It’s the story of those infamous BitFinex money launderers who managed to evade capture for over 6 years. All this while living in plain sight of the regulators and law enforcement agencies that were hot on their tail. Individuals who were the antithesis of what you would expect of sophisticated cybercriminals. 

The story was covered extensively in the press. However, what I found most interesting about it is the lengths that the authorities went to trace them and how they managed to bring them down. So today, I will be breaking down the case. All the way from how the hack took place to how the authorities managed to track down the stolen funds.

There are also a number of other mysteries that surround this story. Mysteries that play a central part in not only how the funds were distributed, but whether they were returned at all. 

This was a fascinating video to break down so I hope you enjoy it. You can watch it over here.  

Main Portfolio

No changes to the portfolio this week. Hodling tight given that there appears to be a great deal of Macro uncertainty ahead of us for the next 2 weeks or so. I will of course keep you guys posted in my Telegram channel if there are any changes. 

ETH 30.93% | BTC 24.11% | SOL 10.01% | DOT 9.39% | ATOM 6.05% | FTM 4.15% | UST 2.62% | MATIC 2.17% | HNT 1.98% | ADA 1.85% | RUNE 1.54% | INJ 1.38% | LUNA 1.19% | AR 0.82% | LINK 0.80% | YGG 0.70% | XDEFI 0.31%

NFT Portfolio

MAYC 95.23% | Meebit 4.76%

Thoughts on Market

If you’re wondering why the crypto market has been so wonky lately, I can explain in one word: uncertainty. There is nothing investors hate more than uncertainty. The content of the news doesn’t even necessarily matter. If it’s bad news, it can be priced in. If it’s good news, it can be priced in. If nobody knows what the news is or is going to be, that creates volatility. 

These days there is no shortage of macro factors causing uncertainty. First and foremost, there’s the uncertainty around how much the Federal Reserve is going to raise interest rates in March. The March meeting is only a few weeks away, and investors are expecting a 0.5% rate hike. I personally don’t think we’ll see interest rates rise above 1% before something breaks, just based on this trend. 

Another macro factor at play is the ongoing supply chain issues that are putting a dent in economies around the world. Although many of these are due to pandemic restrictions, there’s an interesting theory I heard on a podcast the other day. Basically, people have changed their spending habits because of the pandemic, and this is creating unexpected bottlenecks. 

Then there’s the prospect of another major war as a result of the tension between Russia and Ukraine. This is a whole can of worms that I discuss a bit more below, but I should note that this isn’t the only point of tension as far as global conflict goes. The United States seems to be revving up its engines in the middle east as well. 

There are a few factors specific to crypto that are causing uncertainty as well. For starters there’s the formation of a crypto specific unit by the FBI which will scan cryptocurrency blockchains for any suspicious activities and seek to seize funds wherever possible. Call me crazy, but I have a feeling that this recovered crypto will be sold at auction to institutional investors in the future. 

Finally we have the upcoming executive order by the US president which pertains to cryptocurrencies and CBDCs. Plans for the executive order were first revealed late last month, and it looks like it might finally be put in place next week. All we know for now is that it will instruct various regulators to assess the risks and benefits of these technologies. 

  War & Crypto 

It seems as if one of the biggest geo-political risks on the table right now is the prospect of a war between Russia and Ukraine. 

However, the broader question is: What impact could a war have on crypto?

Well, the immediate impact of any hostilities could lead to a large scale “risk off” sentiment in global financial markets. This is something that we have already been seeing over the past few  days. Stock markets have been falling globally and this has also been driving the crypto markets lower.

Investors are pivoting out of these risky assets into perceived safe havens like treasuries, gold and even cash. This is likely to continue in the event that there actually is a large-scale invasion. How far it will fall is hard to tell. However, I do think that it won’t be as severe as the stock market / crypto routes that we saw in the Covid crashes of 2020. 

Then, when it comes to crypto-specific impacts, there are quite a few things that we should be looking out for. 

Firstly, in terms of demand to hold cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, a full blown war between Russia and Ukraine could lead to capital flight out of their respective currencies. We have already seen this with the fall in the value of these currencies over the past few days. As Russians and Ukraininins try to preserve their purchasing power, they could attempt to move it into crypto. 

In the case of Ukraine, the country ranks highly in global adoption tables and has been trying to fuel this growth over the past year. This has further been cemented this week as the Ukrainian parliament passed a bill to legalise cryptocurrency. Given that they have easy access to crypto services, there could be a flood of people who attempt to sell their hryvnia in return for Bitcoin. 

Then, when it comes to Russians, crypto could also be a safe haven. Russia could suffer sanctions which would cut it off from dollar clearing. This could make it impossible for Russians to convert their rubles into foreign currency to preserve their savings. Bitcoin is much easier to buy in RUB and would allow them to “offshore” their savings with crypto. 

It’s also pretty likely that ultra high net worth oligarchs could be sanctioned. These include some of those linked to Putin’s inner circle. These individuals would also look for alternative methods of making their vast wealth liquid and outside of the reach of other countries. 

However, while there could be more demand to hold Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies from these countries, there could also be an impact on the Bitcoin network. That’s because a war could lead to a greater cost of operation and potential disruption of Bitcoin miners. 

For example, if Russia does invade Ukraine, this could lead to oil & energy prices skyrocketing. If Russia’s energy sector is sanctioned, then you will have less supply which, with constant demand will mean higher prices. Europe is already struggling with energy costs and is heavily reliant on Russian gas. 

So, higher energy prices mean more costs for the Bitcoin miners. In fact, this risk of rising energy prices is something that I talked about in a video last year. If the energy crisis gets so bad in these countries then it’s even possible that miners either shut down rigs or the grids ration power away from the miners. 

We should also not forget that Russia makes up a sizable portion of the global hashrate with over 13% emanating from the country. Any disruptions in energy to these miners could lead to a fall in that hashrate as they go offline. 

It’s also possible that this spills over beyond Russia’s borders and impacts on energy supply to neighbouring countries. Perhaps the biggest risk here is any impact on miners in Kazakhstan. They contribute the second most to global hash rate and we have already seen the network impact when these miners are put offline. Falling hash rate means reduced security, higher transaction fees and slower transactions. 

While that is concerning, I still think that as a longer term hedge and store of value, Bitcoin & cryptocurrency is one of the best assets to hold. Yes, it’s going to be a volatile ride as it’s swept up in market hysteria. But, what I care about is how things look when the ride is done. Eventually, fundamental value is borne out. 

A Preview of the Power of CBDCs

Last week, the Canadian government invoked a controversial law for the first time in response to the protests against pandemic restrictions taking place in the country’s capital. The Emergencies Act gives the Canadian government unprecedented powers, and in this case it used those powers to freeze the bank accounts of both protestors and the supporters of the protests. 

Shortly after the emergency law went into effect, Canadian banks saw a sudden spike in outages which is believed to have been caused by citizens frantically withdrawing their money. This is likely because nobody knows what the threshold is for their bank accounts to be frozen. The prime minister actually refused to clarify what the criteria are during parliamentary debates. 

To make matters worse, a full list of the donors to the crowdfunding campaign for the protests was leaked by hackers a day before the government invoked the Emergencies Act. This means the Canadian government conveniently has a list of financial supporters it could target. Those who oppose the protests have taken matters into their own hands by targeting supporters. 

In the crypto world, the Emergencies Act made the headlines because it also included a “freeze” on roughly 40 cryptocurrency wallets associated with the protests. The crypto media was quick to point out that this wasn’t a freeze of cryptocurrency wallets, but an instruction to crypto-fiat on/off ramps to watch out for transactions from those wallets and freeze them if and when they come. 

While these events have inspired admittedly awesome memes such as this one, they are simultaneously a terrifying glimpse into what awaits if and when central bank digital currencies are rolled out. The difference is that there will be no need for any emergency measures to enact these kinds of policies. As I’ve mentioned in my videos, this will be the default setting for CBDCs. 

Put simply, anyone who opposes the government will be frozen out of the financial system, and as Kraken CEO Jesse Powell pointed out, any crypto-fiat on/off ramps will be forced to comply on the fiat side. The only protection will be decentralised finance solutions which have immutable and (hopefully) fair laws built into the code according to Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin. 

What these events have made clear however is that it’s not just the ability to transact, but the ability to transact privately that matters. This is something I mentioned in my video about the worst case scenario for cryptocurrencies. Without privacy, financial freedom is not possible, because you can always be coerced in other ways. Let this be a wake up call to the world. 

My New Podcast

I am proud to announce that my new podcast has just been released! This new show is in collaboration with iHeartPodcasts and is co-hosted by my childhood friend, Mad Mike!

In it, Mike and I talk about all things crypto and give you the lowdown about all things in the cryptoverse, with none of the hype!

Interested in my crypto banter with Mike and hearing our educational insights? Well, check out our first episode where we tell you what money really is!

Also, if you enjoy the podcast please help a chap out and share it with your friends.

Deal of The Week

It’s been a pretty rough week in crypto land and if you are like me then you have been holding on for dear life. However, did you know that there is a way to earn while you HODL that digital gold?

Yep, you could use a crypto lending platform to retain all that price exposure and earn interest at the same time. 

At Nexo you can earn up to 18% interest on dozens of different cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH and a plethora of different alts. Even better, those interest payments are made daily. So, unlike other lending platforms (which payout monthly) you won’t have to worry about losing that crypto interest if you quickly want to reallocate some of that crypto into a hot altcoin you have discovered. 

  Try Out Nexo & Get Up To 18% Interest!

Video Pipeline

• The worst advice in crypto: What to ignore!
• Defi Insurance: How To Protect Your Sats!
• Is Crypto Systemically Risky? Deep Dive!
• The biggest corporate moves in the Metaverse
• Helium update: Still worth it?
• Olympus Dao: All you need to know!
• Crypto Transaction Fees: All The Coins Compared
• When fiat fails: The story of fiat failures in the 20th century! 

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Wear-to-earn NFTs: For Real?

The Pavia Metaverse – Cardano’s Decentraland or something more?

That’s all for this week folks. However, I want to thank you on behalf of the whole Coin Bureau team for your support. 

Many years ago, I could have never imagined that even 1,000 people would care enough to subscribe to the channel. Or that I would get the opportunity to pursue my lifelong dream to create a podcast!

Sometimes it is overwhelming. However, I know that all these opportunities are thanks to you guys. That’s not lost on me or Coin Bureau’s ever growing team! 

Guy your crypto guy

The post The CRAZIEST Story in Crypto!! appeared first on Coin Bureau.

However, when February came around, fortunes appeared to reverse. There was a much needed boost that seemed to pump sentiment across the board. 

The main question now is whether this is sustainable? Or is it more of a bull trap that many could get caught in? That’s exactly what two recent institutional crypto market reports have attempted to answer. And those reports are exactly what I will be covering today.

I will be breaking down their charts and stats and explaining exactly what they mean. I’ll also analyse their key findings, as well as give you my own thoughts on their price and market predictions. 

You can watch that video here. 

Main Portfolio

Took a bit of profit off the top of my ETH position as well as HNT and will be keeping this in UST. Apart from that, there are no more changes to my portfolio. As usual, all portfolio movements will be disclosed in my Telegram channel. 

ETH 31.12% | BTC 24.24% | SOL 9.73% | DOT 9.48% | ATOM 5.69% | FTM 4.31% | UST 2.37% | MATIC 2.20% | HNT 2.18% | ADA 1.91% | RUNE 1.49% | INJ 1.33% | LUNA 1.16% | AR 0.94% | LINK 0.80% | YGG 0.76% | XDEFI 0.28%

NFT Portfolio

MAYC 95.23% | Meebit 4.76%

Thoughts on Market

It’s been another interesting week in the crypto market. What started out as a bullish breakout is now starting to look like a bull trap, but I have a feeling we’re going to see some more positive price action later today. This is because in a few hours time, the Super Bowl will begin. 

For those who don’t know, the Super Bowl is American football’s biggest event, and it attracts around 100 million viewers every year. This time around, crypto companies will be competing for the attention of these eyes with their ads. This could translate to positive price action for crypto. 

The only problem is that any parabolic runs could be cut short by our friends at the Fed. This is because there are concerns that they could react more aggressively when it comes to raising rates in March. Some see a 0.5% rate hike in response to the record inflation readings for January. Not everyone is convinced this will happen, however. 

This begs the question of what role cryptocurrency plays in this market dynamic. On the one hand, Bitcoin is supposed to be an inflation hedge. On the other hand, the Federal Reserve’s response to inflation seems to be having a negative impact on its price as if it was a stock. 

I think a better way to see Bitcoin and crypto as a whole is as more of a fiat hedge rather than an inflation hedge. In other words, it’s a bet against the current financial system, and history suggests that’s not a bad bet to make. Even Blackrock is getting its head in the game now. 

This relates to an interesting trend I’ve seen over the last week, and that’s a sharp rise in Bitcoin dominance. Put simply, it looks like investors are rotating their altcoin gains into BTC. This could either be because we’re about to see a big crash, or Bitcoin is about to see some big news. 

In either case, altcoins are getting slaughtered by this shift in capital, and as much as it’s probably harming your portfolio right now, consider it to be an opportunity to buy the dip on any cryptos you’re interested in (like I did). If you need help with that, check out this video. 

Craziest Story in Crypto 

I am sure that you folks have no doubt heard the story about the DOJ arrests and seizures in relation to the Bitfinex hack. It’s one of the craziest and most unlikely stories that I have seen in the crypto space recently – and that says A LOT. 

I think that the whole saga can best be summed up with this tweet. How on earth could an eccentric hipster couple from New York be charged with trying to launder over $4.5 billion in stolen cryptocurrency? 

There were so many other crazy details about this case, but here are just some of them:

• The Cloud Drive:  Imagine storing the private keys to 120,000 Bitcoin on a cloud drive?! How on earth could someone who used pretty sophisticated cyber laundering techniques commit one of the most noobish mistakes ever? It’s almost impossible to believe but yet, that’s how the agents were able to access it. A simple search warrant. A simple search. A decent $3.6 billion haul – the largest financial seizure of any kind, ever!
• The Public Life: They were being traced by perhaps hundreds of agents from numerous three letter agencies. By blockchain analytics firms and other cyber security professionals with the best tools money can buy. And yet, they still had a public life plastered all over the internet. He was a VC and angel investor who until recently, regularly tweeted about Web 3. She was a rapper called Razzlekhan who posted on TikTok, was a Forbes contributor and even gave a talk on Social Engineering. 
• Not Accused of Hack: Although they were in control of the Bitcoin and accused of trying to launder it, they are not accused of being the hackers. That means that either the authorities can’t prove they hacked it or someone else did and this couple seemed to have landed up with the crypto. 
• Who Gets the Funds: The victim of the hack was of course Bitfinex. But it also impacted on the exchange’s users as they all had to take a haircut on balances at the time of the hack. This was eventually paid back but only in the USD value of the amounts lost at the time of the hack. Will the DOJ send the funds back to Bitfinex? The exchange wants them back but the DOJ has not indicated whether they are planning to return any of it. Let’s also not forget that US authorities still have concerns around the Bitfinex-Tether connection. 
• Tracing it: As mentioned, the couple used some really sophisticated techniques to try and obfuscate the funds. They used automated transaction batching, “chain peeling”, chain hopping, dark-net markets and other mixers. Some of these transactions involved multiple hops and some of the chain hops involved using privacy preserving tech like Monero. Yet, the agents were still able to trace it and ultimately bring them down. 

These are only some of the most important facts and there is a lot more that needs to be uncovered. I hope to be doing a video on the topic in the coming week or so. 

But, the most important thing that I took away from this event is that cryptocurrency is not friendly to money launderers. Every single transaction on the blockchain is stored there immutably and forever. It doesn’t matter how long ago a theft occurred, the data is free for all to see and study. 

This is something that investigators would not have been able to do had the laundering being attempted with gold or cash. And this is exactly why the mainstream narrative around cryptocurrency and money laundering is tired. Times have changed and they need to change with the times.  

Cryptocurrency vs. Censorship

Speaking of crazy news stories, you’ve probably heard about the truckers protesting pandemic restrictions in Canada. This is something that’s come across my radar a few times over the last couple of weeks, but I didn’t pay too much attention until the headlines started mentioning cryptocurrency.  

While I don’t have any interest in the protests per se, I am very interested in the financial censorship we’ve seen from corporations and governments. It has put their financial powers on full display, and I see this as a very real test of whether crypto is truly uncensorable money. 

But first, some background. 

In late January, the organisers of the trucker protest started a GoFundMe page to crowdfund everything the truckers would need (food, fuel, accommodation, etc.). After raising 10 million dollars, GoFundMe pulled the page under pressure from Canadian politicians. 

When the GoFundMe page was pulled, another crowdfunding website called GiveSendGo set up a few campaigns for the truckers, vowing not to bow to any political pressure. After raising almost another 10 million dollars, Canadian courts issued an order to block payments from the platform. 

Around this time, a crypto crowdfunding website called Tallycoin started accepting BTC donations on behalf of the truckers. It has raised nearly 1 million dollars so far, including from high profile people in the crypto community such as Kraken CEO Jesse Powell. 

My question is, will these BTC donations be any different from its predecessors in practice?  

Cryptocurrency is not legal tender in Canada, and this means it will need to be sold for fiat using a cryptocurrency exchange. It’s likely blockchain analytics companies are tracking these BTC transactions closely, and they’ll be able to alert Canadian authorities about any donated BTC. 

At that point, the Canadian authorities will just ask the exchange to freeze the funds. If the exchange doesn’t comply, said authorities will likely freeze their bank accounts the same way they recently did with the protestors who successfully received donations. 

Alternatively, it’s possible that these crypto payments could be processed by a bank that exists “outside” of the Canadian banking system. As it so happens, some of the organisers are using an independent provincial bank which is apparently sympathetic to their cause. 

This would actually explain why the Federal Reserve is seemingly hesitating to approve licences for crypto banks in the USA. In any case, it’s clear that financial censorship is a powerful force, and even though crypto itself is uncensorable, the infrastructure used to interact with it is not. 

Whatever your opinions are about this protest, know that this is a very dangerous state of affairs, because the same suppression could just as easily be used against causes you deem to be just. This means it’s more important than ever for crypto to create its own financial infrastructure. 

Let’s hope that happens sooner rather than later. 

Deal of The Week

Let’s face it, those crypto markets are full of opportunities and many of you have devised your own trading strategies to take advantage. However, have you ever wondered how good that trading strategy was?

Sure, you can keep running that strategy and learn from trial and error – that will likely cost you a boatload of money. OR you could test that secret trading methodology with paper trading. 

This basically simulates real-time forward testing. Additionally, you can test that strategy with back testing, which shows your performance against historical price data. All that, gives you a much better idea of how effective that strategy actually is and enables you to make the necessary tweaks to optimise it!

But how do you do that? Well, you need some trading automation software! The one I use to refine my own crypto dabbling is 3Commas!

Sign up to 3Commas for a FREE trail & get 50% OFF subscriptions!

Video Pipeline

• Top 10 Most Expensive NFTs Ever!
• Bitfinex Hack: The Craziest Story Yet
• NFT Flipping: Is is Profitable?
• Anchor Protocol: What the heck is it?
• Polkadot Update: Still one to keep an eye on?
• The worst advice in crypto: What to ignore!

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Arbitrum: The Complete 101 Guide

Best Crypto Related Stocks For Investors: Huge Upside!

NFT Scams: How to Avoid them and Keep SAFE!

What’s the Better Inflation Hedge: Bitcoin or Gold?

​​GensoKishi: A Blockchain Gaming Revolution

Top Crypto Tax-Friendly Jurisdictions

That’s all for now guys. I just wanted to share a big thank you from the whole team in the Coin Bureau labs. We all understand how fortunate we are to be able to spend all night and all day researching what we love and sharing those findings with you!

So, thanks for all the continued support.

Guy your crypto guy

The post Was That the Worst? Or More to Come?? appeared first on Coin Bureau.

I am of course talking about the global debt bubble. A massive burden that countries have made much worse through their pandemic restrictions and resulting government spending. 

One that was actively inflated by central bankers around the world with their incredibly lax monetary policies. Governments, companies and households have gorged on debt in the hope that low rates would be the norm.

However, that is not how things are shaping up in 2022. Rates are going up and this could have far-reaching implications for all those debtors who have, until recently, been able to afford to service said debt. 

What’s even more troubling than this is the fact that several analysts are predicting interest rates to go up much faster than the Fed has been saying. Could this be the start of an impending debt crisis? And how are the markets likely to react to this?

That’s all covered in my video today!

Main Portfolio

As I mentioned in my Telegram channel yesterday, I decided to pick up some LUNA. This was based on the fact that the price did not reflect the fundamentals. I used the remaining USDC in my portfolio to buy it. 

There were no other changes to the portfolio. The updated position is:

ETH 30.16% | BTC 23.07% | SOL 11.15% | DOT 10.27% | ATOM 6.21% | FTM 4.43% | HNT 2.99% | MATIC 2.12% | ADA 1.94% | RUNE 1.69% | LUNA 1.15% | AR 1.02% | YGG 0.91% | INJ 0.88% | UST 0.86% | LINK 0.84% | XDEFI 0.31%

NFT Portfolio

MAYC 95.23% | Meebit 4.76%

Thoughts on Market

Just when you thought the crypto market was going to zero, it turns around and surprises you. It always happens that way, doesn’t it? It’s no mystery either. Asset markets are driven by human emotion, and when you see extreme lows in sentiment for a prolonged period of time like we have over the last 3 months, it’s only a matter of time before prices pump out of the blue. 

This can be seen on the charts too. Since November, BTC has been in a descending wedge or falling wedge on the daily. Descending wedges tend to break to the upside, and that’s basically because they signal that the downward momentum is losing steam. We’ve not definitively broken out of this wedge to the upside, and that means more green days ahead (at least in theory). 

There are a few macro factors at play here as well. Countries around the world are starting to ease pandemic restrictions, partially because research is starting to show that they do much more harm than good, and partially because the people have, quite frankly, had enough. This should lead to a further increase in workforce participation and consumer confidence. 

On that note, it’s interesting that the crypto market pumped on the news of a relatively positive jobs report in the United States which was released on Friday. I’m not entirely sure why, but my best guess is that a strong economy means asset markets will have an easier time handling higher interest rates when the Federal Reserve starts raising them in March. 

Another thing that caught my eye is how much BTC pumped. It’s been a while since we’ve seen BTC post double digit gains, and it managed to do so while more or less maintaining its market dominance. Given that BTC is seen by some as a safe haven asset, this suggests that some investors are betting on a less aggressive Fed. This explains the gold rally too.

And then there’s the metaverse cryptos. Some of you may remember hearing that Meta’s stock crashed by more than 25% in a day last week. Oddly enough, metaverse cryptos actually rallied in response, and a recent survey seems to explain why. In short, it seems like most people would prefer to interact with a decentralized metaverse world rather than one controlled by big tech. 

From where I’m standing, it looks like the beginning of the end for web2, and not just big tech either.  

Collapse In Institutional Trust

I’ll never forget the first part of the first section of Messari’s crypto predictions for 2022. It highlighted the fact that trust in institutions is at an all-time low. Although the report anticipated that things would get worse before they get better in this regard, it didn’t anticipate just how rapidly the credibility of legacy institutions would decline in just the first month of the year. 

Let’s start with everyone’s favorite topic: the mainstream media. 

As pointed out by crypto personality Anthony Pompliano on twitter, podcaster Joe Rogan basically has a larger listener base than the entirety of mainstream media combined. There are also dozens of alternative media sources, channels, and podcasts that frequently see more viewers in the “key demographic” (age 24-50) than mainstream news outlets like CNN, Fox News, etc. 

People were surprised by this statistic (I certainly was), and that’s basically because it’s not all that obvious when you interact with many of these centralised platforms. Big tech is constantly propping up the mainstream media and mainstream talking points. There have been numerous investigations that have highlighted potential bias. 

How can they get away with this, you ask? Well, you can thank the politicians for that one. Big tech lobbying has more than doubled over the last few years, and is up more than 20x over the last decade depending on which company you’re talking about. The TLDR on lobbying is that companies give money to political candidates in exchange for favours. In this case, legal immunity. 

Lobbying is part of why the net worth of many politicians is hundreds, sometimes thousands of times more than their already hefty six-figure annual salaries. Another contributing factor is of course insider trading. Politicians know when laws, enforcement actions, and monetary stimulus are coming long before the public, and the end result is nothing short of free money for them. 

And don’t even get me started about the revolving door between politics and big business… 

Naturally, the people who benefit most from this system quite like it the way it is, and they don’t want it to change. The only problem is that social and economic inequities are growing, and the best example is the October finding that the 1% now have more wealth than the entire middle class (60%) for the first time in history. That’s a wake-up call for everyone, regardless of their politics. 

As a result of these and other factors, the average person is starting to realize that the current system is seriously corrupt. As much as the algorithms attempt to suppress these realisations, they simultaneously amplify them, because today’s tech giants want engagement more than anything else, possibly even their own survival. This has resulted in pushback from their peers. 

The convenient consequence of this though is that the cat is thoroughly out of the bag. Today, everyone knows about insider trading. Everyone knows the pandemic restrictions ultimately made the rich richer. Everyone knows fiat currencies are losing value by the second. Everyone knows that laws aren’t applied equally. Everyone knows it’s all bullshit, and they are pissed off. 

This is where crypto comes in to fill the void – a world where code is law, and where freedom is the constitution. Most importantly, it’s a world which proves that there is an alternative to the status quo. This is a fact that those in control of the current world are desperately trying to suppress. It’s not working, and it’s too late. The old world is collapsing, and a new one is coming. 

Taxman Wants a Stake

One of the many reasons why doing crypto taxes is so hard is because one often does not know how exactly the taxman views particular crypto activities. This is particularly the case when it comes to staking and lending in Defi protocols. 

There were two really interesting developments on that front this week and they came from both sides of the Atlantic. 

Firstly, over in the US, you had an update on a lawsuit that a crypto investor has with the IRS. As a bit of background, the individual in question (Josh Jarrett) sued the IRS because they denied his request for a refund on Tezos staking rewards. They offered to give him the refund in order to drop the suit but he decided to press on.

The reason that he did so was because without a ruling, there is no legal precedent. This means that Josh (and anyone who earns staking rewards) could still be taxed on this. Essentially, the IRS’ treatment of staking rewards hangs in the balance with this lawsuit. 

What’s pretty crazy about this is the fact that the IRS doesn’t actually have any guidance on staking rewards. It only has guidance when it comes to block rewards from people who use computing power to validate transactions (PoW miners). These mining rewards are taxable as income at the price of Bitcoin on the day that it is earned. 

However, the argument that Jarret is trying to make is that these rewards should be treated as newly-created property that should only be taxed on the date that the property is disposed of. This would make the treatment of staking rewards akin to the other “taxpayer discovered” property. This was exactly the point that those in the blockchain caucus argued in 2020.

Quite simply, if the IRS continues with current guidance and treats staking rewards like mining block rewards, it adds undue pressure on those staking. But, a judgement in Jarret’s favour could be a massive reprieve for all of those staking crypto.

Then, a little closer to home, the HMRC here in the UK decided to update its guidance on staking and Defi lending.

One of the most contentious points here is around the guidance for “chargeable gains”. Quite simply, in its example, each time a cryptocurrency is lent (sent to a defi protocol) it could be counted as a “disposal event” and hence taxable. This is despite the fact that the individual still has full control of their crypto. Whether or not it is viewed like this will depend on if the returns were fixed or speculative and how regularly the returns were paid. 

If HMRC does indeed read these events as a disposal, the implications for defi users could be massive. Think about a situation in which you lent ETH in some protocol near Ether’s all-time-high a few months ago. That would be counted as a “disposal” at the price that prevailed then. You would have to pay the capital gains tax on that ETH even though the price of ETH has fallen over 50% from the all time high!

This is not to mention the administrative nightmare that could come from this. You would have to go through all your defi lending activity and try to determine whether that individual transaction meets the criteria of a “disposal”. Then you will have to calculate the exact price that the cryptocurrency was on that date and disclose it!

There needs to be more clarity on this and it’s a topic that I hope to cover more broadly when I have all the information. 

But if you are based in the UK and have any concerns about this, then I would definitely recommend that you speak to your personal accountant or tax advisor. 

Deal of The Week

The crypto markets have seen some positive moves over the past few days. That’s led many to think about repositioning their portfolios for the next leg up. If you agree with that sentiment then you’ll need a top-notch crypto exchange with access to a range of different altcoins.

But which one do you choose?

Well, FTX gives you access to over 300 cryptos and has some of the lowest trading fees out there. Even better, I’ve been able to get you guys a super special deal. Not only do you get your first $30 in trading fees for FREE, but you’ll get an extra 10% trading fee discount for life!

Sign Up To FTX & Get Your First $30 In Fees For FREE!

Video Pipeline

• How to interpret a crypto whitepaper?
• Top 10 crypto Telegram groups
• Top 10 Most Expensive NFTs Ever!
• BTC & ETH: Where to For The Rest of Q1?
• Crypto Carbon Emissions: The Truth! 
• The dark side of NFTs: wash trading & money laundering
• Phantom wallet tutorial: all you need to know!

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Immutable X: The Future of NFTs and Play-to-earn Gaming?

FTX vs KuCoin: Which Exchange is right for YOU?

Is Bitcoin Mining REALLY Bad for the Environment?

Secret Network (SCRT) Review: Privacy Meets Compliance

That’s all for this week guys. Also, I wanted to share a big thank you from everyone at Coin Bureau HQ. You are the reason we have the privilege to spend all day and all night doing what we love.

So, thanks for all the support and making our mission to provide the best crypto education we can a reality!

Guy your crypto guy

The post The Biggest Bubble of All appeared first on Coin Bureau.

And, with the Fed looking like it’s raising rates in March, there are concerns that we could be entering that Bear market. 

However, what’s even more concerning than this is the prospect that this crypto bear market could translate into a longer crypto winter. One that sees subdued prices and lackluster interest for a year or more. 

So, are we headed to a cold crypto winter?

Well, one of the best ways to judge this is to compare and contrast the market conditions now to those that preceded the previous crypto winter. That was back in 2018 & 2019. Two long and hard years in the crypto space. One that many of us had experienced first hand. 

In my video today, I am going to be taking a look at the two different periods and analysing if there are any similarities or differences. I will also take a look at what is driving the market now and give my perspective of whether the market rout that we have seen will continue. 

You can watch my latest video here. 

Main Portfolio

No changes to the portfolio since last week. Pretty happy with my allocation at the moment. Although, I am looking at potentially picking up some more FTM if levels justify it. 

I am also considering picking up a small allocation of LUNA but think we may have more attractive entry points in the coming days. I will be covering Terra in much more detail in a video I have coming – so keep your eyes peeled. 

As always, I will keep you updated with moves in my Telegram channel. My updated portfolio is:

ETH 29.19% | BTC 23.35% | SOL 10.46% | DOT 10.14% | ATOM 6.38% | FTM 5.06% | HNT 3.14% | MATIC 2.32% | ADA 2.06% | RUNE 1.66% | USDC 1.27% | AR 1.09% | INJ 0.96% | UST 0.95% | LINK 0.94% | YGG 0.79% | XDEFI 0.26%

NFT Portfolio

MAYC 95.23% | Meebit 4.76%

Thoughts on Market

Last week I mentioned that this week would determine which way the crypto market is headed in the short to medium term. This was primarily because of the Federal Reserve’s press conference on Wednesday, and the worries of what they would say about raising interest rates. Luckily, it looks like they’re sticking to the original schedule, so the crypto and stock markets didn’t crash.

But the markets didn’t exactly rally either, at least not until Apple released its record high quarterly earnings on Friday. Apple is the largest company by market cap, and it’s believed that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are correlated to tech stocks such as Apple. As such, it looks like Apple carried the crypto market and the stock market into the green. 

This isn’t a stretch to say either, because Apple also announced their own metaverse plans. Recall that Apple CEO Tim Cook holds crypto too. Speaking of which, Tim also said that Apple is seeing supply chain issues ease as countries drop pandemic restrictions. This is seriously good news, because most of the inflationary pressures seem to be coming from supply chain disruptions.

So consider this… 

If the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates to fight inflation being caused primarily by supply chain issues (or so they say), then what happens if, say, the World Health Organisation suddenly declares the pandemic is now more of an endemic? 

This would mean that countries would no longer have a leg to stand on when it comes to these restrictions. The more countries that lift these restrictions, the less bottlenecks in the supply chain. While it may take some time for it to clear the current backlog, the positive sentiment around this announcement could help to lift the markets. 

This is one of many “white swans” on the horizon that could lead to a nice recovery across the board. By the same token though, there are some black swans that appeared last week as well. The most significant of these is probably the upcoming executive order on cryptocurrency that’s expected to be signed as soon as next week (covered below) 

There are also ongoing concerns about energy shortages around the world, including in the United States. This has resulted in many countries cutting off crypto mining operations to preserve power, and it’s possible that this could happen in some US states. An upcoming video I’m doing will analyze what US politicians have been saying about crypto mining, so stay tuned.

For what it’s worth, the charts and fundamentals are looking damn good. BTC balances on exchanges continue to fall, and we seem to be seeing some actual momentum to the upside for the first time in weeks. There’s of course no guarantee that this will continue, but it’s the best sign we’ve seen in a while. 

DeFi Drama

Of all the innovations in cryptocurrency, decentralised finance is arguably one of the most important. The ability to trade, borrow, lend, and save without a middleman is the pinnacle of financial freedom. The proof is in the pudding – the protocols that power this technology have hundreds of billions of dollars in total value locked. If only they were truly decentralized.  

Regulators such as SEC Chairman Gary Gensler have said that most DeFi protocols are centralised enough to face the scrutiny of regulators. There is no denying that there is truth to this statement, and it’s one that unfortunately applies to many crypto projects as well. The intense competition in the crypto space has made centralisation tempting, after all. 

Regulations aside, the fact of the matter is that centralisation increases risk because humans are corruptible. This was put on full display during a recent fiasco involving a DeFi protocol on Avalanche called Wonderland. In short, Wonderland is a fork of Olympus DAO, a DeFi protocol on Ethereum that’s essentially aiming to be the central bank of cryptocurrency.

Like Olympus DAO, Wonderland was infamous for providing insanely high yields to users who deposited funds into the protocol (one of the many red flags of a scam). Wonderland was also famous because of its prolific founder, Daniele Sestagalli, who is a well known DeFi developer that’s worked closely with the likes of Andre Cronje (Yearn Finance founder). 

