Author: José Oramas

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

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Australia Bitcoin Institutions

As Morgan Stanley Bets $150B in Bitcoin, Craig Wright Now Calls BTC a “Ponzi Scheme”

As Bitcoin is taking the media by storm with increasing integration to institutions and technology corporations, Craig Wright —the self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto— now calls BTC a “Ponzi Scheme” where everyone will soon “jump in”.

In an interesting turn of events, the Australian man who proclaims himself the creator of Bitcoin is now —ironically— trashing his own “creation” and states that he got “insanely rich” ever since.

A $150 Billion bet on Bitcoin

Wright’s comments came shortly after JP Morgan, one of the largest investment banks in America is currently exploring investing $150 billion in Bitcoin with Counterpoint Global —one of the several Active Equity Teams from Morgan Stanley.

Bitcoin nearly reached the $50,000 price level following Morgan Stanley’s announcement, reaching a maximum trading level of $49,669.

BTC/USD Chart. A new All-Time High for Bitcoin.

But as Bitcoin takes the spotlight, Wright compares Bitcoin to a controversial $65M Ponzi scheme in the U.S., elaborated by the market maker and financial advisor Bernie Madoff in 2009.

The price goes up because people are paying and the price goes up. But that doesn’t ever last forever. Old Charles Ponzi did that one too. And Mr. Madoff … Eventually, people go. Digital gold is boring. The [paper’s] first section talks about micropayments, which were the holy grail.

Stated Wright

Likewise, this January, Wright went all out with his lawyers against several sites that posted Bitcoin’s Whitepaper, specifically, Bitcoin.org. and Bitcoincore.org. But his claims were dismissed, and several governments including Colombia and Estonia —even the City Mayor of Miami— incorporated the document on their servers.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies DeFi Institutions

DATA Token Soars 115% as the EU Uses a DeFi Network to Bring New Financial Technologies

The DATA token —the native-currency of Streamr— soared over 100% in value, as the Ethereum-based DeFi protocol is joining a European Union program called ATARCA, in a new project that seeks to implement new financial technologies for data and market research.

The European Consortium granted $2.5M to this research program, a fusion between Streamr and ATARCA —Accounting Technologies for Anti-Rival Coordination and Allocation— to develop an open-source project and bring in a new token called the “anti-rival” token, which will work with the Ethereum ecosystem.

The project proposes a new market category —accordingly, both companies are creating an exchange platform where the value of goods relies not on supply and demand, but on abundance. This means that the more the goods are share, the more valuable they are.

A New Kind of Money

These”anti-rival” tokens are DLT-based —distributed ledger technology — and according to ATARCA, they will set a new category for financial technologies by helping markets globally to organize data and digital goods through community-driven currencies.

The new token will be tested in Barcelona using the REC —Real Economy Currency— a local currency in Spain backed by NOVACT, —Institute for Nonviolent Action—.

The interesting feature of these tokens is that they work as stores of value, collectibles, and a unit of account. But the value relies on sharing, instead of exchanging.

These distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based tokens are used to instantiate a new ‘substance’ of quantified anti-rival value, a medium of sharing. The smart tokens will enable efficient, decentralized, market-style trading and ecosystems for anti-rival goods.

Pekka Nikander, Professor of Aalto University in Finland, will lead ATARCA. According to the professor, the 21st century needs a new economic system that can solve the old problems that the current one still struggles with:

In ATARCA, we create cryptographically protected anti-rival tokens and test their applicability to governing industrial data markets and fostering cooperation in community-driven currencies. If successful, this technology will not only help to properly organize the markets for data and other digital goods but provide the structural fundamentals of a new type of economic growth. This will allow the societies at large to more widely explore structurally new incentives for systemic sustainability and scalable systemic intelligence. 

Recently, we have also seen other bullish news for DeFi such as Federal Reserve Bank Researcher Suggests DeFi May Lead To A More Robust and Transparent Financial Infrastructure. As this DeFi market continues to grow it will become harder to ignore as it attempts to reshuffle global economics as we know it today.

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Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Institutions

“Digital Assets are the Future”: BTC Hits A$62,346 as an American Bank Is Set to Support Crypto in 2021

America’s oldest custodian bank, Bank of New York Mellon Corp —BNY Mellon— will soon provide crypto support for asset-management clients.

