Amid less heartening news such as the current bear market we have entered, fortunes are good for at least one student who recently found out he is a multi-millionaire.
127 BTC made through surveys as a kid
According to the reddit post from a new account created just to share the success story, in 2011 the author and his friends were playing a game called Dark Orbit. In order to purchase the in-game currency Uridium – which none of them could afford – they went to a site that allowed you to purchase the in-game currency with Bitcoin.
At the time, many sites would allow you to watch videos or complete surveys in order to earn Bitcoin – which was easy to mine and cost nearly nothing. There were also plenty of free Bitcoin faucets made to promote the cryptocurrency.
The anonymous user made 127 BTC doing these tasks, but never got around to buying the in-game currency.
This Christmas the crypto user visited his grandfather and accidentally found the text document with his keys on an old laptop he used to play on.
In a follow-up post, the anonymous user clarified that he has since sold it all for over $4.2 million. Although HODLing for another week would have brought his fortune closer to 5 million, the sudden unexpected windfall was more than he could have hoped for.
He has since sold the entire amount to a company dealing in crypto – feeling that crypto exchanges wouldn’t be able to get him the best deal.
“I spent the next week figuring out how to safely and securely liquidate such a large amount of Bitcoin for the cheapest price possible. I went back and forth between different [over-the-counter principal desks] and ultimately ended up selling all 127 Bitcoins for a price of $33,439.02 per coin minus a 0.15% fee. The net was roughly $4.24 million.”
/u/BitcoinHolderThankU has stated that he will invest the bulk of it into the S&P 500, stating that he doesn’t want to buy fancy properties or cars for the moment.
The overall cryptocurrency market capitalization has reached one trillion US dollars for the first time in history, according to data from the leading crypto statistics site Coinmarketcap.com.
Major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) have seen exponential gains over the past few months, both rising by over 300% since November. Some smaller cap crypto assets and digital tokens like Chainlink (LINK), Cardano (ADA), and Polkadot (DOT) have enjoyed similar price rallies.
Bitcoin’s market valuation recently catapulted to $650 billion, overtaking major US investment firm Berkshire Hathaway, with a $533 billion market cap. Berkshire Hathaway was acquired and reformed in the 70s by iconic investor Warren Buffet, who remains its chairman and CEO to this day. Buffett has historically been very vocal about his dislike of cryptocurrencies, once famously calling Bitcoin “rat poison squared”.
Despite Bitcoin being the best performing asset of the past decade by a large degree, Buffett continues to discount its worth, insisting that it has no value and is purely speculative. However, several major tech firms and financial institutions disagree, such as 170-year-old Mass Mutual which recently bought up $100 million worth of Bitcoin. A small amount compared to the world’s largest digital currency asset manager, Grayscale, with over $20 billion invested in crypto assets.
Image from Howmuch.net
Criticism
Naturally, the extreme gains mean the cryptocurrency market has once again come under fire from critics who believe that asset prices are being manipulated. As with the previous 2017 rally, many critics believe that USDT tokens printed by stablecoin company Tether are being used to artificially prop up the cryptocurrency market – much like the US Federal Reserve props up traditional stock markets with seemingly endless USD issuance.
The concerns are not without merit, especially considering Tether’s continued reluctance to prove that it’s USDT tokens are fully backed by genuine dollar reserves. Tether has been minting millions of dollars in USDT tokens lately, presumably to meet the demand of consumers cashing out their Bitcoin profits or buying USDT as a digital onramp to the crypto world. Without clear and transparent auditing of this issuance, it’s fair to say the situation has the potential for abuse and manipulation.
One argument that challenges this theory is PlanB’s Bitcoin stock-to-flow model, which has accurately tracked the price movements of the BTC/USD trading pair over several years. The model reveals how the price of Bitcoin closely follows a set pattern dictated not by buyers or sellers but rather scarcity created by the algorithm which halves the BTC mining reward every 210,000 blocks. Price movements from the very first Bitcoin halving in late 2012 – long before Tether started printing in 2015 – correlate with Plan B’s stock-to-flow model. This suggests that the current price rally and the one following the previous 2016 halving are simply a result of Bitcoin’s coding rather than any external manipulation.