Wonderland wasn’t a one man show though. There was another DeFi personality who went by the pseudonym 0xSifu. Nobody knew who he was (another red flag), until another DeFi sleuth named ZachXBT revealed that 0xSifu was the co-founder of Quadriga CX, a cryptocurrency exchange that shut down in 2019 after its founder disappeared with the crypto. 

If that wasn’t bad enough, Michael Patryn (0xSifu) has a history of financial crimes, which left the crypto community wondering why Daniele chose to partner with this individual. The answer seems to be money. Michael was an early investor in another DeFi project Daniele had founded. Daniele also claims to this day that Michael is not the same person he was before. 

The Wonderland community didn’t buy it though, and they voted to remove Michael from the project not long after the news broke. There is also a vote that is currently running to entirely close down Wonderland and give the funds back to the community. Even so, this saga has no doubt attracted the attention of regulators around the world. 

Let this be a lesson to the crypto community and DeFi community. If we do not regulate ourselves, then the real regulators will come in, and it will not be pretty. Luckily there are a lot of actual crypto journalists out there who are keeping tabs on what’s going on, but the best medicine is prevention. What’s the solution? Better governance. Let’s hope it comes soon. 

Speaking of regulations…

Regulators on The Attack

Just when you thought some of those politicians in DC were done with their attempts at regulating crypto, they come from left of field with a raft of measures and proposals. 

One of these was a provision that was snuck into a House bill (the COMPETES Act). The Act is legislation that is aimed at increasing economic competitiveness with China. However, it has now served as a trojan horse for this seemingly unrelated and toxic provision. 

More specifically, the provision would give the treasury arbitrary powers to block all US financial institutions from interacting with a crypto exchange, jurisdiction that has crypto exchanges, crypto exchanges by a non-US miner or even transactions coming from non-US custodial wallets. 

This provision aims to greatly expand existing laws that the treasury already has to impose restrictions on transactions like this. The only difference is that those laws have to come with consultation of the Fed and numerous other federal regulators before doing so. Moreover, there is a time limit on these restrictions and they could lift it in 120 days. 

So, quite simply, this provision will give Janet Yellen’s Treasury department arbitrary powers to impose on exchanges when it sees fit. Impositions that do not need to be discussed with anyone else and can last indefinitely.  

It should also be noted that this provision has been inserted by the same member who tried to insert a similar provision into the National Defense Authorization Act last year. This was an essential bill that kept the US military funded which thankfully did not pass with the provision as it was struck just in time.

It’s pretty alarming to me when these politicians jam unrelated provisions into must-pass bills. Let’s also not forget that this happened last year with the infrastructure bill. Indeed, if it wasn’t for the efforts of the blockchain lobby, many more of these laws would have made their way through congress. It also makes  me wonder how many laws are being passed on a regular basis without anyone in the voting public actually knowing about it until the enforcement hits them in the face.  

Then, to add to the rumblings on Capitol hill, the White House also threw some FUD our way with news of a potential Executive Order by Biden on cryptocurrencies…

The exact details of the Executive Order are yet to be announced, but according to sources, it would be issued in a national security memorandum. It would assign some government entities to study crypto, stablecoins and NFTs with the goal of developing a workable regulatory framework.

The fact that this EO will be placed in the context of “national security” goes to show that the fear stems from the cross-border payments for potential illicit activity. It’s therefore no surprise that this is coming at about the same time as the aforementioned provision which gives Treasury control of these cross border payments. 

Of course, it’s a lot easier to convince people of the need for regulation and control when it is done on the grounds of “National Security”. Fear sells and even though illicit activity plays a miniscule role in overall activity, it’s the narrative that is important. 

That aside, the COMPETES Act has a long way to go and my hope is that the provision will be removed when it heads to the Senate. Indeed, a competing lawmaker has already introduced an amendment that simply eliminates the provision altogether. As it relates to Biden’s incoming EO, I will be keeping my eyes peeled and my ears to the ground. 

Yet, as I made clear in my video today, the mere fact that these regulations have made their way into the halls of congress and beyond is because crypto has become such a transformative force. We can only hope that there are more politicians that are on our side who are able to stand guard at the gates and defend the progress we have made. 

I’m Going Live

In case some of you didn’t know, I have been holding weekly livestreams on my TikTok every Friday. These have been really exciting and it’s a unique opportunity for me to interact with all of you. I also really enjoy these as they give me more time to talk about crypto and hear more diverse perspectives. 

If you do miss any of these livestreams, I will also be uploading them on my Instagram and Clips channel for later consumption. 

So, be sure to join my TikTok if you haven’t already. I will be announcing the time of the next livestream for you sometime this week!

Deal of The Week

Those hodling with diamond hands have been in for a bit of a bumpy ride this year. However, some crypto aficionados out there have fared better than others, even if they held exactly the same altcoins and the same amounts.

But how is that possible?

Well, one crypto dabbler just held their crypto in a wallet and the other popped that crypto on a lending platform and earnt up to 18% APY whilst keeping all that exposure to the markets. But where is this Eldorado? Well, that would be Nexo!

Yep, Nexo is a top place to earn passive crypto income. But unlike other competitors like BlockFi, interest payments are actually paid daily! That’s pretty useful if you want the flexibility to take out your crypto from the lending platform at any time.

Sign Up To Nexo & Get Up To 18% Interest!

Video Pipeline

• Mining Senate hearing: Cause for concern?
• Terra Update: Where is LUNA Heading?
• Cosmos Update: ATOM still out of this world?
• How to interpret a crypto whitepaper?
• Top 10 crypto Telegram groups
• Top 10 Types of NFTs
• Gaming Guilds: Complete 101 Guide
• The Biggest Bubble of All!

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Explaining Bitcoin and Crypto To Your Family

Will GameFi be Bigger than DeFi? Blockchain Gaming Levels Up

That’s all for this week’s newsletter. As always, I’d like to thank you for supporting our work here at the Coin Bureau! It means the world to us.

Guy your crypto guy

The post Is this a New Crypto Winter?? appeared first on Coin Bureau.

There were many projections for ETH…

Last year saw people throw around 10k, 20k or more. However, ever since 2022 came around, many of those lofty projections appear to have fallen by the wayside and in a big way. Now, many are just wondering whether it can once again reclaim its all-time high.

Well, that depends on a number of factors. Factors that are central to Ethereum’s progress this year and beyond.

And this is exactly what I will be exploring in my video today. I will be doing a much-needed 2022 update of Ethereum and its potential. I will also be looking at this through the lens of ETH 2.0 and that all important proof of stake merge.

The truth is that this could be closer than many of us think and the implications of it for the entire ecosystem cannot be overstated. I will also be examining one central reason why ETH could become the darling of institutions.

Of course, there are also going to be some challenges that could derail that. Challenges that I clearly elucidate in the video.

So, if you hold ETH (or are considering picking it up), then you can’t afford to miss this video!

Main Portfolio

Speaking of ETH, I bought some more of it as well as some BTC. This was done with some USDC that I have moved over from my lending accounts. The remaining USDC was converted to UST in order to be kept as dry powder for other altcoins. 

I decided to buy this dip mainly because the current market is irrational and being driven by factors unrelated to cryptocurrency (see below). It’s in these times that you have to make a judgement call on fundamental value. 

The reason that I am holding dry powder in UST is because of it being decentralised. On top of that, it has been able to hold that $1 peg exceptionally well over the recent dip. I have an updated video coming on Terra so you will want to keep an eye out for that. 

My portfolio currently sits at: 

ETH 28.28% | BTC 22.63% | SOL 11.15% | DOT 10.13% | ATOM 7.46% | FTM 5.39% | HNT 2.67% | MATIC 2.29% | ADA 2.19% | RUNE 1.64% | USDC 1.33% | AR 1.03% | INJ 1.01% | UST 0.99% | LINK 0.87% | YGG 0.72% | XDEFI 0.24%

NFT Portfolio

MAYC 94.40% | Meebit 5.60%

Thoughts on Market

Can you hear that? That is the sound of millions of paper hands capitulating as whales buy up their BTC and ETH. Don’t believe me? Check on-chain. The BTC balance on exchanges is dropping in tandem with the price as people HODL. Even the Bitcoin miners are accumulating BTC. That can only mean one thing: it’s not over, at least not yet. 

With that out of the way, what the hell is going on? 

I’ll start by saying that this crash isn’t being caused by something crypto specific. Asset markets are crashing across the board, and because crypto is still (unfortunately) quite correlated with the stock market, anything that happens there will eventually affect the crypto market. Following a bloody Friday, many market analysts are saying the stock market crash will only accelerate. 

Again, the question is why? 

Besides fears over the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates, the answer seems to be China. Property developers in the country have started to implode, and this has driven the Chinese central bank to lower interest rates in an attempt to prop domestic markets back up. This is a pretty big deal because China had previously stated that they would do nothing of the sort. 

“But what does it mean?” you might ask. 

I suppose it depends on who you ask. Some are saying that this is only the beginning of the “everything bubble” or “superbubble” bursting, meaning there are many more down days (and possibly weeks) ahead. With the weakness we’re seeing in the economy, be it due to supply chain issues or people opting out of the workforce, it’s very possible that this is what’s coming. 

On the other extreme, you have the likes of Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood doubling down and insisting that the pain we’re seeing is only temporary. This is primarily because the supply chain issues that are holding the economy back are being caused by the pandemic (or more accurately, pandemic restrictions), and it looks like some countries are starting to ease off. 

And then you have folks like me who are more in the middle of the road. While I do think that we’re in for a bit more pain in both the crypto market and the stock market, the weekly chart for BTC suggests that it may be high time to accumulate. The fundamentals are also strong, with companies planning to pile billions of dollars into crypto projects this year.

In my mind, the only thing to worry about with crypto is central bank digital currencies, and it looks like the Federal Reserve is the latest central bank to officially throw their hat in the ring. 

Fed CBDC overview

Last Thursday, the Federal Reserve finally revealed the whitepaper for its digital dollar. As far as I can tell, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell first announced that the Fed would be releasing a digital dollar whitepaper in May last year. This means it’s been in the works for quite some time, and I find it interesting that Jerome dragged his feet on publishing it… I digress. 

The first thing about the paper that caught my eye was one of the 6 preconditions the Federal Reserve notes for the issuance of a CBDC, specifically the second one which states “[a digital dollar] must yield [benefits to consumers] more effectively than alternative methods”. In my mind, this is a not so subtle reference to stablecoins, which could end up becoming “synthetic CBDCs”. 

Another thing that stuck out to me was the focus around privacy, something that was picked up by various crypto news outlets as well. As you can imagine, a digital currency controlled by the government is at odds with privacy, and there are some very justified concerns to be had about that, as well as a CBDC’s impacts on financial stability which the Fed also acknowledges. 

Even so, my research so far suggests that there has been extreme pressure on the Federal Reserve to develop a digital dollar. This is primarily because almost every other central bank is rushing to develop their own CBDC, namely China. Having a CBDC basically means that these countries will no longer be dependent on the US dollar, which is bad news for the United States. 

As such, digital dollar proponents argue that it’s imperative for the Federal Reserve to release a digital dollar so that the USD remains the world’s reserve currency. Not surprisingly, some of these proponents are on the Federal Reserve board of governors, but what’s interesting is that not everyone at the Federal Reserve is on board with the idea of a digital dollar. 

While the adjustment of the Federal Reserve board’s composition is probably not going to influence what they do about interest rates and inflation, it’s very likely that it will influence what they do about the digital dollar. Consider for a moment that 3 of those 7 seats have yet to be filled, though the nominees were recently announced by US President Joe Biden. 

If you’re wondering what this means for the prospect of a digital dollar, you’ll have to stay tuned for my video later this week to find out! 

Some Perspective

There is no doubt that the past week has been a really rough one in the crypto markets. For some of you, this may be your first time experiencing a severe market rout. I know this because in December last year, I pushed this poll that asked you guys how long you had been in crypto. 

As you can see from the results, over 50% of you folks got into crypto last year. A year when crypto markets rallied to all time highs on the back of unprecedented and sustained Fed stimulus. If that was all you knew, then it’s completely understandable that you may be worried about the current dip. 

I am here to tell you: Don’t be!

As some of you may know, we launched the Coin Bureau back in 2017. This was also a time when crypto markets were going crazy and everyone was making a lot of money in high flying ICOs. By the end of the year I was incredibly chuffed with the performance in my portfolio. I thought that the good times would continue rolling in 2018. 

However, that was not the case… 

As January came around, the markets suffered a sustained fall. All those hot ICOs went bust and ETH & BTC were in a tailspin. I was incredibly worried not only because my wealth was dramatically reduced but also because I had gone full time into crypto. My future was inextricably tied to the crypto markets. 

It was at this time that I decided to talk to a friend of mine who had been in Bitcoin since 2013. He recanted all these stories about how crazy those early days were and how some of his compatriots had parted with thousands of BTC. Partly this was because they couldn’t handle the volatility and the other part was because they didn’t believe in the long term potential. 

So, it was with that in mind that I decided to hodl on. Work continued as we built the Coin Bureau. The more research that we did for videos, the more confident I became about inevitable mass adoption and an eventual reversal. Whether that was going to happen in 2, 3 or 5 years, I knew it was an industry I wanted to be a part of. That resolve is what kept us working through the Bear market and it was that undying belief that allowed me to reap the gains of the hard work in 2020 & 2021. 

Am I saying we are in the same period now?

No. I don’t think that this recent dip is the bear market. Crypto is no longer the market it once was and there is too much institutional interest for it to fall by the wayside for 2-3 years. Those that actively lobbied against crypto in 2017-2019 are now embracing it with open arms. Regulators that once dismissed crypto as a meme are scrambling to craft laws in order to contain it. Central Banks that once laughed off the notion of decentralised money are now developing their own CBDCs. 

The point is, times have changed. But, there will always be market cycles. And with these market cycles come as new investors who have to deal with the inevitable periods of uncertainty.

So, if you are relatively new to the markets and feeling uneasy, I hope that my experience and perspective helps you the way my friend’s did in 2017. It’s never nice to see your investment depreciate in value but it’s only ever a loss if you sell at a loss. As long as you have not over extended yourself and you have invested prudently, short to medium term price action should not perturb you. 

Diamonds are formed with centuries of extreme pressure. The longer and stronger the pressure, the larger and more beautiful the stones. That’s why I think the “diamond hands” analogy is a lot more than a meme. 

Keep calm, and hodl on!

Deals of The Week

It’s been a bit of a hairy week. Be it in the crypto markets or the broader stock markets. Yes, many crypto fans are fearful, however, others might be feeling kind of greedy with the discounts on crypto available today.

But what if you want to take advantage of those sales? Well, you’ll need a top-notch fiat to crypto onramp solution. Personally, I use the Swissborg app to do that.

The app supports over 30 cryptocurrencies and 16 fiat currencies including some pretty exotic ones like the Polish Zloty and the South African Rand. So, that means that you are unlikely to be hit with those annoying foreign exchange fees.

The app supports crypto dabblers from almost every country outside of the US. Also, withdrawals on Swissborg can be lightning fast too – I’ve had funds hit my bank account within minutes. 

Swissborg also provides a super simple way to stake cryptocurrencies, with interest rates as high as 24%! So, if you are interested in earning crypto interest then you’ll want to check that out too!

Even better, if you deposit €50 or more then you’ll get up to €100 FREE!

Sign up to Swissborg & Get Up To €100 Free

Video Pipeline

• Are We in a Bear Market?
• Top Crypto Tax Tools For 2022!
• The Flippening: What you need to know!
• Enjin Update: Where is ENJ Headed?
• Avalanche Update: Is there still potential?
• Mining Senate hearing: Cause for concern?
• Federal Reserve’s digital dollar whitepaper

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Will Ethereum Flip Bitcoin in 2022?

FTX vs Coinbase Review

Algorithmic Stablecoins

Cardano Deep Dive

That’s all for this week’s newsletter. However, the entire Coin Bureau team would like to thank you for your continued support during these stormy markets. Crypto die-hards like you are the reason why the Team and I will continue producing top-notch educational content – whatever happens in the market. 

Thanks for allowing all the team at Coin Bureau HQ pursue our passion to help educate the world about crypto.

Guy your crypto guy

The post Do You Hold ETH? Know THIS!! appeared first on Coin Bureau.

One of the most heated debates of the past few weeks has been on Web 3. Some have claimed that it is merely the purview of Venture Capitalists and whales. That the tech is still quite centralised, slow and unable to reach mass adoption. 

Well today, I am going to show you exactly why Web 3 is our best hope to break free from the centralised status quo. A reality where our data is harvested for profit by companies that will willingly pull our access at a moment’s notice. 

Of course, there are valid concerns that need to be addressed about Web 3. Not only the standard ones but also others that have been raised. I will be talking about all of these in the video and what they could mean for the future of Web 3. 

You can watch that video right here. 

Main Portfolio

No changes to the portfolio this week folks. Pretty happy with the allocation and am waiting to see how things play out in the traditional markets over the coming weeks (see below IMF report).

The allocation is:

ETH 27.82% | BTC 19.60% | SOL 12.65% | DOT 11.55% | ATOM 7.48% | FTM 5.95% | HNT 2.94% | MATIC 2.49% | ADA 2.09% | RUNE 1.93% | INJ 1.20% | AR 1.13% | LINK 1.06% | USDC 0.97% | YGG 0.92% | XDEFI 0.23%

NFT Portfolio

MAYC 93.75% | Meebit 6.25%

Thoughts on Market

It’s been a tense week in the crypto market but it looks like it could have been a lot worse. This is because investors across the board were bracing for brutal inflation figures in the United States on Wednesday and while the figures were brutal, 7% was exactly what investors were expecting. Whether or not this has to do with the January adjustment to the CPI remains to be seen.

Not surprisingly, the crypto market rallied in response to the news and it’s a rally that had begun the day before. This might have something to do with all the bullish news that came out last week, the most significant of which is probably the rapid recovery of Bitcoin’s hashrate after miners in Kazakhstan came back online. 

Another bullish sign is the balance of BTC on exchanges that continues to drop. As I’ve mentioned many times before, when BTC moves off exchanges then it means people are HODLing and not selling. Conversely, when BTC is moving on to exchanges then it means people are selling and not HODLing. More about on-chain analysis here. 

With all this said, there is one thing going on in the crypto market that has me concerned, and that’s the death cross that BTC just painted on the daily chart. If you watched my first technical analysis tutorial, you’ll know a death cross is a sign of bad times to come. It also doesn’t help that we’ve definitively fallen below both the 128 and 200 day moving averages either. 

The only reason why I’m not super concerned about these technical indicators is because of what I’m seeing on the monthly chart. Assuming we close this month at a loss, that will mark three months of red. This is the same decline we saw during the crash last spring, and if history repeats, February, March, and April will be green. These milestones could make it happen. 

Growth vs. Value in Crypto

As you know, I love watching interviews with the founders of crypto projects as part of my research. Avalanche founder Emin Gun Sirer has been doing weekly AMAs (of sorts) on the official Avalanche YouTube channel and in one of these he discussed the notion of growth vs. value in investing, specifically in terms of cryptocurrency. 

For those who don’t know, growth and value are two terms used to describe two broad categories of stocks. Growth stocks belong to companies that are expected to grow significantly in the future (e.g. Tesla). By contrast, value stocks belong to companies that are generating revenue today, and also giving dividends to shareholders (depending on your definition). 

Whether investors are buying growth or value stocks depends heavily on interest rates. In a low interest rate environment, investors tend to favour growth stocks primarily because of the easy access their respective companies have to credit, regardless of revenue. When interest rates are high however, investors favour value stocks because credit is expensive and revenue is king. 

When you apply this taxonomy to cryptocurrency, it’s pretty clear which coins and tokens fall into which category. At the extreme end of growth you have cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin whose potential is based on future promises. At the extreme end of value you have smart contract cryptocurrencies like Ethereum which generate revenue due their coins’ utility as digital oil. 

It should come as no surprise then that smart contract cryptocurrencies have been rallying like crazy while the rest of the crypto market struggles. The Federal Reserve’s recent rhetoric around interest rates has spooked investors out of growth and into value both in cryptocurrency and the stock market. It will be interesting to see how long this rotation lasts given historical trends. 

 The IMF Said What?!

One of the most bullish indicators for me as to the potential of Bitcoin & cryptocurrency is when powerful opponents feel threatened. And, when it comes to powerful financial opponents, perhaps one of the largest has got to be the International Monetary Fund or IMF. 

That’s because the IMF can be seen as the banker for countries. An international high yield lender that has been profiting off the global fiat system ever since the end of World War 2. 

Hence, any sort of challenge from a decentralised technology like cryptocurrency is likely to upset them. 

For example, in July of last year, the IMF released a blog post that came out and attacked the idea of using cryptocurrency as a legal tender. This report came about a month after El Salvador announced that they would be the first country to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender. 

The report basically claimed that having cryptocurrency as a legal tender “could harm macro-financial stability, financial integrity, consumer protection and the environment”. Of course, no hit piece on Bitcoin is complete without mentioning how it can be used to “launder ill-gotten money, fund terrorism, and evade taxes”.

Then, in October last year, they came out with their Global Financial Stability report. Unsurprisingly, some of the challenges that they foresaw were “Covid 19, Climate & Crypto”. You can see in the key highlights over here that the size of Crypto’s Market Cap is in the “Risks” category. That is perhaps one of the most disingenuous comparisons that I have seen but sadly expected.

They used all of these as a reason as to why countries should consider a universal response to cryptocurrency regulation. In a blog post of December last year, they claimed that the existence of all these cryptocurrency “risks” underscore why there is a need for international standards that are co-ordinated. 

They even suggested a number of rules which could be implemented and, quite predictably, they suggested that the IMF’s Financial Stability Board should “develop a global framework comprising standards for regulation of crypto assets”

Then, just about a week ago they released a report that examined the historical correlation (i.e., relationship) between crypto assets and the stock markets. The analysis further confirmed the fact that crypto markets have become much more correlated with the equity markets.

Of course, this relationship has been known for some time and it is something I have covered on the channel ad nauseum. Investors place crypto in their “risk on” bucket which means that it is likely to react to many of the same global macro factors as Equity. 

However, the IMF also did some analysis that claimed that this “crypto-equity” spillover is a risk to global financial markets. They said, “Increased crypto-stocks correlation raises the possibility of spillovers of investor sentiment between those asset classes. … A sharp decline in bitcoin prices can increase investor risk aversion and lead to a fall in investment in stock markets.”

Now, that’s a stretch even for the IMF. But, what it shows is that they increasingly see a risk of cryptocurrency to the financial system that they help to control. If it’s not a country’s fiscus, it’s the climate. If it’s not consumer protection, it’s financial contagion. 

As I have made clear in my video today about Web 3, centralised powers benefit most when there is no challenge to the status quo. If that is challenged, they have to fight back. 

Deals of The Week

Blockchain Domains: There has been a lot of attention on NFTs recently. But most of the NFTs with insane value right now have very little use cases. There is a lot of hype but not that much utility. 

However, there is one category of NFTs that don’t only have a rarity component but also a strong utility and use case. Those are blockchain domains.

These can be used for accepting payments, personalising addresses and eventually they could power the decentralised web with a distributed domain name system. 

Moreover, because of their unique qualities, these domains have become the new realm of online real estate for domain investors. If you will think back to the 1990s and early 2000’s, hot .com domains were all the rage and investors who got in early were handsomely rewarded. 

If you were wondering where you can get your hands on those blockchain domains and are looking for a domain with potential, then you can hop over to Unstoppable Domains as they have the largest selection of crypto domain extensions. 

Moreover, Unstoppable Domains has just launched on Polygon which means that you can mint those domains at a fraction of the cost with 0 gas fees! They have also released their Ethereum & Polygon sign in service which allows for a seamless web 3 connection – decentralised and permissionless!

Sign Up To Unstoppable Domains

My Merch Store: Some of you might know that my merch store is one of the main ways that you guys can support me and the rest of the Coin Bureau team. All purchases there help us continue producing that crypto content you love. 

I think I’ve created a cracking line of crypto t-shirts, hoodies, water bottles, beanies and more. However, I thought that I’d run a special promotion for my most loyal followers and give you guys an exclusive 10% discount for ALL orders from the store.

To get that all you need to do is to use the code CB2022 at checkout!

Checkout The Coin Bureau Store

Video Pipeline

• Top Crypto Tax Tools 2022!
• Top NFT Issuers: Who Controls the NFT Game?
• Jerome Powell testimony: You won’t believe this!
• GameFi: Complete 101 Guide!
• The Flippening: What you need to know!
• Avalanche Update: Is there still potential?
• Ethereum: Where to for ETH in 2022??

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Kadena Deepdive! The Blockchain Trilemma solved?!

What is the Crypto Fear and Greed Index?

GALA Games Review: Everything you NEED to Know

Bitcoin and Inflation: Is it an Inflation Hedge?

Heavyweight Bout of Crypto Exchanges: FTX vs Binance

That’s all for this week’s newsletter. However, I need to thank you for making me your personal crypto chap. I know there are many great crypto content creators out there and it really is a privilege that you have spent at least a bit of your time watching Coin Bureau vids!

You guys are what make the channel possible! Thanks again on behalf of everyone at the Bureau.

Guy your crypto guy

The post Web 3 Revolution!! Don’t Miss This!! appeared first on Coin Bureau.

It was no doubt a rough start to the year. This has left many wondering whether we are likely heading into that inevitable bear market. 

I don’t happen to think so, and I will be telling you exactly why in my market update. 

But before that, I want to bring your attention to one of the most insightful research reports that I have read of late. 

This is a report by the folks over at Arcane Research. They are the research arm of a listed crypto company based out in Norway and I have been a long time fan of these reports. That is because they are comprehensive, insightful, data rich and often developed with a slant towards institutional investors. 

Their 2021 summary report is one of their longest yet and it takes a look at some of the most important trends, topics and events of last year. They also have a number of predictions about what we could see this year for Bitcoin and the entire altcoin complex. 

In my video today, I break down the report page by page. I explain some of the key data and analyse exactly what it means for the markets. I also give my view of some of their predictions for the year and tie that in with some of those I have been making over the past 2 weeks. 

You can watch that right here.

Main Portfolio

Decided to pick up a bit more ETH, SOL & DOT. This was done with the remaining UST as well as the PAXG in my portfolio. I have chosen these three cryptos to buy mainly because I think they are the most undervalued given ecosystem development. 

I also moved over some USDC that I had placed in a lending pool and will be keeping it as dry powder in my portfolio.

Updated portfolio is:

ETH 28.42% | BTC 20.81% | SOL 12.89% | DOT 11.16% | ATOM 6.67% | FTM 4.55% | HNT 3.11% | MATIC 2.37% | RUNE 2.02% | ADA 1.90% | INJ 1.25% | AR 1.24% | LINK 1.21% | USDC 1.07% | YGG 1.04% | XDEFI 0.29%

NFT Portfolio

MAYC 93.33% | Meebit 6.66%

Thoughts on Market

If you’re here for hopium, I’m happy to say that I have no shortage of it. Last week’s crash was brutal, but I am confident that it’s not the end of the bull market. This is for three simple reasons: 

1. BTC balance on exchanges are still dropping (people not selling)
2. BTC dominance still dropping (money moving into alts)
3. BTC exchange leverage continues to hit record highs (traders are bullish). 

This third factor is more important than you think, because it makes almost all short term technical analysis null and void. BTC and ETH saw lots of liquidations last week, especially ETH (hence why I loaded up on ETH). The downside volatility created by leveraged longs has a tendency to violate short term price patterns, or make bearish ones appear to have confirmed. 

This is why I chose to zoom out last week and take a look at what BTC was doing on the weekly. The Bollinger Band and RSI indicators suggest that we’re in the perfect dip buying zone. However, this doesn’t mean our troubles are over just yet. We could see another red candle for the crypto market next week, so bear that in mind before you go all in. 

And who’s to blame for this crash you might ask? Well, that would be the Federal Reserve, who hinted in their December meeting that they might start selling some of the trillions of dollars of government bonds they’ve bought over the last few years. If they do this, it will raise interest rates beyond what they initially promised. This is why asset markets around the world tanked. 

And why is the Federal Reserve wanting to raise interest rates? Well, that would be inflation which has been running hot for months. Here’s the kicker though. The Bureau of Labour Statistics announced in December last year that they will be changing the way the CPI is being measured in January this year.

So, riddle me this: What happens if the new CPI figures coming out next Wednesday mysteriously show a sharp decline in inflation? Chances are, asset markets will start to recover as they start to speculate on the possibility that the Federal Reserve will reconsider exactly how quickly they want to continue with the taper. You can bet that Fed officials will discuss this at their end of January meeting. 

This will be confirmed in mid February when the minutes (summary) of the Federal Reserve’s January meeting are made available. I bet that their rhetoric around tapering will be more relaxed, and when you combine that with the fudged CPI numbers for January that come out a few days before the meeting minutes, markets will have all the hopium they need to rally. 

If you want to get a sense of just how broken the CPI is, be sure to check out my video about that by clicking here. 

When in Doubt, Zoom Out (A lot)

As many of you will know, altcoins are highly correlated with Bitcoin. If Bitcoin pumps, chances are altcoins will pump, and vice versa. As such, you can think of the price action of most altcoins (especially the larger ones) as being an imperfect reflection of BTC’s price action.

This got me thinking, what is BTC’s price action an imperfect reflection of? Put simply, what exactly influences the price of BTC? 

This is a topic I covered in a video last year, and if you watched that video you might remember that BTC and other cryptocurrencies exist in the deep end of the pool that is the financial market. When uncertainty is high, be it because of some pandemic or global conflict, investors tend to flock to safer assets. Conversely, when things are looking certain, investors crave risk (crypto). 

As such, it’s safe to say that BTC’s price action is an imperfect reflection of the price action in the stock market. A correlation between the two has been known for quite some time, and has been getting stronger as of late. When it comes to zooming out, this is about as far as most crypto analysts get, including YouTubers such as myself. 

But that’s not zooming out enough. What exactly influences the prices of assets in the stock market? 

If you answered the Federal Reserve, you would be correct. As pointed out by one of my favorite crypto YouTubers, the price action of the S&P 500 over the last 10 years appears to be heavily influenced by the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy. When they lower interest rates and spend, markets rise. When they raise interest rates and stop spending or sell, markets crash. 

But we’re still not zoomed out enough. What is it exactly about the Federal Reserve’s activities that causes the markets to rise and fall? 

The short answer is that it’s the effects its policies have on the US dollar, specifically its supply. Right now, most of the money in circulation is technically debt, which is why banks consider US dollars to be liabilities. Contrary to popular belief, most of the money isn’t created by the Federal Reserve per se. It’s created by the banks who lend that money into being. 

This money is of course lent out to individuals and institutions. What these individuals and institutions are ultimately doing is borrowing from their future earnings, because eventually that debt needs to be repaid. When that debt is paid back, money is technically destroyed – removed from circulation. This causes the price of the US dollar relative to other assets to rise.

And because investors are always “forward looking”, when the Federal Reserve says it’s going to increase interest rates in the future, investors react today by paying off some debt in anticipation, which requires selling assets if they’ve taken on too much leverage.

In sum, you could say that crypto prices are an imperfect (inverse) reflection of what’s going on with the US dollar. I could zoom out further to tell you what else influences the price of the US dollar, but I think it’s best you listen to the experts when it comes to that one. 

 Why GameFi

Over the past few weeks I have stated that I was quite bullish on GameFi especially in 2022. However, I haven’t fully explained why. 

Quite simply, it’s because of the sheer size of the current traditional gaming ecosystem and how fast it is growing. Here are some stats from an article in CoinTelegraph last year:

• The gaming market is worth $180 billion. This is greater than $100 billion for film and $73 billion for sports
• Three of the top four most-viewed sporting events in 2018 were E-sports events
• Some predict we will see the number of streamers rise to 1 billion in 2025
• Gamers spent 15 billion on in-game “loot” last year

Ok, but why would these gamers benefit from blockchain gaming you ask?

Well, because these entire gaming ecosystems exist in walled gardens. The developers own the assets and can do whatever they want with it. In fact, this reality is one of the prime reasons that Vitalik Buterin became so interested in decentralised technology. According to this post:

“I happily played World of Warcraft during 2007-2010, but one day Blizzard removed the damage component from my beloved warlock’s Siphon Life spell. I cried myself to sleep, and on that day I realized what horrors centralized services can bring”

With NFTs and a decentralised blockchain, you own those assets. You can move them wherever you want and sell them freely. Not only can they be converted into cryptocurrency but also fiat. This therefore means that you have an ecosystem and economy where people can realise real world tangible results from their gaming.

This is where the “Play to Earn” factor comes in. People playing online games in order to generate wealth and income for themselves. The sector is massive and games like Axie Infinity have demonstrated just how much demand there is for these non-traditional sources of income. 

It’s not just hopium. Here are some stats from last year:

• During Q3 of last year, we saw $2.32 billion in sales of NFT assets which was 20% of all sales
• As of early December, GameFi’s weekly active users have reached 9.21 million, a record high.
• Five of the top 9 dApps in dApp rankings are GameFi related
• The market cap of virtual world reached $4.6 billion and some land sales topped $42 million

So, it’s quite clear that the trend is moving in that direction. 

What I often hear from gamers, however, is that blockchain games are far removed from being really “playable”. I tend to agree. You are not going to get the hardcore gamers to drop what they are playing to battle with Axies. 

However, there are a number of titles that are launching this year that are looking to transform that. Games that are built from the ground up to be playable first. One of these is BigTime gaming that recently completed a public sale of their in-game SPACE NFT tokens. I bought a bunch of these and will be adding to my portfolio once they are released in the game. 

Having said all of this though, I am also aware that some gamers are incredibly averse and sceptical of NFTs. Sometimes, they are openly hostile towards them. In some cases, this can be justified especially when the NFTs are just used as a money grab. However, as we have seen in the traditional finance space more broadly, crypto was ridiculed and attacked for years before the banks started getting on board. I happen to think that the hardcore gamers could eventually come into the fold. 

Beyond this though, it’s also worth seeing where the smart money is positioning their investments. It seems that a great deal of them are diving into Play-to-Earn games, guilds and blockchain gaming titles.

As they say: Follow the money!

I will be doing a video on some of the most exciting projects in the GameFi space in the coming few weeks – so keep an eye out for that. 

Deal of The Week

Upgrade Your Crypto Security: Yes, the markets are pretty bloody right now. However, now might be a good time to take your mind off the stress of the markets and instead focus on something you can control: Your Crypto Security!

Most people just leave their crypto on an exchange or use a free self custodial wallet. However, the crypto savvy try to stack the deck in their favour by upgrading that security to a hardware wallet. 

But which one do you choose?

Personally, I use Trezor as my hardware wallet of choice. I have done a video about the various types of hardware wallet on the market and you can watch that here!

