Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Bitcoin Is Part of Plan to Get IMF-Approved $1.3 Billion for El Salvador: Bloomberg

According to a Bloomberg article, the International Monetary Fund has approved a $1.3 billion loan for El Salvador. Bitcoin adoption was one of the things that persuaded the IMF to provide a loan to this Central American country.　　 IMF considers lending El Salvador $1.3 billion　　The president of the countrys central bank, Douglas Rodriguez, stated in an interview that the government had stressed to the IMF that Bitcoin adoption is likely to be more beneficial for the country than they had initially planned for.　　The reason for this is that Rodriguez reckons that Bitcoins volatile price—on the rise at the moment—can help the countrys economy to rise this year higher than forecasts expect it to, more than 9%.　　He added that the only risks he sees for the economy are upside risks. This was one of the arguments El Salvador gave to the IMF when discussing a $1.3 billion loan for the country.　　In November, the IMF will come up with a recent review of the countrys economics and finances and will return to a discussion regarding the loan.　　In June, the IMF warned that Bitcoin adoption may cause financial and regulatory issues for El Salvador. Moodys Investor Service warned that using BTC as a

2021-10-20Deep Dive

Bitcoin futures ETF debuts with highest ever first day 'natural' volume of $1B

ProShares Bitcoin Strategy exchange-traded fund (BITO) saw the highest ever first day “natural” volume for an ETF, with the figure reaching a little over $1 billion by the end of the opening day.　　It is second overall, tailing just behind the Blackrock US Carbon Transition Readiness ETF which booked $1.16B in volume on its debut in April.　　The ProShares Bitcoin futures-based ETF launched on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on October 19 with an opening price of $40.88. According to data from TradingView, BITO closed the day at $41.94 with a total of 24.313 million shares changing hands, equating to a first-day volume of just over $1 billion.　　Commenting on the BITO‘s opening day performance, Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas tweeted that ProShares ETF was arguably the largest in terms of “natural” or “grassroots interest.”　　Balchunas said Blackrock‘s US Carbon Transition Readiness ETF (LCTU) April launch volume was “unnatural” as it was driven by “one pre-planned giant investor.” LCTU’s daily volume also fell off a cliff to between $2 million to $6 million in the days after launch.　　There were reportedly $570 million worth of inflows for BITO on the first day, suggesting that ProShares ETF could rank itself as an industry heavyweight

2021-10-20Deep Dive

The ‘Bitcoin Bubble’ Hasn’t Even Started Yet, Says Analyst

Bitcoin‘s price is up a considerable 100% since the lows below $30K a few months back, but one analyst believes that the true “bubble” hasn’t even started yet.　　According to CryptoQuant analyst who goes by the Twitter handle venturefoundEr, we have yet to see the real BTC bubble.　　He argues that “bubbles form when the momentum of short-term returns attracts enough money that the makeup of investors shifts from mostly long-term to mostly shor-term.”　　At the time of this writing, the short-term hodlers account for 17% of the supply distribution – a number thats sitting at an all-time low.　　Moreover, the narrative further dives into the reasons behind bubble formation and says that:　　The formation of bubbles isn‘t so much about people irrationally participating in long-term investing. They’re about people somewhat rationally moving towards short-term trading to capture momentum that had been feeding on itself.　　Source: Twitter　　Another common way to gauge where are we in the current market cycle is to see the retail interest in BTC.　　As CryptoPotato reported earlier, theres still no sign of FOMO (fear of missing out) in the market as retail investors are nowhere near as many as they were back in May this year, let alone 2017.　　For more blockchain news, please

2021-10-19Deep Dive

President Bukele calls the latest Bitcoin (BTC) protest in El Salvador a failure

El Salvador‘s President Bukele responded to the weekend’s Bitcoin protest, calling it a failure while also downplaying the numbers involved.　　Ever since announcing a dual Bitcoin-dollar currency system, a segment of the population has voiced its opposition. Referring to President Bukeles insistence to press ahead regardless, they say El Salvador is now a “dictatorship.”　　President Bukele hit back at the accusations by jokingly changing his Twitter bio to read “Emperor of El Salvador.”　　The right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party has jumped on the protests in a bid to score political points. However, this hasnt fazed President Bukele, who remains dedicated to supporting Bitcoin as legal tender.The protests continue　　Since becoming legal tender in El Salvador on September 7, protestors have become increasingly violent in their opposition to Bitcoin. On Sunday, ugly scenes saw thousands of protestors march through the capital, San Salvador.　　Local media outlets estimate around 4,000 people took part. They carried banners and chanted, “What does El Salvador want？ Get rid of the dictator!” Protestors also burnt an effigy of the President.　　Deputy of El Salvador Carlos Bruch was quick to slate the protests by calling out ARENAs role in stoking the violence.　　The ruling New Ideas party also joined in by pointing out

2021-10-19Deep Dive

President Bukele calls the latest Bitcoin (BTC) protest in El Salvador a failure

2021-10-19Deep Dive

Crypto Scammers Take Over Dating Apps Users’ iPhones

Crypto scammers have been busy making millions at the cost of iPhone users who were merely looking for romance on dating apps. Wherever there is great profit, fraud comes to trick its way into a promised land.　　The increase of scammers has been widely reported this year. They are a real danger for cryptocurrency users. It is not only about the money, but their personal data is also at risk.　　Sophos, the British cyber security company, has been following up these romance-targeted frauds and they recently gave them the code name of “CryptoRom”.　　From a few news reports only, Sophos pointed out that victims have lost from $25.000 to $87.000 by trusting scammers who contacted them on dating apps. On a bigger scale, one of the scammers bitcoin addresses had a total of $1.38 million in it. To this number, one can add up all the other unknown addresses of scammers　　Sophos had already set their eyes on these types of scams past may, but the situation has become more serious. The hackers have expanded from Asia to the US, the UK, France, and Hungary; meaning that the risk is only growing, gaining territory and power. These scammers have learned enough about social behavior

