Zug, Switzerland, 19th September, 2022, Chainwire
The GRN Association announced today that it has secured an investment totaling $50M for the GRNGrid project from GEM Digital Limited, a venture capital focused on digital currencies.
About GRNGrid
GRNGrid is an environmentally friendly, scalable, and stable Layer 1 blockchain, with novel DeFi features. On GRNGrid, users have the choice to only use nodes running exclusively on renewable energy for their transactions.
GRNGrid’s renewable energy partners, who specialize in data center and hosting facilities, have shown keen interest in running Grid’s nodes as validators. With their help, the company can kickstart the availability, speed, and sustainability of GRNGrid in Q2 2023. GRNGrid’s novel features as GRNPay and Exnode will also encourage developers and consumers to connect on GRNGrid.
GRNGrid is also introducing Proof-of-Stake V2 (PoS2). GRNGrid is the first blockchain with a consensus method specifically designed to tackle whales and achieve fairer distribution. This consensus method will deliver increased security, enhanced decentralization, and better financial sustainability.
GRN ($G) is the native token of GRNGrid. “G” will govern the blockchain by staking to validate and earn validation rewards. Consumers are able to provide liquidity to the inbuilt DEX called Exnode.
The GRN Association is a Swiss-based NPO (non-profit organization), — and protects the sustainable vision of GRNGrid, as well as providing funding to environmental projects. The association also handles the ReCharge program, which enables GRNGrid validators to repurpose their hardware and cut back on electronic waste.
The new funding from GEM will be invested in further connectivity with top crypto Exchanges, adding new global professional partnerships, and building out its blockchain technology and infrastructure.
Frederik Vyncke: “The GRN Association is confident that with the support of GEM investment and the community, it can bring GRN Grid to fruition and be setting the tone for a renewable blockchain with innovative features and create a sustainable development”
For more information, visit:
About GEM
GEM Digital Limited is a digital asset investment firm. Based in The Bahamas, the firm actively sources, structures, and invests in promising utility tokens listed on over 30 centralized and decentralized exchanges globally.
For more information, visit:
Contacts
Board Member
- John de Vroede
- GRN Association
- john.devroede@grngrid.com
Board Member
- Frederik Vyncke
- GRN Association
- Frederik.Vyncke@grngrid.com
Geneva, Switzerland, 19th September, 2022, Chainwire
TRON DAO and BitTorrent Chain (BTTC) are excited to announce Season 3 of the TRON Grand Hackathon 2022. This season is focused on expanding upon the success of Season 2, when we had over 1800 participants with over 200 projects. We intend on keeping that momentum moving forward.
In Season 3, we are increasing our overall prize pool from $1 million to $1.2 million. The same 4 tracks will be available for participants, and 2 new tracks will be introduced.
The returning tracks will have a total of 5 winners chosen by members of the TRON community as well as 5 winners chosen by the judges. There will be 5 winners for the Academy track along with 5 “honorable mention” winners. The Ecosystem track will feature 10 winners, 5 for creative based projects and another 5 for technical based projects.
Prizes for judge-voted winners across the DeFi, GameFi, NFT, and Web3 tracks:
- 1st Prize – $60,000
- 2nd Prize – $50,000
- 3rd Prize – $40,000
- 4th Prize – $30,000
- 5th Prize – $20,000
Prizes for community-voted winners across the DeFi, GameFi, NFT, and Web3 tracks:
- 1st Prize – $10,000
- 2nd Prize – $9,000
- 3rd Prize – $8,000
- 4th Prize – $7,000
- 5th Prize – $6,000
Prizes for Technical & Creative projects in the Ecosystem track:
- 1st Prize – $15,000
- 2nd Prize – $12,500
- 3rd Prize – $10,000
- 4th Prize – $7,500
- 5th Prize – $5,000
Prizes for judge-voted winners in the Academy track:
- 1st Prize – $15,000
- 2nd Prize – $10,000
- 3rd Prize – $9,000
- 4th Prize – $8,000
- 5th Prize – $7,000
The 5 “honorable mention” winners in the Academy track will each receive $5,000.
