Category Archives: Bitcoin
Largest Bitcoin (BTC) Investment Vehicle Now Registered As an SEC Reporting Company: Grayscale – The Daily Hodl
Grayscale Investments, sponsor of the largest Bitcoin investment vehicle and the world leader in crypto investing with over $2 billion in assets under management, has announced that the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is now registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a reporting company.
The landmark achievement pushes Bitcoin one step further into the traditional financial markets, gaining regulatory oversight as the digital asset emerges from the shadows of Silk Road and lands in the portfolios of Wall Street investors. The top US securities regulator will now require Grayscale to file quarterly and annual reports as well as submit audited financial statements.
As the first crypto index fund to become an SEC reporting company, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is well positioned to draw more institutional and accredited investors. It offers investors exposure to BTC without having to hold the cryptocurrency directly in their portfolios. The Trust, which is solely and passively invested in Bitcoin, is tied to the performance of Bitcoin.
Says Grayscale,
As many institutions restrict investments in instruments that are not registered with the SEC, a broader set of investors may now begin to consider the Trust accordingly.
Commenting on how the new SEC status should be construed, Grayscale adds,
We want to be clear that this voluntary process to classify the Trust as an SEC reporting company is not and should not be confused as an effort to classify the Trust as an ETF. Our products are not ETFs, but they do have a familiar structure to investors because theyre modeled after popular commodity investment products.
Industry insiders are weighing, however, how the new reporting status might influence the SECs attitudes toward a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.
Ryan Selkis, founder of crypto data research firm Messari, calls Grayscales latest maneuver a savvy regulatory signal. He expects the SEC to offer its first official approval of a Bitcoin ETF within the next 12 to 18 months.
I think we'll finally see a Bitcoin ETF in the next 12-18 months and it will be @GrayscaleInvest that gets the nod.
Ryan Selkis (@twobitidiot) January 22, 2020
Selkis writes in a note to investors,
All thats left really is for the SEC to finally recognize that this quasi-public vehicle is already available, liquid, and widely coveted by retail investors, while at the same time, the Commissions own foot-dragging on an official ETF approval is quantifiably hurting those same investors by perpetuating the premium that exists on the publicly floated shares.
Grayscales 2019 report confirms that the companys record fourth quarter in 2019 shows a sustained high demand among institutional investors for its suite of cryptocurrency products.
Featured Image: Shutterstock/Trambitski
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Largest Bitcoin (BTC) Investment Vehicle Now Registered As an SEC Reporting Company: Grayscale - The Daily Hodl
Bitcoin Price Will Reach $400,000 after Halving If History Is to Be Taken into… – Coinspeaker
Bitcoin price is always largely influenced by the halving. Bitcoins halving is easily the most anticipated event in the crypto industry today. The next halving is expected sometime in May 2020 and many believe it will spark the next Bitcoin rally. Since late last year, there have been many forecasts about what the halving will do for the king coin. A new report has now suggested what is probably the most bullish forecast for the worlds number one asset. According toBeincrypto, Bitcoin will hit $400,000 after the halving.
The Bitcoin halving is an event that occurs after every 210,000 blocks are produced, usually taking place every four years. At every halving, the block rewards received by miners on the network is cut by exactly 50%. At the moment, miners receive 12.5 BTC per mined block. After May, this figure will drop to 6.25 BTC.
When theres a shortage in the supply of anything, its value usually increases. This is the best way to explain why Bitcoins price always skyrockets after a halving. But is $400,000 possible or is it just a bullish pipedream?
The report highlights the history of Bitcoin halvings.
The first halving took place in November 2012. Bitcoin was trading at $2.01 and then jumped to $270.94 after the halving. The $268.93 leap was an increase of 13,000 percent. Years after, in July 2016, Bitcoin had its second halving. This halving pushed the Bitcoin price from $164.01 all the way to a mouth-watering $20,074. The increase, this time, was 12,000 percent.
Following this trajectory, Bitcoin could very easily shoot up to $400,000 after the May halving. Technical and trading analysis platform Rekt Capital alsopublished an analysisback in September 2019 that has corroborated the possibility of $400,000.
First is the possibility of a new all-time high which happens after every halving. This means that even if we dont see $400,000, we will see a new record high.
