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Elon Musk and Beeple comment on SNL latest NFT segment

The latest “crypto trend” has been parodied by the comedy show Saturday Night Live, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). In a segment explaining these tokens, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, played by Kate McKinnon and Eminem, parodied by Pete Davidson come together to answer the question everyone seems to be asking, what are NFTs?

With a running time of almost 2 minutes, the segment uses a cover of the popular rap song, “Without Me,” performed by Davidson’s character. Throughout the song, various characters explain the characteristics of NFTs and emphasize at what price some of these digital works have been sold.

At the moment, SNL’s Twitter post has almost 900,000 views and 17,800 likes. In total, the segment has been shared by more than 6,000 users and has received comments from various personalities within and outside the crypto space. Some consider that the market may have ” topped out”.

NFTs’ popularity, a top signal?

Highly active on this platform, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk was quick to respond, along with one of those responsible for starting the “NFTs craze”, Mike “beeple” Winkelmann. This artist was the first to participate in an auction of one of his works with Christie’s and managed to sell it for $69 million, which he received in ETH. News of the event has been endlessly replicated in the traditional media.

However, NFT investor and collector Aftab Hossain stated on Twitter that NFTs entry into the mainstream does not necessarily point to future depression in the crypto market. Via his Twitter account, Hossain stated:

remember not every sign of adoption is a top signal recalibrate your “top-detector” for a world where crypto is increasingly being *used* by the mainstream and #NFTs as a use case (once issued) don’t rely on ICO project teams to create apps, etc. They just exist as assets

Drawing a distinction between “speculative trends” and the potential of the technology behind NFTs, the investor did not rule out that some projects based on the latter could lose value. Despite that, Hossain believes that NFTs are part of a technology capable of delivering value and utility to the crypto ecosystem. The investor added:

 (as we saw with 2017 ICO hopes and almost no useful apps then) so far, the utility of NFTs is not to be a high quantity game- especially when it comes to art, but L2s like Immutable X will allow for far greater quantity, which will especially be useful for creating in-game items/economies

Ethereum is trading at $1,707 with gains of 1.1% on the 24-hour chart. After a week of losses (-6.0%), ETH seems to be showing signs of recovery.

Ethereum ETH NFT
ETH reclaiming support in the 24-hour chart. Source: ETHUSD Tradingview
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This is why billion-dollar companies are building on VeChain

VeChain has been among the best performers in the crypto market on almost every chart. VET has posted an increase of over 2,800% in one year. Part of the reason for its rally has been the numerous partnerships that it has consolidated and VeChain’s team continues to advertise.

The Strategic Advisor of VeChain, Jackson Fu, has tallied up all the partnerships in an attempt to explain what has motivated these billion-dollar companies to join the platform. Geared towards corporate implementation, VeChain has managed to deliver strategies and solutions that according to, Fu, allows its partners to run businesses at scale. Fu adds:

VeChainThor public blockchain is already looking like the number 1 choice for businesses building real world products. VeChain has consistently managed to solve mass adoption hurdles, such as preventing unstable transaction fees with its VET-VTHO two-token model and eliminating the threat of congestion with its scalable network that proactively adjusts itself in response to network usage.

Fu believes that the Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform offered by VeChain to its customers, ToolChain, allows them to build and deploy “highly customizable” solutions.  In addition, VeChain has deployed new protocols that reduce problems suffered by other blockchain, for example, fee delegation.

This allows an entity to cover the gas fee costs for several users, decreasing congestion on the network. Thus, VeChain has expanded its adoption cases. Fu said:

allowing dApp owners and businesses to pay the gas fees of their users and opening up dApps to the masses. VeChain excels at identifying and addressing business needs. This proficiency is reflected by the calibre of channel partners and companies they do business with.

Different sectors implement VeChain solutions

Some of the partnerships VeChain has been able to secure include that formed with FoodGates, ASI and DNV for an International Food and Beverage Trade Platform; the partnership with Walmart China and Sam’s Club for a Food Traceability Platform; the construction of the C-Secure platform with the giant Bayer to manage clinical trials, among many others. Fu adds:

This list is by no means exhaustive, the above represent just a few of the varied scenarios in which the VeChainThor blockchain can be utilized. As demand for public blockchain picks up pace this year and beyond, VeChain’s proven technology and successful business applications will surely see it becoming the world’s first mass adopted public-blockchain.

VET trades at $0,09 with important gains of 113% over the past month. In the weekly chart, VET registers 12.9% gains and 4.8% in the 24-hour chart.

VeChain VET
VET with impressive gains over the past year. Source: VETUSDT Tradingview
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Cardano on the cusp of a major milestone, will ADA make a big move?

Following the Cardano 360 event, the platform developer Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) has published a summary of the key points. In addition to showing a demo of a decentralized exchange like Uniswap running on Plutus, IOHK confirmed the date for “D-Day”.

Slated for March 31, Cardano’s developer announced that on this date they will hand over full control of block production to community stake pool operators. Therefore, the D-parameter, a metric that measures Cardano’s decentralization, will be reduced to 0. IOHK announced:

D-DAY CONFIRMED: Today, we have just successfully submitted an updated proposal to the #Cardano blockchain, handing over full responsibility for block production to the stake pool operator community on March 31st. This is what #Decentralization looks like. Onward!

Thus, embracing full decentralization. Cardano’s network has over 375,000 delegators and 2,350 registered pools. Cardano’s blockchain, migrated in 2020 to a consensus protocol based on Proof-of-Stake, is in its last epoch before the milestone. Cardano’s inventor Charles Hoskinson stated: “Been one hell of a journey”.

In parallel, IOHK stated that more than 1,200 developers are creating applications for Cardano and expect an increase with the LLVM which will give “universality” to smart contracts deployed on this platform.

Plutus, the smart contract platform, is expected to be deployed on Cardano’s third Hard Fork Combinator event Alonzo. This will occur at some point in June, following Plutus testnet due to take place in the coming months. In addition, Silvu Petricescu and Gerard Moroney, Directors of Operations and Strategy at IOHK, reveal a partnership program:

Partner strategy is actually a key element of our broader strategy which is the differentiation strategy for Plutus. What we want to achieve is basically have these professional developers complement the work that the pioneer’s program is going to help us do and achieve. So we are going to fast-track our quality assurance and testing process towards the next Hard Fork.

