A few weeks ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk began selling shares in his company, and the share price came under noticeable pressure. Now Elon Musk has sold shares again for one billion US dollars. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has again sold off shares in his company. The entrepreneur sold about 934,000 papers for about one billion US dollars, as emerged from mandatory notifications to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday night.
Crypto.com continues its expansion and has acquired two CFTC-regulated trading venues targeting the derivatives market in the US. Crypto.com has been on a marketing spree lately and it shows no signs of slowing down. The project shocked the market when it acquired the Staples Center in Los Angeles in a deal that saw the legendary arena change its name to Crypto.com Arena.
A few days after Jack Dorsey resigned as CEO of Twitter, his other company is changing its name. Square is renaming itself Block as it focuses on technologies like blockchain and expands beyond its original credit card reader. Jack Dorsey’s payments giant said in an announcement that the new name, which takes effect Dec. 10, “recognizes the growth of the company” and “creates room for further growth”
Last week we had already reported on the investments of large companies in Bitcoin. At that time, MicroStrategy had a fabulous 114,042 Bitcoin in its possession. Since September, the contingent has already been expanded by 20,000 Bitcoin. So, with the new purchase of 7002 BTC, the company continues its investment.
The CEO of the multinational company is Michael Saylor. In the past, he had stood out as a big supporter of bitcoin. Apparently, there is no end in sight for his investment strategy.
As he recently announced on Twitter, MicroStrategy acquired another 7,002 Bitcoins for about $414 million. This gave Saylor an average purchase price of $59,187.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is giving up his chief post at the short message service. His successor is to be the current head of technology Parag Agrawal, as the San Francisco-based company announced on November 29, 2021. “I have decided that it is ultimately time for me to go,” Jack Dorsey wrote on Twitter. That decision apparently matured over several months. As Dorsey noted, he had been working toward the company being able to break away from its founders.
Coinbase is launching a program for direct deposit of paychecks into cryptocurrencies. PayPal and Robinhood already offer this service in the US.
Coinbase will soon allow U.S. companies to deposit their employees’ paychecks directly into accounts at the crypto exchange. In a blog post Monday, Coinbase Senior Director of Product Prakash Hariramani announced the option. This will allow employees to use their paychecks to purchase cryptocurrencies without transaction fees. For their part, companies can set up direct deposits through a supported payroll company in the Coinbase app or through a company’s human resources department.
China bans Bitcoin. At the beginning of the week, Bitcoin in terms of market size is at 43,800 dollars, initially well above the psychological mark of 40,000 dollars. In the slipstream of the Bitcoin recovery, the second most important currency Ether can climb again to a level well above 3,000 dollars. Bargain hunters used the latest price shock on Friday to get back in.
The Chinese central bank (Peoples Bank of China) had declared all activities around Bitcoin and Co illegal on Friday afternoon. Also for foreign exchanges, which are in connection with cryptocurrencies, the offering of corresponding services was prohibited. Accordingly, violations of the rules are to be punished rigorously.
Even if the pronounced ban had triggered price losses on the crypto markets in the meantime, China’s tough stance does not come as too much of a surprise for investors. Already in the spring, it had been announced that it wanted to take stronger action against the entire industry. Bad news from the Middle Kingdom thus has the potential to cause selling pressure in the short term, but obviously not to throw Bitcoin and Co. off track.
Binance Coin (BNB) is outrunning the competition. The third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization gained 70 percent in value within the last seven days alone and currently stands at a price of around 590 US dollars. In terms of market capitalization, the proof-of-stake coin is slowly but surely becoming dangerous even to its competitor Ethereum (ETH). After all, the market currently values BNB at a reasonable 91 billion USD. ETH, however, still has a market capitalization that is almost three times as high at USD 248 billion.
In the annual chart, the performance of BNB is no less impressive. The coin, which forms the core of the Binance Smart Chain, has gained a whopping 1,464 percent since the beginning of 2021. That is record-breaking. In the crypto top 10, BNB is the absolute top performer and even beats Bitcoin (BTC) by a long way.
