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Nasdaq, Fiat and Crypto Firms Discuss Crypto Regulation

Posted on July 28, 2018 by Aaron Decker

The crypto industry is well on its way to mainstream adoption albeit with a few though significant setbacks such as the shakeup of the industry’s history of shady transactions and fraud. Fortunately, Nasdaq Inc. believes it has just what it takes to get clear the obstacles that have impeded progress in as far as the legitimization of cryptocurrencies is concerned.

Bloomberg reports that earlier this week Nasdaq Inc. hosted a closed-door meeting that was attended by half a dozen cryptocurrency companies and mainstream institution. These included Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss’ crypto exchange platform, Gemini. The main agenda of the meeting was a discussion pertaining to ‘how to encourage the cryptocurrency industry to do things that will improve its image and validate its potential role in global markets’. A source familiar with meeting also confirmed that the parties that attended the meeting also discussed the potential implications of future regulation of digital currencies, the necessary tools for such an initiative as well as what surveillance would be needed for such a future.

Certainly Not the Last

Nasdaq has recently announced a partnership cum collaboration with Gemini, who as mentioned earlier also attended the closed-door meeting. While both companies declined to give any comments on the meeting and what was discussed, Nasdaq did confirm that the meeting did indeed take place. Their collaboration will see Nasdaq tap Gemini’s SMARTS market Surveillance, an industry benchmark technology that is extensively used by Wall Street firms.

It has further been confirmed that the meeting was not the last of its kind and this is a clear indication that cryptocurrency startups are working harder towards achieving mainstream adoption and mollifying the anxieties of regulators. Considering how often regulatory clampdowns occur, stakeholders in the cryptocurrency industry are starting to employ more forward-thinking and proactive approaches to ensure its survival.

By ensuring that both crypto and fiat firms work together, Nasdaq believes that the legitimization of digital currencies will have lesser setbacks. To this effect, the company has already partnered with a number of cryptocurrency exchanges in a bid to foster or facilitate collaboration on some of the most significant impediments to crypto regulation.

“I think the technology is fascinating and it’s a very sound technology. It’s just a matter of making sure that the community is all-embracing it together,” Adena Friedman, the Nasdaq Chief Executive Officer said.

One of the most recent issues that will hopefully be addressed by this initiative is the move by United States regulators to classify digital assets as securities instead of utility tokens. The US crypto community is concerned that this move will result in some adverse effects on the emerging cryptocurrency sector.

Bitcoin Increases 5 Percent to $7,700. Is This It?

Posted on July 24, 2018July 23, 2018 by Abe Efe

Bitcoin, the world’s largest and most popular digital currency continued its rally yesterday, shrugging off the hoard of regulatory and security worries that have significantly dragged down its price this year. According to data from CoinDesk, the cryptocurrency’s value increased by 5 percent on Monday, July 23, to a high of $7,770.58. This further represents a 20 percent increase in value from what was recorded a week ago.

Bitcoin broke above the $7,000 mark last Tuesday for this time in over a month after news surfaced that BlackRock, an asset-management company, was planning to set up a working group for the purpose of exploring digital currencies and the underlying blockchain technology. Similarly, in a report that was written last week, Grayscale, which manages $2 billion in assets said that more institutions are beginning to take interest in crypto. This, as affirmed by Matthew Newton, an eToro analyst, adds to the long-term upside for both bitcoin and the entire crypto industry.

“In the long-run, all of these points are very bullish,” said Newton, an analyst at eToro. “Technically, on the charts, what happened last week was very positive, but getting through these levels will be critical in the short term action.”

Matthew has also expressed the immense excitement and anticipation surrounding the approval or a bitcoin ETF, which is due to be decided in August by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Largest Bull Run in History?

Bitcoin has been inspiring bullishness as it breaks resistance levels and steadily moves towards the $8,000 mark – there is already a lot of anticipation that this might turn out to be the largest bitcoin bull run ever. Spurred by news of interest from major institutions, the bullishness that has been hitting the crypto market lately is not without merit and a number of experts are beginning to weigh in on all the possibilities.

