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Auction house Sotheby’s to accept BTC and ETH via Coinbase

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    Leading auction houses have been auctioning and selling nonfungible token (NFT) artworks in the past few months. They are now going a step further by accepting cryptocurrencies as payment for their artworks.

    Sotheby’s now accept cryptocurrencies.

    Centuries-old auction house Sotheby’s has announced that it has partnered with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to accept bitcoins (BTC) and Ether (ETH) for its physical artwork. This latest development comes after the auction house began auctioning and selling NFTs.

    Coinbase announced this via a blog post yesterday. “In another step toward bringing cryptocurrency mainstream, Sotheby’s announced they would accept bitcoin and ethereum for Banksy’s Love is in the Air image at their Contemporary Art Evening Auction. Coinbase Commerce was selected as the integration partner,” Coinbase wrote.

    Sotheby’s will start with Banksy’s Love is in the Air image and will only accept BTC and ETH at the moment. The auction house said getting cryptocurrencies via Coinbase Commerce is an essential step towards leading the art market in adopting blockchain technology.

    Sancha S Saxena, VP of Product, Ecosystem at Coinbase, said the crypto exchange is proud to provide Sotheby’s with the payment solution. “This is an example of an enterprise that is evolving with their client base to cater to crypto-forward consumers,” he added.

    The auction house believes that the adoption of cryptocurrencies will pave the way for further adoption across its auctions. Stefan Pepe, Sotheby’s Chief Technology Officer, said, “Leveraging the trusted exchange Coinbase is a natural progression and is in line with our dedication to enhancing our client buying experience and developing new ways to expand our client base by meeting them where they are.”

    Sotheby’s getting more involved in the crypto space.

    The auction house is expanding its presence in the cryptocurrency space. Last month, Sotheby’s sold its first NFT for approximately $17 million. The NFT, titled “The Fungible,” was auctioned n a two-day sale on NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway. Sotheby’s made its intentions known to host more NFT auctions and become more involved in the crypto and blockchain space.

    Sotheby’s is not the only leading auction house that is into cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Christie’s auction house sold the Beeple NFT for nearly $70 million. The highest amount ever paid for a nonfungible art. The auction house is also accepting cryptocurrencies for some of its artwork.

    Massive overdemand for crypto broker Safello’s IPO

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      Cryptocurrency companies have experienced a surge in business in the past few months, thanks to Bitcoin and other leading coins racing to new all-time highs. As a result, some of the companies are going public, and Swedish crypto broker Safello has a positive problem regarding its intended IPO.

      Demand for Safello’s share surpasses the number of shares.

      The Swedish crypto broker Safello announced earlier that it’s upcoming initial public offering (IPO) had been oversubscribed by 1,240%. The Company is planning to list on the stock exchange soon.

      In a press release, Safello said, “Safello Group AB (“Safello” or “the Company”) now announces the outcome of the offer to subscribe for shares in the Company in connection with the initial public offering on Nasdaq First North Growth Market (the “Offer”). The issue of SEK 40.5 million was subscribed for approximately SEK 502 million, through 15,622 accounts, corresponding to a subscription ratio of approximately 1240 %.”

      The Company had kept aside 40.5 million Swedish kronor ($4.8 million) worth of new shares to be distributed via its IPO. However, Safello received bids for 502 million kronor ($59 million) worth of its shares. Thus, implying that there is a high demand for the Company’s shares. The Company maintains that it would only issue $4.8 million worth of shares to some 1,500 investors.

      Frank Schuil, Safello’s CEO, said they are thrilled with the massive interest in the Company’s shares and what it means for the industry’s future. “The prospect of a cryptocurrency-based financial system is picking up steam in Sweden and beyond. Companies positioned to work with incumbents will have a leg up to facilitate and drive this transition.

      We look forward to executing our plans to speed up the transition and create long-term value for our existing and new shareholders,” he added.

      Crypto companies are going public.

      Safello announced in February that it was listed on the stock exchange. Last month, the Company received preliminary approval from Nasdaq Stockholm to list the Nasdaq First North exchange. The Company opened its IPO subscription on April 19 and closed it on April 30, and it is expected to go public on May 12.