To learn more about community voting and the prizes surrounding it, make sure to visit the TRON DAO Forum.
We are excited to discover a multitude of innovative and diverse projects looking to positively influence the world with TRON.
About Tron DAO
TRON is dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet via blockchain technology and decentralized applications (dApps). Founded in September 2017 by H.E. Justin Sun, the TRON network has continued to deliver impressive achievements since MainNet launch in May 2018. July 2018 also marked the ecosystem integration of BitTorrent, a pioneer in decentralized Web3 services boasting over 100 million monthly active users. The TRON network has gained incredible traction in recent years.
As of August 2022, it has over 110 million total user accounts on the blockchain, more than 3.8 billion total transactions, and over $13.2 billion in total value locked (TVL), as reported on TRONSCAN. In addition, TRON hosts the largest circulating supply of USD Tether (USDT) stablecoin across the globe, overtaking USDT on Ethereum since April 2021. The TRON network completed full decentralization in December 2021 and is now a community-governed DAO.
Most recently, the over-collateralized decentralized stablecoin USDD was launched on the TRON blockchain, backed by the first-ever crypto reserve for the blockchain industry – TRON DAO Reserve, marking TRON’s official entry into decentralized stablecoins.
TRONNetwork | TRONDAO | Twitter | YouTube | Telegram | Discord | Reddit | GitHub | Medium | Forum
Contacts
- Feroz Lakhani
- Tron DAO
- press.hackathon@trondao.org
Chinese crypto billionaire Jihan Wu is expanding into the physical asset space.
Wu’s Bitdeer Technologies Holding Co. spent S$40 million ($28.4 million) buying Le Freeport, a maximum-security vault in Singapore, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because the transaction was private. Dubbed Asia’s Fort Knox, Wu acquired the repository for fine art, precious gems, and gold and silver bars, from shareholders led by Swiss art dealer and founder Yves Bouvier, the people said.
A representative for Bouvier declined to comment. Wu confirmed the transaction in a text message in response to queries from Bloomberg News. The purchase took place in July, according to records with the accounting regulator.
Wu’s acquisition ends years of Bouvier’s troubled attempts to sell Freeport which is located near Changi Airport. Wu is considered one of the most influential people in cryptocurrency markets, having co-founded the world’s largest miner Bitmain Technologies Ltd. Wu, who has long-term residency in Singapore, relinquished control of the Beijing-based company early last year.
‘Fully Committed’
The price Wu paid represents a sharp discount to the S$100 million it cost to build the facility. Freeport opened in 2010 to fanfare as part of Singapore’s push to lure luxury collectors, wealth managers and bullion-trading banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and UBS Group AG.
About three quarters of the total price went to creditors including DBS Group Holdings Ltd., according to one of the people. After repaying debt and costs, Bouvier, who held 70% of Freeport, got about S$5 million from the sale, together with other shareholders.
The new owners are “fully committed” to supporting the Freeport Group with a view to expanding and improving the facilities and services, according to a letter signed by Freeport’s Chief Executive Officer Lincoln Ng to reassure tenants that there would no disruptions.
Bitdeer is the sole shareholder of Straitdeer Pte., which in turn owns Asia Freeport Holdings Pte., the entity controlling Le Freeport, according to records with the accounting regulator. Asia Freeport reported a loss of S$14.3 million in 2018, based on the latest publicly available financial statement.
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Cryptocurrencies fell to fresh lows on Monday on regulatory concerns and as investors globally turned shy on risky assets with interest rate rises looming around the world.
Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency by market value, fell about 5% to a three-month low of $18,387.
Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency, dropped 3% to a two-month low of $1,285 and is down more than 10% in the last 24 hours. Most other smaller tokens were deeper in the red.
The Ethereum blockchain, which underpins the ether token, had a major upgrade over the weekend called the Merge that changes the way transactions are processed and cuts energy use.
The token’s value has fallen amid some speculation that remarks last week from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler implied the new structure could attract extra regulation. Trades around the upgrade also were unwound.