According to Romal Almazo, the cryptocurrency lead at Capco, tier 1 banks are beginning to weigh their options in regards to crypto.

“Any signs of the big players entering the market will cause huge waves. Though my personal belief is that we are still a few years away from reaching this tipping point, we are in what I would refer to as an exploratory phase when it comes to institutions and crypto,” Almazo said in an interview with Express.co.uk. “Right now, as Tier 1 banks and financial institutions explore their options, the two main things that are holding them back are the lack of regulatory oversight and the numerous risks associated with digital custody and storage. This will also mean a huge opportunity for insurers to get into the market and partner with digital custodians and digital storage providers.”

Reviewing Soccer Legend Ronaldinho’s Cryptocurrency Project

Posted on July 21, 2018July 21, 2018 by Aaron Decker

The FIFA World Cup 2018 finale came and went with France working away with the highly-contested championship title for the second time. The event remains to be one of the most popular sporting tournaments in the world and while this would be certainly worth discussing, we are going to focus on how it has influenced other areas, particularly with regards to emerging technologies.

If you guessed Esports and crypto then you are in the right place. Both of these areas are getting more and more connected with the crypto market. This year’s FIFA World Cup contributed quite a lot to the crypto industry through decentralized betting offerings. Huobi, one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world also announced their Huobi Tokens (HT) and Tron (TRX) that were used to predict the winner of the FIFA World Cup 2018. If you bet on France it must have been your lucky day.

Gambling aside, bitcoin and other digital currencies were used extensively as payment methods for a number of services including travel, accommodation, food, and booze. The 2018 FIFA World Cup may be over but the connection between crypto and football is getting stronger by the minute.

Ronaldinho Soccer Coin

Ronaldinho who is arguably one of the best footballers in the world has become of the newest sports figures to venture into the cryptocurrency space. The Brazilian icon and former Barcelona player recently launched his own self-titled digital currency, Ronaldinho Soccer Coin (RSC). The cryptocurrency project is aimed at creating a football academy, hosting both amateur and global league matches, as well as the creation and operation of a soccer-first online betting platform. Moreover, the project will also attempt to develop virtual reality stadiums that will help in the analysis of the football player skills.

Ronaldinho Soccer Coin (RSC) is based on the NEO blockchain platform and was developed concurrently with the World Soccer Coin, a Malta-based company after a partnership deal. It is now in the initial coin offering (ICO) phase – the coin currently has a limited supply of 350 million, 150 million of which will be sold in privately run sales over the next few days after which the remaining 2000 million will be released to public sales at a yet-to-be-announced time.

Once it fully goes live, the RSC token will power an entire ecosystem referred to as Planet RSC that will consist of the Ronaldinho Soccer Academy, Smile Project, Ronaldinho digital stadiums and a betting marketplace among many others.

“I want to bring a smile to as many people as possible through this project. I wish as many people as possible will have a dream and hope and become happy,” Ronaldinho said about the project.

Bitcoin Price Spikes As Crypto Market Finds Momentum

Posted on July 17, 2018July 16, 2018 by Abe Efe

The past few days have been great for bitcoin as big-money investors have started looking into getting involved in crypto. Bitcoin, which is considered to be the mother of all digital currencies has gained close to four percent in the past day. This follows a week of stability in the $250 billion region which has contributed to a solid momentum that the crypto market has begun to demonstrate – in fact, it is possible the bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash have already initiated the rally that is required to propel the market towards and beyond the $300 billion mark.

Bitcoin’s Steady Rise

Starting from earlier yesterday, bitcoin’s rose by over $200 from an initial $6,300 and clocking in at just over $6,600. Considering its current price level, bitcoin is expected to see one of its most significant price upswings in two weeks, gaining close to 4 percent in value.

