Category: Cryptocurrencies

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Australia Cryptocurrencies DeFi

Australia Needs to Embrace Crypto Says Fund Manager Mark Carnegie

Mark Carnegie, venture capitalist and co-founder of the investment bank M.H. Carnegie & Co. has recently spoken publicly about how important cryptocurrencies could be for Australia. According to Carnegie, traditional Australian funds have “screwed up” and failed to recognise the current situation.

Carnegie admitted that it took a long time for him to fully accept cryptos but now admits that “it took too long, but I now believe that crypto is here to stay”. He says his portfolios “have a giant hole in them because they don’t include Bitcoin and Ethereum”.

Source: mhcarnegie.com

Crypto Might Be The Only Answer For Australia

The national Reserve Bank keeps rates on hold, a move that affected the Australian Stock Exchange negatively. Some analysts even argue that the housing market could be at risk of overheating.

Carnegie argues that while inflation, economic collapse, and possible bubbles like the housing market are a reality that the banks and traditional funds in Australia have failed to recognize. While this happens, Carnegie states that Crypto might be “the only answer” to address these issues, not only in Australia but globally.

Crypto is currently a sideshow for Australia, but as an effective protection from expropriation in many other countries where hyperinflation and economic collapse are potential realities, it might just be the only answer.

Stated Carnegie for Financial Review

DeFi is Coming

Moreover, Carnegie spoke about the current role of Decentralised Finance (DeFi), and what it can bring to the digital economy, and how it can potentially reshape the way people view finance as well.

While DeFi has a number of challenges to take care of, the decentralization and the independence from third parties and bankers are the main attractive feature of DeFi, but the main challenges rely on friction in human relations:

Will the promise of decentralised finance and smart contracts revolutionise transaction friction in human relations? The first place that this question is being answered is in payments and money transfers.

Stated Carnegie for Financial Review

Carnegie mentioned the outstanding growth of fintech and DeFi platforms in Australia, the number of crypto fintech and DeFi platforms have grown at least 16% in January, following the bull run for Bitcoin and DeFi-related tokens.

DeFi Will “Take Off” as Soon as People Use it Like Credit Cards

Not only Mark Carnegie is one of the traditional investors that spoke in favor of the crypto and DeFi space – Mark Cuban recently compared the boom of DeFi to that of the internet in 2000.

According to the magnate, DeFi can address several issues mentioned above, as well as the typical problems related to bankers, transaction speed, and effectiveness.

While it does present several challenges, Cuban believes once people can use DeFi as freely as they use their credit cards it will “take off” massively.

Categories
Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Payments

PayPal Allegedly In Talks Regarding Curv Acquisitions

PayPal’s interest in cryptocurrency may be considered one of the catalysts for the bull run cryptocurrencies have been on for the past few months.

In contrast to other companies that have gotten into cryptocurrencies, PayPal have mostly stayed out of the limelight regarding their moves in the crypto world – an approach quite different to Square’s positive statements regarding crypto as a whole, or Elon Musk taking a marked interest in Shiba Inus and tweeting saucy emojis in response to Peter Schiff’s disparaging comments.

Price Of Acquisition Rumoured To Be In The Hundreds Of Millions

Around 4 months ago, PayPal was rumoured to be in talks with BitGo, looking to buy them out for around $750 million. However, it seems the talks led nowhere – and PayPal appear to have done their shopping elsewhere.

Looking for a company that deals with cryptocurrencies in large quantities, PayPal are now apparently in talks with Curv, according to several unofficial sources.

While Calcalist – an Israeli news outlet – claims the discussed price is in the $200-300 million range, another anonymous source has stated the figure is actually closer to $500 million.

“PayPal is buying Curv for $500 million. From where I’m hearing it, I’m pretty sure it’s true.”

Another source stated that the move is logical, going by PayPal’s previous well-planned acquisitions, such as that of Venmo. However, any good business has a wealth of options – and the move into crypto is just another way of diversifying the companies’ business.

Neither Curv nor PayPal have released any statement regarding the potential business deal.

For the moment, PayPal is still offering purchases of cryptocurrency in the USA – and is planning to do the same in the UK, albeit through the third-party firm Paxos.

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Blockchain Cardano Cryptocurrencies

Cardano Becomes A Multi-Asset Blockchain

Following today’s hard form – codenamed Mary – Cardano will allow other blockchain-based firms to make and run their own tokens on the Cardano blockchain.

