one in 2017, was fueled mostly by corporate and institutional adoption, rather than the retail sector. Bitcoin adoption is increasingly viewed not as a speculation, but as a competitive advantage in an economy riddled with financial instability, record central-bank intervention, and significant asset-price inflation. 

Categories
Crypto Videos

WordPress adds official Ethereum ad Plugin – Users Stand To Gain More Than Google Adsense!

https://youtu.be/NU-H0G_-SZo

https://youtu.be/NU-H0G_-SZo


WordPress adds official Ethereum ad plugin.

WordPress’s new crypto plugin will enable publishers that use this content management system to receive ad earnings directly into their Ether wallets, according to a Dec 10 plugin description that got posted on the WordPress’ official website.

The plugin known as “EthereumAds” will enable content publishers to auction their advertisement space for ETH using smart contracts. “After publishers insert our widget, their ad space is automatically openly auctioned off by using smart contract every 14 days to the highest bidder,” the official plugin description reads.

According to the EthereumAds website, the newly-announced WordPress plugin plans on competing with Google AdSense, allowing the publishers that use it to earn ETH through banner ads. EthereumAds emphasizes that it will provide publishers with lower commissions, stating: “Google Adsense only pays its publishers 68% of their total ad earnings. We, on the other hand, will pay them a whopping 90%.” This should provide a considerable increase in ad revenue that publishers get for renting their website space for ads.

The new ad plugin can be used to monetize any form and type of content built on WordPress, including websites, blogs, and billboards. They also officially stated that they are limiting publishers to crypto-related content.

As EthereumAds intends to enter the space ruled by a major ad monetization platform such as Google AdSense, it remains yet to be seen how both Google Adsense and other traditional ad platforms deal with the new crypto rival.

WordPress’s introduction of EthereumAds came at a great time, as the world’s largest ad monetization platform, Google Adsense, has had some issues with cryptocurrencies in the past. In April 2020, it has been reported that Google AdSense was running fraudulent cryptocurrency ads while prohibiting some legitimate cryptocurrency firms from using its services. Google Ads also previously blacklisted keywords mentioning Ethereum in Jan 2019, reports say.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Sweden Leading the Way in the CBDC Sector – The First Country To Go Fully Digital?

https://youtu.be/p2jUHYaxx7o

https://youtu.be/p2jUHYaxx7o


Sweden Leading the Way in the CBDC

The Swedish government is currently progressing with its central bank digital currency by launching a formal review of a potential digital transformation to the digital currency.

According to a Bloomberg report published Dec 11, the review will explore the feasibility of moving the complete country’s payments infrastructure to a digital currency. Sweden features one of the most cashless economies in the world.

Per Bolund, financial markets minister of Sweden, reportedly said that the government expects to finish its digital currency review by the end of Nov 2022. Anna Kinberg Batra, a former chairwoman of the finance committee at Sweden’s central bank, would lead the initiative.

Bolund emphasized that ensuring that the digital payments system in Sweden functions in a safe way and is “available to everybody” is crucial. “Depending on how a CBDC is designed and which technologies are being used, it can have large consequences for the financial system as a whole,” the minister said.

Sweden has emerged as one of the leaders in the CBDC technology sector, announcing a pilot platform for its own digital currency known as e-krona in late 2019. In order to properly build the platform, Sweden’s central bank partnered with Accenture, a professional services company coming from Ireland. Riksbank launched its first e-krona CBDC pilots in February, claiming that the digital currency testing will be in operation until Feb 2021.

Sector

In Oct, Riksbank Governor Stefan Ingves expressed complete confidence that an e-krona CBDC should be issued by the central bank and fully recognized as legal tender. Last year, Ingves stated that Sweden’s central bank could not be the only institution that decides on the future of an e-krona implementation:

“Considering how important this issue is to the economy, the Riksbank cannot take this decision on its own. The decision on whether the e-krona should be introduced to the public is a decision that must have substantial political support.”

Categories
Crypto Videos

Stimulus Hope Is Driving Up The Dow Jones – Should You Buy Or Short it?

https://youtu.be/LzN_bjCRLrE

https://youtu.be/LzN_bjCRLrE


Stimulus hopes drive up the Dow Jones – where next? 

Thank you for joining this Forex Academy educational video

In this session, we will be looking at the Dow Jones 30 Industrial Index and looking for indications of the next likely move.

While the United States economy is still reeling from the ongoing Covid situation, which has as a country in its grip, investors are looking long-term, buoyed on by vaccine news and hopes of a speedy back to normal recovery once it has been rolled out to the general population. 

In reality, of course, this may still take over 12 months to implement. Therefore hopes of the recovery are fuelled by my hopes that the American government will continue to support individuals and companies via a Covid-19 relief aid stimulus to help unemployed and financial relief for other individuals and those who need it.

This has been stifled somewhat by the fact that the discussions between the democrats and republicans have not yet been able to agree on how much money the state should put up. Current estimations are that a $900 billion stimulus bill may include checks for $600 for eligible adults and their independents. 

Some Republicans have asked for hand-outs of $1,200 per individual and $2400 per couple, with $500 going to children, to support families through this critical time.

The plan is that the 900 billion stimulus package will be the first of two parts, with phase one considered as an emergency relief bill, and phase two will kick in during the early part of January 2021, once that has been agreed on.

It is talk of the stimulus package, which has been keeping the Dow Jones at record highs.

This is a daily chart of the Dow Jones 30 industrial index.  We can see that since March 2020, the general trend has been a bull trend to the upside, following on from the earlier crash as the pandemic took hold in early February. The technical line numbered 1 shows the general upward trend as hopes of a V-shaped recovery fuelled investor to buy the index.

More recently, talks of an emergency stimulus package, and especially during November where investors believed a deal was imminent, saw price action move higher from this average and particularly where we see the bullish bounce from the line where we see a steady rise up to the record-breaking 30,000 level at position A. 

Talks of the stimulus package went to and fro between the democrats and republicans, with concerns of the, will they or won’t they agree on a package and where price action moved lower to the trend line at position 2, while talks stalled, and where price action itself bounced this higher trend line, marked as 2, back up at position B C  and D in an overall bias squeeze to the upside, where price continued to flirt with 30,000 and eventually where there was a significant close and open above this key level.

In this 1-hour chart, we can see that price action is seeing resistance at around 30,300.

And by adding this support line, we now have rising wedge formation clearly evident, where price action is fading to the upside, with a potential break above the 30,300 level. Should this immanent covid relief bill be agreed upon, price action could punch higher and continue with potential for the 30,300 level to become a support line and a possible move higher by 200 or 300 points.

There is so much pressure on the American government right now to come up with an agreed amount of stimulus for those who need it that it is almost impossible that nothing will happen. This is what is driving the Dow Jones Index and other US indices higher at the moment.

  

Categories
Crypto Videos

It’s Not To Late To Buy Bitcoin – Follow The money!

https://youtu.be/qqDtIug8tu0

https://youtu.be/qqDtIug8tu0


Smartest People in the Room are Buying Bitcoin – Winklevoss Brothers Speak Up

Throughout 2020, over a handful of traditional financial giants have picked up stacks of Bitcoin, including the likes of billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones and business intelligence company MicroStrategy. These investments are a part of a flow of big money that has recently entered BTC, Gemini crypto-exchange co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss recently stated.

