Miami mayor aiming for 'the most progressive crypto laws'
“We want to make sure that we believe that if all things are equal, we win," said Mayor Francis Suarez.
Miami mayor aiming for 'the most progressive crypto laws'NEWS
Francis Suarez, who has served as the mayor of Miami since 2017, wants to make the city the most attractive in the United States for those in the crypto and blockchain industry.

In an interview with Forbes published Sunday, Suarez said lawmakers in Miami were looking into the policies of crypto-friendly areas like Wyoming and New York in an effort to promote regulatory incentives for crypto and blockchain in Florida.

“[Miami is] making sure that we have the most progressive crypto laws,” said Suarez. “We want to make sure that we believe that if all things are equal, we win. So, we just want to equalize the playing field. We want to make sure that nobody has an advantage over us based on laws that are easily changeable.”

Mayor Suarez did not describe the race to be the regulatory winner as a fight between lawmakers in other jurisdictions. Rather, he gave Wyoming “kudos for being smart” in attracting crypto firms, but added that “every city in America and in the world should be trying to grow its technology ecosystem.”

“We're working on making sure that our incentives are in place and that our legislation promotes crypto and blockchain and is forward-thinking.”
The mayor has already made several bullish statements on Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto in recent weeks, including having Miami consider letting city employees to get paid in BTC rather than U.S. dollars. He also proposed allowing Miami residents to pay for local fees and taxes using crypto as well as investing some of the city’s treasury into Bitcoin, a task he called “the hardest” of the three ideas.

He has already spoken with a few high-profile figures in the crypto community including a meeting with Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Earlier this month, Tyler said that the mayor is “leading the way for governments and Bitcoin.”

Mayor Suarez did not provide a timeline as to when these actions may take effect for Miami’s 450,000 residents, but some in the crypto community have seemingly taken notice. Last week, Bitcoin 2021 announced it would be moving from Los Angeles to Miami for its June crypto conference.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/miami-mayor-aiming-for-the-most-progressive-crypto-laws

More than 53 blockchain projects have emerged as multi-billion dollar market cap crypto unicorns, a signal that the 2021 bull market is just getting started.

Growing list of billion-dollar crypto ‘unicorns’ suggest the best is yet to come MARKET ANALYSIS
In the traditional investing world ‘unicorn’ is a term used by venture capitalists to describe a privately held startup valued at more than $1 billion.

Typically these startups have strong fundamentals and oftentimes a first-mover advantage that helps them rapidly rise in value to become prized investment opportunities for yield-seeking funds.

Some of the best-known unicorns include Elon Musk’s SpaceX, a private rocket and spacecraft manufacturer with a valuation of $46 billion, and Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange with a current valuation of $8 billion.

While the world's attention has been focused on the Coronavirus pandemic, the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and the recent r/Wallstreetbets social investing phenomenon, the crypto sector has quietly ascended to a total valuation of over $1.2 trillion.

Adding to this, currently there are more than 55 unicorn status projects that have a market cap over $1 billion.


Top 18 projects by market cap. Source: Messari
Recent Bitcoin (BTC) evangelism from the likes of Michael Saylor, Mark Cuban and Elon Musk are helping shine a spotlight on the nascent crypto industry, and with it comes the discerning eye of institutional investors who will quickly want to look beyond BTC to what other promising opportunities exist in the space.

These projects are no longer just focused on making cryptocurrency a global means of exchange. Some of the top projects include smart contract platforms, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, privacy tokens, oracles providers and even humor-oriented meme coins.

With that in mind, here are some of the top crypto unicorn projects to keep an eye on as institutions begin to make their presence felt in the cryptocurrency markets.

Blue-chip projects
Bitcoin is the ultimate first-mover in the crypto space as it paved the way for the rest to come into existence and holds more than 61% of the total market value with a current market cap of $843 billion.

As the longest-running chain possessing the strongest mining network of all proof-of-work cryptocurrencies, BTC is likely to be the go-to choice for new money coming into the sector which will take a cautious approach to start out with.


