Bitwise Fund Liquidated Its Position in XRP (and liquidity Providers Mark Distance)

Jenson Nunez
-
0
Bitwise Fund Liquidated Its Position in XRP (and liquidity Providers Mark Distance)

The Fund’s XRP holdings represented 3.8% of its total portfolio. Jump Trading and Galaxy Digital will not offer support for trading XRP.

Management company Bitwise Asset Management’s cryptocurrency investment fund Bitwise 10 (BITW) announced on Wednesday that it liquidated its position in XRP that comprised 3.8% of its holdings. The move comes after US regulators accused Ripple Labs Inc. and its top executives of selling more than $ 1 billion in unregistered securities.

Before liquidating its position, XRP was among the 10 crypto assets that played a protagonist role in the mutual fund. Through a statement, the, the company redistributed the income to other assets. The fund mainly owns bitcoin, ethers, litecoin, among other cryptocurrencies, as reported in a statement. 

An excerpt from the official statement notes that the Bitwise fund “does not invest in assets that have a reasonable probability of being considered securities under federal or state securities laws. The decision to liquidate the position in XRP sets its structure on a piece of new public information about the SEC complaint. “

Bitwise’s decision to liquidate its funds in XRP is just one of the series of consequences that have come from the lawsuit that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed on Tuesday. His complaint centers on Ripple raising at least $ 1.3 billion through the sale of XRP without first registering it as a security.

Ripple denied the allegations, but the effects immediately began to show. They first hit the XRP price, which plummeted 30% to a price of 26 cents. Its weekly loss fell to more than 50%, losing more than $ 10 billion from its market capitalization.

Other consequences of the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple

Subsequently, two of the largest trading desks in virtual assets have alerted their clients that they will stop making markets in XRP. The Jump Trading platform, known for providing liquidity to exchanges, told its counterparts that it will no longer provide liquidity to XRP. Also, the investment fund Galaxy Digital has suspended the trading of the digital asset until further notice, as revealed by sources that The Block recently consulted.

On the other hand, the global money transfer service MoneyGram, in a statement released on Wednesday also marked distance with Ripple. The company noted that it has never used the services of Ripple, On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) and RippleNet, for forex transactions.

In June 2019, Ripple and MoneyGram established a strategic partnership for cross-border payments. As part of the collaboration, Ripple was to invest up to $ 50 million in exchange for MoneyGram shares.

However, the company added in its statement that “MoneyGram has continued to use its other traditional currency trading counterparties during the term of the agreement with Ripple, and does not depend on the Ripple platform to fulfill its currency trading needs.”

By: Jenson Nuñez.

Skybridge Launches Bitcoin Fund and Invests $ 25 million

Jenson Nunez
-
0
Skybridge Launches Bitcoin Fund and Invests $ 25 million

The minimum investment to participate in the fund will be $ 50,000. Fidelity Digital Assets will offer the fund’s custody service.

Institutional investments do not stop reaching bitcoin (BTC). Now the SkyBridge Capital fund, founded by former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, has announced the launch of a fund to inject capital into the first cryptocurrency.

The firm filed a Form D with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday. It was explained that the fund will be called SkyBridge Bitcoin Fund L.P. and that the minimum investment to participate will be $ 50,000.

As a kickoff for the fund, Scaramucci revealed Tuesday that Skybridge itself invested $ 25 million, according to statements given to Yahoo Finance. The executive is confident that bitcoin will have further growth in the next 10 years.

“One of the things we are trying to do is the democratization of the hedge fund industry and bitcoin but bitcoin at the moment, is still a difficult thing to buy… We think there is a big move for bitcoin in the next five to ten years. We think this is a product that people will have in their wallets, “said Scaramucci, who said he will have a” nice book “for purchase orders.

According to the former official, bitcoin is in the category of a store of value, the former official compared it to the safeguard that investors usually make with gold. Currently, the total capitalization of the precious metal stands at about 10 trillion dollars, while that of BTC is USD 440 billion, according to CoinGecko.

