Category Archives: Bitcoin

Don't expect bitcoin's wild swings to relax anytime soon.

That's according to Ari Wald, head of technical analysis at Oppenheimer, who says the cryptocurrency's highly volatile action isn't going away.

"You need to be able to stomach that volatility. It's there to stay," Wald said Monday on CNBC's "Trading Nation." "With the upside reward comes a lot of volatile day-to-day and even week-to-week action."

Bitcoin fell nearly 3% on Monday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell called cryptocurrencies primarily "speculative assets" and said the Fed was in no hurry to develop a central bank digital currency.

"Here's something that can drop 20% and still hold all of its trend lines and support levels and leave the trend undisturbed," Wald said. "Take for instance just the action last February. It made a high of about $58,000 and the next day was down to $44,000. It's really been volatile and consolidating since then."

Gina Sanchez, founder and CEO of Chantico Global and Lido Advisors' chief market strategist, agreed with Powell that the crypto is not a great store for value, but also saw a different reason for its potential drop.

"As we reopen, ... as money moves away from speculative assets, out of the riskier assets and quite frankly into goods and services spending, I think bitcoin's going to get hit," she said in the same "Trading Nation" interview.

Bitcoin has climbed more than 840% since the March bottom.

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Bitcoin volatility is here to stay, top technician warns - CNBC

NEW YORK, March 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NYDIG, a leading provider of technology and investment solutions for Bitcoin, today announced that, effective immediately, the total expense ratio for NYDIG funds that provide passive access to Bitcoin will be reduced to 0.30% of net asset value per year. The new pricing applies to all existing and forthcoming private and public funds managed by NYDIG, and represents NYDIG's third fee reduction in the last year.

NYDIG's new pricing structure is 50-75% lower than comparable passive bitcoin access products available to investors and, critically, 0.30% represents the true total expense ratio of the fund, including a Big-4 audit and legal, custody, and accountingfees. While some funds may pass through these costs and obscure the true cost of ownership behind lower "headline" management fees, NYDIG continues to lead the market in delivering the most transparent, most simple, and most secure access to bitcoin, at the lowest total cost.

The firm also announced today that all fund platform partners, including Morgan Stanley's wealth management platform, can benefit from this lower cost. This includes financial advisors, registered investment advisors (RIAs), and broker-dealer platforms. The news follows NYDIG's launch, in partnership with FS Investments, on Morgan Stanley's wealth management platform last week.

"We are grateful for our growth, and our proprietary vertically-integrated platform delivers unmatched economies of scale that we can pass on to our clients. As an asset manager ourselves, we take our responsibility to the investors and advisors we work with very seriously, and always seek to help our partners meet their own fiduciary or Reg BI obligations," said Robert Gutmann, Co-founder and CEO of NYDIG. "With the best people, the best products, and the best price, NYDIG continues to cement its position as the premier provider of Bitcoin solutions."

Ross Stevens, Founder and Executive Chairman of NYDIG, continued, "Industry-leading ease of bitcoin access is consistent with our mission of Financial Security for All. Expenses matter, and this will not be our last fee reduction. Further, as bitcoin's sound money advantages are more widely understood, I believe it is only a matter of time until U.S. dollar depreciation causes bitcoin's market cap to surpass that of gold, so it is fittingly symbolic that NYDIG has now made the total cost of bitcoin access 25% lower than the total cost of gold access.2 Our announcement today is good for our investors, good for our partners, good for NYDIG, and good for bitcoin."

1NYDIG's funds have the lowest total expenses among fund managers that we are aware of with funds that invest solely in bitcoin.

2The leading investment vehicle for gold is GLD, the SPDR Gold Trust, which has a total expense ratio of 0.40%

ContactConor SheaEdelman[emailprotected]

About NYDIG

NYDIG provides Bitcoin investment and technology solutions to insurers, banks, corporations, and institutions. The firm and its products meet the industry's highest regulatory, audit, and governance standards. Learn more at nydig.com, or connect on LinkedIn and Twitter.

