<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/105900013-1557315786407gettyimages-903631430.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-402692" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/105900013-1557315786407gettyimages-903631430.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/105900013-1557315786407gettyimages-903631430-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, speaks during a TV interview in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018.Akio Kon | Bloomberg | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>







LONDON — Cryptocurrency exchange Binance on Tuesday revealed plans to introduce its own marketplace where users can create, buy and sell digital collector’s items known as NFTs.



NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/03/what-are-nfts-all-you-need-to-know-about-crypto-collectibles.html">type of digital asset</a>. They’re designed to represent ownership of rare virtual items — that could be anything from works of art to sports trading cards like those sold on the popular online basketball collectibles platform&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/28/230-million-dollars-spent-on-nba-top-shot.html">NBA Top Shot</a>.



Total sales of these tokens <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/13/nft-sales-top-2-billion-in-first-quarter-with-interest-from-newcomers.html">soared to more than $2 billion</a> in the first quarter, according to NonFungible.com, a website that tracks data on NFTs. And that figure doesn’t even account for the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/11/most-expensive-nft-ever-sold-auctions-for-over-60-million.html">record-breaking $69 million NFT</a> sold by digital artist Mike Winkelmann (AKA Beeple) at Christie’s in March.



Binance, which is the&nbsp;<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/rankings/exchanges/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">world’s largest crypto exchange</a>&nbsp;by trading volumes, said its platform would operate two markets: A premium venue for top auctions and exhibitions and a standard trading market that anyone can use to mint new tokens.



The premium segment would take a 10% cut from the proceeds of major auctions, Binance said, with 90% going to artists. The day-to-day trading market will charge a 1% “processing fee,” while creators “will continuously receive 1% royalty,” according to Binance.



Binance’s NFT feature is set to debut in June. The company has launched a lander page for now which will let artists contact the firm about potential partnerships.



“Our aim is to provide the largest NFT trading platform in the world with the best minting, buying and exchanging experience, by leveraging the fastest and cheapest solutions powered by Binance blockchain infrastructure and community,” said Helen Hai, head of Binance’s NFT project.



The move marks a challenge to Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Gemini operates its own NFT marketplace called Nifty Gateway, which has hosted auctions from big names like Eminem and Grimes. It would also open up a new revenue stream for Binance, which has benefited considerably from the surging interest in <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BTC.CB=">bitcoin</a> and other digital currencies.



Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the U.S., went public on the Nasdaq earlier this month. Like Binance, Coinbase has gotten a significant boost from surging crypto prices. Bitcoin, the world’s most popular digital currency, soared to an all-time high of nearly $65,000 ahead of Coinbase’s debut. It’s down almost 16% from that level now, however.



But there have been worries over signs of froth in the market. Some have compared the NFT boom to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/13/initial-coin-offering-ico-what-are-they-how-do-they-work.html">rise of initial coin offerings</a>, or ICOs, in late 2017 and early 2018. ICO mania led to a number of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/09/cryptocurrency-scammers-of-giza-make-off-with-2-million-after-ico.html">scams</a>&nbsp;and many projects were ultimately abandoned. Meanwhile, dogecoin spiked to a record high above 45 cents a couple weeks back,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/16/dogecoin-doge-price-meme-cryptocurrencys-rise-sparks-bubble-fears.html">stoking fears of a bubble</a>&nbsp;in the crypto market.

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Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is launching an NFT marketplace

BOAO, China — China’s central bank is now calling&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BTC.CB=">bitcoin</a>&nbsp;an “investment alternative” — marking a significant shift in Beijing’s tone after a crackdown on cryptocurrency issuance and trading nearly four years ago.



Industry insiders called the comments “progressive” and are watching closely for any regulatory changes made by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).



“We regard Bitcoin and stablecoin as crypto assets &#8230; These are investment alternatives,” Li Bo, deputy governor of the PBOC, said on Sunday during a panel hosted by CNBC at the Boao Forum for Asia.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106870012-1618806494603-gettyimages-1231972430-BC_ChineseFlag2021_4293.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-402014" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106870012-1618806494603-gettyimages-1231972430-BC_ChineseFlag2021_4293.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106870012-1618806494603-gettyimages-1231972430-BC_ChineseFlag2021_4293-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>In this photo illustration, the Bitcoin logo is seen on a mobile device with People’s Republic of China flag in the background. (Photo Illustration by t/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Budrul Chukrut | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



“They are not currency per se. And so the main role we see for crypto assets going forward, the main role is investment alternative.”



Bitcoin was up around 2% at 12:25 p.m. Beijing time at over $57,134.04, according to Coindesk data.



China was once one of the world’s largest buyers of bitcoin.



But in 2017,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/04/chinese-icos-china-bans-fundraising-through-initial-coin-offerings-report-says.html">China banned so-called initial coin offerings (ICOs)</a>, a way to raise money for crypto companies by issuing digital tokens. That same year, authorities&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/11/bitcoin-price-falls-on-reports-that-china-is-closing-local-exchanges.html">shut down local cryptocurrency exchanges</a>. The moves were prompted by concerns about financial stability.



As investment alternatives, “many countries, including China, are still looking into it and thinking about what kind of regulatory requirements. Maybe minimal, but we need to have some kind of regulatory requirement to prevent &#8230; the speculation of such assets to create any serious financial stability risks,” Li said.



He added that the central bank will keep its current regulations on cryptocurrencies.



Li’s latest comments highlight a potential shift in tone from the PBOC.



Flex Yang, CEO and founder of Babel Finance, called the comments “progressive” in an interview with CNBC on Monday. Babel Finance is a crypto financial services company.



“I think it is quite significant and is definitely different to their previous statements or positions on public cryptocurrencies,” Vijay Ayyar, head of business development at cryptocurrency exchange Luno, told CNBC by email.



Bitcoin appears to have become more mainstream in the financial world and has <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/04/bitcoin-btc-rally-partly-driven-by-more-institutional-investors-pwc-says.html">gained interest from institutional investors</a>. Major corporations such as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/TSLA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tesla</a> and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/SQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Square</a> in the U.S. have <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/08/tesla-buys-1point5-billion-in-bitcoin.html">purchased large sums of bitcoin</a>. The price of bitcoin is up 95% this year and last week, the cryptocurrency hit a record high above $64,000.



That all-time high coincided with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/14/coinbase-to-debut-on-nasdaq-in-direct-listing.html">direct listing of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase</a>, which one investor called a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/14/coinbase-debut-is-a-watershed-for-crypto-but-there-are-risks-ahead.html">“watershed” moment for the industry</a>.



“Governments are realizing that it is a viable and established, yet growing, asset class and need to regulate it. China regulating&nbsp;crypto would be another massive boost to the industry in China and globally,” Ayyar said, talking about the motivation behind the PBOC’s shift in tone.



China is working on its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/05/chinas-digital-yuan-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work.html">own digital currency called the digital yuan</a>. It is not a cryptocurrency and it is different to bitcoin. It will be issued by the PBOC. The aim is to replace cash and coins in circulation.



China has been carrying out a number of tests with the digital currency in major cities and Li said that the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/19/china-may-trial-digital-currency-with-foreign-visitors-at-beijing-olympics.html">central bank could trial the digital yuan with foreign visitors at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics</a>.

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After a bitcoin crackdown, China now calls it an ‘investment alternative’ in a significant shift in tone

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867602-1618330918041-gettyimages-1312152746-_e6w9907_2021041263220008.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-401987" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867602-1618330918041-gettyimages-1312152746-_e6w9907_2021041263220008.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867602-1618330918041-gettyimages-1312152746-_e6w9907_2021041263220008-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>Chesnot | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



The price of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/bitcoin/">bitcoin</a>&nbsp;tumbled over the weekend and was down as much as 19.5% from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/13/bitcoin-hits-new-all-time-high-above-62000-ahead-of-coinbase-debut.html">record highs</a>&nbsp;posted by the popular cryptocurrency in the past week.



