Veteran blockchain executive Sangwook Lee has joined Wisebitcoin crypto exchange as senior advisor to help boost the company’s rapid development. Lee’s resume includes top management positions at Bluehelix Korea (CEO) and Huobi Korea (CFO). Lee will utilize his knowledge to help broaden Wisebitcoin’s services, which focuses on savvy professional crypto investors. With a proven record of integrating new financial models into traditional venture capital, Lee’s addition to the team will allow Wisebitcoin to further populate its vision of bringing the simplest, fastest crypto trading experience to the platform users.
“Wisebitcoin is an innovative cryptocurrency trading platform, and is expected to develop quickly with security and market competitiveness,” said Sangwook Lee.
Wisebitcoin’s senior adviser Sangwook Lee
Recently launched, Singapore-based exchange features cloud-based connection to 280 merchants and more than 15 million users worldwide, as well as 24/7 customer support provided by a multicultural team. The platform boasts deep liquidity and leverage as high as 100:1 for contract trading, long and short positions.
Wisebitcoin is a global decentralized exchange for professional traders with a multicultural team of over 50 specialists. The platform provides unparalleled services, such as 24/7 live phone support, cloud infrastructure, an affiliate program, and deep liquidity. Other important features include a user-friendly interface, a mobile app, and an insurance fund for asset protection.
To learn more visit wisebitcoin.com or Twitter.
This content is sponsored and should be regarded as promotional material. Opinions and statements expressed herein are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of The Daily Hodl. The Daily Hodl is not a subsidiary of or owned by any ICOs, blockchain startups or companies that advertise on our platform. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in any ICOs, blockchain startups or cryptocurrencies. Please be advised that your investments are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility.
Institutional investors are rapidly gobbling up Bitcoin, and at the time of writing, nearly 3% of the Bitcoin (BTC) in circulation are locked up in long-term holdings by these investors.
Data shows that 24 entities have amassed more than 460,500 BTC, which is equivalent to $22 billion at Bitcoin’s current price.
According to Michael Novogratz, this figure excludes the 3 million BTC forever lost, who estimates that a supply shortage could occur shortly if institutions keep up their current buying spree.
The current list of holders includes MtGox K K, which has close to 141,690 BTC ($6.6 billion). Next is Block.one with an estimated 140,000 BTC $6.5 billion). MicroStrategy also has about 71,000 BTC ( $3.3 billion) and this week Tesla bought 38,500 BTC (about $1.8 billion).
Analysts now expect that holding Bitcoin in treasury will soon become a corporate standard as there are multiple technical reasons for viewing Bitcoin as an inflation hedge.
First, BTC has a finite supply in circulation, mimicking gold’s store of value use. Furthermore, there is no way to accelerate Bitcoin’s new supply through additional mining.
Large holders further reduce the circulating supply by buying significant quantities from the market and placing them in cold storage. This long-term holding culture among most crypto participants reduces the already small supply, creating a vicious circle.
For savvy chief financial officers, having a portion of Bitcoin’s treasury provides some regulatory hedge and arbitrage as governments cannot freeze funds.
What is surprising about Tesla’s decision to buy Bitcoin is the timing, as the decision happened after the BTC price hiked 250% in four months.
Companies, cryptos, and metals rank. Source: 8marketcap.com
This week’s move caused BTC’s market capitalization to surpass Tesla’s, reaching the ninth position among all tradable assets.
In the past, buying Bitcoin may have been viewed as an incredibly bold move, but now it’s becoming common sense for institutional investors.
With about a rough estimate of $10 trillion of corporate treasury worldwide, even a 3% allocation into BTC represents $300 billion, which is about a third of Bitcoin’s aggregate value in liquid cash.
Considering that over 60% of the Bitcoin supply hasn’t moved in more than a year, a $300 billion inflow is nearly unimaginable for an asset with a $355 billion free float.
Moreover, newly minted BTC by miners adds up to 341,640 annually, a mere $16.3 billion. Therefore it is safe to conclude that the steady allocation of BTC to corporate treasuries could more than double the current price of Bitcoin.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of theauthorand do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Popular crypto trader and analyst Lark Davis is naming five altcoin gems that he believes are primed to generate 100x returns to investors.
