Monat: Januar 2021

Alameda Research, the company behind the FTX exchange, raised $ 50 million in a funding round to create a Bitcoin Evolution ecosystem on maps.me , an offline mapping application. The funding will make it possible to launch a multi-currency wallet on the Maps.me platform that will unlock decentralized payments for the app’s 140 million users.

Popular offline mapping app receives $ 50 million funding from major investors

The hugely popular offline mapping app, Maps.me, has just raised $ 50 million in funding to bring decentralized finance to its 140 million users. According to a press release, the funding round was led by Alameda Research, the company behind cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

Genesis Capital, a Hong Kong-based investment firm, and CMS Holdings, a major investment firm focused on the crypto industry, also participated in the round.

The funding will be used to launch an embedded multi-currency wallet on Maps.me’s mobile app that is effectively opening up the world of decentralized finance to tens of millions of new users. According to Maps.me, the wallet will be able to provide access to turn-by-turn routing, travel guides and hotel bookings, as well as „handle a wide range of payment and investment tools in the Maps.me ecosystem.“

Maps.me users should be brought closer to the world of decentralized finance

The wallet embedded in the app will enable users to save values ​​and achieve returns of up to 8 percent. Users can also use the wallet to exchange money, send money, and get cashback for transactions made through the app.

One of Maps.me’s biggest goals is to use funding to combat the high fees on foreign exchanges. The company said that third-party banks and travel booking platforms also have extremely high commissions, which make travel bookings a burden.

According to company representatives, the aim of the wallet is to enable users to make direct bookings with almost zero fees.

Alex Grebnev, Co-Founder of Maps.me, said the company looks forward to working with Alameda Research as the company has grown significantly in terms of user numbers.

Alameda Research comments that the main reason for investing in Maps.me was the platform’s potential to bring new users to the world of decentralized finance. Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO of Alameda and FTX:

„By embedding and democratizing access to high-yield finance for millions of users through an everyday app, Maps.me has the potential to really drive DeFi mainstream adoption and bring breakthrough technology to the masses.“

FTX exchange users can take part in the IEO of the MAPS token on the FTX platform. The token will be issued as an SPL token on the Solana blockchain and as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum ( see How to Buy Ethereum ).

The exchange limits the IEO to users whose accounts have KYC2 and either 1,000 FTT staked or a 30-day trading volume of at least $ 50,000.

De Bitcoin is maandag vroeg in het begin van het jaar sterk gedaald, omdat hij in het weekend geen voet aan de grond had gekregen boven de 40.000 dollar.

In de afgelopen 24 uur daalde de cryptocurrency met meer dan $8.000 tot $32.400, een daling van meer dan 20% van niveaus boven de $40.800 laat op zondag (UTC). De cryptocurrency is voor het laatst gezien in de buurt van $35.380 – nog steeds 13,6% op een 24-uursbasis.

Er werd wat paniekverkoop gezien op de Amerikaanse cryptobeurs Coinbase. Een verkooporder voor 180 Bitcoin Evolution op Coinbase bracht de prijs snel omlaag met $1.200, zoals opgemerkt door handelaar @lightcrypto.

De prijzen bereikten een recordhoogte van $41.962 op 8 Januari en beà „indigden vorige week met 15% aanwinsten, zijn vierde-achteruitgaande dubbel-cijferige wekelijkse aanwinst, volgens CoinDesk 20 gegevens.

„Hefty spot selling against an over-levered market caused the price drop,“ trader and analyst Alex Kruger told CoinDesk, adding that it is unclear whether it was miner selling or macro traders liquidating positions.

De gegevens die door Zuid-Korea-gebaseerde analytische firma CryptoQuant worden verstrekt stellen voor de mijnwerker die tot de prijsdaling verkoopt.

Bitcoin: Miner’s positie-index

Het 30-daagse gemiddelde van de Miner’s Position Index (MPI) – de verhouding van de totale uitstroom van mijnwerkers in Amerikaanse dollartermen gedeeld door het 365-daagse voortschrijdende gemiddelde van de uitstroom in dollartermen – steeg tot 2,20 op zondag, het hoogste niveau sinds juli 2019. Een meting boven 2,00 geeft aan dat de mijnwerkers verkopen.

