Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Fireblocks a Hot Investment With $133 Million Series C

Blockchain infrastructure isnt sexy.　　But who needs sexy when you can haul in $133 million？　　Fireblocks, which provides digital asset custody, transfer, and settlement infrastructure for clients such as banks and exchanges, closed a $133 million Series C round led by investment firms Coatue, Ribbit, and Stripes.　　The round also came with strategic investments from major clients SVB Capital and BNY Mellon—one of the largest investment banks in the world with $2 trillion assets under management—as well as financing from crypto investing mainstays such as Fred Ehrsams Paradigm and Mike Novogratzs Galaxy Digital.　　A Series C is a fundraising round for successful companies that need to scale up quickly. That pretty much describes the situation at Fireblocks, which raised $30 million in a November 2020 Series B. For the last three quarters, Fireblocks has nearly doubled its customer projections.　　“Like they say, Good problems to have. Those are still problems,” CEO and co-founder Michael Shaulov told Decrypt in an interview. “At the end of the day, we are the critical infrastructure for clients, and if the system doesnt work or they cannot basically use the system, they cannot do transactions.”　　The first order of business with the capital infusion, then, is to double the size of

2021-03-19Deep Dive

Bitcoin is Too Volatile, Impractical, and Fails as a Store of Value: Bank of America

While Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan have taken a more pro-BTC approach, another giant US financial institution, Bank of America, has issued a report bashing the asset. In it, researchers called bitcoin impractical, exceptionally volatile, and questioned its store of value status.　　BoA Slams Bitcoin　　Cited by the Financial Times, the Bank of Americas report on bitcoin took a stab at several attributes, including its highly volatile nature. The researchers claimed that this “exceptional volatility” makes the cryptocurrency “impractical as a store of wealth or payments mechanism.”　　Furthermore, they asserted that speculators purchasing portions of the asset are the only reason behind its bull run that drove it from $10,000 to $60,000 in the span of several months. However, they believe that other asset classes have outperformed BTC in terms of a store of value capabilities.　　Broadly, we find that bitcoin has not been particularly compelling as an inflation hedge as commodities and even equities provide better correlation to inflation.　　As such, we think the main portfolio argument for holding bitcoin is not diversification, declining volatility, or inflation protection, but rather sheer price appreciation, a factor that depends exclusively on bitcoin demand outpacing supply on a forward basis.　　BoA‘s researchers also touched upon BTC’s environmental impact. They

2021-03-19Deep Dive

What is BitClout? The Latest Crypto Hype – Is It Safe?

Every now and then, the cryptocurrency community is taken ablaze by a new project that does the rounds.　　Now, it seems that Bitclout is where all the rage is – a new type of social network, the intention of which is to enable users to speculate on people and posts with real money.　　Lets have a closer look at what Bitclout is and why it is so popular right now.　　What is the Bitclout Network？　　Bitclout is a new decentralized protocol that brings forwards a social network, enabling users to speculate on people and posts using real money.　　According to the project‘s official whitepaper, it’s set up on its own custom blockchain and boasts a similar architecture to Bitcoin. However, it can only support data like posts, follows profiles, and other speculation features.　　Without providing any further information about the technology behind the product itself, the whitepaper goes on to explain everything about its native cryptocurrency – BitClout, and the things users can do with it.　　Yet, it mentions that “just like Bitcoin, anyone on the internet can run a BitClout ”node“ that serves the BitClout content, and every node on the network stores a full copy of all the data.”　　The BitClout Cryptocurrency　　BitClout can be bought for

2021-03-19Deep Dive

The future of index funds

Inspired by traditional index funds‘ success, Crypto20 (C20) was designed to reinvent how investors gain exposure to the broader crypto market. With cryptocurrency’s long-term growth potential, an index fund is the perfect entry point for investors looking to generate exceptional returns without taking on excessive risk. Historically, passively managed index funds have outperformed comparable active funds. With the crypto market‘s incredible growth, it’ll be interesting to compare the index funds of the future to the previous generation.　　Invictus Capital‘s C20 was the world’s first cryptocurrency-only tokenized index fund which revolutionized investing in the crypto space. The Fund gives investors exposure to a diverse portfolio of the top 20 cryptos by market cap in a single, tradable token that can be liquidated at any time through the Invictus Investor Platform. C20 rebalances its positions weekly — a frequency optimized using data science techniques. By leveraging the efficiency enabled by the blockchain the Fund is able to offer extremely competitive fees of 0.5% annually, whereas the industry average is 3%.　　While Crypto20 was the first, Crypto10 Hedged (C10) promises to be the next evolution of crypto index funds. It has many of the benefits of the original C20 with a dynamic cash hedge that

2021-03-19Deep Dive

Will Ethereum 2.0 Have the Power to Flip Bitcoin?

Ethereum 2.0 and its move towards being more functional as a ‘world computer’ is well on its way and comes with much excitement through the cryptocurrency space. However, its impact is still being speculated on with one analyst from Mesari believing this upgrade could see it overtake Bitcoin.　　Senior research analyst at Messari, Ryan Watkins, predicts that Ether could overtake Bitcoin as the top crypto asset once its Eth2 overhaul is complete.　　Bitcoins position of dominance in the cryptocurrency space comes from its sim0plicticy, popularity and experience. However, in terms of growing innovation, it is probably seen as far behind Ethereum and its move to PoS.　　The rumblings of ETH 2.0 have already had an impact on the price of the token as it has climbed to new all time highs in recent weeks and months, but does this mean it has the power to become a trillion dollar asset？　　The flippening　　Appearing on YouTube show FinTech Today, Watkins noted that while he does not know “if or when” Ether will flip Bitcoin, he does believe Ether could emerge as the leading crypto asset in the future, due to ETH 2.0, stating:　　“The selling point of Bitcoin over Ethereum as a store of value asset boils