“It’s speculation as to what might or might not happen,” said Matthew Dibb, COO of Singapore crypto platform Stack Funds, on the regulatory outlook.
“A lot of the hype has come out of the markets since the Merge,” he said. “It’s really been a sell-the-news type of event,” he added, given the nervous global backdrop, and said ether could test $950 in coming months.
“Looking at the landscape right now, both fundamentally and technically, it’s not looking great. There’s no immediate bullish catalyst that we can see that’s going to prop up these markets and bring in a whole lot of new money and liquidity.”
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At 06:43 (UTC) on Sept. 15, 2022, Ethereum completed its merge at the block height of 15,537,393 and officially switched to the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. From then on, Ethereum bid farewell to the seven-year proof-of-work (PoW) mining era.
At the same time, Ethereum had officially hard forked from Ethereum, retaining the PoW consensus. As the network token ETHW of the Ethereum forked chain, it has been actively opened for deposit and trading by various mainstream trading platforms.
At 15:20 on Sept. 15, MEXC opened ETHW deposits, which is the first cryptocurrency trading platform on the entire network to open ETHW deposits. According to the calculation of the ETHW deposit, only 49 blocks are needed to complete the deposit process, which is currently the fastest account deposit speed among trading platforms.
According to CoinGecko data, the real-time price of ETHW is 13.01 Tether (USDT), and the 24-hour trading volume reached $74.05 million. Compared with mainstream trading platforms, the comprehensive indicators of MEXC, FTX and Bybit are among the top three from the perspective of trading volume, depth and price difference. From the trading page of ETHW on MEXC, the absolute value of the price difference between bid buy and ask price is only 0.002, which is the smallest, and the trading volume and depth indicators perform better.
In fact, MEXC is not only the fastest platform to open ETHW deposits within a single day but also the first to announce its support for the Ethereum 2.0 mainnet Merge and the first to list Ethereum’s potential forked chain tokens.
According to MEXC’s announcement, MEXC has been supporting the trading of the “potential forked token ETHW” as early as Aug. 5. Currently, the token can be exchanged for ETHW, the real Ethereum network token. At the same time, the real Ethereum network token ETHW obtained outside the trading platform can also be deposited on MEXC for trading purposes.
It is understood that MEXC is a world-leading user-friendly cryptocurrency trading platform, providing one-stop services for trading spot, leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs), perpetual futures, NFT Index, etc. With over 7 million users worldwide, MEXC is also the cryptocurrency trading platform that owns the fastest launch of popular projects on the entire network and the most abundant tradable categories.
Also, according to CoinGecko data, MEXC currently supports more than 1,500 cryptocurrencies for spot trading, more than 120 cryptocurrency futures trading and more than 300 cryptocurrencies for leveraged ETF trading.
Geneva, Switzerland, 19th September, 2022, Chainwire
H.E. Justin Sun, Founder of TRON, spoke about the Seamless Web3 Future at Binance Blockchain Week in Paris. Sun was the key speaker at one of the most anticipated panel discussions with Eowyn Chen, CEO of Trust Wallet, and Jorn Lambert, Chief Digital Officer of Mastercard. The panel discussed important topics such as Web3 and its universal definition, key tools, critical issues, safety concerns, and other pressing matters concerning the industry’s future.
The discussion on Web3 and its technical definition kicked off the conversation. All panelists agreed that Web3 was already here, but mainstream adoption of Web3 is what will lead to the creation of more use cases. While Chen and Lambert expressed interests similar to Sun, Chen expanded upon Sun’s future vision of what Web3 is and what it could become.
Sun expanded on key tools to help create a more seamless Web3 experience, such as digital wallets, revenue and reward tools, and more efficient logistics and supply chain operations. Sun proceeded to discuss the unique utility and tools that stablecoins can provide and how Trust Wallet, MasterCard, and TRON can work together on improving the user experience of payment protocols.
Chen elaborated on the glaring difference between Web2 and Web3 by using Apple Music as an example of how many barriers to transferability and ownership exist in the current marketplace. Lambert followed up by discussing how tooling in Web3 can help current Web2 businesses to scale more efficiently by conducting the right amount of UX research. User optimization is essential and must be done correctly for mass adoption to allow companies to scale.