These are the coins i really like the look of in 2021. This is not financial or trading advice, I’m just sharing some information and thoughts on these projects that look interesting this year.
1. Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin is the first successful internet money based on peer-to-peer technology; whereby no central bank or authority is involved in the transaction and production of the Bitcoin currency.
The Price of BTC in 2020 went from US $7,000 to now $33,000 – Source: Coinmarketcap.com
The end of 2020 saw the start of the institutional money flowing into BTC with the Bitcoin marketcap rising from US $130 Billion to over US $500 Billion. With big players such as Paypal, Square Inc, MicroStrategy Inc and other institutions adding thousands of BTC to their holdings.
Ethereum is a decentralized open-source blockchain system that features its own cryptocurrency, Ether. ETH works as a platform for numerous other cryptocurrencies, as well as for the execution of decentralized smart contracts.
The Price of ETH in 2020 went from US $129 to now $1,090 – Source: Coinmarketcap.com
The recent developments of the ETH launchpad and Ethereum 2.0has certainly sparked the interest in Ethereum.
In 2020 we also saw the emergence of DeFi and it’s marketcap surpassing US $10 Billion which looks like a very interesting market with lots of exciting developments for 2021.
3. Chainlink (LINK)
Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network which aims to connect smart contracts with data from the real world.
The Price of LINK in 2020 went from US $2 to now $14 – Source: Coinmarketcap.com
Chainlink provides is the missing link (pun intended) between the real world data and the virtual blockchain data. The smart contracts provided by other blockchains such as Ethereum will require real world data to execute. This is where Chainlink comes in to provide verifiable data to those networks through real world APIs.
Looking to 2021 as Chainlink continues to add to its growing number of partnerships and more blockchains to start to use its services and DeFi projects to use Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network.
4. Stellar (XLM)
Stellar is an open network that allows money to be moved and stored. When it was released in July 2014, one of its goals was boosting financial inclusion by reaching the world’s unbanked — but soon afterwards, its priorities shifted to helping financial firms connect with one another through blockchain technology.
The Price of XLM in 2020 went from US $0.04 to now $0.19 – Source: Coinmarketcap.com
Stellar was founded in the USA where some of the Ripple founders left and cloned the codebase and rewrote it. I’m quite impressed with the coding activity of Stellar seen on Github which if it continues, they should have a great 2021. Also looking forward to seeing what the partnership with IBM and blockchain cross-border payments can produce and possible banks launching stablecoins on the network.
5. OMG Network (OMG)
OMG Network, formerly known as OmiseGo, is a non-custodial, layer-2 scaling solution built for the Ethereum blockchain. As an Ethereum scaling solution, OMG Network is designed to allow users to transfer ETH and ERC20 tokens significantly faster and cheaper than when transacting directly on the Ethereum network.
The Price of OMG in 2020 went from US $0.6 to now $3.30 – Source: Coinmarketcap.com
Founded in Thailand in 2017, OMG is covering areas such as payments, loyalty points and banking/finance.
2021 could see OMG switch to Proof of Stake (POS) and working with ETH to scale transactions lowering transaction fees through the Plasma Network.
Closing Remarks
Obviously there are thousands of cryptos and projects that are trying to solve complex problems and improve all areas of our industries. The cryptocurrencies and tokens are starting to enter mainstream news now and i’m sure 2021 will see a lot more exposure for these awesome projects.
The Price of BTC in 2020 went from US $7,000 to now $33,000 The Price of ETH in 2020 went from US $129 to now $1,090 The Price of LINK in 2020 went from US $2 to now $14 The Price of XLM in 2020 went from US $0.04 to now $0.19 The Price of OMG in 2020 went from US $0.6 to now $3.30
I wonder how these will perform in 2021… Check back next year for an update!
