Category: Investing

Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News Investing

Tech Billionaire Deeply Regrets Not Buying More Bitcoin

Historical increases in the price of the leading cryptocurrency, bitcoin (BTC), had caused many investors and traders to regret not getting in earlier. However, billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel says he’s dissatisfied with his current holding and wishes he had invested more in the US$1.2 trillion crypto asset.

‘I Underinvested’, Admits Rueful PayPal Co-Founder

Speaking at a conference hosted by policy think tank Lincoln Network in Miami, US, Thiel admitted that he felt like he’d underinvested in BTC, regretting his reluctance to invest in “the secret that was already known by everybody”. 

On Twitter, ShapeShift founder Erik Voorhees recalled his early unheeded attempts to get Thiel invested in bitcoin when its price was US$300 in 2015. 

Thiel is not alone in this. In June, Marc Lasry, a popular US hedge fund manager and co-owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks basketball team, also regretted not holding more bitcoin in his portfolio. 

Bitcoin is Hope

With bitcoin hitting a new all-time high, Thiel still recommends going long on the asset as the price can possibly go higher. “I think the answers are still to go long. Maybe it still is enough of a secret.” 

On October 21, bitcoin reached an ATH of US$67,000, raising 100 percent of all the addresses in the state of profit. Thiel opined that increases in BTC’s market value would be a concern for many central banks. It “surely tells us that we are at a complete bankruptcy moment for the central banks”, he said.

At a separate event, an October 18 conference hosted by the Stanford Law School chapter of the Federalist Society, Thiel argued that bitcoin reaching US$60,000 “is an extremely hopeful sign” and flagged a fundamental weakness in the US political system. 

[Bitcoin is] the canary in the coal mine. It’s the most honest market we have in the country, and it’s telling us that this decrepit … regime is just about to blow up.

Peter Thiel, co-founder, PayPal
Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News Ethereum Investing Regulation

US Firefighter Fund Invests $25 Million in Crypto, Sparking a New Trend?

An American firefighters’ pension fund has invested US$25 million in bitcoin and ether, marking the first time a US public pension plan has invested in digital currencies, according to an October 21 announcement. This bold move is leading many to reconsider their stance on cryptos.

Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund (HFRRF) announced its crypto purchase through NYDIG, a digital assets manager and subsidiary of Stone Ridge Assets Management. The investment was made through a customised private fund that will be managed by NYDIG.

Taking the First Step into the World of Cryptos

In the context of the announcement, HFRRF’s chief investment officer Ajit Singh spoke of the importance of investing in cryptos:

This investment expresses our belief in the disruptive potential of distributed ledger technology for the development and democratisation of value accumulation through disintermediation.

Ajit Singh, CIO, HFRRF

Singh went on to say:

We have been studying digital assets’ transformative potential for some time, and we are pleased to have a partner of NYDIG’s calibre to ensure secure, robust and efficient execution, and enhanced compliance, as we enter this new market.

Ajit Singh, CIO, HFRRF

HFRRF’s benefactors include more than 6,600 active and retired firefighters and survivors of firefighters, and the fund holds over US$4 billion in total assets. Since 2004, HFRRF members have been contributing 9 percent of their salaries to the fund.

This purchase marks an important milestone for cryptos and their potential role in public pensions and superannuation funds. Nate Conrad, NYDIG’s global head of asset management, said the investment represented a watershed moment for bitcoin.

Entrepreneur and crypto investor Anthony Pompliano took to Twitter to share his opinion and make a bold prediction:

As crypto adoption becomes more widespread, many institutional investors are realising the importance of crypto exposure. Specifically, Australian superannuation funds are being urged to rethink their stance on cryptos or risk falling behind.

Accessing cryptos remains one of the biggest obstacles. To this end, Vault International Bitcoin Fund has established the first bitcoin-only fund in New Zealand. One of the main reasons for launching the fund is to remove the hassle and risk of direct crypto ownership.

