
UBS warns Bitcoins could disappear like Myspace

COVID-19 Update in Nigeria

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COVID-19 Update in Nigeria

Daily Parallel Market Exchange Rate – âŠ470/$1

Prices of local rice, onions, tomatoes, others crash as foreign rice continues to ease off

Ethereum held on Crypto exchanges might run out of supply in 2 days

U.S Central Bank leader says no rush into crypto dollar
Cryptocurrency
Crypto: Popular Hedge Fund, Grayscale record best quarter ever
Grayscale Investments has had impressive growth after registering its third consecutive record-breaking quarter.

Published
3 months agoon

Popular American based hedge fund, Grayscale Investments, has had impressive growth after registering its third consecutive record-breaking quarter with more than a billion inflows recorded.
READ: How to buy and sell Bitcoins in Nigeria
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Bitcoin Trust, Grayscale Investments product remained the most widely selected investment product. Grayscale Investments in its most recent report for Q3 2020 report, total investments into the digital asset managers fund in those three months alone accounted for more than a billion dollars. Adding Q1, Q2, which were also record-breaking at their respective time, the year-to-date inflows surged to $2.4 billion.
READ: Ripple owners say XRP will be worth $100
READ: CBN clears air on Diaspora Remittances, official inflows $2.6bn not $26bnÂ
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Just for comparing our massive, the recent feat is, Grayscale had received $1.2 billion s2013 to 2019. This makes the year to date for 2020 inflows twice as much.
READ: Gold Prices cross $1800, first time since 2011
What you must know; Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Among Fastest Growing Investment Products: Grayscale Bitcoin Trust experienced $719.3 million in 3Q20 inflows.
- The Trust has seen its assets under management (âAUMâ) surge from $1.9 billion to $4.7 billion YTD.
- Grayscale Bitcoin Trust does not operate a redemption program and its shares do not trade on a national securities exchange.
- Trust is therefore not an ETP or ETF. Still, if the Trust were compared to global ETPs and ETFs with over $1B AUM at the start of the year, it would rank as the third-fastest growing product YTD with an AUM increase of approximately 147%.
READ: Nigeriaâs diaspora remittance to hit $34 billion by 2023 â PwC
READ: The week that shook the world: the collapse of the Lehman Brothers and the effect it had on me
Backstory
Recall Nairametrics about five months ago, revealed how institutional investors and hedge funds around the world have been rushing to have a stake in crypto assets which all have been outperforming other financial assets in 2020.
A popular hedge fund based in New York âGrayscale Investments âcaught the investment world by surprise by buying up Bitcoin (BTC) at a great rate in recent months.
READ: Update: Buhari seeks power to freeze accounts, clamp down on money launderers
What you need to know about Hedge Funds; They are firms that offer alternative investments to a specific type of investors (high net worth individuals), in a bid to protect their investment portfolios from market uncertainty, while generating positive returns regardless of market sentiments.
Explore Data on the Nairametrics Research Website
READ: CBN gives approval for Stirling Trust to start offering cash-in-transit services
Olumide Adesina is a France-born Nigerian. He is a Certified Investment Trader, with more than 15 years of working expertise in Investment trading. Follow Olumide on Twitter @tokunboadesina or email [email protected] He is a Member of the Chartered Financial Analyst Society.


Cryptocurrency
UBS warns Bitcoins could disappear like Myspace
UBS suggests that a rival cryptocurrency backed by powerful Western Governments could eclipse Bitcoin

Published
3 hours agoon
January 16, 2021
Analysts at Swiss firm UBS are warning investors that popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoins could lose their allure just like Myspace and Netscape did earlier on in the social media and browser revolutions respectively.
According to Bloomberg, the firm issued this warning to its investors citing regulatory actions or if a better-designed version is launched to rival the existing ones.
âThere is little in our view to stop a cryptocurrencyâs price from going to zero when a better-designed version is launched or if regulatory changes stifle sentiment…..Netscape and Myspace are examples of network applications that enjoyed widespread popularity but eventually disappeared,â UBS strategist.
What this means: UBS suggests that a rival cryptocurrency backed by powerful Western Governments could eclipse Bitcoin when launched as it will attract more credibility and transaction value. Bitcoin is currently not owned by any government.
What the US Fed is saying
Bitcoins, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency with a 66.5% market share saw its price rise above $40,000 during the week before falling 8.9% to close just above $37,000. Cryptocurrencies are very volatile assets and is viewed somewhat negatively by most regulators.
Recently, the US Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, recently spoke on why the U.S central bank had no reason to rush into central bank digital currencies. According to him;
Since we are the worldâs reserve currency, we actually think we need to get this right, and we donât feel an urge or need to be first,â he said. âWe effectively already have a first-mover advantage, because weâre the reserve currency.â
Powell also revealed that stablecoins were of high-level priority.
âWeâve been very focused⊠on potential regulatory answers for global stablecoins, in particular,â said Powell in response to a question about CBDCs, or central bank digital currencies.
âSo thatâs been a high-level focus, and that will continue to be a high-level focus because they could become systemically important overnight and we donât begin to have, you know, our arms around the potential risks and how to manage those risks, and the public will expect we do and has every right to expect that⊠Itâs a very high priority.â
Upshots
According to a report by Google, Nigeria has the highest interest in Bitcoin globally. The report claims Nigeria emerged the first amongst other countries around the world in Bitcoin searches on Google. Delta State has the highest level of Bitcoin interests on a state level in Nigeria, followed by Ebonyi, Ekiti, Anambra, and Osun.
Surprisingly Nigeriaâs business capital, Lagos misses out of the top 5 as regards Bitcoin level of interest in Google.
Cryptocurrency
Ethereum held on Crypto exchanges might run out of supply in 2 days
A crypto expert has released key details on why Ether coins on crypto exchanges could be all gone within 48 hours.