In 2019, Auscoin founder Sam Karagiozis was arrested for suspected drug trafficking. In mid-2019, he was granted bail, but on certain conditions – such as a nightly curfew.
Mr. Karagiozis – a native of Bulleen, is currently on bail on a $600,000 surety and must check in with the police twice a week. He is also forbidden to leave Victoria.
Sam Karagiozis, an entrepreneur who even tattooed “Self Made” on his fingers was well on his way to accumulating ever-greater fortunes – before legal troubles forced his crypto platform Auscoin to halt its activity.
Auscoin was a crypto exchange platform with plans to install bitcoin ATMs across the country. However, the amount of Bitcoin ATMs that were actually installed was far less than predicted, due to a lack of funding.
The company also minted crypto tokens, namely AUSC – which are currently valued at around 0,0077 AUD per token.
Conditions Lessened For A Hopefully Once-In-A-Lifetime Experience
On Tuesday, Mr. Karagiozis’s bail conditions were relaxed, citing the need to administer his chain of Greek restaurants – and the wish to attend his brother’s wedding as the best man, as well as the buck’s night taking place 2 weeks prior.
Defence counselor Dermot Dann obtained the loosening of Mr. Karagiozis’s bail restrictions, stating that Mr. Karagiozis had complied with all bail conditions to date and that his client was eager to attend what would “hopefully be a once-in-a-lifetime event”.
Furthermore, Sam Karagiozis is expecting a child in April and hopes to avoid any possible legal troubles that may arrive from having to drive to a hospital past curfew.
Magistrate Andrew McKenna granted the request despite the opinions of detractors present in court – on the condition that Mr. Karagiozis will not be allowed to talk to co-accused Victorian police officer Emmanuel-O’Neil about the upcoming court hearing.
“They can talk about how wonderfully well the night is going or the weather or the pandemic, but nothing about the proceedings.”
The hearing will take place in March – and will determine whether the pair will face trial or not.
Telos, a blockchain development platform who have been exploring new and innovative solutions for the application of blockchain tokens, have come up with a new idea: namely, to sell Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) as a store of value that will operate in a similar fashion to bonds.
More Options For Fintech Startups
The aim of the project is to allow blockchain startups to perform their Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) in a more efficient way.
New fintechs on the block have often been faced with a catch-22 – once the ICO was over, trading of the tokens would sometimes begin prematurely, causing the value of the token to plummet before development of the new platform was even complete.
An NFT is a type of crypto token that represents something unique and is not interchangeable with any other token. For instance, 2 bitcoins will always have the same value – but the NFT F1 car paid for with over $110,000 worth of ETH at the time will always be distinctly unique from any other NFT – such as this turquoise kitten that goes for a much more affordable price tag.
According to Douglas Horn – the Chief Architect of Telos – the new T-Bond NFTs will allow investors to sell the NFTs without actually affecting the price of the token until after the project has launched.
“T-Bond NFTs offer a new and powerful option for any project seeking funding based on future technical achievement. Back in the ICO boom and continuing still, far too many projects have raised funds only to see their token plummet in value and community support dwindle. T-Bond NFTs create an ecosystem where projects can raise funds through investors, who in turn have the freedom to sell their NFTs on the secondary market without impacting the token price. This facilitates a vastly more sustainable model by harnessing the new synergy between DeFi and NFTs.”
Although the ICO boom has come and gone 3 years ago, so did Bitcoin – and it recently reached its’ all-time high. Maybe projects like these are the spark of a resurgence in ICOs – which this time around will be able to benefit from advances made in the DeFi sphere.
The asymmetrical push-back against privacy coins has been going on for a while now.
Although many crypto enthusiasts happily use them for legitimate reasons, the risk assessment measures, Know Your Customer (KYC), and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures that must be put in place in order to allow trading them have pushed many smaller exchanges to delist them.