NYDIG, NYDIG, and NEW YORK DIGITAL INVESTMENT GROUP are registered trademarks of New York Digital Investment Group LLC. All rights reserved.

SOURCE NYDIG

https://nydig.com/

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NYDIG Cuts Total Cost of Bitcoin Access to 0.30% - PRNewswire

Blockchain.com, a London-based firm that provides a variety of cryptocurrency services to retail and institutional clients, raised $300 million in a deal that highlights venture capitals growing willingness to jump back into the bitcoin frenzy.

The investment round gave the company a $5.2 billion valuation and was led by DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners and VY Capital. It comes just one month after the company raised $120 million in a funding round that valued it at $3 billion.

Blockchain.com has 31 million verified users across 200 countries and 70 million digital wallets, or software used to store bitcoins. The firm offers retail trading and a range of services for professional investors like credit, structured products, trading and custody. Between debt and equity, the company has raised $1.5 billion since its inception in 2011, according to Chief Executive Peter Smith.

It is a significant amount for a crypto company. The latest capital raise is the third-largest in the industrys short history, according to research firm CB Insights. In 2018, Bitmain Technologies raised $400 million. Earlier this year, BlockFi raised $350 million and in 2020, Bakkt raised $300 million.

Capital raising also stagnated over the past few years as bitcoins price fell from its 2017 highs and remained down. After raising $4.5 billion in 2018, deals have declined to $2.7 billion in 2020. Their re-emergence this year, with three of the six largest to date coming in 2021, is spurring hopes that private investors are returning.

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Blockchain.com Raises $300 Million as Investors Find Other Ways Into Bitcoin - The Wall Street Journal

Norway is ahead of the game when it comes to things like work-life balance and raising children. You can add to that commerce: Norway is the world's most cashless country, according to its central bank, with just 4% of their payments made with cash and the majority made with contactless cards or digital wallets.

But even with this forward-thinking behavior, the country's central bank is not recommending bitcoin as an alternative to fiat, or government-backed currency, because it's "far too resource-intensive, far too costly and most importantly, it doesn't preserve stability," Oystein Olsen, the governor of Norges Bank, told Bloomberg.

Those who argue in favor of bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, often say that it's a hedge against inflation and the U.S. dollar some bitcoin bulls even think it will eventually overtake the dollar as the world's reserve currency.

However, Olsen does not agree.

"[T]he basic property and task for a central bank and central bank currency is to provide stability in the value of money and in the system, and that is not done by bitcoin," Olsen told Bloomberg.

But because of the growing interest in cryptocurrency globally and the low level of cash use in Norway, Norges Bank deputy governor Ida Wolden Bache did acknowledge questions raised surrounding the creation of a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, in November.

A CBDC would differ from a cryptocurrency, like bitcoin, in many ways, but importantly because a CBDC would be issued and backed by a country's central bank to compliment physical cash, rather than replace it entirely, and offer a more stable alternative.

Although Norway's central bank is assessing the need for a CBDC, "[t]he prospective introduction of a CBDC is still some way off," Wolden Bache said in November. "The lack of urgency reflects our view so far that there is no acute need to introduce a CBDC."

While some, like the central banks of Sweden, China, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, have started projects introducing CBDCs, others, like Norway and the U.S., are more hesitant. There are upsides to a CBDC, but there are also privacy and surveillance risks attached, for example.

In fact, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said during a virtual panel discussion on digital banking on Monday that the U.S. is in no rush to introduce a CBDC "you can expect us to move with great care and transparency," Powell said.

Like Olsen, Powell has a similar opinion of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

"They're highly volatile and therefore not really useful stores of value and they're not backed by anything,"Powellsaid on Monday. "It's more a speculative asset that's essentially a substitute for gold rather than for the dollar."

Bitcoin's price has fluctuated, but as of 2:08 p.m. EST on Tuesday, it's priced at $55,642.38 with a market cap of over $1 trillion, according to Coin Metrics.

