Blockchain
Losing Bitcoin Keys Doesn’t Happen Anymore Says Galaxy Digital’s Mike Novogratz

Former Goldman Sachs hedge fund manager and CEO of Galaxy Digital – Mike Novogratz – has spoken about the most heated topic in discussion, Bitcoin private keys. Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Novogratz said that losing Bitcoin keys is a thing of the past and it doesn’t happen anymore.
‘No one’s losing bitcoin anymore’: bitcoin bull Mike Novogratz https://t.co/ygJctNCn4m by @juleshyman pic.twitter.com/GrmEld6nLO
— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) January 18, 2021
As we know, the total Bitcoin supply has been fixed at 21 million coins. Currently, there is more than 18 million Bitcoin (BTC) under circulation. However, several hundred Bitcoin have been lost in the past because of not getting access to private keys or losing the password to access the private keys. Speaking to the publication, Novogratz said:
“Our estimate is 3 million were lost. When bitcoin was one cent or four cents or 20 cents, people didn’t take it that seriously. Most of the lost bitcoins aren’t happening today…They happened right at the early onset of this thing. No one’s losing bitcoin anymore,” he said.
Novogratz’s comments come soon after the New York Times reported stories of some individuals who have lost their passkey and have been unable to access their million-dollar-fortune in Bitcoin (BTC). A German programmer has been unable to access his $220 million Bitcoin fortune. Interestingly, he now has only guesses left for the password to a harddrive called IronKey, which contains the private keys of a digital wallet holding over 7000 Bitcoins.
Former Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas is also lost the password to an encrypted hard drive that contains over $200million worth of Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency data firm Chainalysis reports that of the total 18.5 million BTC in circulation, 20% of it i.e. around $140 billion appears to have lost. Wallet Recovery Services, a business helping to recover the lost keys said that they are getting around 70 requests every day who want to unlock their lost fortune.
At press time, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading 4.09% up at $37,004 with a market cap of $685 billion. JPMorgan strategists said that strong institutional inflow is necessary to push the BTC price above $40,000. Analyst Joseph Young notes three factors that can deliver a strong Bitcoin move northwards.
What would signal a big move up?
I think three things to watch out for to predict a rally upwards.
– Grayscale inflows (https://t.co/o4pX8EArok)
– Coinbase outflows (https://t.co/oI1SlkUI0S)
– Stablecoin inflows into exchanges (https://t.co/oI1SlkUI0S)Trade safely. (2/2)
— Joseph Young (@iamjosephyoung) January 18, 2021
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Blockchain
Bank of Korea Head Says Cryptocurrencies Have No Intrinsic Value


The head of the Bank of Korea, Lee Ju-yeol, said that Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies lack intrinsic value. However, he believes that all assets will continue to experience significant price fluctuations.
Price Surge Because of Pro-BTC Institutional Investors?
The chief of the Bank of Korea said cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, do not possess inherent value. In a recent news report, Lee Ju-yeol blasted the highly volatile nature of the digital asset industry.
“There is no intrinsic value in crypto assets,” said BOK Gov. Lee Ju-yeol at a parliamentary session on 23 February.
The news report quoted lawmakers asking BOK’s chief if the recent surge in the price of BTC is temporary or not.
“It is very difficult to predict the price, but its price will be extremely volatile,” Ju-yeol added.
The bank executive has also said that the recent rally in Bitcoin’s price followed by other significant digital assets may be led by multiple factors. Among them, Elon Musk’s Tesla – investing $1.5 billion. He highlighted that the latest price surge might be a continuation of institutional investors using Bitcoin as a hedge.
Ju-yeol also emphasized that BOK shouldn’t buy bonds issued by the country’s government directly. Otherwise, this would raise worries about fiscal stability and undermine the central bank’s trust.
Bitcoin Volatility Bringing Some More Hard Times For Investors?
The primary cryptocurrency’s volatility has been causing quite some troubles for both retail and institutional investors. This particular character of the digital assets has been a stumbling point for many, thus, causing some hesitations in whether to allocate funds in it or not.
BTC’s price managed to initiate another notable surge during the last couple of months, marking a consequent all-time high. Just a few days ago, it skyrocketed above $58,000, dragging other altcoins like Ethereum behind it for a while.
However, almost immediately after its upgrowth, BTC suffered a significant correction, settling unsteadily around $50K as per the time of the writing. As a result, the cryptocurrency market capitalization lost more than $300 billion in two days.
Interestingly, JPMorgan strategists said recently that Bitcoin’s illiquidity could bring more problems. Analysts from the US multinational banking institution argued that BTC is in a liquidity shortage, warning investors that the primary crypto-asset could suffer another price drop.
Featured Image Courtesy of WSJ.
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Source: https://cryptopotato.com/bank-of-korea-head-says-cryptocurrencies-have-no-intrinsic-value/
Blockchain
Cross-chain bridges and DeFi integration are pushing these 3 altcoins higher

The cryptocurrency market is showing signs of progress following a multiday sell-off that saw the total market capitalization drop by more than $400 billion as Bitcoin’s (BTC) price briefly fell below $46,000.
While the majority of altcoins have entered a consolidation phase that includes a retest of underlying support levels, several projects have started to regain lost ground after new developments reignited investors’ optimism.
ADA/USDT
Cardano’s ADA started the year with a bullish spark that saw its price increase 624% from $0.165 on Jan. 2 to a high of $1.20 on Feb. 20. This week’s sharp correction pulled the price to a swing low at $0.80, but it is clear that traders bought the dip.

