In 2018, the central bank of India blocked the bank accounts of bitcoin exchanges. In March of this year, the Supreme Court reversed the RBI’s action in a unanimous decision.

Sunny Ray is the founder of India’s leading bitcoin exchange Unocoin. This Bitcoin entrepreneur, together with the chamber of commerce and other organizations, requested, in a lawsuit against the Central Bank of India (RBI) in 2018, to rescind a circular from that body that ordered the banks to suspend all accounts with cryptocurrency exchanges.

Sunny Ray is an electrical engineer who graduated from the University of Alberta in Canada but defines himself on his LinkedIn profile as a specialist in business development in robotics and Bitcoin.

After eight years of dedication to robotics, Ray noted in a short autobiographical review that he wanted to understand more about money, so he worked through all the available certificates as a financial advisor.

But then disappointment came, he says, in what seemed to be the dominant practice among his colleagues: to convince a potential investor as soon as possible, with only the commission in mind.

In 2011 he read the Bitcoin White Paper and claims that he was “obsessed with the idea.”Ray said that for the first time in his life, he was deeply inspired by an idea. In short, Bitcoin represented freedom. Ray said that he felt like he needed to learn more and more about Bitcoin.

Central Bank of India is slowing the rise of Bitcoin

Ray is always involved in projects around Bitcoin, among which he founded the Unocoin exchange in 2013. By 2017, says Ray, Unocoin reached 1.5 million users as well as showing the integration of at least 10,000 daily users.

The accelerated expansion of Unocoin and the rest of the companies in the Indian cryptocurrency ecosystem were abruptly interrupted in April 2018, when the RBI prohibited, through a circular to banks, that they continue to serve exchanges and other companies that operated with bitcoins. This choice revolves, in fact, around the prohibition of the use of cryptocurrencies in that country.

The mobilization of companies in the cryptocurrency ecosystem was immediate, says Ray, who was among the exchange houses that challenged the RBI measure before the supreme court. Ray commented that, after a lengthy judicial process, the Supreme Court of India revoked the RBI circular.

“Finally, at the beginning of this year we ended up winning that court case; all three judges ruled in our favor. The next day the banking services were practically online again.

At the moment, we are serving a million and a half users. I wanted to share with you a little about that court case itself because I think it is instructive.”

Sunny Ray emphasizes how important was for the promoters of the lawsuit, the decision of the judges since they judged only on their knowledge and the facts presented.

By Jenson Nuñez

Dalio assured that bitcoin has been established in recent years. The investor valued the scarcity of bitcoin and its quality as a “store of wealth”

Billionaire investor Ray Dalio, recognized for his stance against bitcoin over the years, now regards cryptocurrency as an “interesting alternative” to gold. Ray Dalio made this statement during an AMA session (Ask Me Anything or Ask Me Anything) this week.

“I think bitcoin (and some other digital currencies) have established themselves in the last decade as interesting alternatives to assets similar to gold,” said Dalio through the social network Reddit.

After being asked about the ability of bitcoin to solve problems created by fiat money and the monetary policies of central banks, the investment fund manager assured that bitcoin possesses the potential to serve as a “diverse alternative of gold and other assets.”

Beyond comparison, Dalio keeps high his vision in favor of gold. In this regard, he said he had “a strong preference for keeping those valuable things that central banks will want to retain and change in value when they try conducting transactions.”

Also, the owner of the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates positively appreciated the qualities of bitcoin (BTC) such as its limited supply, its mobility, and the fact that it is a “store of wealth.”

These statements by Dalio came shortly after he doubted his stance against bitcoin just a few weeks ago. As the price of BTC climbed to a steady pace, the investor wondered if he was missing something about it and even asked for correction in case he was wrong about the value of bitcoin, as the report said.

Previously, the American billionaire assured that gold was a better choice when it comes to using it as a safeguard of value compared to bitcoin. On the other hand, he (Dalio) recognized the potential of the cryptocurrency by ensuring that governments would have it in their sights to ban it “if it materializes.”

Bitcoin gains ground among Investors and Institutions

As Dalio does now, in recent times many personalities in the financial world spoke in glowing terms about bitcoin and its capacity as a store of value.

Rick Rieder, Director of Investments at the asset management firm BlackRock, recently said that bitcoin would end up gaining the ground that gold currently has in the world of investments during an interview reviewed in this medium.

Then, the firm’s CEO, Larry Fink, considered that the pioneering cryptocurrency is about to become a serious rival to the dollar in the battle for the world’s reserve currency. This appreciation coincides with that of other personalities, such as the writer of the bestseller Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki.

Along with these positions, an increasing number of institutional actors see an investment opportunity in bitcoin. This same year, institutional investment has exploded with companies accumulating thousands of bitcoin in their coffers when considering it an adequate value reserve mechanism.

