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2022-04-02 21:00:26 ​Bitcoin & Crypto Try to Reverse Losses, but Short-Term Hurdles Remain While Surveys Send Positive Signs

Major cryptoassets including bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) trimmed earlier losses, and traded in positive territory for the past 24 hours Friday afternoon in Europe. Friday’s turnaround followed a sell-off on Thursday, with some analysts saying low volumes and technical resistance ahead could weigh on sentiment.

At 15:46 UTC, BTC stood at USD 46,576, unchanged for the past 24 hours but up by 6% for the past 7 days. At the same time, ETH traded at USD 3,440, up by 2% for the past 24 hours and 11% for the week.

The moves today followed a sell-off yesterday, after the price of bitcoin got rejected at the important 200-day moving average, which now sits at around USD 48,290. However, with strong support found in the USD 45,000 area from two prior market peaks, it appears as if BTC can avoid falling back below this key level.

From a fundamental standpoint, the reversal today was supported by a new survey that revealed 80% of surveyed institutional asset managers see a wider use case for cryptoassets, in particular as a diversifier in investment portfolios.

The survey, conducted by London-based crypto hedge fund Nickel Digital Asset Management, further found that money managers saw tokenization of other assets as a potential use case, in addition to using crypto as a way to make payments, both nationally and internationally.

The results of the survey came as strategists at the major asset manager VanEck said in a note on March 30 that BTC could reach a price as high as USD 4.8m if it replaces fiat currency to become the next global reserve asset.

The firm said they believe bitcoin has twice as much upside as gold, although it admitted that it is more likely that Chinese yuan will reach reserve currency status than that bitcoin will.

Meanwhile, more positive news for crypto came from the world of traditional finance this week with the Goldman Sachs Digital Assets Survey.

As reported by multiple media outlets, the survey found that 60% of the Goldman Sachs clients polled expect to increase their digital asset holdings over the next 1 to 2 years. In addition, the survey found that 51% of those polled already had some exposure to crypto, an increase from 40% last year.

Also, commenting on the crypto market during an earnings call for Galaxy Digital, the firm’s CEO Mike Novogratz said that he has become more “constructive” about crypto prices now than he was at the beginning of the year.

“It wouldn’t surprise me to see crypto significantly higher by the end of the year,” Novogratz said, citing “the adoption cycle I’m seeing” and “the way markets trade,” per Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, commenting in his latest newsletter, Quantum Economics founder & CEO Mati Greenspan said that the psychological resistance around USD 50,000 is still a “big hurdle” for bitcoin to overcome. “It's not an easy walnut to crack, and with the current volumes, it seems nearly impossible,” Greenspan said.

He added that due to low trading volumes across exchanges, a more likely scenario could be “a pullback and then a test of the support level at USD 45,000.”

And according to Greenspan, even that level is not likely to hold.

“I wouldn't expect that support level to hold up very well at all. However, you never really know,” Greenspan concluded. Open / Comment

2022-04-01 22:00:26 ​Terra’s USD 10B Bitcoin Bet May be Both a Curse and a Blessing

Terra (LUNA) founder Do Kwon’s plan to partly back the stablecoin UST with bitcoin (BTC) is causing both excitement and concern in the community, with some fearing what could happen to the bitcoin market if Terra faces problems with trust or liquidity.

The plan to back UST with BTC has been spearheaded by Terra’s Do Kwon, who on Twitter claimed that the stablecoin protocol could eventually have a bitcoin stack worth as much as USD 10bn or more.

The intention to buy USD 10bn worth of BTC was reiterated in a recent video interview, where Do Kwon said that the amount would make Terra “the largest single holder of bitcoin in the world,” besides Bitcoin's creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

“In that case, within the crypto industry, the failure of UST is equivalent to the failure of crypto itself,” Do Kwon said in the interview.

‘Biggest forced seller of BTC in history’
Among those who expressed some skepticism about the massive bitcoin holding Terra is amassing was Alan Eschweiler, chief revenue officer at crypto trading bot provider Stacked, who warned of what could happen if UST lost its peg.

“I remind you that UST is awesome when it's buying USD 3b worth of BTC and saving the market,” Eschweiler said in a Tweet, before adding:

“I also remind you it will be the bane of your existence when UST loses peg and we have the biggest forced seller of BTC in history.”

“Until then, we enjoy the pump,” Eschweiler said.