      The crypto broker’s listing will come roughly a month after Coinbase is officially listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Other crypto companies such as Kraken and Ripple are considering going public before the end of the year.

      EU-Based Bitstamp exchange officially develops in the US

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        Over the past year, the growth of the crypto market has prompted several companies to enter the market and the existing ones to expand their services. Bitstamp is the latest cryptocurrency company to develop its services to customers in the United States.

        Bitstamp now in the United States

        Luxembourg-based cryptocurrency exchange, Bitstamp, has officially expanded its services in the United States. This comes after recording massive growth in the market over the past few months.

        Bitstamp announced this via a tweet yesterday, revealing that it intends to offer numerous services in the US. The company tweeted“We’re building US market momentum and are committed to working with leading companies like @Nasdaq & @silvergatebank to build the best market infrastructure while exploring the expansion of our institutional custody options and the addition of a regulated derivatives offering.”

        Bitstamp revealed that it recorded 570% new customer growth in the US market in its blog post. Thanks to this growth, Bitstamp will increase its financial commitment to the US business, put in more effort towards acquiring top talent, and continue developing its best-in-class market infrastructure.

        The cryptocurrency exchange recorded impressive numbers in the United States in the past few months. Assets under management for US customers grew by 281% in the first quarter of the year, US client activity rose by 341% per month so far this year, and they recorded a 325% increase in mobile app usage amongst US customers.

        Bitstamp’s CEO, Julian Sawyer, said, “Crypto is the fastest-growing segment of financial services, and we intend to be a leader in the most competitive financial market in the world: the US.” He added that the potential for growth in the US is astronomical, and thanks to their position in the crypto space, they are seeing incredible customer adoption.

        Bitstamp to launch a nationwide campaign to expand growth

        The cryptocurrency exchange said it intends to expand on its current growth in the United States. “A nationwide marketing campaign accompanies the launch to improve its brand recognition in the US. However, Bitstamp is also planning to hire executive-level leaders, believing that these will help it lock in long-term clients,” the company added.

        Bitstamp is known for working with some of the leading companies in the crypto space. It worked with US-based Silvergate Bank, known for innovation in the cryptocurrency space, to introduce new product offerings for US customers.

        Weekly Analysis – pt.1

        Market Sentiment

        Last week, the market was dipping, and the sentiment was in Fear. We mentioned that these was a few unique opportunities where the market gives participants a chance to enter on an apparent fearful dip amid a bull market.

        Today, the market is at low levels of Greed, which means there is still room for growth before a top formation. Of course, one cannot solely trade based on the Fear & Greed index. It only represents an extra confluence to take into consideration in addition to technical and fundamental data.

        Market Indexes

        Total Market Cap

        Confluence with the fear seen on the index last week, we saw prices reach support at $1.7T – which is exactly where buyers stepped in and demand increased significantly. The Total Market Cap has created a brand new high on the weekly timeframe, indicating likely farther upside continuation on the horizon.

        Altcoins Market Cap

        We continuously stated that the Alt MCap breakout is not something we would ever try fading (i.e., shorting). It represented a unique opportunity that we fully embraced and are now reaping the rewards from. The Alts MCap is continuously creating higher highs and higher lows which depicts a bullish market structure. No weakness insight on the buy-side.

        Ethereum

        ETH has pumped beyond imagination and breached $3,000 already. A notable factor we are seeing in the market on ETH right now is dry supply. No one wants to sell ETH, and they are getting taken off exchanges too; with high demand, this leads one way: UP. We commonly call this a: sell-side liquidity crisis.

        Bitcoin

        Bitcoin registered a bullish engulfing weekly candle which eliminated the majority of the downside seen. The next step is a weekly candle closure above $60,000 for BTC to enter price discovery once again, where the target would be $74,000 (conditional upon a weekly candle closure above $60,000).

        DOT

        DOT is stuck in between two critical levels: $27 and $40. It is a swing trader’s dream zone, but it only becomes interesting for investors (like us) upon a daily break above $40 as that can lead to price discovery and our $100 target.

