cryptounit

[cryptounit]

Securities and Exchange Commission lacks authority to ban crypto

According to Gary Gensler, the head of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, made a confirmation that the agency has no authority or intent of banning cryptocurrency.

Gary was responding to questions at the House Committee on Financial Services virtual hearing on Tuesday when he made the emphasis that banning crypto was beyond the mandate of the SEC and said, it would be up to The Congress. Gensler stated:

“It’s a matter of how we get this field within the investor consumer protection that we have and also working with bank regulators and others, how do we ensure that the Treasury Department has it within Anti-Money Laundering, tax compliance. “

He also added that many of the tokens meet the test of being an investment contract, a note or a security, emphasising the need to bring crypto within the investor protection remit of the SEC. Gensler also noted “the financial stability issues that stablecoins could raise” as a priority for the agency.

  SEC’s Stance on Digital Assets

Patrick McHenry noticed the actions and stance taken by the SEC pertaining digital assets under Gensler’s leadership during the virtual hearing and accused SEC head of lacking to act in agreement with the agency’s long-held practice of noticing comment on rulemaking and procedures. To this, Gensler responded that the SEC follows the Administrative Procedures Act.

McHenry went ahead to cite comments Gensler made to the Committee in 2019, while teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he disapproved of past rulings from the SEC categorizing Bitcoin and Ether as commodities. 

Gensler was asked of his views on this matter and said that though he would not get into any one token, the securities laws were very clear in that when one is raising money and the investing public have a reasonable expectation of profit founded on the efforts of others, that fit into the securities law. 

  The Safe Harbor Proposal

The hearing was held on the same day McHenry suggested the Clarity for Digital Tokens Act of 2021, which is heavily inspired by the safe harbor proposal administered by the pro-crypto SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce in February 2020. 

At the same time, McHenry asked Gensler whether he had reviewed Peirce’s Proposal but Gensler dodged answering the question saying,

“Commissioner Peirce and I have talked on her thoughts around a potential safe harbor. I think that the challenge for the American public is that if we don’t oversee this and bring in investor protection, people are going to get hurt.”

Image courtesy of pixabay

from WordPress https://crypto8.net/2021/10/06/securities-and-exchange-commission-lacks-authority-to-ban-crypto/

[cryptounit]

Bank of America Bullish on NFTs and DeFi Despite Recent Slump

One of the biggest banking institutions of the globe Bank of America (BoA) has published a research report that offers an outlook into the long-term prospects of NFTs, DeFi and cryptocurrencies. The report shows that the bank’s analysts are bullish about the outlook of both DeFi and NFTs. 

  NFTs and DeFi Platforms Continue to Post Great Growth

Both the Non Fungible Token (NFT) and the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) sectors have enjoyed record growth during the current calendar year. The DeFi sector has especially been largely bullish in the long-term for the last year and a half. However, after the crypto price tank earlier this year in May also negatively impacted both DeFi and NFT sectors. While NFTs have been able to recover well enough from the slump, the DeFi projects have been slow to respond overall.

  Bank of America Heaps Praise on the Digital Economy

The report published by BoA’s subsidiary Bank of America Securities heaped well thought out praise on the growing digital economy and its different facets including NFT and DeFi sectors. The report also says that the mammoth $2.15 trillion valuation of the industry is just too big to ignore. It also stated that while the movement started with Bitcoin itself, it has since branched out to become much more than just a digital currency. According to the publication, more than 221 million users currently own cryptocurrencies or digital assets and the number is seeing exponential growth. 

The bank also singled out the possibility of Decentralized Apps (DApps) and its immense potential for the future. 

The report states:

“For us, digital assets are not about payments per se. They’re about a new computing paradigm – a programmable computer that is accessible everywhere and to anyone and owned by millions of people globally.

  Clearly the report is talking about networks like Ethereum and to some extent its competitors like Cardano and others. The bank however, did warn against the volatile side of these digital assets especially NFTs.

The programmable side of the blockchain networks is what fascinates many legacy bankings institutions as it is a utility that many of them find attractive and in place for a digital world of tomorrow. Many of these banks are silently betting big on new crypto/NFT/DeFi platforms. 

  Image Source: GettyImages

from WordPress https://crypto8.net/2021/10/06/bank-of-america-bullish-on-nfts-and-defi-despite-recent-slump/

[cryptounit]

The Monetary Authority of Singapore gives licenses for cryptocurrency services in the country

The official Singapore financial regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has approved two companies to offer cryptocurrency services in the country.

