Famed Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) stirred up some discussion last week by dividing crypto history into cycles that look something like this: The price goes up, which leads to new interest, which triggers new ideas and use cases, which leads to new startups and funding, which leads to product launches that bring in more people. Rinse and repeat.  
This would pass as a simple “hunh, cool” if it weren’t for their recent fund raise. Crypto Fund II hoped to reach $450 million; in April, the firm announced that the raise closed at $515 million. Given that the average VC deal size in 2019 was $3.5 million, that’s a hefty amount of firepower with which to kick off the beginning of the fourth cycle.
Source: Andreessen HorowitzYou’re reading Crypto Long & Short, a newsletter that looks closely at the forces driving cryptocurrency markets. Authored by CoinDesk’s head of research, Noelle Acheson, it goes out every Sunday and offers a recap of the week – with insights and analysis – from a professional investor’s point of view. You can subscribe here.
So why is this raise especially interesting? For four reasons:
1) The fund exceeding its initial target is not the surprising part. What is notable is that it did so right after a year in which VC funding for crypto projects fell by over 50%, according to CB Insights. The slump was not unique to crypto – VC funding across all sectors fell an average of 18% in 2019, according to alternative investment data provider Preqin. The crypto sector was hit especially hard by lackluster crypto asset price movements and the tail end of a bear market. Typical end-of-cycle stuff.
2) This was a16z’s second crypto fund. The first raised $300 million in 2018, the same year the firm also raised $450 million for a second biotech fund, signaling an expansion of its policy of specialization in what it sees as the next areas of high growth.
Crypto funds in a VC structure, however, have a peculiar constraint: they can only invest up to 20% in assets that are not equity of private companies. Since some of the new business models emerging in the space rely on the issuance of tokens which represent equity but are not classified as such, this can limit opportunities to more traditional structures. Not a16z’s style.
So, last year it registered all its employees as financial advisers, giving the firm much more freedom in the nature and scope of its investments. It can now invest directly in cryptocurrencies and tokens. And not just from its crypto funds – a16z’s other funds can also now take meaningful stakes in crypto assets. An interesting position to be in at the beginning of a new cycle.
3) So, why raise a dedicated crypto fund rather than, as many other venture capital houses do, just roll crypto-related investments into a general fund? Indeed, a16z started investing in crypto startups as early as 2013, from its general funds.
Because crypto-based businesses are usually very different from “traditional” technology plays. It’s not just the technology that requires some understanding (and, trust me, it’s not always easy). It’s also the totally different business models that leverage decentralized incentives and introduce new economic parameters. The familiar technology stack paradigm won’t always apply to crypto businesses. 
Specialized crypto venture funds can harness the high-level expertise of their partners, and offer both investors and investees a more bespoke service, which in the fast-evolving crypto asset sector could be the difference between a company making it or not. 
On the other hand, investment by general venture funds signals that blockchain-based businesses are becoming seen as technology plays, hinting at an eventual mainstream status. Earlier this week, crypto platform FalconX announced a whopping $17 million pre-seed and seed round led by Accel, which several years ago led the Series A round of a social networking company called Facebook (you might have heard of it). 
Other participants in the FalconX round were known venture capital firms such as Lightspeed Ventures (which has also invested in Snap, TaskRabbit and Lady Gaga’s Haus Laboratories), Flybridge (other investments include MongoDB and Codeacademy) and Accomplice (which has stakes in Angellist, Moo and DraftKings, which even a non-sports fan such as myself had heard of). These VCs seem to be betting that a crypto platform will eventually join the ranks of other diverse, well-known names. 
Last week saw a similar story: crypto-based shopping rewards platform Lolli raised $3 million from the likes of Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund (Airbnb, SpaceX), Bain Capital (LinkedIn, SurveyMonkey) and Craft Ventures (Reddit, Bird).*
Specialized crypto VC funds harness deeper expertise and allow limited partners to make a more deliberate choice as to where their money goes. Mainstream funds, however, treat crypto investments as one of many exciting new growth areas. With its new registered advisor status, a16z will probably be making bold statements of crypto support from both its specialized and broader technology platforms. The fourth cycle could start to see the blurring of boundaries between crypto and other technologies. 
4) Whether through general or specialist venture funds, what these inflows represent is institutional interest in crypto-related businesses. As market observers, we tend to focus on the volumes on crypto exchanges as potential signs of institutional activity. But the range of institutions that are likely to invest directly in crypto assets is relatively small compared to number that can (and do) invest in venture capital.
We’re not going to stop monitoring the spot and derivatives markets for signs of institutional activity. But we should also watch the venture funding – that is a sure sign that the institutions are, indeed, here.