Pressure By Traditional Banks
On the 15th of January, trading Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), and Dash (DASH) will be disabled for trading on Bittrex.
An official statement made last Tuesday notified Bittrex users that trading in these privacy coins will end on their website on the 15th of January — however, the tokens in users’ wallets will be kept around for 30 more days in order to allow users to withdraw their coins.
“After the markets are removed, Bittrex generally seeks to provide users up to 30 days to withdraw any delisted tokens, but in certain instances the withdrawal period may be shortened. Users should withdraw any tokens before the posted withdrawal deadline.”
As Bittrex is a company with a strong focus on the American market, it’s possible that the sudden announcement comes in the wake of the US Congress potentially looking into measures aimed at privacy coins, coupled with pressure from traditional banking institutions.
The announcement caused the going rate of the tokens to drop abruptly — namely by 14.44% for XMR, and by 12.28% for ZEC at the time this article was written.
In response, Dash has stated that they consider the privacy coin label a misnomer and that they would be happy to meet with the Bittrex Compliance team in an effort to avoid being delisted.
From a technical standpoint, Dash’s privacy functionality is no greater than Bitcoin’s, making the label of “privacy coin” a misnomer for Dash. We have reached out to @BittrexExchange to request a meeting with their compliance team. Hopefully this will be rectified soon. https://t.co/QA66OoshPn
Although the risk of keeping privacy coin trading up and running may prove to be too high for smaller exchanges, the tentative meeting between Dash and Bittrex might be a watershed moment in establishing the regulatory status of privacy coins going forward.
Ripple has been steadily falling, with multiple crypto exchange networks poised to delist XRP due to the SEC announcing that they are taking Ripple Labs to court, claiming that they are trading unlicensed securities in the form of XRP.
Although Bitcoin and Ethereum are not considered securities by regulatory bodies, the same seems to not be true for XRP.
Now a date has been set for the pretrial – which will be held virtually – before the official trial is held.
Ripple’s Future Is On The Rocks
Following massive sell-offs of the cryptocurrency that has prompted anxiety even among the most die-hard HODLers, the value of XRP has fallen by 65%, according to some crypto trading websites – although at the time this article was written, the cryptocurrency seems to be recovering slightly.
A surprising turn of events is that RippleLabs purported partner MoneyGram has also distanced themselves from the debacle.
According to a press statement issued by the company, MoneyGram is prepared to go on solo, despite the fact that RippleLabs is a major shareholder.
“As a reminder, MoneyGram does not utilize the ODL platform or RippleNet for direct transfers of consumer funds – digital or otherwise. Furthermore, MoneyGram is not a party to the SEC action. MoneyGram has continued to utilize its other traditional FX trading counterparties throughout the term of the agreement with Ripple, and is not dependent on the Ripple platform to accomplish its FX trading needs.”
A court document issued on the 29th of December has set the date of the pretrial – which will be held on the 22nd of February 2021. It will take the form of a teleconference, and all parties will submit a joint letter a week earlier – which should lay out the details being judged.
“(1) a brief description of the case, including the factual and legal basis for the claim(s) and defense(s), (2) any contemplated motions, and (3) the prospect for settlement.”
Whether you are a fan or a detractor of XRP, the trial is important – as it will set an important precedent for cryptocurrencies.
Following their legal tussle with Ripple Labs – the second one this year for Ripple, after their debacle with the NPPA – the SEC has also moved against Virgil Capital LLC, a crypto investment firm.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission have put in place an order freezing assets and emergency relief funds for Virgil Capital LLC and all affiliates of the company, citing possible securities fraud.
Undisclosed Investments
Virgil Capital’s cryptocurrency trading fund – Virgil Sigma Fund LP – is being investigated in relation to fabricated records. The record states that up to $3.5 million in investments were not redeemed and $1.7 million in investor funds were due to be cashed in, in an attempt to pay off loans.
Although the funds were meant for crypto trading using a proprietary algorithm, it appears at least some of them were used for risky undisclosed investments and other purposes.