Bitcoin dropped as low as $52,148.98 on Sunday morning after reaching an all-time high&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/14/bitcoin-btc-and-ether-eth-prices-rally-ahead-of-coinbase-listing.html">above $64,800</a>&nbsp;on Wednesday, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/price/bitcoin" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CoinDesk</a>. It was last trading just over $55,795.



Other cryptocurrencies, including ether and dogecoin, also took a hit over the weekend. The price of <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=ETH=">ether</a>, the second-biggest token by market value, dropped as much as 18% and fell below $2,000 on Sunday before more recently trading at over $2,150. The token had also recently hit record highs, topping $2,500 on Thursday.



Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=DOGE.CM=">dogecoin</a>, which soared more than 400% at one point last week and hit an all-time high of 45 cents, dropped as low as 24 cents this weekend.



What exactly is driving the drop is unclear.



An unverified report on Twitter claimed that the U.S. Treasury Department could be looking to crack down on financial institutions for money laundering using cryptocurrency.



A <a href="https://twitter.com/Fxhedgers/status/1383611847144730626?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1383611847144730626%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnbc.com%2F2021%2F04%2F18%2Fbitcoin-plunges-from-recent-high-as-cryptocurrencies-take-weekend-hit.html">tweet</a> from the account <a href="https://twitter.com/Fxhedgers?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">@Fxhedgers</a> that referred to the possibility of a crackdown, citing unnamed sources, went viral on Saturday evening.



The U.S. Treasury Department did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.



The cryptocurrencies hit record highs this past week amid the excitement surrounding the stock market debut of cryptocurrency trading platform&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/COIN" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coinbase</a>, which became the largest cryptocurrency company to go public on Wednesday. The company’s blockbuster direct listing briefly valued Coinbase at about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/15/coinbase-coin-climbs-11percent-in-premarket-after-nasdaq-debut.html">$100 billion</a>&nbsp;(before falling to just over $62 billion by the end of the week), giving a boost to the rest of the cryptocurrency industry.



Despite those record prices, some investors have been concerned that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/13/bitcoin-is-a-bubble-say-74percent-of-bank-of-america-survey-respondents.html">experiencing a bubble</a>. The recent spike by dogecoin, which&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/29/dogecoin-cryptocurrency-rises-over-400percent-after-reddit-group-talks-it-up.html">started as a joke</a>&nbsp;based on the 2013 “Doge” meme, in particular, has fueled&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/16/dogecoin-doge-price-meme-cryptocurrencys-rise-sparks-bubble-fears.html">concerns of a bubble</a>&nbsp;in the cryptocurrency market.

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Bitcoin tumbles from recent high as cryptocurrencies take weekend hit

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867808-1618348824726-gettyimages-805704838-POLYCHAIN_CARLSON-WEE.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-401779" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867808-1618348824726-gettyimages-805704838-POLYCHAIN_CARLSON-WEE.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867808-1618348824726-gettyimages-805704838-POLYCHAIN_CARLSON-WEE-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>Olaf Carlson-Wee, founder and chief executive officer of Polychain Capital, speaks during a Bloomberg Technology interview in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Monday, June 26, 2017. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Cryptocurrency exchange&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/13/coinbase-reference-price-250-ahead-of-direct-listing.html">Coinbase will go public</a>&nbsp;on Wednesday via a direct listing that’s expected to value the start-up at more than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/coinbase-debut/coinbase-heads-for-89-bln-valuation-in-nasdaq-debut-idUSL4N2M62R0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$90 billion</a>&nbsp;when it starts trading this afternoon under the stock ticker “COIN”.



But when Coinbase first launched nine years ago, it hired its very first employee after receiving an enthusiastic, but “annoyingly long” cold email.



And the company paid him in bitcoin.



That email came from Olaf Carlson-Wee, who in 2012 had just graduated from Vassar College with a degree in sociology. He’d written his undergraduate thesis on bitcoin “and the larger implications of open source finance.”



He was also one of Coinbase’s earliest users, he said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/employee-1-coinbase/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2016 interview</a>&nbsp;with the Y Combinator blog, and he wanted to work there.



“I literally cold emailed jobs@coinbase and said, ‘I love bitcoin. Here’s my thesis. I’ll do any job,’” Carlson-Wee told Y Combinator.



After becoming employee No. 1 with a job in customer support at the then-fledgling company, for his three years there, Carlson-Wee was paid entirely in bitcoin, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/olaf-carlson-wee-rode-the-bitcoin-boom-to-silicon-valley-riches-can-he-survive-the-crash-1536681364" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wall Street Journal</a>, with a starting salary of $50,000.



Though it’s unclear how much bitcoin Carlson-Wee currently owns, during that time — from 2013 to 2016 — the price of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BTC.CB=">bitcoin</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/14/if-you-put-1000-in-bitcoin-in-2013-heres-how-much-youd-have-now.html">fluctuated</a>&nbsp;dramatically.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/121815/bitcoins-price-history.asp" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">In early 2013</a>&nbsp;the price was just over $13 per bitcoin before spiking to more than $1,100 later that year. The cryptocurrency ended 2016 at roughly $1,000 and on Wednesday it was trading at more than $62,000.



(As recently as 2018, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/26/in-bitcoin-work-world-job-benefits-like-pay-401k-get-a-rethink.html">roughly 40%</a> of Coinbase employees took at least part of their salary in bitcoin.)



When Carson-Wee sent that cold email, despite attaching his roughly 90-page thesis, he actually heard back from one of Coinbase’s two co-founders, former Goldman Sachs trader&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2014/06/16/disruptors-in-2014-coinbase.html">Fred Ehrsam</a>, five minutes later with an email asking if Carlson-Wee could “hop on a Skype.”



After talking to Ehrsam on Skype for roughly 20 minutes, Carlson-Wee said the Coinbase co-founder invited him in for an in-person interview in San Francisco (Ehrsam was staying with a friend in nearby Oakland). Ehrsam told Carlson-Wee to prepare a pair of 15-minute presentations: ”‘The first should explain something complicated you know very well. The second should outline your vision for Coinbase,’” Carlson-Wee says he was told.



Carlson-Wee said his first presentation was on “the pharmacological induction of lucid dreams,” noting in 2016 that he had been “writing down my dreams for 11 years.”



As for his strategy for Coinbase, Carlson-Wee said he thought the company should “focus 100% on security,” especially in terms of ensuring that users’ cryptocurrency balances were secure from hackers.&nbsp;



“Bad customer experiences will eventually be forgotten but a security incident will not be forgotten,” Carlson-Wee told Y Combinator. “I was saying to [co-founder Brian Armstrong], ‘We cannot hack something together that ends up leading to a security incident. Even though everything is on fire, let’s do this very carefully.’ And I think that resonated with them.”



After giving his presentations, Carlson-Wee said that Ehrsam gave him “a really brutal mathematics problem” to solve.&nbsp;



Here was the math problem, according to Carlson-Wee: “So there are 100 lockers in a row. They’re all closed, okay? A kid goes by. He opens every single locker. A second kid goes by. Now he closes every other locker, every second locker. Third kid comes by, every third locker. If it’s open, he closes it. If it’s closed, he opens it. Then the fourth kid goes by. Every fourth locker, he changes the state. And now 100 kids go by. What is the state of the lockers after 100 kids go by?”



Carlson-Wee did his best to focus on the problem, because he felt that having the correct answer ready by the time Ehrsam brought fellow co-founder Brian Armstrong in to meet Carlson-Wee would really “seal the deal” and land him a job. Fortunately, he ended up landing on the answer in only about three minutes, realizing that only the lockers that would be open are the ones numbered with “perfect squares” (numbers generated by multiplying two equal numbers, so the 16th locker, the 25th locker, etc).



“The number of factors determines whether a locker is open or closed because that’s the number of kids that interacted with it,” he said. “And so the odd number of factors means it’s open and [an] even number of factors means it’s closed. And the only numbers that have an odd number of factors are perfect squares like 16, 25, 36.”&nbsp;



After that, Carlson-Wee said that Armstrong “grilled me for another hour.”&nbsp;



“Brian’s questions were really intense: ‘What do you wanna do with your life?’ ‘What drives you as a person?’ ‘What’s a belief you have that is extremely unpopular?’ He wanted to really know me,” Carlson-Wee told Y Combinator.



