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Cryptocurrency markets have been fluctuating quite a bit lately, as bitcoin and a number of crypto assets have been testing new resistance levels. The market valuation of the entire crypto-economy is hovering around $360 billion as a decent portion of the top twenty digital assets have gained 1-15% in the last 24 hours. This Week’s Crypto Market Action A number of digital currency enthusiasts have been focused on crypto markets, as prices started rising again during the latter half of the weekend. During the early morning trading sessions on Monday, bitcoin (BTC) had jumped a hair above the $12k zone. However, BTC/USD prices slid 4% after reaching the $12k zone to the $11,500 region. The move filled a CME Group bitcoin futures price gap which was not filled prior to the weekend. BTC quickly moved back to the $11,700 position and again bitcoin bulls are pressing toward the $12k range. Despite BTC’s rising price toward $12k, the crypto asset’s dominance ratio is still only 60.5% out of all the coins in existence (5,700+). At the time of publication, bitcoin (BTC) has a market cap between $218 to $221 billion. During the last seven days, BTC is up 5.9% and the asset is up 28.8% for the last 30 days. Top five crypto assets on Monday, August 10, 2020. Out of all 5,700+ crypto coins, there is $30 billion in 24-hour trade volume on Monday. Ethereum (ETH) is up over 2.4% today and trading for $396 at press time. ETH is only up 3.4% for the week but it’s up over 64% during the last 30 days. XRP is also up over a percentage today, as it’s been wobbling between $0.29 to $0.30 during the last few days. Bitcoin cash (BCH) has been trading for just above the $300 range, after touching a high of $308 during the early morning trading sessions. BCH is up 2% during the last seven days, 28% for the last 30-days, and 29.7% during the last 90-day time span. The cryptocurrency has around $779 million in 24-hour global trades and a $5.59 billion market capitalization. Analyst Indicates Bitcoin Prices Headed for $15,000 Full-time trader Adam Mancini told his 53,000 Twitter followers on Sunday that he’s seeing an “excellent rally in bitcoin.” Mancini thinks that the next big stop will be around $15,000 after the crypto asset recently busted through a bullish triangular pattern. “[BTC] broke out of a multi-year bullish triangle with force,” Mancini tweeted on Sunday. “Bitcoin may be the new kid on the block but the same old classic patterns that apply to all financial assets still apply. [The] trend is up with $15k next target.” Former Goldman Sachs Exec Raoul Pal ‘Irresponsibly Long’ Toward Bitcoin The CEO of Real Vision, Raoul Pal, is short on the U.S. dollar and “irresponsibly long” toward bitcoin, according to a new interview published this week. Pal is extremely bullish toward bitcoin (BTC) and he thinks it’s a better investment than precious metals, bonds, and traditional stocks. “In fact, only one asset has offset the growth of the G4 balance sheet. It’s not stocks, not bonds, not commodities, not credit, not precious metals, not miners,” Pal said during the daily briefing. “Only one asset massively outperformed over almost any time horizon: Bitcoin. My conviction levels in bitcoin rise every day. I’m already irresponsibly long. I am now thinking it may not be even worth owning any other asset as a long-term asset allocation, but that’s a story for another day.” Coinshares Report Says Investors Should Own 4% of Bitcoin in Their Portfolio This week Coinshares’ Investment Strategist, James Butterfill, published a research report which identifies bitcoin portfolio allocation. Butterfill details that a bitcoin (BTC) portfolio weight of 4% is optimal for a traditional 60/40 portfolio. BTC is a portfolio diversifier and historically it’s attractive due to being a driver of returns. “Gold has a similar impact in diversifying a portfolio,” Butterfill’s report notes. “Although, portfolio weights above 20% are required to achieve any substantive impact on diversification. Bitcoin is converse to this, with minimal weights having a far greater impact,” he added. What do you think about this week’s cryptocurrency market action? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Market Outlook: BTC Trend Targets $15K, Bitcoin Bull Raoul Pal ‘Irresponsibly Long’ appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Four billion dollars. This is the total amount of funds locked in “Defi”, growing from just one billion USD in 6 weeks. “Defi” has had a tortuous path ever since its inception, but now the concept of “Defi” is gaining more attention. So, what exactly is “Defi”? Is it just another blockchain hype, or could it really be an epoch-making innovation? “Defi” stands for “decentralized finance”. Fusion (fusion.org) proposed the concept of “crypto finance” in its official white paper at the end of 2017 and began to focus on constructing digital financial technologies. “Defi” has gradually evolved over the years as more projects have started to focus on this field. “Defi”, in short, is the use of blockchain technologies (including smart contracts, decentralized asset custody, etc.) to replace all “intermediaries” with program codes, therefore maximizing the efficiency of financial services and minimizing costs. Every major technological revolution in human society has brought about a significant increase in production efficiency and a reduction in cost (of production, labor, etc.).. During the industrial revolution, machines replaced human labor; during the information revolution, emails replaced postal services; and in the upcoming blockchain revolution, smart contract codes will replace loan officers. Judging from its current development, “Defi” can be classified into four categories. The first category: Decentralized loan The advancement of the Internet is so rapid, that nowadays you can easily use apps on your phone – such as Alipay – to manage your assets. However, you may be surprised by the fact that if you have 10,000 dollars to spare and put it in a fixed deposit, the yield you gain is 240 dollars in a year, and yet, if someone needs to borrow 10,000 dollars, they need to pay around 1,460 dollars of interest in a year. Why is there such a huge discrepancy? This is because the “intermediary” takes an enormous cut. Understandably, we cannot deny the role of intermediaries. They need to match the supply and demand for loans and bear the risk of overdue debts. There is also a risk of deposit oversupply, where many people deposit money but no one borrows. They also need to review the borrowers’ credit and chase debtors before the due date. The cost of these services is not low, but is it worth the difference between 240 and 1,460 dollars? Is there a better way? Perhaps what came to mind for you is the infamous “P2P” lending. Whilst peer-to-peer loaning is well-intentioned, with the aim to simplify the lending ecosystem and thus reduce the intermediary cost, it should be noted that “P2P” lending still relies on centralized intermediaries and is susceptible to risks associated with centralization in a market that lacks regulation. Using “Defi” technology, we can build smart contracts with codes that execute the actions of intermediaries, including: accepting and managing deposits, handling collateralized loans, and liquidating collateral assets as per the terms of the contracts should their values fluctuate. Thanks to blockchain technology, the contract codes cannot be manipulated or terminated by any individuals or organizations, and are executed with pre-defined terms. MakerDAO and Compound are two examples of “decentralized loans”: they establish capital pools that can lend out assets via smart contracts. In today’s world, where US bank interest rates for savings are nearly zero, if you deposit 10,000 SEC-approved digital USD tokens into these “decentralized loan” platforms, you can generate up to 11.26% yield annually. When the amount of the deposit increases, the yield decreases dynamically; and when the amount loaned out increases, the lenders’ income increases dynamically. Interestingly, once a smart contract is up and running, even the project developers cannot take funds away from the capital pool. Everything will be executed in accordance with the codes, including their commission rates, which are specified in the contract and taken as profit. At present, this category of “Defi” is growing the fastest and constitutes a majority of the “Defi” space, accounting for 80% of the 1 billion USD. On the one hand, this reflects the underlying demand for lending. On the other hand, this implies that lending is the most acceptable financial service in the world. But if we think more about it, we realize that the scale of a loan market of 800 million USD is negligible compared to the scale of the traditional financial market. The central bank of China has begun experimenting with digital Renminbi DECP (digital currency electronic payment). If this is fruitful, you may be able to sit at home and use your phone to lend out your idle digital Renminbi to someone in another corner of the world in the foreseeable future. You would not have to worry about a chain of intermediaries that would take a huge commission, or a possibility that the DECP you have lent cannot be recovered. The program codes take care of everything for you, and it cannot cheat you out of money. The second category: Decentralized exchange As we all know, almost all financial transactions today need to go through centralized custodial service providers because of counterparty risk; it is a risk that you may not receive assets or funds from the other party in a trade when you have already paid in advance. The same thing happens in stock trades, real estate transactions, and any OTC (over the counter) exchanges. You and your counterparty both need to transfer assets or funds in escrow to a third party to mitigate counterparty risk when making an exchange. Those institutions that provide centralized custodial services charge a custodial and transaction fee, and the fee can be up to 3-5% for OTC transactions. “Defi” brought us non-custodial exchanges, where codes (smart contracts or decentralized key management systems such as Fusion’s DCRM) hold assets from both parties in escrow. Those codes from decentralized blockchains guarantee the asset swap is atomic. That means when you make a transaction with a party, assets are guaranteed to be transferred to each other and the cost of making such “non-custodial transactions” is nearly zero. This category of “Defi” is still in its infancy. There was a wave of establishing decentralized exchanges with smart contracts in 2017, but almost none of them were successful. This is because the technology was not mature enough at the time, and the market acceptance was slow. Another obstacle was that decentralized transactions could only be made on the same blockchain, as cross-chain exchanges were not possible at the time. As the advantages of decentralized exchanges were overshadowed by the advantages of centralized exchanges such as services and UI, we know how it turned out. We believe that decentralized exchanges should focus on cross-chain, non-custodial,decentralized transactions, such as the use of Fusion’s solution to decentralized custody to achieve high efficiency and low cost. This piece of the market is incredibly large, especially the OTC market because there is huge counterparty risk and the market intrinsically has a much higher volume than other trading markets. The development prospect here is extremely broad. The third category: Programmable standardized decentralized derivatives The financial derivatives we see today are designed and issued by centralized financial institutions, such as banker’s acceptance drafts, bonds, factoring, options, etc. The issuing cost is high, and derivatives with identical parameters but issued by different institutions cannot be homogenized. For example, a bank acceptance draft of 1 million Chinese yuan due to mature on January 1st2021 and endorsed by the Bank of China and a draft of 1 million