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Data from Arcane Research and Nansen AI shows that Ethereum wallets with at least 32 ETH, the amount required for ETH 2.0 staking, have grown by 13% this year.
In brief
The number of Ethereum wallets containing 32 or more ETH has hit an all-time high.
This is the amount needed to stake a validator node under the proposed ETH 2.0 upgrade.
The upgrade, which may come later this year, will revamp Ethereum’s design and make the consensus switch to proof of stake, shedding the proof-of-work algorithm that Bitcoin uses.
As the crypto world awaits the TBD launch of Ethereum 2.0, ETH bulls are loading up on tokens in anticipation of the update—in an apparent attempt to claim the so-called staking nodes that will be critical to Ethereum’s revamped design.
According to a report teased by analytics firm Arcane Research, the number of Ethereum network balances that include or exceed 32 ETH is nearing 120,000. Under the proposed ETH 2.0 update, 32 ETH is the number of tokens you need to run an ETH 2.0 staking node—the validating nodes that will come to replace the miners to validate transactions and maintain the Ethereum blockchain
Are investors preparing for the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade and staking?” the Arcane post queries, noting the rise over the past year since the major upgrade was announced.
According to the data, which was provided by Ethereum blockchain analytics company Nansen AI, the number of wallets holding at least 32 ETH has risen roughly 13% over the year. Ethereans are apparently stacking ETH in anticipation of the ETH 2.0 update, even though the proposed switch to proof of stake has suffered various delays. In an interview last month, however, Ben Edgington of Teku—an Eth 2.0 client operator—told Decrypt that the upgrade could be deployed as soon as July.
As with other staking blockchains, crypto exchanges are expected to offer staking services for their users, meaning Ethereum holders will likely be able to deposit ETH with an exchange which in turn will stake the tokens for them (whether it’s the full 32 ETH of just a few).
This potential future has some critics worried that ETH 2.0 will bring about centralization of Ethereum staking on exchanges. Proponents, however, say this concern is overblown and presents a situation which is no more centralized than Bitcoin mining.
Nevertheless, according to Nansen co-founder and data scientist Alex Svanevik, the vast majority of these new addresses holding 32 ETH or more do not belong to exchanges. “In fact, it’s less than 1,000 addresses,” he told Decrypt.
“However, a large proportion of the total ETH are, as you'd expect, held by exchange wallets,” he said. “Specifically, out of the 105M ETH held by the ‘32 ETH Club’ addresses, at least 32M ETH are held by exchange wallets—in other words, [greater than] 30%
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Several crypto exchanges are seeing a massive growth in retail and institutional investors, particularly in the US.
The crypto industry is persistently moving forward despite the current situation. Several exchanges have been seeing a relentless growth in retail investors.
US-based Square’s Cash App reported its record-breaking financial quarter at the beginning of the year. A quarter of the company’s revenue was generated by the purchases of Bitcoin alone. Many other exchanges also saw the influx of retail investors. London-based financial services firm eToro started offering crypto trading services in April last year. Since then, the platform has gravitated a larger customer base comprising of crypto-investors, particularly from the US. eToro reported a 300-400% increase in crypto trading volume in the US since December, followed by a 270% increase in revenue. eToro’s Managing Director (USA), Guy Hirsch told Decrypt:
“We see [legitimization] across the board. The entire industry has seen a boom since the beginning of the year. Everything that’s happened with COVID-19, we see very strong resilience in cryptoassets, particularly Bitcoin, and an increase in interest from web searches, family and friends asking about it. I wouldn’t be surprised to see similar growth across the industry.”
The rising interest of retail investors seems to have created a ripple effect on institutional investors. Binance has seen steady growth in the institutional investors trading on the platform, with a 47% upswing of clients since 2019
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Popular Bitcoin proponent and educator Andreas Antonopoulos believes that the current drops in oil prices will benefit some BTC miners. In a video on his YouTube channel, he outlined that miners in the recently opened Bitmain facility in Texas could be the biggest beneficiaries.
