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Bank of England’s governor warns crypto investors of losing all their money

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Despite witnessing significant growth, government officials across the globe continue to diss the crypto industry. Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey was the latest to join this list.

While several governments have been trying to regulate the crypto industry, a few others were spreading fear amongst people by emphasizing the losses that one might endure due to investments in crypto. Even though the crypto-verse is volatile, institutional investors continue to pour money into the industry. However, the bank’s governor Bailey stressed the lack of intrinsic value that the crypto industry entailed.

Bank of England’s governor: “they have no intrinsic value”

Speaking at a recent conference, Bailey highlighted his stance on how people could lose it all if they continued to invest in crypto. The bank’s governor has been quite vocal about his disinterest in crypto. This time, he went on to suggest that cryptocurrencies had no intrinsic value.

He stated,

“They have no intrinsic value. That doesn’t mean to say people don’t put a value on them, because they can have extrinsic value. But they have no intrinsic value. I’m going to say this very bluntly again. Buy them only if you’re prepared to lose all your money.”

Bailey’s remarks seemed to have come right after the market cap as well the price of several cryptocurrencies were seen hitting new highs. At the time of writing, the overall market cap of the crypto industry was noted mounting to a high of $2.44 trillion. Additionally, the price of Bitcoin [BTC] was seen recovering from its recent downfall.

While Bailey outrightly suggested that people would lose their money if they invested in crypto, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and a crypto lover recently advised people to cautiously invest in crypto. He went on to tweet,

“Cryptocurrency is promising, but please invest with caution!”

Previously, the tech billionaire had also urged people to refrain from investing all their life savings in crypto.

SEC’s new chairman discusses crypto appearing before the house financial services committee

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The Securities and Exchange Commission aka SEC of the United States recently welcomed its new chairman, Gary Gensler while bidding adieu to Jay Clayton. Speaking before the House Financial Services Committee for the first time, Gensler pointed out what Congress had to look into regulating the crypto industry.

The SEC has been making a lot of news, particularly over the last couple of months following its squabble with Ripple. While several regulators across the globe announced that XRP was not a security, the SEC was assertive about its stance on categorizing the altcoin as security. Additionally, with zero Bitcoin ETFs in America, the crypto community exerted utmost distress with the financial regulator. However, with the appointment of Gensler, the community was given the hope of better regulations with regard to the crypto-verse.

SEC’s Gary Gensler Intends To Uphold Investor Protection

The lack of regulatory clarity in the US has been pointed out by many. The recent hearing was focused on GameStop’s activities which further led to Rep. Patrick McHenry asking the Chairman about the regulatory environment of the cryptocurrency industry.

The latest Chairman of the financial regulator, however, urged Congress to regulate the crypto industry in his latest speech. But, Gensler was inclined towards “investor protection.” He added,

“It’d be good to consider whether to bring investor protection to the crypto exchanges. And I think if that were the case, because right now the exchanges’ trading in these crypto-assets do not have a regulatory framework, either at the SEC or our sister agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that could instill greater confidence.”

Speaking at a virtual hearing, Gensler noted that there wasn’t any notable regulation surrounding cryptocurrency exchanges that facilitate the trading of crypto. This further meant that those interested in the buying and selling of crypto were prone to fraud or manipulation. However, the right kind of protection could limit the chances of users enduring any prominent losses.

Binance’s CZ Addresses Volatility In The Crypto-Verse

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The crypto-verse has been experiencing extreme volatility over the last couple of days. Binance’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao aka CZ, addressed this constant rise and fall in the price of cryptocurrencies over the last couple of days.

Volatility has been a great drawback for the crypto industry. While abrupt soars in the price of certain coins can bring extreme joy, untimely drops can cause a commotion. Individuals who seem to be intrigued by the industry have been sitting on the fence fearing volatility. The recent drop of Bitcoin [BTC] from a high of $64K to a low of $48K was noted as a classic example of the latter.

Appearing in Bloomberg’s latest interview, CZ went on to reveal his take on the extreme volatility that the crypto industry hoards.

Binance’s CZ Blames Herd Mentality For Volatility

Bitcoin’s price volatility is directly linked to herd mentality, Binance’s CZ pointed out. Comparing those who enter the crypto-verse, CZ noted that those who invest in crypto were through herd mentality were outdoing those who did their research before investing in the market.

While the price of crypto is usually dictated by the buying and selling activity of these assets, people who enter the market when there’s good news and rush out during bad news are the one’s behind the volatile nature of the industry, CZ asserted. Speaking about the same he added,

“The herd followers are less committed. Whenever there’s some negative news, they run away. Whenever there’s positive news, they try to rush in.”

