Replies to post #17580 on Bitcoin (BTCUSD)

[BottomBounce]

What Biden’s Pick for Treasury Secretary Has Said About Bitcoin and Blockchain
https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2020/11/what-bidens-pick-for-treasury-secretary-has-said-about-bitcoin-and-blockchain/ $BTC.X

[Alpha611]

Can't watch this shet!
It's like being on a sail boat in a tropical storm...lol

[Investors3]

Wallets With Over 1,000 Bitcoin Have Hit Record Number: Chainalysis
Dec 11, 2020 at 7:56 a.m. ESTOmkar Godbole
Updated Dec 11, 2020 at 10:13 a.m. EST

The popular narrative that institutional bitcoin investors have been leading the 2020 price rally looks to be backed up by on-chain data.

In 2020, the number of wallets – defined as a set of blockchain addresses controlled by a single entity – holding at least 1,000 bitcoins has increased by 302 (17%) and is now at a record high of 2,052, according to Philip Gradwell, economist at Chainalysis.

“That’s a big increase in the wealthiest wallets and provides evidence that institutional investors have entered the market,” Chainlysis noted in its weekly market intel newsletter dated Dec. 10.

https://www.coindesk.com/wallets-with-over-1000-bitcoin-have-hit-record-number-chainalysis

The so-called rich list, the number of individual addresses holding at least 1,000 coins, is also up over 7% to 2,270. The metric reached a record high of 2,274 on Nov. 24, according to data source Glassnode.

Several prominent publicly listed companies such as MicroStrategy and Square have diversified their cash holdings into bitcoin over the past few months, boosting the cryptocurrency’s appeal as a reserve asset. Even insurers have joined the bitcoin bandwagon with Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance having now invested $100 million in the cryptocurrency, as reported on Thursday.

Smaller investors have also been increasing their holdings. This year, This year, wallets holding five or more bitcoins have amassed over 2.4 million coins, Gradwell said. The number of wallets holding at least five BTC has increased by 8,842 (4%) to 234,408.

Bitcoin nearly doubled from $10,000 to a new record high of $19,920 in the September to December period. The cryptocurrency was last seen trading near $17,750, representing a 150% year-to-date gain, according to CoinDesk 20 data.

It remains to be seen if the big investors continue to stack more coins during a potential price sell-off.

Bitcoin balances held on exchanges have declined by over 18% this year, taking sell-side liquidity off the market and indicating a strong holding sentiment.

However, the cryptocurrency has pulled back from its peak price in recent days. According to analysts, the decline has been fueled by some investors liquidating their holdings and represents a temporary bull market correction.

As a result, short-term technical indicators are beginning to roll over in favor of the bears.

The widely tracked 14-day relative strength index has dropped into the bearish territory below 50 for the first time since Oct. 6. Back then, bitcoin was trading near $10,500.

The RSI’s bearish turn comes following the cryptocurrency’s recent downside break of a narrowing price range.

As such, support of the two-month rising trendline, currently at $17,000, stands exposed. Some options investors have positioned for an extended pullback, as discussed earlier this week.

[Investors3]

How to Invest in Bitcoin. It Can Be Easy, but Watch Out for Fees.
By Avi Salzman
Dec. 18, 2020 4:12 pm ET

https://www.barrons.com/articles/how-to-invest-in-bitcoin-51608325975?siteid=yhoof2

Around 2013, one common way to buy Bitcoin was to head to a public space like Union Square in lower Manhattan. There, buyers brought cash and sellers brought their phones to punch in codes that would transfer the digital money. Sometimes, they yelled out what they were willing to pay or accept, like a trading pit.

These were called Buttonwood meet-ups, after the buttonwood tree under which 24 stockbrokers met in 1792 to found what became the New York Stock Exchange.