It’s also a relatively easy way to track what is likely to be growing institutional involvement in the sector. Most institutions are not allowed to invest in cryptocurrencies directly – they will need to do it through approved vehicles such as venture funds. Also, for many, the volatility inherent in crypto assets is too high. Venture bets have potentially the same upside, without the prospect of sudden changes in valuation.
And, venture investments have greater valuation flexibility, which for many funds is a plus. Valuations of private companies stem from future cash flow expectations and interest rates – one is subjective, the other is historically low and probably heading lower, which should boost valuations and therefore fund balance sheets. In certain categories such as pensions and endowments, this is not just a political expediency, it’s a matter of survival.
Given the growing acceptance of blue-chip institutions and investors such as JPMorgan (which now extends banking services to select cryptocurrency companies) and Paul Tudor Jones, and the overhang of money looking for a return, we could well be entering the golden age for crypto venture capital. 
It’s not as dramatic as the crypto asset markets, with wild swings and edge-of-seat narratives. But venture funding implies building, steady progress, support for the never-ending search for product-market fit and a relatively attractive profile for institutions looking for return with reasonable risk. Bring on the fourth cycle.
(*Another participant in the round was DCG, CoinDesk’s parent company.)
Anyone know what’s going on yet?Sentiment is always a strong driver of market valuations, and anyone who’s endured weeks of lockdown can confirm that emotions are swinging more wildly than ever these days. The stock markets’ mood seems to hinge on the likelihood of a vaccine emerging soon – rising when the outlook was promising, falling when a whiff of disappointment crushed unrealistic expectations. Brave is the investor who thinks she can time this well.
What I struggle to understand is that surely the eventual emergence of a vaccine is priced in? Does anyone doubt that we will find one sooner or later? Is the stock market now a play on the timing of that? And even if one emerges tomorrow (which would be wonderful), the world’s troubles won’t necessarily disappear. Let’s not forget that things were looking kind of ropey in terms of growth and income even before the pandemic hit.
Apart from the conflicting conclusions on the efficacy of vaccines and testing, there are confusing reports on actual or intended relaxing of lockdowns, and the market does not seem to be taking into account the possibility of second waves. Here in Madrid we now have to wear masks outside, and as of Monday we will be allowed to move around more freely and even visit friends and family in their homes, as long as we don’t crowd more than 10 socially distant people into one room (how big are people’s apartments here?). In the Basque country, they’ve decided to prohibit congregating in private residences, and only allow it in bars. Why not.  
Meanwhile, this coming week keep an eye on the renminbi, close to its lowest levels in 10 years. The currency was a key leg in the trade tensions that erupted last year. The market seems to be overlooking the recent flare-up, but that could change.
Bitcoin did not have a good week in terms of price, although it is still outperforming other major assets so far this month. The halving last week had the expected effect of lowering the hashrate (which led to a difficulty adjustment downward, which should nudge the hashrate upward again), and has boosted fees considerably. The average USD fee per transaction is now the highest it has been since June 2018.
CHAIN LINKSDigital currency trader and lender Genesis Global Trading* is moving toward full-service prime brokerage with the acquisition of crypto custodian Vo1t. TAKEAWAY: While many startups have tried to pass themselves off as crypto prime brokers, they have all lacked one important feature: lending. Genesis has experience there, and a strong roster of clients likely to want this service. The advent of real institutional-grade prime brokerage is likely to encourage greater institutional interest in trading and holding crypto assets. (*Genesis is owned by DCG, also the parent of CoinDesk.)
Jeff Dorman at Arca shows that some institutions may be using the CME as a fast and relatively easy way to access physical bitcoins. TAKEAWAY: The volumes of physical delivery in CME bitcoin futures are still minuscule compared to the cash-settled version, but the fact that it’s being used at all is intriguing and worth watching. Crypto asset exchanges in the U.S. are licensed but not regulated, since crypto assets are not yet regulated – the CME is, however, a regulated exchange, which should reassure jittery regulated funds. Plus, most institutional investors already have an account at the CME, so no extra paperwork, collateral, costs, etc. would be required.  
Ecoinometrics points out that, while open interest on the CME is growing fast, the average daily volume has stayed within its recent range. This implies a growing degree of exposure and new traders coming into the market. The spectacular growth in CME bitcoin options implies a more sophisticated type of investor is taking positions, and the put-to-call ratio is at an all-time low of 1/20. TAKEAWAY: A reminder that the derivatives markets deserve more attention when it comes to gauging the mood of the market. For instance, most of the call options are betting on bitcoin clearing $10,000 within 10-40 days. However, most of the longs on the CME futures market are from retail investors, not institutional. The “smart money” is still net short.