Oil Prices To Affect BTC Mining
The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic started a domino effect on world economies. Nationwide lockdowns – meaning less traveling and movement – prompted less oil consumption. At the same time, though, oil production continued with high levels.
Ultimately, the decreased demand and the large production caused price plunges not seen before as some futures, including WTI, were trading in the negative at one point.
Although WTI’s price has recovered to some extent since those historical days, oil prices are still down on a macro scale.
Aside from cheap gasoline, Antonopoulos noted that the effect will not pass by Bitcoin mining. He argued that the declining oil prices will decrease electricity costs worldwide but “not equally worldwide.” Antonopoulos explained that the Bitcoin farm in Rockdale, Texas, opened by the Chinese manufacturer of computing chips Bitmain in October 2019, could benefit the most.
“One of the biggest new mining operations opened in the United States, in the state of Texas. I can’t imagine that this is a coincidence. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that the US had 12,000 barrels per day, and it is the largest oil producer in the world because of fracking.
Therefore, there may be really good opportunities for cheap power. This could suddenly make the US-based miners much, much more competitive and powerful.”
Effects On Chinese Miners
According to the Bitcoin Mining Map recently launched by a team from Cambridge University, the most populated nation in the world is responsible for 65% of Bitcoin’s hashrate.
Antonopoulos indicated that Chinese miners use primarily rigs powered by coal plants. However, he believes that the low cost of gas-fired or oil-fired power plants will urge coal-fired power plants to drop their prices as well, because “energy and electricity is a fungible commodity.” Therefore, declining oil prices could also benefit Chinese miners.
It’s also worth noting that the Chinese region Sichuan recently published a reform aiming to assist Bitcoin mining. It planned to utilize the vast water resources in the area and the advantages of hydropower resources to lower electricity prices even more.
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US Pumps Trillions Into Economy, Will It Impact Bitcoin Price?
Policymakers around the world have created unprecedented amounts of new money in an effort to stave off an impending recession, or worse: a total depression. In the United States, the Senate approved a $2 trillion stimulus package in late March, and the House of Representatives has now accepted a proposition from House of Democrats for another $3 trillion intended to ease the needs of Americans who are suffering an unemployment rate of around 15%. As a response to COVID-19, the Federal Reserve has undertaken a series of quantitative easing unparalleled in its history. How will these actions of the U.S. government influence the price of Bitcoin?
As the monetary body responsible for controlling the world’s reserve currency, the Fed uses quantitative easing as a way of sustaining the economy with fresh liquidity. Having total control over money printing allows the Fed to print as many dollars as it wants, which it then pumps into the financial system by purchasing assets on the open market.
Market observers remember the consequences of the Great Recession in 2008, when the Fed brought up more than $1.2 trillion worth of assets in just four months as a means to inject fresh capital into the markets. However, the scale of quantitative easing undertaken in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis dwarfs anything done before, with the Fed putting no limit on the amount of money it is going to infuse into the system.
Over the past 2 ½ months, the Fed has bought about $2.8 trillion worth of assets. Unlike in the aftermath of 2008 when the governing body limited its asset purchases to secure U.S. Treasury bonds, this time it decided to buy even riskier assets like corporate and municipal bonds as well.
What should crypto investors expect?
U.S. bailout money is aimed at assisting public companies and preventing shareholders from losing their value. This new money may inflate the cost of assets, but since most Americans don’t own assets, the only result they will see is a weakening purchasing power. Beni Hakak, the CEO of LiquidApps, sees an opportunity for Bitcoin (BTC) to prove its store of value narrative:
“The COVID financial crisis is the first crisis that Bitcoin is experiencing as an asset class, and while some expected it to perform similar to gold, it led to a sharp decline in Bitcoin’s price. As the world economy has started to open up, Bitcoin has recovered quite nicely, outperforming the S&P since their respective lows. With the Bitcoin halving behind us, an event that has historically been followed by a bull run, it will be interesting to see if Bitcoin can gain acceptance as a hedge against inflation and a store of value.”