Stefan Quin – the 23-year old founder of Virgil Capital – reportedly told investors ever since July that their assets had been transferred to another fund, known as the VQR Multistrategy Fund LP.
However, it appears the transfers never actually took place.
According to Kristina Littman, the head of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Cyber Unit, the freeze is a preliminary step taken to ensure no more damage can be done to investor assets until the bigger picture is revealed.
“This emergency action is an important step to protect investor assets and prevent further harm. Stefan Qin allegedly made false promises to lure investors and then continued his deception to conceal his misuse of investor funds.”
The SEC’s ongoing investigation will be led by Fitzann Reid of the San Francisco Regional Office and Amanda Straub of the Enforcement Division’s Cyber Unit.
On the litigation side, work will be carried out by Susan LaMarca, Ms. Straub, and Ms. Reid, under the direct supervision of Steven Buchholz and Ms. Littman of the Cyber Unit.
A recent stats report by Coin Metrics has some pretty interesting charts showing COVID March 2020 coin returns vs now (December 2020).
On March 12th, the world abruptly changed. Amidst growing concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic bitcoin suffered one of its largest one-day price drops in history. The rest of crypto followed, with most major assets down over 30% on the week.
By Q4 the flood gates began to open. After a tumultuous beginning of the year, institutional investors had finally arrived.
On October 8th, Square announced a $50M investment into bitcoin, stating “we believe that bitcoin has the potential to be a more ubiquitous currency in the future.” Square joined MicroStrategy and others in allocating part of their corporate treasury to bitcoin. On October 21st, PayPal made an official announcement that it was introducing “a way for customers to buy, hold, and sell certain cryptocurrencies within the PayPal wallet.”
Soon after, Bitcoin’s price began to rise. It would keep on rising for most of Q4. As institutions continued to join, the narratives around bitcoin started to shift. In a quickly changing world, bitcoin is increasingly being endorsed as a hedge against inflation and form of digital gold.
Blockchain Australia Solutions, a leading agency in blockchain application in Melbourne, recently announced its partnership with Mudrex — a trading strategy builder in an attempt to expand cryptocurrency trading to a larger audience.
Automated Trading System
According to a press release, Mudrex will implement automated trading programs for people with less knowledge on the topic. The plan is to bring more people to crypto-trading is by allowing experienced traders to build their trading algorithms and adding them into Mudrex Invest. Likewise, traders can test their algorithms based on historical data, then integrate them into crypto exchanges.
This way, people will only need to pay a monthly subscription for a strategy already developed. Traders can exchange directly without having to expend money through an API key-based integration with Bitmex and Binance.
“There are millions of traders who are trading manually just because, for individual traders or small prop shops it is super difficult to build the whole automated trading infrastructure as it requires coding skills in multiple programming languages, a good understanding of databases and building scalable systems as it is computational heavy. This itself can cost an individual trader or prop shops up to $100,000 and 6 months of efforts to build the system from scratch.”
Stated Rohit Goyal, CEO of Mudrex.
Blockchain Australia Solution has developed its blockchain services and covering several aspects in the fintech area, like smart contracts, automated billing systems, and blockchain POC (proof of concept) systems.
Now the Melbourne-based blockchain agency aims to bring a broader audience to the crypto-trading space by simplifying many of the aspects seen as complex for non-programmers.
Using cryptocurrencies has been requiring too much knowledge about the coding that goes behind it, making it unavailable for the common masses who are not programmers. Moreover, building a reliable infrastructure for trading has also been extremely expensive and time-consuming, which cannot be afforded by everybody.
Both companies expect greater growth with this new alliance. Mudrex has several partners in the fintech area — and has more than 5000 investors who have traded over $200 Million.
This is the main motivation for Blockchain Australia Solutions is partnering with this trading platform, Mudrex. With its various partners in other fintech and software firms, the company will bring a unique value to the trading platform, which will only help both of them to grow further.