Second is the percentage increase. Bitcoins history suggests that at every halving, there is an increase of between 12,000 and 13,000 percent This buttresses the possibility of a $400,000 figure.
The third possibility is another post halving bear market. The Rekt Capital article highlights the possibility of a bear market after Mays halving. After the first halving, a bear market began in 2013 and went on for almost 87 days. During this time, Bitcoin shed over 80% of its weight.
A similar occurrence happened after the second halving which saw Bitcoin enter a bear market that lasted more than 51 weeks. It didnt end until early 2019.
Based on this, and regardless of what happens to Bitcoins price, the community should expect a bear market this year.
Tolu is a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast based in Lagos. He likes to demystify crypto stories to the bare basics so that anyone anywhere can understand without too much background knowledge.When he's not neck-deep in crypto stories, Tolu enjoys music, loves to sing and is an avid movie lover.
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Bitcoin Price Will Reach $400,000 after Halving If History Is to Be Taken into... - Coinspeaker
Tesla Vs Bitcoin: Which One You Should Hold by 2025? – Bitcoinist
Bitcoin is regarded by many as the worlds top performing asset class, but the king of crypto might have an unexpected competitor in the face of Tesla stock (TSLA), as is market cap breaks $100 billion today.
On Wednesday, the share price of Tesla enjoyed another significant rally amid a general bullishness in the US stock market. The stock has gained over 8% since the opening of the session, with the market capitalization crossing the $100 billion mark for the first time in its 17 years history. Thus, Elon Musks company became the first publicly traded American carmaker to cross that line, currently fluctuating at around $103 billion.
Tesla stock, listed on NASDAQ with the ticker TSLA, is trading at $592.11 right now, and its still surging. The share price started the year at $430, suggesting that the year-to-date return is over 35%. For comparison, Bitcoin has increased by 20% for the same period.
Now Tesla is valued more than Ford and General Motors combined. The company has already surpassed Volkswagen as the second-largest carmaker by market capitalization in the world. The next target is Toyota, which is by far the largest auto manufacturer, with a market value slightly over $200 billion. But, according to a Wall Street analyst, that is achievable in the coming years.
Pierre Ferragu of New Street Research said that Teslas price target for the next 12 months is $800. By 2025, Tesla might become the largest carmaker in the world. The company will be able to deliver up to 3 million cars per year during the next five years, which help its stock surge to $1,100 or even $1,700. This suggests a market cap between $250 and $530 billion.
Teslas rally began in June last year, while Bitcoin started in the spring. In the last six months, Musks company has gained over 130%, while Bitcoin has a negative return. For 2019 as a whole, Bitcoin almost doubled, while Tesla gained over 40%.
However, TSLA seems to be on fire right now and can update the peaks amid ongoing optimism. The market values of both assets are also comparable, with Bitcoins total capitalization keeping above $150 billion.
Last week, we reported that ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood voiced a bold prediction for Tesla, anticipating the stock price to surge to $6,000 in the next five years, which will make it a trillion-dollar giant. In this scenario, Bitcoin might lose the competition if it doesnt stick to the price-performance predicted in the stock-to-flow model, which sees the asset breaking 6 figures in the near future.
It remains to be seen whether Woods scenario will work, but the certain thing is that the race between these assets will be interesting to watch over the next 5 years.
Do you think Tesla will perform better than Bitcoin? Share your thoughts in the comments section!
Image via Shutterstock
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Tesla Vs Bitcoin: Which One You Should Hold by 2025? - Bitcoinist
Regulation will see Bitcoin go mainstream in the UK Coinfloor CEO – Yahoo Finance
Tighter EU laws governing cryptocurrency will lead to wider Bitcoin adoption, claims the CEO of established UK crypto exchange Coinfloor.
This month, the European Union implemented a new law known as the EU Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD) which requires cryptocurrency platforms and wallet providers to identify their customers for anti-money laundering purposes.
The UK has decided to implement the law despite its decision to leave the EU.
Coinfloor CEO Obi Nwosu says tighter EU and UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations will increase confidence among consumers.
He told Coin Rivet: Clearer regulation is a going to be a good thing for the UK and EU. It will bring more certainty for users, service providers like us, and our institutional and financial suppliers.