Chinese yuan due to mature on January 1st 2021 endorsed by a small local commercial bank are intrinsically different, as their discount rates are different. This is because the risk levels of those derivative-issuing centralized institutions are different. But in reality, those two bills get you the same 1 million yuan on January 1st 2021. Do we have the technical competency to homogenize derivatives that share the same parameters by eliminating the risk factors of the issuers? The answer is yes. Everyone can issue derivatives and set their parameters with “Defi”. Due to its decentralized characteristics, derivatives with identical parameters but with different issuers do not have any risk differences. By setting the same parameters, different people can create homogenous derivatives. Fusion’s time-lock technology adds time attributes to all assets. Say you have an acceptance draft of 1 million yuan due to mature on January 1st 2021, you only need to specify the time attribute of that digital Renminbi as [January 1st 2021 ~ forever], et voilà! This way, derivatives created can be standardized and homogeneous, and they can form a financial ecosystem with smart contracts. These kinds of digital acceptance bills no longer need to be redeemed from a centralized institution such as a bank; the blockchain consensus guarantees the bill will automatically become digital cash when it is due. It is equivalent to redeeming bills from the blockchain system. We do not need to worry about any form of contract breach given the decentralized characteristics of the system. This piece of the market has huge potential. We all know that the volume of derivatives is many times larger than that of the currency market. With the support of derivatives in the space of “Defi” decentralized technologies, not only does it make derivatives themselves interoperable, but it also greatly reduces the cost of issuance (the cost of issuing such acceptance drafts on a blockchain with underlying assets is almost zero), and greatly reduces the time required to issue such instruments (in the magnitude of seconds). The fourth category: Financial process automation Ever since the inception of computer technology, we have witnessed many processes being digitized and automated, such as office and supply chain automation. Nevertheless, finance has not been fully automated, and the root cause is trust. How can you accept the fact that your money is controlled by someone else and can be transferred away from your account automatically? Even in scenarios that require highly efficient automation, we still need a centralized entity to ensure the safety of funds. For instance, many logistics companies outsource their last-mile delivery and bill collection to other companies, splitting the profits. In this scenario, these logistics companies require a financial service that allocates payments proportional to their profits to each outsourced service provider, as per some pre-agreed terms. There are also other business scenarios where income from subsidiaries needs to be collected and distributed proportionally to accounts with various functions, such as a tax account, a management cost account, etc. Assisted by other fintech companies, banks currently offer some services that meet the above-mentioned demands. However, on the one hand, cross-bank operations are still unrealized. On the other hand, they need to persuade external service providers to count on banks to allocate payments under pre-agreed terms, and to sign agreements with the banks. The actual operations are very difficult and complex: when terms and conditions change, anyagreements that were made must be re-signed. “Defi” has a strong advantage in this area. Smart contract templates can generate flexible smart contracts for payment distribution and bill collection based on the digital signature dynamics of various accounts. This type of to-B market has huge potential. In the foreseeable future, whether it is a conglomerate with multiple subsidiaries, or an organization with a convoluted co-operative business model, or even a startup with shareholders all over the world, they can all become customers of this kind of “Defi”. The cost is also close to zero. Nonetheless, “Defi” also encounters many challenges in its development. First, the challenge of digitizing cross-chain, cross-financial systems assets. Most of the existing “Defi” products are developed on the Ethereum blockchain. It can only support decentralized finance related to Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens on this blockchain. When asset interoperability cannot be realized, this kind of “Defi” can only be regarded as an experiment, and we are still a long way from the real “Defi”. When our most-used assets and currencies still have not been digitized, let alone decentralized on interoperable platforms, “Defi” still has a long way to go. Second, the challenge of code security. We have heard of the security vulnerabilities of digital assets countless times before. Fixing these vulnerabilities when it comes to “Defi” smart contracts is notoriously difficult. There must be professional code-auditing teams in the market that have the capacity for providing financial insurance and reinsurance for the decentralized codes. A certain governance mechanism is also required when deploying decentralized codes for handling some extreme security issues, in order to instill the general public with confidence in “Defi”. Third, the exploration of national laws and regulations. Finance is a national security issue. “Defi”, in essence, will shorten the financial distance between people, and the world will be borderless from a financial perspective. However, how nations can legislate so that “Defi” does not erode national security remains a question. We need to consider how KYC and AML can integrate into “Defi” ecosystems such that this new technology improves our financial efficiency, and is not leveraged by criminals for illicit purposes. Fourth, the challenge of the convenience of use and the compatibility with traditional finance. Innovations are often hindered through a lack of user acceptance, a reluctance to try new systems. When it comes to finance, user experience and trust are incredibly important factors in the success of new systems and products. Driven by the widespread use of the Internet, finance becomes more within reach year on year, yet user experience is still a serious challenge for “Defi”. Financial service users are usually more conservative under the premise of safety, and thus providing an excellent user experience is necessary for “Defi” to become a part of people’s daily lives. At the same time, how “Defi” products embrace traditional finance is a key to transforming “Defi” into a “killer” application. It has to provide a seamless experience to users such that it is as smooth as using traditional financial products. This should be the goal of all “Defi” applications, and Wedefi (wedefi.com) and Anyswap (anyswap.exchange) have been playing a leading role in this regard. The good news is that “Defi” technology is becoming more mature, and the above-mentioned challenges can be overcome without any technical obstacles. We believe “Defi” is more than a short-term trend and that it fundamentally innovates our financial system. This innovation is unstoppable, and the existing financial system will undergo major changes in the foreseeable future. With the advancement of “Defi”, future financial institutions may become “coding factories”, accounting firms will lose their clients unless they start conducting on-chain data analysis and “Defi” smart contract code audit. There was a boom of “challenger banks” in Europe and North America 10 years ago. Similarly, the “Defi” trend will reach new heights in today’s society. DJ Qian This is a sponsored post. Learn more on how to reach our audience here. Read disclaimer below. The post Defi’s Rise Is Inevitable, and Fusion Is Driving This Evolution of Conventional Finance appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Hong Kong investors are moving their gold offshore as China’s new national security law prompts fears of financial censorship. Some 10% of private holdings have been moved to safer jurisdictions such as Singapore and Switzerland since the beginning of protests in Hong Kong last year. In a recent interview, Joshua Rotbart, head of Hong Kong-based gold dealer and storage provider J Rotbart & Co, said the new legislation has revived the bullion flight. “Many clients now perceive Hong Kong as riskier than other jurisdictions,” Rotbart said. The development comes as the gold price peaked at $2,000 an ounce last week, its highest level ever. China is also in the mix as geopolitical tensions with the U.S. have pushed investors to the asset. China’s new law is seen as a move to curb foreign influence from Hong Kong which has co-existed with the mainland economic giant in terms of the One Country, Two Systems policy since 1997. Opponents fear that the legislation will compromise Hong Kong’s autonomy from China but investors specifically worry about stability in the world’s sixth-largest financial hub. “Investors are moving gold from Hong Kong to Singapore because they don’t like risk and uncertainty,” Singapore-based precious metals analyst Ronan Manly told Financial Times, also citing fears of property rights and rule of law. The precious metal regularly moves between the two territories, largely in kilobars, with Hong Kong’s main gold vaults run by the international airport. Bullionbypost reports that China is the world’s largest consumer of gold but Hong Kong compares favorably as a storage destination because of mainland China’s trade restrictions. Inflation fears during the coronavirus pandemic have made gold and bitcoin (BTC) increasingly popular stores of value, with the prices of both assets rising sharply in recent weeks. BTC is currently trading at just under $11,600 after rallying to an 11-month high of $12,000, according to markets.Bitcoin.com data. During the financial uncertainty posed by the pandemic, experts have debated about the contrasting merits of gold and bitcoin as alternative stores of value. The physical impediments posed by the precious metal to investors could highlight the relative immunity of “digital gold” to financial censorship. What do you think about investors moving gold out of Hong Kong? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Investors Move 10% of Their Gold From Hong Kong Amid Financial Censorship Fears appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