With Trezor you can store over 1,000 different cryptos – so, chances are that even the most ardent altcoin dabbler can store their whole portfolio on this device!

Get A Trezor & Secure Your Crypto!

Video Pipeline

• Coinmarketcap Vs Coingecko: Which is best?
• Top Crypto Tax Tools 2022!
• Kucoin Vs Binance: Which is best?
• Top 5 Polkadot Projects
• Aave Update: Still worth it?
• Crypto Developer Report: What you need to know!
• Upcoming Crypto Events: What to keep an eye on!
• The Great Web 3.0 Debate: What It Means!

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Crypto Investment Products: The Key to Mass Adoption?

OpenDAO Airdrops SOS on OpenSea Community

That’s about all for this newsletter. However, I hope you are looking forward to 2022 as much as I am. 

I’d also like to thank you for your continued support of the channel, in spite of these rocky markets. It means the world to the me and the Coin Bureau team. It gives us the fuel we need to keep on producing all this content for you!

For now, have a great Sunday and I hope you enjoy our latest vid!

Guy your crypto guy

The post Is This The Bear Market? Or is it Temporary? appeared first on Coin Bureau.

Happy New Year!

There have been a lot of predictions made over the past few weeks. Predictions about prices, events and the general direction of crypto. I have even gone over some of these predictions in recent videos. 

However, there is one thing that is missing and that’s my personal predictions! 

I have quite a few to make. These range from where we can see the markets heading, which themes are likely to dominate and what threats we could face. 

So, if you guys want to start 2022 off with a bang, then this video should be one of the first you watch. 

Main Portfolio

No changes to the main portfolio this week folks. Happy with the allocation so far. Yet, as mentioned, I am looking to pick up a few more gaming & metaverse plays in the next few weeks. Follow my Telegram channel for these live updates. 

ETH 27.88% | BTC 20.53% | SOL 12.11% | DOT 9.67% | ATOM 5.81% | FTM 4.32% | HNT 3.26% | PAXG 2.95% | MATIC 2.59% | RUNE 2.21% | ADA 1.94% | UST 1.87% | AR 1.38% | INJ 1.34% | YGG 1.07% | LINK 0.83% | XDEFI 0.25%

NFT Portfolio

No additional NFT purchases this week. Although the crazy performance in my Mutant Apes means that they make up a much larger proportion of my portfolio now. 

MAYC 93.59% | Meebit 6.41%

Thoughts on Market

This week I don’t get to brag about the prediction I made in last week’s crypto review, because it looks like I was wrong. I predicted that we’d see an inverse head and shoulders pattern that would take BTC to the 55k range, and though we did see a slight pump to 50k, we fell back down shortly afterwards. Here’s why I think that happened. 

First, it’s the holidays. This means there aren’t all that many people trading and that means trading volume is low. When trading volume is low, prices tend to be more volatile, and the low balance of BTC on exchanges adds fuel to the fire. It looks like some whales took this opportunity to create a dip to buy. Case and point, check out this massive purchase of 9900 BTC.

Second, options expire. December 31st saw over 6 billion dollars in BItcoin options expiries. As I’ve mentioned many times before, options expiries tend to have a large impact on the spot markets. This is because of all the market makers adjusting their positions and in this case most options traders were positioned bullish. 

Given this fact, it’s surprising that BTC didn’t pump more than it did, and this seems to be because of the third factor: Chinese users of cryptocurrency exchanges. Binance, Huobi, and Kucoin are among the many crypto exchanges that announced they would be restricting or banning Chinese users by December 31st. This likely caused a lot of selling on that date. 

Last but not least, it looks like some of the FATF’s dreaded crypto “recommendations” are starting to be enforced in some countries and by some crypto companies. In this case, that’s identifying any “unverified” external wallets. This is one of the more severe “recommendations”, and you can learn about it and all the others coming down the pipe by watching this video. 

The good news is that it’s going to take some time for other countries and crypto companies to start enforcing the FATF’s dystopian recommendations. The first movers are always the companies and countries with the most aggressive regulations, so take this as a sign of things to come rather than a sign that the end is nigh. 

Upcoming Crypto Milestones

Over the holidays I got a lot of questions from friends and family about what the crypto market will look like in 2022. In case it wasn’t clear by now, I’m pretty confident we’re finally going to see the blow off top of this bull market by the end of the first quarter. This is mainly because almost every major crypto project has an upcoming milestone that’s expected to occur by then. 

Starting with Bitcoin, I really think we’re going to see one of those recently delayed spot Bitcoin ETF applications approved. I’m even more convinced now that the SEC has hired a crypto advisor to help Gary Gensler sort things out. This could turn out to be bad news, but if I was in Gary’s shoes, I would also like to have a fall guy to blame in case a spot Bitcoin ETF goes badly. 

Next up is Ethereum, which is in its final stages of testing before the rollout of Ethereum 2.0. No exact dates have been provided there, but development has apparently been going smoothly even since a few bugs were discovered in the fall. These delayed The Merge which was expected to occur as early as the end of 2021. A merge by March seems plausible at this point. 

Cardano is another cryptocurrency that could see some fireworks in the next few months. Although ADA hasn’t performed all that well recently, a few of Cardano’s most promising dApps are on the cusp of deployment. These should create significant demand for ADA. Cardano also has another hard fork combinator event scheduled for February which I’ll explain later this week. 

Meanwhile, Polkadot is expected to run another 5 rounds of Parachain slot auctions between now and March 10th. Besides the demand for DOT these could create, each auction locks up DOT, effectively taking it out of circulation. As basic economics dictates, the less of something you have, the more its value rises assuming demand stays the same. 

The last crypto milestone I want to mention here is actually Litecoin’s upcoming Mimblewimble implementation. For those who don’t know, Mimblewimble is basically a privacy preserving layer 2 for Litecoin. If successful, this could put LTC in competition with other privacy coins, especially since you can find LTC almost anywhere you can find BTC. Current ETA is the end of January. 

The DAO Future

Lately, I have become fascinated with the concept of DAOs or Decentralised Autonomous Organisations. It’s a topic I have touched on before and something that I talked about in my recent New Year’s Resolution video on my clips channel. 

The truth is, I really think that 2022 could be a year for DAOs to become serious business in the crypto space. This is something that Ryan Selkis at Messari also predicted in his 2022 crypto report. In fact, Messari have even put their money where their mouth is with a new governance platform called “Governor”.

This is because of two major needs for these organisations. 

1. Decentralised governance of Open Source protocols
2. Community investing in a digital age 

When it comes to 1, we are likely to see way more DeFi projects and protocols integrate these DAOs into their structure. This is because of the pressing need to remove all appearances of centralised control. The more distributed the decision making, the less the regulators are able to apply pressure on one particular individual or company. 

If 2021 has taught us anything, it’s that the SEC and other regulators definitely have their sites on Defi. We have also learned that these Decentralised Finance protocols are not always that “decentralised”. Getting to that benchmark of “sufficiently” decentralised is key for the protocol to fully survive. In fact, the SEC has even stated that those networks that are sufficiently decentralised are less likely to be a security. This is perhaps the reason that Ethereum never got hit by the SEC but companies like Ripple have. 

The point is that DAO structures are going to be pivotal for the DeFi protocols that we love to reach their full potential. Indeed, if you take a look at some of the most valuable DAOs out there, most of them are treasury DAOs for these Defi protocols. 

Then, when it comes to community investing, DAOs are going to allow every single individual the ability to be part of a much more inclusive investment landscape. No longer will High Net Worth Individuals and VCs have exclusive rights to particular assets. 

For example, would you have ever thought that a collection of disparate and anonymous investors would be in a bidding competition with one of the richest people in the world for a copy of the US constitution? Or that another group of anons could band together in a bid to buy the Blockbuster brand? These are only two of a handful of examples.

Then of course you have these DAOs beginning to play an active role in investments in digital assets like NFTs. As I mentioned in my newsletter two weeks ago, fractionalising and tokenising NFTs could be viewed as a security. However, if you own tokens in a completely decentralised organisation that invests in these assets, that could be something different. There are many of these DAOs that have been buying rare NFTs like PleasrDAO and FWB. 

Or how about all these Gaming Guild DAOs like YGG which I talked about a few days ago in this post. The perfect confluence of NFTs, GameFi & DAOs which I think could emerge as another important trend in 2022.  

DAOs could also become the driving force behind the wide scale adoption and development of crypto & Web 3.0 technology. You need look no further than the likes of BitDAO which has a gargantuan $2.5 billion treasury. One that is helping to “build the future of finance”. A DAO that is funding R&D in some of the world’s top Universities. A DAO that you can be a part of by merely being a token holder. 

There are of course many other examples and use cases for these DAOs and I do hope to dive into them more this year. But I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that they could make the world a better and more representative place. 

Deal of The Week

Top Crypto Tax Tool: Hopefully you ushered in the New Year with some epic crypto gains. However, with 2021 now in the rear view mirror there is something you probably need to think about – doing those boring crypto taxes.

Sure you can pretend those trades never happened. However, who needs the stress of the tax man knocking on their door? 

Yes, preparing those taxes with all those spreadsheets is a pain in the derriere and can literally take days of your time! Those that value their time, will probably want to automate as much of that as possible by using a top crypto tax solution. 

The tool I personally use is Koinly. This solution automates crypto tax reports for the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Brazil, UK and European countries. 

With Koinly you can get those tax reports in under 20 mins! So yep, I prefer to embrace that little time saver over spending days learning about tax rules, collecting trade details and crunching those numbers. 

Get Koinly & do your crypto taxes the easy way!

Video Pipeline

• Best Crypto Gifts for 2022
• Crazy Arcane Crypto Report!
• Crypto consensus mechanisms explained!
• Top Crypto Tax Tools 2022!
• Kucoin Vs Binance: Which is best?
• Cardano Update: Where is ADA Headed?
• Tezos: XTZ Still Have potential?
• Coinmarketcap Vs Coingecko: Which is best?

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

The Sandbox Review: Have we missed the Boat?!

Top 5 (CeFi) Lending Platforms: Earn Interest While HODLING

How Safe is Decentralized Finance?

Yield Guild Games: The BEST Guild In GameFi?

That’s about all for this newsletter. However, I do want to wish you all a very Happy New Year from everyone over here at the Bureau! Here is a special thank you video from some of the members. 

We are excited about bringing you even more of that crypto content you crave and upping the quality! That’s what you deserve and what my team and I aim to deliver. 

Thanks again for all your amazing support. 

Guy your crypto chap

The post My 2022 Predictions!! Top 10 List! appeared first on Coin Bureau.

About 2 weeks ago, the Fed held its December FOMC meeting. This was one of the most anticipated meetings of the year as it would provide guidance about how the Fed would shape monetary policy in 2021. 

As was widely expected, the Fed said that they would be doubling the rate of their taper. This would therefore move the timeline forward for the end of the program and the beginning of the rate hiking cycle. At least half of the Fed officials think that we will see at least 3 rate hikes next year. 

Now, there are many that think this could lead to an end of this stock market rally. However, the main question is what impact will it have on the crypto markets?

After all, one of the most striking themes that we have seen over the past 2 years is that Bitcoin has almost moved in lockstep with the equity markets. If there is a crash that many are expecting, is Bitcoin likely to follow? 

That is exactly what I explore in my video today. I take a look at what the interest rate increases mean and how they are likely to play out for the markets. 

You can watch that right here.

Main Portfolio

Quite a few changes this week. Firstly, as mentioned in my Telegram channel a few days ago, I have added YGG (Yield Guild Games). I explained why I picked it up in the aforementioned post but it’s mainly because I am bullish on Play-To-Earn gaming guilds especially those in regions like South East Asia. I used some of my free USDC to pick this up. 

Then I decided to use the remaining USDC as well as some PAXG in order to buy some more MATIC. I have become increasingly bullish on Polygon of late and you can find out why by my video a few weeks back.   

While we are on the topic of my portfolio, you guys may be interested in the video I did on Friday. It takes you through the evolution of my portfolio over the year and my strategy for 2021 

ETH 28.91% | BTC 20.76% | SOL 12.96% | DOT 9.33% | ATOM 4.94% | FTM 3.85% | HNT 2.98% | PAXG 2.82% | MATIC 2.75% | RUNE 2.13% | ADA 1.95% | UST 1.80% | INJ 1.35% | AR 1.29% | YGG 1.10% | LINK 0.84% | XDEFI 0.22%

NFT Portfolio

Given that I am investing in more NFT assets, I am going to track this as a separate portfolio from the main one. The % share of the portfolio for these NFTs will be based on the floor price of the collection. 

In terms of additions to the portfolio this week, I have finally decided to pick up a Meebit. You can see exactly which one I bought and my rationale behind it in my Telegram post here. I have also bought SPACE NFTs in the Big Time Gaming ecosystem but these will only be added once they are unlocked.  

Current portfolio is:

MAYC 83.50% | Meebit 16.50%

Thoughts on Market

Are you surprised that the market is up this week? If you are, that might be because you didn’t watch last week’s crypto review until the end. I noticed that there was a bullish divergence between BTC price and RSI on the daily, a divergence that looks almost identical to the one we saw in late September before a massive rally. I said this suggested a recovery was imminent. Here we are!

It’s not just the technicals either. The balance of BTC on exchanges continued to drop even as prices did, which means that people are buying the dip and HODLing, not selling. However, it looks like this trend is starting to reverse. We will know for sure in the next week or two. If BTC does start flowing back into exchanges, it could be a sign that we’re approaching the final peak. 

Another indicator I’ve been paying attention to is Bitcoin dominance which has been holding steady (for the most part). I take it as a sign that the market still isn’t 100% sure whether it’s headed higher or lower. Note that as we approach the top, we will see Bitcoin dominance drop like a rock when everyone rotates into altcoins for massive gains. 

In terms of what will cause this final rally, I’ve mentioned many times that I think it will be the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF. This is because the approval of the CME Bitcoin futures in 2017  market the top of the bull market for BTC. In the month or so that followed, altcoins went ballistic before the entire crypto market collapsed.

What’s interesting is that the SEC had rejected almost every Bitcoin spot ETF that was on the table except for those submitted by Grayscale and Bitwise. The fact the SEC didn’t reject these with all the others suggests one of them might just be approved. The SEC has delayed their decision on these two spot Bitcoin ETF applications to early February. 

Assuming the SEC does approve a Bitcoin spot ETF at that time, here’s what I think will happen. First, BTC will hit its final high for this bull market. Second, money will move into altcoins for a month, creating all time highs for many of them as well. Then, the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in March leading to a predictable fall in “risk on” assets. More on that in my video for today

The Great Web3 Debate

If you guys have been keeping up with Crypto Twitter recently, you will have heard about the spat that Jack Dorsey was getting into with many in the Web3 community. More specifically, he took aim at the VCs funding these projects in this tweet. Jack has the view that Venture Capitalists and their Limited Partners “own” the space. 

The Tweet was a grenade on CT that blew up and started a strong discussion around Web3, Bitcoin and VCs role in crypto. It even led to Mark Andreessen (founder of a16z) blocking Jack.

So, what do I think about this debate? Well, I see what he’s getting at, but I don’t agree. 

Firstly, Web3 platforms are built on a decentralised blockchain. Although VCs may hold tokens in the same platform / protocol, they do not own the platform itself. They cannot censure or restrict use of the platform. Unlike with Web2 companies, they don’t control API endpoints which external developers are given permission to use. Smart contracts on a blockchain are permissionless and anyone can use it. The amount of open source development that can proliferate in Web3 cannot be underestimated. 

Web3 allows all of those participants to share in the growth and adoption of the protocol by owning the native tokens. Through Decentralised Governance, these holders are also able to shape the future and development of the platform. This is something that is the antithesis of Web2. Moreover, when you own a private key to your wallet, you have complete control over the funds on said protocol. Only you own it.

Having said all of this, there are grains of truth to Jack’s statement. There is a lot of VC money in these Web3 companies. They get seed stage access to the tokens and this means that they control a lot of the tokens. They are also able to participate in those governance votes which means that they could have an outsized influence on decisions. I have also seen a number of other questionable proposals getting voted through on other platforms. 

Moreover, there is the concern among many that these VCs use retail investors as “Exit Liquidity” and dump their seed stage tokens on the downstream investors. This has happened on a number of projects in the past.  

Of course, that is why projects should opt for strict vesting schedules. Those that ensure that the early stage investors cannot just dump tokens on the market. This is why I always look at these vesting schedules when doing research on a vid. From the conversations we have had with project teams more recently, the last investor that they want is someone that is looking to dump on unlocks. They know that an investor must bring more than money.

Moreover, it doesn’t really benefit the VC to dump either. Think about it from the perspective of long term wealth generation. If they dump their tokens and crash the price, the project is likely to die. The potential upside over the longer term is destroyed in that simple action. They are better served when they hold and vote in ways that prolong the value and use cases of the protocol in question. 

In my view, the real barrier here for the more equitable distribution of wealth in Web3 is securities laws. When these projects are raising seed funding, they are not allowed to go to retail lest they get hit with an SEC fine. Hence, they are “forced” to raise from these “accredited” investors who happen to be the VCs and HNWs. 

It would be interesting to see how the space would evolve should these laws be re-evaluated… 

One more thing that I will add though, is that perhaps the reason Jack has this view about VCs is because he knows them very well. Twitter raised funding from them as they grew and maybe the reason that he is stating this, is because of that experience. He even tweeted as much. It would be fascinating to know more about the role they played in shaping Twitter as it is today

End Game of Crypto Investing

If you watched my recent video about Messari’s cryptocurrency predictions for 2022, you’ll remember the last section of the report was basically life advice from Messari founder and CEO Ryan Selkis. This section was packed with links to other insightful posts that I didn’t have the time to talk about in the video, and I want to talk about a couple of them here. 

There’s a concept called ‘The Tail End’ which was coined by author Tim Urban in a 2015 blog post. The TLDR is that there is a high likelihood that you are on the tail end of most of the relationships in your life, especially if you’re close to my age. Put simply, you have already spent most of the time with your friends and family as a percentage of the total time you had together. 

The takeaway is that you should do your best to cherish the limited time you have left, and this ties into another concept Ryan mentioned in the Messari report. In a 2019 podcast with Tim Ferris, East Rock Capital co-founder Graham Duncan coined the term ‘time billionaire’ when he realised that a million seconds is 11 days and a billion seconds is slightly over 31 years. 

The takeaway here is that although many of us aren’t billionaires in money terms, we are billionaires in time terms, and time is much more valuable than money. After all, what’s the point in having money if you don’t have the time to spend it? And what’s the point in having time if you have nobody to share that time with? 

This is the part of the wealth equation that we tend to forget about when it comes to crypto investing. It’s not about the money. It’s about the time. And it’s not even about the time. It’s about the time you spend with the people that matter to you. 

I reckon this is the real endgame of crypto investing: buying the time you need to make the most of the tail end of your relationships. 

Deals of The Week

Top Exotic Altcoin Exchange: Yes, there are many interesting NFT infrastructure and gamefi projects out there. But where is the best place to pick up those cryptocurrencies? 

Well, Kucoin gives you access to over 500 altcoins and that includes a ton of metaverse, NFT infrastructure and NFT project plays. 

Even better, I’ve been able to negotiate a special deal that gives you up to 60% OFF trading fees!

To grab that deal all you need to do is…

Sign up to Kucoin & get a fee discount up to 60%!

Want more details about Kucoin? Well, you are going to want to watch my ULTIMATE Kucoin guide!

Stay Warm With My Hot Crypto Merch! Winter is here for those living in the northern hemisphere. Fortunately for you, there is no excuse to feel that winter chill as you can wrap up in crypto style with some of my top of the line hoodies and sweaters. To grab those you’ll want to head to my merch store!

But what have I got on the shelves over there?

Hoodies

• 21 Million Club (black)
• Bitcoin Evolution (black)
• Bitcoin Moon (white)

Sweaters

• Coin Bureau Basic (black)
• BTC Word Game (black)
• ETH Word Game (black) 

Also, all sales go towards supporting the channel and help the Coin Bureau team produce that content you love. So, thanks in advance to those that choose to support us  

Video Pipeline

• Crypto tracking companies: What you need to know!
• Best Crypto Gifts for 2022
• Immutable X (IMX): Can it Scale L2 NFTs?
• Kucoin Vs Binance: Which is best?
• My crypto predictions for 2022
• Top Crypto Security Tips
• Chainlink update: Is there still potential?
• Crypto consensus mechanisms explained!

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Top 7 Solana Wallets: A Home for your SOL Tokens

Top 9 Projects In The Solana Ecosystem: Huge Potential!

Unstoppable Domains for ALL your Crypto Domain Needs

TradeSanta Review: Merry Trading or Mischievous Bots

​​That’s about all I have time for this newsletter and it is sadly the last one I will be sending this year! 

The whole Coin Bureau team would like to thank you for all your support over 2021! It has honestly blown us away and we wake up every morning excited to work hard and bring you the best crypto content we can. 

That ethos is certainly going to be built upon in 2022 and we will continue to do what we can and what it takes to bring FREE top quality crypto education to everyone that wants to dive down the crypto rabbit hole.

Happy New Year to you all!

Guy your crypto guy

The post Rates Going Up! Crypto Crash?? – December 26, 2021 appeared first on Coin Bureau.

About 2 weeks ago, we saw the highest CPI inflation print in 40 years. It was coming in hot at over 6.8%.

However, do you really believe that? Do you really believe it’s “only” up 6.8% at a time when home prices are up 15%, gas is up 61% and beef is up 20%?

Do you really trust that the statisticians and data scientists in the government are calculating your cost of living correctly when you see prices up way more than the “official” figures?

If you are skeptical, then you have a right to be… 

The reality is that the CPI inflation rate that so many people place importance on, could be severely undercounting the actual inflation rate. Some estimates have it undershooting the mark by as much as 10% or more. 

It’s actually one of the biggest financial ruses hidden in plain sight. And in my video today, I am going to show you exactly why. From methods of determining the “average” consumer basket, to the way in which they adjust averages, from assumptions around substitution to methods of collection. It’s flawed to the core (no pun intended). 

You can watch that video here

Portfolio Update

Still no changes to the portfolio this week. I have, however, moved over a bunch of stablecoin that I had been lending out back into my main portfolio (UST & USDC). This will remain as dry powder should the best entry opportunities come my way. 

When it comes to assets that are on my radar, I am particularly interested in Land tokens & virtual real estate. I talked more about this in a recent video of mine. This is mainly because of the utility that could come from building a potential Coin Bureau University in the Metaverse for example. Perhaps a project for 2022

For now though, the portfolio is:

ETH 30.95% | BTC 21.65% | SOL 13.36% | DOT 8.77% | ATOM 4.01% | HNT 2.85% | PAXG 2.80% | FTM 2.64% | UST 1.99% | RUNE 1.92% | ADA 1.92% | MATIC 1.80% | USDC 1.68% | INJ 1.37% | AR 1.27% | LINK 0.82% | XDEFI 0.21%

Thoughts on Market

It’s been another tough week in the crypto market, and that’s for one reason: macro economics, AKA big picture stuff. Before I break down each factor affecting the crypto market, here’s a quick pro tip for you: if you see that the stock market is crashing too, it’s safe to assume that whatever is causing the crypto crash is not specific to crypto. 

The first macro factor at play last week was the Federal Reserve’s decision to reduce its money printing because of all the inflation it’s been causing. Originally, the Federal Reserve was going to do this over an 8 month period, but following record inflation numbers for November they will be doing it over a four month period, with the first interest rate increase scheduled for 2022. 

As I’ve mentioned many times before, reducing asset purchases will increase interest rates which will have big ripple effects throughout the economy. What’s interesting is that both the crypto market and the stock market rallied after the announcement, suggesting it was already priced in. I will be doing a video on the impact of rate hikes next year so keep your eyes peeled for that. 

The second macro factor at play seems to be the delay of the 3 trillion dollar Build Back Better bill which was expected to be passed by the end of the year. It’s now looking like it won’t be passed until early next year. What’s interesting is that this seems to be the announcement that caused the crypto market and the stock market to dip again late last week. 

This makes a lot of sense because even though that 3 trillion dollars is supposed to be spent on “human infrastructure”, I reckon a decent chunk of this de facto stimulus will somehow end up on Wall Street. Even just a small portion of that massive money pile would probably be enough to prop up the markets in the absence of the Federal Reserve’s constant asset purchases. 

One of the only crypto specific factors that I could find for the dip we saw late last week was the SEC’s decision to delay two spot Bitcoin ETF applications, including one by Grayscale. The decision dates have been pushed back to February next year, so mark your calendars. If you’re wondering why a spot Bitcoin ETF is so important, you need to watch this video ASAP. 

Another crypto specific factor that could be playing a role is Huobi, one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges among Chinese crypto investors. Huobi announced in September that it will stop onboarding new Chinese users and boot existing users off the platform by December 31st. As that date approaches, it’s possible that some investors are cashing out, crashing prices. I’ll be doing a deeper dive into what comes next for the crypto market in tomorrow’s weekly crypto review, so keep your eyes peeled. Spoiler: it’s looking pretty damn good

Juicy Survey

This week I finally managed to finish reading that Messari crypto forecast report (video dropping in the next few days). It was super insightful and that’s because I am keen to see what some of the biggest crypto companies have to say about the crypto market next year. The latest predictions I managed to pull up come from the one and only Andreesen Horowitz AKA a16z which is basically the largest VC in crypto. 

A16z’s 2022 crypto predictions are based on a survey of over 2,200 voters in the United states, and it concerns crypto politics. It starts off by saying that 20% of Americans hold cryptocurrency, and nearly 80% of voters would vote for a pro crypto politician over an anti-crypto politician. I guess Elizabeth Warren will be losing her podium soon enough then, and good riddance! 

Anyways, the key takeaways from a16z’s survey are that basically everyone, regardless of their age, race, gender, or political affiliation, is pro crypto, so much so that 22% said that crypto attitudes of their constituents will play a “significant role” in how they vote during the 2022 midterm elections. 

Moreover, 80% of Americans have a favourable view of cryptocurrency. This is because they see the value in controlling their own data, preserving privacy, protecting against totalitarian governments, and self custody / control of their own assets. Not surprisingly then, 70% believe that the US government should understand crypto before it starts to regulate it.

The statistic that stuck out to me the most was that almost three quarters of those surveyed said they had done their research before buying. I’m a bit skeptical of this because there are lots of surveys which suggest the exact opposite. That said, the Coin Bureau has grown exponentially over the last year, and I reckon that’s going to result in some fairly educated folks!

If you’re wondering where the prediction is in all of this, it’s basically that pro-crypto politicians will be the ones who win in next year’s US elections. There seem to be a lot of them on both sides of the aisle these days, but I can’t help but notice that Democrats seem to have a deeper desire for control when it comes to crypto regulations. Watch this video and let me know what you think. 

In any case, it’s clear that we’re going to see some reasonable crypto regulations come around. Let’s just hope that it’s not too late by the time they do… 

Institutional NFT Frenzy

On Friday, I talked about the increasing institutional trend towards NFT assets. As I alluded to in my telegram post, one of the most interesting of these was the BitWise NFT Index Fund. This is a collective investment vehicle that holds NFTs from the 10 most valuable NFT collections and you can read more about the mechanics in this Tweet thread. 

It’s a great concept that will allow institutions and “accredited” investors exposure to these collections in a diversified manner. Moreover, it takes away some of the risks that these guys would have to face should they buy and store NFTs individually. 

This move by Bitwise is not the first. There are a number of other moves being made by institutions including:  

• Arca: The asset manager, which has an AuM of $500m is launching a $30m fund focused on investing in NFT assets. They have already managed to raise $11.4m from 68 investors. It will invest in assets including in-game items, collectibles, art & virtual real estate. 
• Osprey Funds: The Crypto investment firm is launching a new entity called “Osprey Alpha LLC” that will offer institutional investors exposure to NFTs. According to Osprey Funds CEO, they estimate that over time these funds could see hundreds of millions of dollars spread across them. 
• Meta4 Capital: An NFT exclusive fund that is looking to raise $100m from a16z. They have already invested in a number of rare NFTs including punks & Apes. 
• Defiance ETFs: A new fund to track the performance of NFT assets and infrastructure providers. 

There are of course many others that I have not mentioned here. The point is that in 2022, I think there will be a flood of capital into this space.

This is actually a really bullish sign for NFT assets in my opinion – even more so than when they first started moving into cryptocurrencies in 2019 / 2020. 

This is because of the fact that NFTs cannot be denominated the same way that fungible tokens can. It’s a lot harder to fractionalise these assets. This is especially the case with the PFP NFTs. Yes, there are platforms that are looking to tokenise NFTs but that would produce tricky questions around securities. In fact, SEC commissioner, Hector Peirce, has even said that fractionalised NFTs could be considered securities. 

The only other options are these collective vehicles like Bitwise that will allow accredited investors to buy a stake in a fund that holds these assets. However, it still doesn’t change the fact that these NFTs cannot be split among funds like you can easily do with fungible crypto.

So, this inherent quality of a NFT means that the pressures of growing demand and a limited supply is likely to have that much more of an impact on the price. This is especially the case for those NFT collections in the “blue chip” bucket.

As we roll into 2022, I will be looking to make more investments in the space and will of course keep you guys constantly updated with these moves. 

Deals of The Week

Automate Your Portfolio Management: If you have been in crypto for a while, then you’ll know how time consuming it can be to manually dollar cost average every month. Or rebalancing that portfolio so you don’t become overweight in particular cryptocurrencies. 

Sure, you can do that manually. But most people I know just don’t have the time to check, reculalate and buy / sell every single day. This can then lead to over / underweight portfolios that are skewed one way or another.

The good news is that you can automate all that with a tool like Shrimpy! In addition, Shrimpy offers spot trading, portfolio tracking, trading strategy automation and smart terminal trading too.

Even better for those that want to manage their portfolio in a smart way, I have been able to secure a deal that gives you an exclusive 30% OFF! Just sign up via my link and you’ll get that deal.

​​ Sign up to Shrimpy & Get 30% OFF!

Last Minute Stocking Fillers: The most wonderful time of the year is coming up and I am sure that most of you will looking forward to spending time with your families. But if you are like me, then you might struggle for gift ideas and are keen to spread the word about crypto.

Orders placed at my store go towards supporting the channel and keeping the elves working at the Coin Bureau workshop over the festive season. So, thank you to everyone that chooses to support our mission to bring you guys the best crypto content we can

My top crypto gift choices:

• Ho Ho HODL T-shirt – $30
• HODL Candy Cane T-shirt – $30
• Bitcoin Sweatshirt – $65
• Love Gains Gym Vest – $25
• Bitcoin Roller Hoodie – $65

Video Pipeline

• Messari crypto report: The Complete Overview
• Biggest Ponzi Scheme Ever!
• Stellar XLM update: Still out of this world?
• Crypto tracking companies: What you need to know!
• Coin Bureau portfolio update: Our moves!
• Fed Taper: What it Means For Crypto!

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Karura: THE all-in-one DeFi hub of Kusama

FTX US Review: Crypto Trading for US Investors

That’s about all I have time for this newsletter. Everyone at the Coin Bureau wanted to take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas!

Also, if you want to tune into my Christmas message then be sure to follow me on my socials! I’ll release that at a mystery time on Xmas day

Thanks again for all your support.

Guy your crypto guy

The post You’re Being Lied To!! Ultimate SCAM! – December 19, 2021 appeared first on Coin Bureau.

It’s been almost 3 months since we had that launch of those Bitcoin ETFs. At the time, there was a lot of excitement around them. This led to a hype-driven rally in ETF demand which seems to have petered out now.

There is a pretty obvious reason for this. These ETFs were never really fit for purpose. As I explained when they were initially launched, Futures based ETFs are a substandard way to gain exposure to an underlying asset. 

When they were launched, there was no way for one to realistically estimate just how much these would underperform the spot market. However, after at least three months of public trading, we have some solid data. 

Today, I take a deep dive back into those ETFs. I analyse some data around their price performance and cost. I also examine exactly where the ETF applications are now and where they could be going. 

I still maintain that we are likely to see a spot instrument in 2022 – however, that is contingent on a few factors that people need to be paying attention to. 

All covered in my video which you can watch here. 

Portfolio Update

No changes to the portfolio this week folks. I’m currently happy with the general allocation and don’t think that there are any really attractive opportunities at this time. 

Having said that, I am looking to allocate a portion of my portfolio to GameFi / Metaverse plays – either as NFTs or utility tokens. There are a number of exciting projects I am exploring and I have an upcoming video on Metaverse land which was a blast to work on. 

I will of course keep you fully updated with my moves in my Telegram Channel. 

ETH 32.42% | BTC 23.05% | SOL 12.61% | DOT 9.89% | ATOM 4.32% | PAXG 2.84% | FTM 2.77% | HNT 2.61% | RUNE 2.12% | ADA 2.06% | MATIC 1.72% | INJ 1.56% | AR 0.97% | LINK 0.83% | XDEFI 0.22%

Thoughts on Market

In last week’s crypto review I mentioned that we would probably drop down to around 46k this week, and once again my prediction came true. The question is what comes next? 

Before I get into that I want to dispel all the FUD that’s been flying around about this bull market being over. 

I’ll start by saying that there’s no predicting where prices will go next, and everything you read here could be subject to change. That said, there’s a couple of indicators that suggest that this is nothing more than a huge fake out before the final run up. The first indicator is the balance of BTC on exchanges, which recently fell to a three year low.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, when BTC balances on exchanges are dropping, it means people are, on average, buying and holding, and not selling. Logically, if this was the end of the bull run, we wouldn’t see this kind of dip buying behavior. The second indicator is Bitcoin dominance, which briefly dropped below 40% last week. 

When the crypto market is crashing, there’s a tendency for investors to move their altcoin gains into BTC. This is because BTC is seen as the “safe haven” in the crypto market. Bitcoin dominance plays a role in the crypto fear and greed index, where a higher Bitcoin dominance means more fear. 

What’s interesting is that Bitcoin dominance is dropping while the crypto market drops, despite the fact that we (retail investors) are obviously feeling fearful at the moment. This suggests that the smart money knows that a big move is coming for altcoins, and given that Ethereum dominance is rising as Bitcoin dominance falls, it looks like the smart money is betting on ETH. 

Besides the introduction of Proof of Stake, the speculation that a futures backed Ethereum ETF could be coming is probably what’s causing this effect. The recent introduction of micro Ether futures by the CME group is evidence that there is huge demand for an Ethereum futures ETF, and I reckon the institutions are going to get what they want. 

I’m not sure when an Ethereum futures ETF will come, but one thing’s for sure: all of the FUD and macro factors that kept the crypto market down last week are in the past (be it options expiries or Evergrande default fears; more about that in tomorrow’s crypto review). From where I’m standing, it looks like we’re going to have a green week, but don’t expect any fireworks. 

