Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Joe Biden's Trillion-Dollar Stimulus Bill Pushes Miami Mayor to Buy Bitcoin

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has revealed that he bought bitcoin and ether right after the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill passed the Senate, heading to President Joe Biden‘s desk to be signed. He said bitcoin “is definitely going to go up … because I don’t think people are going to want to stay in dollar-denominated currencies.” Mayor Suarez is also working to make Miami a “crypto city.”　　Miamis Mayor Personally Bought Bitcoin　　Miami Mayor Francis Suarez revealed at the 2021 Ethereal Summit last week that he purchased bitcoin right after the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief stimulus package passed the Senate in March.　　In an interview with Decrypt Editor-in-Chief Dan Roberts and FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Mayor Suarez was asked whether he had already purchased bitcoin since he indicated in February that he would soon be ready to buy some cryptocurrencies. The mayor confirmed:　　“I did buy, thankfully. I bought bitcoin and ethereum. I didn‘t buy DOGE, but I did buy bitcoin and ethereum, and I bought it literally the day — I’ll never forget the moment — it was the day that the $1.9 trillion spending bill passed the Senate and it was going to the presidents desk.”　　“I said I‘m buying. That’s it. If the

2021-05-10Deep Dive

Dogecoin Needs 3 Conditions Fulfilled to Move Beyond USD 1

The rallying dogecoin (DOGE) could grow to be a “true” payment token, and to be widely accepted by retailers - but for its price to grow, three relevant conditions need to be met, according to El Lee, the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Singapore-headquartered Onchain Custodian (ONC), a provider of institutional-grade digital asset custody services.　　This week, the price of DOGE doubled, almost reaching USD 0.7. From this level, it would need to jump by more than 40% to hit USD 1 - not an impossible task as it jumped 50% in one day earlier this week. Also this week, its market capitalization surpassed USD 80bn, making DOGE the fourth-largest cryptoasset by this measure. To compare, the third-largest cryptoasset, binance coin (BNB), almost reached USD 100bn this week, while BTC is still above USD 1trn.　　However, for the price to increase even further, the strong community and the legitimacy provided by celebrity endorsements are not enough. It has to “improve in all fields,” Lee told Cryptonews.com, listing three points that would “really drive up the price”:　　increasing the overall market capitalization of crypto asset as a space;　　general adoption and use cases: celebrities, brands, and major companies wanting to be associated

2021-05-10Deep Dive

Stablecoins present new dilemmas for regulators as mass adoption looms

Stablecoins present peculiar challenges to regulators. Although there is no single, agreed-upon definition of a stablecoin, the common denominator of the commonly used definitions is that stablecoins are designed to maintain a stable value in relation to a specified currency, asset or pool of such currencies/assets. They are contrasted with regular cryptocurrencies, which have no such stability mechanism and whose values tend to fluctuate, sometimes even substantially.　　Stablecoins do not denote a uniform category but represent a variety of crypto instruments that can vary significantly in legal, technical, functional and economic terms. Despite its name, it is important to stress that this asset does not guarantee stability, which depends on the specific design features and governance mechanisms.　　Regulatory attention to stablecoins　　Stablecoins have been on the rise since 2014, when the first stablecoin, Tether (USDT), was launched, and even though they have become an important digital asset in the blockchain ecosystem within a few years, they have not attracted much regulatory attention. This abruptly changed with the announcement of the Libra project in June 2019 by the Libra Association, of which Facebook is one of the founding companies.　　Almost immediately, many financial authorities around the world — including the Financial Stability Board, European Central

2021-05-10Deep Dive

Why Ethereum ‘is uncapped in terms of how high it can go’