During the first week of July, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the growing sales of non-fungible token artwork being sold on marketplaces like Opensea, Nifty Gateway, and Makerplace. Just recently, the NFT market Nifty Gateway broke records selling a piece of digital artwork created by the artist Trevor Jones for $55,555. Non-fungible tokens (NFT) and digital artwork have collided and the concept has grown exponentially during the last few years. In 2020, however, the NFT digital art ecosystem has swelled significantly this year. Statistics show that during the last week, there’s been 14,654 sales and $1.2 million in weekly trade volume. The average price for a single NFT out of all the NFTs sold during the last seven days is roughly $82. All-time records show over 4.7 million NFTs have been sold according to nonfungible.com and there’s been $103 million in global NFT trade volume. Nifty Gateway market statistics. The average price for any NFT during the entire existence of NFT records is $21.70 but there are some NFT’s that sell for hundreds of dollars and even thousands. Data shows that the NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway closed a record-breaking auction of a piece of digital art called “Picasso’s Bull.” The 1/1 edition was created by Trevor Jones and it sold for $55,555 on July 23. The colorful content was designed in the form of a non-fungible token called nifty and sold to the highest bidder. Nifty Gateway launched in March 2020 as an “all-in-one platform to buy, sell, and store your digital art and collectibles or ‘nifties.’” Trevor Jones’ “Picasso’s Bull” is a 1/1 digital art NFT and it sold for $55,555 on July 23, 2020. Since the Nifty Gateway team launched the platform, the marketplace has attracted artists like Trevor Jones, Jon Burgerman, Kenny Scharf, and Cey Adams. The popular creators on the Makerplace NFT rare digital art market. Both NFT markets Opensea and Makerplace have been doing very well in recent months too. Popular artists on Makerplace include Frenetik Void, José Delbo, Javier Arrés, and Katy Arrington. News.Bitcoin.com recently reported on how the artist Terry Flaxton was selling 4K video art on Makerplace and Opensea. Wonder Woman comic book illustrator José Delbo was also featured on the NFT markets last month. On Sunday, August 9, the top number of NFT sales volume went to Sandbox with $294,000 in trade volume. Sandbox is followed by Superrare ($248k), Sorare ($150k), Ethereum Name Service ($83k), Decentraland ($81k), Axie Infinity ($57k), and Makersplace ($35k) during the last 24 hours. Opensea decentralized application (Dapp) rankings. The NFTs being sold in Sandbox represent the land parcels on the community-driven UGC-voxel platform. Makersplace sold roughly $4,506 worth of NFT artwork between 22 sales during the last 24 hours. One of the largest sales of the day on Makerplace on Sunday was $346, and the NFT sold at 11:34 a.m. ET. Five hours before that sale, a piece of digital artwork sold for $279 worth of ethereum (ETH). The non-fungible token universe is growing wildly and it’s come a long way since the early days. The $55,555 “Picasso’s Bull” auction is a record-setting sale, but NFTs have sold for thousands of dollars years ago as well. One of the most famous sales in NFT history was the Rare Pepe Blockchain auction sale of the very rare trading card “Lord Kek” (only 10 made). In 2017, “Lord Kek” sold for a whopping 1600 counterparty (XCP) or $22,720. What do you think about the “Picasso’s Bull” NFT digital art sale on Nifty Gateway? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below. The post Non-fungible Digital Artwork Sale Shatters Records, ‘Picasso’s Bull’ NFT Sells for $55K appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Just recently, news.Bitcoin.com talked to a number of individuals and asked them to let us know what they think the price of bitcoin and gold will be by the year’s end. Rather than leveraging the typical predictions from experts, executives, and crypto luminaries, the post delves into the perspective of average people and what they think about the future value of these assets. Back in May 2016, I used a number of social media avenues in order to survey people on what they would do if bitcoin (BTC) touched the $10,000 mark. The article was very popular and of course, we all know that BTC reached the $10k zone the following year in 2017. It’s been a long while since the 2017 bull run, so I decided to do the experiment once again leveraging my 4,700 friends on Facebook and a few members from a private crypto-focused Telegram channel. Basically I asked what people think the price of bitcoin (BTC) and the price of one troy ounce of .999 fine gold will be by December 31, 2020. None of the participants are deemed experts, luminaries, or are billionaires with the same old predictions. News.Bitcoin.com asked a number of individuals what they think the price of bitcoin (BTC) and an ounce of fine gold will be by December 31, 2020. The people who answered are your average, everyday people who follow the cryptocurrency ecosystem. They also understand the faltering, manipulated monetary system bolstered by the central banking cabal as well. The first person who answered the price prediction question, an individual named Archer, said he believes bitcoin (BTC) will be $100,000. Archer also thinks the price of an ounce of gold will be $3,000 by the year’s end. “The Federal Reserve is pumping trillions of dollars into the economy, the U.S. is suffering civil unrest (and will likely suffer more, especially pre/post-election),” Archer said explaining his rationale. “Many city/state governments are near bankruptcy already, employment is at +30%, and will likely only get worse as the pandemic continues. I expect that there will be Greek-style bank shutdowns, capital controls, hyperinflation, negative interest rates, which will cause a flight to hard, portable assets.” A guy named Doug thinks bitcoin will be $16,000 by December 31, and gold will reach $3,300. Matt explained that he thinks gold will be $3,300 per ounce as well, but he expects BTC to jump to $35,000. “Money printer go brrrrrrrr,” is the rationale behind Matt’s reasoning. My old roommate Andy expects BTC to be valued at $21,243 and gold will be $4,116, but he also thinks a cow will be valued at $104,231. Preston says BTC will be $24,000 by December 31 and gold will top $3,200 by the year’s end. “I believe they’ll be a significant price increase due to current unstable markets but due to reduction in monetary supply among lower classes, it won’t completely go parabolic. Same with gold,” Preston said explaining his forecasts’ reasoning. Sarah gave me a “random guess” and said she thinks BTC will cross $33,000, while gold remains in the $2,000 range. Alfred said that he “doesn’t know much about gold” but predicts BTC will be $10,100 by the year’s end. Alfred further explained his rationale: People tend to spend more fiat during December, this will trigger more sell order plus miners recapitulation. The recent surge in price could be traced to the growing interest in an alternative source of income, which BTC seems to provide due to the closure of business activities plus growing interest in Defi in Ethereum blockchain. Things are returning to shape gradually and in the next quarter, I see the price stabilizing at $10,000 support level. Andrew says with his prediction we will see BTC touch $15,000 per coin, while gold reaches $2,500. “I think the main push for BTC will be from the retail side,” Andrew stressed. “The number of friends asking me ‘how do I buy Bitcoin’ is at an all-time high… reminds me of 2017. Gold will continue to rise for obvious reasons.” Steve says BTC will be $13,500 and gold will be $2,300 at the end of the year. Chris told me he’s “not a gold bug” and thinks BTC will be anywhere between $8-12,000 by the year’s end. Another friend named Freya thinks gold will be $4,000 per ounce, but BTC will be $60,000. “BTC will be $23,500 and gold $2,400,” said Rene. “The issuance of more stimulus only serves to continue the devaluation of the dollar, and increase the value of more finite forms accepted as a store of value.” Adam seems to think BTC will be $15,500 and gold makes it to $5k by the end of the year. “Hyperinflation causes Bitcoin to absorb debt and increase in value, where fiat does the opposite and devalues exponentially,” Adam wrote. An individual named Colm said: Bitcoin will be $33,000. Gold??? It’s funny how folk buy gold but yet receive nothing. Silver maybe, but my trust is in blockchain. The predictions were interesting and I got around 52 responses between Telegram and the Facebook channels leveraged. Interestingly, most of the gold predictions were relatively similar while BTC forecasts were all over the place. A number of others gave price predictions without reasoning as well. Daniel thinks BTC will be $17,000 and gold will be $2,390. The participant Taylor gave me the lowest prediction for BTC with bitcoin at $5,400 and gold at $2,300. Tarik thinks the price of BTC will be $16,000 and the respondent Neeraj agrees. “BTC will be $16,000,” Neeraj concluded. “We will have heavy resistance at $20k and gold $2,500 as it moves slowly, but we are definitely knee-deep in inflation. With bitcoin, we could either be slowing down as we approach the all-time high (ATH) or touch it and come back to the handle part of the cup and handle that we always see before liftoff.” What do you think about the average people’s predictions about bitcoin’s and gold’s future price? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Year-End Gold and Bitcoin Price Predictions from Regular Everyday People appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Chainlink’s token surged more than 45% from $9.53 to $14.09 between Friday and Sunday data shows. The surge saw chainlink’s (LINK) market capitalization shooting to $5.12 billion which makes it the sixth most capitalized token, just ahead of cardano (ADA). At the time of writing, chainlink is the only top ten token with a double-digit gain of 23% in the last 24 hours. Supporters of the project believe it will reach $20 by the end of August. The token price’s meteoric rise is a big win and an endorsement for Chainlink project, which has had to contend with averments that the project is overhyped. At the same time, chainlink’s rise is also a crushing reverse for Zeus Capital LLP, which still insists the price will go to zero. Zeus Capital LLP is believed to have opened a short position on the token with hopes to cash in if the price drops. Meanwhile, Zeus Capital LLP’s aspersions prompted Chainlink supporters to start a campaign aimed at liquidating the former’s position. According to statements attributed to Santiment, a cryptocurrency analytics firm, this is one likely reason for the current bullish sentiment on the token. Still, Santiment notes that “some crypto investors are taking long positions” because they are confident of Chainlink’s prospects. Furthermore, a tweet by Santiment states that not only has the price of chainlink (LINK) reached an all-time high, but “daily active addresses (15.6K and counting)” increased as well. Meanwhile, Zeus Capital LLP, which has made itself a nemesis of Chainlink, has produced dossiers that allegedly spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) about the Chainlink project. In its latest installment, released August 5, Zeus Capital LLP is targeting Chainlink supporters. On August 8, in a tweet that seemingly tries to keep its campaign alive, the asset management company insinuates that U.S. regulators might now be interested in the case. The post states: All set! Now wait till @SEC_Enforcement go after @Smart_Contract as they’ve performed an unregistered Offering in 2017 and both co-founders are US citizens who sold to US investors. $LINK is going to zero. While it remains unclear how long chainlink’s bull run or the controversy will last, crypto investors continue to show interest as evidenced by daily volume. At the time of writing, daily volume had surpassed $1.6 billion. What do you think of chainlink’s performance? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. The post Chainlink Price Jumped More Than 45% in 48 Hours and 440% in Twelve Months appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Wirex has received its first money transmission license in the U.S., where the company is now gearing up to launch its “next-gen cryptocurrency platform linked to a spending card.” US Expansion Wirex announced Friday that it has received its first U.S. money transmission license and is now preparing to launch its services in the country. The license, issued by the state of Georgia’s Department of Banking and Finance on July 30 to Wirex USA, allows the company to conduct a cryptocurrency exchange business in the state. The announcement came after Wirex revealed that it would be launching its “next-gen cryptocurrency platform linked to a spending card in the U.S.” Wirex USA Managing Director Harold Montgomery commented: “The license in the state of Georgia is the first success in Wirex’s approach to providing fully compliant cryptocurrency management capabilities in the hands of its customers.” The U.K.