Daily Archives: February 4, 2021

ZUG, Switzerland, Feb. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bitcoin Association, the Switzerland-based global industry organisation that works to advance business with the Bitcoin SV blockchain, today announces that it has made a pair of strategic additions to its global team, as it works to improve enterprise awareness and adoption of Bitcoin SV.

Bitcoin Association has hired Lizette Louw as a content marketing specialist and Connor Murray has joined the Bitcoin SV Academy team as a content creator. The announcement concludes a busy week for Bitcoin Association, which on Monday appointed Aaron Zhou as its first China-based technical outreach specialist.

Lizette Louw will be a familiar face for many in the Bitcoin SV ecosystem, having spent the past three years working as a digital marketing and content strategist at Bitstocks, which operates the BSV-based Gravity banking ecosystem app. An experienced content professional, Louw has amassed an extensive portfolio of published work, spanning business, finance and technology publications. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, in her new role with Bitcoin Association, Louw will develop and implement a range of new inbound marketing initiatives, focused on informing enterprises and mainstream audiences about the benefits of building with the Bitcoin SV blockchain.

Connor Murray joins Bitcoin Association as part of the team working on Bitcoin SV Academy the recently launched, dedicated online education platform for Bitcoin SV. Murray will work as a content creator, sharing his expertise developing applications for and building businesses with Bitcoin SV. In addition to his contributor role with Bitcoin SV Academy, Murray is the co-founder and CEO of britevue a Bitcoin SV-based online consumer reviews platform, which he will continue to lead. Last year, Murray's company received venture funding from noted technology entrepreneur and leading Bitcoin SV supporter, Calvin Ayre.

Bitcoin Association supports Bitcoin SV as the only blockchain protocol which adheres to creator Satoshi Nakamoto's original design and vision for Bitcoin. With the ability to scale unbounded and support huge volumes of transactions, in addition to its micropayment, smart contract, tokenization and data functionalities, Bitcoin SV isquickly becoming the enterprise network of choice for both businesses and developers.

Speaking on today's appointments, Bitcoin Association Founding President Jimmy Nguyen, said:

"As the Bitcoin SV ecosystem continues to grow, so too does the need to bring more experienced professionals into our Association who can help us teach the world that Bitcoin is meant to be a widely used electronic cash system and data network, not a 'digital gold' reserve asset. We're delighted to welcome Lizette, Connor and Aaron to our team each of whom, in addition to their specialist professional skillset, brings with them specific experience working with Bitcoin SV an invaluable combination as we work to educate enterprises about the world's most powerful distributed data ledger for enterprise and online payments system, Bitcoin SV."

Commenting on her appointment, Lizette Louw, said:

"Working in the blockchain and digital asset space for a number of years now, I've found myself increasingly drawn to the potential evident with Bitcoin SV to have a positive impact on both business and individuals. Bitcoin SV offers enterprises a data infrastructure that is far superior to incumbent systems a true value-add, rather than just an expense. I'm excited to work with Bitcoin Association in my new role to help bridge the gap between business and Bitcoin SV technology."

Also commenting, Connor Murray, said:

"Bitcoin is a complex system spanning several different disciplines, that is capable of so much more than most people understand. That's what makes Bitcoin SV Academy such an important initiative, as it helps to introduce new developers, entrepreneurs and investors to the true power of Bitcoin. I've still got a lot to learn myself, but hope to get a little bit closer to mastering Bitcoin each day by sharing my experience and teaching others."

About Bitcoin Association

Bitcoin Associationis theSwitzerland-basedglobal industry organization that works to advance business on the Bitcoin SV blockchain. It brings together essential components of the Bitcoin SV ecosystem enterprises, start-up ventures, developers, merchants, exchanges, service providers, blockchain transaction processors (miners), and others working alongside them, as well as in a representative capacity, to drive further use of the Bitcoin SV blockchain and uptake of the BSV digital currency.

The Association works to build a regulation-friendly ecosystem that fosters lawful conduct while facilitating innovation using all aspects of Bitcoin technology. More than a digital currency and blockchain, Bitcoin is also a network protocol; just like Internet protocol, it is the foundational rule set for an entire data network. The Association supports use of the original Bitcoin protocol to operate the world's single blockchain on Bitcoin SV.

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Bitcoin Association grows global team with new strategic hires to improve enterprise awareness and adoption of Bitcoin SV - PRNewswire

2020 was the year of the digital and online brokers, as retail investors flocked to investing and trading apps.

