Only Google follows Bitcoin’s increase closely, with 70% so far this year. Gold and silver have risen by just over 50% in 2020.

This year, Bitcoin’s returns have been higher than that of traditional markets, including companies like Amazon, Google, Apple, and Facebook, with an 80% increase in value. The behavior of the pioneering cryptocurrency in the market is also better than that of gold and indices like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100.

According to data from TradingView, Bitcoin’s (BTC) rise in price so far this year has outpaced that of traditional markets. Only Google follows it closely, with a 70% appreciation in its shares in 2020.

Facebook and Amazon have even lower growth rates, above 60%, and Apple’s shares have appreciated by just over 50% since January.

Regarding indices and precious metals, the situation is even clearer. While BTC has risen significantly, gold and silver have appreciated by just over 50%. On its part, the Nasdaq index has risen by 30% and the S&P 500 by less than 6%. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones has dropped by 2% this year.

The price of Bitcoin has been climbing gradually throughout the year after its steep drop at the beginning of the pandemic last March. The most recent boost has led the price of BTC to exceed USD 13,000 for the first time since mid-2019.

The percentage increase in the price of Bitcoin has been greater than that of the other assets. Besides, its volatility is higher than that of those assets.

Bitcoin Decouples from Traditional Markets

In early September, the behavior of Bitcoin in the market had already been decoupling — decreasing its correlation — concerning traditional markets.

At the beginning of the year, the correlation of the pioneering cryptocurrency with other markets had reached high levels, even reaching all-time highs in some cases. For example, its correlation with the S&P 500 during the March collapse reached levels not seen before.

In April, the same thing happened with gold. On that occasion both the precious metal and the main cryptocurrency corralated 60%. In August, there was a new high of close to 70%.

That situation changed dramatically. Currently, the correlation of Bitcoin with the S&P 500 is barely 20%. About gold, it is much lower: only 6%, according to data from Coin Metrics.

Several factors seem to have influenced the increase in the price of Bitcoin. For example, data from analysis firm CryptoQuant indicate that users save (hold) an increasing amount of BTC outside exchanges. According to market analysts, this could be a sign of bullish behavior.

Also, PayPal’s official statement that it will add support for buying, selling, and paying with Bitcoin seems to have recently boosted the price of the cryptocurrency. That piece of news coincided with Bitcoin’s breaking the USD 13,000 barrier, just hours after it had exceeded USD 12,200 for the second time in 2020.

The pioneering cryptocurrency has proven since its creation that it can overcome its worst all-time lows. In recent days, it succeeded in climbing above the USD 13,000 mark. For these and other reasons, it continues to be the best option for those who want to venture into the cryptocurrency world.

By Willmen Blanco

The price of the cryptocurrency is also soaring in Turkey, Argentina, Sudan, Angola, and Zambia. Latin Americans resort to the cryptocurrency because of its “lifeboat” role.

In the last few days, the performance of Bitcoin (BTC) has reached benefits of almost 14% against the US dollar. This margin reflects in all the fiat currencies of the world, particularly in Brazil, Venezuela, and 5 other countries. There is an accelerated escalation of the value of BTC due to the devaluation of national currencies.

On his Twitter account, financial analyst Alistair Milne highlighted how inflationary turbulence is boosting the price of Bitcoin, particularly in some nations. Besides Brazil and Venezuela, he mentions Turkey, Argentina, Sudan, Angola, and Zambia. He also highlights that Russia and Colombia will soon join other countries as devaluation spreads throughout the world.

At the time of writing this article, Bitcoin is trading at BRL 72,729.12 in Brazil and VES 5,740,100,653.44 in Venezuela. These figures represent a new all-time high in these countries, where the price of Bitcoin has not stopped increasing. They also reflect the rate at which those currencies devalue against that of the pioneering cryptocurrency. “Fiat currencies are collapsing,” said another analyst on Twitter, referring to the currencies that governments issue.

According to data from the Bitcoin monitoring site in Venezuela, Yadio, the bolivar (VES) has devalued by 14% concerning Bitcoin in less than a week and by more than 40% in a month. Meanwhile, the Brazilian real (BRL) has lost about 10% of its value about the cryptocurrency in a week and 20% in a month.

The situation is also dramatic in Argentina, where the price of the cryptocurrency reached a new all-time high last week. It has kept climbing, and it now exceeds ARS 2,300,000.

Bitcoin and Its Tue Value in Latin America

Bitcoin is gaining performance from its adoption, and fiat currencies are losing their value. For that reason, citizens are turning to cryptocurrency to protect themselves from devaluation. A report from analysis firm Chainalysis explains how the Venezuelan population has responded to the hyperinflation that is pulverizing the bolivar. The document highlights that Venezuela is the third country with the highest adoption of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general worldwide.

A Twitter user commented on what Bitcoin represents for the inhabitants of Latin America. He stated that the region is adopting cryptocurrencies very quickly. “BTC is our lifeboat in this sea of inflation that constantly devalues our [fiat] currencies,” he said.

