FTX Raises $900 Million and Hits $18 Billion Valuation

FTX, a major cryptocurrency exchange and crypto futures trading platform, has raised $900 million in a new funding round.  Funding Round Attracts Top Investors  The Series B funding round brought in money from over 60 investors including SoftBank Group Corp, Sequoia, Thoma Bravo Ribbit Capital, and VanEck. Two crypto exchange funds, Coinbase Ventures and Circle, also participated in the fundraiser.  The newly-added funds put FTXs valuation at $18 billion. Its press release notes that it has seen “tremendous growth” since its launch in May 2019, with revenue growing by a factor of 75 since its 2020 Series A funding round and a factor of ten this year alone.  The firm noted that this is the largest fundraiser in crypto exchange history. Other large fundraisers include Circle‘s $440 million round in May 2021 and BlockFi’s $350 million round in March 2021.  FTX Will Use Funds to Expand  FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried commented that he is “incredibly humbled by the support weve gotten.” He added that FTX has formed a “hugely valuable set of partners” and that the new funds will help the firm “build out a bigger and broader vision.”  The exchange says that it will use its newly raised funds to expand its product line, grow its

2021-07-21Deep Dive

Calm Before The Storm: Why The Bitcoin Bull Market Is Definitely Not Over

Bitcoin proponents are not losing faith in the possibility of a comeback for the big bull, and a number of these proponents have reiterated this in reference to different bullish observations made over the week.  Different metrics have been fueling bullish expectations, and one of the newest ones comes from the on-chain analyst William Clemente, who breaks down where the market is currently at, and the surprising destination it shows itself to be headed to.  Incoming bull rally in less than a month?   In a recent on-chain analysis titled “calm before the storm,” (a reference to the perceived bull rally that is expected to precede the current bear market) the analyst points out what the pseudonymous Bitcoin trader John Wick has previously noted; the tightening of the Bollinger Bands indicator, following two volatility squeezes.  BTCUSD Chart By TradingView  The orange shaded area on the above chart, at the top left “is telling you that there is a big move coming,” explained Clemente, who goes on to reference July 2020, when the first of the volatility squeeze that sent the market to new highs was recorded. Following that, back in April 2021, another volatility squeeze sent the market back to a bearish state.  Breaking the expected

2021-07-21Deep Dive

EU’s new AML Guidelines set to ban anonymous crypto wallets

EU‘s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) proposal has incorporated a cryptocurrency clause under its third regulation. The Commission’s legislative proposal for crypto is responsible for regulating crypto-assets service providers. This clause also extends to transfers in crypto assets, for instance on Bitcoin (BTC) transfers there shall be a mandatory requirement to provide information on the originator and the beneficiary that are already commonplace for bank transfers.  The EU in its report said,  “Todays amendments will ensure full traceability of crypto-asset transfers, such as bitcoin, and will allow for prevention and detection of their possible use for money laundering or terrorism financing, the Commission said in a statement.”  Anonymous Crypto Wallets in Trouble  With the Institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies, there has also been a rise in crypto exchanges becoming the war zone for cyber-crimes globally. The decentralized system of money is anonymous and harder to trace, therefore it can be easily utilized in money laundering. To prevent the same, Anti-Money Laundering guidelines have been developed worldwide. However, AML guidelines have been known for being rigid and strict.  These regulations demand special reporting from exchanges that interfere with the daily functioning of trade and exchange on their blockchains.  The anonymous crypto wallets could be the first target under the newly

2021-07-21Deep Dive

Four Reasons for Losses in Cryptocurrency Trading!

Although cryptocurrency trading is rife with miracles, the industry has been seeing wildness where the minority enjoy profits, but the majority suffer losses. Reasons for losing money are presented as follows:  Dont see beyond the end of your nose.  It is opposite to paying attention to the bigger picture, not equivalent to transient or swing trading. People often talk about rises and drops in the short run instead of the long-term future. In this regard, positions need to be allocated rationally, and changes in the trend to be identified.  Hold the idea that the surge or plunge of prices can maintain for a while.  Believing this idea is a common mistake made by almost every trader. They follow suit and make purchases in face of the staggering surge of a coin but suffer losses when the uptrend reverses. There is no good solution in response to this habit except rectification step by step.  Understanding and knowledge are insufficient.  Many traders speculate the digital currencies based on others experiences instead of their contemplation. In this way, transactions will lead them to nowhere but failure.  The investment philosophy isnt developed.  The majority operate transactions according to their instincts rather than well-developed trading plans. Hence, they are more likely to see

2021-07-20Deep Dive

Janet Yellen: We Must 'Act Quickly' on Stablecoin Regulation

In brief  The Presidents Working Group on Financial Market met to discuss stablecoins.  Its members are working together to draft recommendations on how to regulate the fast-growing subset of cryptocurrencies.  U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with the heads of multiple federal agencies on Monday to discuss how to regulate stablecoins, a type of digital currency whose value is pegged to another currency.  Yellen, flanked by Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler, called together a closed meeting of the Presidents Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG). Other participants included the heads of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and Treasury officials—among them Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu.  According to a short readout of the meeting, Secretary Yellen “underscored the need to act quickly to ensure there is an appropriate U.S. regulatory framework in place” for stablecoins.  The top three U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins—Tether, USDC, and Binance USD—have a collective market capitalization of over $100 billion, per data from CoinGecko. And their rising prominence has left U.S. regulators concerned.  Powell last week testified before Congress that stablecoins should be regulated, pointing to the fact that Tether is mostly backed by debts known as “commercial

2021-07-20Deep Dive

Grayscale just launched a new DeFi fund. But is 50% of that Uniswap (UNI)?