Expanding A Booming Cryptocurrency

Cardano (ADA) has enjoyed a spectacular growth in recent weeks – as well as some open endorsements, such as the one by rockstar and investor Gene Simmons, who recently bought $300,000 worth of ADA and motivated his decision as an investment into a “cryptocurrency for everyone”.

“ Why did I buy Cardano (ADA)? Well, for one thing, it’s affordable to almost everyone. It’s pennies compared to my other holdings like Bitcoin, which is over $50,000 a single coin. I believe everyone should be able to afford cryptocurrency. And here is one I believe in.”

Back in 2017, Ethereum sparked the so-called “altcoin revolution” by allowing other companies to mint their own tokens on the Ethereum blockchain – and they have since become and maintained their position as the 2nd largest cryptocurrency.

With a bit of luck, Cardano – a cryptocurrency already favourable to new developments and use cases – will see a similar growth.

The company behind Cardano – named IOHK – have been testing the update for around a month and have reportedly received positive feedback from exchanges and other blockchain-based companies regarding the fork.

“We’ve been testing it for almost a month, and the test looks good, exchanges are happy.”

Charles Hoskinson – the founder of IOHK – presented the hard fork of Cardano as a “historic moment”.

Before founding IOHK and Cardano, Hoskinson was a co-founder of Ethereum and BitShares – and it seems the prior experience has been put to good use, with ADA recently becoming the 3rd largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

Categories
Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Gold

Satoshi’s Twitter May Have Been Found — As Well As A Clue For A Bitcoin Treasure Hunt

A researcher who goes by the name of Varun has published his findings on Substack, in which he claims the Twitter account ‘Goldlover’ (@fafcffacfff) may belong to the creator of Bitcoin himself. 

A Hankering For Gold Both Physical and Digital

According to the research, this Twitter account was at the peak of its activity around the time Bitcoin was released — and ceased nearly all activity at a time that concurs with the moment Satoshi slipped back into total silence, leaving the budding crypto community to its own devices.

Created in May of 2008, the account mentioned gold quite often and sharply criticized the current fiat value system. The account also allegedly mentioned “Bit Gold” several times — a possible reference to a proposal dating back to 2005 made by Nick Szabo, who laid out an idea for a financial system based on cryptography. The mining would, of course, be decentralised. 

In September of 2008, the Twitter account yet again began mentioning “Digital Gold Currency”, in between a great number of eccentric tweets about gold and jewellery. 

Although a great number of people were criticizing the financial system around 2008 for obvious reasons, this criticism coupled with the fact that this account is the only one to mention Bitcoin as far back as 2009 aside from Hal Finney’s account makes it a serious candidate for being Satoshi’s account.

“(These are) all hallmarks of talking points used by Satoshi in his emails and forum posts which are well known, post-Bitcoin announcement.”

This may not be, however, the most important tweet of his. There is a theory that alleges that Satoshi left clues that would point eager seekers to his fortune in Bitcoin, made back when mining BTC was quite easy. 

The following cryptic tweet may have just reinforced that theory:

So if you have a penchant for both symbolism and cryptography, start looking.

Categories
Binance Crypto Exchange Cryptocurrencies

1Inch Expands To Binance Smart Chain, Citing High ETH GAS Fees

One of the top Decentralized Exchange  (DEX) Aggregators, 1inch has expanded to Binance Smart Chain in an effort to expand their services. Anton Bukov – the CTO of 1inch – has stated that the reason for this is that “Ethereum miners killed the Ethereum network by not raising the block gas limit.”

A Bridge Between Two Networks

1Inch launched in 2019 and has facilitated countless trading orders, looking for better exchange rates across multiple exchanges. However, due to the recent increase in ETH fees, the company has decided to give users a new way to trade – and BSC’s protocol allows for 10 times more gas per minute.

The company also stated that Binance Smart Chain will be used as a bridge between the two blockchain favored by DeFi hotshots worldwide.

“The 1INCH token on Binance Smart Chain will be used for a bridge between the Binance and Ethereum networks. 1inch users will get access to PancakeSwap, BurgerSwap, StreetSwap, Venus, StableSwap, JulSwap, BakerySwap and other Binance-based DEXes and lending protocols.”

Anton Bukov stated that although the integration was paid out of pocket, Binance did participate in 1inch’s seed round that took place in August.

1Inch aren’t the only blockchain-based firms looking for alternative solutions – it turns out the current issues surrounding GAS prices and the like have convinced a few firms to at least look for alternatives, whether on Binance Smart Chain, Compound Chain and others.

