securities

May 06 2021

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Prediction: BTC/USD Is Stuck between $53,000 and $58,000 as Bears and Bulls Continue Unending Price Tussles

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Prediction – May 7, 2021
Since May 1, BTC/USD upward moves have been restricted below $58,000 high. Bitcoin now fluctuates between $53,000 and $58,000 price levels. Bitcoin bulls have retested the $58,000 resistance level on four occasions but unable to break it. BTC price is now falling after the last rejection.

Resistance Levels: $65,000, $70,000, $75,000
Support Levels: $50,000, $45,000, $40,000

BTC price is falling on the downside after rejection from the $58,000 resistance zone. Yesterday, the king coin dropped to $55,500 support and pulled back to retest the $57,000 high before resuming the downward move. Selling pressure will persist if price breaks below the moving averages. The market will fall and revisit the previous low at $53,000. On the other hand, if price falls and finds support above the moving averages, the uptrend will resume. The downtrend becomes necessary because buyers fail to break the $58,000 resistance. A breakout at the $58,000 resistance will propel price to reclaim the $58,000 support. The bullish momentum will extend to the $60,000 psychological price level. In essence, the resumption of upside momentum begins when the BTC price is above the $58,000 support. Today, the market has declined to $55,896 and there are indications of a further downward move.

Largest Latin American eCommerce Platform, Mercado Libre, Adds $7.8m Bitcoin to Its Treasury
Mercado Libre is the largest e-commerce platform in Latin America. The purchase makes the eCommerce platform the 36th publicly-traded company to add Bitcoin to its balance sheet. The Argentinean Company is the first large Latin American company to acquire Bitcoin for its treasury. The company has joined other firms such as MicroStrategy and Tesla, which have holdings of BTC within their assets. The platform has announced to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it has acquired $7.8 million in BTC in the first quarter of 2021.

BTC price has resumed a downward move after its rejection at $58,000 resistance. The selling pressure may continue on the downside as the coin faces further rejections. Meanwhile, on May 6 downtrend; a retraced candle body tested the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level. This retracement implies that the selling pressure will continue to level 1.618 Fibonacci extension or the low of $53,455.20.

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Prediction: BTC/USD Is Stuck between $53,000 and $58,000 as Bears and Bulls Continue Unending Price Tussles

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Apr 28 2021

KingsCrowd, a Ratings and Analytics Firm for Private Securities Market, Releases New Regulation CF Report

KingsCrowd, the online private market’s data-driven ratings and analytics platform, announced on Tuesday (April 27, 2021) the publication and availability of the KingsCrowd Regulation Crowdfunding 2018-2020 Intelligence Report.

The KingsCrowd Regulation Crowdfunding 2018-2020 Intelligence Report reportedly covers more than 150 Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) market statistics, key insights, and analytics. These items are presented in an “easy-to-read” visual format. Readers get an extensive overview of the Reg CF market as of last year, along with a preview of what is set to be a “record-shattering” 2021, according to a release.

In 2020, startups secured over $210 million via equity crowdfunding. This total represents year-over-year growth of about 110% from 2019’s total funding and notably marks the fourth year early-stage firms have been able to acquire investment capital from the public under the JOBS Act’s Regulation Crowdfunding rules.

KingsCrowd Founder and CEO Chris Lustrino, stated:

“The release of this first edition of our Regulation Crowdfunding Intelligence Report couldn’t come at a better time. On March 15, the U.S. Securities and Exchange increased the maximum raise amount under Regulation Crowdfunding rules from $1.07 million to $5 million. This marks a watershed moment for our industry and makes Regulation Crowdfunding a viable alternative to traditional venture capital and. KingsCrowd’s Regulation Crowdfunding 2018-2020 Intelligence Report was written for anyone interested in the Reg CF market and looking to update themselves on this fast-growing space quickly.”

A few takeaways from the report:

For the year 2020, “more than $210 million was invested in Reg CF raise campaigns.”
The average valuation of companies raising funds in 2020 “was $11.35 million, a 24% increase from 2018’s average valuation and up slightly from 2019’s $11.19 million figure.”
Second half 2020 data “shows 291 out of 964 start-up companies raised capital exhibited mixed-gender founding teams while 27% of all entities that raised funds through Reg CF included minority founders.”

KingsCrowd says that it’s at the “intersection between early-stage companies seeking growth capital and startup investors.” By offering “institutional-grade” data and analysis that stakeholders can “trust,” KingsCrowd allows anyone to “invest like a venture capitalist.”

