Pushing for education and zero state tax

Social Capital founder Chamath Palihapitiya wants to run for the position of Californian Governor, he said in a tweet on Tuesday. And whether he may have been joking or not, Palihapitiya is a Bitcoin bull and has focused his recent work on the betterment of society.

In addition to his work with Social Capital (which bets on tech firms) and being one of the first employees at Facebook, Palihapitiya is also the current chairman of space travel and exploration firm Virgin Galactic.

Wet your beak California. 0% taxes, best paid teachers in the country and a bonanza of climate friendly jobs. https://t.co/gfoPSXziuL pic.twitter.com/3QcqZUfFoI

— Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) January 26, 2021

“It’s on,” he wrote on Twitter, working in his candidature in a brief one-liner on his site , “California is a mess — it’s too expensive, our teachers are underpaid, and our schools aren’t good enough.’

California has faced a brain drain in the past few years with high taxes, low incomes, and below favorable social conditions for teachers and other critical workers. Other education-related proposals are “no student loans” and “free school vouchers.”

“I’ll give students a free voucher to pick any school they want to attend. Education is a human right and our children should be able to choose where they receive it,” claimed Palihapitiya in his post.

Palihapitiya further proposes a $70,000 minimum salary for teachers on his candidate site, alongside a 0% state tax to raise California’s coffers to over $300 billion. Lastly, he adds that his office would make California a global center for technology and climate jobs, achieving this by “realigning incentives rather than pushing them away.”

Palihapitiya x Bitcoin

Palihapitiya is rumored to have purchased a “large” supply of Bitcoin in 2013 or 2014—in the region of 100,000 Bitcoin. He holds a bullish view of the asset, stating just earlier this month that BTC could easily go to $100,000 and beyond.

His reasons? That today’s leaders are “not as trustworthy and reliable as they used to be.”

Meanwhile, unlike Bitcoin price chasers, Palihapitiya has famously stated his intentions to engage in betterment for society with his gains. Last year, he said he would “buy out” the Hamptons—a vacation spot for the rich and well-heeled—and turn into sleepaway camps for children and build low-cost housing instead.

When $BTC gets to $150k, I will buy The Hamptons and convert it to sleepaway camps for kids, working farms and low-cost housing.

— Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) December 30, 2020

A perfect way to spend part of the gains if you were to ask me.

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Operating fraudulent schemes

24-year-old Spencer was involved in soliciting investments via Discord and Telegram to his crypto trading schemes. According to the US Department of Justice, he operated fraudulent fundraising campaigns and ran a digital asset trading firm even though he did not have the professional experience to do so. He was arrested this morning.

The prosecutors noted that he successfully raised $5 million from over 170 individual investors after having online discussions with them on Discord and Telegram. Of this money, only $2 million was distributed to investors between November 2017 and April 2019.

In a typical Ponzi fashion, he paid some money to early investors from new investors’ funds, claiming it to profit from their investments. Spence also used a portion of the invested funds to pay for his debts and personal expenses. As a result, he was unable to pay his investors bonuses or other cash commissions.

Claims of running a hedge fund

Spencer said that he would be investing funds in a series of hedge funds. The largest of these funds was Coin Signals Bittrex Fund while the most active was Coin Signals Alternative Fund or CS Alt Fund. He also sought investments for the Coin Signals Long Term Fund. The victims were asked to transfer their digital currency to Spence so he can invest in digital assets markets. He created fraudulent draft performance reports which were falsely claimed to have achieved massive returns for the investors.

The complaint also details how Spence managed to hide his losses. Apart from the fraudulent monthly account statements, he also made checks that represented nonexistent trading profits and investment returns. He claimed to have generated over 148% returns during a month while he was facing losses. All new participants were assured guaranteed annual returns when their money was actually being used to pay off older investors. Nearly all of the pool money was lost. The prosecutors have now charged Spencer with wire fraud and commodities fraud.

