The root of CZ’s appeal goes beyond his occasional semi-outlaw status, to the way he exudes its core belief in cryptocurrency so effortlessly.
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“Crypto King”: Bear Market Aside, Bitcoin (BTC) Still Has Inherent Value
Again, as Bitcoin fell into Tuesday, with the popular digital asset establishing a new year-to-date low (yet again) at ,200, proponents of this nascent innovation quickly took to its side.
Unlike the unexpected appearance of Stephen Palley, a crypto-friendly lawyer at Anderson Kill, on Bloomberg TV, this time, CNBC Fast Money brought on Bart “Crypto King” Smith, an outspoken cryptocurrency advocate and believer.
Susquehanna’s Bart Smith Speaks On Bitcoin Collapse
Since BTC began to tumble on November 16th, investors have been trying to guess what catalyzed this move. Although many pointed fingers at the SEC’s crackdown on ICOs, a potential breakout to the downside, and the contentious Bitcoin Cash hard fork as catalysts, Smith begged to differ.
Lending his insight, the Susquehanna Digital Assets head stated that as it stands, the relative unusability of fiat on-ramps is directly hampering the adoption of cryptocurrencies. Smith elaborated on this point, before following up with another catalyst, noting:
“A wealthy individual from the GI generation isn’t going to take a high-resolution photo of their drivers license to send it to a website, and then send them money. They want to invest in Fidelity or at Bank of America, so that has led to the second problem, which is without the capital on-ramp, liquidity has been very low. And so we’ve seen a stable price through the summer… [but] when those sellers come in, there’s no liquidity to absorb [those sales].”
But, echoing Tom Lee’s recent claims on CNBC Squawk Box, the Susquehanna Bitcoin proponent explained that these qualms can change through the arrival of Bakkt, Fidelity, and regulatory clarity in 2019.
Related Reading: Why Are Novogratz, Fidelity, And Bakkt Banking On Institutional Crypto Investors?
Short-Term Sell-off Doesn’t Discredit Bitcoin’s Long-Term Potential
Referencing comments made on Monday’s Fast Money installment, Mellisa Lee, host of the segment, touched on the unpopular sentiment that Bitcoin’s store of value use case isn’t valid anymore.
Contradicting this sentiment, which lacks logical merits, Smith drew attention to Bitcoin’s long-standing supply hard cap at 21 million tokens, explaining that “it’s a long play.” This, in and of itself, is a perfect argument to counter the “BTC isn’t a store of value” heresy, as unlike fiat, BTC can’t be printed, or mined in this context, on the whim of a centralized entity.
While this argument already holds credence, Susquehanna’s in-house crypto asset savant noted that year-over-year, BTC has been chugging along just fine, despite the recent downturn. And this steady performance is, of course, a hallmark of a store of value, with Smith’s aforementioned rebuttals putting crypto’s critics to rest.
Smith, referencing his two decades in financial markets, went on to explain that “every great idea,” Bitcoin included, is susceptible to volatility. The trader, drawing connections between the Dotcom Boom at the turn of the millennia to cryptocurrency, explained that Amazon (AMAZ) fell by 95%, as traders wrote the formerly-nascent startup off. But now, as made apparent by AMAZ’s jaw-dropping multi-year performance, which makes the stock look more like a cryptocurrency than a traditional equity, Amazon has returned in full swing.
So, tying this back to his cryptocurrency argument, the Susquehanna executive pointed out that while the “price action has been difficult,” Bitcoin’s unique characteristics as a peer-to-peer, sovereign, decentralized store of value is something that is in high demand. Keeping this silver lining in mind, Smith added that BTC’s day-to-day price action won’t even come close to discrediting Bitcoin’s inherent value or long-term prospects. He stated:
“For this to be successful, usership needs to increase, [but] that may or not mean that BTC’s value will have to go up. In the U.S., [adoption] is difficult. Venmo and Amex work perfectly well for me, and that isn’t what Bitcoin was designed for. But, the desire to have a sovereign, foreign currency has existed forever. And remember, it came from the depths of the [2008 financial] crisis.”
