🗞 Daily Crypto News, June, 4th💰

Bloomberg: "Bitcoin will approach record high of about $20,000 this year";
Ethereum Has Become Bitcoin’s Top Off-Chain Destination;
US Regulators Target Bitcoin ATMs: 88% of the Funds Exit the Country via Machines;
‘No Message Was Signed’: Craig Wright Refutes Tulip Trust Fabrication;
Podcaster Joe Rogan Uses Crypto-Powered Brave Browser;
🗞 Daily Crypto Calendar, June, 4th 💰

Welcome to the Daily Crypto News: A complete Press Review, Coin Calendar and Trading Analysis. Enjoy!

🗞 Bloomberg: "Bitcoin will approach record high of about $20,000 this year"

The latest report from Bloomberg reveals that the company expects Bitcoin (BTC) to retest the record highs from 2017, and may even go as high as $28,000.

COVID-19 & Institutions helping Bitcoin

The report suggests that COVID-19 has accelerated Bitcoin’s maturation as an asset, showing its strength amid declining equities. In addition, it points to the ever-increasing appetite from the institutional investors, and Grayscale, or GBTC, in particular; which has been consuming about 25% of the the new supply:

“So far this year, its increasing AUM has consumed about 25% of new Bitcoin-mined coins vs. less than 10% in 2019. Our graphic depicts the rapidly rising 30-day average of GBTC AUM near 340,000 in Bitcoin equivalents, about 2% of total supply. About two years ago, it accounted for 1%.”

Narrowing GBTC/BTC premium

Bloomberg finds the narrowing of GBTC/BTC premium a telling sign:

“The steadily declining premium in GBTC despite strong inflows indicates supply being taken off the market, and maturation. On a 30- day average basis, the Trust's 20% premium over its underlying net asset value compares with the historical mean of 39%.”

🗞 Ethereum Has Become Bitcoin’s Top Off-Chain Destination

The most popular way to use bitcoin off-chain is on Ethereum, recent data indicates.

Since 2016, software engineers have worked to extend the oldest and largest cryptocurrency’s use cases through a variety of companion protocols, like the Lightning Network for payments or the Liquid Network for trading. But to date, the most popular off-chain protocols that use bitcoin (the currency, with a small “b”) run on the largest rival to Bitcoin (the network, uppercase).

In fact, Ethereum projects including WBTC and imBTC hold 70% more bitcoins than Lightning or Liquid.

https://static.coindesk.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/OFF-CHAIN1-1-710x458.png?format=webp

This is “ironic” to Camila Russo, author of “The Infinite Machine“, a forthcoming book about Ethereum, but she’s not surprised.

🗞 US Regulators Target Bitcoin ATMs: 88% of the Funds Exit the Country via Machines

Bitcoin automated teller machines (BATMs) will become the next target for regulators, as world governments tighten screws on money laundering.

According to Ciphertrace CTO John Jeffries, crypto-cash machines will attract “greater…regulatory focus” in a bid to rein-in alleged cross-border illicit financial transfers.

Jeffries urged “the need for more uniform regulatory enforcement and compliance” as governments start to crack down on crypto-infused automated teller machines.

This comes as Ciphertrace released a report showing that cross-border transactions accounted for 74% of bitcoin moved between exchanges in 2019. Of this, 88% of funds leaving the United States through bitcoin ATMs were sent to cryptocurrency exchanges abroad – mostly to “high-risk” platforms.

🗞 ‘No Message Was Signed’: Craig Wright Refutes Tulip Trust Fabrication

Craig Wright maintains that he alone has access to the ‘Satoshi’ Bitcoin addresses filed in court, despite a message apparently signed by 145 of the addresses calling him “a liar and a fraud”.

Wright says anyone that thinks his credibility is now in tatters as a result “doesn’t understand digital signatures at all”.

He is being sued by the estate of his alleged former business partner Dave Kleiman, which is seeking a share of billions of dollars of Bitcoin (BTC) the pair may or may not have mined together.

As part of the case, Wright filed a list of early Bitcoin addresses he claims are his. However, on May 24 an unknown actor posted a message, signed with the private keys to 145 addresses on the file list. This was seized on by the Kleiman estate to suggest the entire list was a fabrication. .

“You have to either have an identity attribute or an identity to sign in this issue. Someone can’t go and say ‘Hey, I’ve got a key ⁠— I’m signing’. If you think that, then you don’t understand digital signatures at all.”

🗞 Podcaster Joe Rogan Uses Crypto-Powered Brave Browser

Podcaster Joe Rogan has revealed that he uses the privacy focused Brave browser to avoid internet ads and Google tracking in the latest episode, which features American musician and comic Reggie Watts.

It’s one of the most high profile endorsements in Brave’s history with Rogan’s podcast downloaded more than 190 million times each month. The show was recently licensed to Spotify in a $100 million deal. This latest episode has already received 1.7 million views on YouTube in the first 24 hours.

You’re getting tracked

In the 2.5 hour episode, Rogan and Watts devoted almost 30 minutes to discussing Internet privacy, apps and ads:

“If you want to use Instagram or if you want to use Facebook, you're getting tracked."