The BioMedWire Podcast

With the coronavirus spreading as much disruption as infection, the Wild West Crypto Show zeroed in on financial developments in the crypto space (cryptos and global finance). This week, hosts Drew Taylor and Brent Bates had well-known crypto crusader Litecoin Lisa back on the show. Litecoin Lisa reported that it was her 70-year-old mother who introduced her to crypto. Another familiar face on the show was Jonathan Keim, communications director of CryptoCurrencyWire.

Keim started things off with the news that Grayscale Investments has announced its strongest quarter ever, with half a billion dollars raised in first quarter 2020 (http://ccw.fm/2nqHJ). Grayscale Investments, currently the world’s largest digital currency asset manager, raised $503.7 million across its family of products, which marked the firm’s largest inflow of capital for a single quarter. The lead product continues to be shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. Grayscale says most of the capital inflow, amounting to around 88%, has come from institutional investors.

Keim’s ensuing update was encapsulated in the headline ‘BitGo Continues Expansion of Services, Launches Dashboard for Managing Digital Asset Portfolio Across Wallets and Exchanges’ (http://ccw.fm/SyZp9). BitGo, the digital asset trust and security company, recently announced the acquisition of Lumina, a comprehensive crypto-native financial platform.

The first phase following the acquisition – integrating the products of the two companies – has been completed, which means that BitGo’s range of services to institutional investors has been expanded. Users will now have a dashboard for managing, accounting and tracking the entirety of their digital asset holdings and activities across wallets, exchanges and service providers.

Finally, Keim broke the news that Portis Wallet, one of the leading wallet solutions for decentralized finance, has been acquired by ShapeShift (http://ccw.fm/DiG5s). The Israeli start-up is now enhancing its noncustodial software wallet to give customers a seamless experience in crypto-to-crypto trading, as well as enabling the instant purchase of bitcoin, ethereum and USDC from a debit card. ShapeShift is one of the world’s leading self-custody crypto platforms. The acquisition merges two companies with a shared vision: the creation of an open financial system in which self-sovereignty is easy and accessible.

The Wild West Crypto Show continues to give the lowdown on the crypto markets – and much more. During episode 104, titled ‘Cryptos Are Stabilizing: Fallout Will Bolster Cryptos’, hosts Drew Taylor and Brent Bates discussed new developments in the space and the results of two recent surveys that reveal what people think of cryptocurrencies and other asset classes.

For his weekly update, Jonathan Keim, communications director of CryptoCurrencyWire, provided his usual three newsbreaks.

Crypto users will be happy to know that Civic Technologies, a leading innovator in digital wallet solutions, has launched the first and only noncustodial crypto wallet to offer a $1 million digital currency guarantee provided by Coincover (http://ccw.fm/D8ta6). Coincover, a provider of risk-management solutions, offers policies that protect cryptocurrencies held in online wallets against theft from hacks. The policies will be underwritten by the Lloyd’s of London insurance syndicate, Atrium.

A survey conducted by Visual Objects showed that people’s perceptions of how cryptocurrencies are used vary considerably from actual usage (http://ccw.fm/sy3Jm). Survey participants think that cryptocurrencies are mostly employed to purchase stocks (40%) and illegal items (30%), but actual cryptocurrency consumers say their purchases go primarily to food (38%) and clothing (34%), while 29% of respondents reported that they used cryptocurrencies primarily to buy stocks.

A separate survey revealed what asset classes Americans think are the safest for a retirement account (http://ccw.fm/33bpW). Naturally, cash topped the list, with one-third of all participants indicating that they viewed cash as the safest investment during uncertain times. Gold and silver were viewed as the safest by close to 17% of those surveyed, while stocks and bonds were chosen by 15.1% of participants. Just 1% of those sampled chose crypto assets. Based on those results, faith in crypto remains very low amongst the broader population.

Cryptos seems to be tracking fairly close to the stock market, with bitcoin leading the way. After falling to $4,600, the cryptocurrency is now back up to around $7,000. On episode 103 of the Wild West Crypto Show, host Drew Taylor cheered the good news. Co-host Brent Bates, who may have been practicing social distancing, was absent.