This is a syndicated post from https://www.cryptovibes.com/blog/2021/01/27/fbi-arrests-jeremy-spence-in-relation-to-the-coin-signals-ponzi-scheme/

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Great results in 2020

Rakuten Securities Inc. is one of the largest forex brokers in Japan. It recently reported its financial results for the fiscal ending December 31, 2020, which highlighted upbeat revenues and increasing profits. The firm’s operating revenue was ¥72 billion ($698 million), which was 30% higher compared to the ¥56 billion earned in 2019. The firm posted similar results in other areas as well. The net income of the firm was ¥15 billion ($145 million) which was 33% higher compared to 2019.

The Tokyo-headquartered firm said that it holds ¥2.4 trillion ($23 billion) in assets which is almost 335 higher than the previous year.

What led to the massive increase in profits?

Forex firms were able to leverage the stay-at-home orders due to the pandemic which led to increased trading. A larger number of investors opened new accounts with the firm. A massive boom in the retail trading market led to the firm tripling its user base in some markets in 2020. The Rakuten Group will announce its consolidated financial reports for the fiscal on February 12, 2021.

Rakuten Securities has a strong presence in Japan and operates regional businesses in other regions like Hong Kong, which came on the heels of an FXCM business acquisition about five years ago. It also operates retail forex brands in Malaysia and Australia in a joint venture partnership with Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad. The firm is a part of Rakuten, an online giant that runs the world’s fourth-largest eCommerce business.

Rakuten is also interested in the cryptocurrency space and has already launched its services as Rakuten Wallet. The firm acquired Bitnet, a Bitcoin payments startup four years ago, and also opened a blockchain lab in the UK. It is one of the most prominent names in the Asia-Pacific working in the crypto sector.

This is a syndicated post from https://www.cryptovibes.com/blog/2021/01/27/rakuten-securities-reports-solid-performance-in-fy-2020/

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On Binance, the price of Bitcoin dropped to as low as $29,500, retesting a critical support level.

Bitcoin price chart. Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

What’s next after mass liquidation?

The open interest of the futures market has been so high as of late that nearly every day, the market has been seeing $200 million to $500 million in liquidations.

The term open interest refers to the total sum of active futures contracts that are open. When open interest is high, it indicates that more traders are betting on the prices of cryptocurrencies.

Since there is a large number of positions open in the market, when there is even a minor market movement, cascading liquidations occur.

This causes Bitcoin to see extreme price volatility to both directions, leading to fast recoveries and deep corrections.

Analysts at Future Fund explained :

“Miners send in $btc to exchanges to sell, bitcoin drops. Exchanges liquidate over leveraged gamblers. People sell alts thinking the market is doomed, and repeat. This has been repeating for years. The alts with smart money and strong hands survive. Don’t sell, accumulate.”

Although the sentiment around Bitcoin largely remains cautious in the short term, two indicators suggest a relief rally in the foreseeable future.

First, the premium on Coinbase has reappeared. This indicates that buyers in the U.S. could be accumulating the recent BTC dip.

Whenever Bitcoin steeply declined and the premium on Coinbase appeared, BTC saw swift rallies.

For instance, when Bitcoin dropped to the $16,000s in late November, Coinbase buyers bid the $16,000 support area aggressively.

Second, the premium in the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange market has dropped from 5% to 1%.

Throughout the past two weeks, whales in the Asian market has been taking advantage of the premium on South Korean exchanges.

This led to many $100 million deposits across major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Bithumb.

Now that the premium has subsided, there is a possibility that the selling pressure on Bitcoin would decline, at least in the South Korean market.

The combination of the lower selling pressure in South Korea and the rising premium on Coinbase could contribute to a short-term BTC uptrend.

How will altcoins fare?

So far, DeFi tokens have particularly been hit hard by the correction of Bitcoin.

Ethereum is recovering alongside Bitcoin, rising from $1,244 to above $1,270. For Bitcoin and Ethereum, the key resistance levels in the short term are $33,000 and $1,370.

As long as both cryptocurrencies continue to reject those levels, they would likely move in between the current range.

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The partnership will Visa Cloud Connect, an effective way for companies to securely connect VisaNet, Visa’s global processing network.

The Cloud Connect platform will help expand TransferWise’s debit cards to the U.S., the U.K, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and Latin America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific.

A massive reduction in cost

Based on the official announcement , the partnership will help TransferWise cut costs on local connectivity infrastructure.