Percentage of total market cap. Source: CoinMarketCap
Similar to how many of the current crypto faithful got involved in the space, Bitcoin will be the “gateway coin” that introduces the concept and leads to further exploration.

Ethereum (ETH), with a current market cap of $196 billion, is the obvious second choice as it is the most-utilized smart contract platform and home to a majority of the top DeFi protocols that have surged in popularity in recent months.

Other legacy projects that have survived multiple bull-bear cycles and achieved unicorn status include Litecoin (LTC), which has emerged as a reliable value transfer alternative to the higher fees and longer block times of BTC, and the privacy-focused Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC), which paved the way in bringing anonymity to blockchain transactions.

These projects currently have market caps of $10.5 billion, $2.75 billion and $1.07 billion respectively.

Decentralized finance takes center stage
Since early 2020, one of the main driving forces in the growth of the cryptocurrency sector has been the emergence of decentralized finance.

Decentralized exchanges (DEX) like Uniswap have steadily grown from being a simple exchange interface dApp to a sprawling trading platform that now averages a 7-day trading volume of $6.72 billion, a figure that rivals volume of the top centralized exchanges.


Uniswap 7-day trading volume. Source: Uniswap
Uniswap’s UNI governance token was initially airdropped to users of the interface who took a chance on the protocol while it was still in development, but now the token can be found on all major centralized and decentralized exchanges.

The protocol also received venture capital backing to ensure further development. With a current market cap of $5.9 billion and a token price of $19.79, Uniswap is likely to be on the watchlist for the smart money eyeing the space.

SushiSwap, the main competitor to Uniswap, has also achieved unicorn status with a current valuation of $1.8 billion. The platform offers a community-focused system that allows token holders to stake their SUSHI to participate in governance as well as earn passive income from trading fees generated by the protocol.


Total value locked in DeFi. Source: Defi Pulse
While DEXs helped facilitate the growth of DeFi, lending protocols have emerged as the top draw for total value locked (TVL) and higher token values.

Maker (MKR), AAVE and Compound (COMP) are the leading platforms when measured by the total value locked (TVL) in the protocol. Currently there is a combined $15.63 billion in value deposited in smart contracts that interact with the protocols and their market caps range from $2.1 billion to $5.98 billion.

In addition to the high yield opportunities offered by staking protocols, retail investors are also attracted to the governance features that give token holders a say in the future development of the protocol. These DeFi darlings are likely to pique the interest of long term capital.

Ethereum congestion drives smart contract innovation
Ethereum’s dominance in DeFi has proven to be a double-edged sword as increasing network congestion resulted in an untenable surge in gas fees.


Average Ethereum gas price. Source: Etherscan
The recent record-high gas fees have opened the door for other smart contract platforms to fill the need for layer-2 options, as well as highlighting the need for oracle providers that can communicate data securely across platforms.

Promising smart contract platforms that have emerged include Polkadot (DOT) and its sister chain Kusama (KSM), which introduce interoperability with Ethereum and other top blockchains as the solution to the current siloed nature of separate networks.

DOT’s market cap has risen to $18.8 billion as its prominence continues to grow and Kusama is new to the unicorn club as its market cap just surpassed the $1 billion mark for the first time on Feb. 6.

Interestingly, Cardano (ADA), one of the 2017 ICO-era projects, has also started gaining momentum in recent weeks following the addition of smart contracts to the protocol and hints of future DeFi related endeavors.

Currently, Cardano’s market cap is $19.8 billion and the integration of DeFi could help propel its value higher as ADA has yet to tap into the liquidity offered on decentralized exchanges.

Theta captured the first-mover advantage when it comes to blockchain-based video streaming and the project has recently added smart contract functionality, the ability to create non-fungible tokens, and they launched the Thetaswap DEX on Feb. 4.

Oracles join the party
As more participants enter the crypto space and new blockchains emerge to fit specific niches, communication between separate networks will become essential to the overall health and continued growth of the sector.

