Category: Institutions

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Institutions Ripple

The End Of Ripple? More Exchanges Delisting XRP — Price Falls %10 More

Following the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple, more exchanges are delisting XRP from their trading list.

XRP — the second most preferred currency by Australians after Bitcoin – has plunged another 10 % after the U.S.-based exchange, Coinbase, decided to delist XRP from its platform following the lawsuit.

The exchange announced that the customer’s XRP wallets will remain intact, without removing the institutional custody — but will suspend the trading pair on January 19, 2021.

OkCoin And BC2C Delisting XRP

Other recent exchanges that decided to remove XRP from their trading list were Chinese-based OkCoin and B2C2 USA.

OkCoin announced today the suspension of XRP trading with tighter rules. Users who borrowed XRP/USD margins are required to return the funds till Jan 3, 2021, or face automatic liquidations in case of any delay.

Another exchanges delisting XRP are:

  • OSL
  • CrossTower
  • Beaxy
  • Bitstamp
  • Galaxy Digital
  • Jump Trading

Grayscale XRP Trust Closed

Not only exchanges are turning away from XRP as the trust firm Grayscale closed the XRP Trust private placement.

Source: Grayscale

Likewise, a user from Twitter posted a message that appears to be an employee from Grayscale, stating that the company is ending all XRP subscriptions.

Many people in social media argue that it may be a matter of time before other exchanges join the movement by delisting XRP from their platforms.

It should come as no surprise that XRP fell 10% following the announcement of Coinbase, now trading at 0.25 $. The price has fallen -43 % since the SEC filed a lawsuit against two Ripple executives: Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen, for making profits with XRP as an “unregistered license”.

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Bitcoin Institutions

Institutional Call? Nasdaq-listed Mogo Will Invest $1M in Bitcoin

Bitcoin Outperformed Oil, Gold With Over 100% Increase in Q1 2021

As crypto analysts expect that institutions will make massive investments in Bitcoin (BTC) in the coming years, many publicly-listed companies are already confirming these sentiments in 2020. Recently, the likes of MassMutual, an insurance company, invested about US$100 million in the cryptocurrency. Also, MicroStrategy completed its Bitcoin investment to US$1 billion in recent days.

Today, a popular Canadian financial technology company, Mogo, has disclosed its plans to invest more than US$1 million in Bitcoin.

The Institutions are Here!

The Nasdaq-listed company said on Wednesday that it’s planning to buy US$1.16 million worth of Bitcoin as corporate investment. With such capital, the company will be able to get about 47.1 Bitcoin, following the current price of the crypto at US$23,579 on Coinmarketcap.

Meanwhile, Mogo further revealed plans to buy additional Bitcoin in the coming year. Judging by this, one can easily predict that the company may invest in the cryptocurrency at any time soon. 

The Bitcoin will be purchased from the company’s US$13.2 million investment portfolio. “We are strong believers in bitcoin as an asset class and believe this investment is consistent with our goal to make bitcoin investing available to all Canadians,” according to the president and CFO of Mogo, Greg Feller. 

It’s also worth mentioning that other prominent companies like Square, Galaxy Digital, etc., are holding some Bitcoin as corporate investment.

Bitcoin Adoptions Grows With Price Performance

Since the leading cryptocurrency broke the US$20,000 level, there has been a massive interest in it among institutional and retail investors. This is evident following the growing number of BTC addresses. Also, the institutional-grade investment companies, especially Grayscale, have been recording incredible growth in its assets under management (AUM). 

Despite that Grayscale stopped accepting funds from new investors on its crypto products, it still bought over 12,000 BTC today, which came from its existing client alone. Currently, the company’s AUM is worth $15.9 billion. 

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Crypto News Institutions Ripple

Ripple’s CEO Says The Company Is getting Sued By The Securities And Exchange Commission

According to a new report, the Securities And Exchange Commission (SEC), a federal agency in the United States that regulates securities markets — plans to sue Ripple, one of the most famous crypto companies in the world.

Ripple announced the event this Monday, accusing the SEC of “attacking crypto” with Jay Clayton, SEC Chairman, trying to “limit innovation” on the crypto industry in the United States.

XRP As “Unlicensed Security”

Allegedly, the company would have sold XRP, Ripple’s official cryptocurrency, as unlicensed security instead of a digital asset in 2012, when it was launch. This means a violation of the SEC’s investor-protection laws.

Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse told Fortune that the firm will file the case in 2021. Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen, a co-founder, will also act as defendants for this case.

Both Larsen and Garlinghouse have expressed their discontent with the U.S. jurisdiction on crypto-assets, and regulations under the Trump administration. On October 6, the company stated its intention to leave the U.S., seeking a favorable climate for cryptocurrencies.