By Jenson Nuñez

The Bank agreed on a Financing Mechanism using its currency pegged to The dDollar. JP Morgan considers the advantages of operating on a blockchain to optimize processes.

JP Morgan, the largest US-based bank, executed a repurchase agreement transaction with its broker using its own cryptocurrency JPM Coin – a dollar-pegged stablecoin – for liquidity.

The bank announced through a press release, the execution of the transaction as a way of guaranteeing finance and obtain liquidity in a more efficient way than current mechanisms.

Repurchase or “repo” transactions are widely used as a mechanism to obtain liquidity in financial institutions. These operations consist of an investor “providing a loan to the financial institution, only guaranteed with a public debt security,” describes the Spanish BBVA on its website.

Here, JP Morgan executed the operation to obtain intraday liquidity with the support of its JPM Coin, a project that dates back more than a year in which the institution has been advancing stronger in recent months.

The entity explained in its text that “both the collateral and the cash branches of repurchase transactions were settled using blockchain, and the cash branch took advantage of JPM Coin.”

Simultaneously, this medium reported that the bank created a new business unit, called Onyx, specifically focused on the development of its blockchain and the stablecoin JPM Coin.

The steps that JP Morgan has been taking contradict its assessments not long ago. Weeks before announcing its stablecoin, the institution referred to blockchain as an “immature and overvalued” technology. However, for at least four years now, the bank has been exploring the potential of implementing a blockchain, which is beginning to bear fruit for JP Morgan today.

The bank’s stance on Bitcoin, in particular, has been similar to certain levels of contradiction. For instance, in 2017, the entity operated with assets correlated with bitcoin, even though its CEO had classified the cryptocurrency as a fraud.

More recently, in May of this year, JP Morgan analysts published a report claiming that bitcoin was at least 25% below its intrinsic value. Now, the initially critical bank has finished turning its vision around, and just over a month ago, it referred to bitcoin as “the gold competition” in a newsletter.

JP Morgan Bank: what are its goal, and its recent positions about Bitcoin.

J.P. Morgan is a global leader in financial services, offering solutions to the world’s most important corporations, governments, and institutions in more than 100 countries. This bank also leads volunteer service activities for employees in local communities by using many resources, including those that stem from access to capital, economies of scale, global reach, and expertise.

After being critical of bitcoin, JP Morgan has gradually changed its attitude. On October 24, the favorable position of this investment bank about bitcoin came to light, ensuring that this cryptocurrency has the great long-term potential to compete with gold. The main reason for this competitive strength of bitcoin, says JP Morgan, is in the incorporation of millennials as a key group of investors.

By Jenson Nuñez

The 266-year-old German bank specializes in institutional customers. The new stablecoin already has a use case for cross-border payments.

Bankhaus von der Heydt (BVDH), a German bank founded in 1754, has worked closely with the Bitbond Company to issue the EURB stablecoin. They developed this cryptocurrency, which maintains parity with the euro, on the Stellar network.

BVDH specializes in institutional customers and in transactions related to securitization (transfer of financial assets that provide credit rights). The issuance of EURB led to the financial institution becoming the first European bank to use a Stellar-based stablecoin.

Through this incorporation, the bank will be able to accelerate its services while offering new possibilities to its customers. Developers of financial apps will also be able to settle asset transfers through EURB.

“Our first use case is SatoshiPay, a payment company and one of the first members of the Stellar network,” said Philipp Doppelhammer, BVDH manager. The executive explained that this customer, who was already using Stellar, will now incorporate EURB into its international money transfer service.

“Bitbond and Stellar appealed to us because of how easily asset issuance and management occur on the network,” said Doppelhammer.

In this sense, the executive director of the Stellar Development Foundation, Danelle Dixon, explained that “adding to Stellar a high-quality euro asset that a bank has issued is significant” and fuels “a new wave of financial innovation.”

The representative of the non-profit organization says that “this is a testament to how traditional banking and blockchain can work together. One of the oldest banks in Europe has partnered with a FinTech company to deliver exciting innovation in the digital currency space.”

Radoslav Albrecht, CEO of Bitbond, the German company that developed the stablecoin, also referred to that case. He noted that “stablecoin issuance technology enabled them to complete [their] technological suite of digital assets.” The company also used the Stellar blockchain to develop asset custody and tokenization technology.

The Number of Stablecoins on Stellar Increases

This is not the first time that someone has developed a stablecoin on Stellar. Since the end of November, both the Argentine peso (ARS) and the Brazilian real (BRL) have had their equivalents on this network.

The 6-year-old platform Stellar seeks to offer banking solutions through blockchain technology. Its main objective is to provide a network on which developers can create low-cost, long-range financial solutions for the unbanked.

After the announcement of EURB occurred, the price of the native token of the Stellar blockchain, Lumens (XLM), increased by 21%. This crypto-asset recently went from USD 0.14 to USD 0.17.