Other widely followed members of the crypto community also appeared to share the same concern, with one popular user saying that USD 10bn in BTC could get “nuked on us:”

‘Bank run’ on UST possible
Similarly, Eric Wall, chief investment officer at crypto hedge fund Arcane Assets, warned that the backing of UST with bitcoin does not necessarily mean that UST is immune from “a bank run.”

“If for any reason there arises uncertainty in the Terra ecosystem, there can occur a bank run on the BTC reserve, knowing that UST is only partially collateralized by it,” Wall told "Cryptonews com".

If this were to happen, individual holders of UST would start to liquidate their stablecoins for BTC. And to the extent that they choose to sell BTC for fiat, a sell-off in bitcoin would happen, said Wall.

Another possible scenario, he said, is that Terra itself starts selling bitcoin from its reserves. And while this is not necessarily likely, “it could happen if they’re forced to by a regulator,” Arcane’s CIO explained.

Wall recently got the attention of many members of the crypto community when he shared his own views on Terra’s plans on Twitter:

Terra ‘validates’ BTC as a reserve asset
More optimistic about Terra’s move was Julian Liniger, co-founder and CEO of the Swiss bitcoin broker Relai, who said it is “overall a promising development” that institutions from both crypto and traditional finance are starting to buy and hold BTC.

“It validates the trend towards bitcoin being viewed as a reserve and store of value asset,” Liniger said in an emailed comment.

However, Relai’s CEO also warned that if Terra becomes one of the largest holders of BTC, the group will get tremendous market power.

“[It] bears a risk of them being able to manipulate the price short-term by selling a lot at once, and therefore creating price pressure,” Liniger said, before adding that this is a smaller problem over the long-term:

“The liquidity and maturity of the bitcoin market is big enough to deal with such situations,” he said.

As of Friday morning (UTC), the wallet that is confirmed to belong to Terra’s Luna Foundation Guard has amassed BTC 30,728, worth some USD 1.4bn at current prices. The foundation is, in other words, making progress towards the USD 10bn goal, although there is certainly still a long way to go. Open / Comment

2022-03-31 18:30:01 ​US Senator Suggests Banning Fed From Issuing a Direct-to-Consumer CBDC

US Senator Ted Cruz has introduced companion legislation to a January 2022 bill drafted by Representative Tom Emmer, which prohibits the Federal Reserve (Fed) from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) directly to individuals.

The legislation bans the Fed from developing a direct-to-consumer CBDC that “could be used as a financial surveillance tool by the federal government, similar to what is currently happening in China,” Emmer’s office said in a statement.

“The bill aims to maintain the dollar’s dominance without competing with the private sector,” it said.

According to Cruz’s bill,

‘‘No Federal reserve bank may offer products or services directly to an individual, maintain an account on behalf of an individual, or issue a central bank digital currency directly to an individual.”

The senator said in a statement that his bill was designed to make ‘‘sure big government" does not try to centralize and control cryptoassets "so that it can continue to thrive and prosper in the United States." He added that "we should be empowering entrepreneurs, enabling innovation, and increasing individual freedom—not stifling it.”

Cruz and Emmer are both members of the Republican Party, representing the states of Texas and Minnesota, respectively.

Commenting on his party colleagues’ initiative, Emmer said he was “glad" Cruz has agreed to offer "a Senate companion to my legislation limiting the Fed’s authorities," adding:

"The Fed must only craft a CBDC framework that is open, permissionless and private."

This said, some crypto industry observers are not sharing the representative’s enthusiasm for the draft legislation.

John Carvalho, CEO of crypto software provider Synonym, remarked that,

“Nothing centrally issued can be permissionless.”

“A cynical interpretation might note how this mandates that any cantillon-esque upside of seigniorage/issance must be experienced directly by the government alone,” tweeted user Travis.web1. “And yet, done in the name of Bitcoin.”

Tascha Che, the founder of audio content business Soundwise, commented that banning the Fed from allocating CBDC to individuals was “the stupidest plan politicians backed by crypto interests ever came up with.”

“Gov-run digital money is free marketing for crypto, expanding awareness & making the latter look better in comparison. Expand the pie & bigger opportunities for all,” she said.

