Autor Cointelegraph By Brian Quarmby

BTC bull Michael Saylor: Ethereum is 'obviously' a security

BTC bull Michael Saylor: Ethereum is 'obviously' a security

Uverejnil používateľ | júl 10, 2022 |

MicroStrategy CEO and Bitcoin (BTC) bull Michael Saylor said that Ethereum (ETH) is ‘obviously’ a security as he doubled down on labeling BTC as the only commodity in the crypto sector. In an interview with Altcoin Daily, Saylor was questioned on his take regarding the classification of both BTC and ETH as commodities by U.S. Senators such as Kirsten Gillibrand and Cynthia Lummis, along with figureheads from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Saylor provided a lengthy run down on what he thou are the fundamental differences between the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks, as he suggested that only the former has remained unchanged over the years: “I think Ethereum is a security, I think it’s pretty obvious, […] it was issued by an ICO, theres a management team, there was a pre-mine, there’s a hard fork, there’s continual hard forks, there’s a difficulty bomb that keeps getting pushed back.”The CEO argued that the constant need for software upgrades on a network driven by a team or entity represents an indicator that ETH is a security. He pointed to the design of the long-delayed difficulty bomb, which he said will “murder” the entire ETH mining industry as examples of such. According to Saylor, for a digital asset to be classified as a commodity, it needs to be backed by a “completely decentralized protocol where nobody can change it even if they wanted to change it.”“For it to be a commodity there can’t be an issuer, and the truth is you can’t really make decisions. I mean one of the fundamental insights in the crypto industry is that the fact that you can change it, is what makes it a security,” he said. Securities are generally understood as fungible and tradable financial instruments that are used to raise capital in public or private markets. While commodities are seen as goods or assets that have a monetary utility. Assets like gold and silver are seen as hard commodities, while soft commodities are goods such as rice or tea.Saylor reiterated that BTC is a commodity as the core of the Bitcoin network cannot be altered, much like the physical makeup of gold: “If you want to establish yourself as a digital commodity, then you’re trying to create something like gold in cyberspace.” Despite Saylor’s arguments, however, the Bitcoin network has seen multiple network upgrades over the years. The most notable one in recent history was the Taproot soft fork from November 2021, which aimed to improve Bitcoin’s scripting capabilities and privacy. Asked about his thoughts on other altcoins such as Cardano’s native token ADA, Saylor once again echoed his maximalist sentiments, stating: “I think all of the proof-of-stake networks are securities and they’re all very risky […] it’s above my pay grade, the regulators will decide whether or not they allow them to continue or nor noth they don’t allow them to continue.”Related: Bitcoin ‘cheap’ at $20K as BTC price to wallet ratio mimics 2013The MicroStrategy went on to note that one of the major reasons he favors BTC over all other crypto assets is that he holds concerns over altcoins being non-compliant security tokens that could get regulated out of existence.Saylor’s MicroStrategy has continued to snap up BTC despite the tanking value of the asset in 2022, and as of June 29, the firm held 129,699 BTC worth around $3.98 billion at the time.

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Investors lament potentially lost ‘millions’ on Voyager bankruptcy

Investors lament potentially lost ‘millions’ on Voyager bankruptcy

Uverejnil používateľ | júl 10, 2022 |

Many Investors are reeling from Voyager Digital’s recent bankruptcy filing, with some claiming to have either ‘millions’ worth of crypto assets or most of their life savings locked on the crypto exchange.As previously reported, Voyager paused withdrawals at the start of this month amid its liquidity issues as a result of Three Arrows Capital (3AC) defaulting on a $650 million loan from the firm. Despite Alameda supplying the firm with a $500 million loan in June, Voyager went on to file for bankruptcy on July 6. In a July 9 article, Fortune spoke to several Voyager users who are reeling from the recent bankruptcy filing. Some put nearly all of their life savings onto the platform, while others are said to have millions hanging in limbo. One user, referred to as Robert for anonymity purposes, stated he put roughly six figures on the platform, representing 70% of his life savings. “Every day, honestly, I cry,” Robert said, adding, “I don’t know what to tell my wife. As partners, we decided to [invest on Voyager], but she trusted me, more than anyone else, to make the proper decision.”As an investor of six years, Robert went on to note that while he had conducted a relative amount of research on Voyager before using the platform, he would have never done so if he knew that the firm was going to lend out customer funds to a hedge fund: “I had no idea that Voyager would be lending [customers’ USDC] out to a hedge fund. Had I known that it would be possibly lent out, I probably would have just kept it in cash in my safe.”Related: FDIC reportedly scrutinizing Voyager Digital marketing as complex SBF ties come to lightFortune also spoke to popular crypto influencer Scott Melker, who is also known as The Wolf Of All Streets online and claims to have seven figures worth of funds stuck on Voyager. “Listen, I’m out millions of dollars,” he said, adding that he was embarrassed about being over-exposed to Voyager despite often talking about risk management and protecting your assets.Melker has around 851,000 followers on Twitter and 121,000 subscribers on YouTube. He stated that while he stands to lose a lot on Voyager, he feels worse about previously promoting the platform to his audience, friends and family. “I understand that people make their own decisions, but they wouldn’t have even thought about it if I had not brought [Voyager] to their attention. And, frankly, that’s worse than losing my own money.”As part of Voyager’s bankruptcy process, the firm’s executives have outlined intentions to first reorganize the business into a new entity, and then repay users via a combination crypto, proceeds from the Three Arrows Capital (3AC) recovery, Voyager tokens and common shares in the newly reorganized company firm. It is unclear if this will result in a full compensation for all users however.