Jonathan Keim, communications director of CryptoCurrencyWire, had, as usual, the real news. He started his weekly update with the headline that Cryptologic Corp. (CSE: CRY) had agreed to sell its 30-megawatt bitcoin mining facility. The company has decided to dispose of its crypto mining assets and is presently exploring acquisition opportunities in sectors outside of cryptocurrency mining.

The buyer, HIVE Blockchain Technologies, is a growth-oriented, TSX Venture Exchange-listed company that is building a platform it hopes will link the blockchain sector to traditional capital markets. HIVE owns state-of-the-art, GPU-based digital-currency mining facilities in Iceland and Sweden, which produce newly minted digital currencies such as Ethereum (http://ccw.fm/bp2ZB).

In Europe, crypto developments are indeed racing ahead. The Coinfield-Sologenic consortium has announced a list of 30 global securities exchanges, the assets of which are now available for tokenization (http://ccw.fm/8oNQH). Together, these exchanges trade more than 40,000 traditional assets such as stocks, ETFs and commodities. Tokenization involves the digital representation – and often the fractionalization – of securities or other assets. The process is ideal for pricey stocks such as Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG), currently priced at around $1,195, and Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A), which usually trades above $300,000.

Keim’s roundup ended with the announcement of the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry’s most ambitious virtual conference experience (http://ccw.fm/3NEda). Event organizers of the Virtual Blockchain Week, slated for April 26 to May 2, have published details of the event, including speakers. Hosted by Joel Comm and Travis Wright of the Bad Crypto Podcast, the online conference can be accessed at VirtualBlockchainWeek.com; registration is free.

Jonathan Keim, communications director of CryptoCurrencyWire, had his usual triplet of developments in the crypto space, starting with the news (http://ccw.fm/dOLR0) that ‘Metal Pay Partners with TRON Allowing TRX to be Bought Instantly’. Metal Pay, which provides digital money transfer services, will henceforth make the TRX token available to its customers. The TRON platform will be fully integrated into Metal Pay’s mobile application, which will allow TRX to be purchased using fiat currency by debit card or a linked bank checking account.

Second on Keim’s list was the news that Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ: RIOT) has reported on its 2019 financial and operational highlights (http://ccw.fm/yDCF8). The company, one of the few Nasdaq-listed public cryptocurrency mining companies in the United States, has doubled down on its crypto-mining operations on the domestic front. Riot has invested in 4,000 Bitmain S17 Pro Antminers at its facility in Oklahoma City, which, since being deployed in early 2020, have resulted in an increase in the company’s fully owned hashing power capacity to approximately 248 Petahash.

Finally, the news that Crypto.com Pay has launched a new invoicing feature will, no doubt, be well received. Crypto.com, the pioneering payments and cryptocurrency platform, announced the introduction of the new invoicing features, which will allow its merchant customers to generate and send invoices to their customers who wish to pay with cryptocurrency (http://ccw.fm/Guqz0).

First up was the news that Crypto Briefing has announced a partnership with CoinMarketCap, which will lead to the inclusion of Crypto Briefing’s SIMETRI digital asset ratings on CoinMarketCap (http://ccw.fm/7p2X4). The SIMETRI service provides institutional-grade research, including in-depth fundamental analysis and unbiased, detailed insights into cryptocurrency projects. Each reviewed project receives an investment grade aimed at guiding portfolio decisions. The service, already available on CoinGecko and Binance, will now be accessible to tens of millions of retail investors with its incorporation on CoinMarketCap.

Another promising partnership is the one between the IOTA Foundation, a nonprofit foundation focused on distributed ledger technology (DLT) and open-source ecosystem development, and TradeMark East Africa (TMEA). The goal of the partnership is to help TMEA in its mission to improve East African trade and global competitiveness using IOTA’s distributed-ledger technology. TMEA works closely with East African community institutions, national governments, the private sector and civil society organizations to increase trade by reducing current barriers and improving business competitiveness (http://ccw.fm/T22aO).

