Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

New German Law opens the gate for $415 billion crypto allocation

A new German law introduced and approved in April this year is coming into effect from today. Germanys Fund Allocation law could potentially open the gates for $415 billion in crypto allocations by thousands of institutional funds in the country. The law allocation institutional funds to allocate 20% of their portfolio into crypto assets.　　Germany has a total of 4,000 Spezialfonds or special funds with $1.8 trillion in combined assets under management. If these funds decide to allocate the whole 20% towards crypto under the new law, it would lead to nearly €350 billion or $415 billion in crypto inflow.　　Germany is seen as the economically strongest member in the Eurozone and an allocation of such value could persuade other European nations to follow in their footsteps. Europe is already leading the crypto charge with its compliant regulatory policies and different countries are also working towards their CBDC. Recently France and Switzerland also carried out their first cross-border CBDC trials.　　Germany is Leading the Crypto Charge in Europe　　Germany is increasingly looking at a potential future in cryptocurrencies and expanding the country‘s exposure to digital assets via favorable crypto regulations. BaFin, the country’s top regulatory watchdog recently issued the first crypto custody license to

2021-07-02Deep Dive

Why Twitter’s Jack Dorsey Still Has Zero Interest In Ethereum

The CEO of Twitter and Square Jack Dorsey is a dyed-in-the-wool bitcoin maximalist. While the Crypto Twitter community has been relentlessly recommending altcoins to Dorsey, his love affair with bitcoin — and not any other cryptocurrencies — has only grown deeper.　　Bitcoin All The Way For Dorsey　　Today, the CEO has once again ruled out the possibility of him or one of his companies getting involved with the worlds second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum.　　A Twitter user going by the online alias packanimalETH suggested that since Dorsey has followed udiWertheimer and jebus911, it‘s only a matter of time before he invests in ethereum. To no one’s surprise, Dorsey responded with a resounding “no”.　　Dorsey, a man who called bitcoins whitepaper “poetry”, gave the same single-worded response back in February 2019 when he was asked about Ethereum.　　During the 2021 Miami Bitcoin Conference, Dorsey asserted that bitcoin “absolutely changes everything” and is currently the most important thing to work on in his lifetime. He added that other cryptocurrencies “dont factor in at all” for him.　　Dorsey has always maintained that his focus is on making bitcoin the native currency of the internet and thats why he does not deal with other crypto assets. In fact, Dorsey has admitted that

2021-07-02Deep Dive

Industrial-Grade Front-Running In an Age of Military-Grade Apathy

It is well-known that poor trading conduct is commonplace across the cryptocurrency markets. Unfortunately, there isnt much to speak of in terms of enforcement.　　In addition, wholesale market conduct regulation doesnt seem to be forthcoming. This leaves innocent market participants with little option but to turn a blind eye and carry on swimming through the glue.　　It is therefore up to us to do something about it in the meantime. Interim solutions are possible. However, if we attempt to start penalizing abusive trading behavior in the absence of regulation, we need to come together as an industry. We need to agree on a common set of principles, and effectively “cold-shoulder” the bad actors out of the market.　　This kind of self-regulation sounds almost unachievable at face value, but it‘s not like it hasn’t been done before. Fair trading rules are commonplace on almost all mainstream financial markets venues. Many trade surveillance tools offer an array of market manipulation scenarios off the shelf.　　 Adopting well-trodden standards　　Author Dale Carnegie once said that “inaction breeds doubt and fear, action breeds confidence and courage.” With this in mind, the financial “old-world” gives us plenty of precedents on which to base action.　　For a start, we could take elements

2021-07-02Deep Dive

Bitcoin ABC Rebrands to eCash, Becomes the First Bitcoin-Based Network to Offer Staking

