ETH to hit $20 trillion market cap by 2030: Ark Invest

January 27, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Ark Invest

ARK Invest’s new report predicts Ether’s market cap will reach $20 trillion and the Bitcoin price will exceed $1 million by 2030 based on BTC’s use cases and how ETH captures market share from TradFi.

A new report from Cathy Woods’ ARK Invest forecasts Ethereum (ETH) will meet or even exceed a $20 trillion market cap within the next 10 years, which would equate to a price around $170,000 to $180,000 per ETH.

The report also predicted big things for Bitcoin (BTC), saying it is “likely to scale as nation-states adopt (it) as legal tender… the price of one bitcoin could exceed $1 million by 2030.”

ARK Invest is a tech focused American asset management firm based in the United States with $12.43 billion AUM.

#BigIdeas2022 Report is here!

To enlighten investors on the impact of breakthrough technologies we began publishing Big Ideas in 2017. This annual research report seeks to highlight our most provocative research conclusions for the year. Download! https://t.co/QvUbuqVpIL
— ARK Invest (@ARKInvest) January 26, 2022

The prediction in ARK Invest’s report Big Ideas 2022 is predicated on how quickly the Ethereum network has grown in utility and efficiency. Much of the growth over the past two years has come from decentralized finance (DeFi). ARK described the appeal of DeFi, stating:

“Decentralized Finance promises more interoperability, transparency, and financial services while minimizing intermediary fees and counterparty risk.”

According to ARK, smart contracts and decentralized apps (DApps) on Ethereum is “usurping traditional financial functions at the margin.” The report highlighted that banking and lending, exchanges, brokerages, asset management, insurance, and derivatives can all be found on Ethereum-based smart contracts.

What’s more, DeFi is a lot more efficient too. ARK estimated that DeFi outperformed traditional finance over the last twelve months in terms of revenue per employee $88 million to $8 million.

In terms of Bitcoin, the report forecasts $1.36 million per BTC with a market cap of $28.5 trillion by 2030. ARK researchers assigned an estimated future value to eight of Bitcoin’s use cases, and used the sum of all of them to reach their conclusion about BTC price.

By 2030, the firm expects Bitcoin to account for 50% of global remittances at 1.5x velocity, 10% of emerging markets’ currency, 25% of US bank settlement volumes, 1% of nation-state treasuries worldwide, 5% of global high net worth individual (HNWI) wealth, 2.55% of institutional asset base, 5% of the cash from S&P 500 companies, and 50% of gold’s total market cap.

ARK also argued that Bitcoin mining “could revolutionize energy production.” While global concerns have been raised about the tremendous amount of energy that Bitcoin mining requires, the researchers believe that “Bitcoin mining will encourage and generate more electricity from renewable carbon-free sources.”

“The addition of Bitcoin mining into power developers’ toolboxes should increase the overall addressable market for renewable and intermittent power sources.”

Both ETH and BTC have had a rough past seven days by falling 22.2% and 13% respectively according to CoinGecko.

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With US regulators handing out $2.5B in fines since 2014, crypto is not the ‘wild west’ of finance

June 22, 2021 Coin Telegraph

<div>With US regulators handing out .5B in fines since 2014, crypto is not the 'wild west' of finance</div>

CFTC

A new report from Elliptic has found that unregistered securities offerings account for more than half of all crypto-related fines handed out by U.S. regulators.

According to a report from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, unregistered securities offerings represent more than half of all crypto fines handed out by U.S. regulators.

In Elliptic’s June 21 Sanctions Compliance in Cryptocurrencies report, the firm's co-founder and Chief Scientist, Dr. Tom Robinson writes that U.S. regulators have handed out $2.5 billion in fines for crypto-related violations since 2014.

Out of the total $2.5 billion, unregistered securities offerings accounted for $1.38 billion worth of penalties, or 55.19% of all fines dished out. Fraud was the second biggest crypto violation found in the report, accounting for 37.12% or $928 worth of penalties.

The largest crypto violation on record was the SEC’s 2020 verdict on Telegram’s initial coin offering (ICO), with the encrypted messaging app being charged for violating securities laws through its 2018 unregistered ICO that raised $1.7 billion in 2018. Telegram was ordered to pay $1.2 billion in disgorgement and $18.5 million in civil penalties.

The largest fraud penalized by the CFTC was Control Finance Ltd. Ponzi scheme, with the scam’s operator, Benjamin Reynolds, having gone AWOL last year before being found and charged in March 2021. The fraud resulted in a civil penalty of $429 million, along with restitution of $143 million.

With numerous successful enforcement actions having been executed over the years, Dr. Robinson asserts the crypto sector is not the “wild west” of finance it is often characterized as in mainstream circles:

“Our analysis of crypto asset-related enforcement actions in the U.S., demonstrates that crypto is far from being the ‘wild west’ of finance. Regulators have successfully used existing laws to halt and penalize illicit activity that has exploited cryptoassets.”

Elliptic’s analysis of US regulatory enforcement actions since the birth of Bitcoin in 2009 shows that $2.5 billion in penalties have been imposed against firms and individuals dealing in crypto ➡️ https://t.co/i3hoWhrcLI
— elliptic (@elliptic) June 21, 2021

The United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has handed out the most monetary penalties for crypto violations, accounting for $1.69 billion or 67% of all fines.

The SEC is followed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which has divvied out 25% off penalties worth $624 million, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) with 7% or $183 million, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at 2.4% or $606,000.

*Five largest monetary crypto related penalties: Elliptic*

The report also notes increasing innovative tactics employed by sanctioned entities to evade restrictions and access cryptocurrency.

Elliptic states that sanctioned actors are increasingly using “privacy coins, mixers, and privacy wallets to evade detection” alongside decentralized exchange platforms (DEX) that allow users to trade without having to provide know-your-customer (KYC) information.

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Research Report