Four days after the interview, Carlson-Wee said that Armstrong and Ehrsam reached out to ask him to complete a paid, two-week work trial.&nbsp;



“I worked really hard because I knew this was the final test. At the end of those two weeks they said, ‘Okay. You have a formal job offer,’” said Carlson-Wee, who joined the company as Coinbase’s first employee and worked on customer support (“Like I said, I came in and was willing to do anything,” he added.)



Carlson-Wee was Coinbase’s sole customer support employee until the company had 250,000 users, he said. He worked for the company for three years, eventually becoming Coinbase’s head of risk.



Coinbase hitting the public market is expected to produce a windfall for people like the company’s billionaire co-founders, CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/21/coinbase-ceo-is-first-crypto-billionaire-to-pledge-to-give-away-fortune.html">Brian Armstrong</a>&nbsp;and Fred Ehrsam, as well as Coinbase’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/13/coinbase-listing-could-revalue-crypto-space-blockchain-etf-creator.html">investors</a>&nbsp;and some past and present employees.



Carlson-Wee left Coinbase in 2016 to launch one of the first-ever crypto hedge funds out of his San Francisco apartment. Called Polychain Capital, the fund manages assets valued at more than $300 million, according to Forbes, and it’s landed investments from Ehrsam as well as venture capital firms like Sequoia Capital and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. Carlson-Wee’s fund has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/search/funding_rounds/field/organizations/num_investments/polychain-capital" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">invested</a>&nbsp;in crypto startups like blockchain-based social network BitClout and blockchain payments startup&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/payments-startup-celo-raises-%2420m-from-a16z-electric-capital-2021-02-10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Celo</a>.



While it is not clear if Carlson-Wee received any stock in Coinbase as an early employee, he did&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2021/01/29/coinbase-investors-say-it-could-hit-100-billion-valuation-when-it-goes-public/?sh=6033b1565b50" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tell Forbes</a>&nbsp;that he invested in the company in 2017, but has not disclosed the size of that investment.



Meanwhile, despite the markets’ excitement over Coinbase’s direct listing, the company and its founders have not been without controversy in recent years.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/29/technology/coinbase-pay-employees.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The New York Times reported</a>&nbsp;last year that Coinbase had underpaid women and Black employees (the company said at the time that Coinbase had “implemented a new compensation program that brought Coinbase in line with some of the world’s most respected technology companies”). In 2020, Armstrong&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessofbusiness.com/articles/coinbase-ceo-brian-armstrong-controversy-apolitical-memo/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">received criticism</a>&nbsp;for actively discouraging Coinbase employees from voicing political opinions, or engaging in activism around political or social issues, in the workplace.



Armstrong, who even&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/30/coinbase-ceo-offers-severance-to-employees-leaving-over-politics.html">offered four- to six-month severance packages</a>&nbsp;to any employees who weren’t comfortable working under such conditions, said in a blog post in September that he believed companies engaging in political discussions and issues publicly “are well intentioned” but he also believes that such corporate activism has “the potential to destroy a lot of value at most companies, both by being a distraction, and by creating internal division.”



Polychain and Coinbase did not immediately respond to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/">CNBC Make It</a>’s requests for comment.

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Coinbase’s first employee in 2013 cold-emailed the founders for a job — and was paid in bitcoin for 3 years

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106052751-1564623137916rtx71q0z.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-401751" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106052751-1564623137916rtx71q0z.jpg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106052751-1564623137916rtx71q0z-300x169.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a news conference following the Federal Reserve’s two-day Federal Open Market Committee Meeting in Washington, July 31, 2019. Sarah Silbiger | Reuters</figcaption></figure>



Cryptocurrencies are largely for making bets on price increases and haven’t reached the status of payment mechanisms, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday.



“They’re really vehicles for speculation,” the central bank leader told The Economic Club of New York in a virtual interview with David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group. “They’re not really being actively used as payments.”



Powell compared crypto to gold.



“For thousands of years, human beings have given gold a special value that it doesn’t have” as an industrial metal, he said.



The comments came the same day&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/13/coinbase-reference-price-250-ahead-of-direct-listing.html">Coinbase went public</a>&nbsp;in a direct listing on the Nasdaq, an exchange that is weighted with tech companies.



Coinbase is the predominant exchange for trading bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/14/coinbase-to-debut-on-nasdaq-in-direct-listing.html">opened at $381 a share</a>, well above its $250 reference price. The company said it generated $1.8 billion in revenue for the first quarter amid wild price gains for bitcoin, ethereum and other crypto names.



Powell’s predecessor at the Fed, Janet Yellen, is now Treasury secretary. In February,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/22/yellen-sounds-warning-about-extremely-inefficient-bitcoin.html">she told CNBC</a>&nbsp;that she views bitcoin as “a highly speculative asset” and said it is not “widely used as a transmission mechanism” and is an “extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions.”



Along with a brief chat about crypto, the Powell interview encompassed a variety of subjects, much of it familiar ground for the Fed leader.



One revelation was that Powell has yet to meet with President Joe Biden.



Fed watchers have been speculating as to whether Biden will give Powell another term as chair when the current one expires in 2022. Asked in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday on whether he wants another term, Powell demurred, saying he’s focused on “doing the best job I can.”



Powell, who was appointed Fed chairman — and harshly criticized — by then-President Donald Trump, said he has had no contact with Biden since the latter became president nearly three months ago.



Asked if he’s ever met Biden, Powell said, “I think I’ve shaken his hand, but I have not really met him and talked to him.”

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As Coinbase debuts, Powell calls cryptocurrencies ‘vehicles for speculation’

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/coinbase-1200-1612458603-820x429.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-401735" width="840" height="439" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/coinbase-1200-1612458603-820x429.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/coinbase-1200-1612458603-300x157.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/coinbase-1200-1612458603-768x402.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/coinbase-1200-1612458603.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px" /><figcaption>Photo: via Shutterstock</figcaption></figure>



Coinbase shares opened at $381 on the Nasdaq Wednesday morning, giving the cryptocurrency exchange an initial market cap of $99.6 billion on a fully-diluted basis.



Shares quickly shot up as high as $429, valuing the company at $112 billion, before dropping back below the debut price and reaching a low of $365. The price was still well above the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/13/coinbase-reference-price-250-ahead-of-direct-listing.html">reference price of $250 set on Tuesday night</a>, though no shares changed hands at that price.



Skirting the traditional IPO process, Coinbase listed its stock directly, allowing employees and existing shareholders to sell shares immediately at a market-based price. In pursuing a direct listing, Coinbase followed tech companies like Spotify, Slack, Palantir and Roblox, which helped standardize the process.



Excluding options and restricted stock units, Coinbase’s initial market cap was about $80 billion at the opening price. Adding in options and shares, Coinbase is already one of the 85 most valuable U.S. companies.



Founded in 2012 as a way to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/14/what-is-coinbase-how-to-use-it.html">simplify the purchase of bitcoin</a>, Coinbase has emerged as the most popular crypto exchange in the U.S. and soared in value alongside digital currencies bitcoin and ethereum. The service now has 56 million users, up from 43 million at the end of 2020 and 32 million the year before that. In its last private financing round in 2018, investors&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/30/cryptocurrency-start-up-coinbase-valued-at-8-billion-despite-bitcoins-plunge.html">valued Coinbase at $8 billion</a>.



Coinbase is hitting the public market as a record amount of cash pours into cryptocurrencies and tech investors are thirsty for high-growth stories.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/SNOW" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Snowflake</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/PLTR" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Palantir</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/DASH" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DoorDash</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/ABNB" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Airbnb</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/RBLX" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Roblox</a>&nbsp;have all gone public in the past six months and have market capitalizations ranging from $45 billion to $106 billion.



