Tag: Markets

Siemens Issues World’s First Blockchain Bond

by Blockchain News

Siemens, a German multinational firm that is a leader in the fields of engineering and technology, is one of the first companies in Germany to issue a digital bond on a public blockchain. Because of this achievement, Siemens is now able to count itself among an exclusive club of enterprises in Germany. It has a value of sixty million euros (or sixty-four million dollars), a maturity date of one year, and a maturity date, all in accordance with Germany’s Electronic Securities Act.

According to the announcement that was released on the 14th of February, the bond was issued directly to investors such as DekaBank, DZ Bank, and Union Investment without the need of paper-based international certificates or central clearing. When compared to the traditional methods of issuing bonds, Siemens commented that the approach made it possible for transactions to be carried out substantially more rapidly and effectively.

In the announcement, Siemens put a significant amount of emphasis on the benefits of employing digital bonds as compared to traditional bond-issuing methods. The company asserts that “issuing the bond on a blockchain delivers a lot of benefits” as contrasted to the procedures that came before it. Two examples of items that will become unnecessary as a consequence of this change are paper-based international certifications and central clearance. In addition to this, the bond may be issued to investors on a one-on-one basis without the need for an intermediary financial institution such as a bank to be present during the transaction.

Despite the fact that the transaction was carried out using conventional modes of payment rather than the digital euro at the time of the transaction since the digital euro was not yet available, it was nonetheless completed in only two days. Siemens has set itself the lofty objective of being the industry leader in the ongoing process of creating digital solutions for the capital and securities markets. This is a very ambitious target.

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Taurus raised $65 million

by Blockchain News

The Series B capital round for Taurus, a company that specializes in providing digital asset infrastructure to financial institutions in Europe, was led by Credit Suisse and brought in a total of $65 million. In addition, a number of additional institutional investors, such as Deutsche Bank, Pictet Group, Cedar Mundi Ventures, Arab Bank Switzerland, and Investis, took part in the investment round.

The announcement made on February 14 stated that the funds that were raised by Taurus would be used to strengthen its growth strategy in three primary areas: recruiting top engineering talent to continue developing its platform; expanding its sales and customer success organization to enhance its infrastructure solutions with new offices in Europe, the UAE, and later in the Americas and Southeast Asia; and finally, maintaining the most stringent security, risk, and compliance requirements across all of its operations.

Taurus has formed collaborations with over 25 different financial institutions and business customers across eight countries and three continents. These ties span the globe. Taurus counts Arab Bank Switzerland, CACEIS, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Pictet, Swissquote, and Vontobel among its clientele. Other customers include Credit Suisse, Swissquote, and Vontobel.

Through the digitization of private assets, Taurus believes there is a significant opportunity for the digital asset business to achieve a value of more than $10 trillion. The business has previously participated in the tokenization of 15 projects with a variety of issuers situated in Switzerland and the European Union. These issuers include banks, asset managers, small and medium-sized companies, and startups. In addition, a publicly listed insurance firm has just selected Taurus as their platform of choice for tokenizing actual assets.

Companies dealing in digital assets continue to seek financing despite the fact that the price of cryptocurrencies is in a bear market so that they may continue to expand and innovate within the ecosystem.

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Ishan Wahi pleads guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud

by Blockchain News

Ishan Wahi, a former product manager at Coinbase Global Inc., has entered a guilty plea to two charges of conspiracy to conduct wire fraud in a case that has been dubbed the first insider trading case using bitcoin by the prosecution in the United States.

According to a story that was published by Reuters on February 7th, the authorities are alleging that Wahi gave sensitive information to his brother Nikhil and friend Sameer Ramani, including upcoming announcements of new digital assets that Coinbase customers will be able to trade. The announcement resulted in a subsequent increase in the value of assets, which made it possible for Nikhil and Sameer Raman to create illegal profits of at least $1.5 million. Nikhil Wahi and Ramani are accused of utilizing Ethereum blockchain wallets to buy digital assets and engaging in trade prior to the notifications made by Coinbase.

Ishan Wahi confessed at the hearing on February 7 in a Manhattan federal court that he knew Sameer Ramani and Nikhil Wahi would use such information to make trading choices. The hearing took place in a federal court. He continued by saying, “It was inappropriate to misappropriate and spread Coinbase’s property.”

Ishan Wahi has reached a bargain with the prosecution in which he would serve between 36 and 47 months in jail in exchange for his guilty plea. The date set for his hearing to determine his sentence is May 10th. According to reports, Coinbase provided the authorities with the results of an internal investigation company had conducted into the trade.

Due to the fact that Nikhil Wahi benefited approximately $900,000 from his illegal actions, U.S. prosecutors recommended that he serve a jail term ranging from ten to sixteen months in prison. This recommendation was made because of the fact that he engaged in illegal activity. However, his defense attorneys offered an alternate verdict, arguing that the man’s motivation for the act was to reimburse his parents for the money they had put into his college degree and that the man did not have a history of committing any other crimes.

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Bitcoin Surges By Double Digits Over the Week

by Decrypt

The crypto market appears to have shrugged off weeks of lackluster performance as the price of Bitcoin (BTC) rose 14.5% over the past week to its current value of just over $43,000, according to CoinMarketCap.

Bitcoin slid by nearly 3% over the day after peaking above $45,500 on Thursday,  but is now well above this year’s bottom of $33,500 seen on January 24.