“I’m very frustrated that the SEC has not yet approved a Bitcoin ETF. ”

— Ric Edelman, founder of Edelman Financial Engines
Today, you can still meet a guy in a park (socially distanced, of course), or go to a Bitcoin ATM, but there are other ways to get cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin trades on liquid exchanges 24 hours a day, seven days a week—some exchanges are even regulated now. Smartphone apps give users one-touch access. Demand for Bitcoin is shooting higher along with the price, which has more than tripled this year to a recent $23,000.

Yet for investors who want to buy directly through a more traditional brokerage account, the options are still limited. Most important, there is no Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, and there may not be one for years.

“I’m very frustrated that the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] has not yet approved a Bitcoin ETF,” says Ric Edelman, founder of Edelman Financial Engines. His firm manages more than $200 billion for 1.27 million investors who tend to be well-off but not rich.

Without an ETF, Edelman can’t invest in Bitcoin for clients, even though he is convinced that it is a critical part of a modern investment portfolio. (Edelman Financial invests only in ETFs and mutual funds.) He started buying Bitcoin for himself in 2014, and now has more than 1% of his net worth in cryptocurrencies.

For his clients, an ETF “will change everything” he adds.

The largest group of potential buyers is on PayPal (ticker: PYPL), which started rolling out crypto-buying in October to its U.S. customers, and plans to add the service in other countries next year. There are no special requirements; users simply sign up for the service and begin trading. Starting next year, however, there will be fees based on transaction size that can rise above 2%.

Square (SQ) also makes it easy to buy. It charges varying fees that reportedly can rise as high as 1.76%. The company did not respond to questions on its average and maximum fees.

Robinhood offers free Bitcoin trading, and makes money by routing customer trades through market makers and taking a cut of the spread between the bid and ask prices.

Each company has different rules on what you can do with your crypto once you buy it. Square lets buyers move their Bitcoin to an unaffiliated “wallet” they can use to trade with other people, but PayPal and Robinhood make users keep their crypto on the platform and sell out in cash.

“The advantages of these is that they’re retail friendly, they’re intuitive; some of the disadvantages is that they can have significant fees,” says Matt Hougan, chief investment officer of Bitwise Asset Management, a cryptocurrency fund provider. “And then the big disadvantage is security. If your phone gets hacked or your password is stolen, you can lose your assets.”

The largest app focused entirely on crypto is Coinbase, which just filed confidentially to go public. Coinbase offers dozens of cryptocurrencies and services like lending that are not available from more-plain-vanilla services. It charges a 0.5% spread on transactions, as well as fees starting at 1.5% depending on what source customers use to buy in.

There are also a few ways for investors to trade cryptocurrencies in their brokerage accounts. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is a security created by Grayscale Investments that consists entirely of Bitcoin and is structured as a private placement. SEC rules allow investors to sell the trust on public markets six months after buying it. It trades under the ticker GBTC and can be bought in most traditional brokerage accounts.

There is, however, a big difference between the trust and an exchange-traded fund. GBTC trades at a substantial premium to its net asset value, meaning that buyers are not just taking a risk on Bitcoin; they can also lose money if the premium shrinks. Grayscale has benefited from the scarcity of other options—it is now the largest crypto-asset manager in the world, with $13 billion in assets under management. GBTC is up 240% this year. Bitwise also has a publicly traded crypto security called the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index fund (BITW), which tracks 10 digital coins and similarly trades at a large premium—recently more than 200%.

For wealthy investors, there are also several crypto-focused hedge funds. Pantera Funds began the Pantera Bitcoin fund in 2013, and it has since returned over 27,000%—probably the best-performing hedge fund in history. There is a minimum $100,000 investment and a management fee of 75 basis points, but no performance fee. Dan Morehead, the CEO of Pantera, calls it “the most efficient way for high-net-worth individuals or institutions to get exposure to Bitcoin—it is structured like an ETF in the sense that it has daily liquidity.” Pantera also offers funds that invest in early-stage coins and companies.

Like others, Morehead sees an ETF as the holy grail for the industry, but he’s not willing to speculate on when it might arrive. In the meantime, investors may have to settle for products that feel a little foreign or expensive. Of course, if Bitcoin keeps going up, expenses may not be a concern.