“These are the most sophisticated investors, the smartest people in the room, buying up Bitcoin quietly, so it’s not a fear of missing out thing,” Tyler Winklevoss said in a CNBC interview, published on Dec 11. Major institutions are here now for this bull run, as opposed to Bitcoin’s retail-led bull run of 2017, Tyler explained.

Over the course of 2020, in addition to Tudor Jones and MicroStrategy, ack Dorsey’s Square, Stanley Druckenmiller, J MassMutual, and Guggenheim Partners have all invested substantial amounts of money in Bitcoin. Their crypto plays come as a response to the unstable global economic atmosphere.

Bitcoin is often compared to gold as a store of value as well as an inflation hedge. Both Druckenmiller and Tudor Jones align themselves with this narrative. Tyler Winklevoss added:

“You have publicly-traded companies such as Square and MicroStrategy putting their cash into Bitcoin because they’re worried about the oncoming inflation that would come with all the money printing and the COVID pandemic stimulus packages.”

When asked about Bitcoin’s volatility as an asset used for transactions, the brothers called Bitcoin with its current system a “buy and hold” strategy comparative to gold. “We see Bitcoin as an emergent store of value that will disrupt gold,” Tyler said. “So it actually doesn’t even have to be used as a currency, meaning that the volatility doesn’t matter if it’s actually a store of value.” The billionaire also expects dwindling volatility for the asset as time passes.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Is Crypto Now The Only Way You Can Pay For Porn? Verge & Bitcoin Domination!

https://youtu.be/wJN07xAG3zI

https://youtu.be/wJN07xAG3zI


Visa and MasterCard Cut Off Pornhub – Verge Cryptocurrency in the Spotlight

Verge, the cryptocurrency now infamous for its links to none other than the porn industry, is on the rise again — all thanks to a classic fiat money scandal.

As the adult entertainment giant Pornhub confirmed in the second week of December, payment providers Visa and MasterCard will no longer service its payments, leaving only Verge cryptocurrency for its roughly 120 million daily visitors.

The reason for the payment providers pulling out is, as the companies say, all the questions which remain over the way Pornhub is dealing with illegal content. While the suspension is permanent for MasterCard, Visa will continue to monitor its decision and possibly revert it once the dust is settled.

Responding to this event, Pornhub told the Associated Press that the allegations towards it were “irresponsible and flagrantly untrue.” Visa and MasterCard were not the first payment processors to do this, as PayPal has already done the same thing, effectively forcing the company to lean exclusively on crypto payments.

While seriously bad for the website, the move has greatly improved the Verge’s outlook.

At the time of writing, XVG/USD traded at almost $0.007, having matched highs from June. Verge is currently the 97th largest cryptocurrency, sitting at a total market cap of $112 million.

Responding to Pornhub’s troubles, a member of the Verge Core Marketing Team, Mark Wittenberg, appealed to users to consider Verge as a currency. “It is our position to be used as a currency. If any models at @Pornhub need any form of assistance in getting familiar with the payment options, it’s our role as a worldwide community to help out.”

With Pornhub also accepting Bitcoin and Litecoin while also allowing their models to cash out in a number of other altcoins, Verge’s appeal may still remain limited.

Verge originally partnered with Pornhub back in April 2018 and helped it stay afloat as the original “altseason” came to a swift end. 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Origin Dollar Is Compensating Investors After The $7,000,000 Hack!

https://youtu.be/YYxblG_dqRM

https://youtu.be/YYxblG_dqRM


How Can DeFi Improve Adoption Rates? Origin Dollar’s Compensation Plan Announced

Decentralized finance stablecoin project Origin Finance announced its plan to compensate users affected by a $7 million exploit that happened in Nov.

On Nov 17, Origin Dollar announced that its yield-bearing stablecoin project had been the subject of a $7 million flash loan attack. While this attack is just another instance of the numerous hacks and exploits hitting DeFi projects this year, the Origin Dollar team’s response stands out as it intends to fully compensate the affected users.

In a blog post that came out on Friday, Dec 11, Origin Dollar product manager Micah Alcorn has laid out a multi-tiered plan that would immediately pay 75% of its users their lost funds, all denominated in Origin Dollar’s stablecoin OUSD.


On the other hand, for larger depositors, payments would be a slightly more complicated process, as they would involve a 1-year time-locked quantity denominated in the e-commerce utility token OGN. This means that whether or not these larger depositors will be 100% compensated for their loss will depend on the utility OGN token’s performance.

Even with the timelock included in the payout plan, Alan, a semi-anonymous core developer for the insurance-coverage protocol Cover, says that the effort coming from Origin might help attract new users to the DeFi space. 

He stated that this type of behavior sets a precedent that allows DeFi users to feel more confident in the platforms that they use, which would, in turn, help with the adoption of the protocols themselves. According to Alan, the Cover project he is working on has nearly tripled its total value locked ever since its users decided to cover the Pickle Finance hack.

Following the same trend, Nsure Network — another coverage protocol currently in testnet phase — has been doing great lately, rising nearly 60% on the month.

As the hack and fraud coverage tools develop, Alan recommends that developers take their time to seriously investigate launching projects with coverage plans and clear exploit contingencies as a core feature.

“DeFi needs to set a strong precedent that the protocols themselves need to be held accountable if they manage to get hacked, rather than its users. From what I’ve seen with the recent exploits happening, getting hacked simply means ‘Oops, we’ll make sure to patch this bug and do better next time’ to most projects. Having an “insurance fund” really brings comfort to users, as they now know that if the protocol gets hacked, their deposits are, at least to some degree, covered.” – said Alan.

If DeFi is ever going to truly break mainstream, these kinds of protections and contingency plans might be a requirement rather than just a luxury.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Crypto!The 3 Best Key Indicators To Watch When Trading Bitcoin! No

https://youtu.be/MFc1BqNmfDs

https://youtu.be/MFc1BqNmfDs

3 Key Indicators to Watch When Trading Bitcoin

 

For the past week, Bitcoin’s price has been dancing around the $20,000 mark, which has led many traders to lose their patience. In the eyes of those traders, the current lack of bullish momentum is problematic, especially when considering that Bitcoin tested the $16,200 level roughly two weeks ago.

Experienced traders tend to look at several key indicators that serve as telling signs of a major trend reversal. These key indicators are:

  • The futures premium
  • Volumes, and
  • Top traders’ positions at major exchanges


While a handful of negative indicators do not precede every dip, there are some signs of weakness that show a trend reversal more often than not. 

Monitoring the futures contracts premium

The open interest of perpetual contract buyers and sellers is matched at all times in any futures contract. Simply put, there is no way an imbalance of any form can happen, as every trade requires both a buyer and a seller.

Funding rates ensure that there are no exchange risk imbalances. When sellers are the ones demanding more leverage, the funding rate goes negative. Therefore, the traders who want to be on the short side will be the ones paying the fees. The opposite is true, as well.

