DeFi tokens are drawing the attention that may be migrating from Bitcoin. In this article, there are details of what is happening with three of them.

The tokens of the DeFi segment have appreciated surprisingly due to the quite strong growth of that market. The prices of cryptocurrencies/tokens of decentralized finance are the ones that have increased the most in recent days.

Currently, there is a great boom in projects like UMA, 0X, PancakeSwap, Nexo, and Maker. That has caused the prices of their native tokens to increase by at least 80%.

With 175% Earnings, UMA Is the Most Prominent DeFi Token

With surprising earnings, UMA has recently been the most prominent among DeFi tokens and crypto assets in general. This is the native token of a decentralized protocol to create synthetic assets on the Ethereum blockchain.

UMA has taken a huge jump of 175.04% in the last seven days, reaching an all-time high of almost USD 44. On the first day, the token was trading at just USD 12.

At the time of writing this article, UMA is pulling back strongly, trading at USD 29.24. The drop in recent hours has been negative, but it is just a normal healthy correction. It could help pick up demand to start a new momentum.

Another of the Benefited Tokens is ZRX

ZRX is the native token of the DeFi 0X platform, which allows the exchange of ERC20 tokens and other crypto assets. This occurs on the Ethereum chain without the need to rely on intermediaries.

This is the second DeFi token whose price has risen the most in the last seven days, accumulating a gain of 135.11%. Similar to UMA, this token has been pulling back in the last few hours.

The price of ZRX had previously reached an all-time high of USD 2.10 on the ProBit exchange. However, at the time of writing this article, the price of ZRX is USD 1.44.

The pullback is just healthy profit-taking after taking such a steep upward jump. Sooner or later, if nothing extraordinary happens, new momentum will start to build for ZRX.

“Little” CAKE Also Begins to Gain Ground

Among the crypto assets whose price has grown the most in the last seven days, the PancakeSwap token has managed to penetrate. The PancakeSwap platform is a decentralized exchange for BEP20 tokens that run on the Binance Smart Chain.

CAKE’s market capitalization is USD 341 million, while UMA’s is USD 1,600 million and ZRX’s is USD 1,067.

However, CAKE is already among the 100 largest crypto assets in the ecosystem. As long as its price continues to rise, it could soon reach that of other more relevant DeFi tokens by market capitalization.

This token has jumped by 102.4% in the last seven days, which has led it to currently trading at USD 3.15.

There has been a strong uptrend and a pullback that seems to be over. For that reason, CAKE should continue to make a profit in the next hours/days.

By Alexander Salazar

Phong Le believes that every company should have a part of its reserves in Bitcoin. The CFO defined MicroStrategy’s strategy as “buy and hold (hodl)”.

Regarding institutional investments, MicroStategy CFO Phong Le believes that “it is still early to invest in Bitcoin.” In recent days, the executive had a conversation with Jeremy Price, senior vice president of financial analysis at said company.

They agreed that corporations should have at least a part of their capital in the cryptocurrency that Satoshi Nakamoto created. According to Le, there are no excuses for publicly traded companies in any country not to invest in Bitcoin.

Both explained that this reason led them to decide to share the learning that they have obtained in MicroStrategy’s bitcoinization process. This US-based company owns 71,079 BTC, which is equivalent to more than USD 2,600 million. They obtained most of these bitcoins during the year 2020.

Necessary Strategies to Invest in Bitcoin

Phong Le said that a company must define a strategy on how it will invest in Bitcoin before starting to do it. For this reason, those responsible for conducting this activity should previously ask themselves some questions about different aspects.

Institutional investors might be interested in knowing what their purpose is, what type of strategy they will use, or how much money they will invest. They might also want to enter Bitcoin mining or run a Bitcoin node. The executive explained that those in charge of making the investments should talk with the board of directors of his company.

Phong Le revealed that MicroStrategy decided on a balancing strategy in which Bitcoin is its main reserve asset. He added that they converted their excess cash flow into Bitcoin and acquired debt to convert that cash into Bitcoin. The CFO summarized the organization’s strategy by defining it as “buy and hold (hodl).”

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor has said that he owns at least 17,000 BTC. Furthermore, he claims that he follows a strategy similar to the one that Phong described. He considers Bitcoin to be “the most valuable property on earth”, even regarding it as digital gold.