It’s worth noting that the increase in GAS fees isn’t something new – but the problem has been exacerbated in recent months. With a bit of luck, 1inch’s expansion into BSC will be some sort of catalyst for a process that results in further diversification of DeFi and crypto options – instead of following the current one-size-fits-all approach.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies Ethereum Investing

Canada Attempts To Found The First Ethereum ETF

After founding the first two Bitcoin ETFs in North America last week, Canadian authorities have now set their sights on an even loftier goal – being the first country in the world to found an ETF for Ethereum.

First Of Its Kind

If the filing is approved, the ETF will be traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) as ETHX.

CI Global Asset Management released a statement outlining their action plan, stating that cryptocurrencies are not only here to stay – they are changing the way the financial world operates. As a result, they intend to stay well ahead of the curve by founding an ETF for the 2nd largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

According to Kurt McAlpine – the CEO of CI Financial, which is CI GAM’s parent company – the ETH ETF will reduce the number of hoops traditional investors have to jump through before investing in what they see as the future of currency.

 “CI is quickly establishing a leadership position in this space, having launched CI Galaxy Bitcoin Fund and recently filing a preliminary prospectus for CI Galaxy Bitcoin ETF, in partnership with blockchain and cryptocurrency experts Galaxy Digital. With these funds, we are reducing the friction points that investors have traditionally faced in buying and holding cryptocurrencies. CI Galaxy Ethereum ETF is an important addition to that lineup as this emerging asset class gains increasing interest and validation.”

Furthermore, Mike Novogratz – the  Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Galaxy Digital Holdings – stated that Ethereum’s decentralized nature that lends itself to building applications on it’s blockchain stands to become a pillar of the so-called “Web 3.0”.

If approved, ETHX will invest directly in Ethereum using its holdings – which will be priced using the Bloomberg Galaxy Ethereum Index, which is owned by Bloomberg Index Services.

Categories
Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Institutions

Crypto Institutional Purchases List 2021

In this article we’ll keep track of all the recent Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency purchases being made by institutions, big companies and large investors.

Last updated: 01/01/2022

DateInvestorAmount
22/01/2022El Salvador $15 Million
29/12/2021 El Salvador$1 Million
29/11/2021MicroStrategy$414 Million
27/11/2021El Salvador $6 Million
28/10/2021El Salvador$24 Million
07/10/2021*Unknown$1.6 Billion*
21/09/2021*Sky Bridge$700 Million*
21/09/2021 El Salvador$10 Million*
14/09/2021MicroStrategy$240 Million
08 Sep 2021Unknown$24 Million
08 Sep 2021 El Salvador$7 Million*
07 Sep 2021El Salvador$10 Million*
24 Aug 2021MicroStrategy $177 Million*
28 Jul 2021Genesis Digital Assets$125 Million
25 Jun 2021*Ricardo Salinas$1.5 Billion*
22 Jun 2021MicroStrategy$489 Million
14 Jun 2021MicroStrategy$500 Million
26 May 2021*ARK Invest$20 Million*
20 May 2021Justin Sun$135 Million
20 May 2021Justin Sun$150 Million
18 May 2021MicroStrategy$10 Million
13 May 2021MicroStrategy$15 Million
07 May 2021*MercadoLibre$7.8 Million*
28 Apr 2021Nexon$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
24 Feb 2021MicroStrategy$1 Billion
23 Feb 2021Square$170 Million
23 Feb 2021Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund$1 Billion
17 Feb 2021 *The Motley Fool$5 Million
8 Feb 2021Tesla$1.5 Billion
Jan 2021 *GreyScale$1+ Billion*
10 Dec 2020MassMutual$100 Million
1 Oct 2020Square$50 Million
Jun 2020 *Galaxy Digital Holdings$150 Million
Jan 2020 *Ruffer Investment Company$745 Million
2020 *Skybridge Capital$310 Million *
2020 *GrennPro Capital$100 Million
* approximate dates and amounts

Who’s next?

DateInvestorAmount
2021*Ray DalioTBD
2021NYDIG$300 Million *
2021 *SynBiotic SETBA
2021 *Canadian ETFTBA
2021 *BlackRockTBA
2021 *PaypalTBA
2021 *MetLifeTBA
* approximate dates and amounts

Obviously, it is tough to keep a record of all the investments made recently as they are flooding in. If you spot a recent one we haven’t added please let us know on the Twitter thread.

Categories
Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Investing

Pizza and Bitcoin Meet Again: A $2850 Tip

During the unfortunate situation the world has found itself in for over a year now, I daresay we all may have ordered one too many pizzas – however, we probably haven’t been tipping in BTC.

$5 or BTC?

