In a recent Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session, billionaire Ray Dalio warned investors that the current astronomical pace of money printing is unlikely to stop in the near future and holding wealth in cash could lead to losses. Dalio said that Bitcoin (BTC) “could serve as a diversifier to gold and other such storehold of wealth assets.” A new report from CoinShares shows that the transition from gold to crypto products may have already started. The report highlights outflows of $9.2 billion from gold investment products and inflows of $1.4 billion into crypto products during the same period. Interestingly, along …

Recent news reports suggest that U.S. lawmakers may announce a new round of economic stimulus worth about $908 billion before the end of today. This second package, if announced, will add to the existing debt pile and may send the U.S. dollar index (DXY) lower. The index is already trading near its lowest level since April 2018. The slow economic recovery, expansionary monetary policy, overvalued stocks and negative bond yields are some of the reasons that have forced investors to search for alternative assets to safeguard their portfolios. Gold has been one of the favorite safe-haven assets of investors for …

Two announcements from Huobi Global on Friday indicate that the cryptocurrency exchange is angling to become a key player in the growth of the Polkadot network. In a pair of blog posts, the Seychelles-based exchange announced a Polkadot Sponsorship program, as well as a $5 million Tether stablecoin fund from the Huobi Innovation Lab to support “developers, event organizers, content creators, and ambassadors” throughout the Polkadot ecosystem. The Sponsorship program allows individuals to recommend Polkadot projects for listing in the “Polkadot ecological zone,” a special asset listing section of the Huobi exchange. Sponsors are also reportedly granted an invite to …

A few years back, Bitcoin’s (BTC) price was controlled by whales as the crypto market lacked depth and was relatively illiquid. If whales were selling in unison, no one wanted to venture out and buy. Similarly, the whale’s concerted buying easily boosted prices higher. However, that is not the case anymore. With the arrival of institutional investors, it appears that the whales are gradually losing their ability to influence BT price. According to on-chain data, Grayscale Investments purchased about twice the number of Bitcoin mined in November. The steady inflow of institutional funds has boosted Grayscale’s Bitcoin Assets Under Management …

Polkadot has become the latest Ethereum competitor to launch a decentralized finance alliance. Announced on Dec. 3, the alliance aims to overcome the decentralized nature of the Polkadot ecosystem, providing a platform for its community to discuss using the Polkadot Network and its underlying Substrate technology stack for DeFi. Oracle network Chainlink is among the alliance’s founding members. The company’s global head of business development, Dan Kochis, said: “Chainlink is excited to help steer the direction of Polkadot's growing ecosystem of decentralized financial applications. By promoting developer best practices for DeFi protocols, the Polkadot ecosystem can become stronger than ever.” …

Polkadot doesn’t have to be an “Ethereum killer” to succeed, according to protocol founder Gavin Wood. In a “fireside chat” with podcaster Laura Shin during the Polkadot Decoded business summit on Thursday, Wood was asked whether his protocol could exist alongside Ethereum given its lofty development goals and growing success in bringing on new developers. Wood acknowledged that the blockchain ecosystem is big enough for both protocols, but said Polkadot is essentially a “bet against blockchain maximalism.” He said the narrative surrounding Ethereum today is that “there only needs to ever be one blockchain,” but he added that he never …

Bitcoin price hit a new all-time high above $19,892 on Dec. 1. This is a significant event because it proves that the rally in 2017 was ahead of fundamentals but not a bubble. Generally, when a bubble bursts, it takes several years for the price to cross the high made during the bubble. For example, the Japanese stock market bubble came after a high was made way back in 1989, and that level has not been conquered yet. Similarly, silver’s high close to $50 per ounce was made in 1980, and the price came close to that level only in …

Bitcoin (BTC) price came within striking distance of hitting a new all-time high today. This shows that institutional and retail investors continue to buy on every dip and BTC is in a strong uptrend. Hence, traders should not urgently looking to call a top. While Bitcoin has been creating new records, gold has corrected about 15% from its all-time high. This shows that traders are dumping their positions and this led to the largest weekly outflow in gold. Analysts believe that some of the money flowing out of gold could enter Bitcoin as institutional interest continues to soar. A new …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) rise above $20,000 will have to wait, as the price saw a strong correction and turned away from reaching a new all-time high. Data suggests that whales decided to book profits when Bitcoin was close to $19,000, and this pulled the price lower. This fall could have resulted in the liquidation of overleveraged positions in the futures market and further aggravated the decline. The current correction is a healthy sign, as the crypto market was becoming overheated as several altcoins rallied vertically in the past week. While some altcoins have given back a large portion of their recent …

Chinese government-backed blockchain initiative, the Blockchain Service Network, or BSN, is introducing support for another batch of major blockchain protocols. On Nov. 26, it announced that it will integrate Polkadot, Oasis and Bityaun into its ecosystem on Nov. 30. Polkadot's blockchain protocol is designed to connect multiple specialized blockchains into one unified network. Polkadot also enables processing of numerous transactions on several chains in parallel, bringing another level to its network capacity. Oasis specializes in private and scalable decentralized finance tools, while Bityuan is a blockchain solutions provider to Chinese companies. Yifan He, CEO of Red Date Technology and executive …

The crypto market has been in a strong bull run over the past few days, and that has pushed Bitcoin (BTC) to its second-best day ever. Almost every trader now seems to be fixated on the magical figure of $20,000 per BTC. After such a sharp up-move, some traders are calling for a top, while others are projecting lofty targets for the future. CNBC Fast Money host Brian Kelly, for example, believes that the recent volitile moves in altcoins, overpriced Bitcoin address growth, and rising funding rates pointing to the arrival of retail traders may be a warning sign of …

A blockchain focused on decentralization has added 105 independent validators to its mainnet, with hundreds more to follow next month. More than 440 validators are set to be involved with Free TON by the end of the year, making it one of the largest and most scalable proof-of-stake networks that the industry has to offer. Free TON’s goal is to achieve “true decentralization.” At present, the blockchain’s multi-threaded architecture delivers an average block time of just 0.2 seconds, far faster than what’s currently offered by rivals. With 440 validators and a 0.2-second block time on the horizon, Free TON’s members …