The fund will charge an annual fee of 0.75%, and the cryptocurrencies will remain under the protection of Fidelity Digital Assets. Besides, the procedures for the audits will be conducted by the multinational company EY. Operations will start on January 4 for accredited investors. Scaramucci also compared the service that the firm will offer with that Grayscale and which’s.

SkyBridge Capital’s move comes more than a month after it filed an informational prospectus with the SEC. The document reported that the company would be seeking greater exposure to digital assets. Even the fund explained how the technology behind Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general works.

The fund joins multiple investment firms, public and private companies that have already invested millions of dollars in bitcoin. Recently, institutional investment in the first cryptocurrency exceeded a peak of 20 billion dollars.

Companies like MicroStrategy, Square, or funds like Ruffer Investment Company are some of the corporate names that made a closer approach to bitcoin in 2020. Estimates from Bitcoin Treasuries indicate that around 1,150,000 BTC are already in the hands of large investors, which is about 6% of the total supply of bitcoin.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

FinCEN’s requirement to identify wallets obstructs crypto adoption: EFF

Jenson Nunez
-
0
FinCEN’s requirement to identify wallets obstructs crypto adoption: EFF

The Electronic Frontier Foundation views FinCEN’s proposal as a privacy hazard. He questions that only 15 days are given to the public to express opinions.

Following the proposed regulation presented a few days ago by FinCEN, the office of the United States Department of the Treasury that collects and analyzes information on financial crimes, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) published an article that questions the new rule.

The non-profit organization, which defends freedom of expression and the right to privacy on the Internet, criticizes its writing the new demands on money service companies (MSB), which include exchanges of cryptocurrencies.

The idea is to force these financial institutions to submit reports, keep records, and verify the identity of clients about operations involving cryptocurrencies, above certain thresholds.

The measure includes portfolios not hosted by a financial institution (or self-hosted) and portfolios hosted by a financial institution in certain jurisdictions that FinCEN can identify, says the document.

In this sense, the Foundation considers that this project could obstruct a wider adoption of wallets and self-hosted technologies or even impede the integration of these technologies with intermediaries such as exchanges.

For the EFF, the problem is that the new regulation will make it more difficult for users of these wallets to seamlessly interact with other users who have wallets from a service that could be subject to the regulations.

Another question that the organization exposes in its writing is the fact that the new rule would prevent people who store cryptocurrencies in their wallets from making anonymous transactions with people who store their crypto assets in a money services company.

“Regulation will likely cool the ability to use self-hosted wallets to transact with the privacy of cash,” they note.

It also explains which are the possibilities that some cryptocurrencies have. For example, Bitcoin; in which transaction data is permanently recorded on a public blockchain.

In these cases, if the user name in association with a particular BTC address is known, it is possible to obtain information about all bitcoin transactions that use that address.

For the EFF, this property of the blockchain, along with the requirement to collect identifying information associated with wallet addresses, will grant the government access to a large amount of data beyond what the regulation intends to cover.

Financial surveillance extends to the cryptocurrency sector

In the introduction to the document, FinCEN justifies its proposal by stating that it is intended to address national security concerns:

“This proposal is consistent with existing requirements and aims to help law enforcement and increase transparency while minimizing the impact on responsible innovation,” says an official statement from the Treasury Department.

However, the EFF believes that, under these arguments, the US government intends to extend the financial surveillance of the traditional banking system to cryptocurrencies, putting the right to privacy at risk.

The Foundation is concerned that more and more steps are being taken to undermine the anonymity of cryptocurrency transactions.

For this reason, he is struck by the fact that the proposal only grants 15 days of the deadline to comment on the proposal, precisely at the time of the Christmas holidays. It is an approach that has been supported by exchanges such as Kraken and Coinbase, which have also publicly exposed their criticism.

The EFF is also involved in another controversy present in the United States, due to its criticism of the EARN IT bill that seeks to exercise control over encryption systems.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

Spain: The Fishing Sector Will Invest more than 100 Million Euros in Blockchain Technology

Jenson Nunez
-
0
Spain: The Fishing Sector Will Invest more than 100 Million Euros in Blockchain Technology

The use of blockchain will allow the traceability of the activities of the sector. Achieving sustainability in fishing activities, which have fallen by 20%, is the main goal.