Closing off his segment, a much-needed breath of fresh air in bearish conditions, Smith briefly touched on his belief that the traditional market’s next financial crisis could be just months away. As recently put by Erik Voorhees, CEO of ShapeShift, when the centralized economy takes a nosedive (and it will in Voorhees’ eyes), “watch what happens to crypto [and Bitcoin].” This, of course, is an evident nod to the long-standing sentiment that the cryptocurrency realm, Bitcoin, its altcoin constituents, and all, is poised, even slated, to usurp centralists and who and what they stand for.
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“Crypto King”: The Winklevoss ETF Rejection Wasn’t Bad For Bitcoin
While yesterday’s pullback of Bitcoin’s price may have irked more than a few investors, many industry leaders remain bullish on the price of crypto assets, including Wall Street’s “Crypto King.”
Bitcoin Holding At ,800 and ,500 Is A Bullish Sign
Bart Smith, Susquehanna’s head of digital assets, recently revealed that he doesn’t see the Winklevoss ETF verdict, along with the subsequent drop-off as bearish signs. Speaking with CNBC’s Fast Money panel of traders and analysts, the so-called “Crypto King” brought attention to the heavily-cited ,800 support level.
Wall Street's #crypto king Bart Smith sees these as the next key levels for #bitcoin as it tumbles below k pic.twitter.com/QbJY2Goh5X
— CNBC's Fast Money (@CNBCFastMoney) August 1, 2018
As Smith noted, many technical analysts, like Robert Sluymer from Fundstrat, see ,800 as a vital level, so the most recent move above that price is a promising sign. The expert attributed the 30% bounce off year-to-date lows to the positive news regarding the VanEck and SolidX ETF.
The Susquehanna executive went on to note that if Bitcoin stabilizes above ,800 and ,500, it is likely that the bears won’t return, or at least not anytime soon. After seeing a loss of 7% over the past forty-eight hours, Bitcoin has since rebounded off the ,500 support level, currently at ,650 as of the time of writing. Moving forward, Smith hopes to see higher lows, coupled with higher highs, as a potential precursor to a longer-term upward trend.
As reported by NewsBTC previously, Mike Novogratz, another influential investor in this industry, also expects Bitcoin to continue to do well moving into future, recently advising his followers to “stay long.”
“Smart Regulation, Not More Regulation”
Fulfilling the seemingly obligatory need for discussion around the Winklevoss ETF verdict, Susquehanna’s digital asset expert, implied that the fact that Bitcoin didn’t drop under key resistance levels due to the manipulation and liquidity concerns is a positive signal.
This comment from Smith sparked a question from a Fast Money trader, who asked if bulls want “more regulation, less regulation or more adoption.” The panelist later elaborated, stating:
“When I talk to guys and speak to global funds every day, I want to know how people can get a little more liquidity in these names, but in and out quicker and how they can have the right to trade this on their desk. I don’t even know what I am hoping for if i’m a bull right now.”
Responding to this concern, Smith pointed out that he sees qualified custodians, along with more institutional support for crypto-based futures. While futures have yet to see countrywide, or worldwide adoption, the analyst clarified that there is already a substantial amount of liquidity there, with U.S. markets posting a daily volume figure of a hefty 0 million.
Another hope for bulls is the introduction of a “brand name pension fund, endowment foundation, or insurance company” into the industry, which many have seen as a long time coming. The allocation of even just 1% of an institution’s liquid assets to Bitcoin, which has a close-to-zero correlation with traditional markets, would decrease their risk profile.
Attempting to help make this concept meld with viewer’s minds better, Smith brought up Square’s stock, which is apparently half as volatile as Bitcoin. So if a consumer was to own 66% of Square Stock and 33% in Bitcoin, the investor is basically taking on the same amount of risk in each asset. Bringing this into the context of institutions, the cryptocurrency investor noted:
“As soon as institutions start thinking about Bitcoin as that, and not as this scary thing that needs to be regulated, I mean, it’s about smart regulation, it’s not about more regulation… we also want regulatory clarity.”
The Susquehanna representative, known better as the “Crypto King” to Fast Money viewers, closed off his time on the show, restating his bullishness on the long-term prospects of this industry. He stated:
“This is a long game, and I think that a lot of the things are happening out there that people see as an opportunity, and we’re going to continue to see institutional adoption and the plumbing get built so that can happen.”