The latest development comes as crypto executives and investors are reportedly gearing to launch a well-funded effort to elect a number of crypto supporters to Congress in the USA's forthcoming midterm elections in what could become the industry’s first major foray into national politics, The Washington Post reported. Open / Comment

2022-03-30 16:30:11 ​Solana NFTs to Get a Boost with Upcoming OpenSea Support

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) based on Solana (SOL), a public blockchain and a rival to Ethereum (ETH), are slated to get a boost as the major NFT marketplace OpenSea prepares to add support for these digital assets.

In a Tuesday tweet, OpenSea all but confirmed its intentions to add support for Solana NFTs, a move that would provide the platform's 1.49 million users exposure to NFTs based on the Solana chain.

In its "the best kept secret in web3" video, OpenSea seemingly answered the popular “wen solana?” question, teasing that a launch could come by as soon as April. Notably, the firm did not speak of a specific launch date.

Should OpenSea proceed with this plan, Solana would become the third Layer 1 and fourth blockchain network OpenSea will support after Ethereum, Polygon (MATIC), and Klaytn.

Meanwhile, NFT insiders have been expecting this news. In fact, earlier this year, tech blogger Jane Manchun Wong revealed that OpenSea’s chains filter showed Solana as an option.

According to DappRadar, based on the number of users, Magic Eden (40,500) is currently the dominant NFT marketplace on Solana, followed by Orca (26,080), and Raydium (11,220). However, the move by OpenSea could have an impact on the number of users of these marketplaces. Open / Comment

2022-03-29 22:10:00 ​MicroStrategy Leverages Bitcoin Holding to Buy Even More BTC

MicroStrategy, the US-based enterprise software firm led by Bitcoin (BTC) bull Michael Saylor, has taken a bitcoin-secured loan of USD 250m from Silvergate Bank, with the company planning to use the money to buy even more BTC.

The loan, issued as an interest-only term loan by Silvergate Bank is “secured by certain bitcoin held in MacroStrategy’s collateral account,” an announcement from the firm said.

MacroStrategy is a subsidiary of MicroStrategy.

The announcement added that the company will use the loan “(i) to purchase bitcoins, (ii) to pay fees, interest, and expenses related to the loan transaction, or (iii) for MacroStrategy’s or MicroStrategy’s general corporate purposes.”

MicroStrategy’s new loan falls under Silvergate’s SEN Leverage scheme, which is a way for institutions to get access to US dollar loans using bitcoin as collateral. Since launching the new type of loan in 2020, Silvergate has lent out approximately USD 570m under the scheme, the announcement said.

“The SEN Leverage loan gives us an opportunity to further our position as the leading public company investor in bitcoin,” Michael Saylor said in a comment. He added that with capital from the loan, the company has “effectively turned our bitcoin into productive collateral, which allows us to further execute against our business strategy.”

California-based Silvergate Bank is known as a crypto-friendly bank that already works with several stablecoin issuers. The bank’s partnerships have included Meta’s Diem stablecoin, which Silvergate purchased after Meta abandoned the project. Open / Comment

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2022-03-27 12:30:01 ​Satoshi Island, Thailand vs. Crypto, NFT Fraud + More News

Adoption news
Satoshi Island, the project that aims to make a 32m sq. ft (3 sq. km) private island into a crypto haven, announced it has received endorsement from the Prime Minister of Vanuatu, where the island is located. The Prime Minister wrote that due to difficulties with COVID-19, “Vanuatu looks for innovative solutions to help grow [their] economy.”
Tech giant LG Electronics added crypto, blockchain, and medical devices as new business areas in its corporate charter, Korea JoongAng Daily reported, citing a spokesperson for the company. They added that their new objectives include "the development and selling of blockchain-based software" and "the sale and brokerage of cryptocurrency."
Data privacy solutions provider Meeco announced the launch of its Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) Decentralised Identifier (DID) and token visualization tooling called Trustury on the Hedera (HBAR) blockchain, with the HBAR Foundation’s support. They added that they are developing the solution in partnership with a range of service providers in the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) market, and that they welcome participation from interested parties.

Regulation news
Thailand will restrict the role of commercial banks in the digital assets business to protect them from unforeseen risks, Bloomberg reported, citing Bank of Thailand Assistant Governor Roong Mallikamas. The central bank said that banks should limit their investment in the digital assets business, including crypto exchanges, to 3% of their capital as regulators are stepping up their oversight.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) reminded all regulated firms that have exposure to cryptoassets of their existing obligations, which include customer clarity, registration with the watchdog, as well as prudential and custody considerations. They added that they’re working with international authorities on more crypto-related clarity and that they will also be engaging with industry participants to seek insights.