Categories
Bitcoin Investing Trading

True Story: Pending Bitcoin ETF Has Ticker Symbol, ‘Buy The F*cking Dip’

Hot on the heels of the Proshares Bitcoin Futures ETF that went live yesterday, Bloomberg has reported that the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF may commence trading as early as next week. Much of the focus on Twitter has been directed towards the ticker symbol, which in an apparent nod to the community, mysteriously changed from $BTF to $BTFD, or ‘buy the f*cking dip’.

Ticker Symbol Change – Intentional?

In August this year, Valkyrie Funds applied for an ETF but notably omitted a ticker symbol at the time:

Ticker symbol missing from August application. Source: SEC

Then just yesterday, Bloomberg ETF correspondent Eric Balchunas tweeted an image of Valkyrie’s application saying that listing on the NASDAQ with the ticker symbol $BTF appeared imminent:

Ticker symbol BTF. Source: Eric Balchunas

Then, strangely without explanation, the ticker symbol appeared to be changed to $BTFD, which was spotted by eagle-eyed investors watching Bloomberg’s terminal:

$BTFD ticker symbol. Source: Bloomberg

Is this some sort of cruel joke or a smart route to win over sceptics? Probably the former, but we won’t know until it is actually listed.

Valkyrie ETF, Also Futures-Based

The Valkyrie ETF is much like the Proshares ETF in the sense that it is futures-based, not based on the spot price of bitcoin.

If listed this week, the Valkyrie ETF would successfully have managed to skip a growing queue of applicants, largely on account of it being a first-time issuer. This appears to align with a statement by NASDAQ.

A list of outstanding ETF applications was published some time ago by Bloomberg and it will be interesting to see how many of these are approved this month.

Outstanding Bitcoin ETFs. Source: Bloomberg

In any event, the real celebrations by Bitcoiners, if any, are likely to be reserved for when a true spot bitcoin ETF is approved.

Categories
Bitcoin Institutions Investing

Europe’s First Bitcoin ETF Launches, Bullish News for Institutional Investors

Jacobi Asset Management, a London-based multi-asset investment manager, recently announced it had received approval from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) to launch Europe’s first Bitcoin ETF (exchange-traded fund).

Bullish News For Institutional Investors

Jacobi announced on October 15 that it had the go-ahead to launch what it calls a “first tier one” Bitcoin ETF, thus termed to reflect the high-profile partners supporting it:

As per the press release, Jacobi plans to list the fund on Cboe Europe, one of the largest pan-European equity exchanges, while it’s pending for approval by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The fund will be open only to institutional investors once it goes live, with a 1.5 percent management fee. Fidelity Digital Assets will be the custodian of the fund, giving investors enterprise-grade custody to safely invest in digital assets.

Bitcoin ETFs Are Now a Reality

Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds were thought of as something impossible in the infancy of the crypto industry, but now we have several countries hosting them. The first countries to do so were Canada (which now has three BTC ETFs) and Brazil.

Jacobi was launched in May 2021 and is directed by CEO Jamie Khurshid, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker. Talking about the fund, Khurshid said:

We are excited to be launching a new secure, transparent and accessible product to track the performance of Bitcoin. This is an exciting moment for Europe as regulatory approval comes ahead of those waiting for a decision from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Jamie Khurshid, CEO, Jacobi Asset Management
Categories
Australia Investing Scams Social media

ASIC Joins Telegram Groups to Warn Investors Against Pump-and-Dump Schemes

Due to the increasing activity of pump-and-dump campaigns coordinated over social media and instant messaging platforms, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) has started monitoring platforms to step in as an early warning system to respond to these schemes.

Last week, a 288-member group of Australian “small investors” got the shock of a lifetime when they received a message from ASIC on a private Telegram group.

The independent government regulator somehow infiltrated the aptly titled “ASX Pump Organization” group’s private messages, involving potentially illegal market tip-offs.

Pumping and dumping refers to an individual or group that buys shares and then hypes the transaction to other prospective buyers, causing the stock’s price to skyrocket. This is done so they can sell their original shares for a profit.

