Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

5 Reasons Why Tether Criminal Case Won’t Affect Other Cryptos

The past few months have seen a bevy of media stories circling around Stablecoin Tether (USDT), and some of its former executives, link a ring of sharks in the open ocean closing in for the kill. Such revelations include:　　Articles stating that less than three percent of USDTs assets are pegged to U.S. dollars, with the majority actually staked against riskier commercial bonds.　　Reports of U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellens remarks that Stablecoins such as USDT pose a “systemic risk” to the current monetary system.　　Stories trumpeting the settlement of New York States Attorney General against Tether for nearly $19 million to end a probe that alleged a Stablecoin coverup of more than $800 million in losses.　　Media coverage asserting that a “run” on exchanges to convert Stablecoins such as USDT to U.S. dollars will bankrupt issuers causing a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.　　As well as the latest chatter around the Department of Justices allegations of criminal conduct against certain former executives at Tether.　　Together these stories seem to create a cascade of chaos and corruption for the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Financial commentators and industry analysts across the Internet are wringing their collective hands that this USDT criminal case could bring down

2021-07-29Deep Dive

What Can A Single Bitcoin Buy In 2026? Here’s Our Best Guess

Oftentimes, the Bitcoin community is found conversing about price movements, market trends, and other similar concerns. But on certain occasions, the conversation is centered around a lighter topic, usually speculative and intended to give insight into the future of the booming market.　　One of such interesting casual conversations to have come up in the past few days is what a single Bitcoin will be worth in the next five years, and the predictions reveal that more than anything else, Bitcoin users are highly bullish on the big bull in the long term.　　One Bitcoin equaled a single coffee in 2011, where next？　　While there are many possible valuable items that Bitcoin could buy in the future, the guesswork becomes even more puzzling when we start to consider the possibility that these items may not even exist at the moment.　　A look at the timeline of Bitcoin‘s value each year shows clearly the preceding years have seen Bitcoin’s price value surge well enough for the asset to be worth significantly more than the year before.　　In 2026, a single Bitcoin is still likely to purchase more than gold or fiat　　The predicted closing price of Bitcoin for this year is anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000 according to

2021-07-29Deep Dive

Coinbase Report: ETH Trading Volume Increased More Than Bitcoin’s in First Half of 2021

During the first half of 2021, the ETH volume surged by more than 1,400% totaling $1.4 trillion, while BTCs increased by 489%, reaching a total of $2.1 trillion.　　ETH Beats BTC for The First Time　　Coinbase took data from 20 trading venues and released a report, where it informed that Ethers trading volume spiked by 1,461% during the first six months of 2021. Its total climbed to $1.4 trillion compared to $92 billion in the first half of 2020. In the meantime, Bitcoin marked an increase of 489%, and its trading volume hit $2.1 trillion.　　The Coinbase report noted:　　“Many of our largest institutional clients, including hedge funds, endowments, and corporates, increased or added first-time exposure to ETH in H1, believing the asset has long-term staying power tantamount to BTCs while playing a differentiated role in their portfolios.”　　The research also revealed the total market capitalization numbers for the first half of 2021. At the beginning of the year, the market started at $769 billion and surged to $2.4 trillion in May. Subsequently, it declined to $1.4 trillion by the end of the period.　　The largest chunk of Bitcoins profits came during the first months of 2021 until April, when its price escalated towards an ATH.

2021-07-29Deep Dive

Sen.Warren says ‘Digital Currency’ can help where banks have failed

Senator Elizabeth Warren who is a known crypto critic appeared on CNBC to talk about regulations around the digital asset market. During her interview she said digital currencies in a way can help where major banks have failed in all these years. Warren was talking about how digital currencies can help bank the unbanked.　　“One of the things I think is very interesting is a digital currency, There has been an enormous failure by the big banks to reach consumers all across the country…digital currency and central bank digital currency may be an answer there.”　　The comments came as a surprise to many given her slew of statements against the crypto market and how its volatility put traders at risk. Yesterday, she also wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, calling for speedy action from regulators to bring the growing crypto market under the umbrella of law.　　Warren also said that the current US financial has its problem right now but one must look at the crypto design to see where it can be helpful to the existing financial system and also lookout for problems that it may cause.　　“We have a lot of problems in our financial system right now. The question we have

2021-07-29Deep Dive

Survey Shows 3 out of 4 Sports Fans Are Skeptical About the Longevity of NFT Investments

Over the last year and a half, non-fungible tokens (NFT) have seen massive hype and millions of dollars worth of sales executed at auctions. A recent survey produced by bonusfinder.com shows sports fans are doubtful of the NFT craze as the polls findings show nearly three out of four people are “moderately skeptical” about the long-term outcome of NFTs as an investment.　　Sports Fans Are Skeptical of NFTs but 62% Know About the Technology　　Non-fungible tokens have been a very hot topic in 2021 and worldwide Google Trends (GT) data shows the subject reached an all-time high in terms of Google queries in mid-March. Since then, however, GT data shows interest has dropped significantly as search queries for the term “NFT” slid from a top score of 100 to this weeks score of 38. Just recently, the web portal bonusfinder.com published a survey with 1,009 sports fans in the U.S. revealing what they thought about NFTs. Roughly 64.1% identified as men and 35.7% identified as women and participant ages ranged from 18 to 83, with an average age of 38.　　The research highlights that interest in NFTs is highest in states like California, Hawaii, Washington D.C., Nevada, and Vermont. Queries for the search