Visa’s Cloud Connect was established to enable fintech fiems around the world to effectively integrate the VisaNet processing network through the cloud. TransferWise boasts about $6 billion worth of cross-border transactions every month, with over 10 million customers on the platform.

With the TransferWise multi-currency account, businesses and consumers can hold and convert up to 55 currencies at the normal exchange rate.

Also, with the card, users can withdraw or spend directly from any currency balance of their choice.

Enabling efficiency in the industry

TransferWise may have required investing heavily in specialized payment hardware, telecommunications infrastructure, and local data if it wants to expand its operations into new markets. But with the partnership, all those investments are not necessary, since Visa will be providing the right platform for such expansion.

The company can make use of Visa Cloud Connect to establish a secure connection that eliminates costly local connectivity.

Chief product officer and executive vice president of Visa Jack Forestell stated that the card payment giant was first approached by TransferWise last year. He said the company wanted Visa to use its cloud to enable the global rollout of its debit card program.

Eliminating cross border issues in international finance

He said the proposition was an exciting one because it’s in line with Visa’s goal to help fintech companies scale up the ladder quickly by enabling innovative services.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of TransferWise  Kristo Käärmann also commented on the partnership. According to him, the company has been very active to ensure that there are no cross borders in the world’s financial network.

This is a syndicated post from https://www.cryptovibes.com/blog/2021/01/27/visa-taps-transferwise-for-global-partnership-of-visa-cloud-connect/

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This comes on the heels of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing a $1.3 billion lawsuit against Ripple with similar allegations.

“This is a class action lawsuit regarding Defendants’ sale of XRP cryptocurrency tokens to Florida residents in violation of Florida securities laws. Specifically, Defendants sold millions of dollars (or more) of XRP tokens, which are securities under Florida law, to Florida investors without registering the same either with federal or Florida authorities,” stated the latest filing.

No restrictions on XRP reselling

Per the document filed on January 25, Ripple did not impose any restrictions on reselling of XRP and allegedly “expected that most, if not all, institutional buyers would sell their XRP into public markets.” Simultaneously, the company actively tried to protect XRP’s trading price, Toomey noted.

“By selling [to institutional investors] at discounts to market prices, Ripple incentivized these buyers to seek to sell their XRP into the public markets in order to realize what was essentially a guaranteed profit,” the document added.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is also featured in the lawsuit as an individual defendant, alleging that Garlinghouse sold around $150 million worth of XRP between 2017–2019 and took part in manipulating the token’s price.

“At various times between April 2017 and at least December 2019, Garlinghouse also paused his XRP sales because XRP’s market price was falling, seeking to avoid driving down XRP’s market price,” the plaintiff added.

Ripple sold XRP sale to cover its expenses

Apart from trying “to bolster XRP as an investment vehicle,” the lawsuit also alleged that Ripple had been selling its tokens “as widely as possible” to actually cover its operating expenses.

“The overwhelming majority of Ripple’s revenue came from its sales of XRP (over $1 billion), and Ripple relied on those sales to fund its operations,” Toomey asserted, adding, “Ripple’s sales of XRP have allowed it to meet its ballooning expenses. […] While Ripple’s expenses continued to increase (reaching nearly $275 million for 2018), its revenue outside of XRP sales did not.”

In conclusion, Toomey asked the court to order Ripple to “disgorge all ill-gotten gains” and pay a civil money penalty as well as prohibit the company from participating in any further offerings of digital asset securities.

As CryptoSlate reported , the SEC filed a somewhat similar lawsuit in late December, accusing Ripple of token manipulation, unlicensed securities sale, paying to get listed on crypto exchanges, and paying for “fake” partnerships.

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Maybe Coinbase may turn out to be a profitable investment like Tesla Inc and Bitcoin in 2020. Tesla gained 155% after Forbes said it was about “47% overvalued.”

One financial planner on CBNC urged readers not to invest their money in Bitcoin, saying that the cryptos would collapse. Since that time, bitcoin has peaked above $41,800, a 700% return from when the article was published.

BTC recently enjoyed its fourth massive bull market, almost a 350% return in 2020. Tesla is also up a staggering 709% at the same time. That rule goes double for Coinbase stock. Today, the Coinbase IPO is yet to happen but that has not deterred the opinion-makers from dismissing the firm.