The developers of Bitcoin ABC announced the start of a rebranding campaign that is set to coincide with the launch of a new project – eCash – aiming at redefining digital money. The Bitcoin ABC project will officially change its name to eCash and the token will be renamed from BCHA to XEC on July 1 at 12 PM UTC.　　As stated in the renewed website, eCash is the natural continuation of the Bitcoin Cash project, which is led by Amaury Sechet, a former Facebook engineer and Bitcoin pioneer, who has had a significant impact on the development of Bitcoin and is the creator of Bitcoin Cash. Sechet parted ways with Roger Ver in 2020 and created Bitcoin ABC to realize Nakamotos original plan of building a cryptocurrency that might be as usable as cash.　　After dedicating over a year of work to the project, Amaury is relaunching Bitcoin ABC as eCash, which, to date, is the only project aiming to build hard digital cash that scales and is secure with low latency. Realizing the vision of the US economist Milton Friedman, eCash follows through on key promises such as the innovative Avalanche consensus layer while also introducing concepts never before seen

2021-07-02Deep Dive

Is Elon Musk Losing His Edge? Tweets Fail To Move DOGE Prices

For the first time, it seems Elon Musks tweets have no effect on Doge. The billionaire had tweeted earlier about doge but this time, there was no reaction from the coin. In fact, the coin is down 2% since the tweet went live.　　Musk is notoriously known for pushing the price of Doge with his tweets. His tweets were single-handedly responsible for pushing the price of the coin up over 20,000 percent. The price of Doge would shoot up minutes after each tweet went live from the last couple of months. Leading to concerns of insider trading, which yielded nothing useful.　　But now, Musks tweet has failed to move the price of the coin. Elon Musk had earlier tweeted “Release the Doge” but the coin has refused to move.　　So, this leads us to the question, has Musk lost his edge over Dogecoin？　　Month-Long Hiatus　　Musk had seemingly taken a break from tweeting about Dogecoin since May. After a final tweet promoting Dogecoin towards the end of May, Musk stopped tweeting about Doge entirely.　　No one knows for sure the reason for the break. But it was during this period that Tesla had announced that they would stop accepting Bitcoin payments. The CEO had clarified that

2021-07-02Deep Dive

Skybridge Capital to Launch an Ethereum Fund and File for Ether ETF

Skybridge Capital, a global alternative investment fund based out of New York is launchING its first Ethereum fund today. The firm has already invested nearly $500 million in Bitcoin and now looking to expand into Ethereum. Anthony Scaramucci, the founder and CEO of the firm revealed the plans this week during a podcast appearance.　　Apart from a private Ethereum Fund Scarasmucci also revealed the investment funds plans of filing for an Ether ETF with dwelling into fine details. His firm has already filed for a Bitcoin ETF with the US SEC which is yet to be approved. The US SEC has received multiple Bitcoin ETF applications and a couple of Ether ETF proposals but hasnt approved any of them.　　Scaramucci said,“July 1st […] we‘re launching a private ether fund, We’ll file for an ETF for ethereum, again it‘s anybody’s guess when those things will be going. If you had asked me back in May of last year ‘When are we going to have an ETF’, I wouldve thought it would have been by now”　　Amid Growing Number of ETF Proposals, Will SEC Take a Road Never Taken Before？　　The US SEC is infamous for its hardline approach toward crypto institutional products especially ETFs and

2021-07-02Deep Dive

Bitcoin records second-highest block generation time in 11 years

Bitcoin networks mining metrics have taken a significant hit post exodus of miners from China. Since a majority of Bitcoin miners were located in China and had to either close or relocate in light of the latest crackdown from Beijing, the Bitcoin network suffered a 50% fall in mining hashrate. The decline in mining power has subsequently lead to an extension in Bitcoin block generation time.　　On July 1st, the block generation time for block number 689301 reached 139 minutes, the second-longest time since the launch of the Bitcoin network.　　Apart from the second-longest block generation, the average time for each block also increased to over 21 minutes from the usual 10 minutes. The shutting down of some of the biggest mining farms in China is believed to be the reason behind the recent Bitcoin networks hashrate decline and the subsequent effect on key metrics.　　Why Chinas mining exodus good for Bitcoin？　　The biggest criticism against Bitcoin mining was the centralization in hashpower input due to the high concentration of miners in China. The recent crackdown has possibly led to resolve the biggest concern of the Bitcoin community despite the short-term issues such as high block generation time and reduced miner profits. The miner