The bank will support not only Bitcoin but several cryptocurrencies as well. The move comes amid after large American corporations like Mastercard and Tesla have adopted cryptocurrencies as payment methods.

Only a matter of time until banks worldwide begin to support cryptocurrency transactions —as crypto-assets, inevitably, are starting to take a broader space in the media.

“Digital Assets are the Future”

BNY Mellon executive, Mike Demissie stated that “Digital assets are the future”, adding that a large inflow of investors and institutional clients are seeking digital assets exposure through the bank.

We’re experiencing heightened interest from current clients who are seeking exposure to digital assets. We are also seeing new demand from prospective clients, particularly digital-native companies in the digital asset space, who are looking for BNY Mellon’s core investment services.

Stated Mike Demissie for Forbes

However, as many in the crypto-community see these events as a historical moment for crypto-assets, there are several users that believe this contradicts the original concept of decentralized finance.

Lots of people jumped into crypto because they wanted to escape from “custodians”. I don’t want someone who can suddenly freeze my money. Redundant service. Banks are wasting electricity

Stated a crypto-user on Twitter

BTC Hits New All-Time High

According to charts from TradingView, Bitcoin has reached another price record of $48.316.82 —A$62,346— following the bank’s announcement. An increase of 5.30% in 24 hours.

BTC/USD Chart

Institutional adoption has become a key element for BTC’s bull run, and it could be only a matter of time until crypto-assets are embraced worldwide. Although, some users in the crypto-market will see this multiform, some arguing that banks will need to adjust to cryptocurrencies, and others stating that traditional institutions will try to tax and freeze their coins.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies

45% of Australians Invest In Crypto “Because it’s going up in value”

Nearly 50% of Australians are investing in crypto-assets because “it’s going up in value”. Moreover, 19% of Aussies are investing in cryptos for “portfolio diversification”, followed by a 13% that consider digital assets as a hedge against inflation.

Reasons why Aussies are investing in crypto. Source: Finder

Likewise, Ethereum has replaced Ripple as the second most-preferred digital asset for Aussies, with 6% of them owning and trading ETH.

Crypto-preference by Australians.

Bitcoin as a Store Of Value For Aussies

There could be a biased background if Australians are only investing in cryptocurrencies in a rushed manner just because large corporations are accumulating and pumping BTC’s price —there is at least 30% of BTC supply own by tech and investment trusts—. The major differences for this bull compared to 2017 can be outlined in the following:

  • The COVID-19 pandemic not only crashed the Stock Market and contracted global economies— the U.S. Federal Reserve started to print more money as thousands of Americans were losing their jobs every day due to lockdowns.
  • Hence, the more money is printed, inflation increases. The Dollar is considered the world’s reserve asset and, naturally, people will seek better stores of values and any asset that works as a hedge fund against that inflation, such as precious metals; digital assets, and other commodities.

Bitcoin’s evolution has surpassed the first stages of hypeness that was driven by retail traders, trading and exchanging outstanding amounts of BTC. According to Forbes, transactions by November 2017 surpassed more than $2B worth of Bitcoin. Now the stage for BTC has surpassed that collectible level, entering the store of value scenario.

What Aussies Should Consider Before Investing in Crypto

Reviewing the charts, a $38-40k price could become an essential support level for Bitcoin. In mid-January, the price dipped more than -10%, entering a strong consolidation zone that swung the price between $30-34k levels before Tesla’s announcement.

The more vertical the price direction is, the more speed the price has in it. This is what is called time-based pricing. The arrival of institutions has skyrocketed the price of Bitcoin, turning the price direction more vertical — which means a higher price velocity.

The price drop at the end of January could be considered the first correction since the bull run started in mid-2020. Likewise, if other institutions follow Tesla’s path, Bitcoin could go as high as 100,000 by the end of 2021 before going through two more correction zones.

BTC/USD chart.

Reviewing the charts, there could be another correction zone with price swings between 40 to $45k, before taking off to +50K. This could mark an opportunity, considering several Aussies bought the dip when BTC fell to 28K.

