#bitcoinresources

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Chinese Money Flowing Into ICO's Despite Ban.

That means that clearly non-Chinese ICOs didn't kill their start-up funding plans because of bans in China (and subsequent bans in South Korea). Instead, most put their plans to launch on pause to figure out ways to legitimize their activity and find the right investors now that simple crowdsourcing these things in China is illegal under the ban. Chinese with crypto wallet accounts in Singapore, Hong Kong, London and elsewhere are still buying tokens of companies listing on exchanges and still speculating in cryptocurrencies.

Open Money found Chinese smart money. They built relationships with Chinese venture funds over the years and private asset managers who are now delving into the crypto markets. Those characters in China are known as "whales". The whales tend to be large funds with tens of millions of dollars to throw around, often belonging to the family offices of Chinese multi-millionaires and billionaires.

"We are definitely getting Chinese money and are still talking to a number of China-based funds," Sangha says

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2017/10/18/chinas-blockchain-bitcoin-ban-no-match-for-stateless-cryptocurrency-market/#d69756f2de6b

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Bitcoin May Rise Higher If The US Creates A Digital Dollar

Bitcoin has been searching for direction this week—struggling to climb along with traditional markets after the historic coronavirus-induced crash earlier this month.

The bitcoin price, down around 25% over the last 30-day period, had recorded its best start to a new year since 2013 until the coronavirus crisis sparked global market turmoil.

However, with the long-rumored digital dollar appearing to take shape this week, bitcoin, as well as other digital assets, could be about to take a step toward mainstream adoption—and potentially see the kind of interest that pushed the bitcoin price to last year's highs.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2020/03/27/bitcoin-will-moon-if-the-us-creates-a-new-digital-dollar/#30064e5d2b54

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US Lawmakers: Virtual Currencies Will Be The Driver For Economic Growth

observers say mainstream adoption hinges on regulatory clarity to help legitimize the market. As it is, the move to promulgate targeted regulation of the industry has already started.

In December 2018, US lawmakers proposed legislation designed to prevent bitcoin price manipulation and position the US as a market leader.

Congressmen Darren Soto and Ted Budd are pushing for widespread adoption of crypto, saying the US must not ignore its “profound potential” to bolster the economy.

“Virtual currencies and the underlying blockchain technology has a profound potential to be a driver of economic growth,” said Soto and Budd. “That’s why we must ensure that the United States is at the forefront.”

The industry has been making moves in Washington, DC to promote the mainstream adoption of crypto.

In September 2018, a pro-crypto lobbying group was launched in Washington, D.C. by three of the biggest cryptocurrency companies in the United States:

Coinbase

Circle

Digital Currency Group.

The move signals that the industry is taking concrete steps to advance mainstream crypto adoption by greasing the wheels of Congress.

“We have been very active with Congress, with policymakers,” said Jeremy Allaire, the co-founder of Circle, a crypto unicorn with a $3 billion valuation.

https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-in-2019-analysts-see-institutional-investors-wading-into-crypto/

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Best Minds Working On Blockchain To Dismantle Tyranny Of The Web Giants

The first argument, voiced by Chinese entrepreneur Lei Chen of the digital services company Xunlei, is that blockchain offers an alternative to an Internet dominated by a few giants who mastered its technology 10 to 20 years ago. I’ve heard this line of reasoning before. The Internet giants control our data and all meaningful digital commerce. The only way to opt out of their system is to build an alternative system that doesn’t rely on the first one. Enter blockchain, a framework for tracking goods and services not dependent on the Internet. I can’t judge if blockchain is the answer. But it is persuasive that the best and the brightest would look for a way around the tyranny ofGoogle and its ilk.

Similar was the there-must-be-something-to-this rationale of venture capitalist Jim Breyer regarding cryptocurrencies. Breyer acknowledges not being able to see the value of “crypto” himself and also that the field is currently all but dead. And yet, again, he sees the passion of researchers at the likes of Stanford and Tsinghua devoting their careers to figuring out applications. When the best minds pour their passion into something, Breyer reasons, something good typically comes of it. http://fortune.com/author/adam-lashinsky/

[travelbehemoth]

From a leader in the industry.