ADA’s short-term outlook

According to IntoTheBlock’s In/Out of the Money Around Price (IOMAP) metric, an approximate 144,000 addresses bought 3.9 billion ADA at levels between $1.12 and $1.16. Therefore, ADA’s price presents a critical support level in that area.

Cardano ADA
Source: IntoTheBlock

Analyst John Isige predicts a 21% increase in ADA’s price to $1.35 if the cryptocurrency manages to validate by closing the gap in the referenced overbought zone. Isige stated:

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) reinforced the uptrend after recovering from the oversold region. Cardano’s momentum to $1.35 is bound to continue.

ADA trades at $1,18 with moderate losses in the 24-hour chart and sideways movement in the last hour. During the past weeks, ADA has followed the general market sentiment and present an 8.3% loss.

ADA moving sideways in the 24-hour chart. Source: ADAUSDT Tradingview
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Why former OCC head Brooks thinks Bitcoin is stronger than U.S. dollar

In an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, former head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Brian Brooks, spoke about the regulatory hurdles for Bitcoin. Referring to a recent speech given by the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Brooks stated that people have “migrated to Bitcoin” because of the risk of inflation in the U.S. dollar.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell gave a speech at the Bank of International Settlements Innovation Summit, claiming Bitcoin could be a substitute for gold. However, Powell’s statements were contradictory, asserting that the precious metal is not a store of value, like the U.S. dollar.

The former OCC chief claimed that the Fed has increased the money supply by 40%, therefore, that country’s currency has become “at least 40% less good as a store of value.” Brooks then highlighted the difference and possible fundamental weakness in the dollar:

The dollar may not actually be backed by anything … cryptocurrencies actually are backed by something. They’re backed by underlying networks and what you are buying when you buy a crypto tokens, whether is Bitcoin or anything else, is you are buying a piece of a financial network build to transact all kinds of stuff.

Over the past two years, the market and technology behind cryptocurrencies have matured. Brooks believes this explains the rise in the market capitalization of this sector to nearly $2 trillion. The former OCC chief added:

I think there are forces of the future at work and forces of the status quo. I think the crowds are telling you that this networks are where finances are going in the future…

Americans will push for Bitcoin’s adoption

For Brooks, Bitcoin’s value also lies in having demonstrated that its use case could be met without financial institutions. Therefore, the adoption of the cryptocurrency goes beyond speculation, Brooks added:

Bitcoin was the first token to show you that finance could be done on a networked basis as opposed to at the bank … there was $61B worth of bitcoin transacted yesterday is because that network has been adopted by people who used to go to the bank.

Innovation in the crypto market has faced opposition from regulators such as the SEC and the Fed. Brooks believes that even if U.S. authorities try to stop Bitcoin, U.S. citizens will exert enough pressure for it to gain regulatory approval. Comparing Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to the on-demand transportation service Uber, Brooks said:

You can absolutely fight City Hall. Remember, every mayor and every taxicab commissioner tried to stop Uber. But 50 million Americans wanted it and now we have it. It’s going to be the same thing with crypto.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $56,012 with 4.7% gains in the 24-hour chart. In the last week, Bitcoin has retraced (-3.5%) to the low ranges of $50,000 but seems to have regained important bullish momentum.

Bitcoin BTC
BTC with moderates gains in the 24-hour chart. Source: BTCUSD Tradingview
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How Filecoin is up 50% in a week and could take more profits

After a week of significant gains, Filecoin (FIL) is shaping up to become one of the biggest earning cryptocurrencies of the month. Journalist Colin Wu has recorded increasing interest in the cryptocurrency and its file-sharing platform:

Filecoin surpassed $100, benefiting a large number of Chinese miners and investors. Reasons: the first investor token will be released over, Coinbase launched new storage tokens, the dual mining test of Filecoin and LPT started, the cooperation between Filecoin and LINK, etc. (…) A lot of Chinese funds are entering this industry.

Grayscale announcement and Chainlink’s partnership

With an annualized fee of 2.5% and $1.3 million in assets under management, investment firm Grayscale announced its Filecoin-based trust. The firm’s product will hold 16,000 outstanding shares that will be worth 0.99 FIL per share.

Another announcement around Filecoin that has positively impacted its price was consolidated with Chainlink. The cooperation will allow Filecoin’s integration with Chainlink’s oracle service to form “a bi-directional connection”:

As a result, smart contract developers will have a full Web 3.0 infrastructure stack including blockchains for on-chain logic and state changes, Chainlink oracles for off-chain communication and computation, and Filecoin for decentralized storage and data solutions.

In Grayscale’s latest report, the firm reported $40.3 billion in assets under management. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) continues as the largest product with $34 billion of that total, followed by the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (GETH) with $5 billion.

Filecoin has managed to make significant gains, as mentioned, over the past week with a 27% rise to stand at an all-time high of $115. On the weekly and monthly charts, FIL shows gains of 177.1% and 229% respectively.

Filecoin FIL
Filecoin with strong upside momentum. Source: FILEUSDT Tradingview

The partnerships that have merged on Filecoin’s platform have given it the momentum to defy the downtrend negatively affecting Bitcoin’s price. Investors’ confidence in China and more buying pressure from Grayscale’s product might continue to push FIL’s price to new highs.

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Why is Bloomberg predicting a Bitcoin price at 400K in 2021?

Bitcoin has picked up its bullish momentum in the last 24 hours. High levels of Institutional adoption, fundamentals, and on-chain indicators look bullish and point to an extension of the rally, at least, in the long term.

In a recent report, Senior Commodity Strategist for Bloomberg Intelligence, Mike McGlone, states that Bitcoin is in a “transition phase.” As a result, the benchmark cryptocurrency could move from being a “risk asset” to become a global reserve asset.

Comparing the “rhythm” of Bitcoin’s 2017 bull market to the current one, McGlone estimates that Bitcoin’s price could peak at about $400,000 by the end of the year. In the chart below, he notes a correlation between surges in the cryptocurrency’s price and a rise in its Liquidity Index.

Bitcoin BTC
Source: Bloomberg Intelligence

In late 2020 and early 2021, it can be seen how the latter metric has seen two significant growths. Recent Bitcoin price action and the approval of several Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) in Canada have had an impact on Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). This product has been one of the most favored for institutional adoption.

However, its premium has trended lower in recent days. On the relationship between BTC’s price and the drop in GBTC’s premium, McGlone concludes:

Bullish underpinnings for GBTC are gaining legs, as it outpaced Tesla by almost 50% this year. The increasing probability for Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. is supporting the price…but contributing to the GBTC discount.