Another user, on Reddit, mentions that the devaluation of fiat money allows identifying how Bitcoin can protect citizens. “If you invested your money in Bitcoin, you would double the value in your local [fiat] currency, keeping most of your purchasing power.”

Social media users’ points of view agree with a recent study by the University of Cambridge, which states that Latin America and Europe are the gateways to Bitcoin markets. This occurs because the flow of money that people trade within exchanges reveals that these platforms are gateways to access crypto-asset markets.

By Willmen Blanco

The United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany account for 90% of the applications. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are the most recurring agencies in the United States.

The bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, released a report in which it became known that it provided user data to law enforcement or regulatory authorities in at least 34 countries. The exchange office reported that during the first half of 2020, it attended to 1,914 requests for information about its operators.

The US exchange company revealed that 96% of the requests were related to criminal or criminal investigations, while the other 4% were related to inquiries of a civil or administrative nature. The report explained in detail that 90% of requests came from the United States (1,113), the United Kingdom (441), and Germany (176).

“These requests come largely in the form of citations, but they can also include search warrants, court orders, and other formal processes. When these requests are valid, according to financial regulations and other applicable laws, Coinbase must respond,” the exchange highlighted on its website.

Coinbase agrees to help detect and prevent forbidden activities on its platform. He also said that he respects the position of government authorities in finding “bad actors” who could abuse other users or their system.

It is not clear yet what kind of data Coinbase shares with law enforcement authorities, but this information could include: personal data, operations performed, cryptocurrencies used, and amounts traded. The exchange indicated that it has restrictions on disclosing some of the requests, which means that the figures released for the first half are way higher.

The control of bitcoins in the United States

The total applications issued by agencies mark 58% in the United States, which speaks of the control carried out by different government organizations. These include the following: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the investigative office of the Department of Homeland Security, the Agency for Drug Enforcement and Control (DEA), and state or municipal authorities.

One striking fact is that the most related offices to securities or shares like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) do not rely heavily on Coinbase. Between both institutions, they only accounted for 3% of the requests for information.

Just as the United States leads the requests for data from users on Coinbase, only two other countries in the Americas were mentioned in the report. Canada shows three requirements and Brazil two. In the case of Spain, the country counts 12 requests.

Also, Coinbase seems to agree to release this type of data because it is a regulated entity in the United States. The company must comply with guidelines when it comes to investigations related to money laundering or terrorist financing, for example.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

The institution believes that the trading of tokenized assets is the future of finance. The fund focuses on the FinTech industry because it has aroused the interest of investors.

Swiss bank Lombard Odier has the objective of seeking companies focusing on asset tokenization to finance them. The financial institution created in May an investment fund that has already accumulated USD 250 million. Its strategy focuses on capturing value from the current global expansion of the financial technology services sector.

The 200-year-old banking group views the tokenization of assets as the evolution of finance. On their website, they state that the future of the economy will focus on the trading of digital assets. These will be real estate assets, companies, copyright, or any other registered in a blockchain.

Lombard Odier Investment Managers, the banking group’s asset management arm, used that approach to create the Global FinTech investment fund. The strategy consists of creating a portfolio of 50 stocks chosen among companies with sustainable business models and a solid financial track record. This would be aimed at producing attractive long-term economic returns.

According to Jeroen van Oerle, co-manager of the fund, once they create the portfolio, they will be able to offer investors full access to stocks across the FinTech spectrum. It will include established companies with a global reputation and those that enable financial and technological transformation in the industry.

Given that the companies in the FinTech industry have grown in recent years, the fund’s investment considers that the sector has aroused the interest of investors, clarified Didier Rabattu, director of the financial institution.

“The rate of growth that FinTech companies have experienced in recent years has been an area of great interest for investors. Their appetite to take advantage of the speed of FinTech expansion, their rate of adoption by financial services companies globally, and their impact on global markets has only increased over time. As FinTech strategies continue to prevail in developing markets, the opportunities will be significant,” said Rabattu.

Preparing for the Economy of the Future

The Global FinTech team believes that asset tokenization is the future of the economy and that companies working in this field will eventually become winners. In their document, they explain that asset management will change substantially when tokens become part of the investment universe.

The analysts add that focusing on tokenized assets will allow private banks to profit since they will be able to offer custody and issuance services. Their customers will also have access to alternatives to diversify their assets. However, the Lombard Odier team claims that they are aware of the need for many things to align for this future to materialize. For that reason, they have now decided to identify and invest in companies already working in the sector.

Lombard Odier agrees with the president of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, who stated that he does not see the tokenization of traded securities with bad eyes, as long as they are duly registered with the SEC.

By Alexander Salazar

The Bitmex platform saw its reserves reduced by 49.55% in the penultimate quarter of the year; data suggests that the number of users preferring non-custodial storage increased.