Quantitative easing vs. quantitative hardening
The apparently unlimited money printing represents a harsh contrast to the Bitcoin halving, an event which occurs once every four years and cuts down Bitcoin’s issuance by half. For crypto enthusiasts, this is further proof of Bitcoin’s status as the “hardest money in the world.” Bitcoin’s provable scarcity is attracting attention from average investors and users concerned about money printing and the possibility that it may lead to runaway inflation.
While the system may be “baked” with transparency and non-regulations, Avi Rosten, a product manager at CryptoCompare — a crypto data and research platform — states that through his monitoring he is seeing that the market is fluctuating severely. The high volume means distrust, noting big fluctuations in the U.S. stock market between March 12 and March 13 when CryptoCompare recorded 11,000 trades per second. Rosten says everyone was leaving risk-on assets to the U.S. dollar with Bitcoin as no exception. He added that it is about time for Bitcoin to show its value as an asset as all eyes are on it:
“We are likely seeing increased interest due to the excitement surrounding the Bitcoin halving, as well as record spot exchange volumes. Our April Exchange Review found that April 30th saw the second highest spot volumes in crypto history.”
The U.S. may be at the epicenter of the financial storm, but it doesn’t mean that other economies aren’t suffering it. Quantitative easing measures such as the recently proposed $3 trillion have caused currencies such as the Brazilian real, Mexican peso and South African rand to lose over 20% in value to the dollar since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis.
The uncertainty after the mid-March crash pushed Bitcoin into the place where gold has usually been. While markets are slowly regaining their losses, many countries are facing a second wave of the coronavirus, pumping the breaks on the recovery process.
A throwback to the ’70s?
The year is 1973, and an oil crisis sends shockwaves throughout global markets. Governments, especially in the U.S., print money fiercely in order to stimulate the job market. Attention is diverted to scarce commodities such as gold since investors want to hedge against the risk of rising inflation.
While this picture of uncertainty nicely fits the present-day situation, it also relates well to the economic condition of the 1970’s. The decade, which began with the U.S. abandoning the gold standard entirely, ended with a crippling 13.3% annual inflation in the country, even as wages and economic growth trended sideways. A combination of stagnant growth and rising inflation, or “stagflation,” pushed gold into the limelight as an inflation-resistant store of value.
Getting back to the present, fiat currencies are expanding their supply at the same time as the Bitcoin halving. With inflation fears beginning to flood the markets again, assets with provable scarcity are regarded as well-positioned. Mati Greenspan, an analyst and the founder of Quantum Economics, believes that after the large-scale quantitative easing rollouts undertaken by the U.S., Bitcoin will sustain its price and preserve its future value due to its low supply:
“It [Bitcoin] acts as a hedge against inflation like gold and silver. So if the likely scenario of this money creation happens to induce inflation, then it’s very likely that gold, silver and Bitcoin would hold their value against that currency and act as a valid hedge.”
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US Debt Breaks $25T — Stimulus Checks Which Bought Bitcoin Are Now Worth $1.6K
Bitcoin (BTC) supporters are shocked once again this week as the real extent of the US’ fiat debt bubble inflated by the COVID-19 stimulus becomes clearer.
Citing statistics from the U.S. Treasury on May 7, market analyst Mati Greenspan said that the country’s total national debt has crossed $25 trillion for the first time ever.
U.S. adds $24M of debt per minute
The unenviable achievement comes after several huge rounds of public financing from the Trump administration via the Federal Reserve. Since April 9, the debt mountain has grown by $1 trillion.
That, according to Greenspan, is the equivalent of $24 million every single minute last month.