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Billionaire Investor: Most Crypto Will Fail, Bitcoin is King
The ideology of Bitcoin maximalism is heavily contested in the cryptocurrency community, with many seeing an aversion to altcoins as a stigma from the bygone Bitcoin-centric market. However, an investing legend from legacy markets has taken a stand as a fighter for Bitcoin, and Bitcoin only, claiming that most other cryptocurrencies are worthless.
Bill Miller — An Unlikely Bitcoin Proponent
On Friday, Bill Miller, a sixty-eight year-old investor and fund manager with a net worth of billion, took to Bloomberg to discuss his opinions on the cryptocurrency industry.
Bill Miller says Bitcoin is interesting but that most cryptocurrencies worthless https://t.co/keSepOKmkH pic.twitter.com/2bkHSiHa5L
— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) July 27, 2018
Miller first outlined his stake in the cryptocurrency market, noting that he holds large amounts of Bitcoin in a partnership he is a part of, along with a “pretty significant” personal position in the foremost crypto asset at an average buy-in of 0.
As covered by NewsBTC, Miller has long been a cryptocurrency proponent, investing over billion of his hedge fund’s liquid assets, in Bitcoin over the past few years. Taking into account that his net worth is in the range of the hundreds of millions and an average acquisition cost of 0, it is likely that crypto assets make up a majority of his own fortune.
When prompted to talk about why he would make such an investment, he stated:
“It is an interesting technological experiment, that we don’t know how it is going to come out. Right now, at ,800 or wherever it is today, is much less risky than when it was at 0, for the reason that every day that it doesn’t blow up, go to zero, or get regulated out of existence, is that more money is going to flow into the ecosystem.”
He later brought up an intriguing point about the scarcity of Bitcoin, and how there are currently only ~17 million of the cryptocurrency in circulation for 25 million millionaires worldwide. Taking these figures into account, the American investor went on to add that if every millionaire was to acquire one Bitcoin, the price of the asset would go up “non-linearly (exponentially).”
While this ambition seems advantageous, it is likely that the scarcity of Bitcoin will only drive prices higher moving into the future.
“Most Altcoins Are Worthless”
When queried about if the concept of the value of scarcity applies to altcoins, Miller adamantly stated that a majority of the over 1600 altcoins are worthless, pointing out that Bitcoin is one of the most stable assets in this nascent industry.
He also noted that the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has the highest chance of succeeding, while Etherum follows closely behind the so-called “digital gold” from his perspective.
There are two primary types of industry observers. Firstly, legacy market on-lookers who like to state that “Bitcoin doesn’t have intrinsic value” due to the fact that it doesn’t directly generate capital/profit as a result of the network’s operations. Secondly, crypto advocates who note that the “intrinsic value” argument is wildly misconstrued, as Bitcoin shouldn’t be valued in the same way a publicly-traded firm is.
Miller seems to be in the same boat as the latter, as he sees a multitude of ways to fairly value Bitcoin. The primary method which he sees to value such a crypto asset is to view it as a “non-correlated asset that is most similar to gold,” while it also can be transported with ease and can be utilized in retail environments.
As was later added, Bitcoin could eventually be seen as a direct alternative to gold, a “digital gold” if you may, with traditional institutions and “various central banks” acquiring Bitcoin as just another asset to keep under lock and key. If this forecast comes true, values for this asset will likely skyrocket, with Miller noting that Bitcoin could reach a valuation of one-third of the market capitalization of gold, which currently sits at trillion.
He closed off the interview making an interesting point, noting that crypto investors shouldn’t put too many eggs in one basket, and should treat their investment into crypto assets as a “positive expectation lottery ticket” that could multiply to “10, 20 or even 50% of your assets in a couple of years.”
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Bitcoin King Novogratz Leads Investment Round in Crypto Lending Service
Billionaire Investor and President of Fortress Investment Group, Mike Novogratz, is leading a .5 million fundraising round for a cryptocurrency lending service called BlockFi. The investment is the latest move by the “Bitcoin King” that is solidifying his position as a leader within the expanding cryptocurrency community.