This is where oracle projects come in to offer reliable, secure ways to transfer data.


Top oracle projects. Source: CoinGecko
Chainlink (LINK) is the top oracle project in terms of protocol integrations and its valuation. LINK currently has a $10.37 billion market cap and the project's recent integration with Kraken exchange is expected to add further value to the project.

Meanwhile, upstarts like UMA and The Graph (GRT) have only recently achieved unicorn status as the 2021 bull market heats up. Both projects have developed novel ways to track, record and transmit data and they have reached valuations of $1.7 billion and $1.1 billion.

GRT has been especially active in the growth department, announcing multiple partnerships and upcoming integrations including bridges to DOT and Binance Coin (BNB).

The ‘unicorn’ herd will expand
Bitcoin burst onto the financial scene more than twelve years ago and has steadily forged a path to prominence that governments and the global financial system can no longer ignore.

Now that institutions are finally beginning to dip their toes into BTC and ETH, it’s time to take an even closer look at what the emerging blockchain ecosystem has to offer.

The herd of unicorns is likely to expand and considering that the decentralized finance sector is still in a very early growth stage, there’s plenty of value to be found in these unicorn projects.


https://cointelegraph.com/news/growing-list-of-billion-dollar-crypto-unicorns-suggest-the-best-is-yet-to-come

Shalom, shalom.

Record $6.5B futures open interest signals traders are bullish on Ethereum
The open interest on Ethereum futures hit a record $6.5 billion as ETH rallied to $1,750 and traders increased their leverage.

Record $6.5B futures open interest signals traders are bullish on EthereumMARKET ANALYSIS
Ether (ETH) price has rallied by 33% over the last five days and data shows that as this occurred some buyers began to use excessive leverage.

Although this is not necessarily negative, it should be considered a yellow flag as a higher premium on futures contracts for short periods is normal.


ETH/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
Although Ether’s upward movement has been going for an extended period, it was only in February that Ether finally broke the $1,500 psychological barrier and entered price discovery mode.

To assess whether the market is overly optimistic, there are a few essential derivatives metrics to review. One is the futures premium (also known as basis), and it measures the price gap between futures contract prices and the regular spot market.

The 3-month futures should usually trade with a 6% to 20% annualized premium, which should be interpreted as a lending rate. By postponing settlement, sellers demand a higher price and this creates a price difference.


ETH Mar. 26 futures premium. Source: NYDIG-Digital Assets Data
The above chart shows the Ether futures premium shooting above 5.5%, which is usually unsustainable. Considering there's less than 49 days to the Mar. 26 expiry this rate is equivalent to a 55% annualized basis.

A sustainable basis above 20% signals excessive leverage from buyers and creating the potential for massive liquidations and market crashes.

A similar movement happened on Jan. 19 as Ether broke $1,400 but failed to sustain such a level. That situation helped trigger the liquidations that followed and Ether plunged 27% over the next two days.

A basis level above 20% is not necessarily a pre-crash alert but it reflects high levels of leverage usage from futures contract buyers. This overconfidence from buyers only poses a greater risk if the market recedes below $1,450. That was the price level when the indicator broke 30% and reached alarming levels.

It is also worth noting that traders sometimes pump up their use of leverage in the midst of a rally but also purchase the underlying asset (Ether) to adjust the risk.

Sellers were not liquidated by the move to $1,750
Those betting on $2,000 Ether should be pleased to know that open interest has been increasing all throughout the recent 33% rally. This situation indicates short-sellers are likely fully hedged, taking benefit of the futures premium, instead of effectively expecting a downside.


ETH futures aggregate open interest in USD terms. Source: Bybt.com
This week the open interest on Ether futures reached a record $6.5 billion, which is a 128% monthly increase.

Professional investors using the strategy described above are essentially doing cash and carry trades which consist of buying the underlying asset and simultaneously selling futures contracts.