The only thing I see on the horizon that could drag the market down are the fears of an accelerated taper by the Federal Reserve in response to the record inflation reported on Friday for the United States. Judging by how the stock market reacted to this news though (it went up), I think everyone knows that the Federal Reserve can’t risk doing that just yet. 

Solana Woes

As you guys can see, I hold a decent portion of my portfolio in SOL. However, it’s important for one to constantly test their investment thesis, especially when negative news comes to light. 

As I’m sure you’ve all heard by now, it sounds like Solana suffered another DDoS attack that may or may not have temporarily taken down it’s blockchain. For those unfamiliar, DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Dervice, and it essentially involves spamming a website, server, or in this case a blockchain, with requests, messages, or transactions until it goes down. 

Assuming Solana did in fact go down, it would be the third outage Solana has experienced since its main net launched in March last year. The previous outage occurred in September, and it looks like the same person who took down Solana also took down Ethereum’s Arbitrum, and even tried to take down Ethereum – though this attempt was unsuccessful. 

If you’re familiar with Solana or watched my most recent Solana update, you’ll know that Solana is somewhat centralized. This is because Solana’s blockchain consists of clusters of up to 150 validator nodes, and some believe that the actual size of Solana’s clusters is much smaller than that. This is one of the reasons why Solana can handle up to 50 thousand transactions per second, and another reason is Solana’s proof of stake consensus mechanism. 

In contrast to most other PoS cryptocurrencies, Solana uses a technology called Proof of History which basically timestamps transactions. Note that PoH is NOT a consensus mechanism. It’s just a part of Solana’s PoS consensus. 

Anyways, this timestamping of transactions basically lets validator nodes crank out as many transactions as their computers allow them to since these transactions can be easily ordered when they’re added to a block after the fact. It’s a bit more complicated than this, but let’s roll with it to keep things simple.  

The only problem with this approach is that timestamping transactions before they’re actually put into a block makes it possible for someone to attack the validator who is supposed to put that transaction into a block. When you combine this with the relatively small number of validators in a Solana cluster, it makes such an attack that much more doable, as explained in this thread. 

Does this mean that Solana is a scam or a “bad faith creation” as some have implied? No. Besides the fact that all of this stuff is clearly detailed in Solana’s documentation, Solana itself is still technically in beta. There’s still lots of development that needs to be done, and I’m sure these are just one of many issues that still need to be addressed behind the scenes prior to alpha. 

More importantly, Solana is backed by some of the biggest names in cryptocurrency, and SOL seems to be a favorite among institutional investors. As I mentioned in my video about the most funded crypto projects post ICO, Solana raised more than half a billion dollars from institutional investors in the first half of this year alone, and it has raised millions more since then. 

So, who’s right? The handful of religious anti-Solana investors screaming FUD when something goes wrong with Solana, or the institutions who are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into Solana? You tell me. 

If I had my tinfoil hat, I’d tell you that FUD is exactly what the institutions buying Grayscale’s recently released Solana trust want. 

Having said all of this, centralisation woes is not something that only blockchains have to deal with…

Our Centralised World

Sometimes, something happens that just makes me realise how damn centralised internet infrastructure is. This week it was the widespread outages that we saw at AWS. This was massive and didn’t only severely impact Amazon but also all the millions of devices and services that rely on AWS’ hosting infrastructure. 

Some of those services that were interrupted also included the likes of Coinbase, Robinhood and Binance.us. This of course impacted on the ability of their users to, quite ironically, buy decentralised assets. 

Yes, these are centralised exchanges, but the outage even impacted decentralised exchanges. These include the likes of dYdX that went down due to the outage. This is despite the fact that all transactions are handled on a decentralised blockchain. That’s because nearly all Defi protocols do rely on some form of centralised internet infrastructure in some form or another. 

This is something that I have talked about in the past – specifically as it relates to Uniswap. Centralisation of internet infrastructure is not only a risk when it comes to points of failure, but also points of pressure. 

As long as Web 3.0 Dapps have to rely on the DNS system or front-end hosting, they are susceptible to these large providers in the space. 

That is why for the Defi revolution to be truly decentralised, we have to also back those projects and initiatives that are decentralising storage. There are quite a few projects out there that do this but some well known examples include: 

• Arweave: Platform that is trying to develop a platform of immutable and infinite storage. The protocol matches people who have hard drive space with those that are looking to store said data. Arweave’s platform is actually where Solana stores it’s blockchain data and I have covered the project in depth in a video. 
• Filecoin: Decentralised storage protocol that is built on the back of IPFS. This project completed one of the largest ICOs back in 2017 and had its mainnet go live towards the end of last year. FIL has been a pretty poor performer in general but that does not detract from the amazing potential of IPFS. 
• Sia: Distributed cloud storage network that acts as a secure and trustless marketplace for storage. This is one of the oldest blockchain storage plays out there and has fallen out of favour of late – but a pioneer nonetheless. 
• ENS: While not a “storage” solution, the Ethereum Name Service (and similar blockchain based domains) could be the future solution for the centralised DNS system. There are a number of native blockchains that already support human readable addresses. If these could be combined with decentralised storage solutions for hosting, it’s a decentralisation bonanza. 

I am of course under no illusions that these data solutions are anywhere close to being fit for purpose at a mass scale. It is still a few years before we could start seeing dApps using decentralised hosting or domains.  

But the point is that there are potential solutions underway that could free us from these modern day data Robber Barons. 

Deals of The Week

Optimize Your Trading: Let’s face it, those crypto markets have been pretty choppy recently. However, now might be a good time to backtest that trading strategy you are using. Do that, and you can be more confident that it’s a winning strategy and capture more of those rewards on the next leg up in the markets.

Also, I can tell you firsthand that automating your trading strategy is going to help you take advantage of even more opportunities in the market. 

You can do all this with automated crypto trading tools. But which one do I use? Well, you can watch my dedicated video telling you everything you need to know about trading bots! However, if you don’t have 25 minutes spare to watch that vid, then I don’t mind telling you that I personally use 3Commas.

Even better you can try out 3Commas for FREE and get a 50% discount should you choose to go ahead with a  subscription! 

Try out 3Commas for FREE & Get 50% OFF!

Christmas Is Coming: I know that finding that perfect gift for that crypto nutcase can be tricky. However, I’d like to think that I have a thing or two in my merch store that they’d love. Also, any orders go towards supporting the channel and helping my team and I produce even more top-notch crypto content!

Here are my top crypto Xmas gift picks:

• Ho Ho HODL T-shirt – $30
• Crypto Xmas Black T-shirt – $30
• CoinBureau Beanie – $20
• BTC Word Game Black Sweatshirt – $65
• Metal CoinBureau Water Bottle – $35

Video Pipeline

• Top 5 Crypto Podcasts
• WEF Cryptocurrency report: What Are They Planning?
• Top 5 Virtual Land Ecosystems
• Gala Games: is the hype real?
• Messari crypto report: The Complete Overview
• Crypto CEOs testimonies: My Take
• The Inflation Fraud

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

How To Create a Crypto Portfolio That Can Survive a Bear Market

Utility NFTs: NFTs with Real Muscle

What is Web 3.0 and Why it Has Insane Potential

Top 10 Crypto Research Tools: Where To Do Your Own Research?

That’s about all I have time for this newsletter. It’s been a truly crazy year for the whole Coin Bureau team. 

I am even more excited about what 2022 has in store and the new projects we’ll be embarking upon. One of those will be a NEW crypto podcast in collaboration with iHeart Radio! 

I’m particularly excited about that, as I see great potential to reach even more people and play a small role to get them into the cryptoverse.

Thanks again for all the support and we intend to end 2021 with a bang!

Peace out,

Guy your crypto guy

The post Bitcoin ETF SHAM!! Wen Spot ETF?? – December 12, 2021 appeared first on Coin Bureau.

There are many things that I have learned since I began my crypto journey. Things that had I known about them when I first dove in, I could have saved a lot of time & money. 

Some of these facts are pretty obvious to us now but not so much for those newbies jumping in the market today. However, there are some misconceptions and falsehoods that I still see people making even though they may have a lot of experience in the markets. 

In my video today, I take you guys through many of the things that I wish I knew before I got into crypto. Everything from balancing risk to adjusting expectations and choosing reliable sources of information. Methods of doing research and screening for coins while avoiding common and costly pitfalls. 

It was one of the more interesting videos I have done recently. One that brought a great deal of nostalgia to my crypto journey. So, I hope it benefits you folks. You can watch it here!

Portfolio Update

Given the massive fall that we saw on Friday / Saturday, I could not help but to buy the dip. There are many reasons as to why I think this is just a temporary shakeout (see below). 

I bought some more ETH, BTC & MATIC with fiat. The first two are obvious given my view on the long term potential of Ethereum & Bitcoin. They still are and will remain staples of my portfolio. When it comes to MATIC, the sheer development taking place on Polygon makes it hard not to be bullish and I will be doing an updated video on the project in due course. 

I used my UST in order to pick up some more FTM & ATOM. When it comes to the former, I explained the potential I see in the project in my video on Fantom a few weeks ago. In terms of the latter, Cosmos’ SDK is the backbone of many crypto projects and as an interoperability play, it cannot be ignored. 

I have also recently had an allocation of XDEFI released to me as I partook in a private sale a few months ago. For full transparency, I will update my portfolio as tokens like this are unlocked and vested. 

Updated portfolio: 

ETH 32.10% | BTC 22.23% | SOL 13.55% | DOT 9.56% | ATOM 4.40% | FTM 2.82% | HNT 2.75% | PAXG 2.74% | RUNE 2.40% | ADA 1.99% | INJ 1.70% | MATIC 1.66% | AR 1.05% | LINK 0.78% | XDEFI 0.25%

Thoughts on Market

Exactly one month ago, Real Vision founder Raoul Pal said to “expect the path of most pain” in December, and here we are! The recent shakeout took a lot of people off guard, and I attribute this to the widely held belief that we will see an exact repeat of 2017. 

Make no mistake, although history does rhyme, it does not repeat. I knew months ago that we would either see a shorter or longer bull market, and for a long time I was leaning towards an earlier bull market. This is because of all the bullish updates that were scheduled for September. 

When I made my recent video about swing trading however, it became clear that the charts were pointing to a much longer bull market that extends into early 2022. This lengthening cycle theory is a view that many of my favorite crypto YouTubers hold, namely Benjamin Cowen and Bob Loukas. 

With all that said, you’re probably wondering what the hell crashed the crypto market last week. As always, it’s a mix of factors, and what they all have in common is uncertainty. As I mentioned in my emergency market update on TikTok, both the crypto market and the stock market tend to do a good job of pricing in good and bad news. It’s the uncertainty that really messes things up.

The first uncertain factor is the Federal Reserve’s plans to accelerate their taper. In case you missed the memo on that one, if the Federal Reserve tapers, interest rates go up, anyone who borrowed too much has to sell, and the market crashes as a result. The thing is that it’s not known for sure whether the Federal Reserve will actually accelerate their taper. 

The second uncertain factor is that damn omicron variant. Some experts are saying it’s the end of the world (again), and others are saying that it’s nothing more than a bad flu. The truth is we won’t know for sure for at least another 2-3 weeks, which conveniently corresponds to the December 15th-16th date when the Federal Reserve will reveal their refined taper plans. 

The third uncertain factor is good old regulation. If SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s comments about Bitcoin being a competitor to the US banking system wasn’t bad enough, the CEOs of the largest crypto companies are scheduled to be grilled to crisp by US politicians next Wednesday. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens there, and I might just cover it in a video. 

Last but not least, we have liquidations from all of those traders who thought that BTC would see a clean move to 100k in December. As I mentioned on Twitter, over 2 billion dollars of overleveraged longs were liquidated (had their positions automatically sold), and this caused even more liquidations, causing more liquidations, all the way down to 42k. Cascading liquidations in the crypto markets are a massive problem. 

The good news is that the slate is clean now – all the moonboys are out, and only the strong hands are left. BTC balances on exchanges continue to drop, suggesting that people are holding and not selling. Best of all, crypto holders are currently experiencing extreme fear, and you know what that means… buy the f*cking dip! (Not financial advice). 

Real Estate Developers

It seems that NFT mania has now started to flow over into the virtual real estate space. Last week saw more than $100 million in virtual land sold. It seems that the vast majority of this is coming from demand within the Sandbox ecosystem. 

For example, Tuesday saw Republic Realm buy a plot of land in the Sandbox for $4.3m from Atari. They have become akin to virtual real estate barons as it is claimed that Republic Realm owns over 2,500 across 19 different metaverse worlds. 

Just a few days ago, someone actually paid $450k in order to buy the plot of land that exists next to Snoop Dogg’s in the Sandbox. For those that don’t know, he is building a replica of his West Coast mansion within the Sandbox. 

So, the question is: What’s driving this hype? And is it sustainable in the long run?

Well firstly, let’s look at the underlying demand and value of land. Virtual land is an NFT that I view as having some of the most extensive utility in the crypto space. 

Not only do you have the “Fun” aspect where you can play games & socialise with others on this land in the Metaverse, but holding land also comes with additional financial benefits. It can be monetised or rented out. You can charge advertising fees for others to use your land. There are also some Metaverses (like Netvrk for example) that allow you to earn a cut of all land sales in the ecosystem. This is something I briefly talked about in my video on the Metaverse this week. 

Then of course you have the scarcity angle. As is the case in the real world, land in the Metaverse is limited. For example, in the case of Axie Infinity, there are only 220 Genesis plots and it can be extremely difficult to get some land in these genesis mints. 

Finally, given that it is non-fungible, this land can eventually gather an identity that makes it that much more valuable. Much like the case with NFT collectibles that have rare traits, land in more favourable “districts” or neighbourhoods attracts a higher sale price. This is why someone would pay $450k to “live” next to Snoop Dogg. But beyond that, the land itself garners value based on its ownership history. Much like the esteem of owning a famous house in the real world, this is what drives valuations in the digital one. 

Now, while there may be some elements of hype around some of these well established projects, I happen to think that the underlying demand drivers are going to propel virtual land well into the future. I am currently working on a video that dives deeper into land ecosystems and I plan to develop our own Coin Bureau land in the metaverse. 

Some Perspective

Crypto crash got you down? Join the club! 

I’ve been in crypto for a couple of years now, and I’m still not used to these occasional downturns. What’s crazy is that even if I’m consciously fine with a 20-30 percent correction, subconsciously I can tell that I’m not (e.g. restless sleep, react more aggressively to small things that don’t matter, etc.). 

I’ve often said that when you’re in doubt, zoom out (specifically on the price). If you’ve ever done this though you’ll know that this doesn’t always help when your portfolio is in the negative. If this is how you’re feeling now, then you need to zoom out even further – beyond price, beyond your holdings, beyond all of the bullish and bearish announcements on the horizon. 

Bitcoin was created in response to the 2008 financial crisis. Since the first Bitcoin block was mined in 2009, BTC has gone from literally zero to what will inevitably be a seven figure price. Why? Because cryptocurrency is ultimately an alternative to the current financial system. It’s worth everything if it can deliver on this promise, and worth nothing if it can’t. 

The last two years of government stimulus have made 2008 look like child’s play. Because of the lockdowns, millions of people were sitting at home with nothing better to do than watch the news and YouTube. I reckon most of them realised how messed up our current financial system is, especially when the stock market continued to rise as they all lost their jobs. 

Meanwhile, institutional investors who have been watching this play out for years are realising that the good times are slowly and surely coming to an end. They know the entire economy is built on debt, and there’s only so much you can borrow from the future before that monthly debt payment becomes too big to bear. 

In sum, everyone knows what we have now is unsustainable, and they are desperate for an alternative. This alternative is what Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are supposed to be, and though not all of them succeed, it’s becoming clear with each passing day that a few of them will not only succeed, but succeed (in the royal sense) their equivalents in legacy finance. 

So, when the crypto market crashes by 20-30 percent and you’re feeling like crap, ask yourself this: Are you going to bet on the crumbling financial infrastructure that has arguably caused most if not all of our social, environmental, or economic harm? Or are you going to bet on a revolutionary technology that is evolving faster than anyone could have possibly imagined? 

You know the answer as well as I, and anyone else who has seen their purchasing power disappear, their financial freedoms taken away, and their free speech eroded by centralised social media platforms. In my mind, there is only one way out of this mess, and that’s where I am personally placing all of my bets. 

Deals of The Week

Top Crypto Exchange: Some people saw a crypto crash. Others saw an opportunity. 

Personally, I bit the bullet and converted some of my stablecoins to increase my crypto exposure. But which exchange did I use?

Well, I did most of my crypto dabbling on FTX, which is literally the fastest growing, major exchange out there. 

There are over 250 cryptocurrencies on the shelves, amazing fiat currency support for most major currencies and you can deposit via bank, card and crypto.

There are also a plethora of other exchange features – which I get into in my dedicated FTX exchange review!

Also, I have been able to secure you guys a real special deal over there too. If you sign up through the Coin Bureau, you’ll get your first $30 in trading fees for free and a 10% trading fee discount for life!

Sign up to FTX & bag that deal!

Are you based in the US? Well, you’ll want to check out the US version of FTX. I cover everything you need to know in my FTX US deep dive! 

Crypto Christmas: Are you feeling festive? Or are you wondering how to spread the word about crypto in a fun Christmas gift? Well, my merch store is stocked to the rafters with those crypto themed gifts you need!

The team at Coin Bureau also wants to thank you for all your support over the last year. It turns out that Macey had a brainwave on how to get you guys some extra Christmas goodies. 

Prizes up for grabs: Free crypto, crypto books, extra crypto merch, some of my personal crypto artwork or VIP tickets to my event in London.

To enter, all you need to do is to buy some crypto merch from my store between now and the 12th of December. Do that and you’ll be entered into a prize draw and the lucky few will get those prizes! It’s that simple! 

For full details on this promotion then watch my short TikTok – where I give you all the details!

Get those crypto Xmas gifts now!

Video Pipeline

• Top 5 Crypto Podcasts
• Grayscale Metaverse Report: My Take
• Polygon update: MATIC Still Have Potential?
• Near Protocol Update: Where’s NEAR Headed?
• WEF cryptocurrency report: what are their thoughts? 
• Top 5 Virtual Land Ecosystems
• Institutional Adoption Marches On

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Blue Chip Crypto Performance vs S&P 500 in 2021

How to Launch your Blockchain Career Today!

The Lightning Network Electrifies Bitcoin

Play-To-Earn and NFTs: The Future of Gaming? What you NEED to Know!

That’s about all I have time for in this newsletter. It’s been a week since the Coin Bureau Christmas party and I’m already well back into the swing of things. Although you may have seen some of the antics on our social media, there were some hidden stories you didn’t know about. I detailed them in my clips vid here!

Honestly, when we first started the channel in my living room years ago, I would have never imagined that it would have been possible to have built up such a great team and to be able to treat them to such a wonderful experience. All that is thanks to your support. So, I would like to thank you on behalf of the whole team for that!

No rest for the wicked though. We are raring to and bring you the best crypto content we can over the Festive Season!

Onwards and upwards,

Guy your crypto guy

The post I Wish I Knew This Before Investing in Crypto!! – December 5, 2021 appeared first on Coin Bureau.

I get asked by so many people about which coins or tokens they should invest in. However, something that I very rarely get asked is which coins / tokens they should avoid… 

That’s because knowing how to spot a shitcoin can be just as helpful as knowing how to find that next hidden gem. It’s a known fact that the ratio of poor quality cryptocurrencies to hidden gems is about 9:1. 

In other words, if you randomly selected a cryptocurrency to invest in, you have a greater chance that it will turn out worthless in the long run. 

So, in my video today, I take you through a comprehensive checklist that you can use when doing your due diligence. If a cryptocurrency that you are considering investing in meets at least three of these characteristics then you may want to steer clear. 

I also highly encourage you to share this video with any of your friends who are just jumping in those crypto markets – it could save them from getting rekt in the long run. 

You can watch that video here. 

Portfolio Update

No changes to the portfolio this week guys. I think that we still have a bit of near-term uncertainty in the coming weeks (see next section). I am really interested in some GameFi plays but some appear to be a bit overvalued. 

In my NFT portfolio, I have picked up an additional two Mutant Apes. As I mentioned in my newsletter last week, I am particularly excited about the BAYC community and what they are working on. That being said, the NFT space is becoming quite saturated (see NFT NGMI section below).

My updated portfolio is: 

ETH 29.31% | BTC 22.53% | SOL 13.15% | DOT 11.39% | RUNE 3.29% | HNT 3.26% | UST 3.24% | ATOM 2.69% | PAXG 2.54% | ADA 2.16% | INJ 1.98% | FTM 1.38% | AR 1.27% | LINK 0.93% | MATIC 0.87%

Thoughts on Market

It’s been a predictable end of the month as far as crypto prices go. On Friday we saw another big options expiry which dragged down the market the same way last week’s option’s expiry did. There is another macro factor that’s weighing on the crypto markets, however. 

It looks like Jerome Powell is going to get another term as chair of the Federal Reserve, and that might be bad news for Bitcoin. That’s because Jerome has said that the Federal Reserve will increase interest rates as soon as there is “full employment” to combat high inflation. 

As it so happens, last month the United States saw a substantial increase in employment, and some are saying that this could be what the Federal Reserve needs to accelerate its tapering plans. This probably depends on what the jobs numbers look like this month. 

In any case, BTC is seen as an inflation hedge by many institutional investors who might start to take profits if they believe that Jerome can tame the out of control inflation we’re seeing (which I personally doubt). 

What’s fascinating though is that this rotation out of BTC can be seen on the Bitcoin dominance chart. Normally, when BTC drops, dominance rises. This is because crypto investors see BTC as a “safe place” to park gains during crypto market downturns. 

Over the last couple of weeks however, dominance has continued to decline along with price, and most of that money seems to be flowing into ETH, whose market dominance is on the rise. A lot of this money also seems to be pouring into Metaverse cryptocurrencies like MANA and SAND.

These two cryptocurrencies have been rallying against all odds, but they finally seem to be running out of steam. It should go without saying that you should always zoom out and look at the bigger picture. 

Some investors like Grayscale see even more gains for these crypto on the horizon, and I’ll be talking about their metaverse report in an upcoming video. 

Crypto Adoption In Turkey

The Turkish Lira lost 15% of its value last week, reaching a record low against the US dollar. This is because the Turkish central bank reduced interest rates on the orders of the president. Their rationale is that a cheap Lira means Turkey will see more exports and investment. 

This is the same rationale used by central banks in many other countries. The problem is that this kind of monetary policy does serious damage to the purchasing power of the average person, and this is why Turkish citizens have been buying BTC. 

Turks have also been using cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services, or at least they were before the Turkish central bank banned crypto payments earlier this year. It’s safe to say that the government doesn’t want competition from another currency. 

So, what happens next in this tragic comedy? Well, if you’ve been keeping up with all of my CBDC videos, you’ll know that Turkey is one of the countries that has been developing a central bank digital currency or CBDC, and it looks like development officially began in September. 

CBDCs seem to be the only way out for governments around the world, because giving the central bank total control over the money supply makes it possible to both create and destroy currency. Right now they can only create currency, hence all of the inflation we’re seeing. 

The reason why Turkey is so significant here is because it could foreshadow what’s coming. Inflation causes people to run to crypto. The government bans crypto as payments or bans them completely. Then, they release their CBDC. Turkey is in the second stage of this process. 

This is quite terrifying, but the good news is that CBDCs are nowhere close to being ready or secure enough for deployment. Everyone who knows how to build digital currencies is working in crypto, and crypto technology is growing faster than CBDC technology as a result. 

In theory, this means cryptocurrency will come out on top, but we will just have to wait and see. I’ll keep you posted, as always. 

NFT NGMI

I have been doing NFT coverage quite a bit on the channel and have explained exactly why I think they can be so valuable. I have also told you about some of the NFT purchases I have made including some from the Mutant Ape collection I disclosed in my newsletter last week. 

However, I was also around during the 2017 ICO boom and to me currently, it seems as if there are a lot of parallels between then and now. The NFT space has become way too saturated with some really low value collections.

Worse yet, there is considerably less work required to launch an NFT collection than there was to issue a token in an ICO. For many of these, the team does not need to produce a whitepaper or have any sort of investment pitch. All they have to have is a “limited” collection of randomly generated jpegs which sell out for millions. 

To give you an idea of how little is nowadays required to make millions from an NFT collection, you can look at this TikTok video that I came across. Essentially, hire someone to develop a site and smart contract, hype the collection, launch a sale and bag the profit. 

Moreover, NFTs are a completely different beast from a fungible ERC20 token. They are a lot less liquid and that therefore means that it may be difficult to exit your positions on them. 

There are countless other collections that I am seeing being shilled that are bound to be worthless – some that have even paid for star power promotions. 

One thing that you should know about the 2017 ICO boom is that over 95% of those projects that raised funding and sold tokens ended up being worthless. Either they exit-scammed, or they just cashed out and gave up, or they were hit by the SEC. But there were many bag holders that were left with nothing to show for it. 

I seriously hope that we are not going through the same period now with NFTs. You can still be bullish on the potential of these tokens without throwing your money at random unknown and overhyped new mints. 

To go back to the analogy of the 2017 bull market, there were plenty of ICOs that turned out to be amazing investments. Polkadot’s, Filecoin’s, Decentraland’s etc. But for every one of these there were 10 or more money grab raises. 

Indeed, I recall many of my friends who wished they had just kept hold of their ETH or BTC instead of investing in ICOs back then. I can’t help but wonder whether the hype around new launches is driving people off the beaten path into dark alleys of dodgy NFTs. 

If you are seriously considering making an investment in NFTs, then be sure that you are doing solid due diligence on the collection. If you don’t know where to start on your NFT DD, then my recent video on it could indeed help you. 

And, if the NFTs that you are looking at buying are too expensive, then keep them on a watchlist. Like the crypto markets, it ebbs and flows. Don’t FOMO into an NFT for fear of missing out on the next Bored Ape or Cryptopunk. 

If you are bullish on the NFT ecosystem then you could also consider utility tokens for those projects that are building the infrastructure for it. Utility fungible tokens are a lot more liquid and allow you to easily exit your investment should you ever want to cut losses or take profits. Examples of these include the likes of RARI, MANA, AXS, SAND etc. etc. Even if they may be overhyped, they are incredibly liquid. 

So, please just bear all of this in mind before you folks ape into some random collection on sale. Some NFTs are priceless, others are nothing more than worthless jpegs. 

Deals of The Week

Keep That Crypto Safe: I know it can be tempting to bumble onto that crypto exchange, buy that crypto and just let it sit there. However, we know that nothing really beats the benefits of self custodying that crypto. 

And when it comes to self custody solutions, if you want to get the best security money can buy and treat your crypto like the million dollars it could one day be, then you’ll want to get yourself a hardware wallet. I’ve spoken all about the top hardware wallets on the market in my video here!

So, how do I store my crypto? Well, I use a Trezor hardware wallet. This device stores over 1,000 cryptos – so I imagine most of you will literally be able to store every crypto you hold on it.

Serious about keeping that crypto Safe? Get a Trezor!

Christmas Is Coming: Now, I don’t know about you, but I love Christmas and spreading some festive cheer. However, with all this Covid stuff popping off again around the world, it seems that the old postage service is going to be impacted again. 

With that in mind, it might not be a bad idea to load up on that Xmas swag in advance – that way no one is going to be disappointed. In my store I’ve actually got the perfect gift or two for that crypto fanatic, so you might want to order those presents whilst you can! Here are a few crypto gift suggestions for you to check out:

• Ho Ho HODL T-shirt
• ETH Word Game Black Sweater
• CoinBureau Beanie
• ADA Moon T-shirt
• Keep Calm & Hodl Hoodie

Also, if you get anything from the store, you’ll be supporting the channel and helping me and my team to keep producing that content that you love.

Video Pipeline

• Complete 101 Guide to Swing Trading
• Bullish on Bitcoin? Buy These Stocks!
• Solana Update: Is it still red hot?
• Grayscale metaverse report: Here’s what you need to know!
• What I wish I knew before I got into crypto…
• Complete 101 guide to the Metaverse
• Top 5 Crypto Podcasts

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Blockchain Domains: Complete Guide from DNS to ENS

GameFi NFTs Far More Than “just” Art: What to Buy?

That’s about all I have for this newsletter. However, I do need to thank you on behalf of all my team for your support. We are well rested after our Christmas party in Dubai (images on my instagram). 

The next event we will be organising is one for all of you guys which I hope to be holding sometime next year. I will of course keep you all updated.

Much Love, 

Guy

The post November 28, 2021 – DON’T TOUCH These Sh*tcoins!! appeared first on Coin Bureau.

Would you like to get free crypto?

We all would! And thanks to community airdrops, this is entirely possible. 

As someone who has got my fair share of valuable airdrops, I think I know a thing or two for snuffling out these golden nuggets of opportunity. 

The truth is though that the vast majority of airdrops are completely worthless. In some cases, the gas & time required to claim these airdrops can make them completely impractical. For every valuable airdrop that you read about in the crypto news, there are at least 20 that turn out to be worthless. 

So, it’s essential that you have an idea of what to look for and how to maximise your chances of hitting the big time. That is exactly what I go over in my video today! 

I will be giving you a complete 101 guide as to what airdrops are and why projects do them. I take you through some of the most valuable airdrops over the past year and what we could learn from them. 

I also give you some top tips of what to look out for in order to scout these out as well as my thoughts on which potential protocols could be next to drop a token. 

You can watch that video here.

Portfolio Update

I bought the dip this week on ETH, BTC & DOT. One has to practice what they preach and I think that the current shakeout was an amazing opportunity to do that. I emptied the clip on all of the USDC that I had been holding for this occasion. 

On top of this, I have now officially bought my first Mutant Ape NFT from the Mutant Ape Yacht Club Collection. You can see if over here (more info below). I am also looking to purchase a few more of these from this collection. 

There were no other changes apart from that. My updated portfolio is:

ETH 28.76% | BTC 22.62% | SOL 13.23% | DOT 12.44% | HNT 3.47% | UST 3.04% | RUNE 2.89% | ATOM 2.61% | PAXG 2.46% | ADA 2.41% | INJ 1.67% | AR 1.38% | FTM 1.25% | LINK 1.00% | MATIC 0.79%

Thoughts on Market

If you were surprised by the dip we saw last week, you probably haven’t been keeping up with my weekly crypto review. My crypto market predictions have been pretty good lately, but I must admit that my most recent one underestimated just how much we would drop. So, what happened? I can’t say for sure, but I have a few theories. 

First and foremost, BTC typically performs poorly in the second half of every month. This is because of options expiries.  

It looks like a lot of options traders were betting that BTC would fall in value at the end of last week. Depending on the volume of the outstanding options, these expiry events can have a significant impact on the spot market. In this case, those large Put Option buyers may have manipulated the spot price downward in order for the options to expire in-the-money (i.e., profitably). 

Of course, these price moves on expiry could be a self fulfilling prophecy, but it’s a pattern that’s been seen time and time again. I have covered these instruments on numerous occasions on the channel so feel free to watch my most recent video on options data for more information. 

The thing is that last week’s BTC options bears were betting that BTC would drop to 58k, so why did it drop lower? The answer: overleveraged longs. Put simply, reckless traders used their BTC to borrow more BTC and bet that the price of BTC would go up. It didn’t and we saw over half a billion dollars in overleveraged longs liquidated last week. 

What this means is that half a billion dollars in BTC was automatically sold, causing the price of BTC to drop, which of course liquidated move overleveraged longs and so on. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal. Half a billion dollars of liquidated longs is a normal week in the crypto market. The difference this time around is that BTC balances on exchanges are very low. 

When BTC balances on exchanges are low, this increases volatility because there are fewer people selling their BTC. This means that it takes a lot less money to move BTC prices up or down, and given that the BTC balance on exchanges continues to drop, it means we’re likely to continue to see this kind of volatility in the weeks ahead. 

The good news is that this means investors continue to accumulate, and this is despite all of the FUD flying around about, stuff like the possibility of a crypto crackdown in India, US politicians sitting down to discuss cryptocurrencies, and last but not least, the infamous infrastructure bill being signed into law by the US president. This requires its own section. 

Capitol Hill Update

You might be wondering why what happens in the crypto market depends on what happens in the halls of Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. Besides the fact that a lot of the money in the crypto market came from US investors, US regulators also seem to have a huge influence over some of the largest global “regulatory” bodies such as the FATF. More about that here. 

As you might have gathered, a lot has been happening on Capitol Hill, and the development that’s most relevant to crypto is the infrastructure bill which has now become law. This means that poorly defined cryptocurrency “brokers” will have to collect KYC information about users for tax purposes, and all crypto transactions worth more than 10k USD must be reported to the IRS. 

The good news is that these provisions don’t go into effect until 2024, and there are some politicians that are looking to push the IRS reporting requirement back to 2026 as well as redefining the term “broker”. So far, a total of 10 politicians have signed on to the initiative, though it’s not clear how far it will get for the time being. 

What is clear however is that cryptocurrency is starting to sway politicians, and this is thanks to the actions of crypto lobbying groups such as the Blockchain Association which recently raised 4 million dollars. Crypto lobbying groups might be why a recently passed defense bill contains a clause that requires politicians to clarify crypto regulations. 

With the infrastructure bill out of the way, the crypto market has another bill to look forward to: the “human infrastructure” bill which was recently renamed to the Build Back Better bill. The deal was that if both sides of the aisle agreed to the infrastructure bill, the Build Back Better bill would pass without a hitch. This happened on Friday, but the bill still needs to be reviewed by the US senate. 

It’s not entirely clear what effect the Build Back Better bill could have as far as crypto regulations go. Back in August, the US department of the Treasury was trying to add even more crypto tax provisions into this second bill. One thing is for sure though, the combined 3 trillion dollar value of these two spending packages will make inflation worse, and this will drive demand for BTC. 

My NFT Purchase

A few weeks ago, I told you guys that I was looking to buy an NFT to celebrate my podcast deal. This week I also asked for some of your opinions on Twitter about which ones I should buy. There were a lot of suggestions there and it took me quite some time to go through them. 

In the end though, I decided to pick up a Mutant Ape from the MAYC. I am also planning to buy at least 2 more over the coming weeks. 

While I would have loved to have picked up an original Bored Ape or even a punk, I thought that that money would have been better spent buying the recent crypto market dip. 

However, it is my view that the MAYC is a collection that has some of the most attractive return potential. That is because based on their relatively fair price, they confer a lot of the same benefits that come from being a member of the BAYC. Moreover, they have seen an explosion in trading volume growth over the past 2 weeks (1,000% vs. 900% for the BAYC). 