But this popularity has its challenges. Last week, users from the Reddit forum Wall Street Bets pushed up the price of GameStop and other small-cap stocks that had been heavily shorted by hedge funds. This created extreme volatility in the stocks challenged the capital requirements of many brokers, such as Robinhood.

The cryptocurrency broker Voyager experienced growth in trading grow five times larger in January after witnessing a 371% increase in membership last year, and the expansion isn't stopping, CEO Stephen Ehrlich said.

One of the main drivers has been Bitcoin. As the price surged in December, there was a renewed interest in the asset, which can be bought and sold on the platform.

Read more: 4 heavyweight investing firms answer the 5 most burning bitcoin questions facing investors as the cryptocurrency sees unprecedented volatility

Then late last week, when Robinhood and several other brokers halted trading on specific stocks, retail investors looked to other platforms.

"We saw an amazing influx of customers come to our platform over a 72-hour period," Ehrlich said.

Voyager's goal is to simplify cryptocurrency trading. Retail investors can sign up in three minutes or less. But because of the current influx, there is a waiting list that is moving quickly, Ehrlich said. Investors can then start building out a portfolio from over 50 digital assets.

The platform has a deep pool of liquidity, which makes it easy for investors to trade in and out of cryptocurrencies.

The platform also gained interest as it offered trading in Dogecoin. The Reddit forum Satoshi Street Bets encouraged investors to buy into the asset after Robinhood halted trading.

Read more: Dogecoin soars another 600% as Reddit frenzy pushes the token into the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap

Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency that was created as a joke and based on the popular "Doge" meme. Mike Novogratz, a billionaire investor and the founder of a crypto merchant bank, recently predicted the asset would fall to zero in the long run. But it also has some benefits, such as a fast blockchain and no cap on supply.

It's not up to Voyager to decide what investors trade, Ehrlich said, the platform is an agency broker.

"I'll leave the regulators to what the requirements are to do that," Ehrlich said. "I do believe in free and fair markets for all and let them trade whatever the investing public and trading public wants to."

Regulators had to step in with the XRP token created by the firm Ripple Labs. A Securities and Exchange Commission complaint accused Ripple of running a $1.3 billion unregistered offering with its sales of XRP, which the regulator deemed a security and not a cryptocurrency. Ripple has repeatedly denied this is the case.

Read more: Bank of America warns of 3 looming catalysts that could send the bull market crashing in 2021 and shares how to position for the 'big change' as the Wall Street Bets crowd fights against the system

"I think like every other US broker, we all made the safe assessment to follow the SEC guidance at that point in time," Ehrlich said.

There won't be restrictions in trading on the platform, Ehrlich said. And he isn't too worried about tighter restrictions on digital brokerages in the future.

Platforms like Robinhood have played an important role in bringing consumers back to the retail market, Ehrlich said, which had gone "dry" since the financial crisis until between 2014 and 2015.

A fringe event, such as the GameStop trading frenzy, might garner more attention from regulators. But it might also just be a case of applying existing regulation better, without unduly stifling trade, Ehrlich said.

Perhaps Ehrlich is not afraid of regulation because the platform is already publicly traded. It files financial statements every quarter and goes through an audit every year.

It's a lot of hard work, Ehrlich said, but the transparency and process have been a real "value add."

"You can go to a lot of crypto companies today, and you can't see the financials. You don't know if they actually have the assets or not," Ehrlich said. "In our case, it's right there on our balance sheet."

The prospect of other companies, such as Coinbase, going public this year could be a positive for the industry.

Read more: Wall Street's resident IPO expert breaks down the strategy behind her ETF that returned 107% last year, 3 risks to the current IPO boom and 5 offerings to watch this year

"It's not a dark business. It's very much in the light," Ehrlich said.

The firm also aims to be transparent on payments. Many platforms have come under scrutiny for using a payment for order flow to enable zero-commission trading.

"We don't play that game," Ehrlich said. "We make our spread. We're open about it. We're transparent, and that's our model for the foreseeable future."

Voyager earns revenue through a spread. But if the firm beats the price on the trade, it will pass that price improvement back to the customer and take a small part of the savings.

This is the key ingredient, Ehrlich said, about 70% of the time it provides price improvement.

Customers also earn interest on over 20 coins at a time when interest on cash remains stagnant and near zero.

Bitcoin provides interest of 5.5%, while USDC, a stable coin backed to the US dollar that has no fluctuation and no volatility, provides 8.5% interest.

