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stablecoins

Enterprise Blockchain Platform for Real Estate, Ubitquity, Is Partnering LavaTrust to Streamline Closing Operations

Ubitquity LLC, an enterprise-grade blockchain-enabled platform for real estate and title recordkeeping, is teaming up with LavaTrust Consultancy in order to gain key insights into the US real estate closing sector.

Headquartered in Vancouver, BC, Canada, LavaTrust Consultancy aims to bring its industry expertise and valuable experience in the real estate markets (USA / Canada), as well as the global digital assets sector.

The founders at LavaTrust have reportedly been looking to streamline the real estate sector with the adoption of blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT). Now mainly focused on education and consultation, company CEO Joy Case is pleased to have some sort of alignment with Ubitquity, which is an established player in real estate applications for blockchain tech.

Having “vision” and “values” aligned with Ubitquity, LavaTrust aims to open up networks and key opportunities for both to participate in the restructuring of outdated technology and business processes with greater efficiency of DLT-based solutions.

Nathan Wosnack, Founder and CEO at Ubitquity, stated:

“Ubitquity and I are excited to be working with LavaTrust Consultancy. Ms. Case and her team bring a wealth of knowledge and years of experience in the real estate and digital marketplaces. Combining this with our blockchain applications will be mutually beneficial and make a long-term impact on the evolution of the real estate closing industry,”

Wosnack also mentioned that they benefit from leveraging LavaTrust Consultancy’s CEO Joy Case’s “trusted” network developed by taking advantage of 15 years of experience in the real estate sector (residential, commercial and development initiatives). He added that as LavaTrust has “strategic” relationships with Family Offices and various other investors, their potential for new collaborations has “expanded tremendously.”

Joy Case, CEO and Founder of LavaTrust Consultancy, remarked:

“I am excited and grateful to partner with Ubitquity to help galvanize blockchain adoption in the often antiquated processes within the real estate industry. Ubitquity has various blockchain-based products that can serve the industry with enhanced efficiency, increased security in the transaction process, less friction and increased agility in the closing lifecycle, parallel recordkeeping data storage, alternative revenue streams for its partners, future-proofed settlement solutions and so much more.”

Case also noted that with the emergence of more regulatory clarity in the US pertaining to stablecoins and banks now being permitted to custody crypto-assets, she sees Ubitquity offering an “autonomous” future-compatible settlement platform through its SmartEscrow offering to the future decentralized finance (DeFi) real estate industry.

She added that LavaTrust Consultancy is looking forward to working with Ubitquity so that they can keep innovating and offer “real value to the real estate closing industry together.”

Ubitquity has several Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) tools currently available on its “unanimity” platform, that it has integrated across key industries such as aviation and real estate for escrow and title closing support, title abstracting, digital, hybrid, and paper notary support, smart contract management, and secure document management.

Ubitquity can also help out with “regulatory-compliant” digital token sales, integration consulting, and various other services. The availability of each offering “depends on the regulatory body (SEC, FINMA) exemption chosen by its tokenization clients,” the company clarified.

In August 2020, Ubitquity had partnered with Washington-based Rainier Title, which aims to offer the “highest levels” of real property title and escrow services.

Through the partnership, Ubitquity will create a platform for issuing tokenized property titles and parallel records of conveyances for Rainier.

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USDT-settled futures contracts are gaining popularity, here’s why

When BitMEX launched its Bitcoin (BTC) perpetual futures market in 2016, it created a new paradigm for cryptocurrency traders. Although this was not the first platform to offer BTC-settled inverse swaps, BitMEX brought usability and liquidity to a broader audience of investors.

BitMEX contracts did not involve fiat or stablecoins and even though the reference price was calculated in USD all profits and losses were paid in BTC.

Fast forward to 2021, and the Tether (USDT) settled contracts have gained relevance. Using USDT-based contracts certainly makes it easier for retail investors to calculate their profit, loss and the required margin required but they also have disadvantages.

Why BTC-settled contracts are for more experienced traders

Binance coin-margined perpetual futures. Source: Binance

Binance offers coin-margined (BTC-settled) contracts and in this case, instead of relying on USDT margin, the buyer (long) and the seller (short) are required to deposit BTC as margin.