NFTs news
Two defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, in a million-dollar scheme to defraud purchasers of NFTs advertised as “Frosties.” Ethan Nguyen and Andre Llacuna allegedly transferred around USD 1.1m to themselves in a “rug pull” scheme, and both charges carry up to 20 years in prison each.
Internet giant Google filed a trademark application for “Non-Fungible Planet,” an educational campaign aimed at “providing information in the areas of environmental protection, conservation, energy efficiency, climate change, reducing carbon footprints, environmental issues and sustainability efforts,” according to the filing. There is no clarification on whether the “non-fungible” part of its name has a direct correlation with non-fungible tokens.

Investments news
Decentralized, non-custodial platform ShapeShift DAO and Web3 protocol data validator UMA announced the strategic investment by Coinbase Ventures and Chapter One in a “significant portion” of the ShapeShift DAO’s recently minted FOX Success Tokens, for a total of USD 625,000.

Legal news
US, Manhattan court indicted Thomas Blackaller Spieker Jr. for operating a global money-laundering business that enabled at least seven criminal clients to use bitcoin (BTC) anonymously to hide and obscure their illegal proceeds. Per the press release, he converted more than USD 2.3m into BTC and more than USD 380,000 worth of BTC into USD between January 2018 and August 2021.
Gordon Brad Beckstead from Nevada admitted his role in laundering funds solicited for BitClub Network, a USD 722m fraudulent cryptoasset scheme, per the US Department of Justice (DOJ), pleading guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of aiding in the preparation of a false tax return. Open / Comment

2022-03-26 21:00:16 ​WonderFi Acquires Canadian Exchange BitBuy, Aims to Become Largest BTC/CAD Market

A planned acquisition of the Canadian crypto exchange Bitbuy by the publicly-traded software company WonderFi was closed on Thursday, after the deal was delayed for months due to “major hurdles” by regulators.

Following the completion of the acquisition, the merged company will get “a leading market share” in the market for bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) trading with Canadian dollars (CAD), an emailed announcement from the two companies said.

It added that the two companies have collectively raised over USD 100m during the past 12 months. The merged entity will now embark on what it called an “aggressive international expansion,” with the first countries targeted being Australia and the US.

Also, WonderFi said that this deal adds over 375,000 registered users to its ecosystem and over USD 455m assets under custody. Ir also expects "material revenue and cost synergies" via user base integration, cross-selling services and a combined global offering.

The company formally being acquired by WonderFi is First Ledger Corp (FLC), Bitbuy’s parent company.

"The consideration paid to former shareholders of FLC consisted of 70 million newly issued common shares of WonderFi, most of which were subject to certain lock-up requirements, USD 20m in upfront cash and USD 30m in deferred cash via a vendor-takeback note due in 12 months, which is subject to a working capital adjustment," per the announcement.

The agreement to acquire Bitbuy was first announced in early January, but the company said “some major hurdles,” including getting approvals from each one of Canada’s provincial financial regulators, slowed down the process.

The acquisition marks the first time ever that Canadian regulators have reviewed a deal involving companies that are active in the DeFi space. As a result, the approval from all relevant regulators is potentially significant, as it opens up the door for a future regulatory framework for DeFi in the country.

For now, WonderFi was given full access to operate in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, while all other provincial regulators said they would further review WonderFi’s business, as well as continue to review the DeFi space more broadly.

“The combination of Bitbuy, Canada’s largest approved crypto trading marketplace, and WonderFi’s decentralized product line-up creates an innovative experience for our clients, and a globally competitive platform, positioned to enter new markets,” Michael Arbus, CEO of Bitbuy said.

Launched in 2016, Bitbuy is Canada’s first regulated crypto exchange. The exchange offers spot trading in bitcoin and a range of altcoins, and had a 24-hour volume of USD 2.6m at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap.

WonderFi Technologies is a publicly-traded company in Canada. The company is backed by strategic investors such as Canadian entrepreneur and TV personality Kevin O’Leary, as well as crypto exchange FTX founder & CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. Open / Comment

2022-03-24 18:31:17 ​Russian Ruble Crypto Trading Falls Again as Moscow Stock Market Opens, RUB Rises

The stock market in Moscow opened again on Thursday after staying closed for a month following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, crypto trading with Russian rubles (RUB) continues to see falling volume on the largest international exchange, Binance.