With over 50 assets on the platform, it can be hard to know what to look for as a new investor.

Ehrlich said he didn't tend to pick coins but highlighted four that he liked:

Ehrlich is a big believer in Bitcoin and bullish on the price outlook.

"We are definitely over $100,000 by the end of the year, could be $200,000," Ehrlich said. "But we still see an upward trend. Does that mean it's going to be a straight line up? Absolutely not. There'll be ups and pullbacks and, and we have a lot of customers that like to buy on those dips."

"I think the smart contracts are something that will change a lot of how a lot of businesses move going forward," Ehrlich said.

Ehrlich thinks it's interesting to watch how the asset is more of a trading coin, he said. But some companies are starting to accept Dogecoin for payments, and it does work quicker than Bitcoin, he added.

"If I could put my money in an account and earn 8.5% interest that I know I can convert to $1 whenever I want," Ehrlich said. "That's a pretty compelling story."

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How to trade Dogecoin, Bitcoin: Stephen Ehrlich predictions and crypto strategy - Business Insider

Bitcoins Taproot upgrade is (basically) a shoe-in as Bitcoin stakeholders figure out the best way to bring it online.

Digital signatures are created from the private keys that control bitcoin wallets and are required to approve transactions. Taproot addresses will use Schnorr signatures, rather than Bitcoins current signature algorithm, the elliptic curve digital signature algorithm, or ECDSA for short.

In terms of data and processing, Schnorr signatures are smaller and faster than ECDSA signatures and also have the added benefit of being linear, which means Schnorr-based smart contracts can be optimized for functions that ECDSA signatures cannot.

These differences have made Taproot a highly anticipated upgrade because it will give Bitcoin a boost to transaction privacy and allow for more lightweight and complex smart contracts (an encoded contract with self-executing rules).

The tooling and coding improvements Taproot brings will be largely under the hood and will be a boon to developers. Regular Bitcoin users, however, will also benefit from usability, performance, and privacy improvements to multisignature (multisig) technology, privacy software and even scaling tech like the Lightning Network.

Without Taproot, applying the following upgrades to these softwares would either not be possible or not be as viable.

MuSig2: Boosting privacy and efficiency of multisig transactions

Bitcoin development hub Blockstream is developing a new multisig software, MuSig2, which will make multisig transactions more efficient, cheaper and more private.

Unlike usual Bitcoin wallets, which only require a single signature from a private key, multisig wallets require at least two or more signatures from different private keys to approve a transaction. The idea is to distribute the risk of a wallet among multiple keys and, if needed, multiple parties.

Under the current design with ECDSA contracts, multisig transactions record the signature of each multisig participant individually. Schnorr signatures would allow each signature to be recorded as one signature on the blockchain, making the transactions more lightweight in data, and thus cheaper.

[Taproot] benefits multisig wallets such as Blockstream Green because using MuSig2 is cheaper and more private than current multisig setups, Blockstream researcher and applied cryptographer Jonas Nick told CoinDesk.

The Bitcoin upgrade will also raise the limit on signers a multisig wallet allows from 15 to a much higher number, said Bitcoin developer Chris Belcher.

Schnorr-signature based transactions are more private because, thanks to so-called scriptless scripts, all Taproot transactions have the same digital footprint. That means a single signature transaction and a multisig transaction look the same on the blockchain under Taproots rules.

This privacy improvement spills over into other areas of Bitcoins development, too.

MuSig2 also improves efficiency of multi-party contracts such as Lightning Channels, CoinSwaps or discrete log contracts, and improves the privacy of routing in the Lightning Network by enabling scriptless scripts. This also means that the anonymity set of regular transactions would become larger because, for a blockchain observer, it could just as well be part of a multi-party contract or multisig wallet, Nick said.

CoinSwap: Disguising mixed coin transactions

All of the softwares Nick referenced rely on multisig wallets to bind market participants in cryptographically reinforced rules of engagement called smart contracts.

One of these, the privacy protocol CoinSwap, is widely considered to be the best successor to CoinJoin, currently the most popular software for mixing bitcoins to obscure their transaction history.

One shortcoming of CoinSwaps precursors including CoinJoin is such transactions show up as distinctly different from normal ones. This makes it easier for blockchain analysis to pinpoint CoinJoins on-chain, thwarting any privacy benefits.

According to Belcher, Bitcoins Taproot upgrade will fix this problem.