This in turn will eventually translate into greater adoption for Bitcoin.
Europe EIF European Comission
Governments around the world are implementing crypto legislation
Depending on your perspective, Bitcoin has either already reached mainstream adoption, is about to, or has a long way to go.
In terms of its first killer app namely being a digital inflation-resistant store of value that is accessible to all Bitcoin has already reached maturity and is seeing sections of the mainstream market using it.
Mainstream adoption will only increase as more businesses develop Bitcoin-based financial services and merchants start accepting Bitcoin payments.
Coinfloor is a London-based Bitcoin exchange established in early 2013. It claims to be the first exchange-backed peer-to-peer marketplace for Bitcoin.
The post Regulation will see Bitcoin go mainstream in the UK Coinfloor CEO appeared first on Coin Rivet.
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Regulation will see Bitcoin go mainstream in the UK Coinfloor CEO - Yahoo Finance
Instantaneous Bitcoin [BTC] Payment Will Soon be Enabled at Starbucks, Courtesy of Bakkt – Coingape
An undisclosed source reveals that Bakkt, the ICE affiliate and the firm that was approved the US CFTC to list physically delivered Bitcoin Futures, is planning on tackling concerns that impede crypto adoption and spur real-world use case.
As such, it is rumored that Bakkt is working on launching a product and test launch first with Starbucks, an authority in retail, enabling users to efficiently and conveniently settle transactions in a speedy and safe manner.
In late October 2019, Bakkt announced that it will commit on building consumer applications for digital assets before test launching it with one of their partners at a tentative time in H1 2020.
Impressive, this was a positive development that instilled hope for Bitcoin holders and enthusiasts when asset prices were cratering and looked likely to fall below the all-important support at $6,000.
Through a blog post, Mike Blandina, the Chief Product Officer, said:
Bakkts approach to secure technology, privacy and innovation means that we are an advocate for consumers who have yet to enter the digital asset space, and for merchants who want to accept new, efficient forms of payments without increasing risks.
The source says Bakkt will have the upper hand and might be the first firm to launch an application that will allow users to safely and conveniently pay for goods and services via partners.
To achieve this difficult feat, it is said Bakkt will insure funds in their app in such a way that a merchant will instantly receive payment from Bakkt which will turn to be reimbursed once the BTC transaction reaches the merchants account.
For the everyday person theres going to be an app for iOS and Android, with this you can buy select cryptocurrencies, or use it as wallet and simply deposit cryptocurrency obtained elsewhere. But this wallet isnt going to be marketed as storage like others this wallet is where you put the crypto you want to spend.
The other half of will be the merchant services. The goal here is for any business to be able to implement this without any learning curve. Any business that currently takes Apple Pay or Samsung Pay their employees already know everything they need to know. Bakkt basically pays for it, then gets reimbursed a couple minutes later when the crypto transfer is complete
This instantaneous release of funds allows the merchant escape price volatility ensuring that he/she receives pay as charged. Upon launch, the application will be tested at Starbucks.
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Instantaneous Bitcoin [BTC] Payment Will Soon be Enabled at Starbucks, Courtesy of Bakkt
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An undisclosed source reveals that Bakkt is planning on tackling concerns that impede crypto adoption and spur real-world use case.
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Dalmas Ngetich
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Instantaneous Bitcoin [BTC] Payment Will Soon be Enabled at Starbucks, Courtesy of Bakkt - Coingape
Alleged bitcoin thieves arrested by Tokyo police over 78 million haul – The Japan Times
Tokyo police have arrested two men for allegedly stealing some 78 million in bitcoin from an overseas cryptocurrency exchange, it was learned Thursday.
The Metropolitan Police Departments cybercrime unit arrested Yuto Onitsuka, 25, and Takuma Sasaki, 28, on computer fraud charges, investigative sources said.
The two are suspected of accessing the account of a Tokyo-based virtual currency management company on CoinExchange and stealing some 78 million in bitcoin from the account on Oct. 29, 2018. The stolen bitcoin was remitted to two accounts managed by the suspects on foreign and domestic exchanges.
