The past 24 hours have been exciting in the cryptocurrency markets. Bitcoin (BTC) has finally gained some considerable ground with a good $1,000 leap in value to $7,683. Ethereum (ETH) has also not been left behind and has surged 10% to trade at current levels of $462. Ripple (XRP) on the other hand is currently trading at $0.56 up 13.55% in 24 hours and to comfortable levels above $0.50.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is also doing well with an 8% gain and trading at $706. Although Litecoin (LTC) has also gained in the markets, it has lost its number 5 spot to EOS (EOS) which is currently trading at $8.81 and LTC at $121.
All this action comes just days after prominent investment funds and individuals, showed their intent at investing in the cryptocurrency markets.
To start, the Soros Fund Management firm, owned by Billionaire investor George Soros, expressed its interest of investing in Cryptocurrencies. This is after Adam Fisher, who oversees macro investing at the fund, got internal approval to trade virtual coins in the last few months. He did not declare to what levels the approval was made, but one can assume it is to the tunes of millions by the firm for Fisher handles Macro investing. This announcement highlights the entry of big investment funds into the crypto-verse.
Another major event in the Crypto-verse that shows that Wallstreet is indeed getting its ‘hands and feet dirty’ in the crypto-verse is the recent partnership between the investment arm of the Rockefeller family, Venrock, and crypto startup Coinfund. David Pakman, a Venrock Partner, was quoted as saying the following about the partnership:
‘We wanted to partner with this team that has been making investments and actually helping to architect a number of different crypto economies and crypto token-based projects…Venture capital itself is effectively a gatekeeper industry and I’d actually like to see that undone. I don’t believe that a small group of people should make the decisions about which projects can raise some money and get off the ground.”
It is with this premise that it is safe to conclude that J.P Morgan Chase, might be the next big Wallstreet firm to invest in cryptocurrencies. This is despite the company’s CEO and Chairman, Jamie Dimon, was late last year noted as slamming Bitcoin and declaring it a fraud. He even went ahead to say that he would fire any J.P Morgan employee found trading in Bitcoin. He is quoted as saying:
“I’d fire them in a second. For two reasons: It’s against our rules, and they’re stupid. And both are dangerous.”
Dimon would later retract his statements by saying he regretted making the above statement about Bitcoin. He however acknowledged that blockchain is real.
“The blockchain is real. You can have cryptodollars in yen and stuff like that. ICOs … you got to look at every one individually. The bitcoin was always to me what the governments are going to feel about bitcoin when it gets really big. And I just have a different opinion than other people.”
Dimon is in charge of one of largest, if not greatest, bank in the United States. J.P Morgan is the world’s second most valuable bank by market capitalization. With this information, it is safe to conclude that J.P Morgan Chase might already be involved in cryptocurrencies and blockchain through the payment settlement software Ripple and Stellar have provided for the banking industry.
Ripple (XRP) technology is currently being tested by over 100 banks through partnerships and the number has been known to increase on a daily basis. Stellar (XLM) on the other hand, has 9 of its nodes being run by IBM as part of instantaneous payment settlements by banks across the globe that has IBM as their backbone technology.
With such evidence of cryptocurrencies and blockchain working in real life problem solving situations, it is only a matter of time before J.P Morgan also declares it has invested in cryptocurrencies.
[Photo source, MyJoyOnline.com]