-based company confirmed: We’re planning to launch our services in the US in the coming months. The company says that it already serves 3 million customers across 130 countries and its card can be used at over 54 million locations Visa is accepted. Wirex is regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority with a license to issue cards in Europe. Wirex currently supports 19 cryptocurrencies and traditional currency wallets: USD, SGD, AUD, JPY, HKD, EUR, GBP, CZK, MXN, CAD, CHF, BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP, WXT, DAI, NANO and XLM. It also offers Cryptoback, a crypto rewards program that automatically gives customers up to 1.5% back in bitcoin for every purchase made in-store. Last month, Wirex became the first cryptocurrency-native platform to secure a Mastercard principal membership. The company explained that this enables Wirex to “issue payment cards directly, offering even more convenience, reduced costs and faster transactions on a platform that is striving to make all currencies equal.” What do you think about Wirex’s U.S. expansion? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Wirex Launching in US After Receiving State Money Transmission License appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Nasdaq-listed company that allegedly used 83 tons of fake gold bars as collateral to secure loans worth about $2 billion from multiple financial institutions in China is now in default and facing several class-action lawsuits. $2 Billion Fake Gold Scheme Unravels The gold industry was recently shaken when it was discovered that a U.S. publicly-traded company was allegedly using 83 tons of fake gold bars to secure loans worth $2 billion in China. Kingold Jewelry Inc. is based in Wuhan, China, but it is listed on Nasdaq in the U.S. under the ticker symbol KGJI. Following the fake gold news, the Chinese jeweler informed Nasdaq in a filing that it had received default notices of approximately RMB 10 billion ($1.44 billion) from seven Chinese lenders. These loans were backed by the gold bars found to be gilded copper alloy. The Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) has also terminated Kingold’s membership and Chinese authorities have launched a fraud investigation into the company. Furthermore, a number of lawsuits have been filed against Kingold as the company’s stock price plummeted 24.11% on June 29 following the fake gold reports. One class-action lawsuit was filed by The Rosen Law Firm with the U.S. court for the Eastern District of New York for violations of federal securities laws. It names Kingold, its chairman Jia Zhihong, and former CFO Bin Liu as the defendants, claiming that they operated the company fraudulently and deceived investors. Kingold Jewelry’s stock price chart on Nasdaq as of Aug. 7 showing a steep decline around the time the media reported the company using fake gold bars to secure about $2 billion in loans. Law firms Pomerantz and Bronstein, Gewirtz and Grossman also filed a class-action lawsuit against Kingold, its CEO, and former CFO. The complaint alleges that between March 15, 2018, and June 28, the company made materially false or misleading statements about its operations, specifically about using “fake gold as collateral to fraudulently secure loans.” It also failed to disclose material consequences that “the company would face creditor lawsuits and be delisted from the Shanghai Gold Exchange,” law firm Pomerantz described. In a July filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Kingold declared that its Wuhan operations “have been significantly impacted by the disclosed loan defaults, related loan disputes, various legal proceedings and the resulting freezing of bank accounts.” Furthermore, the company’s jewelry production was halted between January and early April due to the covid-19 outbreak and Wuhan’s lockdown. To help small investors in China recoup investment losses from large companies, the Chinese supreme court last week green-lighted a historic class-action lawsuit system for retail investors. The system will be a “convenient and low-cost claim channel” for small and medium volume investors and form a strong deterrent to financial criminals, the supreme court reportedly said in a statement. China’s market regulators are investigating Kingold Jewelry over the fake gold allegation, calling for stricter risk management. “A number of banking, insurance and trust institutions were involved in the Wuhan Kingold Jewelry fake gold incident,” the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said. “Other than the problems associated with the company itself, the incident also revealed that the internal controls and risk management of some financial institutions were empty shells.” What do you think about Kingold using fake gold as collateral? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Nasdaq-Listed Company Sued for Backing $2 Billion Loans With 83 Tons of Fake Gold appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), the country’s top financial regulator responsible for regulating crypto service providers, has begun actively closing down unauthorized bitcoin ATMs, a BaFin spokesperson has confirmed to news.Bitcoin.com. All Unauthorized Bitcoin ATMs to Shut Down German financial regulator BaFin has begun actively closing down all unlicensed bitcoin ATMs in the country. This followed Germany’s new regulation that went into effect in January, requiring crypto service providers to obtain authorization from BaFin. A spokesperson for BaFin told news.Bitcoin.com: Currently, BaFin is taking action to shut down all bitcoin ATMs which are set up and operated without authorisation … The ATMs are literally shut down, so they are no longer operating. “Operating bitcoin ATMs requires an authorisation to provide financial services (proprietary trading),” the spokesperson explained. However, he noted that BaFin does not specifically collect information about bitcoin ATMs “since operating bitcoin ATMs is not an authorisation requirement specified.” Nonetheless, the regulator has identified a number of unauthorized bitcoin ATMs operating in Germany. While the spokesperson did not disclose the number “Due to the ongoing process,” at least one company — Shitcoins Club — received an order from BaFin in February to cease operating all of its bitcoin ATMs in the country, as news.Bitcoin.com previously reported. While appearing to comply with BaFin’s mandate by posting a notice to reflect the order on its website, Shitcoins Club resumed its ATM operation soon after. Several local journalists visited various Shitcoins Club’ bitcoin ATM locations and found the machines were still in operation. Local news outlet Bitcoin Kurier went to a Shitcoins Club branch where there is a bitcoin ATM and found the place closed with a BaFin notice on the window and an official seal on the door bearing Wednesday’s date. According to the publication, while the machines operate under the brand Shitcoins Club, the owner is no longer the Berlin-based KKT UG. Instead, Estonia-licensed “Virtual Planet OÜ” now owns the business and the management has also changed. BaFin’s notice states that Shitcoins Club can object to the order in writing within one month, the publication conveyed. Shitcoins Club indicates on its website that about 20 bitcoin ATMs were last active in Germany, supporting BTC, ETH, LTC, and DASH. The company’s bitcoin ATMs are still in operation in Poland, Spain, Romania, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Estonia. Another local bitcoin ATM operator, Coin Fellows, also ceased operations across Germany at the end of July, the news outlet further reported, adding that the Coin Fellows network consisted of about 40 bitcoin ATMs, located mostly in southern Germany. Other bitcoin ATM operators in Germany have said that BaFin’s requirements are too strict for small businesses, asserting that they are more tailored to banks and large financial institutions. Meanwhile, the number of bitcoin ATMs has been growing worldwide, approaching 9,000 machines, according to the cryptocurrency ATM tracking website Coinatmradar. In the U.S., the authorities have also been cracking down on unauthorized bitcoin ATMs. A $25 million bitcoin ATM operation was recently taken down and 17 machines in California were seized. What do you think about BaFin’s action? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Germany Begins Closing Down All Unlicensed Bitcoin ATMs appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

It’s relatively common to see the regression theorem being mentioned in economic discussion, especially when it comes to whether or not something is money. This is surprising because the regression theorem has absolutely nothing to do with money or the definition of money. Regression theorem only involves prices and is really more a direct restatement of common sense. To understand the regression theorem, we must understand the Austrian description of the establishment of prices – where does price come from? How do we know how much to sell good X for? The quick answer is the current price comes from past prices. The current price of an item comes from the price that it was yesterday, a week ago, a month, or a year ago. The price of a good comes from what the good was worth in the past, the price evolves and changes through the countless interactions in the market and originates from previous prices. By the same token, the value of money must too evolve from the past. ***The following is a featured essay written in 2015 by Brian Tockey and first appeared on the website notbeinggoverned.com (the site is no longer under maintenance). “Bitcoin, Regression Theorem, and Defining Money” was published on January 2, 2015, and is reprinted here on Bitcoin.com for historical preservation. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any opinions, content, accuracy or quality within the Op-ed article.*** Here an objection was raised: “Monies have not always been in existence, they rise and fall. If price comes from the past and at some point in the past this money was not in existence, then where did the price come from in the first place? That certainly sounds like circular logic to me? In order to respond to this criticism, the regression theorem arose. To quote Rothbard from Man, Economy, and State (source): “To determine the price of a good, we analyze the market ­demand schedule for the good; this, in turn, depends on the in­dividual demand schedules; these in their turn are determined by the individuals’ value rankings of units of the good and units of money as given by the various alternative uses of money; yet the latter alternatives depend in turn on given prices of the other goods,” Rothbard wrote. “A hypothetical demand for eggs must assume as given some money price for butter, clothes, etc. But how, then, can value scales and utilities be used to explain the formation of money prices, when these value scales and utilities themselves depend upon the existence of money prices?” Rothbard added: “The solution of this crucial problem of circularity has been provided by Professor Ludwig von Mises, in his notable theory of the money regression. The theory of money regression may be explained by examining the period of time that is being con­sidered in each part of our analysis. Let us define a “day? as the period of time just sufficient to determine the market prices of every good in the society.” “On day X, then, the money price of each good is determined by the interactions of the supply and demand schedules of money and the good by the buyers and sellers on that day. Each buyer and seller ranks money and the given good in accordance with the relative marginal utility of the two to him. Therefore, a money price at the end of day Xis determined by the marginal utilities of money and the good as they existed at the beginning of day X. But the marginal utility of money is based, as we have seen above, on a previously exist­ing array of money prices. Money is demanded and considered useful because of its already existing money prices. Therefore, the price of a good on day X is determined by the marginal utility of the good on day X and the marginal utility of money on day X, which last in turn depends on the prices of goods on day X – 1,” Rothbard’s Man, Economy, and State essay notes. Rothbard further added: Now the question may be raised: Granted that there is no circularity in the determination of money prices, does not the fact that the causes partially regress