Author: José Oramas

José is a journalist and translator with a keen interest in blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

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Crypto News Institutions

Morgan Stanley Files To Offer BTC Exposure To Multiple Institutional Funds

Investment giant Morgan Stanely has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allow Bitcoin exposure into multiple funds.

The bank filed the request on Thursday. According to the document, all institutional funds may gay exposure to Bitcoin indirectly through investments in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) or cash-settled futures.

Certain Funds may engage in futures contracts based on bitcoin. The only bitcoin futures in which a Fund may invest are cash settled bitcoin futures traded on futures exchanges registered with the CFTC.

Morgan Stanley SEC file

Investors Demanding Bitcoin

A few weeks ago, Morgan Stanley offered three Bitcoin funds to its wealthiest investors. Giving the inherent volatility of BTC, the bank will allow its clients to invest only 2.5% of their capital.

The bank has outlined that Bitcoin is a risky investment, and it will allow clients with a high tolerance for risk. Although this didn’t discourage investors from demanding more exposure to BTC as it rallies again to $60k.

Rumours were circulating that the investment giant was behind Bithumb, South Korea’s largest crypto-exchange. As reported, the bank could be negotiating with Bithumb Holdings to acquire 10% of shares — and even placing a $2 billion bid for the exchange.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $59,000, down 0.50% in 24 hours, with technicals pointing at a strong buying sentiment.

BTC/USD chart. Source: TradingView
Categories
Blockchain Bytom ChainLink Crypto News

Bytom Blockchain to Integrate Chainlink

Bytom, a proof-of-work interactive blockchain, will integrate Chainlink as the oracle solution for all Bytom dApps. The integration of Chainlink will provide Bytom’s ecosystem with high-quality data and decentralised security.

As explained in Bytom’s official blog on Medium, Chainlink will enhance several applications on Bytom by providing price feed oracles. MOV, a Bytom-based dApp, will use Chainlink’s BTM/USD to secure BTM staked as collateral in their DeFi products.

We selected Chainlink as the preferred oracle provider to the Bytom blockchain because it has a proven track record of securing billions of dollars in value on mainnet for various other leading DeFi protocols.

From Bytom’s official blog

Tokenizing Real-world Assets

Chainlink’s Price Feeds have been praised by the DeFi space for allowing a fast and effective method to connect smart contracts to real-world market prices of assets.

These Price Feeds will bring several benefits to a broad range of smart contracts and DeFi products on Bytom’s ecosystem. The integration of Chainlink aligns with Bytom’s plans to tokenize real-world assets.

By integrating Chainlink oracles, Bytom developers can get premium off-chain data in a highly secure and reliable manner, including real-world asset prices.

James Zhu, CTO at Bytom

Chainlink has provided high-quality data and a solid oracle infrastructure to several DeFi applications. The team behind Bytom expects to continue to work with the oracle and expand the number of dApps supported by the blockchain.

Chainlink was also integrated into the mainnet of Origin Protocol, becoming the sole provider of real-time price data for OUSD.

Categories
Bitcoin Institutions

First Bitcoin Cashback Mortgage Launched in Canada

Mogo, a Toronto-based fintech company and loan lender, has launched the first Bitcoin Cashback Mortgage in Canada — this means that Canadians can request a mortgage loan and earn at least $3,100 worth of Bitcoin.

Mogo is a fintech company that has expanded its Bitcoin Cashback program to include MogoMortgage, turning the company into the first-ever mortgage lender that will reward its users with Bitcoin.

The Crypto Market Expands in Canada

The crypto market in Canada is growing fast, mostly thanks to governmental support for crypto-assets. At least 3 BTC ETFs have been approved at the beginning of this year. Just a month after it was launch, Canada’s first Bitcoin ETF accrued over $450 million from investors.

This means that Canadians are keener to explore cryptocurrencies, but their inherent risk can drive away prospective investors. David Feller, CEO at Mogo, believes MogoMortgage can meet this demand without risking its customer’s capital:

Given the volatility and speculative nature of bitcoin, there’s an increasing number of Canadians who are looking for ways to participate without risking their own money, and our bitcoin rewards program meets this demand.