BlockFi: A Modern Take on Collateral Based Borrowing
BlockFi is a New York-based company that offers USD loans using client’s cryptocurrency holdings as collateral. This allows individuals and corporations who don’t want to sell their cryptocurrencies to free up cash while still allowing for increases in their investment’s value. BlockFi holds client’s Bitcoin or Ethereum with a registered custodian throughout the duration of the loan, and returns it once the loan is fully paid off. They explain their mission on their website, saying:
“BlockFi’s mission is to provide liquidity, transparency and efficiency to digital financial markets by creating products that meet the needs of consumers and corporations across the globe. We build bridges between traditional finance and digital markets that enable growth for all participants.”
BlockFi’s services are currently in beta and only available in 35 states, but their already multi-million dollar book of loans is rapidly growing as the service expands into more states and potentially international markets. The service is also looking into accepting more cryptocurrencies for collateral, with their current offering limited to Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Mike Novogratz’s Investment Marks new Opportunity for BlockFi
Novogratz’s investment in BlockFi comes just five months after the company’s first fundraising round of 2018, where the company raised a total of .55 million from a variety of companies including Consensus Ventures, SoFi, and Kenetic Capital.
The latest round of funding dwarfs BlockFi’s previous fundraising efforts at .5 million, which will give the company a significant amount of latitude to further expand into other states, countries, and add new products in addition to support for other cryptocurrencies.
BlockFi’s founder, Zac Prince, spoke to Business Insider discussing the possibility of other investment products including “fixed-income and debt investments, as well as lines of credit and a credit card.”
In addition to adding support for other investment products, the company is likely to increase their maximum loan amounts. Currently, BlockFi borrowers can borrow a maximum of 0,000 using cryptocurrencies as collateral, which could limit the amount of corporate borrowers interested in using the service.
In an effort to increase the amount of products offered, they brought on the former managing director for Bank of America, Rene van Kesteren, in May. Novogratz spoke of Galaxy Digital’s investment in BlockFi, saying:
“A robust lending market is the keystone for financial systems and BlockFi’s institutional approach and deep lending expertise were key drivers in our decision to partner with them.”
Galaxy Digital and the Future of Investment Banking
The multi-million dollar investment in BlockFi is being made through Novogratz’s merchant bank, Galaxy Digital, which was started with the intention of investing solely in businesses relating to blockchain technologies and digital currencies.
According to Galaxy Bank’s page on Crunchbase, the companies goal is to “to raise primary capital towards building a best-in-class, full service, institutional-quality merchant banking business in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space.”
The company has been making a series of high profile investments throughout 2018, including a recent million one in AlphaPoint, a New York company specializing in building platforms for tokenized assets. Galaxy Digital also recently partnered with Bloomberg to launch a cryptocurrency index.
Specialized investment solutions focusing on cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies are becoming increasingly popular as the space continues to grow and as traditional investment groups shy away from the cutting-edge technologies.
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Crypto King Silbert: Bitcoin at Bottom, Only Upwards From Here
CNBC’s seemingly non-stop coverage of the crypto market has continued, with so-called Crypto King Barry Silbert appearing on ‘Fast Money’ on Wednesday afternoon.
Barry Silbert Gives Multiple Reasons To Why Bitcoin Has Hit A Bottom
On Wednesday, Barry Silbert, an early Bitcoin investor and founder of many crypto-related firms, recently took to CNBC’s ‘Fast Money’ segment to express his opinions on why Bitcoin recently bottomed out.
The king of #crypto @barrysilbert says #bitcoin has found its bottom and the only way is up. pic.twitter.com/CIi2PEKDnK
— CNBC's Fast Money (@CNBCFastMoney) July 18, 2018
Firstly, the so-called ‘crypto king’, noted that there was a lot of institutional ‘dry powder’, or highly liquid assets, sitting on the sidelines, waiting to make a good entry into the crypto market. This statement implies that Silbert, who runs a crypto-focused investment fund, saw an influx in institutional capital leading up to the most recent run-up.
As reported by NewsBTC previously, a recent report from Greyscale Investments, which is a subsidiary of Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group, confirms an increase in institutional interest. According to this new report, Greyscale raised 0 million in the first half of 2018, with 56% of that investment coming from institutional investors.