This may still be not enough for some investors, though, with recent analysis by asset manager Blockforce Capital indicating that the average price investors bought Bitcoin at over the last five months is $47,000.

According to Blockforce Capital’s Brett Munster, this means that “on average, anyone who bought during that period has probably lost money and might not be inclined to buy more until they break even.”

Blockforce sees $47,000 as a “key threshold” for the price of Bitcoin, which, coincidentally, is also the 200-day moving average for the benchmark cryptocurrency—”a widely recognized indicator for determining which direction markets are trending in both the crypto and traditional markets.”

“This threshold could provide resistance as those recent buyers may look to recoup their investment and sell off,” wrote Munster. “However, should we break through and stay above this $47,000 threshold, it could provide those recent investors with the confidence to re-enter the market and start buying again.”

Currently, Bitcoin is down 37% from its November 2021 all-time high above $69,000, and while Blockforce reckons that “it’s still too early to declare with any certainty that $33k was the bottom,” the firm says there are reasons to believe that “there is now much more asymmetry to the upside than downside.”

“That doesn’t mean Bitcoin couldn’t fall back down again, but the data seems to suggest that the upside potential now outweighs the downside,” added Munster.

Ethereum

Meanwhile Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin in terms of market capitalization, is down nearly 5% over the day, currently trading hands at just under $3,100, per CoinMarketCap.

That said, the coin has gained over 9% in value over the past seven days.

Ethereum is facing increasing competition from the growing crop of proof-of-stake blockchains, including Cardano (ADA), Polkadot (DOT), and Avalanche (AVAX); however, some industry figures are quite bullish on the coin’s long-term future.

CEO of Canadian digital assets exchange NDAX Bilal Hammoud is one of them, predicting that the price of ETH will reach $10,000 by the end of 2022 as the coin’s value increases due to its scarcity and its imminent transition to proof-of-stake (PoS).

“Ethereum’s latest upgrade turned into a deflationary asset. Proof-of-stake will further lock up ETH for staking rewards, which in theory should influence the price to go up as supply decreases, while demand increases,” Hammoud said during a recent panel conducted by personal finance comparison site Finder.

https://decrypt.co/92697/bitcoin-surges-by-double-digits-over-the-week

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Bitcoin’s 30% recovery in two weeks has BTC whales back in accumulation mode

by Cointelegraph

Bitcoin (BTC) addresses holding at least 1,000 BTC, the so-called whales, have started accumulating more tokens during the recent market recovery. As of Feb. 10, the total supply in these addresses was 8.096 million BTC versus 7.95 million on Jan. 24, according to data from Coin Metrics.

Bitcoin whales and institutional inflows

The buying sentiment among the richest crypto investors picked momentum during Bitcoin’s recovery in the past two weeks as BTC rebounded from its 2022 low of $33,000 on Jan. 24 to around $43,500 on Feb. 11.

Bitcoin supply in addresses greater than 1,000 BTC. Source: Coin Metrics, Messari

Small Bitcoin investors, addresses that hold less than 1 BTC, so-called “fishes,” also joined the accumulation spree during the recent Bitcoin price rebound.

Meanwhile, data resource Ecoinometrics shows the Coin Metrics data in the form of clusters, showing a synchronous accumulation behavior among the Bitcoin whales and fishes.

Interestingly, the clusters looked the same as they did in the days leading up to BTC’s record high of $69,000 in November 2021.

Bitcoin on-chain divergence. Source: Coin Metrics, Ecoinometrics

“Once more this cycle, this rebound in price correlates pretty well with both the small fish and the whales addresses buying simultaneously for an extended period of time, wrote Nick, the analyst at Ecoinometrics, in a note published Fed. 7, adding:

“I don’t know if this signal is going to continue being predictive of a sustained rally, but hey, for now it is working fine.”

A report published by CoinShares this week also showed a rise in inflow across crypto funds last week. Notably, the capital injections into these funds quadrupled to $85 billion, with $71 million flowing into Bitcoin-focused investment products, suggesting renewed institutional interest is also buoying  BTC’s price recovery.

Net flows into digital assets as of Feb. 4, 2022. Source: CoinShares, Bloomberg

“Right now it is just warming up”

Nick suggested that Bitcoin has enough room to grow its valuation in the coming months, citing a so-called “aggregated risk score,” derived from four parameters that are: risk of overextended market, risk of low-demand, high-supply situation, risk of holders taking profits, and risk of increased selling pressure.

Related: Bitcoin rejects sell-off as 7.5% US inflation fails to keep BTC down for long

The outcome is represented in colors, with red and blue suggesting a hot and cool market, respectively. The hotter the market, the higher the selling pressure.

“Right now it is just warming up,” the Ecoinometrics analyst said, adding that “in theory, there is no obstacle to the price rising much higher except for the lack of momentum.”

Bitcoin aggregated risk level. Source: Ecoinometrics

BTC price levels to watch

Meanwhile, on-chain data tracking planform WhaleMap projected $46,200-$49,000 as Bitcoin’s “current resistance range,” citing higher trading activity inside the price area in the past.

Similarly, the firm noted that the $41,400-$42,400 range is now acting as support, as shown in the chart below.

Bitcoin volume profile. Source: WhaleMap

“Closest on-chain resistance according to whale accumulations is only at ~$47,000,” it noted.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.