The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is increasingly correlating with that of tech stocks amid widespread uncertainty in the crypto markets, according to analytics firm IntoTheBlock. In a new article, the market intelligence agency says that Bitcoin’s congruence with the Nasdaq 100 has reached a level it hasn’t seen in nearly two years and that the […]
The post Bitcoin’s Correlation to Tech Stocks Surges Amid Macro Uncertainty: Analytics Firm IntoTheBlock appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
Crypto proponents and market observers can now gain insight into Solana’s and Serum’s liquidity infrastructure ecosystem via the analytics and decentralized indexing provider Aleph.im. The cross-blockchain computing project says the induction of Serum Markets will “help surface valuable trading data on Project Serum.” Aleph.im Adds Project Serum Support During the last quarter of the year, […]
Coinbase has inked its second deal to develop software for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency since August.
Leading U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has secured a contract to develop tech for the Department of Homeland Security worth as much as $1.36 million.
Under the agreement, Coinbase has been contracted to deliver “application development software as a service” for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement division (ICE).
The contract took effect on Sept. 16 and will see Coinbase receive $455,000 from the department. However, the contract could be extended to last for up to three years in total, which would see Coinbase receive up to roughly $1.36 million.
The deal is the second partnership inked between Coinbase and ICE, with the exchange having secured a $30,000 contract to provide “computer forensics services” to the agency in August.
The news has received backlash from the crypto community, with Human Rights Foundation chief strategy officer Alex Gladstein asserting the compensation is relatively low given the scale of Coinbase’s operations and the reputation risk posed to the exchange by the partnership:
“This isn’t very much money for Coinbase in the grand scheme of things. Strange that they would risk much reputationally such a relatively small sum.”
The news has also resurrected criticisms concerning Coinbase’s 2019 acquisition of blockchain analytics startup, Neutrino.
During the year of the acquisition, it was reported that the people behind Neutrino had previously been part of Hacking Team — a company revealed to have helped authoritarian regimes to spy on journalists.
Neutrino CEO, Giancarlo Russo, was the ex-COO of Hacking Team while its CTO, Alberto Ornaghi, was at the company for more than 8 years. According to the Washington Post, the Italian company was implicated in the murder of a number of journalists in the Middle East between 2013 and 2018.
In March 2019, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said that Neutrino staff with prior connections to controversial firm Hacking Team would transition out of their new roles at the exchange.
Responding to Coinbase’s new contract with ICE, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, tweeted:
“Even more bizarre is the acquisition they made and reputational hit they took to be able to offer this service to the government.”
Related: Coinbase CEO Defends Licensing of Analytics Platform to Gov’t Agencies
Since its acquisition of Neutrino, Coinbase has also inked contracts with the U.S. Secret Service — which announced the creation of a Cyber Fraud Task Force in July 2020. The task force has been mandated to investigate the use of cryptocurrency for criminal purposes, stating later that year:
“Cryptocurrency presents a troubling new opportunity for individuals and rogue states to avoid international sanctions and to undermine traditional financial markets, thereby harming the interests of the United States and its allies.”
Coinbase is currently embroiled in a regulatory tussle with the Securities Exchange Commission, with the regulator taking umbrage with its planned stablecoin lending product and threatening to take the company to court.
On Monday, the publishing platform Substack revealed the company is now accepting bitcoin payments. Substack will be working with the payment processor Opennode and the publishing platform will leverage the Lightning Network and onchain payments. Substack Partners With Payment Processor Opennode to Support Bitcoin Payments The online platform Substack is a publishing, analytics, and design […]
As the non-fungible token (NFT) space continues to grow, the blockchain analytics Nansen has published a leaderboards list of the top wallets (NFT collectors) that interact with NFTs on a regular basis. The analytics firm combed through 90 million ethereum wallets and found a number of big market players making moves in the NFT space. […]
On May 5, the cryptocurrency data and analytics provider Coin Metrics announced the firm has raised $15 million in Series B financing round. The funding was led by Goldman Sachs and a number of other venture firms, as digital currency data has become a hot commodity in recent times. Digital Currency Data and Analytics Firm […]
On April 30, the crypto-focused data analytics company Skew announced the firm has been acquired by the San Francisco company Coinbase. The exchange will leverage Skew’s data with the firm’s institutional subsidiary Coinbase Prime. The goal is to make “cryptocurrency markets more transparent and accessible for institutional investors.” Coinbase Acquires Analytics Company Skew Skew, the […]
Sherlock will provide fundamental and technical analysis for fund managers and investors.
Asset management giant Fidelity is delving deeper into the digital asset space with the announcement of an analytics platform called Sherlock.
In an announcement on April 29, Fidelity Investments — which has $10 trillion assets under management — unveiled a digital assets data and analytics solution to assist institutional investors and fund managers.
The platform, dubbed Sherlock, will be similar to Bloomberg’s Terminal and will collate data on fundamental and technical analysis, blockchain data, market data, social sentiment analysis, and industry news into one portal.
It will include research on crypto assets from some of the leading institutional data providers, in addition to unique analytics to help investors evaluate the market, according to the announcement.
The new platform will compete against existing solutions from companies such as Messari which was launched in 2018 to provide institutional-grade analytics. Research firm Delphi Digital, which announced a partnership with gaming venture firm Bitkraft on Thursday, is another provider of in-depth research and analytics for institutional clients.
Other platforms offering a deeper level of data and analytics include Glassnode, Skew, Coin Metrics, Dune Analytics, and Santiment.
Kevin Vora, vice president of product management at the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology, acknowledged the increased institutional interest in the crypto space:
“It’s been exciting to see the tremendous growth in the digital assets data space over the past few years, and while the market is maturing rapidly, we’ve heard from institutional investors that there’s still a need for a comprehensive and accessible data solution,”
In addition to an advanced set of analytics tools for institutional investors, Sherlock will also allow users to explore the data off-platform for modeling and back-testing.
Senior associate at Blockchain Capital, Kinjal Shah, commented that one of the major challenges when researching crypto markets is piecing together information from numerous resources, adding that “Sherlock helps us research more efficiently by giving us access to holistic, timely data, which is crucial in this fast-paced market.”
Fidelity’s Center for Applied Technology (FCAT) also has a blockchain incubator team that conducts research and builds proofs of concepts around specific use cases for distributed ledger technology.
Fidelity is bolstering its crypto asset presence which began in 2014 with BTC mining. On March 24, the investment giant filed for a Bitcoin ETF aiming to be the first to provide such a product in the U.S.
On April 8, Tom Jessop, who heads Fidelity’s crypto division, stated that he believes things have reached a tipping point for the crypto asset industry.
Bitcoin options markets are set to see a large expiry on Friday as more than 77,000 BTC worth over $4 billion in derivatives contracts are set to expire. The lion’s share of bitcoin options stems from the derivatives trading platform Deribit, as the exchange has more than $11 billion in open interest today. Sizzling Hot […]
Bitcoin futures open interest on Monday has crossed $23 billion according to data recorded on April 5. The crypto asset exchange Binance has taken the lead as far as open interest in bitcoin futures is concerned with a massive $10.5 billion in open interest. Binance Captures the Bitcoin Futures Lead Not too long ago, Bitcoin.com’s […]