The Spanish Fisheries Confederation released an investment plan of 381 million euros to transform the sector in three years; this plan is set to accomplish its goal in a time going from 2021 to 2023. The idea will include a transition to blockchain technology and artificial intelligence.

Of the total budget, at least 142.8 million euros are required to achieve, through blockchain, a record of its production and supply chain, an online platform that directly connects the crew with the personnel on the ground, a reduction program marine pollution, and even the implementation of telemedicine.

The fishing sector in Spain has had great weak spots and deficiencies due to the lack of young people who want to work in this area and very old fleets that have made it difficult to conduct fishing activity properly, resulting in a drop of at least 20% in fish consumption in 10 years.

In this sense, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, emphasized that “the objective is the promotion of quality, sustainability, the circular economy, organic production, as well as reduce waste and generate value and employment.”

The project also plans to allocate some 179.3 million euros for the acquisition of new equipment for the management of waste on board and the promotion of its reuse, the construction of more efficient ships with new technology, and the research of alternative fuels.

Blockchain has been used for several years in fishing sectors in other countries to help the supply chain and combat illegal fishing; this would be another reason for Spain to continue betting on this technology to achieve its objectives.

Other Sectors of the Economy in Spain, such as the Timber Industry, Decided to Implement the Blockchain in its Supply Chain.

Implementation could submit a few advantages to this industrial sector. One of the best examples is that merchants would have more transparent access to access better prices and guarantees over product quality.

Moreover, supply chain transparency can help logistics companies work out upon improvements in their services. Wood processors would know better about the source, quality, and classification of raw material as well as improved quality control to certify the collected timber faster and more securely.

Once the software development completes its installment, there will be three pilots in Castilla y León (poplar), Asturias (chestnut), and Galicia (oak).

By: Jenson Nuñez.

Mike Novogratz: Bitcoin Could Take 10 % off the Gold Market in 2021

Jenson Nunez
-
0
Mike Novogratz: Bitcoin Could Take 10 % off the Gold Market in 2021

Institutional investment is driving Bitcoin as a store of value. Altcoins and Bitcoin cannot be compared, according to the executive.

Bitcoin could be able to double its current price over the next year and take up to 10 percent of gold’s market capitalization, notes Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital.

In an interview for Real Vision, with the also well-known investor Raoul Pal, Novogratz affirmed that the institutional investment and the attractiveness that people feel for Bitcoin will make this cryptocurrency grow unstoppably.

For Novogratz, this time is different from 2017, although in his opinion Bitcoin is growing at a rapid pace. The CEO of the cryptocurrency investment house stated that Bitcoin could take away market capitalization shares from gold thanks to the sustained and progressive growth that the cryptocurrency market has.

“I guarantee you that this will not happen in a year, but at the rate, we are going, these things tend to happen quickly,” he said contemplating that Bitcoin should be taking up to at least 25% of capitalization to gold over the next few years.

Considering the huge institutional investment that BTC has received this year, Novogratz cites MassMutual’s $ 100 million investment.

“If an insurance company can do this publicly, then there is no entity in the world that can be ashamed of buying Bitcoin,” he said about MassMutual and the institutional interest in Bitcoin.

The executive also refers to the fact that the institutional fever for Bitcoin is up to become a fierce competition because there is a need for specialists that will be able to make this type of investment.

There is no comparison between Altcoins and Bitcoin when it comes to being a safeguard of value

The executive also commented that the cryptocurrency market is not growing as fast as Bitcoin. Novogratz pointed out that certain decisions in some cryptocurrency projects have risked the confidence of investors and the community in these markets.

The executive cited the case of Charlie Lee, founder of Litecoin, who is criticized for having sold his LTC right at the top of its price, affecting the market and the confidence of the project in 2017.

“For me, it’s not so cool that the founder dumps his funds in a bullish moment. Great as a speculator, but not as a community builder”, he said. In this sense, Novogratz doubted the relevance of altcoins, this happened due to the weakness of their communities and thanks to the widespread and growing interest in Bitcoin.

