Blockchain Progress

2021-04-14 20:00:34 ​​COIN Touches Base On Nasdaq

The much-discussed and highly-anticipated event has finally begun: US-based major crypto exchange Coinbase went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange via a direct public offering (DPO) of its shares under the symbol 'COIN'.

Importantly, it may take a few hours until we're able to see the price in public. Per Jamie McGurk, a Partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, a shareholder of Coinbase, an auction starts early in the morning on the first day of trading, first indicating size of demand, and then at what price as supply and demand starts to build. "Buyers and sellers will adjust their orders for several hours as the market begins to hone in on the equilibrium price," McGurk said.

As a reminder, after much speculation since the end of 2020, the exchange Coinbase filed to go public via USD 1bn direct listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in late February this year.

Antoni Trenchev, co-founder and managing partner of regulated financial institution for digital assets Nexo, said in an emailed commentary that,

"With its formidable institutional custody, Coinbase is uniquely positioned to legitimize an entire industry and give an unmistakable signal to the few remaining traditional players that haven’t yet dipped their toes in crypto that we’re here to stay, we mean business, and we mean it compliantly."

As a reminder, unlike the traditional initial public offering (IPO), in a direct listing, the company sells shares directly to the public without getting help from intermediaries. This is the route some major companies like Spotify and Palantir have chosen to take in recent years. Nearly 115m Coinbase shares are on the market now.

While the projected valuation stood upwards of USD 100bn in the days leading to the DPO, there were quite a few of those who expressed doubt that the math behind this number is possible.

But Coinbase’s valuation surpassing that of historic financial institutions like JPMorgan coinciding with crypto’s market capitalization surpassing USD 2trn provides the space with "much-needed stability that will reassure retail investors," commented Ganesh Swami, co-founder and CEO of the provider of blockchain data Covalent.

Just prior to the listing, late on Tuesday, Nasdaq said the Coinbase was given a reference price of USD 250 a share, which valued it at around USD 65.3bn. This, however, didn't indicate where the stock would open.

In early April, the exchange announced its Q1 2021 results, spurring a number of bullish narratives with its USD 1.8bn in revenue in the first quarter of 2021, compared to USD 1.3bn for the entire 2020. Open / Comment

2021-04-11 20:00:26 ​​Bitcoin Is More ‘Public’ Money than Central Bank-Issued Fiat Currencies

If you’ve read a research or policy paper from a government or central bank in recent years, you may have noticed an interesting distinction such institutions tend to make when it comes to money. They like to refer to national fiat currencies as ‘public money’ and cryptocurrencies — as well as other virtual currencies — as ‘private money,’ implying that one somehow ‘belongs’ to the public while the other is strictly the reserve of private individuals.

This distinction is misleading if not downright false, and for various reasons.

Yes, fiat currencies may be ‘public’ insofar as they’re created and managed by institutions which are (nominally) accountable to the public, and yes, cryptocurrencies may be ‘private’ insofar as they operate largely outside of the purview of governments. However, many figures working within the cryptocurrency industry argue strongly that members of the public have more of an influence over the development of cryptocurrencies than that of fiat currencies.

It’s not hard to find examples of central banks using the terms ‘public money’ and ‘private money.’ In a speech delivered in June by the Bank of England’s Christina Segal-Knowles, references are made to both, with money issued by a central bank being ‘public’ and pretty much everything else (including money issued by commercial banks) being ‘private.’

Likewise, the International Monetary Fund made a similar distinction in a blog published in February, in which it also happened to describe public money as “perfectly safe.”

Some proponents of the public-private money distinction appear to have a fairly rosy view of what public money is. Here’s the European Central Bank’s Fabio Panetta, offering a definition of public money in a speech delivered in November 2020:

“a public good that central banks have been managing for centuries in the public interest and that should be available to all citizens to satisfy their need for safety.”

However, the cryptocurrency industry would seem to disagree fundamentally with such a view of public money, particularly when it’s claimed that fiat currencies are managed “in the public interest” and are intended to “be available to all citizens.” For them, such an assessment is largely at odds with the reality of how money (in whatever form) is actually managed and distributed.

“There should be no public money with regards to citizens, all money created from an individual's productive output should be private and protected by property rights,” said Peter McCormack, the host of the What Bitcoin Did podcast, implying that ‘public’ is perhaps the wrong adjective to use to describe money, even when created by a central bank.

Likewise, others take issue with the distinction’s suggestion that Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies are somehow out of the reach of members of the public, while fiat currencies are somehow under their control.

“A cryptocurrency that is built using open-source code and does not provide its founders with any exclusive advantages over any other participant of its ecosystem (like Bitcoin) is definitely a more public good than central bank-issued currencies, where a centralized agency has exclusive, direct control over its issuance and price,” said Nishant Sharma, founder and CEO of mining-focused consultancy BlocksBridge Consulting.