Apart from this, there is a really strong case for some NFTs (and Apes in particular) to be an incredible asset over the longer term. Something that I read earlier this week was this op-ed by Andrew Miller, a famous domainer. I recall reading his original op-ed in August when he bought his Ape for $48k.

We cannot deny the mass market appeal that comes from this collection. Over the past two weeks we have had individuals like Jimmy Falon and Post Malone jumping into the BAYC with their purchases. This includes numerous other celebrities who are members including Shaquille O’neal who happens to also own a Mutant Ape. 

If you remember my video on NFT collectibles a few months ago, I talked about this appeal for holding a rare asset that is immediately verifiable onchain. One that gives members access to a club that confers benefits from exclusive parties and events. This is something that people tend to place a great deal of importance on. 

Apart from their rarity and esteem, there are a number of other benefits that come from holding these apes in the future. As I mentioned in my video today, the Apes are likely to be the recipients of some pretty lucrative airdrops. Apart from the NFT airdrops that have already happened, I think that the Yuga Labs team is likely to release a number more of these. They have also confirmed that they are aiming for a Q1 airdrop of their token. 

But finally, I think one of the most significant benefits of owning an Ape is the being part of the community. It doesn’t matter if the community includes any celebrities or not. It’s just the feeling of belonging to like minded individuals who appreciate the appeal of these NFTs. It’s exactly the same feeling I get when I interact with fellow crypto enthusiasts and one of the main reasons I want to hold a crypto event next year.

Of course, I am under no illusion that NFTs are incredibly risky. Many of them will be worthless in the long run. But that’s why I have taken a measured play on it at the moment. Even if it goes to 0, the impact on my broader diversified crypto portfolio won’t be as severe. So, if you guys are considering any NFTs, I encourage you to use a similar mindset. 

Deals of The Week

King of Crypto Exchanges: Looking to pick up that hidden altcoin from a top tier crypto exchange? 

Well, Binance could well be the exchange for you! Not only are they the largest spot exchange in the world, but they also have 400 different altcoins on the shelves. Also, they typically have amazing liquidity – which means no hanging around to get those orders filled.

On top of that, I have been able to get you a special deal which gives you an extra 20% OFF trading fees.

Sign Up To Binance & Get 20% off fees!

Need a walkthrough to get started on Binance? Well, my dedicated video is all you need!

My Merch Store: Big news, I’ve just finished revamping my merch store and it’s looking pretty fly (if I might say so myself).

Also, I’ve just got an order of Crypto Christmas shirts into the Coin Bureau warehouse. These are on the shelves right now and you might one to pick one of those up before they sell out for Xmas!

• HO HO HODL Shirt – https://store.coinbureau.com/product/ho-ho-hodl-t-shirt-2/ 
• HODL Candy Cane Shirt: https://store.coinbureau.com/product/hodl-candy-cane-t-shirt-2/ 

All proceeds go towards keeping that Coin Bureau content ad free and elevating the production of those vids!

Video Pipeline

• Kraken vs. FTX
• Harmony Update: ONE Price Potential?
• How to spot a shitcoin!
• Complete 101 Guide to Swing Trading 
• Tether report: Who’s buying all that USDT? 
• Axie Infinity update: Where is it Headed?
• Bullish on Bitcoin? Buy These Stocks!
• Celsius: The best crypto lending platform?

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Get DeFi Yields for NFTs at Drops.co

The FUTURE of Blockchain Gaming

Should You Use Bitcoin ETFs for Bitcoin Exposure?

Crypto Passive Income for Beginners

That’s about all I have for this newsletter. However, I would like to thank you for your support on behalf of myself and my Team. You are what makes the Bureau what it is today!

The post November 21, 2021 – FREE Crypto!! Airdrops Incoming?? appeared first on Coin Bureau.

As you know from my weekly newsletter, I hold a reasonable part of my portfolio in Ether. Earlier this week, ETH broke through its all time highs and appears set to breach $5k any day now. 

There are many reasons for this. Reasons which I have illuminated on the numerous videos I have done on Ethereum over the past year. However, I can confidently say that I am just as bullish today as I was then. 

Factors like utility demand in DeFi and NFTs is leading to a mad rush for block space. Reduced supply from fee burns is making it a rare asset. The looming PoS Merge could supercharge these fee burns and bring sustained deflation. 

This of course is not going unnoticed. Investment demand is picking up as whales & institutions are stacking and staking ETH at record levels. And, according to the latest research and reports from some of the investment banks, this trend is only likely to continue. 

I cover all of this in my latest Ethereum update video. I also delve into some of the most exciting price predictions and analysis that I have seen to date. This is not a video you want to miss. You can watch it here!

Portfolio Update

No changes to the portfolio this week guys. However, on Tuesday I did claim some ENS from the airdrop which occurred the day before (more on that below). It’s quite a small % so it’s not included in the breakdown.  

There are a few tokens / coins that are on my radar which I may include in the coming week. As always, I will keep you updated on this in my Telegram Channel. 

ETH 26.42% | BTC 21.01% | SOL 13.57% | DOT 10.89% | USDC 4.95% | HNT 3.60% | RUNE 3.11% | UST 2.83% | ATOM 2.69% | ADA 2.41% | PAXG 2.30% | INJ 1.58% | FTM 1.46% | AR 1.29% | LINK 1.09% | MATIC 0.78%

Thoughts on Market

It’s been a bit of a mixed week in the crypto market. BTC has been on a steady decline over the last few days while select altcoins continue to hit new all time highs. Most of these are related to the metaverse, and I covered one of these cryptos recently. 

Given the rest of the market is in a bit of a slump, I would be very cautious about any cryptocurrencies going against the grain, especially if they look as overextended as many of these metaverse plays. 

If you’re wondering where the FUD is coming from, the answer seems to be stablecoin regulation, something I also recently covered. The TLDR there is that US regulators want US politicians to put laws in place that subjects stablecoin issuers to the same standards as banks. This might sound a bit scary, but it centers almost entirely around insurance and the assets backing the stablecoin tokens in circulation. 

Another factor that seems to be weighing the crypto market down is the recent rejection of VanEck’s spot Bitcoin ETF. In contrast to the futures Bitcoin ETFs we have now, a physically backed or spot Bitcoin ETF is backed by actual BTC. This means the company issuing the ETF shares has to actually go out and buy BTC to back those shares, which has a direct (ish) effect on the price of BTC. Futures backed Bitcoin ETFs just create deviations in BTC futures prices. 

On the bright side, we seem to be on the cusp of a futures backed Ethereum ETF (something I covered in my video today). I know I just said that this would have no direct effect on the price of the crypto in question (in this case ETH), but it does have an indirect effect. 

Besides the hype around the event itself, a futures backed Ethereum ETF would give a lot of legitimacy to ETH as an asset. A lot of institutional investors are fans of ETH too, so it’s possible we could see additional indirect factors pushing up its price. 

In terms of what’s in store for the crypto market this week, it looks like BTC will continue drifting down to between 61-62k where there’s a lot of price support. However, it’s also possible that we could see a sudden reversal come Monday, and that’s because of Bitcoin’s upcoming Taproot upgrade that’s scheduled to happen today- this requires its own section…

Taproot Upgrade

Assuming Bitcoin’s Taproot upgrade goes smoothly, it should be live by the time you read this sentence. Taproot is admittedly technical, but the simple explanation is that the Taproot upgrade makes every BTC transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain look identical. This is more significant than you think, and that’s for three reasons.

First, institutional investors often use multi signature wallets to custody their BTC. Prior to Taproot, BTC transactions made from these multi-sig wallets were easy to spot using a blockchain explorer. Obviously this created some degree of risk because you could theoretically figure out who holds the keys to these wallets and force them to sign a transaction.

With Taproot, transactions made from multi sig wallets look like a transaction made from a regular wallet. This increases privacy for institutional investors which should theoretically make them more comfortable investing in BTC. It could also make the SEC more willing to approve a physically backed Bitcoin ETF because it would make BTC custody for such an ETF more secure for the same reason. 

Second, Bitcoin’s Lightning Network is arguably the key to global Bitcoin adoption. Prior to Taproot, the multi sig transactions used to open and close Lightning Network channels were likewise easy to spot using a blockchain explorer. Again, this created some degree of risk because you could theoretically figure out which two parties are a part of that payment channel. 

With Taproot, transactions made from multi sig wallets when Lightning Network channels are opened and closed look identical to a transaction made from a regular wallet. This increases privacy for Lightning Network users, and regulatory rhetoric suggests the privacy of the Lightning Network is on par with Monero. This should theoretically make the Lightning Network a sort of high performance privacy layer for BTC transactions.

Last but certainly not least, Taproot could be a precursor to the blow off top of this bull market. Bitcoin’s last upgrade happened in August 2017. This upgrade was called Segwit, and it essentially doubled Bitcoin’s transaction speed. 

Four months after Segwit went live, BTC hit its all time high of nearly 20k. Now obviously there’s no guarantee the same thing will happen this time around, but it’s certainly something to keep in mind going into early 2022. 

Free Crypto! 

On Monday I was happy to learn that I got some free crypto sent my way. That was in the form of the ENS airdrop that was given to all of those addresses who own or who had owned an ENS domain name (.eth).  

As I explained earlier, I will be hodling that ENS for some time but the main thing I wanted to talk about is just how lucrative these airdrops can be. I have received a number of these over the past year and many of them were completely unexpected. For example, I had received the UNI & 1INCH airdrops last year as well as the DYDX one in September. 

However, I happen to think that we could see a flood of airdrops in the coming months. That is mainly as a result of projects trying to quickly decentralise themselves while still keeping the community engaged with the protocol / dApp itself. Moreover, it will allow for community governance that will take the heat off of the protocol developers from overzealous regulators. 

So, this all then begs the question: Can you predict airdrops?

Well, it’s not an exact science as it always comes down to the decision of the project team itself. They may have very specific legal or operational reasons as to why they want to avoid any sort of distribution. For example, many may want to avoid airdropping to US residents (thank the SEC for that). 

Moreover, while the airdrops that you read about in the press are lucrative, there is a minefield of really low value airdrops happening on substandard protocols. There are also a lot of scam airdrops out there that tend to sucker in the newer crypto users. 

Having said all this though, I happen to think that there are still some really high valued Airdrops around the corner and there are a number of things that you can look for. I should of course caveat that this is all my personal opinion and speculation!

Firstly, as I explained in a Telegram post the other day, a prime candidate could be MetaMask. There was a lot of speculation about this before and it seems long overdue. If you want to increase your chances, consider using the MetaMask AMM to swap some tokens. If you were going to swap something anyway, it’s a win-win. 

Then you have to consider all the other popular Ethereum Layer 2 solutions that don’t have their own token yet. These include the likes of Arbitrum & Optimism. I have given a guide on how to use these protocols here and they are a great way to reduce gas fees. If there is a small chance you could get a future airdrop – all the better. 

Then you also have to consider some of the NFT marketplaces that are out there. A prime example here is Opensea which, unlike Rarible and SuperRare, does not have a governance token. Could they consider dropping one? Maybe, maybe not. But if you were considering picking up an NFT at all, you may as well use it as it’s the most popular – guide here.  

Of course, while we are on the topic of NFTs, some of the most popular collections are dropping community / governance tokens to the holders. For example, recently you had the AGLD airdrop on all holders of Adventure gold. There are so many of these going on that I can’t mention all of them. But, if you were thinking of buying an NFT at all, consider looking into those that have opened the door to potential airdrops. 

You also have to consider that everything I have mentioned above is on the Ethereum blockchain. There is extensive potential for other airdrops on other chains like Solana, Avalanche, Cardano etc. 

There is a lot more to the airdrop conundrum and I will be coming back to it with an updated video guide – but thought that I would share some initial hints and tips here. 

Deals of The Week

Rising Exchange Star: This year FTX has exploded to become the fourth biggest crypto exchange. That raise has seemingly come out of nowhere. 

The reason behind that increase in popularity is probably due to the vast array of fiat currencies supported by FTX and the fact that around 275 altcoins are on the shelves here.

On top of that, trading fees are super low here and most people can crush those down to a mere 0.06%! To place that into context, fees on Kraken Pro can be up to 4.5 times higher!

Those sort of fee discounts are possible due to a special deal I have been able to secure you. In addition, you’ll get your first $30 in trading fees for FREE here!

Still need to learn more about FTX? Well, you can watch my dedicated video telling you everything you need to know about the exchange!

Sign Up To FTX For That Exclusive Deal & Get Your 1st $30 In Trading Fees For FREE!

Based in the US? Well, the good news is that FTX has it’s very own version of the exchange for Americans. 

Sign Up To FTX US & Your First $30 In Trading Fees Are FREE + You’ll Get A 10% Fee Discount For Life!

Yes, there are some differences between the global and US facing versions of FTX. So, you might want to learn all about them in my comprehensive FTX US walkthrough!

Video Pipeline

• The Sandbox: Overhyped or Undervalued?
• Top NFT Marketplaces Compared
• Kraken vs. FTX
• Harmony Update: ONE Price Potential.
• Crypto.com Coin (CRO): Worth it?
• How to spot a shitcoin?
• Complete 101 Guide to Airdrops
• Polkadot PLOs: Complete Beginner’s Guide

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

YouHodler: Too Good To Be True?

Atari Chain: Retro Gaming to Blockchain Future

Sentiment Analysis for Crypto: Featuring FEAR and GREED!

Crypto Investing: 8 Blockchain Games you NEED to Check Out!

That’s about all I have for this newsletter. However, I have recently been racking my brain to come up with ideas to thank all you guys for your support. One idea I am toying with is holding a Coin Bureau crypto event in London, I have alluded to this in a recent video and it is an idea that I am only just building out with the rest of the team. 

However, if you want to be kept updated with developments there, then you probably want to give me a follow on Twitter to be kept in the loop.

Guy your crypto guy

The post November 14, 2021 – Latest ETH Predictions You CAN’T MISS! appeared first on Coin Bureau.

It’s pretty crazy to think that in a year when countries saw their biggest falls in GDP for almost a century, the World’s billionaires got 54% richer. 

Not only that, but they paid very little (if any tax) on these gains. 

In fact, one of the reasons that the really rich can get richer is because they efficiently use tax codes to their advantage. A tax code that was written with only one group of people in mind – them. 

This has also ignited a debate around the world about what the best way is to tax these Billionaires. Contrary to public opinion, it’s a lot harder to actually do it. 

That’s why I decided to go down this rabbit hole and explore exactly how these folks are able to avoid so much taxes. I also examine some of the proposals that have been floated around capital gains and what impact these could have on the markets (including crypto). 

No partisan hype here. Just a data driven analysis from an impartial Libertarian crypto guy. This is all covered in my latest video which you can watch over here. 

Portfolio Update

For those of you who saw my video this week on Fantom, I had decided to allocate some of my portfolio to the FTM. It really is an exciting project with strong development, an ambitious roadmap and highly scalable tech. 

I sold some of my PAXG and MATIC to buy this FTM. In terms of other projects that I am looking into, I am really excited about some of the projects building on the Metaverse and I will be looking into a few of these in the coming week. 

As always, I will keep you guys updated in my Telegram channel

ETH 25.78% | BTC 19.74% | SOL 14.13% | DOT 12.22% | USDC 4.82% | RUNE 3.46% | HNT 3.11% | ATOM 2.96% | UST 2.72% | ADA 2.31% | PAXG 2.17% | INJ 1.77% | FTM 1.54% | AR 1.40% | LINK 1.03% | MATIC 0.84%

Thoughts on Market

On Wednesday, the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies combined hit a new all time high of 2.75 trillion dollars (according to CoinMarketCap, at least). That’s 200 billion more than the total market cap we saw at the last peak back in May just before the big correction, and that’s no coincidence. As I mentioned in last week’s crypto review, I think we’re on the cusp of another correction, and not just because we’ve hit another market cap milestone. 

For starters, the Federal Reserve recently confirmed that they will be reducing their government bond purchases, which currently total 120 billion dollars per month. For those who don’t know, the demand for government bonds determines the baseline interest rate for saving and borrowing. Low demand = high interest rates, and high demand = low interest rates. Given that the Federal Reserve will start reducing their bond purchases by 15 billion dollars per month, interest rates could rise in response. 

This is a problem for two reasons. First, increasing interest rates means that borrowing becomes more expensive. This means that not only will consumers spend less on goods but also that companies will reduce lending to fund investment. This means less consumer demand for goods and services of companies and less investments by said companies. Effectively, a drag on earnings and share prices. 

Second, and more importantly, institutional investors see Bitcoin as an inflation hedge. If the FED’s tapering somehow successfully reduces inflation, this could reduce demand for Bitcoin among institutional investors. 

Other factors that could crush the crypto market in the coming weeks relate to regulations. As I discussed in yesterday’s video about the FATF’s finalised crypto “recommendations”, we might be on the cusp of a global crackdown on cryptocurrency in the name of money laundering, and some counties have already begun implementing the FATF’s crypto “recommendations”. 

One of the FATF’s focuses is of course stablecoins, and last Monday the “President’s Working Group on Financial Markets” issued their own finalised “recommendations” as to how stablecoins should be treated. 

Oddly enough, they praised the fact that stablecoins “support faster, more efficient, and more inclusive payments options”, but stressed the importance of regulating stablecoin issuers in the same way as banks. Call me crazy, but it sounds like my conspiracy about USDC becoming the US government’s CBDC is starting to come true.

The last macro factor to consider is what is due to happen any day now – and that deserves its own section.  

Infrastructure Bill 

On Friday, the US House finally passed the infrastructure bill. This means it can finally make its way to Biden’s desk to be signed into law. For those that have been following, this is the bill that has some anti-crypto provisions. If you have not been following, there are numerous videos on the channel but I covered it briefly in my weekly news update this week. 

So, what does this mean now? 

Well firstly, let’s address the concerns…

The first one is on the expanded definition of a “broker” for tax reporting purposes. This won’t just be an exchange or Virtual Asset Service provider but could also be interpreted to include miners, node operators and potentially DeFi developers. The complications and the near impossibility of complying with this provision are immense. 

The second provision is all of 8 words and is an amendment to section 6050I of the tax code. For those that don’t know, this section of the tax code has required businesses or individuals that receive physical cash or bank transfers over $10,000 to file a form with the IRS. This form sets out information such as name, address, and Social Security Number. Not complying with this provision is actually considered a felony!

The limited amendment has now changed the word “cash” to “any digital asset” as a definition. So, interpreted broadly, this means that anyone who receives over 10k in crypto (think buying an NFT) will have to collect this information. Yet again, another near impossibility. 

So, on the face of it, these provisions don’t look good. But, as always, there is a lot more nuance to it. 

Firstly and most importantly, these don’t go into effect until January of 2024. That is a long time in politics and it’s especially long when you consider how volatile the US political landscape is. The Democrats are in a vulnerable position in 2022 and the president’s approval rating has taken a real beating.

If the Democrats lose the house & senate next year, then there is the chance that a Republican controlled congress could introduce legislation that could blunt these provisions. There is also the possibility that the altered definition of section 6050l may be unconstitutional – that’s at least according to Jerry Brito of the CoinCenter think tank. As an aside, Coin Center has been one of the most effective crypto lobbying forces so give Jerry a follow to keep up with developments from Capitol Hill. 

Apart from the fact that these provisions only go into effect in 2024, it’s still important to stress that it’s all open for interpretation by the Treasury. They have even come out and said that they won’t be including miners and developers etc. in their interpretation. I am inclined to also believe that. Not because they don’t want to grab that tax revenue but because it would be an impossibility to enforce. 

This is perhaps the reason why crypto markets have had a relatively moot reaction to the passing of the bill. As I explained in my Tweet yesterday, the news appears to have been priced in. Participants are viewing this bill as glass half full and are focused on all the other really exciting developments taking place. 

Of course, it’s not going to be an easy battle against the politicians, but this tweet thread by Jake Chervinsky should give you some optimism. 

Top Market Tips

“Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful”. This famous quote by billionaire investor Warren Buffett is more relevant than ever these days, because we’re seeing a lot of greed in the crypto market these days. 

I reckon that’s pretty clear without any indicators. Shiba Inu hitting all time highs, retail investors piling into meme coins that are obviously scams, and most importantly, me making a video comparing Shiba Inu and Dogecoin.

Does this mean you should be fearful? Absolutely. The market has been insanely bullish and you might be sitting on some amazing gains right now, but the road to the moon is bumpy, not smooth. Ask yourself if you’re willing to hold the cryptos you have now through a 20, 30, maybe even 50 percent drop. If you don’t think you can, you’ve either invested too much or know deep down that you’re gambling, not investing. This is one of the many trading mistakes you can make, and it’s one that’s easy to make with how bullish the crypto market is. 

You guys know that I am a fan of the saying “when in doubt, zoom out”. This is usually applied to long timeframe price charts that allow you to get a better idea of how far the market has come. However, it can also be applied to those cryptocurrencies that have spiked up to irrational hype driven levels. For example, here is the long term price action of MANA. 

As you can see, that spike seemed to come out of nowhere but it was mostly around the Facebook announcement of the rebranding to Meta. People rushed into all Metaverse related tokens like MANA etc. Does that price action really look that sustainable to you?

To be clear, I am also really bullish on the Metaverse and think that projects like Decentraland and the Sandbox have amazing potential (a video is coming soon). But the point is that you should always take a look at longer time frames when considering whether short term price action could be sustainable. That’s because periods of consolidation do tend to follow. 

This brings me to my last tip, and that’s to soak up the dip. Yes, corrections suck, and they can be terrifying to watch when you have a lot of money invested in the crypto market. However, they are necessary for the bull market to continue, and they offer an opportunity to buy up any coins or tokens you were interested in. 

I promise you that when the dominos fall, in most cases you’ll see that out of the 5 or 10 cryptos you wanted, only 1 or 2 of them were really worth your time or money after all. Make sure to watch my video about how to buy the dip so you’re ready when it comes around, and trust me, it will come eventually. 

Deals of The Week

Top Altcoin Exchange: There seems to be a lot of talk currently about “altcoin season”. But, most of those strong gains are going to come from the lower cap and more exotic altcoins. So, where can you pick up some of these lower cap gems? 

Well, Kucoin is probably the exchange for you. Not only are they one of the largest exchanges in terms of trading volume but they also have a plethora of different altcoins on offer. 

Even better, I have been able to secure you guys a really special deal which gives you up to 60% OFF trading fees! 

Still not sure if Kucoin is for you? Well, I’ve done a dedicated video telling you everything you need to know about this exchange!

Sign up to Kucoin and grab that fee discount of up to 60%!

New Merch In My Store: Many of you seem to think that I should branch out from just creating cool crypto t-shirts and hoodies. Well, your wish is my command!

Recently, I received a limited order of Coin Bureau branded water bottles. This is exactly what you need to remain hydrated when those markets get really hot. Also, they might just make the perfect Xmas gift for that special someone too!

Check out those metal water bottles!

P.S. By supporting me through my merch store, you are helping my team and I create even better crypto content! So, thanks in advance for your support

Video Pipeline

• Best Crypto Books You Have to Read
• Top 5 Crypto Conferences & Meetups
• ETH Update: More Bullish Than Ever
• The Sandbox: Overhyped or Undervalued?
• Decentraland Update: Any Potential?
• Stablecoin regulations: should you be worried?

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Make a Killing on the Cute and Potentially Lethal PancakeSwap

Revain: The Future of Review Sites is on Blockchain

The Graph: The Future of Decentralized Data Access

That’s about all I have time for this newsletter. However, I would like to thank each and every one of you for joining me and my team on this crazy crypto journey. Honestly, we at the Coin Bureau just feel blessed to be able to play a small role in raising the bar when it comes to crypto education and I hope that you guys will continue to support us on that mission!

Guy your crypto guy

The post November 7, 2021 – How The Rich Get Richer!! appeared first on Coin Bureau.

About a month ago, it was revealed that several top officials at the Federal Reserve had been trading stocks, bonds and other assets during a time of the most unprecedented Fed action in its 100 year history. 

Many have pointed out that this is insider trading by the ultimate insiders – those at the helm of the money printing machine. 

Now, whether these individuals did in fact trade on material nonpublic information is yet to be determined. But it did create further distrust in a Federal Reserve that has already lost a great deal of credibility due to their handling of inflation. 

However, I think that this insider trading scandal could have much more severe implications for the Fed than most people think. That is because it could provide perfect fodder for those opposed to Jerome Powell to replace him. To replace him with someone who would be more accommodative to lax monetary policy. Someone who would allow inflation to run rampant just so long as it served the broader agenda of those in power.

And, if this reality is to come to pass and inflation turns to hyperinflation (as Jack Dorsey predicted), what would it mean for assets like Bitcoin?

This is all covered in my video today which you can watch here. 

FUD about Causing FUD

Sometimes when I make a video that raises concerns about a project, diehard community members accuse me of “spreading FUD”. This could not be furthest from the truth.

When I research a crypto project, I leave absolutely no stone unturned. Not only that, but I have a whole team of people who are helping me do the same.

• We watch every single interview
• We read through every single blog post
• We comb through every single page of a project’s documentation 
• We collect every single news story about a crypto project that we can
• We even dig deep into their social media and the social media of their founders

To put things into perspective, the document that contains this research is usually twice and sometimes three times as long as the script that I write when I make the video – so yeah, it’s pretty damn thorough.

Sometimes I will find stuff that’s seriously questionable, and this is more so the case for some crypto projects than it is for others. That said, no crypto project is perfect and I always voice my concerns at the end regardless of the project and I also always leave links to the relevant resources in the video description.

If you’re wondering why I don’t reach out to a crypto project when I find something concerning, it’s because I already know what they’re going to say…

They’re going to tell me that everything is super-fast, super decentralized, super secure, that the coin or token distribution is super equitable and so on. Not surprisingly, this is exactly what the founders and communities of some crypto projects will say when I raise valid concerns based on information that’s publicly available and verifiable.

The backlash that we receive from these community members can sometimes be strong and sustained. It’s a challenge to deal with such an onslaught but I will never waiver. That is because it’s my mission to bring you the most unbiased and impartial crypto education I can. 

Am I saying that I always get things right? Hell no!

Sometimes I get things wrong, because sometimes we’ll miss a news piece or blog post. This happened recently with Algorand for example.

The thing is that I only issue a correction if what I said runs contrary to publicly available and verifiable information, which is why I issued a correction for Algorand at the start of my Algorand tutorial video.

It should go without saying that some fancy meme or video or tweet by a crypto project founder or top community member created in response to my concerns doesn’t count as a source. If you count stuff like that as a source, don’t be surprised if you end up getting hurt later down the line.

As the saying goes: you can either be right, or you can make money. Always do your own research instead of taking a crypto project or its community members at their word. 

Portfolio Update

No changes to the portfolio this week guys. Not too many attractively priced opportunities at the moment that really caught my eye. 

However, given that I have recently signed a podcast deal, I have been looking to reward myself with an NFT – just something to remember the moment. I’m doing due-diligence on some collections at the moment and speaking to resident NFT experts.

As always, I will keep you updated on my portfolio changes as well as my NFT hunt in my Telegram channel 

ETH 26.79% | BTC 21.73% | SOL 11.84% | DOT 10.82% | USDC 5.40% | PAXG 3.72% | RUNE 3.60% | ATOM 3.34% | UST 3.06% | ADA 2.54% | HNT 2.23% | INJ 1.58% | MATIC 1.31% | LINK 1.06% | AR 1.00%

Thoughts on Market

It’s been another hot week in the crypto market, and it looks like the money has finally started moving from BTC into altcoins. The first recipient of this momentum tends to be ETH, and when you couple that with the Altair upgrade that happened on Wednesday, you have a recipe for a new all time high. That’s exactly what we got, and it looks like ETH isn’t done quite yet. 

If you look at ETH’s price action on the daily chart and zoom out, you’ll see that there are two big bullish patterns. The first is the huge cup and handle which began forming way back in mid-May. The second is the inverse head and shoulders which began forming in early September. 

These two patterns point to a 6k ETH in the coming weeks, and I bet the news that’ll take it there is the announcement of an Ethereum futures ETF which some experts are expecting in early 2022. That’s because of the amount of options expiring in March of next year with high strike prices. 

The altcoin that caught my eye this week though was Litecoin (also Shiba Inu, but I’ll get back to that dog in a bit). As reported by CoinTelegraph, transactions on the Litecoin blockchain recently approached all time highs. 

This seems to be due to the release of the Litecoin Visa Debit card but I wonder if what we’re seeing is whales preparing for the release of the highly anticipated Mimblewimble side chain. For those that don’t know, this will give Litecoin privacy-preserving features that will allow users to send anonymous transactions.  

Now, this wouldn’t be a big deal were it not for the fact that LTC still hasn’t popped like other large cap alts. Even though LTC is quite a way away from it’s all time high, it is in a visible uptrend, and this makes me wonder when it will finally pop. I really think Mimblewimble is what will do the trick, and you can learn all about it by watching my most recent video about Litecoin. 

Before I let the dogs out, I’ll give a quick congratulations to anyone holding metaverse related cryptocurrencies such as Decentraland (MANA), The Sandbox (SAND), and Axie Infinity (AXS). 

All of these cryptocurrencies rallied like crazy because of Facebook’s metaverse announcement, which is very interesting to say the least. If history is any indication, these price pumps will be short lived, so keep that in mind before you feel too much FOMO. Speaking of which… 

Thoughts on Shiba Inu

A few months ago, I made a video about Shiba Inu. I thought it at least warranted a video given that Coinbase had announced they would be listing it. It was an interesting video to research and there was a lot more to the project than I had initially thought. 

As I speculated, Coinbase was likely holding off on a SHIB listing until the devs released the Shibaswap DEX. This would make the project sufficiently “complete” to meet Coinbase’s arbitrary listing requirements. I also mentioned in the video that the listing of SHIB on Coinbase would give retail traders an opportunity to pile in on a “cheap” altcoin. 

What I didn’t expect was just how much SHIB would rally. This week it briefly overtook Dogecoin and even Polkadot. 

So, this once again got me thinking: What on Earth is going on? 

Well, there are a combination of factors. Some are rational, some irrational. On the irrational side, there are people that are buying it because they think its low price is indicative of value. As is always the case, you have to consider the market cap of a coin to determine its upside potential. SHIB will never reach 1 cent as that will imply a market cap 5 times bigger than Bitcoin. 

I’m not saying that all SHIB holders think this, but there is a strong contingent of first time buyers that do. I still run into people who won’t buy Bitcoin because they say they “can’t afford it”.

On the more rational side, unlike Dogecoin, there are things being built on Shiba Inu. Shibaswap seems to be working as intended and Shiba Inu has just launched Shiboshi which are their NFTs. Do not underestimate the retail appeal of memecoin mania mixed with NFT hype – it’s bound to draw interest. 

On top of this, you also have to consider the power of the community drive behind the project at this point. They are creating a SHIB army that is rallying to get businesses to accept SHIB for payment (companies like AMC for example).

This army is also able to create a self reinforcing price & hype cycle. The more people want to trade it, the more exchanges start listing it, and the more people are exposed to it who will then also trade it. For example, there is now an online petition to get Robinhood to list SHIB. 

While the CEO of Robinhood has been mum about a listing, I think it’s only a matter of time. Their crypto revenue is down 78% from the last quarter and they are hemorrhaging cash. Listing a token with such high demand would go a long way to getting them back into the black. Moreover, it seems illogical for them to offer Dogecoin and object to Shiba Inu – especially given the fact that the latter has more utility & use cases.

On top of all this, you have to consider that there are a lot of people taking out leveraged positions in SHIB. Open interest on SHIB futures contracts is near record high and it appears that most of these are in long positions. Some think that those that are taking on this leverage may be reinvesting their profits into further buying SHIB in the spot market thereby pushing up the price more. Moreover, there is no appetite to short SHIB right now for obvious reasons. 

So, with these factors in play, it’s hard to tell where SHIB goes. Fundamentally, it is due for a correction at some point but I would be lying if I said I knew exactly when. Whales hold a large proportion of the supply and any sales by these individuals could tank the price. You then also have to consider the possibility of cascading liquidations that could come from those overleveraged. 

Therefore, if you hold Shiba Inu, tread carefully. It doesn’t deserve the hate it gets, but it’s no Ethereum, Cardano or Polkadot. My opinion of course & not financial advice.

Deals of The Week

Max Crypto Security: With crypto prices recently going through the roof, now is probably a good time to reevaluate your crypto security setup. 

A few weeks ago, I told you guys about the benefits of the Shamir backup. This basically allows you to setup multiple seed words on your hardware wallet and require a certain number of seeds to reset a hardware wallet and regain access to that crypto.

So you might set up three seeds with a Shamir backup and require that two seeds are used to be able to regain access to that crypto. That means that if you lose access to one set of seed words, then that crypto is not lost forever. 

It also means that cracking that hardware wallet isn’t as simple as a crypto thief finding one set of seed words and getting access to your stash.

The hardware wallet that I am personally using to secure my coins and tokens with a Shamir backup is the Trezor Model-T. 

Oh yes, it also supports over 1000 coins and tokens too. So, that Trezor Model-T is pretty much a one stop storage solution when it comes to crypto.

Get a Trezor Model-T Now & Upgrade Your Crypto Security!

Video Pipeline

• Best Crypto Books You Have to Read
• Coinbase Pro Vs FTX: Which is best?
• Crypto custody: Complete 101 Guide
• Chainlink Update & LINK Price Potential
• Fantom Update: FTM Coinbase Listing?
• FATF recommendations: Here’s what you need to know!
• The Rich Don’t Pay Tax: Here’s How!

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Ellipal Titan Wallet Review – Next Generation of Hardware Wallet?

Amp Token Review: Paving the Way for Digital Payments?

Top 8 Mobile Wallets: Safe, Secure and Portable

That’s about all I have time for this newsletter. However, I want to thank each and every one of you guys for helping the channel pass 1.5 million subscribers! 

Honestly, the team at Coin Bureau are blown away by this and it’s truly a privilege to be able to help educate so many people about this crazy crypto world.

I’ve recently put out a short thank you message to let you know my thoughts on all this incredible support! 

Anyhow, I hope you have an amazing Sunday and that you get solid value from my last video.

Guy your crypto guy

The post October 31, 2021 – INSIDER TRADING Scandal!! appeared first on Coin Bureau.

As you know, the crypto markets are not isolated from the broader economy. And, right now, one of the biggest risks we face going into winter is an energy crisis.

Global energy prices are skyrocketing faster than a hopium filled sh!tcoin. Not only that, but given the lack of available energy supply, there is a legitimate concern that power may have to be rationed.

What does this have to do with Bitcoin?

