The SEC has appointed New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal as the Director of the Division of Enforcement.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has appointed New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal as Director of the Division of Enforcement.
The appointment will be effective from July 26, with the SEC adding the veteran prosecutor to its ranks to play a key role in regulating financial markets in the U.S.
“He has the ideal combination of experience, values, and leadership ability to helm the Enforcement Division at this critical time. I look forward to working closely with him to protect investors and root out wrongdoing in our markets," said SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
Grewal is a replacement for Alex Oh, who was appointed by Gensler, but was forced to step down in April after only a few days on the job.
Oh’s appointment sparked backlash over the history of her work defending corporations as a lawyer, in particular her representation of ExxonMobil, a case in which the defendants were accused of human rights abuses in indonesia.
Grewal is an Indian-American who grew up in New Jersey. The 48-year-old has served at state and federal levels, including the Economic Crimes Unit in which he led the prosecution of co-conspirators behind a $300 million global hacking and data breach scheme.
Grewal was also assigned to the Business and Securities Fraud Unit in the past, where he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.
He doesn’t appear to have any high profile crypto cases under his belt but does have experience prosecuting Ponzi schemes and securities fraud.
A notable case Grewal oversaw while in New Jersey, was the case against Eliyahu Weinstein, who pled guilty to running a real estate Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors out of $200 million.
Weinstein was sentenced to 22 years in prison and later admitted to another fraudulent scheme surrounding the Facebook initial public offering (IPO) back in 2012.
The SEC has been ramping up prosecutions of Initial Coin Offerings it considers securities in recent times . Cointelegraph reported on the on-going lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple Labs on June 25, and revealed that the regulatory body recently claimed that XRP token holders are using social media to “disseminate negative and false statements about members of SEC leadership.”
The lawsuit was initially filed by the SEC in December, alleging the firm engaged in unregistered securities offerings. The two parties have been locked in tense a battle throughout 2021.
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Around $18 million worth of NYCE’s common shares will be tokenized and supported for secondary trading on tZERO’s security token trading platform.
tZERO, an alternative trading system for security tokens, has announced a partnership with real estate crowdfunding company, NYCE Group, to tokenize $18 million worth of the firm’s shares.
NYCE’s stock will be tZERO’s first new listing since launching its ASPN pairing in August 2020, representing fractionalized ownership in a Colorado ski resort.
Announced June 30, tZERO will support secondary trade for NYCE’s tokenized common shares once the real estate company has completed its upcoming Regulation A+ offering, subject to regulatory approval.
NYCE’s shares will be tokenized using tZERO’s proprietary smart contract technology. Philip Michael, CEO and co-founder of NYCE, stated:
“Through our partnership with the leader in liquidity for digital securities, tZERO, we are excited to provide investors with liquidity optionality.”
The real estate firm was founded by Michael and FC Barcelona soccer player Martin Braithwaite, with media describing the platform as a “Robinhood of real estate investing.”
The NYCE app allows retail investors to own fractionalized shares in properties from its $260 million portfolio, describing its mission to create 100,000 high-net-worth millennial stakeholders of color by 2030.
NYCE finalized its $1 million Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) offering in October 2020, setting a record for the fastest Reg CF offering to raise seven figures. The company formally launched its app in March.
Of the tokens on the exchange, volume for the ASPN token has consistently lagged behind tZERO’s native token TZROP and Overstock’s digital security OSTKO since the resort’s token was launched.
The security token sector has been on a wild ride in recent years, with monthly volume increasing from roughly by more than 110 times from less than $200,000 as of January 2020 to roughly $22 million during August.
However, monthly trade activity has since slumped more than 75% with less than $5 million in May.
According to Security Token Group’s latest report, TZROP was the most-traded security token for the month of May with nearly $2.7 million worth of trade. TZROP’s market cap is currently roughly $140 million, which would rank it as the 229th-largest crypto asset by capitalization, according to CoinGecko.
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Tether supplies on Ethereum are dwindling as USD Coin demand grows and grows.
USDC has grown much faster than Tether (USDT) in 2021 and it is emerging as the dominant stablecoin on Ethereum thanks to its popularity in DeFi according to Messari.
Research by the analytics firm revealed that the demand for USD Coin has grown so much that it has consumed a large chunk of Tether’s market share this year.
Researcher Ryan Watkins predicted that in the coming weeks, this could result in Tether' share of the stablecoin supply on Ethereum falling below 50%.
He added that over half of the total USDC supply now sits in smart contracts, which is equivalent to around $12.5 billion. Citing data from CoinMetrics, Messari estimates that more than 40% of the stablecoin supply on Ethereum is USDC.
In coming weeks it is very likely USDT’s share of the stablecoin supply on Ethereum will fall below 50% for the first time.
USDC is quickly emerging as the dominant stablecoin on Ethereum in large part due to its growing role in DeFi.
Watkins stated that the Circle stablecoin has now become the preferred dollar-pegged asset staked in smart contracts in DeFi protocols.
“Although this percentage is not as high as DAI, USDC leads by a wide margin in dollar terms and has become the preferred stablecoin in DeFi for now.”
The USDC supply has surged by more than 1,820% since the beginning of 2021 when there was just 1.3 billion circulating. Currently, the supply of the stablecoin is at a record 25 billion according to Circle.
According to the Tether transparency report, there are 62.7 billion USDT in circulation, an increase of around 200% since the beginning of the year. Of that total, 30.9 billion is currently on the Ethereum network, a figure that has been falling with regularity this year as high network fees have hampered transactions.
The researcher reported that DeFi lending protocols MakerDAO, Compound, and Aave are the largest consumers of USDC, holding around 23% of the total supply.
He added that the trend is likely to continue with the pending launch of Compound Treasury, a new product offering 4% interest on USDC to institutions, and initiatives centered on Circle’s DeFi API, a new platform to ease DeFi operations for businesses.
Reports suggest that Steve Cohen’s Point72 hedge fund is searching for a “head of crypto” as the firm weighs up its options before entering the crypto market.
New York billionaire Steven Cohen’s hedge fund Point72 Asset Management, is reportedly searching for a “head of crypto.”