All in all, it's fair to say that for most countries, the creation of a CBDC is a "likely" scenario, James Ledbetter, editor of fintech newsletter FIN and CNBC contributor, previously told CNBC Make It, as "the vast majority of central banks in the world have already been doing research on this."

"Digital currencies more generally are the new wine, in many respects," Olsen told Bloomberg, with "central banks entering the scene."

He added, "I don't think at the end of the day [bitcoin] will be a threat to central banks, although some people talk about that."

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Norway is the worlds most cashless country but its central bank isn't keen on bitcoin: 'It doesnt preserve stability' - CNBC

Sovryn, a project that aims to bring decentralized finance (DeFi) to Bitcoin, is in the final stages of approving a 180 BTC investment from Pomp but only under certain circumstances.

Under the terms of the proposal, cryptocurrency evangelist Anthony Pomp Pompliano would invest 180 bitcoin, worth around $10 million at todays prices.

While this might seem like yet another crypto investment story, this one is notable for the efforts Sovryn is taking to ensure that its existing token holders arent marginalized simply because its getting a big investment.

While in most cases decentralized governance goes out the window when well-heeled investors come knocking, Sovyns decentralized governance community is taking things slow to make sure all members will continue to have a say in the projects governance.

Related: IBM Ventures Further Into Crypto Custody With METACO, Deutsche Bank Tie-Ups

As of this writing, a deal had still not been finalized. Jascha Samadi, co-founder and partner at Berlin-based early-stage venture fund Greenfield One, which led a seed round in Sovryn in 2020, said this marks the shape of things to come when it comes to decentralized projects and investing.

The standard way fundraising decisions happen is the teams treasury or the foundations treasury simply raise money by selling tokens to private investors, and it happens in a very closed circle, said Samadi. This is the first time that we actually see a team bringing a proposal like this to their community at such an early stage into their journey.

Community-based governance and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) have evolved like everything else in the crypto space. As well as day-to-day decision making and software updates, decentralized governance structures vote on big choices relating to fundraising and stakeholders being added to the community.

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The proposed $10 million investment would be made by Pomplianos new asset management firm, Pomp Investments. Until last September, Pompliano was in charge of investments into crypto at Morgan Creek Digital Assets.

Related: Goldman Files to Offer Notes Linked to an ARK ETF That May Have Bitcoin Exposure

Its worth noting that Sovryn is a buzzy project and earlier this month the community chose to sell $10 million worth of its SOV tokens. There are also conditions such as an extended lock-in period of 16 months for tokens.

While the investment itself is about bringing DeFi to Bitcoin, Pompliano agreed this marks a new chapter in decentralized investing.

You will see more proposal-based investment as the crypto industry deepens, with decentralized communities deciding on investments rather than traditional, centralized and founder-based decision-making, Pompliano said in an interview.

DeFi is the umbrella term for the exchange of cryptocurrencies or the lending and borrowing of them, carried out using business rules set out in computer code, which have typically flourished on the Ethereum public blockchain.

The Bitcoin blockchain, a straight up peer-to-peer payment network, is not the natural home for transactions that lock up funds, include outside data feeds and pay yields on assets. This requires some extra bells and whistles, which Sovryn adds in the form of parallel and uncluttered channels and enjoy the same unbreakable security as Bitcoin.

Sovryn project creator Edan Yago echoed Pomplianos view of this as a new approach to investing.

Many projects that are waving the flag of decentralization, but most of them ultimately have some kind of prime mover behind it, Yago said in an interview. I think one of the really interesting things with Sovryn is how radically and seriously the community takes this idea that there is no central authority behind the project.

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Bitcoin-Based DeFi Project Sovryn Near Agreement on $10M Investment From Pomp - Yahoo Finance

On Tuesday, March 23, the infamous whale thats been spending numerous strings of 2010 block rewards since last year, has spent another 1,000 bitcoin that sat idle for over a decade. The string of 20 block rewards transferred on Tuesday, follows the exact same patterns our newsdesk has tracked since March 12, 2020, otherwise known as Black Thursday.