The evergreen Bitcoin vs Ethereum debate can never be concluded with a definite winner. While Bitcoin is ‘stuck’ with its store-of-value narrative, Ethereums value is derived from its applications.　　Drawing parallels with gold and silver, billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, in a recent interview, stated that Bitcoin and Ethereum were independent. However, he went on record and said,“I think Ethereum has greater long term value [than Bitcoin]. Period. End of story because Ethereum has more utility than Bitcoin does.”　　Over the past few days, Bitcoin has remained sluggish, while Ethereum has registered new ATHs. Despite the bull run, driven by the likes of DOGE and ETH, BTC hasnt been able to up its pace. Underlining the same, he said,“One of the reasons Dogecoin has gone to do so well is because its easier to transact with, while the beauty of Ethereum lies in DeFi and NFTs.”　　He further added,“Right now Ethereum is the reigning champ, so I only think there‘s going to be more. It wouldn’t shock me if we‘re getting significant deflation, which is one of the reasons that it is syrocketing so much, and that’s why I think ETH is uncapped in terms of how high it can go.”　　Cuban went on to

2021-05-10Deep Dive

Dogecoin Mania ‘Good for Crypto Industry,’ Says Michael Saylor – Here’s Why

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor says the mania-driven Dogecoin (DOGE) rally is beneficial to the crypto sector at large.　　In an interview on Morning Invest, Saylor, whose company now owns 91,579 Bitcoin, says that the hype surrounding the meme crypto asset and other speculative investing strategies is likely fueled by an utter lack of confidence in traditional financial markets.　　As investors are discouraged by an inflating dollar, reasons Saylor, they are turning to investing opportunities that embody huge risks, like GameStop and meme coins. The increasing risk appetite, notes Saylor, is good for crypto.　　[The public has] lost confidence in conventional strategies, conventional money, conventional bonds, and conventional treasury strategies. Because they‘ve lost confidence, and they’ve literally lost hope, they‘re being driven to speculate more and the result is the GameStop saga, the result is the Archegos saga where they put on huge leverage on equity. The result is the SPAC explosion where people are literally buying speculative shell companies that do nothing but potentially do something that we don’t know what, but they figure thats better than holding cash.　　They‘re crowding into cryptos and the wise [investors] are buying Bitcoin because they understand that this is sound money for the next hundred years, but

2021-05-10Deep Dive

Telcoin: Dark Horse Of Cryptos?

Cryptocurrencies‘ fundamentals have deviated strongly from Bitcoin’s initial proposition of enabling P2P transfers. Driven by speculation and supply and demand, dynamic token prices are derived from platform activities and news, similar to how stocks operate. However, some coins still aim to build upon Bitcoins foundation of creating a decentralized, censorship-resistant network for asset transfers.　　Telcoin is a blockchain adaptation of Western Union or MoneyGram and broke into the top 100 coins by market cap after gaining in 9 out of 10 trading sessions. Telcoin gained over 300% in the past two days, according to data from CoinMarketCap, reaching an all-time high of $0.04911, partly due to trading access on Layer 2 platform QuickSwap.　　A New Form Of Mobile Payments　　Telcoin is redesigning mobile payment transactions and gears its efforts towards P2P transfers through network carriers. According to their website, “there are five times more mobile phones than active bank accounts,” implying the market for remittance payments is not fully developed. There are also more than 1 billion active mobile money accounts in 95 countries, according to a GSMA report. Additionally, $550 billion are sent using remittance services, according to a 2019 report by the World Bank　　Remittance platforms are one use case of blockchain

2021-05-10Deep Dive

The rise of crypto charities: Elongate and Munch raise millions for various causes

The cryptocurrency community is flexing its generosity amid the latest bull market, as charitable donations continue to grow.　　Two unrelated cryptocurrency projects have collectively raised over $3 million for charitable contributions this month, underscoring the potential of digital assets in aiding mission-based non-profits around the world.　　Elongate, a cryptocurrency project that began as a parody of Elon Musks reference to the Watergate scandal, has raised $2 million for various food and general support programs via Human Relief Foundation and Give India. The latter is a Covid-19 relief effort in the South Asian country in the wake of a devastating spike in new infections.　　Some of the biggest Elongate contributors are Children International, Action Against Hunger, The Ocean Cleanup, Big Green, Human Relief Foundation and Give India, among others.　　“In just a month, the Elongate ecosystem has grown to change the face of charity and crypto trading,” said Hasan Aziz, the projects chief technology officer.　　Elongate also announced that its token will begin trading on BitMart Monday, May 10.　　Despite starting off as a meme, Elongate has emerged as a major player in the market for crypto-based charities. The project claims to have over 400,000 holders worldwide.　　Meanwhile, DeFi project Munch has raised over $1 million to aid

