🌐 Nouriel Roubini: "The SEC should monitor the manipulations of Elon Musk in the cryptocurrency market"
Renowned Bitcoin critic Nouriel Roubini called Elon Musk "a manipulator of the cryptocurrency market" and said that regulators should keep a close eye on such people.
Nouriel Roubini criticized the behavior of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who recently tweeted about BTC and DOGE as his tweets are fueling cryptocurrencies. Later in an annual report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Tesla announced the purchase of bitcoins in the amount of $ 1.5 billion. Roubini said that the report should alert the Commission, and urged the regulator "to pay special attention to such people."
MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor is also acting "irresponsible" by investing a significant portion of the company's reserves in Bitcoin, despite its volatility, Roubini said. According to a MicroStrategy report, the company currently owns 71,079 BTC.
In an interview, the cryptocurrency critic said bitcoin could crash if cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex and Tether lose the legal battle . We are talking about $ 800 million frozen in the accounts of Crypto Capital, which was the payment processor of Bitfinex and Tether. USDT has a market capitalization of more than $ 30.5 billion, but Tether is involved in numerous investigations by the US Department of Justice and the New York Attorney General's Office. For example, the US Department of Justice is investigating how USDT is being used to manipulate the cryptocurrency market.
That being said, Roubini sees potential in central bank digital currencies. He suggested that eventually the world will give up cash, and the US will sooner or later launch the digital dollar. The skeptic is confident that government stablecoins will enable banks to effectively manage monetary policy and optimize negative interest rates during the economic crisis.
Roubini believes that cryptocurrencies are the perfect tool for scammers who "steal billions of digital assets every day." In addition, the critic called the fall in cryptocurrency rates an apocalypse and "crypto carnage".
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🌐 Esther Pierce: "the market is ready for Bitcoin ETP"
SEC Commissioner Esther Pearce expressed the opinion that traditional markets are ready for ETP for bitcoin and opposed the government's position that cryptocurrency is a tool for financing terrorism.
As the Commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Hester Peirce said this week, US capital markets are ready to release an exchange-traded product (ETP) for Bitcoin.
Pearce said that investors are already willing to trade Bitcoin products, "and therefore, unless we give them a natural path, such as ETP, they will look for other less optimal ways to do it."
The SEC Commissioner also spoke out against the government's position that cryptocurrency is a dangerous tool for terrorist financing. She questioned the size of the alleged problem and insisted that Bitcoin could not be completely banned.
Pearce said she looks forward to working with future SEC chairman Gary Gensler after the US Senate confirms the former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in office.
As a reminder, this week US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the use of cryptocurrencies for drug trafficking and terrorist financing is a "growing problem.
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🌐 CEO of Newcrest Mining: "investing in gold is needed to hedge the risks of bitcoin"
Newcrest Mining CEO Sandip Biswoz stated that cryptocurrency investors should invest in gold to hedge against excessive volatility in digital assets.
Sandeep Biswas explained that people don't have to give up Bitcoin in favor of gold, but they should consider buying this precious metal to protect against a sudden drop in cryptocurrencies.
Gold is a completely different asset class that is less volatile compared to digital currencies. Bisuoz called gold a “tangible” asset that can be touched and also turned into jewelry or other things. He noted the scarcity nature of gold, while cryptocurrencies "are spreading everywhere."
The CEO of Newcrest Mining also said that with global inflation and money printing as part of stimulating the economy and fighting the pandemic, the gold price trend remains attractive to the market.
Such statements by Bisuoz were made against the backdrop of a "surge" in the cryptocurrency market. A few days ago, bitcoin surpassed $ 48,000 for the first time , but the next day its price corrected by about $ 3,000.
Economist Peter Schiff, who is known for his love of investing in gold and distrust of bitcoin, believes that the first cryptocurrency has no prospects, and in a few years, investments in bitcoin will depreciate.
At the end of 2020, analysts at investment bank Goldman Sachs suggested that Bitcoin's skyrocketing rate would not harm traditional assets like gold. On the contrary, the bitcoin and gold market can coexist peacefully.
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🌐 Dogecoin founder spoke about the sale of all DOGE coins in 2015
Dogecoin cryptocurrency founder Billy Markus on the popular Internet forum Reddit said that he sold all his DOGE holdings back in 2015 and raised less than $ 10,000.