The story of the guy who bought 2 pizzas for 10k Bitcoins back in 2010 is well-known – however, it seems this isn’t the only pizza-related story of Bitcoin payments that have seen the HODLer come out on top.

Although not as dramatic and high-value as that story or as the windfall received by the kid who accidentally HODLed for several years while originally planning to buy in-game currency with BTC, a recent story has surfaced on Reddit of a 0.05 BTC tip for a pizza back in 2013 that is now worth $2850.

At the time, the redditor who goes by the alias btcbible offered the pizza delivery guy a choice between a 5$ tip – or the going equivalent in Bitcoin at the time, written down on a paper wallet. According to the redditor, the pizza delivery man had heard of Bitcoin, but didn’t know much about it. Nevertheless, he certainly made the correct choice.

The pizza delivery driver has since contacted the redditor for assistance on getting his BTC into a hot wallet so he can cash out – and assistance was offered.

“I let the pizza guy choose between $5 in fiat or BTC. Needless to say, he chose wisely. I’ve responded with instructions on how to import the private key via Electrum.”

Btcbible has clarified that he is no longer rich in crypto, having liquidated most of his holdings in order to buy a house.

However, he’s definitely made another person at least a little bit richer on his way to home ownership.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies Ripple

Ripple Has Turned the Tables Against the SEC: it Never Warned Exchanges About XRP’s status

The XRP community is crossing its fingers, as the pretrial conference started this morning against the Securities and Exchange Commission —SEC—.

Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen are all set to defend their company. Both hired three lawyers who were exposing and defending today their evidence and arguments against the SEC.

Did the SEC warn Exchanges about XRP status?

As the pre-trial developed, Ripple’s lawyer, Matthew Solomon, highlighted how the SEC dismissed exchanges and other market actors about selling XRP as a security, instead of a cryptocurrency.

According to Solomon, since 2019 the SEC never stated that exchanges and brokerages could not sell XRP, and never declared the currency’s status —whether it was a security or an investment contract.

We’ve already taken some discovery on the Securities and Exchange Commission, which revealed that the Securities and Exchange Commission was having discussions with ultra-sophisticated market actors, including exchanges, and not, apparently, telling those actors that it believed XRP was security or an investment contract as late as 2019. And, again, as this case moves forward, these facts will come to light, and it will be clear that XRP cannot establish and will not establish that XRP is a security.    

Stated Solomon in the conference

Likewise, Jeremy Hogan laid down how Ripple can turn the tables against the SEC with these statements. The fundamental here is that the SEC never told exchanges and other platforms that XRP could not be sold — so the main question that the crypto-community is asking is: what is different from 2019 to 2020?

Just hours before the pre-trial, XRP surged over 5%, and keeping a steady price level between $0.52 and $0.58, after it suffered extreme swing prices yesterday.

Categories
Cardano Cryptocurrencies Investing

Gene Simmons Buys $300k Worth Of Cardano

Gene Simmons — a man who used to be known exclusively for rocking out on stage and an unforgettable coat of face paint — has also become known for his positive attitude towards cryptocurrencies. 

The KISS frontman has sizable holdings in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin,  and other cryptocurrencies. He’s also — in typical rockstar fashion — declared himself the God of Dogecoin. Elon Musk may be surprised to hear that. 

An Affordable Cryptocurrency 

Explaining his recent purchase of Cardano (ADA) worth $300k, Gene Simmons stated that he believes everyone should be able to afford cryptocurrency, and Cardano is affordable for everyone. 

“ Why did I buy Cardano (ADA)? Well, for one thing, it’s affordable to almost everyone. It’s pennies compared to my other holdings like Bitcoin, which is over $50,000 a single coin. I believe everyone should be able to afford cryptocurrency. And here is one I believe in.”

The value of Cardano has grown from around 6 cents last February to $1.09 at the time this article was written. Cardano is currently one of the top cryptocurrencies by market cap, in a constant battle with XRP, LINK, XLM, and USDT. The cryptocurrency seeks to create a platform that will allow the mainstream financial system to interact with crypto networks, as well as fix the Bitcoin scalability issue. 

Gene Simmons has also been accused by detractors of taking payments in exchange for endorsements of cryptocurrencies —  to which he responded, saying people should do their own research before buying cryptocurrency — but also saying that sometimes people should ease up on the cynicism. 

Celebrities and crypto are now heavily in the limelight, we recently saw accusations that Tron paid celebrities to endorse TRX coin.

Cardano, Chainlink, and Ripple have all been working on inventing ways to connect the mainstream financial system to the blockchain ecosystem — and if market caps are any indicators of success, things will only get better for them from here on out.