investments
Wealth managers and VCs are helping drive institutional crypto adoption — Wave Financial execs
Two executives at Wave Financial, an asset management firm providing bespoke strategies to high-net-worth individuals and entities, have reported seeing increased institutional demand for crypto products amid the bear market. Speaking to Cointelegraph at the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto on Wednesday, Wave Financial’s head of business development Mike Jones said institutional investment in crypto could be driven by the high end of wealth management firms including Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs looking for ways to allow their clients to get exposure to the space. Jones cited the example of BlackRock partnering with Coinbase on Aug. 4, a move that will give users of the asset manager’s institutional investment management platform Aladdin access to crypto trading...
How Bitcoin whales make a splash in markets and move prices
Deriving their names from the size of the massive mammals swimming around the earth’s oceans, cryptocurrency whales refer to individuals or entities that hold large amounts of cryptocurrency. In the case of Bitcoin (BTC), someone can be considered a whale if they hold over 1,000 BTC, and there are less than 2,500 of them out there. As Bitcoin addresses are pseudonymous, it is ofte difficult to ascertain who owns any wallet. While many associates the term “whale” with some lucky early adopters of Bitcoin, not all whales are the same, indeed. There are several different categories: Exchanges: Since the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies, crypto exchanges have become some of the biggest whale wallets as they hold large amounts of crypto on their order books. Institutions and corpor...
Interview with Kevin O’Leary: $28K Bitcoin next or lower? | Market Talks with Crypto Jebb
With the price of Bitcoin (BTC) holding above $22,000, more and more market players are turning bullish again. Does this mean that we could see BTC go to $28,000 in the short term or will it fall below its current levels? Join us as we discuss this and other topics with Crypto Jebb and Mr. Wonderful, himself, Kevin O’Leary. In this week’s episode of Market Talks, we welcome businessman, entrepreneur, author, winemaker and television presenter, Mr. Kevin O’Leary. O’Leary, best known as the shark on the hit reality TV show Shark Tank, is the chairman of O’Shares Investments and a strategic investor in WonderFi. Mr. O’Leary’s success story starts where most entrepreneurs begin — with a big idea and zero cash. The main topic of discussion on the show is whether BTC will go as high as $28...
Michael Saylor will step down as MicroStrategy CEO but remain executive chair
Bitcoin maximalist Michael Saylor has announced that he will step down as the chief executive officer of MicroStrategy, the business intelligence firm he helped co-found in 1989. In a Tuesday notice on its second quarter earnings for 2022, MicroStrategy said Saylor would be assuming the new role of executive chair at the company, while president Phong Le will become CEO. The changes are expected to take effect on Aug. 8. “I believe that splitting the roles of Chairman and CEO will enable us to better pursue our two corporate strategies of acquiring and holding Bitcoin and growing our enterprise analytics software business,” said Saylor. Please join the @MicroStrategy management team at 5pm ET as we discuss our Q2 2022 financial results, executive transition, and answer questions about our ...
Crypto contagion deters investors in near term, but fundamentals stay strong
The past six-odd months have been nothing short of a financial soap opera for the cryptocurrency market, with more drama seemingly unfolding every other day. To this point, since the start of May, a growing number of major crypto entities have been tumbling like dominoes, with the trend likely to continue in the near term. The contagion, for the lack of a better word, was sparked by the collapse of the Terra ecosystem back in May, wherein the project’s associated digital currencies became worthless almost overnight. Following the event, crypto lending platform Celsius faced bankruptcy. Then Zipmex, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange, froze all customer withdrawals, a move that was mirrored by crypto financial service provider Babel Finance late last month. It is worth noting that si...
Charles Schwab’s asset management arm launches crypto-linked ETF
Schwab Asset Management, the asset management arm of financial giant Charles Schwab, has launched an exchange-traded fund (ETF) with exposure to firms linked to cryptocurrencies. In a Friday announcement, Schwab said its Crypto Thematic ETF was expected to be available for trading on the New York Stock Exchange’s Arca under the ticker STCE on Aug. 4. The fund tracks Schwab’s Crypto Thematic Index, providing an investment vehicle with exposure to companies “that may benefit from the development or utilization of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.” Likely because the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has not given the green light to ETFs providing direct exposure to Bitcoin (BTC), the Schwab fund will indirectly invest in crypto through companies. Schwab...