Furthermore, just as the price of digital assets rose over the past couple of months, institutional investors started pouring their funds into it. CZ pointed out that certain large institutions were keen on “volatility trading.”

Debunking the myth of more institutional trading equals less volatility, the CEO of Binance added,

“They [institutions] seek volatility and they sometimes even want to generate the volatility. So it’s not to say that just because there’s more institutions trading, then there’s less volatility.”

eBay CEO Affirms Interest In Inducing NFTs To Its System

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eBay seems to be getting on to the crypto bandwagon just like several other mainstream platforms. The online retail giant’s CEO appeared in a recent interview and shed light on the company’s incorporation of crypto.

Even though the price of Bitcoin [BTC] has been stumbling over the last couple of days, the positive sentiment surrounding the king coin did not depreciate. Companies across the globe were still viewing BTC as a great mode of investment. Currently, the crypto industry’s market cap was at $2.25 trillion. These big numbers have undoubtedly enticed an array of platforms.

eBay To Look Into Prospects Of Crypto

Speaking with CNBC, the CEO of eBay, Jamie Iannone pointed out that the platform would continue exploring crypto as a prominent payment option. More than incorporating crypto into their system, the CEO was keen on looking into NFTs.

Nonfungible tokens aka NFTs have undoubtedly garnered immense traction across the world. While helping artists, these assets are also aiding those interested in scoring digital collectibles. Iannone revealed that eBay would start exploring opportunities to induce NFTs into the platform.

He added,

“One of the great things about eBay is when there’s a new trend, it just shows up on eBay. That’s what we’re seeing in areas like NFT, which we’re looking at how can we explore that better.”

Additionally, the CEO pointed out that transactions pertaining to collectibles that are similar to NFTs were already on the platform. However, he wanted to make the entire process much easier for the sellers as well as the buyers.

While the e-commerce platform hasn’t officially enabled Bitcoin as a payment method, several have reportedly started listing the king coin for purchase on the platform.

Every online business witnessed a massive boom during the pandemic. With mankind homebound, almost every platform decided to opt for digitalization. eBay has been in existence for quite a while and has made a notable presence in the market. The addition of crypto onto its platform would be beneficial for the crypto industry and the e-commerce firm.

Bitcoin [BTC] Taproot Activation Is Its First Major Upgrade In 4 Yrs

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The highly anticipated technological upgrade of Bitcoin- the activation of Taproot has finally started. Bitcoin Core version 0.21.1 is now available for download. According to the document published by Bitcoin Core, an open-source project which maintains and releases Bitcoin client software, the miner block templates generated by this version of BTC will indicate readiness to execute taproot during the roughly three-month period specified by BIP341.

The document also read,

“If, during that time, 90% of blocks within a 2,016 retarget period signal readiness, taproot will be locked in and this version of Bitcoin Core will begin enforcing the additional consensus rules specified in BIPs 341 and 342 at block 709,632, which is expected in early or mid-November.”

Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment on the 1st of May launched the first phase of activation for one of the biggest upgrades on its network after SegWit. This essentially means that the miners in the network who wants to adopt the upgrade can express their support by including special data in the blocks they mine called a “signal bit” starting from 1st of May.

If at least 90% of the blocks mined during this difficulty period of Bitcoin then the Teproot upgrade is “locked in” for activation in November 2021.

However, if the Bitcoin miners fail to lock in the upgrade by the end of the three month signaling period, a separate effort to activate it with the help of yet another mechanism would be rolled out.

The activation mechanism has been mapped out carefully. It has been designed meticulously so that, by nearly mid-August, it will either provide the participants with a guarantee that they will soon have Taproot or immediately give them important information that users and devs can leverage to make the next activation attempt more likely to succeed.

Significance of Bitcoin’s Taproot

Taproot is essentially a soft fork that enhances Bitcoin scripts. The main objective of this upgrade is not only to increase privacy but revamp other aspects related to complex transactions.

Transactions on the Bitcoin network are pseudonymous in nature. It may utilize several functionalities that make them more complex. This includes multi-signature requirements, timelock releases, etc. With Taproot out of the question, it can be easy to determine transactions that leverage these complex features by the means of creation of multiple transactions.

On the other hand, with this upgrade, Bitcoin will be able to shield those moving parts in its transactions and make it appear to be a single transaction.

First proposed by BTC Core contributor and ex-Blockstream CTO Gregory Maxwell, Taproot is expected to augment on the crypto-asset’s smart contract flexibility, while at the same time offering more privacy.