June was not a particularly great month for bitcoin, with the digital currency dipping below the $6,000 mark not once but twice thus setting a new all-time low record for 2018. However, things seemed to take a turn for the better at the start of July with bitcoin being on a bit of a resurgence that saw it peak at $6,800 on July 8. This upward trend was unfortunately interrupted by a single but significant pullback that saw it lose nearly all of the price gains it had attained during the first few days of July.

After that, bitcoin came dangerously close to falling below the $6,000 mark but this has since been evaded in the past few weeks. Therefore, amidst the steady growth we have seen since July 13, yesterday’s surge may be just what is needed to push its price higher towards the $6,900 resistance level.

Institutional Investors Trouping In

Bitcoin’s price upsurge has partly been attributed to the fact that the crypto space and bitcoin are beginning to become more and more appealing to investors especially due to the emergence of trading futures. Trading futures contracts is considered to be the safer and more advantageous options by traders since it is an efficient asset to hedge the price of bitcoin as it rises and falls.

“We see continued growth both in terms of the average daily volume and open interest,” said Tim McCourt, group global head of equity products and alternative investments at the Chicago-based CME Group. “The volume has steadily increased compared to when it was first launched in December. This is not a one-sided product because we have both supply and demand. Customer demand is strong because the relationship between the futures and cash market have a tight basis spread.”

New Paper Affirms Belief That Bitcoin Will Replace Fiat

Posted on July 10, 2018July 9, 2018 by Abe Efe

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have always had a massive backing which about to grow even bigger thanks to a recent study is carried out by researchers at Imperial College London. According to a paper by the researchers titled “Cryptocurrencies: Overcoming Barriers to Trust and Adoption”, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will be subject to massive adoption as means of paying for goods and services in the coming decade.

The study which was sponsored by eToro focused on various barriers to trust and mainstream adoption of crypto within the current setting. It further listed three main criteria that would propel bitcoin and other digital currencies towards mainstream adoption, that is, ability to act as a store of value, a medium of exchange and a unit of account. While cryptocurrencies have already fulfilled one of the criteria as they are used by millions of people around the world as a store of value, the researchers said they will have to overcome setbacks such as regulation and scalability if they are to fulfill the other two criteria.

“The world of cryptocurrency is evolving as rapidly as the considerable collection of confusing terminology that accompanies it. These decentralized technologies have the potential to upend everything we thought we knew about the nature of financial systems and financial assets,” said Professor William Knottenbelt from Imperial College London. “There’s a lot of skepticism over cryptocurrencies and how they could ever become a day-to-day payment system used by the man on the street. In this research, we show that cryptocurrencies have already made significant headway towards fulfilling the criteria for becoming a widely accepted method of payment.”

eToro, the brokerage firm that facilitated the research believes that bitcoin already exhibits all the important characteristics of money and all that is left is advocacy for mainstream use.

“The first ever bitcoin transaction took place a little over eight years ago, and today we are already seeing it begin to meet the requirements of everyday money. Given the speed of adoption, we believe that we could see Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on the high street within the decade. There are of course barriers to mainstream adoption, but they are far from insurmountable,” Iqbal Gandham, the managing director of EToro UK commented on the research.

Regulation Is the Final Step

Many experts agree that even though bitcoin has already evolved well enough to be considered as a standard means of performing transactions, regulation is the only thing holding it back. If bitcoin and other digital currencies are to become the medium of exchange we are all hoping they will become, then favorable regulations are more than necessary. This is particularly of grave importance since some governments have taken negative stances towards cryptocurrencies especially because they have been used to facilitate criminal activities in the past. With regulation, though, this should not be much of a problem.

Could It Be the End of the Cryptocurrency Era in India?

Posted on July 7, 2018July 7, 2018 by Aaron Decker

This year has not been particularly great for cryptocurrency users in India. This began about three months ago when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) made an announcement that it would no longer deal with or provide services to any business entities or individuals dealing with digital currencies. While some of the cryptocurrency exchanges in the country – like BTCXIndia – chose to comply with the RBI’s new regulations, a decent number of the remaining exchanges as well as the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) chose to file a petition regarding the decree at the Supreme Court.