Cohen, the 65-year-old dubbed the “Hedge Fund King”, founded Point72 in 1992 and it has approximately $22.1 billion worth of assets under management. The investor also owns the New York Mets Major League Baseball team.
The Street reported it has spoken to sources in the know who claim Point72 is seeking to hire a head of crypto, as the firm gears up to enter the crypto sector.
If accurate it fits with other signals emerging from the fund. Cohen recently stated in an interview with macro research firm founder, Jawad Mian, that “I’m fully converted to crypto,” and added that “I have an old saying at the poker table, you got to pay to learn. There’s no way around it. You can talk all you want, but you’ve got to get in the game.”
Point72 hasn’t specifically revealed what its foray into crypto would look like, telling its investors in a client note in May that, “It’s too early to say what paths we will ultimately pursue and when.”
However, the firm noted that “we are exploring opportunities around blockchain technology and its transformative and disruptive capabilities,” and added that:
“We would be remiss to ignore a now $2 trillion cryptocurrency market.”
Cohen has made a small play already, with Fortune reporting on June 13 that his venture capital firm “Cohen Private Ventures” invested an undisclosed amount into Autonomous Partners — an up and coming hedge fund that acquires crypto and equity stakes in blockchain-based companies.
Interestingly, Point72 already has a small but concrete affiliation to crypto exchange Coinbase. Last month it sublet a 30,000 square foot office to Coinbase for its New York office at Related Companies’ 55 Hudson Yards.
Point72 is also a big investor in Melvin Capital, the hedge fund that famously took a 53% loss from short positions on GameStop (GME) at the beginning of this year, during the r/wallstreetbets pump and dump incident.
Point72 had a total of $1 billion invested in the firm before the GME drama, and provided an influx of cash to the tune of $750 million, to help stabilize the fund in the aftermath.
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Tracer DAO has raised $4.5 million from the likes Framework Ventures, Maven 11, and Apollo Capital.
Decentralized derivatives platform, Tracer DAO, has announced a successful $4.5 million fundraising round to expand its team and product suite.
They hope to launch innovative derivatives for “any market with an oracle price feed,” with plans to one day allow ordinary consumers to hedge the cost of commuting and other household bills using tokenized derivatives.
This week’s raise saw participation from crypto venture heavyweights, including Framework Ventures, Maven 11, DACM, and Apollo Capital. The investors will share 10% of the project’s governance token supply, which will be vested linearly over two years.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Pat McNab, Tracer DAO founder and co-founder of Mycelium — the Australian development team working to build Tracer DAO — emphasized that the team is currently working to launch v1 of its open-source perpetual swap contracts to Arbitrum mainnet in the coming months.
McNab described the swaps as standing out from the competition through its “highly capital efficient” design and unique insurance pool that allows anyone to “become an insurer for the protocol and earn interest.”
“For each perpetual swap market there will be an underlying insurance pool [...] that insurance pool collects funding payments in the form of an interest rate paid by traders,” he said, adding:
“If a trader goes under margin and there is counterparty risk, this is when the insurers funds will have to be used.”
Tracer is also currently working to launch leveraged tokens, predicting they will go live before the end of the year. The team also plans to hold a public raise via Gnosis Auction in the coming months.
Looking forward, Tracer articulates a bold mission of enabling derivatives for “any market that has an oracle feed,” with McNab emphasizing the opportunity to use cryptocurrency to unlock new markets tied to real-world assets.
“We’re working with Chainlink currently on trying to aggregate fuel pricing data or gas pricing data around different jurisdictions such that, say, in a neo-banking app, consumers can effectively budget for their fuel consumption by buying into a derivatives position using a perpetual swap contract,” he said.
“Our vision for price feeds, especially in the real world [...] will certainly tend down the path of having consumers able to hedge their consumption to local goods markets.”
McNab added that Tracer is currently working with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology to “unpack how the water markets work within Australia, especially to determine if we can create more ways for people to effectively manage their risk when it comes to consuming water on a day-to-day basis.”
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Those that are never gonna give up BTC are still accumulating according to the analyst.
Bitcoin technical analyst Willy Woo believes that this is not a bear market because on-chain indicators are signaling a recovery and the asset is still being bought by long-term hodlers.
The popular analyst’s comments came in an interview on the “What Bitcoin Did” podcast on June 28. Woo stated that he does not believe that Bitcoin is in a typical bear market due to signs of accumulation showing on-chain.
Referring to the 1980’s hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up” by British pop artist Rick Astley, Woo stated:
“The ‘Rick Astley’ is the holder that keeps buying and never tends to sell much ... And of course Rick was very active over 2021, and then suddenly all the coins moved away from Rick to the weak hands — the speculative traders that buy and sell. Now we’re seeing that cross back into moving to Rick.”
He added that we are currently in a speculative phase and those coins that were sold earlier this year are slowly being absorbed by long-term holders.
Podcast host Peter McCormack revealed that he hasn’t sold any crypto assets yet and is still confident because there is “still too much going on and good stuff happening”.
Analyzing the current Bitcoin price chart, Woo stated that it is a cycle unlike any we’ve ever seen as the underlying structure is completely different. He stated:
“The price right now is going sideways bearish, it looks like a Wyckoffian accumulation price pattern and so if that plays out we should have that last wick down to $28K-$29K which should have been the final test of the bottom. Everything on-chain looks like it’s in recovery.”
Analytics provider Santiment appears to have noticed similar data and it noted that the supply of Bitcoin sitting on exchanges has steadily fallen back down and is getting locked away for safekeeping by hodlers.
Following #Bitcoin's mid-May dip, the supply of $BTC sitting on exchanges has steadily fallen back down and locked away for safe keeping by hodlers. This is a good sign for #bulls, as funds moving away from exchanges lowers the risk of major sell-offs. https://t.co/ABkcih9ea1pic.twitter.com/NqU3ljRyIH
Commenting on current regulatory pressure, which has escalated in China, the U.S. and the U.K., Woo stated:
“It’s like Bitcoin is now fighting the Final Boss in a video game … it’s really up against the central bankers, and much earlier than we ever thought.”