Where is Bitcoin price heading in the short term?

In the short term, the sideways trend Bitcoin price has seen recently could change and shift in the bulls’ favor. A “massive” amount of GBTC shares will be “unlocked” in the immediate future. The benchmark cryptocurrency could benefit, as analyst Ben Lily stated:

Which is creating a lot of uncertainty to its future. What I’d like to remind readers is each time a wave of large unlockings hit, not only does bitcoin’s spot price rise, but the share price of the Trust gains in value with respect to its underlying holdings (NAV). If we ignore the fact it’s at a discount then the likelihood of this measure to rise based on history is batting one-thousand-perfect.

Bitcoin’s Stock to Flow model creator, Plan B, has published estimates that coincide with Bloomberg’s analyst’s forecasts. In his latest chart based on the referenced controversial model, Bitcoin’s price could approach $500,000 by the end of 2021.

Bitcoin is trading at $53,657 with gains of 3.4% on the last day. Although the monthly chart shows gains of 10.1%, the weekly chart is in the red with losses of 7.5%. The market capitalization stands at $1.01 trillion.

Bitcoin BTC
BTC picking bullish momentum in the 24-hour chart. Source: BTCUSD Tradingview
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What’s Sushiswap cooking? Holders prepare for upside move

Decentralized exchange Sushiswap has not lagged behind Uniswap Labs’ v3 announcement. In an official post, they have introduced new products called BentoBox and Kashi Lending. Now, users of the platform have a new tool to maximize their earnings:

BentoBox is a vault, serving as a decentralized “App Store” where you can deposit assets within to enable other Dapps. We are excited to announce that Kashi is our first Dapp within BentoBox, a margin trading platform powered by its lending protocol, allowing users to create lending token pairs of a wide range of however they perceive could optimize returns.

BentoBox will allow its users to generate profits from flash loans and other strategies that build on the product, according to the release. Kashi will be the instrument that will allow the use of tokens stored in BentoBox:

for lending, borrowing, and most importantly, one-click leverage trading transactions.

This announcement coincides with data shared by analyst Ali Martinez, recording an increase in development activity related to the Sushiswap during the last week. As shown in the image below, development activity has been increasing since the beginning of March until reaching a peak on the 13th of this month.

Simultaneously, the analyst has indicated a distribution chart of SUSHI holders indicates that “insiders may be preparing for a bullish impulse”. In the past two days, addresses holding the SUSHI token have grown by 8.10% from 10,000 to 100,000.

In anticipation of a possible bull-run, 15 new “mid-sized” whales have taken a position in SUSHI, since March 24. As a result, buying pressure on SUSHI has shown a significant increase. These investors seem to be confident that SUSHI’s price will prolong its rally in the coming days.

Sushiswap (SUSHI) outperforms UNI

Over the last day, according to DeFi Pulse data, Sushiswap has had a 0.64% increase in total value locked (TVL) to rank 6th in the top 10 DeFi protocols. In contrast, Uniswap has had a 3.40% growth in the same period.

However, governance token SUSHI has seen higher growth in the last 24 hours with gains of 12.3%. On the weekly chart, losses still stand at 16.6%, but on the monthly chart, gains are at 12.4%.

SUSHI on a bullish trajectory in the 24-hour chart. Source: SUSHIUSDT Tradingview

UNI shows gains of 4.7% on the last day and trades at $28.42. In the short term, SUSHI holders may still face significant resistance. IntoTheBlock’s Global In/Out of the Money metric indicates that around 5,200 directions bought 87 million SUSHI in the high $10 range. These investors could take profit at current levels.

Sushiswap SUSHI
Source: IntoTheBlock
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¿Gaming for profit? This Ethereum based protocol enables it

Conceived as a bridge between Bitcoin and decentralized finance on Ethereum, Badger DAO protocol has expanded its investment strategies. As of today, users will be able to profit from yielding NFTs by participating in its new “game”.

Using one of Badger DAO’s products called Honeypot part I, participants can farm NFTs for staking bBadger or BAdger UNI tokens. Thus, they were allowed to obtain 1 of the 6 NFTs needed to get a prize of up to $30,000.

Now, the team behind the protocol launched “the most gamified experience to date”. Via a partnership with MEME, they have deployed Honeypot part II: Diamond Hands. With a mechanism intended to “level the playing field,” this second version of the product promises to deliver a portion of the prize to all holders of NFTs earned for playing.

In addition, the longer a player takes to redeem his NFT for a share of the winnings, the bigger his loot will be. This mechanic is intended to incentivize greater player participation and make them seek more rewards for playing longer.

Adding the power on the more common cards makes it so that the later you are to redeem the higher portion of the pool you will receive (shout out to tree.finance for the inspiration here). There is a massive disadvantage early but that dissipates as the final cards are being redeemed so, as they all become more scarce, the values of the different cards should converge.

Bitcoin on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain

The tokens that participants receive have “Redemption Power” (RP). The more of this a user accumulates with their NFT, the greater their reward. BadgerDAO team member Jon Tompkins said:

Redemption Power (RP) = relative portion of the pool you can claim with an NFT.  The lower the better! At any point until the last is NFT redeemed, lower RP = larger portion of redemption pool As redemptions occur and all NFTs become more scarce the RP disparity shrinks.

To obtain the NFTs, users must stake bDIGG tokens at the time of launch. Participants with more bDIGG staked will have more chances to receive the NFT.

Badger DAO is a protocol that operates on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain, its vaults allow users to mint synthetic versions of Bitcoin to offer liquidity and receive rewards. According to DeFi Pulse, Badger DAO is the 12th largest protocol by total value locked (TVL) and contains 9,177 BTC “locked” on its platform.

BADGER’s price, the protocol’s native token, shows significant losses all across the board. The lowest losses are registered on the last day with 2.9% and the most pronounced in the monthly chart with losses of 34.8%.

Ethereum ETH Badger DAO
BADGE follows the general sentiment in the market for the 24-hour chart. Source: BADGERUSDT Tradingview
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Microsoft deploys solution on Bitcoin, calls it the most secure network

Senior Product Manager for Decentralized Identity at Microsoft, Daniel Buchner, has confirmed the release of ION. Deployed on the Bitcoin mainnet, this solution is a permissionless public network for Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs).

Implemented on Bitcoin’s blockchain, it operates as a second-layer solution to support a DIDs/DPKI (Decentralized Public Key Infrastructure) at scale, according to its Github repository.