According to data from online monitoring resource U.S. Debt Clock, each taxpayer is now $201,000 in debt, putting into perspective the selective $1,200 checks Americans get a couple of weeks ago.
A century of warnings goes unheeded
Economists who do not support inflationary policies promoted by governments have long warned that inflation can not lead to prosperity.
The grave reality of money printing is a regular point of debate in Bitcoin community, notably on financial news show the Keiser Report, as well as on social media and in Saifdean Ammous’ popular book, “The Bitcoin Standard.”
Long before Bitcoin existed, dissenting voices were criticizing the irrational behavior of central banks inflating the money supply. Notably, Henry Hazlitt forecast the current situation in his well-known book “Economics in One Lesson,” published just a year after the end of the Second World War.
In the meantime, others continue to pour light on the absurd debasement of fiat currency. A dedicated Twitter account covering the U.S. stimulus checks notes that a check invested in Bitcoin on April 15 would now instead be worth $1,609.
In mid-April the percentage of deposits and buys worth $1,200 — the exact value of the stimulus check — increased over four times, according to Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong.
Greenspan commented on the $25 trillion threshold being crossed with a well-known meme among crypto fans — the “BRRR” sound used to refer to the Fed’s money printer.
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Blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace has launched a new project which aims to help central banks launch digital currencies without compromising user privacy.
In brief
Blockchain forensics firm CipherTrace wants to expand its business to central banks.
A new initiative aims to help central banks launch their own digital currencies in a safe, private, and regulatory compliant manner.
CipherTrace, funded by DARPA, already works with banks and governments around the world.
Blockchain forensics firm CipherTrace is launching a new initiative designed to ensure central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are private, safe to use, and free of money laundering, terrorist funding and other illicit ties.
Since the introduction of Facebook’s Libra in 2019 and China’s unveiling of a digital version of the yuan, financial institutions have felt pressure to explore bank-issued digital assets. According to John Jeffries—chief financial analyst at the Silicon Valley-based CipherTrace—central bank digital currencies have several advantages to them, as they provide banks with immediate control over their monetary policies and they lower the costs of managing cash.
There is also great fear among central banks, he says, that Libra or China’s digital yuan could potentially become default reserve currencies or gain too much economic influence. At the moment, 80% of the world’s central banks, including the UK, France, India, and Russia, are already working on plans for bank-issued digital currency.
CipherTrace, initially funded by DARPA and the US Department of Homeland Security, believes most banks will ultimately issue CBDCs within the next five years. And its new initiative aims to enable these currencies with “customizable mechanisms,” so they can be trusted by financial institutions, government agencies and consumers alike.
But balancing compliance with security and privacy is no small feat.
In an interview with Decrypt, Jeffries explained that CBDCs should not be used to spy on users, and it will be critical to defend consumer privacy while protecting both individuals and institutions from harm due to illicit activity.
“Blockchain analytics have the power to identify illicit activities that should not remain anonymous, thus enabling privacy-be-default for all other transactions,” he said. “Privacy-enabled CBDCs should be designed to protect [revelatory] details and only enable authorities to view transaction details on large or suspicious transactions,” said Jeffries.
To achieve privacy-by-default, Jeffries said CBDCs should have a “protected” mode, but consumers ought to also be able to reveal their data for tax reasons, as well as to prove custody. Governments and law enforcement should only be allowed to request access to transaction details for legitimate legal investigations via subpoena or mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT), he explained.
In other words, transactions should only be unshielded by regulators and financial authorities when blockchain analytics reveals that digital assets have been used in illegal acts, according to Jeffries. Regulators can use risk profile monitoring to identify which digital asset companies and wallets are participating in illicit activities before unmasking transactions, he said.
CipherTrace is already seeking to form close working relationships with banks around the world. Last month, it launched Armada, a tool built to identify risks associated with virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and prevent banks from becoming unknowing participants in illegal financial schemes.
