Bitcoin News and Price | Bitcoin.News

Institutional Investors Regain Confidence towards Crypto while Retail Investors Remain Hesitant: Analysis

by Blockchain NewsAugust 15, 2022

Analysis suggests institutional investors have an increasingly optimistic stance on the cryptocurrency ecosystem, while retail investors are still hesitant to return to the market.

Previously, BlackRock, the world’s largest investment management firm, partnered with Coinbase to offer cryptocurrency trading services to its institutional clients. A few days later, the company announced the launch of the Bitcoin Spot Private Trust.

According to Bloomberg, Leah Wald, CEO of digital asset investment management firm Valkyrie Funds, said in an interview with Bloomberg that:

“BlackRock really wouldn’t be doing this if there wasn’t significant demand from both institutional and retail clients.”

This institutional investment in the digital asset space shows that institutional interest in digital assets has not waned due to the slump in the cryptocurrency market.

According to Coinbase’s second-quarter earnings report, the cryptocurrency exchange’s core retail customers have been inactive and on the sidelines.

The exchange recorded a record loss of $1.1 billion for the quarter.

James Malcolm, head of foreign exchange and crypto research at UBS, believes that the cryptocurrency market is still primarily a retail-driven market. That group will return when it feels like a bottom has been reached.

“The hope is that at some point in the future, institutions will come into the space, institutional adoption will pick up a lot and it will start to look more like traditional financial markets. But this is still predominantly a retail-driven market,” Malcolm added.

Nevertheless, retail investors continue jumping on the Bitcoin bandwagon based on the rise of non-zero BTC addresses. Among small addresses, those holding less than one bitcoin are climbing rapidly, according to Market insight provider Glassnode.

Noelle Acheson, Head of Market Insights at Genesis, said:“This suggests that retail is participating, just not yet in the kind of size that would add more momentum to the overall market.”

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Public Pension Funds Eroded by Headwinds from Crypto Winter

by Blockchain NewsAugust 15, 2022

Pension funds that have bet on the cryptocurrency market over recent years face difficulties navigating the ongoing crash associated with digital assets.

Caisse de dépot et placement du Québec, Canada’s second-largest pension fund, invested $150 million in Celsius Network LLC last October. In July, the crypto lending platform, Celsius, filed for bankruptcy protection because of “extreme market conditions” that prompted a wider selloff.

The Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund bought $25 million worth of Bitcoin and Ether in October last year. Since the announcement, both cryptocurrencies have dropped by more than 50%.

“Of course, we would have preferred otherwise. But volatility and large swings are expected, “said Ajit Singh, the investment chief at Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund investment.

Over the previous two decades, public pension funds have increasingly invested in less-traditional assets in response to low fixed-income.

The recent capital market crash has been painful for investors, especially those who have recently retired or are planning to do so in the next year or two.

The Market Meltdown

Several pension funds and sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have already invested indirectly in crypto assets through stocks such as Tesla, MicroStrategy, and Coinbase.

California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), California’s $441 billion public pension fund, increased the number of its shares in Riot Blockchain, a publicly traded Bitcoin mining firm, in February last year.

In April, a major U.S. asset manager Fidelity Investments in April allowed firms to include Bitcoin investments in their employee 401(k) defined-contribution benefit plans.

Over the two months, important events happened. The global crypto market cap dropped below USD 1 trillion (USD 3 trillion at its peak in October 2021), and the values of cryptocurrencies plunged around 70%.

The plunged values of crypto coins have taken a steep toll on many lending firms and investment funds that deal with those volatile assets. The dreadful incident heightened the risklosings of trust in the indu, creatingeate a downward spiral.

Since the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks moved to tighten monetary policy, money has flowed back from digital assets. Bitcoin has lost more than 60% of its value since the end of last year.

Such losses have driven many crypto lenders into bankruptcy or forced them to take drastic steps like freezing withdrawals.

Decentralized finance platforms promising big returns have also suffered heavy losses on some investments, with some hurt by the terra crash.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : Crash / Crypto / Funds / Industry / Investment / Market / Pension

Public Pension Funds Join Those Stung by Crypto Crash

by Blockchain NewsAugust 15, 2022

Pension funds that have bet on the cryptocurrency market over recent years face difficulties navigating the ongoing crash associated with digital assets.

The Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund bought $25 million worth of Bitcoin and Ether in October last year. Since the announcement, both cryptocurrencies have dropped by more than 50%.

Over the previous two decades, public pension funds have increasingly invested in less-traditional assets in response to low fixed-income.

The recent capital market crash has been painful for investors, especially those who have recently retired or are planning to do so in the next year or two.