Source: EcoinometricsThe CME is not the only exchange with significant growth in options – Deribit, the largest platform in terms of volume for crypto options, has also seen record open interest levels. TAKEAWAY: Strong signals for growing activity from sophisticated traders are popping up all over the place. 
Source: skew.comEthan Vera, CFO and co-founder of mining pool Luxor Technologies, shares insights from the FTX difficulty derivative market (I talked about them last week). TAKEAWAY: He believes that they are an interesting trading tool that reveals market expectations of future hashrate. He does not think they are good hedging instruments, since difficulty is just one component of hash price (miners’ daily revenue / hashrate in TH per day) and there are times they have moved in tandem rather than in the opposite direction. 
The Financial Times attempted to lift the lid on the volatile and highly leveraged world of crypto funds. TAKEAWAY: The volatile performance of crypto funds is their selling point – high risk, potentially high reward. As March showed, that can produce disastrous results, and the eye-wateringly high leverage available in the sector can exacerbate the negative effects more than it can accentuate the positive ones. As Dan Morehead of Pantera Capital said in the article: “Bitcoin is such high-octane stuff that putting on any leverage is unnecessary.” What Pantera lost in March, it made up in April, which highlights the importance of size, track record and loyal investors. 
Source: Financial TimesBitcoin exchange and custodian Bakkt, backed by NYSE parent ICE, revealed this week that it has onboarded more than 70 clients for its custody services and has partnered with insurance broker Marsh to offer clients more than $500 million worth of coverage. The company is also continuing its work on a retail-focused mobile app after partnering with two unnamed financial institutions. TAKEAWAY: It remains to be seen if Bakkt can pull off being both institutional- and retail-focused – others have tried and failed, as the infrastructure investment and marketing styles are very different. Plus, it will have strong competition in the form of Square’s Cash App and similar offerings.
Crypto Twitter erupted earlier this week with a rumor that some of the original bitcoin mined by pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto had just moved – implying that 1) he was still alive, and 2) could be about to sell some of his allegedly substantial holding (he was one of the only miners back in the early days). The price fell by 7% over the course of one hour on Wednesday, a move that was in part due to a large and possibly unrelated sell order on Bitstamp, and continued towards a 10% drop to its weekly low of just over $8,800. TAKEAWAY: Many analysts soon refuted that it was Satoshi, and the price started to recover. The interesting part of the episode is the transparency of bitcoin movements, and the fascinating forensics employed to decipher movements.
Last week I pointed out that Brian Brooks, chief operating officer of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), said that he believes crypto companies could fall under a federal licensing regime rather than state-level money transmitter licenses. This week it turns out that he is being promoted to acting controller. TAKEAWAY: It’s unclear how long this stage will last, and whether or not he’ll be made controller. It’s worth noting that before this position, Brooks was chief legal officer at Coinbase. Let that sink in: the acting controller of the only entity that charters banks in the U.S. used to head the legal team of a crypto exchange. 
Coin Metrics shows how changes in the types of machine used to mine bitcoin can impact the network’s security. TAKEAWAY: Take a moment to reflect that it is possible to extrapolate an estimation of the distribution of different types of mining equipment, by looking closely at the blockchain data. That kind of connection between production and information output is quite astonishing. 
Source: Coin MetricsThe Puell Multiple is calculated by dividing the daily issuance value of bitcoins in U.S. dollar terms by the 365-day moving average of the daily issuance value. It is currently just below 0.5, according to the data provided by the blockchain intelligence firm Glassnode. TAKEAWAY: A reading below 0.5 indicates the value of the newly issued coins on a daily basis is quite low compared to historical standards. Historical data suggests that bear markets tend to end with the Puell Multiple’s drop below 0.50.
Source: GlassnodeIn case you were looking for something interesting to watch this weekend, Amazon Prime has aired a documentary called “Banking on Africa: The Bitcoin Revolution,” made by South African filmmaker Tamarin Gerriety with sponsorship from the crypto exchange Luno. The film focuses on adoption across the continent, and features interviews with entrepreneurs and educators about the use cases and levels of interest they’re seeing. TAKEAWAY: Volumes are still small yet, but we should keep an eye on evolving use cases in emerging markets. There is where we will see the evolution of bitcoin’s practical applications beyond as an investment asset, which could be key to future valuations. Documentaries like this are a good wake-up call to anyone who says that bitcoin has no “intrinsic value.”  
