​​Bitcoin Moves Towards USD 16,000, Altcoins Pick Up Pace

Bitcoin bulls gained strength after there was a clear break above the USD 15,000 resistance. As a result, BTC gained over 10% and it surged above USD 15,500. The price traded to a new multi-month high close to USD 15,950 and it is currently (06:00 UTC) correcting gains below USD 15,750.

After consolidating in a range, most major altcoins started a strong increase, including ethereum, XRP, litecoin, EOS, XLM, LINK, BNB, TRX, bitcoin cash, and ADA. ETH/USD gained more than 5% and it cleared the USD 425 resistance level. XRP/USD also gained bullish momentum and it broke the USD 0.245 and USD 0.250 resistance levels.

Bitcoin price

After a follow-through move above USD 14,500, bitcoin price rallied by more than USD 1,200. BTC broke many hurdles near USD 15,000 and USD 15,500. It traded close to the USD 16,000 resistance level and recently started a downside correction. There was a break below USD 15,750 level and the price is now consolidating near USD 15,500.

An initial support on the downside is near the USD 15,350 level. The main support is now forming near the USD 15,050 and USD 15,000 levels. On the upside, the USD 15,750 level is an immediate hurdle, above which the bulls might aim a break above USD 16,000.

Ethereum price

Ethereum price finally started following bitcoin price rally and it broke the USD 425 resistance. ETH even cleared the USD 435 resistance and spiked above the USD 440 level. The price is currently correcting lower, but dips might remain limited below USD 420.

If there is a fresh increase, the USD 435 and USD 440 resistance levels might act as hurdles. A clear break above USD 440 may perhaps push the price above USD 450 and USD 452.

Bitcoin cash, chainlink and XRP price

Bitcoin cash price is up 3% and it surpassed the USD 245 and USD 250 resistance levels. BCH is approaching the USD 255 resistance, above which it could aim a test of the USD 265 resistance. Any further gains could lead the price towards the USD 280 level. On the downside, the price might find bids near the USD 240 level.

Chainlink (LINK) formed a strong support base near USD 9.80 and USD 10.00. As a result, there was a fresh increase above the USD 10.50 resistance level. The bulls had an upper hand and they managed to clear the USD 11.00 resistance. The price is now trading above USD 11.00 and it seems like there are chances of a move towards USD 12.00.

XRP price spiked above the USD 0.245 resistance level to move into a positive zone. The price even climbed above USD 0.250, but it is struggling to gain pace above the USD 0.252 and USD 0.254 levels. The main resistance is near USD 0.255. If there is a downside correction, the USD 0.245 level is a decent support zone.

Other altcoins market today

In the past few hours, many altcoins rallied over 10%, including UNI, MANA, AAVE, SNX, CVT, RSR, CEL, XEM, GNT, SNT, ZRX, KNC, THETA, EWT, and LTC. Out of these, UNI gained over 25%.

Overall, bitcoin price is trading in a strong uptrend above USD 15,000 and USD 15,350. There could be range moves or even a downside correction, but the current price action suggests more possible gains in BTC in the near term.

​​More Japanese Pro Gamers Agree to Receive Salaries in XRP

Japanese securities giant and Ripple partner SBI has recruited four more pro gamers to its SBI eSports roster – with three teams so far all agreeing to receive their salaries in the XRP token.

Per an official release, the latest batch of recruits is a four-member Apex Legends team. Apex Legends is a free-to-play battle royale-style game developed by American gaming giant EA.

And all four recruits have signed deals that will see them compensated for their turnouts for SBI eSports in XRP, rather than fiat yen.

SBI eSports was launched earlier this year, and appears to be part of a wider strategy to drive up interest in crypto among younger Japanese people. From the outset, SBI announced its intention to pay players in crypto when possible.

The eSports franchise’s main sponsor is SBI’s crypto exchange, SBI VC Trade – and players will wear SBI VC Trade insignia during competitive league and cup matches.

The four new recruits were named as HaRu, P1NKI, Wasuo and Leila – the latter of whom claimed to be a “long-term crypto owner” who is “happy to be involved” with a team that pays players in tokens, rather than JPY.

SBI eSports announced that “The annual salary for the four players will be paid in XRP in accordance with the wishes of each individual and the terms of our sponsorship contract with SBI VC Trade.”

SBI has previously unveiled Super Smash Bros and FIFA teams – and last month announced that all member of both of these units would also be accepting their salaries in XRP.

SBI’s CEO Yoshitaka Kitao is a member of the Ripple board.

At the time of writing (15:57 UTC, November 6), XRP trades at USD 0.257 and is up by almost 5% in a day. The price is also up by 3.4% in a month, trimming its losses over the past 12 months to less than 12%.

​​Ex-Microsoft Engineer Convicted In Landmark Case Involving Bitcoin Tax Fraud

In what is presented as the first US criminal case involving bitcoin (BTC) that has a tax component, a software engineer was sentenced to nine years of prison for 18 federal felonies related to his scheme to defraud software giant Microsoft, his former employer, of more than USD 10m.

The convict used a bitcoin mixing service with the aim to hide the source of the funds ultimately passing into his bank account, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.

The sentence was issued by a US District Court in Seattle after a jury convicted Volodymyr Kvashuk, a 26-year-old Ukrainian citizen who first worked as a contractor at Microsoft and then was the company's employee from August 2016 until he was fired in June 2018. Kvashuk was found guilty of “five counts of wire fraud, six counts of money laundering, two counts of aggravated identity theft, two counts of filing false tax returns, and one count each of mail fraud, access device fraud, and access to a protected computer in furtherance of fraud,” the statement said.

The software engineer was involved in the testing of Microsoft’s online retail sales platform, and used his access to steal currency stored value (CSV) such as digital gift cards. He then resold the CSV online, transferring USD 2.8m worth of BTC to his bank and investment accounts over a period of seven months.

“Kvashuk then filed fake tax return forms, claiming the bitcoin had been a gift from a relative,” according to the DoJ.

Among others, the convict used the proceeds from his criminal activities to buy a USD 160,000 Tesla vehicle, and a USD 1.6m lakefront house.

