BitGo: Crypto Water Cooler — June 28
GM. It’s Wednesday, June 28.
Newsmakers
Report: 96% of Institutional Investors See Digital Assets as Diversification Opportunity
Despite substantial headwinds, interest in the digital asset space among institutional investors and traditional financial giants remains robust, according to a recent survey from Laser Digital, Nomura’s digital asset subsidiary.
Laser Digital polled 303 investors across twenty-one countries representing pension funds, wealth managers, family offices, hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds, and other investment funds and found that 96 percent view digital assets as an “investment diversification opportunity” that can complement assets like cash, equities, bonds and commodities. These investors collectively manage nearly $5 trillion in assets. Nearly half of those polled say that they “and/or their clients’ total percentage exposure to digital assets will be between 5 and 10 over the next 3 years.
Other interesting findings that speak to the continued interest in the space include that 82 percent of the surveyed investors had a positive outlook on Bitcoin and Ethereum over the next twelve months, and that 88 percent of those surveyed said they or their clients were considering investing in the space. In an encouraging sign for the crypto space as a whole outside of the top two digital assets by market cap, 88 percent of those surveyed said they “saw value in being exposed to other carefully-chosen cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.”
Meanwhile, CoinShares Chief Strategy Officer Meltem DeMirors reports that after BlackRock’s filing to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF, major traditional financial firms in the United States with a combined AUM of $27T are?“actively” looking ?to give their clients access to Bitcoin and digital assets. In addition to BlackRock, the list includes the likes of Fidelity, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and other heavyweights in the financial space. To be clear, this $27T is their total AUM, and only a small portion of this would theoretically flow into Bitcoin and other digital assets; but it demonstrates that despite some of the current regulatory ambiguity surrounding the space, institutions are still focused on the long-term opportunity it presents.
Read more →Laser Digital
Will Regulators Turn Their Gaze to DeFi? Signs Point to Yes.
Following the collapse of FTX, regulators worldwide have been fielding new digital asset rules while regulators in the U.S. have ratcheted up enforcement. Most of the action so far is focused on centralized exchanges and basic consumer protections. But can DeFi regulation be far behind?
In the E.U., lawmakers are already talking about including DeFi rules in the?next iteration of MiCA . And?a new paper ?by France’s Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) — the regulatory body that issues French crypto licenses — emphasizes the importance of regulating DeFi to create a level playing field. Because of DeFi’s cross-border characteristics, the AMF?supports a global regulatory framework ?that creates a?consistent and proportionate approach : “same activity, same risk, same regulation” although it doesn’t provide specifics. It also supports related efforts of the?Financial Stability Board , which sets global standards, and the international securities regulator?IOSCO ?to move toward appropriate DeFi regulation. In the U.S., the?SEC ?earlier this spring reopened comment on proposed amendments to its definition of “exchange” with Chairman Gary Gensler making clear that he believes the definition includes DeFi exchanges.
DeFi risks mentioned ?in the French paper sound familiar notes: anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing compliance, and know your customer due diligence. So do arguments from proponents of unregulated DeFi: that regulation could hinder growth and innovation and result in reduced services, and create more barriers to entry, higher expenses, and administrative challenges. Given prevailing regulator sentiment, the wisest words may be these from XREX founder Michael Shing writing in?Forkast : “Blockchain technology has helped to broaden access to and redefine the meaning of financial services. Consequently, the regulatory perimeter of financial services and activity will also have to broaden and be redefined.”
Read more →ACPR
Beyond BTC Spot ETFs: Web3 Names Could Break One Usability Roadblock
With regulation dominating the narrative for the past several months, less attention has been focused on progress against other obstacles to mass adoption such as usability. Simple onboarding experiences are critical and, if the U.S. SEC approves a spot Bitcoin ETF, it would give the number one crypto a big usability boost by allowing people to buy it in a way that is already familiar. But what about other digital assets?
Consider this developer?description ?of a supposedly easy onboarding option provided by social media app?Nostr : “People can basically sign up there just by generating a public key and by creating a Lightning wallet, and they can just start receiving and sending with no AML or KYC required.”
Then there are crypto addresses, which consist of long strings of computer generated code. Here’s the address for Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin for example: 0xd8da6bf26964af9d7eed9e03e53415d37aa96045. Imagine what the adoption of email or Venmo would be if everyone had to manage that style of address. Fortunately, Buterin has a Web3 user name, vitalik.eth, generated through the Ethereum Naming Service (ENS), which debuted in 2017. Widespread adoption of such?Web3 usernames ?could help demystify crypto, and there have been some new developments to facilitate that.
Most wallets recognize ENS names, but just 2MM of the 200MM available names have been claimed. The reasons speak to a multiplicity of usability issues. First off, most wallets issue and display computer generated addresses by default, so awareness of Web3 addresses may be low. Claiming a name requires choosing a provider (which could be the wallet provider or an ENS competitor), paying a $5 fee and re-registering annually or paying $20–40 for a permanent address. Compare that to the ease of setting up an email address
To reduce friction, some wallet providers now offer free Web3 names though they may expire after a year. Some messaging apps have begun integrating Web3 names into chat, expanding their utility beyond payments. And, several more protocols, including Polygon, Solana, Arbitrum One, and BNB Chain now have naming services. But that introduces a new usability issue: lack of interoperability between protocols, a problem several firms have already begun tackling.
