UBS Advises 'Stay Clear' of Cryptocurrencies — Warns 'Regulators Will Crack Down on Crypto'

Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, has advised investors to “stay clear” of cryptocurrencies and “build their portfolio around less risky assets.” The UBS analysts warned that “Regulators have demonstrated they can and will crack down on crypto.”

UBS’ Crypto Advice and Warning

The global wealth management team at UBS warned in a note published last week that regulators worldwide, particularly the U.S. and the U.K., will impose tougher cryptocurrency regulations. Citing that “China’s latest crackdown — extending to miners, banks, e-payment networks, and social media — hurt crypto prices and operators,” the UBS analysts wrote:

Regulators have demonstrated they can and will crack down on crypto … So we suggest investors stay clear, and build their portfolio around less risky assets.

“We’ve long warned that shifting investor sentiment or regulatory crackdowns could pop bubble-like crypto markets,” the analysts added. “We think investors should avoid crypto speculation, and consider risk-adjusted returns before buying alternative assets.”

The bank pointed out that a number of regulators worldwide have begun tightening their oversight of the crypto market. Recently, China has been cracking down on bitcoin mining and payments. Canada’s regulator has sent notices to crypto exchanges and the regulators in Japan, the U.K., Cayman Islands, and Thailand have targeted global crypto exchange Binance.

The U.K. has imposed tight registration requirements on crypto exchanges, causing 64 firms to withdraw their applications to register. In South Korea, most small exchanges are at risk of having to shut down operations due to strict regulatory and banking requirements.

The UBS analysts further described: “Crypto trading practices, such as extending 50x or 100x leverage, appear fundamentally at odds with mainstream finance regulation.” They warned:

While we can’t rule out future price gains in cryptos, we see this as a speculative market that poses significant risks to professional investors.

The bank, however, reportedly recognizes that some clients want exposure to cryptocurrency, particularly bitcoin, and is rumored to be considering offering crypto services to wealthy clients. A growing number of investment banks are already doing so, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Standard Chartered, and DBS.

What do you think about UBS’ crypto advice and warning? Let us know in the comments section below.

Skybridge Capital Launches Ethereum Fund — Ether ETF Filing to Follow

Asset management firm Skybridge Capital has launched an ethereum fund, CEO Anthony Scaramucci has confirmed. He added that the asset manager will be filing for an ether exchange-traded fund (ETF).

• Skybridge Capital CEO Anthony Scaramucci revealed in the latest episode of The Scoop, published Tuesday, that his asset management firm has launched a private ethereum fund.
• “July 1st, we’re launching a private ethereum fund,” he said prior to the launch of the ether fund, adding:

We’ll then file for an ETF for ethereum. Again, it is anybody’s guess when those things will be going.

• He also revealed, “As we’re speaking, we’re making an announcement on an ETF for a digital innovation fund that has some great publicly traded assets that we think are geared, related to [ethereum], related to bitcoin, but also the other coins.”
• The company filed a registration statement for a bitcoin ETF with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in May.

• Scaramucci emphasized:

We have a full commitment to crypto.

• Skybridge launched a bitcoin fund in December last year with $25 million as the company expected an “avalanche of institutional investors.” The fund was open to the public in January with $310 million in assets under management. Last month, Scaramucci said that bitcoin still had more upside than gold.

What do you think about Skybridge launching an ether fund and planning to file for an ET

Twitter Permanently Suspends Splinterlands Account for Unspecified Violations

After tweeting through its account since 2018, Splinterlands, a blockchain-based NFT trading card game, has been banned from the service permanently as social media giant Twitter refuses to respond to appeals.

Suspension Coincides With Twitter Unveiling its Own NFTs

While non-fungible token (NFT) hype may have cooled, there is no shortage of controversy surrounding the space. The latest incident includes none other than the social media outlet Twitter.

Although Jack Dorsey warmly embraced the NFT movement after auctioning off his very first tweet in NFT form, the platform’s recent decision to suspend blockchain-based gaming operator Splinterlands has embroiled the social media platform in a fresh censorship debate.

Splinterlands, which offers gamers the opportunity to collect, trade, and battle with scarce NFT collectibles, was among the first to embrace the unique characteristics of non-fungible tokens as part of its platform experience. The company’s Twitter account was suspended from the platform on June 23rd for no discernible reason. This was done without warning or explanation.