Commenting on the cryptocurrency tax-related dimension of the case, Ryan L. Korner, a special agent at the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations branch who was in charge of the case, said that the “sentencing proves you cannot steal money via the Internet and think that Bitcoin is going to hide your criminal behaviors. Our complex team of cybercrimes experts with the assistance of IRS-CI’s Cyber Crimes Unit will hunt you down and hold you accountable for your wrongdoings.”

Response to Ray Dalio: Banning Bitcoin Is a 'Game of Whack-a-Mole'

Following a statement by Ray Dalio, American billionaire investor, founder of major global investment firm Bridgewater Associates, that governments would outlaw bitcoin (BTC) should it get too big, multiple responses came out from the Cryptoverse on why this is impossible, or at the very least, highly unlikely.

If bitcoin becomes "material, the governments won't allow it, I mean they'll outlaw it," said Dalio in a November 7 interview with Yahoo Finance. "They'll use whatever teeth they have to enforce that." The governments would forbid people to transact in bitcoin, putting people in a position where such a transaction might be a felony, argued the investor.

Meanwhile, according to Parker Lewis, Head of Business Development at Unchained Capital, "bitcoin cannot be banned" - it would be "a fool's errand" that would set a global, "hopeless game of whack-a-mole." He stated that it is irrational to believe that all the people in the world who adopted bitcoin for financial freedom and sovereignty would simply accept the "ultimate infringement" of the most basic freedoms it's designed to provide and preserve.

Furthermore, "setting aside the constitutional issues, it would be technically infeasible to enforce a ban of bitcoin in any meaningful way." Lewis argued that,

"The idea that somehow bitcoin can be banned by governments is the final stage of grief, right before acceptance. The consequence of the statement is an admission that bitcoin "works." In fact, it posits that bitcoin works so well that it will threaten the incumbent government-run monopolies on money in which case governments will regulate it out of existence to eliminate the threat."

Following the interview, numerous other counterarguments came from the Cryptoverse, stating that the idea behind Dalio's statement is overestimated, unreasonable, even impossible, and that banning it might actually lead to its accelerated adoption.

One such commenter is Moon Capital, finding that the threat of governments banning BTC "is HIGHLY overestimated" and "NOT possible or even reasonable," adding that governments have been unsuccessful at banning even those things that exist physically.

Per their comments, a person who presents such an argument has already conceded that BTC is the world's most valuable monetary good, and understand that BTC will become valuable to such an extent that the governments will find it threatening. Furthermore, as Dalio mentioned the US banning private gold ownership in the 1930s, Moon Capital argued it's because the USD was redeemable for a fixed amount of gold and "they needed to break the peg to expand credit (to stimulate)," while today it's not pegged to gold, certainly not to BTC, so "they can stimulate as much as they want."

Popular generalist investor Lyn Alden, who's also an advisor to Swan Bitcoin, a BTC investing app, seems to agree, saying that it was difficult to enforce the gold ban in the first place, and though "governments can ban exchanges and make it illegal to own BTC, which would drive out institutional money and put bitcoin into the black market" - the problem is that large investors and companies already own it. These include Paul Tudor Jones, MicroStrategy, and Square, as does former US congresswoman now elected to the Senate, Cynthia Lummis. Others, like Fidelity and PayPal, are now heavily involved too. And as its capitalization and institutions' exposure to it grows, BTC will only become harder to ban, said Alden.

"Bitcoin was already an unusual asset that grew into the semi-mainstream from the bottom up, through retail adoption. Once the political donor class owns it as well, which they increasingly do, the game is basically over for banning it. Trying to ban it would be an attack on the balance sheets of corporations, funds, banks, and investors that own it, and would not be popular among millions of voters that own it," she argued.

​​Bitcoin Cash Faces Increased Selling Pressure Ahead of Hard Fork

With the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) hard fork fast-approaching, BCH inflows to exchanges reached their highest point in eight months, and it appears that more market participants want to sell than buy the coin, according to the data provided by blockchain analysis company Chainalysis.

Another hard fork is coming to Bitcoin Cash on November 15, 2020, following a series of disagreements and tensions related to the project's future and the proposed changes in the underlying code.

According to Chainalysis' Market Intel, BCH inflows to exchanges in the last day hit BCH 271,220 (USD 70m), which is the highest level they reached in the last 244 days, or since mid-March. They came relatively near to this number in early September with a jump to BCH 258,528, which coincided with a sharp selloff in the whole market that week. This number also surpasses the 7-day average of BCH 163,674 and 180-day average of nearly BCH 80,000.

Inflows to exchanges fluctuate with changes in market sentiment and "an increase in inflows suggests increased selling pressure in the market," according to Chainalysis.

Furthermore, those assets that are held on exchanges increase if more market participants want to sell the coin than to buy it, as well as if buyers choose to store their assets on exchanges, said Chainalysis.

The change in BCH held on exchanges in the last day is BCH 70,320, down nearly 28%. Nonetheless, this is still above the 180-day average of some BCH 10,500.

Market Intel also offers a look into the BCH trade intensity. This metric compares the value of order book trades to exchange inflows, and if there is an increase in trade intensity, that "suggests more market participants want to buy than to sell." In BCH's case specifically, the median trade intensity in the last day is 10.23, below the 180-day average of 27.4, or the 7-day average of 15.28.

At the time of writing (14:24 UTC), BCH, ranked 6th by market capitalization, trades at USD 257 and is down by almost 1% in day and is unchanged in a week and a month. The price is down by almost 9% in a year.

​​Bitcoin Rally Supported by More Busy Miners and Lower Fees

As bitcoin (BTC) rallied, with the trading volume rising as well, the transaction fees moved in the opposite direction as miners turned more of their machines on.

Bitcoin has made quite a move upwards since the beginning of November, with analysts predicting further volatility, but also appreciation in this month. The world's number one coin surpassed the USD 16,000 level for the first time since January 2018 just yesterday, and today jumped above USD 16,400 before correcting lower.

