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Goldman Sachs Gearing Up To Offer ‘Full Spectrum’ of Bitcoin (BTC) and Crypto Investment Services to Wealthy Clients: Report

Banking giant Goldman Sachs is reportedly looking to offer crypto investment services to its deep-pocketed clients in the coming months. According to a new report by CNBC, the investment bank soon plans to add support for Bitcoin (BTC) and a “full spectrum” of other crypto assets due to high demand from its high-net-worth customers. Says […]

The post Goldman Sachs Gearing Up To Offer ‘Full Spectrum’ of Bitcoin (BTC) and Crypto Investment Services to Wealthy Clients: Report appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

XRP Market Update: Price Teeters Between $2.35 and $2.50 Resistance

Dedicated crypto teams booming within traditional financial firms

As more and more financial giants set up crypto research teams, experts see this trend continuing to gain traction in the future.

Despite the financial volatility that has engulfed the global economic landscape over the last month or so, there seems to be no stopping the growth of the cryptocurrency market, especially the nonfungible token (NFT) sector. This growth is highlighted by the fact that crypto’s total market capitalization has increased from around $800 billion to $1.8 trillion since the start of 2021.

Furthermore, a report from NonFungible.com released late last month reveals that sales associated with the NFT market ballooned to hit an all-time high of $17.6 billion during 2021, representing an increase of 21,000% from 2020.

The report further suggests that individuals invested in the NFT market raked in monumental profits worth a collective $5.4 billion last year. Thus, it comes as no surprise that a growing list of mainstream entities have continued to make their way into the crypto space.

Mainstream firms explore crypto tech 

On March 2, Nomura Holdings — one of Japan’s largest financial firms, with about 70 trillion yen ($593 billion) in assets under management — announced it would be launching a new digital assets wing to look into opportunities presented by the crypto market, particularly NFTs, and to help its clients increase their exposure to and use of digital currencies as well as other related services. The company — which deals in retail, wholesale and investment businesses — announced it would restructure its Future Innovation Company and begin updated operations in April.

Several major firms have made similar moves in recent months, including e-commerce giant Rakuten, which announced the launch of its very own NFT trading platform, dubbed Rakuten NFT. Japan’s largest financial conglomerate, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, also revealed it would scrap its blockchain payment project to focus on the burgeoning stablecoin market.

Bank of Tokyo–Mitsubishi UFJ Head Office in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. Source: Kakidai

Specialized crypto wings are fast becoming the norm 

Christopher Temme, chief financial officer of cryptocurrency exchange bitFlyer USA, spoke to Cointelegraph about whether the trend of mainstream firms creating dedicated crypto departments will carry forward into the future.

In his view, companies like Nomura creating digital asset-focused business units comes as no surprise, as the clients of most multinational corporations are pushing for this kind of exposure, adding:

“What’s more interesting is that Nomura is exploring NFTs specifically. Their rapid growth and adoption in the creative/collectibles space have been the perfect testing ground to harden the technology in preparation for digital ownership of ‘real’ property, and the communities that’ll be formed around it as a result.”

Temme also noted that while Japanese financial institutions have traditionally been quite conservative in their financial outlook, the fact that Nomura is exploring the crypto sector via a dedicated wing serves as a strong indicator of what’s to come in the near future. 

Similarly, Takaaki Kato, head of global sales and trading at bitFlyer, told Cointelegraph that, as a general rule of thumb, mainstream companies tend to follow a herd mentality — meaning that when one major player creates a department to explore crypto, it’s only a matter of time before others follow suit. 

Temme’s and Kato’s opinions were also echoed by Jimmy Yin, founder of iZUMi Finance — a platform providing liquidity as a service — who told Cointelegraph that the creation of dedicated crypto wings will likely become a norm as we move into an increasingly decentralized future. However, he made note that there are certain things companies need to take into consideration before taking major steps in this direction:

“We can see massive growth in NFTs and crypto-asset users in general over the past year. That said, multiple factors, including legalization, have to be taken into consideration, especially when it comes to advertising to mass citizens. With the current geopolitical mayhem going on, crypto is seen as a challenge to what’s been considered stable.”

In Yin’s view, the trend will gain momentum if crypto’s social acceptance continues to grow, especially as a holistic technology that allows for a multitude of benefits — not just as a payment tool. “Whether crypto is adopted as a social norm is not up to these business giants but the common interest of citizens,” he said.