Those interested in incorporating Bitcoin into the reserves of their corporations can study Price and Le’s recommendations. These include taking proper security measures and having insurance to cover possible failures or attacks. Likewise, companies can train a team that knows how to use the bitcoins that they have acquired.

Keys to a Bitcoin-Based Corporate Strategy

Michael Saylor complemented this presentation of the “Bitcoin Corporate Playbook” by revealing three keys to a corporate strategy based on Bitcoin. Saylor recommended maintaining a balance in Bitcoin, converting fiat derivatives into Bitcoin, combining those strategies, and developing new business opportunities.

Saylor said that capital will flow from weaker assets to stronger ones, which is why he recommended holding assets that appreciate. He added that this is more than a macroeconomic idea as Bitcoin is an opportunity for companies.

He explained that the strategy of converting the company’s fiat derivatives into Bitcoin dilutes the underlying value of fiat money. He believes that this offers a return of 200% per year.

By Alexander Salazar

The richest man in the world recently changed his mind in a very drastic way. The logo of the pioneering cryptocurrency remained on Musk’s Twitter only for six days.

Elon Musk changed his mind about cryptocurrencies, and his recent tweets now show what is pretty obvious, his support directly goes to Dogecoin (DOGE). On Thursday, the richest man in the world proceeded to remove the bitcoin icon from his profile.

The Tesla CEO published some messages just two days after he said he was taking a Twitter break. He’s re-animating his 45.2 million followers, especially meme-born cryptocurrency enthusiasts, to see Dogecoin with good eyes.

To reconnect with his power to influence the community around DOGE, Musk first wrote “Doge” after an image of a space rocket flying to the moon. He later posted a message that read: “Dogecoin is the people’s cryptocurrency.” He then explained in another tweet: “Not high, not low … just Doge.”

After Musk once again voiced support for DOGE, the cryptocurrency price skyrocketed in minutes, increasing more than 40% from $ 0.03 on February 2 to 0.05 at the moment of this note’s writing, as reflected in TradingView data.

Last week during an interview, Musk declared himself a bitcoin supporter. The Billionaire referred to the first of the cryptocurrencies as a good thing, which “is about to get widespread acceptance by people in traditional finance.”

But at the time, he also spoke of ironies: “The funniest and most ironic outcome would be for Dogecoin to become the world currency in the future,” he explained while acknowledging that he needed to be careful about its power of influence. He commented on this: “I must be careful of what I say because it can affect the market.”

Dogecoin or Bitcoin?

Simultaneously, the richest man in the world had pointed out that, although he does not have a strong opinion about cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin, he likes to make jokes about DOGE. In any case, having mentioned those words, it is clear that Musk uses all his power to alter the price of the Shiba Inu dog coin.

This power of influence is precisely something that some members of the community are pointing out. Some users even name Musk a bitcoin maximalist.

Another critical opinion is the one of the bitcoiner Matt Odell, who said that “Elon is a short bitcoin,” understanding himself as a person who keeps short positions in the pioneer cryptocurrency, very different from the holdlers who, for years, protect their belongings in BTC.

Last week, the price of Dogecoin grew 500% with the backing of WallStreetBets, Elon Musk, and Mia Khalifa. Occasionally DOGE records rallies, usually when Musk comments on the cryptocurrency.

By: Jenson Nuñez

Start Options billed itself as the largest Bitcoin exchange by trading volume in euros. The defendants are allegedly involved in the ICO’s fraud of the year 2017.

The image of action movie actor Steven Seagal fueled the Bitcoiin2Gen Initial Cryptocurrency Offering (ICO) in 2017. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently charged the promoters of said ICO with fraud. The regulatory agency has also accused them of being allegedly involved in various cryptocurrency frauds, in addition to the ICO that the actor touted.

The SEC filed a complaint against Kristijan Krstic, founder of Bitcoiin2Gen and Start Options, and promoters John DeMarr and Robin Enos. The agency said that those men defrauded investors out of more than USD 11 million through these companies. Their purpose was alleged to induce investors to buy digital asset securities known as B2G tokens, which would be deliverable on the Ethereum network.