The Market Meltdown

Several pension funds and sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have already invested indirectly in crypto assets through stocks such as Tesla, MicroStrategy, and Coinbase.

In April, a major U.S. asset manager Fidelity Investments in April allowed firms to include Bitcoin investments in their employee 401(k) defined-contribution benefit plans.

Such losses have driven many crypto lenders into bankruptcy or forced them to take drastic steps like freezing withdrawals.

Decentralized finance platforms promising big returns have also suffered heavy losses on some investments, with some hurt by the terra crash.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : Crash / Crypto / Funds / Industry / Investment / Market / Pension

Brazilian Crypto Lender BlueBenx Halts Withdrawals after Suffering Hack of $32M

by Blockchain NewsAugust 15, 2022

Brazilian crypto lending platform BlueBenx is currently under scrutiny after it halted its users’ withdrawals.

Per the email shared by the embattled startup to its customers, it claimed that the withdrawal halt was due to the fact that it was hacked to the tune of $32 million.

“Last week, we suffered an extremely aggressive hack in our liquidity pools on the cryptocurrency network after incessant attempts at resolution. Today we started our security protocol with the immediate suspension of operations of BlueBenx Finance products, including withdrawals, redemptions, deposits, and transfers,” the BlueBenx email shared to its customers reads.

While this story was confirmed by the platform’s lawyer, Assuramaya Kuthumi, most of the platform’s customers did not really believe the account of the platform as the core details of the supposed hack was not really made known. In response to the hack, BlueBenx suspended quite a number of its staff, as reported by the local media platform Portal do Bitcoin.

“I think there’s a high probability of it being a scam because this whole hacker attack story seems like a lot of bullshit, something they invented,” a BlueBenx investor revealed to Portal do Bitcoin.

Crypto lending as an offshoot of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has come under intense scrutiny in recent times as most platforms, even the very big and established ones, have been unable to meet customers’ demands. Most have since halted withdrawals on their platform, and BlueBenx users believe the exchange fabricated this story in part because it could not meet up with its bogus promises.

The BlueBenx platform promises investors as much as 66% in returns on specialized offerings on the platform. Lending platforms like the Celsius Network, Vauld Group, Babel Finance, and even BlockFi that offers a relatively lower rate of return have crumbled in the face of the current liquidity pressures that the crypto winter of the first half of the year ushered in.

It is unclear what will happen to BlueBenx investors following the halt of the withdrawals. The exchange has not yet declared a viable way forward.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : BLUEBENX / Crypto Lending / Cybercrime / Hacking / WITHDRAWAL HALT

Brazilian Crypto Lender BlueBenx Halts Withdrawals after Suffering $32M of Hack

by Blockchain NewsAugust 15, 2022

Brazilian crypto lending platform BlueBenx is currently under scrutiny after it halted its users’ withdrawals.

Per the email shared by the embattled startup to its customers, it claimed that the withdrawal halt was due to the fact that it was hacked to the tune of $32 million.

It is unclear what will happen to BlueBenx investors following the halt of the withdrawals. The exchange has not yet declared a viable way forward.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : BLUEBENX / Crypto Lending / Cybercrime / Hacking / WITHDRAWAL HALT

UK’s Channel Islands Tax Haven Luring Investors into Crypto

by Blockchain NewsAugust 15, 2022

While the financial world is hesitant to trade Bitcoin because of the recent market crash, the Channel Islands – several small British Overseas Territories – are quietly offering tax incentives to investors to move their money into cryptocurrencies.

Due to their favourable tax laws, Jersey and Guernsey – the two main islands of the UK’s Channel Islands – are attracting cryptocurrency, blockchain, and other fintech companies into their jurisdictions.

Crypto experts based in Jersey and Guernsey recently talked to Business Insider media about how these islands set up efforts to attract crypto and blockchain investors.

Edmund Hatton, a fintech lead at Digital Jersey, told Insider that these islands have not instituted capital gains or inheritance tax in their governance plan, making them attractive locations for investment firms, including crypto firms.

Hatton said that even before cryptocurrency entered the mainstream, Jersey and Guernsey had begun competing for the booming asset class.

Jersey has attracted crypto firms such as CoinShares, which manages assets worth about $3 billion. The Swiss-digital asset investment firm used Jersey to establish its crypto-backed Physical Bitcoin exchange-traded product in January 2021.

Barney Lewis, the CEO of ZEDRA, an investment firm based in Guernsey, told Insider that he made a recent trip to Miami – the major crypto hubs in the US – as part of efforts to lure American crypto investors to the island and away from rival tax havens like the Cayman Islands.