By Alexander Salazar

The BitPay entity, if approved, would be called BitPay National Trust Bank. Banks would have a limited-purpose dedicated only to fiduciary activities.

The processor of payments with bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, BitPay, and the issuer of the stablecoin PAX, Paxos filed applications with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), in the United States, to create regulated federal banks.

Bitpay’s move was made known on Wednesday after the publication of a legal notice in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper. If the petition is approved, the entity would be called BitPay National Trust Bank and would now set its headquarters in Alpharetta, Georgia.

Eden Doniger confirmed this information; the executive said that the application is the first step in a long way to launch the regulated institution:

“We confirm that BitPay has applied with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish the BitPay National Trust Bank. A national trust bank is a limited-purpose bank that engages in fiduciary activities,”explained Doniger, adding that potential operations would be subject to strict security measures to offer guarantiees to users.

BitPay’s request stipulates a possible capitalization of $ 12 million and the issuance of about 120 million shares. Besides, BitPay opened its doors recently for anyone to issue comments to the offices of the currency controller or the director of licenses.

Paxos also wants to be a Bank

In the case of Paxos, if the application gains its approval, it then becomes the first company in the bitcoin ecosystem to be regulated at both the state and federal (national) levels. Remember that Paxos received an audit by the New York State Department of Financial Services.

The Paxos bank would be called Paxos National Trust and would arrive to increase the portfolio of services that the company is currently offering, some of these services are: custody services, cryptocurrency exchange, and fiat through itBit, issuance of stablecoins PAX and BUSD together with Binance and some fiduciary services for its license in New York.

Through a statement released Wednesday, Dan Burstein, Paxos’ chief compliance officer, and general counsel, said that the company’s goal is to “modernize the financial market infrastructure and allow the movement of any asset, at any time, in a trustworthy.”

It is unclear how long the office of the comptroller of the currency will have to respond to the requests presented. The firm is currently in hands of Brian Brooks, who in the past was also a director of Coinbase, one of the largest bitcoin exchanges in the world, as reported by CryptoNews.

In a recent interview with Forbes, Brian Brooks indicated that he expects very soon the United States would have “cryptocurrency banks” Very soon but also pointed out that these American banks will need to comply with a series of regulations throughout the country since this process is what makes “markets grow.”

By Jenson Nuñez

The journalist believes that the number of sovereign individuals who own their currency is multiplying. Nigeria and Latin America are at the top of the evolution of money, according to the Wall Street veteran.

In recent days, Max Keizer stated that “money printer brrr” is a universal language that has turned the nations of the world into banana republics. The journalist, along with television producer Stacy Herbert, analyzed the consequences of the mass issuance of fiat money and how citizens turn to Bitcoin to escape inflation.

Until not long ago, only inhabitants of Latin American countries were aware of the uncontrolled issuance of fiat money. The same did not happen with residents of the “United States, where no one yet understands what happens when hyperinflation is promoted and the national fiat currency becomes garbage. However, everyone can say that ‘money printer brrr’ is a universal language, since all countries do the same as Venezuela, Argentina and Zimbabwe”, Keizer and Herbert noted.

The “brrr” that Keizer and Herbert referred to is related to a meme in which a man is printing banknotes as if they were office papers. This reflects some concerns about how governments resort to their ability to generate money without backing. With this, they seek to combat economic crises, but do not take into account that this leads to higher inflation.

Uncontrolled money printing has generated hyperinflation in several countries, including Venezuela, Argentina, and Zimbabwe. Something similar could happen in the United States due to the all-time injection of liquidity from the Federal Reserve. With this, they seek to finance hundreds of companies and millions of Americans in times of stagnation and increased unemployment as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, Keizer and Herbert consider that the world economy has started the path towards deglobalization. They believe that Bitcoin is creating a process opposite to globalization, which implies the emergence of millions of sovereign individuals, rightful owners of their currency.

Nigeria and Latin America Are at the Top of Money Evolution

Central banks continue to print money and increase their money supply but Nigeria and Latin America are already at the top of the evolution of money. This is due to the high level of adoption that these regions have achieved, according to Keizer and Herbert.

Herbert highlighted the case of Nigerian Abdaji Odunjo, a trader who imports products from China and began using Bitcoin to pay his suppliers four months ago. The man was able to find several benefits of using the pioneering cryptocurrency to finalize his business deals. An instant settlement system now allows saving fees and streamlining paperwork by using Bitcoin as the unit of account. In other words, he is using the cryptocurrency as the standard unit for setting the price of the goods and services that he trades.

“Money has always evolved in stages: first as a collectible, second as a store of value, third as a medium of exchange, and fourth as a unit of account. While Bitcoin is already a unit of account in Nigeria, it is the transition stage between being a collectible and being a store of value in other countries,” concluded Keizer and Herbert.

By Alexander Salazar