“I don’t see new people joining those communities. To be fair, it feels like they are something of the moment or Ponzi schemes. What do I see differently in Bitcoin? I see new people coming in all the time, including institutions”.

Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital.

“As for coins intended to be a safeguard of value, I do not think they will last long,” he said, referring to some altcoins. Novogratz says that many of these projects do not have specific use cases.

Although he talks about Ethereum as a platform with a very strong and confident community, which could make interesting contributions to the world of finance.

Novogratz opined that investment houses should offer Bitcoin among other important assets (macro-assets) such as gold, oil, food, national bonds.

On the other hand, stable coins or stablecoins set their organization in their category according to their market capitalization; and in another category, locate cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, and Litecoin, for example.

At the end of last November, Novogratz recommended investors to keep 2% or 3% of their capital in Bitcoin, we reported in CriptoNoticias.

Novogratz’s view of Bitcoin as the best store of value at the moment may receive an influence from the reported losses by Galaxy Digital during the cryptocurrency market price downturn in 2018.

This lesson seems to have also imbued other financial institutions around the world, whose investments in Bitcoin already sum the total equivalent of $ 20 billion.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

Bitcoiner Cruiser Satoshi Sails to Scrapping Facility in India

Jenson Nunez
-
0
Bitcoiner Cruiser Satoshi Sails to Scrapping Facility in India

Without insurance, the ship would lose its class and flag rating, nor could be possible to hire a crew on board.

The old cruise ship Pacific Dawn, which was renamed Satoshi, was sold for scrap because the group that owns the vessel Ocean Builders could not take out insurance for the community that would have lived on board.

The announcement was made by Ocean Builders CEO Grant Romundt, who explained: “We cannot proceed due to archaic and large insurance companies that cannot adapt to innovative ideas.”

Without offering more details about this situation, the executive pointed out that no protection and indemnity insurance company will insure the Satoshi, the Maritime Executive publication reported.

Romundt added that without insurance, it is impossible to hire a crew, which would lead to the ship losing the class and flag rating, as well as the ability to develop any business on board.

“Assuming it’s easy to get insurance to use the ship as a residential cruise ship, parking it was wrong.” Said Grant Romundt, CEO of Ocean Builders.

The Satoshi, which was sold on December 18 for scrap, sails from Gibaltrar to Panama. A site that is expected to arrive next week and where it will be supplied with fuel to continue to a dismantling center in India.

The Ocean Builders company is located in Lynton Bay Marina on the Caribbean Sea in Panama. It describes itself on its website as “the first company to build a houseboat in the open ocean with plans to build much more.”

To attract new clients, this group of investors began an auction process on November 5 that would have allowed them to market 200 cabins as residences. Using as a promotional strategy that the ship would become a technology and innovation center for entrepreneurs, expatriates, digital nomads, and companies for cryptocurrencies.

According to the media specialized in the aquatic world, the cabins would have a tentative price of between USD 25,000 and USD 50,000. He added that the boat can house more than 2,000 people.

Ocean Builders assured that, in addition to the residences, “vacation rentals” would be available on the ship. On that occasion, they also said that they were willing to incorporate restaurants, entertainment, and leisure businesses on board. The initial plan of this company was to anchor in the Gulf of Panama to begin receiving the first residents in January 2021.

A Bitcoiner’s Dream Come True

The Satoshi crypto cruise ship was built in 1991 under the name Pacific Dawn and has since been operated by Princess Cruises and P&O Australia. The parent company of P&O Carnival Corporation chose to sell the ship to the Ocean Builders company, due to the impact of the pandemic on the cruise industries.

The vessel, which would accept bitcoin for all onboard purchases along with US dollars, was expected to embark on a voyage in October this year from Greece to the Gulf of Panama to make every bitcoiner’s dream come true to develop a lifestyle like a digital Peregrin, while its entire economy revolves around bitcoin.

The ship would not only offer a different way of living but would also have an entire ecosystem conducive to research on board, the media added.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

1...1,2031,2041,205...1,654Page 1,204 of 1,654