David Feller, CEO at Mogo [Business Wire]

Canada’s First Bitcoin Mortgage Cashback

Feller remarked that Bitcoin can offer unique opportunities as a long-term investment, stating that a $3,100 investment five years ago would now worth over $350,000.

Unlike traditional reward programs, bitcoin rewards have the unique characteristic of being an asset class that can rise in value over time – $3,100 invested in bitcoin 5 years ago would be worth over $350,000 today.

David Feller, CEO at Mogo [Business Wire]

With a $1.7 trillion mortgage market, Mogo expects to receive a large inflow of clients seeking exposure to crypto-assets, earning Bitcoin without risking their capital. “This is a great way to get a mortgage,” stated Greg Feller, Mogo’s Chief Financial Officer.

The residential mortgage market in Canada is a massive market estimated at about $1.7 trillion, and we’re pleased to provide Canadians with a great way to get a mortgage, while also earning bitcoin.

Greg Feller, President and CFO at Mogo [Business Wire]
Categories
Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Institutions

PayPal Will Allow Crypto Payments to its 29 Million Merchants in the U.S.

PayPal is now allowing U.S. customers to pay with cryptocurrency the same way they would with a credit or debit card. The crypto checkout service will allow using crypto holdings to pay at millions of merchants worldwide.

Following its previous plans to allow crypto payments with its digital wallets, PayPal’s crypto checkout service is live today in the U.S. All users will be able to easily convert their Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin to fiat money and use it with its 29 million merchants.

This is the first time you can seamlessly use cryptocurrencies in the same way as a credit card or a debit card inside your PayPal wallet.

Dan Schulman, CEO of Paypal [Reuters]

Payments With Crypto

PayPal allowing crypto-payments is a considerable milestone for the crypto-space. The move came weeks after Tesla announced that customers can now buy its vehicles using Bitcoin.

Schulman believes that by converting crypto into fiat, merchants will not take into consideration their inherent volatility.

We think it is a transitional point where cryptocurrencies move from being predominantly an asset class that you buy, hold and or sell to now becoming a legitimate funding source to make transactions in the real world at millions of merchants.

Dan Schulman, CEO of Paypal [Reuters]

Besides Paypal, Crypto.com announced a global partnership with Visa to accelerate the worldwide adoption of cryptocurrencies and crypto-payment methods. This will allow further expansion of MCO cards all over the Middle East, Africa, and Asian countries.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Regulation

Australia Needs to Regulate its Crypto Market to Compete Globally, Says BTC Markets

Australian digital exchange BTC Markets has recently stated that the cryptocurrency market should be regulated in Australia, amid a surge in interest for currencies such as Bitcoin and other cryptos.

According to its CEO, Caroline Bowler, the crypto market in the country needs “regulatory oversight,” and a more clear infrastructure for crypto-companies.

Australia Needs to Keep Apace With Change

The Australian government has increased its focus on blockchain technology, following the calls from key players in the crypto industry for more government support on the matter.

As part of the Australian Blockchain Roadmap, the government allocated AU$6.9 million to conduct two blockchain pilot programs to demonstrate how to use this technology and expand business adoption.

While this comes in handy for leaders in the crypto-space, Bowler believes that the regulatory weather in Australia remains “unclear.” The fintech space is growing fast, and Australia needs to “keep apace of the change,” she added.

An “Outdated” Regulatory Environment

Bowler thinks that the regulatory infrastructure in Australia is “outdated” and only works for traditional markets. Accordingly, this closes the doors for prospective companies seeking to enter APAC countries.

A clearer regulatory environment could help Australia become a leader in financial technology and compete globally with countries like Singapore —which already made several advances with blockchain technology and regulating crypto-related activities. Besides, this could lay the groundwork for international projects coming into Australia.

“[…] I do think that regulatory clarity will help with other international projects/partners. We are looking forward to seeing what the Senate committee will be putting forward next month on this.”

Caroline Bowler [Twitter]

Not only crypto-exchanges are demanding a better environment and more support. Senator Andrew Bragg recently said the Australian Committee needs to consider the opportunities that digital assets and blockchain presents, which could also turn Australia into a leading country in finance and technology.

I fully expect the Committee to focus on removing more barriers to Australian growth as a technology and finance centre. […] This is a golden opportunity to bolster Australia’s economic growth, and I want to ensure we take full advantage.