According to the blockchain analytics firm, banks already unknowingly process $2 billion in crypto-related transactions each year.
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The leading US-based cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, reportedly experienced issues again as Bitcoin’s price suddenly dropped, losing around 20% quickly. This isn’t the first time the exchange goes down amid sudden movements of the kind.
Coinbase Goes Down As Bitcoin Price Plummets
Bitcoin is known to be volatile. What is more, when there’s volatility, it usually takes place in sudden bursts rather than prolonged trading sessions. In March, the price lost around 40% in just a few hours.
Hours ago, Bitcoin suddenly crashed, and in a few minutes, it tanked from a little less than $10,000 to below $8,000 before recovering to its current trading levels.
At times of the kind, it’s essential for users to be in control of their positions and minimize the losses or maximize the profits, depending on their trading setup. When an exchange is down, however, that’s practically impossible.
Coinbase, the leading US-based cryptocurrency exchange, reportedly went offline again. Numerous users on Twitter complained about the problem, while data shows that there are more than 1,000 reports around the time of the crash. Many even joked that Coinbase is acting like the NYSE circuit breakers that halt trading when legacy markets experience a violent drop.
The Fed’s Interest Cut And Global Markets’ Crash Might Lead To Bitcoin & Crypto Surge, Says Coinbase CEO
According to the official website, Coinbase experienced connectivity issues yesterday and delayed sends for ETH and ERC20 tokens because of network congestion. Many of the reports, however, point out that the site was inaccessible.
It’s Not The First Time
Back in 2019 in June, Bitcoin lost about 15% in about 15 minutes, reducing its price with about $1,700. At the time, Coinbase experienced technical issues again, and traders were unable to access their funds.
On April 29th this year, the exchange was off again as Bitcoin soared to just below $9,000. These are far from being the only instances when Coinbase has been going offline during times of severe volatility.
Being one of the world’s leading exchanges, issues of the kind should be reduced to a minimum. The industry has come a long way in the last few years, and setbacks of the kind are questionable, to say the least.
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Bitcoin May Assist In Current Economic Slowdown in the Long-Term
The crypto market has been often compared to the traditional market and Bitcoin’s (BTC) volatility has often been a problem for the investors in equity or other asset class. Despite this volatility, Bitcoin and crypto have emerged as an asset class which attracted many seasoned and institutional investors in the past 12 to 18 months. However, this could not be possible without the uncertainty reflected in the traditional market. Now, as we are in the economic slowdown, can Bitcoin help?
Kevin Kelly of Delphi Digital said that the macro-economic background has never been more beneficial to Bitcoin. Kelly, who appeared in Block Crunch’s latest episode, said that ups and downs of the traditional market has often influenced even Bitcoin’s market along with other cryptocurrencies. The most recent example was the panic-driven fall seen in mid-March. As the traditional market recovered, crypto market did the same.
Bitcoin’s digital gold narrative has played well with the investors and has been considered as a safe haven. Even in the recent crash, despite the fall and recovery occurring across all asset classes, Bitcoin acted more like gold. Despite being around for a bit more than 10 years, BTC has gained the reputation of digital gold and has been considered as a safe haven asset. Thanks to its characteristics, Kelly stated, BTC can be regarded as a non-sovereign, digitally native, hard cap supply, which falls into the category of a safe haven asset, in the long-term.
However, there has been a correlation between Bitcoin and other asset classes, but in time, the correlation may fade with risk-assets. The money which has been injected into the economic system will finally mount inflation and people might turn to Bitcoin due to its digital gold narrative. The fading correlation will just not be visible with Bitcoin, but with altcoins as well.
