📌 Hedge Fund Eyes BTC, Ripple Sues YouTube, and Huge DeFi Hack

April 22, 2020 | Issue #114  MUST READS  Large Hedge Fund Eyeing the Bitcoin Futures Market Renaissance Technologies, founded by the legendary Jim Simons, has been eyeing the Bitcoin futures market, according to a regulatory form filed last month. The fund, which is best known for pioneering quantitative-based investing and was recently in the news for gaining 24% during this tumultuous market, said in a recent filing that its Medallion Funds are now "permitted to enter into Bitcoin futures transactions." Speaking of Bitcoin futures, CME has recently seen Bitcoin futures rise 70% as institutions return to the market.   Binance Launching New Ethereum-Compatible Blockchain Just weeks after acquiring CoinMarketCap, Binance is now launching a new Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible blockchain dubbed Binance Smart Chain (BSC). This means the exchange is now directly competing with smart-contract protocols (Ethereum, EOS, Tezos, etc.)... and is eyeing to ramp up the rapidly evolving dApp and DeFi sectors. BSC's native token will be BNB, allowing holders of the token to participate in staking and earn rewards. Binance further said that the BSC will support all of the existing Ethereum tooling along with faster and cheaper transactions. Unrelated, but this week the exchange also announced they've reached new highs with it's $52M quarterly burn. Still too early to call CZ the Jeff Bezos of crypto...?   Grayscale's Q1 2020 Digital Asset Investment Report Grayscale, one of the largest crypto asset managers has released their Q1 2020 report in which they stated they raised over $500 million, nearly double their previous high. Here's everything else you need to know... 88% of inflows this quarter came from institutional investors, the overwhelming majority of which were hedge funds. (good to see that the traditional finance space still sees BTC and ETH as viable investments admist today's economic chaos 👍)   For the first time, inflows into Grayscale products over a 12-month period crossed the $1 billion threshold ($1.07 billion)   Historically, large investments into Grayscale have preceded market rallies   Grayscale now holds 1.7% of Bitcoin supply  SPONSORED  Tax-Free Investing in Crypto Wish you could invest in crypto tax-free? If you have an IRA or 401(k), here's your chance. If you're like most people, your IRA or 401(k) is a place where money is blindly stashed away. The tax benefits are undeniable, so year after year, you invest in the usual mix of stocks and mutual funds. But what if you could invest that money in crypto? WELCOME TO A CRYPTO IRA – from BitIRA. You see, we've discovered a little-known IRS Tax Law that actually lets you convert your IRA or 401(k) into crypto. Get all the upside of crypto, get all the tax benefits of an IRA – with ZERO tax consequences. In the next few weeks, we're giving away a free info guide that reveals exactly how to make this move and how to get started. Click here to get your FREE GUIDE on tax-free crypto investing.    DEEP DIVE  FTX's Newest Tokens Track Bitcoin Volatility Crypto derivatives exchange FTX, which is backed by well-known investors including Binance and Consensus Lab, is planning to launch two ERC20 tokens – the BVOL and iBVOL – that track the volatility of BTC price. Consider this as Bitcoin's equivalent to CBOE's Volatility Index (VIX). Today FTX also announced that they have launched crude oil futures – which, as of this week, have seen prices fall below zero for the first time in history.   The Largest DeFi Hack to Date... Over the weekend, Lendf.Me, a DeFi lending protocol on the dForce network, was hacked for just shy of $25M. The hacker apparently took advantage of a well-known vulnerability in the ERC-777 standard and essentially wrecked a whole token project overnight. But there's a strange twist in the story... During the process, the hacker mistakenly leaked important metadata about himself – all of which of made it easy for regulators to track him down. 24 hours later, the hacker surrendered to the Singaporean police and returned 100% of the stolen funds.   It's Time to Build Finally, a corona op-ed that doesn't point fingers towards one political party or another. It's time to look in the mirror and realize there's only one way to create the future we want... This is the time to build.   Facebook's Libra Pivots Libra has been pretty quiet over the last few months but this week, all of that changed. Co-creator and a board member of the Libra Association, David Marcus took it to Twitter to catch everyone up on Libra's progress made in the last nine months, highlighting several key changes along the way... Most notably, the project seems to have steered away from it's mega global reserve currency ambition... and will instead focus on providing individual stablecoins for specific fiat currencies, including GBP, EUR, and USD.    REGULATORY FRONT  Ripple Sues YouTube Over Scam Videos The CEO of Ripple (XRP), Brad Garlinghouse, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing Youtube of turning a blind eye to scams that have defrauded consumers. The complaint cites numerous instances where hackers took over the channels of legitimate creators and replaced their videos with ones advertising Ripple-related scams. The scammy Ripple videos often show media interviews with Garlinghouse lifted from reputable sources, and overlaid with invitations to participate in "giveaways" of XRP. Ripple states that despite sending hundreds of notices to YouTube, they have responded slowly or sometimes not at all. Garlinghouse says Ripple will use any damages or settlement money it receives from the case to reimburse victims fleeced by the YouTube scams.    TWEET OF THE WEEK  Other Articles You May Enjoy Filecoin delays mainnet launch again   Coinbase's revenue and profit in 2019   Bitcoin mining hardware war is heating up ahead of the halving   FBI expects a rise in scams involving cryptocurrency-related to the COVID-19 pandemic   Gemini clears new Deloitte audit in bid to appeal to Wall Street   Facebook invests $5.7B into India's largest Telecom   OG Bitcoin app shuts down 6 years after launch   Coinbase custody to support Polkadot staking with up to 20% returns   How crisis affects crypto: Coronavirus as a test case   WeChat (without the surveillance)   Real-time charts on the economic impact of COVID-19   This is a story of the explosion of stablecoins in Q1 2020 The CoinSnacks weekly digest is a manually curated newsletter that delivers fresh content covering cryptoassets and the evolving blockchain community for investors around the world. 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Novogratz doubles down on Bitcoin / Report: Bitcoin is preparing for a bull run / Vinny Lingham's opinion of US government stimulus

Inside Cryptocurrency .

