Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Bitcoin lessons: What the past 48 hours taught us about whales

After a significant period of swing action, Bitcoin, at the time of writing, was finally consolidating near the $35,000-mark. This was a relief for many, especially since in the last 48 hours, the cryptocurrencys price dropped from $41,000 to a lower range of $32,000. While some investors feared the worst, further drawdowns were not seen on the charts as Bitcoin recovered over the last 12 hours.　　With Bitcoins short-term trading sessions riddled with uncertainty at press time, Glassnode identified a few key factors that might highlight a vital role going forward.　　Bitcoin NVT Premium remains below 2019 levels　　Source: Glassnode　　Bitcoin NVT Ratio or Network Value to Transaction Ratio is key in identifying whether Bitcoin‘s price is overvalued or undervalued. Based on Glassnode’s findings, the NVT premium is currently below the levels attained in 2019, and largely below January 2018. What does this mean？ Well, it means that the rally is far from being overheated and as Willy Woo suggests, bullish capital flows into the market remain strong following the massive dip.　　In fact, short-term investment flows taking place on spot exchanges remain bullish, with investors heavily buying at this all-time high range.　　Are Whales actually active？　　Source: WhaleMap　　In order to validate whale interest, we tracked down

2021-01-13Deep Dive

Former Ripple CTO Cannot Access His Bitcoin Wallet That Is Now Worth $231 Million

While Ripple is facing regulatory fallout in the U.S., its former chief technology officer has another problem on his mind: figuring out the password to his Bitcoin fortune.　　According to a wild story published by The New York Times, Stefan Thomas cannot access his IronKey hardware wallet with 7,002 coins that are worth $231 million at press time.　　He has two attempts left　　One of Bitcoins biggest selling points is that it makes it possible to be your own bank, meaning that you do not have to trust centralized authorities to store your money. This privilege, however, comes with a high degree of responsibility, and Thomas now believes that it is not worth it.　　“This whole idea of being your own bank—let me put it this way, Do you make your own shoes？ The reason we have banks is that we dont want to deal with all those things that banks do.”　　All of the coins were gifted to the German native in 2011 for simply making an educational video about Bitcoin. Thomas lost his seed phrase that is necessary for unlocking his crypto riches the same year.　　After eight unsuccessful attempts to gain access to his wallet, Thomas now has two attempts left before his

2021-01-13Deep Dive

UK Treasury Calls for Feedback on Approach to Cryptocurrency and Stablecoin Regulation

The U.K. Treasury has released a consultation paper to gather feedback from stakeholders concerning the governments regulatory approach to cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.　　The consultation solicits opinions on how the U.K. can make sure its regulatory framework is “equipped to harness the benefits of new technologies, supporting innovation and competition, while mitigating risks to consumers and stability,” and incorporates advice from the Cryptoassets Task Force.　　With a large proportion of crypto assets falling outside regulatory oversight, the Treasury says they may pose a risk to consumers and lack financial safeguards.　　The U.K. is planning a “a staged and proportionate approach” to new crypto asset developments, taking a focus in the paper on stablecoins – cryptocurrencies that generally aim to have a stable value by being backed by assets such as the U.S. dollar.　　“[T]he landscape is changing rapidly. So-called stablecoins could pave the way for faster, cheaper payments, making it easier for people to pay for things or store their money. There is also increasing evidence that [distributed ledger technology] could have significant benefits for capital markets, potentially fundamentally changing the way they operate,” said John Glen, M.P., the Treasury‘s economic secretary, said in the paper’s introduction.　　However, he said, such developments could “pose a range

2021-01-13Deep Dive

How the OCC Is Building Crypto America (and Saving Banks From Extinction)

