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Crypto Essentials, Fort Lauderdale, FL (2026)

07/29/2022

Deloitte polled a sample of 2,000 senior executives from the retail industry who represent a range of subsectors including cosmetics, electronics, fashion, transportation, food and beverage.

While digital currencies like Bitcoin are typically only as valuable as users believe them to be, a stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency that derives its value from an underlying asset. Stablecoins are often pegged to currencies such as the U.S. dollar or a commodity such as gold.

Although paying with cryptocurrency is fairly novel now, 83% of retailers expect consumer interest in digital currencies to increase over the next year and a little over half of them have invested over $1 million into enabling digital payments, according to the survey.

For consumers, that means you could soon buy clothes, drinks, beauty products and more with crypto.

Although retailers are planning to accept digital currency as payments, that doesn't mean they're necessarily planning to hold on to the virtual assets.

Just over 50% of respondents plan to have third-party payment processors convert digital currency into fiat, which is money that is established as legal tender by a government, like the U.S. dollar, the British pound and the euro. This means the retailers aren't planning to actually own the cryptocurrency that's used for payment.

07/28/2022

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02/15/2021

The Ontario Securities Commission has approved the launch of Purpose Bitcoin ETF, Toronto-based asset management company Purpose Investments Inc. said in a statement. The OSC confirmed the approval of the ETF in a separate statement to Reuters.

"The ETF will be the first in the world to invest directly in physically settled Bitcoin, not derivatives, allowing investors easy and efficient access to the emerging asset class of cryptocurrency," Purpose Investments said.

Investors have been able to trade bitcoin using futures contracts on the CME derivatives exchange. They can also buy closed-end investment funds, such as the Bitcoin Fund on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

An ETF could offer some advantages to investors, such as lower fees.

Bitcoin notched a record high of $48,975 on Friday. It has gained about 63% so far this year and soared roughly 1,130% since mid-March 2020.

Elon Musk's Tesla revealed on Monday it had bought $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency and would soon accept it as a form of payment for its cars, while the cryptocurrency has been gaining acceptance among mainstream financial firms.

In the United States, eight firms have tried without success since 2013 to create a bitcoin ETF, according to Todd Rosenbluth, director of ETF and mutual fund research at New York based CFRA.

Among issues the Securities and Exchange Commission appears to be focused on are the potential for market manipulation and the process of custody audits that verify that a fund holds its purported assets.

"While some expect that a Canadian ETF approval sets the stage for a near-term U.S. one, we expect the SEC under new leadership to take their time to review some of the new filings from VanEck and others," Rosenbluth said. (Reuters)

02/13/2021

Counterpoint Global, a unit of Morgan Stanley Investment Management that’s racked up wins in mutual-fund rankings, is exploring whether the cryptocurrency would be a suitable option for its investors, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Moving ahead with investments would require approval by the firm and regulators.

Morgan Stanley’s affirmation would put the heft of an almost-century-old marquee Wall Street name behind a volatile asset class that’s still struggling to win acceptance in much of the traditional financial industry. But a four-fold jump in four months has stoked customers’ interest, making the digital asset even harder to ignore.

After catching the attention of hedge fund moguls including Alan Howard and Paul Tudor Jones, cryptocurrencies have recently made headway with more mainstay firms such as Mastercard Inc. and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. Just this week, Tesla Inc, the leading maker of electric cars, also got behind Bitcoin with a $1.5 billion investment and plans to start accepting the cryptocurrency as payment.

A spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley declined to comment. The review could ultimately result in Morgan Stanley opting to stay away from Bitcoin. Previous rallies in the cryptocurrency have also attracted flurries of Wall Street interest only to fizzle.

Even institutional investors, barred by the rules of their funds from holding Bitcoin directly, have turned to such trusts. For Wall Street firms, an inability to offer Bitcoin to those clients raises the risk of losing them to other managers. That may spark fresh discussions in the industry about opening up to the asset. (Bloomberg)

02/13/2021

The announcement was made by the German bank through an article published by the World Economic Forum in December. The announcement didn’t get much coverage at the instant, tucked deep within the 38-page paper. Cryptocurrency news site CoinDesk just discovered it, disclosing that before businesses like Tesla came in, Deutsche was into cryptocurrencies.

Tokenized variants of conventional assets actually account for just $5 billion, as per the study. This demand might rise to about $24 trillion over the next decade, the bank forecasts. That will render cryptocurrency custody facilities as the more often searched services.