Members of “ASX Pump Organization” tried to persuade others in the group to buy stocks in YPB Group, a NSW-based technology company.

ASIC Warns of Illegal Financial Activity

According to ASIC, there has been an increase in the number of Australians using social media forums, including Telegram, to coordinate pump-and-dump activities in the sharemarket. On September 23, ASIC published a warning about a “concerning trend” of social media groups engaging in “blatant” pump-and-dump campaigns.

ASIC has been working closely with market operators to identify and disrupt pump-and-dump campaigns, and we will continue to target actions that threaten the integrity of markets and to take enforcement action where appropriate.

Cathie Armour, ASIC commissioner

ASIC has previously warned that pumping and dumping can “amount to market manipulation”, which carries hefty penalties since it breaches the Corporations Act. The penalties for breaking this law can be a fine of more than A$1 million and up to 15 years in prison. Crypto trading is also still on the radar, with ASIC chairman Joe Longo stating that crypto trading is still a “significant area of concern”, especially for those using unlicensed crypto companies.

The campaign is not solely focused on crypto, according to an ASIC spokesperson, but instead “the campaign is targeting listed stocks, but the messaging is relevant for all financial products, including any crypto assets that may be, or involve, financial products”.

ASIC also knows who is behind every share bought and sold on the stock market and they have recently made it very clear that they are targeting these chat forums, as well social media finfluencers who talk about financial products including stocks.

Dale Gillham, chief analyst, Wealth Within

Pump and Dump Group’s Disbelief

Many of the group’s members assumed the account to be fake; however, ASIC confirmed the validity of the now-deleted message to The Australian newspaper.

Some members even stated that:

What ASIC needs to do is go after the corporates who inside-trade and short companies all the time, and not spend valuable time here hassling 300 small investors who are doing nothing wrong by sharing stock recommendations. This has to be the biggest joke in history,

ASX Pump Organisation group member

The increase in popularity and frequency of pump-and-dump schemes comes after the r/wallstreetbets and Robinhood saga in January, which saw a major pump and dump of GameStop (GME) and AMC Entertainment (AMC) shares.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Investing

Crypto Equities ETF Could Be Trading on ASX in Weeks

According to a recent announcement, Australian investors may soon be able to gain exposure to crypto through a newly created exchange traded fund (ETF). While this is exciting news, it isn’t quite what investors had expected.

Crypto Equities ETF, Not a Crypto ETF

Rather than providing exposure directly to crypto assets, the soon-to-be-released BetaShares Crypto Innovators ETF (ticker symbol CRYP) will provide “investors with exposure to a portfolio of global companies at the forefront of the rapidly emerging crypto economy”.

According to Betashares:

CRYP’s index is designed to capture the full breadth of the crypto ecosystem, by providing exposure to pure-play crypto companies, those whose balance sheets are held at least 75 percent in crypto-assets, and diversified companies with crypto-focused business lines.

Betashares announcement

The current index constituents include NASDAQ-listed Coinbase (COIN), Bitcoin mining company Riot Blockchain (RIOT) and, of course, Michael Saylor’s business intelligence firm MicroStrategy (MSTR).

When Will the Australian Crypto ETF Arrive?

The short answer is, it remains unclear. While countries like Canada and Brazil have crypto ETFs, both the US and Australia have been lagging behind.

As Crypto News Australia reported earlier this year, an Australian ETF is expected to be approved by year’s end. If approved, the ASX has said it would be limited to blue-chip digital assets, meaning that memecoins such as DOGE will certainly be excluded.

In the US, there are close to 30 crypto ETFs awaiting approval and several are expected to be given the tick within the next 60 days. This has left market commentators speculating as to whether such approval has been priced in, or whether it’s just another example of “buy the news, sell the rumour”.

Categories
Bitcoin Gold Institutions Investing

JPMorgan Says Institutional Investors Are Replacing Gold With Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s market cap hit the US$1 trillion dollar mark last week as BTC’s price surged to US$55,000. Analysts at American investment bank JPMorgan put forward three main reasons behind the recent BTC price surge, and one of them is institutional interest. 