This project began four years ago, its purpose is to give individuals, organizations and others control over digital exchanges with DIDs. The ION uses a Sidetree protocol to anchor DID/DPKI transactions interacting on the network.

Each transaction is encoded with a hash that allows ION nodes to categorize, store, process, and fetch the transactions associated with a specific DID. Buchner stated in the official release:

We are excited to share that v1 of ION is complete and has been launched on Bitcoin mainnet. We have deployed an ION node to our production infrastructure and are working together with other companies and organizations to do so as well. ION does not rely on centralized entities, trusted validators, or special protocol tokens – ION answers to no one but you, the community. Because ION is an open, permissionless system, anyone can run an ION node, in fact the more nodes in operation, the stronger the network becomes.

Why did Microsoft decide to use Bitcoin’s blockchain?

The ION network is connected to Bitcoin with the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) and does not require an additional consensus mechanism.  Its nodes can process “tens of thousands of transactions per second.” Interested users can start generating their DIDs without having to use BTC or run an ION node on their own.

In the project’s FAQ section, the ION team rates Bitcoin as the most secure blockchain on two metrics: production of a single, independent, immutable record with no way to reverse it; inexpensive cost of attacking the system. Microsoft’s ION team stated:

Bitcoin is so far beyond all other options, it isn’t even close – Bitcoin is the most secure option by an absurdly large margin.

In terms of cost, Buchner said the solution’s protocol “It’s skewed toward bandwidth and storage.” Thus, it can support 40 billion DIDs in 2 TB of memory space with a lightweight configuration for the nodes. Buchner said the following via his Twitter handle:

This is the culmination of 10 years of work, beginning in 2011 when a few of us at Mozilla set aside some of our time to explore the core concepts of Decentralized Identity. Microsoft ultimately provided the opportunity to realize this dream, and for that I am eternally grateful.

MicroStrategy’s CEO Michael Saylor welcomed the announcement and predicted that similar second-layer solutions will be released more frequently on Bitcoin. Their use cases will be broad and applied in people’s daily lives.

Bitcoin trades at $52,347 showing a slight recovery in the 1-hour chart with 1.5% gains. On the 24-hour chart, losses are at 5.6% following an 11.1% correction on the 7-day chart.

Bitcoin BTC
Bitcoin registers slight gains in the 1-hour chart. Source: BTCUSD Tradingview
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Can Uniswap v3 prevent forks? Top lawyer breakdowns its license

After the release of Uniswap v2 in May 2020, several competitors for the DEX emerged, forking its codebase, launching new incentives, and their own governance model to attract users. Sushiswap is perhaps the most important.

To prevent something similar, the third iteration of the automated market maker will be released with a Business Source License 1.1. The license will expire after two years unless the community decides to accelerate its expiration. It will then adopt a GPL 2.0 open-source license.

With a tentative deployment date of May 5, General Counsel for Compound Finance, Jake Chervisnsky, believes it is possible that Uniswap v3 could prevent further forks, for a trade-off.

Chervinsky señala que es importante que los protocolos de finanzas descentralizadas operen con licencias de código abierto. Sin embargo, indica que la licencia de negocio de Uniswap no será “inútil” como muchos piensan. El experto afirmó:

This is where people say “good luck enforcing copyright against anon devs,” as if Uniswap’s BSL 1.1 license is useless. Wrong, for a few reasons. First, most dev teams aren’t fully anonymous. Like it or not, anonymity is tough to maintain, especially when a project succeeds.

In addition, Chervinsky said that the developers of a successful project have a difficult time remaining anonymous and indicated that they may not be the only targets in a potential lawsuit based on U.S. law.

The Uniswap Labs team could go after a third party that violates the license by choosing to integrate the fork. This includes exchanges, decentralized exchange aggregators, investors, liquidity providers, market makers, among others. The possibilities for lawsuits are broad and “It just depends how aggressive they want to be,” the lawyer said.

Adding that the “threat” of a lawsuit could be enough to enforce the license and prevent a fork of the code, the lawyer believes that litigation could be just part of Uniswap Labs’ defense arsenal without ever having to pursue it. Chervinsky cited the opinion of his colleague Collins Belton:

Ultimately, suing someone isn’t only way for legal remedies to have force. It’s also why I have to unfortunately highlight to some people that just because you *can* sue someone and win doesn’t mean it’s smart to do so (e.g. getting buried in costs and bankrupt before winning).

In conclusion, the value of the license could go beyond suing everyone who attempts to fork the decentralized exchange. Chervinsky predicts a future in which other protocols adopt a similar strategy.

The trade-off for this action could be increased centralization and reputational damage to the DEX. However, The lawyer believes that a “well-calibrated” legal strategy could be beneficial. He also highlighted that one of the license best aspects is the ability for UNI token holders to revoke it. Chervinsky added:

Given all this, I think it’s premature to say BSL 1.1 should be the new standard for every DeFi project in every circumstance. “Uniswap did it, so we should too” may seem tempting, but the reality is every project is different & very few are positioned as well as Uniswap.

UNI follows a bearish trend

UNI trades at $26.91 with a 12.2% correction on the 24-hour chart. In the last weeks, UNI’s losses stand at $14.8%.

Uniswap UNI
UNI with negative performance in the 24-hour chart. Source: UNIUSD Tradingview
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Goldman Sachs files for a ETF with option to invest in Bitcoin

According to a document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), banking giant Goldman Sachs has petition approval for a new Exchange Tradable Fund (ETF) with the option to add exposure to Bitcoin.

With an ARK innovation structure and a March 19, 2021 filing date, the financial product would be called Autocallable Contingent Coupon Coupon ETF-Linked Notes. Maturing on March 26, 2026, the product proposed by Goldman Sachs contemplates:

The ETF is an actively managed exchange-traded fund that will invest under normal circumstances primarily (at least 65% of its assets) in domestic and foreign equity securities of companies that are relevant to the ETF’s investment theme of disruptive innovation.

The fund’s primary investment strategy considers “companies” or disruptive technologies to be those that rely on and benefit from “products or services under development”. In addition, these “companies” may belong to multiple sectors (energy, transportation, genomics, among others) with scientific research that supports them. The document states:

The ETF may have exposure to cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin, indirectly through an investment in a grantor trust. The ETF’s exposure to cryptocurrency may change over time and, accordingly, such exposure may not always be represented in the ETF’s portfolio.