Deutsche Bank plans to build a vertically integrated custody network that offers smooth access to the wider crypto-currency environment for institutional clients and their crypto holdings.

Deutsche bank – Germany’s biggest – aims to create a secure link between virtual assets and conventional banking services. The platform will enable users on one site to control their cryptocurrencies and fiat holdings. It plans to include an institutional-level storage solution to ensure the security of digital assets.

In four steps, Deutsche will introduce the virtual currency custody network. First, it would provide retail buyers with custody of vetted digital properties. Family offices, wealth managers, streaming funds and business funds are among others.

The platform will allow customers to purchase and liquidate digital assets in the second process. To achieve the objective, the bank would work with the prime brokers, in addition to vetted exchanges. Value-added facilities such as fund management and lending, taxes, voting and staking would be provided by the bank in the third level. The platform will also have an open banking network to allow third-party service providers to be onboard. Finally, it will provide capabilities for trading and even issuance. (Nasdaq)

02/12/2021

The fund will be set up as a blind irrevocable trust, Dorsey said, adding that the duo won’t be giving any direction to the team.

₿trust is looking to hire three board members. The mission of the fund is to “make bitcoin the internet's currency,” a job application describes.

Government in India has so far been reluctant to embrace bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Friday’s move comes as New Delhi is inching closer to introducing a law that would ban private cryptocurrencies in the nation.

Africa, most especially Nigeria, on the other hand, has experienced a surge in cryptocurrency transactions in recent years. Last year, Nigerians traded more than $400 million worth of cryptocurrency on major local crypto exchanges, and the country is only second to the U.S. in terms of volume of bitcoin traded in the last five years.

Since then, there have been growing concerns that the Nigerian government had intentions to regulate cryptocurrency in the country. Last week, those doubts were actualized as the country's apex bank gave a directive to banks and financial institutions from dealing in cryptocurrency or facilitating payments for cryptocurrency exchange platforms.

Africans that trade cryptocurrencies rely on them because they offer protection against currency devaluation and for value exchange during cross-border transactions. In Nigeria, bitcoin trading became ubiquitous last year during the protests that rocked the country. When donations for the protests began to flow from all parts of the country and in the diaspora, the Nigerian government shut down the bank accounts used for this effort. But bitcoin became a lifeline keeping the crowdfunding activities alive.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Kenya said this week that it will use bitcoin as a reserve currency amid the Kenyan Shilling volatility against the dollar. Last year, the country was only second to Nigeria in bitcoin trading in Africa. Dorsey's plan is a follow-up on his visit to the continent in 2019 when amid meeting with key political and tech stakeholders, he made a startling reference to the continent's budding cryptocurrency usage. (Tech Crunch)

02/11/2021

Residents of the United Kingdom will be the first people outside of the U.S. who are able to use PayPal for buying and selling crypto.

According to journalist Carl Quintanilla, the payments platform is planning to expand its crypto offerings to the U.K. in the coming months. PayPal also plans to make crypto available for Venmo wallet holders before the end of Q2 2021. Other non-crypto services include expanding Venmo internationally before 2026 and a broader rollout of the app’s credit cards.

PayPal CEO Dan Schulman mentioned that the company would add crypto buying, selling, and custody features to "Venmo and select international markets" in 2021 during last week’s Q4 earnings call. However, it was unclear which market would be first for the rollout. Schulman said that the firm was “significantly investing” in its crypto, blockchain, and digital currencies arm after the launch of crypto services "exceeded expectations."

U.S. users have been able to purchase crypto directly through the PayPal app since November, when the company took a major step towards adoption of digital assets. Since that time, crypto trading volume on the platform has reached record highs, peaking at $242 million in transactions on Jan. 11.

The platform’s customers will also soon be able to use cryptocurrencies to shop at any of the 29 million merchants in its network before Q2 2021, according to Shulman in the most recent earnings call. The CEO said at the time that PayPal is actively working with regulators and central banks "to shape the future" of a post-physical cash world. (Cointelegraph)

02/11/2021

The custody bank said Thursday it will hold, transfer and issue bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on behalf of its asset-management clients. In time, BNY Mellon will allow those digital assets to pass through the same plumbing used by managers’ other, more traditional holdings—from Treasurys to technology stocks—using a platform that is now in prototype. The bank is already discussing plans with clients to bring their digital currencies into the fold.

“Digital assets are becoming part of the mainstream,” said Roman Regelman, chief executive of BNY Mellon’s asset-servicing and digital businesses.