2021-07-02Deep Dive

FinCEN lists cryptocurrencies as top AML and CFT priorities

FinCEN will soon issue regulations on how financial institutions should incorporate its priorities on crypto considerations into their AML programs.　　The United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network will continue to closely follow the cryptocurrency industry as one of its top priorities for combating crimes like money laundering.　　FinCEN officially announced Thursday that “virtual currency considerations,” or operations involving cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), will be among its top national priorities for countering terrorism financing and ensuring proper Anti-Money Laundering policies.　　“The establishment of these priorities is intended to assist all covered institutions in their efforts to meet their obligations” under related laws and regulations, the regulator said. FinCEN elaborated that it will soon issue regulations to specify how financial institutions should incorporate these priorities into their AML programs.　　“FinCEN recognizes that not every priority will be relevant to every covered institution, but each covered institution should, upon the effective date of future regulations to be promulgated in connection with these priorities, review and incorporate, as appropriate, each priority based on the institutions broader risk-based AML program,” the authority noted.　　Referring to cryptocurrencies as “convertible virtual currencies,” or CVCs, FinCEN pointed out that such assets became the “currency of preference in a wide variety of online illicit

2021-07-02Deep Dive

Mike Novogratz: Bitcoin Will Be Digital Gold for 3,000 Years But Ethereum Can Surpass it

While outlining the differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum, Mike Novogratz suggested that the latter might actually surpass BTC in terms of becoming the largest digital asset.　　During a recent interview, the CEO of Galaxy Digital also urged the cryptocurrency community to enhance its efforts to educate lawmakers about Bitcoin and the entire industry.　　Can ETH Surpass BTC？　　The topic of the eventual “flippening” – an event that will see ether surpassing bitcoin as the world‘s largest cryptocurrency by market cap – emerged a few years ago. At the time, ETH’s value against the dollar was rising rapidly, while BTC had started to retrace.　　Consequently, fans of the current second-largest digital asset believed such a change is inevitable. Although ETH closed the gap to BTC during this years bull market as well at one point, it has failed to surpass its biggest brother so far.　　Speaking to Bloomberg, the CEO of Galaxy Digital hinted that such a scenario is still possible due to the massive growth of the network behind ether. He commented, “I think Ethereum may even become the biggest cryptocurrency one day,” but it will have a “very different” use case than BTC.　　Ethereums blockchain could be used “as the base level of trust –

2021-07-02Deep Dive

Congressman Bill Foster Wants Government To Have Power To Reverse Crypto Transactions

A law should be put in place to allow federal courts to identify cryptocurrency owners and reverse transactions where necessary, according to Democratic Rep. Bill Foster of Illinois, the co-chair of the House blockchain caucus. He said the law should allow courts to establish the real identity of a crypto wallet owner when needful, through a “very heavily guarded key.”　　Speaking in a Tuesday Axios virtual event, Foster said the pseudo-anonymous nature of cryptocurrencies should empower regulators to check if transactions are fraudulent. He said this could help protect investors, citizens, and the government against crime and ransomware attacks.　　“I‘ve just said about three things there that will drive the crypto purists berserk, like the trusted third party and so on. But in fact, there’s not a technological alternative that I‘m aware of,” Foster said. “For most people, if they’re going to have a big part of their net worth tied up in crypto assets, theyre going to want to have that security blanket of a trusted third party that can solve the problem.”　　According to Foster, cryptocurrencies must comply with federal regulations and laws if they are to become mainstream. Otherwise, they will always be associated with criminal activities.　　“We‘re going to have

2021-07-02Deep Dive

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