In addition to Bitcoin, the bank’s proposed product will invest in Fintech innovation companies, “next-generation” internet companies, artificial intelligence, energy transformation, and automation transformation entities. The ETF could also give exposure to Bitcoin to third parties, as the document indicates:

The ETF is permitted to lend its portfolio securities to brokers, dealers and other financial institutions desiring to borrow securities to complete transactions, in pursuing arbitrage opportunities or hedging strategies or for other similar purposes. In connection with such loans, the ETF receives liquid collateral equal to at least 102% of the value of the portfolio securities being lent. This collateral is marked to market on a daily basis.

Banking institutions continue to increase their stake in Bitcoin

Just a few days ago, Morgan Stanley announced that it will give exposure to Bitcoin to its clients. Interested investors must have more than $5 million in an account at the bank.

The exposure will be granted by giving access to three funds, in partnership with crypto firm Galaxy Digital and FS NYDIG will enable the product.

Bitcoin price records moderate losses on the one-day chart with 3.3%, trading at $54,257. In the last week, losses stand at 6.7% with 8% on the 30-day chart.

Bitcoin BTC
Bitcoin registers moderate losses on the 24-hour chart. Source: BTCUSD Tradingview
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Why Cardano’s Hoskinson is referring to a bug that forced a Bitcoin fork?

Input-Output Global CEO Charles Hoskinson announced that he has prepared his segment for the highly anticipated Cardano 360 event. In the mysterious post, Hoskinson hinted at a bug that allowed a hacker to mint 184 billion Bitcoin.

Known as the “Value Overflow Incident”, the bug was recorded in August 2010 and forced Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto to fork Bitcoin’s blockchain to “delete” the generated BTC. These were sent to two separate addresses.

A few hours after the event, a new version of the Bitcoin client was released and the chain considered “good” overtook the “bug blockchain” at block height 74691. The BTCs created by the bad actor ceased to exist.

In the image presented by Hoskinson, other tabs are also visible in his browser. This refers to smart contracts and the platform that will support them on Cardano’s blockchain, Plutus. Some users speculate that the reference to the “Value Overflow Incident” is a nod to the “double-spending” accusation that “Cardano never had” a few days ago.

In an earlier post, Hoskinson told “Cardano fans” that the event would be full of important announcements:

Cardano Fans, you’re really going to want to tune in to March’s Cardano 360 Episode. It’s going to be action-packed!

Agenda for Cardano 360

Led by IOHK’s Director of Marketing and Communications, Tim Harrison, and Aparna Jue, Product Director at IOHK, Cardano 360 is a monthly event where they give news on the development of the ecosystem.

Bring yer own cushion and don’t worry. If you can’t stick around, we’ll be dicing and slicing it and serving it up throughout next week in bite-size chunks.

In the comments section, the majority of the community asked for more news on the deployment of Alonso and Plutus. Harrison also announced the conclusion of his segment for the event, and stated: “that there will be lots coming down the line”. He also confirmed that there will be updates on Cardano’s DeFi capabilities.

The event will start at 17:30 UTC, Input-Output Global further confirmed that partners, team members, and the community will participate. In addition, it is expected that there will be an update on everything that has happened since the deployment of Hard Fork Combinator “Mary”.

ADA’s price is showing losses of 1.8% on the last day chart. In the last month, Cardano’s native cryptocurrency only registers gains of 1.6%, showing little reaction to its Coinbase listing and the hype of the event happening tomorrow.

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Why these analysts predict a Bitcoin’s price at $80,000 by April?

With Bitcoin’s price barely holding above its support level, indicators are turning more bullish. After this period of sideways movement, BTC could be poised for a big upside move soon.

Glassnode co-founders Yann Allemann and Jan Happel have shared data from the firm that points to a high appreciation in BTC price. This is due to the expiration of $6 billion in options contracts set to mature this Friday. Allemann and Happel stated:

Bitcoin price expectations for April are high with lots of investors placing their new bets on $80k.

Bitcoin BTC
Source: Glassnode

As the image above shows, a large portion of investors on Deribit’s platform are confident that the cryptocurrency’s price will settle at those levels. Similarly, there is also a high volume of calls for a Bitcoin price at $120,000 for the same date, April 30th.

Does Elon Musk influence Bitcoin’s price?

In support of the bull case, Glassnode’s Reserve Risk metrics indicate “strong long-term holder conviction” in the current price. The firm stated in a recent report, pointing at big support for BTC’s to take a big jump:

The current risk/reward ratio to invest and hodl is still attractive compared to previous $BTC cycle tops. Current level: 0.008, Precious tops: > 0.02

Earlier, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk announced that his company began accepting payments in BTC. The entrepreneur made two additional major disclosures: the company runs its own Bitcoin nodes, profits will be held in Bitcoin. Musk stated:

Tesla is using only internal & open-source software & operates Bitcoin nodes directly. Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency.

Analyst William Clemente believes Musk’s announcement strategically coincides with the $6 billion of options set to expire in a few days. Clemente believes that many investors will see their contracts expire worthlessly and on platforms that back their options with physical Bitcoin, bearish investors could buy more BTC “to cover their losses.” Clemente added:

It is worth mentioning that some of these puts are just hedging downside risk, more so referring to positions solely on the short end of the trade that don’t get rolled over.

Bitcoin price is at $56,904 with slight gains of 1.4% in the last day. On the 7-day chart, the cryptocurrency shows losses of 1.4%. The market capitalization stands at $1.4 trillion.

Bitcoin with slight gains in the 24-hour chart. Source: BTCUSD Tradingview
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Software Engineer Warns NFTs are Built on a “House of Cards”

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital assets that represent a range of unique real-world and intangible things. In recent times, digital NFT artwork has really taken off, thanks mostly to a string of high-profile sales.

The main selling point of NFTs is their scarcity. An implied benefit is that they will exist forever on the blockchain. However, research conducted by Jonty Wareing shows this may not be the case.

Wareing examined the blockchain data of two well-known NFTs and discovered they consist of either a URL address or IPFS hash. In other words, the existence of those NFTs depends on the marketplace seller staying in business.

“Short version: The NFT token you bought either points to a URL on the internet, or an IPFS hash. In most circumstances it references an IPFS gateway on the internet run by the startup you bought the NFT from. Oh, and that URL is not the media. That URL is a JSON metadata file.”

NFTs Built on Shaky Foundations

In the first instance, Wareing referred to a piece called CROSSROAD by Beeple via the Nifty Gateway marketplace.

