Cryptocurrency
U.S Biggest bank, JP Morgan Chase says Bitcoin might displace gold
JP Morgan Chase analyst anticipates that prevailing fundamentals could turn global investors away from gold and increase their inflows to Bitcoin.
The widespread acceptance of the flagship crypto, Bitcoin, as a store for value is having a direct impact on the popular safe-haven asset, gold.
Thus, it is setting the stage for a major change in institutional asset allocation between the two, according to experts at America’s biggest bank JPMorgan Chase.
READ: U.S investment giant, with $295 billion assets plans to buy Bitcoin
Highly revered JP Morgan Chase analyst, Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, anticipated that gold prevailing fundamentals could turn global investors away from it and increase their inflows to Bitcoin in a matter of few years, leading to a large divergence in price between Bitcoin and Gold.
JP Morgan chase acknowledged that although Bitcoin accounts for 0.18% of assets held by the world’s elite that include their family offices, compared with 3.3% for gold ETFs, which gave further insights that only a small reallocation from gold to Bitcoin could change the status quo for the yellow metal.
READ: Citibank: Bitcoin could skyrocket by $300,000 in 2021
What they are saying
America’s most valuable bank, JPMorgan Chase, also spoke on why it believes the odds are with Bitcoin to keep rising in value.
READ: Germany’s 18th Century old bank begins a Bitcoin, Stellar, Ethereum Fund
- “Even a modest crowding out of gold as an ‘alternative’ currency over the longer term would imply doubling or tripling of the bitcoin price,” JPMorgan Chase said.
READ: World biggest crypto hedge fund: Grayscale Crypto holdings now $9.8 billion
And over time, Bitcoin could be held for other reasons such as for making payments, not just for being a store of wealth as gold is, according to JPMorgan Chase
- “Cryptocurrencies derive value not only because they serve as stores of wealth but also due to their utility as a means of payment. The more economic agents accept cryptocurrencies as a means of payment in the future, the higher their utility and value,” JPMorgan Chase explained.
READ: ExxonMobil, JP Morgan Chase, MasterCard Up by over 10%
What this means
In a press release to clients that was obtained by Bloomberg, the bank said:
“The adoption of bitcoin by institutional investors has only begun, while for gold, its adoption by institutional investors is very advanced. If this medium to longer-term thesis proves right, the price of gold would suffer from a structural headwind over the coming years.”
In the short term though, “there’s a good chance that Bitcoin prices have overshot and gold is due for recovery”, the U.S elite bank added.
READ: Bitcoin on high demand, hits 2-year high, trading $17,000
What you should know
Nairametrics, some weeks ago, revealed America’s biggest bank, JP Morgan Chase, released a statement on the world’s flagship crypto, where it said that Bitcoin has what it takes to challenge gold’s status as the go-to alternative financial asset.
- When compared to other financial assets like gold and crude oil, Bitcoin looks relatively small, considering that it has a market capitalization of $242 billion, compared to the precious metal’s (Gold) $2.6 trillion market value.
- However, this means the crypto has more room for upside and can potentially compete with gold as the preferred alternative currency.
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READ: Bill to assist banks recover bad loans scales through 2nd reading in Senate
Cryptocurrency
How to protect your Crypto assets from thefts, hacks and frauds
According to data released by CipherTrace Cryptocurrency Intelligence, crypto theft for last year stood at $1.9 billion in 2020, down from $4.5 billion in 2019.
It’s no longer news that Crypto assets are fast gaining traction in today’s world. The amazing word “Crypto” has completely altered the way we view global financial systems and money, revealing the power of blockchain technology. However, with great power comes great responsibility and part of that responsibility is knowing how to protect your crypto assets.
As a Russian cybersecurity firm, Kaspersky recently affirmed, hacking of crypto accounts is on the rise. “We should expect more fraud, targeting mostly BTC, due to this cryptocurrency being the most popular one,” they stated.
Predictably, the popularity and surge in BTC prices and the upcoming Ethereum mean that virtual currencies often become a target for hackers that want to take advantage of these valuable and appreciating assets.