2021-07-29Deep Dive

Visa CFO Believes That Crypto Fever is Starting to Cool off

Vasant Prabhu – Chief Financial Officer of the company – opined that crypto-related transactions using Visa are beginning to dwindle. The top executive informed that their peak was in April and May, followed by a drop starting from June.　　Cryptocurrency Transactions with Visa Are Calming Down　　The American multinational financial services corporation – Visa Inc. – recently announced its results for fiscal Q3 2021. According to the report, the companys last three months were profitable, driven by the fact that many leading countries started reviving their shattered economies which were affected by the COVID pandemic:　　“Visa delivered another strong quarter as many key economies are well into a reopening-driven recovery. Visa grew net revenues 27% and non-GAAP EPS 41% while continuing to make investments in strategies that will drive future growth.”　　However, the company‘s CFO revealed that crypto-related transactions using Visa, which were booming in the first two months of the quarter, started declining in June. The executive believes that the trend may offset broader cross-border growth on the firm’s cards.　　The overseas spendings reportedly spiked by 47% in Visas fiscal third quarter. Removing travel transactions from the equation, online cross-border financial operations increased by 56%, which is 12% more than the second quarter. It

2021-07-29Deep Dive

First U.S. Bitcoin Mutual Fund Launched by $60 Billion Fund Manager

In a press release this morning ProFunds announced the launch of its Bitcoin Strategy ProFund (BTCFX). This will be the first publicly available U.S. mutual fund that generally tracks the price of Bitcoin.　　Image source　　On the ease of access and mass exposure that this mutual fund will provide, ProFunds CEO Michael Sapir said that “Compared to directly buying bitcoin, which may involve opening a new account with an unregulated party, this ProFund offers investors the opportunity to gain exposure to bitcoin through a form and investment method that tens of millions of investors are familiar with.”　　On the increased demand for a Bitcoin mutual fund, Michael Sapir commented it “has become a significant asset class, and our new Bitcoin Strategy ProFund provides investors access to a bitcoin strategy through a mutual fund investment.”　　For now, the Bitcoin Strategy ProFund invests in Bitcoin futures contracts, and the fund holds no actual bitcoin, which creates two degrees of separation between investors and the sats they increasingly seek shelter from inflation in.　　The new mutual fund offers investors exposure to the Bitcoin price without the need to separately manage a hardware wallet or exchange custodial solution. Although, the minimum investment limit in the fund is $1,000, which

2021-07-29Deep Dive

Fed’s Jerome Powell: Inflation Could Turn Out Higher Than Expected

Key Takeaways　　Inflation is currently higher than the Federal Reserve expected, a tendency that will likely continue for the coming months confirmed Powell.　　The market hasnt reacted strongly to the news as Bitcoin continues to hover around $40,000.　　Powell expect the Delta variant to have lower implications on the state of the economy than previous waves.　　During the highly-expected Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday Afternoon, Chair Jerome Powell confirmed that inflation was set to continue for the dollar, perhaps even more than previously expected.　　Inflation Set to Continue　　Good news for the crypto markets came out of the latest Federal Reserve meeting as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell confirmed that inflation could turn out the be higher and more persistent than expected. However, the Fed still expects to be able to curb that number back down to their 2% objective.　　“Inflation is running well above our 2% objective, and has been for a few months, and is expected to run certainly above our objective for a few months before we believe it‘ll move back down toward our objective. The question of whether we’ve met that objective, formally, is really one for the committee to make,” Powell said.　　As the crypto market expected the news, Bitcoin hasnt had

2021-07-29Deep Dive

Ghana's vice president declares Africa should embrace digital currencies

Ghanas vice president Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia believes that African governments need to embrace digital currencies to facilitate trade throughout the continent.　　As reported by Ghanaweb Bawumia outlined his argument during the Fifth Ghana International Trade and Finance Conference, which boasted the theme of “Facilitating Trade and Trade-Finance in AfCFTA; The Role of the Financial Services Sector.” He argued that trade between African countries demands a “single central payment” system. Currently, moving goods over African borders is costly and time-consuming. A digital payments system, Dr. Bawumia believes, would rectify these issues.　　“Digitization has also become one of the most consequential policies of the Nana Akufo-Addo government,” said Dr. Bawumia.　　 “When the scourge of the COVID-19 pandemic hit and forced many economies into partial and total lockdowns, it reinforced the need to pursue digitization.”　　The Vice President also discussed Ghanas recent payment initiatives, such as Mobile Money Interoperability. Dr. Bawumia notes these services have “shown that more people can be financially included, and this needs to be rolled out across Africa to ensure the growth of the AfCFTA vision.”　　Earlier this year, The Bank of Ghana (BoG) revealed it has a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in development. Dr. Bawumia noted the banks intent and believes

2021-07-29Deep Dive

Crypto Non-Grata? Why Did Amazon Deny Bitcoin Plans?

Amazon has issued a statement denying the claims that it has plans to start accepting Bitcoin by the end of the year.　　A report from Londons City A.M revealed that an unnamed insider has dropped hints that the e-commerce giants have laid down concrete plans to accept cryptocurrencies.　　In the past, large corporations have taken a secretive stance when it comes to cryptocurrency adoption.　　Since Amazons denial, the price of Bitcoin has sunk by roughly 2% which is in sharp contrast to the 12% rise it had when the rumour broke.　　Large corporations have adopted a secretive stance towards their cryptocurrency plans, often taking the entire community by surprise. It seems that Amazon may be following the same path, as the company has come out to deny plans that it is going to begin to accept cryptocurrencies as a payment method.　　Early in the week, Bitcoin enjoyed a massive rally after it was disclosed by an anonymous source that the e-commerce giants had extensive plans in place to begin accepting Bitcoins.　　Amazon Denies Bitcoin　　Hearts were certainly broken after Amazon refuted the validity of a media report that it was going to begin accepting Bitcoin as payment on its platform. According to a spokesperson for the company,

2021-07-29Deep Dive