In a new YouTube video, Davis tells his 206,000 subscribers that his first pick is RAMP, a decentralized finance (DeFi) that allows users to access staked capital while still earning yield, freeing up billions of dollars in value.
“Essentially, this allows you to double or triple or even more your total yield gains for the year… The potential value capture here billions of dollars.”
Davis notes that the project is up 5x since he started talking about it on his channel, but with a current market cap of roughly $63 million at time of writing, the trader says the asset has a lot of room to grow and could become a blue-chip DeFi coin en route to a $1 billion market cap this year.
The second coin Davis is taking a look at is another DeFi project under a $100 million market cap. Davis says yield farming robo advisor APY.Finance (APY), which helps users direct their capital towards the most lucrative yield-farming opportunities in the space, can potentially grow into a billion-dollar market cap in this bull cycle.
Davis believes the project, which is nearing its official product launch, is set up to compete with yearn.finance (YFI). Though Davis is long-term bullish on the DeFi project, he notes that it has pumped hard as of late, and that investors may want to wait for a better entry in the short term.
Next up is Polkadot-based liquidity aggregator Reef Finance (REEF). Davis notes that the project, which is sitting at a $145 million market cap as of writing, is poised to continue its run-up.
“[Reef Finance allows] for both trading and access to centralized and decentralized exchanges so sourcing liquidity from across the crypto market. They’re also offering smart lending, smart borrowing, staking, and mining, thanks to an AI-driven yield engine. Basically, a total freaking DeFi powerhouse in the making, focusing on the right market at the right time… What’s really interesting is we don’t have any DeFi blue chips built on the Polkadot yet. There will be DeFi blue chips and Reef could be one of those.“
The last two coins Davis discusses are upcoming token sales that he says could make early investors some serious gains.
The first is synthetic asset trading, lending, issuing, and borrowing platform, Shadows, which will be launching on the Polkadot blockchain. Davis says the project is going after a market with trillions of dollars of assets “that can be synthesized and brought into DeFi.”
Davis notes the initial token sale for the project is expensive to get into, but that after the initial launch, Shadows will be available to trade on Uniswap.
Last on Davis’ list is the highly-anticipated gamified predictions market Polkamarkets (POLK), whose Twitter account already has nearly 20,000 Twitter followers prior to its launch.
“Polkamarkets will allow you to make predictions on the outcome of things like elections or sporting events… Prediction markets have proven to be pretty popular over on Ethereum but I think the gamification of what they’re doing here at Polkamarkets could really take this to the next level.”
Davis also notes that the project is launching on Polkastarter, which means the launch will likely receive a lot of hype as “all of the Polkastarter launchpads have done very well.”
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any loses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.
As multiple banks prepare crypto custody services, holders now have to flip an old Bitcoin saying on its head: are the banks prepared to be their own (and others’) bank?
Last week BNY Mellon, the oldest bank in the United States, announced they would be providing custody solutions, ceding to pressure from institutional investors. Likewise, documents from December indicate that Deutsche Bank is also planning a custody solution, along with trading and token issuance services.
However, while both banks are well-established and have experience handling a wide range of assets, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re prepared for crypto custody.
“Digital assets are totally different than traditional assets like bonds, stocks, and treasury bills. Digital assets are decentralized by design and their ownership is therefore relying on a totally different model that cannot reuse the existing centralized infrastructure of the traditional banking world. To custody crypto assets you need a brand new infrastructure in place,” said Jean-Michel Pailhon, the vice president of business solutions at Ledger in an interview with Cointelegraph.
Even for institutions that are crypto-native, custody is extremely complex. Just last year the crypto exchange KuCoin suffered from a hack that netted the attacker over $200 million. Having custody over large sums creates an attractive honeypot for would-be attackers, and according to experts not even many major crypto exchanges approach custody security properly.
“Only a few crypto exchanges like Kraken, Gemini and Binance are investing a lot of money to prove proper internal controls over their personal private keys management protocols,” Dyma Budorin, co-founder and CEO of Hacken told Cointelegraph last year.
If the big banks want to approach security right, they effectively have three options, said Pailhon.
“They can contract with an existing regulated custodian, they can build their own custody infrastructure and get it regulated, or they can buy a custody technology from a vendor and use it and get it regulated.”