Most of the traditional investors are yet to go near any cryptocurrency. They believe that a Coinbase IPO would scandalize them all the more. But, they are not the only naysayers since some crypto-lovers are also haters of this idea.

Being a crypto exchange, Coinbase cuts between the comfort zones of progress and tradition. How it goes about this may quite define crypto for decades. The exchange filed for IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in December. Many details remain under wraps but one thing is for sure, the Coinbase IPO will rank among the most polarizing public offerings of all time.

The question now remains; is Coinbase stock a buy or not once it hits the public exchange? If it is a buy, when is it the right time for the traders to jump in?

All these issues will become clear when more details about the IPO are published. But what is known about Coinbase stock currently may point to a possible strategy.

What Is Coinbase?

By description, Coinbase is a digital ‘bank’ for all cryptos. The San Francisco-based firm was launched in June 2012 by Fred Ehrsam and Brian Armstrong. The latter is a software engineer that previously worked at Airbnb Inc. (NASDAQ: ABNB), and the former is an ex-trader from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. When those two brains are put together, you are sure to get software-based money.

One reason for Coinbase’s popularity is that it is quite easy to use the platform compared to many other specialty ‘digital wallets’ that exist out there. Regrettably, most of the moving parts to crypto investing once appeared inaccessible to the average investors. At the time, investors had to stash their coins in a hard drive and ensure that they keep track of their encryption keys. Anybody who forgot their keys lost their coins.

Currently, anybody who owns a phone or a computer can create a secure Coinbase account which they can readily use to acquire as many crypto coins as they want. The service provides access to almost 50 cryptos at the moment and the firm also offers a virtual currency ‘wallet’ to enable users to buy coins. The wallet comes with better security that serves its users exceptionally well.

Coinbase is a widely known and popular exchange for crypto trading with over 40 million users globally. However, it is not the only exchange available in the market. There are many options for the crypto traders to choose from and they vary in coins offered, their purpose, and levels of security.

Binance is a worthy competitor that was established in 2017. It has grown to become the biggest crypto exchange by volume worldwide offering more than 150 coins. One notable difference is that the Binance exchange was founded in China while Coinbase operates from the United States.

Back in 2019, Binance was hacked for $40 million of Bitcoin which made many traders lose trust in the exchange and somewhat crypto in general. That is one of the many big controversies that make investors wonder whether cryptocurrency is a worthwhile investment. Nonetheless, there is no online exchange of any type that guarantees 100% safety.

Here is why the Coinbase IPO is shaping up into a bombshell.

Why Is the Coinbase IPO Controversial?

Analysts and experts say that the success of a Coinbase IPO is linked to the adoption of crypto into normalcy. With many institutional investors joining the market, normalcy seems to be coming into the nascent market as maturity kicks in. But, the rate of adoption growth is significantly slow which has left many investors worried and hesitant.

Satoshi Nakamoto created and launched Bitcoin in 2009 while responding to the 2008 financial crisis. It is said to be a decentralized hedge for the unstable fiat-dollar. But, bitcoin has also proven to be extremely volatile. In the past year, the flagship crypto managed to explode from below $5,000 to above $41,000 which is double its last high that was set in December 2017.

But, let us also not forget that Bitcoin crashed from $19,000 to almost $3,000 within 12 months. The Bitcoin fanatics, or “Hodlers of Last Resort,” will always repeat that scarcity is what makes this coin valuable. Undeniably, there is a limited amount but before BTC can become the ‘digital gold,’ it needs to prove its worth to the old money.

In the past few months, the crypto has surpassed $30,000 to the chagrin of the bears and the joy of the bulls and the ‘hodlers’. Since then, bitcoin has managed to remain above the psychological $30,000 level. Yet again, bitcoin only does not paint the true and entire picture for Coinbase or the crypt entirely.

Crypto bears are currently having a field day with another example of instability coming from Ripple’s XRP which was previously the third-largest crypto behind Bitcoin and Ethereum. It has since been surpassed by Polkadot (DOT) and stablecoin Tether (USDT).

