Naira falls at NAFEX window despite over 233% improvement in dollar supply
273,000 Bitcoins taken away from crypto market within a month
Japaul Gold slumps by 30%, after rallying to 52-week high of N1.67 on Monday
Multiverse forecasts N39.5 million profit in Q1 2021
GCR affirms Dangote Cement issuer ratings of AA+(NG) and A1+(NG)
How Access Bank got Japaul to pay up N37 billion loan that had gone bad
Covid-19: FG launches Rapid Response Register (RRR) for urban poor affected by pandemic
Naira strengthens at NAFEX window despite 61% drop in dollar supply
McCaleb, co-founder of Ripple sells 28.6 million XRP
Oil prices rally high on incoming COVID-19 relief program
Cryptocurrency
World’s biggest crypto hedge fund Bitcoin holdings stand at 588,970
Grayscale added more than 10,000 Bitcoin to its crypto holding, bringing the total number of Bitcoins under its management to 588,970.
The world’s biggest crypto hedge fund, Grayscale, just added more than 10,000 Bitcoin to crypto holding in a single day, bringing the total number of Bitcoins under its management to 588,970.
- Data retrieved from crypto futures analytic platform, Bybt, shows Grayscale had 576,650 Bitcoins as of December 21st, 2020. The amount surged to 588,970 BTCs a day later, an increase of about 12,320.
- Grayscale’s recent purchase is estimated to equal the 13-day supply of newly mined Bitcoin, since the number of the world’s flagship crypto being added daily to the total BTC circulating supply is 900. At Bitcoin’s prevailing price of $23,000, the company’s total BTC holdings are valued at just over $14 billion at the time of drafting this publication.
- Grayscale’s latest purchase of the world’s leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is valued at about $290 million.
READ: ChainLink’s digital coin skyrockets 388% in 130 days, still soaring
What they are saying
In a recent CNBC interview, Grayscale Investments’ Managing Partner, Michael Sonnenshein, revealed that their flagship crypto assets have increased 6 times year-over-year.
- “At Grayscale, our flows are now probably up 6X what they were last year. And the types of investors that are putting capital to work are unlike any of the investors we have seen ever before. It’s some of the world’s largest investors and the allocations that they are making are bigger than we’ve ever seen before.”
READ: Computers might steal Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin fortune
Per Sonnenshein, the current Bitcoin bull market is different from the 2017 bull run.
- “I think this is a very different scenario than we were in in 2017. Back then, Bitcoin didn’t break that psychologically important $20,000 mark. And it’s really not surprising to us that it has this year. There really are a couple of important factors at play that weren’t here in the 2017 rally. And its investment banks writing research highlighting Bitcoin’s superiority to gold. You guys have seen prominent investors coming out and supporting this asset class. You have corporations adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets. These are not factors at play that we have seen before for this asset.”
READ: U.S investment giant, with $295 billion assets plans to buy Bitcoin
Cryptocurrency
273,000 Bitcoins taken away from crypto market within a month
Increased buying pressure from large pocket investors might be the significant force driving the scarcity of Bitcoin.
Despite the prevailing market condition in the flagship crypto market, crypto investors are rapidly locking up their Bitcoin assets for the long haul, with 273,000 Bitcoin being taken out of circulation in the past month.
What you should know: Data retrieved from crypto analytic firm, Glassnide, revealed that “liquid” Bitcoin addresses have shed 270,000 BTCs over the past 30 days, up from 175,000 Bitcoin at the start of January 2021.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $34,771.82 with a 24-daily trading volume of $66 Billion. Bitcoin is down 3.63% for the day.
What this means: Increased buying pressure from large pocket investors might be the significant force driving the scarcity of Bitcoin, as about 33 institutional investors have stashed more than 1.2 million Bitcoin, or 6.5% of BTC’s circulating supply.
Recall Nairametrics, some days ago, disclosed how challenging it had become to buy bitcoins, as about 78% of BTCs in circulation (18.9 million BTCs) was held by large entities that had been holding bitcoin as long-term investments.
- Only 21 million BTCs are ever going to be produced in total, and presently, there are about 18.9 million BTCs in circulation. This shows a differential of about 2.1 million BTCs that are left to be produced, not forgetting that about 4.5 million Bitcoin have been lost forever.
- It also means that liquidity is drying up, as demand for the world’s most popular crypto hits record highs.
A study by Glassnode explained the reasons for the difficultly in buying Bitcoin:
“It is estimated that only 4.2M BTC or 22% of the total supply of BTC is in constant circulation and available for buying and selling. In other words, 78% of the circulating supply of BTC is considered illiquid.”