At the same time, the trading volume has been rising. At the time of writing, on November 13, Coinpaprika shows BTC 1,552,121 changing hands so far, worth around USD 25n. This is already up from yesterday's BTC 1.52m, as well as 31% more from the BTC 1.18 seen three days ago - which was the lowest amount recorded this week so far. In comparison, the highest number seen last week was BTC 1.87m, and the lowest was BTC 1.2m.

Meanwhile, the fees have been dropping in the last ten days. After jumping to USD 11.99 on November 3, the 7-day moving average fees dropped 41% to USD 7 recorded yesterday. This is still a lot higher than USD 2.18 recorded before the latest jump in fees.

The median transaction fees show a similar picture, dropping 56.6% between November 3 and November 12. Their USD 2.9 is still higher than USD 1.17 seen in mid-October.

BTC mempool, where all the valid transactions wait to be confirmed, is also less busy compared to October.

That said, hashrate, or the computational power of the Bitcoin network, shows something of an inverted fee picture: after dropping substantially in late October, it started climbing again on November 2. It's gone up 17.7% between then and November 12 to 127.36 EH/s. It's still a lower than the all-time high of 147.21 recorded in mid-October.

Bitcoin mining difficulty, or the measure of how hard it is to compete for mining rewards, is expected to drop again during the next adjustment in three days, following the second-largest drop in the network's history.

​​New Bitcoin Narrative Targets Multitrillion Bond Market

Major Australian investment fund Pendal Group considers that government bonds could become a "dead asset class" as they continue to lose their relevance in portfolios due to trillion-dollar quantitative easing programs run by central banks, pushing investors towards bitcoin (BTC).

“We think ultimately that government bonds will turn into a dead asset class, so we now have to imagine what it will be like for other assets classes when bonds are no longer relevant to hold in a portfolio,” Vimal Gor, Head of Bond, Income and Defensive Strategies, told the Australian Financial Review. According to him, as bond yields are going to "stay low for a very long time," investors are looking for alternatives and "commodities and cryptocurrencies have a part to play in the answer."

However, Gor said that bitcoin is superior to gold as a social contract and store of wealth because its easier to transact, there are flat running costs, and BTC has a finite and decreasing supply.

"We have been positioning in gold for our clients for many many years now. Now we're doing it with bitcoin," he said, adding that many of their high-net-worth clients and wholesale investors are asking about BTC. In either case, according to Gor, the fiat currency system will collapse but evolve.


As of August 2020, the overall size of the global bond markets in terms of USD equivalent notional outstanding, is approximately USD 128.3tn, according to estimates by the International Capital Market Association.

As reported, last week, Rick Rieder, BlackRock's Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income said that BTC is "much more functional" than gold and the most popular cryptocurrency could replace the yellow metal. At the end of last year, BlackRock had USD 7.4 trillion in assets under management.

With some AUD 101.4bn (USD 74bn) in funds under management as of end 2019, Pendal Group says it is one of Australia’s largest investment managers. The company is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Su Zhu, CEO of crypto investment fund Three Arrows Capital, commented on the Pendal’s approach by stating that “if pensions begin divesting from the zero/negative yielding global sovereign bond market to buy BTC that would be a veritable deluge of capital”.

Meanwhile, Michael Saylor, CEO and Founder of business intelligence firm MicroStrategy, expects BTC and other cryptocurrencies to strengthen its position of a “better store of value” for the USD 300 trillion that are currently “trapped & rapidly depreciating in bonds, stocks, real estate, cash, & gold”.

At pixel time (10:38 UTC), BTC trades at USD 18,726 and is up by 3% in a day and 15% in a week. The price rallied by 44% in a month and 159% in a year.

​​South Korea’s Banking Giant to Co-create ‘Crypto Bank’ for Exchanges

South Korean banks are rapidly stepping up their crypto game, with Kookmin (KB), one of the biggest commercial banks in the country, co-creating a “digital asset management company” with a number of the nation’s leading blockchain players that will safeguard the bitcoin (BTC) holdings of corporate customers such as crypto exchanges.

KB appears exceptionally keen to roll out crypto custody-related services for institutional investors before its nearest banking rivals, with some functionality becoming available as of next month.

Per CNews, KB has made a “strategic investment” of an undisclosed amount in a new firm called Korea Digital Asset (KODA), along with blockchain accelerator Hashed and fellow blockchain investor and developer Haechi Labs – both of whom have also invested undisclosed sums in the new company.

KODA will roll out a beta service for corporate customers starting next month.

An official from Kookmin Bank said that they plan to start with handling the digital assets of corporate customers including crypto exchanges.

Hashed CEO Kim Seojoon told,

“KB is the largest bank in Korea. I’m sure [this deal] has tones of meaning for the industry.”

And KODA will also evolve new layers of functionality in the future, with the firm’s architects claiming that it would also function as a sort of trading platform for enterprises – a B2B “digital assets bank” for crypto, initially only compatible with bitcoin, but with ethereum (ETH) handling capacities set to be added in the near future.

KODA added that it plans to provide a wide range of services such as cryptoasset trusts, anti-money laundering (AML) solutions, tax and legal compliance tools and over-the-counter (OTC) services for corporations and institutions – such as exchanges – who deal with digital assets.

​​The USD 4.2bn Question: Has China ‘Dumped’ PlusToken Bitcoin, Ethereum & Co?

Crypto community members are wondering what has become of a huge stash of crypto worth a combined USD 4.2bn seized by the Chinese authorities who closed down the PlusToken crypto scam earlier this year – with some asking if the funds were already “dumped” onto the market months ago, and others suggesting the state may still be holding onto the funds.

Per a court report issued yesterday and posted online by The Block, the authorities claimed they had seized the following from seven of the scam’s masterminds in their raids:

Bitcoin: BTC 194,775 (USD 3.297bn)
Ethereum: ETH 833,083 (USD 425m)
Litecoin: LTC 1.4m (USD 95m)
EOS: EOS 27.6 million (USD 79m)
Dash: DASH 74,167 (USD 6.7m)
XRP: XRP 487m (USD 263m)
Dogecoin: DOGE 6bn (USD 19m)
Bitcoin Cash: BCH 79,581 (USD 21m)
Tether: USDT 213,724 (USD 214,217)

And internet-based Twitter sleuths believe that the tokens have indeed been sold, although mystery still surrounds exactly how, where and when Chinese authorities have managed to do so considering crypto exchanges have been outlawed in Mainland China since September 2017.