The defendants also allegedly promised to use investors’ funds to develop a “mineable” currency. They told the victims that they could trade the tokens on their cryptocurrency trading platform. Besides, they promised to launch the platform in 2018 but excluded actor Steven Seagal from the current indictment.

In that complaint, the SEC alleges that the promises about the B2G tokens were false and Bitcoiin2Gen was a scam. They also said that Krstic and DeMarr appropriated millions of US dollars from their investors’ funds for their benefit.

Start of the Fraud with Bitcoiin2Gen

According to the SEC, Krstic and DeMarr created alleged cryptocurrency trading and mining platform Start Options in December 2017. The agency said that they lied that “it was the largest Bitcoin exchange by trading volume and liquidity in euros.” Furthermore, the defendants were constantly promoting it as the best and most secure Bitcoin exchange through independent news media.

The SEC accused Krstic and DeMarr of violating the anti-fraud and registration provisions of the federal securities laws. They also charged Enos with helping incite the anti-fraud violations. The complaint seeks precautionary measures and restitution plus interest, in addition to fines and a ban on operating and directing companies in the future.

In parallel, the Attorney General’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Department of Justice, Fraud Section, announced charges against DeMarr.

Image of Actor Steven Seagal Promotes Bitcoiin2Gen Scam

The men that the SEC charged with fraud had scammed investors with Bitcoiin2Gen, as well as actor Steven Seagal, according to news media. They allegedly promised USD 750,000 in B2G tokens and USD 250,000 in cash to the actor for promoting the Bitcoiin2Gen ICO in 2018. However, Seagal noted that he had only received USD 157,000 for closing that deal.

The martial arts expert agreed to pay USD 314,000 in fines for two different charges. Furthermore, he promised that he would not promote any securities, digital or otherwise, for three years.

That same year, the cryptocurrency project Bitcoiin announced that actor Steven Seagal was ending the relationship with them. He would no longer remain the brand’s ambassador after the Initial Coin Offering concluded.

The founders were also abandoning the project to make the cryptocurrency “genuinely anonymous.” They were seeking to imitate Bitcoin to make the token appear genuine. Authorities in Tennessee issued a warning about the project, and those in New Jersey ordered them to cease operations.

By Alexander Salazar

When packing the money, the buyer must record or take photos of the process. The user must also configure the account to operate only with one type of national currency.

The decentralized exchange house Bisq set a new payment method to buy or sell bitcoin (BTC). The platform has been processing operations with cash by traditional mail since Tuesday, February 2.

The service reported in a statement that cash by mail “is one of the most private payment methods in Bisq,” but that it focuses on ensuring the security of exchanges.

Once in Bisq, the operator must configure the account by adding the name and surname of the person to whom the package will go. Other requirements are the postal address, type of currency, and additional information.

When entering the data into the account, it is only possible to select a national currency. Bisq suggests those traders who work with multiple currencies create as many accounts as necessary for dollars, euros, or other currencies.

Bisq focused on two aspects: One is that exchanges of this type can work smoothly using the additional information section to establish the details or conditions of an offer. The other is to ensure the person read them carefully to accept the deal and avoid any misunderstanding.

One aspect to consider is that, even if the transaction maintains high privacy levels because it works with cash, there is a disclosure of a domicile address, representing a weakness that can expose the information and its handling.

Record/Photograph the Transference

Those who purchase BTC by sending cash by mail must record or photograph the packaging of the funds. Users must use a tamper-evident bag for money and put the same bag inside another package.

About shipping, Bisq explained:

“Send the package with the cash to the BTC seller with a courier that requires the seller to confirm receipt of delivery. Please consider using a courier service with adequate insurance for any delivery issues.”

Once the package’s delivery with the funds succeeds, the seller must also record the receipt and show the tracking number. Bisq recalled that these operations have fewer verifiable actions, so he stressed that the system’s mediators could consider cases and make suggestions, but there is no guarantee of help or support.

Exchanges of bitcoin for cash are an essential part of the dynamics of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Other P2P services that offer this alternative are Hodl Hodl, LocalCoinSwap, BitQuick, MoonTrade, Wall of Coins, and even Remitano.

In the past, institutions such as Bank of America have considered cryptocurrencies to be a potential equivalent to cash. A different position is the one that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) defends. SEC currently views many crypto assets as securities.

By: Jenson Nuñez