Today on Bitcoin This Week we discuss the recent announcement made by CoinMarketCap who claimed to be aware of volume discrepancies for some cryptocurrencies, we comment on the UK Police and their need for power to seize cryptos and more.
Man Who Predicted Bitcoin’s Rise Says Institutional Investors Are On Their Way
Billionaire cryptocurrency investment entrepreneur Michael Novogratz, said it will take five to six years for the mainstream market to embrace blockchain, but that institutional investors are “doing a lot of work” to get involved. Speaking at the Beyond Blocks event in South Korea, Novogratz warned that we won’t see mass adoption until blockchain no longer feels “like something new” and this could be five or six years away.
However, institutional investment is on its way, with senior executives coming under pressure from the lower levels of their organizations with investors keen to get involved. The barrier, according to Novogratz, is that there is no precedent for senior execs to follow. It will take the involvement of a large institutional investor for them to feel comfortable to make moves in the crypto sphere. Novogratz is best known for predicting that Bitcoin (BTC) would be worth $10,000 by the end of 2017. Many people sneered at this bullish prediction, but when the currency hit $20,000 in December 2017, Novogratz’s forecast looked conservative indeed.
UK Police Want More Power to Seize Cryptocurrencies
Police in Surrey seized 295 Bitcoins (BTC) following the arrest of a Latvian criminal last October, the Financial Times reported this week. The Bitcoins, worth over $2 million dollars at today’s prices, were subsequently liquidated, with 18% of the haul transferred to the Surrey Police force to assist with its operational budget.
A local court heard last week how the Surrey Police set up a wallet and exchanged the coins on an exchange after their confiscation. It is thought that this is the first time that a police force has seized Bitcoins as part of a criminal investigation. UK Police Officers have been expanding their expertise on all crypto-related matters in advance of a proposed change in the law, making it easier for police to seize cryptocurrency suspected of being used in money laundering or other criminal activities.
Chinese Bitcoin Millionaires Funnelling Funds Abroad Through Real Estate
With so many headlines devoted to fraudsters and gangsters using Bitcoin (BTC) to launder their ill-gotten gains, it is easy to forget that Bitcoin has brought wealth to many forward-thinking investors who bought the coin while it was in its infancy. Now Chinese early Bitcoin adopters are using their new wealth to purchase real estate abroad to avoid Draconian laws at home.
Coindesk reported this week that California is a favored spot for wealthy Chinese investors, who are filtering their coins through Hong Kong based brokers, to avoid the heavy taxes and levies normally imposed by the Chinese State on assets held abroad. Other financial hubs are popular too, most notably London and New York. As Chinese investors seek to diversify their investment portfolios, there has been a sharp increase in the number of sellers who accept cryptocurrencies as payment. Remarkably, over a quarter of all homes purchased in California over the past ten years were cash buys where no mortgage was involved.
CoinMarketCap Aware of Volume Discrepancies
Bitcoin, as always, sits in first position in the top 100 cryptocurrencies in terms of market cap and volume. When we talk about the top 100, we are, of course, referring to the CoinMarketCap list, which has become the “go to” list for coins and tokens. But how accurate are its volume listings? Well, in a blog post published recently, Carylyne Chan, CoinMarketCap’s Marketing Vice President, alluded to growing concerns that metrics used to establish a coin’s trading volume can sometimes be inaccurate.
Changes in how some exchanges operate are behind the inaccuracies, according to Chan, with “transaction mining” – where coins are mined when investors exchange coins, often using bots- being one of the greatest concerns. As a result, CoinMarketCap has dispensed with its previous volume requirements for the listing of coins, and has promised to take a more transparent view of how coins are listed in the future, to dispel the impression that volume is a primary requirement. She also announced some new features and metrics to help users identify trends and examine trading volumes for particular exchanges.
Bitcoin Holding Steady
Bitcoin has continued its impressive recovery after leaping in value at the start of the week. On Thursday, the coin opened at $7378, almost a thousand dollars higher than the same day last week. Steady gains saw it close at $7466. On Friday, the coin reached $7594, its peak price since early June. However, a fall-back saw it close at $7354. Saturday saw steady gains and by Sunday, trading was in the mid-seven thousands again. To see current prices click here.
With bullish signals this week, some of the doom and gloom that surrounded the cryptocurrency market has slipped away. However, there is a long way to go before the coin claws back its losses of the past six months.