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading within its six-week range bound channel, down 3.7% over the past 24 hours at $34,653 according to CoinGecko. As reported by Cointelegraph, traders have been eying three key areas for the monthly candle closure.
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The source code for the World Wide Web has been sold by the inventor for $5.4 million.
The inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has sold an NFT of the web's source code for $5.4 million at fine art auction house Sotheby’s.
The piece titled ‘This Changed Everything’ includes a time-stamped file of the source code's 9,555 lines, a high-fidelity image, a 30-minute animation of the code being written, along with a letter written by Berners-Lee.
While $5.4M is a significant sum, it’s a far cry from the $69 million record set in March for Beeple’s Everydays and less than some observers had predicted. Delphi Digital’s Piers Kicks said he’d been expecting a sale around $10M, noting:
According to Berners-Lee, he and his wife will donate the proceeds of the auction to causes supported by the family.
In a statement to the press released by Sotheby’s, Berners-Lee discussed the future of the internet and expressed his hope that it would remain open to allow it to be a continual source of creativity, technical innovation, and social transformation. These ideals were the inspiration behind Berners-Lee move into the NFT space, he said:
“NFTs, be they artworks or digital artifacts like this, are the latest playful creations in this realm, and the most appropriate means of ownership that exists. They are the ideal way to package the origins behind the web.”
The high-profile auction of the web's source code isn’t the only multi-million dollar sale of a digital artwork hosted by a premier auction house this week. On June 30th, Christie’s Auction house closed a $2.1 million auction for the works of transgender digital art FEWOCiOUS.
The NFT “Hello, i’m Victor (FEWOCiOUS) and This Is My Life,” includes five individual pieces each depicting a year in the artist's formative years from ages 14 to 18 as he transitioned to male. The works illustrate the artist’s struggles with loneliness and identity as he strove to become an artist.
at a loss for words right now thank you so much to everyone for making me feel so loved, believing in my art and believing in me, it means the world ❤️ i’ll never forget this feeling or these last few weeks #FEWOCiOUSxCHRISTIES FOREVER pic.twitter.com/1BYNXX2SPN
The trajectory of the young artist’s career is indicative of the upward mobility the digital market offers to digital artists. FEWOCiOUS made his first tokenized sale on the marketplace SuperRare for $6,000 in September of last year and was soon selling artworks valued at over $1 million on Nifty Gateway.
Data provided by Cryptoart.io shows that combined sales from the digital art markets have shrunk to $18.3 million in June from their peak of $205 million in March. Winklevoss-owned marketplace Nifty Gateway saw a 94% decline in sales from a peak of $145 million to $7.6 million.
Some digital asset platforms have prospered. Relative newcomer to the digital art space, hic et nunc, has seen sales grow 276% from $717,000 in March to $2.7 million in June, capturing capturing 14.7% of the market.
Source: cryptoart.io/data
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“There’s nothing better than building a factory that makes Bitcoin,” said Celsius CEO, Alex Mashinsky.
Alex Mashinsky, the CEO of centralized crypto money market Celsius, has revealed that a share of profits from the company's recent $200 million investment into Bitcoin mining infrastructure will be redistributed back to depositors.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Mashinsky stated the firm's mining expansion has added a fifth stream of yield generation for its crypto depositors — alongside lending funds to institutional investors, leveraging DeFi protocols, retail lending, and market making on centralized exchanges.
In early June, Celsius announced it had invested more than $200 million into North American Bitcoin mining infrastructure and positions in Core Scientific, Rhodium Enterprises and Luxor Technologies.
“A big chunk of our community owns Bitcoin and they want to be paid in Bitcoin,” he said, adding: “So, there's nothing better than building a factory that makes Bitcoin.”
“By creating a mining business we are guaranteeing that we can pay our community what we owe them, which is interest in Bitcoin.”
Celsius was founded by the serial entrepreneur in 2017, with the platform offering yield on deposits for more than 40 digital assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins.
Celsius’ mining expansion comes as Mashinsky notes Bitcoin yields are shrinking amid the growth of DeFi, with numerous protocols offering interest in the form of BTC on Bitcoin deposits. Celsius doesn’t charge any management fees from users, but instead takes 20% or more of the profits generated.
The company is not alone looking to invest in North America’s mining sector, with analysts expecting the continent will see an influx of miners who have been dislocated by China’s recent crackdown on the sector.
Mashinsky is unsurprised by China’s regulatory moves, characterizing the clampdown as a move to eliminate competition and protect its emerging central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Ultimately, Celsius’ CEO argues the Chinese miner exodus will prove to be beneficial for the decentralization of the Bitcoin network, stating:
“Moving a lot of the miners out of China is definitely helping Bitcoin get decentralized even more. So it's a good thing for Bitcoin, just not necessarily a good thing for the citizens of China.”
The CEO has bullish expectations of Bitcoin’s price for the rest of the year, asserting that the price will tag heights of “anywhere between $140,000 and $160,000.”
However, he believes the markets will peak before 2022, asserting Bitcoin will “close the year below $100,000” after sellers step in to take profits in the six-figure price range.
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It's unclear if the shutdowns are due to orders passed down from above or the result of China's announced regulatory crackdown on crypto miners.
Reports alleged that cryptocurrency miners in China’s Yunnan province may be out of commission for a day if not longer due to the Chinese Communist Party’s 100th anniversary celebration this week.
According to Kevin Zhang, the vice president of mining infrastructure company Foundry Services, all major Bitcoin (BTC) mining farms in Yunnan have been shut down as of today. Zhang said he personally knew of at least two crypto mining sites in the southwestern region that had received orders to cut power.
The shutdowns are purportedly due to the impending Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, celebrations, which occur every year on July 1. Due to this year’s anniversary being a centennial, authorities seem to have taken stronger measures to ensure less pollution — China ranks as the 14th worst country in terms of air quality — traffic, and political demonstrations. Major industries including coal mining and steel production will reportedly be shut down for up to a week in an attempt to reduce urban smog and prevent accidents.
However, it’s unclear if the CCP anniversary is directly related to the shutdowns or Chinese crypto miners are responding to an ongoing regulatory crackdown. The State Council’s Financial Stability and Development Committee announced in May it would be curtailing BTC mining amid financial risk concerns. Several reports have surfaced since that time suggesting authorities are enforcing crypto mining bans in regions including Yunnan, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Qinghai.