It’s a big step for Wall Street’s back-office banks, whose concerns over regulatory, legal and stability risks left them reluctant to come into direct contact with crypto markets. But as prices of bitcoin and other digital assets have continued to rise, they have become more popular with asset managers, hedge funds and other institutional investors. (The Wall Street Journal)

02/11/2021

The company has not yet disclosed which digital currencies it intends to support, or where.

The details shed new light on CEO Michael Miebach’s Q4 pledge to integrate digital currency payments “directly on our network” in a move the new chief, helming his first earnings call on Jan. 28, said will provide maximal flexibility to customers and merchants alike.

Previously, Mastercard supported limited cryptocurrency transactions through its cryptocard partners Wirex and Uphold. But those programs only cover payment, not settlement; the coins are converted to fiat currency well before reaching the merchant.
The new initiative promises to upend that dynamic among the store owners and businesses who opt in. They will be able to conduct their business beyond the bounds of the fiat ecosystem, assuming, of course, their customers have crypto they’re willing to spend.

The payments space is rushing to support blockchain-based currencies at a pace not seen since Bitcoin pioneered the concept of stateless, peer-to-peer immutable transactions in 2009. PayPal intends to roll out bitcoin payment functionality later this year. Visa’s CEO said the rival company may add crypto payments in the future. (CoinDesk)

02/10/2021

“Every treasurer should be going to boards of directors and saying, 'Should we put a small portion of our cash in bitcoin?' It seems to be an interesting way to hedge against the rest of the environment," he said.

“I think it's an alternative to having cash position where you make absolutely nothing," Cramer said. The verdict on bitcoin: "Nice hedge against fiat currency."

Cramer has previously endorsed MicroStrategy's bitcoin treasury reserve. He called CEO Michael Saylor a "gunner" he wouldn't bet against during a mid-January episode of "Mad Money."

Cramer, who said he owns bitcoin, has previously advocated for the cryptocurrency as a hedging instrument. (CoinDesk)

02/09/2021

Responding to the matter, Blockfolio released a tweet apologizing for the incident while assuring users of the safety of their funds.

According to Blockfolio, the breach only affected the signal submitter protocols and not the actual trading environment.

The platform also promised to credit all trading feature-enabled users with $10 as well as others who sign up within the week.

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried also responded to the incident via his Twitter account stating that the company will perform a security review of Blockfolio’s non-trading protocols. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, FTX acquired Blockfolio for $150 million back in August 2020. According to Bankman-Fried:

“No members of the Blockfolio team wanted this to happen. But we are all responsible for our product and will be doing what we can to fix this. I'll also be donating to the ACLU today, as will a number of other staff members.”

The Blockfolio hack is yet another example of how non-deposit resources on crypto platforms are also being targeted by malicious hackers. Crypto exchanges and hardware wallet makers have seen breaches exposing sensitive user data in recent months.

Indeed, with the Ledger data breach, some affected users even received threats of physical harm after their phone numbers and home addresses were leaked online. (Cointelegraph)

02/09/2021

”The wallet initiative appears to be a clear multi-billion dollar opportunity for the firm (potential for well over $40 billion in annual revenue with limited R&D),” Steves wrote in a note to clients.

Companies like Square Inc. and PayPal Holdings Inc., along with closely held exchanges like Coinbase, have all validated the exchange model as a real business, he said, and Apple would immediately gain market share if it were to enter the industry. In addition, Apple’s ecosystem would offer improved security relative to the companies that would be its competitors.

Apple shares, up about 70% in the past year, closed up about 0.1% in Monday’s session. PayPal has climbed nearly 40% since it announced it would allow customers to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies directly from their PayPal accounts.

RBC’s comments come at a time when companies have been showing more interest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Notably, Tesla invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and indicated its interest in accepting the cryptocurrency as a form of payment Monday. That helped send Bitcoin prices up as much as 16%, cresting $44,000 and hitting a record. Tesla rose 1.3% on Monday.

While Apple’s biggest cryptocurrency opportunity would be in building an exchange, it could also consider adding Bitcoin or another digital currency to its balance sheet, RBC wrote. “This would send even more users to ‘Apple Exchange,’” Steves said, and would likely further boost Bitcoin prices.

Earlier on Monday, Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. said they weren’t in talks with Apple to develop an autonomous vehicle. While analysts have been optimistic about the prospect of Apple entering the automotive industry in some fashion, RBC was less effusive, writing that such a move was a higher-risk proposition than crypto. (Bloomberg)

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