Institutions Are Fuelling Bitcoin

It seems institutions are taking the lead again and driving the price this quarter, when it was retail investors that had out-bought institutions in the first quarter of 2021.

According to a Bloomberg report, JPMorgan said that institutional investors were the main driving force behind bitcoin’s recent price surge, mainly because they see it as a “better inflation hedge than gold”.

The re-emergence of inflation concerns among investors has renewed interest in the usage of bitcoin as an inflation hedge. Institutional investors appear to be returning to bitcoin, perhaps seeing it as a better inflation hedge than gold.

JPMorgan statement

The two other key factors were “recent assurances by US policymakers that there is no intention to follow China’s steps towards banning the usage or mining of cryptocurrencies”, and “the recent rise of the Lightning Network and 2nd layer payments solutions helped by El Salvador’s bitcoin adoption”.

JPMorgan Believes Bitcoin Could Go 10x – But Still Doesn’t Like It

JPMorgan has been one of the most hesitant traditional financial institutions when it comes to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. But as cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology demonstrate their usefulness especially in times of financial crises, most institutional investors have decided to engage with cryptocurrencies one way or another.

While JPMorgan still doesn’t like Bitcoin – or any crypto, really – its CEO, Jamie Dimon, recently conceded bitcoin could grow by up to 10 times within the next five years, which could be his most positive comment yet about BTC.

Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News Crypto Wallets Investing

El Salvador to Use Bitcoin Profits to Build $4 Million Pet Hospital

El Salvador President Nakib Bukele has a new pet project – using the country’s bitcoin profits to help build an animal hospital.

Bukele, who proclaimed bitcoin as legal tender on September 7, tweeted last weekend that the country had earned a surplus of US$4 million on its bitcoin reserve thanks to the surging price of the dominant cryptocurrency, up 17 percent in the past week alone.

El Salvador has accumulated 500 BTC over the past month, Bukele having bought the dip three times to bring its total reserve to 700 BTC.

Bukele says he will sink the US$4 million profit into a “pet hospital”, posting a computer-generated video of the project:

Bukele boasted that the pet hospital would be able to attend 384 consultations and 128 emergencies. He also tweeted: “By the way, we’re not selling any #BTC, we are using the USD part of the trust since the #BTC part is now worth more than when the trust was established.”

The government of El Salvador, a Central American republic beset by poverty and hyperinflation, has a bitcoin trust to facilitate transactions between US dollars and the crypto asset. Chivo is the name of both the trust and the commission-free wallet Salvadoreans can use to send remittances and make digital payments to businesses, either in dollars or bitcoin. 

According to Bukele, the trust now has a US$4 million surplus. Chivo can dispose of those millions without affecting the total amount in the trust, which retains the same quantity of bitcoin even when the US dollar amount goes down. 

Bitcoin Law Continues to Divide the Country

El Salvador uses the US dollar but businesses are also required to accept bitcoin as payment – if they have the technology to do so – as part of the country’s Bitcoin Law. The law was Bukele’s idea and has been nothing if not divisive – last month, thousands of Salvadoreans took to the streets to protest against it. Parts of the crypto community have endorsed the law, though institutions such as the World Bank say it will be problematic to enact.

Last month, Bukele announced that El Salvador would exempt foreign investors from taxes on their bitcoin profits to stimulate and hopefully increase foreign investment.

In July, the president foreshadowed that the nation’s abundant geothermal energy would be harnessed to mine Bitcoin, which according to conservative estimates could produce approximately 20,000 BTC per year and generate a profit of more than A$1 billion.

Now Bukele has his pet hospital plan in train, perhaps he might use some of these future bitcoin profits to alleviate living conditions for El Salvador’s long-suffering populace.

Maybe even build a human hospital or two?

Categories
Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Investing Tokens

Why Has Shiba Inu Soared 385% in a Week?

Meme coin Shiba Inu (SHIB) has leapt 385 percent in the past seven days, doubling its value in just one 24-hour period this week.