2021-03-19Deep Dive

Digital Dollar Would Have to Coexist With Cash: Fed Chairman

US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell today indicated that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), such as a potential “digital dollar”, wouldnt replace cash.　　Powell reiterated a point made in a recent Bank for International Settlements report the Fed contributed to, saying, “One of the three key principles highlighted in the report is that a CBDC needs to coexist with cash and other types of money in a flexible and innovative payment system,” reported Bloomberg.　　Speaking to a payments conference in Basel, Switzerland, he added that COVID-19 has prompted governments to think more deeply about how money works now. “The Covid crisis has brought into even sharper focus the need to address the limitations of our current arrangements for cross-border payments,” he was quoted saying.　　CBDCs are different from decentralized digital assets like Bitcoin because they are controlled by one entity: a central bank. As such, they are digital versions of native fiat currencies, such as the US dollar or Japanese yen. Such currencies—which dont exist just yet except in pilots or with limited functionality—aim to bring speed and security to monetary systems around the world.　　CBDCs have two basic designs: “retail” for peer-to-peer payments, and “wholesale,” intended for banks to buy and sell financial

2021-03-19Deep Dive

Crypto.com Expanding Debit Card to Australia After Becoming Visa Principal Member

Hong Kong-based Crypto.com has become a principal member of Visa Australia allowing it to expand its card offering to the nation.　　The principal membership means Crypto.com is able to directly offer the Visa card in Australia, a factor it says allows the firm to “have a direct relationship with cardholders.”　　Laying the groundwork for the move, the firm secured an Australian Financial Service License through an acquisition in December.　　Crypto.com said its Visa card is now available in 31 countries including the U.S, Canada, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.　　The card allows users to convert their cryptocurrencies into fiat currencies for spending at Visa-accepting retailers.　　Crypto.com plans to expand the card into other new markets and will start offering virtual cards in Europe this month.　　Also on Thursday, the company said it will introduce fiat currency lending backed by crypto collateral.　　Dubbed “Spending Power,” the upcoming service will allow cardholders to use the crypto holdings in their Crypto.com wallet as collateral for loans that can be spent via the card.

2021-03-19Deep Dive

Ethermine Adds Front-Running Software to Help Miners Offset EIP 1559 Revenue Losses

Ethereum mining pool Ethermine introduced software that could mollify miners upset by a coming steep cut in mining fees by allowing them to eke out greater profit from each block mined.　　The Austria-based pool – which comprises some 20% of the Ethereum networks hash power – became the first majority pool to introduce a Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) software strategy to compensate the “upcoming mining reward reduction caused by the adoption of EIP 1559,” according to a tweet Wednesday. MEV automates transaction sequencing in blockchains based on possible arbitrage opportunities, which Ethermine expects to increase mining rewards between 1%-10%. Ethermine plans to distribute 80% of MEV profits to the pool.　　That EIP is slated for inclusion in the Ethereum network in July with the London hard fork. The proposal burns network transaction fees instead of giving them to miners, who process transactions. Miners are not very pleased with the proposal – even going as far as to threaten a 51% attack against Ethereum – but have few options on the table given Ethereums governance structure. So, many mining pools are adding MEV to supplement lost income, such as Flexpool.　　In Ethereum, MEV is a general term relating to numerous strategies for front running

2021-03-19Deep Dive

Payments Firm Wirex Wins Trademark Infringement Case in UK High Court

Payments platform Wirex has won a High Court trademark infringement claim in the U.K. against several businesses for the unauthorized use of the name of a cryptocurrency rewards scheme.　　According to a press release on Wednesday from law firm Brown Rudnick LLP, Wirex has been successful in its legal bid against Cryptocarbon Global Ltd., Cryptocarbon UK Ltd. and Bee-One UK Ltd.　　The infringement case was brought to trial in January against the defendants for their use of the registered trademark “Cryptoback.” Wirex was the “worlds first company” to use the term in its cryptocurrency rewards scheme, the law firm says.　　Wirex has also been successful in getting the defendant‘s counterclaims, including an attempt to invalidate Wirex’s trademark, dismissed.　　The Cryptoback scheme offers a small percentage of the transaction value back to Wirex customers in bitcoin (BTC, -2.97%) when using its card for in-store purchases.　　The case highlights the importance for Wirex and other companies to protect and enforce their trademarks, according to Steven James, partner at Brown Rudnick. “This is especially true in the case of the crypto industry, which has seen rapid growth but also a large number of copycat or otherwise infringing offerings,” he said.

2021-03-19Deep Dive

How Polkadot ‘bridges’ bring cross-chain functionality to the $35b network

Web 3.0, the next generation of the internet, has been envisioned by proponents to run on a fully-decentralized blockchain to create a user-friendly web wherein a users identity and data are their own.　　Creating a multichain future　　Polkadot was created with just that goal in mind—with the belief that no single blockchain can support the entire Web 3.0 economy and that multichains are the future of such an unconnected ecosystem.　　But such an implementation requires blockchains to interact, exchange data (almost speak) to one other). This is where “bridges” come in, a technology that Polkadot looks to implement.　　The project realizes that while its underlying infrastructure allows developers with the necessary tools required for scalability and high throughput, there are existing networks with strong communities outside of the Polkadot ecosystem which make the use of cross-network bridges necessary.　　There can be two kinds of bridges: one, centralized and trusted protocols, where users rely on a third party to operate the bridge correctly, and two, decentralized and trustless, where users rely on a smart contract to execute transactions.　　Polkadot falls in the latter group. It uses its smart contract technology to ensure trustless interaction rather than a mere promise or legal agreement. The protocol further allows developers

2021-03-19Deep Dive

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