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SEC Commissioner Peirce Criticizes SEC Dismissiveness of Bitcoin

“Apparently, bitcoin is not ripe enough, respectable enough, or regulated enough to be worthy of our markets,” Peirce said in a personal statement, referring to an official public statement she published to refute the disapproval of the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF.

Peirce added that the premature decision of the SEC undermined investor protection by dismissing the institutionalization of the Bitcoin market, which has seen an increase of adoption by regulated financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley over the past several months.

“In addition, I am concerned that the Commission’s approach undermines investor protection by precluding greater institutionalization of the bitcoin market. More institutional participation would ameliorate many of the Commission’s concerns with the bitcoin market that underlie its disapproval order,” Peirce said. https://www.forbes.com/sites/youngjoseph/2018/07/27/sec-commissioner-bitcoin-is-regulated-and-mature-enough-to-have-an-etf/#3260a6854164

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Institutional Players May Take Greater Market Share of Bitcoin

New added strength as governments and central banks produce more regulatory clarity regarding the asset class, which removes uncertainty. With institutional traders moving in, the current market share dominated by retail players is likely to be reduced.

Adrian Lai, co-founder of Orichal Partners, a cryptocurrency investment firm in Hong Kong, points to lack of regulatory oversight and institutional investment as the reason for irrational behavior in the market. More regulation reduces market manipulation and volatility, and attracts institutional participants. “Regulators are not banning the development of cryptocurrencies, but are trying to better regulate the market, which should help the industry mature,” Lai said. “If the regulatory stance gets clearer, large funds will be more assured and willing to commit significant capital”, he added, as he notices a significant increase in interest from asset managers and private banks.

Governments worldwide are more active than ever in overseeing this asset class and initial coin offerings as they aim to drive out fraud to protect consumers. Jay Clayton, chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), says distributed ledger has “incredible promise for the financial industry” and the increased regulatory oversight will benefit the market and help it mature overall. https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/04/09/entrance-of-institutional-traders-in-mature-cryptocurrency-market-will-lead-to-bitcoin-price-surge/

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Bitcoin May Rebound As Regulations Mature

Brian Kelly of Brian Kelly Capital and a contributor to CNBC’s “Fast Money” went on air to talk second quarter growth on Tuesday. He showed how traditionally Bitcoin has experienced bad first quarters, even in 2017 when the market went on a meteoric rise the first quarter growth was just over 10%.

Kelly told the “Futures Now” segment that cryptocurrency has historically performed better in the second quarter, predicting that “There will be a significant rally here if seasonality brings tail winds.”

What he was referring to as seasonality is the annual developmental cycle and cryptocurrency conferences like the Consensus in May which can inspire confidence in trading.

Another major factor Kelly sees as part of a potential rebound in the second quarter is that regulation based fear in cryptocurrency investing will begin to wear off as countries start to settle on policies. As he told the “Futures Now” panel;

“We’ve gone to the extreme of the regulation which is South Korea thinking they’re going to ban it, the U.S. talking about everything being a security, to walking it back … you’re seeing a shift again in that type of thing. I think most of that’s behind us.”

Regulation of the cryptocurrency market spread globally after the massive gains Bitcoin and other alternative currencies experienced in the later part of 2017. Countries such as China and India both major markets for digital currencies made extensive moves to ban exchanges and ICO’s while Japan and the U.S. both struggle with creating a regulatory balance that allows exchanges to do business while controlling fraud and crypto related criminal activity.

Kelly commenting further on regualtion said “I don’t think regulation is a bad thing … it doesn’t kill any other market as long as we do it correctly and we don’t stifle innovation. Regulation might actually increase adoption.” https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/04/04/expert-expects-see-bitcoin-rally-second-quarter/