MAS issued licenses on October 1, two Australian crypto exchange independent reserve and DBS banks brokerage DBS Vickers, DBSV. This will allow them to offer digital payment services, which fall under the Payment Services Act.

According to news done by Independent Reserve, the Australian cryptocurrency exchange is the first institution for retail and institutional investors in Singapore. It was founded back in Australia in 2013 and started overseas operations in 2020. It offers both over the counter and digital asset exchange to both individuals and institutions.

From an announcement done by DBS bank, the license will help DBSV to work smoothly with asset managers and companies who are interested in doing cryptocurrency trading through the DBS exchange. The DBS digital exchange was launched officially in December 2020 and supports major cryptocurrencies such as ethereum, Bitcoin, etc. It, however, only targets institutional investors.

Reserve approval

MAS has given DBSV an independent reserve approval to provide digital payment services from early August. According to the independent reserve CEO, Adrian Przelozny, Singapore is the most demanding in Asia regarding licensing requirements. This leaves a gap for Australia to learn from Singapore when it comes to crypto industry licensing. In Australia, for instance, there are no custodian requirements for capital cryptocurrency exchanges.

According to the DDEx chair Eng-Kwok Seat Moey, getting a license marks a significant milestone. The company can offer various crypto-related services, such as trading, tokenization, listing, and custody.

With official approval from MAS, DBSV is in a great position to support institutional and corporate investors interested in cryptocurrencies. The approval comes timely as Binance has stopped offering several products on its platform in Singapore in September as MAS warned of a breach of the country’s P.S. Acts. Binance features on the regulator’s investor alert list as being unregulated based on recommendations from MAS.

Image by HM Treasury from Flickr.

from WordPress https://crypto8.net/2021/10/03/the-monetary-authority-of-singapore-gives-licenses-for-cryptocurrency-services-in-the-country/

[cryptounit]

936% Growth Experienced in DeFi’s Value Locked in 1 Year as NFT Sector Strengthens

 The past 12 months have seen the total value locked in DeFi protocols surge by 936%.

DappRadar, an analytics platform, conducted in-depth research on the DeFi ecosystem and revealed that both Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi) markets have seen an unprecedented growth this year. In their “Value Flow Report” on Thursday, DappRadar shed light on how recent trends have seen substantial growth in blockchain gaming and NFTs. In addition, the report adds that DeFi is still on an upward growth curve, generating substantial value.

Potential for Further Growth

The report by DappRadar went into analysing Ethereum-based DeFi since it is the dominating force in the DeFi ecosystem despite the rise of competitor networks such as Avalanche, Solana, and Binance Smart Chain (BSC). Value has not stopped flowing as wrapped Ether (wETH) sees a 400% gain since July 2020. Stablecoins Dai and Tether (USDT) increased by 500% and 1,300% respectively, over the same period.

From DappRadar’s report, the total value locked (TVL) stands at $114.8 billion, which is a 936% gain since June last year. Further, the industry’s TVL grew by 75% between July 23 and Sept 5. The TVL peaked at $195 billion across all chains, which is a remarkable feat.

The analytics platform suggested that using TVL to measure the movement of value is not recommended.

Whilst TVL is one of the most important metrics to assess the current state of Decentralized Finance, it is not a metric to understand value flow movement. The TVL is completely dependent on the underlying asset, thus, providing a false optic from the value perspective.

NFTs also beating the Odds

DappRadar’s report also noted that in August NFTs saw record volumes with a total of $5.2 billion worth traded. On the NFT sphere, Ethereum is still the dominating network with 90% of all NFTs volume on its blockchain.

NFTs market leader is the marketplace, OpenSea with 99.7% of its trades occurring on Ethereum despite the availability of Polygon (MATIC), Dai and USD Coin (USDC) options for sellers. DappRadar touched on how NFT growth has been organic and has not leaked much liquidity from DeFi protocols.

All in all, it appears that the value in DeFi is growing constantly, whilst NFTs were able to generate a major value flow in August.

The crypto ecosystem is seeing more and more investors diversifying their portfolios and moving their assets into DeFi protocols, and with the continued Beijing crackdown, regulatory fears are growing.