A good benefit of Taproot is also that it allows scriptless scripts. As you may know, protocols like Lightning Network and CoinSwap depend on so-called hash time locked contracts. Currently these contracts are visible on the blockchain. The thing that scriptless scripts allows is for those contracts to also look exactly the same as a Taproot single-sig transaction.

Point Time Lock Contracts: Making Lightning More Private

As Belcher points out, Bitcoins Lightning Network uses hash time locked contracts (HTLCs) to facilitate transactions. But Schnorr Signatures would pave the way for point time lock contracts (PTLCs), an improvement on HTLCs that allow for more private and efficient smart contracts for Lightning.

The privacy gain comes from a modification to how Lightning Network nodes route transactions. Lightning transactions must be sent directly and peer-to-peer on what are called payment channels. Otherwise, lacking this direct connection, payments must be routed through peers to which both the sender and receiver are connected.

Lightning Network nodes route transactions by passing on a hash of the payment to each node on that payments path. PTLCs alter this hash by adding random info at each hop to make the payment less traceable to any party conducting blockchain surveillance.

Additionally, PTLCs will enable more complex smart contract logic to facilitate unprecedented blockchain escrow conditions and to improve oracles. (Since a blockchain cant process data outside of its network, an oracle feeds this data to it.)

Technically, [PTLCs] could be done today with ECDSA but it doesnt have the same proven security, and if it was implemented it would have to be redone once we get Taproot, Ben Carman, a developer at Suredbits, told CoinDesk.

Other Taproot improvements

Carman and his colleagues at Suredbits have been working on discrete log contracts (DLCs), a fairly new smart contract logic for Bitcoin that, while working today, will be more flexible and easier to use when Bitcoins Taproot upgrade kicks in.

Belcher told CoinDesk that Schnorr signatures will also enable batched validation wherein a Bitcoin full node could validate 1,000 Taproot signatures in nearly the same time it takes to validate one [ECDSA] signature. This scaling solution would significantly speed the time it takes a node to verify all signatures in a block.

Additionally, Taproot could use ring signatures to give users the ability to prove they own certain coins without having to reveal the public key associated with those coins.

That means someone could prove that they own a certain coin without revealing which exact coin. For example, it would be possible to prove you own at least 1 BTC (or any amount) by doing a ring signature over all the Taproot [unspent transactions] worth more than 1 BTC, and yet it doesnt actually reveal which is yours, Belcher said.

This has implications particularly for Lightning Network node operators who want to prove payment channel ownership without sacrificing privacy.

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How Bitcoins Taproot Upgrade Will Improve Its Software Stack - CoinDesk - Coindesk

Crypto enthusiasts often talk about bitcoin as a hedge against inflation. Why?

The argument is that central bank money printing will lead to inflation or the decrease in the value of money over time. Bitcoin, by contrast, has a fixed limit of 21 million coins that can ever be created. This limited supply allows bitcoin to resist inflation.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented the ideal conditions to test this theory once countries across the world began injecting trillions of dollars into their economies. Many countries, including the U.S., printed money to meet stimulus requirements for its citizens.

Yesterday, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell said the central bank welcomes higher inflation in 2021 as a sign that the economy is picking up again after the pandemic-slump.

Governments hoped an expansionary monetary policy, whereby central banks increased the amount of money available to people, would keep economies moving amid prolonged shutdowns of certain sections of the economy. By June 2020, stimulus action taken by countries had surpassed $10 trillion, according to a McKinsey Global report. U.S. government-spending alone amounted to $6.5 trillion in 2020, up 48% from the previous year.

Theres a crazy amount of money being printed right now, so the value of money is going down. Assets with limited supply, like bitcoin, real estate or shares/stocks, those price tags are going up, Oki Matsumoto, CEO of Monex Group told CoinDesk.

Its true that despite dramatic drops in global economic output and unemployment, market jitters drove asset prices up: the stock market ended the year with record gains. Even bitcoin, considered a fringe asset, had a historic price run, gaining more than 250% by the end of 2020.

These gains were partly influenced by traditional investors who saw bitcoins potential to work as a hedge against inflation.

And yet, the kind of inflation investors were expecting isnt here, at least not yet. In fact, U.S. inflation remained stable through 2020. Some economists dont believe that inflation in America will be running rampant any time soon. Others think a little post-pandemic inflation might even be a good thing.

What is inflation, anyway?

It depends on whom you ask.

The U.S. Federal Reserve defines inflation as the increase in the price of goods and services over time, but many associate it with a change in the money supply, or the total amount of money in circulation.