Particularly if the banks opt to build their own solutions, the expenses and time can pile up quickly. The banks will have to hire dedicated developers, “allocating large investments for infrastructure” including data centers and servers, and run the regulatory gamut — a process that alone can take “6-12 months.”
“The level of efforts and investments required to provide an institution with an enterprise-ready self custody solution is substantially higher than for an individual. It requires slightly different technologies and governance processes to secure billions of dollars in digital assets,” he added.
Regardless of the route the banks take, Pailhon says that it’s a sign of crypto’s growing legitimacy that banks like BNY Mellon want to provide custody solutions. Additionally, as crypto’s total marketcap grows and the value of assets for institutions and even some individuals soars, secure custody solutions will become increasingly important.
“You can’t protect 5, 10, or 50 billion dollars in bitcoin with a garage-based server or an air-gapped computer located in a bunker in the Appalachian mountains. You have to put in place a fully redundant, resilient, secure, certifiable, and auditable custody infrastructure that can scale and empower millions of users and support hundreds of thousands of digital asset transactions in a month. The future success and adoption of digital assets and of the digital asset management industry will depend on this.”
According to a research report published by Azoth Analytics in August 2019, the cryptocurrency market was at $ 856.36 billion in 2018. The cumulative market cap of cryptocurrencies increased by about 300 percent in 2020 as digital coins are increasingly becoming an investment tool.
According to the research report, the global cryptocurrency market will experience substantial growth, represented by a CAGR of 11.9% from 2019 to 2024.
Cryptocurrency Market Over the Pandemic
Early March was catastrophic for major world markets. As news of the coronavirus pandemicspread, stock markets experienced the fastest decline in history and the most dramatic since 1929. The pandemic hit hospitality and tourism the hardest when countries imposed travel restrictions and lockdowns. It caused oil prices to fall amid the ongoing price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia.
All the panic and uncertainty caused by the pandemic resulted in a liquidity crisis even before the economic crisis began. Investors are desperately turning their holdings into cash to protect their finances. Unfortunately, Covid-19 did not spare the cryptocurrency market these worries, and bitcoin and altcoin prices have fallen.
The price of bitcoin was cut in half to $ 3,780in March.Today and the popular cryptocurrency has bounced back and even hit a high this year – around $ 42,000. Even China, known for its love and hate relationship with cryptocurrencies, declared it a top asset in 2020 due to its excellent results amid financial turmoil.
Bitcoin’s fast recovery is an indicator of market sustainability. A glance at Bitcoin’scurrent trading priceunderlines that apart from a few price adjustments, it has risen steadily from its March low. This upward trend has increased interest in bitcoin – and cryptocurrency in general – in Asia and the rest of the world.
Investors are Looking Into Cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies are gradually gaining a reputationas a havenlike gold and other metals. However, this is not the only reason investors are diversifying their investment portfolios with bitcoin and altcoin. The pandemic shocks prompted companies to accelerate their digital infrastructure, including remote technology and financial services.
Virtual currencies have stepped in to meet this need. They have been preparing for this for a long time, and the pandemic has been the leading accelerator. Banks are trying to introduce crypto-based services that include withdrawals, deposits, and transfer payments via digital wallets.
However, regulation remainsthe biggest challengefacing cryptocurrency in general. Although it is becoming more widespread, it is still not widely used and regulated in many countries. One of the most significant exceptions is Singapore.
Given the potential for cryptocurrency to change the financial landscape and beyond, countries need to act faster to enforce stricter regulations. But if there’s one thing the pandemic has highlighted, bitcoin and altcoins have real value in today’s world – and it’s not just speculation.
Bitcoin’s (BTC) abysmal December 2017 futures launch quickly fell short of investors expectations and even though the CME BTC market has surpassed $2.5 billion in open interest, the initial launch has reinforced the narrative that this week’s CME ETH futures launch will be equally bearish in the short term.
Prior to the CME BTC futures launch, Bitcoin had already gained 1,900% for the year, a rally which some analysts argue was propelled by the expectation of regulated futures.
Now that the CME ETH futures have launched, investors are watching closely to see if Ether (ETH) will face a similar situation as it has already gained 600% over the past year.
To date, there is no way to estimate how Bitcoin would have fared without the existence of the CME and CBOE futures. Nevertheless, traders still tend to connect the CME launch to the 70% crash in BTC price that occurred in the first 3 months following the launch.