When trading coin-margined contracts there is no need to use stablecoins. Therefore, it has less collateral (margin) risk. Algorithmic-backed stablecoins have stabilization issues, while the fiat-backed ones run risks of seizures and government controls. Therefore, by exclusively depositing and redeeming BTC, a trader can bypass these risks.

On the negative side, whenever the price of BTC goes down, so does one’s collateral in USD terms. This impact happens because the contracts are priced in USD. Whenever a futures position is opened the quantity is always in contract quantity, either 1 contract = 1 USD at Bitmex and Deribit, or 1 contract = 100 USDat Binance, Huobi and OKEx.

This effect is known as non-linear inverse future returns and the buyer incurs more losses when BTC price collapses. The difference grows wider the further the reference price moves down from the initial position.

USDT-settled contracts are riskier but easier to manage

USDT-settled futures contracts are easier to manage because the returns are linear and unaffected by strong BTC price moves. For those willing to short the futures contracts, there is no need to buy BTC at any time, but there are costs involved to keep open positions.

This contract doesn’t need an active hedge to protect collateral (margin) exposure, thus it’s a better choice for retail traders.

It is worth noting that carrying long-term positions on any stablecoins has an embedded risk, which increases when third party custody services are used. This is one reason why stakers can obtain over 11% APY on stablecoin deposits.

Whether an investor measures returns in BTC or fiat also plays a massive part in this decision. Arbitrage desks and market makers tend to prefer USDT-settled contracts as their alternative investment is either staking or low-risk cash and carry trades.

On the other hand, cryptocurrency retail investors usually hold BTC or switch into altcoins aiming for higher returns than a fixed APY. Thus, by being the preferred instrument of professional traders, USDT-settled futures are gaining more traction.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

USDT-settled futures contracts are gaining popularity, here’s why

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Justin Mart, Ryan Yi from Coinbase take a Closer Look at Ethereum, DeFi Growth, Also Review OCC, FinCEN Developments

Digital asset exchange Coinbase recently published its Around the Block #11: “A snapshot of decentralized finance (DeFi) and two sides of the crypto regulatory spectrum” (report), which aims to cover important issues in the crypto and blockchain industry.

In this latest edition, released on February 3, 2021, Justin Mart and Ryan Yi take a close look at the current state of DeFi and the evolving digital currency regulatory space.

During the current crypto bull market, DeFi has “continued its strong rise,” the report confirmed. It pointed out that starting in the summer of last year, DeFi initiatives experienced dramatic growth in Total Value Locked or TVL (as tracked by DeFi Pulse and many other sites).

Coinbase’s report noted that DeFi’s meteoric rise is still “spurred” by the yield farming phenomenon. According to the US-based exchange, this includes “a virtuous cycle: Yield farming mechanics induce participants to add capital → which increases TVL → which drives governance token valuations → which increases yield farming subsidies → which continues the cycle.”

As stated in the report:

“Nevertheless, true zero-to-one innovations in DeFi cannot be discounted as part of the growth story. These are things like synthetic assets (e.g. Synthetix, UMA, and Mirror), increased capital efficiency in financial products (e.g. Aave, Compound), open financial access (including flash loans and emerging remittance use cases), and composable protocols that layer DeFi projects together like Yearn.”

Total Value Locked in DeFi protocols (TVL) currently stands at over $32B at the time of writing, a remarkable 2700% growth year-over-year. Meanwhile, the number of DeFi users has grown to exceed 1.2M, as “defined by the number of unique addresses accessing DeFi services,” the report revealed. It also noted that mainstream protocols such as Uniswap and Compound now claim around 200–500K users, with “most other DeFi apps between 25–50K users.”

DEX (or decentralized / non-custodial crypto exchange) volume has also maintained its steady growth since July 2020. Total DEX volume has “surpassed most centralized exchanges, topping $10B per day in January 2021,” the report confirmed. It also mentioned that volume has been “driven by growth in DeFi, but also tailwinds from broader crypto bull markets and sustained traction in categories where DEXs enjoy competitive advantages.” These include “access to the long-tail of novel DeFi tokens; and efficient swaps between highly correlated assets (e.g. stablecoins),” the report added.

But DEXs today settle trades on the Ethereum mainnet, and are subject to “oppressive” gas prices during periods of increased activity. This “drives continued interest in scaling solutions, with a notable milestone as Synthetix has launched on Optimism (a rollup-based scaling solution),” the report added.