After Dogecoin skyrocketed 900% at the end of January, the r / dogecoin community has grown significantly. According to an open letter from the founder of Dogecoin to community members, he had a rather contradictory relationship with his creation - he either loved Dogecoin or hated it.
Dogecoin cryptocurrency appeared in 2013. In 2015, Markus was fed up with poking fun at him and disagreed with the community development path. In the same year, he faced financial difficulties due to the loss of his job and decided to sell his holdings to DOGE:
“I gave up and sold all the cryptocurrency I had in 2015 after being fired. I didn't make a lot of money - I would have had enough for a used Honda Civic. Many people dream of Dogecoin rising to $ 1. Then the capitalization of this cryptocurrency would exceed the capitalization of large companies providing services to millions, including Boeing, Starbucks, IBM and American Express. Does Dogecoin deserve it? This is beyond my understanding. "
The founder of Dogecoin emphasized that the main value of this cryptocurrency lies in the community and the fact that it can do good. If the community is fun, creative, sympathetic and sometimes absurd, then this is the "true value of DOGE."
Dogecoin developers have recently gone back to updating the cryptocurrency code again . The last time a major coin update was released was in 2019. As a reminder, Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote about Dogecoin several times, resulting in a significant rise in the coin's rate .
“I barely participate in the life of Dogecoin, but it's strange to see what I did in a few hours become part of the Internet culture. It's funny to see Elon Musk talk about it, ”wrote the founder of Dogecoin.
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🌐 PayPal may deal with the distribution of government cryptocurrencies
The CEO of PayPal said that in the future, the company may focus on distributing government-issued cryptocurrencies issued by central banks to citizens.
According to PayPal CEO Daniel Schulman, the platform can play the same role for government cryptocurrencies as private banks do for the dollar. Shulman outlined his vision for PayPal digital wallets as a tool for central banks to distribute government cryptocurrencies to consumers with different income levels.
“I think about how many digital wallets we will have in the next two years, three or five years. In my opinion, PayPal is the perfect complement for central banks and governments in the proliferation of these digitalized forms of currency, ”he said.
Shulman also said PayPal is looking into smart contracts and asset tokenization.
“This is an opportunity every few decades when fundamental systems change and we have a chance to help build new infrastructure,” Shulman said.
The company has also released new data on the transactional activity of customers using its cryptocurrency-based products. The number of weekly transactions made by PayPal customers who use cryptocurrency services increased by 12%. This is in part due to the fact that over 40% of PayPal customers in the US return to complete more than two additional transactions.
Earlier this month, Shulman revealed that the company plans to launch a new division to work in the cryptocurrency industry, and last November PayPal launched a cryptocurrency purchase feature in its app for US users.
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🌐 Jack Dorsey and Rapper Jay-Z Contribute 500 BTC to Bitcoin Developer Support Fund
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and rapper Jay-Z will set up крипtrust, a cryptocurrency fund, and will contribute 500 BTC to fund Bitcoin-based developments.
The new fund is dedicated to supporting developers based in Africa and India. ₿trust is a trust, the terms of which cannot be subsequently changed by the founders. Dorsey and Jay-Z will not manage the fund, but it will require the appointment of three board members to get it going. ₿trust emerged a few days after it was revealed that Dorsey had donated $ 1 million to the nonprofit cryptocurrency research and legal center Coin Center.
The Twitter CEO has long been considered a bitcoin supporter. A year ago, a symbol of the first cryptocurrency appeared on this social network , which is displayed when writing hashtags #bitcoin or #btc. And last week, Dorsey launched his Bitcoin node, echoing the historic phrase from cryptographer Hal Finney: "Let's launch Bitcoin."
Dorsey is also the co-founder and chairman of the payments company Square. In October last year, Square acquired 4,709 BTC for $ 50 million. The company is also implementing the Square Crypto Grant program to fund developments based on the Bitcoin blockchain. Over the past year, similar programs have been launched by many marketplaces, tech startups, and non-profit organizations.
For example, this month Nervos launched a $ 5 million fund to support decentralized finance (DeFi) projects. Terraform Labs has opened a $ 10 million fund to integrate its stablecoins TerraUSD (UST) and LUNA with DeFi projects, in return covering their smart contract audit costs.
