Three stories
Overstock wants to leave its blockchain-related investments, Reports CoinDesk’s Tanzeel Akhtar. The online retail giant that has embarked on crypto-hype will now turn its blockchain-based subsidiary Medici Ventures into a managed fund.
- Overstock will remain a limited partner, and Pelion Venture Partners will take the lead over the $ 45 million fund, if approved. Overstock will also retain a direct minority stake in blockchain technology firm tZERO Group.
- Following the announcement, Overstock shares (NASDAQ: OSTK) traded 11.28% higher at $ 75 in Monday’s session before the market.
Janet Yellen is the 78th US Treasury Secretary. The former chairman of the Federal Reserve, which was approved by the Senate on Monday, will oversee an office with a number of crypto-related rules on the board. It includes an 11-hour proposal from the Trump administration to increase oversight of private wallets. The controversial, and perhaps illegal, short comment period on it has just been extended.
- Yellen caused a stir last week after raising “particular concerns” about the link between cryptocurrency and criminal activity. Although she did not speak at length about the industry, she expressed zeal about the potential of Crypto to ‘improve the efficiency of the financial system’.
- Regulators are indeed expressing nuanced views on crypto, with the Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, saying that crypto (“as originally formulated”) as a currency has failed, but that digital innovation is here to stay.
- ‘We still have the right to debate stable currency, we have the right to discuss the digital currency over the central bank. “I think the issues are very clear,” he told Davos.
Since BoEs sniff Bailey crypto qua crypto, it’s important to note everything the ways he is already wrong. Crypto works for payments, although it may not be the first choice for luxury “first world” economies. But it is very powerful for those who are cut off from the financial system.
- CoinDesk’s Anna Baydakova reports, for example, that Alexey Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken critic, has raised 657 BTC in donations over the past five years.
- And that we do not forget about Julian Assange and the dissident WikiLeaks organization. To date, WikiLeaks has received more than 14 BTC, without counting other crypto donations. Rachel-Rose O’Leary touched on the topic while discussing advances in privacy technology, in a recent issue of CoinDesk.
On the line
It’s all about the award…
Yesterday it was reported that universities, including several in the Ivy League, quietly bought bitcoin directly on Coinbase for their donations.
Harvard, Yale, Brown and the University of Michigan are among those suspected of buying, an anonymous source told Ian Allison of CoinDesk. No university confirmed the rumor, and several declined to comment. It is currently unknown how good these BTC businesses can be in the university.
Harvard and Yale have $ 70 billion in assets between them, and the total donation pot is estimated at $ 600 billion as of 2017.
“If I had heard it three years ago, I would have said it was wrong,” said Ari Paul, co-founder of BlockTower Capital and former investment manager for the University of Chicago. ‘But many institutions are now comfortable with bitcoin. They understand it and can only buy it directly, as long as it is from a regulated entity such as Coinbase, Fidelity or Anchorage. ‘
ARK Investment Management CEO Cathie Wood repeated the thought, saying she believes more companies will boost their balance with bitcoin. She told Yahoo Finance on Saturday that several public enterprise executives had discussed the issue with her: Should we follow Square?
Square, the fintech darling led by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, bought about 4,709 bitcoin in October. The initial investment of $ 50 million is now worth about $ 150 million. MicroStrategy is perhaps the most visible public company treating its cash reserves as wastewater and bitcoin as its baby (it will never throw out its BTC with the bath). It now contains a total of 70,784 bitcoin.
Rothschild Investment Corporation also increased its exposure to bitcoin, which bought 24% more shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which was announced yesterday. The $ 1.4 billion investment manager does not hold bitcoin directly and has been experimenting for a long time with holding and dropping bitcoin. (CoinDesk and Grayscale are both owned by Digital Currency Group.)
Funny enough, Danny Nelson of CoinDesk reports that a Canadian VR firm bought BTC as a ‘long-term’ investment, but last week was apparently sold on false rumors of a bitcoin “double spending”.
Institutional exposure is not limited to bitcoin as it is increasingly legacy financial companies are interested in ether (ETH), the original currency of Ethereum.
In its 2020 annual report, Coinbase noted that a growing number of its institutional clients occupy positions in ether. ‘The case for possession of ethereum [ether] we hear most of our customers are a combination of, firstly, the potential it develops as a store of value, and, secondly, the status as a digital commodity needed to drive transactions in its network , ‘according to the report.
Denis Vinokourov, head of research at primary broker Bequant, told CoinDesk reporter Muyao Shen that some of these ETH purchases could be an indirect way of gaining exposure to decentralized financing.
“Not everyone is comfortable with the risks still associated with DeFi, but the high growth of these projects increases activity in the Ethereum network and therefore supports capital appreciation,” he said.
The total value embedded in all DeFi protocols and applications reached a new high of $ 26 billion on Sunday, according to DeFiPulse, mainly driven by ether’s valuation.
Mark intel
Bitcoin has dumped several thousand dollars, which falls around 7% daily, bringing with it the larger crypto market. CoinDesk’s Omkar Godbole reports that about $ 4 billion in BTC options expire on Friday. Deribit, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, is expected to set a new record of 102,162 contracts worth about $ 3.5 billion.
- “More than 80% of the Deribit – based revelation interest rate on January 29 will fall outside the money or worthless,” Godbole notes. This is likely to cause volatility until the end of the month as traders hedge their positions. He breaks it down here.
Quick snacks
- BEACH SANDBUS BEFORE BEACH: Hawaii’s Digital Currency Innovation Lab accepts applicants. (CoinDesk)
- HYBRID MINING: An American man turned his BMW into a miner. (CoinDesk)
- BE AWARE: Substack is used to spread crypto scams. (CoinDesk)
- MULTIVERSE MONEY: “It’s 2028 and central banks, Big Tech companies and ‘depatormed’ are establishing their own world of digital money,” investigates Marcel0 Prates. (CoinDesk op-ed)
- WIRING: Stellar Foundation is investing $ 5 million in the blockchain payment firm. (CoinDesk)
- BAKLAVA FOR BITCOIN: Decrypt interviews with an OG bitcoin trader.
- MINING BOOKS: Five major bitcoin miners record their hash rates on BTCST (Modern Consensus)
- NFT LIQUIDITY: Is this a problem? (Jake Brukhman – Mirror)
- BIGGER BEING? Casey Newton on the battle within Signal. (Platform)
- BIG TECH adopts: With the technology of Bitcoin. (NEW)
- HYPERVENTILATING REGULATORS? Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is going on bitcoin. (CNBC)
Who won Crypto Twitter?