The Chinese police completed an 18-month international hunt for the scam operators earlier this year, and began sentencing convicted ringleaders back in September.

But some Twitter-based observers have stated that they believe the tokens were sold (or “dumped”, as one said) earlier in the year – with one opining that the news was possibly “stale“ by “six or more months.”

An analyst named @ErgoBTC claimed to have traced the sales back to the Huobi platform, going back as far as 2019, with a Twitter user opining that this was simply a case of the Chinese government “putting a bow on the saga.”

Another yet claimed that this was simply another demonstration that China’s policy on crypto is crystal clear: Beijing will continue to crack down hard on tokens unless it retains an iron grip over them. These thoughts echo the sentiments of a prominent Japanese China observer, who also claimed China was pursuing a centralized approach to digital finance.

But the possibility of a major state – particularly a superpower – becoming a major player in the crypto markets appears to have given some pause for thought.

​​US Regulations Key To Ripple’s Relocation Decision As Customers Worried About XRP

As the California-based major blockchain company continues to mull an initial public offering (IPO), Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the US regulatory framework is out of step with a number of markets such as the UK, Singapore and Japan. This lack of regulatory clarity and certainty for investors is a key factor hampering the company’s development in the US and the recruitment of new customers, he said in an interview with CNN.

“We have been big advocates of a bill that was introduced in the Congress called the DCEA, or the Digital Commodity Exchange Act … which could be a very important step in providing that clarity and certainty here in the US,” Garlinghouse said.

The CEO was making reference to earlier statements suggesting his firm was considering to leave the US, and some of the potential destinations to which the company could move include countries in Asia and Europe.

According to Garlinghouse, the lack of a clear regulatory framework in the US was impacting on the company’s talks with numerous customers who were hesitating whether to join its network because of country-specific reasons.

“Often times when I’m speaking with customers and we’re talking to them about our product that uses XRP in the payments flows, they will ask me about the regulatory dynamics, and they will [say] … look, until there’s clarity in the regulatory frameworks, we’re going to hold off,” the CEO said. “Now, that has not been the case because of the clarity and certainty in countries like… the UK, or the UAE, or Switzerland.”

Given that 95% of Ripple’s customers are based outside the US, the company said “one of the dynamics causing this is we have US companies who are waiting for clarity” in particular from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.


Commenting on its potential IPO, Ripple’s CEO said the company has “not been public about what our plans are with the exception that I’ve said there will be public crypto companies. I originally predicted we’d see them in the year 2020” but “the pandemic affected a lot of things, slowed down things a bit”.

At pixel time (10:36 UTC), XRP trades at USD 0.627 and is up by 1% in a day and 19% in a week. The price rallied by 169% in a month and 192% in a year.

​​Bitcoin, Blockchain: Most Americans Don’t Know the Difference – Survey

Blockchain and crypto awareness in the United States is highest among the young, per a new survey. But few people know the difference between the two terms, and many think Bitcoin (BTC) and blockchain are one and the same thing, despite the fact that BTC and altcoins are now grabbing headlines in the mainstream media.

The report’s authors wrote,

“In the general population, only 25% of American adults have any idea what blockchain is, but this rises to 42% in the age 18-34 demographic.”

However, the authors noted that of the adults who said they recognized the term blockchain, “most don’t understand it,” with a staggering 62% “stating that “blockchain is the same as cryptocurrency” and almost half of the same group believing that “blockchain is the same as bitcoin.”

Well, they're not far from each other as blockchain is used by Bitcoin, which itself is a network, protocol, and the most popular cryptocurrency.

In either case, adoption appears to be on the rise, regardless of how knowledgeable (or not) the American public is about these emerging forms of technology.

The authors noted,

“Only 18% of United States adults say they’ve used a product or service related to blockchain, but this rises to 25% among the 18-34 demographic.”

And 63% of gamers responded that they would be keen to spend more on game-related cryptoassets and blockchain if they saw “virtual goods had real-world value, and could be traded or sold.”

Furthermore, more than a third of the total sample and almost 50% of the 18-34 year age group said their trust in blockchain was “strong or complete.”

Meanwhile, at the time of writing (14:40 UTC), BTC trades at USD 18,952 and is down by 1.4% in a day and 1% in a week. The price rallied by 24% in a month and 151% in a year.

BTC, ETH Slide Lower Despite Insurers’ USD 100m Bitcoin Buy & Ether ETF

The crypto community has been buoyed as – despite sliding bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) prices – two major breakthroughs were reached for both tokens.

At pixel time (09:03 UTC), BTC trades at USD 17,883 and is down by 3% in a day and 8% in a week, while ETH is down by almost 4% to USD 545. Its price declined by 11% in a week.

Last night, the news broke that America’s Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance (also known as MassMutual) has purchased USD 100m worth of bitcoin to add to its general investment fund – on the same day as the world’s first-ever ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) made its market debut in Canada.

Per Bloomberg, Mass Muttual’s holdings are now 0.04% held in BTC, but the firm also moved to also snap up a USD 5m minority equity stake in NYDIG, a Stone Ridge-run subsidiary firm that provides crypto services to institutional investors.


Meanwhile, across the border, The Ether Fund, an ETH-backed offering organized by crypto investment management firm 3iQ finally listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, after raising some USD 76.5m prior to listing.

Although the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) announced that there had been a hiccup with a temporary halt prior to the start of trading.

But after around two hours, trading did eventually resume, reaching a high of 11.48 dollars per share – with 345,331 shares traded on its first official day on the market.

The ETH backing the token is being held by the Gemini Exchange’s crypto custody subsidiary, Gemini Custody. Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss wrote on Twitter,

“Huge news for Ethereans. […]To the moon!”

Reacting to the bitcoin news, journalist Laura Shin took to Twitter to state that the development was “a big deal” as the company “isn’t and hasn’t been an advocate for bitcoin.” She added that the move “seems like a sober, non-ideological move” on MassMutual’s part.