The reasons for the ongoing bull run can be quickly identified. With a volume of 36 billion USD, Binance is still by far the most liquid Bitcoin exchange on the planet. By comparison, Coinbase, in second place, “only,” has a normalized volume of USD 2 billion. So anyone who wants to participate in the highs of the exchanges without having to buy securities such as the soon to be issued Coinbase shares has done well with BNB so far.
Billionaire Ray Dalio considers a Bitcoin ban is hugely potential from America in an identical manner as Gold straight back in 1934 to “shield the fiscal strategy.”
Whoever fund director and Billionaire Ray Dalio shared his notions regarding the long run Bitcoin and said crypto prohibition in America comes with a fantastic likelihood. Dalio summarized the fundamental banks want to know more about managing the requirement and distribution of these own countries, and inserted banks pick whether their attention to own a monopoly on banks at a nation and when matters just like crypto can proceed awful.
Even the crypto current market uses a fantastic bull streak under this systemic drive for crypto and expense businesses, supervisors, and firms such as VanEck, Goldman Sachs, and Fidelity most registered for ETFs together with all the US Securities and Exchange Commission. That directed the fundamental banking institutions to rethink the effect of electronic resources. Additionally, central financial institutions started out adapting to the development of new systems at the fintech distance and a few analyzing the prospect of devoting a CBDC, but that is maybe not true together with different associations using a competitive approach crypto-like India’s principal banking.
Dalio remarked that India’s existing position is aggressive in the direction of crypto. Simultaneously, the county transferred forward with all the programs to prohibit digital belongings preventing crypto holding and trading and blocking the Web Protocol as stated by an anonymous resource by your Indian origins. India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman clarified there is a tiny window of chances to get BTC. However, it looks like a window usually means the US government will experiment with BTC while implementing blockchain technological innovation on different businesses.
An affiliate of investment giant Fidelity is the next candidate to try a bitcoin ETF filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. On Wednesday, the corresponding Form S-1 was filed with the agency. At its core, the application seeks approval for the “Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust,” an exchange-traded fund with several ties to Fidelity. This is, of course, noteworthy in that Fidelity is one of the world’s largest asset managers.
According to the filing, Fidelity affiliates will serve as the fund’s sponsor, administrator, custodian, and trustee. The fund would track the performance of Fidelity’s Bitcoin Index. Peter Jubber, managing director of Fidelity Digital Funds, would serve as president of the trust.
As early as last fall, Fidelity published a sensational study on the subject of Bitcoin. It predicted that constantly falling bond yields and the expansive monetary policy of central banks would encourage many large asset managers to invest in Bitcoin.
Moreover, Fidelity was among the first prominent asset managers to get involved with crypto stocks. In 2014, they already started mining Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) there. That same year, Abigail Johnson took over as CEO of the company from her father. Given Fidelity’s importance to the U.S. capital markets, the SEC added pressure to grant its request for the first Bitcoin ETF.
And that, in turn, could have an impact on the countless other Bitcoin ETF applications that have been received by the SEC in recent weeks and months.
A planned financial product from Goldman Sachs can allow the significant bank to invest indirectly in Bitcoin. The financial institution filed the corresponding application with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 19.
The financial product is a so-called “linked note.” Such notes are linked to other financial products – in this case, an ETF. Interestingly, the Goldman Sachs note is related to the ARK Innovation ETF, of all things, a fund that is intertwined with the Bitcoin economy.
The Ark Innovation ETF (trading symbol: ARKK) has been around since 2013. The actively managed exchange-traded fund’s stated goal is to invest in technologies and companies with disruptive potential. The ETF is interested, for example, in the energy sector, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and precisely also FinTechs and cryptocurrencies. Goldman Sachs’ SEC filing states:
“The ETF may have exposure to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin indirectly through an investment in a Grantor Trust. The ETF’s exposure to cryptocurrencies may change over time, and, accordingly, such exposure may not always be represented in the ETF’s portfolio.”
The cost of buying one Bitcoin in Turkey on peer-to-peer crypto markets is over $100,000.
According to LocalBitcoins.com data, the minimum ask price for Bitcoin has reached 509,840 Turkish Lira (~$64,000). Meanwhile, some offline exchanges charge up to $100,000 in lira for the flagship cryptocurrency – almost double the global ask price.
