Month: July 2021

“It begins with Bitcoin. This is the key first stage of this crypto project, and the directive is coming from the very top… Jeff Bezos himself.”

Though Amazon is not the first company to add a Bitcoin payment method, it is certainly the most influential one. It operates the top e-commerce store globally with hundreds of millions of people as its customers.

“This entire project is pretty much ready to roll,” the insider added, adding that the company has been working on it since 2019. After Bitcoin, Amazon also has plans to add Ethereum, Cardano, and Bitcoin Cash for payments.

https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/bitcoin-inches-closer-to-40k-after-reports-of-amazons-crypto-plan/?utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=26.07.21

Of the family offices that responded to the survey, 22% had $5 billion in assets under management, and 45% managed between $1 billion and $4.9 billion.

Goldman Sachs’ survey arrived a couple of months after it published a research report which concluded that cryptocurrencies are a legitimate asset class. In May, the bank declared: ​​”Clients and beyond are largely treating [Bitcoin] as a new asset class, which is notable—it’s not often that we get to witness the emergence of a new asset class.”

https://decrypt.co/76598/goldman-sachs-18-worlds-super-rich-see-crypto-inflation-hedge

JPMorgan has reportedly become the first large US bank to allow its financial advisors to give wealth management clients access to cryptocurrency funds.

The bank told its advisors in a memo earlier this week that, as of July 19, they can buy and sell five crypto funds on behalf of a client, Business Insider reported.

The offerings include Osprey Funds’ Bitcoin Trust (OBTC), as well as four from Grayscale Investments: its Bitcoin Trust, Bitcoin Cash Trust, Ethereum Trust and the Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust.
https://blockworks.co/jpmorgan-reportedly-to-allow-clients-to-access-crypto-funds/

“QETH11 follows the same Ethereum index used by the CME Group, the CME CF Ether Reference Rate. For this, the ETF buys physical Ethereum and carries out custody with transparency and security for you“, QR said in a statement.

This means that investors seeking to buy Ethereum without direct exposure to the actual cryptocurrency can now do so via this ETF, using any supported brokerage provider.

QR Asset Management will manage the ETF, which the firm says will benefit from Gemini’s “secure institutional custody”. Gemini is a US crypto exchange and custody provider that has previously sought and failed to convince the US SEC to approve their application for a Bitcoin ETF.

The approval of the two ETFs—first BTC and now ETH points to Brazil’s continued support for crypto assets, adding to the clarity within its regulatory environment.

https://coinjournal.net/news/brazil-approves-latin-americas-first-ethereum-etf/

Institutional investor demand to get access to Bitcoin, Ether and other digital currencies is only rising, Jessop said. The first clients of Fidelity Digital tended to be family offices and hedge funds, he said. That’s now expanding to retirement advisers and corporations that want to hold crypto as an asset class.

“Bitcoin has been the entry for a lot of institutions,” Jessop said. “It’s now really opening up a window on what else is going on in the space.” A big shift is in “the diversity of interest” from new and existing customers, he said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-12/fidelity-digital-to-expand-staff-by-70-on-strong-crypto-demand?sref=PXN7mzI6

“Issuing a central bank digital currency would help to maintain the autonomy of domestic payment systems and the international use of a currency in a digital world,” the ECB said in a report.

https://blockworks.co/european-central-bank-launches-24-month-investigation-into-digital-euro/

The global investment management company, Capital Group, ranks among one of the oldest and largest investment management firms in the world with over $7.6 billion in revenue. As of December 31, 2020, the firm said it manages more than $2.3 trillion in equity and fixed income assets for millions of individuals and institutional investors around the world.

The investment gives CII an indirect line into the cryptocurrency market, as MicroStrategy is heavily invested in bitcoin and has bought over 105,000 bitcoins for approximately $2.741 billion, as of late June.

https://blockworks.co/capital-group-buys-12-2-stake-in-bitcoin-proxy-microstrategy/?oly_enc_id=2460C7090134A6V