The opening of the Russian stock market today marked the first day of trading since February 25, the day after Russia launched its attack on Ukraine, which led to a collapse in the price of shares trading on the Moscow Exchange.

As of 10:25 UTC on Thursday, the Moscow Exchange Russia Index was up 4.85% for the day (relative to its closing price on February 25).

Worth noting is also that during the time the stock market had been closed, the value of Russian rubles, which Russia’s stock market is denominated in, have depreciated some 14% against the US dollar. However, since March 7, RUB jumped 56% against USD.

Only 33 Russian companies opened for trading today. The list included major names such as oil and gas giant Gazprom, the major Russian bank Sberbank, and airline Aeroflot. In order to curb the selling of stocks, a number of highly unusual limitations and restrictions have been put in place, including a ban on shorting and a ban on trading by foreigners.

Crypto trader CoinMamba summarized the new rules on Twitter:

Meanwhile, there is also speculation that the Russian government may have intervened in the market by buying stocks in an effort to keep prices from collapsing. This follows comments from Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin who on March 1 said the country’s National Wealth Fund would purchase up to RUB 1 trillion worth of Russian shares by the end of the year.

However, there has so far been no confirmation by Russia’s government or central bank about any amount spent on this.

Out of the 33 companies trading live today, the biggest gains were seen among commodity producers, which largely benefit from selling their products at high prices abroad.

“Big rises among commodities giants who (for now) sell abroad in hard currency. Ban on trading with foreigners (half of all volume), ban on short selling & government buying USD 10bn of stocks all providing big support,” Jake Cordell, a reporter at The Moscow Times, commented on Twitter.

Crypto trading remains down
While the stock market was closed for Russian investors for a month, trading in cryptoassets remained available.

On Binance, the largest international exchange that offers trading in bitcoin (BTC) and tether (USDT) with the Russian rubles, volume in the BTC/RUB market is now down significantly since reaching a war-time peak of BTC 506 in 24 hours on March 7.

As of Wednesday this week, the 24-hour volume for BTC/RUB on Binance stood at BTC 47, well below a 20-day moving average of the volume of BTC 168.

A similar situation was also seen in the market for USDT/RUB, where the 24-hour trading volume on Wednesday stood at USDT 6.89m. The figure is down sharply from a war-time high from March 7 of USDT 37.19m, and about half of the 20-day moving average of USDT 12.06m.

BTC and USDT both traded at a small discount in Russian rubles on Binance, with BTC selling for USD 42,747 and USDT selling for USD 0.994. At the same time (10:25 UTC), BTC traded for USD 43,000 against USDT on Binance. Open / Comment

2022-03-23 20:01:02 ​Robinhood Unveils New Debit Card That Promises Bonuses For Crypto Investments

Amid an intensifying competition for customers, the US online trading platform Robinhood has rolled out a new cash card that offers various rewards to its users, including crypto bonuses, with a waitlist available to the platform’s customers.

"The Cash Card builds on our mission to democratize finance for all by giving debit card customers the same benefits and rewards that were once reserved for credit card holders," the platform said in a statement.

The company’s latest product is a prepaid card issued by Sutton Bank and pursuant to a license from payments giant Mastercard. Robinhood aims to attract customers with weekly bonuses that could encourage users to invest their funds in a variety of assets, including crypto.

The platform says the card’s users will be eligible to earn bonuses ranging between 10% and 100% on their weekly round-ups, enabling Robinhood’s customers to invest in their choice of stocks and cryptoassets.

Round-ups are capped at USD 100 on a weekly basis, and bonuses at USD 10 per week.

"You’ll have the option to opt into paycheck recurring investments into equities in the brokerage account and crypto in the crypto account," according to Robinhood.

The business promises the Robinhood Cash Card is free of monthly fees, in-network ATM fees, and overdraft fees, and that its users will not be required to maintain a minimum balance.

Rivals such as Coinbase have also launched their own debit cards. The crypto exchange’s Coinbase Card is a Visa debit card funded by users’ crypto-denominated accounts.

Another major exchange, Binance, also offers a Visa debit card that promises up to 8% cashback on all eligible purchases made with the product.

Over the past year, Robinhood has presented a number of features designed to lure more crypto users to its platform. For example, last September, the company announced it was rolling out crypto recurring investments. Open / Comment