While some companies have said the mining ban is driving them to other provinces within China, a few may leave the country entirely. Many experts in the crypto space expect the regulatory crackdown will push mining firms to relocate to Texas, with abundant renewable energy and a highly deregulated power grid.
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Ethereum's EIP-1559 upgrade is fast approaching, but derivatives data shows traders are less than optimistic about ETH's short-term prospects.
Derivatives data shows that Ether (ETH) traders are feeling less bullish when compared to Bitcoin (BTC). Even though the altcoin captured a nearly 200% gain in the first half of 2021 versus Bitcoin's modest 22% price increase, traders seem to be more affected by Ether's recent underperformance.
Ether (orange) versus Bitcoin (blue) prices. Source: TradingView
Take notice of how Ether is underperforming Bitcoin by 16% in June. The London hard fork is scheduled for July, and its core proposal — dubbed as EIP-1559 — will cap Ethereum's gas fees. Therefore, the price action could be related to unsatisfied miners as the network migrates out of Proof-of-Work (PoW).
For this reason, Ether investors have reason to fear because uncertainties abound. Perhaps miners supporting a competing smart-contract chain or some other unexpected turn of events could further negatively impact Ether price.
Whatever the rationale for the current price action, derivatives indicators are now signaling less confidence when compared to Bitcoin.
Ether's December futures premium shows weakness
In healthy markets, the quarterly futures should trade at a premium to regular spot exchanges. In addition to the exchange risk, the seller is 'locking up' funds by deferring settlement. A 4% to 8% premium in the December contracts should be enough to compensate for those effects.
A similar effect occurs in almost every derivatives market, although cryptocurrencies tend to present higher risks and have higher premiums. However, when futures are trading below this range, it signals that there is short-term bearish sentiment.
OKEx BTC (blue) vs. ETH (orange) December futures premium. Source: TradingView
The above chart shows the Bitcoin December futures premium recovering to 3.5% while Ethereum contracts failed to follow. While both assets displayed a neutral-to-bearish indicator, there's evidence that the altcoin investors are less optimistic about a short-term recovery.
Another leg down will do even more harm to altcoins
Another thesis that could negatively impact Ether's premium is the impact of a potential negative 30% performance from Bitcoin. Filbfilb, an independent market analyst and the co-founder of the Decentrader trading suite, said that a 30% crash in the Bitcoin could prompt altcoins to drop twice as hard.
Clem Chambers, the chief executive of the financial analytics website ADVFN, also predicted another potential leg down, which would repeat the late-2018 crypto winter period. Chambers claims Bitcoin could capitulate and fall back towards $20,000.
While the overall market sentiment is neutral-to-bearish, it seems sensible to predict a more daunting scenario for Ether, including uncertainties from the transition to Proof-of-Stake (POS).
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of theauthorand do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.
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A panel of expert witnesses and members of congress discussed the risks and rewards of cryptocurrency in committee Wednesday.
The U.S. House committee on financial services held a hearing Wednesday for legislators and a panel of witnesses to discuss cryptocurrency regulation in the United States.
The subcommittee on oversight and investigations invited expert witnesses to testify before congress on the risks and opportunities of blockchain technology.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-MN), a ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, was not keen on the idea of investing in cryptocurrency to save for retirement:
“Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, so if one person makes a million dollars and retires at age 45, and nine lose $100,000–– Coinbase makes money, and one millionaire goes on TV and says how wonderful it is, and nine others do not retire with dignity, but instead become eligible for Medicaid.”
He also quipped that the California lottery would make a better “bet” than blockchain:
“Cryptocurrency is something you can bet on, but if people want to have the animal spirits to take risk, I’d prefer they invest in equity markets to support the building of American companies, or the California lottery to support the schools in my state.”
But Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), another senior member of the committee, was more concerned that regulatory interference was preventing Americans from benefitting fully from crypto entrepreneurship:
“Over the last few years I’ve been fortunate to meet with many great crypto and blockchain innovators. A common refrain during our discussion is that they so badly want to develop their crypto and blockchain ideas right here in the United States. But they don’t because of continuing uncertainty with crypto regulation.”
Hard-learned lessons from the 2008 financial crisis seemed to loom large over the statements made by witnesses and members of congress. That year’s subprime mortgage crisis in real estate lending quickly spilled over into adjacent financial sectors.
When it did, a wild array of innovative–– and unwieldy–– new financial instruments wiped out huge swaths of investors and plunged the entire U.S. economy into a recession.
The structural instabilities and excessive euphoria that characterized this period’s runaway growth of new securities derivatives were exacerbated by massive amounts of leverage.
Recent years have seen the rapid proliferation of new ventures and technologies to support and expand the capability, use, exchange, and “hodling” of cryptocurrencies— and the blockchains that maintain them. Some lawmakers and regulators fear it’s like the runup to 2008 all over again.
Efforts to regulate blockchain technology, and mitigate the risks involved when trading them as securities, are a confusing patchwork as lawmakers scramble to understand the new technologies and the industry that’s building them.
Not all federal legislators are wary of crypto. Some even endorse them. In a recent CNBC interview, U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) said she hopes to see bitcoin as a normal part of a diversified retirement portfolio to hedge against inflation. And earlier this month, the National Republican Congressional Committee began accepting crypto donations for campaign funds.
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As the month of June comes to an end, traders are asking the Magic 8-Ball for answers to the question of where Bitcoin's price will go next.
Bitcoin's (BTC) whipsaw volatility has been on full display throughout June, leaving traders confused and in search of the latest technical indicator or major news announcement that might provide some hint at which way the price will move.
As the month of June comes toward an end, traders are now focused BTC's on the monthly close to determine if the forward outlook is tilted toward bulls or bears.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin price is still 47% away from its all-time high at $64,873 and analysts have a mixed view on whether or not the bullish momentum will return in the short term. Here are three perspectives analysts have in mind as the market prepares to head into the month of July.
Bitcoin needs to hold the $34,500 support
A survey of crypto Twitter shows that many chart watchers have identified $34,500 as a crucial price level that needs to be defended to establish the bull case for Bitcoin moving forward.