Sudden shifts to the negative funding rates indicate a strong interest in keeping short positions open. Ideally, investors would monitor a couple of exchanges at the same time to avoid eventual anomalies, no matter how rare they are.

By measuring how much more expensive futures contracts are versus the regular spot market, traders can gauge the bullishness level of the market.

The fixed-calendar futures usually trade with a 0.5% or higher premium when compared to regular spot exchanges. Whenever this premium decreases or turns negative, traders can consider this a red flag. Such a situation, also called backwardation, indicates strong bearishness.

Monitoring volume

In addition to constantly checking futures contracts, good traders also track the spot market volumes. Breaking important resistance levels while simultaneously showing low volumes is somehow intriguing. Typically, low volumes show a lack of confidence. Therefore, any significant price change should be accompanied by an increase in trading volume.

Top traders long-to-short ratio 

Another key metric that can be used is the top traders’ long-to-short ratio. This metric can be found at many leading crypto exchanges.

Traders should pay attention to changes in this metric rather than absolute figures as there are often discrepancies between exchanges’ methodologies.

As an example, a sudden move below the 1.00 long-to-short ratio should be a troubling signal. This is because the historical 30-day data, as well as the current 1.23 figure, favor longs.

As we mentioned before, the ratio can differ significantly between exchanges, but traders should watch changes in ratios rather than the absolute numbers themselves.

Unlike our previous example from Binance, it is common for OKEx top traders to hold levels below 1.00, all while not necessarily indicating bearishness. According to the 30-day data on this exchange, numbers below 0.75 should be cause for worry.

Conclusion

No set rule or method could predict every single spike or dip, but certainly, there are ways to improve your chances of improving your profitability when trading.

Monitoring the funding rate, spot volumes, as well as the top traders’ long-to-short ratio provides a much clearer view of the Bitcoin market as a whole, rather than simply reading candlestick patterns and monitoring general oscillators like the RSI and MACD.

This is mostly because the aforementioned metrics provide a direct gauge of professional traders’ sentiment, rather than just retail sector sentiment, and it is crucial to take them into account as Bitcoin tries to break $20,000.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Asset Mangers Being Left Behind By Not Understanding The Fastest Growing Asset Ever… Bitcoin!

https://youtu.be/sSO9K-GO7LY

https://youtu.be/sSO9K-GO7LY


Asset Managers Risk Their Careers by Not Understanding Bitcoin

Shapeshift CEO Erik Voorhees has spoken about the future of financial management in the future, stating that every asset manager should, even now, have an understanding of Bitcoin based on its astonishing rate of return.

Voorhees commented on this topic while retweeting data shared by analytics platform Messari co-founder Dan McArdle that shows Bitcoin dramatically outperforming every other asset over the last decade. 


While gold has made a return of 32% and the S&P 500 has tripled its investors’ money, Bitcoin has posted an astonishing 7,837,884% gain in ten years.

Looking at its 10-year life, Voorhees believes that Bitcoin is “vastly superior to any other investment.” He then stated that:

“One could be forgiven for not understanding Bitcoin eight years ago… but any asset manager today who remains even somewhat ignorant of this phenomenon needs to seriously check what they are doing.”

Voorhees is not the only one talking about the recent embrace of Bitcoin by institutions and the rest of traditional finance that is believed to underpin the most recent rally. Just the past week alone, half a dozen experts in the traditional finance sector made similarly bullish observations. On December 2, crypto trading firm Genesis CEO Michael Moro made a prediction that 250 publicly traded companies will put at least some of their funds in Bitcoin by the end of 2021.

On December 4, former JP Morgan commodity trader Danny Masters told CNBC that it would soon be a “career-risk to not have Bitcoin in your portfolio.”

BlackRock CIO Larry Fink also spoke about Bitcoin and warned that Bitcoin’s success could have a substantial impact on the US dollar and that it will even “take the place of gold to a large extent.” 

Of course, every asset has its bulls and bears, and no matter how many pundits back Bitcoin, or how many institutions put their money into it, gold bug Peter Schiff still remains unmoved, stating that Bitcoin and gold have nothing in common and that Bitcoin will never replace gold.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Michael Saylor Comparing Bitcoin To Lebron James? Institutional Investment Skyrocketing!

https://youtu.be/IS0peRBgi5w

https://youtu.be/IS0peRBgi5w


Bitcoin is like ‘Lebron James’ – MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor

 


In an interview with economist Marc Friedrich, CEO of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor said that Bitcoin is just not the same asset it was in 2015 or 2017. As Saylor stated, the arguments against Bitcoin that were relevant two or four years ago are simply no longer applicable.

Bitcoin has grown exponentially since its peak in 2017. The growth happened in terms of infrastructure, fundamentals, as well as adoption. In the past year alone, many institutions have started to increasingly see Bitcoin as a store of value and an inflation hedge rather than as a speculative asset.

In 2017, Bitcoin critics said the cryptocurrency was too volatile and that there was a substantial risk of it dropping to zero. Saylor emphasized that these arguments have close to no relevance now because Bitcoin has evolved significantly in recent years.

Saylor said that Lebron James played basketball from ages 8 to 18, but then matured and evolved into one of the all-time greats. He said that Bitcoin went through a very similar period, stating that he thought that it was important to address the fears and anxieties of the crypto and non-crypto community head-on, but that people that still think that Bitcoin might go to zero are still living in the 2015 and 2017 timeframe. He compared Lebron James’ talent, which was, according to him, erratic and volatile in the early stages of his gameplay. But then he grew up and “destroyed everybody and everything in his way.”


One of the major changes Bitcoin has experienced since 2017 is its market structure. Going back to 2017, retail platforms like BitMEX were the dominant players in the derivatives market. Institutional platforms such as the CME have consistently processed volumes that were similar to leading retail-focused exchanges.

However, as of December 4, the CME Bitcoin futures market has an open interest of $1.14 billion, which is considerably higher than Binance Futures, Bybit, Huobi, as well as BitMEX.

On-chain data also shows a considerable increase in institutional interest. According to data coming from IntoTheBlock, the number of transactions valued at over $100,000 has increased twofold in 2020. This is indicative of the growth in institutional activity, the analysts stated. Furthermore, the total volume transferred in these transactions has experienced an even larger growth with 6x increase over the same period.”

Based on various factors, including the fact that the already-significant institutional involvement in the Bitcoin market is only increasing, investors like Saylor remain confident that Bitcoin is evolving into an established store of value.

Categories
Crypto Videos

What Would it Take for Ethereum to Fail?

https://youtu.be/RvJJc7x0DTw

https://youtu.be/RvJJc7x0DTw


What Would it Take for Ethereum to Fail?

Ethereum 2.0 has recently launched its Beacon Chain, concluding Phase 0 of a scaling effort. Although he expressed quite a bit of faith in Ethereum 2.0, Celsius CEO and founder Alex Mashinsky believe nothing has to be set in stone. The network could lose its spotlight if it doesn’t manage to scale quickly, effectively, and significantly.