Relative to those companies and others in the IPO pipeline, Coinbase’s recent growth is unparalleled. The company said last week in announcing&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/06/coinbase-reports-estimated-q1-revenue-of-1point8-billion-up-nine-fold.html">preliminary first-quarter results</a>&nbsp;that revenue in the period surged ninefold from a year ago to $1.8 billion, and net income climbed from $32 million to between $730 million and $800 million. The number of monthly transacting users (MTUs) climbed from 2.8 million three months earlier to 6.1 million.



For the full year of 2020, revenue more than doubled to $1.28 billion, and the company swung from a loss in 2019 to a profit of $322.3 million.



Most transactions on Coinbase involve the purchase of bitcoin or ethereum, which have been on a historic tear, climbing over 800% and 1,300%, respectively, in the past year. The company has said that its short-term performance will largely be determined by crypto prices.



Bryan Armstrong, Coinbase’s co-founder and CEO,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/23/coinbase-ceo-armstrong-owns-close-to-14-billion-of-stock-before-debut.html">owns 39.6 million shares</a>. In August, Armstrong was granted a multibillion-dollar performance award tied to the company’s stock price, potentially letting him purchase up to 9.29 million options at $23.46 over 10 years.&nbsp;



WATCH: <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/14/coinbase-debut-is-a-watershed-for-crypto-but-there-are-risks-ahead.html">Coinbase public debut is historic moment for cryptocurrencies</a>

Bitcoin,,Ethereum,And,Smartphone,With,Coinbase,Logo,On,The,Screen.

Coinbase drops below debut price in volatile trading

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867612-1618331518469-gettyimages-1304243721-_48p3885_2021022670152351.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-401664" width="840" height="472" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867612-1618331518469-gettyimages-1304243721-_48p3885_2021022670152351.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867612-1618331518469-gettyimages-1304243721-_48p3885_2021022670152351-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px" /><figcaption>Chesnot | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/COIN" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coinbase</a>&nbsp;is set to go public through a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/13/coinbase-is-unlike-any-market-debut-wall-street-has-ever-seen-.html">blockbuster direct listing</a>&nbsp;Wednesday, and investors are hailing it as a “watershed” moment for the cryptocurrency industry.



The digital currency exchange could be valued at as much as $100 billion, making it more valuable than major trading venue operators like New York Stock Exchange parent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/ICE" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Intercontinental Exchange</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/NDAQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nasdaq</a>.



It comes as the prices of bitcoin and other virtual currencies have soared over the past year, as investors looked to diversify their portfolios in the belief that a spike in inflation is coming. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BTC.CB=">Bitcoin</a> hit a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/13/bitcoin-hits-new-all-time-high-above-62000-ahead-of-coinbase-debut.html">fresh record high</a> of more than $64,000 on Wednesday and has more than doubled in value year-to-date.



Coinbase’s public market debut is “potentially a watershed event for the crypto industry and will be something the Street will be laser focused on to gauge investor appetite,” said Dan Ives, a tech analyst at Wedbush Securities.



“It’s going to legitimize a lot of what these companies are doing,” Marcus Swanepoel, CEO of London-based crypto platform Luno, said of the Coinbase debut. “For one, it’s going to show just how big the industry is and how much it’s growing.”



Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency company to go public so far. It’s the world’s second-largest digital asset exchange by trading volume, according to CoinMarketCap, and has been credited with bringing crypto into the mainstream with its easy-to-use app.



But there are a number of risks ahead. Cryptocurrencies are notorious for their wildly volatile price moves, and skeptics think it may be in a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/13/bitcoin-is-a-bubble-say-74percent-of-bank-of-america-survey-respondents.html">massive market bubble</a> that’s bound to burst at some point. Meanwhile, global regulators are increasingly trying to bring crypto under their oversight, with India’s government even <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/15/india-plans-cryptocurrency-ban-will-penalize-miners-and-traders.html">looking to ban digital currencies</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-volatility">Volatility</h2>



Coinbase <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/06/coinbase-reports-estimated-q1-revenue-of-1point8-billion-up-nine-fold.html">estimates</a> it made $1.8 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2021, a whopping 844% increase compared to the $190.6 million it generated in the same period a year earlier. That was largely thanks to the huge jumps in price from digital coins like bitcoin and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=ETH=">ether</a>.



Given Coinbase’s business is heavily tied to the performance of major cryptocurrencies, there’s a risk that momentum could swing the other way if there’s a significant pullback in the market.



“Crypto companies will need to figure out how to diversify their revenue streams eventually,” said Hunter Merghart, a former Coinbase executive who is now head of U.S. for Luxembourg-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp.



“I think right now we are still very much in the investment phase and the overall crypto pie will continue to grow.”



Bitcoin notoriously rose to almost $20,000 in late 2017, before crashing to almost $3,000 the following year. This price volatility has been a key criticism from bitcoin’s detractors, who say it fails key tests for currencies, like acting as a medium of exchange or store of value.



However, crypto investors believe such a precipitous price drop — known in the industry as “crypto winter” — is unlikely in the near future. They see bitcoin as a sort of “digital gold” that’s uncorrelated with other assets and can serve as a hedge against rising inflation.



“There’s been many surges in the price of bitcoin over the last 10 years,” said Swanepoel. “When it does come down, it sets a new baseline and the growth continues on that new baseline.”



“I actually think the baseline is going to be significantly higher out of this cycle,” he added. “If you look at commodity markets, they have normal cycles and then they have ‘super cycles.’ I suspect this is a super cycle for crypto. It can accelerate a lot longer now.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Regulation</h2>



Earlier this year, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/bitcoin-price-cryptocurrency-should-be-curtailed-terrorism-concerns-yellen-2021-1-1029985692" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">warned</a> in her confirmation hearing that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are mainly used for illicit activity and that the government may need to “curtail” their use.



Coinbase says it’s regulated and has partnerships with a number of banks. But it warned in its prospectus that negative changes to regulations could “adversely affect” its financial condition.



Before former President Donald Trump’s term ended, the Treasury Department&nbsp;<a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm1216" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proposed a rule</a>&nbsp;that would require financial services firms to record the identities of cryptocurrency holders. This&nbsp;<a href="https://squareup.com/gb/en/press/fincen-letter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proved controversial</a>&nbsp;with many crypto firms.



“Regulatory risk is high because crypto platforms are currently not subject to the same rules as traditional exchanges or trading platforms are,” said Stéphane Renevier, an analyst at financial education platform Finimize.



“Some of Coinbase’s activities (such as some of its prime brokerage services and its use of its own capital to trade) might be subject to tighter regulatory oversight in the future,” he added. “Given that the regulatory landscape is evolving extremely rapidly, the company is always at risk from a change in status, which could impact some of its most profitable activities.”



Jesse Powell, CEO of Coinbase rival Kraken, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/12/bitcoin-kraken-ceo-jesse-powell-warns-of-cryptocurrency-crackdown.html">told CNBC</a> that he thinks there “could be some crackdown” on cryptocurrencies.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">‘Crypto’s tech giant’</h2>



Garry Tan, founder of venture capital firm Initialized and an early investor in Coinbase, said the cryptocurrency market was still in its infancy.



“We’re not there yet,” he told CNBC. “We’re still in the very early innings of that, but it’s not so crazy any more.”



But Tan and other Coinbase bulls say the company has created a competitive “moat” around its business that should allow it to flourish even with the advent of new regulations.



“Coinbase is like crypto’s tech giant,” Tan added. “Coinbase’s (debut), and it existing as one of the cornerstone tech companies in Silicon Valley, is very powerful because it means that, just as the personal computer revolution needed Apple and Microsoft, the crypto revolution needs Coinbase.”



Crypto industry insiders say that Coinbase is just one part of the story. There are other emerging trends in the market, such as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/03/what-are-nfts-all-you-need-to-know-about-crypto-collectibles.html">digital collector’s items</a>&nbsp;and so-called decentralized finance, which aims to recreate traditional financial products without middlemen like the banks. Plus, Coinbase may face steeper competition from rivals such as Binance and Kraken, the latter of which is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/12/bitcoin-kraken-ceo-jesse-powell-warns-of-cryptocurrency-crackdown.html">weighing its own share listing</a>&nbsp;for next year.