According to the investigative sources, Onitsuka was an employee of the Tokyo virtual currency management firm at the time and knew the username and password for the company account. Sasaki is thought to have learned the login details from Onitsuka and used the information to fraudulently withdraw the bitcoins.
Some of the stolen cryptocurrency is thought to have been exchanged for cash, which was put in Sasakis bank account.
Sasaki withdrew some 6 million from the account and spent the money for travel and other purposes, according to the investigative sources.
Onitsuka and Sasaki became acquainted through an online bulletin board four to five years ago, but had never met each other, the sources said. The sources quoted Onitsuka as saying that he tried to bankrupt the company he worked for as he was dissatisfied with the management policy of the president at the time.
The MPD began the investigation after the company reported the theft.
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Alleged bitcoin thieves arrested by Tokyo police over 78 million haul - The Japan Times
How Much Influence Will China Have On The Future Of Bitcoin? – Bitcoinist
China is intrinsically tied with bitcoin, more so than any other nation. The state has little tolerance for it, that much is known, but can past events give us any insight to the future of this fragile relationship.
As Chinese New Year approaches many analysts are looking for clues as to whether this will affect bitcoin prices. Crypto media has decided it will be bullish and bearish at the same time.
One common theory is Chinese investors will sell off holdings before the holiday to free up spending money which will create additional bearish pressure on markets.
Historical price trends show that whatever happens, this weekend will be a blip in the grand scheme of things.
A recent report by crypto trading firm SFOX has taken a deeper look into the tempestuous relationship between China and bitcoin.
The country plays such a major role in the machinations of the worlds leading digital asset. China has a massive OTC market with huge domestic demand, over two-thirds of the network hash power, and many of the worlds leading crypto companies and entrepreneurs.
Back in 2011 Chinese bitcoin exchange BTCC was launched just a year after the first-ever exchange went live. Two years later industry giants like Huobi and Bitmain were founded in China.
In late 2013 the Chinese government banned bitcoin from banks and domestic exchanges but did not prohibit trading or ownership. By 2015 four Chinese mining pools (F2Pool, AntPool, BTCC Pool, and BW.com) commanded over half the hash rate.
Pressure on the Chinese yuan led to a surge in investment causing bitcoin prices to increase at the end of 2016. By late 2017 the regime had banned ICOs and domestic crypto exchanges causing an exodus of companies to friendlier climes such as Hong Kong and Singapore.
In late 2019 president Xi Jinping publically endorsed blockchain technology leading to a 33% surge in bitcoin prices in a couple of days.
It is clear from these few pivotal events that China has a huge influence over bitcoin markets.
Just like the freedom of information, Beijing wants no part of bitcoin and has made every effort to prevent its burgeoning population using it. With decades of censorship and prohibition, the people are quite adept at subverting their totalitarian rulers and can easily get BTC as ownership of it is still perfectly legal in China.
China is leading the world in the central bank digital currency race with Europe and the rest of the world playing catch-up. The US hasnt even got off the starting grid as the current Administration is more focused on enriching billionaire bankers even further.
Chinas motives are centered on more surveillance of monetary flows and control over the finances of the population. However, a CBDC will bring crypto money to the masses in a country that is already streets ahead for digital and mobile payments.
A younger generation, wary of failing banks and dictatorial rulers, will want more freedom and bitcoin provides this. China will maintain its influence over bitcoin markets for some time but it may not be all bad news, demand is unlikely to be diminished especially if the economy is starting to feel the pinch.
As we have seen before, weaker currencies strengthen the safe haven narrative, and the Chinese are experts at investing where it counts.
Will Chinas influence over BTC strengthen this year? Add your comments below.
Image via Bitcoinist Media Library
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How Much Influence Will China Have On The Future Of Bitcoin? - Bitcoinist
An Analysis of Price Discovery in Bitcoin Spot Markets – Traders Magazine
The issue of market manipulation is perhaps the biggest barrier to the institutionalization of Bitcoin markets. As we covered in our recent op-ed on Bitcoin Magazine, Making Regulatory Progress with Bitcoin ETFs and Pricing, this is an issue that regulators, especially the SEC, are paying close attention to. In fact, all recent denials of Bitcoin ETF applications have raised concerns about market manipulation and consumer protection. We have found some of these concerns to be well-founded, and have recently shared part of ourvetting methodology, which showed that some crypto exchanges are likely using random number generators to inflate their volumes.