Bitcoin reserves on exchanges such as Coinbase, Okex, and Bitmex dropped and decreased considerably in the penultimate quarter of the year. This is recorded by the Bituniverse platform, which estimates a decrease of more than 2 billion dollars in bitcoins for the last three months.

Users of the world’s major cryptocurrency exchanges withdrew about 187,000 bitcoins since July, data from the web said. In this way, reserves have fallen to minimum volumes that were not reported since May of last year, ecosystem sources emphasize.

One of the exchanges that presented a greater number of withdrawals is Bitmex, which saw its reserves decrease by 49.55%. At the beginning of the month, the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFCT) accused the platform of operating illegally in the United States, a complaint that earned it an untimely departure of more than 40,000 bitcoins in a matter of hours.

The exchange owned some 224,000 bitcoins before the indictment, but only about 113,000 bitcoins are currently under its management. These figures show the impact of the legal problems that the company has had with the US government. However, this is not the only exchange that has seen bitcoins in its cold wallets dwindle.

Coinbase, one of the most prominent exchanges in the United States, also posted a 9% decline in recent months. The platform had a million bitcoins at its disposal at the beginning of February, but users have withdrawn a total of 92,000 BTC, leaving some 908,560 bitcoins in their custody.

The second-largest trading volume exchange in the world, Huobi, has also processed about 53,000 BTC that were coming out of its wallet. Whereas Okex had about 240,000 bitcoins in its custody three months ago, but now its reserves do not exceed 198,000 bitcoins.

Binance and Bitfinex are among the few large exchanges without a large volume of bitcoin withdrawals. A perfect example of this is Binance, which had about 269,000 bitcoins under its power at the beginning of the year, and now it possesses about 266,000 bitcoins, a very slight decrease. Bitfinex, on the contrary, still keeps some 124,000 bitcoins in its cold wallets, a figure that has not changed much compared to what it registered in February 2020.

Exchanges own 12.85% of the total bitcoins to be issued

Graphs from the firm Glassnode show that at this moment, about 2.7 million bitcoins are kept in exchange wallets. This market would have under its administration 14.59% of the total bitcoins circulating today, as well as 12.85% of the total supply of bitcoins that will be issued as scheduled on the network (21 million BTC).

Also, 1.8 million of these bitcoins are in the wallets of the five most important exchange platforms in the ecosystem, such as Binance, Bitfinex, Okex, Huobi, and Coinbase.

This is a record that would confirm the decrease of bitcoins reserves of these companies impacts right on the distribution of the cryptocurrency in the market and owner’s pockets.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

“Genesis” is a non-fungible token on Ethereum that shows an animation of the work. José Delbo sketched in pencil, and Jones finished it in oil on canvas.

A tokenized version of Batman on Ethereum, conceptualized by Argentine artist José Delbo, was traded for 302.5 ethers (ETH), which at the time of the auction represented about $ 111,000. It is a non-fungible token (NFT) in which an animation is shown at the time of making the work about the superhero.

The piece called “Genesis” was a piece made between Delbo, who is a renowned DC Comics and Marvel cartoonist, and Canadian artist Trevor Jones. According to the American painter, Delbo sent him the pencil drawing of Batman and then finished it in oil on canvas. It was later commercialized in the MakersPlace market.

“I wanted to create a very painterly piece with obvious brush marks, but I also aspired (to create) a sense of nostalgia, a kind of ’80s superhero comic look, the kind I grew up with,” Jones noted of the final art.

Regarding the technique for making the animation, the artist mentioned that consecutive images could be superimposed as “brushstrokes on José’s drawing.” The intention was clearly to create the impression that this was a non-stop work of art.

Auctions and non-fungible tokens

MakersPlace cataloged the sale as historic and noted that the artwork is the most expensive of such pieces. Let us highlight that that “Genesis” is part of a series dedicated to Batman by Delbo and Jones. The works together already gather more than 540 ETH, an amount in dollars of about $ 200,000.

Delbo himself was grateful and sent a video, through his Twitter account, in which he referred to the auction held last week. In the statement, the artist expressed:

“I want to thank the crypto community for supporting this project and Mr. Trevor Jones for the work he did on this art. Also to Mr. Maxstealth for having acquired the project. I am amazed and proud.

It is not the first time that Delbo has garnered media attention in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. In July of this year, the Argentine cartoonist exhibited his work in MakersPlace, the gallery of the decentralized virtual universe Decentraland.

Delbo is recognized for having contributed to different projects such as Wonder Woman, Transformers, Billy the Kid, The Beatles, and Yellow Submarine. He is currently 87 years old and began to draw at 16.

In the universe of non-fungible tokens on Ethereum, the Cryptokitties also stand out, which have come to be traded at 600 ETH. One of them, without special attributes, was sold for that amount in September 2018.

Non-fungible tokens are also known as collectible tokens. NFTs are a type of crypto asset that is identifiable during exchange and circulation. They differ from fungible tokens by being indivisible and unique assets that can be held on a blockchain. The best-known implementation is the ERC-721 standard.

By: Jenson Nuñez.