106867612-1618331518469-gettyimages-1304243721-_48p3885_2021022670152351

Coinbase’s blockbuster debut is a ‘watershed’ for crypto — but there are risks ahead

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867607-1618331187485-gettyimages-1231388086-PGONCHAR_W2097.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-401625" width="837" height="471" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867607-1618331187485-gettyimages-1231388086-PGONCHAR_W2097.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867607-1618331187485-gettyimages-1231388086-PGONCHAR_W2097-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 837px) 100vw, 837px" /><figcaption>Pavlo Gonchar | LightRocket | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/13/bitcoin-hits-new-all-time-high-above-62000-ahead-of-coinbase-debut.html?&amp;amp;qsearchterm=bitcoin">Bitcoin has been surging to record highs</a>, ahead of Wednesday’s stock debut of crypto exchange&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/COIN" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coinbase</a>, and some analysts say the offering could be a potential pivotal moment for cryptocurrencies.



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BTC.CM=">Bitcoin</a> was trading <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/13/bitcoin-hits-new-all-time-high-above-62000-ahead-of-coinbase-debut.html">up more than 5% Tuesday</a>, above $63,220, according to Coin Metrics. Coinbase’s direct listing is expected to be a watershed moment for the crypto world and is likely to result in new offerings from other crypto-related entities. Coinbase is expected to price upwards of $60 billion and to as much as $100 billion.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="471" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867608-1618331210435-20210413_bitcoin_1yr-820x471.png" alt="" class="wp-image-401639" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867608-1618331210435-20210413_bitcoin_1yr-820x471.png 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867608-1618331210435-20210413_bitcoin_1yr-300x172.png 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867608-1618331210435-20210413_bitcoin_1yr-768x441.png 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867608-1618331210435-20210413_bitcoin_1yr-1536x882.png 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867608-1618331210435-20210413_bitcoin_1yr.png 1910w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /></figure>



“I’m not surprised the cryptos are running. Part of this is for the crypto community, nobody wants to be selling in front of the Coinbase offering,” said Fundstrat founder Tom Lee. “In the crypto market, if the sellers are on a selling hiatus, the price is going to keep going up&#8230;It’s kind of like you have a selling strike in front of the listing.”



Other cryptocurrencies also surged. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=ETH.CM=">Ether,</a> for one, was trading at a new high Wednesday. It was up 6.7% at $2,280, according to Coin Metrics. Analysts said the Coinbase debut is driving interest in the entire crypto universe, luring in new investors and likely encouraging other entities related to the market to issue their own stock.



“We’re finding as the market awaits this IPO what we’re seeing is investors talking more about bitcoin as a hedge against the potential for higher inflation and the debasing of the dollar and the extreme amounts of government spending and government debt,” said Julian Emanuel, head of equity and derivatives strategy at BTIG.



Emanuel said how bitcoin reacts this week could set the tone in the cryptocurrency market for weeks to come. He said there was substantial resistance at $62,000, which it has now blown through, and there is solid support at its 50-day moving average, near $54,900.



“We will note the whole space has run a very long way. There are signs in the last week or two there’s a little bit of indigestion in the NFT [nonfungible tokens] market. We’ve seen a discount to NAV in one of the more established trust products,” Emanuel said. “All of these things tell us if you are looking to make a short-term trade on the rising price of bitcoin or ether, or whatever have you, based on the success of this week’s capital markets activity, that’s not a good reason to own something that has dropped 30%, 40%, 50% and already has done so on a couple of occasions.”



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="471" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867609-1618331241150-20210413_ethereum_1yr-820x471.png" alt="" class="wp-image-401638" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867609-1618331241150-20210413_ethereum_1yr-820x471.png 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867609-1618331241150-20210413_ethereum_1yr-300x172.png 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867609-1618331241150-20210413_ethereum_1yr-768x441.png 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867609-1618331241150-20210413_ethereum_1yr-1536x882.png 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106867609-1618331241150-20210413_ethereum_1yr.png 1910w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /></figure>



The value of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/GBTC" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Grayscale Bitcoin Trust</a>&nbsp;is below the value of the digital assets it holds, and an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-06/grayscale-bitcoin-trust-assailed-by-investor-as-discount-grows?sref=RkLlBPFc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">activist family office, Marlton LLC has sent a letter to Grayscale Investments</a>&nbsp;seeking a tender offter to boost the price, according to a Bloomberg report.



If bitcoin holds its gains after the Coinbase offer, that would be a positive for crypto assets. “The long term story is very positive and&#8230;if in fact, digital assets hold in or continue to rally after the [Coinbase offering] is out and digested, it’s an even more positive reflection of the embracing of digital assets’ long-term potential.”



Lee said he doesn’t know how bitcoin and others will trade after the Coinbase offer, but the rise in the cryptocurrencies is driving more interest in the crypto exchange.



“It’s sort of feeding on itself. They’re less likely to sell crypto because they think Coinbase is going to help it. It’s a self-reinforcing dynamic,” said Lee.



Coinbase would be valued more than Nasdaq, which has a market cap of $25.9 billion and probably the Interncontinental Exchange, valued at more than $66.9 billion.



He said it is a positive for the currency market that Coinbase is going public. “They make more money than any publicly listed exchange in the world. They’ll make more money than Nasdaq&#8230;Coinbase is also not the most profitable cyrpto exchange in the world,” Lee said.



From a chart perspective, bitcoin does look set for more gains.



Katie Stockton, chief technical strategist at Fairlead Strategies, said she had been looking for a breakout for bitcoin above $61,742, which was the March high. It broke that level earlier on Wednesday.



“If bitcoin accomplishes this, a measured move projection would target $69,121 with a short-term time horizon,” she wrote. If it doesn’t hold that level, the 50-day moving average could provide support, she noted.

106867607-1618331187485-gettyimages-1231388086-PGONCHAR_W2097

What the Coinbase listing means for the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/104950133-GettyImages-871795390-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-400886" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/104950133-GettyImages-871795390-1.jpg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/104950133-GettyImages-871795390-1-300x169.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>In 2021, bitcoin and ether have seen huge rallies. In April 2021, the cryptocurrency market topped $2 trillion in value for the first time. Jaap Arriens | NurPhoto | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



GUANGZHOU, China — The value of the cryptocurrency market topped $2 trillion for the first time on Monday driven by a rally in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=ETH=">ether</a>, the second-largest digital coin.



In just over two months, the market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market has doubled, according to price tracking website CoinGecko, as retail and institutional investors pile into the space.



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BTC.CB=">Bitcoin</a>, the biggest digital currency, accounts for over 50% of the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization. Bitcoin has rallied over 100% this year alone, and that has helped drive the cryptocurrency market higher.



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/13/bitcoin-surpasses-60000-in-record-high-as-rally-accelerates-.html">Last month, bitcoin hit a record high of above $61,000</a>. The digital coin was trading at about $58,800 on Tuesday, according to Coindesk data.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ether-rally">Ether rally</h2>



But the latest boost in the cryptocurrency market appears to have been driven by ether, the digital coin that powers the Ethereum blockchain.



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/18/blockchain-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work.html">Bitcoin also runs on a technology called blockchain</a>&nbsp;which is a public ledger of activity and a way for transactions to take place using the cryptocurrency. In comparison, the Ethereum blockchain is more like a software platform that allows developers to build apps on top of it. Users can then spend ether on these apps.



So-called&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/01/ethereum-2point0-eth-cryptocurrencys-network-starts-a-major-upgrade.html">smart contracts are a key feature of Ethereum</a>. These are contracts that can be automatically executed using code.



There is growing excitement about the use of Ethereum in so-called decentralized finance, or DeFi, applications. These are blockchain-based financial services, such as lending, which could in theory bypass banks and brokerages. Users of these apps may transact using cryptocurrency.