The report further noted:

“DeFi is moving too quickly for any single person to keep track.”

But some major themes include:

  • DeFi projects are embracing composability: New DeFi projects “either introduce new primitives, or bundle existing primitives to create net new products.” Think of these primitives “as lego bricks, 6 months ago we were designing and building single bricks.” Today we are “combining these bricks into cars, planes, and castles.”
  • Composability is “extending into DeFi versions of partnerships: DeFi projects are wrestling with key questions around moats, defensibility, and top-line growth.” Most projects seem to “embrace open community collaboration, believing communities create moats (you cannot fork a community).” This exact vision “initially led to the governance token and yield farming phenomenon, and today is evolving into creative partnerships and collaborations, most notable in Sushiswap’s 2021 roadmap.”
  • Scalability is “becoming a bottleneck, but solutions are coming: As the base Ethereum chain struggles under scale, several protocols are openly exploring integrations with Layer-2 networks or other blockchains.” Look for “significant progress in 2021, especially in Ethereum rollups.”
  • Regulatory uncertainty impacts development: “In tandem, the SEC lawsuit against Ripple and CFTC lawsuit against BitMEX demonstrate that regulatory bodies are paying close attention to crypto, and not afraid to charge the largest players in the space.” It’s reasonable to “expect increased attention on DeFi based projects, and this uncertainty continues to impact feature development in regulated jurisdictions.”

During the last quarter, FinCEN and the OCC have introduced several crypto regulatory policies, the report from Coinbase noted. While both are under the purview of the US Treasury Department, the guidance appears to be on “the opposite ends of the spectrum toward crypto friendliness,” Coinbase claims.

They explained that FinCEN is responsible for ensuring that companies follow applicable KYC/AML regulations, which are really important for digital currency exchanges (or VASPs — virtual asset service providers) such as Gemini, Kraken, Coinbase, among others. Digital asset exchanges must verify their users’ identities (KYC) and use blockchain or DLT forensic tools to examine digital currency transactions to ensure deposits don’t come from illicit sources.

FinCEN has proposed an amendment to the Bank Secrecy Act’s FBAR regulations, which is specific to cryptocurrencies or VASPs. The new amendment will require US residents to report their cryptoc-asset holdings and transfers valued at more than $10,000 regardless of where these assets are being held.

The amendment could require US citizens to report crypto holdings in excess of $10,000 that are maintained in overseas accounts, and also require exchanges or digital wallets to store client details related to any transfer valued at more than $3,000, and also report these details to FinCEN for any transfers valued at over $10,000.

The public notice only had a 15-day comment period over the recent US holiday break, which made it quite challenging for VASPs to respond properly.

Many crypto firms (Coinbase, Fidelity, Square, CoinCenter, ErisX, among others) have issued strong responses which have noted that the suggested rules may create issues. These companies or organizations have also criticized the rushed nature of the proposal. Since then, the US Treasury decided to extend the comment period, but the future still “remains unclear given the new administration,” Coinbase claims.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), an independent bureau in the Treasury which is responsible for assisting with the “charter, regulation, and supervising banks,”  appears to have “come out on the other end of the spectrum with recent guidance,” Coinbase stated in its report.

  • Federal Banks are allowed to operate public blockchain infrastructure (January 2021]
  • Federal Banks are permitted to engage in stablecoins (September 2020)
  • Federal Banks are allowed to custody crypto-assets (July 2020)

Coinbase added:

“It’s clear that national banks may now participate in the crypto economy through custody and settlement. Notably, Jan 2021 guidance which legitimizes public blockchains as settlement infrastructure, placing blockchains on par with ACH or SWIFT. … federal banks can serve as large validators on blockchains (e.g. miners), or more practically, banks may ultimately settle transactions on Bitcoin, Ethereum, or through stablecoins.”

The exchange further noted:

“This is the first step in regulatory action required to bridge the crypto economy into traditional financial infrastructure. … while the OCC is the federal regulator, it is not the only regulator. There will be an interplay between the interpretation of this guidance from the state vs federal level.”

The report concluded:

“Separately, adoption will take time — blockchains are still relatively new and lack some core features (e.g. privacy, scalability), but this is a promising development. To their credit the Treasury has since extended the comment period, and the proposal potentially hangs in limbo with the incoming Biden administration.”

