Daily Archives: May 9, 2021

The new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday that more investor protections are needed in the markets for bitcoin and other crypto assets.

Chairman Gary Gensler said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" that he sees the attraction to bitcoin for traders but regulation is needed to prevent fraud and other issues.

"It's a digital, scarce store of value, but highly volatile," Gensler said, talking about bitcoin specifically. "And there's investors that want to trade that, and trade that for its volatility, in some cases just because it is lower correlation with other markets. I think that we need greater investor protection there."

Gensler later added that he believes bitcoin is a "speculative" store of value and that the SEC should be "technology neutral" when it comes to innovations in markets.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have boomed since late last year, fueled by increased institutional adoption for some of the more established coins and interest from retail traders.

Bitcoin was trading above $57,000 per coin on Friday after hovering under $10,000 a year ago, while dogecoin, a digital coin that started as a joke based on a meme with a shiba inu dog, was trading near its record high.

Gensler, who previously taught classes about blockchain and other financial technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said there needed to be authority for a regulator to oversee the crypto exchanges, similar to the equity and futures markets. He said many of the crypto coins were trading like assets and should fall under the purview of the SEC.

"To the extent that something is a security, the SEC has a lot of authority. And a lot of crypto tokens I won't call them cryptocurrencies for this moment are indeed securities," he said.

Gensler also commented on social media's influence on financial markets.

"We need to update and freshen our rules to ensure that, while retail investors and any individual has First Amendment rights to speak and so forth, that they're not misleading the public, they're not manipulating the public, manipulating the markets," he said.

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SEC Chairman Gary Gensler says more investor protections are needed for bitcoin and crypto markets - CNBC

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Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey issued a stark warning to those investing in cryptocurrencies: Buy them only if youre prepared to lose all your money.

In response to a question about financial stability, Bailey said the central bank was well positioned to respond to any threats that might arise. However, he objected to the use of the phrase cryptocurrency and took the opportunity to push back on their growing popularity.

Im afraid crypto and currency are two words that dont go together for me, he said at a press conference Thursday. They have no intrinsic value.

Bailey has long been dismissive of the assets, and his comments follow yet another period of speculative excesses for a market Nouriel Roubini once described as the mother of all bubbles.

While in the past, trillions of dollars in stimulus by governments and central banks might have triggered a rush into gold for the inflation-wary and risky stocks for the intrepid, a deluge of cash this time round is flooding into the crypto market. Its even pushed up the price of digital tokens previously considered a joke, like Dogecoin.

Read More: Crypto Mania Sends Doge Soaring, Crashes Robinhood Token Trading

The BOE last month said it would join forces with the U.K. Treasury to weigh the potential creation of its own central bank digital currency, joining authorities from China to Sweden exploring the next big step in the future of money. If approved, the U.K.s digital currency would exist alongside cash and bank deposits, rather than replacing them, they said.

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Bitcoin (BTC USD) Cryptocurrency Price: Bank of England Warns of Full Losses - Bloomberg

Bitcoin all the rage since first crossing the $1,000 price mark in 2017 is the least exciting crypto asset on the market. Like many firsts, Bitcoin enjoys widespread brand recognition, but that recognition doesnt accurately reflect its value as an asset, particularly in comparison to other available assets in the crypto market.

Bitcoin is to the crypto market what Netscape was to search engines in the early days of the Internet. Theres a need for a better solution, and the market is responding.

Real innovation in the crypto market now takes place in decentralized finance (DeFi) and the mainly Ethereum-based (ETH) infrastructure that underpins it. DeFi, which supports everything from decentralized exchanges to token based lending, mimics the structure of traditional financial markets in the open, transparent forum of a blockchain-based infrastructure. According to ConsenSys, more than $2 billion worth of transactions occur daily on decentralized exchanges and more than $23 billion in outstanding decentralized loans have been granted as of March 2021.

And thats just the tip of the iceberg.

Rather than focus on Bitcoin, the following are crypto assets worth watching, as they are best positioned to capitalize on the growing popularity and practicality of decentralized finance:

UniSwap (UNI)

UniSwap is a decentralized liquidity protocol that facilitates automated trading of decentralized finance tokens. Compatible with any ERC-20 token in the ethereum ecosystem, it has a current market cap exceeding $16 billion and

continues to grow rapidly. In January of this year, it traded around $5 it currently trades in the $30 range.