The astronomical price levels come after a major drop in the value of the Turkish lira. The currency plunged as much as 14 percent Monday after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fired the country’s central bank governor, who is credited with pulling the lira out of its downward slide earlier this year.
Naci Agbal, who replaced Erdogan’s son-in-law Berat Albayrak as central bank governor, was a proponent of higher interest rates. His brief tenure drew applause from local and foreign investors for pushing Turkey toward a more orthodox monetary policy.
Max Lin, an emerging markets currency strategist at NatWest Markets, told The Wall Street Journal that Agbal’s ouster is a sign that President Erdogan does not want to raise interest rates to curb Turkey’s explosive inflation. The lira is now in danger of plummeting further because of its current competitiveness, he said.
The country pioneered state-backed digital currencies and plans to launch the digital yuan before the 2022 Winter Olympics.
The Chinese government wants to maximize privacy options in the upcoming digital yuan, the state’s native “Central Bank Digital Currency” (CBDC), a report said Monday (and China is getting bullish on Bitcoin).
Officially called Digital Currency, Electronic Payment (DCEP), the Chinese digital currency is backed 1:1 by the yuan and is on track to become the world’s first government-backed stablecoin.
Current products on the market, such as Tether and others, are operated by private companies and are unregulated. In most cases, Bitcoin (go to Plus500 Buy Bitcoin Guide) is unregulated and trustless.
Last weekend, Mu Changchun, head of the People’s Bank of China’s Digital Currencies Research Institute, said that so-called “controllable anonymity” was an important feature in the design of the e-yuan.
However, he added that complete anonymity – as offered by private cryptocurrencies such as Dash and Monero – was “not feasible” because CBDCs would have different reporting standards.
According to Changchun, large transactions would be monitored and tracked to prevent illegal transfers from the country and maintain financial security. Also, complete anonymity would thwart the use of DCEP, i.e., money laundering, terrorist financing, and tax evasion.
As of today, it is possible to pay with Bitcoin in the US online store of the US car manufacturer Tesla. “You can now buy Tesla with Bitcoin,” writes company founder Elon Musk on Twitter.
Tesla does not work with third-party providers for BTC payments, who exchange Bitcoin for US dollars in the background and then transfer them to Tesla, but accepts the BTC directly. According to Musk, Tesla would work exclusively with internal open-source software and also operate a Bitcoin node itself.
The company announced this promise back in February 2021. At the same time, 1.5 billion dollars were invested in digital currency. The value of Bitcoin had risen sharply in recent months – at the beginning of January, it climbed temporarily to over 40,000 dollars. In mid-March, it even cracked a record value of over 60,000 dollars.
In recent weeks, more and more celebrities have released their own Non-fungible Tokens (NFT). The famous US actress, artist, and singer Lindsay Lohan also wants to issue her own NFT – Justin Sun is helping her.
The NFT space is breaking record after record, and only recently, the sector’s total turnover exceeded $600 million. Many non-fungible tokens have been sold for several million US dollars in recent months. For example, Beeple, an extremely well-known artist in the crypto space, raised over $69 million as recently as early March through his NFT collection “EVERYDAYS: The First 5,000 Days.”
Coinbase, the largest U.S. trading platform for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, is already highly prized by investors even before its debut on New York’s Nasdaq. This year, the company’s shares changed hands for an average of $343.58 in over-the-counter trading, Coinbase disclosed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday. That puts the California-based group’s latest valuation at least $67.6 billion (56.8 billion euros), it said.
Coinbase is benefiting greatly from the enormous cryptocurrency hype ahead of its IPO, which is expected later this month. Last year, the over-the-counter average price for the company’s shares was just $28.83.
Most recently, according to U.S. media reports, even a total valuation of more than 100 billion U.S. dollars was considered a good possibility for the IPO since private transactions usually achieve much lower prices than after the premiere on the public capital market.
Coinbase plans to list 114.9 million shares on Nasdaq, according to a filing with the SEC. However, this is not a traditional IPO but a direct placement without investment banks’ assistance and a prior pricing process.