2021-05-10Deep Dive

Binance CEO says volatility ‘is not unique to crypto’: Data shows it’s Bitcoin’s jet fuel

During an interview with Bloomberg TV on May 3, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao suggested that Bitcoin (BTC) “is probably less volatile” than the stock prices of Apple (AAPL) and Tesla (TSLA).　　Zhao argued that cryptos volatility was not unlike the stock market, adding: that “volatility is everywhere” and that “it is not unique to crypto.”　　However, those involved in cryptocurrency trading probably know that cryptocurrency prices fluctuate a lot more than listed trillion-dollar companies. This begs one to question whether or not Zhao is detecting a trend that some may have missed？　　Both Bitcoin and Tesla share different volatility levels when compared to trillion-dollar stocks like Apple and Amazon.　　Moreover, stocks seem to have experienced a 60-day volatility peak in November 2020, while Bitcoin was relatively calm.　　Tesla is an exception rather than the norm　　Another thing to consider is that Teslas market capitalization is $633 billion, and it has yet to post a quarterly net income above $500 million. Meanwhile, every single top-20 global company is incredibly profitable. These include Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG), Facebook (FB), Saudi Aramco (ARAMCO.AB), Alibaba (BABA), and TSM Semiconductor (TSM).　　Zhao may be the founder of the leading crypto exchange, but he doesnt personally trade. On the contrary, he actually recommends

2021-05-10Deep Dive

Bank of Japan Identifies DeFi Pros & Cons, Mentions Uniswap, Yield Farming

A Bank of Japan (BoJ)-issued review has tackled the topic of decentralized finance (DeFi) – and has concluded that while certain “risks” are entailed with DeFi adoption, there could be some positive aspects to greater DeFi proliferation.　　The review was published by the Bank of Japans Payment and Settlement Systems Department, which is in charge of payment policy development at the central bank. The review addressed issues such as yield farming, as well as the “emergence of autonomous financial services” and “the search for governance” in the DeFi sector.　　The media outlet Internet Watch pointed out that one of the review‘s authors, Junichiro Hatogai, translated the Andreas Antonopoulos-penned books Mastering Bitcoin and Mastering Ethereum into Japanese – calling the tomes “the global bibles of the blockchain industry.” The review’s co-author, Masashi Hojo, is in charge of Japans joint central bank digital currency (CBDC) project with the EU – named Project Stella.　　The review focuses mainly on the issue of governance in the DeFi sector, as well as the greater Web 3.0 ecosystem. It concluded that DeFi adoption could “increase rapidly in Japan” and “create new financial services” that meet the needs of a new generation of users.　　Internet Watch pointed out that it was

2021-05-10Deep Dive

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey is Giving Crypto a Thumbs Down — Here’s Why

The Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, at the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland; on Thursday, passed a vote of no confidence on cryptocurrencies, stating that investors must get ready to suffer total investment losses eventually.　　“Bitcoin has no intrinsic value” Bailey retorts, consolidating his previous 2020 stance on the future of cryptocurrencies or rather ‘crypto assets’ as he would prefer to call it. Bailey believes all there is to Bitcoin and all other range of altcoins is an extrinsic value ascribed to it by popularity and user consensus – a description that perfectly fits all categories of fiat currencies issued for years by many countries of the world.　　A Centralized View on Decentralization　　Bailey in September 2020, at the Brookings Institution Webinar shortly after resuming the Bank of England Governor role, generally expressed his support for the growth of tech-driven alternative payment solutions and the significant innovation wave sweeping through the world of traditional currencies but cautioned against innovation without any appropriate regulation.　　Even the highly hallowed Stablecoins and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) were not spared of Baileys subsequent pessimistic perceptions, as he vehemently questioned the extent to which the regulatory arm of the banking sector will be expunged by

2021-05-10Deep Dive

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