MAJR Newsletter 036
Top Stories in Bitcoin and Crypto
@starfury
MAJR NEWS BRIEF
Top Stories
BITCOINBitcoin Rallies From Oversold Levels; Resistance Nearby
Bitcoin finally breaks out of 2 month long trading range between $30k-$35k, and finds new resistance at $40k. This is a very positive sign and something to be expected given the coins moving off exchanges, large buyers accumulating at $30k price levels and the overall positive fundamentals that have been in the news daily. We saw bitcoin face a similar short squeeze back in the fall before prices went parabolic into $65k territory. Bitcoin will remain in this consolidation fees until it breaks $40k.
Amazon To Accept Bitcoin by End of Year
An anonymous source leaked that Amazon is gearing up to accept bitcoin and crypto payments by the end of the year and possibly rolling out their own token in 2022. This news follows an Amazon crypto job posting for a payment and blockchain product lead. Other coins mentioned to follow were Ethereum, Cardano and Bitcoin Cash.
Crypto ATM Installations Have Increased Over 70% This Year
Over 10k machines have been installed so far in 2021 compared to 7,620 ATMs in 2020. They are in 75 countries with over 21k machines in the US and total 24,030 globally. The ATMs work with over 600 companies providing crypto liquidity to the individual machines, Bitcoin Depot is the largest partner and just signed a deal with gas-station and convenience store chain Circle K, which plans to install 6k machines in North America by the end of 2021.
Vermont Is Fourth State to Target BlockFi's Bitcoin Savings Accounts
BlockFi, one of crypto’s unicorn darlings that offers centralized financial solutions for crypto holders - trading, lending and borrowing services. They’ve recently been in hot water with New Jersey, Texas, Alabama and now Vermont for their bitcoin and crypto interest earning accounts. Each state has issued cease and assist letters to the company to stop accepting new customers. BlockFi has been transparent about situation with regulators and insists that the offerings are compliant and not offering registered securities. User funds with BlockFi are stored with leading custodians - Gemini, BitGo, and Coinbase. However, users should be aware that BlockFi is no liable for any crypto loses due to operational and technical difficulties.
MAJR Take: It may be wise to move some of your digital assets off of BlockFi as they go through this uncertain time.
Gallup Poll: 6% of American Investors Own Bitcoin
Gallup poll highlights that we’re still so early for bitcoin adoption and that it’s overwhelming dominated by young males. Bitcoin has grown in popularity for US investors. Young males are driving surge in interest. 6% of respondents own bitcoin, which was a 4% increase since 2018. 13% of investor under 50 own bitcoin. 70% of respondent don’t own any bitcoin. In 2018, 56% of investors age 18-49, had no interest in bitcoin, these figures have dropped to only 38% have no interest.
![[cryptocurrency series] Tether - CoinsNetwork](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa70eb699-9b2b-4f19-b7cb-d1e98c4fccf7_730x360.jpeg "[cryptocurrency series] Tether - CoinsNetwork")
CRYPTOTether Executives Facing Criminal Bank Fraud Charges
The US Department of Justice is investigating Tether for possible bank fraud that happened over a year ago. Tether, the company behind the largest stablecoin by market cap, $62 billion, has been a big question mark and concern for the entire crypto ecosystem given market entrenchment as the top stablecoin across exchanges. The company has been accused of shadowy banking and reserve requirement practices, along with pumping the price of bitcoin given their stablecoin issuance. Stablecoins are now the top target for regulations as they operate outside of the banking system and have rapidly grown in overall value.
Some of DeFi’s Leading Investors Are Backing a New Options Protocol
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has been a hotbed for trading and yield baring technology and have been missing quality options protocols. However, crypto venture firms see options as the final piece of the DeFi stack and are looking at Lyra as a leading project. Lyra, an options trading protocol built on layer two scaling solutions like Optimism has received $3.3 million in a seed round from Framework Venture and ParaFi Capital. Lyra is integrated in Synthetix, a leading trading platform also connected with Optimism.
Chainalysis Exec Heads to PayPal to Lead Crypto Regulatory Efforts
Jesse Spiro, the formal Head of Policy and Regulatory Affairs at Chainalysis is headed to PayPal to lead their regulatory efforts for their crypto division. PayPal as emerged as one of the largest crypto players pushing the mainstream adoption after launching their successful retail exchange and acquiring crypto custodian, Curv this year.
Top DeFi Tokens Surge as Bitcoin Takes Aim at $40,000
As bitcoin sees a surge of more than 24% in the last week, top DeFi coins have also seen a bump especially the last 24hrs - Aave (LEND) climbed 17%, SushiSwap (SUSHI) saw a 15% gain and Uniswap (UNI) jumped 9%.
MACROSenators Try to Finalize Deal on Infrastructure Package
There are two infrastructure bills on the table that equate to $4.5 trillion in government spending. The more narrow $1 trillion bill is focused on public transportation, while the larger $3.5 billion bill is focused on covid relief, child care, education, healthcare, climate provisions and broadband. Both parties are close to voting on the first bill, but the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D. Calif.) has said she won’t bring one bill to the floor without the other.
Goldman Expects U.S. Economic Growth to Slow Sharply Next Year
Goldman Sachs analysts expect US economic growth to slow significantly in 2022 as the recovery fades and the service industry buckles under continued covid fears and the effects from remote work. Goldman revaluated metrics for growth seeing GDP ticking down a percentage point for Q3’21 and Q4’21 to 8.5% and 5%. They see GDP growth slowing down to 1.5%-2% for the back half o 2022.
U.K. Banks Prepared for Negative Rates in Case Recovery Crumbles
In February of this year, the UK central bank asked Britain’s biggest financial institutions to technically prepare for negative interest rates. However, banks do not anticipate going negative, but rather the central bank tapering back stimulus. Negative rates have been deployed by the EU and Japan and they flip banking on its head. Rather than receive interest from your bank loaning out your deposits, depositors are charged a fee, while paying those who borrow money. Sub-zero rates are aimed at keeping the costs to borrow low enough to encourage borrowing and spending.
MAJR Take: If 0% wasn’t already good enough…negative interest rates that favors borrowers and not savers is the clearest sign the the current system is broken.
U.S. new home sales hit 14-month low amid supply constraints
Sales for new US single family homes hit a 14 month low in June and sales in May showed weakening market. The slow down is largely due to the shortage in materials and price inflation seen in housing market sector like lumber. Higher production cost and tight supply keeps home prices bolstered, but hurts demand for first time home buyers. “The median new house price increased 6.1% from a year earlier to $361,800 in June. Sales were concentrated in the $200,000-$749,000 price range. Sales below the $200,000 price bracket, the sought-after segment of the market, accounted for only 2% of transactions last month.”
MEDIABTC021: Bitcoin and Bonds w/ Greg Foss
Bitcoin and crypto adoption is here to stay. Don’t let your friends and family miss the opportunity of a lifetime.
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