What kind of an asset is it? Its origins: how did decentralised finance give birth to blockchain database? How a number of ESG concerns are related to the way different cryptocurrencies have been structured and programmed to function? What's next
Speculation is extraordinary, but so is potential. Whether investors welcome it—or even realize it— cryptocurrency, or crypto, is having an impact on their portfolios. The immense size of the cryptocurrency ecosystem and its disruptive effects are being felt across capital
CBDCs should boost financial inclusion and improve efficiency. Private sector cryptocurrencies— digital assets used as a medium of exchange—have received a lot of public attention in recent years. Now, central banks across the world are exploring the introduction of central bank
Increasing regulatory control, due to central banks protecting their economic policy sovereignty and national governments seeking to control climate change, is an imminent risk for cryptocurrencies. In particular, China’s official digital currency is ‘anti-cryptos‘. Cryptocurrency anonymity, notably in the case
Growing positive momentum is driving the Ethereum platform and its Ether currency forward. When the artist known as Beeple sold a digital artwork in early March through Christie’s for $69.3m, he used non-fungible token (NFT) technology lodged on the Ethereum
Since the Dutch East India Co.’s public share offering in 1602, public markets have allowed for people of all walks of life to help cultivate, contribute, and profit from a capitalistic system that has pulled many out of poverty. Over
What are Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)? What is the impetus behind CBDCs when the ethos of crypto goes against the very role of central banks? How will CBDCs affect the widespread use of cryptocurrencies or the need for crypto
While fixed income markets mainly remained under pressure, they were not the worst performing asset class in March. That honor went to commodities. After leading the way over the past months, commodities came under pressure in March. The decline was broad based. Crude oil lost …
The role of cryptocurrencies as a vehicle for speculation has been well established. However, it is less clear if cryptocurrencies can also serve to manage risk. The authors seek to determine the diversification potential of cryptocurrencies both for short and
The proliferation of crypto-currencies (CCs) and the popularity of these assets among investors has led us to question their nature, function, valuation and potential development. CCs are at the crossroads of technological innovation, finance and monetary policy.
During the week of 15 of March, the bitcoin is nearing a new record high of 60.000 U.S. dollar. This unprecedented rise in price begs to wonder, what do institutional investors think about Bitcoin. In this article some of the opinions of institutional investors on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general will be shared.
Het is geen toeval dat de bitcoin opnieuw in de belangstelling staat nu de bezorgdheid over de inflatie toeneemt. Dat komt omdat cryptomunten, waarvan de bitcoin de bekendste is, barometers zijn geworden van het sentiment over een agressief monetair beleid van de centrale banken en financiële repressie. De voorbije tien …
As Bitcoin hits new highs, we find that more reasons are being propagated as to why this cryptocurrency is the future of the monetary system. Many of these views and assertions seem vague and overly simplistic and hence we struggle to follow the logic of the analysis provided. On the other hand, we have studied the monetary system, which is also not simple because of the complex subject matter.
Since the Dutch East India C.’s public share offering in 1602, public markets have allowed for people of all walks of life to help cultivate, contribute, and profit from a capitalistic system that has pulled many out of poverty. Over time, technological innovations have made markets more advanced and the barriers to …
Bitcoin is again in the news. Some advocates of the cryptocurrency suggest its price is rising because bitcoin is challenging gold’s standing as the one supra-currency, the asset to own when fiat currencies are being debased. Does bitcoin offer something unique as …
In 2020, more operating companies began allocating cash to digital assets and cryptocurrencies. This is a new dynamic and a departure from more conventional investing by funds and others in this space. One telling example is MicroStrategy Inc., which announced, last December, that it …
Columbia Threadneedle Investments provides readers with an in-depth discussion of fixed income assets. One important takeaway is the Biden presidency causing rising inflation expectations.
Alternative investments are attracting ever more investors. According to the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association, in the fifteen years between 2003 and 2018 the size of the global investment market doubled, while alternative investments almost tripled to USD 13.4 trillion. This would …
The Decentralized Finance (DeFi) space has been all the craze this year, with an estimated value of over $11B locked in the DeFi lending market alone.1 It’s likely that you’ve seen new DeFi platforms with impressive annual percentage yields (APY) advertised for different cryptocurrencies …
What is blockchain technology? Blockchain technology is an umbrella term covering a set of tools, methods, and processes for electronic recordkeeping between multiple participants. Blockchains are peer-to-peer (P2P) networks composed of different entities that collectively maintain and update a shared set of records.