        SNX

        SNX created continuous lower highs and lower lows. Today it seems like SNX wants to overtake $18.25, which would send it towards $23.60 (dependent on the daily closure).

        RUNE

        The meteoric rise was followed by natural consolidation. RUNE found lots of demand near $10 as buyers saw this as a unique opportunity. The market is currently communicating that RUNE’s fair price is $15 at this moment in time. We find this fair, and RUNE would become valued higher only once limits are removed/raised on MCCN since that boosts supply. $17 is the critical area to overtake and tackle for further price discovery from a technical perspective.

        FTT

        FTT is an exchange token that benefits from high transactional volumes, and that’s undoubtedly something exchanges have been seeing. FTT reclaimed $50, crossed the counter-trendline, and is now about to create a brand new daily candle closure high which would boots prices into price discovery and our $100 target.

        AAVE

        We have a swing long trade on AAVE from $375. We cannot be shy with targets in a bull market, and hence we set our take profit as $1,000. Price has now reached the previous high of $530; once it overtakes it on the daily timeframe with conviction, that would become our next invalidation level and help us reduce the risk on the trade.

        XRP

        XRP overtook $1.25 on the daily timeframe, which set the next target at $2 – we plan to make profits at that level.

        SOLANA

        Despite many Solana-based tokens increasing dramatically in price, SOL remained relatively stable and had a flat week. We saw significant demand step in at the critical level of $40.73, which pushed the price into a new all-time high. Given that SOL Season is only starting, we speculate further upside will be happening on SOL’s worth, but of course, we must manage our expectations and not imagine that it’ll be a straight green line.

        SRM

        SRM is undoubtedly starting to benefit from the BLUECHIP title. Price is in price discovery, and the following two psychological key levels in sight are $15 and $20 – the latter being our take profit price on our SRM investment since $0.80.

        RAY

        RAY/SRM/SOL are three key names in the Solana ecosystem that are all considered bluechips in that ecosystem – all three are benefiting from this narrative. RAY crossed $12.50 on the daily timeframe, we bought in and it is now in price discovery. Our price target is $90.

        Disclaimer: None of the information shared establishes financial guidance under any circumstance, nor does it express any type of instruction.

        Ether outdoes Bitcoin on options volume for the first time

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          Ether has been one of the best performing cryptocurrencies in recent weeks, setting a new all-time high above $3,400. For the first time, Ether options volume on major platforms surpassed that of Bitcoin.

          Ether options see higher volume than Bitcoin.

          Ether is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, but it has outperformed Bitcoin in recent weeks. Its performance saw it achieve a market cap above $350 billion, the first time crossing that mark.

          The cryptocurrency also set another record this week, outperforming Bitcoin in the options market for the first time. Ether’s trading volume surpassed that of Bitcoin for the first time in history.

          Yesterday, four leading exchanges offering ETH options (Deribit, OKEx, Huobi, and bit.com) recorded a combined trading volume of $1.32 billion, surpassing Bitcoin. The leading cryptocurrency’s options market traded contracts worth roughly $879 million.

          Deribit, in its tweet, stated that it doesn’t know the cause of the flip. “We have no opinion on an $ETH – BTC flippening, but our ETH options volume did flip $BTC options volume for the first time. $1.4B notional,” the exchange wrote.

          Options volume climb and ETH price sets new all-time high.

          The increase in Ether’s options volume coincides with the cryptocurrency journey to a new all-time high. The Ethereum blockchain’s native token rose to a new all-time high above $3,400 a few hours ago. Ether is up by over 60% over the past month, while Bitcoin has lost 3% of its value during that period.

          Ether options have been on the rise for the past few weeks, with Deribit accounting for 80% of the total activity. Options are derivatives contracts that grant the buyer the right but not the obligation to purchase the underlying asset at a pre-set price on or before a pre-agreed date. A call option gives the right to buy, and the put grants the right to sell.