“Ethereum needs to prove to the market that it can scale its transactions 100x without compromising on either security or decentralization,” Mashinsky stated when asked about Ethereum 2.0’s next hurdle after its Beacon Chain launch. “If Ethereum fails to scale, Cardano and Polkadot will take over the market.”

As of Thursday, December 3, Ethereum’s network hosts somewhere in the ballpark of 13 transactions per second, according to data coming from Blockchair. A 100-fold increase from now would total the network capacity to roughly 1,300 transactions per second.

Ethereum has served as the top blockchain for building decentralized applications over the past years. In 2020, the DeFi sector boom has largely taken place on Ethereum’s blockchain, as well. This surge in activity has led to incredibly high network traffic that Ethereum could not handle, and that at times resulted in high transaction fees. 

With Ethereum 2.0’s shift from a proof-of-work and onto a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm, scaling advancements should be evident very soon. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin previously stated that he believes the network has the possibility to scale to an astonishing 100,000 transactions per second.

The aforementioned network’s upgrade, however, faced a fair bit of delays before achieving Phase 0 earlier this month. MyEtherWallet founder said that he expects Ethereum 2.0’s next phases to take years to fully play out. Mashinsky didn’t give any specific time estimates, but he did give his vote of confidence in the network upgrade idea as a whole.

“I am a big believer in this upgrade, even if it will take longer than anticipated to scale and solve all the problems,” he said.

It’s important to note that Ethereum’s native token, Ether, also plays into the equation. Phase 0 requires all interested parties to lock up at least 32 Ether each, with a total of 524,288 Ether needed for the Beacon Chain launch. The Ether must remain locked until Phase 2 is live, and that could take years.


As more and more Ether is locked up for Ethereum 2.0 or used on different DeFi and CeFi platforms, the prices push to higher levels simply due to the scarcity effect. Almost all decentralized exchanges are denominated in Ether, which is also a huge advantage for Ethereum.

Categories
Crypto Videos

An Ethereum Fund Launching On The Toronto Stock Exchange!

https://youtu.be/YRrEMwkTQZY

https://youtu.be/YRrEMwkTQZY

Ethereum Fund Launching on the Toronto Stock Exchange

Canadian digital asset investment manager company 3iQ will be launching an IPO of an Ethereum exchange-traded trust, called The Ether Fund, on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker QETH.U. 

The maximum offering for the trust launch is $100 million, and 3iq announced that the offering’s closing date would be no later than Thursday, December 10 of this year. 3iQ currently counts more than $400 million CAD under management. The company maintains a right focus on just several cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum.

In a press release that came out Thursday, December 3, 3iQ noted that the listing comes with a patriotic backstory behind it. “The concept of Ethereum was first developed in Canada in 2013, and then launched by a group of technologists coming from all over the world,” the company mentioned.


Ethereum’s co-founder and main figure, Vitalik Buterin, is Canadian-Russian, and his family moved to Toronto when he was just six years old.


Traders south of Canada’s borders have already demonstrated a remarkable appetite for publicly available Ethereum investment options. Despite an incredible price premium, which at points went to as much as 500% relative to net asset value for Grayscale’s Ethereum trust ETHE, the company reports that more and more investors have decided to test the waters and try investing in crypto.

These funds and trusts are the preferred methods of investing in crypto for many traders, as not many people are able or willing to provide their own crypto custody and security options.

On top of that, traders have enjoyed a rapid expansion of this sector, with new fund offerings surfacing across the globe in recent months. In November alone, VanEck launched a Bitcoin exchange-traded note product in Germany, as well as the VanEck Vectors Bitcoin ETN, while 3iQ introduced The Bitcoin Fund to Canada.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Goodbye XRP! What Happens if XRP Gets Deemed a Security?

https://youtu.be/SVgZUJyBckA

https://youtu.be/SVgZUJyBckA


What Happens if XRP Gets Deemed a Security?

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse believes that his company can and will still thrive under a hypothetical scenario where its cryptocurrency XRP is declared a security by the United States lawmakers. 

Appearing on episode 439 of the Anthony Pompliano’s Pomp Podcast, Garlinghouse spoke about the implications of XRP being declared a security by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. He said such a position is possible but that it would run contrary to the view that prevails among G20 markets.

While stating that “it’s very hard to look at XRP and say that it is a security,” Garlinghouse said:


“If XRP were deemed a security in the United States… you know, we have other G20 markets that have a completely different view. I’m not aware of any market in the world that thinks that XRP is a security.” Garlinghouse added that “over 90% of RippleNet customers are actually out of the United States,” suggesting that a possible unfavorable securities designation wouldn’t exactly hinder the company’s underlying business, but only its short-term popularity. If XRP were to be declared security in the US, investors would need to complete a broker-dealer registration with the US SEC.

XRP’s regulatory status has been a subject of intense scrutiny for a very long time now, with veteran futures and forex trader Peter Brandt being the latest of many public figures in line to declare it a security.

On the other hand, Congressman Tom Emmer, a Republican from the state of Minnesota, argued in August that XRP should not be deemed a security.

Ripple has been the subject of a major class-action lawsuit from disgruntled investors claiming that XRP is a security. This lawsuit alleges false advertising as well as unfair competition charges against Ripple. An amended filing from March 2020 claimed that Garlinghouse was shopping XRP to prospective investors while liquidating his holdings at the same time.

XRP is back in the limelight at the end of November as the market pushed its price above a multi-year high. The rally was a subject of heavy profit-taking, falling more than 28%.

Categories
Crypto Videos

How To Spot Bitcoin Bull & Bear Cycles Beginners Edition!

https://youtu.be/h3o5F1tGU2k

https://youtu.be/h3o5F1tGU2k


Bitcoin Bull and Bear cycles – Beginners Edition

 

Animals Bear Fighting With Bull

Since its launch over a decade ago, Bitcoin has seen a number of bull and bear cycles, with each one of them being greater than the last. However, many have tried to find an answer to the main question: What drives these cycles? Co-founder of Decred Jake Yocom-Piatt has claimed that the answer certainly lies within the human brain.

“Bitcoin’s bull and bear cycles are both functions of generic human psychology, attention spans, as well as its deterministic and diminishing issuance,” Yocom-Piatt stated.

Over the years, numerous parties have tried to find the reason behind and argue different cases for Bitcoin’s cycles, including PlanB’s infamous stock-to-flow model, which projects Bitcoin prices in the future based on its programmed halving events that happen every four years.

One major characteristic that sets Bitcoin apart from every other asset is its deflationary nature. It is programmed to have a finite supply, and that, combined with the ease of movement it provides, allows for borderless value storage better than any asset before.

Then, one might wonder whether the programmed supply that Bitcoin possesses dictates its price cycles on some level. This refers to its mining reward being cut in half every four years, essentially decreasing the amount of new Bitcoin put out on the market each time a block is mined. Its 21 million coins supply cap may also factor into this equation.

“Bitcoin’s rate of supply is constantly shrinking as a percentage of the circulation, with the addition of a massive supply shock every halvening,” explained Yocom-Piatt.