These arbitrage positions usually do not present liquidation risks. Therefore, the current surge in open interest during a strong rally is a positive indicator.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/record-6-5b-futures-open-interest-signals-traders-are-bullish-on-ethereum

The CIO of Guggenheim is under fire on social media for expressing different views about Bitcoin, seemingly on either side of a big investment.

Guggenheim CIO under fire for the timing of his changing BTC sentimentNEWS
Guggenheim CIO Scott Minerd’s apparent shift from bullish to bearish and back again on either side of an SEC filing pertaining to a half billion dollar investment in BTC has been raising eyebrows on social media.

The observation was made after approximately $500 million in BTC was moved from Coinbase into a series of private wallets on Jan. 31, which corresponds with an amount and effective date in a SEC filing by Guggenheim Funds Trust.


Prior to the filing, Minerd hit the headlines on Jan. 21, when he tipped BTC would see a “full retracement back toward the 20,000 level,” and that it was unlikely to head any higher before 2022.

In an interview with Bloomberg Television on Jan. 27, he said that institutional demand for Bitcoin was not high enough to keep it above $30k.

But since Jan 31, Minerd has significantly broadened his high end price estimation for Bitcoin, claiming it has the potential to reach $600,000 in an interview with CNN on Tuesday, based on its scarcity and the value of gold. This was up from his December estimation, based on research and analysis by Guggenheim Partners, that suggested Bitcoin’s fair price in the long term to be around $400,000.

Believing they were witnessing a wide discrepancy in publicly aired sentiment that may have consciously been of benefit to Guggenheim, many took to Twitter and Reddit to highlight Minerd’s seemingly contrary statements, as well as their timing and significance.


Some labelled it manipulation and others “FUD” although there’s no evidence Minerd isn’t simply responding to fast moving events in the cryptocurrency markets.

“I’ve been saying this all along,” said user Asher68W on Twitter. “Guggenheim started buying Bitcoin in December. “When the price increased in January, Minerd trashed BTC on media to keep the price down until finished buying.”

A $275 billion financial services company, Guggenheim Partners made the decision to invest in Bitcoin public with the filing of a SEC amendment in Nov. 2020, in which $500 million was to be allocated for an investment in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.

A request for comment from Guggenheim Investments, the global asset management division of Guggenheim Partners, did not receive an immediate response.


https://cointelegraph.com/news/guggenheim-cio-under-fire-for-the-timing-of-his-changing-btc-sentiment

Musk: I'm "late to the party" with Bitcoin
Just when Bitcoin supporters were feeling left out, however, did the richest man in the world step in with rare words of encouragement.

In an interview with Clubhouse aired late Sunday, Elon Musk openly confirmed that he was a “supporter” of Bitcoin.

“I’ve gotta watch what I say here; some of these things can really move the market,” he began.

Musk revealed that even his friends had tried to onboard him over the years, even feeding him a slice of a Bitcoin cake in 2013. Nonetheless, having held off on closer involvement, he now admits that he is “late to the party.”

“So I was a little slow on the uptake there, my apologies,” he continued.

“I had to think about it for a bit, but I do at this point think that Bitcoin is a good thing and so I am a supporter of Bitcoin, like I said — late to the party but I am a supporter of Bitcoin.”
As Cointelegraph reported, last week, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO added Bitcoin as the only content on his Twitter biography. Amid suspicions that it was a hoax, Musk nonetheless sent BTC/USD skyrocketing for a brief period, the pair adding $5,000 in minutes as users caught on.

The latest interview, however, has seemingly had little impact, with Bitcoin remaining at the lower end of its broad trading corridor which stretches between $30,000 and $40,000.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/elon-musk-bitcoin-and-the-reddit-raiders-6-things-to-watch-for-btc-price-this-week

Hello everyone, this is my first time to join bounty. I tried to join on other bounty but I failed because  my profile link is wrong. Now I saw some of Altcoinstalks members who joined in bounty and saw the words multiple accounts. My questioned is it right and are they cloned?

A handful of altcoins posted double-digit gains while Bitcoin’s relief rally was halted by resistance at $34,000.