In a recent study by @glassnode, it is estimated that only 4.2M BTC, or 22% of the total supply of BTC, is in constant circulation and available for buying and selling. In other words 78% of the circulating supply of BTC is considered illiquid. #Crypto https://t.co/2fzMWv1GQ1 pic.twitter.com/onbjhGBho2
— BKCoinCapital (@BKCoinCapital) December 31, 2020
Data retrieved from Glassnode also revealed that “78% of the Bitcoin Supply is Not Liquid,” meaning the majority of Bitcoins available are not for sale and kept by many crypto investors for wealth preservation.
Cryptocurrency
McCaleb, co-founder of Ripple sells 28.6 million XRP
McCaleb the co-founder of Ripple sold 28.6 million XRP — roughly $8.5 million
Crypto analyst, Leonidas Hadjiloizou, recently revealed via his Twitter handle that McCaleb, the co-founder of Ripple, sold 28.6 million XRP — roughly $8.5 million at the time of drafting this report — following 25 days of no sale activity after news broke of the Ripple SEC lawsuit.
Jed's Tacostand had paused XRP sales ever since the SEC lawsuit was announced. After 25 days of no sales, 28.6 million XRP was sold today. pic.twitter.com/XTMgmvDFZF
— Leonidas Hadjiloizou (@LeoHadjiloizou) January 18, 2021
At the time of writing this report, XRP traded at $0.288355 with a daily trading volume of $5.6 billion. XRP is down 1.09% for the day.
READ: Fear of U.S Financial regulators cripple XRP, tumbles by 61%
Recall that some days ago, Nairametrics revealed Ripple’s co-founder and one of the largest owners of XRP, Jed McCaleb, gained massively from selling XRP in 2020.
Despite Ripple’s legal troubles with the powerful American financial regulator, Jed McCaleb was able to gain $411 million in XRP sales throughout 2020, bringing his total gains from selling XRP to $546 million.
READ: Winklevoss brothers become crypto billionaires
- It’s important to note that McCaleb left Ripple several years ago and went on to launch his own crypto company known as Stellar.
- As of the start of Q3 2020, he was selling an average of 1.74 million XRP daily which, at that time, was estimated to be worth $547,438.
According to Whale Alert’s research, the co-founder still owns 3.274 billion XRP.
READ: Ripple is selling 33% of its ownership in MoneyGram
Recently, XRP has been losing value at record levels since reports that the world’s most valuable crypto exchange, Coinbase, announced that it wouldn’t allow XRP trading, in response to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission taking legal action against Ripple.
Cryptocurrency
Investors worry over future of Crypto under a Joe Biden Presidency
U.S Treasury Secretary nominee, Janet Yellen has referred to cryptos to be of a “particular concern”.
Global investors and crypto traders are becoming wary of what the future holds for crypto under a Joe Biden Presidency.
This is because the person expected to lead the U.S Treasury, Janet Yellen referred to crypto as of “particular concern” when it comes to terrorist financing and money laundering.
- The incoming finance leader believes that most cryptos are used for illicit financing.
- She raised such bias during her Senate confirmation hearing yesterday.
READ: Illicit financial flows: Nigeria lost $157.5 billion in almost 10 years – Buhari
Responding to a question from a U.S senator on how to tackle threats relating to terrorist financing, she elaborated on the role digital assets played as regards such channels.
“We need to make sure that our methods for dealing with these matters — with terrorist financing — change along with changing technology […] Cryptocurrencies are a particular concern. I think many are used at least in a transaction sense mainly for illicit financing and I think we really need to examine ways in which we can curtail their use and make sure that anti-money laundering doesn’t occur through those channels,” Yellen said.
READ: EFCC and CBN intensifies fight against financial fraudsters
What you should know: At press time, the crypto market was down by 2.69% with a total market value of $1.01 trillion, trading at $35,200 with a daily trading volume of $57.5 billion. Bitcoin is down 4.04% for the day.
Also, according to a recent survey conducted by one of Europe’s biggest banks, several market experts anticipate that the flagship crypto asset, Bitcoin, and a leading tech company have their prices highly inflated.
More than half of the market experts that took part in the survey disclosed that the most popular crypto could lose about 50% of its present value ad thus more likely to drop to the $18k range over the next year.
READ: Africa’s richest woman has been dragged to court for corruption
Deutsche Bank’s strategist, Jim Reid pointed out that Bitcoin was giving signs of a market bubble. He said:
“When asked specifically about the 12-month fate of bitcoin and Tesla—a stock emblematic of a potential tech bubble—a majority of readers think that they are more likely to halve than double from these levels with Tesla more vulnerable according to readers.”