So far, this current period in the 2021 cycle is very similar to the 2013 mid-cycle correction
A #BTC Monthly Candle Close above ~$34500 would mean that BTC will continue to respect historical Mid-Cycle tendencies$BTC#Crypto#Bitcoin
According to Rekt Capital, a pseudonymous trader on Twitter, a close near this level would put the market on a similar trajectory to the BItcoin price pattern seen during the 2013 bull market which included a mid-cycle correction before price broke out to a new all-time high later in the year.
From this bullish perspective, the price of Bitcoin should soon continue the uptrend that began in late 2020 and will theoretically lead to a new all-time high later in 2021 or early 2022 which is projected to surpass $100,000 according to the Bitcoin stock-to-flow model.
Despite the widespread acceptance and faith in the S2F model, Bitcoin's recent price action led even Plan B, the creator of the popular model, to feel “uneasy” about BTC's most recent dip to the lower bound of the model.
Even for me it is always a bit uneasy when bitcoin price is at the lower bound of the stock-to-flow model. Will it hold (like Mar 2019 when I published S2F, or Mar 2020 Covid, or Sep 2020 with BTC stuck at $10K) and is this another buying opportunity? Or will S2F be invalidated? pic.twitter.com/iIjTC2Ncy3
While bull market advocates look for any sign to validate a move higher, the price action on June 30 caught the eye of another pseudonymous Twitter analyst called John Wick. According to the analyst, there is a bearish topping pattern that can be se in the most recent BTC chart.
According to Wick, Bitcoin now needs to hold support at $34,000 or the market could be in for another extended period of sideways, range-bound trading rather than a fledgling move higher.
Bearish sentiments were also highlighted in the following tweet from the Twitter personality Nunya Bizniz, who points out that BTC would need to close above $37,400 to avoid three consecutive down months, which has historically indicated more downside in the future.
BTC monthly:
Month closes tomorrow.
A close above $37.4K would avoid 3 consecutive down months.
While the debate about a bullish or bearish future rages on, there are several indicators pointing to the possibility of rising sentiment amid the noise.
Twitter personality 'Bitcoin Archive' pointed to the Grayscale Bitcoin premium approaching zero and renewed buying activity by the Purpose Bitcoin ETF as evidence that sentiment is on the rise.
On-chain analyst William Clemente III also posted the following chart to highlight the fact that long-term BTC holders have been accumulating since late May after the price of Bitcoin bottomed out below $29,000.
Bitcoin supply held by long-term holders. Source:Glassnode
Clemente said:
“Bitcoin is cheap and Long-Term BTC Holders know it. They've added 741,363 BTC to their holdings since the initial price drawdown in late May.
For a simplified explanation of important levels to keep an eye on, John Bollinger, a technical analyst and creator of Bollinger Bands, simply said that $41,000 and $31,000 are the key "logical levels" to watch and he also cited the $35,000 to $36,000 zone as crucial support levels to monitor.
These are the logical levels I am watching for $btcusd
41,000
35/36,000
31,000
So far they have been important milestones.#Bitcoin
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
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In addition to trading crypto, Soros Fund Management is said to be in discussion to acquire blockchain-focused firms.
Soros Fund Management, the private investment firm of billionaire George Soros, is reportedly trading Bitcoin (BTC) as part of a broader exploration of digital assets, according to financial news website TheStreet.
People familiar with the matter told author Michael Bodley that Dawn Fitzpatrick, the chief investment officer for Soros Fund Management, gave the green light to trade Bitcoin and possibly other cryptocurrencies in the last few weeks. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the sources said Fitzpatrick and her team have been exploring cryptocurrencies for some time and that the latest venture is “more than just kicking the tires” on digital assets.
A spokesperson for Soros Fund Management was contacted by TheStreet but declined to comment.
Fitzpatrick is also reportedly in conversations about acquiring a private stake in leading blockchain-based enterprises, though the names of these companies weren’t provided. As Cointelegraph reported, Soros Fund Management was one of several firms behind the $200 million funding of New York Digital Investment Group, better known as NYDIG. MassMutual, Morgan Stanley and Stone Ridge Holdings Group also participated.
At the time, NYDIG co-founder and CEO Robert Gutmann said the investment round was evidence that institutional adoption of Bitcoin was on the rise.
TheStreet's report has already circulated on Twitter, with several prominent industry voices joining the discussion.
George Soros has given his team the green light to trade bitcoin.
This could be a positive or a negative depending on how they trade it :)https://t.co/fq4LsE77gx
It’s not entirely clear how Soros Fund Management intends to trade Bitcoin, if at all. An investment stake in the digital asset shouldn’t necessarily be viewed as bullish given that Soros earned his reputation for shorting the British pound in 1992 and effectively ‘breaking the Bank of England.’
Nevertheless, Fitzpatrick has spoken favorably about Bitcoin in recent months. In March, she said cryptocurrencies like BTC are at an “inflection point” that could catalyze greater adoption in the future.
"We've been making some investment into that infrastructure and we think that is at an inflection point," she told Bloomberg in March.
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ETH 2.0 now has 10x more staked Ether to power its proof-of-stake mechanism than the Ethereum Foundation required at launch six months ago.
Ethereum 2.0 is approaching what some are calling a major milestone in its short history — 6 million staked Ether (ETH). The Ethereum Launchpad, Ethereum 2.0’s portal for validators to stake their coins, shows some 5.9 million staked Ether and almost 180,000 validators powering the blockchain Wednesday.
That averages out to just slightly more than the minimum 32 staked Ether required to activate the validating software and becoming a validating node on the network. This represents an investment of $66,560 to participate as a validator on the network at the average crypto exchange price at the time of publication.
According to the Ethereum Foundation, validators “are responsible for storing data, processing transactions, and adding new blocks to the blockchain.”
When Ethereum 2.0 first went online in Dec 2020, the foundation required a minimum of 524,288 ETH to be staked before launching. So in six months, Ethereum has swelled with 10x more validators than the minimum network requirements decided by the foundation last year.