“We’re competing directly against Cayman, and we’re seeing the migration of US funds out of there. Brazilian and South American investors have fallen out of love with Cayman and are moving the capital to Guernsey,” Lewis said.

Efforts by the Channel Islands to lure crypto investors have coincided with the broad plunge of crypto prices over the previous nine months.

The current crypto winter could benefit the landscape by testing key infrastructure, consolidating major companies, and boosting greater efficiency.

Jonathan Van Neste, a partner at Jersey-based Oben Regulatory, told Insider: “In a crypto winter, we could see a consolidation of crypto projects. That would lead to a much more diversified investment opportunity in the crypto, blockchain, and DLT space.”

The experts said the maturation of the digit asset landscape could increase investors’ appetite for low-tax jurisdictions like Jersey and Guernsey.

The experts are optimistic that the Channel Islands’ proactive approach to luring investors will place Jersey and Guernsey in an ideal position to profit when cryptocurrencies make them come back.

Lewis said although “crypto and digital assets adoption has been slow in the fund’s space, we have to hope we’re well-placed for the next cycle.”

Investing in Cryptocurrencies

People in Jersey and Guernsey have shown the same interest as their counterparts in the UK as residents are increasingly buying into cryptocurrencies.

Reports show that one in five citizens in Jersey and Guernsey own cryptocurrency. Younger people in these islands already used digital assets such as Bitcoin to transact online.

The next generation in the wider UK has already adopted crypto assets and is already using them, despite leading regulators urging caution.

Inflation has been a major driver for people adopting such virtual assets across international countries that have seen currency devaluation.

In January this year, Guernsey launched its first cryptocurrency fund, which is now available to institutional investors.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : CHANNEL ISLANDS / Crypto / Cryptoeconomics / GUERNSEY / Investment / JERSEY / TAX HAVEN / UK

Acala Network’s aUSD Depegged from Dollar Mark after Breach

by Blockchain NewsAugust 15, 2022

Acala Network’s stablecoin was depegged from the dollar mark on Sunday following a breach.

The decentralised finance hub of Polkadot on Sunday tweeted saying a vote was proposed to pause operations on Acala after it noticed configuration issues regarding the Horizon protocol, which affects its stablecoin Acala USD (aUSD).

“We have noticed a configuration issue of the (Horizon) protocol which affects aUSD. We are passing an urgent vote to pause operations on Acala, while we investigate and mitigate the issue. We will report back as we return to normal network operation.”

The stablecoin, at one point, dropped to a low of $0.58, according to CoinMarketCap. Currently, it is trading below the $1 mark.

Acala claims that aUSD is “a decentralised, multi-collateralised stablecoin backed by cross-chain assets”.

“We have identified the issue as a misconfiguration of the iBTC/aUSD liquidity pool (which went live earlier today) that resulted in error mints of a significant amount of aUSD,” said Acala in a Twitter statement. “The misconfiguration has since been rectified, and wallet addresses that received the erroneously minted aUSD have been identified, with on-chain activity tracing in respect of these addresses underway.”

Although Acala has not publicly shared the amount involved in the breach, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao believes that “over a billion $AUSD” could possibly have been obtained by the attacker. The executive said the change is monitoring, adding that aUSD is not listed on the Binance.

In March, Acala launched a $250 million fund to fuel the adoption of aUSD as the dominant stablecoin for the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystem, respectively, according to a report from Blockchain.News.

The report added that the funding round had come as a result of the collaboration between the top 9 known parachain protocols and prominent names in the digital currency ecosystem.

The $250 million commitment was pulled by notable investors in the crypto industry, including Alameda Research, Arrington Capital, Digital Currency Group, IOSG, Jump Crypto, Kraken Ventures, and Pantera Capital, among others.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : Acalanetwork / AUSD / Blockchain / Crypto / Polkadot / Stablecoin

Ethereum Tests $2,000 before Retreating for the First Time since May 31

by Blockchain NewsAugust 15, 2022

Ether rose 2% to $2,030.50, topping $2,000 for the first time since May 31, as investors fretted about its upcoming software upgrade from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism in September (called Merge) with a positive sentiment.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin hinted that the much-anticipated merger could happen around September 15.

Once the merger rolls out, the PoS algorithm will confirm blocks are more economical and environmentally friendly, as validators will be betting on ether rather than solving cryptographic puzzles.

Ether has gained more than 18% over the past seven days, thanks to the U.S. jobs report on August 5 and Wednesday’s drop in inflation.

Ether was trading at $2,006.55 at the time of writing, according to Coinmarketcap.

However, ETH/USD appeared to be in a consolidation mode after breaching the $2,000 mark for the first time since May earlier in the weekend.

