Bitcoin (BTC) has attracted several institutional investors in the past few months, but with the market capitalization sustaining above $700 billion, many more institutions are likely to contemplate buying Bitcoin. Similarly, Ether (ETH) with a market cap of about $180 billion also cannot be ignored by the investors. The institutional adoption of the top two cryptocurrencies is likely to attract numerous venture capitalists and early investors into smaller projects that have gained a decent size but have not yet reached their full potential. Although the risk is high in such investments, the returns could be equally attractive. For such investors, …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) correction from its January high has not shaken the confidence of institutional investors. According to Glassnode analysts, the number of whales holding more than 1,000 Bitcoin has increased by 200 this year. Along with the institutions, several high profile investors have also committed money to the crypto sector. Hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones, former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, and American rapper LL Cool J have invested in a new venture capital crypto fund launched by Silver Lake Partners co-founder Glenn Hutchins and his associates. The steady inflow into crypto assets suggests that investors are bullish in the …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) stellar run in the latter half of 2020 and MicroStrategy’s purchase of the digital asset appears to have attracted attention from several publicly listed companies in the United States. However, the lack of regulatory clarity could have deterred them from buying Bitcoin at lower levels. To address this issue, business intelligence firm MicroStrategy is hosting an online seminar on Feb. 3 and 4, where “the legal considerations firms face while integrating Bitcoin into their corporate strategy” will be discussed. Several major crypto firms will also make presentations to the audience. About 1,400 firms have signed up for the …

The Stellar Development Foundation announced Tuesday that an anticipated integration with USD Coin (USDC) is live. Users can now transact with USDC on the Stellar blockchain. The integration with the second-largest stablecoin was initially announced in October 2020, as Cointelegraph reported at the time. The stablecoin has since doubled its total supply to approach $6 billion, up from $2.7 billion in October 2020. USDC is primarily used on Ethereum, where almost the entirety of its supply is found. Algorand was the second blockchain to host USDC, but it has seen slow adoption so far. Just over $11 million currently circulates …

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently voiced his support for Bitcoin (BTC) during a chat with Clubhouse. Musk said that his friends tried to onboard him to the Bitcoin bandwagon as early as 2013, but the world’s richest man did not take the final step. Musk admitted that he was “late to the party.” Musk also said that Bitcoin could be “on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance." While these comments by the SpaceX founder are positive, they did not move the markets since he did not commit to buying Bitcoin as a personal investment or for the …

Sentiment plays a major role in the short-term price action of an asset. This truth was demonstrated today when Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, simply wrote 'Bitcoin’ in his Twitter bio. Crypto traders and Musk followers immediately noticed and Bitcoin price conveniently shot up a few minutes after the tweet. When BTC price makes a sharp directional move, traders buy into the breakout and short-sellers are squeezed out of their positions. That is what seems to have happened with Bitcoin (BTC) as the sentiment swiftly turned bullish. It is not only Bitcoin that has seen a pick up in …

Public companies have purchased about 85,000 Bitcoin (BTC) in the past year and institutional investors have pumped money into Grayscale Investments, which shows increasing institutional adoption is one of the main reasons for the recent Bitcoin rally. However, at the moment it seems institutional investors are unlikely to chase prices higher. If the fresh inflow of money stalls or reduces drastically, it could result in a pullback in Bitcoin’s price. If that happens, short-term traders and momentum players may book profits and trigger a deeper correction. A correction will be a healthy sign because it will shake out the speculators …

Privacy-focused messaging app Signal is reportedly devoting resources toward the development of a cryptocurrency payments service for its users. According to a report by Casey Newton, the founder of the technology newsletter service Platformer, Signal is mulling crypto payments integration in the app. The report claims that Signal reportedly ran pilot tests for such a token on the Binance-backed, Stellar-based privacy cryptocurrency platform MobileCoin. Moxie Marlinspike, CEO of Signal, serves as an adviser on the MobileCoin project, heightening speculation that the test could be a trial run for subsequent deployment in the messaging app. The Platformer report also notes that …

After the recent correction, Bitcoin (BTC) will need aggressive inflows to absorb the possible selling from the short-term traders and momentum players as the price nears $40,000. In the past few months, Grayscale Investments has been one of the major entities responsible for the pickup in demand. However, JPMorgan Chase analysts pointed out in a recent note that Grayscale inflows “appear to have peaked” on a four-week rolling average basis. Without a strong tailwind from the institutional investors, many analysts believe Bitcoin may not break above $40,000. The failure to resume the uptrend does not mean Bitcoin will plunge and …

Aggressive profit-booking sent Bitcoin (BTC) spiraling below $29,000 on Jan. 21 but was this a sign that institutional investors dumped their positions? This is one of the main questions bothering traders because large institutional inflows primarily led the run-up to $42,000. Cointelegraph contributor Marcel Pechman analyzed derivatives data from various exchanges, which showed professional traders might have purchased at lower levels. The fall seems to have particularly hurt the excessively leveraged traders, resulting in $460 million worth of liquidations at derivatives exchanges. Data from CryptoQuant shows that Bitcoin’s biggest mining pool, F2Pool, witnessed daily outflows of 10,000 Bitcoin for three …

Older generations have started recognizing the potential of cryptocurrencies and blockchain in global payment systems, a new survey says. On Jan. 21, digital payment platform Wirex released a special report devoted to the topic of cryptocurrency adoption in 2021. Compiled in partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation, the report includes survey results from 3,834 people across 89 countries, aiming to understand the latest trends in the global adoption of blockchain-powered digital payments. The survey was conducted over the course of three weeks, with both Wirex and the SDF sending out emails asking for voluntary participation in a survey related to …

When an asset is in an overbought condition and traders are sitting on large profits, even minor negative news and events could trigger profit-booking. This seems to have happened following Janet Yellen’s adverse comments on cryptocurrencies during a virtual hearing with the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. In the same meeting, Yellen also told Congress to “act big” in order to support the U.S. economy. Another round of stimulus would probably further weaken the U.S. dollar and drive investors into assets that are considered as a store of value. This means Yellen's comments may have inadvertently boosted the sentiment surrounding gold …