Brazil’s antitrust watchdog, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), has voted to continue its investigation of the country’s main banks for denying financial services to crypto brokers in alleged violation of Brazilian competition law. TAKEAWAY: This is similar to the situation in India, where the Supreme Court overruled a ban on banking services for crypto companies. If the CADE rules in the crypto sector’s favor, it could open up a huge market (population over 2 million) that is suffering currency convulsions and intensifying social unrest.
Institutional-grade crypto asset platform FalconX has closed a cumulative pre-seed and seed round of $17 million, let by Accel and participated in by Coinbase Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Lightspeed, Flybridge, Avon Ventures and others. TAKEAWAY: The size of the round indicates a strong conviction in the growing participation of institutional investors (the firm’s clients must have at least $10 million AUM). This is encouraging – institutional investors bring not only considerable amounts of money, but also legitimacy, and serve as a lead for the rest of financial management to follow. Hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones’ recent public comments on bitcoin’s relative value, and the growing volumes on the CME and in Bakkt’s custody business add credence to the anecdotal belief that the institutions are indeed starting to take notice.
Podcasts worth listening to:
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Disclosure Read More The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

AP/Business Insider
JK Rowling asked Twitter to explain bitcoin to her, and was bombarded by replies — including from Elon Musk.
Rowling ultimately gave up engaging with the topic, a decision Musk supported.
In the process, he took a swipe at conventional central banks, which he said had undermined their credibility and made even bitcoin “look solid by comparison.”
Banks like the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank have pumped trillions of dollars into the global economy via quantitative easing programs.
Many of these have been expanded in an attempt to mitigate the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Elon Musk intervened in a Twitter thread to attempt to explain bitcoin to J.K. Rowling, and ended up attacking central banks whom he said made the cryptocurrency “look solid by comparison.”
Musk chimed in after Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter novels, was bombarded by replies after tweeting: “I don’t understand bitcoin. Please explain it to me.”
Tweet Embed: //twitter.com/mims/statuses/1261351775698694147?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw I don’t understand bitcoin. Please explain it to me.Bitcoin advocates and skeptics then rushed to explain the cryptocurrency — a financial asset which exists solely in digital form.
Unlike traditional currencies, it is not tied to a central bank controlled by a government, and instead is regulated by complicated mathematics and a public log — called a blockchain — of all transactions.
Its value has ballooned since its creation. According to Markets Insider data, a single Bitcoin was worth almost $20,000 in December 2017. Its price at the time of writing was around $9,410.
Despite lofty predictions by its advocates, it has not found widespread use.
Rowling eventually gave up trying to understand bitcoin, posting a tweet that implied that she was no longer interested.
Tweet Embed: //twitter.com/mims/statuses/1261396891784413185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw People are now explaining Bitcoin to me, and honestly, it’s blah blah blah collectibles (My Little Pony?) blah blah blah computers (got one of those) blah blah blah crypto (sounds creepy) blah blah blah understand the risk (I don’t, though.)Musk responded essentially agreeing with her, but taking a swipe at the behavior of traditional central bankers in the process.
Tweet Embed: //twitter.com/mims/statuses/1261416824459030529?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Pretty much, although massive currency issuance by govt central banks is making Bitcoin Internet 👻 money look solid by comparisonMusk said that central banks — like the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan, and Bank of England — made bitcoin “look solid by comparison” because of their recent behavior.
Since the financial crisis in 2008, banks embarked on a huge program of “quantitative easing” — essentially pumping vast sums into the economy — to prevent the collapse of the economy.
It also left interest rates at historic lows and, critics say, has distorted financial markets in ways we are yet to understand fully.
Many banks have renewed their easing programs in light of the coronavirus pandemic. A report in late April by Fitch Ratings said that central banks around the world had already committed to $6 trillion worth of easing programs.

Allen Farrington writes at Quillette, Areo and Merion West, as well as extensively on Medium, where he has several much longer essays on Bitcoin, finance, economics and related topics. His collected writings can be found here. He lives in Edinburgh. 
At approximately 8:23 p.m. GMT on Monday, May 11, the 630,000th Bitcoin block was mined, the first to offer the reward to its successful miner of 6.25 bitcoin rather than 12.5, as has been the case for the past four years. You may have caught wind of this, what with #BitcoinHalving briefly trending on Twitter, an uptick in coverage of Bitcoin in the media over the past few days, or for some other reason.