Lastly, Chinese ecommerce behemoth Alibaba has announced that its import e-commerce platform, Koala, has updated its products to include a full-link traceability blockchain system. Now, online buyers will have access to the logistic information of the goods they purchase by scanning a QR code with Alipay (http://ccw.fm/o6Ptl).

March 13, 2020. The latest news from the cryptocurrency/blockchain space with CryptoCurrencyWire's Communications Director, Jonathan Keim.

Whether you’re a little wet behind the ears in the world of cryptocurrency or you have been blazing the crypto trail for a while, the Wild West Crypto Show is the best podcast to hear the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of crypto. Thanks to C-Suite, the Wild West Crypto Show has a larger audience than ever. The show is packed full of information from experts who know a thing or two about cryptocurrency. It breaks down what newcomers need to know about getting started in cryptocurrency while providing valuable insight for more experienced Crypto Cowboys. The Wild West Crypto Show is your #1 source for the latest crypto news, inside information, & exclusive interviews from the most influential people in the crypto space.

March 6, 2020. The latest news from the cryptocurrency/blockchain space with CryptoCurrencyWire's Communications Director, Jonathan Keim.

Whether you’re a little wet behind the ears in the world of cryptocurrency or you have been blazing the crypto trail for a while, the Wild West Crypto Show is the best podcast to hear the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of crypto. Thanks to C-Suite, the Wild West Crypto Show has a larger audience than ever. The show is packed full of information from experts who know a thing or two about cryptocurrency. It breaks down what newcomers need to know about getting started in cryptocurrency while providing valuable insight for more experienced Crypto Cowboys. The Wild West Crypto Show is your #1 source for the latest crypto news, inside information, & exclusive interviews from the most influential people in the crypto space.

February 28, 2020. The latest news from the cryptocurrency/blockchain space with CryptoCurrencyWire's Communications Director, Jonathan Keim.

Whether you’re a little wet behind the ears in the world of cryptocurrency or you have been blazing the crypto trail for a while, the Wild West Crypto Show is the best podcast to hear the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of crypto. Thanks to C-Suite, the Wild West Crypto Show has a larger audience than ever. The show is packed full of information from experts who know a thing or two about cryptocurrency. It breaks down what newcomers need to know about getting started in cryptocurrency while providing valuable insight for more experienced Crypto Cowboys. The Wild West Crypto Show is your #1 source for the latest crypto news, inside information, & exclusive interviews from the most influential people in the crypto space.

February 21, 2020. The latest news from the cryptocurrency/blockchain space with CryptoCurrencyWire's Communications Director, Jonathan Keim. 

Whether you’re a little wet behind the ears in the world of cryptocurrency or you have been blazing the crypto trail for a while, the Wild West Crypto Show is the best podcast to hear the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of crypto. Thanks to C-Suite, the Wild West Crypto Show has a larger audience than ever. The show is packed full of information from experts who know a thing or two about cryptocurrency. It breaks down what newcomers need to know about getting started in cryptocurrency while providing valuable insight for more experienced Crypto Cowboys. The Wild West Crypto Show is your #1 source for the latest crypto news, inside information, & exclusive interviews from the most influential people in the crypto space.

February 14, 2020. The latest news from the cryptocurrency/blockchain space with CryptoCurrencyWire's Communications Director, Jonathan Keim.

 Whether you’re a little wet behind the ears in the world of cryptocurrency or you have been blazing the crypto trail for a while, the Wild West Crypto Show is the best podcast to hear the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of crypto. Thanks to C-Suite, the Wild West Crypto Show has a larger audience than ever. The show is packed full of information from experts who know a thing or two about cryptocurrency. It breaks down what newcomers need to know about getting started in cryptocurrency while providing valuable insight for more experienced Crypto Cowboys. The Wild West Crypto Show is your #1 source for the latest crypto news, inside information, & exclusive interviews from the most influential people in the crypto space.