The price level is expected to be an important zone of resistance. If the daily close’s above $2,027, then $2,400 is the next target. A retest of the $1,925 level could happen.

Source: Glassnode

According to a note last Friday by Genesis strategists Noelle Acheson and Willis Croft: “Ethereum is currently suffering from new fundamentals (merged token economics), speculative factors (ETH PoW fork, about this still unknown), and the general macro sentiment boost.”

Ethereum’s open interest hit a 4-month high. Open interest in ether futures surged above $8 billion. Hit an all-time high.

Source: CryptoQuant

Joe Hickey, global head of trading at BlockFi, noted last Friday that we are currently seeing two bullish moves in the market:

“The first being an ETH post-merge leveraged play to the upside using calls, butterfly spreads and call spreads. The second being an ETH fork optionality play by arbitrageurs trading pairs of spots, perpetual and quarterly futures.”

On August 10, Off-Chain Labs announced that it had been selected to help bring the Community Points (CP) initiative of the Reddit social media network onto the Ethereum Mainnet.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : #ETH / Bitcoin / Blockchain / Ethereum

Vauld Group Disagrees with Indian Authorities for Asset Seizure

by Blockchain NewsAugust 15, 2022

Following the freezing of Vauld Group’s owned crypto platform FlipVolt by the Indian Enforcement Directorate (ED), the embattled trading firm said it did not agree with the actions of the law enforcement agency.

Vauld Group said the entire asset freeze was fueled by the actions of just one of its clients, adding that it has always cooperated with the regulator when it requested documents or data clarifications.

“It is unfortunate that, despite extending our cooperation, the Enforcement Directorate has proceeded to pass a freezing order, pursuant to which crypto assets in the pool wallets of the company have ordered to been frozen to the extent of approximately INR 2040 million. The freezing order of the Enforcement Directorate is specific to that one customer that availed our services for a brief period of time, whose account we subsequently deactivated. We respectfully disagree with the freezing order,” Vauld Group said.

While the parent Vauld Group is currently facing capital and liquidity strain based on the current market conditions, the response to the Enforcement Directorate is evident that the startup is unwilling to add more stress to what it currently has going on.

The Enforcement Directorate has recently been in the news with its now-frequent crackdown on trading platforms. Earlier this month, the regulator seized the assets of the Binance exchange-linked WazirX exchange for allegedly helping Chinese loan apps to launder funds.

While WazirX said it is also working with the regulators, the trend in which trading platforms are brought under scrutiny is growing in more jurisdictions than just India. On the part of Vauld Group, the company, based out of Singapore, said it is always following the right regulations in all countries and is working on its legal options in the case with the Enforcement Directorate.

“We have fully cooperated with the Enforcement Directorate and will continue to extend our cooperation to ensure we continue to remain a safe place for customers to transact and own cryptocurrencies,” the company added.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : ENFORCEMENT DIRECTORATE / FLIPVOLT / Legal / VAULD GROUP

DeFi Remains One of The Biggest Losers in H1

by Blockchain NewsAugust 15, 2022

The crypto winter is almost wearing off based on several indices, and looking back to the outlook in the first half of the year. The Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystem can be tagged as one industry’s biggest losing sectors.

The combined Total Value Locked (TVL) in the DeFi ecosystem opened the year at a value of $169.1 billion, but at the time of writing, this value has dropped to $67.66 billion. The onslaught experienced over the past few months was encompassing, with investors exhibiting caution concerning their locked funds.

Decentralized Finance offers quite a lot of opportunities that tend to rival what the traditional financial ecosystem presents. One of these is lending; an offshoot adapted to decentralized and centralized lending platforms. This was one of the weak links that generally impacted the broader digital currency ecosystem in the second quarter (Q2) with the most prominent lending platforms crumbling with the liquidity pressure that was ushered in.

Meeting customers’ obligations became extremely difficult following the ripple effect of the Terra USD (UST) and LUNA token crash back in May. While the known decentralized lending platforms like Compound (COMP), JustLend (JST), and Venus (XVS) are still operating, the impact currently being felt is in the slump in their individual TVLs.

Compound, for instance, opened the year with a TVL of $8.92 billion, which is currently pegged at $3.08 billion. This plunge comes at more than a 150% slash and is representative of what most of the DeFi protocols faced in the first half of the year.

The outlook and projections for the rest of the second half of the year are bullish and are based in part on the forthcoming migration of Ethereum (ETH) from the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus model to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network. With this event, analysts are projecting that the positive upgrade for Ethereum can also serve as a good prop-up for other DeFi protocols.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : #ETH / Compound / DeFi / Ethereum / Tvl