CNBC crypto-trader and analyst Ched pointed out the price could reach even higher levels, up to US$70,000 in a month. The probability relies on the outstanding shift in price speed and trading volume reviewing the charts.

Australians who are new to cryptocurrencies looking to invest in them can also review Cryptonews Australia’s Bitcoin Guides to know the essentials before investing in these assets.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Institutions

Nearly 5 Million Of Australians Will Own Crypto in 2021

Elon Musk became Bitcoin’s holy savior for the bulls since his company, Tesla, announced investing $ 1.5B —roughly AU$ 2B— in BTC this month, driving the price to a new All-Time High over $46K.

The announcement generated another wave of FOMO —Fear Of Missing Out— and a sheen interest not only among Australians but in the mainstream as well.

Bitcoin’s Arrival to the Corporate World

Scott Phillips, from The Motley Fools Australia, shared his thoughts about the entrance of Bitcoin to corporations in America.

While countries like Nigeria and India are trying to curtail —or even ban— cryptocurrencies, the more that Bitcoin enters American corporations, the farther they will expand globally.

In Australia, there are more financial institutions adopting cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Recently, several major banks have joined to create the first-ever digital bank guarantees incorporating blockchain technology. 

This bank is a joint venture between Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corp, Australia and New Zealand Banking GrpLtd, Westfield owner Scentre Group, and IBM.

Elon, a Savior For Hodlers

Phillips added that Elon Musk knew Tesla’s investment would become “a sign” for Bitcoin Bulls. The more that financial institutions and big tech companies embrace crypto-assets, the more people —unaware— would want to join in due to FOMO. Collaterally, this would spike the price even further.

The true believers are already there. The latecomers, those influenced by Musk and his social media antics, certainly will also jump on that train. Whether or not Tesla makes a profit or loss on that $2 billion investment, that remains to be seen.

Stated Phillips for Sky News Australia

Nearly 5 Million Of Australians Will Own Crypto in 2021

As reported by Cryptonews Australia, Aussies will be more likely to invest in cryptocurrencies this year.

Now, an updated report from Finder shows another 5 million more Australians are ready to invest in cryptocurrencies this year.

While millennials are generally more aware of digital assets, other demographic sections like Baby Boomers are the most-inclined to invest in crypto-assets to diversify their portfolio.

Investment demographics. Source: Finders

Likewise, nearly 50% of Aussie investors pointed out the only reason they invested in cryptocurrencies is increasing value — while others consider cryptos as future hedge funds against fiat inflation.

Statistic regarding cryptocurrency interest. Source: Finders

As stated by Scott Phillips, “Bitcoin is well and truly” in the mainstream. Andrew Munro shared similar thoughts by stating that crypto-assets will become more accessible for Australians — and the general population, despite the effort from governments to regulate and control cryptocurrencies.

Five years ago, names like Dogecoin and Ethereum would have held little meaning for those outside the crypto community. Now we are seeing these names all over mainstream media which is likely to make cryptocurrency feel like a more accessible option for budding investors.

Stated Andrew Munro, crypto-editor from Finders
Categories
Australia Bitcoin Crypto News

Bitcoin Mayhem: Lag, Massive Traffic, and Shutdowns —What Will Exchanges Do When Other Giants Embrace BTC?

It looks like Bitcoin’s new All-Time High has outage several exchanges including Kraken and Binance. For its part, Kraken has suspended sign-ups due to immense demand from traders and massive traffic on its platform.

As stated on the Kraken platform, sign-ups are temporarily suspended, and —not surprisingly— other exchanges are struggling to keep up with massive traffic. The new bull run driven by Tesla’s $1.5B investment has injected Fear Of Missing Out —FOMO— among other traders who are now desperate to jump in on the recent action.

Sign-ups are temporarily disabled due to extremely high demand. Our engineers are still working to resolve the issue and we will share any updates as soon as they become available.

Binance also experienced the setbacks that the new BTC ATH brought, like massive traffic, lag, and auto-scaling.

Bitcoin to the Moon?

Much has been said about the future of Bitcoin and what price can it reach in 2021. January was a month full of extreme volatility, reaching $42K, and then dropping and surging more than 15-20% from both sides every week. But as more institutions jump in, JP Morgan’s prediction of $145K for BTC isn’t that far away.