KingsCrowd’s Merlin™ Ratings Platform analyzes over 150 data points to offer key insights, analytics, and ratings “to help investors navigate the startup investing market and vet the best deals worth adding to their investment portfolio.”

In late January 2021, Wefunder, a leading securities crowdfunding platform, highlighted Q4 performance in the Reg CF crowdfunding sector. According to the numbers generated by Kingscrowd, Wefunder dominated this sector of online capital formation.

Now crowdfunding encompasses other exemptions, including Reg A+ and Reg D (506c). Each of these exemptions is unique in its own way (Reg D is only available for accredited investors, for example), and many platforms offer securities under all three exemptions, including Wefunder but the bulk of the platform’s securities offerings are from issuers raising capital under Reg CF.

The numbers show Wefunder topping its nearest competitor under Reg CF by almost $10 million:

Wefunder – $29 million
StartEngine – $19.8 million
Republic – $9.9 million
All others – $12.6 million

As covered in March 2020, KingsCrowd closed on a $1 million crowdfunding round on the NetCapital marketplace. NetCapital lists private securities under both Reg CF and Reg D. The KingsCrowd offering leveraged both exemptions in a side-by-side offering. KingsCrowd said it raised $902,952 under Reg CF and $97,048.80 under Reg D 506 (c). 555,556 units were sold. Kingscrowd is a ValueSetters, Inc. (OTC:VSTR) portfolio company.

You may download a copy of the KingsCrowd’s Regulation Crowdfunding 2018-2020 Intelligence Report here.

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Apr 20 2021

Binance Recruits Former OCC Head As CEO Of US Subsidiary

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance has reportedly hired Brian Brooks as its new Chief Executive Officer of its subsidiary in the US, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Brooks To Take The Helm Of Binance.US

Brooks, who was the former Acting Comptroller of the Currency, will be taking the reins of Binance.US come May 1st. He is set to replace present CEO Catherine Coley, who joined from digital payments company Ripple Labs.

Brooks previously led the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) between May 2020 and Jan. 2021 in the Trump administration. During that period, he was able to provide crypto-friendly regulations around cryptocurrencies.

He remarkably released guidance directing national banks and credit unions to provide cryptocurrency custodial services to customers and use stablecoins to facilitate payment activities. He was previously in charge of the legal arm of recently listed crypto exchange Coinbase before taking up the position in the OCC after being nominated by former US President Donald Trump.

Brooks is famously called on social media the “CryptoComptroller” and the July 2020 directive on crypto custodial services was hailed by crypto enthusiasts as a win for the industry. Following his departure in early 2021, Brooks served on the board of data-sharing startup Spring Labs.

He was also instrumental in the conditional approval of the first federal bank charter given to Anchorage, a crypto-native company. The federal regulator subsequently issued the institutional digital asset platform a trust charter.

Crypto Still Marginalized

The crypto industry has been through a lot in the past two years, given the infamous volatility narrative surrounding it. Alongside have been issues bordering on criminals using it to circumvent regulatory guidelines. This shortcoming and more have seen financial experts call for strict control on the nascent industry.

One of the most vocal critics being Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. But the one not much talked about is Jay Clayton, who infamously submitted a lawsuit against blockchain firm Ripple Labs on the eve of his departure as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman.

Even though the impact of the lawsuit has seen XRP lose a significant part of its market share to crypto payment rivals, the embattled digital token has rallied significantly in the past weeks, all thanks to little victories in the opening sessions of the case.

XRP hodlers famously began a social media campaign demanding that US crypto exchanges should relist XRP tokens. The hashtag #RelistXRP trended for two straight days and spread across much of Europe and the Americas.

Several industry experts have called into question the SEC’s decision in building a case against the Silicon Valley firm and have noted that the regulatory agency took too long to present its “unregulated security sales” claim.

Joseph Hall, former SEC Commissioner and a legal attorney with white-glove law firm Davis Polk said that the SEC’s case is flawed as XRP is more or less like

Bitcoin and Ethereum. The two largest cryptocurrencies were declared as commodities by the Commodity Futures Trade Commission (CFTC).

He also noted that XRP is undeniably innocent in the charges brought against it.

Binance Recruits Former OCC Head As CEO Of US Subsidiary

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Apr 18 2021

ASIC calls for closer engagement, but crypto industry says rules are unclear

The Australia Securities and Investments Commission, or ASIC, is urging local blockchain and crypto firms to engage with regulators to help them foster innovation in the region.