UNI is well positioned within the DeFi space, as it represents the largest decentralized exchange in the crypto market. As such, it is slated to capitalize on the onset of FinTech 2.0, of which DeFi is the key component, and the markets expected multi-trillion dollar growth over the next several years as it converges with traditional finance.

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Litecoin (LTC)

Litecoin, an early alt coin dating back to 2011, took some of the best features from Bitcoin while focusing on providing a less onerous processing framework to decrease the block generation time. Litecoin can process a block every 2.5 minutes, compared to Bitcoin's 10 minutes. It is a peer-to-peer Internet currency with a fully decentralized, open source, global payment network. LTC is a great example of the potential for peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and the importance of continuous innovation.

LTC started 2021 trading at roughly $124 and currently trades at around $262. It boasts an almost $18 billion market cap and a 24-hour transaction volume of more than $10 billion. It is relatively liquid and has great potential for further upside.

Chainlink (LINK)

Chainlink is a decentralized network designed to connect smart contracts with data from the non-crypto space. LINK provides reliable, tamper-proof inputs and outputs for complex smart contracts on any blockchain and will potentially be the link that weaves different networks together. It serves as another solid example of the strengths of DeFi, as its a connector and a facilitator for further innovation.

LINKs price has risen along with the other core DeFi tokens: it increased from $0.19 in January 2018 to approximately $35, currently.

The DeFi and the general crypto infrastructure space represents one of the top opportunity sets for the next decade across all asset classes. As the crypto market continues to mature and to grow in participation, these players in the ecosystem will stand to benefit in ways that Bitcoin simply cannot. The current growth rate in this space promises to continue, with these technologies eventually evolving into the dominant players in financial markets. But only those best positioned for that future will endure.

If the crypto space is truly successful, there will be hundreds of thousands, if not millions of tokenized assets trading on blockchains with smart contract components. Bitcoin will be just one of them, and certainly not the most attractive.

Nikolas Joyce is CIO of The Strategic Funds.

Edited Photo Via Unsplash

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Forget Bitcoin: Here are The Crypto Assets To Follow - Yahoo Finance

The days when Bitcoin was the only real option for investors looking to get into cryptocurrencies are long gone.

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, rose to a record as interest in so-called alt coins continues to surge. Dogecoin, the memecoin that started as a joke, is now worth nearly $90 billion.

In all, there are more than 7,000 coins currently tracked by CoinGecko, with a bewildering array of names (PancakeSwap, anyone?).

For most people, it makes sense just to start with the top two: Bitcoin and Ether. Either would have been a relatively good investment so far in 2021 Bitcoin has almost doubled and Ether has quadrupled, compared with a 12 per cent gain for the S&P 500.

So what do you need to know before deciding where to put your money?

Ether is the token used on the worlds most actively used blockchain the technology used for verifying and recording transactions Ethereum.

Ethereum is used by the likes of Microsoft for its blockchain offering and has powered the explosive growth in non-fungible tokens, the latest digital art craze.

Ether is a blockchain platform that functions like the Apple store or Android app store, said Pat LaVecchia, chief executive of Oasis Pro Markets, a US digital securities trading platform. Bitcoin is a commodity like gold, or a store of value.

Unlike Bitcoin, where many of its core features like its supply cap are baked into the design, the Ethereum platform is evolving. Its currently going through upgrades that should improve the network, with even a change that will reduce supply. That could boost the price by offering greater appeal, while at the same time putting more limits on how many Ether are available.

Investors often look at Ethereum as a growth-type investment, making a bet on the continued development of the decentralised ecosystem built on Ethereum, Phil Bonello, director of research at Grayscale Investments, which oversees trusts that serve vehicles for both cryptocurrencies, said.

Investors often look at Ethereum as a growth-type investment, making a bet on the continued development of the decentralised ecosystem built on Ethereum

Phil Bonello, director of research, Grayscale Investments

They sometimes consider Ether as a way to get index exposure to all the development occurring on Ethereum.

While some of Bitcoins dominance has waned this year Bitcoin now accounts for about 46 per cent of total crypto market value, down from roughly 70 per cent at the start of the year, according to tracker CoinGecko its still the biggest single coin by far.

It has a market cap of more than $1 trillion compared with Ethereums $400bn, according to CoinGecko.

And its still the choice of more big corporates. Tesla and MicroStrategy have been buying the largest cryptocurrency, not Ether. When American billionaire hedge fund managers Paul Tudor Jones and Ray Dalio talk about crypto, they talk about Bitcoin.