Beyond hurting the legitimacy of this market, the existence of bad market data provides a challenge for market data providers, such as ourselves, and ETF applicants, such as Bitwise. If a large percentage of market data is being manipulated, how can we prevent that data from affecting our clean prices? In other words, even if we select several high-quality exchanges via a comprehensive methodology, as we did, can the exchanges that are inflating their volumes affect prices in these high-quality venues?
That is the question the SEC has proposed in their latest rejection of the Bitwise ETF. To answer this question, we developed a Lead-Lag study to determine where price discovery is happening in Bitcoin spot markets.
As we will cover in this post, our high-level conclusion is that exchanges with known manipulated data in the Bitcoin spot market have a limited impact on price in the trustworthy market. 9 out of the top 10 exchanges most frequently leading price changes are either more trustworthy exchanges that we have placed on our Vetted List or Watchlist, and, within that top 10, 98% of the time those more trustworthy exchanges were the top price leaders. That isnt to say that these exchanges are exclusively price leaders, as there is evidence that shows a long tail of sporadic price leading by disqualified exchanges. However, it appears to be neither persistent nor systematic. Our analysis leads us to believe that price formation in the Bitcoin spot markets tend to occur on more trustworthy exchanges.
Weve created a multistep process designed to measure the lead-lag relationship with Bitcoin trading on various spot exchanges. A high-level overview of the study includes the following steps:
Our study identified 106 events to measure lead-lag relationships. The following is an example event that illustrates the steps taken in this analysis. We identified an event that met the volatility requirement, a movement in prices above $100 with price movement in both directions.
We isolated all exchange pairs during the event, including the following three exchanges, Kraken, OKEx, and Coinbase. Zooming in on three exchanges during the event produces the following graph:
We then took one exchange pair, Kraken-OKEx, and began time-shifting OKExs data in 0.1-second increments to maximize the correlation. We found this maximum to exist at 6.4 seconds, meaning Kraken leads OKEx by 6.4 seconds in this example. Visually, our activity appears in the following graph.
Next, we do this for Kraken-Coinbase, where we find that Coinbase leads Kraken by 1.4 seconds. Visually, the time-shifted price series looks like the following graph.
We repeated the process for every exchange pair relationship during the event. By plotting a heat map of the lead-lag time relationship of exchange pairs during an event, we can visually interpret the relationship between prices on Bitcoin exchanges. The following example heat map shows the lead-lag relationship for a sample set of 28 exchange pairs on the same event. The graph is most easily read as the y-axis compared to the x-axis. The number (and color) of the intersecting box shows the amount that the y-axis leads (positive) or lags (negative) the y-axis. For example, looking at Coinbase in the x-axis vs Gemini in the y-axis shows that Coinbase leads Gemini by 0.2 seconds in this event.
We then scored each exchange by the number of times it leads a relationship minus the number of times it lags. Gemini lags only Coinbase, so it receives a 25 (261). Bitfinex, in the third row, leads 20 exchanges but had 7 lags. Its score for this event is 13. We do this for every exchange producing the following table. We call the top 5 ranked exchanges Price Leaders (theres a tie for 5th place in this example).
We repeat the previous process for all 106 events to determine the Price Leaders or top 5 exchanges to lead price movement, for each event. We then tally the number of appearances as a Price Leader across all events to give us a more comprehensive sense of exchanges that are frequently leading or lagging. We overlaid ourexisting exchange vetting framework, which relies on numerous quantitative tests and qualitative data to label exchanges as Vetted, Watch List, or Disqualified. Vetted exchanges pass both steps of our vetting process, Watch List have passed the first steps of our vetting process, and Disqualified Exchanges fail to meet the requirements of our vetting process.