There are good ways and bad ways to describe “the halving.” Or rather, there are ways that are factually true and then there are ways that are spiritually true. Whatever mainstream coverage you read on this – if you found any at all – I would bet took the factually true route. They will have told you something like the following:
Miners secure the network by wasting electricity solving useless mathematical puzzles. Whoever solves the puzzle first gets a reward and all the pending transactions get logged. The reward just halved, meaning the supply to the market will likely contract, leading many to suspect the price will go up, while others disagree. So far markets have done …Then whatever markets did in the following hours, which I really don’t think is important at all. It is factually important, for sure. But it is not spiritually important. And to ignore the spiritual importance is to misunderstand the halving entirely, just as it is to misunderstand Bitcoin. It is only spiritually important what happens to the price of Bitcoin over years, decades, and centuries.
The halving was not just the mining of the 630,000th block. It was a social event perhaps unlike any other in history, and perhaps even never to be repeated. Previous halvings (this was the third) were celebrated in bars, beaches, and barbecues, as I am sure this one would have been in normal times. But given the lockdown, the celebrations were migrated to Zoom, YouTube and Twitter, for the most part.
Many thought this a shame, reminisced spending previous halvings – or previous get-togethers of any kind – in person, and looked forward to being able to do so once again whenever normality returns. But I think the circumstances forced their own beauty, their own poignancy. Not everybody can afford to go to New York on a random Monday in May, but everybody can afford to turn on YouTube. The lockdown meant everybody in the world celebrated the halving in the same place: on the internet. In Bitcoin’s home.
And so rather than take planes, trains, and automobiles to the bars, beaches, and barbecues, tens of thousands of individuals tuned in live from all over the world for what – factually – was little more than a countdown. Many likened it to New Year’s Eve, but it was different for at least two reasons, one factual and one spiritual.
Factually, the event itself can only be said to exist on the Internet. It was not “in a place,” except insofar as it was in every place. Unlike New Year’s, therefore, it happened for everybody at the same time.
But spiritually, the importance of this universality really cannot be overstated. The Bitcoin halving happened at the same time for everybody because the Bitcoin protocol is the same thing for everybody. It knows no borders and no nationalities. It knows no time zones. One might say it is its own reference time. The halving didn’t happen at 8:23 p.m. GMT – 8:23 p.m. GMT happened at block 630,000.
Similarly, the halving didn’t happen at ~$8,500 BTC:USD, it happened at 1 BTC:BTC. There will be a time when no “exchange rates” matter or are even meaningful. In anticipation of this, I would encourage the adoption of a different, more consistent metric – perhaps Bitcoin’s share of the aggregate global capitalization of currency? Bitcoin is its own reference value.
Bitcoin’s reference time is the same for everybody, as is its reference value, as is its reference software, as indeed are its engendered social celebrations. Provided you have an internet connection you can use Bitcoin to tell the time, to transfer value, to inspect its code, and to join the party.
Moreover, these must be the same for everybody, because they exist as references in the first place because Bitcoin, the ecosystem, strongly encourages nonviolent agreement. Bitcoin has elevated the importance of the word “consensus” in the English language, and its translations in every language, for that matter. Bitcoin is written in C++. This is the factual reason that everybody can read it. The spiritual reason is that it is open source, and that it must be open source for consensus to form and be maintained.
Every block has a field called coinbase, which the lucky miner may fill with a limited string of text that has no strictly functional purpose in terms of the code, but, due to the open source nature of the blockchain, anybody can read, and hence can be used as a kind of meta-tool for signaling purposes. The very first block ever mined by Satoshi Nakamoto was given the following text as its coinbase:
The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banksFactually, this served as a timestamp. Spiritually, it served as a statement of purpose: a call to arms that cheekily elucidated why this radical experiment was even being attempted. It was soon discovered after the halving that the coinbase of the 629,999th block, the last to reward 12.5 BTC, was filled by mining pool f2pool with the text:
NYTimes 09/Apr/2020 With $2.3T Injection, Fed’s Plan Far Exceeds 2008 RescueI won’t insult this astonishing gesture by explaining its content. I wish merely to draw attention to its beautiful duality; factually, this achieves nothing. It is a throwback: an impressively well-executed meme.
But spiritually, this is a battle cry. Because here we are again, twelve years and goodness knows however many trillions of unbounded dollars later. Bitcoin is no longer an experiment. It is a nonviolent revolution against financial tyranny, led by nobody, fought by anybody and everybody. And it is literally trolling its way to victory.
A version of this post originally appeared on Medium.
Disclosure Read More The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

Digital currency trader and lender Genesis Global Trading is moving toward full-service prime brokerage with the acquisition of crypto custodian Vo1t, the company announced Thursday.
The New York-based trading firm, which is a subsidiary of CoinDesk parent firm Digital Currency Group, acquired Vo1t to begin developing a full suite of prime brokerage services under one roof including lending, trading and custody. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. 