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Aave to launch overcollateralized stablecoin called GHO

Aave to launch overcollateralized stablecoin called GHO

Uverejnil používateľ | júl 8, 2022 |

Decentralized finance (DeFi) giant Aave has unveiled plans to launch an overcollateralized stablecoin called GHO, subject to the community DAO’s approval. The announcement was made by Aave Companies — the centralized entity supporting the Aave protocol on its Twitter page on July 7, stating: “We have created an ARC for a new decentralized, collateral-backed stablecoin, native to the Aave ecosystem, known as GHO.”According to the governance proposal shared on Thursday, GHO would be an Ethereum-based and decentralized stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar (USD) that could be collateralized with multiple assets of the user’s choice. To obtain GHO, users would need to mint the stablecoin against their deposited collateral however, the list of supported collateralized assets and the collateral ratio has yet to be detailed. As users are essentially borrowing the stablecoin against their holdings, the position will need to be overcollateralized as per any normal Aave loan. “With community support, GHO can be launched on the Aave Protocol, allowing users to mint GHO against their supplied collaterals. GHO would be backed by a diversified set of crypto-assets chosen at the users’ discretion, while borrowers continue earning interest on their underlying collateral.”The proposal notes that 100% of the interest payments accrued by GHO minters would be “directly transferred to the AaveDAO treasury; rather than the standard reserve factor collected when users borrow other assets.”Holders of the staked AAVE token (stkAAVE) would also benefit from the stablecoin’s adoption, as Aave Companies has proposed that they would also be able to mint and borrow GHO at a discounted rate. “If the community votes positively for the deployment of the protocol creating the ability for users to mint GHO, a recommended starting interest rate and discount rate will be proposed,” the team stated, adding that an audit would happen over the next few weeks if all goes to plan. Aave founder Stani Kulechov stated via Twitter that the team has a broader vision of the USD-pegged asset:“While GHO would be secured by the assets on the Ethereum market, the main vision for GHO is to pursue organic adoption via L2s to solve real life payment opportunities across the internet and on-ground.”BREAKING: The @AaveAave team submitted ARC to launch a self-sovereign overcollateralized stablecoin GHO backed by the Aave Protocol collaterals https://t.co/YHpLmipLjl— stani.lens (,) (@StaniKulechov) July 7, 2022Aave is an automated DeFi protocol that enables users to lend and borrow digital assets without needing to go through or obtain approval from a centralized intermediary. The latest proposal to the DAO has coincided with Aave’s native token AAVE gaining 15.04% over the past 24 hours to sit at $72.31 at the time of writing. Related: Web3 will unite users from social media platforms, says Aave execAccording to data from DeFi Llama, Aave is the second-largest DeFi platform in terms of total value locked (TVL) at $6.76 billion. The ecosystem is based on Ethereum and also supports multiple Layer 2s including Polygon, Optimism and Arbitrum.

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Bombshell allegations of fraud as KeyFi takes Celsius to court

Bombshell allegations of fraud as KeyFi takes Celsius to court

Uverejnil používateľ | júl 8, 2022 |

Staking software and investment firm KeyFi Inc. has filed a complaint against beleaguered crypto-lending firm Celsius, alleging the company had been operating in a “Ponzi” style fashion and that it failed to honor a profit-sharing agreement “worth millions of dollars.”The complaint, filed on July 7, alleges that Celsius has refused to honor a “handshake agreement” in which KeyFi would receive various percentages on the profits it made on Celsius behalf via a number staking and DeFi strategies. The complaint also accuses Celsius of “negligent misrepresentation” over its risk management controls and “fraud in the inducement” via misleading information of its business operations, which were deployed to induce KeyFi to work with Celsius.The plaintiff is Jason Stone, CEO of KeyFi. He founded the company in January 2020 and has a background as an investor/investment advisor. According to the court documents KeyFi served as an investment manager to Celsius between August 2020 and March 2021, during which the duo entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which saw the KeyFi work under a special purpose vehicle to be owned by Celsius, dubbed Celsius KeyFi. While a specific figure owed to KeyFi is not outlined in the complaint, it states the sum is worth “millions of dollars,” and that the companies had agreed on profit shares ranging from 7.5% to 20% depending on the investment strategy. Notably, there is also a lengthy section of the complaint alleging that Celsius was running a “Ponzi” style operation by luring in new depositors with high interest rates as a way to “repay earlier depositors and creditors.” Celsius operated as a Ponzi scheme. pic.twitter.com/pGC8vrH3a0— Dylan LeClair (@DylanLeClair_) July 7, 2022The complaint seeks a trial by jury, and an award of damages in “an amount to be determined at trial” along with punitive damages in the same vein, pre and post-judgment interest, and an accounting of all assets/funds generated via KeyFi trading activities. Further claims from Oxb1A person claiming to be Stone revealed himself to be the leader of the group of pseudonymous DeFi traders behind the Oxb1 address and Twitter account on July 7. The account provided a long rundown of Celsius’ alleged dealings with KeyFi since 2020. Given the public speculation about the company’s solvency, and my observation of Celsius’ loose relationship with the truth, I feel it is only prudent to finally set the record straight. I have brought legal action against Celsius to settle this issue once and for all.— 0xb1 (@0x_b1) July 7, 2022