Ripple has always traded below $1 with a few exceptions where it surged to $3.37 in 2018. That may not sound like much but it turned some investors into millionaires. Its last big spike happened last year when it gained value from $0.13 to reach over $0.90.

Buyers and bulls thought that they had struck gold. That was quite the case until Ripple was served with a $1.3 billion lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company was not registered with the SEC and thus it was accused of ‘misleading’ investors to whom it sold at least$1 billion in XRP.

Coinbase, like many other crypto exchanges, delisted XRP but that does not offer the exchange or the entire crypto world a good look. Even as bitcoin is slowly finding its way into the mainstream, the crypto market in general still has a long way to go before it proves itself to the general public.

Even if that happens, the crypto proponents might still detest a Coinbase IPO.

Why ‘Hodlers’ Oppose A Coinbase IPO

The main attraction for many crypto fans is that the nascent market is decentralized. It has become an alternative method of investing which enables the investors to hedge against inflation and the grip of ‘selfish’ bureaucrats that only look out for themselves.

Thus, the crypto proponents may not be excited by the traditional-style Coinbase IPO. They might consider it to be a sign of the crypto world succumbing to the centralized fiat world.

What seems worse is that we are aware that with XRP as an example, Coinbase is not the renegade that crypto holders wish it once was. They have even branded it as the ‘Facebook of Crypto’ for how it cooperates with the general public sector.

Where smoke appears, fire is always there and there might be something developing to support these claims. Coinbase exchange has already sent transaction data for 13,000 of its users to the IRS after it tried to withhold its profits to avoid paying a lot of taxes. After that incident, shouts of #DeleteCoinbase flooded Twitter supported by the anti-institution and anti-tax crypto investors.

The crypto exchange catches a lot of fire when it portrays itself as the ‘player in the middle.’ Coinbase received a lot of bad press about the ‘apolitical’ atmosphere it tried to promote when the social unrest was happening in 2020. At the time, it stated that anyone who did not like it could receive a severance package and 60 employees ended up leaving.

Thus, Coinbase is in a tough position culturally and politically by all means. But, it still succeeds financially amid all that ‘noise’ and that might be all that matters. The crypto exchange is loaded with cash.

Is Coinbase Profitable?

In its 2018 report, Reuters estimated that Coinbase had made $520 million in total revenue. Later in 2019, Coinbase profited $163 million on the $543 million revenue. The recent surge in trading volume for Ethereum and Bitcoin is expected to continue to explode these numbers.

Bitcoin is trading at $9 billion daily. On its part, Ethereum is reported to process 28% more in a day, with a staggering $12 billion traded daily. The cumulative total crypto trading volume on Coinbase is almost $320 billion, with almost $43 million registered users.

That translates to money in the exchange’s pockets on commissions. It is also an opportunity for future profit for the company as the newbies aim for easy crypto-buying options. In general, the more the excitement around cryptocurrency builds, the more profitable Coinbase turns to be.

Coinbase is also known to make money from its crypto wallet, cryptocurrency credit card, and many other resources available from trading cryptocurrencies. The company offers ‘Prime’ and ‘Pro’ subscriptions that provide professional cryptocurrency investors and traders with deep insights to enable them to plan their strategies.

The US-based crypto exchange operates multiple businesses in 32 countries, including its Coinbase wallet and its Bitcoin exchange. It will also try to expand its portfolio over time which may chip into profits. The firm needs to scale rapidly with the popularization of cryptocurrency.

Scaling costs money, but if crypto is as big as forecast, it should be of little worry. Of course, an IPO would enable the exchange to resolve these issues.

Is The Coinbase Stock A Buy?

When you consider the recent success of Bitcoin and other cryptos in the past year, it is challenging to deny a case for acquiring Coinbase stock. A traditional-style IPO would make investing in crypto easy and possible for the niche crypto traders and the wider group of traditional investors.

What all this means is that proponents would look forward to traditional investors coming around aiming to understand and eventually adopting cryptocurrency. It is not a long shot as many may want to think.

One JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst commented in November 2020 that institutions were continuously ‘piling’ into Bitcoin. They said that retail investment is increasing into the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and it tripled from Q3 to Q4 2020. GBTC is made up of mainly institutional investors.

