Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Gold outperforms Bitcoin as a store of value as BTC drops below $40K

As the weekend began, Bitcoin gave up the double-digit gains from earlier in the week to drop below a critical psychological marker of $40k. Data from Santitment charts the contest between Bitcoin and old as the premier store of value as the world continues to experience uncertainty.　　By overlaying the charts, it is clear that, as the likelihood of war increased, both Bitcoin and the S We can transfer Bitcoin’s value to loved ones within minutes. You can’t send physical gold to your family via your mobile phone.　　This opens up the debate about what makes a store of value in 2022？ If a store of value protects us from the day to day volatility of markets, then the above chart shows that neither gold nor Bitcoin passes the test. On the other hand, if a store of value is something that retains or increases over a long enough timeline, well, I don’t think Bitcoin has failed this test quite yet.　　Isn’t a digital store of value the most sensible option in an ever-increasingly digital world？

2022-03-06Deep Dive

Central Banks have been tinkering with digital currencies, and IMF approves

IMF has been pro-CBDC for a while, and the Central Banks from all around the world have been looking to digital currencies to replace cash and many have come a long way. Recently, IMF President Kristalina Georgieva acknowledged the recent movement towards CBDCs and re-stated their support to them by saying:　　“We know that the move towards CBDCs is gaining momentum, driven by the ingenuity of Central Banks. All told, around 100 countries are exploring CBDCs at one level or another. Some researching, some testing, and a few already distributing CBDC to the public.”　　Georgieva further elaborated:　　“As you might expect, the IMF is deeply involved in this issue, including through providing technical assistance to many members. An important role for the Fund is to promote the exchange of experience and support the interoperability of CBDCs.”　　Amongst the 100 countries President Georgieva mentioned, many are at the stage of development. However, there are some like Mexico who are still considering whether or not to invest in launching their own digital currency.　　Amongst the ones who are at the stage of development, Canada started working on their CBDC in 2019, and Russia and India have been working to launch their digital own digital currency. The Federal

2022-03-06Deep Dive

The Sandbox expands the metaverse of K-Pop with this key partnership

The Sandbox has announced a partnership with Cube Entertainment to expand business in the metaverse with the creation of a K-Culture complex in The Sandbox metaverse owned by Cube.　　The Sandbox and Cube entertainment will hold events to “introduce K-Culture in the Metaverse.” K-Culture will include K-Pop. A K-Culture complex in Cube Entertainment-owned LAND will allow users to virtually experience K-Culture from across the world. This partnership focuses on the detailed collaboration for business expansion regarding metaverse and NFT, which began with the establishment of ‘Anicube’, a new joint venture between Animoca Brands which is the parent company of The Sandbox and Cube Entertainment.　　The Sandbox Parent Animoca Brands is planning to promote not only K-POP but the entire K-Culture to continue business alliances in metaverse included in the Animoca Brands ecosystem through their new joint venture, named AniCube Entertainment.　　The joint partnership looks to leverage off the global success of K-Pop bands, including BTS and BlackPink. Animoca Brands placed K-Pop as the driving force behind the likely success of the partnership with Cube Entertainment.　　Cube Entertainment is a South Korean record label. Artists under the Cube Entertainment banner include Jo Kwon, Yoo Seonho. Bands include BTOB, CLC, PENTAGON (G)I-DLE, and LIGHTSUM.K-pop entering the

2022-03-06Deep Dive

Meet Ripple & XRP, Cryptocurrency For Banks

Ripple is a money transfer network designed to serve the needs of the financial services industry. XRP, a cryptocurrency tailored to work on the Ripple network, is consistently listed among the top five cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.　　Despite its ambitions, Ripple is currently tied up in legal troubles with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), although thats hardly prevented XRP from surging in value with other cryptos.What Is Ripple？　　Ripple is a payments settlement system and currency exchange network that can process transactions around the world. The idea is that Ripple serves as a trusted agent in between two parties in a transaction as the network can quickly confirm that the exchange went through properly. Ripple can facilitate exchanges for a variety of fiat currencies, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and even commodities like gold.　　“Ripple was designed from the very beginning to essentially be a replacement for SWIFT [a leading money transfer network] or to otherwise replace the settlement layer between major financial institutions,” says Pat White, CEO of Bitwave.　　Whenever users make a transaction using the network, the network deducts a small amount of XRP, a cryptocurrency, as a fee.　　“The standard fee to conduct transactions on Ripple is set at 0.00001 XRP, which is

2022-03-05Deep Dive

Singapore hits Russian banks, crypto funding under sanctions

Singapore will impose unilateral sanctions against Russia, a move a former diplomat said was the first time in decades that the city state was censuring a foreign nation without backing from the United Nations (UN) Security Council.　　Sanctions include the imposition of export controls on items that can be used as weapons, targeted financial measures on designated Russian banks and restrictions on cryptocurrency transactions that may be used to circumvent financial sanctions, according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday (March 5).　　“For a small state like Singapore, this is not a theoretical principle, but a dangerous precedent. This is why Singapore has strongly condemned Russias unprovoked attack on Ukraine,” the ministry said in the statement.　　The measures also ban Singapore‘s financial institutions from providing services that would aid Russia’s government to raise new funds. Singapores trade in goods with Russia amounted to around S$5 billion (US$3.7 billion or about RM15.36 billion) in 2021, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Trade and Industry said in an email, adding that imports from Russia and Ukraine equal 0.8% of total imports to the city state.　　The tiny island nation rarely imposes sanctions on other countries in the absence of binding UN Security

2022-03-05Deep Dive

HOW IS BITCOIN’S PRICE AFFECTED BY THE NEWS?

