🌐 JPMorgan Co-Chair: "We Will Start With Bitcoin When Demand"
Daniel Pinto, co-chairman of the American investment bank JPMorgan Chase, said that sooner or later the bank will have to work with bitcoin due to the growing interest in this asset.
Daniel Pinto said that the bank's decision to implement services that work with bitcoin will depend on customer demand for cryptocurrency trading. Today, JPMorgan's clients have little interest in digital assets. However, Pinto is confident that Bitcoin will continue to evolve and gain attention. If Bitcoin eventually becomes an asset to be widely used by investors and asset management firms, JPMorgan will be forced to work with it to satisfy its customers.
Earlier, the head of the development of international markets JPMorgan Troy Rohrbaugh (Troy Rohrbaugh) said that bank employees have become increasingly interested in the bank's plans for bitcoin. Therefore, Pinto decided to give his opinion on these issues, adding that he is open to Bitcoin and is ready to explore its potential.
JPMorgan's use of bitcoin would seem ironic given JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has a negative attitude towards cryptocurrencies. In September 2017, Daimon called Bitcoin a fraud, comparing the hype around it to "tulip fever." Three months later, the BTC rate reached $ 20,000. However, Bitcoin's success did not last long, as after a few months it entered a long bear market. BTC began to skyrocket last year when large investors started buying it, including Microstrategy, Square and Stone Ridge. Bitcoin bounced over the $ 48,000 mark this week and is now trading at around $ 47,500. Bitcoin's market cap is over $ 880 billion.
JPMorgan experts have different opinions about Bitcoin. A team of JPMorgan analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou believes that BTC will rise to $ 146,000 in the long term. JPMorgan strategists John Normand and Federico Manicardi doubt Bitcoin is a reliable hedging tool during the economic crisis.
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🌐 Legislators did not support the ban of the Central Bank of Nigeria on the service of cryptocurrency firms
Nigerian lawmakers have spoken out against the CBN's ban on cryptocurrency companies, and called for detailed regulation of the industry.
Earlier this month, Nigeria's central bank banned commercial banks from serving the accounts of cryptocurrency exchanges and other digital asset firms. Otherwise, they will be forced to pay heavy fines. CBN's actions have outraged the country's legislature, as only Nigeria's parliament or senate can pass laws.
Nigerian Congressman Solomon O. Adeola believes that such a ban is too drastic a measure for crypto assets. Cryptocurrencies are regulated all over the world, so the CBN must develop clear rules to control this activity. The Senate emphasized the need to "sit down at the negotiating table" with regulators so that each agency can state its own position on cryptocurrencies in Nigeria. Many congressmen take the same position.
Senator Sani Musa said Bitcoin has stripped Nigerian naira of value, rendering it useless. He noted that cryptocurrency transactions take place all over the world, and due to their confidential nature, it is difficult to determine the owner of digital assets. The newest technologies are so powerful that it is unclear how they should be regulated. However, this must be done. If Nigeria's regulators are unable to control crypto assets in such a weak economy, then it is not clear what the country will be like in a few years, Musa said. Senator Biodun Olujimi also believes cryptocurrencies will help boost Nigeria's economy.
“We didn’t create cryptocurrency, so we cannot eliminate it. We cannot escape her influence. The cryptocurrency industry is developing with good results. Nigeria is unable to insure itself against it. You just need to make sure that crypto assets are not used to harm. The time has come to agree on all issues related to cryptocurrencies, ”Oluzhimi said.
The Senate is organizing a meeting with committees on banking and insurance, as well as financial institutions and firms to combat cybercrime. The meeting will discuss the possibilities of cryptocurrencies and potential threats to the country's economy. The results of the negotiations will become known within two weeks. Note that the Ministry of Finance and the Nigeria Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are also confident that the regulation of the cryptocurrency industry needs to be improved.
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🌐 BitPay cardholders will be able to pay with cryptocurrencies through Apple Pay
American cryptocurrency payment startup BitPay announced that users of prepaid Mastercard cards will now be able to use their Apple smartphones to pay for purchases with cryptocurrencies.
BitPay supports BTC, ETH, BCH, and several stablecoins, and these cryptocurrencies can now be paid using Apple Pay. This is a very important step, because Apple's payment service is supported in the vast majority of points of sale. At the moment, about 5% of the total number of purchases is made in the United States through Apple Pay, and the number of users of the service exceeds 380 million people around the world.