Ethereum also has the underlying technology behind the recent craze in <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/23/how-to-create-buy-sell-nfts.html">non-fungible tokens, or NFTs — a new type of digital asset</a>.



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/01/mark-cuban-on-his-crypto-portfolio-i-own-ethereum-ether-and-bitcoin.html">Billionaire investor Mark Cuban owns ether</a>&nbsp;and said that it is the “closest we have to a true currency.”



Ether hit an all-time high of $2,151.25 on Tuesday morning Singapore time, according to CoinDesk. It is up over 180% year-to-date.



The digital currency is also seeing interest among companies. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/08/crypto-chinese-app-meitu-buys-millions-worth-of-bitcoin-and-ethereum.html">Chinese app maker Meitu bought $22.1 million worth of ether last month</a>, making it one of the first major companies to do so.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Bitcoin interest</h2>



Bitcoin still remains the powerhouse of the cryptocurrency market and over the last few months, saw a big increase in interest among companies and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/04/bitcoin-btc-rally-partly-driven-by-more-institutional-investors-pwc-says.html">large institutional investors</a>.



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/TSLA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tesla</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/SQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Square</a>&nbsp;are among a handful of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/08/tesla-buys-1point5-billion-in-bitcoin.html">companies that have purchased bitcoin</a>.



Meanwhile, major investment banks are exploring ways to allow clients to get involved with digital asset investments. In March,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/17/bitcoin-morgan-stanley-is-the-first-big-us-bank-to-offer-wealthy-clients-access-to-bitcoin-funds.html">CNBC reported</a>&nbsp;that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/MS" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Morgan Stanley</a>&nbsp;became the first major U.S. bank to offer its wealth management clients access to bitcoin funds.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/31/bitcoin-goldman-is-close-to-offering-bitcoin-to-its-richest-clients.html">CNBC also reported last month that Goldman Sachs</a>&nbsp;is gearing up to launch its first investment vehicles for bitcoin and other digital assets to clients of its private wealth management group.



There is also hope among investors for an expanding portfolio of investment products and many are watching Grayscale Investments, which runs one of the largest publicly traded bitcoin funds. It is known as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/GBTC" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Grayscale Bitcoin Trust</a>.



The company said on Monday that it is “100% committed” to converting that trust into an exchange-traded fund, or ETF. That would effectively track the price of bitcoin and allow traders to play the price movement without owning the cryptocurrency itself. It could be a way for more investors to be involved in the bitcoin market.

104950133-GettyImages-871795390-1

Cryptocurrency market value tops $2 trillion for the first time as ethereum hits record high

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/C" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Citi</a>&nbsp;thinks&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BTC.CM=">bitcoin</a>&nbsp;is at a “tipping point” and could one day “become the currency of choice for international trade” as companies like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/TSLA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tesla</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/PYPL" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PayPal</a>&nbsp;warm to it and central banks explore issuing their own digital currencies.



“There are a host of risks and obstacles that stand in the way of Bitcoin progress,” the U.S. investment bank’s global perspectives and solutions team wrote in a note Monday.



“Bitcoin’s future is thus still uncertain, but developments in the near term are likely to prove decisive as the currency balances at the tipping point of mainstream acceptance or a speculative implosion.”



It marks a change in tone for major financial institutions on bitcoin. Many banks have historically shunned the digital asset, arguing it has no intrinsic value and the hype surrounding it is akin to the tulip mania of the 17th century.



But bitcoin’s wild ascent over the last few months has forced big Wall Street players to reevaluate the cryptocurrency. BNY Mellon, the oldest bank in the U.S., last month said it would&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/11/bny-mellon-to-offer-bitcoin-services-a-validation-of-crypto-from-a-key-bank-in-the-financial-system.html">offer custody services for bitcoin</a>&nbsp;and other digital currencies. Meanwhile, JPMorgan has said it’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/12/bitcoin-banks-closer-accepting-cryptocurrency-asset-class.html">looking seriously as bitcoin</a>.



Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are often subject to wild bouts of volatility. Just over a week after hitting an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/22/bitcoin-btc-price-down-10percent-after-elon-musk-says-prices-seem-high.html">all-time high of more than $58,000</a>, bitcoin’s price has shed more than $10,000. It’s still up over 60% on the year and 460% in the last 12 months.



Crypto investors say bitcoin’s latest bull run is unlike previous cycles — including in 2017, when it rose close to $20,000 before plummeting 80% the following year — as it has been driven by increased participation from institutional investors.



Initially created as a digital payments system for bypassing banks and other financial middlemen, bitcoin has since gained traction among mainstream investors as a kind of “digital gold” that can act as a hedge against rising inflation.



There are several hurdles that bitcoin would have to overcome before seeing mainstream adoption, according to Citi.



“The entrance of institutional investors has sparked confidence in cryptocurrency but there are still persistent issues that could limit widespread adoption,” Citi said.



“For institutional investors, these include concerns over capital efficiency, insurance and custody, security, and ESG considerations from Bitcoin mining,” the bank added. “Security issues with cryptocurrency do occur, but when compared to traditional payments, it performs better.”



Bitcoin mining — the process that releases new coins into circulation —&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/05/bitcoin-btc-surge-renews-worries-about-its-massive-carbon-footprint.html">requires a considerable amount of power</a>. So-called miners with purpose-built computers are competing to solve complex math puzzles to verify transactions. According to Digiconomist, bitcoin’s network has a carbon footprint on par with that of New Zealand. This has alarmed environmental activists.



Last month, analysts at JPMorgan called bitcoin an “<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/22/forget-bitcoin-fintech-is-the-real-covid-19-story-jpmorgan-says.html">economic side show</a>” and said crypto assets ranked as the “poorest hedge” against significant drops in stock prices. The rise of digital finance and demand for fintech alternatives is the “real transformation story of the Covid-19 era,” they added.

In this photo illustration, BTCUSD / Bitcoin USD price

Bitcoin is at a tipping point and could become ‘currency of choice’ for global trade, Citi says

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1231048263-820x547.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-397878" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1231048263-820x547.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1231048263-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1231048263-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1231048263-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1231048263-scaled.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Illustrative image of a commemorative bitcoin in front of the Tesla car logo.
Tesla, led by Elon Musk, confirmed that it purchased about $ 1.5 billion in bitcoin in January and expects to start accepting it as a payment in the future.
On Monday, February 8, 2021, in Dublin, Ireland. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/TSLA">Tesla</a>&nbsp;has made roughly $1 billion in paper profits from its investment into&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BTC.BS=-USS">bitcoin</a>, according to Daniel Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities.



The company is “on a trajectory to make more from its Bitcoin investments than profits from selling its EV (electric vehicle) cars in all of 2020,” Ives estimated in a note published Saturday.



Earlier this month, the U.S. electric carmaker disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it had&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/08/tesla-buys-1point5-billion-in-bitcoin.html">bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin</a>&nbsp;for “more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on our cash.”



The purchase was made some time in January, the company said without disclosing when or at what price it bought bitcoin for. It’s unclear if Tesla has sold any of the bitcoin yet.



Bitcoin has seen a huge rally this year, touching fresh record highs regularly.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/19/bitcoin-hits-1-trillion-in-market-value-as-cryptocurrency-surge-continues.html">Bitcoin’s market value topped $1 trillion for the first time</a>&nbsp;last week, and the cryptocurrency is up 94% year-to-date.



Ives did not explain how he got to that calculation. But according to CoinDesk data, bitcoin’s price has gone from an intraday high of $34,793.45 on Jan. 31 to an intraday high of $57,487.03 on Feb. 20, the day Ives published his note.



That’s a rise of about 65%, which would put the profit on Tesla’s $1.5 billion bitcoin investment at around $975 million. Based on Monday’s intraday high of $58,332.36, that profit would be over $1 billion.



“While the Bitcoin investment is a side show for Tesla, it’s clearly been a good initial investment and a trend we expect could have a ripple impact for other public companies over the next 12 to 18 months,” Ives said.