The numbers don’t lie

In mid-2021, Bank of America established a specialized team focused on crypto and digital asset strategy, citing growing customer demand and other associated factors for the move. In a study released by the firm later that year, analysts noted that the digital asset market had become too large for any forward-looking company to ignore, with crypto having reached a $2 trillion market capitalization in 2021 — and boasting over 200 million users.

The researchers further noted that crypto-based digital assets could form an entirely new asset class over the coming months and years. Not only that, they acknowledged that the digital asset ecosystem had expanded into unimaginable realms over the past couple of years — including decentralized finance, stablecoins, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and NFTs — meaning that more and more traditional players are bound to enter the fray soon.

From a purely numbers standpoint, venture capital-related digital asset and blockchain investments reached over $17 billion during Q1 and Q2 of 2021 alone, dwarfing the previous year’s combined total of $5.5 billion.

Lastly, as more companies begin to realize the potential that crypto has across various industries — including finance, supply chains, gaming and social media — the advent of dedicated crypto research teams no longer seems like a far-fetched notion. Samiar Tehrani, co-founder of Ratio Finance — a Solana-based collateralized debt position platform — told Cointelegraph that digital assets present tangible, ready use cases meeting many of the challenges presented by the world of traditional finance, adding:

“Even after experiencing several major corrections recently, the current market capitalization of the crypto sector still stands at $1.8 trillion, which is more than the GDP of many major nations. That tells you all that you need to know about how big this space has become and whether or not companies are really taking this market seriously. I believe most firms already have dedicated teams working overtime to explore this space so as to not get left behind.”

Most traditional firms see a lot of value in crypto

Much like Bank of America, many other financial juggernauts have also recently jumped into the deep end of the crypto market. For example, late last year, Morgan Stanley launched a cryptocurrency research team led by Sheena Shah, the company’s head digital asset analyst, alongside Adam Wood and James Faucette, who head the bank’s fintech and payments research team in Europe and the United States, respectively.

It is also worth noting that Morgan Stanley was among the first major investment banks to fully embrace digital currencies, with the firm rolling out a total of 15 crypto-related mutual funds offerings to its clients over the last 18 months.

Additionally, State Street, the second-oldest continuously operating bank in the United States, launched a dedicated digital finance division in June 2021, noting its need to focus on future-centric technologies such as cryptocurrency, blockchain, CBDCs and tokenization to keep up with the ever-evolving global financial landscape.

So, as the world continues to move toward using digital assets, it stands to reason that more and more companies will look closely at various offerings connected with the space. In this regard, it seems many companies see creating teams specializing in this financial niche to be the best means of doing so.

XRP Market Update: Price Teeters Between $2.35 and $2.50 Resistance

Poll Suggests ECB May Wait Until Q4 to Raise Rates, Several Banks Expect a Series of Fed Rate Hikes This Year

Poll Suggests ECB May Wait Until Q4 to Raise Rates, Several Banks Expect a Series of Fed Rate Hikes This YearA recently published Reuters poll suggests the European Central Bank (ECB) may wait until the last quarter of the year (Q4) to raise its first interest rate in over ten years. The poll’s author details that after the conflict in Ukraine, “fewer economists” predict the ECB will raise the benchmark bank rate earlier. Moreover, a […]

XRP Market Update: Price Teeters Between $2.35 and $2.50 Resistance

Ethereum dominance may dwindle as competitors emerge: Morgan Stanley

“Ethereum demand is tied more closely to transactions. Therefore, similar scaling constraints hurt Ethereum demand more than they suppress Bitcoin demand,” Morgan Stanley’s report reads.

Morgan Stanley’s wealth management global investment office has published a report on Ethereum (ETH) arguing that the blockchain’s dominance could dwindle if strong market competition emerges.

The investment banking giant’s report is titled “Cryptocurrency 201: What Is Ethereum?” and it provides a detailed rundown of the ecosystem along with its advantages and disadvantages in relation to Bitcoin (BTC).

“Due in part to its more ambitious addressable market, Ethereum faces more competitive threats, scalability issues, and complexity challenges than Bitcoin. Furthermore, Ether is more volatile than Bitcoin,” the report reads.

Morgan Stanley argued that Ethereum may lose smart contract superiority to cheaper and faster blockchains — something that has often been argued by supporters of the Ethereum killer market that includes networks such as Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), Polkadot (DOT), and Tezos (XTZ):

“Ethereum faces more competition in the smart contract market than Bitcoin faces in the store-of-value market. Ethereum may lose smart contract platform market share to faster or cheaper alternatives.”