Another observer said that the move was a “woke” measure, pointing out that it was telling that MassMutual was “an insurance company whose only job has been to manage risk for 170 years” had decided to take such a bold bitcoin plunge.

A redditor, meanwhile, wrote that investments of this kind were one very rare, but “it seems new large investors are entering on a daily basis now.”

And one more optimistic pundit claimed that with BTC and ETH experiencing so many “watershed moments” it was only a matter of time before “Amazon, Apple and/or some other behemoth is going to get involved in bitcoin.”

“The big boys are putting their funds into bitcoin as a hedge against being called Neanderthals who missed the crypto boat. And let’s not forget that they all have millennial kids or grandkids rooting them on," Tania Modic, the managing member of Western Investments Capital LLC, her investment family office, told Bloomberg.

​​Exchanges Send More USD 1M Bitcoin Transfers as Investors Look For a Hedge

In 2020, exchanges have reportedly been sending 19% more bitcoin (BTC) transfers worth USD 1m or more, as investors are looking for a hedge against inflation and devaluation.

BTC has been rallying recently, even hitting a series of all-time highs before correcting downwards. The market is actually being driven by North American institutional investors, according to Philip Gradwell, the chief economist at blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, as cited by Bloomberg. The largest investors come from the region, he said, while North American exchanges are getting net inflows BTC from other areas in the world as well.

"And the investors have been large — exchanges are sending 19% more transfers worth USD 1 million or more this year while bitcoin’s price has been above USD 10,000 compared with 2017 when it was trading above those levels," the article cited Gradwell.

Major companies, such as software company MicroStrategy and payments company Square, have already invested in the world's number one crypto, as did some well-known individuals like hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones.


As another, the most recent example of an investor looking for a hedge, UK-based Ruffer Investment Company allocated 2.5% of it Ruffer Multi-Strategies Fund to bitcoin, worth some USD 15m. "This is primarily a defensive move, one made in November after reducing the company's exposure to gold," said an update to shareholders. "We see this as a small but potent insurance policy against the continuing devaluation of the world's major currencies."


These are examples of companies that are "laying out the groundwork for how you add bitcoin to your balance sheet, how you should think about bitcoin as a substitute for cash," Seth Ginns, a managing partner at investment firm CoinFund, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying. Ginns also claimed that there is "a lot" of interest from hedge funds in BTC, and that a broader institutional adoption trend is likely to continue in 2021.

Crypto market analysis firm Coin Metrics also noted that, though avoiding bitcoin as a risky asset, many institutions endorsed it in 2020. Many find that the reason behind it is "the growing narrative that bitcoin could serve as a good hedge against inflation," particularly in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the combination of rising fiscal deficits and quantitative easing pushing "federal banks to their limits" and creating "conditions that could lead to a significant inflation rate rise."

On the other hand, bitcoin's "predictable and transparent monetary policy is ultimately what makes it a good potential hedge against inflation," said Coin Metrics. New bitcoins are issued every time a new block is mined, meaning there is a predictable, transparent and auditable supply schedule, and there is a limited supply of BTC.

It should then come as no surprise that, in a poll taken in early December, some 15% of fund managers surveyed by Bank of America said that BTC is the third-most crowded trade, according to Bloomberg. Shorting the USD is found to be the second-most crowded trade and "long tech" as the most crowded one.

Furthermore, US senator-elect Cynthia Lummis is quoted by Market Insider as saying that she's a hodler, and that bitcoin is a great store of value which can help with the US national debt as an "alternative path" should an initial plan to retire the debt fail. Additionally, "if we reach the point where we have overspent so much that things start crashing down, the black swan event occurs with any regard to any fiat currency...there is a backstop available to every government in the world and that backstop is bitcoin," said Lummis.

​​How Many Spark Tokens XRP Holders Get - Question Answered

A little more than a week after blockchain platform Flare Network took a snapshot of the XRP blockchain, it has completed its calculations and found out how many spark (FLR) tokens the eligible XRP holders will get.

According to Flare's blog post, "after a week of analysis with Flare's partners, XRPLORER and Towo Labs, the XRP:FLR claim ratio can now be set out." They said that to maintain the strict minimum 1:1 distribution ratio, the distribution amount is increased from 45bn Spark tokens previously stated to FLR 45,827,728,412.

Therefore, "for each 1 XRP held then 1.0073 FLR (rounded to 4 decimal places) can be claimed," wrote CEO Hugo Philion.

As a reminder, Flare Network is backed by Ripple's investment arm RippleX, and it's working on a system that aims to help blockchains interact with XRP. Its native token is spark, created by a utility fork of XRP. The team behind the network took a snapshot of the entire XRP blockchain on December 12, searching for the addresses that held XRP in the crypto exchanges and wallets that participated in the 45bn-spark-heavy airdrop.

Flare is creating 100bn spark tokens, which will be distributed as they become available, with the network excepted to go live in Q1-Q2 2021. As for the airdrop, the eligible users need to nothing, given that they will receive the tokens automatically. They'll receive 15% of the total spark for which they are eligible at launch, and the rest should be distributed over a minimum of 25 months and a maximum of 34 months, after which any remaining undistributed spark will be burned or distributed based on a governance vote.

As reported, 110 exchanges supported the airdrop, including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, OKEx, Huobi, and others, as well as a number of wallets.

At 10:54 UTC, XRP is trading at USD 0.53. It dropped 8% in a day and appreciated more than 7% in a week. Meanwhile, it went up 43% in a month, and 173% in a year. Out of the four time frames, it outperformed bitcoin (BTC) in the monthly gains one.

​​Young Investors Drive Increased Aussie Bitcoin & Crypto Investments

Younger Australian investors are driving the country's increasing crypto ownership, accompanied by rising investments by high-end crypto holders, a recent survey showed.

18.4% of respondents said they own some form of cryptoasset, up from 16.8% in 2019, Independent Reserve (IR), an Australia and New Zealand-focused crypto exchange with around 150,000 customers, said in its Independent Reserve Cryptocurrency Index 2020 report. The survey of 1,100 "everyday Australians" was carried out by consumer research firm PureProfile.

