Cryptocurrency

A week into the new year, the market value of all the world’s cryptocurrencies surpassed $1 trillion. The record came at the end of a supercharged six-month bull run. At the end of June, the value of all digital currencies added up only to around $260 billion. This week, the market slid again, pulled down in part by a bitcoin plunge that wiped out $185 billion in value. But for a while there, crypto was a trillionaire. Close observers of the digital currency market have, in the past, pointed out the unreliability of some crypto data. But it is clear that the pandemic has boosted crypto extravagantly. Analysts offer various explanations for why this is the case: the increasing digitization of other spheres of our lives; the need to hedge against inflation as central banks pump out money; a safe-harbor asset during uncertain times; fresh speculative interest from institutional investors. It isn’t always easy to treat crypto like other currencies. “Money is defined as a medium of exch...

Cryptocurrencies could grow fivefold by 2025 into a $3 trillion market, under new projections from Bakkt Holdings, the digital-asset financial firm. Bakkt published the estimate as part of an investor presentation released Monday in connection with its new plan to go public via a merger with Victory Park Capital, a special-purpose acquisition company. Bakkt is majority-owned by Intercontinental Exchange Inc., which also owns the New York Stock Exchange. The deal would give Bakkt an enterprise value of about $2.1 billion, according to a press release. The underlying assumptions behind the transaction show just how bullish investors, entrepreneurs and financial executives have become over the past year on the fast-paced digital-asset industry, especially after prices for bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, quadrupled in 2020. Just last week, the industry’s total market capitalization surpassed $1 trillion for the first time, though a swoon over the past few days in prices for...

Billionaire Mark Cuban said that recent trading of bitcoin BTCUSD, +3.93% and other cryptocurrencies reminds him of the internet stock bubble of the late 1990s. “ Watching the cryptos trade, it’s EXACTLY like the internet stock bubble. EXACTLY. ” — Mark Cuban Cryptocurrencies have been on a meteoric rise in recent months, as the market cap of bitcoin and other cryptos topped $1 trillion last week, according to CoinDesk. Bitcoin, which has risen nearly 300% in the past 12 months, was mentioned by Cuban as an equity that could survive a potential bubble bursting among cryptocurrencies — similar to how companies like Amazon AMZN, -2.15% and EBay EBAY, -1.01% survived during the internet stock bubble. The internet stock bubble, also known as the dot-com bubble, saw U.S. internet-based company valuations grow exponentially in the 1990s before entering a bear market in the early 2000s. At that time, many dot-com stocks plummeted and the technology-dominated NASDAQ COMP, -1.25...

Trading volumes on cryptocurrency exchanges have been doing extraordinarily well this week, hitting a new record volume of $68.3 billion, Reuters reported. The surge shows how strong trading has been lately, according to Reuters. Bitcoin reached $34,800 on Sunday (Jan. 3), compounding its 2020 rally that catapulted it to quadruple as big U.S. investors got into the mix, Reuters reported. Bitcoin had seen a string of days in which it continually broke records, passing $20,000 on Dec. 16 and other high points for consecutive days after. The value fell on Monday (Jan. 4) alongside volatility in highly leveraged futures markets before recovering losses. Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency, which usually rises at the same time as bitcoin, also hit its highest level on Monday since 2018, with a $1,170 value, Reuters reported. The perception that seems to have been behind bitcoin's rally is that the cryptocurrency can be a hedge against inflation risks, as governments and...

Cryptocurrency prices jumped Monday evening after the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a letter approving U.S. banks to use public blockchain networks. Ether jumped nearly 12% on the letter’s release, given Ethereum’s dominance as a stablecoin payment settlement protocol. Bitcoin also gained 5% and both leading cryptocurrencies almost fully retraced Sunday evening’s losses. “After a flurry of negative regulatory news, investors are pleased to see positive regulatory news allowing stablecoin and public blockchain integration into the traditional banking sector,” said Justin Yashouafar, managing partner at Santa Monica-based Blockhead Capital. The letter addressed national banks and federal savings associations participating as nodes on a blockchain and storing or validating payments made in native digital assets or stablecoins.  The OCC’s letter stands in contrast to a bill introduced in the last Congressional session that would hav...

