JP Morgan calls Bitcoin the new inflation hedge, SEC approves the closest thing to a Bitcoin ETF, and rehab clinics can help you if you’re addicted to cryptocurrency. These stories and more are coming this week in Cryptocurrency.
JPMorgan sent a note to its clients indicating that institutional investors appear to be returning to Bitcoin, seeing it as a better inflation hedge than gold. The resurgence of inflation fears among investors has led to a renewed interest in using bitcoin as a hedge. Earlier this year, JP Morgan set a bitcoin price target of $140,000.
Volt Equity’s ETF has been approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund tracks companies that hold the majority of their net assets in Bitcoin or derive their revenue from Bitcoin-related activities such as mining, lending, or manufacturing mining equipment. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has yet to approve any of the more than 20 proposed Bitcoin ETFs that the market is highly anticipating.
Billions of dollars in loans from the world’s largest issuer of stablecoin Tether have been revealed. Tether has lent $1 billion to the crypto lending network Celsius, as well as short-term loans to a number of large Chinese companies. Tether responded by calling the individuals involved in the article “disgruntled” and said they had “no direct knowledge of the company’s operations.”
A new report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis indicates that despite the negative turns China has taken over the past few months, Asia still ranks first in the continent of cryptocurrency transactions. Crypto activity has increased more than 700 percent in the past year with a massive boom in institutional investment and decentralized finance.
The United States Bank – the fifth largest financial institution in America – has unveiled a new cryptocurrency custody service for professional traders and fund managers. Bank customers can store their private keys that give them access to assets such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. The US Bank currently manages more than $8 trillion in assets for its institutional clients.
MoneyGram has integrated support for cryptocurrency wallets using the Stellar network to access its services globally. MoneyGram says it will enable “semi-instant back-settlement” using the USDC stablecoin. The result will enable 150 million MoneyGram customers worldwide to fund and withdraw from their accounts using USDC at physical branches.
The online crypto market aggregator mistakenly sent $90 million in cryptocurrency to different user accounts and cannot recover the lost funds unless customers agree to return it. The founder first begged users to give money at the time and even threatened to report them to the IRS, but eventually opened up about offering compensation if they cooperated.
A castle in Scotland has rejuvenated itself into a rehabilitation center for crypto addicts. Castle Craig has seen a tenfold increase in the number of cryptocurrency patients over the past year. Some have lost millions of bets on cryptocurrency, while others have gone to extreme measures such as stealing from employers and loved ones to buy cryptocurrency.
Many thanks to Unstoppable Domains for being our sponsor this week. Thanks to Unstoppable Domains’ collaboration with the largest crypto wallet vendors, you can now send and receive cryptocurrencies using your wallet username
This is what happened this week in cryptocurrency, see you next week.