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Portugal Grants First Crypto Exchanges Operating Licenses

For the first time ever, Banco de Portugal has approved operating licenses to regional cryptocurrency trades.

Recently, the central bank gave out the statement that Portuguese-based trades “Mind the coin” and “Criptologia” are now enlisted as virtual assets service providers.

The central bank has issued only these two names in the list on their official website. Banco De Portugal took around nine months to finalize the decision. In September 2020, Criptojola was reported to perform its initial registration to give out its services as a virtual assets provider.

 Mind the Coin and Criptoloja have been given permission to perform crypto exchange services between fiat currencies and different virtual assets within the Portuguese region. Furthermore, they are also allowed to cover various transfer services, safeguarding, and administration works for such assets.

Banco De Portugal has been awarded as one of the most crypto-friendly nations in entire Europe, and the whole continent seems to be proud of it.

In May 2021, Jean Galea, a well-known investor, and blogger said that Portugal is becoming a haven for all the individuals involved in the crypto world in one of his write-ups. Cryptocurrency income continues to be immune from capital gains taxes and VAT in Portugal unless the income is associated with professional trading activity.

Which other European countries are involved in Crypto exchanges?

Nonetheless, Portugal isn’t the only European country to accept crypto trading and services with a warm welcome.

In the final week of May 2021, The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) granted “XCoins,” a country-based leading exchange provider,  the license to class 3 VFA (Virtual Financial Asset). 

The founder and CEO of XCoins, Rob Frye, stated that Xcoins is dominating the space of digital assets worldwide by standing as one of the earliest cryptocurrency platforms to reach this benchmark implies that they are completely capable of paving the path for an additionally secured and organized industry. 

This is another such authorization the Malta Financial Services Authority has consented to a crypto trade this year. The firstest crypto platform to obtain a VFA authorization of a similar degree was “Crypto.com.” By earning the milestone of receiving the license a couple of weeks before XCoins, the company called this achievement a historic moment for the cryptocurrency world.

Moreover, Crypto.com had previously made a plea to the MFSA to serve as a licensed financial institution, but the plea didn’t get approved. Again this year, the company has presented its plea to the Maltese authority; however, the regulator’s verdict is still not finalized. 

European countries like MFSA and Portugal are surpassing the crypto exchange milestone!

Conclusion 

Further, Criptoloja is currently seeking to bring Portuguese folk together who are interested in investing in crypto assets. However, the service provider company is not confident enough to start accounts in out-of-country trades. Nevertheless, investors say that the tremendous adoption of cryptocurrencies in Portugal is forming a new era of traders.

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications, check out Blockchain Council. 

Portugal Grants First Crypto Exchanges Operating Licenses

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3 reasons why Ethereum may underperform Bitcoin in the short-term

Ether (ETH) price outperformed Bitcoin (BTC) by 173% from March 28 to May 15. The incredible bull caused the token to reach a $4,380 all-time high. However, as cryptocurrency markets initiated a sharp drop on May 12, the trend started to reverse, and since then, Ether has underperformed by 25%.

Some might say it is a technical adjustment after a strong rally. While this partially explains the move, it excludes some critical factors, including the fast advance of smart-contract network competitors and Bitcoin being adopted as an official currency for the first time.

Ether / Bitcoin price at Binance. Source: TradingView

Notice how the ETH/BTC ratio rallied again on June 8, reaching 0.77 despite Ether’s price remaining 36% below its all-time high and ranging near $2,800. To understand what could have been driving the ratio, analysts need to analyze Ether and Bitcoin price drivers separately.

Mike Novogratz may have been misinterpreted in his interview

Ether’s bull run potentially got an extra leg due to intense praise from institutional investors. Traders could have picked up a sense of urgency, known as FOMO, and promptly shifted their Bitcoin exposure towards the leading altcoin.

On May 13, New Yorker magazine published an interview with Mike Novogratz, the founder, and CEO of Galaxy Digital. In the conversation, Novogratz said:

“All of a sudden, you have decentralized finance and NFTs both on Ethereum at the same time roughly, with wild accelerating growth.”

Novogratz was then questioned on how much higher Ether could reach, to which he answered:

“You know, it’s dangerous to give predictions on the highs. But could it get to $5,000? Of course it could.”

While an Ethereum holder might have interpreted it as a prediction, others could have understood it as a wild guess, likely depending on general crypto market conditions.

However, roughly a week later, a report from Goldman Sachs revealed the global investment bank believed that Ether had a “high chance of overtaking Bitcoin as a dominant store of value.” Interestingly, one of the main quotes in the report was directly from Novogratz’s interview with the New Yorker.