Now the world’s 12th largest cryptocurrency, the “dog that ate Dogecoin” has a market cap nudging US$17 billion, placing it ahead of Chainlink (LINK), Litecoin (LTC), Avalanche (AVE), and Uniswap (UNI).

Created by a pseudonymous developer under the alias of Ryoshi and launched just over a year ago, Shiba Inu has been described as “an experiment in decentralised spontaneous community building”. But why the sudden, seemingly spontaneous spike in value?

We can at least partially blame a tweet from Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, proud owner of a new Shiba Inu pup called Floki:

Soon after Musk posted the above image of Foki last weekend, even the #SHIB hashtag started trending on Twitter. Meanwhile, data from Etherscan shows that the slavering pack of worldwide Shiba holders has now passed the 700,000 mark.

Shiba an Emblem of the Wider Crypto Market

Shiba Inu’s surge is emblematic of the wider crypto market, with bitcoin up 30 percent over the same period and Ethereum right behind it with a 25 percent spike.

One Shiba Inu whale (or whales) quietly transferred 6 trillion SHIB coins to a separate wallet address, with the overall price of the holdings worth US$80,856,857. The International Business Times reported the same whale(s) bought another 276 billion the next day, in instalments of 116 billion, 158 billion and a billion.

The whale(s) almost doubled their initial investment in just six days. Contrast this with the fact that on the first day of Shiba Inu futures markets, launched in May, traders lost over 1.34 trillion SHIB in just 24 hours.

Just days later, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin donated US$1 billion to an Indian Covid charity from the proceeds of dumping 660 billion SHIB, among other tokens.

Categories
Crypto Exchange Crypto News Investing New Zealand

New Zealand’s Easy Crypto Exchange Raises $11 Million, May List on Stock Exchange

New Zealand-based exchange Easy Crypto has just come off a Series A funding round, led by venture capital fund Nuance Connected Capital, securing US$11.75 million.

In an October 6 announcement, the company claimed this was the largest first funding round successfully completed by any New Zealand firm, and that the round was oversubscribed by 50 percent. Investors included Pathfinder, Icehouse Ventures, Even Capital, and US-based Hutt Capital.

Easy Crypto Reaches ‘Significant Milestone’

Janine Grainger, CEO and co-founder of Easy Crypto, said that the funding represents a significant milestone for the company and the future of cryptos in New Zealand. Investment had been difficult to secure, as it took 13 months for Easy to attract its first influx of capital.

Cryptocurrency is seen as a bit fringe still [in New Zealand], a bit volatile and I think it’s taken us a while to find investors who perhaps had that forward-looking and strategic vision to be able to take a punt on what we’re doing.

Janine Grainger, CEO and co-founder, Easy Crypto

Grainger is also co-founder of Vault Digital Funds, which has just established New Zealand’s first bitcoin-only fund, to be managed by Implemented Investment Solutions.

Using Funds to Accelerate Growth

Easy Crypto is a retail platform that enables its customers to buy, sell and trade over 150 cryptos. Co-founded three years ago by Grainger and her sibling Alan, the company has since experienced rapid growth, generating US$760 million (NZ$1.1 billion) in sales and increasing platform user numbers almost fivefold over the past 12 months.

Janine Grainger has said that the funds will be used to accelerate further growth by expanding product development and will move into new customer markets in South-East Asia such as Indonesia and the Philippines:

The reason we’re targeting those markets was that there is a large population of people who are unbanked or underbanked, and don’t have the same access to financial products as you and I do.

Janine Grainger, CEO and co-founder, Easy Crypto

Easy Planning to Go Public

Grainger has said that a share float might be on the cards in the long term: “We’re still working out what that looks like, and what plans there are for us into the future, but very likely we would be looking at an IPO [initial public offer].”

For now, however, the company’s focus is on what it can deliver to customers both locally and internationally.

Australia’s trans-Tasman neighbour is quickly realising the benefits of crypto. In November last year, Crypto News reported that New Zealand had built a green energy plant, paid for partly in bitcoin.