Image courtesy of pixabay

from WordPress https://crypto8.net/2021/10/02/936-growth-experienced-in-defis-value-locked-in-1-year-as-nft-sector-strengthens/

[cryptounit]

Bitcoin Goes Above $47k as October Starts with a Healthy Rise

Bitcoin went above $47k earlier today as October started with some decent bullish fireworks. The cryptocurrency had been trending upwards in late August and early September but the last month was mostly spent fighting with the bears.

Bitcoin Rises Above $47k

Bitcoin was trading below $44k earlier in the day. However, a few big resistances going forward kept slowing down the cryptocurrency’s advances. But, around 9 AM in the morning, the index started to post a big upwards candle. At first, it teased the $45k level but around midday, the cryptocurrency really started to take off. Now, the digital currency is above $47k and looking increasingly bullish. It reached as high as $47.9k before receding slightly to $47.4k at press time.

Image Source: TradingView

Like always there are multiple reasons behind the sudden jump in the Bitcoin price index. Over $200 million worth of shorts were liquidated in a matter of minutes as the index fell hard. The recent tussle with the bears was also put into the spotlight as many traders warned against overselling during the short-term bearish incursions. The good sign for the bulls is that none of the major price support levels were breached during the month-long bearish bias. Now, it may look to strengthen its hold and post more highs.

Beginnings of a Bullish October?

Bitcoin is looking set for a bullish start to the month. Even though it is just first day of the 10th month, traders are looking upbeat about the immediate future of the digital currency. Many are calling it “Uptober”, a reference to an anticipated bull run in the month. October has historically been quite bullish over the years especially in the year following a Bitcoin halving which 2021 obviously is.

A Weakening Dollar?

The US Dollar has had a big September as it posted record exchange rates against most major currencies around the world. However now, it seems like the greenback is shedding some value. The fiat currency’s weakening has also contributed towards the latest price jump in Bitcoin itself. The Dollar is expected to weaken further as the US announces the new infrastructure package that is worth more than $1 trillion.

Concluding….

The start to October was quite bullish overall but it is still one day’s worth of actions and it may take some time to eventually re-continue the long-term bull run.

Image Source: Adobe Stock

from WordPress https://crypto8.net/2021/10/02/bitcoin-goes-above-47k-as-october-starts-with-a-healthy-rise/

[cryptounit]

Polygon’s Brief Blaze Past Ethereum for Active Addresses following a 330% Surge

The past three months have seen Polygon, a Layer-two aggregator, experience a 330% surge in active addresses.

This year has been especially favorable to Layer-two protocols, and when one looks at this growth in terms of active addresses, there is a protocol that has gone above and beyond the network for which it serves as a scaling solution.

Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic confirmed through a tweet that the number of daily active unique addresses on this layer-two aggregator has surpassed those on the high-fee Layer-one, Ethereum. The statistical data presented by Bjelic reveals that on Monday Polygon had 351,000 daily active addresses while Ethereum’s number was 326,000. 

Another huge milestone for @0xPolygon!

We eclipsed Ethereum L1 in daily active addresses for the first time!

This is just the beginning. We are working round the clock to improve our tech, strengthen our ecosystem and increase adoption.

Let's bring the world to Ethereum!

pic.twitter.com/K4sAF1y3LT

— Mihailo Bjelic (@MihailoBjelic) September 29, 2021

A Tight Race

Looking at Polygonscan, reveals that on Sept 20, the number of active addresses hit the roof and peaked at 426,586 on Monday. They then fell slightly back to 385,740.

Etherscan, on the other hand, reported that Wednesday’s daily active address count for Ethereum was 457,402. This means that the two are evenly matched at the moment.

After analyzing data over the past three months, one can see a 330% surge in the number of Polygon’s active addresses. However, looking at the other side – Ethereum – shows a 12% decline for the same metric over the same period.

Again analyzing the cumulative unique addresses as of Wednesday puts Ethereum ahead with 170.8 million, according to Etherscan. On the same day Polygon had 89 million total district addresses. It is good to note that it was not too long ago that Matic rebranded to Polygon and launched in February. Once can conclude that the protocol’s growth has been on an upward curve over a shorter period of time.

Where is the Surge coming from?

At present, Polygonscan reveals that Polygon boasts of a greater number of transactions than Ethereum as of Wednesday with the former having 5.7 million total transactions while the latter sits at 1.1 million. This low number on Ethereum’s side can be largely attributed to their high fees, which have recently gone up, again.