Thats reflected in volatility, as well. Cornerstone Macro strategists studied how Bitcoin and Ether would likely perform in a downturn. With a slide of about 20 per cent in the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index, theres notably more downside risk to Ether than its larger compatriot, Cornerstone Macro strategist Benson Durham said.

With a rally of the same magnitude [so up 20 per cent] you dont really get the concomitant upside to Ether compared to Bitcoin, Mr Durham said. Ergo the convexity, if you will, favours Bitcoin.

Speaking of volatility, anyone who goes into cryptocurrencies needs to be comfortable with the price swings, which can be substantial even with the most-established ones.

There have also been periodic issues with exchanges being hacked or going under.

Cryptocurrencies can take a hit from regulations or even the prospect of them. And the prices could go down; some market watchers warn of a potential bubble.

Most mainstream financial advisers say they would balk at anyone putting more than 5 per cent of their overall portfolio into crypto and warn clients they need to be prepared to lose all of it.

Still, for those wanting to get into the crypto space, theres an argument to buy both as part of the age-old search for diversification and hedges.

Given that there are diversification opportunities among digital coins themselves, we should consider a small basket of them, rather than just Bitcoin alone, when we assess whether some allocation to crypto assets can reduce portfolio volatility alongside traditional assets, Cornerstone analysts wrote in a recent report.

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Should you invest in Bitcoin or Ether? - The National

Ether, the cryptocurrency that runs on the Ethereum blockchain, hit a record high on Tuesday.

Though it is still second behind bitcoin in market value, there is growing excitement surrounding Ethereum and its capabilities.

According to billionaire investor Mark Cuban, "the number of transactions and the diversity of transaction types along with the development efforts in Ethereum dwarf bitcoin," he tells CNBC Make It. "The utilization of Ethereum is much higher."

First, the Ethereum blockchain consistently processes more transactions per second than bitcoin's, making payments faster and more productive.

Second, it can support the creation of applications. Ethereum is known for itssmart contracts, which power and build decentralized applications, likeDeFi (or decentralized finance)apps, andNFTs (nonfungible tokens).

"Right now, bitcoin is a more established store of value and there is no reason to think it won'tcontinue to be for a long time," Cuban says. "Ethereum, on the other hand, is booming with development that I think will create so many new applications."

Third, Cuban says that as an upgradeto the Ethereum blockchaincalled Ethereum 2.0, which launched in 2020, continues to roll out, "the impact of Ethereum could be greater than we currently imagine."

Investors agree that there are several benefits to Ethereum 2.0. First, it could make Ethereum even faster investors say the changes could allow several thousand more transactions per second on the blockchain,as CNBC reported. They also say it could be more secure, among other things, "all of which will be hugely positive as a whole for Ethereum," Cuban says.

The only "challenge with Ethereum as an investment" is that until its update is complete, it's difficult to predict which improvements will come to light and which will not, Cuban says, which can "create some confusion along the way."

Though he is overall bullish on both Ethereum and bitcoin, Cuban also notes that new entrants to the market can always disrupt the status quo.

"Just like all major tech companies are at risk of new technologies superseding them, there is always the risk of a better decentralized chain coming along to disrupt bitcoin and Ethereum," he says.

Billionaire investor Ray Dalio, founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, said similar in a January posttitled "What I Think of Bitcoin."

"I presume that a better alternative will be invented and pass it by," Dalio wrote, "because that is the way the evolution of everything works."

In Cuban's opinion, it's "not likely. But always possible," he says.

Cuban has been at the forefront of the wave of interest in cryptocurrencies and the technology that surrounds it. He has a portfolio ofbitcoin, Ethereum and other digital coinshimself, and hasinvested in many companiesin the space.

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Mark Cuban: The 3 ways Ethereum 'dwarfs' bitcoin - CNBC

Episode 27 of Season 3 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Blocks Frank Chaparro and Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Josh Brown.

Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop onApple,Spotify,Google Play,Stitcheror wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests to [emailprotected]

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Wall Street is embracing crypto one headline-driving development at a time.

From Goldman Sachs to Morgan Stanley, major banks are moving from exploring the digital asset world to fully operating in it.

Goldman, for instance, announced Friday it would restart its market for non-deliverable forwards tied to bitcoin. Both Morgan Stanley and Goldman have said they will offer their wealthiest clients exposure to bitcoin. But one channel that has yet to fully embrace crypto is the independent wealth management market.

