New South African Code Says Crypto Asset Ads Must Include Capital Loss Warning

January 25, 2023 Bitcoin.com

FTX crisis leads to record inflows into short-investment products

November 22, 2022 Coin Telegraph

AUM

The aftermath of FTX’s collapse has soured crypto investor sentiment with "record” inflows into short-investment products last week, said CoinShares.

Institutional investors have responded to the negative sentiment caused by FTX’s collapse, with record institutional inflows into crypto-focused short-investment products.

According to CoinShares’ chief strategy officer James Butterfill, 75% of the total inflows by institutional crypto investors for the week ending Nov. 18 were placed in short investment products — essentially a bet that crypto prices will decline.

Butterfill said the takeup of short positions by investors is likely “a direct result of the ongoing fallout from the FTX collapse,” while the total assets under management (AUM) for institutional investors is now at $22 billion — the lowest in two years.

Over the week, $14 million was poured into short-ETH investment products. CoinShares said it was “the largest weekly inflow on record.”

CoinShares cited “renewed uncertainty” over Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade slated for Sep. 2023 and mentioned that the sizeable amount of ETH held by the FTX exploiter as possible reasons for the negative sentiment.

Inflows into short investment products for Bitcoin (BTC) hit $18.4 million. Bitcoin short products were reported to have an AUM of $173 million coming close to the $186 million high.

Investors are also seemingly dropping altcoins with Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP), BNB (BNB), and Polygon (MATIC) product outflows totaling $6 million.

The newly reported inflows are a slight change from the week prior which saw the largest inflows in 14 weeks to crypto products totaling $42 million, although short Bitcoin products already started to see inflows of $12.6 million and blockchain equity products recorded the largest weekly outflow since May 2022.

Meanwhile, the ripple effect of investor distrust for centralized exchanges is taking hold in the traditional finance market with Coinbase posting an all-time low share price on Nov. 21.

The crypto exchange’s share price dropped 8.9% on the day, slipping to under $41 according to Google Finance. It has now slightly recovered to around $41.20 at the time of writing but continued to trade at a slight 0.19% negative after hours.

Coinbase’s stock price is down almost 88% since it went public on Apr. 16, 2021.

$138,400,000,000 Asset Manager Gearing Up To Launch New Crypto Hedge Fund by End of Year: Report

November 21, 2022 The Daily Hodl

HK and Singapore’s mega-rich are eyeing crypto investments: KPMG

October 25, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Aspen Digital

Despite the ongoing bear market, family offices and high-net-worth individuals in Hong Kong and Singapore are keen to invest in crypto or already have holdings.

Hong Kong and Singapore’s wealthy elite appear to be looking at digital assets with fervor, after a new report from KPMG suggesting over 90% of family offices and high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) are interested in investing in the digital assets space or have already done so.

According to an Oct. 24 report from KPMG China and Aspen Digital titled “Investing in Digital Assets,” as much as 58% of family offices and HNWI of respondents in a recent survey are already investing in digital assets, and 34% “plan to do so.”

The survey took the pulse from 30 family offices and HNWIs in Hong Kong and Singapore with most respondents managing assets between $10 million to $500 million.

KPMG said the large crypto uptake among the ultra-wealthy has increased confidence in the sector, spurred by the increase in “mainstream institutional attention.”

It also noted institutions also have more accessibility to digital asset financial products, including regulated products.

Singapore's largest bank, DBS, announced in Sept they were expanding crypto services on its digital exchange (DDEx) to approximately 100,000 wealth clients who meet the criteria around their income to be classed as accredited investors, ensuring adherence to the financial authorities' view that crypto assets are not suitable for retail investors.

While Crypto exchange Coinhako announced in Oct they were among a small number of firms to receive a license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to offer Digital Payment Token services.

However, the allocations remain relatively small, with most allocating less than 5% of their portfolio to digital assets — mainly in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and stablecoins.

Respondents cited market volatility and difficulties in accurate valuation and lack of regulatory clarity on digital assets continue to be a hurdle to investment in the sector.

“As digital assets are fairly new, there is still some uncertainty among FOs and HNWIs about investing in the sector, particularly regarding regulation and valuation,” wrote the report's authors.

However, KMPG noted that regulatory clarity in the two countries could be changing for the better.

“For example, all virtual asset service providers (VASPs) in Hong Kong will have to apply for a license by March 2024. Singapore is also planning to broaden its cryptocurrency regulations.”

Hong Kong securities regulator recently announced it wants to allow retail investors to invest directly in virtual assets and to reconsider current crypto trading requirements.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has been expanding crypto trading for accredited investors and several exchanges receiving preliminary approval to provide Digital Payment Token services in the city-state.

Earlier this month, Anchorage Digital co-founder and president Diogo Mónica said his company has chosen Singapore as a “jump point” into the wider Asia market because the country has a strong regulatory environment.

“It’s about being in a regime that’s friendly towards crypto and that businesses want to do business in. We’re institutional only, institutions are going to Singapore, so we’re following suit.”

‘I’ve done nothing wrong’ — Lark Davis denies ‘pump-and-dump’ allegations

September 30, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain data

Davis claimed he received nothing for free from the projects it's alleged he profited from, and the amounts he sold weren’t enough to “dump the price.”