Ethereum has gained 549% to reach $1,130 in the past year and that is not even the peak. Some analysts believe that Ethereum may hit $2,000 later this year. In the case of Bitcoin, some analysts say that a $55,000 Bitcoin is still possible. The Winklevoss twins also recently said that bitcoin may reach $500,000 in the future.

Coinbase stock investors will have an opportunity to access many benefits without having to own any crypto at all. If a large number of traditional investors can share in Coinbase’s commissions, that may eventually prove to be a good thing.

For all that to happen, cryptos will require a renaissance that is currently happening in front of everyone’s eyes.

When Is The Right Time To Buy Coinbase Stock?

IPO investing can always appear to be a little uncertain. Many IPOs excite investors in the lead-up and out of the flood gates, which then end up crashing massively. One example is Lyft Inc. (NASDAQ: LYFT) which has lost more than 70% of its value since its IPO. That is what happens whenever a company goes for the IPO prematurely or is not profitable.

Coinbase is currently profitable and has made it to the Series E venture funding phase. It means that it is making money and it also promises more stability than the fresh startups even though it has been labeled as the first “Bitcoin unicorn.”

In the best-case scenario, the Coinbase IPO will introduce crypto strongly into the mainstream. Before it reaches there, a swath of Coinbase bears may however maintain the price down briefly after the IPO.

Instead of having to wait for the stock to plunge a year or two later, it might prove to be one of the unique cases where Coinbase bears hold the stock down early into the trading, only for the stock to gain later.

Analysts and experts advise everyone interested to get in on Coinbase stock early. Just like the Tesla stock and Bitcoin, Coinbase would prove to be a majorly asymmetric play. It means that the potential upside is considerably higher compared to the potential downside.

Some websites project that the Coinbase ticker symbol will be ‘COIN’ while others like StockTwits say that it will be ‘CBASE.’

For now, investors will have to wait and see. The closer the Coinbase IPO date gets, the more information will become available. Investors will learn from its financial disclosures and possible demand for the stock.

This is a syndicated post from https://www.cryptovibes.com/blog/2021/01/27/coinbase-stock-is-a-buy-despite-wall-street-hate-here-is-why/

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On 26 January 2021, the Department of Justice announced that detectives have arrested Spence and he is now awaiting trial charges against him. FBI is convinced that the trader operated a crypto investment scheme under the name ‘Coin Signals’ primarily via Twitter while he committed the act between 2017 and late 2019.

According to the FBI Assistant Director-in-charge, William Sweeney, the crypto trader channeled used the money from the newbies to pay-off others which somewhat created a Ponzi scheme. William Sweeney revealed:

‘As alleged, Jeremy Spence misrepresented the success of his investment platform to entice people to send money his way. Because his trading was less profitable and significantly less successful than he represented to investors, he used money from new investors to pay-off others to keep his plan moving-taking marker of the Ponzi scheme.’

Interestingly, the findings have indicated that Spence claimed to be conducting highly lucrative trades via BitMEX. His claims had led to the arrest of some of the top BitMEX executives who faced trial on charges of facilitating money laundering in October 2020.

More FBI findings have indicated that Spence deceived investors with allegations that he uses BitMEX perpetual contracts to get a high rate of gains. In November 2018, Spence claimed to have 1000 BTC in his wallet. But, the authorities discovered that he had been unscrupulous because his wallet had never exceeded 11 BTC.

Spence now faces 10 years in prison for commodities and 20 years for wire fraud to serve as an example for other crypto criminals who dupe unsuspecting investors.

The Nature Of Commodity And Wire Fraud Charges

Although commodities frauds are categorized under criminal charges, they differ slightly on investigation processes. Commodity and Wire trials primarily rely on a special commission Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The CFTC conducts thorough investigations in such matters.

In recent years, the CFTC has been working to scale-up its efficiency and ability to identify unregistered and illegal schemes based on crypto derivatives. In that context, CFTC has mainly depended on new analytics’ platforms that can examine parts of the web that traditional CFTC investigators are still trying to familiarize themselves with.

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Whenever the health crisis seems to get under control, the market sentiment turns positive resulting in a rise in prices. On the other hand, when the pandemic worsens, the markets tumble, with most investors expecting severe measures to be put in place to curb the spread.