“We’re coming at this after having a successful business on the trading and lending side,” said Genesis CEO Michael Moro. “The goal is for clients to be able to do any and all activities with Genesis.” 
Moro wouldn’t put a figure on the number of liquidity providers Genesis is aiming to plug into. 
“The answer is as many as we can that we feel good about,” he said. “We’re trading roughly $1 billion of crypto a month, and clearly we have enough liquidity venues for us to trade that much.” 
Genesis also announced plans to soon offer a derivatives trading desk, which would start with over-the-counter bitcoin options. It’s also interested in providing capital introduction for family offices that are looking for crypto hedge funds that have the strategies, fee structure and asset exposure to fit their investing needs.
“We’re curating the hedge funds worth talking to, based on the criteria you’re looking for,” Moro said.
Vo1t will also be Genesis’ first London office. The firm, whose name is supposed to remind customers of a bank vault, provides custody, lending, staking and trading products for 35 digital assets. Since 2017, Vo1t has been offering cold storage to firms listed on the Financial Times Stock Exchange, trust companies and other financial institutions around the world. It advertises a 45-minute withdrawal time for assets held in cold storage.
Moro began to pursue a deal with Vo1t last autumn after seeing how many services the startup’s team had produced with few resources. The companies are now in the middle of integrating products. 
“We’re going to keep working on the acquisition integration,” he said. “There’s quite a bit of work to be done to absorb this platform and their technology.”
Genesis is also expanding into Singapore after registering with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and will send employees from New York to the new office once it is safe to do so. With 30% to 40% of the firm’s lending business coming out of Asia, the office will give Genesis more flexibility to serve customers in the region. 
“Having New York, London and Singapore helps for different time zones,” Moro said. “Especially since crypto trades 24 hours a day … and our clientele is diverse across Europe, Asia and the U.S.”
Disclosure Read More The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

Reuters
Bitcoin crossed the $8,000 mark for the first time on Wednesday since March ahead of “bitcoin halving” that will take place on May 12. 
Some analysts expect the bitcoin halving to increase prices.
“After the two previous halvings, we’ve seen the price reach an all-time high within 3-9 months — which would be $20,000 in this case,” one analyst said.
Track the price of bitcoin live here.
Bitcoin surged 11% on Wednesday and crossed $8,000 the first time since early March as analysts said a key deadline that will reduce the amount of units is helping boost prices. 
Bitcoin is currently trading around $8,625 as of 12.55 p.m ET. 
The last time it was anywhere near this level was in March, before stock markets crashed and when the impact of coronavirus began to spread. 
Analysts attributed the rise to “bitcoin halving” that takes place on 12 May.
Danny Scott, co-founder and chief executive of CoinCorner told Markets Insider: “Coming up in 12 days is the bitcoin halving — which in short cuts the supply of bitcoins coming into circulation in half and taking it from 12.5 bitcoins every 10 minutes to 6.25 bitcoins every 10 minutes.”
“People are looking at bitcoin’s history and seeing how the supply and demand vector has played out for bitcoin in the past, with the price steadily rising after a halving to new all-time highs within 18 months,” he added. 
What is bitcoin halving?
Bitcoin miners are rewarded a specific amount of bitcoins whenever a block is produced. 
Initially when bitcoin was first launched, miners could get 50 bitcoins per block. 
After 210,000 blocks are mined, the block reduces by 50% and the process continues until a block becomes worth 0 bitcoins. 
The current block reward is 12.5 coins per block, which will fall to 6.25 on May 12. 
Dr Garrick Hileman, head of research at Blockchain.com, said: “Bitcoin’s price has been climbing of late alongside other traditional hard assets like gold in part due to concerns over the size of the monetary and fiscal response to COVID-19.”
Read more: The manager of the best small-cap fund of the past 20 years explains why he’s betting big on a consumer recovery — and shares his top 4 stock picks in the struggling sector
He added: “Anticipation of the 12 May bitcoin mining reward ‘halving,’ which will cut the supply of newly mined bitcoins in half, is also likely fuelling demand. Over time, if current bitcoin demand levels are maintained then this reduction in new supply may help boost bitcoin.”
Pavel Perelomov, chief executive officer and founder of blockchain platform Twigse, said he expects bitcoin prices to reach $10,000.
“Market factors include the beginning of the removal of quarantine in the EU and the most powerful emission of the Central Bank of the EU and the Fed. I think that if the price fixes more than $ 8,000, the next barrier will be $10,000 taking this peak will open the road to long-term growth of Bitcoin.