A report by Defi llama shows that the total value locked (TVL) of all protocols on Polygon is $4.81 billion. This is a decline since in mid-June it was enjoying an all-time-high of $10.54 billion. At the moment, Aave, the flash loan platform, is the most popular protocol on the network with 37% of the total or $1.77 billion TVL.

The surge in activity on layer-two protocols can be directly linked to the skyrocketing Ethereum fees in recent days.

Image courtesy of pixabay

from WordPress https://crypto8.net/2021/09/30/polygons-brief-blaze-past-ethereum-for-active-addresses-following-a-330-surge/

[cryptounit]

Former Bitcoin Lead Dev Predicts the Crypto will Die, but Not Before Reaching $6 Million

In an interesting prediction, a former top developer of the Bitcoin network believes that the P2P cryptocurrency system will die within 40 years, but not before reaching a whopping price of $6 million. He gave these views during a recent blog post and it is kind of a mixed bags for Bitcoin promoters and detractors.

Bitcoin’s Demise in 2061

The Bitcoin network was founded in the year 2009 when the P2P cryptocurrency was launched. Back then, almost no one could have predicted the meteoric rise of the cryptocurrency project as its value was just a few hundreds of dollars. In a rollercoaster journey ever since, the digital currency has reached a maximum valuation of above $1.2 trillion in April earlier this year. While currently valued in the neighbourhood of around $800 billion, the network is still one of the most valuable entities in the world right now, at par with many of the top 10 companies around the globe.

However, despite the overall rise of the blockchain network, at least one developer now predicts that the cryptocurrency will fail in the long-term. Gavin Andresen, a former Bitcoin client programmer and founder of Bitcoin Foundation (no direct relationship to Satoshi Nakamoto) believes that the cryptocurrency is destined to survive till 2061, 40 years from now. But, there is a huge silver lining for the cryptocurrency investors and fans as he believes that in the process, the digital currency may hit a high as $6 million per Bitcoin at one point. Right now, it is being traded at around $42k and that means an increase of around 143 times. That is not a small rise to be honest and nobody can blame traders for cashing in on this extremely high levels and looking forward to it even if BTC itself is destined to fail according to Andresen.

Will Bitcoin Live On in Some Form?

He also claimed that the crypto network will not die completely, but rather move to mirrored chains with wrapped digital currencies to save fees and improve transaction speeds. That is one of the main challenges of the cryptocurrency network right now and it is not that a bad deal for users. This will also happen a long time before the last Bitcoin is slated to be mined around 2140 according to Satoshi’s laid out plans

Andresen does admit that his prediction is a little bit of Science Fiction. Adresen is a well known figure in the crypto community and he has since stepped down from his role in the network. Last year, he incurred the wrath of the crypto community by supporting boastful Craig Wright’s claim to being Satoshi Nakamoto. Craig Wright is a comical figures whose past claims of being the inventor of the crypto network have been rubbished, ridiculed and exposed as inaccurate observations.

Image Source: pixabay.com

from WordPress https://crypto8.net/2021/09/30/former-bitcoin-lead-dev-predicts-the-crypto-will-die-but-not-before-reaching-6-million/

[cryptounit]

Cardano’s Coti is set to launch a new stablecoin that will fuel DeFi transactions while lowering transaction fees.

Coti, Cardano’s payment gateway provider, is set to launch a new DeFi-focused stablecoin, Djed. The stablecoin will be launched on the Cardano blockchain to enable decentralized finance operations while avoiding transaction fees. The official announcement was made on Sunday by Coti CEO Shahaf Bar-Geffen and Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson at the Cardano Summit.

Djed will use algorithms and smart contracts to provide price stability and an instrument for decentralized transactions. The stablecoin will be used as an alternative for paying for transaction fees on the Cardano network so that users can escape exorbitant gas fees and ensure transaction fees are predictable. 

According to its whitepaper, the stablecoin protocol will act as an autonomous bank such that the stablecoins trading price reflects the target price. It will be the responsibility of the stablecoin to ensure it has a reserve of base coins while at the same time creating and burning the different stable assets and reserve coins.

According to Hoskinson, Djed is very strategic and timely in aligning itself to the market’s needs. There is a current high demand for stablecoin, making it experience astronomical growth; hence it is bound to grow.

This is not the first time Coti is making strategic partnerships. It recently partnered with Ardana, Cardano’s stablecoin hub, to ensure decentralized stablecoin payments to AdaPay.AdaPay is a Cardano(ADA) payment gateway that supports over 30 fiat currencies. 