Decentralized cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are decentralized precisely to the extent that no one group or individual holds dominance over their development, with the absence of a formalized or hierarchical governance structure meaning that members of the community have equal access to influence (at least in theory).

“Fiat currency management is decided by governments, with the public having little influence over policy. On the other hand ‘private currencies,’ if decentralized (like Bitcoin) are managed by the community, giving the ‘public’ control,” said Lou Kerner, CEO of BIGtoken. Open / Comment

2021-04-08 20:00:40 ​​USD 3 Trillion Corporation State Street Goes Crypto

US-based financial giant State Street aims to enter the crypto trading market in the middle of this year.

State Street's trading platform Currenex, that was reportedly put for sale last year, partnered with London-based Puremarkets Ltd (Pure Digital) in order to develop a wholesale, multi-custodial digital currency trading platform, Puremarkets said today, adding that the partners "intend to further explore the digital currency trading space."

"Pure Digital will be a fully automated, high throughput over-the-counter market for digital assets and cryptocurrencies with physical delivery and bank custody," the company said.

According to them, institutional participants will trade on the platform utilizing bilateral credit enabling efficient capital utilization and control for all trading participants.

"The Pure Digital trading platform will be the first of its kind, offering a wholesale interbank market for Tier 1 investment banks to trade bitcoin and other digital assets. Pure Digital is in discussions with several other Tier 1 investment banks to use the platform, which will provide a high throughput OTC market for digital assets and cryptocurrencies with physical delivery and bank custody," Norway’s digital asset-focused company Arcane Crypto said in a separate announcement. They indirectly own a 37.5% stake in Puremarkets.

At the end of 2020, State Street had USD 3.47trn in assets under management or 11% more than a year ago. However, their revenue dropped by 4%, to 2.9bn, and net income decreased by 5%, to USD 537m.

"While State Street rose to the challenges in 2020, we are laser-focused on fee revenue growth and expense management to continue to make progress in 2021 towards our medium-term targets. We are confident in the trajectory of our business and will continue to drive innovation, automation and productivity to achieve these goals," Ron O'Hanley, Chairman and CEO of State Street, said. Open / Comment

2021-04-07 20:35:53 Ajax vs Roma

The long-awaited meeting of two strong teams after more than 10 years!
Will Roma prove their superiority in soccer this time?
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2021-04-05 20:00:41 ​​Oversupplied NFT Market Sees Interest and Sales Plunge

It's the law of physics and crypto markets: what goes up must come down - and it seems to apply to the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) market as well.

According to NFTs marketplace tracker Nonfungible, there is a noticeable drop in sales over the past 10 days. The number of sales fell from 179,004 on March 27 to 156,055 on April 5. In US dollar terms, there is a 6.9% drop in this same period, from USD 223.5m to 208.2m.

Other data in the 10-day period shows the following drops:

active market wallets: -4.45% (49,432 to 47,232)

unique buyers: -5.64% (39,158 to 36,952)

unique sellers: -5.14% (20,601 to 19,542)

primary sales: -4.37% (97,008 to 92,766) and -3.5% in USD terms (USD 64.5m to USD 62.2m)

secondary sales: -22.8% (81,996 to 63,289) and -8.2% in USD terms (USD 159m to USD 145.9m).

Per this data, secondary sales suffered the strongest hit.

Looking at the 30-day data, we see 156,050 sales with USD 208.25m in total and USD 62.22 in primary sales. NBA Top Shot saw a nearly 75% decline in sales over the past month, according to evaluate market.

"There’s less volume on the USD 500 - USD 2000 moments than there was in Jan, which is crazy, considering the user base is probably 5-10x," argued one TopShot user. "Gives you an idea of the type of "collector" currently on the site."

Also, per Bloomberg data, average prices for NFTs fell some 67.5% from a peak in February of USD 4,300 to about USD 1,400.

Another notable aspect of this downturn is what some have described as its 'silence,' given that most people were not aware a crash is happening. Commenters like crypto engineer 'tuba' are arguing that, once sellers realize that there are no more buyers for their NFTs, they may adjust prices -80% overnight, and "it may take them weeks/months to realize this, so the markets are much less reactive."

Meanwhile, looking at the Google trends data, the searches for 'NFT' saw a massive jump in February this year, reaching its peak in March. It has since been on a decline.

"With NFTs, the risk of oversupply is especially acute, because there is no one in charge, and the barriers to issuance are so extraordinarily low — you can literally create a new NFT in a matter of minutes," wrote author James Surowiecki. "And, unlike comic books or baseball cards, NFTs don’t fall apart or get discarded. In other words, the only thing we really know about NFTs is that there will be more of them a month from now than there are today." Still, those few "truly rare or inherently appealing" items may hold their value, he added.