The price of any asset is always impacted by a combination of factors. Unlike traditional financial assets, bitcoin has historically had its own set of factors affecting its price. Do things look any different now？ Lets find out.BASIC FACTORS: SUPPLY AND DEMAND　　Bitcoin‘s price is heavily dependent on supply and demand fluctuations, just like other assets. However, contrary to measures of fiat money, bitcoin’s supply is always known and its hard cap is set at 21 million coins.　　The demand for bitcoin always sits at the top of the cryptocurrency world‘s agenda — that’s why adoption of BTC is so talked about. Higher demand will lead to an increase in its price, especially when institutional investors get involved.　　For example, when companies and institutions began buying and holding bitcoin in early 2021, its price rose significantly as demand outpaced the rate at which new coins were being placed on the market for sale, resulting in a decrease in the total available supply of the cryptocurrency.　　Its price will drop, however, if there are more people who want to sell it.INSTITUTIONAL ADOPTION　　News influences investor perception about Bitcoin in a major way.　　In spite of extreme volatility in bitcoins price, the year 2021 stands out for its

2022-03-05Deep Dive

UK’s FCA investigated 300 crypto firms in 2021

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that it would double down on its efforts to prevent investors from coming to harm. It stated this in a press release which also detailed its plans for regulations and achievement in the past few months.FCA investigated 300 crypto firms　　The watchdog received more than 16,400 inquiries about possible scams between April to September last year. Crypto scams were the majority of these. This led it to investigate potential crypto scam businesses, opening 300 cases.　　But not all these cases involved actual scams. In many cases, they were unregistered securities. Presently, 50 of those cases are under investigation for connection to unauthorized business activities and crimes.　　This report shows the extent of unregulated crypto activities in the UK and the herculean task ahead for the commission.　　The FCA consumer data review report shows that the body was able to stop the registration of 1 in 4 firms due to the suspicious backgrounds of the team. It has also blacklisted 172 firms, adding them to its list of unregistered crypto businesses.　　However, a lot more still depends on the consumers. According to Sarah Pritchard, the executive director of markets at the FCA,　　Consumers need to have confidence when making

2022-03-05Deep Dive

New data suggests Russians don’t trade crypto like they used to

While some crypto analysts believe that Russia could evade the economic sanctions imposed on it through the use of crypto, new data from Chainalysis suggests otherwise.Russias crypto transaction volume drops　　According to the data, crypto transactions volume across exchanges based in Russia has plunged by 50% within the past week. The firm says that volumes across exchanges stood at a little over $70 million as last week, but the figure is now at around $34 million.　　Speaking on the possible cause of this decline in trading volume across exchanges in Russia, Citigroup Inc analyst Alexander Saunders acknowledged that the volume from the country has been relatively small.　　He continued that Russian purchases had little influence on the recent rally of Bitcoin; instead, he believes that the price rise was in anticipation of a Russian-influenced surge in demand, which did not happen.　　“Russian volumes have been relatively small so far, suggesting that the price action is more due to investors positioning for an expected uptick in demand from Russia, rather than Russian demand itself.”Can Russia still use crypto to evade sanctions？　　All of this means that the highly anticipated diversion to crypto among Russians did not happen as envisioned. This is congruent with one of our

2022-03-05Deep Dive

Moscow Exchange bans short selling of euro instruments

The Moscow Exchange said on Friday it imposed a ban on short selling of euro currency and stock instruments, in a further move by Russian authorities are taking to stabilise its shattered markets.　　Russian markets took a hit from a range of harsh economic and financial sanctions that the West imposed in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine.

2022-03-04Deep Dive

Euro Risks Slide to Parity as Ukraine War’s ‘Most Liquid Short’

What seemed almost impossible a few months ago, is now growing into an appreciable risk: the euro may sink to parity with the dollar this year.　　That‘s what strategists are warning as the Russian invasion of Ukraine threatens to derail the European economic recovery from the pandemic and delay even further the European Central Bank’s glacial progress toward policy normalization.　　The euro has been one of the worst performers among global currencies during the early stages of the Ukraine war, sliding 3.7% against the dollar over the past month to as low as $1.1010 on Friday. Traders have sold the shared currency as the welter of sanctions placed on Russia look to hurt the economies of the European nations most interlinked with Moscow.　　“Right now the euro is the most liquid short available for investors,” said Stephen Miller, an investment consultant at GSFM, a unit of Canada‘s CI Financial Corp. in Sydney. “The consequences of this conflict are going to last for a long, long time and it’s not unimaginable that we see euro test parity with the dollar over a 12-to-18-month horizon.”　　The probability that the euro will drop below parity with the greenback this year has climbed to 9.6%, according to Bloombergs

2022-03-04Deep Dive

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