If we rank all exchanges together across all volatility events we analyzed, a more comprehensive picture and conclusion emerges 9 of the top 10 Price Leaders come from our Vetted or Watch List exchanges. We believe this shows that in the time period analyzed, activity on digital asset exchanges that fail to pass our vetting process have a limited impact on price discovery:
By looking at the frequency of placement within our Price Leader designation (top 5 rankings) of the top 10 exchanges, we find even more evidence that Vetted and Watch List exchanges lead the price discovery process out of the top ten Price Leaders, Vetted or Watch List exchanges were in first place 98.3% of the time, and 94.3% of the time a Vetted or Watch List exchange was in the top 3 exchanges to lead price discovery.OKEx, the only disqualified exchange to make the top 10 Price Leaders list, only leads an event in the first spot once, and most of its ranking is skewed to fifth place.
Based on the analysis produced through this process, it is our conclusion that price discovery predominantly takes place on exchanges that have passed one or more phases of our exchange vetting process. Its true that these exchanges dont lead all events, but they do lead in most cases we identified. We think this is strong evidence that while the trading of Bitcoin occurs on platforms around the world that may report transactions of non-economic substance, that known manipulated data is not materially impacting price on the more trustworthy exchanges.
Once a small part of digital asset markets, derivatives increasingly play an important role within the trading ecosystem. This includes derivatives that trade on US regulated exchanges, like the CME, and exchanges which are not regulated in the US, like BitMEX. Although this analysis was focused on spot markets, wed be shortsighted to not incorporate them in our next steps.Our preliminary analysis on the BitMEX perpetual Bitcoin contract, XBTUSD, shows that it may be having an impact on price discovery as well. This analysis is still preliminary but by adding XBTUSD to our previous analysis, we find that BitMEX appears as a Price Leader more frequently than any other exchange other than Binance. The area of derivatives is expected to be the next area of study for our organization.
Greg Cipolaro is co-founder of Digital Asset Research
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An Analysis of Price Discovery in Bitcoin Spot Markets - Traders Magazine
Billionaire Investor Sees Major Flaw In Bitcoin Investment Thesis – Forbes
Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio attends China Development Forum 2019 at the Diaoyutai State ... [+] Guesthouse on March 23, 2019 in Beijing, China.
Billionaire investor and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio was interviewed by CNBC as part of their coverage of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday morning. During the interview, Dalio painted a picture of the global economy that sounds quite similar to the supporting evidence Bitcoin investors often provide in terms of their bullish scenarios for the cryptocurrency.
While his general thesis on what will happen with the economy in the coming years matches up with what many Bitcoin holders think, Dalios advice for those worried about tough economic times ahead is to turn to gold, rather than Bitcoin, as a safe haven asset.
According to Dalio, the global economy is facing a serious issue in that an economic downturn would be an especially problematic situation for central bankers due to the lack of tools that are available to use, with interest rates already at or near historical lows in many places around the world.
Were in a spot in monetary policy where you can no longer stimulate the same way you did before, said Dalio.
Additionally, Dalio sees larger budget deficits on the way. In his view, newly-printed money will be used to pay for this increased spending. Dalio added that this scenario does not necessarily mean there will be an acceleration of inflation, as the new money could be funneled into financial assets.
The way it works is: They print money, they buy a bond, they give it to the seller of the bond, and they buy other financial assets, said Dalio.
However, Dalio stated that the attractiveness of government bonds to investors could decline in the coming years, creating new questions regarding what works best as a store of value.
When you get negative-yielding bonds or something, youre approaching a limit, said Dalio. We are approaching a limit that will be a paradigm shift, I think.
In terms of the possibility of an economic downturn during the next U.S. Presidential term, Dalio claimed, Its going to happen.
When this economic downturn occurs, Dalio is of the belief that turning to cash wont be the best option.
You cant jump into cash, said Dalio. Cash is trash . . . because theyre going to print money.
This same sentiment is behind many of the bullish Bitcoin price scenarios that have been espoused over the past couple of years.
While Dalio agrees with Bitcoin proponents in terms of the potential issues with holding cash in the near future, the billionaire investor disagrees that the cryptocurrency would be a proper alternative as a store of value.
In Dalios view, a global portfolio with a certain amount of money put into gold as an additional diversifier will be the best option for investors to deal with the economic downturn that he foresees happening in the coming years.
If you want to oversimplify a portfolio, you probably want stock in the technology, disrupting companies and some gold, said Dalio.
When asked if Bitcoin should also be included in this portfolio, Dalio said no.