Crypto Sees A Ray Of Hope As Uzbekistan Govt Agency Reconsiders Legalizing Crypto

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While several countries went on to ban cryptocurrencies amidst the recent rally, a few others seem to be lifting any sort of halt they had previously imposed on trading virtual assets. Uzbekistan was seen trying to join the latter.

Uzbekistan’s government banned the buying and trading of digital assets in 2019. This ban, however, was limited to only the purchase of cryptocurrency, as residents of the country could sell any assets they had in their possession. However, the country appeared to be contemplating its decision

Crypto Could Get Another Chance In Uzbekistan

Crypto was seen mentioned in a recent proposal by the National Agency for Project Management under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan [NAFT]. The document urged the government to make changes to the existing laws on crypto in the country.

Over the last couple of months, the digital asset industry’s growth had undoubtedly lured individuals across the globe. As the market cap of the digital asset industry surpassed $2 trillion, several countries began viewing the prospects of the industry and started implementing crypto-friendly laws and a few others decided to tax the profits that their citizens acquired by trading digital assets.

In its latest proposal, NAFT suggested that the citizens of the country should be given the amenity of trading digital assets. The document further read,

“[..] all types of crypto exchange trades involving crypto assets and tokens in exchange for the national currency and the foreign currency.”

While a fully regulated exchange, Uznex is already functioning in the country, the citizens of Uzbekistan were exempted from using this platform. However, with its latest proposal, NAFT hopes to allow more platforms to carry out activities concerning the digital asset industry. Additionally, NAFT hopes to put into place processes for the registration of these platforms and the issuance of any tokens and circulation.

The time frame for any discussion pertaining to the aforementioned amendments is open until 14 May 2021.

“Ethereum Will Always Be The Silver,” Suggests Shark Tank Star; ETH Records New ATH

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Ethereum’s [ETH] price change over the last couple of months has been immaculate. The altcoin grew from a low of $577 towards the end of 2020, all the way to a high of $2.7K. This price surge undoubtedly paved the way for an array of new investors. Despite its significant growth, the altcoin continues to remain below the world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin [BTC]. Pointing out that this would be the case throughout, Shark Tank’s star and Canadian businessman, Kevin O’Leary appeared on CNBC’s latest interview.

Ethereum Will Always Remain No.2

Bitcoin is quite often compared to gold as both these assets have similar characteristics. Its been over a decade since the first cryptocurrency [Bitcoin] was introduced to the world. The later years were followed by the emergence of several crypto assets. However, none of them ever came close to disrupting the king coin. The disparity between BTC’s current price of $54K and the price of any given altcoin is enough proof of the same.

Ethereum, albeit BTC’s dominance, managed to score a new all-time twice this week. The altcoin’s price rally was admired by many in the community. At the time of writing, ETH was trading for $2,763 as it was experiencing a small correction from its recent high of $2,797.97. This further caused the rise in ETH’s dominance to 15% and pushed BTC’s dominance to 47%. Santiment, a popular on-chain analytics platform tweeted about the same. The tweet read,

Noting the same and specifically speaking about Ethereum, O’Leary suggested that ETH would always remain “No.2” to Bitcoin.

O’Leary added,

“I just believe that to be the case. Bitcoin will always be the ‘gold.’ Ethereum will always be the ’silver.” And “that’s not a bad thing necessarily.”

Additionally, the Shark Tank star also added that Ethereum would be used as a “tracking and payment system.”

Furthermore, Ethereum’s price change has been lauded by many, the altcoin’s market cap didn’t fall back. ETH played a prominent role in bringing the overall crypto market cap back to $2 trillion. The altcoin’s market cap surged over $300 billion and even went on to surpass the payments giant, PayPal.

Ethereum

VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF Plea Verdict Postponed To June

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The Securities and Exchange Commission’s constant delay in the approval or disapproval of VanEck’s Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund [ETF] has left the community in distress.

While several other countries like Canada have started to enjoy the potentials of a crypto ETF, those living in the United States of America have been deprived of this feature. With no Bitcoin ETF being approved as of yet in the country, the citizens of America have lost the hope of a crypto ETF. However, the recent change in SEC’s leadership from Jay Clayton to Gary Gensler got the community excited. But the latest news from the financial watchdog wasn’t very crypto-friendly.

VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF Still On Hold

A recent filing from the SEC revealed that VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF verdict was further pushed to 17 June 2021 from 3 May 2021. While the SEC has the option of extending this sort of window before delivering a decision by 45, 60, or 90 days, the financial agency delayed VanEck’s approval or disapproval by 45 days.

Elaborating on the same, the Assistant Secretary of the SEC, J. Matthew DeLesDernier wrote in the filling,

“The Commission finds that it is appropriate to designate a longer period within which to take action on the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider the proposed rule change and the comments received.”