“With Apple Pay, BitPay cardholders will be able to make secure purchases in stores, apps and online platforms. In addition, now you can not wait for the delivery of a plastic card, but add a virtual card to Apple Pay and pay for goods, "- emphasized in a statement BitPay.
Recall that in early December last year, BitPay filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the United States of America (OCC) to register a national bank in Georgia, USA. In the near future, the cryptocurrency payments startup hopes to add support for Android smartphones through Samsung Pay and Google Pay.
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🌐 Deutsche Bank Launches Cryptocurrency Custody Service
Deutsche Bank, the largest bank in Germany, is developing a custodian service and a platform for issuing tokens. The services are intended for the institutional clients of the bank.
Interestingly, information about the development of the platform appeared in the bank's report for December 2020. But since it was located on page 23 of the report and no one from the bank representatives indicated the development of the platform, it passed analysts by.
Deutsche Bank plans to launch "a fully integrated custodian platform for institutional clients and their digital assets, enabling seamless interaction with the cryptocurrency ecosystem."
The platform's developers promise to "ensure the security and availability of assets for customers through a combination of institutional-grade hot and cold storage solutions." It is not yet known which assets the platform will support.
It is expected that the launch of the custodian platform will take place in stages and at a certain stage, Deutsche Bank clients will be able to not only store their assets, but also trade them. For this, it is planned to conclude agreements with large brokerage companies and cryptocurrency exchanges.
The report notes that the bank will launch additional services such as tax assistance on digital assets, valuation and asset management services, lending, staking and voting. There will also be an open banking platform to attract third-party providers.
According to the bank, the service will target asset managers, family businesses, corporations and digital foundations. The bank will collect fees for holding assets and, as a result, fees for tokenization and trading.
Back in November last year, Deutsche Bank managing director Jim Reid drew attention to the fact that bitcoin is becoming more popular as a means of preserving wealth.
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🌐 Transactions on Avalanche blockchain almost completely stopped due to network error
Transactions on the Avalanche blockchain are almost completely halted due to a "bug in the internetworking functionality" that allows the protocol and the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) to connect.
As stated by the developers of Avalanche, a network error led to an almost complete stop of the blockchain. The launch of Pangolin - Avalanche's new decentralized finance (DeFi) product - resulted in an "insane load" on the network, which later "caused a very low probability error that led to a poor network condition."
Transactions on the network are almost completely stopped. Some users have reported that the waiting time for a transaction to complete is up to four hours. However, the developers argue that everything is fine with the core protocol and users' money is safe. The network went into "self-healing" mode after the error "caused panic throughout the network."
A bug-fixing update will only be released when the team is “100% confident” that it will fix the problem. As a reminder, the ChainSafe blockchain development group recently created a "bridge" between the Avalanche and Ethereum blockchains, giving DeFi users the ability to move cryptoassets between the two networks.
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Eight people arrested in UK for stealing cryptocurrencies through SIM fraud
UK police, backed by Europol, have arrested eight suspected SIM fraud suspects. The group stole $ 100 million worth of fiat currencies and crypto assets.
Eight people were arrested as part of an investigation into the theft of fiat currencies and cryptoassets, according to statements by Europol and the UK National Crime Agency (NCA). The attacks were carried out during 2020 from the UK. According to the NCA, the victims resided in the United States and were "notable influencers, sports stars, musicians and their families."
The US, UK and Europol worked with the authorities in Belgium, Malta and Canada to catch the criminals. Eight criminal suspects aged 18-26 were arrested in England and Scotland this week.
Fraudsters downloaded identification information from SIM cards of victims' phones to their cards. After gaining control of SIM cards, they stole money from cryptocurrency services and from bank accounts.
NCA National Cybercrime Operations Chief Paul Creffield said that "those arrested face criminal charges under the United Kingdom Computer Misuse Act, fraud and money laundering, and extradition to the United States."
Recall that last summer, the US Department of Justice accused a California student of SIM card fraud and theft of cryptocurrencies from an investor from New Orleans, as well as 27 other similar crimes. In October 2019, a cryptocurrency investor filed a lawsuit against AT&T, accusing it that the company's employees gained access to his account and illegally seized $ 1.8 million, including in cryptocurrencies.