“Bull runs occur when the demand begins to outstrip the supply, driving up the price, which then gets the attention of myopic investors. After some time passes, these myopic investors’ attention span for a bull market fades away, and we revert back to a bear market. With each bull cycle, the overall awareness of Bitcoin grows, further sowing the seeds for the next bull cycle.”

Bitcoin recently approached its 2017 all-time high of $20,000, receiving a big chunk of mainstream media coverage during the time of the push towards the upside.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Facebook’s Libra Reportedly Launching in Jan 2021 as a USD Stablecoin!

https://youtu.be/evDG_METBKA

https://youtu.be/evDG_METBKA


Facebook’s Libra Reportedly Launching in Jan 2021 as a USD Stablecoin

According to a new report, the very controversial and long-awaited digital currency Libra could see the light of day as soon as Jan 2021. After more than a year of scrutiny from global financial regulators, Facebook’s Libra will launch in the form of a US dollar-backed digital currency, as Financial Times reported on Nov 27.


The Financial Times cited three people involved in the Libra project, as they stated that Libra Association’s plans would eventually add more fiat currencies to the digital currency’s basket of assets.

While the exact launch date is still unknown, January 2021 has been brought up several times as the most likely option. However, the launch date would ultimately depend on when the Libra Association receives regulatory approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority to operate as a payments service.

A FINMA spokesperson declined to make any statements or comments regarding Libra’s potential launch in January 2021. Instead, the representative referred to Libra’s announcement on its licensing process, stating, “In accordance with its practice, FINMA will not provide any public information on the status of the current and ongoing procedure, nor speculate on when it may reach completion.”

Initiated in Jun 2019, the Libra Association faced quite a bit of regulatory scrutiny, which caused a number of member companies such as PayPal and MasterCard to subsequently back out from the project. The basket of currencies that was originally supposed to back Libra included several fiat currencies, including the US dollar, euro, the Japanese yen, the British pound, as well as the Singapore dollar.

According to the Financial Times’ report, several Libra members believe that the appointment of HSBC legal chief Stuart Levey as CEO was a turning point for the Libra project.

Categories
Crypto Videos

CRYPTO – Cypherpunk Holdings Becomes 9th largest Public Bitcoin Whale!

https://youtu.be/ECmVP5wTkXw

https://youtu.be/ECmVP5wTkXw


Cypherpunk Holdings Becomes 9th-largest Public Bitcoin Whale


Cypherpunk Holdings, a privacy-focused investment company from Canada, has recently upped its stake in Bitcoin while simultaneously dumping Monero and Ethereum. The company disclosed on Nov 26 that it has added 72.979 Bitcoin to its reserves and that the expansion of its Bitcoin portfolio share started on June 30, 2020.

Cypherpunk funded this acquisition by liquidating its holdings of Monero and Ethereum, as well as through partial proceeds that came from a private placement of CA$505,000, or the US $388,000, closed on Aug 27. As an aftermath of the accumulation, the company now has 276.479 Bitcoin in its reserves, making it the ninth-largest public holder of Bitcoin. At current values, Cypherpunk’s stake in Bitcoin is worth just over $4.8 million.

At the moment, at least 14 publicly traded companies held Bitcoin on their books, with Cypherpunk being one of them. Combined, their holdings now amount to 66,896.59 Bitcoin, or $1.2 billion. This number is equivalent to roughly 3.2% of Bitcoin’s current circulating supply.

Cypherpunk Holdings, which currently trades on the Canadian Securities Exchange, has numerous privacy-focused businesses under its name, including Wasabi Wallet as well as Samourai Wallet. The company’s blockchain investments also include Hydro66, a green cloud infrastructure platform, and smart contract protocol Chia Network.

Cypherpunk Holdings is run by Antanas Guoga, also known as Tony G, a Lithuanian businessman, politician, and former professional-level poker player. He currently serves as an elected member of the Seimas, a legislative branch of the Lithuanian government. Prior to this, he served as a member of the European Parliament for Lithuania.

More and more public companies are converting their various holdings into Bitcoin as a more suitable store of value nowadays. MicroStrategy is the most prominent example of this trend, as it has converted most of its cash holdings into Bitcoin. The company now sits on a whopping 38,250 Bitcoin after nearly doubling its holdings this year. Galaxy Digital is the second-largest public Bitcoin holder, sitting at 16,402 Bitcoin, followed by Square holding the third-largest Bitocin holder spot with 4,709 Bitcoin.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Ethereum 2.0 Launching Today – Upgrades Explained!

https://youtu.be/UZk6z4PfVko

https://youtu.be/UZk6z4PfVko


Ethereum 2.0 – Explained

Ever since Ethereum was released, the development of new technologies in the form of Decentralized apps on its blockchain, as well as other blockchains, has greatly expanded. Some of the biggest innovations in the Decentralized Finance sector has happened on top of Ethereum as its base.

Unfortunately, scalability issues started to emerge as Ethereum grew as a network. The number of transactions increased, but so did the cost of performing these transactions, which are paid in a currency called Gas.

If Ethereum is supposed to be the main platform to build the next generation of the Internet on top of it, the economics have to make sense, or the network becomes too impractical to use.

Ethereum 2.0 was announced as the solution to the scalability problem. These improvements will attempt to create a contrast to the existing version of Ethereum, and every part of the 2.0 version will be rolled out extremely carefully and slowly.

What Is Ethereum 2.0?

Ethereum 2.0, or “Serenity,” is the long-awaited and often discussed upgrade to the Ethereum network. This update’s main goal is to improve the network’s scalability. It will attempt to achieve various enhancements, where speed, efficiency, and scalability should all be improved without sacrificing any security and decentralization.

While this version of Ethereum was planned out a long time ago, it has taken some years to create and finally roll out. The primary reason for this is that any mistake could impact the network’s security, which would be a huge deal.

The biggest difference between the current Ethereum and Ethereum 2.0 is the consensus algorithm they use. While the current Ethereum uses the Proof of Work algorithm, the new and upgraded Ethereum will use the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism, alongside shard chains and the beacon chain. 

Proof of Stake

 

While Proof of Work has proven itself over the years as a stable and safe consensus mechanism, its main problem is scalability, since it demands an enormous amount of computing power as the blockchain grows.

As a solution to this problem, Proof of Stake replaces computing power with a different mechanism. In Ethereum’s case, as long as you have a minimum of 32 Ether, you can commit it, become a validator, and then get paid by confirming transactions.

Sharding and Beacon Chain

Anyone who wants access to the Ethereum network has to do so through a node. A node is a “client” that stores a copy of the entire network, meaning that the node has to download, compute, store, as well as process every single transaction in Ethereum’s existence. Since this can take up a lot of storage, Shard chains were introduced as a solution. They allow nodes to only contain specific parts, or shards, of one whole blockchain. 

While this does improve the scalability of the network, something has to keep everything stays in-sync. Beacon chains are providing information to shard chains and keep them working as intended.  

Ethereum 2.0 Phases

The roll-out of the Ethereum 2.0 update won’t come all at once. Instead, it will be released in three phases, with each phase bringing out a vital part of the update to the public network. 

