MicroStrategy is ready to ramp up its investment in bitcoin, evaluating its business benefits
MicroStrategy executives reported that the purchase of 38,250 bitcoins had a positive impact on their business. This statement was made by company representatives on Tuesday during a conference call on financial results in the third quarter, writes CoinDesk.
MicroStrategy's revenues grew 6.4% year-over-year and net loss narrowed to $ 14.2 million. Calculated against its own non-GAAP accounting standards, the company generated profit of $ 19.8 million or $ 2 06 per share versus $ 11.6 million and $ 1.13 a year ago.
“We are seeing significant and unexpected benefits from our investment in bitcoin when assessing a company's profile in the broader market,” said Fong Li, President of MicroStrategy. "This has a beneficial effect on our overall reputation and increases our awareness among potential customers."
Lee also said that MicroStrategy is ready to continue investing in bitcoin: "You should expect us to buy bitcoins as we generate income that exceeds our daily business needs."
MicroStrategy CEO Michael Sailor said that the availability of bitcoins had a positive impact on the company's recruiting, marketing and brand, calling the cryptocurrency "a digital money network that does not waste money energy."
“As more and more entities begin to understand this idea, which in itself is quite attractive, the spread of bitcoin is growing,” he said.
On July 28, MicroStrategy announced its intention to invest $ 250 million in "alternative assets", including Bitcoin, in order to hedge against the weakening dollar. On August 11, she invested $ 250 million in cryptocurrency, and a month later - another $ 175 million.
MSTR shares have risen more than 40% since the first investment. The company specializes in business intelligence and, in its main direction, does not intersect with digital currencies. At the same time, MicroStrategy allows for the possibility of reducing its position in cryptocurrency, its “primary reserve asset,” if necessary.
The volume of assets under the management of the provider of crypto indices Bitwise exceeded $ 100 million
Bitwise Asset Management, a provider of cryptocurrency indices for professional investors, has more than $ 100 million in assets under its management.
The current value is a record for Bitwise and reflects increased demand for its products from hedge funds, financial advisors and family wealth management companies, according to a press release released today.
The recipient of a significant part of the new investment was the multi-asset Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund based on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and other major cryptocurrencies. Historically, they account for over 80% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization, Bitwise notes.
“We are reaping the benefits of two years of building infrastructure in this space. It comes as no surprise that we are reaching multi-year highs, ”said Matt Hogan, investment director at Bitwise.
The growth of assets under the management of the company has been observed along with an increase in the participation of institutional investors in the cryptocurrency space. Recently, several public companies, including MicroStrategy and Square, announced the purchase of Bitcoin as a reserve asset.
"This has convinced many who were previously cautious to reconsider their position," said Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley.
Iran allows the use of cryptocurrencies to pay for imports of goods
The changes were proposed by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and the Iranian Ministry of Energy. Their initiative was supported by the state. Now cryptocurrencies that are legally mined in Iran can only be exchanged if they are used to pay for goods imported from other countries.
Miners will directly provide the mined cryptocurrency to the Central Bank in accordance with the established limits. The limits for each miner will be determined in accordance with the amount of preferential electricity used for mining cryptocurrencies, as well as with the rules published by the Iranian Ministry of Energy.
The Iranian authorities believe that the use of cryptocurrencies will allow the central bank to avoid restrictions associated with US sanctions, which restrict Iran's access to the dollar system.
Last year, Iran's Economic Commission planned to set special electricity tariffs for miners, and Iranian Energy Minister Homayoun Haeri proposed not to subsidize the electricity used by cryptocurrency miners. In May, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani instructed the government to update the state strategy for the development of the mining industry, including digital assets in the current legislation on "currency smuggling".
Cardano will achieve full decentralization by around March 2021
IOHK CEO Charles HOSKINSON recently hosted a conference at which he announced a decrease in the "D" decentralization parameter to 0.5. At the current rate of progress, the network will be fully decentralized in March 2021. At this point, the "D" parameter will be 0, which means that the independent staking pool operators are producing 100% of the blocks.
Parameter "D" refers to the scale of decentralization, value 1 = fully centralized and 0 = fully decentralized. Over time, the "D" parameter will gradually decrease from 1 to 0. At this stage, "D" = 1. However, over time, depending on the stability of the network, independent operators of the staking pool will start producing more blocks.
Each subsequent epoch after the Shelley hard fork, the handover rate to the pool operators was 0.02 per epoch. This will continue until "D" equals 0.
So one can now happily make transaction and pay in crypto in Iran? That is indeed some better improvement to the merchant dealing in that aspect as it a very good and ease to the business