82% of Institutional Investors Plan to Increase Cryptocurrency Exposure: Survey

A survey by Nickel Digital Asset Management shows that 82% of institutional investors and wealth managers are planning to increase their cryptocurrency exposure between now and 2023.

• The survey reportedly asked institutional investors and wealth managers from the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and the UAE who currently have exposure to cryptocurrencies and digital assets about their crypto investment strategies. It was conducted between May and June.
• According to the results, 82% of respondents expect to increase their crypto exposure between now and 2023.
• 40% said they will dramatically increase their crypto holdings, 7% said they would reduce their exposure, and 1% said they would sell their entire holdings of crypto assets.
• Responding to the question about their future crypto investment plans, 58% of respondents said that the main reason for investing is long-term capital growth prospects. Meanwhile, 38% said confidence in the asset class, and 37% said more leading corporates and fund managers investing in crypto assets. Moreover, 34% said an improved regulatory environment will be a key factor in increasing their crypto allocations.

• Anatoly Crachilov, co-founder and CEO of asset management firm Nickel Digital, was quoted by Institutional Asset Manager as saying: “The number of institutional investors and corporates holding bitcoin and other cryptoassets is growing and their confidence in the asset class is also increasing.” He elaborated:

Many of those professional investors with holdings in crypto assets are looking to increase their exposure … These trends will continue to expand.

• The CEO noted that the trend is “being driven by several factors including strong market performance during the Covid-19 crisis, more established investors and corporations endorsing the market, and the sector’s infrastructure and regulatory framework improving.”

What do you think about 82% of surveyed institutional investors planning to increase their crypto exposure? Let us know in the comments section below.

The Boston Celtics Announce Partnership With Blockchain Company Socios.com

The crypto industry keeps entering into mainstream venues via professional sports leagues, athletes, and teams this year. On Wednesday, the Boston Celtics revealed a partnership with the blockchain provider Socios.com.

Socios.com to Serve as the Presenting Partner of the NBA’s Boston Celtics

On July 7, Socios.com, the blockchain firm that offers fans a chance to be “superfans” allowing them to influence club-specific decisions, trade digital items, and access “ VIP experiences,” has partnered with the Boston Celtics.

The professional team is well known and has won the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA) 17 times. The announcement reveals that Socios.com will be featured on the web portal celtics.com, according to nba.com’s official announcement.

“[Socios.com will] serve as the presenting partner of the team’s website, placing it at the forefront of the Celtics’ primary hub for relevant news, updates, video highlights, and information pertaining to the franchise,” the Boston Celtics announcement states. “They will also have the ability to leverage the Celtics marks and logos in connection with various Socios.com international marketing activities.”Boston Celtics’ senior vice president of corporate partnerships, Ted Dalton said the deal is always about the fans. “A large part of the Celtics brand is made up of the great fans that support the organization across local, national, and global levels, and we’re excited to find a partner that values fan engagement as much as we do,” Dalton remarked in a statement.

Socios.com claims to have a roster of over 40 major sporting industries like cricket, MMA, esports, soccer, and F1. The blockchain company explained that the partnership with the Boston Celtics is part of the firm’s expansion into U.S. territory.

Socios.com’s deal with the Celtics follows the Portland Trail Blazers revealing the professional basketball team partnered with the cashback blockchain firm Stormx on July 1. Last March, a number of NBA team owners formed an NBA blockchain advisory committee for the American professional basketball league.

What do you think about the deal between Socios.com and the Boston Celtics? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

UFC Partners With Crypto.com — Sources Say $175 Million Deal Is MMA Firm's Largest Sponsorship

The cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com has revealed the company has entered a partnership with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as the firm’s global fight kit partner. Reports stemming from people familiar with the matter say the partnership is a ten-year deal worth $175 million and the UFC’s largest sponsorship deal to date.

