Category: Bitcoin

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Goldman Sachs Launches Cryptocurrency Trading Team

Goldman’s cryptocurrency trading desk has been buying and selling Bitcoin (BTC) futures. The team has successfully traded two kinds of Bitcoin-linked derivatives.

According to the memo obtained by CNBC, it serves as the first acknowledgement the New-York based company has given that it is trading in crypto. As part of their initial launch, they successfully executed Bitcoin Non-Deliverable Forward (NDFs) and CME BTC future trades “on a principal basis, all cash settling.”

Earlier in March this year Morgan Stanley became the first big U.S. bank to offer its wealth management clients access to Bitcoin funds. Additionally, Citi also plans to launch crypto trading services after seeing surging interest from clients.

Goldman Sachs might have started crypto trading due to mainstream adoption and to probe the crypto economy should it hold promise for financial institutions. Also, considering the attention other institutions have given Bitcoin, they would have risked being left behind.

However, the firm clearly stated that they are not in a position to trade Bitcoin, or any cryptocurrency (including Ethereum) on a physical basis. Which is why they are traded through CME features.

Looking ahead, as we continue to broaden our market presence, albeit in a measured way, we are selectively onboarding new liquidity providers to help us in expanding our offering.

Goldman Sachs Memo

Goldman Sachs Active In The Crypto-Sphere

Goldman has been one of the very active traditional financial institutions in the crypto space recently.

In addition to the crypto desk, yesterday Goldman launched their Digital Assets dashboard which provides daily and intraday cryptocurrency market data and news to their clients. They’ve also made Bitcoin more accessible to Wall Street with the release of their derivatives.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Institutions

Citibank To Consider Crypto Services After Surge in Client Demand

Citibank, the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States, is exploring the possibility of launching cryptocurrency services after experiencing massive client demand.

Itay Tuchman, Citibank’s global head of foreign exchange, told the Financial Times that the bank has not yet decided if it will offer crypto-related services like custody and trading. However, he said his company is not in a rush, as Tuchman believes crypto is “here to stay.”

I don’t have any FOMO [fear of missing out] because I believe that crypto is here to stay and that we are just at the very beginning of the market. This isn’t a space race. There is room for more than just one flag.”

Crypto Demand Surges in Citibank

Citibank has reportedly seen a “very rapid” surge in interest for cryptocurrencies from several clients, including major asset managers, according to Tuchman.

Back in March, Citibank researchers published a report outlining how Bitcoin could become an “international trade currency” as the market evolves.

“A focus on global reach and neutrality could see bitcoin become an international trade currency. This would take advantage of bitcoin’s decentralized and borderless design, its lack of foreign exchange exposure, its speed and cost advantage in moving money, the security of its payments, and its traceability.”

Reads the report.

Citibank is the latest financial institution to consider joining the crypto train. The news came shortly after Goldman Sachs announced offering BTC derivatives trading as institutional demand continues to grow.

Banks Coming to BTC

2021 has marked a shift in tone from most financial corporations, who at first dismissed cryptocurrencies. However, as the market keeps growing, it seems inevitable that most institutions will embrace cryptocurrencies. And this news follows a story Crypto News recently reported on that Bitcoin is Set To Be Supported By Hundreds of USA Banks This Year.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

Square’s Cash App Recorded $3.5 Billion Bitcoin Revenue in Q1

Square's Cash App Recorded $3.5 Billion Bitcoin Revenue in Q1

Cash App, the crypto-friendly mobile payment application owned by Square Inc., generated $3.51 billion USD in Bitcoin revenue within the first quarter of the year.

Cash App Bitcoin Revenue Soared 11x

The peer-to-peer payment platform had a stellar record in Q1 of this year. Its Bitcoin revenue soared to about $3.51 billion USD and gross profit of $75 million USD from Bitcoin, according to the “Shareholder Letter” published by the parent company. The Bitcoin revenue and gross profit each represent about 11x increase from the previous record in Q1 last year.

In total, Square generated  net revenue of $5.06 billion USD in Q1 – about 266 percent increase year over year. This means that its Bitcoin revenue from Cash App made up about 70 percent of the entire Q1 revenue.

Bitcoin Boosted Square’s Revenue in Q1

The Bitcoin revenue is the total sale amount of Bitcoin to customers. The 11x increase indicates that Cash App saw significant growth in the number of crypto transactions and customers. Unarguably, there has been an increase in demand for Bitcoin since the beginning of the year, following the massive increase in the value of the coin.  

Bitcoin revenue and gross profit benefited from a year-over-year increase in the price of bitcoin, bitcoin activities, and growth in customer demand.

the letter reads.

Bitcoin reached a record high of $64,863 USD last month. At the time of writing, however, the largest cryptocurrency was trading at $58,253 USD on Coinmarketcap. This price places BTC at over 100 percent increase on a year to date (YTD).