In the bitcoin world, they dont use the term inflation quite the way that economists do, as a general increase in consumer price. Instead, they tend to use it to mean an increase in the money supply, said economist and CoinDesk columnist Frances Coppola.

The crypto argument that printing more money leads to inflation does sound compelling, Michael Ashton, inflation consultant and JPMorgan alum, told CoinDesk. When there is a change in the relative quantity of two goods, the one that is increasing in quantity tends to get cheaper, he said, adding that this happens with foreign exchange all the time.

The reason why the Mexican peso has been cheap relative to the U.S. dollar for a long time is because the supply of Mexican Pesos has consistently outpaced the supply of U.S. dollars, Ashton said. Because here are a lot more pesos than dollars out there, he explained, the value of the peso in exchange markets goes down.

Thats part of the crypto argument. They say, Were gonna limit how fast cryptocurrency supply can grow and since we are printing all these dollars, then that means that the dollar has to depreciate a lot relative to crypto. Therefore, the price of crypto should rise over time, Ashton said.

Calvo said the view that you can control the price levels of goods and services through money supply is not limited to the crypto world but shared by investors in general, and for good reason. When you look at many countries over a long period of time, you can see some association between the increase in money supply and inflation, Calvo added.

But Calvo, Coppola and Ashton all agree that increasing the amount of money in the economy with a stimulus package, for example does not guarantee a rise in price levels.

If you increase your money supply, you may or may not get an increase in the consumer price level depending on what else is going on in the economy at the time. So there are a number of other factors to consider, Coppola said.

Money is printing, is inflation soaring?

Not really, at least in the U.S.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has an inflation target of 2% measured using the consumer price index (CPI). In 2020, despite inflationary fears due to pandemic-related spending, the U.S. inflation rate hovered around 1.5%, well below target.

One explanation for the relative stability of U.S. inflation is money velocity, which quantifies how fast money changes hands in an economy. If the money supply is increased, but people dont spend a lot of money quickly, inflation can remain in balance.

After the pandemic hit, consumer spending suffered around the world, with countries including the U.S., India, Japan and Germany reporting large drops in household spending. As multiple states in the U.S. went under lockdown, people stayed home instead of dining out, celebrations and gatherings stopped, and travel came to a screeching halt.

People spending less meant the demand for goods and services in general had dropped. Global energy demand declined 6% in the first few months of 2020, its biggest drop since World War II, according to the international energy agency (IEA).

Weaker demand and significantly lower oil prices are holding down consumer price inflation, the Federal Reserve wrote in its June 2020 monetary policy report.

The World Bank, in fact, projected a fall in global commodity prices.

It is under these prevailing conditions that the U.S. government was distributing stimulus funds.

So people are accumulating money, but it is not reflected in the price level, Calvo said.

Ashton explained this may be because money velocity is very low. People are not getting rid of U.S. dollars fast enough, so the price levels dont increase dramatically.

When you drop a ton of money into peoples bank accounts, they cant spend it instantly. So, mathematically, you have to have a declining money velocity. Thats what happened, Ashton said.

What about outside the U.S.?

American inflationary fears may be in part due to whats happening in other parts of the world. Some investors may be looking at countries like Argentina and Venezuela where printing money has led to very high inflation.

What investors are doing, in general, is looking ahead and saying, were seeing a lot of money going into the economy. Therefore, there is a risk that it could happen in the United States; therefore, we need to invest in things that will protect us from that inflation, if it happens. Thats the conventional inflation is coming, we need to protect against it argument, Coppola said.

But in the countries they are looking at, things work differently, Coppola added.

Venezuela and Argentina are hyperinflationary economies where price levels grow rapidly and excessively triggered by an increase in the money supply or a shortage in supply relative to demand.

In Venezuela, for instance, printing money led to jaw dropping increases in food prices last year. The international monetary fund (IMF) reported that the inflation rate in Venezuela was a whopping 6500% in 2020.

In hyperinflationary countries, years of political and economic instability have exhausted the option of printing money without leading to uncontrollable inflation, Calvo said. Coppola added that countries struggling with hyperinflation have other contributing issues like high foreign exchange debt, war, occupation or something political.

Argentina, for example, has had a long and complicated economic crisis riddled with astronomical debt obligations and political instability that often has citizens scrambling to convert their Argentine pesos into sturdier assets or currencies.