Viewed as safe havens and hedges against inflation, investors kept snapping up Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin traded at $33,365 in Asia on Monday, after soaring to a record high of $34,800 on Sunday as investors continue to bet the digital currency is on its way to becoming a mainstream asset. The latest milestone for the world’s most popular cryptocurrency came less than three weeks after it crossed $20,000 for the first time, on December 16, and Bitcoin has now surged some 800 percent since mid-March. With Bitcoin’s supply capped at 21 million, some see it as a hedge against the risk of inflation as governments and central banks turn on the stimulus taps in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some also view it as a safe-haven play during the COVID-19 pandemic, akin to gold. “Some of it is reflecting the fear of a weaker dollar,” Bank of Singapore currency analyst Moh Siong Sim said of the most recent rally. “It seems like people are preferring Bitcoin as an expres...

TipRanks 3 “Strong Buy” Stocks Set for Monster Growth in 2021 We’ve turned a new page on the calendar, Old Man ’20 is out the door, and there’s a feeling ‘21 is gonna be a good year – and so far, so good. The markets closed out 2020 with modest session gains to cap off larger annual gains. The S&P 500 rose 16% during the corona crisis year, while the NASDAQ, with its heavy tech representation, showed an impressive annual gain of nearly 43%. The advent of two viable COVID vaccines is fueling a surge in general optimism.Wall Street’s top analysts have been casting their eye at the equity markets, finding those gems that investors should give serious consideration in this new year. These are analysts with 5-star ratings from TipRanks database, and they are pointing out the stocks with Strong Buy ratings – in short, this is where investors can expect to find share growth over the next 12 months. We are talking returns of at least 70% over the next 12 months, according to the analyst...

Digital currency markets have seen decent gains this weekend as bitcoin touched another all-time high (ATH) on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, a number of other crypto assets have seen significant price rises as well, as the entire market capitalization of all 7,500+ digital currencies in existence is hovering above the $800 billion mark. The $800 Billion Crypto Economy This weekend, bitcoin (BTC) spiked to a new all-time high at $33,333 per unit and since then the price has dropped some after the ATH. At the time of publication, BTC is hovering above the $32k handle as the crypto asset has climbed 19.9% during the last week. The cryptocurrency bitcoin has an overall market valuation of around $602 billion, which brings the bitcoin dominance index to just over 71%. Meanwhile, the second-largest market capitalization held by ethereum (ETH) is hovering around $88.6 billion. ETH has jumped over 21% this week, 25.4% during the last month, 119% over the 90-day span, and 12-months stats ...

It is clear that crypto is having its institutional moment. The investment decision is moving from speculation to allocation, and we are witnessing the maturation of crypto and digital asset investors in the process. In formalizing a dedicated digital asset investment strategy, institutional investors should assess the landscape thoughtfully with the goal of building an optimally constructed portfolio to achieve their desired investment objectives. Below, we summarize our top 10 takeaways from 2020 for institutional investors, based on our recent report “An Institutional Take on the 2020/2021 Digital Asset Market.”  This post is part of CoinDesk's 2020 Year in Review – a collection of op-eds, essays and interviews about the year in crypto and beyond. Dan Zuller, CFA, is a partner at Vision Hill Group, an investment consultant and asset manager in digital assets. 1. Active management roars back. Following a challenging 2019 market in which concentration in bitcoin (large...

Bitcoin, BTC to USD, fell by 0.69% on Sunday. Following a 6.85% rally on Saturday, Bitcoin ended the week up by 12.01% to $26,241.0. It was another mixed start to the day. Bitcoin fell to an early morning low $26,393.0 before making a move. Steering clear of the first major support level at $25,027, Bitcoin rallied to a late morning intraday high and a new swing hi $28,244.0. Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $27,261 and the second major resistance level at $28,109. An afternoon pullback, however, saw Bitcoin slide to a late intraday low $25,813.0 before a partial recovery to $26,200 levels. In spite of the late pullback, Bitcoin steered clear of the first major support level at $25,027. The near-term bullish trend remained intact, supported by the latest breakthrough to $28,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $13,261 to form a near-term bearish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a m...