The investment bank also suggested that Ethereum poses a greater investment risk than Bitcoin as it faces greater competition in the smart contract market than “Bitcoin faces in the store-of-value market.”

“Fewer transactions per user are needed to ‘use’ Bitcoin, which is akin to a decentralized savings account. Ethereum demand is tied more closely to transactions. Therefore, similar scaling constraints hurt Ethereum demand more than they suppress Bitcoin demand,” the report read.

Other concerns raised about the network included the evolving regulatory status of applications built on Ethereum such as Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) which may see strict regulations placed on them in the future, resulting in reduced demand for Ethereum transactions.

Related: From Morgan Stanley to crypto world: in a conversation with Phemex founder

While the centralization of Ethereum was also highlighted, with the report noting that most of Ether's supply is held by a “relatively small number of accounts”:

“It is less decentralized than Bitcoin, with the top 100 addresses holding 39% of Ether, which compares to 14% for Bitcoin.”

On the bullish side of the equation, the Morgan Stanley report argued that Ethereum has greater market potential than Bitcoin, it has deflationary traits via its transaction-based burning mechanism, and its performance will significantly improve following the eventual transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism:

“Ethereum has a much bigger addressable market than Bitcoin and can therefore be worth more than Bitcoin, which is simply the market for store of value products like savings accounts and gold.”

XRP Market Update: Price Teeters Between $2.35 and $2.50 Resistance

Wall Street still not convinced on Bitcoin $100K this year: JPMorgan survey

JPMorgan and Chase call for calm in the crypto market. In a recent client survey, just 5% believe Bitcoin will hit $100,000 by year-end.

One of the world’s largest investment banks has its Bitcoin (BTC) price predictions ready for 2022.

In a recent poll, JPMorgan Chase asked its clients “where do you see Bitcoin trading at 2022 year-end?” Just 5% said they saw the digital coin reaching $100,000, and 9% saw it breaking previous all-time highs, reaching over $80,000. 

The bank is known for its wealthy client portfolio. While some BTC bulls may welcome the news that 14% of JPMorgan's clients expect at least a 2x, it’s not the fireworks the crypto market is accustomed to.

On balance, however, the survey is generally positive. Most clients (55%) see BTC trading at $60,000 or above at the end of the year, with only one quarter expecting prices to slide from the recent lows of $40,000.

“I’m not surprised by Bitcoin bearishness,” said Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, the author of the research note who works as the managing director for London at JPMorgan. He continued: 

“Our Bitcoin-position indicator based on Bitcoin futures looks oversold. The coin’s fair value is between $35,000-$73,000, depending on what investors assume about its volatility ratio versus gold.”

The group, which has over $2.6 trillion assets under management, is increasingly involved in the crypto space, particularly since its own token launch, JPM Coin in 2019. Part of the Big Four of American investment banks, it has been educating its customers and investors on the pros and cons of Bitcoin since July 2021.

Related: Arcane Research releases its crypto predictions for 2022

While its cards remain close to its chest, in September last year JPMorgan’s CEO, Jamie Dimon softened his stance on Bitcoin. He shared that Bitcoin could 10x in a matter of five years, but he still won’t buy any.

It’s in contrast to fellow billionaires Ray Dalio and Bill Miller, who suggest anything from 1% to 50% is a reasonable BTC allocation.

Amidst growing institutional adoption and calls for $200,000 in 2022 from other funds such as Fundstrat Global Advisors, it begs the question. Are JPMorgan Chase clients on the money, or are the Wall Street execs and other wealthy individuals decidedly bearish?

XRP Market Update: Price Teeters Between $2.35 and $2.50 Resistance

Morgan Stanley increased exposure to Bitcoin, held $300M in Grayscale shares

The investment firm's exposure to Bitcoin across three major funds totals roughly $303 million with 6,626,381 shares as of Sept. 30.

Investment funds from major U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley have increased their exposure to Bitcoin through purchases of shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.

According to filings from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, the Morgan Stanley Insight Fund increased its holdings of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, or GBTC, shares more than 63%, from 928,051 in the second quarter of 2021 to 1,520,549 as of Sept. 30. In addition, filings on the firm’s Growth Portfolio show it holding 3,642,118 GBTC shares in the third quarter of 2021, an increase of 71% when compared with 2,130,153 shares as of Q2. The Morgan Stanley Global Opportunity Portfolio held 1,463,714 GBTC, a 59% increase from 919,805 shares in three months.