Tesla CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/elon-musk/">Elon Musk</a>&nbsp;is a proponent of digital currencies. He recently said bitcoin is “is simply a less dumb form of liquidity than cash.”



But he also tweeted on Saturday that the price of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/20/elon-musk-says-bitcoin-seems-high-after-surpassing-1-trillion-market-cap.html">bitcoin and another digital currency ethereum do “seem high.”</a>

Tesla Buys USD 1.5 Billion In Bitcoin

Tesla has made about $1 billion in profit on its bitcoin investment, analyst estimates

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="615" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1231063275-820x615.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-397323" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1231063275-820x615.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1231063275-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1231063275-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1231063275-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1231063275-scaled.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>UKRAINE &#8211; 2021/02/09: In this photo illustration, BTCUSD / Bitcoin USD price information seen displayed on a smartphone with a Bitcoin logo in the background. (Photo Illustration by Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



GUANGZHOU, China —&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BTC.BS=-USS">Bitcoin</a>&nbsp;could rise to $1 million over the long term to become a reserve currency for the world, according to one asset manager.



But JPMorgan warned of risks ahead as the cryptocurrency continues to rally.



Anthony Pompliano, co-founder and partner at Morgan Creek Digital Assets, said bitcoin could hit $500,000 by the end of the decade. It could eventually reach $1 million per coin, he added, without giving a timeline.



“I think that bitcoin will eventually rise to become the global reserve currency. I think bitcoin will eventually be much much larger than the gold market cap,” he said during the latest episode of CNBC’s <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/beyondthevalley/">“Beyond the Valley”</a> podcast.



<iframe src="https://art19.com/shows/beyond-the-valley/episodes/a103ed23-8cc4-4ad7-bed1-c023ab7f24d4/embed" style="width: 100%; height: 200px; border: 0 none;" scrolling="no"></iframe>



Bitcoin has surged over the last few months and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/16/bitcoin-btc-price-hits-50000-for-the-first-time.html">surpassed $50,000 for the first time this week</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Why is bitcoin rallying?</h2>



A number of factors are behind the rush into bitcoin.



There has been large <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/04/bitcoin-btc-rally-partly-driven-by-more-institutional-investors-pwc-says.html">participation from institutional and retail investors</a>. Major companies are also getting more involved with the cryptocurrency. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/SQ">Square</a> <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/08/square-buys-50-million-in-bitcoin-says-cryptocurrency-aligns-with-companys-purpose.html">bought some bitcoin last year</a> and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/elon-musk/">Elon Musk</a>’s electric carmaker <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/TSLA">Tesla</a> purchased around <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/08/tesla-buys-1point5-billion-in-bitcoin.html">$1.5 billion in bitcoin, according to a filing this month</a>. Musk and Square founder <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/jack-dorsey/">Jack Dorsey</a> are both supporters of bitcoin.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/coindesk-BTC-chart-2021-02-18.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="680" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/coindesk-BTC-chart-2021-02-18-820x680.png" alt="" class="wp-image-397684" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/coindesk-BTC-chart-2021-02-18-820x680.png 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/coindesk-BTC-chart-2021-02-18-300x249.png 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/coindesk-BTC-chart-2021-02-18-768x637.png 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/coindesk-BTC-chart-2021-02-18.png 905w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /></a><figcaption>Bitcoin price over the last three months &#8211; Coindesk</figcaption></figure>



Meanwhile, global central banks have been easing monetary policy — such as lowering interest rates and buying assets through the so-called quantitative easing program —to help cushion the blow to economies hit by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/coronavirus-business-impact-response/">coronavirus pandemic</a>.



“There were trillions of dollars that were printed and injected into the economy and everyone from individuals to financial institutions and corporations ran around the world looking for the best way to protect their purchasing power, they ultimately decided it was bitcoin,” Pompliano said as he discussed what was behind bitcoin’s surge.



<figure class="wp-block-pullquote"><blockquote class="has-text-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">(Bitcoin) will eventually take that seat at the kingdom of being that global reserve currency of the internet generation.<cite>Anthony Pompliano MORGAN CREEK DIGITAL ASSETS</cite></blockquote></figure>



The bitcoin bull’s prediction that bitcoin could hit $1 million is based on a few factors including the scarcity of the cryptocurrency which has a cap of 21 million coins, as well as the decentralized nature of the technology.



There is no central authority like a central bank that controls bitcoin.



Instead, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/18/blockchain-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work.html">so-called bitcoin network is made up of miners who process transactions</a>. These miners operate a vast array of specialized computers required to carry out the bitcoin mining process.



As there are many different miners, no single entity can control the network. And because the computers they use are often very powerful machines, bitcoin proponents claim the network is one of the strongest computer networks in the world.



“As more and more people come into the market, there is more liquidity. As there is more liquidity, there is more utility. As there’s more utility, there’s more stability in the price … you get kind of this evolution,” Pompliano said.



“If you think about that internet economy, there is no native currency … (bitcoin) will eventually take that seat at the kingdom of being that global reserve currency of the internet generation.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">JPMorgan’s long-term price target for bitcoin</h2>



In January, JPMorgan released a note to clients putting a “theoretical” long term price target on bitcoin of $146,000 as bitcoin begins to compete with gold.



Gold is broadly accepted as a “safe haven” asset where investors flock to in times of political strife or financial market turmoil. Bitcoin is now beginning to develop such a reputation.



“Bitcoin is competing with traditional gold, bitcoin is a form of digital gold,” Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, global markets strategist at JPMorgan, told CNBC’s “Beyond the Valley.”



He said that the value of gold held by the private sector, solely for the purpose of investment, is around $2.7 trillion. For bitcoin’s market cap to reach that, it would need to hit a price of around $146,000.



But there are caveats, the biggest one being the volatility in bitcoin’s price. The digital coin is known for wild swings in price. Panigirtzoglou said bitcoin is “five times more volatility than gold.”



The key to bitcoin’s volatility converging with gold is institutional adoption, the JPMorgan strategist said.



“The faster the pace of institutional adoption, the quicker that convergence in volatility will take place,” he said.



Still, there are risks ahead for the current rally. While it has been driven by institutional investors, retail participation has also been high.



“The biggest risk is that the flow impulse we’ve seen over the past months slows materially from here,” Panigirtzoglou said.



“In particular when the economies reopen, people go back to the office, they have less time to trade at home, and as a result some of that, retail … flow impulse slows from here,” he added.

Novelty Coins Representing The Bitcoin Cryptocurrency : Illustration

Bitcoin at $1 million? Some analysts are bullish but others warn of risks ahead

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="551" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1301210664-820x551.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-397334" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1301210664-820x551.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1301210664-300x202.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1301210664-768x516.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1301210664-1536x1032.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1301210664-scaled.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>PARIS, FRANCE &#8211; FEBRUARY 09: In this photo illustration, a visual representation of the digital Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is on display in front of the Bitcoin course&#8217;s graph on February 09, 2021 in Paris, France. The value of Bitcoin (BTC) has exceeded the threshold of 48,000 dollars for the first time in history. Electric vehicle maker Tesla has invested $ 1.5 billion in the virtual currency and will begin accepting it as payment for the purchase of its cars, the group said. The move comes days after Elon Musk temporarily changed his Twitter mini-description to simply #bitcoin. (Photo illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BTC.CM=">Bitcoin’s</a> price broke above $50,000 for the first time in history Tuesday, continuing its blistering rally as major companies appear to be warming to cryptocurrencies.



The world’s largest digital currency by market valuable rose more than 3% to an all-time high of $50,389 at 07:32 a.m. ET, according to data from Coin Metrics.



Bitcoin has gotten a boost from news of large firms like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/TSLA">Tesla</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/MA">Mastercard</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/BK">BNY Mellon</a>&nbsp;warming to cryptocurrencies. Tesla last revealed it had&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/08/tesla-buys-1point5-billion-in-bitcoin.html">bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin</a>&nbsp;and plans to accept the digital coin as payment for its products, while Mastercard said it would&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/10/mastercard-to-open-up-network-to-select-cryptocurrencies.html">open up its network to some digital currencies</a>.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/PYPL">PayPal</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/BK">BNY Mellon</a>&nbsp;have also made big moves to support crypto.