JP Morgan, a top investment bank in the United States, referred to Bitcoin as the “Digital gold for Millenials” that could reach more than $100,000. But Australian analyst Mark Rodda believes that BTC still has a long road to reach $100K.

More Challenges for Exchanges

It has become usual that exchanges struggle to keep up with the fast and heated pace that comes amid a new bull run on major cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin. But now, Bitcoin could reach higher ATH at the end of this year.

Bill Miller, an American investor and fund manager has taunted the crypto-community with a new filing from the Securities and Exchange Commission —SEC—. Accordingly, the hedge fund manager is seeking indirect exposure through Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust.

BTC/USD chart: Tradingview

The demand for Bitcoin could spike an even greater outrage and Foul Plays calls from the crypto-community if exchanges are not prepared to meet the increasing demand.

Categories
Australia Cardano Cryptocurrencies Ripple

Should Australians Switch to Cardano? ADA Surpasses XRP and other Altcoins in a Frenzy Bullish Run

Cardano —listed ADA— has outranked Ripple’s XRP as the fourth-highest market cap cryptocurrency, with a surge of more than 80% in just seven days. The token could become an attractive opportunity for Aussies looking to replace XRP.

At the time of writing, ADA is currently traded at $0.63, surpassing XRP with a trading volume of $11.913.631.193 and price gains over 17.00% in the last 24 hours.

Top ten cryptos with highest market cap on Coinmarketcap

While most altcoins slightly corrected after Bitcoin hit $41K and dropped -6% below that level, Cardano remained strong among other tokens, and increasing its market cap to over $20 billion.

XRP Still On The Lose

On the contrary, XRP, the second-most preferred digital asset by Australians still struggles to maintain itself on a solid price level.

In the last seven days, the asset fell into a downtrend following a crowd pump by the XRP community supporters and Reddit groups, who tried to break resistance levels but crashed massively just after Redditors from the r/WallStreetBets started buying as well.

The Goguen Mary Testnet Could “Outshine” ETH 2.0

Charles Hoskinson, Co-Founder of Cardano and Ethereum, believes that Cardano’s “Goguen Mary” testnet could outperform ETH 2.0 in the future. The Cardano company was working since February 3 on a “Mary” fork for Cardano, and it was successfully deployed this week.

I think Vitalik’s [approach] is a little bit riskier from an engineering and research viewpoint, which is why it’s been so difficult for them to get ETH 2.0 out.

The new features included the support of “native” custom tokens through direct transactions in the Cardano Blockchain —instead of using Smart Contracts like Ethereum or others. Now the Cardano network has transformed into a multi-asset ledger that could also improve the DeFi ecosystem through custom token support.

Categories
Australia Cryptocurrencies

The Australian Tax Office is set to Target Cryptos For “Money Laundering Schemes” in Australia

During an online conference this week, the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement —known as J5— is shifting its focus on the “illicit” use of cryptocurrencies on crimes such as “money laundering schemes”.

The J5 is a well-known supergroup of international tax institutions from the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, with the Australian Tax Office —ATO—.

This week, the J5 made cryptocurrencies and the fintech space its primary topic. One of the key questions will be how are cryptos and digital assets being used by “criminals” and “tax evaders.”

The IRS Will Send a Secondment to the ATO

Jim Lee, Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation —IRS— chief, announced the U.S.-based federal agency will send next week a senior member from his office to the ATO, as a strategy to target cryptocurrencies, fight “tax criminals” and “money laundering schemes” in Australia.

IRS chief Jim Lee during an online J5 conference this Thursday. Source: Accounting Today

Many people out there feel that just because they’re dealing with cyber in the blockchain crypto area, they’re anonymous. But it’s a mistake to assume cryptocurrencies are untraceable by authorities.

Stated IRS-CI chief Jim Lee during the conference

But, ironically enough, several banks in Australia were recently the main protagonist on money laundering schemes. Two weeks ago, 16 banks —seven of them Australian and the rest Southeast-Asian— were behind major schemes together with South American drug cartels, for laundering more than $500M in international transactions.