Read more →CoinTelegraph
News In Brief
Special News: BitGo CEO Mike Belshe Discusses Market Structure and Go Network Launch —?CNBC
Regulation and Security
领英推荐
Business of Crypto
DeFi and Web3
Midweek Market Pulse
Total Market Cap:?$1,181,216,651,086 –7 day change as of Tuesday 6/27/23 Noon EST: +9.5%
Bitcoin (BTC, +7.8%)?and?Ethereum (ETH, +4.3%)?had strong weeks, leading the global crypto market to a gain of 9.5%. Data from CoinShares shows that inflows from institutional investors are at their?highest levels of 2023 , largely to the benefit of the top two digital assets. Bitcoin looks set to close June with an 8% gain and the first half of 2023 with a gain of over 80%. At time of writing, it looks like ETH will finish June slightly in the red but is up over 50% YTD.
BTC’s climb was spurred by news of a parade of major asset managers filing for spot Bitcoin ETFs on the heels of BlackRock’s application. It also got a boost when Fed Chairman Jerome Powell remarked that Bitcoin has “staying power ” during a hearing on monetary policy on Capitol Hill.
But nobody had a better week than?Bitcoin Cash (BCH, +105.6%),?which doubled in value. Such lofty gains are usually the purview of new or microcap tokens, but BCH is neither. With a market cap of $4B, the?Bitcoin fork from 2017 ?is one of the top twenty cryptos by market cap. It got a?major boost ?from its inclusion along with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin as just one of four assets listed on EDX Markets, the newly launched exchange backed by TradFi giants, including Fidelity and Charles Schwab.
Besides the vote of confidence from these institutions, investors may also be hoping that, as a Bitcoin fork, BCH will be?viewed as a commodity ?by regulators. Benjamin Stani of crypto platform Matrixport told Forkast that “The narrative I’m hearing is that Bitcoin forks obviously should get the same treatment as Bitcoin from the Securities and Exchange Commission, i.e. be considered commodities.”
Bitcoin fork?Litecoin (LTC, +8.9%)?and?Bitcoin SV (BSV, +44.3%),?a fork of Bitcoin Cash, rose on similar sentiments. Litecoin benefitted from its listing on EDX Markets as well as an increase in mining difficulty as it draws closer to its?next halving event . Daily active addresses and new addresses?are climbing . While these three tokens have had a resurgence, it should also be noted that all three are down considerably from their all-time highs and have historically not seen widespread usage.
The Last Word
Fork
noun
: A technology solution for resolving differences of opinion over ongoing development of a blockchain protocol
/ After a fork, the new branch becomes an independent chain with its own transaction history while prior transaction history stays on the main chain.
About BitGo
BitGo provides the most secure and scalable solutions for the digital asset economy, offering regulated custody, borrowing and lending, and core infrastructure to investors and builders alike.
Founded in 2013 — the early days of crypto — BitGo pioneered the multi-signature wallet and later built TSS to improve upon other companies’ MPC offerings. Between multi-sig and TSS, BitGo offers the safest technology on the market and safeguards over 600 tokens across a wide variety of blockchains.
Over the years, BitGo has expanded from offering wallets into providing a full-suite solution that lets clients hold assets safely and then put them to work.
BitGo launched BitGo Trust Company in 2018, providing fully regulated, qualified cold storage to complement BitGo Inc’s original hot wallet solution. In 2020, BitGo launched BitGo Prime, which allows its clients to trade, borrow, and lend. Moreover, BitGo also provides access to DeFi, staking, NFT wallets, and beyond, and serves as the world’s sole custodian for WBTC, or wrapped Bitcoin.
Today, BitGo is the leader in digital asset security, custody, and liquidity, providing the operational backbone for more than 1500 institutional clients in over 50 countries — a list that includes many regulated entities and the world’s top cryptocurrency exchanges and platforms. BitGo also processes approximately 20% of all global Bitcoin transactions by value.
For more information, please visit?www.bitgo.com.
?2023 BitGo Inc. (collectively with its affiliates and subsidiaries, “BitGo”). All rights reserved. BitGo Trust Company, Inc., BitGo Inc., and BitGo Prime LLC are separately operated, wholly-owned subsidiaries of BitGo Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, CA. No legal, tax, investment, or other advice is provided by any BitGo entity. Please consult your legal/tax/investment professional for questions about your specific circumstances. Digital asset holdings involve a high degree of risk, and can fluctuate greatly on any given day. Accordingly, your digital asset holdings may be subject to large swings in value and may even become worthless. The information provided herein is not intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity in any jurisdiction or country where such distribution or use would be contrary to law or regulation. BitGo is not directing this information to any person in any jurisdiction where the publication or availability of the information is prohibited, by reason of that person’s citizenship, residence or otherwise.
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