Analyzing an assortment of commodities and FX contract launches over the past two decades might provide a better perspective on the matter so we will review data from the CME’s historical first trade dates index to see if there is a discernible price trend that occurs after CME listings.
Crude palm oil
Crude Palm Oil prices. Source: Worldbank.org
When crude palm oil futures launched at CME in May 2010, they did not affect its ongoing price recovery as the above data indicates. Similar contracts had already existed for nearly a decade at NYMEX, thus the above event might have held lesser importance as both exchanges handle institutional clients.
Multiple factors could have caused palm oil prices to hike after the CME launch, including WTI oil’s 23% positive performance over the next five months.
South Korean won
On a similar tone, the South Korean won futures listed in September 2006 and in this instance the launch did appear to have an immediate impact on price.
South Korean won / USD spot prices. Source: TradingView
Despite not having a futures contract, Non-Deliverable Forwards (NDF) for the South Korean won already existed ahead of the CME listing. These NDF contracts are usually traded over-the-counter (OTC) and are seldomly transferable between investors. This means that the listed futures contract had a broader number of institutions that might take part.
Once again, it is impossible to estimate whether this futures contract launch had an immediate impact on price. It’s possible that the South Korean won devaluation followed the trend of emerging or Asian economies. Therefore, pinning this movement to CME futures launch seems a stretch.
How did commodities fare?
Both Ether and Bitcoin are usually considered scarce digital commodities, thus it makes sense to compare it against other previous CME launches.
Going back to commodities, Diammonium phosphate (DAP), a widely used fertilizer, held its CME futures contracts debut in June 2004.
Prior to the CME launch, the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) held these contracts since 1991. Nevertheless, there’s potential evidence of a price dump ahead of the listing. However, for those analyzing a broader time frame, the listing itself seemed like a price catalyst rather than something negative.
South African coal futures
South African coal spot prices. Source: Worldbank.org
Coal futures started trading in July 2001 at CME, and unlike the previously discussed examples, it did not have a listed proxy on other exchanges. Similar to Bitcoin, a 50% hike occurred over the year and a half that preceded its debut.
The result mimics Bitcoin’s listing, as the commodity dropped 33% during the next twelve months.
To conclude, there is no set trend which allows anlayts to predict an assets performance after a CME listing. Multiple historical events have been lined up, and a concrete pattern has not been found.
Not every futures contract gathers relevant liquidity and the CBOE Bitcoin futures delisting proves this point.
At this point, it’s safe to conclude that Ether’s future price performance will depend on a range of factors like the performance of Eth2 and its crucial role in the DeFi sector.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of theauthorand do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Mike Novogratz, CEO of crypto management firm Galaxy Digital, is revealing when he thinks Bitcoin will hit his target of $500,000.
In a discussion with Michael Saylor on the WORLD.NOW event hosted by MicroStrategy, Novogratz proposes that Bitcoin will continue to perform well, more so as a store-of-value asset rather than as a currency.
“I think we’ve hit a tipping point in this network effect I talked about, and my base case is: if I look at Bitcoin as a percentage of gold, I think Bitcoin is going to be digital gold. I know a lot of people disagree with me. They’ll think, ‘No, it going to be money. It’s going to be the blockchains of all blockchains,’ I just don’t think so. I think it’s got a beautiful lane as a store of value. It was perfectly designed as a store of value.”
Seeing it as a store of value asset, the Galaxy Digital head says he believes the largest crypto asset will continue to catch up to gold’s $10 trillion market capitalization as it prints gains of over 10x in as little as three years.
“I think of it as, ‘What percentage of market cap is gold?’ We’re about 6% of the gold market cap. My sense is by the end of the year we are easily 10%. So that gets you to Bitcoin $55,000-$60,000. I know as soon as we get to 10%, we’re going to say, ‘Well why 10? Why not 20?’ And when we get to 20%, we’re going to be 50%, and then we’re going to be 100%.
So I would be $60,000 end of this year, and I’m $500,000 probably like 2024-2025… It doesn’t happen overnight. It happens with more and more education, with more and more seminars like this, with more and more communities buying into the idea.”
At time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $47,888 according to CoinMarketCap.
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Coming every Saturday,Hodler’s Digestwill help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.