The rise of Cardano

Cardano has been hitting the airways lately. It had a hard fork mainnet upgrade its services. The upgrade made it possible for the platform to offer smart contracts, making it at par with Ethereum and Solana. Since the upgrade, there are currently over 200 smart contracts listed on the Cardano blockchain explorer.

As expected, COTI’s announcement of the partnership has spiked its price up. Since the announcement, the token price increased by 3.21% in a day. There is so much positivity expected in the market.

Photo by Jeremy Bezanger on Unsplash

from WordPress https://crypto8.net/2021/09/27/cardanos-coti-is-set-to-launch-a-new-stablecoin-that-will-fuel-defi-transactions-while-lowering-transaction-fees/

[cryptounit]

Suspension of Services Expected on Ethereum’s Second-largest Mining Pool

Ethermine is Ethereum’s largest mining pool. It is followed closely by SparkPool, an Ether mining pool launched in China in 2018 and controls over 22% of the cryptocurrency’s has rate as of Monday.

Due to China’s ongoing crypto crackdown, the world’s second-largest Ethereum mining pool is expected to suspend its operations. SparkPool made an official announcement that it had suspended access to new users on Monday in mainland China. They noted that this was a response to the new measures initiated by Chinese authorities to combat crypto adoption in the nation last Friday.

Gradual Suspension of Services

After these new restrictions, SparkPool will keep shutting down its services with plans of suspending all existing mining pool users both in China and abroad. The announcement noted that these measures are not meant to hurt the users, instead they intend to safeguard the users’ assets in response to regulatory policy requirements. The organization also added that “Further details about the shutdown will be sent out through announcements, emails, and in-site messages.”

SparkPool was launched in China in early 2018 and has kept gaining traction to emerge as one of the world’s largest Ether mining pools, alongside its competitor at the helm, Ethermine. As of Monday, SparkPool’s mining power made up 22% of Ethereum’s global hash rate. This is slightly behind Ethermine’s 24% share.

The Chinese Government’s Negative Stance on Crypto

SparkPool’s decision to suspend operations came after the Chinese government reinforced its suppression of crypto. Last Friday the government declared all crypto-related transactions illegal within China’s borders.

Binance and Huobi, two of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges subsequently suspended new account registrations from users in mainland China. The two are however still servicing users in Hong Kong.

Beijing’s latest crypto ban came from China’s central bank as it intensified its crypto crackdown by targeting offshore exchanges with ties to mainland China. The banks issued warnings of investigating anyone involved in providing support to any offshore exchange. It further reiterated that “Any foreign digital currency exchange that provides services to Chinese citizens through the internet is engaging in illegal financial activities.”

SparkPool’s suspension of services come at a time when Ethereum is switching from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake protocol in 2022. This is a step in the long-scheduled upgrade called Ethereum 2.0. After Ethereum 2.0 takes effect, Ether miners will have fewer choices since the new model will render their mining equipment obsolete.

Image courtesy of Flickr

from WordPress https://crypto8.net/2021/09/29/suspension-of-services-expected-on-ethereums-second-largest-mining-pool/

[cryptounit]

Futures Data Points Towards Ethereum Bullish Action as Price Falls back to Recent Lows

Ethereum is faring weakly against the greenback earlier today as the index fell below $2.9k again. The market is also showing a weakening recovery overall. But, extensive data analysis from the derivatives market especially Ethereum futures shows us that a big move may be in the making.

Market Tanks Yet Again

The Cryptocurrency trading market especially the altcoins took a massive hit earlier today. Bitcoin itself tanked and went below $41k for a short while again before recovering above $42k at press time. Altcoins including Ethereum also showed big declines and the overall picture is quite grim for the bulls in the short-term as price tanks are being followed by weak recoveries that do not restore the previous status quo overall. Overall, the market is trending slightly downwards and that is a pressing issue for the immediate bullish cause.

However, according to recent analysis, Ethereum itself is close to a healthy price rally in the near future. It is because the derivatives data is very encouraging. Many of these futures, options, etc stats show that despite the latest price tank, a bullish case is still the most appropriate outcome of the near future. Over 72% of call to buy actions were placed at $3.2k and above according to derivatives data. Even with this crash, the derivatives traders are still hopeful of a good rally.