It was a first for Nifty in that the NFT would change depending on the outcome of the U.S. election. CROSSROADS sold for $6.6mn in February this year.

CROSSROADS NFTs by Beeple

Source: niftygateway.com

Wareing noted that the NFT token for CROSSROADS is a JSON file hosted on Nifty Gateway servers. He stated that if Nifty Gateway stopped trading, CROSSROADS would also cease to exist. He concluded the piece would be worthless if that were to happen.

“THAT file refers to the actual media you just “bought”. Which in this case is hosted via a @cloudinary CDN, served by Nifty’s servers again. So if Nifty goes bust, your token is now worthless. It refers to nothing. This can’t be changed.”

Similarly, an examination of Beeple’s THE FIRST 5000 DAYS refers to an IFPS hash. In turn, this refers to a JSON metadata file referencing an IFPS gateway from NFT marketplace Makersplace.

Wareing’s View on NFTs

Both CROSSROADS and THE FIRST 5000 DAYS will exist as long as each marketplace seller stays in business. But there remains a nagging doubt that both Nifty Gateway and Makersplace will go out of business one day.

Wareing called this situation a “house of cards” and predicts every NFT sold will be “broken” within the next ten years. However, he stressed that this is not the case for every NFT in existence.

“In short: Right now NFT’s are built on an absolute house of cards constructed by the people selling them. It is likely that _every_ NFT sold so far will be broken within a decade. Will that make them worthless? Hard to say.”

Software Engineer at Consenys, Sam Walker, agreed with Wareing’s assessment and thanked him for bringing the problem to light. Walker said he would use this information to improve tooling around IPFS and NFTs.

NFTs: Ethereum daily chart

Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com
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Bitcoin miners stop selling, why it is bullish for BTC?

Bitcoin is wobbling in a critical support zone. New indicators are bullish and point to a continuation in the rally.

Moskovski Capital CIO Lex Moskovski shared data from Glassnode showing that a trend in Bitcoin miners has reversed. Since the beginning of March, this sector began to increase its level of Bitcoin sales.

According to the chart shown by Moskovski, when miners’ BTC selling levels have risen, Bitcoin has moved sideways. The December 28 rally was preceded by high BTC buying by this sector. Although buying levels still remain low, Moskovski said:

Miners have stopped selling and began accumulating once again, on average. It seems they expect the price to go higher.

Bitcoin supply on exchanges continues to decrease

A change in miner sentiment coincides with an increase in the amount of Bitcoin that has left exchanges. Moskovski also records 9,077 BTC pulled from Coinbase’s platform. Analyst Willy Woo believes that institutions are responsible for the outflow of BTC from exchanges:

coins being scooped off exchanges (it’s mainly Coinbase, meaning a US entity, and at the scale of the withdrawal it’s likely an institutional yet to be announced buyer). (…) coins moving to strong hands with minimal history of selling.

Adding that Bitcoin traders shorting BTC have gone “cray-cray”. In support of the above, Glassnode records a decline in BTC supply on exchanges, analyst William Clemente said:

This is what absolute scarcity looks like. It doesn’t take a genius to see what’s happening. Supply/Demand 101.

The above events coincide with an estimated $6 billion in Bitcoin options to be expired on Friday. With a high accumulation on Deribit’s platform, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and FTX, among others. The last time $4 billion of Bitcoin options expired, the price of the cryptocurrency rose by 80%.

In the long term, the macroeconomic outlook still favors the cryptocurrency with a possible issuance of $3 trillion in debt by the U.S. Government. On miners activity MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor stated:

It is rational for publicly traded Bitcoin miners to become net purchasers of BTC rather than sellers.

Bitcoin trades at $54,747 with slight gains in the last day of 0.2%. On the 7-day chart, BTC records losses of 2.0% and 3.0% in the last month.

Bitcoin BTC
Bitcoin showing slight gains in the 24-hour chart. Source: BTCUSD Tradingview
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This Ethereum protocol could deliver high yields

In the midst of the recent days’ downtrend, there are still open opportunities for profits in the Ethereum ecosystem. Alpha Finance Lab team has announced its tokenomics with staking rewards for its users and new products based on the Alpha Homora protocol:

ALPHA token holders will benefit from the growth of all Alpha products, which include Alpha Homora (vEthereum), Alpha Homora (vBSC), Alpha Homora (v2), AlphaX, and many more innovative Alpha products that we are working on. ALPHA token holders will be an integral part of the growing multi-chain, Alpha ecosystem.

APLHA token holders will be able to earn “ecosystem-wide rewards” based on the core Protocol. Users will also be able to receive rewards regardless of whether Alpha’s product operates on a Layer 1 or Layer 2 solution.

In the announcement, the Alpha Finance Labs team clarified that stakers will be able to unlock new features and earn more rewards with the different “tiers” they have enabled.

This is one of the very first times that tokenomics is directly integrated with the usage of the core underlying protocols.

Depending on the amount of ALPHA staked, the user will have access to new tiers that will give them access to earn fees from across the entire ecosystem.

ALPHA stakers will also serve as the backbone of the expanding Alpha ecosystem, as the funds staked will help secure the ecosystem in case additional insurance is needed.

Interoperability with Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain

One of the benefits of Alpha Homora protocol’s native token is its interoperability in two major DeFi ecosystems. ALPHA is based on Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard and the Binance Smart Chain’s BEP-20 standard.

Without altering the overall supply of the token, The Alpha Finance Lab team enabled this option in response to the high demand ALPHA has seen. The announcement stated the following:

To meet demand for ALPHA (ERC-20) withdrawal from Binance, we’ll deposit 100M ALPHA (ERC-20) and withdraw 100M ALPHA (BEP-20) through Binance – main bridge between 2 token standards.

In response to the announcements, ALPHA has regained upward momentum and is trading near its all-time high at $2.08. On the one-day chart, ALPHA shows gains of 11.8% with a positive performance of 25.3% in the last week. Capital Allocator for Defiance Capital, Wangarian said on Alpha Homora’s token:

When properly designed, tokens serve to benefit both token holders and the underlying protocol. ALPHA has one of the most promising tokenomics I’ve seen to date. Incentives from all stakeholders are aligned with clear value accrual to the ALPHA token.
ALPHA with bullish momentum in the 24-hour chart. Source: ALPHAUSDT Tradingview

DeFi Pulse data indicates that the Alpha Homora protocol has $679 million in Total Value Locked (TVL) with an all-time high of $1.25 billion in this metric. On the last day, the protocol has lost 19.8% of its TVL, a downtrend that has been ongoing for the last 3 months.