Well, miners are competing for all that energy that is now in short supply. Miners who are already facing increasing costs on account of competition and the aforementioned energy prices.

However, even if these miners could fit the bill for sky high electricity costs, they would be the last in line if there ever was a situation in which energy had to be rationed. Public perception is not on their side.

This is exactly what I explore in my video today. The hidden risks of reliance on a fragile global electricity supply chain. Of course, with every risk comes opportunity and I cover that as well.

You can watch that video here.

Portfolio Update

Took a bit of profit on my ETH, BTC, SOL & ADA. Will be keeping half of this in USDC as dry powder but am going to use some to pick up some DOT & RUNE. 

As I mentioned last week, DOT is exciting because of those upcoming PLOs and the demand they could drive for DOT. When it comes to RUNE, Thorchain is finally back online and I am quite optimistic about its potential to transform cross-chain DeFi liquidity. I will be doing a ThorChain update video so keep your eyes peeled for that!

My updated portfolio is the following: 

ETH 26.00% | BTC 22.10% | SOL 12.18% | DOT 11.24% | USDC 5.56% | PAXG 3.85% | ATOM 3.26% | UST 3.15% | RUNE 3.07% | ADA 2.82% | INJ 1.86% | HNT 1.62% | MATIC 1.13% |  LINK 1.10% | AR 1.06%

Thoughts on Market

In last week’s crypto review, I predicted that Bitcoin would hit 67k before correcting, and it looks like I was right! Right now we appear to be holding strong around the 61k mark, but I do think we will drift down to 54-55k. 

This is because the last week of the month tends to be the most bearish for Bitcoin due to options expiries. As I have mentioned before, these expiry days impact the spot market due to a combination of whale manipulation and market maker rebalancing. 

Moving over to Ethereum though, the price is painting a different picture. It looks like ETH is forming a bull flag that’s scheduled to break later this week, and this happens to coincide with Ethereum’s upcoming Altair upgrade which is scheduled for October 27th (Wednesday). It’s worth pointing out that this upgrade isn’t for Ethereum 1.0, but for Ethereum 2.0. 

According to Ethereum developer Tim Beiko, Ethereum’s Altair upgrade will do the following:

• Make it possible for validators on the Beacon chain to run light nodes
• Increase slashing penalties for stakers
• Prepare the Beacon Chain for the merge with Ethereum which will transition its blockchain from proof of work to proof of stake. This merge is currently scheduled to happen early next year. 

But back to ETH’s price though. It looks like the hype around Altair could push ETH up to around 4700$, or at least that’s what the aforementioned bull flag suggests. The crypto market winds are blowing in the right direction too as Bitcoin dominance declines. This means money is moving into altcoins, and that means it’s the perfect time to construct your ultimate altcoin exit strategy. 

To be clear, I’m not saying it’s time to sell. Besides the fact that I don’t give financial advice, there are multiple signs which suggest we’re on the cusp of another epic rally. Most of these signs can be seen on chain, and the two most relevant that come to mind are the percentage of BTC on exchanges and the percentage of BTC held by whales (those with 1-10k BTC). 

When it comes to exchange balances of BTC, these have been dropping like a rock despite the new all time highs we saw last week. 

What this means is that people aren’t selling the new highs – they’re HODLing. As for the BTC whales, they’re continuing to accumulate, albeit at a slower pace than they did in the past. Keep a close eye on what they do, because they have the power to move the crypto market. 

And, speaking of those whales, there is one investor class that has so far been ignored but could radically alter the crypto markets..

Interesting New Trend

While I have long been covering the adoption of Bitcoin by traditional financial institutions like Banks, Hedge Funds and Mutual Funds, there is one investor class that has remained on the sidelines. 

And that was pension funds…

The reason why is because these funds are tasked with a very important goal of preserving capital for people’s retirement. Hence, they would only really be investing in assets they are certain could preserve the future value of these retirement savings. Their asset allocation is generally to more “safe” investments such as bonds, blue chip equities etc. 

However, ever since the past few months, an increasing number of Pension Funds have been allocating funds to Bitcoin & Cryptocurrencies. Here is a list of some of the most recent examples:

• In Virginia, a couple of Pension funds have been investing in crypto funds. These include funds such as Morgan Creek Asset Management, Blockchain Capital & Parataxis Capital Management
• Canada’s second largest pension fund, CDPQ (with $300bn AuM), recently co-led that Celsius funding round. Celsius is perhaps one of the largest crypto lending platforms on the market. I should also note that this is despite the regulatory scrutiny lending services are under. 
• One of Australia’s largest Pension funds, QIC (with $69bn AuM), told the financial times that they are open to investing in cryptocurrencies in the future. 
• A Houston Pension fund for city Firefighters has invested in Bitcoin and Ethereum through the NYDIG. What was so interesting about this was the fact that they “didn’t want synthetic exposure”. Their CIO also said “We decided to go directly to the token. As more and more institutional adoptions happen, there will be more and more dynamics that develop for supply and demand. And having physical assets — actual tokens — gives us in the future the possibility of income generation potential”

These are only some of the most recent examples out there and I am sure that you will find many more cases of private and government pension funds dipping their toes into crypto. 

So, why is this important? 

Well, because Pension funds are some of the largest asset managers in the world. The total AuM of global pension funds stands at an eye-watering $35 Trillion. If even a small fraction of this made its way into cryptocurrency investments, the buying pressure could drive valuations over the moon. 

I also happen to think that the launch of these ETFs will give all of these pension funds a more readily accessible opportunity to get exposure to Bitcoin. The price impact will of course depend on whether we will see any spot backed futures instruments being launched. Of course, it’s great to see that the CIO of the Houston Firefighters fund appreciates the difference between synthetic and spot exposure. 

That aside, what I find really interesting about this is the fact that pension funds are viewing cryptocurrencies as a sound investment. We in the crypto space know why it’s such an appealing asset class, but Pension Funds have to view risk and reward through a different lense. 

However, it seems increasingly clear that in an era of high inflation and meagre returns, they can’t afford not to get involved in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. As JP Morgan pointed out, inflation is a more compelling narrative than the ETFs.

So, keep an eye on what’s happening in the pension fund space. It is the $35 Trillion gorilla in the room..

Top Newbie Tips

Now that the crypto market is back to breaking all time highs, you know what that means: FOMO, scammers, hackers, and a whole lot of volatility. 

Starting with FOMO, there’s a famous saying I always tell myself when I see an altcoin I feel like I just have to invest in: “haste makes waste”. If you’re rushing in to buy an alt because of its price action, chances are you’re about to buy the local top, or worse, the cycle top. What comes up, must come down, so wait until it comes down, and decide then if it’s a good buy. NFA, of course. 

Next, the scammers. Google’s threat analysis group has announced that hackers are hijacking large YouTube accounts to run their fake crypto livestream giveaways. As you all know, I keep the Coin Bureau under lock and key, so much so that I once locked myself out (and some of you might know that too haha). However, the same can’t be said for other accounts, so be on the lookout for anything fishy from your favorite YouTubers, and report it as soon as you see it. 

Then, the hackers. It looks like CoinMarketCap was recently hacked, and over 3 million emails were leaked. CoinMarketCap claims that no passwords were leaked, but I have my doubts given that it seems like they weren’t even aware of the hack until it had been posted to this website. Pro tip: never ever use the same email/password combination on any website, because that’s apparently how most hacks happen. 

Finally, volatility. If you have the time, go to your favorite exchange, pull up the price of BTC or ETH on the daily, and scroll all the way back to the top of the last bull market. Prices spiked or dropped by more than 10 percent per day as we approached the top, and it’s going to be the same story this time around. 

In theory there should be less volatility now that there’s more adoption, but I wouldn’t count on it. IMO, it’s going to be a very bumpy ride to the moon.

Deals of The Week

Hot NFTs: Yes, some of you are probably happy with your core crypto portfolios and are looking to branch out into more exotic crypto assets. 

One of these more punchy assets I have exposure to are blockchain domains, which are issued as NFTs. As you guys know, I’m a fan of those NFTs that provide utility and that is exactly what these do. They basically allow you to replace your crypto addresses with easy to communicate names like coinbureau.crypto!

The reason that I think it’s such an attractive asset class is because it’s combining the current craze of NFTs with the domaining craze of the early 2000s. 

I actually did a video all about the potential of blockchain domains and would certainly recommend that you watch that!

But where can you pick up those NFT blockchain domains?

Sign up to Unstoppable Domains!

The Easy Way To Get Into Crypto: One of the biggest challenges getting into crypto for those new to it is finding an attractive fiat gateway. This is especially the case for those of us based out here in Europe. 

The easiest solution I have found for all that has got to be the Swissborg App. I actually use it for myself to cashout crypto to my bank account and those withdrawals sometimes hit in just minutes!

25 crypto assets are available for trading here. That includes blue chips like Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as more punchy plays like Audius. 

If you are impartial to crypto lending, then you can also do that over here and you can get rates of up to 10.5% interest in just a few taps!

Even better, when you sign up and deposit more than €50, you’ll get up to €100 FREE!

Sign Up To Swissborg & Get Up To €100 FREE

Crypto News Focus

I am going to retire the crypto news focus here in the email newsletter. That is mainly because I have recently started my daily crypto news flash in my official Telegram Insiders Channel. On top of that, we have also started a daily news service on coinbureau.com so feel free to pop over there and catch some news that may have flown under your radar!

Video Pipeline

• Could You Have Predicted the ETF Launch?
• Coinbase Pro Vs FTX: Which is best?
• Thorchain update: Still worth it?
• Worldcoin: The all seeing eye?
• Crypto custody: What’s the best method?
• Insider Trading at the Fed

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Beyond Digital Collectibles: 6 Other Use Cases For NFTs

13 of the Top Crypto Influencers of 2021

That’s about all I have time for this newsletter. However, I want to thank you for continuing to support the work of my team at the Coin Bureau.

Be sure that we are all working relentlessly to continue bringing you the best crypto content we can!

Anyhow, I hope you have a relaxing Sunday and that you learn a thing or two from my latest vid!

Guy your crypto guy

The post October 25, 2021 – BIG Hidden Risk For Bitcoin?! appeared first on Coin Bureau.

I’m sure that you are all incredibly focused on that ETF news. It’s doubtlessly a watershed moment for Bitcoin and it’s my hope that it will supercharge adoption in the years to come. 

Of course, the SEC approval of an ETF was bound to happen. You only need take a look at the increasing bullish sentiment that is coming out of financial institutions. One of these was the likes of Bank of America which recently initiated their cryptocurrency research due to “increasing institutional demand”. 

To kick off their coverage, they released one of the most comprehensive research reports I have seen to date. Entitled “Digital Assets Primer: Only the first inning”, this report is a literal treasure trove of information. Everything from Bitcoin to NFTs, Defi to CBDCs and more. 

There is only one slight problem though…

It’s over 140 pages long!

Of course, that’s why I’m here! In my video today, I break down this behemoth of a report into its most important sections. I analyse what they mean and add my own commentary and thoughts. 

So, if you guys really want to see what the institutions have planned, this is a video you don’t want to miss!

You can watch it here

Portfolio Update

Took a bit of profit on my BTC position and I put this into UST. Apart from that, there were no other changes made this week. 

Having said that, I may add more to my DOT position. This is mainly because of the fact that we now have a defined timeline for the launch of Polkadot Parachains. As I predicted in my video last week about the imminent launch of these, it could drive a great deal of demand for DOT. 

On top of that, I also have to disclose that I have been sent an honourary NFT. As you guys know, I have recently been exploring the NFT space and a project team decided to mint a Guy spacepunk for me!

If you want to keep up to date with my portfolio movements, then feel free to follow me in my Telegram Insider channel. The update portfolio is: 

ETH 26.61% | BTC 24.22% | SOL 11.89% | DOT 10.91% | PAXG 3.92% | ADA 3.74% | USDC 3.69% | UST 3.26% | ATOM 3.25% | INJ 1.81% | HNT 1.77% | RUNE 1.65% | AR 1.13% | MATIC 1.12% | LINK 1.04%

Thoughts on Market

Would you believe me if I told you that what we’ve seen this week is just the beginning? If not, pull up the BTC chart on the monthly. 

Call me crazy, but I see a massive bull flag. If my measurements are correct, we could hit 100k by the end of the year. There is no guarantee this will happen of course, but the chances are looking pretty good, especially with the approval of those Bitcoin ETFs. More on that below.

Besides current events, there are many macro factors that are taking Bitcoin higher, primarily inflation. Last week we got the latest retail and wholesale inflation numbers for the United States, and I suppose they’re not all that surprising. Retail inflation is up to 5.4% according to the CPI, a 0.4% annualised increase compared to the month before. Wholesale inflation on the other hand is up to a staggering 8.6%, the highest it’s been since 2010. 

Although some of this inflation is coming from supply chain issues, inflation was already surging before these supply chain issues came around. This suggests the real culprit is central bank money printing. 

As basic economics dictates, the more of something there is, the less it’s worth; prices aren’t actually rising, fiat currencies are losing value. This is why so many institutional investors are turning to Bitcoin to protect their purchasing power. 

On chain indicators support this narrative as well. I’ve been watching the percentage of BTC held by whales like a hawk, along with the percentage of BTC on exchanges. Contrary to the price action we saw earlier this year, whales are continuing to accumulate BTC, and the percentage of BTC on exchanges continues to fall. 

This means they’re HODLing, not selling, and this means we have a clear runway for new all time highs in the coming weeks. 

Here’s the craziest part of all of this price action: nobody is paying attention. Seriously, check out the Google Search Trends for cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Ethereum etc. They’re all completely flat. 

This means the retail FOMO has yet to arrive, and that means we could have a lot more room to the upside this time around for both BTC and altcoins. On that note, make sure to watch this video so that you don’t get rekt if and when you decide to start selling. You can thank me later! 

Bitcoin ETF Watch

As I’m sure you’ve all heard by now, it looks like we’re going to see two futures backed Bitcoin ETF begin trading next week. Both of these were approved by the SEC on Friday, and the lucky winners were Valkyrie and ProShares. 

The former will be trading on the NASDAQ, and the latter will be trading on the New York Stock Exchange’s Arca platform. Trading may begin as early as Monday or Tuesday, though this has yet to be officially confirmed. 

As highlighted by the aforementioned Bank of America report, there are currently 20 ETF applications sitting with the SEC. This leaves 19, because Ark Invest recently filed for a futures backed Bitcoin ETF with the SEC as well. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas earlier implied that this new ETF by Ark Invest could also be approved, given that it was assigned a ticker like the Valkyrie ETF (which was just approved). 

As I mentioned in my video about futures backed Bitcoin ETFs, the approval of these kinds of ETFs won’t have a direct effect on the price of Bitcoin. This is because futures backed Bitcoin ETFs are not backed by physical Bitcoin. They’re basically backed by IOU paper trades on the CME futures exchange. 

These don’t always reflect the price of Bitcoin properly, can have high management fees, and also lack liquidity which can lead to additional volatility. 

This means that the price action we’re seeing now is mostly because of the hype associated with the futures backed Bitcoin ETF approvals, and I reckon that hype is quite warranted. Although a futures backed Bitcoin ETF isn’t ideal, it’s one small step towards a physically backed Bitcoin ETF which would have a profound effect on the price of BTC. If you don’t understand why, be sure to watch my older video about Bitcoin ETFs.

P.S. I’ve mentioned many times that the launch of a Bitcoin ETF could signal the top of the current bull market. However, the launch of a futures backed Bitcoin ETF is probably not a top signal. 

As I mentioned earlier, the on-chain metrics, social metrics, and even technical analysis are all flashing bullish. I reckon the approval of a physically backed Bitcoin ETF will be the top, and we probably won’t see it until the banks are done setting up their crypto custody solutions. More on that here. 

“Ban Bitcoin” FUD

If you guys have been following my channel for more than 6 months, you will have heard me cover the Chinese mining crackdown a number of times. Back in May, when the Chinese government first announced that they would be banning mining, FUD filled the air. 

News headlines like this and this were plastered everywhere. The price of Bitcoin was falling at its fastest pace since the pandemic crash of last year. Hashpower was also collapsing as those Chinese miners had to cease operations. 

At the time, however, I explained why I thought it was one of the most bullish events for Bitcoin network security in the long term. It would lead to a mass exodus of these Chinese miners to jurisdictions that were more friendly to them. 

But, the more important point is that it would further distribute and decentralise that Mining power throughout the world. It would help to neutralise the argument that is often used of Bitcoin being “controlled” by Chinese miners. 

Well, a few days ago, the folks over at Cambridge released statistics on the mining landscape. It showed that China’s share of global hashrate went from 44% in May to 0 in July. It’s hard to imagine this given that only two years ago, the country accounted for a full 75% of hashpower. 

Not only is this development great for the further decentralisation of the Bitcoin network, but it also means that worries emanating from China are less likely to impact the price of Bitcoin. “China bans” bitcoin FUD won’t really have any impact on the price if there was no Bitcoin to ban in the first place. 

This is another reason as to why the most recent Chinese ban on cryptocurrency transactions is long term bullish. It will reduce the impact of similar FUD in the future and it will reduce general volatility. 

On top of all of this, the episode is further testament to how resilient the cryptocurrency is – the “honey badger” of money. If it can survive a large-scale crackdown by one of the most powerful nations on earth, it can survive anything. 

Yes, the Biden administration is looking to tightly regulate cryptocurrency. Yes, Congress is trying to pass legislation that could crimp innovation. Yes, the SEC is dying to bring cryptocurrency enforcement into its purview. But none of these things present challenges as threatening as an authoritarian country unilaterally banning all cryptocurrency overnight.

So, in an era of cancel culture, Bitcoin is the only thing that cannot be cancelled…  

Deals of The Week

Fastest Growing Crypto Exchange: Those crypto markets have been on a tear recently. Some of you might be new to crypto or looking to top up those portfolios. To make that happen, you’ll need a top crypto exchange.

But what one to go for?

Well, I imagine most of you will want access to a wide selection of altcoins, rock bottom trading fees, fiat deposits and withdrawals and all those bells and whistles. Well, there is an exchange I am using at the moment that ticks all those boxes. 

That would be FTX exchange. Here you’ll get access to over a hundred cryptos as well as the lowest trading fees I have ever seen! On top of that, you’ll get your first $30 in trading fees for FREE, after which you will enjoy an exclusive 10% trading fee discount for life!

Not convinced and want to learn more about FTX?

Watch my dedicated FTX.com deep-dive!

FTX has a US version of the exchange. Learn all about that here!

Sign Up To FTX.com & get $30 OFF trading fees + 10% exclusive fee discount!

New Merch Available In Store

I’ve heard via the grapevine that some of my merch is a little outlandish and in your face. On top of that, I’ve apparently not been doing a good enough job on my ladies merch line either. So, I’ve been working tirelessly to solve that problem and create some more conservative crypto merch.

That has led to the creation of the Coin Bureau Basic’s product line! Here I have begun launching t-shirts and sweatshirts for the more conservative Coin Bureau fans out there! On top of that, I’ve just added an exclusive ladies T-shirt to the store too!

What’s new on the shelves this week?

• Black Coin Bureau Basic Sweater 
• Grey Coin Bureau Basic T-shirt
• Sand Colour Bitcoin Babe T-shirt

Of course, I would love to think that the merch designs are the main reason you buy these. However,  there is way more to it than that… 

These merch store sales are one of the main ways that I am able to keep producing that content and even ensure that those videos remain ad free!

So, by supporting me through my merch store you are helping out Team Coin Bureau bring you even more ad free content. Oh, and you get a to look “fly as a crypto guy” when outside 

Crypto News Focus

– Vlad The Lad – “Cryptocurrencies have a right to exist and can be used for settlements”.

– Fortnite CEO On Blockchain Games – Epic Games CEO welcomes blockchain games after Valve removes them from Steam.

– Big Crypto Regret – Lily Allen turned down 200k in BTC back in 2009. Those coins are now worth $11.5 billion!

Video Pipeline

• Coinbase Pro Vs FTX: Which is best?
• ESG and cryptocurrency: What’s happening there?
• XRP lawsuit update: The good, bad & the ugly
• Bitcoin ETF update: Are we nearly there yet?

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Exodus Wallet Review: Everything You Need to Know

How and Where to Stake Ethereum?

How to Never Miss an Airdrop, Hard Fork, Swap or Block Halving

That’s about all I have time for this newsletter. However, I would like to thank you on behalf of myself and my team for all the wonderful support. 

Rest assured that we will not be resting on our laurels and have been creating even more exclusive content on our other socials like Tik Tok, Instagram and much more. 

If that sounds interesting then you’ll want to hop over to my socials page and find those official accounts to follow!

Anyhow, I hope you have a cracking Sunday and that you enjoy the latest video!

Guy your crypto guy

The post October 18, 2021 – The CRAZIEST Thing I have Read!! appeared first on Coin Bureau.

Although I’m fully committed to the crypto space, I have sometimes asked myself what the worst case for crypto is. That’s important as knowing the maximum downside possible can help inform broader investment decisions. 

So, can crypto really ever be “banned”? Or is there a chance that it could go to zero? 

Today, I explore the topic in an in-depth video. I analyse some of the most well known risks we see today – everything from new legislation to security flaws, from a Tether collapse to regulatory overreach. 

I also break down some of the cryptocurrencies and protocols that could be at greatest risk from these potential threats. 

So, I know it’s not the most pleasant topic, but it still needs to be analysed. 

You can watch that video here. 

Portfolio Update

Took a little bit more profit on SOL given that it was making up a large percentage of my portfolio. I also eventually decided to pick up some HNT. For those of you who watched my video last week on Helium, you will have seen that I was really bullish on the project. This was bought partly through some of the funds from SOL sale as well as some of my USDC pile. 

There are a few other altcoins that I am considering but I will let you know about in my Telegram channel – Now officially VERIFIED! Here is a snapshot of the updated portfolio:

ETH 26.25% | BTC 24.18% | SOL 11.95% | DOT 10.04% | PAXG 4.19% | ADA 4.14% | USDC 3.95% | ATOM 3.62% | UST 2.74% | INJ 1.93% | RUNE 1.79% | HNT 1.69% | AR 1.37% | LINK 1.1% | MATIC 1.05% 

Thoughts on Market

BTC is up almost 10k since last week’s newsletter. That’s pretty crazy, but in retrospect it was clearly visible on the charts. Pop open BTC/USDT or whatever your preferred trading pair is and set it to daily. 

Notice how it rallied up from 40k to 48k, paused, and kept going? This is a very common bullish pattern called a bull flag (or as I like to call it, a topless P). 

We seem to be seeing the same pattern forming again albeit slightly more drawn out. If it plays out, we could rally back up to 64k. This time around we will have way more room to the upside though, because Google Search Trends for cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Ethereum etc. are still pretty stagnant. What this means is that the retail FOMO hasn’t really come in yet. 

As reported by CoinTelegraph, CoinDesk, and other crypto news, the rally we saw last week was driven primarily by institutional investors speculating that a Bitcoin ETF approval could be just around the corner. This is a bit strange though, because the SEC recently announced they had delayed a series of Bitcoin ETF applications until November and December. 

In any case, when the Bitcoin ETF comes (and it will come eventually), it could mark the top of this crypto market cycle the same way that the introduction of the CME Bitcoin futures during the last bull market. One thing to keep in mind there is that the announcement of the CME Bitcoin futures didn’t mark the top. It was the day those futures actually began trading. 

Even though Bitcoin is in the spotlight right now and probably will be for a while, it’s only a matter of time before investors get bored with BTC and go looking for bigger gains with altcoins. When that happens we will see an altcoin season unlike any other. As such, if there are any altcoins you’ve been looking to get your hands on, now might be a good time (not financial advice!). 

Latest Tether FUD

Tether is once again back in the spotlight. This time it is due to an investigative piece in Bloomberg. I wouldn’t dismiss it outright as it was a really interesting read. There were also some pieces in there that we hadn’t originally known about Tether. 

Here were some of the main highlights:

• Tether Loaned Celsius $1bn USDT in exchange for Bitcoin as collateral. This would mean that some of the reserves are loans from Celsius
• Commercial Paper: Tether has a lot of it. If correct, it would make Tether the 7th largest holder of such debt. There is no breakdown of what this commercial paper is but according to a document seen by the journalist, it includes billions in Chinese company debt. This is something I talked about in my Evergrande video.  
• A previous banker of Tether said that the company had put reserves at risk by investing as if it were a “hedge fund”
• Tether’s main bank in the Bahamas no longer holds the bulk of the assets. They only retain about $15 billion

Now, these are indeed legitimate concerns that once again raise the question of whether Tether is 100% backed by reserves. It once again raises the spectre of whether Tether could be at risk in a modern day “run on the bank”. 

That all being said – Tether remains operating. There has never been an occasion during which they have denied a redemption request from a client. Large crypto companies from exchanges to lending platforms and the like routinely redeem billions. I find it hard to believe that these individuals would be confident using USDT if they had these suspicions. 

Moreover, Tether has settled their case with the New York DA. I can’t imagine the DA would have allowed them to settle if they could find any evidence of reserves not actually being present. 

Also, not that I am a fan about whataboutism, but let’s not forget that banks in the US are not required to hold any reserves at all for their outstanding loans.  

So, should we be worried about Tether?

Well, yes. But not because of it being illiquid. The main risks for Tether are what regulators have planned.

It seems pretty clear that the current administration would like to regulate stablecoins like banks. There are only certain companies in the stablecoin space that would be able to do this and those would be the onshore US based ones (USDC, Paxos etc). 

It was also disclosed this week that USDC received a subpoena from the SEC and that they are cooperating with them. And, just two days ago it was reported that the White House was considering a wide ranging executive order on cryptocurrencies – one that you can be certain will be targeted at stablecoin issuers.  

If US regulators require exchanges to only use US registered stablecoins, it could severely damage the liquidity of offshore stablecoin issuers such as Tether. Any restrictive regulation could actually precipitate the redemption crisis that many fear. 

So, I’m less concerned about the FUD coming from the media outlets and more concerned about the actual statements coming from US regulators. It is for this reason that I don’t hold USDT as a stable store of value in my portfolio. 

Top Newbie Tips

I know the crypto market is looking pretty good right now, but don’t get caught up in the hype just yet. There are still a lot of risks for the crypto market (as mentioned above). The average crypto investor seems to be ignoring these risks as evidenced by the sudden increase in market greed. 

And of course, where there is greed, there are meme coins. I’ve lost count of the number of meme coins being showcased by CoinMarketCap. One of these is Shiba Inu, which a lot of people are asking about again. As I mentioned in my video about SHIB, it will never reach a dollar, much less a cent, because then it would have a larger market cap than Bitcoin. 

If you’re wondering why SHIB is pumping, it’s for the same reason that every meme coin pumps: price manipulation. In this case, that’s an anonymous whale buying up more than 50 million dollars in SHIB within a span of a few days, causing everyone to FOMO in which kept the hype train going. Again, this is the case with almost every meme coin you see, so please, be careful. 

Besides meme coins, the other thing you need to be on the lookout for these days is crypto scams. I’ve been doing my best to delete comments from scammers across my social media platforms, but even a combination of me + my team + a scam/spam comment bots aren’t enough to fight them all off, and a few of you are still getting hurt on a daily basis.

Thankfully I’m verified everywhere except Instagram which should minimise the damage, but I know there will still be a few outliers because crypto scammers can be really convincing. Pro tip: watch my video about crypto scams so you know what to look out for. 

Better yet, share this video with any friends who are new to crypto and tell them to watch it before they dare to put a dime into any old shitcoin. 

Deals of The Week

Top Crypto Exchange: Those crypto markets have sure been soaring over the past week. Maybe you feel that you need to top up your portfolio and get your altcoin positions set for the next epic run? To do that, you’re going to need a top-notch crypto exchange.

But which one do you choose?

Well, you’ll need access to an exchange with a plethora of different exotic altcoins and super low fees – that way you help maximise your gains.

The exchange I am using to get all that is Kucoin where you have access to hundreds of different altcoins. On top of that, I’ve even got you a special deal over there. This gives you a trading fee discount of up to 60%!

Want to learn more about the ins and outs of this exchange? Well, you’ll want to watch my dedicated Kucoin video.

Sign Up To Kucoin & Get Up To 60% Fee DISCOUNT!

Automate Portfolio Rebalancing: Yes, it is super exciting to see your portfolio growing and racking up insane gains. However, the truth is that a good chunk of that overall performance could be down to an altcoin or two exploding. This can leave your portfolio overexposed to a single project.

But what is the solution?

Well, if you have the time you could manually rebalance that portfolio every couple of days. Or you could automate that entire process using a tool like Shrimpy.

So, you might want to check that out if you want to save some time here. On top of that, I’ve also secured you an exclusive 30% discount for Shrimpy subscriptions.

Try Shrimpy & Get An Exclusive 30% Discount!

New Merch Available In Store

Most of you know I have always refused to run ads on the channel. I find ads annoying and I am sure that you guys do too. 

So, instead of claiming that ad money, I thought it would be better to open up my merch store and give you guys the option of supporting the channel over there instead.

This week I have added three new products to the store:

• One for the ladies: BTC Multicolour circle t-shirt
• For the Bitcoin fans: BTC Word Game sweatshirt!
• For ETH lovers: ETH Word Game sweatshirt

All sales from the store help me keep producing content on the channel and keep it completely ad free for everyone.

Thanks in advance for your support here!

Crypto News Focus

– Bank of America Starts Crypto Research Department – Weren’t these guys anti-crypto?

– Celebs Slammed For Promoting Crypto – The Hollywoodisation of crypto a moral disaster? 

– JPM At It Again – JPM CEO claims that BTC has ‘no value’ and warns that authorities will soon ‘regulate the hell out of it’!

Video Pipeline

• Complete Opensea Guide
• What Central Banks have in Store!
• COTI Cryptocurrency Review: Any good?
• Mindblowing BofA Report!!
• Coinbase Pro Vs FTX: Which is best?
• Upcoming Energy Crisis: Bad for Bitcoin? 
• Complete Guide to Algorand Defi

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Best Ways to EARN Free Crypto: Easy Money?

Top Crypto Memes of All Time

But what else has my team been up to on CoinBureau.com? Well, this week we have just launched CoinBureau news! That’s the place to go if you want detailed crypto news coverage from the Bureau.

Now, that’s about all I have time for this newsletter. However, I want to love you and leave you with a big thank you for continuing to support my work on YouTube! I know that the Coin Bureau only exists thanks to you guys and I am so grateful for all that.

That is part of the reason why I have been toying with the idea of holding a crypto event in London to meet and greet some of you guys! I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated on that if this goes ahead.

Anyhow, I hope you have an amazing Sunday and you find my latest video interesting.

Guy your crypto guy

The post October 10, 2021 – This is the WORST Case for Crypto!! appeared first on Coin Bureau.

It’s not often that I come across a crypto project that really blows my mind, but Helium is one such example. 

It was about 2 weeks ago when I decided to take a deeper dive into the project. This was thanks to many of my viewers suggesting I look into it – so thanks if that’s you!

The reason that I found this project so fascinating is because of how big its ambitions are. It wants to completely reshape the way we think about wireless networks. It’s also intriguing as unlike most cryptocurrency projects, the underlying tech was not developed with crypto in mind. 

Rather, it was developed from the ground up to help decentralise 5G networks. It was only when they were thinking of ways to encourage participation did they consider the economic benefits that come from a cryptocurrency. 

That crypto is HNT and it’s got some pretty unique tokenomics…

I don’t want to give the game away, but I really enjoyed researching this project. That rabbit hole goes deep but I hope my latest video shines some light on it for you guys!

You can watch that video here.

Portfolio Update

Few small changes to the portfolio. Sold off a bit of my SOL and PAXG to put into DOT. Just a bit of rebalancing in my smart contract plays. Moreover, I still think DOT is undervalued especially given that we could have PLOs coming soon. I will be doing an updated video on Polkadot so keep an eye out for that. 

In terms of other coins on my radar, I am still considering HNT and may pick up a bit more AR if the price allows it. I will keep you guys updated in my NOW VERIFIED! Telegram channel!

ETH 25.84% | BTC 21.59% | SOL 15.39% | DOT 9.24% | USDC 4.66% | ADA 4.33% | PAXG 4.29% | ATOM 4.27% | UST 2.82% | RUNE 2.01% | INJ 1.81% | AR 1.32% | LINK 1.15% | MATIC 1.09% | LIT 0.18%

Thoughts on Market

I bet you’re all wondering why the crypto market suddenly rallied late last week. I was pretty stumped myself, but I seem to have put my finger on a few factors which could have caused it. For starters we have the delay of the infrastructure bill which contains those two crypto clauses that could be harmful to crypto. The TLDR there is that it will require ill defined ‘brokers’ to collect KYC on customers and require the counterparty in any transaction worth more than $10, 000 to be reported to the IRS (tax man). 

The delay of the infrastructure bill also explains why the stock market continued to crash even as the crypto market pumped. As we have seen over the past year, the two have generally been following each other as traders rebalance risk-on and risk-off positions. 

In this case though, what was good for crypto was bad for the market, because the infrastructure bill would inject 1.5 trillion into the economy, and some of that money would have a ripple effect in the regular stock market. Because that spending has been delayed, stocks continue to suffer (though they have recovered a tad). 

The second factor which could have contributed to the recent rally was SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s reiteration that he is “looking forward to the SEC’s review” of Bitcoin futures ETF filings. On Friday, the SEC again delayed their decision on 4 Bitcoin ETFs into late November and early December. Oddly enough, this is a pretty good sign, because if they weren’t on board with any of these Bitcoin ETFs they would have rejected them outright. 

The third factor that probably played a role in the recent pump was the low balance of BTC on exchanges. As I’ve mentioned many times before, this makes it much easier to move BTC’s price up or down, and what we saw on Friday was very much a BTC driven move. 

According to CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju, on-chain data suggests most of this investment was coming from outside of the United States. I have a feeling that a lot of this money came from Dubai, because regulators recently sanctioned crypto trading there. In case you missed the memo, there are a lot of rich people in Dubai. 

As amazing as the crypto market is looking right now though, it’s important to remember that we’re not out of the woods just yet. The current US administration is looking to bring stablecoins under the wings of banking regulators, and this is something I’ve been warning you all about for a while. 

The details are still up in the air though and nothing has been passed yet, so that’s probably why the crypto market hasn’t reacted. Even so, this could get really ugly really fast, which is why I’m glad Terra successfully shipped their Columbus 5 upgrade. 

This will make it easy to bring their decentralized UST stablecoin to every cryptocurrency blockchain. As you can see from the above, I hold some UST in my personal portfolio and think that it is a good idea to diversify stablecoin risk away from just the centralised versions. You can get my most recent take on Terra here. 