Unfortunately, the petitions did not bear any fruit for the petitioners as, at the end of the hearing, the Supreme Court chose to back the RBI’s stance despite its flaws while at the same time declining to give the exchanges in interim relief. Many proponents of the crypto industry have pointed out that the apex court’s verdict indeed paints a bleak picture of the future of crypto in the country. This sentiment is further amplified by the fact the while the country is seemingly cracking down on the industry, its global counterparts “are currently observing the crypto space more closely and implementing better, more conducive regulation.”

Even though many disagree with the decision that was made by India’s Supreme Court, some stakeholders in the crypto industry still believe that they have a fighting chance – the general idea is that the stance is a temporary one. All the remaining petitions are scheduled to be heard on July 20 and hopefully, more conducive verdicts will be given then.

More Input from the Government May Be Necessary

The government of India has been quite enthusiastic about blockchain technology, the technology that digital currencies are based on, but the same cannot be said when it comes to where they stand as far as the actual digital currencies go. Now, it seems that one of the ways of securing the crypto industry in India would be to rally for clarity in government policy relating to cryptocurrencies.

“By laying a patchwork of laws without an overarching framework or policy, the crypto-industry today is in a uniquely uncomfortable position where it is taxed without being accorded legitimacy as an industry by the parliament. One would hope that the government attempts to take measures to accord legitimacy by legislation that attempts to balance its need for transparency, with the inherent anonymity associated with cryptocurrency trading,” Akash Karmakar, an expert from Veritas Legal said to Entrepreneur India.

Mr. Karmakar called for the government to formulate a policy that “could set out overarching principles accordingly giving legitimacy to the industry, rather than legislating for problems as they occur, and have the law trail the technology.”

There are many other options that cryptocurrency investors can use to trade but it is advisable not to panic yet. Perhaps all that is needed is for some patience as the industry recovers from this setback.

Facebook Reverses Ban on Some Cryptocurrency Advertisements

Posted on June 30, 2018June 30, 2018 by Abe Efe

Amid the bitcoin frenzy of January this year, social media giant Facebook Inc. made a decision to ban all cryptocurrency advertisements citing the concern that many of the companies in the crypto space at the time were not “operation in good faith.” Since then, it has been a considerably interesting time for Facebook as it struggles with coming to terms with the rapidly growing cryptocurrency market.

All things considered, while the ban may have been a genuine gesture of goodwill by the company to protect its users, the cryptocurrency space has proven time and time again that the potential it has as far as ad revenue goes is too significant to ignore. To this effect, Facebook made yet another big decision on Monday, June 26 when it announced that it was going to reverse the cryptocurrency ad ban immediately.

As expected, the period between the initial announcement of the ban on January and its eventual reversal on June 26 gave the social media platform a lot of time to review a great number of things the most important being how they would ensure that only legitimate crypto businesses get to market their products. Seen as more of caveats, the new ad policies says that the company will only allow advertisements and related content from “pre-approved advisers.” Ads promoting binary options and initial coin offerings (ICOs), on the other hand, will still remain on the not so favorable end of the company’s new crypto ad policy – they will not be allowed.

How It Is Going to Work

Facebook’s plans to only allow the so-called “pre-approved advisers” mentioned earlier by putting interested advertisers through an application that is tailored to determine whether or not they are eligible to advertise on the platform. As part of the application process, the advertisers will be asked to include the licenses they have obtained, whether they are public traded companies as well as other relevant background information regarding their businesses.

As the reversal of the crypto ad ban is still in its earlier stages, the company is yet to make it clear how thoroughly they will fact-check the information that will be provided by the advertisers. However, the company made it clear during the announcement that they would still be relying on users to pinpoint some of the content they do not allow. In essence, this implies that at least a few of the restricted crypto ads are going to make it through the screening process.

“We’ll listen to feedback, look at how well this policy works and continue to study this technology so that, if necessary, we can revise it over time,” Rob Leathern, Product Management Director wrote in Facebook’s announcement.