Crypto in Review 2020 The Year of the Bull 2020 will be remembered as a catastrophic year for the world’s economy as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged global markets. In light of this tragedy, crypto’s epic COVID-19-induced crash and bounce to
Bitcoin, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies burst onto the world stage in 2008, when the online posting of a pseudonymous white paper envisioned a new way to transfer value over the internet.1 In the decade-plus since, the cryptoasset market has gone …
Born to Run December 2020 Market Recap & Outlook Takeaways BTC’s +47% return in Dec. marked its best monthly performance since May 2019 and an annual return in excess of +300%, BTC’s 4th best annual performance since 2011. ETH’s +20%
In Credit – Here we go again 4 January 2021 It was a quiet end to the year for government bond markets with yields little changed. The resolution of the Brexit negotiations was widely anticipated and there was little impact
Uncommon truths Looking at global stock indices, you wouldn’t know there had been a global pandemic and recession during 2020. On the other hand, gold bears witness to the problems and Bitcoin has recently taken up the mantle. Applying our
"In the past 18 months the subject of Central Bank Digital Currency has accelerated dramatically from potential research areas, to key policy agenda. Unquestionably, this has been driven by developments in Facebook’s Libra where the spectre of the private sector
The crypto derivatives landscape has evolved tremendously over the last several years. Beginning with pioneers like Crypto Facilities, BitMEX, Deribit, BitVC (now HuobiDM), and OKEx, derivatives trading in crypto markets really took hold in 2017, dovetailing the entrance of traditional
September 2020 Bitcoin Volatility Report – Sept. kicked off with bitcoin’s annualized volatility touching a 5-week low of 38.8%, only to then rally above 50% on Sept. 3, bounce between 50% and 56%, and snap a 5-month downtrend by concluding
August 2020 Bitcoin Volatility Report • A surge in volatility in late-July trickled into August and subsequently drove annualized volatility up to an intramonth high of 60% on August 25, in addition to a +53% jump MoM in volume traded.
“It’s an insurance policy in case inflation comes back again as it did in the 1970s. I would say that if that’s a sensible thing to do, then, certainly to have 1 to 2% of your assets in Bitcoin makes
This paper examines the case for adding bitcoin to a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds. Specifically, we consider the impact that different allocations to bitcoin would have had on a Traditional Portfolio consisting of 60% equities and 40% bonds
Learning about bitcoin is hard. It may often entail wading through specialized courses targeting software developers, pages and pages of forums and tweets, or endless blog posts to find the answer to a single question. Even more challenging is knowing
Cryptocurrencies are often thought to operate out of the reach of national regulation, but in fact their valuations, transaction volumes and user bases react substantially to news about regulatory actions. The impact depends on the specific regulatory category to which
Webinar – Hard Fork – Bitcoin ban in China and its impact A “hard fork” in blockchain is a point at which the protocol of the ledger diverges such that two separate irreconcilable chains are produced. Chains can become incompatible for
Introduction to ARK’s Big Ideas Deep Learning — From Vision to Language Streaming Media — The Primary Technology Behind Content Distribution Electric Vehicles — Faster Adoption Than Most Think Automation — Increased Productivity and More Jobs 3D Printing — An
Trends, Average Creation Costs, Electricity Consumption & Sources In this fourth iteration of our bi-annual mining report we continue our ongoing observations and analysis regarding the state of the Bitcoin mining network. As explained in the previous report, we have
Kraken Jan 2020 BTC Vol Report January 2020 Takeaways Jan. 2020’s +30.3% appreciation in bitcoin marked the best start to the year since 2013. …
Bitcoin as a Potential Store of Value Understanding the differences between monetary and intrinsic value Bitcoin’s combination of durability, scarcity, privacy, and its nature as A bearer asset all contribute to it holding monetary value Bitcoin is on the path
The Weekly Update After a flat market last week, the bulls are back this week. It started slow, but we have seen some phenomenal rise in prices across the board over the last days. ▪ Mid Caps are really taking
A little over a decade has passed since the 2008 global financial crisis, and central banks continue to apply unconventional monetary policy tools in their effort to maintain economic stability amid slowing growth. Quantitative easing (QE) alongside a now all-too-common
Recession alarms have yet to fully go off, but stagnation warning signs are coming to the forefront on the back of heightened financial instrument risks, potentially affecting the economic health of advanced and emerging markets alike. The many intertwined moving
Adding bitcoin to a global 60/40 portfolio can improve the risk-return profile Bitcoin has increasingly been drawing attention from the investment community over the past few years. While the cryptocurrency has successfully bagged illustrious headlines such as “best-performing asset of the year”, those
Since the launch of Bitcoin in 2009, cryptocurrencies and the underlying blockchain technology have made great strides, resulting in significant investor interest. Still, the technologies are not well understood and the investment landscape remains underexplored. In this Mindscope, we investigate
The stock-to-flow approach originating in commodity-market analysis serves to quantify the “hardness” of an asset. Applied to Bitcoin, an unusually strong correlation emerges between the market value of this cryptocurrency and the ratio between existing stockpiles of Bitcoin (“stock”) and
Society is roughly equal parts positive, negative and neutral about the future value and use of cryptocurrencies for both investing and spending online. While a clear crypto ‘type’ exists, every-day relevance and demonstrated benefits will be key to turning the
China is on its way to become the world's first major country to issue a sovereign digital currency, with top officials from the People's Bank of China announcing on August 10th 2019 1 at the latest China Finance 40 Forum
In August 2019, Bitcoin struggled to remain above $10,000 as its price fluctuated within a $9400-12,000 range. Monthly altcoin volumes were near all-time lows and the market dominance of Bitcoin approached its 70% tipping point. The Libra turmoil continues with
Bitwise Asset Management – Presentation to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The Real Bitcoin Market Market Manipulation Custody Valuation
Stablecoins claim to stabilise the value of major currencies in the volatile crypto-asset market. This paper describes the often complex functioning of different types of stablecoins and proposes a taxonomy of stablecoin initiatives. To this end it relies on a
In July 2019, Bitcoin fluctuated around its USD 10,000 resistance with altcoins lagging, as illustrated by both lower volumes on mid and small-cap altcoins and the Bitcoin dominance waiting at high historical levels. This possibly illustrates that in a period