At its peak, Binance Chain controlled 40% of DEX volume

While Ethereum has kept its 80% dominance on net value locked in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, Binance Smart Chain (BSC) has reached a 40% market share on DEX exchanges.

PancakeSwap DEX daily volume vs. top 10. Source: DeBank

The successful growth of the DeFi industry and non fungible token (NFT) markets caused intense congestion on the Ethereum network, raising median fees to $37 in mid-May. That bottleneck triggered an activity exodus to competing networks, and PancakeSwap was best positioned to capture that flow.

Related: Here’s why one analyst says Bitcoin will outperform Ethereum in the short term

To make things worse, important DeFi projects expanded to Binance Smart Chain, including yield aggregator Harvest Finance and decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch. Investors quickly realized that the trend could continue as the competing smart-contract network provided an easy solution for dApps looking for cheaper alternatives.

No country is adopting the ‘Ethereum standard’

Bitcoin might have had a subpar performance over the past 30 days because it has failed to break the $42,000 resistance multiple times. However, a major milestone was achieved when El Salvador became the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender on June 12.

After the Central American country made the decision law, a handful of other Central and South American countries began discussing the advantages of taking a similar path.

Ethereum is undertaking a redesign that will change the issuing rate and how entities get paid to secure the network by moving away from the Proof of Work model. Meanwhile, Bitcoin is making sure that every upgrade is backward-compatible and maintaining its strict monetary policy.

That is the main reason why Ether will not outperform Bitcoin over the next 12 months, or at least until there’s a better understanding of how Ethereum network dominance of smart contracts will be.

Professional investors avoid uncertainties at all costs, and cryptocurrency markets already present plenty of that. There’s just no reason for institutional investors to ignore the risks while competing networks eat Ethereum’s lunch.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

3 reasons why Ethereum may underperform Bitcoin in the short-term

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Bitcoin derivatives data shows pro traders ignored today’s $41K pump

Sometimes all Bitcoin (BTC) needs to pump 10% is a positive remark from someone like Elon Musk.

The Tesla CEO has been pointed to as the culprit for the recent downturn after the company’s May 12 announcement explaining that it would no longer accept Bitcoin payments due to environmental concerns. Musk followed up by saying that he was looking into other cryptocurrencies that required 99% less energy consumption. 

However, on June 13, the situation reversed as Musk reassured the public that Tesla did not sell any additional Bitcoin. The post also said that the electric-car producer would resume taking BTC payments as soon as its Bitcoin mining relied on a minimum of 50% clean energy.

In bear markets, top traders act with caution

While retail investors and algorithmic trading bots jump into action as soon as bullish or bearish signals and news flash, top traders tend to act more with more caution. Those who have been around the crypto markets long enough know that positive news might end up being ignored or severely downplayed in bear markets.

On the other hand, even potentially negative news seems to have little to no impact during bull runs. For example, on Sept. 26, 2020, Kucoin was hacked for $150 million. The following week, on Oct. 1, the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged BitMEX for operating an unregistered trading platform and violating Anti-Money Laundering regulations.

Two weeks later, police reportedly questioned the founder of OKEx, forcing the exchange to suspend crypto withdrawals. Had this series of negative news happened while Bitcoin was flat or in a bearish phase, the price would have undoubtedly have stalled during a bear market.

Bitcoin price at Coinbase in USD, Sept. 2020. Source: TradingView

As shown above, Bitcoin barely had any negative impact in late September and October 2020. In fact, by the end of November 2020, Bitcoin was up 74% in two months. This is the main reason why top traders tend to ignore positive news during bear markets and vice-versa.

The 3-month futures premium is neutral

A futures contract seller will usually demand a price premium to regular spot exchanges. This situation is not exclusive to crypto markets and happens in every derivatives market because in addition to the exchange liquidity risk, the seller is postponing settlement and this results in a higher price.

The 3-month futures premium (basis rate) usually trades at a 5% to 15% annualized premium in healthy markets. When futures are trading below the regular spot exchange price, it signals a short-term bearish sentiment.

Huobi 3-month Bitcoin futures basis. Source: Skew

As shown above, the future basis has been below 11% since May 20 and flirting with bearish territory on multiple occasions as it tested 5%. The current level indicates a neutral position from top traders.

The options skew is no longer signaling fear

The 25% delta skew compares similar call (buy) and put (sell) options side-by-side. It will turn positive when the protective put options premium is higher than similar risk call options.

The opposite holds when market makers are bullish and this causes the 25% delta skew indicator to enter the negative range.

Deribit Bitcoin options 25% delta skew. Source: laevitas.ch

The above chart confirms that top traders, including arbitrage desks and market markers, are currently uncomfortable with Bitcoin price as the neutral-to-bearish put options premium is higher. However, the current 7% positive skew is far from the 20% exaggerated fear seen in late May.

