Blockchain

Kraken Boss Expects Crypto Firms to Replace Banks Within The Decade

Published

2 weeks ago

April 2, 2021

Jesse Powell, the Kraken CEO, said crypto companies pose a real threat to traditional finance. While some legacy businesses are making moves into the crypto space, Powell said those who stay sidelined would be replaced.

“we’ve seen the tremendous traction that Cash App has had. PayPal, fortunately for them, they’ve been on the ball. I think you’re going to see more of that, and people who aren’t keeping up with that, I think their days are numbered.”

Are The Valuation of Crypto Firms Justified?

Following a delayed Nasdaq listing, which was initially scheduled in March, it looks like the Coinbase IPO will now take place on April 14.

Reports vary widely on the firm’s valuation. But some sources claim the company’s pre-IPO price could be worth up to $100bn. This would make Coinbase more valuable than many notable banking institutions, including Santander at $59bn and Barclays at $44bn.

Kraken has plans of its own to go public in 2022. Powell stressed that this would only happen at the right price. It’s reported that he sees the firm’s valuation around the $20bn mark.

When asked his opinion on these figures, Powell implied they are justified. He expanded by saying Kraken was built from the ground up because nothing like it existed ten years ago.

“We’ve built the whole stack from custody to settlement to matching to clearing to payments. So, we’ve had to build the whole stack because nothing was there ten years ago when we got started with this.”

He added that crypto companies are the future and have a shot at replacing the entire system. More so, taking over from legacy firms that have not “done the work” as far as crypto is concerned.

“Most of these guys haven’t done the work these last ten years to make sure they are current with the crypto technology. So I think there’s a very real risk that over the next ten years, for those legacy businesses to be simply replaced.”

Banks Are Offering Crypto Services

Grayscale reported more than half of 2020’s total inflows came in the final quarter of the year. This period is widely regarded as the penny drop moment for corporate crypto acceptance.

“Grayscale experienced increased investor demand, with approximately $3.3 billion of inflows. Investment into the Grayscale family of products surpassed $5.7 billion during 2020, more than four times the $1.2 billion cumulative inflow into the products from 2013-2019.”

Evidence of this trend continues into 2021 as more and more companies announce the integration of crypto services, banks included.

Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs said they would offer “the full spectrum” of crypto investment services to select clients. Mary Rich, the bank’s Global Head of Digital Assets, said this was due to a contingent number of customers asking for inflationary hedge assets.

It’s also likely, as Powell alluded to, the banks are scrambling to stay relevant.

Coinsmart. Beste Bitcoin-Börse in Europa
Source: https://www.newsbtc.com/news/kraken-boss-expects-crypto-firms-to-replace-banks-within-the-decade/

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Blockchain

SWFT Blockchain (SWFTC) is now available on Binance Smart Chain and Huobi ECO Chain

Published

32 mins ago

April 16, 2021

Republished by Plato

SWFT Blockchain, a cross-chain cryptocurrency transfer protocol, announced today that the ecosystem’s native token SWFTC is now not only available as an ERC-20 token, but also as a BEP-20 token on Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and as an HRC-20 token on Huobi ECO Chain (HECO).

This makes SWFTC available on three popular blockchains; and also opens SWFTC up to new DeFi products, allowing more people to use SWFTC for more financial activities. While SWFTC is already available on Uniswap, it will soon be available on decentralized exchanges on BSC and HECO.

SWFTC (ERC-20) still gets users 50% off of swap fees when swapping on SWFT Blockchain. And this feature will soon be expanded to SWFTC (BEP-20) and SWFTC (HRC-20).

Details about SWFTC on the respective chains:

Coinsmart. Beste Bitcoin-Börse in Europa
Source: https://www.cryptoninjas.net/2021/04/16/swft-blockchain-swftc-is-now-available-on-binance-smart-chain-and-huobi-eco-chain/

Blockchain

Our Man in Shanghai: Coinbase listing scorned, graphics cards seized, nostalgia coins rule

Published

1 hour ago

April 16, 2021

Republished by Plato

It was a relatively quiet week in China’s blockchain space as events were overshadowed by the surge in the BTC price and the Coinbase direct listing in the U.S. Many locals reacted with surprise to the news, showing that exposure to cryptocurrencies is still relatively isolated in the world’s most populous country.

Many netizens responded skeptically to the Coinbase story, with news aggregation account “Jiemian” on Weibo calling Bitcoin a scam, highlighting its connection to terrorists, and encouraging investors to stick to China’s A-shares. (For a quick comparison, the Shanghai composite index is down 2.13% this year, while Bitcoin has a YTD return of over 116%.) Jiemian has over 10 million followers on Weibo, but caters to a more traditional audience. The takeaway here is that despite China’s aggressive adoption of DCEP (Digital Currency Electronic Payment, also known as the digital yuan), other digital payments, and internet technology, cryptocurrency acceptance remains relatively isolated.