Price Drop And “Constant Disputes”

The negative legal climate could turn against Ripple if the SEC moves forward with the lawsuit. According to Fortune, “years of debate” could follow on whether XRP was issued as a digital currency like Bitcoin or Ethereum, instead of a security, which should have been under SEC’s license:

“The action will follow years of debate between the company and the agency about whether XRP, a digital currency associated with Ripple, is a security, like a share of stock—which must be registered with the agency—or is instead a currency and thus beyond the SEC’s purview.”

Following the announcement of the lawsuit, the XRP, which has a market cap of $23B, fell -13,50% at press time, according to Coinmarketcap.

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Blockchain Cryptocurrencies Institutions

Banca Generali To Introduce Cryptocurrency Services In 2021 As More Financial institutions Embrace Cryptocurrencies

State and private financial institutions are embracing Bitcoin instead of gold, as traditional fiat devalues and cryptocurrencies are becoming better stores of value. Just recently, Banca Generali, a major private bank in Italy, announced its plans to introduce cryptocurrency services in 2021, by providing their customers cryptocurrency custody.

Generali announced on December 15 a new corporate and commercial partnership agreement with Conio, a fintech firm that serves over 150,000 cryptocurrency portfolios for its customers. The bank is injecting $14 million into Conio’s capital as well.

We predict that the future structure of financial markets will be influenced by blockchain technology, which continues to enable innovation in cryptocurrencies and many other areas of the financial ecosystem.

Stated Generali CEO, Gian Maria Mossa.

Banks Embracing Cryptocurrency

Globally, banks are turning their views towards cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, considering the tremendous growth that crypto has had in the finance realm these last months.

Even some central banks, like the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve, are considering integrating cryptocurrency services alongside traditional systems into their services — although to a more limited extend at first.

Recently in Switzerland, Sygnum, a major cryptocurrency bank, had successfully tokenized its shares — using a tokenization platform called Desygnate.

We are excited to be the first bank in the world to tokenize our shares. This is an important milestone towards fulfilling our mission of creating more direct and efficient access to ownership and value. This includes new engagement models with our clients and partners, and ultimately providing liquidity for our trusted shareholders.

Mathias Imbach, co-founder of Sygnum and CEO at Desygnate.

Even the CEO of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon, suggested that gold could “suffer for years” now that institutional investors are embracing Bitcoin as a replacement to their stores of funds.

And Morgan Stanley, one of the most relevant multinational banks, called bitcoin a hedge fund against fiat inflation, with the potential to replace the U.S Dollar.

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Bitcoin Institutions

Institutional Demand Pushes Grayscale’s AUM to $13 Billion

Institutional Demand Pushes Grayscale’s AUM to $13 Billion

It’s no doubt that there is currently a strong and growing interest in Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital currencies from institutional investors. This is evident as institutional-grade digital assets investment companies, especially Grayscale Investment, are seeing an exponential kind of demand for crypto products. 

Earlier today, the largest crypto investment company disclosed on Twitter that its assets under management had surpassed another milestone valuation of US$13 billion.

Grayscale AUM Hits ATH

The company offers about ten investment products tied to popular digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Ether (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), and others. Overall, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust product accounts for about 83 percent of the entire AUM, with a total valuation of US$10.8 billion. For a long time, institutional investors had shown more interest in holding the BTC product on Grayscale. But, not only Bitcoin.

The second-largest crypto also gained more than US$1.7 billion from institutions on Grayscale. For the context, the Bitcoin and Ether products account for more than 95 percent of the company’s net asset under management. Litecoin is one other cryptocurrency that made a significant increase. The LTC product surged from US$48.9 million on November 13 to US$74.8 million, per the report today.

The Institutions are Coming

Aside from Grayscale, the increasing flow of funds from institutional investors to Bitcoin can also be seen in BTC derivatives trading platforms like the Chicago Merchantile Exchange (CME) and Bakkt. These platforms recently witnessed high stats in Bitcoin futures open interest and volume. JPMorgan Chase, a leading financial services company in the United States, expect US$600 billion from institutions to flow into Bitcoin in the coming years.

The prediction was stirred after reports informed that a US mutual insurance company, MassMutual, invested about US$100 million in Bitcoin. The banks believe that more insurance companies and pension funds are going to follow suit.

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Blockchain Industries Institutions

MetaMask Is Making An Enterprise Version Of Its Services

MetaMask is looking to improve the multi-billion dollar DeFi environment with a new version of its wallet, aimed at crypto exchanges, financial institutions, and hedge fund management companies.