The Australian Border Force decided to withhold the names of those banks due to “Security”, and “legal procedures”. At the time of writing, there has not been any more news about the topic.

Simon York, director of U.K.-based HM Revenue and Custom stated that Australia and other countries could expect a greater presence from the ATO, and a deeper study for Cryptocurrencies and their use.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin

Australians That Bought the Dip on BTC Are More Than Happy —Now FOMO is Kicking in Amid Aussies Who Didn’t

Bitcoin has gained strong ground in the $36K area as MicroStrategy bought an additional $10M worth in BTC —and exchanges were receiving an outstanding amount of Tether, approximately, 552 million USDT. Tether is the most common pair in any exchange —BTC/USDT—, and retailers use it to trade the BTC market.

The recent surge had several Australians more than happy, as many Aussies remained positive at first about investing in cryptocurrencies this month, despite the warning from traditional institutions and the uncertainty of the new Biden Administration on digital assets.

But according to research from crypto-writer Andrew Munro, this has sparked the famous FOMO—Fear Of Missing Out amid Aussies.

Aussies Jumping in on BTC as FOMO kicks in

Now that Bitcoin has surged back to trading volumes above $36,000, it has propelled FOMO amid Aussies. Now more Australians are seeking to invest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other altcoins.

Although other cryptos —like Ethereum— have gained a fair amount of independence, even outperforming BTC in the last week.

According to Munro, Aussies are set to invest not only in BTC but in altcoins that showed high-performance in the last weeks, and around 13% of Australians are set to invest in cryptocurrencies in 2021, and more than 6% are holding DeFi-related tokens.

Several years ago, Bitcoin was the only cryptocurrency the average Australian knew about. Now others like Ethereum are gaining popularity thanks to trends like DeFi and the hunt for yield in a low-interest-rate environment.

Stated Andrew Munro for News.com.au

BTC Reaches $37K

Bitcoin experienced extreme volatility this month since it reached its highest record price —$42,000—, swinging from levels as low as $28K, and struggling to reach resistance levels between $32K and $34K. These constant drops wiped out more than $100M trading positions almost instantly.

Likewise, Ethereum reached a new $1600 all-time high, with trading levels up to $1645. The recent surge came following Tether’s CTO statements about 2B Tether will be sent from the Tron Blockchain to Ethereum.

Categories
Crypto News Markets Ripple Trading

XRP Crashes Massively Despite Community Effort to Break Resistance Levels

XRP, Australia’s second favorite digital asset, surged more than 60% in the last few days. The currency even reached trading levels as high as 0.75 on Saturday, although the pump didn’t last long. On Monday 1st, XRP crashed nearly -50% in price.

XRP Supporters and Reddit Joined Forces

In a similar move called Crowd Pump, around 200,000 XRP supporters from Telegram groups and the Reddit forum r/SatoshiStreetBets gathered and placed several buying orders aiming to break resistance levels. The move had outstanding effects as it broke the previous downtrend following the Security and Exchange Commission —SEC—, trading at a maximum of $0.75 before dropping to $0.60.

The drop didn’t stop at 0.60, and recent data from TradingView shows how XRP crashed more than 40% this Monday, just hours before another Reddit group jumped in, the r/WallStreetBets forum, currently hated by hedge funds.

Source: TradingView

There is not an exact reason why the XRP market crash so suddenly, but most XRP users from both Telegram groups and Reddit are blaming downtimes in exchanges and possible interventions since the r/WallStreetBets community came in.

Another reason could be the backlash and the legal woes that Ripple still faces, as the company tries to drag Ethereum in an attempt to call out other high-profile cryptocurrencies.

XRP to Lose $50M in Trading Volume

Likewise, yet another exchange is delisting two Ripple trading pairs: XRP/USD, and XRP/BTC. The latest platform to delist XRP is PrimeXBT, a derivative crypto-exchange. As consequence, Ripple could lose more than $50M in trading volume in the platform.

In a recent announcement, the PrimeXBT stated:

Following significant events surrounding Ripple, as well as delisting of the asset across our multiple liquidity providers, PrimeXBT will remove and cease trading of the following trading pairs on Wednesday, February 10th, 2021 at 15:00 (UTC):