According to IR, most of the ownership growth was driven by the 25-44-year-old respondents.

"We need to find new ways to bring people into the industry, remembering that inclusion was one of the original principles of Bitcoin," Adrian Przelozny, CEO of IR, was quoted as saying in the report.

And it looks like the coronavirus pandemic was among the obstacles this year to get more crypto users on board.

While some other reports indicated that the pandemic has had more of an effect on the American bitcoin (BTC)-buying community than first thought, the Australian survey showed that 34% of those respondents who intended to purchase crypto in 2020 didn’t proceed with the purchase because they were either directly impacted by the economy or because of the uncertainty caused by it.

Also, it looks like the recent crackdown on XRP-affiliated Ripple in the US hit many Australians also as XRP is the number two coin among the respondents.

​​Binance CEO Says Expansion to Japan Is ‘Unlikely’

The Binance chief and founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has talked down the possibility of his exchange expanding to Japan. Although he stopped short of ruling out launching a Japanese branch, he indicated that the prospects of opening a Binance platform in Tokyo were “unlikely.”

The Binance boss was speaking in a Q&A session with the Japanese media outlet Coin Post, and gave a further indication that East Asian markets, particularly those in South Korea and Japan are hard to crack.

Last week, Binance Korea announced it was closing its doors, with a full “hard” shutdown slated for next month.

And earlier this year, Binance suffered another blow in its hopes to crack the Japanese market with the TaoTao crypto exchange ending a possible partnership deal after 10 months of negotiations.

Shortly after, TaoTao was taken over by domestic financial giant SBI, another indication that if rich pickings are to be had in the crypto market, it will likely be domestic players who are making them.

Zhao stated that he had “seriously considered establishing a base in Japan” after the Japanese government introduced its regulatory permit system back in 2017.

But, he added, a number of bottlenecks had hindered Binance’s progress into the Land of the Rising Sun. These included, he said, the fact that Binance’s international platform handles some 80+ tokens, but Japanese law strictly polices the tokens exchanges are allowed to handle. Only Financial Services Agency (FSA)-approved tokens can be offered in trading pairs.

The FSA has so far approved just 30 tokens.

“The situation in Japan hasn't changed much” since 2017, he added.

Zhao also stated that he had contemplated making an acquisition deal with an established Japanese player, but opined that Japanese legislation would minimize Binance’s advantages over Japanese competitors.

The 21 existing Japanese exchanges have close ties to banks and other market players, another factor that makes the market so difficult to crack for overseas players. They also have close ties to key media groups and have strong marketing departments with deep experience of working in the Japanese market.

These, Zhao concluded, “aren't Binance’s strong suits.”

As reported, Binance expects to have profits of USD 800m to USD 1bn this year, up from about USD 570m last year.

Meanwhile, while another major crypto exchange, BitMEX left Japan earlier this year, Kraken has returned to this market, while Coinbase is seemingly still working on this. Also this year, Japanese market-leading crypto exchange bitFlyer said it has linked its bitFlyer Europe operations with its domestic platform – allowing European traders to access bitcoin (BTC)-Japanese yen trading pairs.

​​What's in Store for Ethereum in 2021?

The second-largest crypto network by market capitalization, Ethereum (ETH), had an eventful 2020 as many other players in the Cryptoverse. But what awaits the network in 2021? The picture looks green price-wise and busy when it comes to new developments, according to industry insiders.

ETH went up more than 400% last year, surpassing the USD 700 level for the first time since 2018. Not only was it a beneficial year price-wise, but the network also saw several testnets – some of which were more successful than others - on its road to the much-promised Ethereum 2.0 (ETH 2.0), culminating in the launch of the deposit contract, followed by the first phase of ETH 2.0, Phase 0, in December.

As 2021 is already here, what will it bring?

2021 will definitely see a bull market, according to Matthew Gould, Unstoppable Domains founder and CEO. “We could see ETH prices over USD 3,000 … a lot sooner than people think.” Ethereum will lead in non-store of value use cases this year, he said, adding: “Expect Ethereum daily users to grow the fastest of any blockchain - including Bitcoin (BTC) - with all the new DeFi apps it brings to the table.”


At the same time, the network will keep moving towards its second version.

“ETH 2.0 will continue to advance its roadmap, with the introduction of shard chains, and eventually lead up to getting rid of the proof-of-work consensus algorithm altogether, and merging the Ethereum 1 chain with Ethereum 2.0,” said Monica Singer, the South African Lead for major Ethereum and blockchain company Consensys. This, she argued, will result in increased throughput and flexibility, as well as new network economics through staking, further leading to higher adoption.

Then “the virtuous cycle will apply,” continued Singer.

With more applications deployed on Ethereum, the more developers will join the community, and the price of ETH will increase and not necessarily correlate to the increase in bitcoin’s price, she said.

As reported, Ethereum already has more developers than Bitcoin.

Philippe Bekhazi, CEO of stablecoin platform Stablehouse, also noted that 2021 will likely see “a continuation of a bull market” for both ETH and BTC.

With the user experience gap in crypto “soon to be solved,” as well as with Ethereum scaling, institutional interest in bitcoin, and growing interest in DeFi, 2021 will see crypto start to go truly mainstream, argued Jack O'Holleran, CEO and Co-Founder of SKALE.

As a result, the number of developers building on Ethereum will grow 5 times “as they chase after these new consumers." The Ethereum ecosystem is "emerging as the backbone on which Web3 is built and will pave the path for new business models that will pave the way for the decentralized economy.”

​​Bitcoin On The Move Again, Touches USD 36K, Outperformed by XLM, ADA

The most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin (BTC), just briefly touched the USD 36,000 level for the first time with a double-digit jump in a day before correcting lower. The majority of other top cryptoassets are rallying too. (Updated at 08:33 UTC: updates throughout the entire text).

At pixel time (08:28 UTC), BTC trades at USD 34,680 and is up by 10% in a day and 22% in a week, increasing its monthly gains to 85%. Bitcoin reached the USD 30,000 level on January 2.