Can blockchain be used without cryptocurrency?
A blockchain without cryptocurrency is a distributed ledger that stores data associated with nonfungible tokens (NFTs), supply chain initiatives, the Metaverse and more. Even though Bitcoin (BTC) is the most known application of a decentralized ledger or blockchain, there is a wide range of other uses of blockchain technology. For instance, blockchain technology can be utilized in various financial services including remittances, digital assets and online payments because it enables payments to be settled without a bank or other middleman. Furthermore, the next generation of internet interaction systems including smart contracts, reputation systems, public services, the Internet of Things (IoT) and security services are among blockchain technology’s most promising applications.&a...
Democratic senators chide Fidelity Investments for BTC-exposed retirement funds
Three United States senators have written to Fidelity Investments CEO Abigail Johnson demanding an explanation for the financial services company’s decision to include Bitcoin-exposed funds in its 401(k) retirement plans. “This decision is immensely troubling,” they wrote. Democrats Dick Durbin, Elizabeth Warren and Tina Smith sent their letter Tuesday. The letter, which is around a page and a half long, discussed Americans’ retirement savings habits in general terms with minimal statistics but numerous rhetorical flourishes and strings of adjectives. The money American consumers may invest in retirement funds is “hard earned,” for example, and their exposure to the “cryptocurrency casino” is “a bridge too far.” The authors of the letter asked: “When saving for retirement is already a...
Thai SEC launches digital hotline for Zipmex users
In the aftermath of the Thai cryptocurrency exchange Zipmex stopping withdrawals last week, local financial regulators are stepping in to look into potential losses by investors. Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is taking action to collect all necessary information from investors on how they have been affected by issues on Zipmex. The regulator officially announced on July 25 that Zipmex customers can submit information via an online forum on the Thai SEC’s official website. The SEC has received a number of complaints from people affected by Zipmex after the crypto exchange temporarily suspended withdrawals of the Thai baht and digital assets on Wednesday, the regulator said. “In the past, the SEC issued a letter requesting the company [Zipmex] to provide an efficient sy...
3AC: A $10B hedge fund gone bust with founders on the run
Three Arrow Capital (3AC), a Singapore-based crypto hedge fund that at one point managed over $10 billion worth of assets, became one of the many crypto firms that went bankrupt in this bear market. However, the fall of 3AC wasn’t purely a market-driven phenomenon. As more information surfaced, the collapse looked more like a self-inflicted crisis brought upon by an unchecked decision-making process. To put it concisely, the hedge fund made a series of large directional trades in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), Luna Classic (LUNC) and Staked Ether (stETH) and borrowed funds from over 20 large institutions. The May crypto crash led to a series of spiral investment collapse for the hedge fund. The firm went bust and the loan defaults have led to mass contagion in crypto. The first hint...
Sentiment and inflation: Factors putting pressure on Bitcoin price
Subsequently, there are fears that Bitcoin prices will take longer to recover. Bitcoin (BTC) has been hovering around the $20,000 range for several weeks now after the coin lost over 60% of its value from its peak in November. The recent plunge wiped out over $600 million from its market cap and caused rising concerns of a bubble burst. Negative investor sentiment Cryptocurrency investors have been on edge since Bitcoin’s fall to around $20,000. Many of them fear that more unprecedented selloffs by key players could precipitate a bigger downtrend. Further declines are likely to amplify losses and make it harder for the market to recover in the medium term. As such, many investors are holding off additional investments. Besides the fall of cryptocurrencies, the decimation of linchpin crypto...
Tesla reports $64M profit from Bitcoin sale
Tesla’s decision to offload most of its Bitcoin (BTC) treasuries netted the company a hefty profit in the second quarter, even as crypto prices plunged into a bear market. In the first six months of 2022, Tesla recorded $170 million of impairment losses “resulting from changes to the carrying value” of its Bitcoin holdings, according to an official Form 10-Q filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. After selling 75% of its BTC stash for dollars in the second quarter, the company netted a realized gain of $64 million. In finance, an impairment loss occurs when the fair value of an asset held by a company falls below the carrying value of the investment. If you sell 75% of your bitcoin, you will only have 25% of your #bitcoin left. — Michael Saylor⚡&#x...
