Day: December 11, 2020

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

by Blockchain News

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

Businessman atop a pile of Bitcoins

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Public Companies Buying Bitcoin as A Reserve Asset

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

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

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

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Chainlink Posts “First Death Cross” Seen Since 2018 Against Bitcoin Pair

by NEWSBTC
Chainlink has seen some mixed price action as of late, with bulls unable to gain a decisive edge over bears as the entire market turns lower. LINK isn’t the only cryptocurrency that has been struggling to gain any bull-favoring momentum, as most other cryptocurrencies have also seen some intense selling pressure that has slowed their […]

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Ripple Executive Says Flare Bringing DeFi to XRP As Anticipated Airdrop Arrives

by Dailyhodl

One of the original architects of the XRP Ledger says the third-largest cryptocurrency is poised to make its debut in the booming decentralized finance (DeFi) space. In a new interview with Uphold, Ripple chief technology officer David Schwartz says Flare Network’s efforts to bring smart contracts to XRP will open up a wide array of […]

The post Ripple Executive Says Flare Bringing DeFi to XRP As Anticipated Airdrop Arrives appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

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4 Reasons Why Bitcoin Drops-12/11

by Blockchain News

Whales are depositing and selling bitcoin

According to one analyst, 98% of the deposits is from the top 10 deposits. This may indicate that bitcoin whales are ready to cash out. We can expect the BTC price would drop deeper.

But institutional investors seems still buying, the analyst further added 

BTC Reserve on Exchanges continues to drop. Yesterday around 40k Bitcoins are withdrawed from exchanges. Some big boy players are still accumulating.

Miners may be selling bitcoin

On Dec 10, Cryptoquant warned the bitcoin dump, saying

$BTC Miners’ Position Index hit the three-year high. It seems miners are selling $BTC to the OTC market or exchanges.

Miners typically have lots of bitcoins and have a great impact on bitcoin prices. When they are willing to dump, the bitcoin price can hardly keep surging.

Mt. Gox bitcoin dump

On Oct 15, Mt. Gox announced to extend the submission deadline for the rehabilitation plan to December 15, 2020. As the rehabilitation plan deadline is December 15, 2020, this means around 150,000 BTC as a refund could be flowing into the crypto market, which could lead to a bearish market potentially.  

Technical Analysis

The 30-day moving average (MA) is a strong support level since the bitcoin price started to surge in October. The correction on Nov 25 and 26 ended when the BTC action nearly touched the 30-day MA support level and then surged to a record high. 

But today although the 30-day MA trend is still up when the BTC action touched the 30-day MA again, it plunged. This could be a warning signal that the bearish market is forming. What to notice is that if the bitcoin price could pull back above the 30-day MA.

bitcoin-chart-20201211.jpg

Source: Binance, bitcoin chart (30-day moving average in blue)

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Chainlink (LINK) Price Set to Surge as Recent Major Partnerships Boost Adoption

by Blockchain News

Along with other cryptocurrencies, Chainlink (LINK) token price has recently taken a plunge of around 5 percent in the past 24 hours. Chainlink’s price is currently trading at $11.78, and is down by 16 percent in the past week.

Chainlink price set to surge as adoption boosts.jpg

Chainlink’s price decline also comes at a time where the supply of LINK held by the top 10 largest whale addresses are also declining. Although Chainlink’s price has not yet recovered, crypto analytics firm Santiment noted that Chainlink’s network growth has picked up. This means that a new wave of investors could continue to take Chainlink’s price higher in the months ahead.

Chainlink supported by Binance Smart Chain

As Chainlink’s growth is on the rise, the network has recently received more support from Binance. The cryptocurrency exchange recently announced that its Smart Chain will be offering native support for Chainlink, which would remove the need for Ethereum.

Binance has announced that the integration between Chainlink and its smart contract has been successful on its smart contract blockchain, Binance Smart Chain. This integration marks a significant step for Chainlink.

The integration between the decentralized oracle platform, Chainlink and the Binance Smart Chain is on a root level, as the Chainlink oracles would not need support for the Ethereum network. According to the official announcement:

“By integrating Chainlink, Binance Smart Chain can now support a robust ecosystem of externally connected DeFi applications, as well as numerous other smart contract verticals such as gaming, insurance, and supply chain management. Chainlink oracles are accessible on Binance Smart Chain without any dependencies on Ethereum.”

Chainlink will also launch its verifiable random function (VRF) on the Binance Smart Chain to enable developers to have a secure and fair source of on-chain randomness. A wide range of applications could be developed with a secure random number generation.

Chainlink and the WEF Develop a framework for oracles

The World Economic Forum (WEF) and Chainlink have published a paper to encourage the adoption of a “holistic standard” for building a bridge between legacy systems and blockchain environments.

The paper highlights the interest in the integration of smart contracts using oracles, like Chainlink, with an external system. The framework noted that the integration between Chainlink, legacy systems, and smart contracts would benefit in certain key areas, including the transparency and accountability of public entities, reducing corruption, and securing important data. 

Boost in adoption could take Chainlink’s price higher

A boost in Chainlink’s adoption could mean that LINK’s price could surge. Raoul Pal recently said that he believes that Ethereum could potentially overtake Bitcoin by market cap in the next 10 years, as the blockchain acts in many parts of the global ecosystem.

This could also apply to Chainlink, as the decentralized oracle blockchain has found itself partnering with numerous entities, taking its expansion to the next level. 

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Ripple Whales With at Least 10 Million XRP Reach an All-Time High as Spark Token Airdrop Looms

by Blockchain News

With the free spark token giveaway by Flare Networks scheduled for tomorrow, Ripple (XRP) whales have been keeping a keen eye on this airdrop as the number of Ripple addresses has reached an all-time high (ATH).

New data by Santiment reveals that Ripple addresses holding more than 10 million tokens have broken the record at 339. 

Crypto whales are smashing records

The on-chain data provider took to Twitter to disclose this milestone, suggesting that XRP whales could be smiling all the way to the bank. Santiment tweeted:

“Leading up to tomorrow’s SPARK airdrop, Ripple’s addresses have grown rapidly. Particularly, addresses with 10M or more tokens (currently $5.67M or more) have risen to an ATH of 339. This looks promising for the tier that has the most XRP at stake.”

With the crypto market undergoing a price frenzy in recent weeks, the number of crypto whales has been tagging along by hitting record highs. For instance, Bitcoin (BTC) whales linked to crypto wallets holding more than 10,000 BTC have surged to 111 by mid-November. Furthermore, the number of Chainlink (LINK) whales holding more than 1,000 LINK grew by more than 445 in November. 

The growing number of Ripple whales shows the third-largest cryptocurrency based on market capitalization is not being left behind in this crypto bandwagon.

XRP holders to benefit from Spark token

Ripple holders who have locked in their XRP funds in anticipation of the Spark token airdrop are expected to gain in profit. 

Precisely, Flare Networks, a smart contract utility fork of Ripple, is hosting the cryptocurrency giveaway to promote FLR tokens, which will greatly benefit XRP holders, given that they will receive free Spark tokens on a 1:1 ratio based on their Ripple funds.

Furthermore, Flare Networks will be able to keep a record and track how much XRP a given investor holds through a scheduled “snapshot” in order to distribute Spark (FLR) tokens to Ripple holders at a later date.

Based on this concept, Ripple whales are expected to be the largest beneficiaries. This, therefore, explains their record-breaking number.

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Bitcoin (BTC) $ 27,253.30 1.67%
Ethereum (ETH) $ 1,875.24 1.40%
Litecoin (LTC) $ 90.65 1.81%
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 113.30 0.70%