Polkadot

September was quite the month for smart contract chains. These include the likes of Solana, Algorand and Cardano. However, one of those projects which did not seem to get as much fanfare was Polkadot.

However, I have a feeling that the final quarter could be Polkadot’s time to shine. And that is all because of those upcoming Parachain Loan Offerings. These could be imminent and Gavin Wood recently disclosed that they were ready to launch. No timeline was given, but once the audit was complete it could be announced. 

When that happens, there could be a flood of projects from the Kusama ecosystem that are likely to want to move over to Polkadot. In fact, according to a recent survey, 80% of the prospective Kusama parachain projects planned to launch on Polkadot too.

If I was a betting man, I would say that any Polkadot Parachain launch would have to wait until Kusama is done with their second set of parachain slot auctions.

Once these Polkadot PLOs start, there are already quite a lot of exciting projects that could are ready to roll. One of these is Acala which is set to become the DeFi hub of the Polkadot ecosystem – a project I have had my eyes on for some time now. 

Apart from the individual projects that are building here, the launch of PLOs could been a boon for the price of DOT. This is for three reasons:

1. It will create hype around the Polkadot ecosystem and all the media coverage / FOMO that comes with it
2. There will be demand to stake DOT in order to participate in these PLOs
3. When they are staked, they are taking out of supply and hence means less is available to go around

All of these factors are price positive for DOT. 

There are also a number of upgrades which are being planned for Polkadot – upgrades which could further decentralise the project and hence make it less susceptible to regulatory pressure points. 

There is a lot more that I want to talk about with Polkadot and I will be covering it in an upcoming video – so stay tuned!

Top Newbie Tips

In last week’s mailer I gave you all some security tips. There’s one I missed that’s especially relevant given recent events. I’m referring to the revelation that over 6000 Coinbase users were hacked earlier this year, and as CoinTelegraph reported “the attackers must have known the affected users’ email address, password and phone number”. 

Believe it or not, but the overwhelming majority of hacks happen because people use the same email and password combination on multiple sites, at least according to this guy (a must watch interview by the way). While your login info may be safe on larger sites like Facebook and Twitter, this is not the case for smaller websites because they don’t have nearly the same degree of cybersecurity tech. 

When smaller websites get hacked, the hackers use various programs which automatically enter the email and password combinations they scraped into hundreds of other sites until they get a hit, and that might be how the Coinbase hack happened. It’s also not beyond the realm of possibility that a rogue employee could have leaked it  – we just don’t know. 

The thing is, humans are corruptible, and there’s no amount of regulation that can change that. Add this to the list of reasons to keep your crypto in your own self custodial wallet. You can get my top recommendations for crypto wallets here and here. 

Another thing I mentioned in last week’s security tips was a few ways you can protect your privacy. One thing you should keep in mind at all times is that blockchain tracking firms like Chainalysis can easily track you down, especially if you’ve ever interacted with a centralized exchange (and I’m sure almost all of you have). 

I say this because Compound Finance founder Robert Leshner not so subtly threatened recipients of additional COMP rewards to return them or else be reported to the IRS (as they are “doxxed”. As you can imagine, his tweet went down like a lead balloon and drew the ire of many in the crypto community. 

But, here’s the thing. Compound Finance does not do KYC on its users (how can they?). But his tweet underscores an important point and that is that these blockchain firms can easily Dox anyone if determined enough. 

And speaking of those additional COMP rewards, if you happen to be one of those lucky recipients, you should know that they are very much yours to keep. In crypto all transactions are final for better or for worse. That said, be aware of the tax implications something like this could have, and remember not to take tax advice (or threats) from anyone who’s not a licensed accountant. 

Crypto taxes are a hot topic right now especially since governments are starving for money, and they know where the money is at. Consider getting your hands on a crypto tax software, see if you can reduce your crypto tax burden, or even consider moving to a crypto friendly country if you’ve made massive gains. 

Deals of The Week

Buy Crypto With Fiat: The crypto markets have kicked off with a bang this month. Maybe you feel that now is the time to top up that crypto portfolio? The truth is that buying crypto can be a huge learning curve for many people and that’s why there is value in exchanges that are super easy to use.

The most user-friendly exchange I have found is the Swissborg app. I actually use this myself to move in and out of the crypto and fiat. What’s incredible is that I have had crypto withdrawals hit my bank account instantly – something you don’t see often.

Swissborg offers you access to dozens of major cryptos and a few exotic players too. On top of that, it is the easiest way to earn crypto interest. Here you can earn crypto yield up to 8.94% in just a few clicks – that means no messing around with complicated DeFi yield farming.

On top of that, if you deposit €50+ on Swissborg, then you’ll get up to €100 FREE in CHSB tokens. You’ll probably want to take advantage of that!

Sign up to Swissborg & get up to €100 FREE!

Trading Automation: Those crypto markets are surging at all hours of the day, that brings with it a plethora of trading opportunities. However, there are two main problems:

1) Most people simply have no idea if their trading strategy is any good. Rather than trading blindly, you can stack the odds in your favour by backtesting your strategy against historical price data. If that strategy you are using did well over the past year, then that’s a great indication that your strategy could be worth using today.

2) Often, profitable opportunities pop up whilst you are asleep or out and about. However, trading bots allow you to automate your trading strategies and take advantage of those markets 24/7.  

Do these sound like problems you face? Well, you are going to want to look into crypto trading tools! I’ve done a video all about them which tells you all you need to know!

If you don’t have the time to watch that, then I don’t mind telling you that I personally use 3Commas as my crypto trading bot of choice. 

Sign Up To 3Commas For A 3 Day FREE Trial & 50% OFF

Crypto News Focus

– China & Crypto – CCP outlawing crypto transactions backfires as the Chinese people turn to decentralized exchanges.

– Bleak Future For Traditional Remittances? – El Salvador could put Western Union out of business by kick starting mainstream adoption.

– Deutsche Bank Change Their Tune – Bank says that BTC could be 21st century gold.

Video Pipeline

• Worst case for Crypto
• Crazy Ethereum Report
• Polkadot Update: Still worth it?
• Algorand Vs Solana: Which is best?
• BIS CBDC Report: This you need to know!
• Complete Opensea Guide

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Mint NFTs: Top 5 Platforms to Create and PROFIT!

Crypto Trading Bots: Automated Money Machines?

Holochain RSM: NEW and IMPROVED Blockchain!

Now, that’s about all I have time for this newsletter. However, I just want to express my gratitude for all your support. I know that the Coin Bureau wouldn’t be what it is today without each and every one of you.

Many of you know that my merch store is one of the main ways my team and I are able to produce all this content and make it ad free for anyone who wants to learn about crypto! If you’d like to support my work then that’s where to go! 

Also, I have just added a cool NEW Coin Bureau beanie to the store. Those in the northern hemisphere might want to check that out – winter is coming!

Anyhow, I hope you have a top Sunday and that you get value from my latest video!

Guy your crypto guy

The post October 3, 2021 – Mindblowing Crypto Project!! appeared first on Coin Bureau.

Sometimes it may seem that cryptocurrencies move in bizarre ways. One moment, there is almost no price action on a coin and the next day, it explodes seemingly out of the blue. 

However, in reality, all of these moves can be preempted. It’s all about knowing which factors drive a cryptocurrency price pump. Factors that are completely public and tracked by numerous market participants. 

So, what are those factors? And how can they be used to your advantage?

Today, I give you a 101 guide to tracking potential price pumps. It’s an overview of some of the most important metrics and events to track as well as the tools you can use to keep ahead of the pack. 

You can watch that video here. 

Portfolio Update

No changes in the portfolio this week folks. There was way too much volatility and I don’t see any really attractive opportunities at the moment. The reality is that we are not fully out of the woods when it comes to market volatility (see next section). So it’s prudent to keep that dry powder. 

There are some projects in my sights though. I may be allocating a bit more to AR, especially if the Solana rally continues. I am also looking into Helium which has so far flown under my radar (will be doing a video later this week). You can keep up with my market moves in my dedicated Telegram channel. 

ETH 24.67% | BTC 21.64% | SOL 14.39% | DOT 7.50% | PAXG 6.18% | USDC 5.25% | ADA 5.12% | ATOM 4.88% | UST 3.17% | RUNE 1.96% | INJ 1.71% | AR 1.21% | LINK 1.10% | MATIC 1.04% | LIT 0.19%

Thoughts on Market

So far, this September has been keeping up the tradition of prior Septembers. If you don’t know what I mean, give a gander to this neat chart that shows you the BTC ROI by month. September has historically been one of the bloodiest months for Bitcoin, and it looks like this month is going to continue that trend. The question is what comes next, and this is where things aren’t entirely clear.

In terms of technicals, BTC is stuck between a rock and a hard place, specifically the 200-day and 128-day moving averages, both of which are significant zones of resistance and support, respectively. As I mentioned in my video about my own personal trading strategy, these are zones that I watch closely. If we fall below the 128-day MA we could be in for some hurt, and even enter another bear slump like the one we saw after the crash back in May. 

When it comes to on-chain though, things are looking pretty damn strong. Exchange balances of BTC and ETH continue to fall, and the percentage of BTC held by whales continues to rise. This basically means people are HODling and big money is buying the dip. 

This is certainly reassuring, but the increased volatility has resulted in a lot of liquidations from overleveraged traders. According ByBit, over 1.2 billion in BTC futures were liquidated over the last 7 days, and that sell pressure is clearly reflected in BTC’s price (those big bottom wicks on the daily candles). 

Obviously all of these liquidations happened because of those Evergrande fears which I’ll come back to in a moment. Right now, what you need to know is that another bearish bombshell could be coming to the crypto market, and that’s the passing of the infamous infrastructure bill. It looks like US politicians have agreed to vote to finally pass the bill tomorrow at which point all it takes is a signature from the president to become law. 

For those unfamiliar, this infrastructure bill contains not one but two anti-crypto clauses. The first requires poorly defined cryptocurrency ‘brokers’ to collect KYC on all of their customers, and the second requires reporting any cryptocurrency transaction worth more than 10,000$.

This reporting is quite cumbersome and also involves collecting KYC from the counterparty. Neither of these two amendments are ideal, and the second one could make it impossible to interact with DeFi protocols as identity information about decentralized smart contracts doesn’t exist. 

On the bright side, it looks like the crypto market has already priced in these potential threats. Even if the market does dip tomorrow, it will only be because of a few FUDsters combined with that low volatility. 

Big investors seem to be pretty comfortable with their continued allocations, and I reckon that has something to do with the increasing amount of influence they have over regulators like the SEC. If you didn’t get that memo, be sure to watch this video. 

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly!

That Good Ol’ China FUD. Back with a vengeance this week on multiple fronts. 

On Friday, we had one of the biggest crackdowns yet by the Peoples Bank of China on cryptocurrency businesses.  The reason that this is one of the most consequential is because for the first time, it makes crypto-to-crypto transactions illegal. This includes those that are done on offshore exchanges. 

They have not stopped there…

They also want to go after anyone who works for offshore exchanges offering services to citizens outside of China. So, if you live in China and work for any sort of crypto related exchange, you are liable to prosecution. 

This was also the first time that the authorities in China have mentioned Tether in their disclosure. For those that have any knowledge of the Chinese OTC market, USDT is one of the most popular methods by which people have been able to trade in and out of Bitcoin in the country. 

But beyond what was said in these statements, one of the most important factors about these announcements is that they come with teeth. There were 10 agencies involved in the notice including three branches of China’s judicial system. This means that they are actively going to start pursuing cases against citizens for operating in violation of the ban. 

According to a China watcher in this post, the crackdown is much more meaningful than the mining ban from earlier in the year. He said “It could easily be construed as making anything related to crypto possibly illegal under the menu of statutes the notice cites.”

So, something to worry about? 

No, not really. Yes, prices fell on Friday as an immediate reaction to it, but it really wasn’t that meaningful in the context of crypto price swings.

Also, this “China Ban Crypto” FUD has become a meme in the crypto space. It has happened on so many occasions over the past 4 years that it loses meaning. Like the boy that cries wolf, eventually no one listens anymore. 

In the long term, this is actually positive. Like with the China Mining ban earlier this year, actions by the Chinese government force citizens and companies to invest elsewhere. That is exactly what has happened with hashpower moving to the US and other countries. 

If this really does place a nail in the coffin of retail trading in China, then the FUD will no longer grip the crypto markets and we can return to all time highs.

Well, hopefully…

That’s if this Evergrande situation doesn’t spoil the party!

I know I have talked about it ad-nauseum but I really do think it’s a big risk to all markets. If you don’t know what I am talking about, my recent video on it should explain it more in-depth. 

The company missed a foreign bond interest payment and the Chinese government is starting to make preparations for the company’s demise. This is still likely to play itself out over the coming weeks but I wouldn’t ignore it as “baseless FUD”. 

That is because fear can sometimes be good. 

Advanced Security Tips

Quite often, I am asked by followers how I protect my cryptocurrency. I don’t always give the full breakdown as it can sometimes seem like a bit of overkill. I also don’t want to intimidate those new to the space with these relatively laborious processes (which they are sometimes). 

Nevertheless, I am sure that there are many that would benefit from some of these methods that I use. Methods that not only protect my cryptocurrency but also my privacy and personal cybersecurity. 

• Computer Admins: The admin or “main” account on my PC / Mac is different from the account I use every day. That way, I have to fully approve all installations with the admin login credentials before they are installed. This is one additional barrier for Malware and it also means that if ever my PC is compromised via remote access they can’t get to a “root” user
• Speaking of which, be very wary of any software that gives remote access to your device in general. The most popular of these is perhaps team viewer. 
• You may also want to consider using virtual machines for an additional layer of security. If you have to download a program for other purposes and are not particularly comfortable doing so on your main machine, spinning up a “sandbox” VM could help protect against unknown threats
• I use a hardware wallet for my cold storage option for 90% of my funds. I have also set this up with a 2 of 3 shemir backup. You can read more about this backup method in my telegram post here. I will store those 3 separate seeds in 3 separate locations. 
• Always secure exchange accounts with 2FA. Never use sim based 2FA (because of Sim-swap attacks). While I do use authenticator apps for some 2FA logins, I purchased a security key a few months ago. There are many exchanges that support these security keys including Binance for example
• Speaking of security keys, these can also be used to secure other sensitive accounts that require 2FA including email accounts. For those that remember our Google account issue about a month ago, a simple security key could have solved that. 
• Try to avoid reusing addresses when possible. This is not only suboptimal for your own privacy but it also impacts on the security of the broader Bitcoin network. I do know that generating a new address for all transactions is sometimes impractical so it is about striking a balance of course. That balance needs to be determined by yourself. 
• Use a VPN whenever possible. It’s much more prudent to cloak your home IP address when interacting with an open and permissionless network such as a cryptocurrency’s blockchain. 

Those are some of the most important tips that I have for you at the moment. Of course, I must stress that I would not prescribe it for everyone – it is just what I personally do.

Deals of The Week

Level Up Your Crypto Security: While I have already shared some of my top security tips, There is a much simpler way to secure your crypto – and that is a hardware wallet.

But are they worth it and which one should you get? Well, I have already done a dedicated video on that – so, be sure to check that out if you want to learn more!

Of course, some of you may not have all the time to watch the video. So, I don’t mind telling you that the hardware wallet I personally use is a Trezor One! It supports over 1,000 different cryptocurrencies. So, I imagine that even the most avid altcoin dabbler will be able to store the crypto that they want here!

Why Take The Risk? Get A Trezor!

Punchy Crypto Asset: It’s no secret that some people made a killing by snapping up hot .com domains back in the 1990’s. How much did some of these guys make? Well, Business.com was sold for a mindbogging $345 million – a tidy chunk of change indeed.

Needless to say, I missed the boat on that one and I bet most of you did too. However, there is potentially another similar opportunity with blockchain domains! Those domains are issued as an NFT. You could host a website on it and replace your crypto address with a human readable name too. 

At Unstoppable Domains you can buy blockchain domains with interesting extensions like .zil, .crypto, .coin, .wallet, .bitcoin, .x, .888, .NFT, .DAO and .blockchain. 

So, if you are looking to diversify your NFT portfolio into the more exotic end of the crypto markets, then blockchain domains could be right up your street. I actually did a comprehensive video all about the ins and outs of blockchain domains. 

Sign Up To Unstoppable Domains & Check Out Those Blockchain Domains!

Crypto News Focus

– Bitcoin Coming To Twitter – Twitter rolls out tippin with Bitcoin and explores verifying NFT pics.

– China & Crypto – China declares crypto illegal again!

– Hamster Trader – A Hamster Trading Crypto Beats the S&P 500. 

Video Pipeline

• Ultimate Gemini Review: Best US Exchange?
• Top 5 Blockchain Games
• Helium Crypto Review: worth it?
• Avalanche Tutorial: What you need to know?
• Worst Case For Crypto: Going To Zero?

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

The Top 10 Crypto Telegram Channels

Using NiceHash For Profits: Beginners Guide

How to use Compound Finance: Beginner’s Guide

The Top 10 Crypto YouTubers

Now, that’s about all I have time for in this week’s newsletter. However, I’d like to thank you all for supporting my work on YouTube. 

As many of you will know, I have always refused to run ads on the channel. This means that my merch store is one of the main ways I am able to keep creating this content. I just wanted to give you a heads up and let you know that I have two new t-shirt designs in my store:

• A cool artsy Bitcoin t-shirt!
• An ADA moon tee

So, if you want to support the channel then be sure to check those out!

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy my latest video and I hope you have a relaxing Sunday!

Guy your crypto guy

The post September 26, 2021 – Catching Tokens BEFORE They Explode! appeared first on Coin Bureau.

It’s no secret. Ethereum gas fees are one of the main reasons that people are trying to migrate to other alternative cryptocurrencies.

However, the decision does not have to be between different cryptocurrencies but between different solutions all within the Ethereum ecosystem. 

Right now there are Ethereum layer 2 solutions that are helping it scale and helping to reduce the gas burden for the users. These are offchain solutions such as the Polygon Network, Optimism and Arbitrum. 

For the past few weeks, I have been using some of these to conduct my own Defi swaps and it has been a breath of fresh air. Imagine Uniswap transactions completing in under ¼ of a second or at fees almost 15x cheaper than that on the main chain!

That is all a reality when you migrate off the beaten chain. So, in the video today, I take a deep dive into Ethereum sidechain and layer 2 solutions. Not only do I explain all the tech but I also give you a complete step-by-step guide to using them. 

Start saving gas now and watch my video.

Portfolio Update

Took a bit more profit on SOL and closed out of YFI. These are being split 50/50 into an allocation of PAXG & UST. The latter is because I want to keep dry powder in a decentralised stablecoin and if you saw my video on Terra, you will know why I am diversifying away from USDC. 

When it comes to PAXG, this is because I want to diversify to a traditional risk hedge (gold). However, I would prefer to hold tokenised gold given how easy it is to get in and out of it. 

In terms of other projects that are on my horizon, I am still considering more allocation to DOT & ATOM. I also have my eyes on ALGO and am currently doing a video on Algorand – so stay tuned for that. 

As always, I will keep you updated in my official Telegram Channel. 

ETH 25.76% | BTC 21.83% | SOL 14.91% | DOT 7.53% | PAXG 5.65% | UDSC 4.78% | ADA 4.53% | ATOM 4.29% | UST 2.90% | RUNE 2.23% | INJ 1.88% | LINK 1.20% | AR 1.18% | MATIC 1.12% | LIT 0.22%

Thoughts on Market

So far, September has been anything but uneventful. As volatile as the markets have been, there are still a few things that you need to have on your radar over the coming weeks. 

First and foremost, regulators are continuing their crackdown on crypto, specifically stablecoins and crypto lending and borrowing. The FED and Treasury really don’t like dollars floating around that they can’t control. 

Meanwhile, Wall Street doesn’t like the billions of dollars flooding into interest bearing stablecoins on platforms like Celcius and Coinbase, the former of which is now feeling the heat in 3 US states. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, this was likely to happen in the wake of the moves by these states to clamp down on BlockFi.

Whether we are likely to see a national move by the SEC on crypto lending and stablecoins depends on whether they are likely to get given any special powers in congress. Many in congress have already been working with the SEC to see what sort of powers they are able to give (see Gary’s testimony section below). 

In terms of timeline, I don’t expect much to happen until they have voted on that infrastructure bill and it looks like the official date for that will be September the 27th.

Naturally, there are other concerning things for crypto popping up at the last minute, namely an additional anti-crypto provision in the infrastructure bill that was missed by crypto analysts. I mean, who can blame them? The damn thing is over 2700 pages long and written in legal speak! 

But, in a nutshell, this oversight provision means US citizens will have to report any crypto transaction they received that’s worth more than $10 000. Obviously that’s a problem, because this involves collecting personal information on the sender, which is impossible with DeFi protocols.

As a cherry on top, we have this Evergrande situation happening in China. I’ve talked about it before and gave a summarised breakdown in this Telegram post. Apart from the risks around general global market contagion, there are also concerns about what impact it could have on the commercial paper market. As we know, stablecoin issuers like Tether hold almost half of all their assets in this commercial paper. I will be doing a complete video on it so be sure to keep those eyes peeled. 

It’s not all doom and gloom though. There are a number of positive developments within the crypto space. 

Institutions are still looking to increase their exposure to the crypto space. We have recently had the news that Fidelity held a private meeting with the SEC where they were pushing the case for their Bitcoin ETF. This is important because Fidelity is one of the largest asset managers in the world and perhaps the most well known applicant for an ETF. 

Surprisingly enough, Fidelity believes that Bitcoin belongs in the same safe haven category as precious metals and bonds. The global asset manager has also been making numerous positive overtures towards Bitcoin, some of which I covered in my video on Fidelity’s recent research report. 

Over in the altcoin space, we have the news that Avalanche has just raised over $230m to jumpstart its Defi ecosystem. This now places the project on par with Solana when it comes to firepower. They both have unique tech stacks and it will be interesting to see their ecosystems evolve in the coming months. 

So, despite all the Global Macro risks and regulatory headaches, the crypto ecosystem is still growing and it’s the latter that I am focused on in the long term. It’s important to be optimistic about the future without being blinded to certain risks.

Gary’s Testimony

Quite recently, I did a video that tried to break down the SECs thinking about cryptocurrency. Well, this week we had a pretty comprehensive look into the lens with which the Chairman views the financial and crypto markets. This was at a hearing before the senate banking committee. 

There was quite a lot of ground covered but there were a few things that stuck out for me…

Firstly, there is the view that Gary holds that “dozens of assets” that are trading on Coinbase are unregistered securities. While this was no doubt a dig at Coinbase (given their legal spat), it raised a lot of questions in my mind as to which assets they could be referring to. There is no shortage of candidates who meet the rough definition of the Howey Test. 

Secondly, Gensler is of the view that cryptocurrency is just for speculation and he dismissed the idea that it could be a path to financial freedom. This is a view that was also shared by Elizabeth Warren which pointed to the crypto crash last week as evidence of retail investor risks.To me it seemed as if Warren sees Gensler as an ally at the SEC – one who can do the bidding of the (anti)progressive caucus. 

Thirdly, it’s the fact that although these agencies and politicians want to regulate defi, they don’t seem to have a strong grasp of it. For example, Warren said that “the fee to swap between two tokens on the Ethereum network last Tuesday was more than $500.”

On top of that number sounding highly inflated, we all know that gas fees are driven by market factors. They are protocol defined and are designed to adjust based on competition for block inclusion. Warren seems to think that the Ethereum blockchain is ripping off users on their fees. 

As shocking as this is, it was Gary’s response to her question about gas fees which is most frustrating. He claimed that the fees on the decentralised exchanges were “whatever the exchange outlined in their user agreement”. I could give him the benefit of the doubt and say perhaps he misspoke, but it’s clear that the regulators are not fully in tune with what makes Defi tick. 

It wasn’t all that bad though. There were numerous Republican senators who wanted to stand up for the crypto sector. These included the likes of Pat Toomey who thought that the SEC’s “regulation by enforcement” was wrongheaded. I also found this question by John Kennedy about whether Gary views himself as the “Daddy” of those that he regulates to be amusing. 

Gary also seems to be actually taking action on other more hot button issues. For example, he mentioned that he wants to try and limit Payment for Order Flow activity and singled out specific hedge funds. If you don’t know what this is, I covered it in my video about Robinhood and it’s one of the biggest sticking points in the battle between retail & wall street. 

There was a lot more that happened in this hearing and it was a full two hours long. I will be doing a video summary on it as well as its implications in the coming week – so watch out for that. 

Crypto Market Manipulation

One of the biggest misconceptions that I have seen out there is that because crypto is the “Wild West” of financial markets, the same laws that apply to the traditional financial market can’t be applied to crypto. As I mentioned above, the regulators are becoming increasingly active in their enforcement and they are keen to apply their interpretations of securities law to crypto. 

For example, cases around crypto market manipulation and insider trading could one day be pursued by the SEC or CFTC. Just this week, the CFTC has been looking into insider trading in the crypto derivatives market around exchange listings. 

We also had the case this week of the Open Sea head of product buying collections before they were showcased on the website. This meant that they were trading on inside information. In this case, the company asked for his resignation which seems like the correct course of action. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere down the line the SEC opens a case. 

So, why am I telling you guys this?

Well, I think it’s important to point out that you should completely avoid any sort of “insider groups” or pump and dump channels. Any sort of activity that could be seen as market manipulation or trading on material non-public information should be avoided. 

Apart from being ethically wrong, it could one day come back to bite. It may seem relatively innocent at first but every action on the blockchain can be tracked and is permanent. If the regulators don’t have the resources to pursue wrongdoing now, they may in the future. And, there is nothing stopping them investigating market abuse 2-3 years from now. 

Irrespective of whether there is a risk from the regulators, it’s important that we as a community root out these practices. That way those same regulators and politicians can’t use nefarious crypto activity as a reason to craft overburdensome regulations. 

Deals of The Week

Top Rebalancing Tool: Are you a crypto hodler? If so, you would no doubt have come across those situations in which your portfolio percentage balances go out of whack. Therefore, you are going to want to regularly rebalance those portfolio weights. 

Here’s the problem though; in order to do that, you’ll need to get your calculator out, transfer coins to an exchange and send that crypto back to your wallet. Even worse, you might be doing that every week given how volatile the crypto markets can be. 

What’s the answer? The easy way to do all that is by using a top-notch crypto rebalancing tool like Shrimpy! This tool allows you to automate all that and offers a plethora of other features like copy trading and much, much more.

Also, I’ve been able to get you an exclusive 30% discount on all Shrimpy subscriptions too! So, if you like saving time and saving money then this is probably a deal that you’ll want to look at!

Sign Up To Shimpy & Get 30% OFF!

Crazy Crypto Exchange Deal! Now, one of the most common questions I am asked is: what is the best crypto exchange? The truth is that it all depends on your circumstances and what you want from an exchange. However, most people out there want to pay low fees, at a widely used exchange, which has a huge selection of altcoins.

One option that ticks all those boxes is Kucoin and I have been using the exchange personally in order to pick up some of the more exotic altcoins. 

For those that have followed the channel, you will have seen that I was able to secure a VIP level 3 upgrade at Kucoin for all viewers of the channel. However, that offering period lapsed a few months ago. It was taken down to level 2 which had a 44% trading fee discount.

While this was still better than all other deals out there, I was not satisfied. So, I’ve driven a hard bargain over there and I am pleased to say that all NEW Kucoin users that sign up through the Bureau, will get a VIP level 3 upgrade. 

To get that normally, you’d need to buy and hold 20,000 KCS tokens. At the current market price, that would set you back a pretty mind boggling $235k. 

But, if you sign up under the Coin Bureau, you are eligible for that VIP level 3 tier. The main benefit with this is that you get a trading fee discount of up to 60%! 

Sign Up To Kucoin & Get Up To 60% OFF trading fees!

Want to learn more about Kucoin to see if it’s the right exchange for you? Well, I’ve already done a deep-dive covering the in’s and out’s of this exchange. You can watch that ultimate guide to Kucoin here!

Crypto News Focus

– Crazy Crypto News – The US Homeland Security signs a $1.36M contract with Coinbase!

– Elizabeth Warren – She’s now super concerned with high Ethereum fees and says fees & exchange outages could wipe out small investors. Probably best if she moves onto topics she actually understands 

– Binance hires a Europol Investigator – Binance is bringing in the big guns to track down elicit activity on the platform

Video Pipeline

• On Chain Analysis 101: What it is & How to use it?
• Ultimate Gemini Review: Best US Exchange?
• Algorand Update: Is there still potential?
• SEC and cryptocurrency: My thoughts on Gary Gensler’s bombshells!
• How to spot a crypto before it pumps?
• Could Evergrande Tank the Crypto Markets?

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

How And Where To Buy OMI: Be Ready for the PUMP!!

Top 10 Crypto Research Tools: Finding The Next 100x Altcoin

Top Play to Earn Blockchain Games with Serious Earning Potential!

Nicehash Review: The Mining Power Marketplace

Now, that’s about all I have time for this week. However, I do want to thank you for continuing to support the Bureau. What I am particularly excited about is that Team Coin Bureau is growing and I am working with some tremendously passionate and smart people.  

My vision here is that those extra hands on deck will help us serve the crypto community even better, through creating top-notch crypto content. 

Anyhow, I hope you like my latest video and hope you have a great weekend.

Guy your crypto guy

The post September 19, 2021 – Here’s How To Save ETH GAS!! appeared first on Coin Bureau.

If you thought that the crypto markets were crazy, the NFT space is absolutely bewildering. What most thought would be a passing fad earlier this year is hotter than ever. People are quite literally making 1,000x returns on NFT collectibles that are barely a month old. 

Now, the skeptic in me says: This is all hype and it’s going to cost investors a lot of crypto. 

But the inquisitive me asks: Is there something more??

Well, that is exactly what I am going to cover today. I am going to be taking a deep dive into the NFT collectible space and analysing what they are and why they are perceived to have value. 

I will also be going over some of the hottest collections in the space and giving me opinion on their long term potential. 

This was a really interesting video to research and shoot, so I hope you guys enjoy watching it – right here. 

Portfolio Update

Took some profit on my SOL, ADA & BTC allocation. I will be allocating some of this to UST and some to ATOM.  The allocation to UST is because I think it’s important to start diversifying my stablecoin risk – more on this below 

When it comes to my ATOM allocation, I think that it’s relatively undervalued compared to how fundamental Cosmos is to numerous different cryptocurrency projects & ecosystems – an updated video is coming in the next week or so.

There were no other changes in my portfolio this week. I may consider picking up an NFT or two but so far I am not entirely comfortable with their valuations. As usual, I will keep you updated in my Telegram Channel (the ONLY official one).

ETH 25.93% | BTC 20.75% | SOL 17.75% | DOT 7.10% | ADA 4.95% | PAXG 4.82% | USDC 4.68% | ATOM 3.21% | INJ 2.13% | RUNE 2.05% | UST 2% | AR 1.44% | LINK 1.18% | MATIC 1.11% | YFI 0.70% | LIT 0.20%

Thoughts on Market

Things are looking a bit shaky on the charts right now, and this is for a few reasons…

First, there’s the news that the US Treasury Department will soon be taking its first actions against stablecoin issuers, starting with Tether (USDT). This comes on the heels of the news  that the Bank of International Settlements is pushing central banks to begin developing their own central bank digital currencies as a response to stablecoins and cryptocurrencies. Any punitive action against a stablecoin like Tether could have massive implications for the crypto space. 

Luckily it looks like one crypto project is already stepping in to take on the role as crypto’s top stablecoin. Terra’s LUNA coin has been pumping even while the rest of the market slumps, and that’s because LUNA is used to collateralize the UST stablecoin. 

When demand for UST rises, the price of LUNA responds in kind. If you pop open CoinMarketCap for UST, you can see its market cap has risen sharply, meaning boatloads of UST are being minted. If this confuses you, don’t worry. I’ll be doing an update about Terra this week and it will explain everything, including whether Terra could replace Tether and other stablecoins.

Second, US politicians are set to reveal the entirety of their upcoming 3.5 trillion human infrastructure bill. This is a different bill than the 1 trillion dollar infrastructure bill which contains that controversial tax reporting clause which could be damaging to crypto. 

Besides the fact that the Treasury Department is also trying to sneak some anti crypto provisions into the second infrastructure bill, capital gains taxes could be doubled from 20% to 39% for wealthy Americans. Naturally, the practical effects of this would be a massive sell off across the board, and we’re already seeing the cracks starting to form in the stock market.

This brings me to the third point, and that’s the stock market. Some of you might have seen the news that Federal Reserve officials are planning on selling their stocks by the end of the month to “avoid a conflict of interest”. 

This is of course in reference to the fact that the FED’s monetary policy has a massive effect on the stock market, and it seems that a few FED officials have been taking advantage of that to their gain. 

As far as I can tell, a lot of traders are taking this as a sign that the Top is in for the stock market. I reckon that’s not a farfetched assumption to make. As we know, cryptocurrencies have become highly correlated with stocks and they would likely follow the stock market lower should we see a global crash. 

While this may be disconcerting to many, it’s not all bad news. I’m particularly excited about Cardano which will be shipping its highly anticipated smart contract upgrade in a few hours. This will unlock the same DeFi features we find on Ethereum, Solana, and other cryptocurrencies. 

ADA is probably rallying as you read this, but I do have a word of caution for anyone holding ADA… 

As Charles Hoskinson himself noted, this release is more like an MVP (Minimum Viable Product), and there will likely be a few bugs and issues. So, don’t set your expectations too high. Don’t be discouraged by these shortcomings either. They will be addressed in future hard forks, as well as by the dApp developers themselves. I’ll be going over a few of the top projects building on Cardano this week, so stay tuned for that.

The SEC Sues Coinbase

Last week we got the news that the SEC was investigating Uniswap. However this week, we learned that they had far bigger targets in mind with their intention to sue Coinbase over their Coinbase Lend feature. 

Now, despite what you think of Coinbase, the actions taken by the SEC here are really disappointing. This is because of the manner in which it was done. According to this blog post by their Chief Legal Officer, they have no idea why they are being sued – this despite their repeated efforts to engage with the SEC. 

From the announcement, it appears that the SEC is viewing Coinbase Lend as offering unregistered securities. While the CLO of Coinbase makes a case for why it is not a security, the SEC is applying decades old cases (Howey & Reves) in order to come to that conclusion. I have talked about the Howey test on many occasions on my channel but it could be construed that products like Lend can be classified as securities. However, nothing can be done by Coinbase as the SEC is refusing to talk to them about it at all. 