Friday’s Options Expiry

This brings us to the $1.56 billion worth of options expiry earlier today. The expiry did rattle the markets earlier today but it was within the margin of the futures data. According to it:

Between $2,700 and $2,900: 61,900 calls vs. 72,000 puts. The net result is $27 million favoring the protective put (bear) instruments.

Between $2,900 and $3,000: 79,900 calls vs. 52,200 puts. The net result is $80 million favoring the call (bull) options.

Between $3,000 and $3,200: 82,500 calls vs. 37,300 puts. The net result is $136 million favoring the call (bull) options.

Above $3,200: 99,600 calls vs. 20,200 puts. The net result favors the call options by $255 million.

To win this latest options expiry, the bulls just need to defend the $2.9k support level. If they can successfully do that, it will be considered an overall victory for them. Right now, ETH is trading at around $2.91 and it did go lower earlier today. However, this move was negated by the bullish recovery. Still, many things hang in the balance for the second largest cryptocurrency in the world and derivatives alone don’t provide enough of a complete insight into the current setup.

Image Source: pixabay.com

from WordPress https://crypto8.net/2021/09/26/futures-data-points-towards-ethereum-bullish-action-as-price-falls-back-to-recent-lows/

[cryptounit]

Crypto Tipping leads to a Bitcoin bull run aimed at $45K.

Twitter’s new crypto tipping leads to a Bitcoin price rally to $44.8K intending to flip it at $45K.

Even though the week started with a lot of volatility, there is hope for recovery as there is so much optimism for bullish tendencies as the week comes to a close. The volatility was brought about by the heated regulatory pressure in the general crypto industry. The federal rise in interest rates led to a roar in the market in addition to Evergrande situation will affect the global financial markets. 

According to Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, bitcoin has been trading between $43K and $44,300 since the morning of September 23. However, this moved to $44,800 by afternoon, intending to hit $45K as a resistance level.

The sudden price increase is in reflection of Twitter’s announcement of the launch of crypto tipping. Through a  payment application, Strike, users will be able to tip other users. The application will be developed on the Lightning network that helps ensures cheap Bitcoin transactions. 

Crypto market recovery

The recent crypto ecosystem has been on momentum, with altcoins also recovering. Ether, one of the prominent altcoins, was just pushing above $3100. 

There is heated competition in the altcoin market, with projects such as Avalanche(AVAX), Terra(LUNA), and Cosmos(ATOM) being the biggest gainers, thanks to their infrastructure of a lower transaction cost and fast processing time. 

Celer(CELR) increased by 52% in 24 hours, making it a top gainer, achieving an all-time high of $0.14, Celo (CELO) rising by 24% to trade at $7.80.

Other altcoins also performed well, such as COTI at 23%, Tezos at 21%, and Rally(TRAC) at 20%.

 The general cryptocurrency market cap has increased to $1.999 though Bitcoin is still dominating at 42%. 

Photo by Behnam Norouzi on Unsplash

from WordPress https://crypto8.net/2021/09/26/crypto-tipping-leads-to-a-bitcoin-bull-run-aimed-at-45k/

[cryptounit]

Big Investors Eyeing Ether, and Exercising Caution on Bitcoin: JP Morgan

The crypto market is experiencing a shift from Bitcoin-based products as Ether futures start trading at a premium. JP Morgan, an American multinational investment bank reveals how institutional investors are favoring Ether derivatives as opposed to Bitcoin Futures.

Growing Popularity of Ethereum-based Products

On Sept 22, analysts from the Wall Street bank noted that Bitcoin futures traded at a discount on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) when compared to spot BTC prices this month alone.

The world’s second-largest crypto asset is gaining traction as the popularity of Ethereum-based products is increasing among big investors. The JP Morgan analysts added that the market is experiencing a ‘strong divergence in demand’ and also claimed that:

This is a setback for Bitcoin and a reflection of weak demand by institutional investors that tend to use regulated CME futures contracts to gain exposure to Bitcoin.

It is common in the crypto ecosystem to see Bitcoin futures trading at a premium when demand is high over the spot markets. This occurs due to the enticing yields and high BTC storage costs for passive crypto investing. CME data shows that the 21-day average ETH futures premium climbed to 1% over Ether prices on the spot markets. JPM analysts noted that this is an indicator of much healthier demand for Ethereum vs. Bitcoin by institutional investors.

Why an Abrupt Focus on Crypto Futures?