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Uniswap v3 announced for May 5, best DEX design on the planet?

The third iteration of the decentralized exchange Uniswap (v3) has a mainnet deployment date of May 5. The official announcement confirmed a highly anticipated feature, support for the second layer solution Optimism Rollups.

This feature will be enabled at a later date. The official announcement focuses on another “groundbreaking new feature” that the Uniswap Labs team has dubbed Concentrated Liquidity Positions. This will allow users to:

Rather than being required to allocate capital across the entire price spectrum from 0 to infinity, each LP is given full control over what price ranges they wish to provide liquidity to.

Another new feature is multiple fee tiers that will allow liquidity providers (LPs) to receive rewards relative to the amount of risk they take. The third iteration of the decentralized exchange will allow LPs to take advantage of “greater flexibility”.

This will have multiple direct implications for liquidity providers: they will be able to participate with up to 4,000 times more capital efficiency than in Uniswap v2 and earn fees by limit order, according to the official announcement. Therefore, they will receive higher returns, Uniswap Labs’ team said:

Capital efficiency paves the way for low-slippage trade execution that can surpass both centralized exchanges and stablecoin-focused AMMs.

Uniswap v3 introduces license to prevent forks

Researcher for cryptocurrency investment firm Paradigm, Dan Robinson, claimed that Uniswap v3 has the “best DEX (decentralized exchange) design on the planet”. Robinson believes the newly announced features put Uniswap above the competition.

He added that in the future other automated market makers could be built on top of Uniswap v3:

By combining multiple positions, LPs can approximate arbitrary curves. Any static curve can be implemented on Uniswap v3 and efficiently aggregated with the rest of its liquidity.

This includes custom formulas like the ones used by Balancer and Curve, as well as ones that don’t have elegant formulas. This means that most existing DEXes could be built on top of Uniswap, but it also vastly expands the design space to previously unimaginable AMMs.

The first iteration of Uniswap was launched in 2018, the second in May 2020. Since then, trading volume on the automated market maker has surpassed that of large crypto exchanges. As somehow of a trade-off, other projects have forked the DEX.

To prevent similar actions, the new iteration will be released with a Business Source License 1.1. In theory, this should prevent other projects from forking Uniswap’s v3 codebase. The license will last for 2 years, then a GPL 2.0 license will be adopted permanently.

However, the community can vote to speed up this process or give “exceptions”, Uniswap Labs stated:

We strongly believe decentralized financial infrastructure should ultimately be free, open-source software. At the same time, we think the Uniswap community should be the first to build an ecosystem around the Uniswap v3 Core codebase.

Governance token UNI is trading at $33.62 with losses of 2.7% on the 24-hour chart. On the one-week chart, UNI has posted gains of 12.6%.

Uniswap UNI
UNI’s performance still not reacting to Uniswap v3. Source: UNIUSD Tradingview
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First NFT art created by robot-artist is available on Rarible

The Robonomics team that developed the fully autonomous Gaka-Chu artwork robot finally takes it into the NFT medium. From now on, Gaka-Chu becomes one of the only robots that create real art for the open NFT market. Gaka-Chu’s first artwork is to be auctioned on 23 March 2021 at 15:00 UTC on Rarible.com, a boutique NFT marketplace that is limited to industry-disrupting contributors and their art pieces. The marketplace only accepts top tier art pieces and therefore serves as proof of just how unique the robot-artist’s collection is. All Gaka-Chu’s creations purchased on Rarible will also be made available on the Opensea.io platform giving its new rights holders an additional channel to store, display and resell the sought after art pieces.

The NFT art medium is about to meet a robo artist, whose paintings open a new dimension to the world of real fine art, its distribution and authenticity.

Up until recently, the industry has been limited to digital artwork only but at the same time, it has seen nothing but an incredible rise in the demand for gifs and other types of pictures that not only hold value but make it grow too. The excitement that surrounds this burgeoning market is as endless as the creativity that it boasts and therefore, Gaka-Chu’s entrance serves as a key milestone to the fine art industry’s development. It is real, physical art that is closely linked to blockchain and in a way acts as its derivative. The original, physical artwork will be displayed at the ITMO University’s Art and Science Museum. 

Gaka-Chu 101

Gaka-Chu has been creating art for over 3 years now but it was never part of the non-fungible token movement before. Its tale started with calligraphy and then grew into fine art, since there is practically no limit to the creativity of the artist and Gaka-Chu’s capabilities. The technology of the painting process at glance is as follows:

  1. It all starts with the original design, created by an artist. 
  2. This artwork is then shown to Gaka-Chu which the robot scans and turns into the language that it understands. Think of it as an algorithm that takes physical art and re-imagines it in a digital form that eventually returns back to a physical form with an added NFT function.
  3. Once that is done, Gaka-Chu translates art into an array of dots and starts to create history. It calculates the number of strokes and optimises them to the amount of available paint and its colour range, required kinematics and the mechanics of all the necessary movements. 
  4. Finally, the finished art piece is attached to an Ethereum smart contract that serves as an official passport of the artwork and records all information about it, as well as all related transactions.

What separates Gaka-Chu from the rest, apart from the fact that it creates real fine art, is that it is self-managed and all its creations are captured on video, automatically triggered by the robot when it starts painting. These files are then attached to the smart contract and form part of the package that a client purchases. This way, the potential clients do not only get the finished artwork but also a record of how it has been created which adds even greater value to the piece and serves as an unprecedented addition to the NFT data. It is a transparency that goes beyond blockchain and complements it with a degree of real-life artwork creation. 

Token and its technicals

Gaka-Chu’s artwork and its subsequent tokens operate on the Ethereum blockchain. Once the artwork is complete, the framework on which the robot operates mints the token and populates it with all the necessary information on the art piece. The necessary information in question consists of three main pillars:

  • Trajectories record
  • Log of the completed work
  • Video of how the art piece was created

Next, this data is stored on IPFS since it can be kept there for an extended period of time. The Gaka-Chu framework autocompletes the metadata file and prompts a new token to be minted on the Ethereum mainnet, which is when the art piece becomes an asset with documentation that confirms its authenticity. At the same time, rarible.com and opensea.io, the largest NFT marketplaces in the world, automatically parse the data attached to the artwork and add it to their databases of NFT assets. This marks the completion of the creation process and opens Gaka-Chu’s art piece to the world, making it a sellable piece of timeless art that lives at the crossroads of digital, blockchain and art industry. 