UFC Names Crypto.com First-Ever Global Fight Kit Partner

The digital currency firm Crypto.com has partnered with the UFC and will be the mixed martial arts (MMA) organization’s global fight kit partner. This means the Crypto.com brand will be featured on UFC fighter uniforms and the brand will be shown this Saturday, July 10, during the fight between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor. The UFC has been operated by Dana White since 2001 and since he became president of the MMA organization, the UFC has become a multi-billion-dollar enterprise.

The picture above is UFC 261: Usman vs. Masvidal held on April 24, 2021, in Jacksonville, Florida. The parent company of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc., had an initial public offering five days later on April 29, 2021, and is now a publicly traded firm listed on New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The American holding company Endeavor also owns Miss Universe and represents the professional sports leagues the NFL and NHL.

According to unnamed sources speaking with publications like sportico.com and CNBC, the sponsorship deal is the largest in UFC history. Back in March, the UFC partnered with Draftkings in a deal that was reported to be worth $100 million. The people familiar with the matter have said the Crypto.com deal with the UFC was estimated to be around $175 million and for a ten-year period.

MMA Organization Has Cryptocurrencies On Its Radar

UFC COO Lawrence Epstein mentioned during the announcement that cryptocurrencies are now on the firm’s radar.

“If we had talked a couple of years ago, crypto might not have been on the radar, but it’s sort of a sign of the times,” Epstein said to sportico.com. “It’s new, but it’s moving quickly, and it’s very dynamic.” He also detailed that the company was attracted to Crypto.com’s young consumer base and demo. “In general, that consumer is younger, and based upon the data that we’ve seen, that consumer also has a fair amount of discretionary income. It’s an attractive group to try to get interested in your product.”

The deal between the UFC and Crypto.com follows the variety of partnerships between crypto firms and sports companies. FTX Trading Limited has led the pack when it comes to sports partnerships with recent deals with MLB, TSM, and even the Super Bowl champion Tom Brady. The NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers recently partnered with the crypto cashback company Stormx.

Crypto.com following this trend and the $175 million deal with UFC is quite a sizable investment if the unnamed sources are factual. Sources said during the first week of June, FTX paid roughly $200 million to rebrand the U.S. professional esports organization TSM.

What do you think about the UFC partnering with the cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Chinese Bank Employees Told to Entice 300 Customers to Use the Digital Yuan

In mid-May, a report stemming from residents in Shenzhen, China explained that the digital yuan wasn’t seeing widespread participation, which the Chinese government has alluded to in many press releases. Now a handful of China’s state-owned banks have asked staff to recruit 200 to 300 digital yuan users. The banks are also giving away small presents in order to tempt the customers into leveraging the central bank digital currency (CBDC) wallet.

Chinese Banks Are Now Luring Customers Toward the Digital Yuan

Similar to how banks try to sell services to customers like loans, savings accounts, and investment vehicles, Chinese state-owned banks are telling employees to sell the benefits of the digital yuan. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, alongside five other top financial institutions in the country, are tasking their employees with pushing the CBDC wallet on hundreds of branch customers.

According to a rough translation of the announcement published by shenliancaijing.com, bank employees from each branch have been asked to produce 200-300 CBDC wallet users. “On average, each person needs to promote 200 to 300 people,” the statement says, and employees from each branch can get year-end bonuses. Furthermore, employees can entice people with small presents like tissues, umbrellas, electronics cables, cardholders, and laundry detergent.

Chinese Banks Have Been Told to Recommend Digital Yuan Over Competitors

The push to lure customers to the People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) digital yuan follows a handful of state-owned banks in Shanghai being told to promote the CBDC over payment processors like Wechat and Alipay. The “political mandate” Reuters reported back in May, was enforced by six big state banks that were “quietly promoting digital yuan ahead of a May 5 shopping festival.”

At that time, a few Chinese banking officials who were not authorized to speak with the press but still spoke in anonymity, said the six banks followed the mandate to push the digital yuan in Shanghai under the guidance of the PBOC.