On February 28, 2021, the mysterious whale who has been spending a great number of 2010 block rewards for roughly a year, had once again spent another 20 blocks. 23 days later, on March 23, 2021, the pattern repeated, as another 20 block rewards from 2010 were transferred today. Since Bitcoin.coms newsdesk started investigating this old school whale on March 12, 2020, to-date the entity has spent 10,000 BTC worth over $550 million using todays BTC exchange rates.

Today, the spending pattern followed the exact same pattern as the previous strings of blocks spent from 2010. All 20 blocks from 2010 were coinbase rewards, which also means each block reward contains 50 BTC. All 20 block rewards moved by the entity were also processed at block height 675,887.

Per usual and similar to previous patterns, the string today had mined blocks stemming from July 2010 up until November 2010. All the strings of 20 block rewards caught since March 12, 2020, were mined within these months. Tuesdays transfer of 1,000 bitcoin mined in 2010 was caught by the onchain blockchain parser Btcparser.com. With close to 700,000 BTC blocks processed so far, the web portals parsers monitor the activity of so-called sleeping bitcoin addresses.

Just like the past spends, the corresponding bitcoin cash (BCH) block rewards have also been moved. However, the corresponding bitcoinsv (BSV) coinbase rewards remain untouched like the whales previous string movements. Once again, the whale took all of the coins (1,000 BTC in total) and consolidated them into a single address.

The first consolidation scheme is done with hardly any privacy tactics and the coins seem to be swept. After the consolidation, the coins are then moved again and split into fractions, and with far more privacy than the original sweep.

It is still hard to say why this whale has been spending this way and our research team assumes there are two possible reasons. One reason may be the whale may be forced to use some sort of Script-based spending program that forces the user to move coins in this manner.

Otherwise, the whale is flexing wealth with these transfers to show the public his/her movements at certain times. Why the individual would do this on purpose is unknown and it may never be known why these bitcoins are being moved in this fashion.

Out of the 10,000 BTC spent in over a years time, the whale has moved strings of 20 decade-old bitcoin block rewards on March 12, 2020, October 11, 2020, November 7, 2020, November 8, 2020, December 27, 2020, January 3, 2021 (Bitcoins 12th anniversary), January 10, 2021, January 25, 2021, February 28, 2021, and today.

What do you think about the string of sleeping bitcoins from 2010 that was transferred today? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Btcparser.com, Bitcoin.com, Holyroger.com,

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Mystery Whale Moves 20 Bitcoin Block Rewards from 2010, Entity Moved 10000 BTC Since Last Year Featured Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

In the not-too-distant future, Americans won't have to drive or even walk very far to find a bitcoin ATM.

Connected to the internet, Bitcoin ATMs resemble traditional ATMs but link to an exchange rather than a bank account. The machines take cash for bitcoin or other digital currencies. Some also let users sell bitcoin for cash.

Most of the transactions involve people paying $300 to $500 to buy a small stake in bitcoin, the price of which has been surging (along with itscarbon emissions), lately trading at a record high near $62,000. Users pay transaction fees that range from 6% to 12%, according to Pamela Clegg, director of financial investigations and education at cryptocurrency compliance firm CipherTrace.

The machines offer a way into the market to those who "may not have the desire or funds to open an account at one of the big exchanges," Clegg said.

Not yet ubiquitous, bitcoin ATMs are in stores, restaurants and airports scattered across the country. They can be found in all but two states Alaska and Vermont as well as in the District of Columbia,according to Coin ATM Radar.

There's already a kiosk offering the world's most popular currency for cash in the gift shop of the Pioneer Auto Museum in Murdo, South Dakota, a town of less than 500 people. "Coin Cloud contacted us," museum owner Vivian Sonder told CBS MoneyWatch. "I told them we're very seasonal and it's kind of quiet right now, and they said 'Nope, that's okay'."

"A few people have used it," Sonder said of the machine installed about five months ago and for which Coin Cloud pays her $200 in rent. "It's not that we're not aware of bitcoin, but we're a tourism and ranching community."