While many cryptocurrency users have lauded the development, the reversal of the crypto ad ban has also been subjected to some level of skepticism especially because the company has previously announced plans to venture into the cryptocurrency market.

“The reasons for Facebook reversing its decision to ban crypto ads are not clear, but the motivation could have something to do with its own strategy regarding the evolving crypto space. The cryptocurrency ecosystem is expanding rapidly and is growing its footprint in mainstream society, introducing new economic opportunities. We are also seeing regulatory authorities taking steps to provide security to the ecosystem that will, in turn, give strength to the global economy,” says Olyseum CEO, Carlos Grenoir.

Choosing a Crypto Bookmaker for the FIFA World Cup 2018

Posted on June 26, 2018June 25, 2018 by Aaron Decker

We are over a week into the 2018 FIFA World Cup that is currently taking place in Russia and being watched by an audience of more than 3 billion people from all corners of the globe. Like many other sporting events, the World Cup has also been a great opportunity for a little more excitement and side action in the form of sports betting which is enjoyed by a vast number of soccer fans.

Sports betting has been on the rise and even crypto has caught on to the trend. While betting on the previous World Cup was nearly unheard of, specifically because it was still at its infancy, this year’s World Cup is proof that crypto is here to stay – not just as an asset for gambling but also as a mainstream currency.

The debate about the viability of crypto aside, it is quite obvious that crypto sports betting has evolved tremendously in the past four years. As such, instead of worrying about the scarcity of crypto-powered bookmakers, this time around we will only need to stress (just a little) about finding the best one. So, how do you find one?

The Currency You Want to Deal in Matters

Bitcoin is still, without a doubt, the king (or queen) of digital currencies. However, we cannot ignore how important other altcoins are in the crypto ecosystem especially when it comes to betting. Bitcoin betting is still offered in most of the bookmakers but in sites like BetOnline, the punters can bet using Dash Litecoin and Ethereum while other like Bovada and Cloudbet accept bets in Bitcoin Cash. Whichever site you choose, just make sure it supports the digital currency you hold or wish to bet with.

Still, on the digital currencies, we all know how crazily the prices of cryptocurrencies fluctuate. Many gamblers, therefore, prefer to have their digital currencies converted to fiat currencies like the dollar, British Pound or euro once they are deposited. It is advisable to look for bookmakers like Bovada and Pinnacle that allow you to do this.

Go for the Best Promotions

Compared to the traditional online bookmakers, crypto-powered bookmakers usually have rather disappointing promotions especially when it comes to crypto-only sports betting platforms where the users can create multiple accounts. Fortunately, the World Cup has allowed for the creation of an exception – sites like CloudeBet and Nitrogen Sports are currently running World Cup free bet offers and promotions. You are certainly bound to come across more of such sites if you look hard enough.

In conclusion, there are a number of other things that you may need to consider before you settle on a specific crypto bookmaker – these include; how high the betting limits should be, withdrawal speeds and the legality of crypto gambling in your jurisdiction. All these are enough pointers to get you started on your way towards some exciting side action as you enjoy the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Two Major Russian Banks Piloting Bitcoin & Crypto Portfolios

Posted on June 19, 2018June 18, 2018 by Aaron Decker

According to June 15 Kommersant newspaper report, two of the largest banks in Russia are piloting cryptocurrency portfolios for their private clients and retail investors. The initiative that will be conducted under the watch if the Bank of Russia will involve the Alfa Bank and Sberbank, both of which will be offering the aforementioned private clients shares in a special fund that will be trading the six most popular digital currencies on some of the major cryptocurrency exchanges including Bitstamp and Kraken.

“We’d like to offer our clients an absolutely transparent way to invest in digital assets with a full compliance with regulations that will let them invest in the product they are interested in Russia,” Sberbank Private Banking deputy chair Ana Ivanchuk said.