2021-10-19Deep Dive

Banned Bitcoin Miners Found Exploding China’s State Resources

Banned bitcoin miners were found using China‘s state resources to carry on with their operations. This happens in the midst of a severe power shortage and the country’s fierce attempt to shut down all BTC mining.　　The recent coal crisis in China raised their interest to speed up the shutdown of all Bitcoin mining operations. According to a recent report published on Bloomberg, the authorities of Zhejiang and Jiangso provinces investigated Bitcoin mining operations that were using state-owned resources. As reported:　　Jiangsu found about one-fifth of some 4,500 internet protocol addresses associated with illegal mining activity belonged to public institutions, according to the media outlet The Paper, (…) Some 260,000 kilowatt hours of electricity were being used per day,　　The authorities we able to locate them by tracing their IP through mining pool data paired with electric companies accounts.China‘s Race To Lower Carbon Dioxide Emissions　　Among China’s reasons to reject Bitcoin mining were the risks of fraudulent operations and the alleged bitcoin energy consumptions impact on the environment.　　While this is a relevant worry, raids and a crackdown of an entire industry rather than solutions might bring even more problems. Chinese grounds are shaking in many ways, and this report talks about the peoples own

2021-10-19Deep Dive

Polkadot (DOT) founder announces $774 million development fund for DeFi

Following DOT‘s rally last week, driven by the announcement of Polkadot’s highly-anticipated parachain auctions, Gavin Wood teased $774 million ready to be spent on innovative ideas.　　Polkadot, created by Wood, currently has 18,936,300 DOT in its treasury, which can, according to the founder, instead of being slowly burned by the protocol, fund anything that the networks governance believes valuable.Building, improving, educating, and beyond　　“The Polkadot treasury currently has 18,936,300 DOT (DOT, not USD – do the math) in it ready to spend on *your* ideas for building, improving, educating and indeed, anything else that the Polkadot governance believes valuable,” Wood wrote on Twitter, inviting DOT holders to put forward their suggestions for furthering the networks growth.　　The networks proposed on-chain governance system takes into consideration token holders, validators, a Council, and a Technical Committee.　　“The DOT in the treasury comes as a natural part of the network protocol. Fees, slashes and suboptimal staking configurations are all contributing factors,” the creator of Polkadot and Kusama continued to explain where the funds are coming from.　　“If it goes unused, it slowly gets burned. It currently burns 239,988 DOT every month,” he added.Ready for parachain launch　　The networks first parachain slot auctions are proposed to begin on November 11,

2021-10-19Deep Dive

Interactive Brokers Group Expands Crypto Services to Include RIAs

Interactive Brokers Group announced today that it would launch cryptocurrency trading and custody services for U.S. Registered Investment Advisors. The move comes roughly one month after Interactive Brokers introduced crypto trading for clients.　　Interactive Brokers Group Introduces New Options for Investing in Crypto　　Global brokerage firm Interactive Brokers Group announced today that it would offer cryptocurrency trading and custody services for Registered Investment Advisors in the U.S. This would allow RIAs to trade and custody certain cryptocurrencies on behalf of their clients, thus enabling them to manage their clients positions in cryptocurrencies in addition to those in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other financial instruments.　　Working through Paxos, Interactive Brokers Group will enable RIAs to trade and custody Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash on behalf of their clients. The news comes only a month after the firm introduced a previous partnership with Paxos, which rolled out crypto trading for U.S. clients in September. The new move would allow RIAs to manage such trades on their clients behalf.　　The move comes in response to growing investor demand for exposure to cryptocurrency markets. In a press release, Steve Sanders, EVP of Marketing and Product Development at Interactive Brokers, said:　　“Allocating a small percentage of assets to

2021-10-19Deep Dive

Brazil Central Bank Report: citizens purchased $4.2 billion in crypto in 2021

Brazilians‘ zeal for cryptocurrencies was recently confirmed by their 2021 crypto purchases. The exclusive Central Bank report revealed that the nation’s residents have bought $4.2 billion worth of crypto since January 2021. The latest purchase was registered in the month of August, amounting to $496 million. However, the highest purchase of crypto actives was marked in May, when Brazilians bought $756 million in crypto. Since then, no month has been able to beat Mays record high of over $750 million.　　“Since then these numbers have been falling (US$695 million in June and US$583 million in July), but they are still much higher than what was seen at the beginning of the year: in February cryptoactive purchases were US$386 million and in March, $357 million,” stated the report that takes cryptocurrencies as part of the commercial balance of products.　　 One-way Flow of crypto　　Bruno Serra, the director of monetary policy of the Central Bank of Brazil spoke in a videoconference organized by the company Upon Global on Friday. He highlighted that the Brazilian investments in crypto actives abroad are potentially three times greater than in American shares. Furthermore, he asserted that Brazilians investment into crypto will only rise from this stage onwards. He

2021-10-19Deep Dive