Crypto influencer Lark Davis has refuted new allegations from Twitter “on-chain sleuth” ZachXBT of shilling “low cap projects” to his audience “just to dump them shortly after.”

Davis was responding to a Twitter thread posted by Zach on Sept. 29, containing allegations that he profited over $1.2 million through selling tokens from crypto projects which he was allegedly paid to promote without disclosing.

In a 17-part thread, Zach pointed to eight examples of what is supposedly Davis’ crypto wallet receiving tokens from new crypto projects, with Davis subsequently tweeting or posting a video on them, and then selling the tokens shortly after.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Zach said he received requests from multiple people who lost money on the tokens shared by Davis asking to “take a closer look” at him.

“Lark managed to dump with size on low cap projects time after time,” Zach said, adding they’ve investigated other crypto influencers, but the alleged amount was “never at this magnitude.”

Zach alleged in the thread that the largest gain to Davis came from receiving 120,000 SHOPX tokens, with Davis tweeting hours later about the project whilst apparently simultaneously selling the tokens, gaining $435,000.

6/ Example 3: $SHOPX

a) Mar 31, 2021 at 3:31 pm UTC Lark receives 120k SHOPX
b) Apr 1, 2021 at 12:32 am UTC Lark Tweets about the project
c) Meanwhile Lark is in the process of dumping all his 120k SHOPX for over $435k USD (finishes on 4/2) pic.twitter.com/mc3HvHrCdI
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) September 29, 2022

This example along with seven others Zach presented purportedly shows Davis making over $1.2 million in a similar pattern.

“Participating in seed rounds & sharing projects you genuinely like is completely fine as long as it’s done in a transparent manner,” Zach tweeted, adding:

“This is not the case as Lark has a pattern of dumping his discounted launchpad bags right after shills across YT (YouTube), Twitter, & [his] newsletter.”

Cointelegraph requested comment from Davis and was directed to a series of tweets posted late on Sept. 29 in which Davis calls the allegations made by Zach “ridiculous” and provided a response to each example Zach alleged he profited from.

“I got nothing for free,” Davis tweeted to his over one million followers, adding his token sale investments are “always disclosed” on his YouTube channel of 485,000 subscribers and shared with his followers “well before the launch."

For the sales in question, I want to be clear that:
1. I disclosed that I was an investor when I initially discussed them
2. I talked about it before the token sale, to give you a chance to get into the sale.
3. I paid for all of these coins, I got nothing for free.
— Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) September 29, 2022

Davis added he was following an investing strategy he teaches, selling the tokens upon launch, which he claims is a common investing practice for token sales. Davis said the amounts he sold were “nowhere near enough to dump the price” of the tokens.

“I teach this concept frequently to you all, none of this should be a surprise if you have been paying attention,” he tweeted. “What you choose to do with my opinions is completely up to you.”

‘Crypto is just like the end of the 90s with the internet bubble,’ says Hodl CEO Maurice Mureau

June 27, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain

Mureau remains bullish on crypto's outlook despite a severe bear market in recent months.

For Maurice Mureau, CEO of crypto investment fund operator Hodl, there's "not a lot left" to invest in anymore. With soaring inflation, bonds are no go, real estate is getting more difficult, but there is one asset class that's (unsurprisingly) catching the fund manager's attention – cryptocurrencies. During the European Blockchain Convention in Barcelona this week, Cointelegraph Editor Aaron Wood sat down with Mureau, who gave his insight on the outlook of the digital assets investment landscape.

"It's just like the end of the 90s with the internet bubble, so you're still early in the space," said Mureau. "A very solid use case for crypto is becoming apparent in the gaming industry, where people invest time that you can earn from it, and that's all arranged by the blockchain." He reiterated that there would be only 21 million Bitcoin in existence with no more printing. Therefore, alluding to hyperinflation in Turkey and Argentina, Mureau said that central banks can't print more of the digital currency. "So that, for me, makes for a very safe hedge. 30% Volatility in asset prices can be bad, but not if you lose 70% on your local currency's purchasing power each year."

When asked about his advice to new crypto investors, Mureau explained for institutional investors, who are typically risk-averse about protecting their capital, that anywhere between 1% to 5% would be an ideal exposure target. However, he suggested that retail investors, especially those who are young, can easily go beyond that target as there will be ample future income to supplement the portfolio. Currently, digital assets represent as little as 0.12% of all financial assets outstanding. "So if it goes from 2% to 4%, which is more than 10x from now, that means you've got a bit of a mature model. If you times the original number by 12, you're at the level of gold."

Of course, institutional investors typically have access to much more in-depth sources of information. But when asked about what retail investors can do to hone in their research, Mureau said:

"First, on-chain analysis is very important, because you can see who actually owns the coins. Suppose you see that 90% of the coins are owned by three individuals who are tied to the project, then you know it's a bit scammy."

He went on: "There are also loads of companies like ours, where they just write reports and put them on the website. Other elements Mureau recommended investors research are use cases, such as staking opportunity, social media presence, and inquiring about its community. "This might be a challenge, but it's similar to the internet's early days. Ultimately, the market will shake out those without meaningful traction and are just using crypto as a bandwagon."

crypto investing