Since Bitcoin is strongly correlated with Ethereum (ETH), the attention of the investors may also be diverted to the second-largest crypto and the various projects such as decentralized finance and DApps in the crypto industry. Decentralized finance (DeFi) has been working tirelessly to develop a parallel financial system, which will be a good alternative for traders and investors in the long-term, as the current economic system has to solve grave challenges. Kelly noted:
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Ukraine Considers Using Nuclear Plants for Crypto Mining
Crypto mining is a contemporary and efficient way to use excess energy, as stated by Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy in a May 6 statement published on Facebook. The post argues that local nuclear plants have generated the surplus due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
The course toward digitalization
The bureau is now seeking to leverage progressive solutions to avoid wasting energy as part of the government’s course toward digitalization championed by president Volodymyr Zelensky. Leaving the situation unchanged might create “conditions for corruption offenses, which will ultimately be paid at Ukrainian citizens’ expense”, the ministry states.
Crypto mining, in turn, could prove to be one of the best solutions, the post reads:
“There is a way to transfer this ‘liability’ into an ‘asset’. One of the modern approaches for using excess electricity is to devote it to cryptocurrency mining. That would not only allow to maintain the guaranteed load on the nuclear power plants, but also ensure that companies can attract extra funds. Therefore, it would open the way to a fundamentally new economy, new approaches, a new market model.”
As reported by a Russian-language crypto news outlet Forklog on May 5, the acting head of Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy asked the state-owned enterprise Energoatom to research potential ways to implement cryptocurrency mining at the country’s nuclear energy generating facilities by May 8.
A potentially profitable operation?
Power plants have been used for crypto mining before, although not on a government scale. A privately-owned plant in New York’s Finger Lakes region turned to Bitcoin (BTC) mining, adding around $50,000 worth of BTC every day to daily revenues.
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The tech investor and Dallas Mavericks owner knows a “really, really easy” way to make cash—but it doesn’t involve Bitcoin.
In brief
The AI-obsessed investor said learning how to code virtual assistants is “really, really easy.”
He admitted telling his children that they should learn how to do it as a side hustle.
But he doesn’t want them to invest in Bitcoin just yet.
Billionaire investor and Bitcoin skeptic Mark Cuban is teaching his children how to really make some easy money—and it doesn’t have anything to do with crypto.
The tech investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks advised youngsters to learn scripting as a side hustle, adding he had already educated his children with the skill, CNBC reported.
Cuban told CNBC in an interview that learning how to script for virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana or Google Home could net youngsters extra cash—even for those who aren’t too tech-savvy.
He said that those who have learned how to code these virtual assistants to complete tasks, could charge their neighbors up to $40 an hour, adding such skills were “really, really easy” despite everyone thinking they were “really, really hard.”
Cuban, who is one of the investors on the Shark Tank TV show, has previously spoken about the skill of scripting. During a speech at the 2020 CES Conference in January, he said that if he were 16 years old, he would definitely be making money doing it.
The mega-investor is big into AI, and in 2017 he predicted that the world’s first trillionaire would be an AI entrepreneur.
But Cuban has long been a critic of Bitcoin—even though he said he owns some of the cryptocurrency.
Cuban previously said it was “too complicated” to go mainstream, but his basketball team owns around $130 in Bitcoin because it accepts Bitcoin for tickets and merchandise. Cuban also said Bitcoin could rival gold as a store of value if the US continues to excessively print money.
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A halving event along with a potent US stimulus package will only serve to lift the price of bitcoin, says the early Bitcoin advocate.
In brief
In 10 days, the bitcoin mining reward will drop to 6.25 BTC.
At the same time, the US is pumping trillions into the economy.
Combined, both these events could drive up the price of BTC, says Charlie Shrem.
The Bitcoin halving is mere days away and Bitcoin prices have been surging. Meanwhile, US dollars are getting pumped into the economy. So what's the better investment: Bitcoin or dollars? If you ask Charlie Shrem, he’ll tell you Bitcoin.
“The dollar is going down,” Shrem, one of the earliest of the Bitcoin entrepreneurs, said at Virtual Blockchain Week last night.