„Miner Position Index ziet er genoeg uit om een lokale top te maken. Ze verkopen bitcoin (BTC, -14,26%),“ CryptoQuant’s CEO Ki Young Ju tweeted Sunday.

Het toevoegen van brandstof aan het vuur, een commentaar van Guggenheim Partners CIO Scott Minerd dat de scherpe stijging van de bitcoin ,,onhoudbaar“ is kan angst in de markt hebben ingespoten en een overdreven terugtrekking, volgens Matthew Dibb, mede-oprichter, en COO van Stapel Fondsen veroorzaakt hebben.

De meeste waarnemers geloven dat de prijsdaling gezond is te midden van de oververhitte markt.

„De ,,derivatenmarkt kan een beetje, met het perptuals financieringstarief of de kosten ontspannen van holdingslange dalende en toekomstpremie die,“ Patrick Heusser, hoofd van handel in Zürich-Gebaseerde Crypto Makelaar AG, vertelde CoinDesk, ook nota nemend van het zware verkopen in de contantmarkt en de lange vereffeningen met een waarde van bijna $1 miljard.

Joel Kruger, een muntstrateeg bij LMAX Digitaal, zei de markt streng overbought was en met behoefte aan een gezonde correctie. De 14-daagse Relatieve Sterkte-index (RSI) op de daggrafiek was vorige week namelijk ruim boven de 70,00 gesprongen, wat betekent dat er te veel is gekocht.

„De vooruitzichten blijven zeer constructief, maar we zouden het potentieel voor een terugtrekking van de voormalige hurdle-turned-support van $20.000 niet uitsluiten,“ voegde Kruger eraan toe.

Bitcoin is nog steeds meer dan 20% op jaarbasis en 78% hoger dan de piek van december 2017 van $19.783.

Asset management is seeing increasing interest from traditionally risk-averse investors.

Michael Sonnenshein, the new CEO of influential crypto asset management firm Grayscale, confirms to Bloomberg that more and more pension funds are investing in Grayscale’s crypto investment products.

To this end, he explains:

„We are seeing increased demand not only from hedge funds, which have long shown strong interest, but now also from other institutions, pension funds and endowment funds. […] The size of their positions is also increasing at the same time.“
Grayscale is currently arguably the largest buyer of Bitcoin (BTC), with the asset management firm now owning just under 3% of all available BTC. It buys the cryptocurrency indirectly on behalf of its clients, who are primarily institutional investors.

Total assets under management (AUM) across all 10 crypto investment products amount to more than 27 billion US dollars. The Bitcoin investment fund is by far the most popular vehicle, accounting for $23 billion in assets alone. The Ethereum investment fund, meanwhile, comes in at $3.6 billion, while the Digital Large Cap Fund accounts for $339 million.

The pension funds thus join many other institutional investors who have already gradually ventured into the bitcoin market in 2020. A survey by Fidelity Investments had in turn revealed last year that 36% of all financial institutions in the US and Europe say they own Bitcoin Aussie System cryptocurrencies or corresponding derivatives. A quarter of all respondents own Bitcoin, while 11% hold Ether (ETH).

So the influx of capital through institutions is indeed increasing, as Grayscale confirms. Even pension funds and endowment funds, traditionally considered risk-averse, now want a piece of the Bitcoin pie.

Grayscale’s aggressive Bitcoin buying is driving the Bitcoin price ever higher, which is tantamount to a self-reinforcing effect. Since Bitcoin has a fixed amount in circulation anyway, the available supply is becoming increasingly scarce due to the buying activity of institutions that want to hold the cryptocurrency for the long term and virtually take it out of circulation. In this context, Sonnenshein explains:

„We are dealing with a really scarce investment product here. The more units are taken out of circulation, the scarcer it becomes.“