Vitalik Buterin, one of Ethereum’s co-founders, answered the criticism regarding the new institutional focus of blockchain and cryptocurrency projects. Buterin told Joe Weisenthal, co-host of Bloomberg’s financial podcast Odd Lots, that crypto culture “idealistic hippies” were still in the space, and that projects in this regard have moved forward quite a bit, citing Lens and […]
Bitcoin News
Major Online Swiss Bank Integrates Bitcoin Custody, Boost in Institutionalization
Buckle up, the institutionalization of bitcoin and crypto, in general, has begun.
Swissquote, a 8 million worth online banking group, announced Friday that it is partnering with Zug-based Crypto Storage to enable cryptocurrency custodial services on its platform. The Gland-based said that institutional investors on its platform would be able to transfer cryptocurrencies from their external wallets to a Swissquote account and vice versa.
New swiss bank @Swissquote launching their #crypto custody. Which one will be the next ? Take a chance pic.twitter.com/tDdvKaZvx8
— Stéphane Lüthi (@luethistephane) March 8, 2019
The move came as a part of Swissquote’s crypto expansion. In 2017, the group had opened a cryptocurrency trading platform, allowing its clients to trade the five significant digital assets, including bitcoin, XRP, litecoin, and ether.
Anti-Nuke Crypto Security
Custody has been the missing link of the cryptocurrency infrastructure. As of now, crypto exchanges double as custodians which not just raise regulatory concerns but puts assets’ security at risk. At the same time, traditional custodians lack the experience of handling digital assets, whose security relies on holding wallets’ private keys near and dear. Such a gap has kept institutional investors far from investing in bitcoin, ether and other top coins.
By partnering with Crypto Storage, a FinTech company, Swissquote is ensuring that the responsibility of digital asset custodianship remains with a firm that knows how to handle the job. Crypto Storage offers a “proprietary infrastructure solution to manage private keys, both physical and digital, on highest grade hardware security modules” that are similar to those used by the Swiss National Bank.
#CryptoChart of the week!
In the following Chart, we show you the system architecture of Crypto Storage AG, one of the companies which offer custodian services of cryptocurrencies, and how do they solve the custody problem for investors.#custody #cryptocurrency #investor pic.twitter.com/ODrDCkOUj8
— The Crypto Report (@CryptoManagers) February 25, 2019
As private keys could be stored as a form of physical evidence – on a piece of paper, for instance – Crypto Storage has ensured that its rack-servers remain safe from physical attacks. The startup’s CEO Stijn Vander Straeten admitted that they were using military bunkers in a secret location as a shield to protect their servers. Interestingly, even a nuclear bomb cannot harm those bunks, according to Straeten.
Crypto Expansion
In the same announcement, Swissquote shared its plans to take its business to Asia. The group stated that it had founded a branch in Singapore and was going to apply for a capital markets services license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). At the same time, Swissquote will list 14 Asian exchanges on its platform for real-time trading.
The move hints a broader market exposure for Swissquote’s cryptocurrency trading and custodian services. Meanwhile, the company feared that its pretax profit might get reduced by about million due to the said expansion. It could mean that Swissquote would launch services that yield the maximum earnings for it before those that produce the least. With cryptocurrency still being an experimental service, one can expect that Swissquote would launch its crypto trading solutions in Asia at a later stage.
Nevertheless, the writing is on the wall. Swissquote’s decision to expand its crypto solution indicates demand from the institutional front. The company has clearly foreseen big inbound investments into this space – much like the rest of the cryptocurrency community.
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Bitcoins Institutionalization Dates to Watch in 2019
n nn nn Its been over a year since the Cboe and CME listed the worlds first bitcoin futures contracts, the first ever bitcoin investment product to hit the legacy market. Both futures went live just before bitcoin peaked at its ,000 all-time high. Out-the-gate trading for the derivatives reflected 2017s market mania, and Cboes futures alone traded over 800 contracts roughly ,000,000 at the time within the first two hours of their launch.With the creation of
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LTC/USD Price Analysis: Institutionalization of Litecoin, Atomic Swaps, Lightning Network Positive for Bulls
Latest Litecoin News
Its one-step at a time and Litecoin pace is slow but steady. Even as prices drop to record lows printing at a time when Tushar Jain took to twitter thrashing Litecoin, the Founding Director of the Litecoin foundation and the owner of Litecoin.com has a different view of what the seventh most valuable coin represents. For one he really thinks Litecoin is a unique ecosystem, an independent network that has no business competing with Bitcoin but rather complement it. Regardless of low volumes, millions are still moved over the network with million recently transferred for less than a dollar.
Read: Over Billion Dumped in Crypto Market’s Largest Crash of The Year
Of course, this is mostly thanks to low transaction fees and bolder plans of further slashing fees by a factor of 10 once Litecoin core 0.17 goes live. Efforts like this will no doubt boost businesses adopting Litecoin as a payment method as Zulu Republic, a separate wing that promotes Litecoin to business, have an easy time promoting Litecoin adoption.
Also Read: Forthcoming Crypto Fund Extremely Bullish on Crypto Infrastructure and Adoption
In the meantime, the network is working towards resolving scalability. By forging a fruitful partnership with Lightning Labs, scalability is being worked on and at the same time prospects of atomic swaps sets the foundation of a future that is interconnected allowing for the seamless flow of different assets without the need of passing them through a central exchange.
LTC/USD Price Analysis
Weekly Chart
At seventh, LTC/USD is down 18 percent in the last week but stable in lower time frames. However, we anticipate more losses now that the drag of Bitcoin Cash internal wars did have an effect on other altcoins.
By bears stepping up and initiating a sell off that saw LTC pierce and close below important support line now resistance at , conservative traders can as well begin dumping LTC with first targets at in line with our previous LTC/USD iterations.
This is despite LTC/USD already falling +80 percent from 2017 peaks. Besides, the breakout is printing at the back of high market participation—1.21m twice the weekly average of 600k. Fitting stops would be .
Daily Chart
The 18 percent drop in LTC/USD was enough to trigger a meltdown driving prices below important support levels. Now with several bars closing below , the conditions set in our last trade plans are now live. Therefore, aggressive traders should jump in, shorting on pullbacks in the direction of the path of least resistance.
Ideally, our first bear target is , another support level. At the same time, fitting stops should be at Nov 14 highs of . However, should prices expand and bulls surge above , then we shall revert back to neutral waiting for bulls to further thrust prices towards igniting short term buys with targets at .
All Charts Courtesy of Trading View
Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed are those of the author and aren’t investment advice. Trading of any form involves risk and so do your due diligence before making a trading decision.
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