At the time of publication, the price of GBTC is $45.72, making the investment bank’s exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) across these three funds roughly $303 million with 6,626,381 shares as of Sept. 30. The BTC price was under $50,000 for much of September, but the crypto asset has since reached an all-time high price of $69,000 before sliding back to the $56,000s.

The respective portfolios and funds allow Morgan Stanley to gain exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) without investing directly in the cryptocurrency. Cointelegraph reported in September that the firm’s Europe Opportunity Fund, which invests in established and emerging companies throughout Europe, more than doubled its shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust since April. However, the fund has not reported additional BTC exposure at the time of publication.

Related: Grayscale hints at plans to convert Bitcoin trust into BTC-settled ETF

Whether investing indirectly through Grayscale or by backing blockchain platforms, Morgan Stanley seems to be dipping its toes deeper into the crypto space. In September, the firm announced it would be setting up a crypto-focused research division aimed at exploring the “growing significance of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets in global markets.”

XRP Market Update: Price Teeters Between $2.35 and $2.50 Resistance

The Metaverse Is the Next Big Investment Theme, According to Morgan Stanley

The Metaverse Is the Next Big Investment Theme, According to Morgan StanleyInvestment bank Morgan Stanley has stated the metaverse is now the next big investment theme, in a note directed to investors Thursday. Strategists from the bank believe this alternate conception of reality is amassing important interest from companies like Meta (formerly Facebook) and Microsoft, which are already trying to grasp the concept. Some of these […]

XRP Market Update: Price Teeters Between $2.35 and $2.50 Resistance

Morgan Stanley CEO Says Bitcoin Is Not a Fad, Crypto Is Not Going Away

Morgan Stanley CEO Says Bitcoin Is Not a Fad, Crypto Is Not Going AwayThe chief executive officer of global investment bank Morgan Stanley says that cryptocurrency, including bitcoin, is not a fad. Noting that they are not going to go away, he said: “We’re watchful of it, we’re respectful, and we’ll wait and see how the regulators handle it.” Morgan Stanley’s CEO Says Bitcoin and Crypto Aren’t Going […]

XRP Market Update: Price Teeters Between $2.35 and $2.50 Resistance

Morgan Stanley Investment Fund Increases Exposure to Grayscale Bitcoin Trust by 100%

A Morgan Stanley investment fund is doubling the number of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares it holds. A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shows that the Morgan Stanley Europe Opportunity Fund (EUGAX) increased the number of GBTC shares by 105% from the end of April to late July of this year. […]

The post Morgan Stanley Investment Fund Increases Exposure to Grayscale Bitcoin Trust by 100% appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

XRP Market Update: Price Teeters Between $2.35 and $2.50 Resistance

Morgan Stanley doubles exposure to Bitcoin through Grayscale shares

The investment firm has increased its shares of GBTC by more than 105% since April.

Major U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley has more than doubled its shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust since April.

According to a report from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, filed Sept. 27, the Morgan Stanley Europe Opportunity Fund, which invests in established and emerging companies throughout Europe, owned 58,116 shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, or GBTC, as of July 31. At the time of publication, the price of GBTC is $34.28, making the investment bank’s exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) roughly $2 million — Morgan Stanley reported the shares cost $2.4 million.

Previous filings show that Morgan Stanley has increased its shares of GBTC by more than 105% since April. Cointelegraph reported in June that the investment bank held 28,298 GBTC, worth roughly $1.3 million at the time. 

Morgan Stanley has been gaining more exposure to BTC in 2021. The firm’s Europe Opportunity Fund aims at maximum capital appreciation by investing in “high quality established and emerging” Europe-based companies that the team considers “undervalued at the time of purchase."

In April, the investment bank announced it would be adding Bitcoin exposure to 12 investment funds through Grayscale and cash-settled futures. The bank later led a $48 million funding round for Securitize, a Coinbase-backed tokenization platform — the action represented Morgan Stanley’s first capital investment foray into blockchain.

Related: Morgan Stanley exec says Bitcoin is the ‘Kenny from South Park’ of money

Ark Invest under CEO Cathie Wood also has a significant investment in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. In July, the firm reported it had purchased more than 450,000 GBTC shares in two separate buys. At the time of publication, Ark Invest and its institutional funds hold more than 8.3 million GBTC shares, bringing its combined holdings to roughly 0.69% of its portfolio.

XRP Market Update: Price Teeters Between $2.35 and $2.50 Resistance