7th February 2022 > > Credit Union adoption of cryptos.

Market Snap (at time of writing)

Market Wrap

A reassuringly positive start to the week across all asset classes.

Occasional Series – Potential disruption to the CCC publication schedule

Back in the old hospital today, I still hope Tuesday’s edition will be out at some point tomorrow, but please excuse me if I disappoint you.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Retail adoption of cryptos

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to retail adoption of cryptos has been the rather arduous task of setting up an online or hardware wallet, though I must admit that such problems do appeal to those of a rather geeky nature. I agree that the option of storing cryptos on a large, recognised exchange (which is definitively NOT based in China) like Coinbase or Binance is a viable alternative if your crypto holdings do not stray into 7 or even 6 figures.

The second biggest stumbling block was the apparent complexity of buying or selling cryptos on an exchange, for those unfamiliar with typical trading screen layouts.

Companies like PayPal and Revolut have mostly solved those two issues, but the former is mostly used as a payment processor, not as an investment vehicle, and the latter is still a relatively niche product - which I think is absolutely brilliant by the way. Referral code to hopefully jump the queue available on request.

Despite these developments, for most people the options to buy crypto especially for the less tech savvy remain limited. Naturally that landscape is changing.

UNIFY Financial Credit Union has partnered with cryptocurrency firm New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) to become the first credit union to offer a BTC purchase, storage, and selling operation to its members.

I assume this will be offered in an easy and intuitive manner online.

…

There are over 57,000 credit unions operating in 105 countries worldwide, often providing financial services to the underbanked. With average assets of $286mm total savings held at credit unions worldwide is nearly $16.5bn dollars.

If just 5% of those assets become converted to BTC that would double the price of BTC.

Clearly that process will not happen overnight. I do not know a lot about credit unions, but I would be sceptical if someone claimed that they are the most innovative and aggressive financial institutions in the world.

But even this presumably sleepy corner of the financial services industry is starting to recognise the need to get involved in cryptos.

Reserve Treasury Protocols (before they all go to zero)

Reminder – Olympus and Wonderland are, to the best of my knowledge, live viable projects. XEUS, FORT and JADE turned out to be scams, though they are still live scams. Scams are not uncommon in these Wild West fringes of Decentralised Finance (DeFi).

Point of order – a staunch and loyal supporter of the CCC has asked that I make clear that it is only my belief that JADE is a scam. The project is still very much alive, and there is a wide body of opinion that does not concur with my view. I am very happy to make this point – the CCC believes that consenting adults are allowed to have different opinions on a wide range of topics.

Photon appears to have won the prize for being the most extraordinary scam. In under 18 hours it went to zero. And as far as I can tell – and I am no blockchain analytics expert – they walked away with less than $30k.

It is very upsetting we have scumbags like that around.

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