Mass adoption was a consistent talking point, and the panelists had varying opinions. Sun’s main topics focused on education and creating digestible content for users. Your Web3 experience is similar to your “gaming experience,” this is critical when addressing “ways to help mainstream crypto adoption.”
Chen led her response with this statement and concluded that the best way to educate users is by utilizing social media and a proper UX needs to be established by product designers to make them frictionless. Lambert focused on how security is vital for mass adoption to occur so that users aren’t “looking over their shoulder” as they navigate the Web3 space. Sun later responded with how important it is to be wary of scammers that will come about and addressed the concept of protocols and major institutions to help fight against this by filtering out scammers and verifying real users by implementing Know-Your-Customer policies.
The panel also discussed the aspect of security and safety as an essential part of Web3, maybe even the most significant. Helping create a chain agnostic ecosystem can help bring vibrant projects with fewer barriers of entry for them to succeed, which offers more users that these projects can attract. Another key theme echoed was the importance of regulations.
Making sure governments regulate the crypto space properly can help speed up the growth of blockchain technology. To assure protection in an anonymous digital environment, users can utilize frictionless and easy-to-use payment protocols that won’t allow them to connect their crypto wallets on non-verifiable NFTs or marketplaces. Lambert continued the discussion on security by inspiring developers to find pragmatic solutions.
Sun alluded to UI/UX being important for protocols to adopt to continue with efforts toward creating a more secure ecosystem. Sun also conveyed the importance of adopting other infrastructure platforms like Etherscan to help validate transactions properly. Chen focuses on working with large layer-1 blockchains like Binance to help with creating proper compliance and by using Artificial Intelligence to audit smart contracts properly. She suggested a civil society political theory and believes blockchain ecosystems will similarly become more educated and “civilized” organically, allowing fewer scammers to be successful and much more infrastructure to be feasible.
Lastly, the panel members talked about the current situation with Web3 and what projects are leading the space. Sun brought up the diverse qualities that different types of projects can bring and led with finance-based protocols followed by DAOs, GameFi, NFTs, and educational platforms which have paved the way for the current landscape of Web3. Lambert mentioned that “commerce makes the world go round,” It is imperative to create verification protocols that allow safe and verifiable physical transfers from user to user.
Chen agreed with this concept and added that the industry must establish a specific level of trust for these transactions to occur. Sun agreed with the other panelists and added that institutions must hire the right people who understand the heart of this issue, establish this level of trust for users, and communicate educational content properly.
He finished on how the crypto community is becoming much more mature, and you can see that happening with how crypto users and fans are starting to dress a bit more professionally.
The panelists agree with pushing toward privacy, security, and more robust verification methods that will allow users to feel safe with their money and identity. Sun concluded his panel discussion on the exponential adoption of crypto due to its decentralization and utilization and how Web3 must continue to stay decentralized to reach its full potential.
About TRON DAO
TRON is dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet via blockchain technology and decentralized applications (dApps). Founded in September 2017 by H.E. Justin Sun, the TRON network has continued to deliver impressive achievements since MainNet launch in May 2018. July 2018 also marked the ecosystem integration of BitTorrent, a pioneer in decentralized Web3 services boasting over 100 million monthly active users. The TRON network has gained incredible traction in recent years. As of August 2022, it has over 111 million total user accounts on the blockchain, more than 3.8 billion total transactions, and over $13.2 billion in total value locked (TVL), as reported on TRONSCAN. In addition, TRON hosts the largest circulating supply of USD Tether (USDT) stablecoin across the globe, overtaking USDT on Ethereum since April 2021. The TRON network completed full decentralization in December 2021 and is now a community-governed DAO. Most recently, the over-collateralized decentralized stablecoin USDD was launched on the TRON blockchain, backed by the first-ever crypto reserve for the blockchain industry – TRON DAO Reserve, marking TRON’s official entry into decentralized stablecoins.