That said, the move to having a bitcoin ATM on every corner is only picking up speed. The count of cryptocurrency ATMs across the U.S. accelerated 85% over the last six months to roughly 14,000 from 7,567 in September 2020, according todata compiled by Trading Platforms.

Las Vegas, Nevada-based Coin Cloud has 1,600 machines offering 35 different digital currencies up and running across the U.S., with another 400 going up this month and plans to have 10,000 installed by the end of the year.

"Our company has grown 400%, 500% every year since 2014 and is self-financed," Chris McAlary, Coin Cloud's founder and CEO of Coin Cloud, said. "The industry has grown out of consumer demand, not because of some VC behind us."

Making an investment is the biggest reason people use the machines, followed by remittance or paying off an invoice, typically an international payment, McAlary said.

"You could buy bitcoin in the U.S. and have it immediately sent to family in another country," so long as there are places to cash it, Clegg said. The transaction fees could be lower than those of other money-transfer companies like Western Union or MoneyGram, she added.

Convenience is also a factor. "A bitcoin ATM is the only way to get bitcoin in under 20 minutes," said Ben Weiss, president and COO of CoinFlip, which like Coin Cloud, pitches its machines to retailers and convenience stops as a way to bring in additional foot traffic and extra income for renting out space. Also in expansion mode, Chicago-based CoinFlip operates 2,000 bitcoin ATMs in 46 states, adding 1,000 of the ATMs in 2020 and another 500 so far this year.

"The reason people use the bitcoin ATMs is there are still a lot of people who are unbanked, or underbanked," added Weiss.

About 7.1 million U.S. households, or 5.4%, did not have a bank account in 2019,according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. That cash economy has many making weekly treks to cash paychecks. "In smaller town USA, check cashiers are still a real thing," said Clegg.

Consumers should consider the transaction fees and locations of bitcoin ATMs, with some operators more scrupulous than others, said Clegg, who also cautioned those using the machines to buy digital currency to first check what it's fetching online.

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Bitcoins, coming soon to an ATM near you? - CBS News

In the crypto currency universe, Bitcoin reigns supreme, but decentralized finance (DeFi) currencies are coming on strong, proving crypto has expanse as an asset class. Theres more to the group than just Bitcoin and Ethereum.

DeFi refers to the emerging category of digital, peer-to-peerfinancial services technologies that enable trading, loans, interest accounts, and more. Using public blockchains and crypto assets rather than legacy systems, DeFi services aim to cut out traditional Wall Street intermediaries, allowing for the potential to facilitate faster operation, 24/7 availability, no minimums or paperwork, full transparency, and auditability.

Examples of DeFi currencies include Aave, Compound, Loopspring, Maker, and Uniswap.

DeFi is, we think, the most fundamental challenge to modern finance that weve encountered, Bank of America analyst Francisco Blanch wrote.

Last month, Bitwise Asset Management, creator of the worlds largest crypto index fund, the fast-growing Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (OTCQX:BITW), announced the launch of the Bitwise DeFi Crypto Index Fund. Thats the primary fund vehicle for accessing DeFi currencies.

The new Bitwise fund holds a portfolio of crypto assets that power these services. The asset seeks to track the Bitwise Decentralized Finance Crypto Index. Holdings are screened for important risks, weighted by market capitalization, and rebalanced monthly.

Decentralized finance seeks to replace a range of centralized and regulated banking institutions with decentralized systems and products, which are typically built on the Ethereum blockchain, reports Business Insider. Modern finance currently works on the basis that there are trusted entities acting as central points for providing services and functions, Blanch said. In turn, these entities are then regulated to provide consumer protection.

Many DeFi concepts are built on Ethereum, the second-largest digital asset. Ethereum is an open-source, blockchain-based distributed computing platform that can support smart contract functionality. Thats a complicated way of saying that Ethereum not only makes a cryptocurrency called Ether possible, but can also support the launch of new cryptocurrencies and make it possible to crowdsource funding for new projects. The simplest way to think about Ethereum is to compare it to something you probably use every day: your mobile phone. If you have an Android or iOS phone, you have apps that can perform a wide variety of functions from ordering an Uber to mapping a route across town.

