Robinhood to accelerate advancements on crypto platform / Powell reiterates support of CBDCs / BoA does not like the coin

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Inside.com Part of   Network March 19, 2021

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Bitcoin (BTC) $58,955 Ethereum (ETH) $1,825 Binance Coin (BNB) $266 Global Market Cap       $1.81T Prices as of 2 p.m. ET.

Robinhood is expanding on its cryptocurrency services “as fast as possible,” says CEO Vlad Tenev. Tenev discussed expanding crypto services and suggested better rates than Coinbase during a fireside chat posted on Youtube yesterday. More: Robinhood counted 6M first-time crypto traders on their platform over the past two months. This is exponential growth compared to the monthly average of about 200K new crypto traders in 2020. Women make up a large majority of this group, with the platform seeing seven times the amount of female crypto traders so far in 2021.  Tenev commented on the growing number of requests for wallet capabilities on Robinhood, stating that his team is “going to try and get that done as fast as possible.” With the release of a wallet feature, Tenev also suggested that new coins will be added to the platform. The Robinhood CEO also fired shots at its competition, boasting cost-effective crypto offerings that are 1-2% less than Coinbase.

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The U.S. Federal Reserve is in support of state-backed digital currencies and CBDCs. Chairman Jerome Powell spoke at a payments conference yesterday and expressed the need for digital currencies in conjunction with traditional fiat money. More:  Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are centralized, fiat-backed stablecoins used to represent a country’s official currency. Since mid-February, the implementation of a digital dollar has been considered a “high priority project” for the United States.  Powell cited the COVID-19 pandemic as an accelerant for the development of new digital payment and currency technologies "to address the limitations of our current arrangements for cross-border payments."

Bank of America’s (BoA) Bitcoin Report is in stark contrast to growing acceptance of the currency from other banking institutions. Despite the bearish report on bitcoin, BoA is nonetheless bullish on decentralized finance (DeFi). Key takeaways from the report include: CBDCs: The report suggests that the adoption of CBDCs will replace private cryptocurrencies. Environmental Impact: BoA claims that buying one BTC is “like owning 60 cars.” Sensitivity to Increased Dollar Demand: BoA estimates an inflow of around $93M would be required to appreciate the price of BTC by 1%. The BoA report is in contrast to a Citibank's (C  -0.50%) report released this month, where they praised bitcoin as having the potential to become “the currency of choice” for international trade.

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Griffin McShane is a J.D. candidate currently living in Portland, Maine. He is a graduate of Providence College, where he studied both computer science and business. Griffin aspires one day to go to the moon and bring some of his altcoins along for the ride. 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.

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Real-Life Workers in Decentraland's Virtual Casino

Also: Filecoin "double deposit," seeding the digital yuan and more.