Coinbase said it made about $1.3 billion in revenue in 2020, more than double the previous year. The bottom line was a profit of 322 million US dollars, after a minus of 30 million in the previous year.
Meitu, a China-based software development company, has invested another £35.8 million in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). A report revealed this news on March 18, noting that this purchase has increased its crypto holdings to £64.45 million. According to reports, the company bought 386.08 BTC for £15.5 million and 16,000 ETH for around £23.3 million.
This is the company’s second crypto purchase this month. On March 5, Meitu, listed in China and Hong Kong, made its first investment in the crypto space, buying 15,000 ETH for £15.11 million. On the same day, the company bought 378 BTC for £12.83 million. As such, Meitu now owns approximately 31,000 ETH and 764.08 BTC.
According to Meitu, cryptocurrencies are still in the early stages of their growth. However, blockchain has already shown its potential to become a disruptive tool in the current financial and technology sectors.
San Francisco-based leading crypto exchange, Coinbase Pro, has added support for Cardano (ADA). Coinbase announced the news through a blog post on March 16, noting that it has begun accepting incoming transfers from ADA to Coinbase Pro. The company went on to say that ADA trading is scheduled to begin on March 18 at 4:00 PM UTC, provided the coin receives sufficient liquidity.
According to the blog post, users can trade ADA for four pairs using the Coinbase Pro platform. These are ADA/USD, ADA/BTC, ADA/EUR, and ADA/GBP. However, the coin must first accumulate ample supply on the platform. Like other Coinbase listings, ADA trading will go live after three stages. These are post-only, limit-only, and full trading.
The publication added that if any of the above order books fail the exchange’s assessment of a properly functioning market, it will remain in the same stage for an extended period of time. Coinbase added that it could suspend trading on the order book altogether, based on its trading rules.
Analysts at Bank of America have converted Bitcoin’s carbon footprint to cars. But they also have other arguments against cryptocurrency.
Unclean investment: The US electric car manufacturer Tesla recently purchased a large amount of Bitcoin. The action is controversial from a climate protection perspective because of the high computing power required for cryptocurrency. Bank of America has related Bitcoin investments to internal combustion vehicles.
Investors concerned about environmental aspects of their investments should “pay attention to Bitcoin’s enormous environmental costs,” according to a Bank of America report titled “Bitcoin’s dirty little secrets.” As the authors calculated, buying $1 billion worth of Bitcoin releases as much carbon dioxide as 1.2 million internal combustion engine vehicles in a year.
Ethereum, currently in second place in the ranking of the most important cryptocurrencies, can overtake Bitcoin in a period of about ten years. Crypto analyst Ryan Watkins is convinced of this. He bases his steep thesis on various indications of varying importance.
The entire argument is based on the ongoing progress of the Ethereum network. As is known, the project is working on version 2.0 of its blockchain. It is supposed to fix various problems.
The move from the consensus proof-of-work model to proof-of-stake, he said, reduces energy consumption, speeds up operations, and leads to value-preserving scarcity by burning Ether as part of transaction processing. Moreover, the protocol upgrade would ultimately make the network even more secure than Bitcoin.
Watkins sees a massive value driver in the service portfolio around the defi sector, which Bitcoin does not have to offer at all. Applications of the decentralized financial sector (Dapps), especially the rapidly growing NFT sector, increase the Ethereum network’s importance in modern everyday life.
Dapps, in particular, is forcing Ethereum to work on performance. In small steps, the network is moving in the right direction. For example, Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 is set to be implemented in July. This aims to make the Ethereum network cheaper and faster by restructuring transaction fees.
Instead of transaction fees set by miners on their own responsibility, the so-called gas fees, there will be an algorithmically determined base fee in the future, i.e., a base fee that does not have to be re-auctioned for each transaction. The base fee will be burned in the course of the transaction, i.e., destroyed by the protocol.
No one benefits from these payments, which will always remain fixed to Ether under the new regime, stabilizing the currency’s value. This pleases everyone involved, except the miners. They are losing massive amounts of revenue and now want to fight back with a so-called 51 percent attack.