“People will realise that digital yuan payment is so convenient that I don’t have to rely on Alipay or Wechat Pay anymore,” the Chinese banking official said.

While the digital yuan wallet is still being tested in various forms, it’s also integrated with apps owned by Didi, Bilibili, Meituan, and JD.com. However, there are no third-party connections between the digital yuan and payment processors like Alipay and Wechat Pay. During the May promotional mandate, a banker told the press the PBOC felt the need to add “information segregation.”

“[The] PBOC doesn’t want to see the money being routed through third-party payment systems,” the banker added.

What do you think about the Shenlian Caijing article that says six Chinese banks are asking employees to recruit digital yuan users? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Charles Hoskinson Faces Twitter Backlash as His Cardano Predictions Fall Short of Reality

Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, has recently found himself the target of Twitter critics as year-old tweets that highlighted projections for the network’s adoption are failing to match community expectations.

Slower Rollouts and Sluggish Adoption Spotlighted by Critics

Cardano, the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and self-titled third-generation blockchain initiative, has no shortage of followers and evangelists that believe in its very scientific approach to developing blockchain technology. Yet, the network faces no shortage of detractors either, and the internet never forgets.

It’s been nearly one year since Cardano creator Charles Hoskinson unveiled his predictions for the network on Twitter, envisioning more widespread dapp (decentralized app) deployments and hundreds of assets running atop the blockchain.

Most of these predictions haven’t come to fruition.

The Twitter community has been quick to pounce on this reality, with one handle highlighting that no assets or dapps are running atop the network.

Instead, multiple projects have announced plans to launch eventually. Indeed, since the network’s smart contract functionality is still being tested and supposedly set to launch when the Alonzo upgrade is completed in August, the dapps criticism is valid to an extent.

Another poster was quick to highlight Cardano’s smaller transaction turnover relative to other networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum despite its sky-high valuation in the tens of billions of dollars. In another dig at Hoskinson, he compared Cardano community members responding to his tweets as reminiscent of community responses defending IOTA in 2017, labeling these respondents ADA bots.

John Rice, Cointelegraph’s editor-in-chief, sarcastically hinted at busy weeks ahead if the blockchain is actually going to realize the network creator’s ambitious predictions.

ADA Critics and Community Battle

Although some of the Twitterati jumped on Hoskinson’s predictions as proof the network wasn’t achieving its stated goals, others were quick to point out the obvious: the original tweet from the Cardano founder himself was labeled a “prediction.”

Community members and Hoskinson have responded to the blitz of critics, highlighting the network’s success in certain areas. But more important than the tit-for-tat Twitter battle is the actual reality of the blockchain itself.

Yes, most dApps are hosted on Ethereum, and yes, it is responsible for immense amounts of token creation. However, the network’s speed to market didn’t necessarily result in a bulletproof platform. Moreover, there aren’t serious plans in the pipeline to handle the governance component, whereas Cardano has embedded this element in its approach.

Additionally, every stage of Cardano’s development undergoes a peer-review process akin to similar methods embraced in academia. This academic-like approach means that all new features are rigorously tested and validated before formal launch, helping Cardano address the drawbacks of early blockchains from the outset.

Another important point of reference is that Cardano has embraced proof-of-stake since its launch, helping minimize its power consumption relative to Ethereum. Although Cardano barely scratches 20,000 transactions per day, one of the reasons behind this reality is that over 70% of the network’s native ADA tokens in circulation are staked. By comparison, just over 5% of all Ether in circulation is staked.

Opposing viewpoints are a great source of debate and eventual innovation. This conversation is proving no different, especially as Cardano may be inching ever closer to achieving the potential reality Hoskinson laid out. While his timing may be off, his prediction may still be prescient given more time. Only time — and the market — will tell.

Do you think the criticism of Charles Hoskinson and Cardano is justified? Let us know in the comments section below.

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