READ: Computers might steal Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin fortune
According to data released by CipherTrace Cryptocurrency Intelligence, crypto theft for last year stood at $1.9 billion in 2020, down from $4.5 billion in 2019.
In 2018, cryptocurrency crimes were about $1.7 billion in value, according to CipherTrace’s annual Crypto Anti-Money Laundering and Crime Report. This number surged by almost 165% year-over-year to $4.5 billion in 2019.
This data makes it crucial for you to protect your crypto assets and avoid falling victim to cyber hackers.
The most important process in securing your crypto assets is choosing a crypto wallet. This wallet works pretty much like a traditional wallet, save for the obvious fact that it is a digital wallet. Some popular examples are MetaMask, Trust wallet, Electrum, and Exodus.
READ: Crypto robber steals $15 million
A crypto wallet is used in keeping the private and public keys required to buy your crypto assets, thus enabling digital signatures to approve every transaction. It is safer to keep your crypto assets in crypto wallets as crypto exchanges can fall prey to cyberattacks and theft.
A private key (almost like a real key) unlocks your crypto assets from your crypto wallet.
You must also understand the power of your private key as losing such keys to cyber-attacks or carelessness will result in losing access to your funds. If someone else learns your key, they can spend those funds.
Seed phrases
It is also critical to understand that many crypto wallets have just one private key. They are hierarchical deterministic (HD) wallets, meaning they can hold a lot of different keys. All that is required of you is knowing the seed phrase, a collection of words that can be used to generate those keys. This may resemble the following:
story four mine sorrow many scare just fortitude amazing cast lie novice
Unless you intentionally prefer to use a single private key, you’ll probably be asked to back up a seed phrase when creating a crypto wallet.
To protect your crypto assets, ensure you work with reputable cryptocurrency wallets, exchanges, brokerages, and mobile apps and avoid sharing your secret key with others.
Crypto trading platforms like FTX derivative exchange provides multi-level security features for its users, as Google authenticator is available to protect your withdrawals on exchanges. Also, it’s very important to whitelist your withdrawal address to prevent loss of funds.
Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin bounces as Ether hits new all-time high
Data from coinmarketcap shows bitcoin erasing almost all the previous day’s losses to trade as high as $57,939.36 in the last 24 hours.
New all-time highs for Ether after sell-off earlier in the week. Bitcoin (BTC) also gained 4.03% in the last 24 hours as cryptocurrencies recovered losses despite increasing turmoil in global stock markets.
BTC price bullish
Data from coinmarketcap shows bitcoin erasing almost all the previous day’s losses to trade as high as $57,939.36 in the last 24 hours. The move came amid concerns in tech stocks, fueled by problems in Taiwan which saw the country’s equities index post its biggest one-day loss in history.
Bitcoin and altcoins had sold off with tech stocks more broadly earlier in the week, but the latest macro dip failed to worsen their performance. “BTC is bouncing here and Altcoins are recovering strongly,” popular Twitter commentator Rekt Capital summarized on Tuesday as the United States Federal Reserve buoyed the crypto cause by refusing to suggest that economic interventions could be lessened.
READ: Crypto-Tsunami as over 247,000 investors lose $1.7 billion
Bitcoin is currently trading $57,122.96 as of the time of writing this report.
Ethereum keeps breaking all-time highs
In continuation of “altseason,” Ether led gains, touching new all-time highs while maintaining support at $4,000. Gas fees, however, remain a headache for traders and Ethereum network users. Due to the network congestion, Ethereum gas fees are as high as $700 during peak periods. This presents a significant concern for investors and developers on the network.
READ: Companies are now accepting Bitcoin payments – How does it affect Bitcoin exchange and trading?
Ether is currently trading $4,317.25 as of the time of writing this report.
Amid continued debate over “meme” coins, Dogecoin (DOGE) was flat, while Shiba Inu (SHIB) lost 23% to fall out of the top twenty cryptocurrencies by market cap. Weekly gains for the coin still stand above 1,500%.