Josh Brown the brains behind the well-followed Reformed Broker blog is among the legion of wealth managers who have yet to start advising their clients to buy crypto.

The CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management joined The Scoop to talk about how financial advisors are examining the fast-growing $2 trillion market, why he is skeptical of non-fungible tokens and decentralized finance, and how Covid-19 turned the idea of risk on its head.

Here's a blurb from the show:

"The most concerning is that what weve just witnessed completely flipped the entire concept of risk on its head because weve just had the biggest risk in 100 years. We had Spanish Flu 2.0 in the modern era, like traveling three times faster than the 1918 version, right? Like the biggest risk you could think of, millions of people suddenly dropping dead from a global pandemic. It turned out to be one of the biggest opportunities. And you didnt have to wait three years or eight years like the Great Depression to figure that out. Literally. The stock market fell for 16 days and stopped. Think about that. So what even is risk anymore? What if I tell you the next thing is a nuclear bomb going off somewhere? Dow Jones might go up 50%."

2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

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Downtown Josh Brown on bitcoin and wealth management - The Block Crypto

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Auto insurance company Metromile soon will let policyholders pay premiums with cryptocurrency and even receive claim payouts in this red-hot form of digital currency.

San Francisco-based Metromile, which offers pay-per-mile insurance, says that it will roll out cryptocurrency capabilities later this year. Metromile spokesperson Rick Chen says a launch date hasnt been set for the cryptocurrency program.

Metromile says it will be the first insurer to both accept premiums and pay claims in cryptocurrency. Policyholders will be able to pick either cryptocurrency or old-fashioned dollars for premium and claim transactions.

Pay-per-mile insurance is a form of auto insurance that can lower rates for folks who dont drive a lot. Monthly bills are calculated using a base rate plus a per-mile rate for the month.

Massachusetts-based Premier Shield Insurance, an insurance agency, says it lets policyholders pay auto, home and business insurance premiums and agency fees with Bitcoin, up to a limit of $5,000. But Premier Shields Bitcoin program does not apply to claim payouts.

Metromile launched this option to support the increasing demand for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payments from our customers. Weve planned to support Bitcoin for years, but it wasnt until recently that the technology and consumer adoption of Bitcoin was widespread enough for us to offer this, Chen says.

Metromile says it will buy $10 million of Bitcoin in the second quarter of this year to pave the way for cryptocurrency transactions. In a news release, the company says it believes allowing cryptocurrency payments will support its commitment to fairer insurance and promote financial resilience for policyholders as cryptocurrency becomes mainstream and a more significant portion of consumers assets.

Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency, a form of currency that people can buy, sell or exchange without the involvement of a bank. While Bitcoin is the best-known cryptocurrency, dating back to 2009, its now among more than 5,000 cryptocurrencies in circulation today. As of May 5, the global cryptocurrency market was valued at $2.4 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

In the news release, Metromile CEO Dan Preston says adding Bitcoin as a payment option is the next logical step for the digital insurance platform and its artificial intelligence-powered claims process. The company says it will collaborate with regulators to satisfy any concerns they have about Metromiles adoption of cryptocurrency.

Metromile currently offers coverage in eight states: Arizona, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington. At the end of 2020, Metromile had 92,635 auto insurance policies in force, according to Chen.

The company plans to launch a U.S. expansion in the second half of 2021. Chen says Metromile policies will be available nationwide by the end of 2022.

In a recent report, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) says no NAIC committees or groups have taken any action or established a position on cryptocurrencies. The association says its staff will continue to monitor the evolution of cryptocurrencies and address this topic further. . . .

Kyle Schmitt, vice president of insurance intelligence at market research company J.D. Power, believes insurance regulators generally hold a non-positive view of cryptocurrency due to its price swings.

Accepting payments in Bitcoin is easy enough if they are immediately converted to dollars upon receipt, Schmitt says, but premiums paid in Bitcoin could be highly volatile.

Bob Hunter, director of insurance at the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America, says his stance on insurers dabbling in cryptocurrency would likely mirror Warren Buffetts overall position on cryptocurrency. The billionaire investor has sharply criticized cryptocurrency as a risky, worthless asset.

I would, as a regulator, not accept Bitcoin as backup for the business, says Hunter, former insurance commissioner in Texas. If consenting adults want to pay each other in the stuff, Id allow that. But Id want something more soliddollarsto be there behind the business in case of emergency.