There are two purposes of money: a medium of exchange and a store-hold of wealth, explained Dalio. And Bitcoin is not effective in either of those cases now.
In Dalios view, Bitcoin is simply too volatile to act as a proper store of value, and over the long term, he sees more potential in something like Facebooks Libra project. That said, there is reason to believe the level of centralization found in Libra and various central bank digital currency projects would actually have a positive effect on Bitcoin.
But also: Who is going to do the buying? added Dalio. Central bankers and others. What are they going to hold as reserves? What has been tried and true? Are they going to hold digital Bitcoin? Theyre going to hold gold. That is a reserve currency, and its been a reserve currency for a thousand years.
Despite Dalios comments, data from the second half of 2019 appears to show Bitcoin has made progress in terms of becoming viewed as a digital gold by market participants. A potential continuation of this trend is one of the five key Bitcoin stories to watch in 2020.
That said, while a survey from last week indicated more financial advisors are looking to add Bitcoin and other crypto assets to client portfolios in 2020, this is still a rare point of view among institutional investors. However, an improving regulatory environment around Bitcoin is one of the reasons an analyst has stated theres a 60% chance for a Bitcoin ETF approval to occur in 2020.
Additionally, a variety of factors have already led one industry executive to predict a $50,000 Bitcoin price by the end of the year.
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Billionaire Investor Sees Major Flaw In Bitcoin Investment Thesis - Forbes
Swiss Banks Enter the Age of Bitcoin – CoinDesk
DAVOS Switzerlands banking industry has long been known to privately safeguard wealth, so some bankers see bitcoin as a natural fit for the nations financial sector.
Although such bankers may still be a minority, Zurich-based SEBA Bank AG opened in November 2019 with a universal banking license and a suite of services ranging from fiat storage to crypto custody, a crypto-connected debit card that automatically converts to fiat on the backend for regular shopping and crypto-trading options through the banks mobile app.
SEBA CEO Guido Bhler said the bank raised 100 million Swiss francs (roughly $103.4 million) from angel investors like Guy Schwarzenbach, founder of Black River Asset Management.
Schwarzenbach said the pricing for SEBA app trades, enabled by backend API integrations with global exchanges, offered extremely competitive pricing compared to over-the-counter trades.
What I am really excited about for SEBA is their upcoming deployment of a margin and lending business, including options and derivatives, Schwarzenbach said.
SEBA was hardly the first bitcoin-friendly Swiss bank. The private bank Falcon Group, for example, launched bitcoin management services in 2017. Matthew Blake, the World Economic Forum's monetary systems lead, described crypto-friendly, fully licensed banks as an emerging trend.
"It's something institutions can do to hedge," he said.
Likewise, the Swiss crypto startup Bitcoin Suisse has also applied for a universal banking license with the goal of offering everything from staking services to loans.
We're not applying for a banking license just to be like every other bank. We are pioneers at heart, said Bitcoin Suisse marketing lead Ian Simpson. We will, of course, offer cash accounts for our clients, in their own name. ... We will be able to start trading crypto securities, stablecoins and synthetics, such as mini-futures and products to short the major crypto assets.
Crypto bank
However, among such banks so far, SEBA offers a unique ability to hold a variety of many fiat currencies, including American dollars, Hong Kong dollars and Singaporean dollars, then instantly trade cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ether and Stellar lumens.
You can open an account over the phone in 15 minutes, for an accredited investor, you dont have to go to Switzerland, Bhler said. Theres always going to be aspects that banks are required for, and the first one is the storage of your private key.
For Schwarzenbach, who described himself as a libertarian who runs his own Lightning Network node that he made using a Raspberry Pi, bitcoin banking makes sense for the physical security benefits. He wouldnt want the risk of someone hurting him to get at his bitcoin stash.
Bhler said the young bank already serves high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors from all over the world, excluding the United States, plus a few blockchain startups.
Schwarzenbach added that open source decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms inspired by MakerDAO could eventually offer comparable financial infrastructure to both the general population and the proverbial 1 percent.
My hope is that we will be able to develop and adopt that [DeFi] infrastructure, Schwarzenbach said. And it is my expectation that standards will present themselves with market maturation.
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