Over the last 12 years, $1 trillion of value has appreciated into existence. It may be a little more or a little less tomorrow, give a few $100 billion. It may one day reach $10 trillion or $100 trillion or stay at $1 trillion forever. It may even go to $0. But regardless of all that, $1 trillion of value has indeed materialized and grown on blockchain-based financial networks since 2008.　　If you are a financial advisor or a trust company, you have missed out on $1 trillion in capital appreciation for your customers. Regardless of how we spin it, the core fact is that crypto assets have largely been un-advised. They have not been distributed by fiduciaries to the mass market. Instead, they have either (1) been directly owned by retail investors through crypto exchanges or decentralized apps or (2) been packaged and secured for safe handling by newly buy-side funds for the largest endowments and family offices in the world. That means retail and mass affluent investors are doing it for themselves at Coinbase or Binance or MetaMask.　　This pattern joins a similar fact base for stock trading. Passive exchange-traded fund asset allocation assets have gone through the roof, in

2021-01-13Deep Dive

Visa Abandons $5.3B Acquisition of Plaid Over DOJ Antitrust Concerns

Visa called off its acquisition of Plaid, the fintech firm serving as a fiat bridge for a number of crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.　　The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday that the two companies have officially called off their planned $5.3 billion merger in the wake of the DOJs lawsuit last year that sought to block the deal.　　The DOJ filed a civil antitrust suit on Nov. 5, 2020, to stop the merger, claiming Visa is a monopolist in online debit, charging both consumers and merchants billions of dollars in fees each year to process online payments.　　“Now that Visa has abandoned its anticompetitive merger, Plaid and other future fintech innovators are free to develop potential alternatives to Visas online debit services,” Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim said in a statement. “With more competition, consumers can expect lower prices and better services.”　　As CoinDesk previously reported, Plaid has worked with Coinbase and at least two DeFi startups.　　The DOJ reported that Plaid earned approximately $100 million in revenue in 2019.

2021-01-13Deep Dive

Multiple Tokens See Rally Amid Looming ‘Alt Season’

As prices for bitcoin and ether retreat from their recent highs, the strong performance of other cryptocurrencies indicate traders and investors may now be turning to alternative coins (altcoins) for potential high returns.　　Data compiled by CoinDesk Research shows that as of Jan. 11, prices for both bitcoin (BTC, -4.6%) and ether (ETH, -4.53%) were about 87% and 78%, respectively, of their all-time highs. Yet, other CoinDesk 20 assets were still far from their highest prices on record. One possible implication is that these tokens may still have potentials to reach higher price levels amid the latest bitcoins bull run.　　Source: Nomics　　“We have seen [altcoins] pump – both before and after [Mondays] correction – in ways that we have not really seen since 2017,” Andrew Tu, an executive at quant firm Efficient Frontier, said.　　Bitcoins market capitalization hit a new record high on Jan. 8 but has dropped since then, evidence that some traders may be taking some profits from bitcoin and plowing them into altcoins, according to Tu.　　The total market capitalization of bitcoin.　　Source: CryptoQuant　　As CoinDesk reported previously, following the institution-driven 2020 bitcoin bull run, retail investors and traders have joined the rally for “fear of missing out.” Some entry-level investors viewing the

2021-01-13Deep Dive

Velas (VLX) Expands on Solana (SOL) Blockchain, Introduces Ethereum (ETH) Compatibility

Velas (VLX), a high-performance blockchain ecosystem, has shared details of its partnership with Solana (SOL), a pioneering sharded decentralized network well known for its 65,000 txs per second throughput.　　Velas (VLX) starts using Solana (SOL) codebase　　According to a recent press release shared with U.Today by Velas, its team inked a partnership with Solana (SOL) blockchain. Velas starts using Solanas codebase to build a new high-performance blockchain ecosystem.　　The Velas team highlights that the new collaboration will result in building a blockchain framework with previously unseen technical metrics:　　Velas will expand upon the Solana codebase in order to obtain and leverage one of the fastest blockchain frameworks in the entire crypto industry, far exceeding previous framework speeds and those of competitors.　　As covered by U.Today previously, Velas (VLX) recently launched iteration 3.0 of its ecosystem. It includes BitOrbit, a decentralized social media platform and Velas Wallet, a multi-currency crypto storage instrument.　　In addition, Velas (VLX) platform moves to an AIDPOS, a novel consensus solution. AIDPOS will leverage machine learning mechanisms to adjust blockchain operations to changing conditions.　　Velas (VLX) becomes EVM-compatible, migrates to open-source development　　Then, Velas shared its plans to switch to an open-source approach to the development of its own codebase.　　Another siginificant milestone for Velas (VLX)