ETH rallied this week after reclaiming $2,000, remaining above key support at $2,080 since mid-afternoon Monday (UTC). Traders and investors are bullish for Ether as they anxiously await the London hard fork scheduled for July.
At the current price level, the 5.9 million staked Ether is worth some $12.29 billion in market exchange value. That figure represents the amount of money nearly 180,000 validators have locked away in deposit, for the opportunity to power the blockchain.
This qualifies them as good-faith participants in the network, with a stake in following the rules and keeping malicious behavior and software off the Ethereum network.
Validators that do not adhere to the network protocol, go offline, or fail to validate, risk losing their staked Ether. Those that help the network follow the rules and achieve consensus as it processes requests from users earn rewards credited to them on the blockchain.
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Bitcoin and altcoins are witnessing selling near key overhead resistance levels, but a shallow pullback may suggest further upside is in store.
Bitcoin price staged a mild resurgence at the start of this week but data from Glassnode suggests that its new BTC investors who came late to the party and are dumping their positions in a panic.
This transfer of crypto assets from speculators or momentum chasers to long-term investors is a positive sign. This lays the groundwork for the start of the next bull run but it may not happen in a hurry.
At the moment, institutions are unlikely to buy aggressively and propel the price of Bitcoin higher because there is still a chance that they can accumulate at lower levels. Therefore, the range-bound action may continue for a few more days.
According to Forbes, New York Digital Investment Group’s (NYDIG) partnership with enterprise payment company NCR may empower 650 banks and credit unions in the U.S. to offer Bitcoin trading services to more than 24 million customers. This move is likely to attract several new investors to crypto, which is a long-term positive.
Will Bitcoin and altcoins witness selling pressure and break below their recent lows or will buyers propel the price above the local highs? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.
BTC/USDT
Bitcoin broke above the 20-day exponential moving average ($35,196) on June 29, which is a positive sign. This showed that traders were not booking profits at the 20-day EMA but were trying to push the price above it.
However, the bears have not allowed the price to sustain above the 20-day EMA. This suggests that sellers are defending the zone between the 20-day EMA and the 50-day simple moving average ($37,752).
The bears will now try to pull the price down to $31,000 but the flattening 20-day EMA and the relative strength index (RSI) above 45 suggest the selling pressure could be reducing.
A shallow pullback from the current level will enhance the prospects for a break above the 50-day SMA, clearing the path for a rally to $42,451.67.
This positive view will invalidate if the bears sink the price below the $31,000 support. That could result in a decline to the critical support at $28,000.
ETH/USDT
Ether (ETH) broke above the 20-day EMA ($2,170) on June 29, indicating strength. However, the bears did not waste time and have pulled the price back below the 20-day EMA today. This suggests that sellers are not willing to let go of their advantage easily.
If the bulls do not allow the price to dip below $2,000, the ETH/USDT pair will once again try to rise above the 20-day EMA. If that happens, the pair could rise to the downtrend line. The bears will try to stall the rally at this level.
Contrary to this assumption, if the bears sink the price below $2,000, the pair may again drop to the $1,728.74 support. Repeated retests of a support level tend to weaken it. If the price slips below $1,728.74, the selling may intensify and the pair may drop to $1,536.92.
BNB/USDT
Binance Coin (BNB) is facing resistance at the 20-day EMA ($315). The bears will now try to pull the price below the immediate support at $264.26. If they succeed, the altcoin could drop to the critical support at $211.70.
The downsloping moving averages and the RSI in the negative territory suggest the path of least resistance is to the downside.
Alternatively, if the price again rebounds off $264.26, the buyers will try to drive the price above the 20-day EMA. If they succeed, the BNB/USDT pair could move up to the 50-day SMA ($369) and then to $433.
This level may act as a strong resistance and if the price turns down from it, the pair could drop to the 20-day EMA.
ADA/USDT
Cardano (ADA) pierced the 20-day EMA ($1.38) but the buyers could not sustain the price above it. That suggests the bears are attempting to defend this resistance aggressively.
If the price dips below $1.30, the ADA/USDT pair could drop to $1.20. The bulls are likely to buy this dip and again attempt to push the price above the 20-day EMA. If they succeed, the pair could rally to the 50-day SMA ($1.57).
On the contrary, if the bears sink the price below the $1.20 support, the pair could slide to $1. This is an important support to watch out for because a break below it could result in long liquidation while a rebound off it could extend the range-bound action for a few more days.
DOGE/USDT
Dogecoin (DOGE) had been trading close to the 20-day EMA ($0.27) for the past three days but the bulls could not push the price above it. This may have attracted profit-booking from short-term traders, pulling the price lower today.
If the bears sink the price below the $0.21 support, the DOGE/USDT pair could drop to the critical support at $0.15. This is the last major support before panic selling could drag the price down to $0.10.
On the contrary, if the price rebounds off the $0.21 support, it will suggest that bulls are trying to form a higher low. The buyers will then make one more attempt to push the price above the 20-day EMA.
If they succeed, the pair could rise to the 50-day SMA ($0.33), which is just above the neckline of the head and shoulders pattern.
XRP/USDT
XRP’s pullback has hit a wall at the 20-day EMA ($0.73). This suggests that sentiment remains negative and traders are selling on rallies to the overhead resistance levels.
The bears will now try to pull the price below $0.58. If they succeed, the XRP/USDT pair could drop to the psychological level at $0.50. This is an important support to watch out for because if it gives way, the decline could extend to the support line of the descending channel.
This negative view will invalidate if the pair turns up from the current level or rebounds off $0.58 and rises above $0.75. Such a move will suggest that the bulls are trying to make a comeback. The pair could then rise to the 50-day SMA ($0.93) and later to $1.07.
DOT/USDT
Polkadot (DOT) has turned down from the $16.93 resistance, suggesting that bears are selling on every minor rally. The bears will now try to pull the price to the $13 level. If the price rebounds off this support, the altcoin may extend its consolidation between $13 and $16.93.
However, the downsloping moving averages and the RSI below 38 suggest that the path of least resistance is to the downside. If bears sink the price below $13, the DOT/USDT pair could start the next leg of the downtrend that may reach $10 and then $7.50.