July 16: CEO of BlackRock says there is ZERO institutional interest in crypto
July 18: @GrayscaleInvest publishes the 1H 2018 Digital Asset Investment Report, which highlights that 56% of 0 mm raised to date came from institutional investorshttps://t.co/H1ZuHEOP79
— Barry Silbert (@barrysilbert) July 18, 2018
Secondly, the ‘crypto king’ stated that the bears have run out of Bitcoin to sell, also pointing out that technical signals are starting to turn positive. Silbert’s comment about technical signals stays in line with what Tom Lee of Fundstrat had to say on the day prior, with Lee noting:
“Over the weekend, there were quite a lot of folks who were talking about TA and the potential formation of either an inverse head and shoulders or a Wyckoff buy off. So it sounds like the technicals were really starting to become more favorable.”
Last but not least, he brought attention to the recent comments about cryptocurrencies made by on-lookers from legacy markets, specifically the negative sentiment held by the Fed’s chairman, Howard Marks, and Ken Griffin. He specified that the fact that Bitcoin didn’t see any substantial price decreases in the face of negative sentiment is an extremely bullish sign.
Silbert: I’ve Been Through Two 80% Drops Before And It’s All The Same
Mellisa Lee, one of the primary hosts of the segment, seeming confused about Silbert’s previous comment, went on to ask him if he sees a regulatory criticism as a bad sign. Oddly enough, Silbert actually sees this as just another part of the cycle, noting that this is the area where you can make a positive return on your investment. He elaborated, stating:
“So I started buying Bitcoin in 2012 when the price was ten dollars and I’ve gone through now two 80 percent corrections, and this was a 65 percent correction. It’s the same old criticisms… Its just (that) they’re (critics) uninformed because everybody on this desk, anyone who spends the time to look into what is this asset class, why is it important, why does it have so much potential comes out of it being a believer.”
You can insinuate from his statement that he sees Bitcoin reaching higher levels of adoption after retail and institutional investors get correctly educated about this industry.
“99% Of Altcoins Are Going To Zero”
Silbert, who is the head of the crypto-focused Digital Currency Group venture fund, went on to reveal his firm’s holdings in crypto assets on-air.
Quoting directly from DCG’s balance sheet, the Bitcoin investor conveyed that his firm’s crypto portfolio consisted of 50% of Bitcoin, 25% of Ethereum Classic, 15% of ZCash, 5% of Decentraland and a new 5% holding of ZenCash.
Explaining why the crypto assets his firm held were not too diversified, Silbert noted that a majority of altcoins are going to zero, adamantly stating:
“There are thousands of them (cryptocurrencies) out there. There is only five that we like. There are only five that we have money in. The other 99% I think are going to zero.”
This sentiment about the rest of the market was expected of the early Bitcoin investor, as he has historically focused his attention on the world’s foremost cryptocurrency, or “digital gold” as some like to call it.
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Wall Street’s Crypto King Calls Bitcoin ‘Currency of the Internet’
Wall Street’s “Crypto King” sat down with the panel on CNBC’s Fast Money to discuss Bitcoin’s utility, calling the digital coin the “currency of the internet.”
Bitcoin is the Best Crypto Investment
Bart Smith, head of digital asset trading at Susquehanna International Group, dubbed the “Crypto King” of Wall Street for his expertise on the space and his bullish attitude towards investing in cryptocurrency, was in the Fast Money guest seat again, this time to discuss the utility of Bitcoin. He told the panel that Bitcoin is still the best crypto investment as people are “functionally using”. He added,
“If you want to own the asset that you can actually use today and that people are functionally using, it’s bitcoin,”
The fast money panel threw questions at Smith about the current state of the market and seemingly stagnated price of Bitcoin as it languishes in the 6 thousand dollar range. One panelist suggested that this area may be the new norm for Bitcoin which would at least lend it some consistency as a store of value.
