It’s interesting to see both Winklevoss and Gurbacs refer to Bitcoin as the “vaccine” because, for the past couple of years, another highly influential crypto influencer Anthony Pompliano (aka “Pomp”), Co-founder and Partner at crypto-focused investment firm Morgan Creek Digital Assets, has been promoting the meme “the virus is spreading” when tweeting about Bitcoin.
Symptoms of the “money printing disease” that Winklevoss is referring to in his tweet are the recent actions of the Federal Reserve (aka “the Fed”) in response to the huge economic threat to the U.S. (and world) economy posed by COVID-19.
As CNBC reported earlier today, the Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said in an interview with U.S. television network NBC’s “TODAY” program that the U.S. central banks will continue to provide liquidity to businesses that need it:
“When it comes to this lending, we’re not going to run out of ammunition, that doesn’t happen. We still have policy room in other dimensions to support the economy.”
Here are some other crypto influencers that have been expressing similar sentiments to Winklevoss in the past couple of weeks:
The physical delivery of Bitcoin on ICE’s Bakkt is looking to be moving in the opposite direction of price.
This month, Bitcoin price went down as low as $3,850 on March 12th however, the physical delivery of Bitcoin had a record increase of 44%. As of March 20, nearly 300 BTC were delivered. However, the USD value of the Bitcoin delivery saw a decline.
“Physical BTC delivery on Bakkt increased 44% in March, although being relatively flat in USD. Despite the recent market instability, Bakkt seems relatively unaffected,” reported Arcane Research.
Unlike the last quarter of 2019, when the bitcoin physical delivery was extremely low at below 25 BTC, the first quarter of 2020 is seeing a much-heightened delivery, March more so.
Bakkt was launched in September last year as the first such platform to offer physical bitcoin delivery. Unlike the other cash-settled bitcoin futures, these products have been expected to bump up the market activity in bitcoins.
However, as we noted last year, the activity has been underwhelming, to say the least as in October, Bakkt delivered 15 bitcoins adding two more in the next month. But it has started to see a jump as users go for their bitcoins.
In December however, the company launched cash-settled bitcoin futures along with bitcoin options.
Binance Charity, the world’s first blockchain-powered donation platform dedicated to advancing transparent philanthropy, has announced a new fundraising project aimed at tackling the COVID-19 pandemic globally.
Through a project titled Crypto Against COVID, Binance Charity is looking to raise $5 million USD in cryptocurrencies (BNB, BTC, BUSD and XRP) to be spent primarily on buying medical supplies for the countries worst affected by the virus, such as Italy, Germany, Spain, the Republic of Korea, Iran, Turkey, U.S., and the U.K. Binance will be leading this effort with an initial donation of $1 million USD, and commits to donating up to $2 million USD through the #CryptoAgainstCOVID social media campaign. In addition, Binance will match $1 million USD of public donations received. Click here to donate and learn more.
According to the WHO, as of March 23, 2020, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide has exceeded 300,000. Cases are confirmed in more than 175 countries and territories, and more than 14,750 deaths have been reported globally.
“The most important element of human life is to show compassion and help others as we can, without the limitation or restriction of borders. Blockchain technology enables this in greater capacities than ever before and Binance Charity wishes to bring this to the masses,” said Helen Hai, Head of Binance Charity.
Leading U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, has integrated support for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols on its wallet app.
Per a March 26 announcement, Coinbase Wallet will now allow users to earn interest on cryptocurrencies through the DeFi apps, Compound, and dYdX.
While the DeFi apps were already available through Coinbase Wallet’s built-in decentralized application browser, the exchange asserts that the integration significantly increases the ease-of-use for users seeking to access DeFi protocols.
The new feature will roll out for iOS this week, with Android support slated to follow in the near future.
Coinbase Wallet integrates support for DeFi protocols Compound and dYdX
With the integrations, Coinbase Wallet will support lending for Ethereum (ETH) in addition to a range of Ethereum-based tokens.
Both Compound and dYdX comprise algorithmically-driven automated lending platforms built on top of Ethereum, with dYdX also offering margin trading services.
While lending interest rates are floating, the annual returns offered by Compound and dYdX ranged from 0.03% to 4.17% at the time of Coinbase’s announcement.
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