It’s quite unfortunate to hear this. Especially when Gary Gensler was himself asking those in the crypto space to come and engage with them. Moreover, given Gary’s background in teaching blockchain tech at MIT, one would have thought that he would have been more reasonable (or at least more engaged) with the community. 

What I find most frustrating about this is that it seems as if these actions go against the explicit mission of the SEC and that is to protect retail investors. The Coinbase Lend feature would have given users the ability to safely earn 4% on their USDC. By restricting these users from earning that interest, they are forcing them to invest in money markets and bonds which have interest rates near zero – pathetic when you consider inflation. 

It’s not just crypto lending that is a target. DeFi protocols have become increasingly wary of stepping on the toes of the SEC – so much so that they are excluding US users all together. We saw this recently with the DYDX airdrop that I talked about in my post here. 

That was an airdrop. It was free crypto that users could have earned for using the protocol. Retail DeFi users in the US were not allowed to partake. However, those large VC funds and “accredited investors” sure did fill their pockets with the token allocation to the initial investors. 

Was the SEC really protecting the retail investors? And, if they are merely following the law without consideration to consequences, should they really be applying an 80 year old case to it?

It will be interesting to see where we go from here. Coinbase seems like they intend to take the fight to the SEC. This could be a great outcome according to Mark Cuban as they have the resources and heft to do so. Smaller Defi builders and protocols don’t. 

I also think that we have not seen the last of these lawsuits. Other centralised lending platforms in the US like BlockFi could be the next target (they have already been restricted in some states). The SEC could go after more Defi builders and lending platforms as well. 

I seriously hope that going forward there is more guidance and less litigation. 

Top Newbie Tips

Remember last week when I warned you guys about the risks of leverage trading? 

Well, I wish that edition of the newsletter had found its way to every crypto holder… 

Last week’s big drop was primarily due to liquidations on cryptocurrency exchanges. Overleveraged traders caused over 3 billion dollars of sell pressure for BTC, and that caused its price to flash crash down to 43k. Please guys, keep that leverage to a minimum, especially with all the uncertainty in the market.

These are some trying times to say the least. It feels like crypto could pump or dump at any second, and even the slightest deviation to the upside or downside could have you feeling the FOMO and FUD. As I’ve said before, when in doubt, zoom out. 

No matter what happens in the near term, it’s quite clear where we’re headed in the long term. This is something that should calm your nerves, and if it hasn’t you’re probably overleveraged (invested too much). If you’re not overleveraged and are still stressed, consider checking out my video about how to deal with crypto stress.

One thing that I didn’t mention in that video is the stress that comes with being married to a project. I reckon it’s something I’ve discussed here before, but going all-in on a single crypto coin or token isn’t wise. It can really cloud your judgement about what’s going on with that project. 

Moreover, if you use social media platforms to get information on said project, there is a risk you could be in an echo chamber. That is because the algorithms are designed to present you with the information that most conforms with content you like – in this case hype about a cryptocurrency.  

This is especially relevant now that the market is looking weak. Your end game is to protect your gains, and some cryptos will take the dips worse than others. Ask yourself if yours is on that list. Hint: the smaller the market cap, the larger the loss you’re likely to see in the event of a dip.

Speaking of dips, some of you may be eager to see prices drop down to levels you were hoping to buy back in at. This is definitely a good mindset to have, but it can also lead to the risk of wanting to buy the very bottom. This is just as difficult if not more difficult than selling the top. 

As I mentioned in my video about my top crypto trading strategy, I tend to pay attention to historical zones of price support, as well as my own percentage gains or losses. The latter can really come in handy when nothing on the charts makes sense, and that’s been the case a lot these days. 

If you are dead set on buying the dip though, make sure to check out my video about it here. It could offer some help.

Deals of The Week

Rising Star of Crypto Exchanges: Ever wanted an exchange which gives you access to around 100 crypto assets, fiat deposits/withdrawals, a NFT marketplace and much, much more? Well, so do I and recently I’ve personally been using FTX as my go-to altcoin exchange of choice. 

Those of you who want to have the option of trading on the go will be relieved to hear that FTX also has a top-notch mobile app too. So you’ll never miss out on another trading opportunity again!

Even better, I’ve actually been able to secure you guys a real special deal there. If you sign up to FTX then you’ll get your first $30 in trading fees for FREE! Once you have used and abused that bonus, then you’ll get a 10% trading fee discount for life!

Want that deal? Sign up to FTX!

Need help getting started? Check out my dedicated walkthrough videos to learn everything you need to know!

FTX.com beginners guide!

FTX US guide: how to get started!

The Easiest Way To Buy Crypto With Fiat: Let’s face it, getting into crypto can be a massive learning curve for most. That’s why there is massive value in using an exchange that is super straight-forward to use. 

Honestly, I have not found an easier way to get into crypto or to cashout than the Swissborg app. Indeed, I’ve had withdrawals hit my bank account in a matter of minutes – that’s not something that I see elsewhere very often.

Also, Swissborg offers access to a pretty solid selection of cryptocurrencies. That includes pretty much every major crypto asset, alongside more exotic plays like Aave, Compound and Utrust.

Oh yes, if you deposit €50+ on Swissborg you’ll also get up to €100 FREE in CHSB tokens. So yep, you might want to take advantage of that!

Sign up to Swissborg & get up to €100 FREE!

Crypto News Focus

– Mark Cuban On Coinbase – Billionaire claims that SEC is trying to regulate Coinbase through litigation. 

– Beginning Of The End For Western Union? – El Salvador’s new BTC wallets could cost Western Union and similar remittance companies $400 million per year!

– Hilarious Developments At SEC – US Security Exchange Commission is trying to block a motion from Ripple lawyers which could expose whether SEC employees traded XRP. 

Video Pipeline

• Complete Kraken Review: Worth It?
• Terra Update: Where is LUNA Headed?
• Top Cardano projects to watch!
• Cosmos Update: Undervalued Smart Contracts?
• On Chain Analysis 101: What it is & How to use it?
• Ultimate Gemini Review: Best US Exchange?

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Top Crypto Bots: Are They Still Worth It?

TrueFi Centralized Decentralized Finance – Is “CeDeFi” The Future of Crypto?

Now, that’s about all for this newsletter. However, I need to thank you guys for continuing to join me and my team on this crazy journey. I wake up and remind myself everyday that without your support, then the Coin Bureau would be nothing. 

But that is why we’ll stop at nothing to continue raising our game and producing even better educational crypto content for you!

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy my latest video and have a great Sunday!

Guy your crypto guy

The post September 12, 2021 – These NFTs are off the CHAIN!! appeared first on Coin Bureau.

There are a lot of risks in the crypto markets, known and unknown. As I have mentioned previously, September could be a month where some of these risks manifest themselves. 

Irrespective of what happens though, there is one factor that is likely to make the impact of these risks that much more severe – and that factor is leverage. 

I have talked about the risks that leverage poses to the individual trader on a number of occasions. However, there is a far greater risk to the broader crypto markets from the high levels of leverage we see. Leverage that is taken on through unregulated and disparate offshore exchanges. 

So today, I am going to do a deep dive exposé on the market instability that is caused by leveraged trading. I will be breaking down the leveraged trading sector and explaining how minor price moves can lead to flash crashes that unnecessarily increase Bitcoin’s volatility.  

I will also show you how both of Bitcoin’s largest crashes over the past 2 years have been exacerbated by leverage. 

You can watch that video here. 

Portfolio Update

Took a bit of profit on ADA & SOL. Both have had some pretty crazy rallies recently and want to lock in some gains on the way up. I am allocating a bit of this to DOT and the rest split 50/50 between PAXG & USDC. 

I think that DOT has some pretty strong potential over the next few weeks. The Kusama PLOs have got off to a strong start and this is a harbinger of things to come on Polkadot when they get going. 

In terms of other coins I am looking at, there are some really interesting projects being built in the Solana ecosystem. I will be keeping a close eye on them and update you on moves in my Telegram channel. 

Updated portfolio here:

ETH 28.69% | BTC 23.11% | SOL 14.71% | ADA 6.86% | DOT 6.02% | PAXG 4.74% | USDC 4.56% | RUNE 2.33% | INJ 2.31% | ATOM 1.77% | MATIC 1.32% | AR 1.24% | LINK 1.24% | YFI 0.84% | LIT 0.26%

Thoughts on Market

Historically September has been a very bad month for Bitcoin, but so far we haven’t seen history repeat itself. This doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet, however. Besides the fact that past performance doesn’t predict future performance, there are a lot of bearish events and developments on the horizon for the crypto industry.

One of these bearish events is the regulatory crackdown that could be the result of that infrastructure bill which will likely pass in late September / early October. If you aren’t quite convinced that this is a threat yet, take a second to consider the recent news that the Treasury is trying to add MORE crypto provisions to the OTHER ‘infrastructure bill’. To me, this just shows how eager regulators are to go after crypto, and some of them aren’t waiting around anymore.

As I mentioned in my weekly crypto review a few weeks back, the SEC seems to be dead set on taking down DeFI, and it’s possible that the first of many moves has officially taken place. This is of course the news that Uniswap Labs is under investigation, though this has not yet been officially confirmed by SEC officials nor members of Uniswap Labs.

Although Uniswap is technically a decentralized protocol, the website we use to access it (the interface) was built and is maintained by Uniswap Labs. This means that if the regulators really wanted to twist their arm, they could require further monitoring on the uniswap.exchange front end. 

Luckily the markets haven’t responded too negatively to this news, and it’s probably because there are boatloads of “more decentralized” alternatives, namely SushiSwap. Moreover, someone can just as easily host the Uniswap front end somewhere else and fork the code – the beauty of open source. 

Even so, this looks like it could be the beginning of a bigger trend, and the real jugular DeFi needs to protect is stablecoins. Just last week, Canadian regulators barred cryptocurrency exchanges from listing / trading the USDT stablecoin issued by Tether. 

This news was somewhat missed by the crypto media, yet it too could be a sign of bigger things to come. Keep your eyes peeled on the news this week and ask yourself what effects regulatory actions, if any, could have on the crypto market as well as your own portfolio.

Now, while things appear bearish on the regulatory front, it’s slightly more optimistic on the global macro front…

One Risk Off The Table

For those of you who watched my video two weeks ago about some of the risks and opportunities of Bitcoin, one of those risks was that the Fed would start to taper their bond buying program. There was talk of this happening because of higher inflation and an improving job market.  

Of course, this mere talk caused markets to fall on the realisation that they would have to be weaned off of their easy money crack. Bitcoin was not immune to this and it also fell post release of the July fed meeting minutes. As I have said before, Bitcoin is now in a “risk on” bucket for global investors and it is becoming negatively correlated with interest rates. 

Well, it seems as if this risk has somewhat subsided this week. That is because we had jobs data that appeared to show the recovery is not as strong as first hoped. This therefore means that the Fed is unlikely to want to taper for fear of hampering an already weak recovery. This was of course a signal to the stock markets that the Fed money party will continue – and they rallied in response. 

It’s still pretty crazy to me that bad news for the broader economy can be construed as good news for the markets, but that’s where we are right now. Either way, this also helped to propel Bitcoin as it broke the $50k level again. 

Yet, it seems as if everyone has once again forgotten the other reason as to why the Fed was considering tapering and that is because of the risks of inflation. I know that I have been talking about inflation for over a year now but it really is coming to a head. I have heard from so many people about how much prices have gone up over the past year. It’s permeating society. 

Of course, not all of this is driven by Fed policy (demand pull). A great deal of it is also coming from critical shortages and the cost increases that come from it. This is the “cost push” or supply shock that has been driven by disruptions caused by the pandemic. 

This is also likely to get that much worse on the back of surging Covid cases in the region. Factories in China, Vietnam & Malaysia have had to either close down or reduce capacity. This will mean further shortages for everything from Semiconductors to shoes. In order to remain profitable, these factories will have to increase their prices. On top of that, the cost of shipping these goods to the US and Europe is at record highs. 

So, what does this mean for Bitcoin?

Well, I still maintain that it’s a highly effective hedge against inflation. Moreover, if there is a situation in which we have a toxic combination of low growth & inflation (stagflation), it’s likely to be one of the few global macro lifeboats. 

One of the most interesting data points to watch will of course be the August CPI numbers. These are due to come out on the 14th of September. I happen to have a feeling that they will once again be above expectations. 

So, it’s good to know that at least the “Taper risk” is off the cards for Bitcoin and the markets for some time. However, don’t forget those other risks. 

Top Trading Tips

Over this last week I must have received over a dozen messages from friends saying they are back in the green after buying the top back in April and May. This is definitely good news, but the crypto market is slowly starting to look a bit frothy. 

I said the same thing on Twitter back then and I’ll say it again today – the market might soon start getting a bit overheated, and when that happens you have to make sure you’re taking some money off the table.

If you’re one of the unlucky few who has not yet seen their altcoins moon, I have one word for you: patience. One of my mates is a die hard Litecoin holder and he was on the verge of selling his stash before LTC started pumping like crazy. Typically when your favorite crypto hasn’t rallied, it just means it hasn’t YET. 

This obviously depends on the cryptocurrency we’re dealing with, but as a general rule of thumb, anything in the top 20 and especially top 10 by market cap will follow BTC sooner or later.

If you happen to be holding a meme coin though, you might be out of luck. As hyped as this market has been, we still haven’t seen nearly the same amount of buzz as the spring by all metrics (e.g. Google Search Trends, crypto fear and greed index). 

This could mean that there are still bigger gains to be had, but it could also mean that what we’re seeing now is one big bull trap. To be clear, I’m not saying that this is a bull trap, but it’s important to be cognisant of the different outcomes and what the likelihood of them happening is.

This brings me to my final point, and that’s expectations… 

I’ve lost count of the outrageous price predictions I’ve seen now that the bull market is back on the menu. The brutal truth is nobody knows how high or low the crypto market could go in the coming months. If you’re holding altcoins, their upside potential will be limited by Bitcoin, specifically Bitcoin’s market cap. 

Be honest with yourself about the coins and tokens you’re holding and set reasonable expectations on when to take profits and cash out. This is what I do as part of my own crypto strategy which will be making a video about soon – so keep your eyes peeled for that. 

Deals of The Week

So, you want to take advantage of those crypto markets and stay away from that dangerous leverage trading?

Best Way To Buy & Trade Crypto: Now it is no secret that I am no fan of leveraged trading. But so many exchanges have those leveraged markets hidden away and the truth is that some people out there are tempted to use them.

What’s the solution? Setup an account at a top crypto exchange that doesn’t offer leveraged markets! 

My top pick here would be the Swissborg app, I actually use it myself to get in and out of those crypto markets and to do a bit of trading on the go. Now, if you have been in crypto and your local currency isn’t a major global one like the EUR, then you’ll be all too aware of those annoying fees for switching currencies. Swissborg offers support for 16 different fiat currencies. Some of these are pretty exotic, like the South African Rand and Emirati Dirham.

All that makes Swissborg the perfect option for those wanting to get into crypto, whilst avoiding currency conversion fees. 

Swissborg offers access to a reasonable selection of cryptos and that includes some more exotic plays like Enjin Coin, REN and Chiliz. 

On top of all that, the app gives you easy access to some cracking crypto interest rates. Interest rates as high as 9% are available here!

Also, if you deposit €50 then you’ll get up to €100 FREE in CHSB tokens! 

Try Swissborg & Get Up To €100 FREE!

Need help getting started on Swissborg? Well, you’ll want to watch my step-by-step guide!

Best Crypto Tax Solution: Sadly, taxes are an everyday reality. Sure, you can pretend those gains never happened. However, I personally would rather sleep well at night. If you are in the same camp as me, you’ll want to make sure your tax calculations are as painless as possible. 

Sure, you could do all that yourself by learning about your country’s tax rules and then spending days playing around with excel spreadsheets. However, those that value their time are going to want to grab a dedicated crypto tax solution, which automates nearly everything for you.

Personally, I turn to Koinly for all that tax mumbo jumbo. 

Try Koinly & File Your Crypto Taxes The Easy Way!

Crypto News Focus

– Legally Blonde Star Gets Into Crypto – Reese Witherspoon reveals that she’s bought into crypto following a $900 million sale of her company!

– Justice At Last – Bitconnect founder, finally charged by the SEC with $2 billion fraud!

– Cardano Says No To Vaccine Passport Feature – IOG boss says that his values and beliefs prevent him from getting involved in vaccine passports.

Video Pipeline

• My trading strategy revealed!
• Best crypto apps 2021
• Complete guide to using Solana
• Terra Update: Where is LUNA Headed?
• El Salvador adopts Bitcoin: What it means
• Complete Kraken Review: Worth It?

What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week?

Sorry guys, there have been no new articles written by my team for CoinBureau.com this week. However, I am very excited to announce that the NEW CoinBureau.com website is up and running!

This has been the culmination of months of hard work. So, I hope you guys like it and think that this facelift has been well worthwhile. 

Yes, my team is still tweaking a few things here and there. However, I hope this shows that the Bureau will stop at nothing to fulfil our vision to educate the world about crypto!

Anyhow, I’ll let you check out that new site at your leisure!

Now, that’s about it for this newsletter. However, I want to thank you for all the support that you’ve shown me and my team. It has been a crazy journey so far and I am super excited for you to be with me every step of the way. You are what makes all this crypto educational content possible.

Anyhow, I hope you learn a thing or two from my latest video and thanks again for being part of Team Coin Bureau.

Guy your crypto guy 

The post September 5, 2021 – NEVER Do This While Trading Crypto!! appeared first on Coin Bureau.

Hey Guys,

It seems as if there is a great deal of excitement around the potential for a Bitcoin ETF. There are currently over 17 applications that are outstanding – some of which appear to be in the final stages of review.

However, there is one thing that many people have not considered and that is what form these ETFs will take…

Basically, there are quite a few indications right now that the SEC is more likely to approve those ETFs that are backed by CME Bitcoin Futures.

These are not the ETFs that the crypto community has been hoping for. These are synthetic and won’t have any long term impact on the spot market. There is also a really strong likelihood that they could make the Bitcoin markets more unstable and less efficient.

This is a topic that I will be covering in my video today. I will be explaining exactly what futures ETFs are and how they are structured. I will then look at some of the market inefficiencies that exist with these instruments in traditional finance and how they could play out in the Bitcoin market.

So, if you are excited about the potential of an ETF, you need to watch my latest video!

 Portfolio Update 

Few small changes this week. For those of you who saw my video on Arweave yesterday, you will have noticed that I was quite excited about it. Given that I am bullish about Solana (and it’s blockchain is stored on Arweave), it’s a logical buy. I am taking a bit of profit from ETH and putting it into AR.

In terms of other changes, a bit of spring cleaning via sales of some YFI & INJ. These will be shifted into USDC & PAXG. There are a few other projects which I have been considering but I will keep you folks updated in my telegram channel.

ETH 27.46% | BTC 25.91% | SOL 12.55% | ADA 9.44% | PAXG 4.83% | USDC 4.62% | DOT 3.69% | RUNE 2.58% | INJ 2.19% | ATOM 1.78% | MATIC 1.34% | LINK 1.24% | AR 1.20% | YFI 0.88% | LIT 0.28%

 Thoughts on Market 

Maybe it’s just me, but there seem to be a lot of people out there saying that the run up we’ve seen over the last few weeks is just a bull trap. Put simply, that’s a price pump after the main rally which tricks traders into FOMOing back in just before the big crash comes.

The people pushing these narratives were convinced that the market was finished last week, and then boom, last minute reversal! So, what the hell happened? Why did we dip and then rebound?

My theory up until Friday was that the BTC price was being suppressed by hedging around Bitcoin options expiries. Quite simply, there were over $2 billion worth of options that were expiring on Friday. Depending on how the options are positioned (Puts vs. Call expiry and strike prices), the expiry itself has an impact on the spot market.

This is mostly as a result of market makers adjusting their hedges in the spot market to account for the options expiries. There are also some who think that whales try to impact on the spot market while trading options (although harder to prove). If this all sounds foreign to you, don’t worry, I have covered it in great detail in my video on options trading data.

The long and the short of it (pardon the pun) is that the market makers were selling Bitcoin in the runup to the expiry in order to adjust their hedges. There is also a possibility that some bears with puts could also have been trying to reduce the impact of their losses. In the end, the result was that the moment we rolled past the expiry, the sell pressure evaporated and the pulls could continue pushing the price higher.

Now, having said that, it turns out that the bigger factor at play was the Federal Reserve.

FED Chairman Jerome Powell was set to make a speech on Friday as part of the Jackson Hole Symposium, an annual meet up for money printers (read central banks). The markets were nervous that Jerome would announce a cutback in Fed spending. More specifically, the purchases of government bonds.

If this were to happen, interest rates in the United States would rise. And, as we know from Macroeconomics 101, a rise in interest rates has big implications for the broader economy. Companies find it harder to fund growth and overleveraged companies (and people) find it harder to service debts.

The combination of less company investment and individual share sales leads to a market crash. Moreover, even the knowledge that a tapering is about to happen is likely to precipitate the decline as market participants get ready for it – pretty gloomy.

If BTC’s price didn’t give it away, Jerome danced around the issue of tapering and implied that the FED would not be cutting back on spending any time soon. Various indexes in the stock market hit all time highs as a result. Crazy how that works, right?

Anyways, The Federal Reserve is scheduled to have a press conference on September 21-22, which is when they could potentially announce a taper. This will likely depend on what the inflation numbers look like for August, and we will know that sometime in mid September. Although, given recent inflation trends, it’s likely to be higher than most had expected.

The FED’s potential taper is just a few of the rogue elements at play that could make or break the crypto market, and you can learn about the others in my recent video about that.

Irrespective of what is going on with the Fed, the big money is not shy to pick up more Bitcoin. The best example of this is Morgan Stanley which recently purchased over 240 billion dollars in Grayscale’s GBTC shares. I reckon if BTC was going to crash anytime soon, they wouldn’t have made that bet. In my opinion, it looks like they’re positioning themselves to take advantage of new all time highs in the crypto market.

 Starting My Onlyfans!! 

Now that I have your attention, it’s time to talk about OnlyFans! More specifically, the way in which the banks have made it incredibly difficult for the company to run their services.

Whatever your view of pornography, the mere fact of the matter is that it is completely legal. It is protected under the constitution with the First Amendment – the freedom of speech.

However, irrespective of whether this speech is protected, banks (and by extension payment processors) have decided that they will be the moral arbitrators for us all. Banks have decided that this is an industry that does not have the right to access the same services we all use on a daily basis.

All of the major credit card processors did the same to Pornhub late last year. While they cited exploitation, it’s more than likely they used it as an excuse to finally pull the plug. They only reinstated services once the platform completely banned user generated uploads. This drove many of those previous models to start using sites like OF.

So, why am I telling you this?

Well, it’s nothing to do with porn. It’s all to do with the banks. The fact that they have so much power to pick and choose which industries are allowed to thrive and which must die. This is something that we have all experienced when it comes to cryptocurrency. In some places, it’s near impossible to get a business bank account for a crypto related business.

Don’t believe me? Try and speak to any of the UK banks and see how quickly the door will be shut when they find out you are involved in cryptocurrency. This is something that many of you will have seen with your personal accounts as well.

Cryptocurrency is also not alone. In fact, there is a long history of banks limiting the ability of companies to engage in completely legal commerce on the grounds that they don’t like the business. I encourage you to read this post by Nic Carter over on Coindesk. It explains how the government deputised banks through a program called “Operation Choke Point”.

The long and the short of it is that the DOJ & FDIC was able to exert power over the banks in order to get them to limit services to politically disfavoured industries. An example of this was the firearms industry, where numerous banks decided to illegally deplatform merchants.

The point is that banks have the power to destroy businesses that they don’t like. It could be politicians leaning on them to do it. Or it could be other pressure groups that are trying to drive a narrative. And while now they can do it to porn, crypto or guns – they could do it to anyone.

The same argument could of course be said about other centralised systems that deplatform people and companies. Power that rests in the hands of a few can marginalise anyone they like.

That is why I am so ideologically aligned with cryptocurrency and decentralisation. Yes, we are in a battle against the banks, regulators & politicians. However, it’s a battle worth fighting because decentralisation is one of the only ways in which we can limit our dependence on the good graces of the men in suits.

 Top Newbie Tips 

This week I came across this story in the Metro here in the UK. Title: Redditor bet life savings on Bitcoin and lost it all.

It made me wonder how on earth that was even possible especially given that Bitcoin had not collapsed during the week. Then, when I read a bit deeper into the story, it turned out that the redditor had in fact lost his life savings by using leverage. Now, I don’t want to get into how misleading this title is. However, it is a good opportunity to once again warn about the risks that come from leveraged trading.

Futures and other leveraged instruments are not safe for beginners and are far too often shilled as a way to multiply gains. In reality, they are also a method in which you can multiply your losses if you are positioned the wrong way. Moreover, there is so much manipulation going on in the unregulated Bitcoin futures market that whales are often able to use their heft to liquidate the smaller newbies.

I will also say that I know many wealthy crypto investors and very few of them have engaged in leveraged trading. Those that have, have extensive experience in these instruments and rarely ever go over 5x leverage. They have openly told me about how the futures game is stacked against the smaller retail traders. Some have even railed at how unstable it makes the Bitcoin markets (something I will be covering in an upcoming video).

On top of all this, when users do tend to use this leverage and lose their savings, we get these sorts of headlines. Headlines which can’t discern between a risky leveraged bet and a simple “buy and hold” strategy. These continue to perpetuate the narrative that cryptocurrency is too risky to invest in. It will continue to invite overburdensome regulation from government agencies.

So please guys, just don’t do it!

 Deals of The Week 

Now, I’d guess that many of you have already got your crypto positions set and ready for the next market legup.

 Earn Interest With your Crypto: Some people are happy just holding that crypto. Whereas many go-getters are earning interest on their crypto whilst waiting for those prices to skyrocket. That’s quite a smart strategy as you can earn even more crypto in interest and increase the size of your stack.

I personally use Celsius – one of the biggest crypto lending platforms out there. Here, you can earn up to 17.78% interest on alts like SNX token and up to 6.20% on Bitcoin.

But things get even better! If you sign up to Celsius, deposit $400+ in crypto you’ll get $50 FREE. Just use the code: COINBUREAU

 Sign Up To Celsius To Earn Crypto Interest & Get $50 FREE When You Deposit $400+

Want to learn even more about Celsius? Well, I have put this platform head-to-head with it’s fierce rival BlockFi in a video!

 Keep That Crypto Safe: Now, I know you may think that crypto hacks can’t happen to you. But there is surely nothing worse than seeing that altcoin rising to life changing money and discovering that those coins have been stolen by some crypto hacker.

So why not protect those coins and tokens based on what their future value might be? If you want to take your crypto security seriously, then you’ll need to get yourself a hardware wallet. But which one is best?

Well, I’ve actually already done a dedicated video on the top 5 hardware wallets on the market right now!

But, if you don’t have time to watch that, then I’ll be straight-forward and let you know that the one I use personally is Trezor!

Here you can store over 1,000 cryptocurrencies in an ultra secure way.

 Get A Trezor & Level Up Your Crypto Security!

 Crypto News Focus 

– OnlyFans Competition – Tyga deletes OnlyFans account and plans to launch competitor Myystar and allow creators to sell NFTs.

– Bankers Are Worried – Warning issued that cryptocurrency could replace the dollar in just 5 years!

– NFTs Are Going Crazy – A rock NFT was sold for $1.3 million!

 Video Pipeline 

• My ultimate guide to FTX
• Cryptocurrency governance: Why does it matter?
• The risk of leveraged trading to the crypto markets!
• Top 10 crypto apps 2021!
• Avalanche Update: Still worth it?
• My trading strategy revealed!
• This Fidelity report is crazy!

 What’s New At CoinBureau.com This Week? 

 How to Use TradingView to Analyze Cryptocurrencies

 Cryptowatch: Cross-Exchange Trading Terminal

 Dogecoin Spinoffs: All Bark & No Bite or Something More??

 Top 6 Crypto-Friendly Banks: Complete List

That’s it for this week’s newsletter. However, I want to thank you for all your support and giving a damn about the channel. I want to thank you for enabling me to pursue my passion for crypto education full-time. Me and my team will never forget that it is YOUR support that makes all that possible.

Now, I cannot promise you that those markets are going to go into the stratosphere. I cannot promise that you’ll reach financial freedom through crypto. However, what I can promise you is that the Coin Bureau will continue to strive to improve our content and continue trying to add value to the wider crypto community.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy my latest vid and don’t forget to stay cryptic!

Guy your crypto guy

The post August 29, 2021 – Bitcoin Futures ETFs!! appeared first on Coin Bureau.

Sometimes crypto reports come in under the radar and never seem to gain that much traction (despite how insightful it may be).

One such report is the H1 Coinbase institutional report.

In it they give an in-depth look at how the institutional landscape is shaping up. As a company that is at the coal face of institutional demand, their research and opinions matter. It helps us to determine which way the wind blows for the coming 6 months.

It’s a pretty long report, so I have decided to distill it into an easy to digest video!

In the video, I go through some of the most important data in the report and analyse their findings. I also give some of my own commentary and analysis about what this could mean for the crypto markets going forward.

On top of that, I do have some of my own predictions about what we could be seeing in the coming months. You guys can watch that right here.

Portfolio Update

Took a bit of profit in some of the alts that have been performing well recently. This includes the likes of REN & ADA. The proceeds from this sale are being kept 50/50 in PAXG & USDC as dry powder as I scout for additional opportunities.

There are a few gems that are on my radar which I plan to be covering in the next few weeks. I will keep you guys updated in my only official telegram channel.

ETH 29.32% | BTC 26.58% | SOL 10.21% | ADA 8.85% | PAXG 4.28% | USDC 4.17% | DOT 4.01% | INJ 3.05% | RUNE 2.76% | ATOM 1.90% | YFI 1.70% | MATIC 1.53% | LINK 1.35% | LIT 0.29%

Thoughts on Market

The big money is back in town. The total market cap of all cryptocurrencies has pushed past 2 TRILLION dollars. This is a huge milestone to reclaim and it will be even bigger once we start seeing new all time highs across the board.

We’ve already seen a few first movers in this regard: Cardano, Solana, and Terra are just a few examples. It just so happens that these were 3 of my 5 top altcoin picks for the rest of the year, and you can learn about the other two by watching that video if you haven’t already.

Speaking of Solana, you’ve probably noticed that a lot of cryptos in Solana’s ecosystem have been rallying in conjunction with SOL. One of these is Audius which I covered last week, and another one is a cryptocurrency called Arweave.

Arweave is a decentralized storage solution similar to Filecoin, and it’s actually where Solana stores all of its blockchain data as well as all of those Degen Ape NFTs that people were buying last week. The AR coin has consequently exploded, and I know it’s only a matter of time before you guys start asking about it. So I’ve decided to get ahead of the curve by making a video about it this week. Be sure to stay tuned for that.

If you’ve been watching the charts for Bitcoin, you’ve probably noticed that we are quickly approaching a golden cross (when the 50 day MA crosses the 200 day MA from below). This is almost always a signal that a market is headed for new all time highs, so if we hit that threshold we’re going to see a lot of activity across the board. However, I have a feeling this golden cross is going to be a bit of a contrarian indicator and here are a few reasons why.

For starters, regulators are closing in on crypto. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler was very vocal last week about cracking down on DeFi and it’s possible that stablecoins could be a part of that mix. If you watched my video about this, you’ll recall that the SEC is asking politicians for more power to police cryptocurrencies.

Initially the soonest this could have happened was late September when US politicians all return from recess, but it looks like they will be assembling this week to try and rush through those two multi-trillion dollar spending packages – one of which is of course the controversial infrastructure bill.

To quickly recap, the infrastructure bill contains a tax provision that requires cryptocurrency “brokers” to collect KYC for their users for tax purposes. The problem is that this definition is so broad that it could apply to almost anyone in cryptocurrency, including miners, developers, and possibly even certain users. Regulators have come out and said that miners and developers will not fall under this umbrella, but I’m not one to take a politician’s word on anything.

Even so, the worst case scenario of a crypto crackdown is unlikely to happen this week even if the infrastructure bill is passed. This is because we will still have to wait 10 days for the US president to sign it before it becomes law. There’s even a possibility that the voting could be delayed until the politicians return from their summer recess.

In any case, remember to factor in the macro going on in the background. And I’ll be doing a video this week about all the different bullish and bearish developments that are planned to happen (or could possibly happen) in the coming months.

Adoption on the Rise

There has been so much going on in the crypto space over the past few weeks that we can sometimes lose sight of the forest for the trees.

However, this week I was able to take a step back and see the bigger picture once again. That was thanks to the release of a report by Chainalysis that looked at broader global crypto adoption.

This was a really fascinating report that used an index to analyse the growth of crypto adoption in a number of countries around the world. Based on this index, global adoption has grown by over 2,300% since Q3 of 2019.

This grassroots crypto adoption has also coincided with an explosion of trading volume on P2P marketplaces. Some of the countries with the most growth in usage of these platforms include Kenya, Vietnam, Nigeria and Venezuela. What’s even more surprising than this is the fact that we saw declines in these volumes in countries such as China & the USA.

There are many reasons as to why these countries saw so much adoption in crypto but they are all tied to the benefits of its use as a medium of exchange. In Vietnam, it’s down to remittance flows (cheaper to send Bitcoin), in Nigeria and Kenya, it’s down to buying imports. In Venezuela, crypto is helping people survive in a hyperinflationary environment.

And I happen to think that adoption is only going to be increasing thanks to more acceptance by governments in the emerging world. For example, we all know that El Salvador is about to make Bitcoin a legal tender. On the 6th of September, it will be the first country in the world that will be making such a move.

The choice of whether to use Bitcoin in the country will be optional so it will be interesting to see how many people actually start transacting with it. Could it go the same way as countries like Nigeria or Vietnam where people embrace it with open arms? Or will it be a damp squib that was nothing more than a PR stunt.

It won’t only be our eyes focused on this rollout. There are also a number of other South American countries that are monitoring the impacts of this.

One of these is Argentina whose president was recently asked about crypto. He acknowledged that its rise was inevitable and that it had the broader potential to “nullify inflation”. Quite telling from a president of a country that is seeing inflation of over 50%.

So, while cryptocurrency does have regulatory headwinds in countries like the US & China, the rest of the world is picking up the slack. Moreover, this is the fundamental adoption that cannot be stopped. It is something that I covered in my video a few months ago on India & Nigeria’s crypto bans – both countries that have continued adoption unabated.

Interest in cryptocurrency will wane when prices stagnate. The amount of people investing in a bear market will be a fraction of what it is now. However, if you are using crypto in your daily life, the markets are of lesser importance.

By weaving cryptocurrency into the fabric of their monetary systems, these countries are making it a lot harder for governments to rugpull us with regulations.