Since hitting a swing low at $0.80, ADA’s price rallied 30% to $1.05 following the news that community members at Venus Protocol had approved a proposal to bring ADA to the Venus mainnet.
VIP-9 has passed and will be executed soon! @Cardano will become an available digital asset on #Venus!
Get started: https://t.co/cAsPHdzOlQ https://t.co/KCgHWRPlfB
— Venus (@VenusProtocol) February 23, 2021
VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for ADA on Feb. 14, prior to the recent price rise.
The VORTECS™ score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

As the chart above shows, Binance introduced staking on Feb 10., and the VORTECS™ score for ADA rose to a high at 88 on Feb. 14
MATIC/USDT
On Feb. 9 the Matic network rebranded to become “Polygon” as part of a strategic change to become a layer-two aggregator. The move was done in response to the growing momentum of Polkadot and a desire to build an interoperability protocol on top of Ethereum.
High gas fees on the Ethereum network have increased the need for layer-two solutions, and Polygon has emerged as one of the top solutions with projects like Aavegochi and Golem already operating on the protocol.
The rebrand helped lift the price of MATIC from $0.07 on Feb. 9 to an all-time high of $0.197 on Feb. 20 before the market downturn pushed it back down to $0.111 on Feb. 23.

Since that time the MATIC has recovered 62% to trade at $0.16 as the community and total value locked on Polygon continue to grow.
STX/USDT
Stacks (STX) was the breakout star on Feb. 24 as the layer-one blockchain solution designed to bring smart contracts and decentralized applications to Bitcoin saw a record $166 million in trading volume that elevated STX to a new all-time high of $1.17.

Excitement for the project comes after the Feb. 23 announcement that STX holders can now participate in delegated staking from the Stacks wallet, allowing them to earn BTC rewards.
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, market conditions for STX have been favorable for some time.

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ score for STX hit a high of 87 on Feb. 23, around 30 hours before the price increased 75% to its new high of $1.17.
Interoperability, cross-bridge solutions and staking have emerged as drivers of growth that help incentivize investors to hold their tokens and also attract new participants to old and new blockchain projects.
Following the recent market downturn, it’s clear that projects that offer tokenholders multiple ways to earn a yield and operate across separate blockchain networks are beginning to stand out from the rest of the field.
Blockchain
Former London Stock Exchange Group CEO Urges UK Government to Explore Cryptocurrencies


The former CEO of the London Stock Exchange Group, Xavier Rolet, has advised the UK government to look into cryptocurrencies and SPACs to minimize the adverse impact of Brexit. In a recent report, Rolet claimed that the UK has trailed behind other countries in both aspects.
The UK Should Turn To Crypto And SPACs?
Born in France, Rolet is a businessman and the Chief Executive Officer of the London-based credit-focused asset management firm CQS. Before assuming this position, though, he served as the CEO of the London Stock Exchange Group and was named as one of the 100 best CEOs in the world in 2017 by the Harvard Business Review.
In a report cited by Bloomberg, Rolet touched upon the potential consequences to the UK economy following the withdrawal from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, better known as Brexit.
The executive believes that the UK has two viable options to consider if it wants to minimize the risks and help the nation flourish.
In the first one, he urged the government to “promptly consider the SPAC revolution.” Also referred to as “blank check companies,” these special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC) operate as shell corporations listed on a stock exchange with the idea of buying out a private company, thus making it public. Ultimately, this strategy eliminates the need to go through a traditional initial public offering (IPO).
While the US has seen significant adoption in the past year with a 10x increase in the raised funds compared to 2019’s results, the UK regulators have halted their progress on the London markets.
Rolet’s second advice involved digital assets as he noted that “all relevant UK government agencies should be resourced to thoroughly understand cryptocurrencies.”
With proper regulations, the crypto ecosystem could “place London and the UK at the center of a reputable and safe financial market.”
The UK’s Regulatory Approach To Cryptocurrencies
While UK’s regulators have hindered SPACs’ progress within the country, the nation’s financial watchdog, the FCA, has also been rather harsh against the cryptocurrency industry.
As of the start of this year, the Financial Conduct Authority banned crypto derivatives and exchange-traded notes (ETNs) to retail customers.
Additionally, the watchdog has issued several warnings to investors that they could lose all their funds if allocated in digital assets.
The regulator also announced that all UK-based digital asset businesses need to be registered with it but extended the deadline for applications to July 9th, 2021.
Featured Image Courtesy of TheGuardian
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