Celsius was said to have struck a business partnership with KeyFi in mid-2020 which saw the creation of the Oxb1 address for KeyFi to receive, manage and invest customer deposits from Celsius. The assets under management (AUM) totaled almost $2 billion by the end of their partnership in March 2021, according to the account. The account also stated that Celsius’ risk management team, who monitored the activity of Oxb1, assured KeyFi that “their trading teams were adequately hedging any potential” impermanent loss (IL) and fluctuations in token prices relating to KeyFi investment activities. However, Oxb1 alleges that this was not true and they “had not been hedging our activities, nor had they been hedging the fluctuations in crypto asset prices.”“The entire company’s portfolio had naked exposure to the market,” he said. Oxb1 claims that KeyFi opted to terminate the partnership as a result, and gradually unwind its investment positions over the course of a few months. KeyFi was said to have increased total AUM by $800 million during the partnership. However, when the firm exited its positions, Celsius allegedly suffered impermanent loss and blamed Stone.  Related: Celsius pays down 143M in DAI loans since July 1Oxb1 stated that he filed the lawsuit and took the matter public after a year of trying to privately settle the dispute with Celsius. To date, he claims KeyFi is owed a “significant amount of money,” and that Celsius has “refused” to acknowledge its lack of risk management and honor the initial profit sharing terms of the deal. “Despite our reasonableness, and due to what I believe was motivated by the massive hole in their balance sheet, Celsius has refused to acknowledge the truth or their failures in risk management and accounting. They have tried to deflect blame to me instead.”

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Bloomberg analyst tips bullish BTC recovery in next six months

Bloomberg analyst tips bullish BTC recovery in next six months

Uverejnil používateľ | júl 7, 2022 |

Bloomberg’s senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone is tipping that the price of Bitcoin (BTC) will rebound in the second half (2H) of 2022. Sharing his thoughts to his 48,100 Twitter followers on July 6, McGlone saw positive signs in the data Bloomberg’s Galaxy Crypto Index (BGCI) and the 50-week and 100-week moving averages of BTC’s price. He suggested that the current indicators are showing similar signs to the bottom of the bear market in 2018, which preceded a strong rebound in the first half of 2019. “With the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index nearing a similar drawdown as the 2018 bottom and Bitcoin’s discount to its 50- and 100-week moving averages similar to past foundations, risk vs. reward is tilting toward responsive investors in 2H.”The BCGI is designed to measure the performance of the largest crypto assets to ascertain a general view of the market’s overall performance. Moving averages pinpoint the average price of an asset over a specific amount of time such as 50 or 100 days. Crypto Winter in 2018 was a rough time for BTC, as the price plunged down from the $16,000 region in January to a market bottom of around $3,200 by mid-December according to data from Coingecko. Following the carnage however, BTC went on to pump to around $13,000 by late June. McGlone predict in a follow up post that BTC is either on track for “one of the greatest bull markets in history at a relatively discounted price to start 2H” or that data is showing that the crypto market is starting to fail and scare away investors. “Our bias is [that] Bitcoin adoption is more likely to continue rising,” he said. #Bitcoin could be one of the greatest bull markets in history at a relatively discounted price to start 2H. Or the crypto may be a failing experiment in the process of being made redundant, like #crudeoil. Our bias is Bitcoin adoption is more likely to continue rising pic.twitter.com/qtLRR6isXF— Mike McGlone (@mikemcglone11) July 6, 2022McGlone likened the wash out in 1H to the “2000-02’s bursting Internet bubble” which saw many firms tank but also paved the way for top companies like Amazon and eBay to grow. Weighing over the analysis however is the fact the bearish conditions have been in large part in response to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s hawkish monetary policy and inflation reel-in attempts via a series of interest rate hikes. In 2022, BTC and the overall crypto market has suffered from several macro factors such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, global regulation and unemployment rates. Meanwhile crypto projects and companies imploding has turned sentiment even more bearish. Related: Crypto owners banned from working on US Government crypto policiesOn June 5, McGlone noted that if the stock market keeps dropping in a “similar velocity as in 1H”, the latest interest 75 basis point rate hike from the Fed in June could be the last one of the year, as the government works to avoid a recession. Such an outcome could result in a bounce across asset classes as investors re-enter the market. If stocks keep dropping at a similar velocity as in 1H, the June 75 bps hike may be the last. https://t.co/zHtLfuYoZg— Mike McGlone (@mikemcglone11) July 4, 2022

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