TRONNetwork | TRONDAO | Twitter | YouTube | Telegram | Discord | Reddit | GitHub | Medium | Forum
Contacts
- Feroz Lakhani
- press@tron.network
The author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, is back with more warnings about the U.S. economy and advice on where investors should put their money.
Rich Dad Poor Dad is a 1997 book co-authored by Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. It has been on the New York Times Best Seller List for over six years. More than 32 million copies of the book have been sold in over 51 languages across more than 109 countries.
On Friday, Kiyosaki tweeted that “savers are losers,” elaborating:
“Today, U.S. debt in 100s of trillions. REAL INFLATION is 16% not 7%. Fed raising interest rates will destroy U.S. economy. Savers will be biggest losers. Invest in REAL MONEY. Gold, silver & bitcoin.”
A number of economists, such as those at brokerage firm Nomura Securities, are predicting a 100 bps increase in the Fed’s benchmark short-term rate next week. Investment strategist Ed Yardeni told CNBC Friday that he believes the Fed is “going to come around and conclude that maybe just get it over with, maybe 100 basis points instead of 75 basis points. And then maybe one more hike after that.”
Some people, such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood, have warned that a major Fed rate hike risks deflation in the U.S. economy.
Kiyosaki has repeatedly warned that the biggest crash in world history is coming. In April, he said all markets are crashing. He has recommended gold, silver, and bitcoin before. However, recently he said gold is expensive, calling silver the best investment value today.
Last week, he urged his mailing list subscribers to get into cryptocurrency now, ahead of the biggest crash in world history.
The famous author has been advising investors to buy bitcoin for quite some time, stating for several months that he is waiting for the price of the crypto to bottom out before getting in.
After revealing that he was waiting for BTC to test $1,100, he said in July that he was in a cash position ready to buy the cryptocurrency. At the time of writing, bitcoin is trading at $20,103, down 6% over the past seven days and 14% over the last 30 days.
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Throughout seven years of operating on the market, Changelly has been well-known as an aggregator of centralized exchanges (CEX). The list of our CEX partners includes OKX, Kucoin, FTX, Huobi and many others. Such a variety of liquidity sources makes it possible for us to find the best offers among centralized exchanges and provide better rates to our users.
As so-called decentralized finance (DeFi) applications boomed in the summer of 2020, the market has pivoted toward a new direction. DeFi makes financial products and services available to everyone who has access to the internet.
Moreover, it helps eliminate third-party involvement in people’s businesses and private lives by creating fully secure and anonymous financial services. Next, DeFi empowers users to truly own their funds and utilize various tools to lend, borrow, stake, earn interest and more.
We are thrilled to announce that we are taking the first step toward introducing DeFi possibilities to our users with Changelly DeFi Swap powered by Yet Another DeFi.
Yet Another DeFi is a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator that encompasses all the advantages of DeFi and optimizes transaction costs. The Smart Router by YAD finds the best way for a swap among different liquidity providers and suggests the most beneficial split to proceed with the transaction.
What does this integration mean to our users?
- 1,000+ available tokens
- Best rates via DeFi
- Lower transaction costs compared to industry leaders.
At present, any user can swap various Ethereum-based assets with just a few clicks. However, many more chains will become available in the near future, including BNB Chain, Solana, Fantom, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Tron and others.
The Changelly team is committed to the goal of becoming the leading CEX and DEX aggregator on the market. We believe our seven-year experience of working with CEXs combined with limitless opportunities of DEXs will make it possible to provide even better rates and lower fees to our users. With the integration of DEXs, we get one step closer to enabling seamless anything-to-anything swaps, regardless of blockchain, wallet connector, etc.
Learn more about Changelly:
Changelly website: https://changelly.com/
Changelly DeFi Swap: https://changelly.com/decentralized-exchange
Changelly Twitter: https://twitter.com/Changelly_team
While NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have largely disappeared from mainstream media coverage in recent months amid the crypto market crash, many NFT projects are pressing ahead and fighting for their rightful place in the Web 3.0 ecosystem.