Sberbank is the main state-owned bank, and thus, it is the Russian government’s primary employee paycheck processor. Alfa Bank, on the other hand, is the country’s largest private bank. Both plan to venture into cryptocurrency trading with the help of AddCapital investment fund, Group IB, and the National Settlement Depository. Add Capital is one of the entities that will be immensely helpful to the venture – the investment fund previously participated in the recent pre-sale of Telegram tokens and in this case, it will be in charge of the technical solutions for the banks’ project.

“Digital financial assets will sooner or later become a large part of the global economy and cannot be ignored. Our goal is to speed-up the recognition of the digital assets as legitimate financial assets as soon as possible,” the manager of Alfa Bank’s private banking branch, Anton Rakhmanov pointed out.

Among the six most popular cryptocurrencies that will be offered are Ethereum, bitcoin cash, Litecoin, and bitcoin. The remaining digital currencies will be confirmed at a later date. However, in a year or so, the combination of digital currencies will be revised and their proportions balanced by trading algorithms at least four times. These trading algorithms will be self-adapting depending on prevailing market situations.

According to AddCapital investment fund’s chief executive officer, Alexey Prokofyev, the investment process will allow investors to purchase a share of the fund. These shares are liquid and the clients can, therefore, send them for fiat currencies any time.

The custodian of this arrangement will be the National Settlement Depository, an entity which is part of the Moscow Exchange Group – the portfolio process will take about 45 days for testing but the specific dates for this are yet to be disclosed.

The degree of willingness that these two banks have shown is certainly bound to pilot cryptocurrency investments products to greater heights. We can now expect more and more institutional investors and financial institutions to venture into the cryptocurrency space.

Reserve Bank of India Admits That Crypto Ban Was Uninformed

Posted on June 16, 2018June 16, 2018 by Abe Efe

On April 5 this year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a controversial decree requiring all of the country’s regulated financial institutions to stop providing services to business dealing in crypto within a three month period. According to the bank, the move was formally meant to protect consumers and prevent money laundering – going forward, the bank would be forming a working group was going to be tasked with studying the feasibility of issuing a state-backed cryptocurrency.

As it turns out, evidence has surfaced pointing out that the RBI has not made any serious effort towards studying the principles, the nature and the usage of cryptocurrencies. Prior to the crypto ban, no internal committee had been formed to investigate the purported risks associated with crypto trading and, as such, the ban was not backed by a substantiated decision from experts.

Naturally, the decision to ban the cryptocurrencies did not sit well with Indian cryptocurrency traders and exchanges. While some of the cryptocurrency trading platforms have decided to shift their operations to other crypto-friendly jurisdictions, many others opted to challenge the ban in the Supreme Court.

“The foremost reason we are fighting is because we know that banning is next to impossible and it will make things worse for everyone – for the Reserve Bank, for the government, for the tax department, and for the user. In addition, it will push India back in reference to blockchain adoption across the world. We always have an option to relocate to another country to carry our business, but that’s not the solution. If we cannot convince our own government, we cannot expect other governments to support us,” said Mr. Kunal Barchha, the co-founder of Coinrecoil, an Indian-based digital asset trading platform.

The proponents of crypto India have based their argument on the fact that Central banks do not have the authority to restrict or bank regulated commercial banks from dealing with any industry unless the said industry is declared as completely illegal.

RBI Eyeing Its Own Cryptocurrency

The government of India has not yet declared cryptocurrencies as illegal, and this makes the case for the entire crypto industry in the country. Furthermore, the RBI has been reportedly considering the idea of launching its own cryptocurrency and this is a sign of a possible reversal of the crypto ban. If this is true, the bank and the government can certainly not ban cryptocurrencies simply because they also intend to move into the space.

According to Ripple’s Global head of infrastructure, Dilip Rao, the RBI’s plans to launch a digital currency will definitely reshape the country’s financial landscape in case it comes to pass.

“There is a great regulatory comfort with Ripple Net, particularly in the light of the Bank for International Settlements’ policy requiring central banks to have a backup for payment systems having non-similar technology,” Mr. Rao said in a June 15 report that was published in the Times of India.

Tag: Cryptocurrency