Ethereum’s 2.0 update will be split into:

  • Phase 0
  • Phase 1 and 1.5
  • Phase 2

Phase 0

This phase will be dedicated to the release of the beacon chain as it’s central to shard chains’ functionality. However, this phase won’t have any shard chains. Instead, the beacon chain will begin accepting validators through a one-way deposit contract.

If you are thinking about staking Ethereum, it’s important to note that registered validators who stake their Ether won’t be able to “unstake” it until shard chains are fully implemented.

This Phase begins on Dec 1, 2020. 

Phase 1/1.5

The next phase is expected to be released somewhere during 2021 and will actually be a mix of two phases. Phase 1 will introduce shard chains, while Phase 1.5 is when Ethereum’s main net will officially begin transitioning away from Proof of Work and onto Proof of Stake.

Phase 2

The final phase of the 2.0 update will roll out in 2021 or later and will allow Ethereum to support fully formed shards. This is when Ethereum 2.0 will actually become the official Ethereum network. 

Final Word

Ethereum 2.0 is certainly an important upgrade to the Ethereum network and will hopefully bring much-needed scalability, among other things. Without the new features that this update brings, Ethereum could eventually become unsustainable, which would be detrimental to the innovation that its platform brings.

 

Categories
Crypto Videos Forex Videos

What Caused The BTC/USD bull run collapse? How To Avoid Major Losses!

https://youtu.be/rRNulW2e57s

https://youtu.be/rRNulW2e57s

 


Bitcoin – USD bull run collapses, what happened?

Thank you for joining this forex academy educational video.

In this session, we will be looking at the end of the most recent bull run for the BITUSD pair.

This is a daily chart for the pair.  As we see here, the pair has been on a bull run and has been conforming to this upward trend line since April 2020.  The price range found support at the all-important $10K level, which coincided with the support line at position A.  The pair found a bid tone up to position B,  where price action did not revert to the support line,  preferring to fade up to the line of resistance where we see a breach above the $14 k line which coincides with the area of resistance at position B giving the pair one of the largest single-day moves to the upside for several months.

We then see an extended rally up to position C see at $19.450k before a major pullback. So, what caused this?

 

Firstly, we need to go back in time to 2017, shown here on the monthly chart, where bitcoin to the US dollar hit an all-time high hit around $19.5K, depending on the broker, shown here at position A, before crashing to $3K in the middle of 2018, at position B, and then taking 2 years to reach the $19.5K area as seen at position C.   This is a double top formation, where smart money investors, saw the potential of a reversal in price action, while many traders were hoping for a continuation to $20K and beyond.

Now we need to drill down to the 1-hour chart.  We have a classic area of support and resistance at position A,  where the resistance line is breached to form a push up to $19.5K area,  before a pullback to the support line and a second attempt to move higher, which forms a double top,  and the price does not sustain the move higher and falls back to the support line at position C,  before crashing lower with large candles suggesting extreme volatility through eventually punching through the support line at position D, which becomes an area of resistance, before the pair crashes to a low of $16.3K. 

This move came about due to a series of important factors,  including historic highs,  followed by a crash,  followed by another bull run,  but where cautious traders would be reminded of the previous crash and were prepared to selling bitcoins and bitcoin futures,  as we see on our charts,  because of the nature of bitcoin which has no store value you other than the fact that it is of limited supply, and is predominantly a speculative instrument.

Thrown into the mix was the current bull run topping out just before the US Thanksgiving holiday, where traders will have decided to unwind their trades and take their profits.

Bitcoin proves again that it is a highly dangerous asset to trade. With one story of a $100 million loss in the press today, timing is critical. The main BTCUSD lost 11% in 24 hours and dragged other crypto assets lower in the panic. However, by using simple trend and support and resistance lines and dropping up and down in chart time frames, traders can gain a clear understanding of the risks and potential for turns in price action.

 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Where Did Bitcoin Go? Wrapped Bitcoin Assets are Encouraging the Supply Crisis!

https://youtu.be/JWAyfCSuin0

https://youtu.be/JWAyfCSuin0


Where Did Bitcoin Go? Wrapped Bitcoin Assets are Encouraging the Supply Crisis

In a blog post that came out on Nov 20, Binance reintroduced BTCB to the world. BTCB is a wrapped Bitcoin asset intended to bring liquidity from Bitcoin to Binance Smart Chain’s DeFi ecosystem.

However, hodlers may be cheering the reintroduction to BTCB for a completely different reason: each Bitcoin locked on Binance Smart Chain may contribute to an already very present Bitcoin supply crisis.

First announced in 2019, Binance initially saw wrapped Bitcoin only as a vehicle for traders to obtain the cross-chain asset exposure without leaving the Binance Smart Chain. However, since then, the utility of wrapped Bitcoin has expanded due to the maturation of the DeFi sector.

For instance, a wrapped Bitcoin token on Ethereum, or WBTC for short, has enjoyed massive success ever since its January 2019 launch: it’s currently ranked #14 when sorted by market capitalization on Coinmarketcap and has found significant adoption in various protocols such as Aave and Uniswap, whose contracts rank among the top-10 holders of WBTC.

In their blog, Binance noted that the pattern of adoption of WBTC might be seen with BTCB as well. The wrapped Bitcoin could be used for minting various stablecoins with BSC-native protocols such as QIAN and Venus. It could also be used as collateral for lending protocols such as CREAM, as well as in yield farming and liquidity mining protocols such as Bakery, Beefy, and Pancake.

According to what Binance “Proof of Assets” page, there is currently almost 10,000 Bitcoin on BSC — netting to over $181 million. However, the blog post specified that only 2,000 of them are in circulation.

Other smart contract-enabled chains are intending to compound the growing scarcity. If the success of wrapped and cross-chain Bitcoin-based assets continues to grow, institutions that are looking to hoover the Bitcoin supply may as well be faced with mounting scarcity.

Co-founder of OpenLaw Aaron Wright pointed to such a possible future in his Twitter post, noting that only 0.6% of BTC is now wrapped and being put to Ethereum. 

Categories
Crypto Videos

PayPal is the Reason for the Bitcoin shortage!

https://youtu.be/5UviEI0BY4Q

https://youtu.be/5UviEI0BY4Q


PayPal is the Reason for the Bitcoin shortage

PayPal’s entry into the cryptocurrency sector could be having a dramatic impact on Bitcoin’s price. In a newly published report posted by crypto investment firm Pantera Capital, the company says that a Bitcoin shortage is the main reason for the current price surge, and that the majority of the newly minted Bitcoin is being scooped up by PayPal. PayPal’s newly announced crypto service is, as Pantera states, “already having a huge impact,” adding that the payment merchant is buying up roughly 70% of all the newly mined Bitcoin.

Citing itBit’s data, Pantera claims that “When PayPal went live, Bitcoin’s volume started exploding. The increase in volume on itBit implies that within just four weeks of going live, PayPal is already buying up almost 70% of the new supply of Bitcoin.” According to Pantera, the data they analyzed suggest that PayPal and Cash App combined are buying up almost all of the newly-issued Bitcoin.


