Morgan Stanley says Bitcoin Needs Government Regulation to Rise Further
Morgan Stanley made headlines this week when it said that the “rapid appreciation” of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, like Ethereum, had “elicited many inbound phone calls to both our banks and tech teams” as the gains continue to pique the interest of prospective investors.
The white-shoe investment bank added, “Governmental acceptance would be required for this to further accelerate, the price of which is regulation.”
It’s clear regulating bitcoin would be extremely difficult to do, but not completely impossible. The large bank didn’t specify what types of regulation might be necessary to further push bitcoin higher, but noted the specific changes needed may be different for different cryptocurrencies.
Goldman Sachs Picks up Coverage of Bitcoin as an Asset Class
Wall Street banking giant Goldman Sachs covered bitcoin in a paper sent to clients; but warned to be careful entering the market as these prices.
The recent client note was published by a popular finance blog. Chief market technician Sheba Jafari from Goldman Sachs offered his view on the digital currency in the very sort-term.
Jafari wrote, “It’s on track to forming a bearish key day reversal if today’s (June 12) close settles below 2,749. It will also form a key week version if Friday’s close is below 2,475. Both daily/weekly oscillators are diverging negatively. All of this to say that the balance of signals are looking broadly heavy.”
The news came as a surprise to many, as banks have shied away from cryptocurrency coverage and have instead pumped “blockchain technology” or private chains that have nothing to do with currency. Not only did Goldman Sachs chime in, but Morgan Stanley also made headlines with comments about bitcoin just this past week.
Gemini Now Licensed with Full Regulatory Compliance in Washington
Gemini, the cryptocurrency exchange, has officially announced its ability to complete transactions in Washington State.
According to a statement released by the New York based company, Gemini a fully regulated, fully compliant, New York-based digital asset exchange for both individuals and institutions. With this new change, customers in the state of Washington will be able to buy and sell Bitcoin and Ether with USD.
The process had been a lengthy one, as it required the state legislatures of both New York and Washington to work closely together to verify Gemini’s viability as a financial institution.
Bitcoin Price Hits All-time high on CoinDesk Index
According to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index (BPI), the cryptocurrency reached an all-time high of $3,018.55 on June 11. The news comes as bitcoin briefly surpassed the $3,000 mark two weeks ago week, but only on certain exchanges. The volatility has certainly increased, with a standard deviation of over $400 in the past few weeks alone.
Some Look to Ethereum to pass Bitcoin’s Marketcap
The big story in the Ethereum community over the past week shifted to the “Flippening” with hashtags on Twitter and other social media sites. Someone event setup a website to track it: http://www.flippening.watch.
The Flipping refers to Ether ‘Passing’ the Bitcoin market cap; something nobody every thought remotely possible even just a few months ago.
According to a recent article, analysts from CoinDesk largely believe Ethereum’s ether token is most likely to spur the change, given it has increased 3,000% this year with no signs of slowing. All the while, bitcoin’s governance issues persist and transaction fees keep going up. Developers supporting the open-source bitcoin software are still trying to figure out the best way to resolve its ongoing scaling dilemma, which some allege is limiting the cryptocurrency’s use as a medium of exchange.
Currently, blocks can only include up to 1 MB of transaction data, which means that they can only process a fixed number of exchanges.
$150 Million: Tim Draper-Backed Bancor Completes Largest-Ever ICO
Photo via CoinTelegraph
An initial coin offering (ICO) for a blockchain project called Bancor has set a new industry record, raising approximately $153m in ether. The crowdsale ended last week with famous venture capitalist Tim Draper backing the deal.
According to news stories, data shows a smart contract connected to the sale had collected more than 390,000 ether by the time it ended at 18:00 UTC, an amount worth $152.3 Million at recent prices. The figure is higher than even the funding raised by The DAO, the notorious failed fundraising project that failed last year.
Launched in 2017, Bancor is overseen by the Bprotocol Foundation and has been pitched as a platform designed to make it easier for users to launch their own blockchain tokens.
Civic’s ICO Sells Out Before Sale, But Investors may Get Second Chance
Photo via Civic Website
According to a recent article on CoinDesk, Civic has already sold $33 Million in Civic tokens (CVC) – eight days before the official offering was to take place.
The online identity management company has been a closely followed one in the space.
CEO Vinny Lingham, explained that as a result, investors in the pre-sale will now effectively return one-third of these tokens so that investors who couldn’t participate in any preliminary offerings are able to get a fair shot at purchasing.
Lingham spoke exclusively CoinDesk to on the mater: “We don’t want the vanity headlines, where it all happens in pre-sales and behind the scenes. We don’t want to be sold out in 30 seconds, we want to be distributed to as many people as possible.”
CVC tokens will still retail for $0.10 each, a price that was also fixed for pre-sale investors. According to Lingham, even funds that participated in the pre-sale – and investors in its traditional equity round – paid the same price that crowdsale participants will ultimately be offered on 21st June.
Tezos Fundraiser scheduled for July 1st
Tezos founder Arthur Breitman, photo Credit Epicenter Bitcoin
The Tezos Foundation announced that the legal structure of the Tezos Foundation, its fundraiser, and related contracts have been approved by the Swiss Foundation Supervisory Authority. After getting this regulatory stamp of approval, they have announced the official start of the Tezos fundraiser on Saturday, July 1, 2017 at 6 am UTC.
According to an email sent out to potential ICO buyers, they said, “We believe it’s important to do things right and protect our contributors and users from risk, which is why we went beyond current industry practice and waited to receive official approval before accepting contributions. We expect this high level of care to serve our technology, our community, and the world as we continue to build and grow this essential infrastructure for a free and prosperous society.”
Potential investors can find technical information on how to participate in the Tezos fundraiser at https://tezos.com.
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