In Argentina, the minute [the government] starts increasing the money supply, very quickly, you see the consequences in the price level, Calvo said, adding, Some countries have the privilege of printing money if necessary. Nothing happens. Argentina doesnt have that privilege.

Interestingly, the pandemic has not particularly spurred inflation in Argentina either. By mid-2020, inflation in Argentina had reached a two-year-low, according to a Focus Economics report.

Because Argentines were also under lockdown during the pandemic, the slowed economy and low demand combined with increases in government spending hasnt caused a major rise in price levels, Calvo said.

If inflation isnt soaring, why are people hedging against it?

People may be buying bitcoin as a hedge against future inflation, and theyre not crazy to do so.

According to a statement made to the media by Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Carida, the Federal Reserve will continue to maintain near zero interest rates until inflation rises enough to meet its 2% target.

U.S. policy makers know exactly what theyre doing, said Phillip Gillespie, chief executive officer of crypto liquidity provider B2C2 Japan.

They are basically going to suppress the interest rates and let inflation run higher, Gillespie told CoinDesk.

But economists are saying that as the country reopens and spending picks up, reining in price levels to maintain the inflation target will be one of the biggest challenges in the Federal Reserves 108-year history.

So naturally, investors are reacting to all the inflation doom and gloom by betting against it, turning an alternative asset like bitcoin into the 2020 breakout star of inflation hedging in the process.

Bitcoin inherited a lot of the same selling points that made gold a preferred inflation hedge like scarcity and portability, according to J.P. Koning, Canadian financial writer and founder of the popular blog Moneyness.

But when it comes to serving as a hedge against inflation, bitcoin is hardly alone.

If you look around your house, everything is an inflation hedge, Koning said. Your house itself is an inflation hedge, your table, your personal capital, your education are all inflation hedges because all of those things will rise in value as the purchasing power of the currency falls.

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Bitcoin and Inflation: Everything You Need to Know - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Visa is piloting a suite of application programming interfaces (APIs) that will allow banks to offer bitcoin services, the payments giant announced Wednesday.

The Visa Crypto APIs pilot program will let clients easily connect into the infrastructure provided by Visas partner, Anchorage, a federally chartered digital asset bank, to allow their customers to buy and sell digital assets such as bitcoin as an investment within their existing consumer experiences, Visa said in a press statement.

Visa envisions a product set that extends to other cryptocurrencies and stablecoins as well as other crypto services such as trading, Visa crypto lead Cuy Sheffield told CoinDesk in an interview. Digital bank First Boulevard is the first bank involved in the pilot; Visa has issued a wait list for other banks.

Previously, Visa had been focused on helping crypto companies issue bank cards and has partnered with 35 crypto firms to date, but this is the first time the company has offered crypto services to banks.

Last week, Visa CEO Al Kelly said during an earnings call that stablecoins could be used for global commerce, adding that to the extent a specific digital currency becomes a recognized means of exchange, theres no reason why we cannot add it to our network.

Next phase

This is shifting to the next phase of Visas strategy where were looking at how Visa can also be a bridge between the thousands of financial institutions and help them tap into the growing world of crypto assets and blockchain networks, Sheffield told CoinDesk in an interview. Were excited to see what early tests and consumer engagement look like for things like dollar-cost averaging to buy bitcoin or for things like earning bitcoin back as rewards.

Similarly, digital asset manager NYDIG tapped banking technology provider Moven to offer NYDIGs APIs for buying, selling and holding crypto to Movens bank customers. Both products come in the wake of several letters from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency giving banks the green light to custody crypto and the ability to conduct payments and other activities with stablecoins.

Visas news also comes after Anchorage became the first OCC-approved national crypto bank, although Sheffield said that Visa had been working on this product with Anchorage and regulators long before the custodians charter was granted.

Creating a Black crypto bank

The news also coincided with an announcement from Visa that it would be partnering with five Black banks and fintechs to offer financial and business services that cater to the Black community.

First Boulevard, the first firm to join the Visa pilot, is a digital bank that is building tools to help African Americans passively build wealth and will launch sometime in early 2021. The bank plans on using the bitcoin services and its partnership with Visa to educate its customers about bitcoin as a way to close the general wealth disparities faced by Black communities, said Donald Hawkins, president and CEO of First Boulevard.

In the future, Hawkins said he hopes his customers come to the bank rather than YouTube for information about investing in crypto.

Currently, First Boulevard offers customers 15% cash back for spending at Black-owned businesses. In the future, Hawkins plans to allow bank customers to put those rewards into crypto investments or high-yield crypto savings accounts.