2021-01-12Deep Dive

XRP Faces Prompt Recovery Despite Legal Uncertainty

While the crypto community remains uncertain about Ripple‘s future following the SEC’s recent lawsuit against Ripple, several on-chain metrics estimate that XRP is bound for a bullish impulse.　　XRP Tumbles Following SECs Charges　　XRP has seen its price crash over 65% in the past two months.　　That sell-off came after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed an action against Ripple. The regulatory watchdog claims that the company raised over $1.3 billion through an unregistered and ongoing digital asset securities offering.　　“We allege that Ripple, Larsen, and Garlinghouse failed to register their ongoing offer and sale of billions of XRP to retail investors,” said Stephanie Avakian, Director of the SECs Enforcement Division. That deprived investors of XRP disclosures and other protections, she says.　　Following the announcement, several cryptocurrency exchanges decided to suspend XRP trading activity due to the SEC‘s charges. The move added fuel to the downward pressure that began on Nov. 24, pushing this cryptocurrency’s price to a low of $0.17.　　XRP/USD on TradingView　　Despite the uncertainty around XRP, it was able to rebound and test the $0.33 barrier. Now, several on-chain metrics suggest that as long as the $0.22 support continues to hold, prices might recover some of the lost ground and break through

2021-01-12Deep Dive

First Signs of Bitcoin Panic Shows as Whales Profit from Correction

Bitcoins incredible rally to where it breached $20,000 and then more than doubled its worth from December 16, 2020, has brought in a lot of new blood and investment. However, many of these new investors would never have experienced the sting of Bitcoin volatility.　　Now, the first pinch of a bitcoin correction has come and the price of the coin fell from a high of $41,000 to a low of $31,000, shedding almost 25 percent of its value. This major loss has not been felt since March of 2020, and thus will be entirely new to some investors.　　In fact, it appears as if those not strong enough to face Bitcoins volatility may have already been pulling out. However, those with more experience are now in a position to profit and accumulate more coins.　　Statistics governing wallet balances from Glassnode reveal that the main investors “buying the dip” are those with a balance in excess of 1,000 BTC ($36 million).　　BTC millionaires know a good thing　　The drop in price will have been damaging to many who hopped on the bandwagon late — but for those who are in the business of accumulation, this correction will serve as a time to again buy cheaper-than-market-value coins.　　Elias

2021-01-12Deep Dive

JP Morgan Warns of Falling BTC Price With Bitcoin ETF Approval in US

JP Morgan published a report on Friday that discusses the impact of an SEC-approved bitcoin ETF on the bitcoin market. “Optimism around the prospect of the SEC approving a bitcoin ETF in the US this year has risen in anticipation of SEC leadership changes,” the analysts wrote, stating:　　“The approval of a bitcoin ETF in the US this year would likely be negative for bitcoin in the near term.”　　The analysts, including strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, proceeded to explain why they are forecasting a negative outlook. “The reason is a potential decline in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) premium to NAV [net asset value] from the introduction of bitcoin ETF in the US, which would unwind a big portion of GBTC investments currently placed for monetizing this premium.”　　They elaborated that “Some institutional investors likely subscribed to GBTC (at NAV) during the second half of last year with the intention of selling after the 6m unlock period … As the 6m unlocked period expires, some of these institutional investors might sell GBTC during the first half of 2021 to monetize the premium. If it materializes, this selling pressure would put downward pressure on GBTC premiums.”　　Emphasizing that a bitcoin ETF would provide an alternative investment

2021-01-12Deep Dive

...

735737

...

742