Bitcoin’s monetary policy is programmed in such a way that it is deflationary over time. With the recent widescale adoption, that would lead to higher purchasing power as well as supply scarcity. Pantera claims that it is exactly the supply scarcity that is contributing to Bitcoin’s parabolic surge.


PayPal has launched its crypto trading services in the US earlier this month, allowing its customers to trade up to $20,000 per week. The platform will expand its services out globally in early 2021. The online payment merchant currently has 300 million active users, which makes it dipping its toes into the crypto sector is a major stepping stone for adoption.

Pantera added that it’s a lot easier to purchase Bitcoin now than during the previous bull market in 2017. In addition to PayPal, the retail sector can now step into Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by using Cash App and Robinhood.


Wider adoption certainly means that the father of digital currencies is more likely to see higher price levels. Although Bitcoin remains extremely volatile, it showed the market that it could endure an unusually long period of stability by consolidating for over two months before breaking the sideways trading period and pushing towards the upside.

 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Retire by Holding Bitcoin – Crypto Retirement Plans Now Available in the US! 401k

https://youtu.be/ow1SXTmhVDY

https://youtu.be/ow1SXTmhVDY


Retire by Holding Bitcoin – Crypto Retirement Plans Now Available in the US

A US-based asset manager called Digital Asset Investment Management has launched the country’s first-ever employer-sponsored 401K retirement plans that support Bitcoin. According to a November 19 announcement, DAiM will now serve as the advisor and fiduciary in helping companies “create their employees’ 401K plan that offers several recommended model portfolios that vary in risk to traditional assets as well as the allocation of up to 10% to Bitcoin.”
The Bitcoin will be held in cold storage by Gemini Trust, which will allow DAiM to transfer Bitcoin to former employees that have left participating companies and are not under DAiM’s jurisdiction anymore. DAiM’s crypto-friendly plans are fully compliant with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, and will start being offered by employers starting 2021.

While US citizens have been able to include cryptocurrencies in their individual retirement accounts, called 401K rollovers, and brokerage accounts since the IRS began taxing Bitcoin in 2018, DAiM COO Adam Pokornicky stated that “It’s been impossible to offer Bitcoin inside actual company-based plans up until now.”

“The difference is, while you could take an old 401K plan and convert it to an IRA after leaving a job or employer to invest in Bitcoin, it’s actually never been possible to invest in Bitcoin while still working at a company without taking any sort of penalty or quitting your job.”

 

Pokornicky stated that the traditional wealth management industries have been “slow to adapt and warm up to Bitcoin,” noting that there are “barely any investment advisors that offer licensed and regulated access to Bitcoin directly in retirement and brokerage accounts.” He attributes the sector’s refraining from having a “serious regulatory red tape” surrounding crypto compliance, stressing that it took “close to a full year of building” before DAiM was approved to offer the aforementioned employer-sponsored services:

“As an advisor, you can’t just go and start managing and advising for Bitcoin and crypto because you want to. There’s an enormous amount of both work and compliance that needs to be done prior to doing that, and in order to develop operational frameworks, strategic partnerships and infrastructure that need to be put together to be compliant in every state you operate.”

Pokornicky also noted the “booming” demand for retirement investments in Bitcoin, stating that he’s seen most demand from individuals aging between 28–45.

 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Millionaires are Rushing to Buy Crypto According To This Survey! Do You Hold Any Bitcoin?

https://youtu.be/s4X8shKz_-8

https://youtu.be/s4X8shKz_-8


Millionaires are Rushing to Buy Crypto! Do YOU Hold Any Bitcoin?

 

A survey of over 700 high net-worth individuals has found that almost three-quarters of respondents that are worth more than $1 million either already own or are looking to put a part of their wealth in cryptocurrencies before the end of 2022.
The survey was conducted by financial advisory organization DeVere Group and revealed that 73% of respondents are currently bullish toward cryptocurrencies, which is an increase from 68% back in 2019.

Participants were individuals whose net worth equated to more than 1 million British pounds, equating to approximately $1.32 million. The participants were selected from a wide variety of regions that include the United States, the United Kingdom, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, as well as Latin America.

deVere Group CEO and founder Nigel Green stated in the survey that Bitcoin had once again shown its worth by being one of the best-performing assets in 2020, with a year-to-date increase of 125%. He then added:

“As the survey shows us, this impressive performance is drawing the attention of high net-worth investors who increasingly understand that cryptocurrencies are the future of money, and they don’t want to be left behind.”

Green noted that the respondents eyeing Bitcoin included some of the biggest Wall Street companies and attributed their warming sentiment to crypto adoption by large firms such as PayPal and Square:

“There is no doubt that many high net-worth individuals who were polled have seen that a major price surge driver is the growing interest being shown by institutional investors who are capitalizing on the extremely high returns that the crypto asset class is currently offering.”

Even former Bitcoin skeptics coming from Wall Street are now warming up to digital currencies. During a recent New York Times conference, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan and Chase Jamie Dimon said he’s a “believer” in blockchain technology, as well as in “properly backed, properly regulated” cryptocurrencies.


Taking a look back, Dimon made headlines in 2017 when he referred to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a fraud, although JPMorgan has since embraced cryptocurrencies.


Billionaire hedge fund manager and Bitcoin bear Ray Dalio still has plenty of doubts about Bitcoin. Still, he has recently questioned his own skepticism, tweeting that he might be missing something about Bitcoin and that he’d love to be corrected.

Dalio had suggested that Bitcoin will fall down as a store of value and that governments may just “outlaw it and make it too dangerous to use.” He also stated that he couldn’t imagine central banks, big institutional investors, and multinational companies using it.

The millionaires’ survey was revealed to the public the same day that Bitcoin’s total market capitalization hit a new all-time high of an astonishing $336 billion, and its price rallied to above $18,000 and just shy of the $19,763 high that it reached in December 2017.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Pantera Capital Are Raising $134,000,000 – why?

https://youtu.be/j61Ov4ppiYw

https://youtu.be/j61Ov4ppiYw


Crypto Hedge Fund Pantera Capital Raising $134 Million

 


In a filing with the SEC on Nov 21, Bitcoin hedge fund giant Pantera Capital has announced an equity offering of up to a whopping $134 million, one of the largest capital fundraising campaigns in the seven-year history of the firm.

Founded in 2013 as the first-ever Bitcoin fund in the US, Pantera Capital initially raised $13 million, which is less than 10% of the current offering. It raised another $25 million later on, according to the firm’s public records.

However, in 2018, the fund redirected its efforts towards a larger raise that ultimately resulted in the formation of a third investment fund, now called Venture Fund III. This new fund raised $164 million from 2018-2020, with the majority of the capital inflows bookending crypto’s dreadful 2019 year.

Nowadays, as crypto seems like it has entered yet another raging bull market, the SEC filing tells us that Pantera has big plans ahead. 

Pantera didn’t state the reason for this new raise, and if the raise will result in a new fund or if it will simply be used to expand the scope of Venture Fund III. However, the company’s latest investments and executive comments actually might offer hints at its strategy for the future.