Skew Analytics notes that the industry leader when it comes to BTC futures volumes is Binance, with $20 billion traded over the past 24 hours. After Binance come sin OKEx with $5.36 billion and then CME with $2.34 billion traded over the past 24 hours. Binance also tops the list when it comes to Ether futures, dominating by a daily volume of $9.7 billion.

Crypto aficionados are finding it ironic that JPM is focusing on crypto futures so abruptly on the same day a motion was filed in a Manhattan federal court ordering them to pay the Treasury futures investors $16 million after creating false demand, or ‘spoofing.’ An article from Law360 claims that this moves comes after JPM concluded their $290 million criminal settlement for manipulating commodities futures markets with the U.S. Department of Justice in September last year.

Looking into other institutional adoption news sheds light on the launch of two trust funds based on Ethereum and Bitcoin by Cambrian Asset Management based in California. According to Bloomberg, this will come as an advantage to the crypto ecosystem since the institutional investment products will bring better exposure to the underlying assets while cutting out some of the volatility.

Image courtesy of pixabay

from WordPress https://crypto8.net/2021/09/26/big-investors-eyeing-ether-and-exercising-caution-on-bitcoin-jp-morgan/

[cryptounit]

The Monetary Authority of Singapore gives licenses for cryptocurrency services in the country

The official Singapore financial regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has approved two companies to offer cryptocurrency services in the country. MAS issued licenses on October 1, two Australian crypto exchange independent reserve and DBS banks brokerage DBS Vickers, DBSV. This will allow them to offer digital payment services, which fall under the Payment...

The post The Monetary Authority of Singapore gives licenses for cryptocurrency services in the country appeared first on CryptoUnit.com.

from WordPress https://cryptounit.com/2021/10/03/the-monetary-authority-of-singapore-gives-licenses-for-cryptocurrency-services-in-the-country/

[cryptounit]

Bitcoin Goes Above $47k as October Starts with a Healthy Rise

Bitcoin went above $47k earlier today as October started with some decent bullish fireworks. The cryptocurrency had been trending upwards in late August and early September but the last month was mostly spent fighting with the bears. Bitcoin Rises Above $47k Bitcoin was trading below $44k earlier in the day. However, a few big resistances...

The post Bitcoin Goes Above $47k as October Starts with a Healthy Rise appeared first on CryptoUnit.com.

from WordPress https://cryptounit.com/2021/10/02/bitcoin-goes-above-47k-as-october-starts-with-a-healthy-rise/

[cryptounit]

936% Growth Experienced in DeFi’s Value Locked in 1 Year as NFT Sector Strengthens

 The past 12 months have seen the total value locked in DeFi protocols surge by 936%. DappRadar, an analytics platform, conducted in-depth research on the DeFi ecosystem and revealed that both Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi) markets have seen an unprecedented growth this year. In their “Value Flow Report” on Thursday, DappRadar shed...

The post 936% Growth Experienced in DeFi’s Value Locked in 1 Year as NFT Sector Strengthens appeared first on CryptoUnit.com.

from WordPress https://cryptounit.com/2021/10/02/936-growth-experienced-in-defis-value-locked-in-1-year-as-nft-sector-strengthens/

[cryptounit]

Polygon’s Brief Blaze Past Ethereum for Active Addresses following a 330% Surge

The past three months have seen Polygon, a Layer-two aggregator, experience a 330% surge in active addresses. This year has been especially favorable to Layer-two protocols, and when one looks at this growth in terms of active addresses, there is a protocol that has gone above and beyond the network for which it serves as...

The post Polygon’s Brief Blaze Past Ethereum for Active Addresses following a 330% Surge appeared first on CryptoUnit.com.

from WordPress https://cryptounit.com/2021/09/30/polygons-brief-blaze-past-ethereum-for-active-addresses-following-a-330-surge/

[cryptounit]

Former Bitcoin Lead Dev Predicts the Crypto will Die, but Not Before Reaching $6 Million

In an interesting prediction, a former top developer of the Bitcoin network believes that the P2P cryptocurrency system will die within 40 years, but not before reaching a whopping price of $6 million. He gave these views during a recent blog post and it is kind of a mixed bags for Bitcoin promoters and detractors....

The post Former Bitcoin Lead Dev Predicts the Crypto will Die, but Not Before Reaching $6 Million appeared first on CryptoUnit.com.

from WordPress https://cryptounit.com/2021/09/30/former-bitcoin-lead-dev-predicts-the-crypto-will-die-but-not-before-reaching-6-million/