The analysts conclude there is a significant amount of innovation in the decentralized finance space. However, at the moment, there isnt a material challenge to mainstream finance, concludes Business Insider.

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Bitcoin Is All the Rage, But DeFi Could Be Even Bigger - ETFdb.com - ETFdb.com

Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) faced some backlash from the crypto community earlier today, after its criticism of Bitcoin from its latest research note made headlines.

What Happened: The banks research note titled Bitcoins Dirty Little Secrets stated that there is no good reason to own Bitcoin unless you see prices going up. According to the bank, Bitcoins volatility makes it impractical as a store of value or a payments mechanism.

Why It Matters: The research note was not well received by the crypto community who took to Twitter to share their thoughts about it.

Samson Mow, CSO of blockchain technology company Blockstream, shared a graph of Bank of Americas stock price over the years and said, If your stonk chart looks like this, you dont get to call Bitcoin volatile.

The research note also claimed that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) would be kryptonite for cryptocurrency, which most users described as the worst take on cryptocurrency they have heard.

Popular Bitcoin proponent Anthony Pompliano stated on Twitter that the Bank of America has a higher chance of failing than Bitcoin, and was quickly backed by most of his 650k followers on the platform. CZ, CEO of the largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume Binance, suggested that it wouldnt be just Bank of America, but rather, all banks that would fail before Bitcoin did.

The banks criticism, however, was appreciated by known Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff According to him, the research report concluded the obvious and he went on to reiterate his belief that Bitcoin is the ultimate bubble.

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Bank of Americas stance on Bitcoin comes at a time where large institutions and public companies are buying and holding the digital asset on their balance sheets. Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) said it would offer Bitcoin to its wealthy clients.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $58,500, up 5% in the past 24-hours. With over $1 trillion in market cap, Bitcoin is larger than JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) ,and Bank of America combined.

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Bank Of America Calls Bitcoin 'Impractical,' And Crypto Community Has A Lot To Say About That - Yahoo Finance

Stocks traded mostly higher Wednesday as bond yields steadied and oil prices rebounded.

TheStreet's Katherine Ross and Jim Cramer discussed breaking news in the stock market. Cramer spoke abouthow to trade GameStop after earnings, Tesla's plan to accept Bitcoin payments for its cars and markets on Wednesday.

GameStop (GME) - Get Reportshares plungedafter the video game company reported fourth-quarter earnings that missed estimates and said in a filing that it was considering selling additional equity shares to fund its "future transformation initiatives and general working capital needs."

Cramer said Gamestop had an excellent quarter with stellar e-commerce numbers. "They are clearly taking advantage of the stores that they want to close. They are closing them. Their two new hires, from Google (GOOGL) - Get Reportand Amazon (AMZN) - Get Reportrespectively, look good. They're doing everything right, which is why it's interesting that people would short this stock."

Tesla (TSLA) - Get ReportCEO Elon Musk has said that the electric vehicle maker would begin accepting cryptocurrency payments in Bitcoin for its cars. He's unsure if it's going to change how people buy cars but he wants to keep learning from cryptocurrency experts like Anthony "Pomp" Pompliano.

Cramer said digital payments company Square (SQ) - Get Reportis the most important voice here because it lets people buy a piece of Bitcoin.He also added that Musk is a pioneer.

Cramer said the trend of industrials will continue to benefit investors. "The stock that has been key to this market has been Caterpillar. It is scorching but nothing has happened [at the company.] That makes me deeply suspicious that this is rotational. But sometimes rotations are more powerful than news."

Amazon and Alphabet are key holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS member club. Want to be alerted before Jim Cramer buys or sells the stock? Learn more now.

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Stock Market Today With Jim Cramer: Tesla and Bitcoin - TheStreet