Speaking at the Australia Blockchain conference on Monday, April 19, senior advisor of strategic intelligence at ASIC, Jonathan Hatch, emphasized the regulator is trying to build trust and collaborate with the crypto economy.

Panelist Kevin Saunders, the CIO of Monochrome Asset Management, stated that while the blockchain sector could do more to understand the ASIC regulatory framework, the commission needs to provide greater clarity as to the industry’s compliance obligations.

Saunders took aim at the opacity of existing regulations, characterizing the industry’s oversight as “too ephemeral for large institutions to engage with it”.

Commenting on the challenges in the sector, National Blockchain Roadmap Lead, Chloe White, agreed that it is challenging for industry stakeholders to keep up with the current regulatory environment.

CEO of digital financial agreements firm Lygon 1B, Justin Amos, added that regulators need to collaborate to support new technologies, rather than seek to stifle emerging industries with heavy-handed regulation.

The Australian government has already been supportive of blockchain projects, having made two grants of up to $3 million available to blockchain teams targeting minerals certification and excise taxation solutions in late March.

In November 2020, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced partnerships with the Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, financial services company Perpetual, and Ethereum software firm ConsenSys to explore the potential use of a wholesale central bank digital currency.

In January 2021, Cointelegraph predicted that Australia would be one of the first five nations to launch a CBDC due to its favorable blockchain environment.

ASIC calls for closer engagement, but crypto industry says rules are unclear

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Apr 14 2021

You can already invest in hundreds of ETFs with exposure to Bitcoin

Numerous U.S.-traded exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, are loading up on shares in the world’s top crypto firms.

According to ETF.com, hundreds of funds have invested in publicly-listed companies that are holding BTC on their balance sheets. As of this writing 88 ETFs hold MicroStrategy shares, while 144 ETFs hold Square, and 222 ETFs hold Tesla. Sixteen ETFs have direct exposure to Bitcoin mining stocks.

Almost 200 ETFs hold shares in BlackRock, which recently profited $360,457 after starting to “dabble a bit” in crypto.

Top-performing ETFs with crypto exposure

Nine funds are exposed to both crypto mining stocks and firms with BTC on their balance sheets.

As a share of its overall portfolio, the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK) has the greatest exposure to crypto. Seven of BLOK’s top 10 allocations are in leading crypto firms, including Galaxy Digital, Marathon Digital, Voyager Digital, Hut 8 Mining, Hive Blockchain, Riot Blockchain, and Argo Blockchain. These stocks represent one-third of BLOK’s capital.

The fund describes its investments as targeting “transformational data sharing technologies.”

BLOK is among the top-performing ETFs of 2021 so far, gaining 71.7% since the start of the year. So far in 2021 it’s recorded the eighth-highest returns among all ETFs — and it ranks second if you exclude leveraged and inverse products. Among ETFs, BLOK is the single-largest hodler of both MicroStrategy and Marathon’s stock.

The Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF (BLCN) is the only other crypto-exposed ETF that ranks among the top 100 ETFs by YTD performance when excluding inverse and leveraged funds, coming in at 82nd with a YTD gain of 23.15%.

BLCN currently holds $5.63 million worth of Marathon stock, $5.4m in Microstrategy, and $5.24 million in Square.

Largest holders by total value of assets

When measured by total value of assets, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) is the ETF with the heaviest allocations to crypto-exposed firms. The VTI currently represents $2.77 billion worth of Tesla, $478 million of Square, $29.4 million of Microstrategy, and $11.38 million of Riot Blockchain. VTI also owns $516 million worth of Blackwater.

The iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF (ITOT) is the second-largest fund by overall exposure to crypto, holding $450 million worth of Tesla, $4.4 million of Microstrategy, $3.86 million of Marathon, and $3.12 million in Riot.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is yet to issue a verdict on seven applications for Bitcoin ETFs, including Fidelity Investments, Skybridge Capital, WisdomTree, Morgan Stanley and NYDIG, VanEck, and Valkyrie Digital Assets.

The Purpose Bitcoin ETF began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange in mid-February, and has accumulated roughly $1 billion worth of BTC since inception. Canada’s Ninepoint Partners and CI have also announced plans to convert their Bitcoin funds into ETFs.

You can already invest in hundreds of ETFs with exposure to Bitcoin

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