Senator Andrew Bragg
Categories
Blockchain Crypto News Institutions Travel

Blockchain-based COVID-19 Passports are Now Available in New York

The Excelsior Pass, a digital COVID-19 application, is now official in New York. It uses blockchain technology to protect and validate data from users, allowing them to travel, attend sports events, art performances, and more.

The pass is a voluntary application that uses IBM’s Digital Health platform. This app will help organisations to validate user’s health credentials by scanning the person to verify proof of vaccination or negative PCR test results.

The NY Governor Andrew Cuomo announced its launch on March 26, and the app is now officially available for Android and iOS.

Blockchain-based COVID-19 passports

Although the passport is voluntary and helps to verify health credential, it will not keep records of users data. All the information is stored on the blockchain, and only users can access their personal information.

“Secure technologies, like blockchain and encryption, are woven throughout Excelsior Pass to help protect the data, making it verifiable and trusted. No private health data is stored or tracked within the apps.”

Statement from the official announcement

The Excelsior Pass was first announced on March 4 as a pilot program that could help re-open travelling and commerce all over the United States. If the passport turns out successful, other countries considering issuing COVID-19 passports could follow suit by implementing Blockchain technology.

Excelsior Pass is another tool in our new toolbox to fight the virus while allowing more sectors of the economy to reopen safely and keeping personal information secure.”

Andrew Cuomo, Governor of NY
Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News Institutions

Bitcoin to Hit $400K, Says Bloomberg Analyst

Bitcoin could become a global digital reserve asset, according to Mike McGlone, Senior Commodity Strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence.

McGlone recently shared on his Twitter account a graph of the Bitcoin annual average price and the bitcoin Liquid Index. As shown below, BTC could reach a potential price of over $400,000 by 2021, considering its price behaviour in the past.

Source: Bloomberg Intelligence.

The Maturation Leap for Bitcoin

McGlone considers Bitcoin’s current bull run a “maturation leap”, which could lead the cryptocurrency to become a risk-off global reserve asset, as more institutional investors are seeking BTC exposure through investment firms.

Well on its way to becoming a global digital reserve asset, a maturation leap in 2021 may be transitioning Bitcoin toward a risk-off asset, in our view.

Mike McGlone

This view is reinforced by a broader institutional interest and adoption. Investment firms, asset managers, and other financial institutions have filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch a Bitcoin Exchanged-traded Fund.

An ETF Could Catapult Bitcoin

Analyst Lark Davis believes an ETF could give Bitcoin a boost the same way it did with the first gold ETF in 2003.

Since Bitcoin first appeared 13 years ago, its market cap went from zero to over $1 trillion. If a BTC ETF is approved, the crypto market could experience an even greater boost thanks to accredited investors and institutional capital could flock to the ETF.

Categories
Cardano NFTs

Cardano Could Support NFTs Marketplaces Soon

As the popularity of NFTs (Non-Fungible Token) grows, Cardano’s co-founder Charles Hoskinson is planning to integrate NFT marketplaces into the protocol, adding that negotiations are already being made with top marketplaces.

Currently, the project is working on Alonzo, its next fork, and Hoskinson has been exploring the NFT movement in the meantime. In a podcast, he said that Cardano has the capacity to develop an ecosystem for these marketplaces to operate seamlessly next to decentralised exchanges.

With NFTs we’ve already approached several of the top-10 marketplaces and begun discussions porting them over to Cardano. It’s an easy conversation, and it’s just engineering resources.

NFTs Being Sold for Millions

Hoskinson spoke about NFTs in a previous podcast, stating that current DAapps only work for speculation, like NFT items being sold for millions of dollars and not addressing the real issues of the DeFi community:

“Most DApps are currently centralised by a small group of actors who control the changes in the protocols, we have to actually listen to what people are saying”

While Cardano is currently in the middle stage of its upgrade, working on the programmability at the base layer, the protocol is “overwhelming subscribed” from companies interested in its network.

We’re overwhelmingly subscribed. At the moment, our company has no more capacity to service the deal flow that comes in for Cardano. People come to me, unless it’s a super high-value deal, and some have, we jump them up the queue, we say ‘No’ and turn them down.