In the latest instance, the Brent crude futures gained 19 cents, translating to 0.3%, to trade at $56.10 a barrel. On the other hand, the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 20 cents or 0.4% to reach $52.81 per barrel.

Based on reports from the American Petroleum Institute (API), crude oil inventories in the US dropped by about 5.3 million per barrel, which is the opposite of analysts’ prediction of a build of around 430,000 barrels.

ING Economics said in a note :

“Market participants are now in ‘wait and see’ mode, wanting to see how lockdowns evolve in the coming weeks and months, and how successful countries are in rolling out Covid-19 vaccines.”

With China’s infection rate decreasing, investors are less worried about the decline in traveling during the Lunar New Year in China . The COVID-19 vaccine rollout is gathering momentum in the US and the rest of the world which means that lockdowns might soon become things of the past. If the pandemic is brought into control entirely, oil prices will recover considerably.

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This is a syndicated post from https://www.cryptovibes.com/blog/2021/01/27/oil-advances-as-us-stockpiles-reduce/

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We see the ongoing pandemic has accelerated the adoption of nascent technologies as we move, in a manner where the government doesn’t necessarily have all the power, towards a cashless, streamlined, and transparent financial system.

We’re seeing such a financial system developing in countries across the world with blockchain projects such as Electroneum, Stellar lumens, and Ripple. These companies are trying to solve a lot of issues out there for the unbanked. They are the seed of blooming micro-economies throughout the world. Give it ten years or so, and they could transform the poor economies.

The pros entail, for instance, that it is much easier to pay for everything from a cab to an ice cream.  Generally speaking, artists and farmers could benefit during this time. There will be more emphasis on local economies. People will spend more time with their families, instead of going to work every single day. Things will be automated, saving people time. We can spend more of our lives or more of our time pursuing passions that we want to do like learning a guitar or learning to paint and things like that, rather than working in a job that you don’t particularly want to work.

Among the cons, of course, is everything that you spend will be tracked. People’s opinions towards privacy are ever-changing with scandals such as Cambridge Analytica. There will be some pushback there. But, we believe the pros outweigh the cons.

Privacy is a double-edged sword. You’ve got on one hand where privacy may be jeopardized by everything being tracked. On the other hand, it might be a good thing when everything is tracked. Crime and fraud can be stopped. There is still a scenario where privacy coins become outright banned to prevent crime. But, there’s got to be a way in which everyone wins here. Perhaps, that entails sacrificing some privacy, in order to gain more convenience.

Either way, the past has shown that people like to trade privacy for utility. We’ve seen that over the past 10 years. The fact that we put information out there on the internet to be able to gain access to certain services says it all. We’re happy to have things like Alexa in our households these days. When we sign up to Facebook, or any social media, we use our email address, sometimes with a phone number on there as well.

To a certain extent, most people are happy to give up most of their personal information, in order to gain access to services. Privacy is something we need more of in the world. Cryptocurrency is a great way to do it. Perhaps we need more of that than tracking.

The more the world globalizes, with countries signing trade deals and the European Union becoming ever greater in terms, the more we give up our privacy. Simultaneously, the more people have the appetite for more nationalistic ideas, like we’ve seen with Brexit and likely Poland and Hungary, as well. On top of that, people are becoming more concerned about their privacy.

Obviously, some people that desire less government control are going to be skeptical. And that’s why they may opt for privacy coins. Other people will probably like the fact that things are more tracked. Sure, there will be some tradeoffs. But, if the positives outweigh the negatives, then people will be open to this new world.Throughout our lives, certainly in the next 50 years or so, there’ll be existential questions that we’ll have to ponder.

When we started in cryptocurrency, back in 2017, we were very much into the idea of it from an investment standpoint–and making money of course. Through the last couple of years, especially now in light of this pandemic, we have seen the greater implications and realized crypto isn’t just there for people to make money. There’s more to it in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

If you introduced the idea of cryptocurrencies twenty years ago, it would have been met with a lot more skepticism than in 2008. That is even truer now. We’re seeing how now people are more open to the idea. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has tilled the soil, and a future replete with cryptocurrency now sprouts before our very eyes.

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