First Boulevard plans to partner with Visa on financial education in addition to using the crypto services plugins.

Crypto is a gateway to financial literacy, Sheffield said. Its much easier to get people excited about money and important concepts around investing by just explaining what bitcoin is.

The bank also plans to offer resources for investing in real estate as well as micro-investing.

Normally, banks in traditional finance have to get buy-in from the board and management before making a play in the crypto space. At First Boulevard, jumping into crypto was serendipitous, Hawkins said.

Our target market is Black Gen Z and Millennial women, Hawkins said. The majority of our team is made up of exactly our target market. So cryptocurrency has been a hot topic in our company since the very beginning.

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Visa Signals Further Crypto Ambitions With API Pilot for Bank Customers to Buy Bitcoin - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

TipRanks

Lets talk about risk and the big picture. Its an appropriate time, as the big risk presented by the COVID-19 pandemic is finally receding thanks to the ongoing vaccination program. COVID is leaving behind an economy that was forced into shutdown one year ago while in the midst of a great expansion, boosted by the deregulation policies. While the new Biden Administration is busy reversing many Trump policies, at least for now the economy is rebounding. And this brings us to risk. A time of economic growth and rebound is a forgiving time to move toward risk investments, as general economic growth tends to lift everything. Two strategists from JPMorgan have recently chimed in, promoting the view that the markets fundamentals are still sound, and that small- to mid-cap sector is going to keep rising. First, on the general conditions, quant strategist Dubravko Lakos-Bujas wrote, Although the recent technical selloff and short squeeze is receiving a lot of attention, we believe the positive macro setup, improving fundamentals and COVID-19 outlook, strength of the US consumer, as well as the reflation theme remain the bigger forces at play. Not only should this drive further equity upside, but it remains favorable for continued rotation into economic reopening Building on this, Eduardo Lecubarr, chief of the Small/Mid-Cap Strategy team, sees opportunity for investors now, especially in the smaller value stocks. We stick to our view that 2021 will be a stockpickers paradise with big money-making opportunities if you are willing to go against the grain Many macro indicators did fall in January but SMid-Caps and equities in general continued to edge higher, Lecubarr noted. And if you are prone to look at high-risk, small- to mid-cap stocks, youll find yourself drawn to penny stocks. The risk involved with these plays scares off the faint hearted as very real problems like weak fundamentals or overwhelming headwinds could be masked by the low share prices. So, how should investors approach a potential penny stock investment? By taking a cue from the analyst community. These experts bring in-depth knowledge of the industries they cover and substantial experience to the table. Bearing this in mind, we used TipRanks database to find two compelling penny stocks, according to Wall Street analysts. Both tickers boast a Strong Buy consensus rating and could climb over 200% higher in the year ahead. CNS Pharmaceuticals (CNSP) We will start with CNS Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company with a focus on the treatment of glioblastomas, a class of aggressive tumors that attack the braid and spinal cord. These cancers, while rare, are almost always terminal, and CNS is working a new therapy designed to more effectively cross the blood-brain barrier to attack glioblastoma. Berubicin, CNSs flagship drug candidate, is an anthracycline, a potent class of chemotherapy drugs derived from the Streptomyces bacteria strains, and used in the treatment of a wide variety of cancers. Berubicin is the first drug in this class to show promise against glioblastoma cancers. The drug candidate has completed its Phase 1 clinical trial, in which 44% of patients showed a clinical response. This number included one patient who showed a Durable Complete Response, defined as a demonstrated lack of detectable cancer. Following the success of the Phase 1 study, CNS applied for, and received, FDA approval of its Investigational New Drug application. This gives the company the go-ahead to conduct a Phase 2 study on adult patients, an important next step in the development of the drug. CNS plans to start the mid-stage trial in 1Q21. Based on the potential of the companys asset in glioblastoma, and with its share price at $2.22, several analysts believe that now is the time to buy. Among the bulls is Brooklines 5-star analyst Kumaraguru Raja who takes a bullish stance on CNSP shares. Until now, the inability of anthracyclines to cross the blood brain barrier prevented its use for treatment of brain cancers. Berubicin is the first anthracycline to cross the blood-brain barrier in adults and access brain tumors Berubicin has promising clinical data in a Phase 1 trial in recurrent glioblastoma (rGBM) and has Orphan drug designation for treatment of malignant gliomas from the FDA. We model approval of Berubicin for treatment of recurrent glioblastoma in 2025 based on the Phase 2 data with 55% probability of success for approval. We model peak sales of $533 million in 2032, Raja opined. CNS pipeline also includes WP1244 (novel DNA binding agent) that is 500x more potent than daunorubicin in inhibiting tumor cell proliferation is expected to enter the clinic in 2021 In vivo testing in orthotopic models of brain cancer showed high uptake of WP1244 by brain and subsequent antitumor activity, the analyst added. To this end, Raja rates CNSP a Buy, and his $10 price target implies room for a stunning 350% upside potential in the next 12 months. (To watch Rajas track record, click here) What does the rest of the Street have to say? 3 Buys and 1 Hold add up to a Strong Buy consensus rating. Given the $8.33 average price target, shares could climb ~275% in the year ahead. (See CNSP stock analysis on TipRanks) aTyr Pharma (LIFE) The next stock were looking at, aTyr Pharma, has a focus on inflammatory disease. Its leading drug candidate, ATYR1923, is a Neuropilin-2 (NRP2) agonist, working through the receptor proteins expressed by the NRP2 gene. These pathways are important for cardiovascular development and disease, and play a role in the inflammatory lung disease pulmonary sarcoidosis. In December, the company reported that the drug candidate had completed enrollment of 36 patients in a Phase 1b/2a clinical trial, testing the drug in the treatment of pulmonary sarcoidosis. Results of the current study are expected in 3Q21, and will inform further trials of ATYR1923, including against other forms of inflammatory lung disease. On a more immediate note, in early January the company announced top-line results of another Phase 2 clinical involving ATRY1923 this time in the treatment of patients hospitalized with severe respiratory complications from COVID-19. The results were positive, showing that a single dose of ATYR1923 (at 3 mg/kg) resulted in a 5.5-day median recovery time. Overall, of the patients dosed in this manner, 83% saw recovery in less than one week. Covering LIFE for Roth Capital, 5-star analyst Zegbeh Jallah noted, We like the risk profile here, with two shots on goal, and updated data details from the COVID study is expected in the coming months. Also announced recently, is that data from aTyr's Pulmonary Sarcoidosis program, will be reported in 3Q21 the success of either of these studies could result in a doubling or more of the market cap as these opportunities appear to barely be accounted for by investors. In line with his optimistic approach, Jallah gives LIFE shares a Buy rating and his $15 price target suggests an impressive 277% potential upside for the coming year. (To watch Jallahs track record, click here) Other analysts are on the same page. With 2 additional Buy ratings, the word on the Street is that LIFE is a Strong Buy. On top of this, the average price target is $13.33, suggesting robust growth of ~236% from the current price of $3.97. (See LIFE stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for penny stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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Bitcoin Next Week: Levels and Patterns to Watch - Yahoo Finance