“Therefore, the value of Bitcoin has to go up. So it is the people holding dollars who are the ones who are getting screwed.”
What’s he talking about? Recently, the US government signed an unprecedented $2 trillion stimulus package to keep the economy afloat during the novel coronavirus pandemic. All that money is arguably backed by nothing, beyond the good graces of the United States of America.
At the same time, the Bitcoin halving, an event that happens every four years, is around the corner. And by Shrem's reckoning, it's a signal feature of Bitcoin—a capped money supply—that makes the digital currency truly valuable.
On May 12, the Bitcoin mining reward—what people who run the system get paid for their computing efforts—will drop from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC, to reduce the amount of new Bitcoin entering into the supply. Ahead of the halving, the price of BTC has shot up 30% in the last month to its current price of $8,700.
Mainly, Shrem believes, that's due to the sinking value of the dollar. “The value of Bitcoin has to go up, in relation to the dollar,” he said. “The ones who are holding bitcoin, now have double the purchasing power.”
The argument for Bitcoin
Shrem is generally considered by Bitcoin maximalists to be one of the community's icons, pioneers, and martyrs. In 2014, when he was 24, he was charged with money-laundering criminals' Bitcoins on Silk Road, a black market for illicit goods, among other things. Silk Road was one of the first popular uses of Bitcoin.
More recently, he founded cryptocurrency “intelligence service” CryptoIQ. He also hosts a crypto podcast “Untold Stories.”
Now, Shrem is popular on the speaking circuit, where he continues to evangelize for Bitcoin. During his appearance last night, he was more bullish than ever, thanks to the perfect storm of the pandemic and the pending halvening.
“It is crazy we have a halving during coronavirus,” he said at the virtual conference last night.
Since mid-March when the lockdowns began, 30 million Americans have filed unemployment claims. “All these people are starting to get their unemployment benefits, probably when they are going back to work, anyway,” Shrem speculated, suggesting that plenty of extra cash will soon be sloshing around in the system.
He thinks it could lead to a bull run.
Stock market is for gamblers
In Shrem's eyes, the stock market is a metric for the government to manipulate, so people will think that everything is okay. “I don’t own any stocks for that reason,” he said.
As evidence, he finds it ludicrous that at a time when so many people are out of work, the stock market is hitting all-time highs. “How is this something we can correlate to how the economy is actually doing?” he asked.
When one of the virtual conference hosts pointed out to him that the Bitcoin market is also manipulated, his response was basically, yes, but most Bitcoin traders are largely aware of the problem. After all, stories of whales manipulating BTC’s price are rampant.
Plus, he said, whenever anyone asks him about investing in crypto, his mantra is: Be careful. It’s crazy. "If someone tells me they want to get into crypto, I tell them it is a high risk, crazy, volatile," Shrem said.
By contrast, if you call a friend about the stock market, they are likely not going to tell you that, he said. That’s because the stock market is generally pitched as a level-headed investment.
Memories of house arrest
After pleading guilty to aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money-transmitting business in 2014, Shrem spent 18 months in house arrest, unable to leave his parent’s Brooklyn home without a judge's permission. He also spent time in federal prison.
When asked how he was dealing with the current lockdown, Shrem, who is now married, and living in sunny Florida, compared it to that period of being under house arrest.
“My wife and I had to adjust to eating at home more often, not being able to go out,” he said. “When it first happened, we went into a full house-arrest mode. You can’t look at it as being stuck at home.”
He has been taking notes on peoples’ reactions to the lockdown around the country. Some states are pushing for more personal liberty and freedom, he said. (In Michigan, hundreds of people have broken the emergency orders to protest.)
And then, he said, reflecting back on his old stomping grounds, “you have places like New York where they love the government. They love Big Brother.”
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Telegram’s Blockchain OS Could Soon Be Downloaded in App Stores
Google Play market and Apple’s AppStore will soon provide the Telegram Open Network (TON) operating system (OS), an end-to-end open-source infrastructure which gives developers and users access to the TON blockchain.