Published
20 hours agoon
January 15, 2021
The amount of Ethers held on Crypto exchanges could go into extinction amid the high buying pressure seen in recent days.
Alex Saunders, a crypto expert, via Twitter, released key details on why Ether coins on Crypto exchanges could be all gone within 48 hours amid high buying pressure.
READ: Crypto: Financial market that never sleeps, or is under any central authority
- “Crypto Exchanges could be out of Ether within 48 hours. Demand has sky rocketed. Exchange reserves fell 20% from 10 million to 8 million in the last few hours. With targets of $5k, $10k & $20k long term, I doubt many HODLers will sell their ETH in the $1-2k range”
READ: Why Ethereum could make you rich
Exchanges could be out of $ETH within 48 hours. Demand has sky rocketed. Exchange reserves fell 20% from 10M to 8M in the last few hours. With targets of $5k, $10k & $20k long term, I doubt many HODLers will sell their ETH in the $1-2k range. đđ„ïžđœ #ETH2 #DeFi #NFTs #Gaming #DAO pic.twitter.com/rYPOch2u7p
— Alex Saunders đŠđșđšâđŹ (@AlexSaundersAU) January 14, 2021
READ: 5 rules that Dangote has Adopted from The 48 Laws of Power
Ether reserves held on crypto exchanges have not been this low for about two and a half years ago. At press time, just 7% of Etherâs circulating supply is presently held on Crypto exchanges.
Meanwhile, Crypto investors are buying into the world’s acclaimed utility crypto, over owning a stake in Ether amid the boom seen recently in Crypto markets. Although it has not been strange to many crypto experts in the crypto-verse, seeing Ethereum demand at a record high.
READ: Hackers, expose crypto wallets worth $150 million at Kucoin
Recent data obtained from Glassnode, a crypto analytic firm revealed a number of Ethereum based addresses holding 0.01+ coins just reached an all-time high of 10,997,708.
The previous all-time high of 10,997,003 was observed earlier today.
Metric description: The number of unique addresses holding at least 0.01 coins. Only Externally Owned Addresses (EOAs) are counted, contracts are excluded.
READ: U.S Central Bank leader says no rush into crypto dollar
đ #Ethereum $ETH Number of Addresses Holding 0.01+ coins just reached an ATH of 10,997,708
Previous ATH of 10,997,003 was observed earlier today
View metric:https://t.co/XXb0u19ouH pic.twitter.com/KYPPpuCtFM
— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) January 15, 2021
What you should know
- At the time of drafting this report, Ether traded at $1,219.35 with a daily trading volume of $34.1 billion. Ethereum is up 11.13% for the day. The world’s leading utility has a market value of $139.3 Billion.
- Breaking the $1,300 resistance level represents a dramatic shift for Ethereum, which stood at around the $112 price level in March 2020 following the market carnage that occurred as a result of the ravaging COVID-19 virus.
- Ethereum is a decentralized system, fully independent, and is not under anybodyâs authority. It has no pivotal point, and its platform is connected to thousands of its users through their computing system around the world, which means itâs almost impossible for Ethereum to go offline.
READ: WhatsApp to share users’ personal information with Facebook
Cryptocurrency
U.S Central Bank leader says no rush into crypto dollar
Jerome Powell recently spoke on why the U.S central bank had no reason to rush into central bank digital currencies.

Published
22 hours agoon
January 15, 2021
The world’s most powerful monetary policy chief, Jerome Powell, recently spoke on why the U.S central bank had no reason to rush into central bank digital currencies.
In a YouTube webinar organised by Yahoo Finance and conducted by highly revered economist, Markus Brunnermeier, the U.S Fed Reserve Chairman stated that the US central bank desires to get it right and hence doesn’t feel an urge or need to be the first.
READ: Central banks digital currencies pose a threat against the U.S dollar
âSince we are the worldâs reserve currency, we actually think we need to get this right, and we donât feel an urge or need to be first,â he said. âWe effectively already have a first-mover advantage, because weâre the reserve currency.â
Powell also revealed that stablecoins were of high-level priority.
READ: Crypto usage absolutely certain – Standard Chartered
âWeâve been very focused⊠on potential regulatory answers for global stablecoins, in particular,â said Powell in response to a question about CBDCs, or central bank digital currencies.
âSo thatâs been a high-level focus, and that will continue to be a high-level focus because they could become systemically important overnight and we don’t begin to have, you know, our arms around the potential risks and how to manage those risks, and the public will expect we do and has every right to expect that⊠It’s a very high priority.â
READ: Gold prices up on U.S Central Bank’s will to keep interest rates low
Recall many months ago, the worldâs largest economy considered the use of digital dollars, following slow COVID-19 stimulus payments to its citizens. The U.S Congress recently heard testimonies on the usage of digital dollars to facilitate the U.Sâ legacy financial infrastructure.
Just yesterday, Americaâs Congressional Fintech Task Force examined Federation Accounts and the use of digital dollars in expanding financial reach in the United States.
READ: Naira gains at NAFEX window as CBN squashes early devaluation thoughts
What you need to know about Digital Dollar: The U.S government considered a framework in creating a U.S. central bank digital currency, which would be mined through the blockchain protocol, transferred between users, and recorded in a public ledger.
- The digital dollars would be stored in a distributed database via the internet, on an electronic computer database, within a stored-value card or virtual files.
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