Hoskinson previously said that over 100 companies could migrate to Cardano once the Goguen upgrade is finished. Despite not having smart contracts yet, the protocol will not host Ethereum-based smart contracts, which would “lead the company to the same issues such as scalability and high gas fees.”

Categories
Bitcoin Scams

Instagram Influencer Scams Followers out of 2.5 Million in Bitcoin Scheme

There crypto-scam occurred this month, but this time it did not involve a shady project that ran away with investors’ funds, rather an Instagram influencer who scammed his followers out of $ 2.5 million through a Bitcoin scheme.

Jebara Igbara went by the name of Jay Mazini on its Instagram, known for buying Bitcoin using his account. Igbara used his 1 million followers to make a profit of 2.5 million through a Bitcoin scheme, by tricking followers to send him Bitcoin to his wallet in exchange for fiat, but never paid.

Igbara Could Face More Than 20 Years in Jail

His followers filed a complaint to the Brooklyn Federal Court. One user sent Igbara over 5000 BTC on January 7, which is now worth over AU$ 340 million, never paying back. The U.S. Department of Justice is now charging Igbara with wire fraud, which could give him a sentence of up to 20 years in jail.

“As we allege, Igbara’s social media persona served as a backdrop for enticing victims to sell him their Bitcoin at attractive, but inflated, values. A behind-the-scenes look, however, revealed things aren’t always as they seem. There was nothing philanthropic about the Bitcoin transactions Igbara engaged in with his victims.”

—stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney [on the court document]. 

Igbara is now detained in New York, waiting for his trial. His Instagram account was deleted on Thursday.

Another scam worth noting is TurtleDex, a so-called “DeFi storage protocol” that performed an exit scam on its users, scamming its investors out of the same amount as Igbara. $2.5 million were drained out liquidity pools, and communications channels, including TurtleDex’ official website were deleted afterwards.

Categories
Bitcoin Institutions

Investment Giant Goldman Sachs Files for a Bitcoin ETF

Goldman Sachs has officially filed for a Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) on Wednesday 24, following high demand from clients.

As previously reported by Crypto News Australia, the investment bank was under some heavy pressure from its clients seeking exposure to Bitcoin, as the currency reached new all-time highs, trading at levels of USD $58,700 on March 12.

The filing came a few days after the Chief Operating Officer at Goldman Sachs said the firm was trying to satisfy demand while staying on the regulatory side of U.S. laws. While the document does not state that Bitcoin will be the first crypto, it will allow exposure to cryptocurrencies, and of course, that includes BTC:

The ETF may have exposure to cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin, indirectly through an investment in a grantor trust. The ETF’s exposure to cryptocurrency may change over time and, accordingly, such exposure may not always be represented in the ETF’s portfolio.

Goldman Sachs EFT document

Bitcoin Could Skyrocket if Goldman Sachs’s ETF is approved

The crypto community has been paying attention to the possibility of a Bitcoin ETF since the first filings were submitted in 2018. Now the community is eager to know if the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) will finally approve it. 

If approved, the crypto market could see a boost in price as Goldman Sachs’s accredited investors, speed traders, and institutional capital will flock to the ETF.

This could drive Bitcoin’s price to astronomical levels, as a BTC ETF would require Goldman Sachs to back BTC in vaults, so they would have to make massive purchases.

Bitcoin ETFs Seeing Large Inflows of Capital

Throughout time many investment firms and companies have filed for a Bitcoin ETF, but the SEC has rejected all submissions.

Canada is the first country that approved a Bitcoin ETF. As soon as it was launched, the fund saw large inflows of cash, $470 million in just a few weeks.

VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF was the first proposal acknowledged by the SEC and published on its official website on March 18. The SEC has 45 days (39 days left) to approve or deny the proposal.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is also analysing the possibility for a Bitcoin ETF, which would be regulated under the Australian Securities Exchange’s AQUA Rules, according to ASIC commissioner Cathie Armour.

Another investment giant could enter the crypto space with a massive investment. Morgan Stanley is considering investing $254 to $441 million to acquire 10.6% of shares from the Korean crypto exchange Bithumb. Rumours are circulating that the investment bank could acquire the company for $2 billion.