Leading crypto asset management company Grayscale Investments has announced that it would be launching a DeFi Fund and Index, the firm second-ever diversified investment product, as per a release today.  Decentralized finance (DeFi) is a burgeoning crypto niche that has recorded some level of success in the last year. Such protocols do not need the interference of third parties, like banks or other financial institutions, to offer traditional financial services to users, and instead, rely on the extensive use of smart contracts (which are mostly built on Ethereum).  Grayscale Enters Defi  Tthe Fund will enable investors to have exposure to selected leading DeFi protocols. “Grayscale DeFi Fund (the Fund) provides investors with exposure to a selection of industry-leading DeFi protocols through a market-capitalization-weighted portfolio designed to track the CoinDesk DeFi Index,” the firm said in the release.  Micheal Sonnenshien, the CEO of the firm, noted that the DeFi products could change the face of the financial world. In his words “the emergence of decentralized finance protocols provide clear examples of technologies that can redefine the future of the financial services industry.” He continued that “we‘re proud to offer investors exposure to DeFi through Grayscale’s trusted, secure, and industry-leading investment product structures.”  This means investors would

2021-07-20Deep Dive

Bitcoin Has Been One Of The Worse Performing Assets This Year – Goldman Sachs

According to a Bloomberg report on Monday, Bitcoin is one of the worst-performing assets if Goldman Sachs list of risk-adjusted returns by asset class is to be considered despite being up 16% this year.  However, the report also notes that Bitcoin has done better than gold and treasuries when the Goldman Sachs data is adjusted for volatility to get the Sharpe ratio. Furthering the argument, the report noted that Bitcoin proponents may fault the classification of Bitcoin as an asset class and classify it as a cryptocurrency, even in that sphere, the report argues that bitcoin is one of the years worst-performing cryptocurrencies.  A risk-adjusted return is a calculation of the profit or potential profit from an investment that takes into account the degree of risk that must be accepted to achieve it. The risk is measured in comparison to that of a virtually risk-free investment—usually U.S. Treasuries. Last year, Messari noted that Bitcoin had a risk-adjusted return Sharpe ratio of 3, making it more attractive than the world‘s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater’s “all-weather” portfolio that contained cash, stocks, bonds, and gold, which had a Sharpe ratio of 1.4.  The 2020 Mesari report also noted that Bitcoin had shown the lowest correlation compared

2021-07-20Deep Dive

Billionaire Hamish Douglass: The Cryptocurrency Bandwagon is Almost Like a Religion

The co-founder of Magellan Financial Group – Hamish Douglass – opined that the crypto market is one of the “greatest mass delusions in modern history.” To him, the whole idea behind the virtual assets looks like a religion that millions of people strongly believe in.  The Crypto Crash Is Inevitable  Hamish Douglass – co-founder and CEO of the Australian investment company Magellan Financial Group (MFG) – warned investors to beware of the cryptocurrency market. In a recent interview, he described it as a “speculative bubble,” which will eventually blow up:  “Cryptocurrencies, I have to say are one of the greatest irrationalities Ive seen in a very, very, long period of time because of the cult like following it has behind it and the scale that is behind it.”  The billionaire continued with his hostile comments stating that the proponents of the digital assets are mainly inexperienced people who have raised their belief to a religious level:  “There are millions and millions of people participating. Some of the people they‘ve never invested before and the only bandwagon they’ve ever got on is the cryptocurrency bandwagon and its almost like a religion.”  Douglass predicted that the crypto market would inevitably crash to zero. However, he noted that he

2021-07-20Deep Dive

Robinhood Says Low Crypto Trading Activity Could Cause Revenue Decline in Q3 2021

In its amended initial public filing (IPO) prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Popular stock trading platform Robinhood revealed that it is expecting its revenue to drop in Q3 2021 as a result of the cool-off in the trading activity of the cryptocurrency market.   Robinhood Expecting Drop in Revenue  With Robinhood planning to go public this July, the trading app revealed in a revised SEC filing that a decrease in retail trading activity could result in the company recording low revenue in Q3 2021 compared to revenue generated in the second quarter.  According to Robinhood, the company experienced a surge in trading activity in January and February 2021, which later returned “to levels more in line with prior periods during the last few weeks of the quarter ended June 30, 2021, and remained at similar levels into the early part of the third quarter.”  Also, in Q1 2021, the filing notes that 17% of its transaction-based revenue came from crypto transactions. This was a leap from the 4% recorded in Q4 2020.  Furthermore, more than 9.5 million customers traded $88 billion worth of cryptocurrency on the Robinhood platform in Q1 2021. The company also held $12 billion in cryptocurrency assets under

2021-07-20Deep Dive

Binance Australia Reportedly Suspends Crypto Futures and Margin Trading

Binance Australia, the Australian subsidiary of the worlds largest crypto exchange has reportedly discontinued all its derivative product offerings. The news was reported by popular crypto platform Wu Blockchain who said some of the investors have informed them about the possible halting of crypto futures and margin products for new customers.  Binance has faced regulatory actions against its crypto futures and margins trading services due to its high leverage offering. Earlier, the US CFTC was also investigating Binance.US whether they offered leverage trading services to customers against the measures put out by regulators.  Binance is currently facing regulatory scrutiny in more than half a dozen countries that threaten its global dominance. The severity of regulatory warnings from different countries is different, however, all eight countries have indicated that Binance is not regulated to offer their services in these countries.  Binance had recently discontinued its tokenized stocks services just three months after launching it, owing to regulatory issues raised by the German regulators BaFin.  Binances Global Dominance Under Threat  The series of regulatory hurdles faced by Binance over the past couple of months comes at a crucial time when the majority of its competitors are working with regulators to expand its services in full compliance. Coinbase

2021-07-20Deep Dive
1
...
521523
...
737