There is some speculation that Splinterlands may have been suspended for violating certain Twitter policies about selling “illegal or certain regulated goods or services.” The policy states, “You may not use our service for any unlawful purpose or in furtherance of illegal activities. This includes selling, buying, or facilitating transactions in illegal goods or services, as well as certain types of regulated goods or services.”

Because the company does not sell financial products, is a gaming platform, and does not run secondary markets for its collectibles, which are overseen by the community, the violation is unclear. Still, given no prior warning from the platform about any violations, it’s challenging to ascertain whether they were the cause, especially given the multitude of other accounts engaged in similar practices.

Already, Splinterlands has lodged multiple appeals to reverse the suspension, with a cryptic message arriving on June 30th from Twitter explaining that the suspension would be permanent and that further appeals would be ignored.

The Not-So-Elegant Timing of the Twitter Suspension

Though entirely speculative, Chris Roberts, Splinterlands’ Content Director, pointed out the troublesome timing in a post published on Peakd. The company’s account ban corresponded with a same-day decision by Twitter to unveil its lineup of NFTs for sale to its 60 million followers, making the suspension either a little suspect or tone-deaf.

There are also curiosities about whether Twitter is leveraging its status to crush other NFT players by launching its product “a la” Amazon to knock out any formidable competition. Others, like Chris Roberts from Splinterlands, believe it could be a form of censorship, highlighting once again the need for more censorship-resistant platforms, like Hive Blockchain and Peakd.

Given that Splinterlands operates on Hive and tweeted the news on the blockchain’s latest token pairings the same morning, there are also concerns that the censorship-resistant properties that Hive Blockchain espouses could be under attack by social media giants. Like other platforms have had their hosting and other services canceled by tech giants, this might be a similar tactic, especially given Twitter’s history of forcefully evicting accounts without notice.

However, given the absence of more concrete evidence, this connection remains unsubstantiated at very best. While no new developments have emerged since the suspension notification received on the 30th and amid an absence of clarification from Twitter, questions continue to shroud the motives behind the social giant’s move and whether it was justified.

In the meantime, #freesplinterlands is circulating through Twitter as the community takes up the cause and fights back against what it considers to be an unjustified suspension. Further to the point, Splinterlands was selected as Marketsquare’s game of the month, bringing more attention to the issue for Marketsquare’s followers.

What do you think of Twitter’s decision to permanently suspend Splinterlands’ account? Let us know in the comments section below.

248% Weekly Gains — Baby Doge Coin Continues to Rally While Most Crypto Asset Markets Slump

Four days ago, the crypto community and mainstream audiences caught a whiff of a new meme-based crypto asset called baby doge. The coin got a lot more attention when Tesla’s Elon Musk tweeted about baby doge and almost immediately after the tweet, the asset’s value skyrocketed. Musk hasn’t said anything about baby doge since then, but the crypto asset has continued to climb higher in value.

Weekly Stats Show Baby Doge Outshines Most Crypto Asset Market Performances

Last week, Bitcoin.com News reported on the cryptocurrency called baby doge (BABYDOGE) after the CEO of Tesla tweeted about the coin. At that time, baby doge jumped 228.3% during a 24 hour period on July 1, and during the last few days, the digital currency continues to gather gains.

Ever since the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, mentioned baby doge coin (BABYDOGE) on Twitter, the crypto asset has seen mainstream media reports about it and the currency has doubled in value in four days. The picture above is a meme shared by the Twitter handle @babydogecoin which has 109,200 Twitter followers on July 5, 2021.

The following Monday morning (EDT), baby doge dropped a touch over 2% but seven-day statistics show BABYDOGE is still up 248.9%. Over the last two weeks, baby doge has captured a mammoth-sized 723% gain.

Baby doge has gathered mainstream media (MSM) attention after the Musk tweet, as many publications followed Bitcoin.com News’ lead and reported on the baby doge situation. Fool.com, a subsidiary publication owned by the Motley Fool asked: “Should You (or Anyone) Buy Baby Doge Coin?” Baby doge was also featured in articles published by newsdesks like the Indian Times, Futurism, Republic World, Benzinga, Gamerevolution, Techstory, Business Insider, Toysmatrix, and more.