And while the second-largest cryptoasset by market capitalization, ethereum (ETH), is also up (+7%, to USD 1,106), stellar (XLM) is back into the top 10 club as it rallied by 66% in a day, reaching USD 0.27. Cardano (ADA) is the second-best performing coin in the top 10 club (+27%, to USD 0.286).

Other top coins are up by 2%-5%, except XRP that is down by 2.5% in a day.

"Bitcoin has entered into a new phase of price discovery, largely driven by amplified institutional interest in the digital asset. We have not yet seen peak retail participation, as highlighted by the low search and social activity relative to 2017," Craig Russo, Director of Innovation at Polyient, an infrastructure underpinning decentralized virtual economies, said in an emailed comment.

According to him, retail participation, coupled with accelerated institutional participation, will likely continue to drive the bull market in Q1.

"Bitcoin successfully cemented itself as a legitimate asset in 2020 and will continue to be adopted across the financial industry, regardless of any positive shift in the traditional global economy," he added, warning that there will be high volatility during this bull season as the market is still very thin and there is potential for enormous volatility if BTC whales begin to dump.

Crypto intelligence platform Glassnode claims that widespread retail interest in bitcoin is increasing, with the number of address holding a non-zero amount of BTC reaching an all-time high of over 33 million. However, the number of daily new BTC addresses has still not reached 2017 levels.

"These metrics, therefore, paint a bullish picture of a market characterized by healthy, sustainable growth as opposed to hype," they added.

Also, according to popular BTC analyst Willy Woo, inventory depletion on spot exchanges has stopped, signifying the re-accumulation phase of the macro cycle is likely complete.

"Since we already know institutions are buying in large quantities, the flattening of spot inventory depletion is a sign that retail buyers are now entering in large volumes, attracted by recent price rises," Willy Woo was quoted as saying in a blog post by Glassnode.

Meanwhile, according to Konstantin Richter, CEO and Founder of Blockdaemon, the third Bitcoin halving means that BTC 300K will be minted this year, compared to BTC 600K in previous years.

"Since a significant portion of existing bitcoin is illiquid, 300K is far too little supply for the exponential demand coming from institutions and triggered by the global covid crisis (new financial assets are needed to hedge against inflation). This represents an example of the flywheel in motion--half the supply and a probable doubling in demand, which in turn drives further demand due to price increases," he said.

While BTC cycles are inherently unpredictable (regulatory changes in certain key countries could have a significant effect), according to Richter, the next big hurdle for bitcoin is USD 50,000.

​​Bitcoin at USD 50K 'in Sight' As There's 'Room to Run Higher' Before Correction

"Assuming history is destined to repeat, one could expect further upside appreciation until BTC trades at 10x - 15x its 200-week moving average; at a weekly close of USD 7,904, such would imply a price between USD 79,040 and USD 118,560," said Kraken Intelligence, the exchange's team of in-house researchers, in their December 2020 Market Recap & Outlook report.

Per the researchers, as BTC’s correlation with both risk-on and risk-off assets has seemingly strengthened and petered out, the months before us "could bring a shift in trend amid an inevitable mean reversion." They argue, however, that BTC’s rally is a sign of "market participants seeing incremental near-term upside despite historic price levels being realized." And that's not all the good news, as per the researchers' data,

"the case can be made that BTC has room to run higher."

But Kraken's researchers are not the only ones seeing more room for BTC to grow. Chamath Palihapitiya, CEO of venture capital firm Social Capital and Chairman of commercial spaceline Virgin Galactic, stated in an interview with CNBC that BTC is "probably going to USD 100,000, then USD 150,000, then USD 200,000." He couldn't say in what period will the price reach this level, but gave five or ten years as possibilities.

Also, Anthony Pompliano, co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital, argued in an interview that BTC is "at least 10x better than gold in every way, "so if you just think of a bitcoin product that is 2x better and market cap kind of follows that, that would put bitcoin at a million dollars a coin." Bitcoin's market capitalization will eclipse that of gold by 2030, he finds.

Furthermore, "we believe bitcoin's meteoric rise will continue, as institutional investors continue to recognize its finite nature and attempt to hedge against global inflation and uncertainty," said in an email Joe DiPasquale, CEO at crypto fund manager BitBull Capital. "Remember, a 300% rise like in 2020 is not out of character for bitcoin. Its median rise in the last 10 years is 182%, and in 2019 it rose 92%."

Institutions like MassMutual and Guggenheim Investments, and company treasuries like Square and Microstrategy, investing in BTC, as well as rumors of others entering the space, are "just the beginning of a stampede into a finite asset," he said, adding,

"Bitcoin at [USD] 50K is in sight."

And as BTC is finite, with demand for it is "now at over 3x new supply," the US has printed 68% more USD in the last 12 months than were ever in existence, "leading to a largely expected devaluation of the dollar," he said.

Meanwhile Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz stated in his recent interview that young people were using the previous stimulus checks to invest in BTC, among other things, so we can't know where the money from the next one will go to. "Some of that, if not a lot of that, will find its way into the markets. One of the most unique things last time is seeing how many people bought bitcoin with the exact amount of stimulus. The market is sensing all of that."


However, both the Kraken researchers and DiPasquale had some warnings to share as well, and even Novogratz said that the markets don't go up every day forever, meaning a correction is bound to happen. DiPasquale noted that bitcoin is inherently volatile, and "while we expect the volatility to continue, we also expect higher highs and more support, leading to higher lows."

Meanwhile, Kraken Intelligence said that, historically, the first quarter of a year is typically a negative-yielding period for the first coin by market capitalization, arguing that "market participants ought to be considerate of BTC and the broader market potentially posting less favorable monthly returns in 1Q21."

Others seem to suggest there will be a downward correction relatively soon, possibly after the price hit USD 40,000 - but also that the price will continue on its upwards trajectory, or as economist and trader Alex Krüger said, "Upwards trend is unscathed."

​​Not Only Bitcoin Price Is Changing During This Bull Run

As the most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin (BTC), keeps scoring its new all-time highs, industry observers see important changes on the BTC adoption front too.