This news also follows MicroStrategy is HODLing 91,579 BTC Announcing 10% Revenue Growth for 2021.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

CFO of World’s Largest Hedge Fund, John Dalby, Joins Bitcoin Company NYDIG

CFO of World's Largest Hedge Fund, John Dalby, Joins Bitcoin Company NYDIG

John Dalby, the Chief Financial Officer of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, is joining a Bitcoin company, New York Digital Investment Group or NYDIG.

Bridgewater CFO Joins The Crypto Space

According to the announcement of Friday, Dalby has been appointed to serve as the new Chief Financial Officer at NYDIG. The company considers Dalby as valuable personnel, whose rich experience in the financial services industry will help to accelerate the growth of its institutional Bitcoin solutions.

Personally, I share NYDIG’s vision for Bitcoin’s ability to propel economic empowerment for all. I eagerly look forward to doing my part to help NYDIG deliver innovative Bitcoin solutions to institutions and individuals.

Dalby commented.

Fintech Execs Are Becoming Interested in Bitcoin

NYDIG specializes in Bitcoin investment and technology solutions for financial institutions like insurers, banks, and HNW individuals. Some people, including the co-founder and CEO of NYDIG, Robert Gutmann, see Dalby’s appointment as a sign that financial executives are becoming convinced of Bitcoin (BTC).

Working on Bitcoin is increasingly what many of the best and brightest employees seek – including industry leaders like John – and NYDIG is uniquely positioned to offer them the platform, resources, and culture to shine, in pursuit of our collective mission to bring Bitcoin safely to everyone.

Gutmann said.

Dalby’s appointment comes at a time where NYDIG sees massive growth in its operations and services. Recently, the company announced a global Insurance Solutions aimed at developing bitcoin-powered products and services for the insurance industry. Also, NYDIG recently raised over $300 million USD from major financial companies, including MassMutual, Morgan Stanley, Stone Ridge Holdings Group, and many others.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Ethereum Gold

Bitcoin is a Store of Value, Ethereum is Powering the Crypto Economy

Bitcoin and Ethereum: The World’s Largest Cryptos

They are the King and Queen of the crypto market and for very good reasons, and can’t really be compared directly because they have very different uses cases – as explained below.

  • Bitcoin is a store of value asset
  • Ethereum is a framework powering crypto projects

Both BTC and ETH adoption is now going mainstream and it’s important that we understand the purpose of them so we don’t compare apples with oranges when deciding between them.

Bitcoin is a store of value asset

Bitcoin was originally designed to be a transactional peer-to-peer cash system as per Satoshi’s Bitcoin whitepaper. However, it has since been altered into a store of value as it cannot cope with the scaling of transactions as transaction fees soar.

Having a limited supply of 21 million Bitcoin on the BTC blockchain, and a decreasing supply – this makes it a scarce asset, and therefore, valuable to investors. Learn more about Bitcoin.

Investors worldwide have realised alternative Bitcoins store of value and been adding BTC to their personal portfolios, while institutions have been adding it to their balance sheets.

Ethereum is powering the crypto economy

Ethereum on the other hand, was developed to address the “flaws” of Bitcoin and has evolved dramatically over the past few years into “programmable money”, as per the Ethereum whitepaper.

Ethereum powers crypto projects and ecosystems:

Ethereum also is set to become a deflationary asset as it upgrades to Ethereum 2.0 hardfork in July 2021. This will see some Ether “burned” on every transaction, decreasing it’s supply.

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Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Investing Payments

Bitcoin Price Surging In Argentina As Inflation Reaches 42.6 Percent

Bitcoin prices are surging in Argentina and latin-america, as inflation continues to rise in Agentina since 2014.

The Argentine Peso hasn’t been doing well as the currency has been going through inflationary spikes with brief returns back and forth for years. Now the latin-amricans are turning to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to combat the loss of purchasing power.

Argentina Government Laws Limiting Savings In USD

It’s common practice in Argentina to keep savings in USD – but the government limits purchases of USD to $200 a month, which is sending many looking for alternative ways of storing value – and for many in South America, the answer is crypto.

According to Marcos Zocaro – an Argentinian expert in digital assets said that “older clients who used to be afraid of making a fixed deposit with a bank but are buying cryptocurrency without fear of risk”.

And according to Maximiliano Hinz – the director of Binance South America “The number of user accounts for investing in ‘cryptos’ has multiplied by ten in Argentina since 2020”.

The cryptocurrencies of choice are not limited to BTC and ETH either – many Argentines are also buying up stablecoins such as USDT and DAI.