Tesla’s use of corporate cash to buy bitcoin sparked speculation over whether other major companies would follow suit.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/UBER">Uber</a>&nbsp;CEO Dara Khosrowshahi last week told CNBC that the company had&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/11/uber-wont-buy-bitcoin-with-its-cash-may-later-accept-it-as-payment.html">discussed but “quickly dismissed” the idea of buying bitcoin</a>. The firm is however considering whether to accept cryptocurrencies as payment.



These developments have led some crypto investors to believe the latest bull run is different to rallies past. Bitcoin skyrocketed to nearly $20,000 in late 2017 before losing more than 80% of its value the following year. Bitcoin believers say that, whereas the 2017 bubble was driven by retail speculation, the current cycle is being fueled by demand from institutional investors.



“I think bitcoin is a much more stable asset class today than it was three years ago,” Michael Saylor, CEO of enterprise software firm&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/MSTR">MicroStrategy</a>, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” program on Tuesday. “It used to be dominated by leveraged retail traders … on international markets with a lot of leverage.”



MicroStrategy and Jack Dorsey’s fintech firm&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/SQ">Square</a>&nbsp;hit the headlines last year after taking the unusual strategy of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/08/square-buys-50-million-in-bitcoin-says-cryptocurrency-aligns-with-companys-purpose.html">using corporate cash to purchase bitcoin</a>.



“I think that starting in March of 2020, you saw institutions start to arrive and I think in 2021 you’re gonna see that trend continue,” Saylor added. “There’re enthusiasts for bitcoin as a medium of exchange … but I personally believe that the compelling use case is a store of value.”



MicroStrategy has seen its share price climb more than sevenfold since it first bought bitcoin in August. The company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.microstrategy.com/en/investor-relations/press/microstrategy-announces-proposed-private-offering-of-600m-of-convertible-senior-notes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced Tuesday</a>&nbsp;that it would offer $600 million in convertible bonds to buy more bitcoin. There has been speculation that MicroStrategy offered a blueprint for Tesla’s bitcoin purchase after an exchange between Saylor and Elon Musk on Twitter about making “large transactions” with the cryptocurrency.



Still, skeptics see bitcoin as a speculative asset and worry it may be one of the biggest market bubbles in history. Economists like Nouriel Roubini&nbsp;<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/economist-nouriel-roubini-trashes-bitcoin-manipulation-retail-investor-fomo-2020-11-1029844248" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">say that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have no intrinsic value</a>. And a recent Deutsche Bank survey said investors&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/19/bitcoin-us-tech-stocks-are-biggest-bubbles-deutsche-bank-survey-says.html">view bitcoin as the most extreme bubble</a>&nbsp;in financial markets.

Bitcoin surpasses $50,000 for first time ever as major companies jump into crypto

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American rapper Jay Z and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey say they are establishing a Bitcoin Development Fund with 500 Bitcoin worth about $23 million to be jointly invested. In a series of tweets, Dorsey stated that they are taking applications for a blind irrevocable trust focused on Africa and India. This comes as Mastercard says it will allow select cryptocurrency transactions on its network later this year. Jake Bright, Writer and Advisor on African Tech joins CNBC Africa for more.

Jack Dorsey & Jay Z invest $23.6mn to fund Bitcoin development in Africa and India

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BTC.CM=">Bitcoin’s</a>&nbsp;price soared past the $48,000 level for a second time this week, hitting a fresh all-time high as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/BK">Bank of New York Mellon</a>&nbsp;said it would provide custody services for digital assets.



The world’s most valuable cryptocurrency hit an intraday record of $48,297 at roughly 8:30 a.m. ET on Thursday, according to data from industry site CoinDesk. It was last trading up by more than 7% to around $47,913.





BNY Mellon, America’s oldest bank and a major custody provider,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/11/bny-mellon-to-offer-bitcoin-services-a-validation-of-crypto-from-a-key-bank-in-the-financial-system.html">said Thursday that it would begin financing bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies</a>. The company will eventually allow crypto assets to pass through the same financial network it currently uses for more traditional holdings like U.S. Treasury bonds and equities.



“BNY Mellon is proud to be the first global bank to announce plans to provide an integrated service for digital assets,” Roman Regelman, CEO of asset servicing and head of digital at BNY Mellon, said in a statement Thursday.



“Growing client demand for digital assets, maturity of advanced solutions, and improving regulatory clarity present a tremendous opportunity for us to extend our current service offerings to this emerging field.”



BNY Mellon is the latest major financial firm to show support for digital currencies. On Wednesday, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/MA">Mastercard</a> said it would <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/10/mastercard-to-open-up-network-to-select-cryptocurrencies.html">offer support for some cryptocurrencies</a> on its network this year.



It also comes after&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/TSLA">Tesla’s</a>&nbsp;announcement Monday that it had&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/08/tesla-purchases-1point5-billion-in-bitcoin-what-could-happen-next-.html">purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin</a>&nbsp;and would soon accept it as a form of payment.



Bitcoin is up more than 60% since the start of the year after quadrupling in value in 2020. The digital coin’s blistering rally has been boosted by increased demand from institutions, according to bulls, who say that more experienced investors are warming to the cryptocurrency due to the perception that it is a store of value akin to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=XAU=">gold</a>.



Skeptics, however, worry bitcoin may be one of the largest market bubbles in history.



Custody services are a key part of the financial system, as they ensure clients’ financial assets are held securely. Many firms have sought to address security in crypto. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies aren’t maintained by a central authority like a bank, meaning investors often have nowhere to turn if their funds are lost or stolen.

Bitcoin sign

Bitcoin blows past $48,000 to hit another record high as major financial firms warm to crypto

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Globally, central banks are split on how to regulate digital assets. While some like the People&#8217;s Bank of China are carrying out pilot tests with commercial partners, some others like Nigeria are deeply concerned about the risks posed to its financial system. On Monday, electric vehicle maker, Tesla purchased 1.5 billion dollars&#8217; worth of bitcoin, a strong backing for the crypto on the corporate level. For the crypto community in Nigeria, how best can they navigate the regulatory waters? Joining CNBC Africa for this conversation are Senator Ihenyen, President of the Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association of Nigeria and Hanu Fejiro Agboje, CEO and Founder of Patricia.

How Nigeria’s crypto community can navigate the regulatory waters

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The Central Bank of Nigeria says its recent directive to regulated financial institutions to desist from dealing in cryptocurrencies and identify people and organisations transacting in cryptocurrency exchanges and close their accounts.

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Crypto

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is launching an NFT marketplace

After a bitcoin crackdown, China now calls it an ‘investment alternative’ in a significant shift in tone

Bitcoin tumbles from recent high as cryptocurrencies take weekend hit

Coinbase’s first employee in 2013 cold-emailed the founders for a job — and was paid in bitcoin for 3 years

As Coinbase debuts, Powell calls cryptocurrencies ‘vehicles for speculation’

Coinbase drops below debut price in volatile trading

Coinbase’s blockbuster debut is a ‘watershed’ for crypto — but there are risks ahead

What the Coinbase listing means for the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency market value tops $2 trillion for the first time as ethereum hits record high

Bitcoin is at a tipping point and could become ‘currency of choice’ for global trade, Citi says

Tesla has made about $1 billion in profit on its bitcoin investment, analyst estimates

Bitcoin at $1 million? Some analysts are bullish but others warn of risks ahead

Bitcoin surpasses $50,000 for first time ever as major companies jump into crypto

Jack Dorsey & Jay Z invest $23.6mn to fund Bitcoin development in Africa and India

Bitcoin blows past $48,000 to hit another record high as major financial firms warm to crypto

How Nigeria’s crypto community can navigate the regulatory waters

Nigeria’s Central Bank reiterates position on closure of crypto accounts

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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