A new team at the second-largest bank in the United States will reportedly be devoted entirely to researching cryptocurrencies. According to a Thursday Bloomberg report, Alkesh Shah from Bank of America’s data and innovation strategy group will be leading a team looking into digital assets. He along with Mamta Jain and Andrew Moss of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s digital innovation group will be reporting to Michael Maras, who reportedly oversees global currencies and commodities research. “Cryptocurrencies and digital assets constitute one of the fastest growing emerging technology ecosystems,” said Candace Browning, Bank of America’s head of global research. “We …

Major Wall Street bank executives will appear before the United States Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday to discuss the role of their financial institutions in the recovery of the American economy. Democratic lawmakers plan to grill a number of major bank execs, whose firms saw record profits during the COVID-19 pandemic while average Americans struggled to make ends meet. In prepared testimonies posted on Tuesday, CEOs at the Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo described their respective banks' responses to major challenges such as inequality, diversity, climate change, taxes, as well as how their banks handle cryptocurrencies. This year …

Despite the ongoing sideways trend in the cryptocurrency markets, Bitcoin (BTC) still remains a crowded trade. According to a new survey from Bank of America, this could indicate that the current bull cycle's market top is still to come. Bank of America's most recent fund manager poll suggests that the “long Bitcoin” bet is now the most crowded trade across all markets, with nearly 45% of respondents indicating it ahead of other trades like “long tech,” Bloomberg reported Tuesday. The new BofA survey captured responses from 194 fund managers with $592 billion worth of assets under management. In the survey …

The second-largest bank in the United States is now reportedly using blockchain technology for settling stock trades. According to a Bloomberg report on Monday, Bank of America has joined Paxos Settlement Service, a platform capable of same-day settlement of stock trades using blockchain technology. Kevin McCarthy, head of financing and clearing, said the bank “has been conducting internal transactions for the past few months” and would offer the service to Bank of America clients upon approval as a clearing agency. The move would reportedly allow for a “more flexible and speedier” stock settlement system compared with that of the Depository …

Bank of America released a new survey that found that the majority of professional investors are not very optimistic about the world’s largest cryptocurrency. Nearly 75% of respondents in the April Bank of America Fund Manager Survey said that they see Bitcoin (BTC) as a “bubble,” CNBC reported. The survey polled 200 respondents with $533 billion in assets under management. Just 16% of respondents said Bitcoin is not a bubble, while 10% were uncertain. More than 30% of survey respondents cited tech as the most crowded trade — i.e., an asset with a history of rapid price appreciation and a …

When it comes to investing in the financial markets, panic selling often leads to missed opportunities – and waiting for the dip could rob you of the most lucrative days to hold a particular asset. Those are the general takeaways of a comprehensive study of the S&P 500 Index conducted by Bank of America. Using data going back to 1930, Bank of America strategists found that a basic hold strategy would have yielded total returns of 17,715%. If, on the other hand, investors tried to time the market, they could have missed out on the best trading days. Missing just …

The now infamous Bank of America research note slamming Bitcoin also contains research suggesting that it takes just $93 million worth of inflows to move Bitcoin’s price by one percent. “Bitcoin is extremely sensitive to increased dollar demand,” said the note authored by Bank of America strategist Francisco Blanch, featuring contributions from Philip Middleton and Savita Subramanian. The analysis found that it would take at least $2 billion worth of inflows to move the price of gold by a single percentile, while more than $2.25 billion would be needed to exert the same price impact on 20-year-plus treasury bonds. “We …

In another throwback to the 2017 bull market, a major United States bank fund manager survey, or FMS, has put Bitcoin at the pinnacle of positive investor sentiment. According to Reuters, 36% of respondents identified a long Bitcoin bet as the most crowded trade ahead of long tech in a Jan. 2021 survey from Bank of America. January’s report marks the first time that ‘long tech’ has not been number one in BofA’s fund manager survey since Oct. 2019. The result also marks a steady increase in positive investor sentiment for BTC seeing as Bitcoin was third on the list …

The dollar value of Bitcoin (BTC) jumped 20% overnight leading into Tuesday as the world’s most-well-known cryptocurrency recovered swiftly from a 27% decline suffered just days before. The broader cryptocurrency market followed suit on Tuesday, as over $150 billion flooded back into the global market capitalization on the same day. The spot price of Bitcoin jumped from $30,468 to $36,633 in a little over 15 hours leading into Tuesday morning, representing overnight gains of 20.2%. This returned a majority of the losses incurred by the coin over the course of the previous weekend when BTC's price plunged from $41,880 down …

A new survey of global fund managers reveals that Bitcoin has climbed in the rankings of “most crowded trade” beating out traditional investments like gold and bonds. Bitcoin was third on the overall list of options for the category, named as the busiest trade by 15% of survey respondents. Only tech stocks (52%) and short dollar positions (18%) ranked higher. BofA Fund Manager Survey of the most crowded trades ht @jsblokland pic.twitter.com/KvlP8bTe7x — (@chigrl) December 15, 2020 The Global Fund Manager Survey was conducted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch between the period of Dec. 4 to 10 and asked …

In early September of this year, the market capitalization of Bitcoin (BTC) was hovering at around $190 billion when the BTC price was hovering around $10,000. In the past two months, however, the price of Bitcoin rose from to over $15,000. With it, the market cap of Bitcoin surged from $190 billion to around $280 billion. This now makes Bitcoin more valuable than most major U.S. companies. Bitcoin is equivalent to the 18th largest commercial company in the U.S. If Bitcoin’s valuation is compared to publicly-listed firms in the U.S., it would match the 18th biggest firm. The 17th largest …

Historically, traditional market analysts and old school investors tend to look at Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with a wary eye, and when crypto pundits attempt to make comparisons between the two these investors say it's an apples to oranges argument. Take, for example, Warren Buffett, who many a time has said Bitcoin is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme as it does not produce anything and therefore has no value. According to these traditionalists, comparing Bitcoin to Apple, Tesla, or a bank stock like JPMorgan is irrational as the latter employ workers, produce products, and generate revenues and dividends which …