Scott said: “After the two previous halvings, we’ve seen the price reach an all-time high within 3-9 months — which would be $20,000 in this case.”
He added: “Looking at the stock-to-flow (S2F) model which assumes scarcity drives value (supply and demand), we can hope for the $100,000 region to hit within the next 12-18 months. 
Deflationary?
Reuters
Bitcoin surged in January when the world’s biggest cryptocurrency has taken on the role of an unconventional safe-haven investment as fears amounted about how traditional assets would fare when coronavirus was beginning to spread. 
Some analysts expect bitcoin to rise because of its “deflationary” appeal during a time where monetary and fiscal policies are difficult to predict. 
Alex Mashinsky, chief executive of Celsius Network, said:  “With the halvening just two weeks away, we’re seeing a return to bullish sentiment among Bitcoin traders, and recent data suggest there’s been an uptick in new retail investors. Plus, the unprecedented combination of fiscal and monetary stimulus is reinforcing Bitcoin’s appeal as a deflationary asset.”  
Read more: Goldman Sachs recommends investors buy ‘quality at a reasonable price.’ Here are the firm’s top 10 stock picks that fit the bill.
But not all analysts are bullish on bitcoin. 
 Jon Walsh, blockchain professional at Adtech struck a more cautious note and said bitcoin has never been tested in a tough environment until date. 
Walsh said: “The general outlook for Bitcoin is strong, but despite having been in existence now for 11 years, bitcoin is yet to be tested in a recession environment.”
“This is however, the perfect environment that bitcoin was essentially built for. Over the next 18 months, we will surely see whether the daddy of all crypto can live up to its promises of hard money with a disinflationary economic schedule,” he added.

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Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones is buying bitcoin, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
The hedge fund manager said his fund may hold as much as a low single-digit percentage of its assets in bitcoin futures to help protect against a rise in inflation, according to the report.
Paul Tudor Jones is the founder and CEO of Tudor Investment Corp., which managed $38.4 billion as of March 30, according to data from the SEC.
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Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones is buying bitcoin, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
Jones told his clients in a market outlook note that he believes bitcoin will serve as a hedge against a jump in inflation he thinks is coming, due to central banks printing money and sharply expanding their balance sheets amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Read more: GOLDMAN SACHS: Traders are reaping unusually large profits from earnings-related stock trades. Here are 15 picks for the remainder of the season.
Jones said bitcoin “reminds him of the role gold played in the 1970s,” according to the report.
“The best profit-maximizing strategy is to own the fastest horse. If I am forced to forecast, my bet is it will be Bitcoin,” Jones said in the client note.
One of Jones’ funds, Tudor BVI, may hold as much as a low single-digit percentage of its assets in bitcoin futures.
Jones is the founder and CEO of Tudor Investment Corp., a hedge fund that managed $38.4 billion as of March 30, according to data from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Bitcoin traded up as much as 6.5% on Thursday to $9,911. 

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Mark Yusko, the CEO and chief investment officer at Morgan Creek Capital Management, shared several reasons he thinks bitcoin’s price will hit $100,000 by the end of 2021.Yusko said it would be “perfectly logical” for bitcoin to hit $400,000 to $500,000 if its market capitalization moves toward that of gold.The call comes after the legendary investor Paul Tudor Jones’ recent disclosure that he’s built a stake of bitcoin futures, making him the latest investment mogul to buy the cryptocurrency.Click here for more BI Prime stories.
With the legendary investor Paul Tudor Jones disclosing purchases of bitcoin futures for the first time, it’s become increasingly clear that market denizens who were once skeptical about the cryptocurrency are revisiting their stance.But Mark Yusko, the CEO and chief investment officer at Morgan Creek Capital Management, where he oversees $2 billion, has been a bitcoin proponent for years now.In addition to being bullish on bitcoin, Yusko is bearish on the real estate market, stocks, and the US Dollar. What’s more, he calls bonds “pretty overvalued,” so he’s not keen on that space either.”Really what it comes down to is … I realized that this was technology — an innovation in technology, an innovation in computing power,” he said on the “Altcoin Buzz” podcast. “I actually believe that this transition will be the biggest wealth-creation opportunity I’ll probably see in my lifetime.”
The transition that Yusko speaks of is what he calls the move to “Web 3.0.” The way he sees it, Web 1.0 consisted of the initial internet moguls — Cisco, Microsoft, and Intel — and created tons of wealth. Web 2.0 companies grew even faster and bigger — firms like Alibaba and Facebook — because they were building on viable infrastructure already put in place.Today, Yusko says Web 3.0 — blockchain — will be “even bigger.” And it’s this network that is the key to making bitcoin valuable.And he has some extremely bullish forecasts for the cryptocurrency. He sees the fair value of bitcoin skyrocketing to $100,000 by the end of 2021. That would mark an about 900% increase from current levels.Outlined below are five of the main reasons Yusko gives for his unabashed bitcoin bullishness. 