According to Anthony Lauriola, Chief Operating Officer at blockchain portfolio company Dan Holdings, in 2020, we saw “a significant shift in the way people view cryptocurrency,” as people are starting to see it more as a method of payment and not just a store of value - a trend Lauriola said will continue into 2021. “As we see more global entities entering the crypto space, we will likely continue to see bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continue to increase in price, value, and popularity.” Additionally, crypto adoption in emerging markets will also play a part in overall market growth in the coming years.

Also, as governments are forced to print mass amounts of cash to offset negative effects on the economy, many people have turned to bitcoin to hedge against inflation. “We may start to see the effects of this in 2021 and I believe this could be the driving factor for a bitcoin bull market," Lauriola said, estimating that BTC will hit USD 100,000 this year.

Lauriola further argued that, last year, there was a large increase in the number of people who relied on cryptocurrencies and digital payments for remittances and bill payments in many regions of Africa.

“There is still a lot to be learned as far as individuals using cryptocurrency as a payment method, but we are beginning to see the barriers to entry being lowered as technology becomes more accessible for everyone.”

Similarly, Philippe Bekhazi, CEO of stablecoin platform Stablehouse, expects that "any further economic fallout from the pandemic will spur growth of payment networks predicated on bitcoin or ethereum in emerging economies."

Meanwhile, IBMR Managing Director Sinjin David Jung offered an historic perspective.

“While it might seem like a bubble there is a very big difference from other times in the past, like 2008 we had issues in terms of the financial markets and how opaque they were,” he said. The stock market was getting bigger at the time, as were tech stock valuations. And unlike the internet euphoria of 1995-1999, when the internet was “as a single network” … now you have layers of networks, networks upon networks.” He said that this is a very different time and expects this bull market to continue on for the next almost 2 years.

"After that all bets are off but we’re definitely entering into a new economic reality structurally because of the way technology now has changed the way production is globally to create this exponential network upon network framework," he added.

In either case, the general consensus seems to be that BTC will trade between USD 50,000 and USD 100,000 in 2021.

“Considering how well bitcoin has profiled itself thus far in the coronavirus aftermath and given the outlook from our current macroeconomic environment, we're expecting 2021 to be a phenomenal year for bitcoin. It's not entirely unlikely that we'll see bitcoin trade in the USD 50k - USD 100k range,” Eric Wall, the Chief Investment Officer of the crypto hedge fund outfit Arcane Assets.

According to CoreLedger CEO Johannes Schweifer, USD 100,00 is "only 5 times" from its historic all-time high of 2017: "Bitcoin has shown it can grow more than that in a shorter timespan than one year, so it is more than possible."

At the time of writing (09:14 UTC), BTC trades at USD 41,067 and is up by almost 128% in a month and 405% in a year.

Meanwhile, Sinjin David Jung argued that “as the vaccine kicks in and the stimulus comes out the economy is going to get a kick start but people are still going to be wary of traditional assets and while they probably will still sock something away in the current stock market it will also be in cryptocurrencies.”

​​This Is The Biggest Risk To Crypto Market According to Pantera Capital CIO

Leveraged trading is the biggest risk to the crypto market in terms of what could cause “something to pop down the line,” according to Joey Krug, Co-chief Investment Officer (CIO) at US-based major crypto investment company Pantera Capital. (Updated at 19:20 UTC with more comments by Joey Krug).

He was speaking during Pantera Capital’s conference call yesterday.

According to Krug, some people get complacent when they realize crypto is here to stay. As a result, they lever up on it, thinking it can’t go down that much because institutions will swoop in and buy, saving the day. But eventually, when the lid blows off and bids are not there, liquidations of levered longs will drive the price down.

During the market crash on January 10-11, more than USD 3bn worth of long positions were liquidated, according to bybt data. To compare, on January 12, over USD 200m worth of short and also more than USD 200m long positions were liquidated.

As reported, crypto researcher and analyst Willy Woo argued that "unlike previous crashes in the past 2 years, where over-leveraged markets lead by trader liquidation, this one started on spot markets, then was greatly amplified by a single exchange partially failing, yet did not turn itself off for the good of the ecosystem."

Leveraged trading refers to borrowing funds so that you can take a larger position than you would be able to with your existing funds so that you can potentially generate a higher profit. However, while margin trading enables traders to amplify their returns, it can also lead to increased losses and liquidations, which is why experienced traders tend to advise newcomers to stay away from leveraged trading.

As for Pantera Capital itself, the firm took some risk off the table when the Market Value to Realised Value (MVRV) ratio rose to its highest level since 2017 a few days ago. The indicator shows how much unrealized gains bitcoin (BTC) holders are sitting on. When this metric gets high, it means the market is overheated, and if it starts to decline, people sell in order to lock-in gains out of panic or fear, Krug explained on the call.

According to Krug, this recent crash was a healthy outcome for this space, noting that people realized some gains and the market pulled back a bit in a consolidation period.

Now, the CIO said, the market is in a good position for the next leg upward and it is his view that the rally is going to continue.

At the time of writing (19:18 UTC), BTC trades at USD 35,805 and is up by almost 3% in a day and less than 1% in a week. It rallied by 86% in a month.

Meanwhile, during the call yesterday, Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead described the global macro environment as “off the charts,” pointing to the unprecedented pace at which the United States is printing money each month and “pushing it like crazy.”

As a result, the main two cryptoassets - BTC and ethereum (ETH) - have soared, which illustrates the next point, which is that “this rally has consolidated around bitcoin and ethereum,” according to Pantera slides.

Krug also noted that institutional investors are primarily honing in on bitcoin and ethereum and outside of these two assets there is not a great deal of institutional interest. He also waded into decentralized finance (DeFi), saying that these tokens are getting “pushed up” indirectly by BTC and ETH. The CIO also noted that it will not be this cycle when institutions buy DeFi protocols, adding that it will probably be the next cycle or the one after that.

Another huge development has been the rise of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), a trend that has been led by China, which Morehead noted “has a very big headstart on the world.” And while they don’t directly impact the price of tokens that are not pegged to fiat money like stablecoins, they will still introduce “billions of people” to the market including those without bank accounts but with smartphones, Morehead said.