The price of Bitcoin is still feeling the effects of a tough spring that consisted of a prolonged bear market with mitigating factors such as the ongoing regulatory debate and several exchange hacks that have routinely brought up the issue of security. Smith though pointed out that creation of Bitcoin futures in the fall of 2017 created a premature expansion of the cryptocurrency market. He explained saying,
“people got very excited about bitcoin, they got really excited about all these other tokens and use cases. And all of the sudden you saw all of these smaller tokens, as people got excited about them, massively outperform. We got way ahead of ourselves.”
Bitcoin has Established Utility
He went on to point out the use cases that Bitcoin has created, explaining that when people in the US buy cryptocurrency they generally use dollars, but in other country’s, they buy with Bitcoin which has made it the “reserve currency of crypto”.
Beyond its role as the reserve currency of crypto, Smith went on to illustrate its use as a remittance payment method. Talking about people working in one country and making payments back to their original place of origin he said;
“They use Western Union, traditional banks; It is slow and it is expensive, and there are people that can stop you from sending that money, whether that’s good or bad. With bitcoin, I can send money. It’s fast. It’s cheap. And frankly, no one can stop me.”
He concluded by telling the panel that because Bitcoin has established utility, it has a competitive advantage, adding that;
“If you’re looking at these other use cases, smart contracts, or lightning network or these different technological advancements, I think people are coming to realize, those things are very difficult and aren’t coming anytime soon,”
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Ethereum is Gaining 50,000 Developers per Month, King of Dapps
An independent vlogger posted a video on Reddit about why he’s still bullish on crypto. In the video the vlogger names six points to keep in mind about the health of the space as networks continue to grow, clarity comes in to being and crypto attracts the best and brightest minds from both the tech and financial industries.
Bitcoin Network is Healthier than Ever
Most traders haven’t made a lot of money in 2018 as the market correction that put an end to the 2017 bull run lingers on and the price of Bitcoin has wavered between and ,000. Despite the industry oracles who are even now calling for Bitcoin to reach outlandish numbers by the end of the year what this vlogger, who posts as u/undertheradar48, focuses on is the security of the system. As he states in his video in the last month there has been a 300% increase in the bitcoin hash rate, meaning that more people than ever are mining the coin, meaning that ledger is larger than ever and therefore the system more secure.
Beyond the hash rate and estimated 0 billion dollars u/undertheradar48 tells his audience is locked up in Bitcoin he touches on something even more important. That 9 years in, the Bitcoin network is still alive and growing despite naysayers and pundits from the financial world hammering the press with statements calling it “Rat Poison” and a Ponzi scheme and government agencies waffling on laws and regulations that would give legitimacy.
As the video points out the Bitcoin network has grown bigger than anyone at the start could have imagined and so is the Ethereum network growing at an unprecedented rate. As he states there are more people downloading the Ethereum developer program Truffle today than there were during the networks price peak back in January. The number he quotes which seems to have come from a Consensys article is 50,000 new downloads per month which if projected through to the end of the year means an additional half a million developers working on the Ethereum network.
Ethereum adding 50,000 Devs per Month
These estimates got the poster a lot of flack from his Reddit followers. Some commenting that he is delusional and just spreading the kind of inflated numbers that in the end make the community look like fools but others were more positive. One commenter points out that those are worldwide numbers that include companies, universities, and even total newbie devs.
Perhaps the actual number is not as important as the amount of work being done on the network as developers continue to generate smart contracts and decentralized apps. As u/undertheradar48 points out at the start of his 5-minute video at the end of 2017 there 900 Dapps and today there is over 1,500 and on pace to hit 2,000 long before 2018 wraps up. Most of these Dapps won’t make it but that doesn’t matter the one or two that break out can be enough to change an entire industry the way that Uber did for taxis or Ways has done for navigating.
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Institutional Investors Move to Bitcoin ‘Inevitable,’ Says Wall Street’s ‘Crypto King’
‘Wall Street’s Crypto King’ Bart Smith is expecting institutional investors to move into the cryptocurrency market once regulations are clarified.
Institutions Need Regulatory Certainty
Smith runs the investment firm Susquehanna International Group which started investing in Bitcoin in 2014 and expanded in 2017 during the crypto boom. He said that the company trades on average 0 million a day on Bitcoin futures. Smith told CNBC that institutional investors are waiting on regulatory clarity which will allow the floodgates to open.