Pantera CEO Dan Morehead said that he believes the growth of decentralized finance, or DeFi for short, has the potential to outpace Bitcoin’s rise, and that the firm is focusing its new bets on the emerging financial vertical. In addition to this, Pantera seems to have its eye on the quickly expanding crypto derivatives market, as shown by its recent investment in Globe, a well-known derivatives trading platform.

Bitcoin bulls shouldn’t be negatively affected by the interest in DeFi and derivatives, however. In fact, Morehead has also previously made a moonshot target for the largest cryptocurrency, as he called for a Bitcoin price of $350,000.

 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Galaxy Digital Earnings Skyrocketing!

https://youtu.be/67Vy_H8uRkg

https://youtu.be/67Vy_H8uRkg


Galaxy Digital’s Q3 Earnings Skyrocketing

Galaxy Digital, a financial firm specializing in digital assets and blockchain technology, has reported that its over-the-counter trading desk reached record volumes in the third quarter. As they stated, this new report signaling that institutional uptake of cryptocurrencies is on the rise. 

The company’s Q3 earnings report showed an astonishing 75% year-over-year increase in trading volumes, as it reached approximately $1.4 billion. The increase was mostly attributed to an expanding counterparty base, the rollout of Galaxy Digital’s electronic trading platform as well as the continued growth of the company’s crypto derivatives business.

Assets under Galaxy Digital’s management totaled $407.4 million at the end of the third quarter, and the assets included $82.4 million in passive Bitcoin and index funds, as well as $325 million in the Galaxy EOS (read it as one word, eos, rather than spelling it) VC Fund. The latter represents a partnership with Block.one, a blockchain merchant bank and EOS founder.

Galaxy’s Bitcoin funds under management increased by 17.3% in the third quarter. While its large-cap Crypto Index Fund made a 32.3% return, the company still wasn’t able to turn a profit. Its Q3 net loss amounted to $44.6 million for the quarter ending Sept 30.

Galaxy Digital was founded in 2018 by a well-known billionaire and crypto evangelist Mike Novogratz. The company was founded in an effort to bring more institutional investors to cryptocurrencies. Novogratz said in an official press release that Galaxy Digital is in the process of preparing itself for the “incoming wave of institutional adoption ahead of digital assets as well as blockchain solutions by investors, corporates, and governments.”

When comparing the 2017 bull market to the current one, we can clearly see that the earlier bull run was largely driven by retail fear of missing out, while the euphoria surrounding Bitcoin in 2020 is quite different, as it is largely tied to institutional uptake.

All the evidence shows that institutional investors are flocking to Bitcoin in far greater numbers in the fourth quarter. Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust experienced record inflows at the start of Nov, putting it on track to reach an astonishing 500,000 BTC by the end of 2020. That number would amount to roughly 2.7% of Bitcoin’s current circulating supply.


On top of that, institutional investors such as Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller also not only own Bitcoin but openly talk about its potential benefits. They have both touted the cryptocurrency’s growth potential in the current environment.

Bitcoin’s price peaked at $16,500 in the past week, while it is currently fighting for $16,000, according to TradingView data. Whether the fight for this psychological level is won or lost, Bitcoin’s long-term potential is extremely bullish.

 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Ex Goldman Sachs VP Seeking SEC’s Approval to get into Crypto With His Company Skybridge!

https://youtu.be/JbnlqNJk5gc

https://youtu.be/JbnlqNJk5gc


Another Mainstream Company Seeking SEC’s Approval to get into Crypto

Investment firm SkyBridge, founded by Anthony Scaramucci, a former Goldman Sachs” vice president, is one of the latest companies trying to step into the world of cryptocurrencies.

The company is trying to put together a hedge fund that would include Bitcoin investment, according to a United States SEC filing from Oct 14. The prospectus states: “The Company may seek to gain exposure to Investment Funds or Investment Managers that may enter into derivative transactions. These can include total return swaps, futures, and options. Investments by the Company may also be made in companies that are providing technologies related to digital assets and cryptocurrencies, or other emerging technologies.”

After more than 10 years of progress, the cryptocurrency sector is starting to gain traction on an institutional level. Several mainstream companies as well as individuals have kicked off a notable trend of entering and promoting cryptocurrencies, and most notably Bitcoin.

Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones stepped into Bitcoin heavily earlier this year. He also recently stated how early he feels that the investment opportunity still is.

Despite SkyBridge’s interest in investing in Bitcoin, the company still requires approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission before moving forward with the investment. The prospectus includes: “Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission nor any other US federal or state governmental agency or regulatory body has approved or disapproved the merits of investing in these securities.”

The prospectus included a section that described” “digital assets” in which it touched on and explained their uses, risks, as well as other points of consideration. The document stated that “Digital assets have no intrinsic value other than being a method of exchange. They are not based on tangible security, commodity, contractual right, or legal obligation” The values of digital assets shouldn’t be expected to be connected or correlated to other traditional economic or market forces, as the value of the investments in digital assets could decline rapidly, and even reach zero” the prospectus says after pointing out the crypto sector’s “tremendous price volatility” seen since its inception. They also added that this kind of volatility goes against the norms shown in other mainstream investments.

Bitcoin has, on the other hand, risen to significant heights in recent weeks and is currently inches away from its all-time high of $20,000.

 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Bank Of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe Says Banks Must Keep Up With Crypto! The Race For CBDC!

https://youtu.be/cvBIcHMBxAA

https://youtu.be/cvBIcHMBxAA

Banks Will Need to Adjust to Crypto – Bank of England Deputy Governor Speaks Up

Jon Cunliffe has, as one of the leaders of England’s central bank, talked about crypto and digital assets as well as how banks will have to adapt to the changes brought by the crypto sector. His public statement is a testament to how blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are changing the world as we speak.

Blockchain and digital assets offer their users the ability to store their own assets. By providing this service, they are possibly threatening the solutions that banks offer. Making sure that banks remain relevant on the playfield is not on the to-do list of England’s, or any country’s, central bank. Bank of England deputy governor Jon Cunliffe said that their job does include protecting various bank’s business models, but that banks will have to adjust. “Our job is to make sure that if bank business models change, the central bank manages the financial and macro-economic consequences of that” – Cunliffe said.

Cunliffe also spoke about central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, and the “race” to be the first country to digitize its currency. He said that CBDCs also pose a threat to the solutions that commercial banks provide, as they are essentially cutting them out as middlemen. Crypto, on the other hand, is much broader and presents users with the option of self-custody, which presents a challenge to banks. However, in the case of crypto, banks will still function as fiat currency on-ramps as no cryptocurrency is even close to becoming a unit of account.

China seemingly leads the race to roll out its own CBDC, as it is already testing its digital yuan in some parts of the country. CBDCs hold far-reaching implications. Cunliffe said that “They need to go up the political agenda very fast before the political side starts to discover that there are developments in the private sector that don’t fit with policy.” This was said with an implication that governments across the globe have to prioritize conversations around digital assets due to the changes they may bring.
In contrast to many nations sprinting toward the CBDC finish line, United States financial regulators came out with a statement that they do not need or want to be the first to come out with their own CBDC, but that they rather want to do it right.