After a crazy year with predictably strong growth in decentralized finance (DeFi) and store-of-value (SoV) crypto assets generally, things are about to get weird. Diversification is the only way to stay sane.  Crypto is set to bifurcate and we will begin to see two parallel economic superhighways being built and used. One economic superhighway will be for know your customer (KYC)-compliant “digital currencies” such as central bank digital currencies (CBDC) or corporate-backed digital currencies such as USDC or diem (formerly libra). This post is part of CoinDesk's 2020 Year in Review – a collection of op-eds, essays and interviews about the year in crypto and beyond. Ryan Zurrer is founder of Dialectic AG, an alternative-assets focused multi-family office. Previously, he was a Director at the Web3 Foundation and led the investment team at Polychain Capital, pioneering the SAFT as a legitimate investment instrument.  In parallel, the other econom...

The names, mailing addresses, and phone numbers for 272,000 customers of cryptocurrency wallet company Ledger have been released online by hackers. The hackers gained access to the information when they penetrated Ledger's databases in July this year. According to reports, the stolen information has been posted at Raidforums, a site for sharing hacked databases. Key Takeaways The personal details and contact information for 272,000 customers of crypto wallet company Ledger have been leaked online by hackers. Hackers gained access to the information during a June intrusion into the company's e-commerce and marketing databases. Ledger says that customer funds and assets are not affected. "… this data breach has no link nor impact on our hardware wallets, the app or your funds. Your crypto assets are safe. While very truly and sincerely regrettable, this breach concerns only e-commerce related information," the company stated in a post on its site. "W...

Digital currency exchange Coinbase is going public as renewed investor interest in cryptocurrencies has pushed bitcoin to an all-time high. The IPO comes amid a record-breaking run for Bitcoin, which broke through $23,000. Brian Brooks, acting comptroller of the currency and former chief legal officer at Coinbase, joined "Squawk Box" on Friday to discuss. 05:00 Fri, Dec 18 2020 10:07 AM EST

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Agency (FinCEN) issued a notice of proposed rule making today called, “Requirements for Certain Transactions Involving Convertible Virtual Currency or Digital Assets”. FinCEN is providing only 15 days, a highly accelerated timeframe for public comment to administrative rules by the Administration. The U.S. Treasury agency voids the public comment period for the new rule on crypto reporting, “...because this proposal involves a foreign affairs function of the United States and because ‘notice and public procedure thereon are impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.” Even though FinCEN is technically providing 15 days for public comment, the notice also highlights that, “notice-and-comment rule making requirements are inapplicable because this proposal involves a foreign affairs function of the United States and because ‘notice and public procedure thereon are impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.” WA...

Banca Generali listed in the MIB in Milan (Photo by Alexander Pohl/NurPhoto via Getty Images) NurPhoto via Getty Images Banca Generali is to provide bitcoin custody to its customers following an agreement with Conio that will see the bank acquire a $14 million stake in the crypto-focused fintech. Financial institutions that once gave cryptocurrency the cold shoulder are now embracing it in the latest deal that further demonstrates the convergence of traditional and digital finance. Known as the best private bank in Italy, Banca Generali is part of the Generali Group, one of the world's top ten insurers with a who's who of financial institutional shareholders. The bank is known for its innovation in technology and investment management and boasts one of the best diversity scores on the planet with women comprising 50 percent of its 2,000 private bankers, an inspiring statistic for a male dominated industry. The bank's clients are typically high net worth individuals ...

At the start of 2020, Ripio, one of Argentina’s largest crypto exchanges, had around 400,000 users. It’s finishing the year with 1 million.  Ripio’s chief brand officer, Juan Mendez, told CoinDesk that around 70% of Ripio users are from Argentina, with the remainder mostly concentrated in Brazil. According to Mendez, the platform also saw a tenfold increase in trading volume this year compared to last.  “I’ve been with the exchange pretty much from the beginning and I’ve never seen this kind of growth. This is bigger than the 2017 spike on operations and on demand,” Mendez said.  Argentina’s economic woes, from enormous debt obligations to high inflation and compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, drove its population to seek alternative ways to store their wealth this year. But as the government limited U.S. dollar purchases by its citizens, crypto quickly proved to be the next best thing.  Along with Ripio, crypto exchanges operating in Argentina saw reco...