Several platforms have applied for the approval of a Bitcoin ETF in the country, but none have received a positive response. VanEck reportedly submitted all of the necessary paperwork for the Bitcoin ETF application back in January. This application was done in collaboration with SolidX, a well-known blockchain platform.

Additionally, many were on cloud nine after Gary Gensler was appointed as the Chairman of the SEC. This, however, seemed to have no impact on the approval of Bitcoin ETFs as they continue to be shot down.

Bitcoin Offers Long-term Stability, Liquidity Says Nexon’s CEO After Buying 1,717 BTC

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Japanese games publisher Nexon announced allocating $100 million for the purchase of 1,717 Bitcoins. According to the official press release, the company bought the digital currency at an average price of roughly $58,226 per BTC, inclusive of fees and expenses.

Additionally, purchase amounts to approximately 2% of Nexon’s total cash and cash equivalents on hand as of December 2020.

Owen Mahoney, President, and CEO of the online game provider had explained that the company’s purchase of the crypto-asset mirrors a “disciplined” strategy for protecting shareholder value. The exec also stressed the move was taken to maintain the purchasing power of the firm’s cash assets. Mahoney views Bitcoin as a form of cash that is likely to retain its value at times like inflation, even if it is not yet widely recognized. He also went on to add that,

“In the current economic environment, we believe Bitcoin offers long-term stability and liquidity while maintaining the value of our cash for future investments”

Why Is Nexon Buying Bitcoin A Crucial Development?

With this development, Nexon joins the likes of Tesla and other technology firms such as Square Inc. to have embraced the digital currency this season. It happens to be the first large public company in Japan as well as South Korea to buy cryptocurrency as part of its treasury.

However, this is not the first time a major Japanese company has dipped its toes into the realm. Tokyo-based financial service firm, SBI had revealed that its plans to roll out bank-backed digital currency exchange. Back in 2017, the country’s GMO Internet Group had also unveiled a $3 million investment into Bitcoin mining.

According to Steve Jang, the Founder and Managing Partner at Kindred Ventures Nexon’s strategy has generated from the need for a currency hedge, rather than investment speculation. Jang also noted that this is an important driver of adoption by companies and financial institutions, which could potentially bring stronger hands to develop the store-of-value use case across the world.

The exec also added,

“Nexon is a gaming platform exploring the multiverse possibilities and what virtual goods mean in a crypto world. organizational learning takes time and needs to permeate from many angles. the board’s move to invest in BTC can only help stoke that product exploration in gaming”

According to Bitcoin Treasuries‘ latest stats, currently, there are 35 publicly traded companies that are holding the cryptocurrency on their balance sheets.

South Korean Govt Certain About Taxing Crypto In 2022

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Governments across the globe started taxing crypto ever since they began seeing people garner profits by trading crypto. South Korea joined the list.

South Korea had time and again revealed its interest in crypto. The country is not only famous for its booming pop culture but also its inclination towards cryptocurrencies. Therefore, the government of the Asian country decided to levy a tax on trading a wide range of digital assets.

South Korea’s Tax On Crypto “Inevitable”

Back in February, the South Korean government affirmed that it would be taxing cryptocurrencies. The Ministry of Economy and Finance of the country revealed that all the profits made by trading cryptocurrencies would be subject to a 20% tax. However, the range of profits incurred while trading assets like Bitcoin [BTC] was limited to gains over 2.5 million won or $2,300. Those whose profits fall below these numbers are reportedly exempted from this tax.

While the taxing of crypto was scheduled to start off from 2022, the country’s finance minister, Hong Nam-ki went on to affirm the same, Reuters reported. Speaking at a news conference, the finance minister of the country, Hong Nam-ki was urged to delay this as the government needed a better rendering of the crypto-verse. But the finance minister asserted that taxing cryptocurrencies were “inevitable.” He added,

“It’s inevitable, we will need to impose taxes on gains from trading of virtual assets.”

The sudden emergence of cryptocurrencies has left the world in a frenzy. While some countries are preparing for the accommodation of these assets, a few others have outrightly started to ban cryptocurrencies.

Furthermore, governments have had a hard time categorizing cryptocurrencies. While some have put these assets under commodities a few others have labeled them securities. Hong Nam-ki, however, suggested that cryptocurrencies were “intangible assets” and not currencies. He even added that calling them currencies would be a “misunderstanding.”

Additionally, the country was seen taking impeccable precautions to dodge any possible scams against those using crypto. Earlier in March, the government announced that any crypto platforms that failed to have strong anti-money laundering processes in place would be subject to heavy fines.