NFT trading volumes are a fraction of what they were – for example, trading on OpenSea plummeted 99% from May to August – but Music NFTs in particular nevertheless still have a promising future, as they are true collectibles and therefore have real value.
This contrasts to other NFT projects, such as the Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC), which are solely purchased as speculative investments and have little-to-no underlying value.
The Music NFT space is still in its infancy, but competition is already fierce, with a number of platforms and dedicated marketplaces being launched in the last two or so years.
With there being so many rival platforms for artists to release their NFT drops on, and collectors to scour in the hopes of finding a gem, it can be difficult to determine which is best.
So, we’ve ranked the three best and most exciting music NFT platforms, in no particular order…
Serenade
With offices in the UK and Australia, Serenade is at the forefront of the Music NFT space.
Serenade was founded by Australian tech entrepreneur Max Shand in mid-2020, and the project has collaborated with an impressive array of artists, including The Kooks and Super Furry Animals.
Earlier this year, they raised $4.2 million in a fundraise which Hugh Jackman and executives from the Warner Music Group participated in.
Their platform runs on Polygon – a Layer-2 Ethereum blockchain – which allows them to mint NFT collectibles using as little energy as possible. In fact, 197,000 Serenade NFTs would need to be minted to equal the carbon footprint of a single 12” vinyl, according to the company.
Shand, a music writer and venture capitalist, outlined how anyone can use their platform to buy “digital pressings” from their favourite singer or band.
“The sale of that digital pressing gives you a direct new revenue stream from fans and a relationship to your superfans that you can develop over time. It also allows artists to do things that have been either too expensive – such as a box set – or just not feasible,” he said.
At the moment, Serenade’s USP is they are the first chart-accredited NFT platform in the UK and Australia.
This means that NFT sales generated from their platform will count towards artists’ ranking on the charts – something that’s understandably very important to all artists, irrespective of what stage of their career they’re in.
TokenTraxx
Although a relative newcomer, TokenTraxx is coming in hot, moving from an MVP blockchain development in May this year, to a market-leading platform in just four months. This home of music-related digital collectibles has already surprised with innovative drops, which makes it a prime destination for discovery, buying and trading.
Headquartered in London and founded in 2021 by musicians, the all-star team of music and blockchain industry experts, including Miles Leonard, the renowned ex-Chairman of Parlophone Records and Warner Music and TommyD, the award-winning DJ and producer who’s worked with everyone from Kylie Minogue to Kanye West, is set to turn TokenTraxx into one of the loudest terminals in web3.
A look under the platform’s hood reveals a bigger agenda, one to financially benefit the entire music community by empowering it to choose and own the sound of a decentralised future.
Look out for the launch of Traxx Protocol, which will unveil web3 technology intentionally built for the music industry, creating a demand and supply asymmetry for third-party web2 and web3 properties.
By developing an entire ecosystem, TokenTraxx is emerging as the main stage for music in web3 – powered by TRAXX, already listed on both CEX and DEX platforms.
“I created TokenTraxx to unlock the true value of music for artists,” said TommyD.
“In a world where a streaming dominated music market has reduced the value of music to nothing, we are dedicated to shepherding the artist community into this new economy. We do this by applying a hands-on, white glove approach to artist campaigns and businesses. Our dedicated team of music industry professionals offer both insights, marketing & PR to create digital collectibles with real life value across the entire music ecosystem – from live gigs to merchandise to metaverse.”
TokenTraxx’s curator and collector-centric approach into the decentralised world of unleashed music is ready to uncover an infinite array of experiences for music consumers.
Async Art
Last but not least, we have Async Art. Founded in 2020 and based out of California, Async Art is another music NFT marketplace that is seeking to introduce the world to “21st Century Art”.
Like the other platforms mentioned in this article, Async Art allows artists to unlock another revenue stream by selling digital collectibles to their fans. On the other end, music-lovers can support their favourite artists – or up-and-coming singers or bands – by purchasing their NFTs.
While Async Art primarily caters to artists, it does also allow other, non-music NFTs to be minted. Furthermore, some NFTs minted on Async Art have even been sold at Christie’s, a leading British auction house founded in 1766.
