Bitcoin (BTC) has the potential to push its prices to between $250,000 and $350,000 by the end of 2021, a long-standing fractal suggests. First spotted by pseudonymous analyst Bit Harington, the bullish setup drew its inspirations from Bitcoin’s spectacular bull runs every time after halvings, which is when the miner block reward gets cut in half. Analysts perceive the halving as a bullish event, which reduced the supply of newly mined BTC. Harington reminded that Bitcoin’s prices surged by more than 600% after the first two halving events in 2012 and 2016 when measured from a so-called resistance/support (R/S) line, …

Goldman Sachs-backed digital payment company Circle has officially disclosed plans to become a full-reserve national digital currency bank in the United States. Announcing the news on Monday, Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire noted that Circle is willing to operate under the supervision and risk management requirements of the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. “We believe that full-reserve banking, built on digital currency technology, can lead to not just a radically more efficient, but also a safer, more resilient financial system,” Allaire stated. The CEO added …

JPMorgan Chase quietly opened up access to six crypto funds over the past three weeks as it looks to offer crypto exposure to a variety of clients. In the latest move, the bank’s private clients will now have access to a new Bitcoin fund created by crypto investment firm New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG). NYDIG is owned by Stone Ridge Asset Management and the “Stone Ridge Bitcoin Strategy Fund” offers exposure to Bitcoin via futures markets. The NYDIG fund is in addition to five crypto funds that the bank opened access to last month: Grayscale Investments’ Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, …

The proposed fund, dubbed the Goldman Sachs Innovate DeFi and Blockchain Equity ETF, strives to track the Decentralized Finance and Blockchain Index from German financial indices provider, Solactive. The fund will invest at least 80% of its assets into securities, stocks, and depository receipts featured in the index. The filing asserts the index seeks to offer exposure to firms aligned with two key narratives: “the implementation of blockchain technology,” and “the digitalization of finance.” As of July 23, the top stocks included in Solactive’s decentralized finance index included Nokia, Facebook, Google, Accenture, and Fujitsu — each of which represented between …

A survey conducted by major investment bank Goldman Sachs has found that close to half of its family office clients want to add cryptocurrency to their portfolios, signaling the ultra-wealthy are becoming increasingly bullish on digital assets. The survey, reported by Bloomberg, queried more than 150 family offices worldwide and found that 15% are already exposed to crypto assets. A further 45% of offices expressed interest in investing in the asset class as a hedge against “higher inflation, prolonged low rates, and other macroeconomic developments following a year of unprecedented global monetary and fiscal stimulus.” However, other respondents cited concerns …

Hong-Kong-based billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried has stated that FTX may consider buying U.S. financial giant Goldman Sachs and exchanges such as Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in the future. Speaking with the Financial Times on July 14, Bankman-Fried stated that if FTX can become the top crypto exchange and supplant rivals such as Coinbase and Binance, the idea of purchasing giants such as Goldman Sachs and CME group is not off the table: “If we are the biggest exchange, [buying Goldman Sachs and CME] is not out of the question at all.” The 29-year-old has an estimated net worth of $8.7 billion …

Circle, a Goldman Sachs-backed fintech company focused on stablecoin development, has officially announced Thursday its plans to go public. Under the terms of the agreement, a new Irish holding company will acquire both Concord and Circle and become a publicly-traded company that is expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker “CRCL.” Upon completion of the transaction, existing Circle shareholders will hold around 86% ownership of the public entity. The company said it would go public through a merger with blank-check company Concord Acquisition Corp in a deal valued at $4.5 billion. Investors have …

Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients on Tuesday that the blockchain with the highest “real use potential” is Ethereum, suggesting its Ether (ETH) could become the dominant digital store of value. As such, Goldman predicts the total market capitalization of Ether could overtake the total market cap for Bitcoin (BTC) in the coming years, according to a report in Business Insider. “[Ether] currently looks like the cryptocurrency with the highest real use potential as Ethereum, the platform on which it is the native digital currency, is the most popular development platform for smart contract applications.” Smart contracts comprise …

After six months of eyeing JPMorgan Chase’s custom blockchain service for repo markets, Goldman Sachs has started trading on the platform. Mathew McDermott, global head of digital assets for Goldman Sachs’ global markets division, confirmed the first transaction dated June 17 in an interview, Bloomberg reported. In the trade, Goldman Sachs swapped a tokenized version of a United States Treasury bond for JPM Coin, JPMorgan’s dollar-pegged stablecoin. JPMorgan started its private blockchain service to drive efficiency in repo agreements last year. The platform uses JPM Coin to swap digitized United States Treasury bonds. Goldman Sachs was one of the first …

Goldman Sachs has debuted a Bitcoin (BTC) futures trading product for its client in collaboration with crypto investment giant Galaxy Digital. According to CNBC, the move marks the first time the Wall Street bank has partnered with a digital asset-based liquidity provider. Galaxy Digital co-president Damien Vanderwilt said the company offered a gateway to the crypto space allowing a tightly regulated entity like Goldman to offer crypto-related investment products. Goldman will reportedly be offering CME Group Bitcoin futures for its clients, marking another expansion of its recently established crypto trading desk. The move follows swiftly on the heels of an …

Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs has made another U-turn on its stance toward Bitcoin as it struggles to define the asset’s investment status. The investment bank flip-flopped again in its approach to cryptocurrencies with a report issued earlier this week that claims they are not a “viable investment”. The report, titled “Digital Assets: Beauty Is Not in the Eye of the Beholder”, concluded Bitcoin is not “a long-term store of value or an investable asset class”. This contradicts their May 21 report titled “Crypto: A New Asset Class?” which was largely positive about the idea and even featured Matthew …

United States investment bank Goldman Sachs is planning to offer Ether (ETH) derivatives products in the coming months, setting the stage for wider adoption of the second-largest cryptocurrency and marking a significant departure from the institution’s critical stance on digital assets in the past. Mathew McDermott, Goldman’s managing director of digital assets, confirmed Monday that the investment bank is expanding into Ether options and futures. In an interview with Bloomberg News, McDermott said institutional demand for cryptocurrencies will continue to grow despite the recent bout of market volatility: “Institutional adoption will continue. [...] Despite the material price correction, we continue …