backward in time simply push the unexplained components back further without end? If today’s prices are partly determined by yesterday’s prices, and yesterday’s by those of the day before yesterday, etc., is not the regression simply pushed back infinitely, and part of the deter­mination of prices thus left unexplained? The answer is that the regression is not infinite, and the clue to its stopping point is the distinction just made between condi­tions in a money economy and conditions in a state of barter. This is the very essence of what regression theorem is – stating that the definition of price is not circular because the value of currency comes from the value of the good before it was a currency. Regression theorem doesn’t say anything about what makes a good a money or the qualities money has at all, only specifically that the definition of the value of currency is not circular because a beginning is specified. It is important to note that like all evolutions, the evolution of a good into a money is gradual and not instant. Rothbard’s concept of a specific day is a point for the sake of argument. What is important is that a ‘start’ exists, the transition on a whole as a singular event. Some people say Bitcoin isn’t money because it ‘violates regression theorem’ because it was not a good before it became money – this misses the point of what regression theorem is. In the context of the regression theorem, the value of Bitcoin is not circularly defined, but instead comes from the first transactions made. Research shows the first purchase of a good with BTC was 5-21-2010 when a user named ‘Laszlo’ bought ~$25 worth of pizza for 10,000 BTC. This illustrates just how much evolution the price goes through – a little over three years and the value of Bitcoin evolved from that initial transaction, of $0.0025 USD/BTC to the current (as of this post) rate of [over $200] USD/BTC. Since a definite beginning is apparent, there is no circularity by defining Bitcoin’s value in terms of previous values. Whether or not Bitcoin is money is completely outside the scope of the regression theorem. The concept of the regression theorem can be expanded into completely unrelated topics. One common phrase that comes to mind is the chicken and the egg. Where do chickens come from? Eggs. Where do eggs come from? Chickens. This circular definition is illogical and therefore the definition of chickens is flawed? Of course not. We know that at some point, a non-chicken laid a chicken egg. We know that chickens originally came from the first chicken egg laid by a non-chicken egg. By defining exactly where chickens and eggs started from, we have avoided the circularity in the definition, it’s the “regression theorem of chickens?. This is the ‘common sense’ aspect of the regression theorem: definitions that sound circular are only circular if no beginning point is defined. Once a beginning point is evident, any accusation of circularity becomes completely invalid. The regression theorem in the context of Austrian Economics is most certainly important to specifically counter-arguments that critics bring up, but care must be exercised to not apply it outside of its intended scope to avoid misunderstanding, misrepresentation, and false conclusions. What do you think about Brian Tockey’s “Bitcoin, Regression Theorem, and Defining Money” essay? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. The post Brian Tockey: Bitcoin, Regression Theorem, and Defining Money appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

KB Kookmin Bank (KB), the largest commercial bank in South Korea, has agreed a deal with blockchain venture fund Hashed and crypto exchange Cumberland Korea to offer bitcoin custody services. In January, the government-owned bank filed its trademark application for digital assets custody with the Korean Intellectual Property Office. The trademark is called Kbdac. It covers more than 20 crypto-related areas. According to a statement on August 7, KB said it predicts that the crypto industry will evolve beyond virtual currencies to include other traditional assets such as real estate and artwork that will be issued and traded on blockchain platforms. The lender, which reported a net profit of 2.44 trillion won ($2.05 billion) in 2019, is now positioning itself after competitor NH Bank announced in July that it is also planning to start offering crypto custody services to corporate investors. Both Hashed and Cumberland Korea indicated that the deal with KB has been inspired by changes in regulation, which appear to support cryptocurrency and other blockchain-oriented business models. Simon Kim, chief executive officer of Hashed, the crypto investment company with offices in San Francisco and Seoul, noted: Combining our insight in the blockchain industry and providing both technical and commercial consultations will inevitably open new doors to consumers as well as to the country in ushering the new era of digital transformation. The news comes as banks, who have since started to muscle their way into the cryptocurrency space, received backing from the U.S. government. In July, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave local banks the go-ahead to manage and store digital assets on behalf of their customers. In South Korea, the government, which has previously banned ICOs, in March amended the Reporting and Use of Specific Financial Information Act to recognize cryptocurrencies for the first time and recently classified them to be taxable. What do you think about KB Bank offering crypto custody services? Let us know in the comments section below. The post South Korea’s Largest Bank Unveils Bitcoin Custody Services appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

During the last few days, discussions concerning the Bitcoin Cash Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm (DAA) has become a polarizing debate. In the midst of all the quarreling, Viabtc’s founder Haipo Yang has announced a new fork of BCH called Bitcoin Cat. News.Bitcoin.com recently reported on the arguments concerning the Bitcoin Cash DAA. Following the report, the very next day Bitcoin ABC published a blog post that detailed it would be using Jonathan Toomim’s Asert DAA. However, at the end of the announcement, the lead developer of Bitcoin ABC, Amaury Séchet, detailed that the Infrastructure Funding Proposal (IFP) would be added to the next upgrade. This decision made the debate become contentious once again, and now BCH proponents are squabbling over the IFP. The IFP will take 8% of the coinbase reward and dedicate it to developers. In the midst of all the infighting, even before ABC’s most recent announcement, Viabtc’s founder Haipo Yang has been toying with the idea of a new BCH fork. The Viabtc executive has been tweeting about the subject often and he also published a blog post about the experiment as well. On August 5, Haipo Yang tweeted: I am considering building a new Bitcoin fork inherited from BCH called Bitcoin Cat. It’s a temporary name. Cats are cute and harmless, so they won’t have a war. In addition, he tweeted that the BCH community “needs real leaders.” “Everyone who has favored Bitcoin Cash is welcome to participate and build CAT. Let’s make Bitcoin great again.” Then on August 6, Haipo Yang tweeted something a touch more controversial than just an idea about a new Bitcoin fork. “If Bitcoin Cash removes the UTXOs that never move since the fork, we can double the block reward and fund the foundation without the IFP and without breaking the 21M limit,” Haipo Yang said. Then on Friday, the Viabtc founder revealed that after he put the idea out there it caused “a lot of discussion in the Chinese community.” Haipo Yang stressed: Bitcoin Cat is a fork coin based on Bitcoin Cash, and it is likely to be born on November 15. Haipo Yang’s Bitcoin Cat will have a number of differences than BCH and other blockchains as well. He said that smart contracts will be important and the basic script operations on Bitcoin are insufficient. He also thinks the mining algorithm should be further modified to be more ASIC-friendly in the future. “The Bitcoin mining algorithm, if used as always, or whatever kind of DAA algorithm cannot eliminate the hashrate tide,” the blog post emphasizes. The Medium blog post also notes that Bitcoin Cat might minimize the block time too. He also thinks that the protocol should be standardized and he also aims to add a “voting system.” “The most important is the establishment of a foundation,” Haipo Yang stressed. Finally, Yang ends the blogpost with the contentious idea of voiding out UTXOs that are not being used. “I have another interesting idea: all UTXOs that have not been moved after the hard fork one year later are to be voided.” Of course, this specific addition to Bitcoin Cat is somewhat controversial because some believe it is taking someone’s coins without asking. The concept is not new, however, as the United Bitcoin (UBTC) project also did a scheme which was similar. United Bitcoin was forked on December 12, 2017, at block height 498777 but since the project was announced its fizzled away like bitcoin diamond, bitcoin candy, and super bitcoin. Although, UBTC still trades for $0.91 per coin with $117,000 worth of daily trade volume according to current data. What do you think about Haipo Yang’s Bitcoin Cat idea? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Viabtc Founder Reveals BCH Fork Idea Called Bitcoin Cat appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The New York State Department of Financial Services has created a Greenlist of pre-approved cryptocurrencies for custody service and listing. Meanwhile, crypto-friendly SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, also known as Crypto Mom, has been confirmed for another term at the commission. NY Regulator’s Cryptocurrency Greenlist The New York State Department of financial services (DFS), the Bitlicense regulator, has published a Greenlist comprising 10 cryptocurrencies for custody and eight cryptocurrencies for listing. “Any licensed entity may use coins on the Greenlist for their approved purpose(s),” the regulator explained. The 10 cryptocurrencies are binance USD (BUSD), bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), ethereum classic (ETC), ethereum (ETH), gemini dollar (GUSD), litecoin (LTC), pax gold (PAXG), paxos standard (PAX), and ripple (XRP). The same cryptocurrencies are pre-approved for listing, except for ETC and XRP. “If a licensed entity decides to use a coin on the Greenlist, it must inform DFS prior to beginning its use,” the regulator noted. The DFS’ current Greenlist of approved cryptocurrencies for custody and listing. The Greenlist follows guidance proposed by the DFS in December last year, which includes proposals for coin adoption or listing options that the regulator wanted to make available to crypto entities. The DFS will maintain an updated list of all cryptocurrencies permitted for crypto companies’ business activities without its prior approval, “as long as such listed coins had not been subject to any material modification, division, or change after their listing on the DFS webpage (the ‘Greenlist’),” the regulator emphasized. Crypto companies can create a “coin-listing or adoption policy” tailored to their specific business model and risk profile. If approved by the DFS, the company would be able to “self-certify the listing or adoption of new coins in addition to those on the Greenlist, without any further approval from DFS.” The guidance regarding the adoption or listing of cryptocurrencies can be found here. Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate has confirmed Hester Peirce, the crypto-friendly commissioner often known as Crypto Mom, for another term at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Peirce has been pushing for the approval of bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). In February, she announced her “Token Safe Harbor Proposal,” which she described as “a proposal to fill the gap between regulation and decentralization.” What do you think about the DFS’ crypto Greenlist? Let us know in the comments section below. The post New York Regulator Fast-Tracks 10 Cryptocurrencies appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Goldman Sachs is considering creating its own cryptocurrency. Having recently appointed a new head of digital assets, the company indicated a possible collaboration with other companies, including JPMorgan and Facebook. JPMorgan has created the JPM coin and Facebook has proposed the Libra cryptocurrency project. Goldman Sachs’ Cryptocurrency Plan Global investment bank Goldman Sachs has recently appointed a new head of digital assets, Mathew McDermott, a managing director who ran the investment bank’s internal funding operations. He has now revealed that Goldman is exploring creating its own cryptocurrency, CNBC reported on Thursday, quoting the new digital assets chief as saying: We are exploring the commercial viability of creating our own fiat digital token. However, McDermott added that “it’s early days as we continue to work through the potential use cases.” He is expanding his team at Goldman Sachs, reportedly hiring Oli Harris, JPMorgan Chase’s head of digital assets strategy. Harris was involved in JP Morgan’s cryptocurrency, the JPM coin, and was also a vice president in charge of Quorum, the ethereum-based blockchain platform that underpins the JPM coin. The coin, pegged to the U.S. dollar, enables the instantaneous transfer of payments between institutional clients, JPMorgan explained on its website. The new digital assets head said that it is crucial to build “consensus with other banks, institutional investors and regulators,” the publication noted. He believes that “The technology will only take off when it gains a critical mass of users across the world of finance” and “industry consortiums are the best way forward.” McDermott further explained that he “spends a lot of time talking to other companies, including JPMorgan and Facebook.” The social media giant has proposed a cryptocurrency project called Libra, which recently updated its plans to better comply with regulatory requirements. According to CNBC, he indicated: One Goldman project involves collaboration with JPMorgan, potentially regarding how the two banks’ nascent technology efforts could work together. “In the next five to 10 years, you could see a financial system where all assets and liabilities are native to a blockchain, with all transactions natively happening on chain,” the new digital assets head opined. He believes that “Since the boom days of bitcoin a few years ago, interest has shifted from retail and rich investors to large institutions,” the publication conveyed. “We’ve definitely seen an uptick in interest across some of our institutional clients who are exploring how they can participate in this space … It definitely feels like there is a resurgence of interest in cryptocurrencies,” McDermott was quoted as saying. Goldman Sachs has not been pro-cryptocurrency in the past. In May, the investment bank told its clients that “cryptocurrencies including bitcoin are not an asset class.” What do you think about Goldman Sachs’ cryptocurrency plan? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Goldman Sachs Cryptocurrency: Possible Collaboration With JPMorgan and Facebook appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Cryptocurrency adoption is growing rapidly in Slovenia. More than 1,000 locations in the country now accept cryptocurrency payments, including cafes, restaurants, dentists, hair salons, and hotels. Cryptocurrency Adoption Soars in Slovenia The number of locations accepting cryptocurrencies through the Gocrypto payment system has surpassed 1,000, Gocrypto announced last week. These locations include cafés, restaurants, taxis, mechanics, dentists, hair salons, hotels, and sports facilities. Among them are major retailers, such as the Tuš supermarkets, Slovenia’s biggest electronic seller Big Bang, Atlantis Water Park, and Burger King Slovenia. Noting that “you can just use your crypto wallet when getting around your daily life,” Gocrypto remarked: Slovenia [is] taking the global lead as the country with the highest number of physical locations accepting cryptocurrencies. According to its website, Gocrypto is currently present in 15 countries and more than 150,000 products can be bought using its system. The countries are Argentina, Austria, Bulgaria, Colombia, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Japan, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, the U.K., and Venezuela. In some countries, the system is operated by Gocrypto’s partner Xpay. At the time of this writing, the Gocrypto website is showing 1,416 merchants using its system, only 95 of which are online stores. Gocrypto’s map showing where merchants accepting cryptocurrencies are located. You can search for stores by country and category. The Gocrypto system consists of one or more point-of-sale (POS) terminals connected to the Gocrypto payment network. Customers can use bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ether, the euro token, and Gocrypto’s native token GOC to pay for goods and services. Merchants receive payments in their local currency. Currently, Gocrypto is compatible with the Elly wallet app and the Bitcoin.com Wallet. The first version of Gocrypto, Elipay, was tested at BTC City Ljubljana, one of Europe’s biggest shopping centers, which has about 21 million visitors a year. Merchants accepting cryptocurrencies can also be found on websites such as Acceptbitcoin.cash and Green Pages. In addition, map.Bitcoin.com currently shows about 500 merchants accepting bitcoin cash in Slovenia. What do you think about crypto adoption in Slovenia? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Crypto Adoption Soars in Slovenia: Over 1,000 Locations Accept Cryptocurrencies appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has announced new regulations that compel users of digital marketplaces to pay digital tax. At a rate of 1.5% on gross transaction value, the new tax is expected to take effect on Jan. 1, 2021. According to a report, the KRA will create a special tax unit to track and tax transactions using “data-driven detection.” Still, the report notes that “at this stage, the precise meaning of a digital market place and those who will be impacted by the digital tax is unclear.” Kenya’s Finance Act broadly defines digital marketplace “as a platform that enables the direct interaction between buyers and sellers of goods and services through electronic means.” The report asserts that cryptocurrency platforms “fall under the digital marketplace designation since they offer a platform for buyers and sellers of crypto through electronic means.” Like many countries on the African continent, Kenya does not yet regulate cryptocurrencies although the report notes the KRA has been pushing the central bank to recognize these assets for revenue collection purposes. Commenting on the lack of clarity of the new regulations, David Gitonga, founder & Managing Editor at Bitcoinke, says the digital tax will nudge Kenya towards the regulation of cryptocurrencies. “I think this bill is going to put a spotlight on many digital activities, including crypto trading, and this might open the door to some form of crypto regulation,” said Gitonga. He goes on to explain that “crypto regulation has long been ignored because there is a general lack of understanding of how fast this space is growing in Kenya.” Kenya is consistently ranked as one of the top five African countries with high volumes of P2P bitcoin trading. As the Kenyan government has been looking for more ways to raise tax revenues, Gitonga believes “they will now give the crypto space a second look once they realise revenues that are being generated, especially on P2P platforms operating in Kenya.” He adds this will probably kickstart “talk around regulation in order to capture this market.” Will Kenya succeed in enforcing this tax regulation? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below. The post New Kenyan Digital Tax to Affect Crypto Platforms appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

On August 6, the blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis published a report that analyzes cryptocurrency trends across various regions worldwide. According to the statistics, North America purchases and holds more bitcoin than any other region. Bitcoin also accounts for the largest share of U.S. crypto asset activity with 72% of all the transaction volume. The blockchain analytics company Chainalysis published an excerpt from the firm’s upcoming “2020 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report” which shows an interesting perspective of geographic crypto hot spots. As far as numbers are concerned, in 2020 East Asia is the most active region worldwide in regard to cryptocurrency volume moved onchain. The report notes that East Asia is followed by Western Europe and North America. During the last 12-months, North America accrued 14.8% of all the crypto asset activity. “North America also hosts a growing class of institutional investors moving even larger transfers of cryptocurrency than those we typically see from professional traders,” the Chainalysis report highlights. “The institutional share of the market has grown over the past few years, which can be seen by many to legitimize cryptocurrency as an asset class.” As far as the trend from professional investors to institutional, Chainalysis notes that North America superseded East Asia for the second time in March. “As of June, approximately 90% of North America’s cryptocurrency transfer volume came from professional-sized transfers, which we categorize as those above $10,000 worth of cryptocurrency,” the report adds. The company noticed a trend in December 2019 as North America’s transfer value of any transaction above $1 million jumped from 46% to 57% in May. Chainalysis says that BTC is the most demanded crypto asset in every region of the world in terms of transaction volume. However, in East Asia the use of altcoins (crypto assets other than bitcoin) is far more prominent. The report stresses: [Bitcoin] makes up the biggest overall share of North American cryptocurrency activity, accounting for 72% of all transaction volume. Altcoins (not including stablecoins) make up just 17% of activity in North America, compared to 33% in East Asia. In other words, altcoins are nearly twice as prominent in East Asia compared to North America. Chainalysis highlights Fidelity Investments’ recent cryptocurrency survey which shows that Institutional investors’ interest in crypto assets is growing exponentially. As far as portfolio strategy is concerned, Chainalysis details that “North American investors disproportionately favor Bitcoin.” Furthermore, Chainalysis data suggests that North American users are more likely to buy and hold than those based in East Asia. Trading platforms in East Asia have double the “trade intensity” in comparison with North America. In the months of November and December 2019, East Asian exchanges saw 3x more trade intensity. The blockchain analytics report also highlights that North American balances by address also show the “buy and hold” strategy is prominent in the region. “Despite North America-based addresses making up roughly 15% of all cryptocurrency activity globally as of June 2020, behind Western Europe at 17% and East Asia at 31%, North American addresses lead the way in cryptocurrency balances,” the Chainalysis report claims. “North American addresses hold 29% of all cryptocurrency currently parked at service-hosted addresses, compared to 16% for East Asia-based addresses as of the end of June,” the “2020 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report” concludes. “Those figures would suggest that North America-based users tend to let the cryptocurrency they acquire sit in their wallets and accumulate, while East Asia-based users tend to trade it more frequently.” What do you think about the Chainalysis geography report? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below. The post Blockchain Analytics Show Altcoins 2x More Prominent in East Asia Compared to North America appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A recent episode of the popular BBC Sounds podcast the “Missing Cryptoqueen” has shown the public a very interesting view of the powerful Onecoin Ponzi. According to two witnesses the BBC interviewed, a London law firm and a reputation management company allegedly managed to get the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to take down a Onecoin warning. The Bulgaria-based Ponzi scheme Onecoin was once described by The Times as “one of the biggest scams in history” managing to net $4 billion from operations. The pyramid scheme has become a hot topic over the years, and it’s invoked the BBC Sounds podcast the “Missing Cryptoqueen.” The show stars the British author and journalist, Jamie Bartlett, and its also produced by the well known documentary producer Georgia Catt. The latest BBC Sounds podcast episode 9, dives into the continued search for Onecoin’s missing leader Ruja Ignatova, otherwise known as the ‘Cryptoqueen.’ The “Missing Cryptoqueen” show delves into the mysterious disappearance of Onecoin’s Ruja Ignatova. During the episode, Bartlett explains how the Cryptoqueen’s brother, Konstantin Ignatov, has been working with U.S. law enforcement. Ignatov told the court a tale about Ruja’s relationship with Gilbert Armenta and how Ruja allegedly took off with powerful Russians. Then Bartlett discusses two individuals who had information on a London law firm and a “crisis management PR company.” One of the men was a lawyer named Gary Gilford and the other was a former Chelgate employee Simon Harris. Chelgate is the reputation management company that ostensibly helped Onecoin avoid problems. Two people claim that a London law firm and a well known reputation management company “pressurized” the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to weaken its efforts in regard to warning retail investors. Both Gilford and Harris never met each other, but they both told a tale of how the London law firm and Chelgate managed to get the FCA to remove the Onecoin warning issued in September 2016. Ten months later, the FCA warning, which warned retail investors about investing in the Onecoin project, was removed. Harris explained that Chelgate worked with the law firm in order to “pressurize” the FCA into “weakening” the regulator’s efforts against Onecoin. The witnesses say that the Cryptoqueen and many high up members of the Ponzi were super pleased with the FCA warning removal. The discussion with the former Chelgate employee Harris begins at the 22:00 minute mark during the “Missing Cryptoqueen” episode. Meanwhile, one of the Onecoin leaders, Sebastian Greenwood had his pre-trial conference on Friday. Matthew Russell Lee from the Inner City Press reported from the courtroom, and explained that Greenwood’s next court date will be on October 5. Greenwood has been charged but the court seems to be having difficulty with specific court processes. The lawyers say that “video conferences take ten days to set up” “We haven’t given all of the discovery due to discussions of a pre-trial disposition,” Greenwood’s prosecutors said. “We’ve shown him his own emails to show him his knowledge and involvement from the very beginning of this fraud scheme.” Onecoin cofounder Sebastian Greenwood (left) and the Cryptoqueen’s brother Konstantin Ignatov (right). Legal journalist Matthew Russell Lee explains in a recent report that people are asking “Where is Konstantin Ignatov?” The U.S. Bureau of Prisons website shows he may have been released on March 13, 2020. Jamie Bartlett’s and Georgia Catt’s “Missing Cryptoqueen” BBC Sounds podcast also shows that Konstantin Ignatov’s plea deal has been a mystery. Additionally, it appears that Onecoin investors Donald Berdeaux and Christine Grablis have agreed to settle with Konstantin Ignatov. The amount of funds agreed upon is not disclosed, but the two plaintiffs represent investors who suffered losses between 2014-2018. “Plaintiffs and defendant Konstantin Ignatov (together, the “Parties”) wish to discontinue between them without prejudice the claims asserted against Defendant Ignatov while not impeding in any way Plaintiffs’ further prosecution of their claims against the other defendants in this action,” the court filing detailed. The report from the Inner City Press also reveals that Konstantin Ignatov’s plea deal is a bit of a mystery. “Now in August 2020 a question has arisen,” explains Lee’s report. “Where is Konstantin Ignatov? After his sentencing was published back four months from July 8, as Inner City Press reported, now his lawyer in a filing in the civil case Grablis v. Onecoin Ltd has asked for an extension stating ‘Mr. Ignatov is presently incarcerated.’” “But the U.S. Bureau of Prisons website, for the one Konstantin Ignatov in the system, says ‘Released On: 03/13/2020,’” Lee’s report adds. Even when cooperators are in the private GEO jail the BOP uses, they are listed as incarcerated. So where is Konstantin Ignatov?” the reporter asked. What do you think about the recent findings concerning the Onecoin Ponzi scheme? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. The post Reports Claim UK’s Financial Conduct Authority ‘Pressurized’ to Remove Onecoin Scam Warning appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

German authorities, with the help of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have confiscated about $30 million in bitcoin from an operator of a pirate movie website. An unspecified amount of bitcoin cash was also seized. Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash Seized The German state of Saxony’s media service announced Monday the confiscation of “bitcoins with a total value of 25 million euros [$30 million].” The seizure was in connection with a case involving the website movie2k.to, a user-contributed video directory for movies and television programs that allowed users to download pirated content. The Dresden General Prosecutor’s Office, the Saxony State Criminal Police Office, and the Leipzig tax division have been investigating two main operators of this pirate movie portal and a real estate entrepreneur from Berlin connected with the case. All accused are German nationals. The site operators allegedly distributed over 880,000 pirated films and TV shows via the movie2k.to platform. They also operated an illegal streaming service between Autumn 2008 and May 2013, the announcement details. One of the operators was the site’s programmer. He and the real estate entrepreneur have been in police custody since November last year on the suspicion of commercial money laundering. The authorities say they have “fully admitted” to the crime and are now assisting law enforcement agencies in investigations against the second operator. The programmer used the income from advertising and “subscription traps” to “buy large amounts of bitcoins” since mid-2012, the announcement adds. Subscription traps refer to when users signed up for a service but then found it nearly impossible to cancel. “The programmer received over 22,000 bitcoins from this,” the authorities explained, noting that he mainly used the cryptocurrency to acquire real estate properties between Autumn 2013 and mid-2016. The real estate entrepreneur allegedly invested and managed the programmer’s earnings from the movie2k.to website. The pirate site shut down in 2013 over copyright infringement concerns and was replaced by movie4k.to. At today’s rate of $11,640, the programmer’s BTC would be worth $256 million. With the help of Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office and the U.S. FBI, the authorities uncovered and seized bitcoin and bitcoin cash belong to the programmer. “The seized bitcoins were voluntarily released by the programmer during his interrogation by the public prosecutor for damage reparation,” the announcement concludes without specifying the number of coins seized. What do you think about the German authorities confiscating bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below. The post German Authorities Confiscate $30 Million in Bitcoin From Pirate Movie Site appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Good news for those who want to upgrade their website with functional tools and features – on August 5st, Lumi Wallet Technologies launched its app web widget. Now everyone can easily embed a “mini digital wallet” into the body of their website. The Lumi Wallet Widget is a useful and interesting tool for a website. Basically, it is a real-time cryptocurrency exchange for the web page, it is simple, easy to use, and the web application is easy to install. The Lumi Wallet Widget takes up little space, brings enormous benefit, and deals with several issues at once: diversifying the interface, expanding the functionality of your website, letting users check the purchase price of digital assets in their currency right on your website, and then instantly getting quick access to their account to make an exchange. An adjustable color interface would be a nice addition to the whole functionality of the widget. Cryptocurrency purchases through the website will be available by credit card. Users will be able to purchase digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin cash (BCH), Ether (ETH), Binance USD (BUSD), USDT, Celsius (CEL), EOS, DAI, HUSD, HedgeTrade (HEDG), etc. Cryptocurrencies can be bought with the US Dollar (USD), Australian (AUD), Hong Kong (HKD) and Canadian (CAD) dollars, Euro, Yuan Renminbi (CNY), Russian Ruble (RUS), Czech Koruna (CZK), Indian Rupee (INR), Yen (JPY), Turkish Lira (TRY) and many other currencies. Users from all over the world would be satisfied with such a tool being on the website. How to install the widget Follow this link to the website with the instructions on how to install the widget. Step 1. Choose the widget design Classic white mode. With this option, there will be a white background, the color of the button is able to change from 1000 color options. Personal design mode. With this option, it is possible to choose the color of the widget. Press “custom background”, select the background color, and create gradients according to the website design. More than 1000 color options are also available to select. Step 2. User ID This step can be skipped, but we recommend getting a personal code for the widget. With a user ID there is the possibility to get the transition statistics from the widget through the website anytime. A personal ID, as well as statistics, can be obtained by sending the request “Personal ID for the Widget” or “Widget Transition Statistics” to hello@lumiwallet.com . Step 3. Widget installation to the website Copy the HTML code of the widget. Paste it into the HTML page of the site and save the changes. Viola. The Lumi Wallet Widget is ready to work. About Lumi Wallet Lumi Wallet was released in 2017 and has been constantly evolving ever since. It is a non-custodial, open-source, private wallet that has Android, iOS, and web versions. Lumi supports BTC, BCH, ETH, EOS, Tether USDT, Binance USD, Paxos Standard Token, Celsius, Dai, and more than 1200 ERC20 tokens. It allows customers to buy, exchange, and withdraw cryptocurrencies to a credit card. The wallet’s team is active on Twitter and Telegram, also Lumi has a lively blog. If you have some suggestions for currencies the wallet needs to add, or just want to say hi – don’t hesitate to send your emails to hello@lumiwallet.com. Supporting Link https://lumiwallet.com/ This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not 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 the press release. The post Lumi Wallet Web Widget: Cryptocurrency Exchange on Your Website appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Investment strategist Raoul Pal says bitcoin is the only asset with a growth rate that outpaced that of G4 central bank balance sheets. Pal says G4 central bank balance sheets have grown much faster than traditional safe-haven assets like gold. A founder and CEO at Global Macro Investor (GMI) Pal made the remarks in a Twitter post on August 6. In the thread, Pal dispels the notion that only gold offsets the dilutive effects of inflation. “Many of us own gold to offset the dilutive effects on fiat currency of the growth in major central bank’s balance sheets. However, the balance sheet (BS) of the G4 has outpaced the rise in gold.” Central banks around the world have responded to the Covid-19 by creating money to boost faltering economies. The associated dilutive effect of the increased money supply has driven investors to seek solace in stocks, bonds and gold. However, Pal says “only one asset (has) massively outperformed” any G4 balance sheet “over almost any time horizon.” The CEO says his “conviction levels in bitcoin rise every day. I’m already irresponsibly long.” While he contemplates his future investment strategy, Pal still suggests “it may not be even worth owning any other asset as a long-term asset allocation.” Pal’s comments on bitcoin are supported by a recent Bloomberg analysis of bitcoin alongside other assets. The analysis shows bitcoin’s profile as digital gold is growing. The analysis states: Stabilizing at about 6x the per-ounce price of gold, bitcoin’s increasing correlation and declining volatility relative to the precious metal indicate an enduring relationship for price advancement, in our view. The analysis adds the top crypto is moving away from its reputation as a speculative digital asset. In the meantime, a GMI data screenshot shared by Pal, suggests that in gold terms, the precious metal “has still underperformed by 50%.” What do you think of Raoul Pal’s remarks about bitcoin? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. The post Only Bitcoin Outpaces G4 Central Bank Balance Sheet Growth appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The amount of bitcoin held by small investors has more than doubled in the past five years as so-called whale holdings declined by an almost similar margin during the same period. According to new data from Glassnode, the percentage of supply owned by entities holding 10 BTC or less has grown from 5.1% to 13.8% since June 2015. At the same time, whale-sized bitcoin wallets holding between 100 to 100,000 BTC have dropped to 49.8% from 62.9% five years ago. The figures suggest mass adoption is on the rise and that the top cryptocurrency is becoming more decentralized. “Control of bitcoin’s supply has been steadily shifting towards smaller entities,” observed data analytics firm Glassnode. There is nearly 18.6 million bitcoin in circulation today, the bulk of which is in the hands of whales. Only 21 million coins could ever be issued, which makes bitcoin inflation-resistant as well as a potential gold mine for those investors holding it for long-term investment. However, the wealthy individuals or entities known as whales – which can be defined as the BTC community’s own version of the ‘deep state’ – have often been accused of market manipulation, using their large asset holdings to swing prices up or down. In an earlier report, Glassnode noted that the number of whales with 1,000 BTC or more in their wallets had risen to 1,882 by June from around 1,650 in January – but they are not as rich anymore. It said the average balance held by each whale decreased during this period, such that whales actually hold less BTC now than in 2016, and less wealth (in USD terms) than in 2017. The observations appear to dovetail with the company’s latest findings, which show a gradual transfer of wealth from some of bitcoin’s early adopters – who tend to possess very large amounts of the asset – to retail investors. Mass adoption may be the elixir bitcoin needs to gain a foothold in the global financial system. What do you think about the bitcoin supply shifting to retail investors? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Bitcoin Ownership Steadily Shifts From Whales to Small Investors, Data Shows appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Bitcoin averaged over a million daily active addresses in the past week for the first time since January 2018. The growing usage metrics add to evidence of a rising bull market. According to data compiled by Coin Metrics, ethereum might be on course to surpass its all-time high if the bull market continues. The data shows “ethereum averaged 626,000 daily active addresses in the period. This figure is just 111,000 short of the all-time high set on January 16, 2018.” Still, the report is highlighting the growth in network transaction fees during the same period. Explaining this growth, the report says “transaction fees also continue to rise which signals increasing demand for block space.” When bulls dominate the market both the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks get congested with unconfirmed transactions. Bitcoin miners respond to network clogging by prioritizing transactions with higher fees. However, when the number of transactions drops the transaction fees will drop as well. The report, which appears to confirm this higher transaction fee theory, reveals that the Ethereum network generated more from fees than the Bitcoin network in the past week. ETH averaged almost $2M worth of daily fees over the last week and is still outpacing BTC. But BTC is catching up, as BTC daily transaction fees grew 67.4% week-over-week compared to a 28.7% growth for ETH. Furthermore, the market capitalizations of both bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) surged to “new 2020 highs after breaking past the pre-March levels.” At the time of writing, bitcoin market capitalization is $215 billion while ethereum is at $45 billion. At the same time, the report shows that stablecoins have been on the rise “since the beginning of August.” The total “tether supply has grown by over 400M to a total of over 11.5B.” However, much of that growth has come “from the Tron version of tether (USDT-TRX), which has increased by about 250M since July 31st.” Still, the majority of tether’s supply remains on ethereum (USDT-ETH). USDT-ETH also continues to add to the rise in overall ethereum usage. What do you think of the high ethereum transaction fees? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. The post BTC Averages Over 1 Million Active Addresses as ETH Transaction Fees Hit $2M Daily appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The digital currency asset manager Grayscale told investors on Thursday that the firm has publicly filed a Registration Statement on Form 10 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the company’s Ethereum Trust. The recent filing is voluntary and if the SEC approves the registration, the Ethereum Trust will be the second crypto asset investment vehicle to obtain the status of a reporting company by the SEC. Established in 2013 by Digital Currency Group, Grayscale Investments has been around for quite some time now. The firm manages a number of investment vehicles that allow investors to gain exposure to crypto assets like bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ether, horizen, XRP, zcash, ethereum classic, litecoin, and stellar. In September 2013, Grayscale introduced the Bitcoin Investment Trust which originally was only available to accredited investors. Then the trust got the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) approval and Grayscale was allowed to offer shares publicly. Then on January 21, 2020, the Bitcoin Trust had its shares registered with the SEC and it was the first crypto-based trust to obtain a reporting status from the SEC. On Thursday, Grayscale told investors that it was attempting to get the Ethereum Trust established with the Commission as well. “If the Registration Statement becomes effective, it would designate Grayscale Ethereum Trust as the second digital currency investment vehicle to attain the status of a reporting company by the SEC, following Grayscale Bitcoin Trust as the first,” Grayscale noted in an investor’s email. Grayscale added: Furthermore, if the Registration Statement becomes effective, accredited investors who purchased shares in Grayscale Ethereum Trust’s private placement would have an earlier liquidity opportunity, as the statutory holding period would be reduced from twelve months to six months under Rule 144 of the Securities Act of 1933. In an announcement post on Medium, Grayscale said that Q2 2020 statistics show that investment into the Grayscale Ethereum Trust hit $10.4 million. “In fact, demand for Grayscale Ethereum Trust accounted for almost 15% of total inflows into Grayscale products during our biggest quarter yet,” the company said. Grayscale’s filing announcement continued: Today, it’s clearer than ever that there is strong demand for an Ethereum access product. Both the Medium blog post announcement and the email to investors says that the firm must stress that the filing is completely voluntary. However, Grayscale does not want the recent Ethereum Trust filing to be confused as an “effort to classify the Trust as an exchange-traded fund (ETF).” Grayscale’s Registration Statement attempt follows the recent approval by FINRA for the company’s investment vehicles, the Litecoin Trust and the Bitcoin Cash Trust. After the Ethereum Trust registration announcement, Digital Currency Group founder Barry Silbert tweeted that the attempt is a “milestone.” What do you think about Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust registering with the SEC? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Grayscale Investments’ Ethereum Trust Filed With the SEC to Obtain Reporting Status appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Bitmain has delayed shipments of its Antminer bitcoin mining machines by three months, as the tussle between co-founders, Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan Ketuan, for control of the company intensifies. According to a post on Bitmain’s official Wechat account, the Beijing-based bitcoin miner maker said customers whose orders were due for delivery in June and July will have to wait until September and October. The equipment is typically ordered three months prior to delivery. That means the postponed shipments may have been ordered around March, making this a costly six-month wait for the affected bitcoin miners. Bitmain said in the Thursday announcement that the delay is a result of “external interference over the company’s management.” Jihan Wu’s faction is reportedly in control of the company’s Wechat account. The company is offering two options to its customers as compensation for delays. First, customers can write to Bitmain requesting that deliveries are fast-tracked. If they do not receive the equipment after 60 days of submitting the request, customers can ask for a refund. The second option involves cash coupons equivalent to theoretical mining revenue between now and the actual delivery date. Those coupons could be used to pay for future orders. The two options cannot be exercised together. Wu and Micree Zhan are currently engaged in a bitter struggle for Bitmain’s control. The two co-founders ran the company together for many years, but Zhan was booted out of the firm by Wu last October in controversial circumstances. In June, a court in China ruled in favor of Zhan, allowing him to return to power. Zhan, who owns a 37% stake in the company, has now assumed control of Bitmain’s Shenzhen-based operations. However, the feud is evidently starting to impact negatively on Bitmain’s operations. In July, some 10,000 Antminers, worth about $10 million, were reportedly “stolen” from a mining facility owned by the company in Inner Mongolia. Some reports say the equipment was “illegally transferred”. In the wake of the latest operational hiccups, Thomas Heller, global business director at bitcoin mining pool F2pool, urged miners to switch to machines operated by Bitmain’s competitors such as Microbt and Canaan. What do you think about Bitmain’s delayed shipments? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Bitmain Delays Delivery of Bitcoin Miners by Three Months, as Co-Founders Battle for Company Control appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article