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Social trading platform eToro ended 2020 with $600M in revenue

Exchange platform eToro is coming off a stellar year of growth, as novice traders seek new pathways into the financial markets, including cryptocurrency. 

The online brokerage firm ended 2020 with gross revenue of $600 million, with total trading volume surging 40% to $1.5 trillion.

Describing his firm as a technology company and multi-regulated broker, CEO Yoni Assia said:

“The last few years have seen a rapid growth in eToro’s headcount reflecting both our global expansion and the growth of our product offering and client base.”

eToro has operated a successful social trading platform for a number of years, allowing novice traders to access forex, commodity and equity markets. In 2019, the platform expanded into digital assets by launching a crypto exchange and eight branded stablecoins.

The introduction of digital asset services is partly responsible for eToro’s rapid growth over the past year. Earlier this month, the exchange warned users that crypto trading may become limited because of “unprecedented demand.”

The warning came on the heels of Bitcoin (BTC) smashing new all-time highs near $42,000 and the broader cryptocurrency market hitting a $1 trillion valuation for the first time.

Assia said 2020 was a “big year for stocks,” but that 2021 has so far been “dominated by crypto headlines.” He claims crypto trading volumes at his firm are up more than 25 times compared with the same period last year.

eToroX, the company’s digital asset platform, reportedly generated $670 million in volume on Tuesday, according to CoinMarketCap. That puts it in the top 20 largest exchanges by volume.

According to Finance Magnates, eToro’s secondary market valuation has surged to over $2.5 billion, having more than tripled since 2018. 

Social trading platform eToro ended 2020 with $600M in revenue

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Bitcoin in jeopardy, Ether briefly breaks records, Biden takes action: Hodler’s Digest, Jan. 17–23

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top Stories This Week

Three reasons Bitcoin tumbled below $30,000 in a surprise overnight correction

Intensifying sell pressure saw Bitcoin briefly plummet below $29,000 for the first time since Jan. 5. The fall from $37,000, which happened within 48 hours, resulted in the biggest daily candle ever.

There have been some signs of institutional investors taking profit, as bulls attempt to cement $32,000 as a new support level. Analysts at QCP Capital are seeing signs of “institutional exhaustion,” and they warned the rally could be in danger if appetite for BTC slows down.

Of course, some institutions are indefatigable… with MicroStrategy “buying the dip” and snapping up 314 BTC at an average cost of $31,808 — a total spend of $10 million.

Bitcoin has lost 14% of its value over the past seven days. But over this period, many major altcoins haven’t been suffering sell-offs to the same extent. Ether is down just 2.6% on the week, Polkadot is actually up 1.5%, and XRP has fallen by 5.6%.

BTC/USD is in a corrective phase since the rally became overextended above $40,000. The question now is when this will end. If the $30,000 area doesn’t hold, a further drop to $24,000 becomes likely — resulting in a retrace of 40% since recent highs.

Guggenheim CIO expects Bitcoin to drop to $20,000

Just a month ago, Guggenheim’s Scott Minerd was anticipating that $400,000 was in sight for Bitcoin. How times have changed.

Speaking to CNBC, Guggenheim’s chief investment officer argued that BTC is now poised to drop to $20,000 — and Bitcoin is unlikely to climb any higher than $42,000 until 2022.

He said: “I think for the time being, we probably put in the top for Bitcoin for the next year or so.”

ETH finally beats its 2018 all-time high, surpassing $1,428

It’s been a long time coming. This week, ETH finally reached new all-time highs against the dollar — surpassing $1,428 on Bitstamp. Unfortunately, the major altcoin didn’t spend much time in uncharted territory — falling as low as $1,050 in the days that followed.

Are Ether bulls now in trouble? Well, the large drop after the ATH has been linked to how the Ether futures market was extremely overheated, with open interest on ETH hitting a record high of $1.8 billion.

At one point, Vitalik Buterin’s main wallet saw the ETH in his wallet amount to over $470 million. That’s a stark contrast to Jan. 2020, when his ETH fortune stood at just $58 million.

Strategists at Fundstrat Global Advisors believe that 2021 could be a year to remember for ETH. According to its researchers, the second-largest cryptocurrency could climb more than sevenfold to $10,500.