What is all the noise about?

If you are not acquainted with the world of NFT art, then you should know that the actual artwork that exploded the industry was nothing short of, well, bland and common. Whilst the globally renowned Nyan Cat gif sold for nearly $600,000, other digital artwork valuations went even higher, peaking at the wholesome $69 million. The high-value pieces had one trait in common! There was always a physical component added to this blockchain-based art. Nevertheless, the rest remained conventional and strictly digital, although retaining uniqueness and scarcity.  

This is where Gaka-Chu stands above the market as it merges digital and physical worlds into one. A world where a fully autonomous robot creates unique art pieces and then self publishes its work on the NFT marketplaces. More so, each artwork does not only come with transferable rights to it, but the blockchain log of the painting process and a video that shows how exactly the artwork springs to life with every single one of Gaka-Chu’s strokes! 

Given that Gaka-Chu is now connected to the Ethereum blockchain, its tokenized art finally becomes available on Rarible.com, the most hard to enter NFT marketplace in the world. In other words, the NFT art medium is about to meet a robo artist, whose paintings open a new dimension to the world of real fine art, its distribution and authenticity.

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Pomp Predicts Secondary Market for NFTs Will Drive Even Greater Demand

NFTs are all the rage at the moment. At the same time, some, including Mike Winklemann, AKA Beeple, have described the situation as a bubble.

“I absolutely think it’s a bubble, to be quite honest. I go back to the analogy of the beginning of the internet. There was a bubble. And the bubble burst.”

Nonetheless, Bitcoin-bull Anthony Pompliano predicts a maturation of the NFT use case outside of buying and selling. He sees growth in the secondary market in the form of generating revenue streams through NFT assets.

The NFTs Phenomena is Just Beginning

Pompliano described the current NFTs market as the start of something bigger. He argues that in much the same way as the internet forced new applications and different ways of doing things, NFTs will also change the status quo.

Speaking to CNBC’s host of Mad Money Jim Cramer, Pompliano shared his vision for NFTs by making a case for secondary markets. He opened with the example of a virtual museum accessible via virtual reality. Owners of NFT assets can display their property in the virtual museum and presumably receive a royalty from the visitors.

“Whether that’s these virtual museums. Where you can buy a digital good and display it in a virtual museum, and Jim can go in virtual reality and actually visit that place.”

As well as that, Pompliano said NFTs could guarantee revenue from secondary market resales. In the case of event tickets, the primary seller only gets paid once. But with an NFT ticket, it’s possible to automate revenue each time the ticket is resold.

“if it’s a digital good and I can actually code into the asset and say, ‘hey, every time this trades hands I want 10%.’”

Pre-Covid, the secondary tickets market was estimated to be worth $15bn, none of which goes to artists or those responsible for the event.

Scarcity is What Drives Price

The arguments against NFTs remain as pertinent as ever, perhaps more so considering the vast sums commanded by in-demand artists.

Pompliano brushes aside this argument on the grounds of scarcity. He says NFTs follow the same demand and supply principles as all other markets.

“Let’s remember what drives a lot of value. What drives the value of Bitcoin? Scarcity, there’s 21 million of them. What drives the traditional art market? Scarcity. What drives Supremes and sneakers and kind of all of that economy and culture? Scarcity.”

Following this train of thought, the $69.3mn pricetag for Beeple’s The First 5000 Days is justifiable. Vignesh Sundaresan, who bought the piece, described it as representing 13 years of work, saying it transcends skill and technique because it embodies time. The one thing that cannot be “hacked.”

Sundaresan added that he believes the artwork is worth $1bn.

NFTs: Ethereum daily chart

Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com
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New 2021 FATF Crypto Guidelines Labelled as Mass Warrantless Surveillance

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has released updated draft crypto guidelines. A review of the changes highlights recommendations to increase the mass surveillance of users.

The greatest fear of regulatory overreach is that it will stifle innovation and deter privacy-conscious investors from participating.

Crypto Under The Spotlight

FATF is a global financial watchdog that sets international standards to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing. It spans over 200 countries and jurisdictions and intends to bring unified policies regarding regulatory reform against these illegal activities.

The organization comprises appointed officials from its member countries, none of which are democratically elected. They determine recommendations on how its members should deal with financial crime from a policy standpoint.

“While these so-called recommendations are non-binding, if a member nation was to refuse to implement them, severe diplomatic and financial consequences could result.”

Last week, FATF released its updated guidelines on virtual assets. This is the third iteration, the first being released in 2015 and then revised guidance in 2019.

The Director of Research at Coin Center, Peter Van Valkenburgh, said the 2019 revision at least brought parity between crypto-assets and trad-fi. But Van Valkenburgh slammed the latest updated guidance, saying it calls for mass warrantless surveillance against crypto users.

He points out three areas of concern. First is a change in the definition of Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs). Meaning more entities are obliged to register and conduct AML surveillance. This would include non-custodial participants such as multi-sig minority keyholders, smart contract participants, even decentralized exchange software developers.

It also advocates against peer-to-peer and privacy technology transactions. Under the new guidance, VASPs are asked to restrict support for privacy-enhancing technologies and P2P transactions by design.

Van Valkenburgh’s final concern regards the proposal for exchanges to collect specific data on transacting parties. It recommends VASPs keep records on all transactions, not just those applicable under the “travel rule.”

Michael Saylor Shares His Thoughts on Regulation

Previously, Bitcoin-bull Michael Saylor has expressed his lack of concern on regulation. He argues that countries that encourage crypto will flourish, while those who restrict it will suffer.

“I think the forward-thinking progressive governments are going to embrace it, and they’re going to benefit from it. And I think backward-looking governments are going to fear it and they’re going to suffer from the lack of it.”

Saylor makes the case that any country that fails to embrace Bitcoin and cryptocurrency will be left behind. More importantly, this is an argument most governments and regulators understand.

“Turn off the internet and turn off electricity, and tell me what your strategy is to avoid sliding back to the Stone Age. It’s not going to work. We’re not going to abandon satellites, we’re not going to abandon air, space and aerospace technology, we’re not going to abandon crypto technology.”

Regulators in each respective country face the unenviable task of balancing FATF obligations with economic and technological advancement. Logic dictates the latter will prevail.

Bitcoin dipped on news of FATF’s renewed guidance. The leading crypto slid 5% over the last 24-hours.

Bitcoin crypto daily chart

Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com