          Vitalik Buterin becomes a billionaire as Ether goes $3,100

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            ETH continued its rally last week, setting a new all-time high above $3,100. The rally saw ETH’s total market cap surpass the $350 billion mark and Vitalik Buterin becoming one of the youngest cryptocurrency billionaires.

            Ether surpasses $3,000

            Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, set a new all-time high above $3,100 a few hours ago. This comes as the cryptocurrency rallied flawlessly so far this year, rising by more than 100% in the past few weeks.

            The asset topped the $3,000 mark yesterday and continued its rally until it reached a new all-time high close to $3,200 on cryptocurrency exchanges. In fact, since the start of the year, ETH is up by 325%. This makes it one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies in the world. At its current level, it is outperforming Bitcoin, which is up by more than 100% year-to-date.

            Thanks to the new all-time high, Ether’s total market cap surpassed $350 billion for the first time. It remains the second-largest, with a market cap just above $360 billion at the moment. It is still behind Bitcoin ($1 trillion) while Binance Coin (BNB), in third place, has a market cap of $96 billion.

            Buterin becomes one of the youngest crypto billionaires.

            Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, has become one of the youngest cryptocurrency billionaires globally. The 27-year old shared his ETH address in October 2018 to disclose his holdings.

            At the time, the address held 333,520 ETH, which is worth over $1 billion at Ether’s current price. Buterin also revealed that he has other Ether addresses, but they contain only a tiny amount of ETH.

            Ether’s price could rally further over the coming months as the network continues its progress towards switching to a proof of stake protocol. The switch to ETH 2.0 is expected to make the Ethereum blockchain faster and the transactions cheaper. This could help attract more projects to the network.
            Analysts are bullish on Ether’s price, and if the price soars higher in the coming months, then Buterin’s worth would increase as well.

            Ex US Treasurer Rosie Rios joins Ripple’s committee

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              Ripple faces legal troubles in the United States, but that hasn’t stopped it from hiring talents to join the company. The blockchain firm has confirmed the appointment of Rosie Rios, who joins the company’s board of directors.

              Rosie Rios joins Ripple.

              US-based blockchain firm Ripple has appointed a former United States Treasurer, Rosie Rios. She joins the company’s board of directors, bringing a wealth of experience in both the public and private sectors.

              Ripple announced the appointment in a blog post earlier today. The company also appointed Kristina Campbell, who would serve as the chief financial officer (CFO). “Today, Ripple is excited to announce two new appointments to its leadership team. Rosa “Rosie” Gumataotao Rios, 43rd Treasurer of the United States, joins the Ripple Board of Directors and Kristina Campbell joins as Chief Financial Officer,” Ripple wrote in its blog post.

              Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, said the pair’s appointment comes at a crucial time. He stated that Rios’s experience in the public and private sectors would provide an invaluable perspective to Ripple. “As well, adding Kristina’s extensive knowledge and success building teams and processes at rapidly accelerating businesses was a no-brainer. We are extremely fortunate to have them on the team as we continue our rapid international growth and to champion for regulatory clarity in the United States.”

              Rios brings a wealth of experience to the team, serving as the 43rd Treasurer of the United States under President Obama. Rios stated that she had dedicated her career to financial inclusion and empowerment, including introducing new and innovative solutions. “Ripple is one of the best examples of how to use cryptocurrency in a substantive and legitimate role to facilitate payments globally. Blockchain and crypto will underpin our future global financial systems. Cryptocurrency is the what. Ripple is the how,” she added.

              Campbell will be in charge of Ripple’s financial strategy, accelerate growth and deliver value to the company’s shareholders.

              Ripple still has an ongoing case with the US SEC.

              The company still has a case with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC claimed that Ripple issued and sold XRP tokens as securities without registering them with the regulatory body. However, Ripple claims that the XRP tokens are not securities. The case has led to several cryptocurrency exchanges delisting XRP from their trading platforms, making it challenging for some traders and investors to gain access to it.

              MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin holdings close to $3 billion after buying $177m worth...

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              MicroStrategy is one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin, and the company has now added more bitcoins to its balance sheet. MicroStrategy purchases $177...