What you need to know today in crypto and beyond  March 19, 2021 Sponsored By:     If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here.   Send feedback to marc.hochstein@coindesk.com – we'd love to hear from you! Top Shelf Today's must-reads 'SERIOUS BUG': Millions worth of Filecoin's FIL token were "double deposited" on Binance due to a "serious bug" in the software exchanges use to interact with the Filecoin network. While it's not a true "double-spend," the problem with duplicating digital money Bitcoin was created to prevent, there may be other instances where this Filecoin error has popped up. The Protocol Labs team knows of the error and is working on a solution. CLOCKING IN: A virtual casino in Decentraland has hired 20 part-time greeters and a full-time manager. Decentral Games' Tominoya Casino is not the first virtual world to house real-life employees – Reuters hired a Second Life reporter in 2008, for instance – though it is an example of how self-sovereign technologies like cryptocurrencies are enabling hyperreal experiences in virtual spaces. GLOBAL GROUNDS: China has been piloting digital currency trading platforms in what appears to be a test for taking its "digital yuan" global. The nation is also setting up a legal framework for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) with global financial regulators. "For the digital yuan to achieve global adoption, China would thus need to work with trading partners or regional financial hubs to have a platform where the digital yuan is technically, legally and financially interoperable with other countries' digital currencies," CoinDesk's David Pan writes. NFT MANIA: WISeKey, a cybersecurity company based in Zug, Switzerland, saw its smallish-cap stock surge 80% after announcing it's developing a non-fungible token (NFT) app. Tony Hawk tokenized a 540-degree ollie, last performed in the 80s, and is auctioning it off. Lindsay Lohan is taking her NFT-game to Tron. Why?   – Daniel Kuhn Sound Bite Overheard on CoinDesk TV "For an institutionalist like me, I like bitcoin at $20,000 or $30,000 more than I liked it at $400 a coin, because of the scaling nature of it and the potentiality for exponential growth." Anthony Scaramucci, one-time Trump administration communications director and founder of alternative investments firm, SkyBridge Capital, which is big into bitcoin, said Friday on CoinDesk TV's First Mover. SPONSORED BY NEXO     Your digital assets deserve a savings account in their BEST INTEREST. Leading crypto lender Nexo treats you, your crypto and your fiat to industry-best Crypto & Fiat services, featuring:    * Up to 12% interest on digital assets, paid out daily! * Yields available on BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, XRP, XLM, EOS, TRX, LINK, BNB, PAXG, USDT, USDC, TUSD, PAX, DAI, HUSD, GBP and EUR. * No minimum or maximum limits on funds deposited, offering infinite opportunities to earn. * #ZeroFees on all transactions. * Military-grade wallet security and top-tier insurance on all custodial assets with SOC 2 Type 2 certified crypto custodian BitGo.   Get started at nexo.io     Introducing 'Coin Toss,' debating the future of money on CoinDesk TV   From the world leader in crypto news and events, the all-new CoinDesk TV covers the rapidly evolving world of digital finance and its role in the global economy.   Hosted by CoinDesk Podcasts Managing Editor Adam B. Levine, "Coin Toss" sets the stage for debate between guests with opposing views on policy and regulation, privacy and data integrity, fraud and crime and more.   Watch "Coin Toss" Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. ET on YouTube or CoinDesk.com. Off-Chain Signals What others are writing.... Robinhood plans to hire a "ton" of people for its crypto business. "As much as people are bugging me on that on social media, I'm bugging our crypto team and our software engineers," CEO Vlad Tenev said. (Markets Insider)   Artnet published two opinion-driven articles on the Beeple NFT sale. This one covers how it could have been a $69 million marketing stunt (for tech!) Then there's this closer look at the 5,000 images that make up the collage: the writer didn't like what he saw.   Jeff John Roberts covers the latest departure from Facebook's digital currency team. Kevin Weil was around back when Diem, renamed from Libra, was known as "Facebook coin." (Decrypt)   The Onion's Guide To NFTs, or "unique digital assets that cannot be replaced due to their sentimental value."   – D.K. SPONSORED BY NEM GROUP Symbol from NEM, the next-generation public blockchain, launched March 15th, marking a milestone in NEM's vision for a new economic and digital system. Boasting enterprise-grade security and programmability, Symbol smooths business friction and increases the flow of data  to supercharge the creation, exchange and protection of assets. NEM Group - comprising NEM Software, NEM Trading, and NEM Ventures - nurtures a strong and healthy ecosystem to shape the development and future of blockchain technology for generations to come. The Takeaway Putting the news in perspective On Covering the NFT Hype The Lindsay Lohan NFT is the kind of story we at CoinDesk approach with a bit of trepidation.   On its face, it seemed tawdry and inconsequential: A tabloid celebrity cashing in on this bull market's version of the 2017 ICO bonanza, in partnership with a blockchain project known mainly for its marketing stunts. Plus, by simply writing about it, we risked abetting an endeavor that was, at best, silly. In a field where attention is almost as valuable as money, merely pointing out to our readers that something exists is often misperceived as "pumping" it.   But cover the story we did. Reporter Danny Nelson held his nose and did a yeoman's job of spelling out how the auction of a non-fungible token by a former Disney moppet was a sign of the zeitgeist and market froth. He asked the right questions (was Tron paying Lohan? What exactly did the NFT entitle its holder to?) even if he couldn't answer them with the limited information provided by Justin Sun's PR team. When the pandemic is over, I will be buying Danny many drinks.   Why cover it at all, though? It's a fair question. Not for clicks. Well, not just for clicks.   In my book, Lohan's NFT was far less important in the scheme of things than, say, the progress of Bitcoin's Taproot upgrade or the return of BTC micropayments to Twitter (alas, poor ChangeTip!), both of which we covered the same day.   Still, a quick Lohan write-up was worth doing for the same reason other circuses sometimes merit a few paragraphs. As noted, it's a bull market, and every day tens of thousands of new readers who normally don't give a thought to cryptocurrency are coming to CoinDesk. When normies hear that Lindsay Lohan is hawking some weird investment, or that Elon Musk is tweeting about an electronic currency with a cute dog mascot, they are going to seek out information about these things whether we like it or not. So the question is: What do you want them to find?   Hence, last month, when dogecoin was trending, tech reporter Colin Harper wrote a deep dive showing how the canine cryptocurrency's codebase had until recently been neglected like a stray mutt. And last week, as numbers kept going up, CoinDesk Research analyst Christine Kim and Research Director Noelle Acheson penned a 41-page report (and a shorter article) detailing the risks of investing in two more-serious assets, bitcoin and ether. (They also co-hosted a webinar on the topic.)   To be clear: These pieces did not engage in fear mongering, as so much mainstream coverage of our industry does. They treated the audience as adults. Educated investors assess risks before making decisions, and we are trying to give readers some of the rudimentary tools to do their own research. I'm proud of those articles, and I'm proud of the way we handled the Lohan story – with context, skepticism, and merciful brevity.   All the same, I'm glad we skipped the Charmin toilet paper NFT.   – Marc Hochstein     What are bitcoin and ether's value propositions for investors? A new report by CoinDesk Research explains how the two most popular cryptocurrencies by market capitalization behave in the market, how their infrastructure differs, and what on-chain metrics say about them.   Download "Bitcoin + Ether: An Investor's Perspective" from the CoinDesk Research Hub. The Chaser... ATTENTION: Scammers have been sending fraudulent emails with links to sites disguised to look like coindesk.com. If you are in doubt about a link, type https://www.coindesk.com directly into your browser; do not copy and paste. Remember, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. The Node (formerly Blockchain Bites)   A newsletter from CoinDesk   See Previous Editions Copyright © 2021 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.    250 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10003, USA You can manage your preferences here or unsubscribe from all CoinDesk email.