Most crowded trade? / Bitfinex documents / Chainalysis reports on ransomware / Janet Yellen confirmation

Bank of America clients ranked bitcoin as the world's "most crowded trade."

Inside.com Part of   Network January 20, 2021

Presented by

Bitcoin $34,947 7 day: -3.2% Ethereum $1,320 7 day: +19.7% All crypto $1T 7 day: +1.8% Bitcoin dominance 64.8% 7 day: -3.5% Prices as of 4:15 p.m. EST

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) polled its clients managing a combined $561B in assets and ranked bitcoin as the world's "most crowded trade." Bank of America's survey respondents ranked bitcoin above all tech stocks as the most crowded trade. Bank of America strategists led by Michael Hartnett also hinted at rising suspicions regarding an approaching price correction in the report. Risk appetite achieved another record: respondents also indicated that their investments in emerging market stocks increased by 7% to a net 62% overweight, lifting emerging markets to the most overweight record in Bank of America's survey history. Bloomberg

After months of delay, Bitfinex will soon deliver key documents to the New York Attorney General (NYAG) office, as ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court. The documents will reveal more financial details and shed light on how Bitfinex used a massive loan from the company behind the stablecoin Tether (USDT). Tether is actively traded on hundreds of cryptocurrency exchanges. This document production will only reveal details of a constrained time period on one exchange. In December 2020, the NYAG office said it expected the document transfer within a few weeks. This is a developing story. We will continue following the investigation into Tether here at Inside Cryptocurrency. Coindesk

A message from M1 FINANCE This award-winning finance super app gives you the choice and automation you need. Your finances are personal. Shouldn't your finance platform be too? M1 Finance is designed to be personalized to you. And M1 doesn't stop at personalization. Once you build your portfolio to your specifications, you can automate it how you want, so you can reach your goals easier than ever.  2021 will be a wild ride, but M1 Finance can help you build for the future with a place to invest, borrow, save, and spend—all in one free app. For a short time, you can earn $30 when you get started with M1. Terms and conditions apply. Tell me more

Chainalysis reported a decrease in traditional criminal activity yet a major rise in ransomware attacks last year. Chainalysis' report, published Jan. 19, highlighted a drop in transfers between criminal entities to $10B during 2020 versus 2019's $21.4B. According to the data furnished by the crypto intelligence company, most criminal revenue associates with money-laundering. Chainalysis' report also points towards an increase in ransomware theft, growing 131% from 2018 to 2019, and another 311% from 2019 to 2020. Some experts estimate that ransomware alone caused $20B in total economic losses during 2020. Coindesk

Janet Yellen New U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testified to the Senate about her growing concerns about cryptocurrency's role in terrorist financing. Terrorists' use of cryptocurrencies is of "particular concern," Yellen said Tuesday. Yellen is the successor to Republican Steven Mnuchin. Among her top concerns: Yellen testified during her senate confirmation hearing that she will address crypto's role in terrorist financing. She stated that the U.S. government needs to counteract technological tools used by criminal organizations. Yellen added that she believes that criminals are attracted to cryptocurrencies' irreversible ledgers in financing illicit activities. Coindesk

A message from CISCO WEBEX Steer clear of video meeting bombs and work more efficiently with the all-new Webex. Remote team collaboration is hard. Luckily, the all-new Webex’s security-first approach is designed to make remote teams more efficient. Think secure video calls free of meeting bombers, the ability to record and transcribe those sessions, and of course, messaging and calling too. Learn more

Coinbase Co-Founder Fred Ehrsam Trading volume on Coinbase continues to increase amid bitcoin's bull run. The exchange is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO). On Jan. 11 alone, Coinbase reported over $9.5B in volume, more than the entire first quarter of 2019. More: The San Francisco-based exchange has shared plans for its upcoming IPO. Some experts cite the Coinbase IPO as a market catalyst that is attracting capital into the bitcoin market. Google Trends shows consistent growth in interest among U.S. citizens for both bitcoin and Coinbase. An article by Brave New Coin highlights Coinbase's popularity among mobile users in the U.S. The Coinbase app is the sixth most popular in the Finance category on Apple's App Store. The exchange has over 35M customers. Some have filed complaints with the SEC regarding repeated outages that caused losses in 2018. Brave New Coin

QUICK HITS: How are companies deciding on privacy management solutions in 2021? This eGuide breaks it down.* Former President Donald Trump, on his last day in office, delivered a last-minute pardon to Ken Kurson, among 72 others. Kurson served as a Ripple (XRP) board member. The world's largest asset manager, Blackrock (NYSE:BLK), will add bitcoin futures to two of its funds. In a blog dated Jan. 19, Coinbase announced that it will acquire Bison Trails which develops blockchain infrastructure for banks. The deal is reportedly worth $80M. A Bloomberg report dated Jan. 15 suggests that Mt. Gox victims could recover their digital assets "before legal claims are settled." The deal, struck by CoinLab Inc. with Mt. Gox trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi, allows creditors to reclaim as much as 90% of their remaining bitcoin. Allan Flynn is suing Westpac and ANZ, asking the Australian banks for AUD250,000 ($190,000) as compensation in an ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal for closing his cryptocurrency accounts without warning, which damaged his business. Iranian media reports that on Jan. 16, police seized 45,000 bitcoin miners (mostly ASIC machines) illegally consuming about 95MWh of subsidized electricity from the Iranian electricity company Tavanir. France's central bank, Banque de France, performed interbank settlements using a blockchain platform (provided by a startup called SETL) as an experiment for a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Banque de France published the details of the $2.4M worth of transactions on Jan. 19. In a press release, Enjin, the company behind Enjin Coin (ENJ), announced approval from Japanese regulator JVCEA, claiming that ENJ is "the first gaming token in Japan." However, SBI has been using XRP in its e-sports subsidiaries, including paying e-sports salaries in XRP, for months. Bullish on Bitcoin? Start earning daily interest on it with Nexo's Crypto Savings Account.* *This is sponsored content.

Curated by Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, and bitcoin follower since $1, Aaron Wise. Temporarily listening to news squawk boxes in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia. Editor Charlotte Hayes-Clemens is an editor and writer based in Vancouver. She has dabbled in both the fiction and non-fiction world, having worked at HarperCollins Publishers and more recently as a writing coach for new and self-published authors. Proper semi-colon usage is her hill to die on.

Join 500,000 investors who opened accounts at M1 to automate their finances.

Check out their plans.

767 Bryant St. #203, San Francisco, CA 94107 Copyright © 2021 Inside.com

Did someone forward this email to you? Head over to inside.com to get your very own free subscription! You received this email because you subscribed to Inside Cryptocurrency . Click here to unsubscribe from Inside Cryptocurrency list or manage your subscriptions.