Such backup funding is known in insurance circles as surplus. Its the amount by which an insurers assets exceed its liabilities. Furthermore, Hunter believes any insurer that transacts in cryptocurrency should keep a tidy sum of cash in its reserves. Insurers are supposed to set aside a portion of premiums in their reserve funds to cover future possible claims.

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Metromile Will Embrace Bitcoin For Insurance Premium And Claim Payments - Forbes

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) A man is facing murder for hire charges after the FBI says he attempted to pay a would-be killer in Bitcoin to kill his wife.

According to the FBI Cyber Task Force, the British Broadcasting Corporation advised them that they had information about a threat to the life of Ann Replogle. FBI Knoxville advised the Knox County Sheriffs Office who conducted a welfare check.

The two law enforcement agencies met with Ann and her husband Nelson Paul Replogle who both said they could not think of anyone who would want to harm Ann.

The BBC was able to provide more information including details about the date and time of a veterinarians office visit that Ann would be taking her pet to, as well as the make, model and color of her vehicle.

Payment for the murder was made using virtual currency Bitcoin. The FBI was able to link Bitcoin account used to make the payment to the app CoinBase and subsequently to the IP address responsible for the transaction.

The FBI says CoinBase records revealed a transaction from a personal savings account belonging to Nelson Paul Replogle was used to pay the would-be killer.

A murder for hire guilty verdict carries with it a maximum 10 year sentence if no personal injury occurs and a fine of no more than $250,000.

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FBI: Knoxville man paid hitman in Bitcoin to kill his wife - WATE 6 On Your Side

The S&P Dow Jones Indices launched new cryptocurrency indexes, it said on Tuesday, further mainstreaming digital currencies including bitcoin and ethereum by bringing them to the trading floors of Wall Street.

The new indexes, S&P Bitcoin Index, S&P Ethereum Index and S&P Crypto Mega Cap Index, will measure the performance of digital assets tied to them.

The list will expand to include additional coins later this year, the division of financial data provider S&P Global said.

The company first announced the plan in December when it said it would cover more than 550 of top-traded coins and that its clients will be able to create customized indices and other benchmarking tools on cryptocurrencies.

A representation of virtual currency Bitcoin is seen in front of a stock graph in this illustration taken March 15, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

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"Traditional financial markets and digital assets are no longer mutually exclusive markets," said Peter Roffman, global head of innovation and strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

The indexes will use data from New York-based virtual currency company Lukka.

Bitcoin , the most popular cryptocurrency, has seen a wild rally in prices after backing from high-profile companies including Tesla (TSLA.O) and Bank of NY Mellon (BK.N). Its price, however, has come off its record highs.

Ethereum, meanwhile, touched a record high on Monday after rising above $3,000 for the first time over the weekend.

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S&P Dow Jones brings bitcoin, ethereum to Wall St with cryptocurrency indexes - Reuters

Zug, Switzerland, May 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (via Blockchain Wire)Bitcoin Association, the Switzerland-based global industry organisation that works to advance business with the Bitcoin SV blockchain and BSV digital currency, has today released its secondannual report, highlighting its work and achievements throughout 2020.

The report, which is available for download now on theBitcoin Association website, is the first to be released sinceBitcoin Association transitioned to a non-profit association (Verein) in Switzerland. It is broken into 13 sections and covers the multi-faceted global programme of work undertaken by Bitcoin Association in 2020, including:

Highlights from the report include:

Speaking on todays release,Bitcoin Association Founding President Jimmy Nguyen, said:

The release of our 2020 annual report today illustrates the great strides that Bitcoin Association and Bitcoin SV was able to take against the backdrop of an extremely challenging year for everyone. In particular, the work that the Association has undertaken and the progress made in the education, developer, public policy and media spaces is hugely encouraging, as is the overall maturation of businesses across the Bitcoin SV ecosystem. As seen throughout the report, 2020 was a hugely important year for both Bitcoin Association and Bitcoin SV one largely focused on laying important foundations needed for further progress and the next phase of BSV utility growth in 2021.

About Bitcoin AssociationBitcoin Associationis the Switzerland-based global industry organisation 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 worlds single blockchain on Bitcoin SV.

Media Contact:Alex SpeirsHead of Communicationsalexander@bitcoinassociation.net

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Bitcoin Association releases 2020 annual report highlighting work and achievements advancing Bitcoin SV - GlobeNewswire