The decentralized finance niche of crypto has boomed in 2020, paying users interest on locked funds (collateral) in exchange for loans. DeFi protocol Aave recently unveiled its second version, V2, adding further potential to the sector. “In DeFi, assets that were being used as collateral were tied up, but now with V2 they are free to be traded,” Aave founder Stani Kulechov says a blog post on Thursday. “Users can trade their deposited assets, across all currencies supported in the Aave Protocol, even when they are being used as collateral.” Various fad DeFi protocols and their related assets have surged …

Bitcoin may hit $150,000 by November 2021, according to Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor and Real Vision — and that would be the most conservative scenario. Pal believes that Bitcoin could even reach $250,000 due to the large amount of institutional money currently flowing into the Bitcoin market. That is what, according to Pal, makes the latest Bitcoin rally fundamentally different from 2017’s crypto bubble, which is believed to have been driven mainly by retail investors. According to Pal, most of Bitcoin's additional supply is currently being absorbed by PayPal, Square — which recently adopted crypto …

Analysts are pointing to demand from financial institutions and publicly listed companies as the primary forces behind Bitcoin’s (BTC) sudden retest of its all-time highs. “The primary reason for the steady grind up in Bitcon has been the increased interest and aggressive buying activity from institutions,” said Nick Cote of gamified trading platform Hxro Labs. “A lot of investors are going through Grayscale.” Rising institutional demand can be seen in heavy accumulation by Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust, with the fund’s BTC holdings exceeding 500,000 earlier this month. Cote also said that top American companies like Square and Microstrategy are “putting BTC …

The Colombian Stock Exchange announced it is joining the Consorcio Colibrí, a private initiative that promotes the adoption of blockchain technology within the finance industry. As Cointelegraph Español reported on Nov. 18, Consorcio Colibrí was formed by major financial institutions such as Bancolombia, BBVA, Santander Caceis Colombia, Deceval, Contrato Marco, Porvenir and Skandia, among others. Via a partnership with member firm Contrato Marco, the CSE will use the Colibrí platform's blockchain tech to improve operational efficiency in the over-the-counter derivatives market, which is currently time-consuming, expensive and difficult to reconcile with established manual procedures, according to the CSE. CSE president …

Mainstream interest for cryptocurrency is becoming ever-apparent as major online payment systems such as PayPal begin to offer support for digital currencies. While a revolutionary step for both the crypto and traditional finance spaces, meeting regulatory requirements is crucial in order for such companies to support cryptocurrencies. This year, PayPal secured the first conditional cryptocurrency license from the New York State Department of Financial Services, allowing for the purchase of Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Litecoin (LTC). On the surface, it would appear that PayPal has undergone the basic requirements to support digital currencies. However, what’s really …

Recent research has revealed that institutional-grade exchange-traded products surged in volume this month. A report by CryptoCompare delves into some metrics behind Bitcoin’s (BTC) epic bull run to a new 2020 high of $17,800 and reveals that institutions have been a driver of momentum. The Digital Asset Management Review found that aggregate exchange-traded products volumes have surged 53% over the past 30 days. Average daily volumes now stand at $173.5 million compared to $113 million in October. Exchange-traded products, or ETPs, are types of securities that track underlying securities, indexes or financial instruments — in this case, Bitcoin. The report …

With over $13 billion in total value locked, decentralized finance has truly shaken the crypto world in the last year. It has provided a new way to profit from the crypto market. Meanwhile, DeFi right now is only a niche trend with a gigantic potential to start a revolution in the business loan market. In order to grow out of diapers, DeFi desperately needs to be connected with real-world assets and exist in an environment where it can be used by real businesses, corporate clients, etc. As a concept, DeFi truly looks like a win-win solution for those who already …

Deutsche Bank, the largest banking institution in Germany, is confident that central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, will replace cash in the future. The bank’s research arm, Deutsche Bank Research, published a new report on economic estimations and proposals to assist global economies hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Titled “What We Must Do to Rebuild,” the study was released on Nov. 10. In the report, Deutsche Bank states that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the “digital cash revolution.” According to the bank, this revolution will eventually enable CBDCs like China’s digital yuan or Sweden’s e-krona to replace cash in …

Apple should invest a portion of its massive cash reserves in Bitcoin, Toroso Investments’ portfolio manager Dan Weiskopf posted earlier today on the ETF Think Tank website. The lead ETF strategist’s call follows in the footsteps of MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor and former Goldman Sachs hedge fund manager Raoul Pal, who both predicted Apple would make a large scale investment in Bitcoin in the upcoming years. Saylor retweeted and endorsed Weiskopf’s piece with the comment that the tech giant could see a $100 billion gain in market cap by integrating Bitcoin with their products and adding it to their holdings. …

Institutional money appears to be flowing into the decentralized finance sector, with Yearn.finance's YFI among the top beneficiaries. According to crypto market data aggregator IntoTheBlock, on-chain transactions of $100,000 or higher have increased by 282% over the past week — including nearly $134 million worth of activity on Tuesday alone. According to crypto market analysis firm Messari, YFI was the top-performing DeFi asset of the past week, followed by yAxis' YAX with a 78% gain, Loopring's LRC with 50%, and Akropolis' AKRO and Curve's CRV with 49% each. However, the DeFi turnaround is very recent, and only 11 of 41 …

Bitcoin’s long-waited bull run and the recent wave of corporate and institutional investors allocating significant portions of their reserves to Bitcoin (BTC) are all signs that the pace of crypto’s mainstreaming is rapidly accelerating: But has the path to mass adoption come at the cost of privacy and decentralization? Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering laws have forced the majority of cryptocurrency exchanges to become more transparent about who their users are, and those who refused have had to limit the jurisdictions in which they can offer services. In order to operate legally in many countries, many exchanges have had …

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 …