But when it comes to the arguments that NFTs are a bubble, Chris Wilmer, a University of Pittsburgh academic who co-edits a blockchain research journal, is quoted by Bloomberg as saying that it's "not meaningful to characterize a concept as a financial bubble. ... NFTs' aren't in a bubble any more than 'cryptocurrency' is a bubble. There will be manias and irrational exuberance, but cryptocurrency is clearly here to stay with us for the long term and NFTs probably are too."

In the meantime, many NFT-related tokens are now correcting their strong gains this year. Open / Comment

2021-04-03 17:00:55 DISCIPLINA is a project from the golden age of crypto, made by a relatively anonymous team

It stores verified personal profiles based on academic and professional achievements. It is backed by Cardano founders, who invested in the project.

DISCIPLINA's blockchain is quite compact, just like Mina's. It also has a testnet and a Mac wallet.

NFT's implementation is planned to validate the authenticity of platform's content and courses.

Pros:

Great technology with its own blockchain, not another Ethereum-based token
Strong team
Backed and supported by Cardano founder
Traction in China
Launchpad IDO, sweet profit and BSC is expected - just the way we like it

It’s gonna be a GEM! Open / Comment

2021-04-02 20:00:50 ​​Bitcoin Market Changed 'Radically' & Volatility Decline Attracts Institutions

We are in a "radically" different bitcoin (BTC) market today, an analyst stressed, while JPMorgan strategists find that decreasing volatility is here to help institutional adoption.

Per the latest Market Intel report by Chainalysis' Chief Economist Philip Gradwell, the data collected in the research suggested that the bitcoin price is resilient above at least USD 50,000, that there is significant observed demand at high price levels, but also that the market has changed radically in recent months.

"Cryptocurrency prices have been volatile but resilient over the last two weeks, with the bitcoin price ranging from a low of just over USD 50k to a high of just under USD 60k, but ending the fortnight at a similar price level to the start, of above USD 58k," he said.

Chainalysis observed the amount of bitcoin held by 'whales', those who held at least BTC 1,000, and how much they had paid for it, but they also analyzed all entities holding bitcoin, and concluded that,

"Analyzing the cost of acquisition since 2016 demonstrates how radically the market has changed in the last few months, to one where there is likely to be a lot of demand from existing buyers to support high price levels. As long as existing buyers do not change their hypothesis on bitcoin, it is likely that the price will be resilient above at least USD 50k."

While, by March 29, BTC 8.4m were last acquired for less than USD 10,000 each, BTC 0.1m were acquired for more than USD 57,626 - these holders had made a USD loss but were still holding. Furthermore, said Gradwell, BTC 5.6m were bought for more than USD 30,000 and continue to be held, as well as BTC 3.1m at more than USD 40,000, and BTC 1.6m at more than USD 50,000.

Additionally, with the rapid price increase since November, from USD 15,000 to the all-time high of above USD 61,000, came the significant acquisition of bitcoin across many groups, resulting in the bitcoin cost curve to shift up significantly for 8m of the BTC 18.7m supply - meaning that the cost basis for many BTC is now "radically higher" than just a few months ago, "demonstrating that a broad swath of market participants are willing to buy and hold at much higher prices than previously."

Cost curves were relatively low in 2016 and early 2017, as the price of BTC had been relatively low. Despite jumping in the meantime, the cost curves changed relatively slowly and remained close together, according to the analyst. But the two most recent cost curves, for January 4 and March 29, have jumped much higher than any in the past and very rapidly.

Antoni Trenchev, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of major crypto lender Nexo, also claims that "bitcoin is showing resilience like no other asset as it enters the rally-inducing part of its four-year economic cycle."

"It’s totally uninterested in dollar action, Treasury Yields, tech stocks dropping, gold slipping, you name it. With PayPal allowing 29M merchants to accept crypto and Visa effectively becoming an Ethereum layer 2 by adding USDC as a settlement currency, I have no doubt that this bull run is far from over and that we are on track for further BTC support above USD 60K," he said in an emailed comment.

However, as just USD 1.4bn has been spent to acquire BTC 770,000 at more than USD 55,000, Gradwell warns that this is a relatively weaker price level, and that if more dollars are spent to acquire BTC above this price level, then it will likely become firmer, and vice versa. Open / Comment

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2021-03-31 21:30:00 Phuture is a protocol built to disrupt the index industry and re-build it in a Web 3 environment

It's going to be the biggest index platform for the entire crypto ecosystem. Those who know, know!

The next vanguard is here! Launching soon Open / Comment

2021-03-31 15:01:11 Catch an ingenious product for your portfolio: the airdrop of $ QDAO tokens is approaching - coins will be sent to all users of QDAO and Q DeFi Rating services who have contacted a secret bot.

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What is the QDAO ecosystem? It is a cross-chain portfolio tool for Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, HECO, Polkadot and Kusama blockchains, among other products. Open / Comment