This negative view will invalidate if the bulls drive the price above the 20-day EMA ($18.20). That could result in an up-move to the 50-day SMA and then to $26.50. The bears are likely to defend this level aggressively.
UNI/USDT
The bulls pushed the price above the $18.60 resistance but could not clear the hurdle at the 20-day EMA ($19.49). This suggests that bears continue to sell Uniswap (UNI) on rallies to the strong resistance levels.
If the price turns down from the current level, the UNI/USDT pair could drop to $15. A bounce off this support may keep the pair range-bound between $15 and the 20-day EMA for a few days.
On the contrary, if the bulls regroup and push the price above the 20-day EMA, the pair could rise to the 50-day SMA ($24.45). This level may again act as stiff resistance but if the bulls arrest the next decline above $18.60, the pair may rally to $30.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is facing stiff resistance at the 20-day EMA ($537), which is just below the horizontal resistance at $538.11. The bears are likely to defend this level aggressively.
If the price turns down from this level, the BCH/USDT pair could drop to $428.43 and then to $370. A bounce off this support could keep the pair range-bound between $370 and $538.11 for the next few days.
However, the flattening 20-day EMA and the RSI above 41 suggest the selling pressure is reducing. If bulls propel the price above $538.11, the pair could pick up momentum and rise to the 50-day SMA ($690).
LTC/USDT
Litecoin’s (LTC) relief rally is facing stiff resistance at the 20-day EMA ($147). This suggests the sentiment remains negative and traders are selling on rallies to strong resistance levels.
If the price turns down from the current level, the bears will make another attempt to sink the LTC/USDT pair below the $118 support. If they manage to do that, the pair will complete a descending triangle pattern. This could intensify selling and pull the price down to $100 and later to $70.
Contrary to this assumption, if the price turns up from the current level or rebounds off $118 and breaks above the downtrend line, it will invalidate the bearish setup. That could open the gates for a rally to $225.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Regulators said the trading app should pay restitution to users like the 20-year-old who committed suicide after an erroneous negative balance appeared in his account.
The U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is penalizing Robinhood to the tune of roughly $70 million based on the results of an investigation into the stock and cryptocurrency trading app.
In a Wednesday announcement, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, said it had ordered Robinhood to pay $57 million in fines to the regulatory body as well as provide roughly $12.6 million in restitution to certain customers. FINRA alleged the trading platform caused “widespread and significant harm” to thousands of users and exhibited “systemic supervisory failures” starting as early as September 2016.
“The fine imposed in this matter, the highest ever levied by FINRA, reflects the scope and seriousness of Robinhood’s violations, including FINRA’s finding that Robinhood communicated false and misleading information to millions of its customers,” said the head of FINRA’s department of enforcement Jessica Hopper.
The false information to which FINRA referred includes allegations Robinhood misrepresented margin trades, users’ cash holdings in the app accounts, the risk of loss in options transactions, how much buying power users had, and information regarding margin calls. According to the regulatory body, “Robinhood neither admitted nor denied the charges, but consented to the entry of FINRA’s findings.”
Regulators said the firm was responsible for paying $7 million in restitution to customers who reported seeing inaccurate negative cash balances in their accounts. The body referenced Alexander Kearns, a 20-year-old Robinhood user who committed suicide in June 2020 after an erroneous negative balance of more than $730,000 appeared in his account. In addition, FINRA ordered the trading platform to pay more than $5 million to users affected by Robinhood’s outages between 2018 and 2020, alleging that many users had lost up to tens of thousands of dollars in trades the platform was unable to execute during significant market volatility.
The penalties paid to FINRA directly seem to be based on Robinhood’s company policies and apparent failure to provide a clear picture of market data for customers. The regulatory body said between January 2018 and December 2020 the trading platform failed to report thousands of user complaints to FINRA following all the aforementioned issues. In addition, Robinhood’s process to approve customers for options trading relied on algorithms rather than “firm principals.” FINRA said this method had resulted in the approval of thousands of users who did not meet the company’s eligibility criteria or whose accounts should have otherwise been flagged.
The results of the FINRA investigation come as Robinhood is planning to move forward with an initial public offering, or IPO. However, the firm is currently under scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, reportedly resulting in the delay of the company going public. Robinhood initially planned to launch its IPO this month but has reportedly postponed the offering to July.
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Sarah Levy referred to the company considering "a long-term buy and hold the asset as a smaller portion of a portfolio, rather than as sort of a trading opportunity short term.”
Betterment, a U.S.-based financial advisory company with roughly $30 billion under management, is mulling offering crypto investment opportunities for its customers.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance released today, CEO Sarah Levy said the company had been searching for ways to offer Betterment customers a means to add crypto to their portfolios given the growing interest in the digital asset space. She added that though the market was volatile, it may still offer long-term investment opportunities to those who were properly informed about the space.
"Personally, I'm a big fan of crypto and I think it's a really interesting asset class to add into the mix," said the CEO. “What we're doing is really trying to figure out: Is there a way that we can offer crypto with a guided wrapper so that we can help educate along the way?"
Levy added:
"I think how that will manifest itself will be more through a lens of a long-term buy and hold the asset as a smaller portion of a portfolio, rather than as sort of a trading opportunity short term.”
Levy’s comments come one month after she said Betterment was in a “watch-and-learn mode” over offering crypto to its customers. At the time, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) and major cryptocurrencies was significantly higher — the BTC price is roughly 38% lower at the time of publication than when it was within reach of $60,000 in early May.
“I’d like us to find a way to responsibly offer crypto, but I can’t say that we’re there yet,” the CEO said at the time.
Founded in 2008, Betterment allows users to invest in stocks and bonds through its app. Though the company reported the number of its clients had increased 116% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2021, trading apps that allow users to deal in crypto assets have also seen substantial growth. At the end of March, Robinhood reported a 500% increase in users over that in the fourth quarter of 2020.
As Betterment mulls moving deeper into the crypto space, Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley has exposure through the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. As of April 30, the firm owned 28,298 shares of GBTC, totaling $828,565 at the current price of $29.28. However, Goldman Sachs seemingly reversed its position on digital asse in a report issued this month that claimed cryptocurrencies are not a "viable investment."