To figure out if youre in a bubble, you need to find the source of the hot air. Obvious for GameStop , but for bitcoin, not so much.

In July 2018, we wrote about the cryptocurrency company Tether, which issues tokens called tethers that trade under the symbol USDT and should be valued at $1making the currency a stablecoin. Tethers creators might have manipulated bitcoin, a University of Texas paper suggests, by issuing tokens willy-nilly unbacked by real dollars and then buying bitcoin to jack up its price. (The company claims the research is flawed.)

At the time, Tethers total value was some $2.7 billion, and its website claimed: Every tether is always backed 1-to-1 by traditional currency held in our reserves. So somewhere there should have been $2.7 billion in real moneythats how a stablecoin is supposed to work. In November 2018, New York state Attorney General Letitia James invoked the Martin Act to begin an investigation into iFinex, which owns Tether and the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange, in connection with ongoing activities that may have defrauded New York investors. The company has disputed the attorney generals claims, denied it misled customers, and said it will fight any action. An appellate court last year rejected its challenge to the probe.

Bitcoin peaked at the end of 2017 at $19,000 and over the next year collapsed to $3,200. Welltheyre baaack! On Friday Elon Musk was the latest to pump Bitcoin, which briefly reached almost $38,000. And there are now some $26.4 billion of USDT tokens, $18 billion of which were created since March 2020. Why the increase? No one has a good explanation.

All that glitters is not gold. In 2019 Tether subtly updated its claim to say reserves may include other assets and receivables from loans made by Tether to third parties. Tether has even admitted it only has 74% of the cash or cash equivalents to back its stablecoin. Hmmm. Basically unbacked.

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Behind the Bitcoin Bubble - The Wall Street Journal