The TON OS will soon become available on smartphones and personal computers for mainstream users, according to the report by Russian news agency RBC from April 29. TON OS is not an alternative to existing operating systems, but will serve as an add-on for devices, making them able to support blockchain apps.
Big plans for the future
The report noted that with Telegram Open Network OS, users can build applications which are automatically compatible with the blockchain platform. They think that, in the future, the OS will support apps with numerous functions, including transacting different assets including cryptocurrencies:
“When it comes to finance or voting, decentralized management can solve a huge number of problems with corruption, management efficiency, citizen involvement. Small businesses will be able to reduce costs by using a secure chat for participants, managing assets of this business and contractual relations of the parties.”
The legal battle with the SEC continues
Previously, developers of the TON blockchain argued that they were going to launch TON despite Telegram’s ongoing legal fight with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Telegram is seeking to appeal a U.S. federal court’s ruling in favor of the SEC to stop the distribution of the platform’s native Gram tokens.
Fedor Skuratov, a representative for TON Community Foundation, said:
“The community was ready for this (or another) scenario. We have several options, including the launch of TON by TCF [TON Community Foundation]. I will say more, no one (no one) can prevent the launch of TON by any other entity, person or community, cause TON is a decentralized open-source solution. Already, there are two different test networks, and within the community, there is at least one group planning to launch.”
In the meantime, after years of unsuccessful attempts to block Telegram in Russia, the country’s government is now considering lifting the ban, as the app’s creator Pavel Durov agreed to cooperate with authorities on dealing with the coronavirus.
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Investment bank Goldman Sachs (aka "Goldman") has released a super bullish note on the seemingly pandemic-proof Amazon stock (NASDAQ: AMZN), and raised its 12-month price target from $2,600 to $2,900.
Zacks Equity Research says that Wall Street analysts' consensus outlook for Amazon, which is expected to report its Q1 2020 earnings on April 30, is "a year-over-year decline in earnings on higher revenues."
This is Zacks' consensus estimate:
"This online retailer is expected to post quarterly earnings of $6.31 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -11%.
"Revenues are expected to be $73.30 billion, up 22.8% from the year-ago quarter."
Here are average, low, and high earnings and revenue estimates for Q1 2020 from the 40+ analysts covering Amazon stock, according to data from Yahoo Finance:
According to TheStreet, Goldman's analysts had this to say about Amazon:
"We expect Amazon to report results well above consensus expectations on revenue and profitability while guiding 2Q above consensus on both metrics.
"The increase in demand the company’s retail, AWS, and ads businesses is seeing and Amazon’s ability to meet the challenges of this demand, will, we believe, serve to steepen the curve of its long term growth rate, drive incremental profitability, and further deepen the competitive moat around all of its businesses.
"While the stock has outperformed significantly, we believe the market continues to underestimate the long term value of the Amazon platform as the leader in both the movement of retail online and compute into the cloud, the realization of which is being accelerated by the current crisis along with consumer and enterprise adoption.
"Therefore, we continue to believe Amazon represents the best risk/reward in the Internet sector and remain Buy-rated."
Last month, Jim Cramer, a former stockbrocker at Goldman Sachs, as well as the host of CNBC show "Mad Money", said on CNBC show "Squawk on the Street":
"I think Amazon could go to $3,000 in this market."
On April 16, Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos sent a letter to the shareholders, which talked about the steps that his company has taken to deal with the COVID-19 crisis.
One of these was hiring many thousands of new employees to handle the extra demand from customers in the midst of the lockdowns around the world:
"In March, we opened 100,000 new positions across our fulfillment and delivery network. Earlier this week, after successfully filling those roles, we announced we were creating another 75,000 jobs to respond to customer demand."
Per data from Google Finance, Amazon stock closed yesterday at $2,399.45 (up 1.52 on the day):