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The social media platform is giving away 140 free nonfungible tokens to 140 followers in a series of tweets that began on Wednesday.
Leading social media network Twitter launched a nonfungible token, or NFT, giveaway on Wednesday in a campaign that shined the spotlight on the evolution of the social media network.
Twitter announced Wednesday that it will give away 140 free NFTs to 140 of its followers. The tweet, which had already received over 13,000 likes at the time of publication, contained several follow-up messages with themed NFT drops.
In a follow-up post, Twitter offered its “Vitamin T” NFT, which consists of a prescription medicine bottle being filled with blue pills sporting the Twitter logo.
An NFT called “First Born” featured Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweet from 2006, where he famously declared, “Just setting up my twittr.” As Cointelegraph reported back in March, Dorsey sold a tokenized version of his genesis tweet for a staggering $2.9 million.
The Twitter CEO is one of crypto’s biggest advocates, having declared Bitcoin (BTC) “probably the best” native currency of the internet. Dorsey’s mobile payments outfit, Square, has also added BTC to its balance sheet. At 8,027 BTC, Square is the third-largest corporate holder of Bitcoin behind MicroStrategy and Tesla.
Safe-haven rivals move inversely to one another in a quarter mired by mixed inflation reports, Elon Musk FUD, and a suddenly hawkish Federal Reserve.
Gold is set to outperform Bitcoin (BTC) in the second quarter of 2021.
An ounce of gold has surged from $1,707.45 on April 1 to over $1,750 in the still-running June 30 session. That marked a roughly 3.9% jump over the quarter. Meanwhile, Bitcoin has plunged by more than 40% to below $35,000 after topping out near $65,000 in mid-April, all in the same period.
The inverse correlation between Bitcoin and gold markets surged specifically in April and May 2021. Analysts at JPMorgan noted in May that large institutional investors rotated their money out of the overvalued crypto markets to seek upside opportunities in gold.
Referring to the Bitcoin Futures data on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), JPMorgan analysts said that investors have been liquidating their positions from as back as October 2020. Meanwhile, capital inflows into gold-enabled exchange-traded funds have increased in correspondence to Bitcoin market outflows. An excerpt from the report reads:
"The bitcoin flow picture continues to deteriorate and is pointing to continued retrenchment by institutional investors. Over the past month, bitcoin futures markets experienced their steepest and more sustained liquidation since the bitcoin ascent started last October."
Bitcoin and gold trended almost inversely in the first two months of Q2. Source: TradingView.com
The bank noted that institutional investors may have treated Bitcoin as an overbought asset, especially as the flagship cryptocurrency surged from $3,858 in March 2020 to just shy of $65,000 by April 2021—a 1,584% gain. Meanwhile, gold topped out at $2,075.82 per ounce in August 2020, after which it dropped to as low as $1,676.866 an ounce in March.
On May 19, right after Musk doubled down his attack on the Bitcoin market, stating that he might have Tesla unload its entire $1.5 billion BTC stash, Bitcoin crashed by roughly 30%. The bearish bias increased also after China announced a complete ban on cryptocurrency activities, including mining-related operations that contributed a large chunk of the Bitcoin network's total computing power.
Bitcoin closed the May session at a 35.5% loss. On the other hand, gold benefited from the FUDs in the crypto market, rising 7.6% in the same month.
Investors picked gold over Bitcoin as a safer haven also as they feared higher inflation is around the corner. As a result, the precious metal surged 3.78% in April as consumer prices in the US rose at their best momentum in over a decade, to 4.2%. The next month—as stated above—saw gold continuing its rally alongside a similar upside tick in the consumer price index, which surged to 5%.
Core PCE, the Federal Reserve's preferred metric to gauge inflation, jumped to at an annual rate of 3.4% in May, the highest in 29 years.
Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman, appeared adamant about the rising inflation as he called the price rises "transitory in nature." He further stressed that the central bank would maintain its expansionary fiscal programs to protect the U.S. economy against the economic aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.
Fed has been keeping interest rates near zero and has been purchasing $120 billion worth of government bonds and mortgage-backed securities every month since March 2020.
Bloody June
June appeared as the only month in the second quarter that saw Bitcoin and gold trending in tandem.
Bitcoin and gold attained a positive correlation in June against Fed's surprising hawkish tone. Source: TradingView.com
The assets traded flat in days approaching the Federal Open Market Committee's two-day policy meeting in June's second week. Fed officials announced that they might hike interest rates twice by the end of 2023, a year earlier than anticipated, to contain excessive inflation rates.
Both Bitcoin and gold fell in tandem after the Fed's hawkish tone. Gold, in particular, looked at prospects of logging its worth monthly performance in June since 2016. It was down 7.42% at publishing time.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin had fallen by more than 8.5% in the same period.
What's next for Bitcoin and gold?
A survey of leading economists conducted by Financial Times found that a majority of them expect the Fed to raise interest rates at least twice by the end of 2023, aligning accurately with the central bank officials' dot plot.
Economists expect 50 basis point higher rates by December 2023. Source: Financial Times
Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank AG, recommended watching the US dollar to gauge gold's strength in the coming sessions, noting that June's major drag on the precious metal appeared because of a strengthening greenback.
The U.S. dollar index, a benchmark to measure the dollar's strength against a basket of top fiat currencies, rose to a one-week high at 92.433 on Wednesday.
US dollar index reaches one-week high as gold falls. Source: TradingView.com
"Gold repeatedly failed to overcome the 100-day moving average in recent days, which was a bearish sign," Fritsch told Bloomberg. "There is a risk now that so far, patient ETF investors jump on the bandwagon and sell their holdings. This would amplify the downward move.”
At the same time, Bitcoin bulls received similar warnings as the cryptocurrency grappled repeatedly with the risks of falling below $30,000, a psychological support level.
Jill Carlson, a venture partner at Slow Ventures, told CNBC that institutional outflows from the Bitcoin markets had picked momentum recently, adding that traders need to be "cautiously bullish" on the cryptocurrency.
Clem Chambers, the CEO of financial analysis portal ADFVN.com, predicted another leg down for Bitcoin, noting that breaking below $30,000 would put the cryptocurrency on the path toward $20,000.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
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