1. It’s a noncorrelated safe-haven asset “It acted exactly as all other safe-haven assets did,” Yusko said in reference to bitcoin’s behavior during the latest coronavirus-induced market swoon. “What people seem to miss is that uncorrelated doesn’t mean that you’re uncorrelated every day, every hour, every minute. It means you’re uncorrelated over the long term. And the correlation of bitcoin to other assets is very low — still about 0.15.”2. Fundamental growth”People take these short-term moves and try to extrapolate them into long-term trends — and they’re just not,” Yusko said. “They’re really unrelated events to the long-term fundamental part of bitcoin that is so attractive, which is more uses, more adoption, more widespread ownership, more wallets, more people with 0.1 or more bitcoin in their wallet.”
He added: “So all those things fundamentally are really, really strong.”3. The word is spreading and education is ramping up”But what you’ve got is this increasing knowledge base that’s being disseminated — groups like yours going on the air, people writing about it, people bringing it front and center,” he said.When Yusko first found out about bitcoin, he was skeptical. But as he learned more and became more educated in the space, he realized the opportunity at hand. He expects others to follow a similar path.
4. An endorsement from a younger generation”Bitcoin growth is determined differently. It’s a network, and networks grow based on usage, based on regulation, based on — in this case —millennial adoption because there’s really a difference between how older investors view the world, right? They think of gold as their safe haven. Younger investors think of bitcoin as their safe haven,” Yusko said.5. Fair value and scarcity”There will only be 21,000,000 ever mined, but some do get lost forever,” he said. “Fair value of this network — if you follow the stock-to-flow model or the original parabolic growth model — comes out to about $10,000 in 2017. Magically, we hit that about six days after we were supposed to.” 
He added: “By 2021, about the mid to end of 2021, the fair value will be around $100,000.”With all of that established, it’s also worth noting that Yusko has an even more bullish forecast in a more far-flung scenario in which the total market value of bitcoin rivals that of gold. If that happens, he thinks bitcoin could hit $400,000 to $500,000. It’s a scenario he believes to be “perfectly logical.”

What companies are using private blockchains today and why?
Walmart has developed a blockchain system based on Hyperledger Fabric to trace the provenance of their products. The blockchain allows suppliers to upload certificates of authenticity to the ledger securely, bringing more trust to a system and enabling the company to trace products back to source within seconds rather than days.
After successful trials with two products, the company is looking to roll it out further. Like other private blockchains, Walmart’s traceability system does require its suppliers to participate in the system to ensure its veracity, but the company is large enough to impel them to comply. 
De Beers has launched a ‘secure and immutable trail’ using a private blockchain called Tracr, to verify the authenticity and provenance of diamonds and ensure they are not “blood diamonds” from conflict zones. 
Comcast has partnered with other industry leaders to launch Blockgraph, a blockchain-based system which allows advertisers to target viewers with specific adverts while maintaining viewers’ privacy.
BurstIQ’s big data blockchain platform helps patients and doctors securely transfer sensitive medial information using smart contracts that establish the parameters of what data can be shared.
In April 2017, the streaming giant Spotify acquired blockchain startup Mediachain in an effort to create a fairer, more transparent, and rewarding music industry for musicians. Prior to its acquisition, Mediachain had developed several technologies that could aid in these efforts, including a decentralized, peer-to-peer database that connects applications to media and information about it, the Mediachain Attribution Engine, and a cryptocurrency that rewards artists for their work.
The all-in-one real estate transaction management software, Propy, leverages blockchain technology to streamline real estate transactions and mitigate the risk of fraud. Propy even offers properties that can be purchased using cryptocurrency.
Xage is the world’s first blockchain-enabled cybersecurity platform for IoT companies primarily in the transportation, energy and manufacturing industries. With the ability to self-diagnose and heal possible breaches, it leverages blockchain technology to manage billions of devices and protects industrial IoT operations against cyber attacks.
Shipping giant DHL is at the forefront of blockchain-powered logistics. One of the largest shipping companies to embrace blockchain, it uses the technology to maintain a digital ledger of shipments and protect the integrity of transactions.
And several banks and insurance companies, such as JP Morgan and MetLife, are using their own private blockchains to simplify, streamline and verify transactions and contracts that would previously have taken far longer and potentially been less secure.