Top Stories This Week
Bitcoin hits all-time highs as Tesla invests $1.5 billion
The past week is going to go down as one of the best in Bitcoin’s history.It all began when an SEC filing revealed Tesla has invested $1.5 billion in BTC and planned tostart accepting cryptoas a payment method.
BTC’s price immediately leaped to record highs on the news, surging by20%in 24 hours.The announcement came weeks after Elon Musk added #bitcoin to his bio and revealed he supported the cryptocurrency.
Tesla’s Bitcoin exposure represents about7.7% of its gross cash position, and the news has sparked hopes that other major corporations will follow suit.Galaxy Digital’s Michael Novogratz predicted that “every company in America” will emulate the electric vehicle maker by allocating part of its balance sheets to BTC.
But some treasury expertshave been left scratching their headsover the change in Tesla’s investment strategy, with critics describing the move as “unusual” and “risky.”JPMorgan also piled in and said the purchase mightnot trigger a ton of similar investments.
Mastercard announces support for crypto on its network in big week for adoption
Tesla was just the tip of the iceberg, with a flurry of announcements proving that Bitcoin is now firmly in the mainstream.
Mastercard unveiled plans to start supporting crypto this year, paving the way for almost 1 billion people to spend digital assets at more than 30 million merchants.The company said the move was about giving its customers choice.
Elsewhere, PayPal revealed that its crypto service is going to berolled out in the U.K., making it the first international market since a successful launch in the U.S. last fall.
Twitter, home to crypto-friendly CEO Jack Dorsey, confirmed it is looking into how it might pay employees who wish to becompensated in Bitcoin.Chief financial officer Ned Segal added that the social network is exploring whether it needs to have BTC on its balance sheet.
There was more to come.BNY Mellon, America’s oldest bank, announced that it willoffer crypto custody servicesfor institutional clients.Its chief executive, Roman Regelman, told the WSJ: “Digital assets are becoming part of the mainstream.”Other major banks, such as JPMorgan, now believethey’ll eventually have to get involvedin BTC.
Speculation is now growing that Applewill be one of the next companiesto embrace Bitcoin.The cherry on top of the cake came when the crypto-focused fintech platform BitPay revealed that card ownerscan now pay for goods and servicesusing Apple Pay.
Key Bitcoin price metric signals traders are positioned for $50,000
BTC surged beyond$43,000without breaking a sweat on Monday, besting last month’s all-time high of$42,000.As the week progressed, Bitcoin managed to hit $48,900.
Many high-profile analysts openly predicted last year that$50,000was a realistic price target for 2021.Just six weeks into the year, BTC has come tantalizingly close to this level.
Despite Bitcoin’s value trebling in the space of just three months, several crypto traders believe that the scene remains exceedingly bullish… and those looking for a local top might end up being disappointed.
One analyst, Cheds, told Cointelegraph:“In my view, bulls are still in complete control, and every day, we get more news of institutional adoption and demand and that, more than anything, will be the driving force.”
Another, CryptoWendyO, described$50,000as “inevitable,” adding that a Bitcoin tweet from Musk could send BTC to$54,000.
Ethereum hits a new all-time high as CME futures go live
ETH broke$1,800this week, setting new records several times along the way.All of this came as Ether futures made their long-awaited debut on CME.
It’s also been a very lucrative few days in the altcoin markets.Cardano has surged 71% over the past seven days, and Polkadot is up 49%, with Binance Coin crushing the competition after clocking gains of 103% in the space of a week.Even XRP managed to break$0.60once again, which has the Sword of Damocles hanging over its head.
BNB’s gains are undoubtedly linked to therecord levels of trafficcoming to the Binance exchange, with the platform suffering an outage on Thursday as it went down for maintenance.
Thetotal value locked in decentralized financealso managed to crack $40 billion this week.However, much of this surge is likely down to the soaring value of Ether rather than a dramatic explosion in activity.
Founder of Dogecoin sold everything in 2015 for “a used Honda Civic”
Not everyone is rolling around in $100 bills as a result of the crypto bull run.Dogecoin founder Billy Markus has revealed that he sold off his DOGE stash in 2015 for an amount equivalent to a used Honda Civic.