Baby doge coin has rallied during the last week gathering 248% in seven days and 723% in fourteen days.

The New York Post gave the public an introduction to baby doge in an article called: “Baby Doge? What to know about the Dogecoin spinoff that Elon Musk is hyping.” Since July 1, the number of trading platforms listing baby doge has increased by three centralized exchanges after it was initially available on Pancakeswap.

The meme-based crypto asset is available on Pancakeswap, MEXC Global, XT.com, and Lbank. Pancakeswap version one shows baby doge has lots of liquidity with $71 million in 24 hour swaps and the protocol’s version two shows more than $3 million.

Top Meme Tokens Coins by Market Capitalization List Shows Other Doge-Like and Musk-Related Meme Coins on the Rise

During our last report, baby doge coin was swapping for $0.000000002014 per unit and it’s doubled since then at $0.000000004585 per BABYDOGE. Every time a baby doge transaction happens, people must pay a 10% fee but the 5% of the fee is redistributed to every baby doge holder.

The other 5% taken from the fee is added to the BABYDOGE/BNB liquidity pool hosted on Pancakeswap. According to Coingecko’s “Top Meme Tokens Coins by Market Capitalization” list, dogecoin (DOGE) hasn’t done as well as baby doge in recent times. DOGE is down 11.4% during the last seven days compared to baby doge’s 248% rise.

There are all kinds of dogecoin-like and Musk-related meme coins these days, as there’s tokens like Dogelon Mars, Polydoge, Dogefi, SHIBA BSC, and many more. Some of the dogecoin-like and Musk-related meme coins have seen double-digit gains this past week.

Now shiba inu (SHIB) is up 7.4% today and a few other DOGE-like tokens have seen decent weekly gains. A crypto-asset called dogelon mars (ELON) jumped 31% this week and another one called elon doge token (EDOGE) jumped over 20%. Baby doge doesn’t have the amount of trade volume seen by its predecessors SHIB and DOGE, but it’s rising fast. Today, dogecoin (DOGE) captures $1.3 billion in trade volume while SHIB has over $400 million.

Collective baby doge trade volume during the trailing 24 hours has been around $103 million. Baby doge coin holds the 31st position among the dozens of meme-coins listed on Coingecko’s aggregation site. Most crypto coin aggregation sites don’t say what baby doge’s market cap is today but four hundred twenty quadrillion multiplied by $0.000000004585 is approximately $1.925 billion.

What do you think about the Baby Doge project and the coin’s rise this week? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Equity Strategists, Portfolio Managers Share Bitcoin Price Predictions: Survey

Equity strategists and portfolio managers were asked about what the price of bitcoin will be by the year-end. Almost half of the surveyed participants say the price of the cryptocurrency will fall below the $30K level but some believe it will rise to $60K.

Year-End Bitcoin Price Expectations by Equity Strategists and Portfolio Managers

Equity strategists and portfolio managers revealed what they think bitcoin’s price will be at the end of 2021 in a survey by CNBC, published last week. Every quarter, the media outlet polls about 100 chief investment officers, equity strategists, and portfolio managers about their views on the markets for the rest of the year. The latest survey was conducted from June 23-30.

According to the survey results unveiled last week, 44% of respondents said the price of bitcoin will be below $30,000 by the end of the year.

In addition, 25% of equity strategists and portfolio managers said it will be $40,000 and another 25% said it will reach $50,000. Only 6% expected the BTC price to hit $60,000 by the year-end.

Equity strategists and portfolio managers Survey’s results. Source: CNBC

Several surveys recently conducted indicate the growing popularity of cryptocurrency investments among institutional investors. The 2021 Trends in Investing Survey, conducted by the Journal of Financial Planning and the Financial Planning Association (FPA), found that more than 26% of financial advisors plan to increase their recommendation of cryptocurrencies over the next 12 months. Meanwhile, 49% of the advisors said that clients have asked them about investing in cryptocurrencies in the last six months.

The latest Bank of America’s Global Fund Manager Survey showed that “long bitcoin” is the second most crowded trade for fund managers. Moreover, a global poll of chief financial officers indicated that hedge funds are likely to significantly increase their cryptocurrency holdings.

Where do you think the price of bitcoin will be by the year-end? Let us know in the comments section below.