The Ethereum wallet MetaMask is one of the most popular wallets around, with over 1 million monthly users. Following the launch of token swaps earlier this autumn, the company is now trying to advance the advent of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) by compensating for the current industry protocols – which some feel leave much to be desired.

Developers Consensys Looking To Expand The Scope Of The Wallet

Consensys – the dev team behind Metamask – feel that although DeFi may be all well and good for independent crypto traders and investors, the current protocols are too inefficient for heavy-hitting professional trading firms.

They also identified room for improvement in the figures department, citing a lack of efficient reporting capabilities when it comes to taxes and returns – as well as profit and loss statements.

The team at MetaMask has already found their first partner for the institutional decentralized finance protocol.

Curv, a leading digital asset security firm, will set up its DeFi customers with everything needed for a professional DeFi trading platform.

Although Curv may not sound familiar, their clients’ names may ring a bell – clients such as eToro, purveyors of stocks, bonds, and moderately humorous YouTube ads.

Itay Malinger – the CEO and co-founder of Curv – stated his belief in a need for DeFi solutions geared at financial institutions.

“Since there is no reliable and secure institutional solution for DeFi, organizations are reverting to retail-level use of MetaMask or custom integrations with individual apps as a workaround.”

As senator Andrew Bragg reminded panelists at the Future Of Financial Services 2020 Conference, staying competitive in the financial domain is a key objective for the Australian government – and the announcement of an industrial-grade DeFi service may prove very useful to Aussie investment firms.

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Australia Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Institutions

ASX Governor Discusses Payments, Weighs In On Libra/Diem

Mr. Philip Lowe, the Governor of the Reserve Bank Of Australia, gave a speech to the Australian Payments Network on the 7th of December.

During his address, the Governor of the RBA spoke about Australia’s leading role in the global financial domain, about what may be on the horizon, and what may change.

Digital Wallets And Who’s Behind Them

In the push for innovation, Mr. Lowe stated that one of the main factors to consider is the continuous rise of digital wallets. He then went on to outline the major differences between Google Pay and Apple Pay – and the regulatory issues faced by them, such as Apple possibly being forced to give third-party apps access to its NFC technology.

After mentioning Ant Group and Tencent, the owners of Alipay and WeChat Pay, Mr. Lowe weighed in on Facebook’s project Libra – now rebranded as Diem and facing lawsuits over it.

After applying for a license from FINMA (the financial regulator of Switzerland), the project faced a sizable backlash from regulatory entities across Europe – especially from the French and German finance ministers.

As a result, FINMA set up a regulatory college in order to coordinate with other countries.

The RBA is a part of the regulatory college – on behalf of Australia’s Council of Financial Regulators. According to Mr. Lowe, FINMA has made it clear that Libra/Diem will have to comply with stringent regulations, given the scope of the project.

“This initiative has raised concerns from governments and regulators in many jurisdictions regarding a wide range of issues including consumer protection, financial stability, money laundering, and privacy. […]

FINMA has indicated that Diem will be subject to the principle of ‘same risks, same rules’ – that is, if Diem poses bank-like risks it will be subject to bank-like regulatory requirements. It remains to be seen how this and other similar initiatives progress.”

Opinions are divided on the possible success of Facebook’s cryptocurrency when it launches – but it seems the Diem Association will be off to a rough start.

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Cryptocurrencies Industries Institutions

Libra/Diem In Hot Water Again Following Attempted Rebranding

Late last month, Libra announced its plans to launch early in 2021. Based in Geneva, Switzerland and made up of 27 members – chief among them being Facebook – the Libra Association plans to establish a far-reaching stablecoin ecosystem backed by big-league corporations, after attempting to negotiate with its detractors.

Last week, the Libra association announced its plans to rebrand as Diem. Stuart Levey – the CEO of the newly-rebranded Diem Association, stated that this was one of the company’s steps taken to ensure compliance with largely skeptical government entities.

“We are committed to doing so in a way that promotes financial inclusion – expanding access to those who need it most, and simultaneously protecting the integrity of the financial system by deterring and detecting illicit conduct. We are excited to introduce Diem – a new name that signals the project’s growing maturity and independence.”

Chief among the detractors of the Geneva-based alliance for the new stablecoin is the European Union, spearheaded by the financial departments of the French and German governments, with Olaf Scholz – the German Finance Minister – calling the project a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

“We must do everything possible to make sure the currency monopoly remains in the hands of states.”

The French Finance Minister agrees, stating that the incredible reach of Facebook could cause quite a stir once mixed with the planned state of the association’s cryptocurrency.

“All these concerns around Libra are serious. So I want to say this with a lot of clarity: In these conditions, we cannot authorize the development of libra on European soil.”