At the moment, their platform doesn’t support fiat, so all NFTs must be purchased and traded using Ethereum, which may not be ideal for crypto novices. However, their support section has a step-by-step guide on how to buy some Ether and connect your wallet to their platform, so even fans who aren’t crypto-savvy won’t struggle to use this platform.
Overall, Async Art is a great music NFTs marketplace, with a great selection of collectibles and frequent new drops and collaborations, even during the recent bear market.
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It’s been a strenuous year for the crypto business. After hitting a high of more than $68,000 in November 2021, bitcoin has plunged to hover around $20,000.
But for long-term ETF investors, some experts advise to take crypto’s comedown in stride.
“If you’re going to do this right, then what’s been happening in the past nine months is totally irrelevant,” Ric Edelman, founder of Edelman Financial Services, told Bob Pisani on CNBC’s “ETF Edge” on Monday.
“If you’re investing for the next five to 10 years, this is just an ordinary blip in the marketplace, and you ignore it,” he added.
But with bitcoin coming off a nearly two-year low, the short-term temperaments are being met with a mix of positive and negative factors that are guiding where the crypto community goes from here.
“It’s a really dynamic moment in the market,” Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise Asset Management, told Pisani on Monday.
A massive technical upgrade in ethereum is a constructive force for the future of the world’s second-largest blockchain, Hougan said. A wave of institutional investors coming into the market, and an influx of venture capital activity are also forward-looking indicators for crypto’s future.
On the flipside, regulatory pressures from the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission are working against it.
“That’s creating this volatile market where crypto is going up and down and can’t quite figure out which way to go,” Hougan said. “And I think we’re probably stuck there, at least through September.”
Edelman explained that for institutional investors to engage with Wall Street firms, endowments and pension funds, regulatory and legislative rules need to be in place.
“The adults in the room recognize that regulation is a good thing,” Edelman said. “Right now, we have 1% engaging in crypto. You’re not going to get the other 99% until they have clarity on what the rules of the road are.
“We’re seeing new rules coming out from the Treasury, IRS, FINRA and from the Fed,” he said. “And from the SEC and CFTC. We’ve got over 50 bills in Congress right now. And all of this is very healthy.”
SEC Chair Gary Gensler has said the agency should have a major enforcement role in crypto, particularly for tokens. In a speech this month, Gensler sounded a warning signal to organizations he believes are violating existing securities laws, asking staff to possibly “fine-tune compliance for crypto security tokens and intermediaries.”
“I think there was a pretty direct threat against crypto trading venues – large-scale entities like Coinbase,” Hougan said. “They’re clearly on his horizon.”
In July, shares of the crypto firm tumbled after it was announced that it was facing an SEC probe into whether the platform offered unregistered securities.
“I’m happy to say it again and again: we are confident that our rigorous diligence process — a process the SEC has already reviewed — keeps securities off our platform,” said Coinbase’s chief legal officer Paul Grewal on Twitter.
Proposals for more SEC oversight of the crypto community are likely to be met with hostility from the community itself, although the agency has already taken steps to enforce its regulatory agenda.
In February, the SEC charged BlockFi Lending with failing to register the offer and sale of its retail crypto lending product. The firm agreed to settle the charges, paying a $50 million penalty and ceasing unregistered offers and sales of the lending product.
“A year from now, the large trading venues will be in the process of registering with the SEC,” Hougan said. “I think individual tokens, it’s a much longer term.”
Although the speculative assets have a challenging path forward, Edelman said the number of people who own cryptocurrencies continues to be a steadily rising figure.
“What’s interesting is that, despite the fact that [Coinbase is] down 70% from its high, the number of people who own it is unchanged,” he said. “Which means that those who wanted are not fazed by this.”
Beyond the crypto community, rates of adoption from large investment firms demonstrate that digital currencies are being embraced by Wall Street, Hougan said.
“Blackrock and Schwab coming in reinforces to everyday investor that bitcoin is not going away,” Hougan said. “I think that’s now been settled. It’s now how big is that future.”
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