Inside.com Part of   Network April 22, 2020

Market Watch In a reverse from yesterday, coin prices across the board are back in the green today. Bitcoin remains under the $7,000 mark but is up over two percent in a 24-hour period. The biggest winner, though, is DigiByte, which has seen a near 10 percent rise in the same time frame. Bitcoin: $6,995 (⬆️ 2.12%) // $128.2 billion market cap. Ethereum: $176 (⬆️ 3.04%) // $19.5 billion market cap. XRP: $0.186 (⬆️ 1.57%) // $8.2 billion market cap. Tether: $1.01 (⬆️ 0.05%) // $6.3 billion market cap. Top 100 Winner: DigiByte: $0.007 (⬆️ 9.81%) // $104 million market cap. Top 100 Loser: Quant: $5.12 (⬇️ 9.05%) // $61 million market cap. Prices are as of 2:30 p.m. ET.

Report: Bitcoin is preparing for a bull run. The report suggests that Bitcoin is maturing toward that of a digital gold while the COVID-19 pandemic is helping. Comparing it to the S&P 500, it says that on a one-year basis, Bitcoin is up 40 percent compared to a 15 percent decline for the S&P 500. To read our synopsis of the report, and gain access to all of our other great features, subscribe to Inside Crypto Premium for just $10 a month, or $100 a year. Click here to upgrade to premium! UPGRADE TO INSIDE CRYPTO PREMIUM

Mike Novogratz doubles down on Bitcoin. The former hedge fund manager and founder of Galaxy Digital, a crypto-focused merchant bank, is once again talking about Bitcoin. This time it's in light of the oil's recent price drop, new stimulus measures passed by the U.S. Senate, and Bitcoin's May halving event. During an interview on CNBC's Fast Money, Novogratz said that "Bitcoin has this moment right now." In Novogratz's opinion, as more money continues to be printed, people will turn their attention to crypto, which offers scarcity. He added that the upcoming halving event – which will reduce rewards for miners from 12.5 Bitcoins to 6.25 – is likely to boost Bitcoin's appeal. @CNBCFASTMONEY/TWITTER

Crypto Masterclass, featuring Vijay Ayyar. Our Crypto Masterclass feature showcases a well-known thought leader or expert in the crypto space, including their visions and advice for the future. "What we witnessed in the oil markets yesterday was more a technical clash in pricing rather than actual market activity since the June futures contract is still trading above 0." Having said that, though, Vijay Ayyar, head of Asia at crypto exchange Luno, is of the opinion that this will be an interesting time for an alternate and young asset class such as cryptocurrencies. Citing Ray Dalio, former co-chief investment officer at Bridgewater Associates, he writes that what we are seeing now is the end of a long-term debt cycle between 75 and 100 years, similar to what took place in the 1930s.... To continue reading Ayyar's views, including what could happen over the next few months, subscribe to Inside Crypto Premium for only $10 a month, or $100 a year. Click here to upgrade to premium! SUBSCRIBE NOW TO FIND OUT MORE

Vinny Lingham: U.S. government stimulus will have little impact on dollar's value. The co-founder and CEO of Civic, an identity and protection management startup, expressed his views today on Twitter. In Lingham's opinion, as the supply of the U.S. dollar increases, it leverages Gresham's law to maintain stability. This is unlike other countries, which when they create government stimulus packages, push their economies to the brink. Just as Bitcoin has a dominance index in crypto, the dollar has one, too, Lingham writes. In his opinion, even with the issuance of more dollars, its dominance is rising, which will offset inflationary effects. Continuing on, Lingham said that even with another $2 trillion it won't create any inflationary effect on the value of the dollar, at least not short term. @VINNYLINGHAM/TWITTER

Everledger is using its blockchain technology to help the diamond industry offset carbon emissions. Everledger's platform is being used by a diamond company to meet consumers' demand for the environmental footprint of each diamond... To read the full story, including what retailers may take advantage of the platform, subscribe to our Premium edition. Click here to upgrade to premium! SUBSCRIBE NOW TO FIND OUT MORE

Privacy-focused altcoin Beam will undertake its second hard fork in June. In a blog post published today, Beam said that its network upgrade will take place at Block Height 777,777, which is expected to occur on June 28, 2020. Following the fork, the network's proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm will shift from BeamHashII to BeamHashIII. According to Beam, the move will be a huge improvement to the mining network which, in turn, allows for better capabilities of a GPU card. It also means that it will make "unknown optimizations" used for secret mining more unlikely. The hard fork will activate confidential assets, provide support for privacy protocol Letanlus Mimblewimble, and activate support for one-sided payments. BEAM PRIVACY/MEDIUM

This newsletter was written and curated by Rebecca Campbell. She has been writing and reporting on various industries for the past 10 years, more specifically tech in the last three.  Editor Beth Duckett is a former news and investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic who has written for USA Today and other publications. A graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, she won a First Amendment Award and a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her original reporting on problems within Arizona's pension systems.

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