Derivatives markets show no evidence of top traders getting excited about the recent $40,000 hike. On the bright side, there is room for leverage buyers to mount positions. Stronger upswings usually occur when investors are least expecting, and the current scenario seems to be a perfect example.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Bitcoin derivatives data shows pro traders ignored today’s $41K pump

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El Salvador set to make history by becoming the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

El Salvador Planning to Soon Adopt Bitcoin As Legal Tender

El Salvador, a country in Central America, is planning to introduce a ruling with an intent to emerge as the world’s very first sovereign government to approve bitcoin as legal tender, along side the U.S. dollar.

The multi-day conference that took place in Minami in 2021 regarding bitcoin is recognized as the remarkable bitcoin event in history. El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele declared an open coalition with digital wallet company “Strike” to look forward to the modern financial infrastructure of the country using bitcoin technology. He said, within the next week, a bill will be sent to Congress to accept bitcoin as a legal tender.

The founder of the fast-growing network payments platform Strike, Jack Mallers, said this move would go down as the revolutionary step for the world of bitcoin.

He continued, The transformative thing about this is that bitcoin can be assumed as the biggest reserve asset ever formulated as well as it is also an outstanding monetary network. Keeping bitcoin furnishes a means to safeguard expanding economies from probable concussions due to inflation of fiat currency. Communicating from the main stage, he added the scheme would help in unleashing the proficiency and capability of bitcoin for use cases relevant to everyday life with an open network that will benefit people, industries, and civil sector services.

How it will benefit El Salvador?

El Salvador is primarily a cash economy, where generally 70% of individuals don’t possess credit cards or bank accounts. Settlements, or the cash sent home by migrants, represent over 20% of El Salvador’s GDP. Official services can charge 10% or more expenses for dealing with worldwide exchanges, which can sometimes require days to show up and occasionally require a physical fatch.

A resource doesn’t sponsor Bitcoin, nor does it have the complete confidence and support of any one government. Its worth is determined, partially, from the knowledge that it is digitally scant; there will just be the presence of only 21 million bitcoin.

While factors are as yet approaching about how the rollout will function, the news outlets are informed that El Salvador has amassed a group of bitcoin pioneers to help fabricate another economic environment with bitcoin as the ground layer.

The CEO of Blockstream, Adam Back, stated that this move was under uncertainty, but it still took place to make El Salvador the first nation to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender. He added, he is planning to Provide technologies like satellite and liquid infrastructure to make this country a successful example for the world. 

Conclusion 

President Bukele’s party has considerable authority over the legislative assembly of the country, so we can reasonably assume that this bill will get passed. Also, This move isn’t new to El Salvador as in March, Strike introduced its mobile payments app, and it shortly came to be the most downloaded app in the nation.

Learn more about cryptocurrency and take up a suitable cryptocurrency course at Blockchain Council.

El Salvador set to make history by becoming the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

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S.E.C. charges 5 for illegally promoting $2 billion Bitconnect Ponzi

Three years and some unforgettable memes later, the Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that 5 individuals will face charges relating to promoting the Bitconnect Ponzi scheme. 

“The SEC’s complaint alleges that these promoters offered and sold the securities without registering the securities offering with the Commission, and without being registered as broker-dealers with the Commission, as required by the federal securities laws,” the release reads.

The promoters, including Trevon Brown, Craig Grant, Ryan Maasen, and Michael Noble are said to have “advertised the merits of investing in BitConnect’s lending program to prospective investors, including by creating “testimonial” style videos and publishing them on YouTube, sometimes multiple times a day.” In exchange for their promotional efforts, the influencers and representatives were paid on a commission basis.

The release also named Joshua Jeppesen as “a liaison between BitConnect and promoters.”

Shortly after the release, Trevon Brown (better known as Trevon James) posted a Tweet in which he did not deny the charges and said that the community would “rally” around him.

“We will seek to hold accountable those who illegally profit by capitalizing on the public’s interest in digital assets,” said Lara Shalov Mehraban, Associate Regional Director of SEC’s New York Regional Office in the release. 

The company, which collapsed in 2018, was widely accused on being a ponzi scheme from several analysts and observers, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. Last year, an Australian man was charged in connection with the company’s fraud. Many will be familiar with the project due to a now-legendary presentation from investor Carlos Matos:

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Multiple crypto lawyers have taken to Twitter to speculate on the long-term ramifications of this case. Gabriel Shapiro noted that even though the S.E.C. is targeting a known fraud in Bitconnect, it could end up being a “blueprint” for action against other DAOs. 

S.E.C. charges 5 for illegally promoting $2 billion Bitconnect Ponzi

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