Some experts on China’s blockchain industry spoke to Cointelegraph regarding DCEP on April 10th, discussing how the digital yuan has affected the space. Kevin Shao, co-founder of Bitrise Capital, summed up the situation by stating that “overall, China’s digital currency still serves the central bank’s monetary policy and monetary functions.” It’s safe to say that the rapid DCEP advancement has little cross-over with the country’s active blockchain space, and probably will remain independent for the foreseeable future.

While all that was going on, volumes were spiking on cryptocurrency exchanges around the world. Huobi, China’s largest exchange by liquidity, experienced a wave of trading on more established tokens. The top seven most traded on Thursday were BTC, DOGE, ETH, XRP, FIL, TRX and BCH. All of these projects have roots in previous bull runs, showing that nostalgia is not lost on Chinese investors.

Graphics cards seized by Hong Kong Customs

Customs in Hong Kong have busted a smuggling operation involving nearly 300 graphics cards, which are suspected to be Nvidia CMP 30HX models and worth about 2 million RMB, or $300,000. There were no labels on the front of the graphics cards, and this particular model comes without a video output port, and is built exclusively for cryptocurrency mining. According to a source, this is the first time that Hong Kong Customs has seized graphics cards smuggled for the purpose of mining.

The state of media blockchain content

Finally, in policy news, The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued standards for blockchain-related media content. The standard system is intended to promote healthy and sustainable content pertaining to the use of blockchain in industries such as auditing systems, business processes, food safety and management. The State Administration is very proactive with its standards, detailing how technologies, trends, and other themes should be portrayed in the media.

This weekly roundup of news from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong attempts to curate the industry’s most important news, including influential projects, changes in the regulatory landscape, and enterprise blockchain integrations.

Coinsmart. Beste Bitcoin-Börse in Europa
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/our-man-in-shanghai-coinbase-listing-scorned-graphics-cards-seized-nostalgia-coins-rule

Blockchain

Rothschild Investment Corp snaps up quarter of a million shares in Grayscale ETH Trust

Published

1 hour ago

April 16, 2021

Republished by Plato

Chicago-based financial institution Rothschild Investment Corp, has acquired 265,302 shares in Grayscale’s ETH trust, according to a filing on April 15 with the United States Securities Commission or SEC.

The firm also added more Grayscale Bitcoin trust shares to its holdings, with the latest SEC filing revealing that it increased its tally from 30,454 in January up to 38,346 this month.

Rothschild Investment has been accumulating GBTC since 2017, and the latest filing shows the firm’s appetite for crypto exposure is not slowing down. Ether proponent Ryan Adams, the founder of crypto investment firm Mythos Capital and Bankless, commented on the latest move noting that “BTC is the gateway drug to ETH.”

BTC is the gateway drug to ETH https://t.co/1w7p66OkOF

— RYAN SΞAN ADAMS – rsa.eth (@RyanSAdams) April 15, 2021

The brokerage firm’s history spans back to 1908, and it has been investing in crypto for a relatively long time when compared to the mass inflow of institutions who have swooped in during the past 12 months. An SEC filing showed that the firm owned $210,000 worth of GBTC in July 2017, when BTC was priced around $2000.

Founding members Monroe Rothschild and brother in-law Samuel Karger reportedly have no relation to the famed Rothschild family dynasty, much to the confusion of the crypto community despite the New York Times publishing an article that clarified the situation in 1995.

Not the Rotschild you think https://t.co/KVUy9u1ETy

— Yann Ranchere (@tek_fin) July 23, 2017

Grayscale is the leading U.S. digital asset manager that offers institutional exposure to crypto, the firm holds roughly 660,000 BTC, which accounts for 3.5% of BTC in circulation.

The firm revealed yesterday that its total assets under management has now reached $50.6 billion, its ETH trust, or ETHE, is now up to more than $7 billion worth of AUM, with its shares currently trading at around $24. GTBC has surpassed $41 billion in AUM, and shares are trading at around $59.

04/15/21 UPDATE: Net Assets Under Management, Holdings per Share, and Market Price per Share for our Investment Products.

Total AUM: $50.6 billion$BTC $BCH $ETH $ETC $ZEN $LTC $XLM $ZEC $BAT $LINK $MANA $FIL $LPT pic.twitter.com/mldap6VMoK

— Grayscale (@Grayscale) April 15, 2021