Regulators Not The Only Parties Concerned

However, European governments are not the only ones bothered by the project.

A lawsuit reminiscent of the one that pit Australian platform PayID against Ripple, the association is being sued by a much smaller fintech company also known as Diem, who accuse the association of encroaching upon their intellectual property.

Diem – a platform described as “a digital pawnbroker of sorts” – was launched in October and garnered a following of about half a million followers.

Geri Cupi – the CEO of Diem – stated that if the association took their name, it could seriously stunt their growth.

Meanwhile Chris Adelbach – the co-founder of Diem and a well-known investor in fintechs operating on the European market – stated that although he was reticent to take on companies much larger, he has been advised to do so.

“It wouldn’t have taken that much effort for Facebook to find out if there’s another Diem in financial services […] They obviously took the view that ‘we can just crush them, we’re Facebook.’”

PayID’s grievances with Ripple Labs were solved by Ripple rebranding their service as ClearPay. It’s possible that this lawsuit will have a similar outcome.

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Australia Institutions Trading

SelfWealth, Australia’s Leading Trading Platform, Launches US trading In Their ASX Portfolio

Australia’s low-fee leading trading platform, SelfWealth, will launch a beta-test program with a few selected members to integrate US trading before Christmas 2020 — on December 14, with a new mobile app for Android and iOS.

More than 60,000 Aussie investors will have direct access to all major US exchanges through their SelfWealth account. The Melbourne-based broker will add the US trading account into their ASX portfolios.

Pre-registered traders will have access to popular American stocks like Facebook, Amazon, Tesla — and more than 7,500 + other financial instruments to choose from, a list which SelfWealth plans to expand in the future.

Competitive FX fees

The US trading launch is coming with a $9.50 USD flat fee per trade. Unlike banks, which can charge up to 1.00% SelfWealth implements competitive FX rates, charging only 0.60 % when transferring to or from USD.

For years, SelfWealth has been growing strongly off the back of disillusioned investors that have been overpaying to invest. Now, they can invest in the US and the ASX in one convenient place at a reasonable price.

– SelfWealth’s Managing Director Rob Edgley in a public statement.

Edgley underlined the support of SelfWealth clients, who have shown increased interest in the new US trading launch and additional products.

“Our hard-working team will now turn their efforts towards additional functionality across the trading platform and new products that our clients have been asking for.”

According to Edgley, Aussie investors don’t need multiple trading accounts and apps to access US stock markets. SelfWealth members will have a US cash account to help them avoid per-trade foreign exchange fees.

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Bitcoin Institutions

MicroStrategy Adds More 2,574 Bitcoin to its Crypto Reserve

MicroStrategy Adds More 2,574 Bitcoin to its Crypto Reserve

Publicly-traded business intelligence company MicroStrategy has purchased an additional US$50 million Bitcoin (BTC), according to the CEO, Michael Saylor. The recent purchase further strengthens the company’s stand as the largest company holding the cryptocurrency as a reserve asset. By investing in Bitcoin, the company sees it as a better inflation-hedge asset against cash, including Gold. 

Many other companies like Square have joined the train, adding a massive amount of Bitcoin to their reserve.

MicroStrategy now Holds Over 40,000 Bitcoin

The US$50 million Bitcoin purchase was also confirmed in the company’s recent filing with the United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). At such an amount, MicroStrategy could buy 2,574 Bitcoin at the average price of $19,427 yesterday. This is the third time MicroStrategy is acquiring Bitcoin. In August, the business intelligence firm purchased the first whopping amount of 21,454 BTC for US$250 million at the average price of $11,635.

About one month later, MicroStrategy announced an additional 16,796 BTC for $175 million. Overall, the company now has about 40,824 Bitcoin as cryptocurrency reserve. At today’s price of US$18,866 on Coinmarketcap, MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin treasury is worth over US770 million. Such a massive number of Bitcoin indicates the level of confidence the company and its board members have in the leading cryptocurrency. While giving reasons for the crypto treasury, MicroStrategy explained that:

“If you have large dollar values and you’re hoping for any kind of return on them, that’s faded. Gold, silver, and bitcoin are showing strength. […] Hence, if we look at assets, gold, silver, bitcoin, and equities have all been accreting as the dollar has been weakening.”

Corporate Bitcoin Investors

MicroStrategy’s move into Bitcoin had caused many companies to rethink allocating a portion of their reserve in the cryptocurrency. On this train is Square Inc., which purchased about US$50 million worth of Bitcoin. Among others, Galaxy Digital Holdings also has about US$130 million worth of Bitcoin in its reserve.