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7th April 2022 > > Blockchain.com.

tl;dr

Blockchain.com is expanding its empire yet further.


Market Snap (at time of writing)








Market Wrap

Doom, doom, gloom, and pestilence on y’all.


BTC is down 10% in April with stocks and bonds off a couple of points. With new sanctions heading Russia’s way against both goods and individuals (Putin’s daughters are surely displeased) my baseline assumption remains that the war in Ukraine will suddenly end with little warning.


Until that time, $50k is looking like a difficult target to reach.


Occasional Series – Bank of England’s “more inclusive” rebranding

£51,000 of taxpayer’s money has been spent on consultants who have changed the Bank of England’s logo from this:




















To this:




















Playing spot-the-difference (a game that is perhaps a touch too intellectually challenging for a certain cohort of bureaucrats who employ these type of rebranding consultants) I note that:


i) The St. George Cross has been changed to the Union Jack, though of course the clue is in the name “Bank of England”.


ii) The piles of money at female warrior Britannia’s feet (for it is she who remains an enduring and inspiring early example of our country’s global leadership in protecting diversity throughout the ages) have been removed, probably as a nod to recent economic policy enacted by the Conservative Party that has put the UK on the path to impoverishment.


Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Blockchain.com

My very first crypto wallet was hosted as an online web wallet by Blockchain.com way back in 2016.


Most readers are familiar with my disdain for hot wallets but at the time options were limited, and my crypto knowledge was sparse to say the least.


Though my BTC holdings were long ago transferred to a Ledger Nano wallet, I still retain the private keys and hence ownership of my first wallet.


A week ago the company raised some money from VC firms Lightspeed Ventures and Baillie Gifford & Co. valuing the enterprise at a remarkable $14bn.


According to CoinTelegraph:


“Founded in 2011, Blockchain.com is now one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency companies and offers a wide range of blockchain-based financial services from its exchange platform and crypto wallets all the way to specific institutional products. It has 37 million verified users with 82 million wallets and over $1 trillion in total transaction value across its platform.”


I think it is fair to say that Blockchain.com has a good handle on the crypto business.


During an interview with Bloomberg, Charlie McGarraugh, Chief Strategy Officer, made two business development announcements, both of which are of interest.


The first is an asset management service – BCAM – targeted at institutions, family offices and high net worth individuals, in partnership with Altis Partners, a futures portfolio manager.


On a frequent basis we see more ventures like this from established TradFi firms responding to clients’ crypto requirements, so though this announcement is not a game-changer it reinforces my belief in ever-growing institutional adoption of cryptos.


The second is a centralised product to manage exposure to the myriad of Decentralised Finance (DeFi) apps.


This is potentially a game-changer for adoption of DeFi by retail clients.


Some of the key problems in using DeFi arise precisely because of its decentralised nature.


Managing one’s DeFi investments requires detailed and precise documentation of which coins are used for what function on which app. Monitoring performance across many protocols is time consuming (as I have found out) and comparison across protocols is a sometimes Herculean task.


It will be somewhat ironic if Blockchain.com – a company founded on a platform of decentralisation – hastens the growth of DeFi by the launch of a centralised product.

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