Latin American Companies Buying Bitcoin

We have also recently seen the Biggest Latin American E-commerce Firm MercadoLibre Bought $7.8 Million Bitcoin in Q1 as more companies add Bitcoin to thier balance sheets.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

Biggest Latin American E-commerce Firm MercadoLibre Bought $7.8 Million Bitcoin in Q1

Biggest Latin American E-commerce Giant MercadoLibre Bought $7.8 Million Bitcoin, according to their Q1 financial statement published earlier this week.

The largest e-commerce company in Latin America, MercadoLibre, has revealed that it is holding some Bitcoin (BTC) as part of its treasury reserve. The company made this known as the largest online commerce and payments ecosystem in Latin America.

MercadoLibre Added Bitcoin to its Reserve in Q1

The company purchased $7.8 million worth of Bitcoin as part of its treasury reserve in the first quarter of 2021, although the exact date of the purchase wasn’t disclosed.

As part of our treasury strategy this quarter we purchased $7.8 million in bitcoin, a digital asset that we are disclosing within our indefinite-lived intangible assets.

MercadoLibre precisely noted.

MercadoLibre is considered the Alibaba of Latin America. The Argentina-based e-commerce giant sees nearly 70 million users and a market capitalization of over $73 million. Owing to its popularity, we can expect more companies in Latin America to follow suit by adding Bitcoin to their balance sheet.

Many companies, including Tesla, added Bitcoin to their treasury reserve this year, as a better store of value. Some bought Bitcoin to hedge against inflation.

Interest in Bitcoin Soars in Argentina

It even makes sense that MercadoLibre bought Bitcoin in the first quarter of the year, just when the rate of inflation increased in Argentina. The national currency has been deflating in value as the inflation rate in Argentina soars to over 40 percent.

Interestingly, the concern for the declining value of the currency has sparked a high level of interest in Bitcoin amongst Argentines, as they seek a viable alternative to hedge against inflation. This is evident as crypto exchanges are seeing an increase in user accounts from Argentines who are investing in cryptocurrencies.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Digital Asset Mining Ethereum Institutions Investing

New Chinese Investment Fund Launches To Entice Asian Institutions Into Crypto

Huobi Asset Management Launches one of Asia’s Largest Virtual Asset Funds as announced on South China Morning Post.

Huobi (Hong Kong) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Huobi Technology Holdings Limited and is one of the largest virtual asset funds in Asia, looking to meet the growing demand for cypto based investments. Huobi leads the way in the movement of intitutional adoption into cryptocurrency for the Asian market.

Following Grayscale (US), Huobi Asset Management is aimed at professional investors, offering them a virtual assets portfolio. Huobi Asset Management’s new crypto-based funds include a BTC tracker fund, ETH tracker fund, and a multi-strategy virtual asset fund.

Huobi is the second fund manager to receive approval from the Securities and Futures Commission to issue 100% virtual asset funds. Head of Huobi Asset Management, Gillian Wu, explains how the fund could be ideal for the new type of investor, looking to enter the cryptocurrency market.

“According to the professional investors’ knowledge level and risk appetite of virtual assets, we will advise our clients to choose the fund products that best suit their needs. For institutional, especially corporate clients, they want to allocate to virtual assets through a convenient and compliant channel to achieve diversification needs. 

Our Bitcoin and Ethereum tracker fund, in the way of traditional financial products, solves the worries of clients who have to research on their own how to custody, how to account, how to audit this novel asset class and whether there are tax uncertainties, etc. At the same time, some ultra-high net worth individual clients, as well as some large virtual asset miners, who have previously been passively holding their virtual assets, started to look for options to achieve better returns through different market cycles compared to simple passive allocation, thus our active multi-strategy virtual asset fund is born.” 

Gillian Wu

The first pioneers to shine a light on investing in cryptocurrencies were individual retailers. As Bitcoin and Ethereum become more well known and widely adopted, it is only natural that major institutions turn their attention to the crypto space and adapt to follow the trend.

Huobi will offer piece of mind to serious investors, as demand grows for those looking to invest millions. Huobi’s new fund will likely enjoy the success of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust, which has been very well received.

Institutions Going Pro Crypto?

Below is a table of the recent cryptocurrency purchases by Institutions.

DateInvestorAmount
28 AprilNexon$100 Million
8 Apr 2021*Meitu$100 Million*
5 Apr 2021MicroStrategy$15 Million
18 Mar 2021Meitu$49 Million
12 Mar 2021*Purpose Bitcoin ETF AUM$900 Million*
12 Mar 2021MicroStrategy$15 Million
8 Mar 2021*Aker ASA$58 Million*
7 Mar 2021Meitu$40 Million
5 Mar 2021MicroStrategy$10 Million
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Banking Bitcoin Crypto News Investing

Bitcoin Set To Be Supported By Hundreds of USA Banks This Year

NYDIG is an American based intitutional financial services company planning to bring crypto services to hundreds of American banks by the end of 2021.