All of that means that he missed out on the Dogecoin mania that has helped the joke cryptocurrency gain900%since late January, fueled by tweets from Elon Musk.
Writing on Reddit, Markus said that he can’t comprehend the prospect of DOGE ever reaching $1, writing:“That would make the ‘market cap’ larger than actual companies that provide services to millions, such as Boeing, Starbucks, American Express, IBM.”
Musk recently revealed that he hadbought some DOGE for his nine-month-old sonso he can be a “toddler hodler,” but there are fears that his days of tweeting about crypto could be numbered.Legal advisors have warned the billionaire that his social media activity and public statementscould come under scrutiny from the SEC.
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at$47,592.20, Ether at$1,836.68and XRP at$0.60. The total market cap is at$1,477,578,548,979.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week areAvalanche,BitTorrentandThe Graph. There’s just one altcoin loser in the top 100 this week:Ampleforth.
For more info on crypto prices, make sure to readCointelegraph’s market analysis.
Most Memorable Quotations
“Cryptocurrency has become a worldwide transaction of which you cannot even identify who owns what. The technology is so strong that I don’t see the kind of regulation that we can do. Bitcoin has made our currency almost useless or valueless.”
Sani Musa, Nigerian senator
“Elon Musk has exposed Tesla to immense mark-to-market risk.”
Peter Garnry, Saxo Bank head of equity strategy
“I see the promise of these new technologies, but I also see the reality: cryptocurrencies have been used to launder the profits of online drug traffickers; they’ve been a tool to finance terrorism.”
Janet Yellen, U.S. Treasury Secretary
“New account registrations are still open, not sure for how long. Also seeing ATH on this. Better get an account soon.”
Changpeng Zhao, Binance CEO
“It would not be surprising — given the focus on the chief executive’s tweets, Bitcoin pricing and recent dramatic market moves — for the SEC to ask questions about the facts and circumstances here.”
Doug Davison, former SEC enforcement official
“Digital assets are becoming a more important part of the payments world. We are here to enable customers, merchants and businesses to move digital value — traditional or crypto — however they want. It should be your choice, it’s your money.”
Mastercard
“Bought some Dogecoin for lil X, so he can be a toddler hodler.”
Elon Musk, Tesla CEO
“The main issue with the idea that mainstream corporate treasurers will follow the example of Tesla is the volatility of Bitcoin.”
JPMorgan
“We’ve done a lot of the upfront thinking to consider how we might pay employees should they ask to be paid in Bitcoin, how we might pay a vendor should they ask to be paid in Bitcoin, and whether we need to have Bitcoin on our balance sheet.”
Ned Segal, Twitter chief financial officer
“Markets are going up heavily, but we’ll be seeing some downwards momentum as well. Nothing goes up in a straight line.”
Michaël van de Poppe, Cointelegraph Markets analyst
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see there being almost some sort of a race now — you have Elon Musk, you have Michael Saylor, Jack Dorsey. You’re gonna see a lot of other visionary leaders in disruptive companies actually realizing that it’s really moved from ‘why’ to ‘why not.’”
Michael Sonnenshein, Grayscale CEO
“The target for consolidation is near $52k, where I’m expecting a bit of a correction but the measured move overall should take us towards $63,000.”
filbfilb, Cointelegraph Markets analyst
“Any wallet that won’t give you your private keys should be avoided at all costs.”
Elon Musk, Tesla CEO
“Central banks should ban the trading of it, and force anyone who holds Bitcoin and wants to use it in any transaction, to exchange it for another currency that does not have such a damaging side effect.”
Nick Boles, former British MP
“ETH futures go live on the CME today. This is huge. This is a bridge to institutions. This is a green light from U.S. regulators. ETH is becoming globally accepted commodity money.”
Ryan Sean Adams, Ethereum researcher
“If [Apple] decides to enter into the crypto exchange business, we think the firm could immediately gain market share and disrupt the industry.”
Paul Steves, Royal Bank of Canada Dominion Securities
“We expect to begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future.”
Tesla
Prediction of the Week
Bitcoin price poised to hit $63,000, says trader filbfilb
The popular analyst filbfilb has declared that “the game has changed” for Bitcoin — and has revealed what he thinks will come next for the world’s biggest cryptocurrency.