Altcoins rally while Bitcoin bulls are thwarted by resistance at $34KMARKET UPDATE
Bitcoin’s (BTC) tumble below $30,000 was short-lived as the top cryptocurrency found a new wave of support, including a $10 million ‘buy the dip’ moment from MicroStrategy.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows the strong inflows have helped lift BTC 4.92% to a daily high at $33,866.

As the prospect of the Biden administration passing massive stimulus packages to help get the United States economy going again, conversations about Bitcoin becoming a reserve currency are beginning to pop up again.

Although Bitcoin’s recent volatility has some analysts saying BTC is a cyclical asset rather than a hedge, the price recent movements have caught the eye of retail investors who have shown a renewed interest in cryptocurrencies in general.


Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
Even the Bank of International Settlements has acknowledged that digital currencies may have use and the organization has outlined plans to roll out a variety of central bank digital currency trials this year.

Now that the Bitcoin fear index has flipped from “Extreme Greed” to “Fear,” some investors appear to be taking Warren Buffet’s advice of “buying when there is blood on the streets”.

Institutional investors are wary of future regulation
According to Chad Steinglass, head of trading at CrossTower, Bitcoin’s correction may have initially been triggered by critical comments fromU.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Prior to Yellen’s comments, Bitcoin was experiencing a “post-correction consolidation” and was “rangebound between $34,000 and $38,000” with traders “waiting to see which side of the range would be challenged or broken.”


BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
Steinglass further explaind that Bitcoin’s next steps will be determined by the actions of institutional investors. He said:

“$31,000 was a pocket of strong support, so at least not everyone is selling. We’ll have to wait and see if that wall remains, or if institutions continue to accumulate. If they do, it’s likely that the trend will re-establish itself and continue. If they move to the sidelines waiting for more regulatory guidance, then their lack of buy flows will be acutely felt.”
Altcoins bounce back
Many of the top altcoins also recovered nicely from this week’s correction. Polkadot (DOT) rallied 7.09% to a daily high at $18, while Chainlink (LINK) posted a double-digit gain and topped out at $22.31. Tezos (XTZ) has also seen a surge in interest which boosted the altcoin by 15% to $3.36.

The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $949.8 billion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 64.4%.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/altcoins-rally-while-bitcoin-bulls-are-thwarted-by-resistance-at-34k

President Joe Biden looks set to appoint another former crypto executive to head up the Office of the Comptroller of the Currenc
Former Ripple advisor set to become Comptroller of the Currency: WSJ NEWS
According to the Wall Street Journal, a former member of Ripple’s board of advisors directors is likely to become the next Comptroller of the Currency.

The report cites insiders “familiar with the matter” who expect President Biden to nominate former Treasury Department official, Michael Barr, to the top post overseeing national banks.

The position as Comptroller of the Currency serves as the administrator of the federal banking system, and is the chief officer of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The WSJ described it as one of the most powerful banking regulators:

“The comptroller oversees hundreds of bank supervisors stationed inside large U.S. financial firms, making the person in the job one of the most powerful bank regulators.”
The official decision is yet to be finalized and the WSJ was unable to verify the story with comments from the White House, the Treasury Department, or Barr himself.

If approved, Michael Barr would be the second appointee with cryptocurrency experience in the position following former Coinbase executive Brian Brooks, who stepped down last week after eight months as the Trump administration’s acting comptroller.

Barr was appointed as a member of the Advisory Board of Ripple Labs in 2015. At the time he was keen to foster innovation in the payments sector, stating;

“Our global payments system is badly outdated. I think innovation in payments can help make the financial system safer, reduce cost, and improve access and efficiency for consumers and businesses alike.”
President Biden’s team also considered law professor at the University of California, Mehrsa Baradaran, for the position.

The Biden administration has also tapped crypto-knowledgable Gary Gensler as the most likely candidate to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. The former Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is known to be more positive towards decentralization and financial digitization than the previous inhabitant in the role.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/former-ripple-advisor-set-to-become-comptroller-of-the-currency-wsj