“[Regulatory] clarity will allow institutions to come in more than anything else because institutions don’t like to invest into uncertainty. So we’re just taking the most conservative approach that we can,” said Smith.
The crypto market is both volatile and loosely regulated. This means the majority of investors are individuals as they do not have to worry about compliance issues and stakeholder’s opinions. Some banks have started dipping their toes in the water, such as Santander creating a financial payments app with Ripple and Barclays launching a venture capital fund into emerging technologies. However, it appears that the lack of regulation is holding up entry to the market.
Coinbase may help to open the doors as they released four new products designed to open up the market. NewsBTC reported that they aim to open up billion of institutional investor money that’s waiting to move into the market.
Regulations Will ‘Give Investors Confidence’
CNBC also reported that money managers for multibillionaires are getting prepared for making entries into the market. This may happen as soon as the end of 2018, according to pension industry advisors. Managing partner of BlockTower, Ari Paul said: “I do think it’s inevitable from a few angles. Even if they never believe in it as an asset class, they’re smart enough to recognize the alpha opportunity.”
Institutional investors are preparing to enter the cryptocurrency market with a vengeance. They are generally long term investors and will be pumping billions into the market. Expect the top ten coins to go through the roof fairly quickly. The bulk of alt coins will soon follow.
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) May 21, 2018
Regulation may be on its way as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is starting to catch up and has clarified its position on initial coin offerings (ICOs) as securities and Bitcoin not being a security. They have also released details on the listing of the first Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. According to this release, proceedings are set to begin. John Hyland, the global head of exchange-traded products for Bitwise Asset Management, told ETF that once the first ETF is approved, others will follow and the SEC will have no grounds to turn them down.
CME Group has also said that demand has been rising from institutional investors in Asia and that demand was up by 50% over the first four months of 2018. He also pointed out increasing interest by new investors looking to get into the market. He said: “More regulation will increase efficiency of the market and give investors confidence.”
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Cryptosphere Veteran Sunny King Creates New Blockchain Database Platform
Sunny King, a well-known anonime figure in the crypto industry, has returned to lead a new project called VEE as their chief architect and bring a database platform for blockchain applications.
The VEE team is currently on a promotional spree having visited Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and will go over Europe in February.
The 5th generation of Bitcoin
Short for Virtual Economy Era, VEE is an open source blockchain platform that will empower developers to build applications. It has a modular structure, which supports multiple consensus algorithms and a secured network that helps both in-chain and cross chain transactions.
Aside from being a platform, VEE also has a blockchain database cloud feature (claiming to be blockchain 5.0) allowing not only developers but also corporations and industries to create a decentralized and scalable database. To boost the blockchain incorporation of businesses with cloud platforms such as banking, asset management, and trading, VEE will also offer custom created blockchain database options.
Unlike Bitcoin’s Proof of Work (PoW) mining mechanism, the blockchain fuelling the platform is based on the Proof of Stake (PoS) algorithm. Sunny King and his team were one of the frontrunners to utilize PoS to make the blockchain more energy efficient and develop Peercoin in 2012, which was the world’s first Proof-of-Stake coin. While PoW requires miners to prove a certain level of computational work, PoS wants provers to show the possession of a certain amount of money. This means the one to create the new block is selected in a deterministic way, depending on their wealth, also defined as stake.
Developers and other users of the VEE platform will be able to process transactions and run applications through VEE coins, the native currency of the platform. The ICO is expected to be announced soon. The company plans to provide a wide range of app development tools to accelerate the building process. Though the platform’s public API is free of charge for app developers, there will be a hosting fee. Apart from management costs, this will also cover the maintenance and upgrade of the distributed database.
The King has returned
Being the founder of Peercoin and Primecoin, VEE’s chief architect Sunny King has a long history of developing blockchain based systems.
“The impact blockchain technology would bring to the world could be even greater than those of the Industrial Revolution.” says Sunny King explaining how private property has been the foundation of human civilization until now. “With these visions, we have termed this new economic era the Virtual Economy Era.”
It might be still in the early stages, but VEE hopes it will be able to bring a platform to the blockchain world which will host tens of thousands applications and accommodate millions of users.
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