The Cointelegraph Markets contributor has said that he’s anticipating “a bit of a correction” once BTC hits $52,000 but believes “the measured move overall should take us towards $63,000.”
And on the matter of corporate adoption, he wrote: “I really don’t think people understand that S&P 500 companies owning Bitcoin means that by default people’s pensions are exposed to Bitcoin.The % of people invested in Bitcoin has already reached the masses, they just don’t even know it.”
FUD of the Week
Ethereum-based social media project shuts down as ETH fees approach new highs
An Ethereum-based project has ceased development due to rising gas prices, as the cost of transacting on the blockchain continues to push new highs.
Unite, which aimed to offer social media tokens, said the original idea for the project has been rendered unfeasible by the recent spike in fees, with the average cost of using Ethereum rising by a staggering 35,600% since last January.
The startup intended to allow social media users on sites such as Twitter and Discord to distribute Ethereum ERC-20 tokens to their audience and community.Developers also confirmed that they have decided against building the platform on a layer-two solution.
FTX CEO claims competitor responsible for racist messages delivered to Blockfolio users
Blockfolio’s Signal feed was briefly compromised this week, with some users receiving racist messages within the company’s app.
Now, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who acquired Blockfolio for $150 million last August, has shed light on what happened following a security review.
He claimed that the offensive content was produced and published by a competitor exchange that maliciously gained access to someone’s account.
Bankman-Fried didn’t name the culprit but stressed that funds were not jeopardized at any time.He also confirmed that Blockfolio has now fixed the vulnerability that led to this situation.
The executive has been praised for his handling of the situation, and he has apparently added$10to the trading accounts of affected users, as well as donating to organizations dedicated to fighting racial and societal injustice.
India’s crypto ban is coming, hodlers to be given transition period: Bloomberg
An unnamed senior finance ministry official has claimed that India will soon completely ban crypto assets.
It’s reported that the use of cryptocurrency in all forms will be prohibited under the new law — meaning transacting through foreign exchanges won’t be allowed either.
Crypto exchanges have reacted with dismay to the news. Unocoin co-founder Sathvik Vishwanath said:“If government goes ahead with banning all cryptocurrencies, except the one backed by the state, it will not make sense to continue our business in India. But we’ll have to wait and watch.”
The Indian government has been determined to clamp down on crypto use after the supreme court overturned the RBI’s blanket ban on local banks providing services to businesses dealing with crypto.
Best Cointelegraph Features
Moment of truth? Tesla purchase is the moment Bitcoin has been waiting for
Despite some expected near-term volatility, Tesla’s exploration of the crypto realm will likely help the industry scale up to new heights.
Coincidence? Company stocks rise after they buy Bitcoin as a reserve
The market caps of most companies that bought Bitcoin have increased recently, but is that solely thanks to BTC?
A new trend? Non-crypto CEOs and celebrities embrace Bitcoin on Twitter
Are business leaders signaling the technological future they believe is coming to pass — an international and decentralized one?
Dapper Labs, responsible for high-flying digital collectables such as NBA Top Shots and CryptoKitties, is raising funds that should net the firm more than $250 million at a valuation of about $2 billion, according to The Block, which cited sources familiar with the deal.
Canada is bringing a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to North America.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Ontario Securities Commission says it has granted approval for the introduction of a Bitcoin ETF proposed by Canadian asset management firm Purpose Investments.
The ETF is allowed to trade in the following Canadian provinces and territories: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut.
A Purpose Investments’ press release reveals that the US-based digital currency exchange and custodian Gemini will serve as the sub-custodian. Toronto-based investment servicing firm CIBC Mellon Global Securities Services Company will act as the fund administrator.
According to Purpose Investments’ CEO Som Seif, the ETF is the first of its kind, allowing clients to gain exposure to the leading crypto asset without the need to self-custody.
“The ETF will be the first in the world to invest directly in physically settled Bitcoin, not derivatives, allowing investors easy and efficient access to the emerging asset class of cryptocurrency without the associated risk of self-custody within a digital wallet. Similar to physically-backed gold or silver products, the ETF will always be backed directly by physically settled Bitcoin holdings.”
The Canadian asset management firm highlights that there it will not charge fees for holding the Bitcoin instrument known as trailing commissions. An annual management fee of 1% will be levied while operating expenses and trading costs are yet to be decided.
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any loses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.