Banks are asking for bitcoin because they can see their customers sending dollars to Coinbase and other crypto exchanges.

Yan Zhao, president of NYDIG

The annoucement on 5th May, details a partnership with technology company Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) to bring Bitcoin custody and trading services to banks via the FIS Digital One Mobile user-friendly interface.

Founded in 2017, the company is a subsidiary of asset management firm Stone Ridge (currently valued at $10 billion). NYDIG has declared that the demand for crypto in bank accounts is growing – and that they’re prepared to answer it.

“As demand for bitcoin as a store of value continues to grow, FIS is focused on enabling our core banking clients to respond to growing market demand and better serve their customers,” said Rob Lee, head of Global Core Banking and Channels, FIS. “Unlocking these capabilities for financial institutions of all sizes levels the playing field for banking with bitcoin and can drive further innovation.”

Rob Lee, head of Global Core Banking and Channels

The Road Ahead for USA Crypto Banking

Smaller banks, such as California-based community bank Suncrest, have already agreed to try out the NYDIG platform.

According to Patrick Sells – the head of banking solutions at NYDIG – the service would help cut down on the number of apps and accounts needed to purchase crypto.

What we’re doing is making it simple for everyday Americans and corporations to be able to buy bitcoin through their existing bank relationships. If I’m using my mobile application to do all of my banking, now I have the ability to buy, sell and hold bitcoin.

Patrick Sells, head of banking solutions at NYDIG

Yan Zhao – the president of NYDIG – also added that although banks seeing their customers’ accounts emptied in favour of crypto exchanges may have been the catalyst behind the rising demand for crypto banking services, NYDIG also sees this as a way to help any interested parties invest in Bitcoin, no matter how low the sum.

Most people can’t invest in things that institutional investors get to invest in. With bitcoin available through your bank to be purchased with as little as $1, now you have an attractive asset that’s available to be owned by anyone in any amount. We think that’s huge for economic empowerment.

Yan Zhao, the president of NYDIG

In practice, it looks like the banks involved in the project won’t handle the cryptocurrency themselves, just adding the option to their bundle of available services. Instead, FIS will use its vendor services to handle the link to lenders, with NYDIG managing the crypto side of things (custody and trade execution).

Banking Going Pro Crypto?

It seems not long ago Banks like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan were dismissing crypto, even calling it a fraud – and now they have both recently started taking blockchain and crypto more seriously.

Below is a table of the recent cryptocurrency purchases by Institutions.

DateInvestorAmount
28 AprilNexon$100 Million
8 Apr 2021*Meitu$100 Million*
5 Apr 2021MicroStrategy$15 Million
18 Mar 2021Meitu$49 Million
12 Mar 2021*Purpose Bitcoin ETF AUM$900 Million*
12 Mar 2021MicroStrategy$15 Million
8 Mar 2021*Aker ASA$58 Million*
7 Mar 2021Meitu$40 Million
5 Mar 2021MicroStrategy$10 Million
Recent Institution Crypto Purchases List
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Bitcoin Crypto News Ethereum

Ethereum Outperformed Bitcoin by 50% in April 2021

Ethereum Flips Bitcoin With Over $20 Billion USD in Trading Volume

Ethereum (ETH) has seen more growth in market value than Bitcoin (BTC) over the past month.

Recent market data confirmed that Ether’s monthly return for April surpassed that of Bitcoin by almost 50 percent. On a year-to-date (YTD) chart, Ethereum has gained over 350 percent in market value. Below we take a look at the reasons why ETH has performed so well in the past month or so.

This might not be a surprise following the increasing demand for ETH, which pushed the coin to a new all-time high above $3,000 USD.

Ethereum price chart. Source: Coingecko

Although some cryptocurrencies including Ethereum soared in April, the past month was obviously not that favourable for Bitcoin (BTC). For the first time since 2021, Bitcoin posted a negative return of -2.7 percent. BTC declined from $58,889 USD on April 1 to $57,261 on May 1.

Bitcoin price chart. Source: Coingecko

Notably, the price suddenly dropped to about $55,000 USD on April 18, and even further to $49,754 USD on April 23rd, as per data from Coingecko. Since the drop, BTC has struggled to return back to $60,000 USD level.

What’s Behind ETH’s Rise?

One possible reason for the growing price of Ethereum is the fact that the cryptocurrency is becoming more scarce. More ETH are being staked on the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract than mined.

Currently, over 4.14 million ETH has been staked, according to the network explorer beaconcha.in. This represents more than 3.5 percent of the current circulating supply of ETH.

CryptoQuant, a crypto on-chain analytics platform, also confirms the scarcity of ETH. At the moment, there is less than 20 million ETH available on all crypto exchanges. ETH exchange reserve has been declining since Q3 2020, as the price of the coin began increasing.

ETH exchange reserve. Source: CryptoQuant