President Biden freezes FinCEN’s proposed crypto wallet regulations

Joe Biden wasted little time in getting to work following his inauguration on Jan. 20. One of the first actions the new president took on his first day in office was to freeze the federal regulatory process — and this is good news for the crypto community.

The freeze means that the controversial regulations surrounding self-hosted crypto wallets, proposed by former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, are now on ice for 60 days.

Compound Finance’s general counsel Jake Chervinsky lauded the move, declaring: “We fought hard & earned the right to take a breath & reset. Janet Yellen isn’t Steve Mnuchin. I’m optimistic.”

It’s fair to say that Yellen isn’t wild about Bitcoin, though. During her confirmation hearing with the Senate Finance Committee, she stated that cryptocurrencies are being used “mainly for illicit financing” — and that she wanted to “curtail” their use. She later clarified that she only wanted to clamp down on cryptocurrencies being used illegally.

The former chair of the Federal Reserve is now one step closer to earning the nomination after the Senate Finance Committee voted unanimously in her favor, paving the way for a full Senate vote.

Ripple pins hopes on Biden administration as co-founder sells 28.6 million XRP

As it readies itself to face a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, filed under Donald Trump’s administration, Ripple is hoping that Biden’s time in office will bring favorable changes in regulations.

Executives at the embattled company have predicted that Biden’s team will most likely “bring a renewed focus on regulation and enforcement in the crypto space.” The post said that fintech and blockchain players have been left “in a state of limbo” by the lack of a clear framework — and warned countries like the U.K. and Japan are “miles ahead.”

Ripple’s general counsel Stu Alderoty wrote: “Intelligent, well thought-out regulations communicated effectively and uniformly applied can help level the playing field and unleash innovation and further mainstream adoption here in the U.S.”

When Gary Gensler’s appointment as SEC chair was announced, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse tweeted: “Congrats to Gary Gensler! We’re ready to work with SEC leadership and the broader Biden administration to chart a path forward for blockchain and crypto innovation in the US.”

Is $1 billion a day in volume the “new normal” for Uniswap?

Uniswap is nearing an average of $1 billion a day in trading volumes during January.

It’s already surpassed the previous monthly trade volume record of $15.3 billion set in September during the DeFi boom.

Uniswap traders are spoiled for choice with 1,558 coins traded in more than 2,400 pairs, however, the majority tend to favor less risky trades. 

On one day this week, ETH pairings with stablecoins USD Coin, Tether and Dai made up 45% of the $1.1 billion traded.

Uniswap strategy lead Matteo Leibowitz has already declared that $1 billion volume a day is the new normal.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $32,300.43, Ether at $1,250.90 and XRP at $0.27. The total market cap is at $944,648,313,957.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Enjin Coin, Curve DAO Token and Decentraland. The top three altcoin losers of the week are IOST, Zcash and Dash.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis. 

Most Memorable Quotations

“I think for the time being, we probably put in the top for Bitcoin for the next year or so. And we’re likely to see a full retracement back toward the 20,000 level.”

Scott Minerd, Guggenheim CIO

“Only by widening the playing field and facilitating more participation will crypto reach and maintain a market cap of $2 trillion and beyond.”

Aite Group

“Ethereum will continue to see demand outstrip supply as global adoption continues.”

Danny Ryan, Ethereum Foundation researcher

“We fought hard & earned the right to take a breath & reset. Janet Yellen isn’t Steve Mnuchin. I’m optimistic.”

Jake Chervinsky, Compound Finance general counsel

“We’ve obviously seen the price of Bitcoin rise quite a bit; we’ve seen a lot of activity in the DeFi space, and I think all of these things will provide a nice framework against which a new chairman can take a fresh look at questions across the board in the crypto space.”

“Crypto Mom” Hester Peirce, SEC commissioner

“I’m honestly loving how well $ETH is holding up in this climate.”

Neko, cryptocurrency trader

“There is an increasing amount of trader doubt that #Bitcoin will revisit $40,000. But according to address activity and trade volume, the long-term trend still looks plenty healthy. Keep a close eye on whether $BTC’s usage rate stays propped up.”

Santiment

“Congrats to Gary Gensler! We’re ready to work with SEC leadership and the broader Biden administration to chart a path forward for blockchain and crypto innovation in the U.S.”

Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO

“Bitcoin is the best cryptocurrency suited for store of value. In terms of what the Bitcoin blockchain can currently handle from a latency and throughput point of view, Bitcoin is very strong.”

Konstantin Richter, Blockdaemon founder and CEO

“Grayscale were buying $251 million of #Bitcoin on avg per week in Q4 2020. Last week they did $700 million in one day… And today $590 million… Pay attention.”

Danny Scott, CoinCorner CEO

“The flow into the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust would likely need to sustain its US$100 million per day pace over the coming days and weeks for such a breakout to occur.”

JPMorgan

Prediction of the Week

Hedge fund predicts $115,000 Bitcoin price and the fall of “speculative” altcoins

New data from Pantera Capital this week suggested that Bitcoin’s current price action is closely following the stock-to-flow model’s trajectory.

The firm’s analysts believe BTC will have reached $115,212 by Aug. 1 and that its price will gain an average of more than $10,000 a month, hitting six figures in the early summer.

Pantera believes that a significant difference between this rally and 2017 is linked to the overall market composition and where value is located — with altcoins losing out.

Andy Yee, a public policy director for Visa in China, tweeted: “This rally is different. Massive shift from high-speculative, non-functioning tokens in 2017 to #Bitcoin and #Ethereum today.”

FUD of the Week 

More institutions will warm up to crypto once market cap hits $2 trillion, eToro says

Barriers are still hindering institutional adoption of crypto, a new report commissioned by eToro suggests.

Researchers at Aite Group said the crypto market could reach a $2-trillion market cap if more institutional players were to get on board amid more favorable conditions. These firms would be more likely to adopt crypto if there was less regulatory uncertainty, a developed market infrastructure, and less risk surrounding security.

Tomer Niv, head of business development at eToro, said: “Only by widening the playing field and facilitating more participation will crypto reach and maintain a market cap of $2 trillion and beyond.”

The report also warned that “technical complexity” is an issue that needs to be addressed, with Niv adding: “More needs to be done from a market infrastructure point of view to make this group of investors feel comfortable joining the crypto ecosystem.”

83% of cryptocurrencies that peaked in 2018 are still down by 90%

More than 80% of crypto assets that hit all-time highs in January 2018 are still down by at least 90%, according to data from Messari.

The data set included 410 assets that posted record prices during 2017 or later, with 2018’s 157 star coins performing the worst with an average of -90.71% since the previous ATH. 

2017’s top cryptos have since crashed by 82% on average, while 2019’s crop is down 72%, and 2020’s standouts have shed 53%.

CMT Digital analyst Matt Casto, who spotted the data, tweeted: “Holding assets that hit high marks +3 years ago is proving to be a massive lost opportunity cost for deploying capital.”

Armed robbers steal $450,000 from Hong Kong crypto trader

A manhunt is underway after robbers posing as crypto buyers stole $450,000 from a woman in Hong Kong.

One member of the gang completed multiple transactions with the victim to win their trust, and an investigation has uncovered there were three previous deals ranging between $77,000 and $90,000.

On the day of the robbery, the other members of the gang rushed to the scene as soon as their colleague received the Tether tokens in exchange for the $450,000 payment.

Armed with knives, they proceeded to lock the woman in the office where the deal took place but not before snatching her iPhone and the cash.

According to The South China Morning Post, the woman was able to use her second phone to inform her husband, who contacted the police. Detectives said that the woman’s uncle, who chaperoned her to the meeting place, reportedly saw four men fleeing the scene.

Luckily, the woman was unhurt in the attack, unlike other victims who have suffered physical injuries and even death at the hands of bandits looking to steal cryptocurrencies.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Believing, not seeing: Institutions still predict $100,000 Bitcoin price

Even though Bitcoin has struggled to reclaim its recent high of $42,000, Shiraz Jagati says projections of BTC reaching $100,000 still seem achievable to some.

Access denied: Banks seem prone to cryptophobia despite growing adoption

Banks in many countries continue to either outrightly deny or limit their services to crypto exchanges.

Bitcoin as a last resort? Murmurs of crypto as a reserve currency abound

Could Bitcoin fulfill the key functions of a reserve currency? Andrew Singer talks to experts as he aims to find out whether BTC can find a new and unexpected role for itself.

Bitcoin in jeopardy, Ether briefly breaks records, Biden takes action: Hodler’s Digest, Jan. 17–23

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