MARKETHIVE UPDATES AND INTEGRATIONS

• Wallet in final draft mode

• Staking the Markethive Way

• Staying One Step Ahead 

Markethive started out as a sophisticated inbound marketing platform with a social media interface harvesting a robust collaborative culture. The entrepreneurs of the Markethive community have been using the free system and tools, promoting their businesses, and branding themselves across the internet with much success. 

With the advent of Blockchain technologies, Markethive set its path on an unprecedented journey of combining marketing, social media, digital broadcasting, e-commerce, gamification, etc., with cryptocurrency and decentralized Blockchain, distributed ledger technology. An ongoing project of massive proportion to deliver sovereignty, financial and self, and freedom of self-expression for all equitably, without bias. 

Markethive is a Vision from the Divine Source. Its mission is to fill the vacuum for the world's entrepreneurs – To empower and enrich the lives of every individual on every level across the globe. And the timing couldn’t be more perfect as we witness the soul-less destruction, tyranny, and surveillance of humanity gift wrapped and delivered to us as protection and for our own good. 

We are building an ecosystem, and there’s an absolute need and use for our coin (HVC) for everything we do; therefore, the potential for the open market to accept and embrace HiveCoin is very promising. Binance has done similar to what Markethive is doing. You can read about its rise to success as an ecosystem in this article.   https://markethive.com/group/marketingdept/blog/theriseofbinanceakintothemarkethivejourney

 

Wallet In Final Draft Mode

The Markethive web wallet is in the final draft mode and has various functionalities. It’s currently being built on Ethereum and is a mechanism that has been developed from scratch to service the needs of the community. This is Markethive’s internal wallet, with the end goal of a wallet app accessible from your smartphone (external wallet) that includes built-in messaging, news feeds, e-commerce, and security measures. 

Notably, active Entrepreneur One members will be the first phase of receiving the initial internal wallet upon release. It’s also important to note that the Entrepreneur One membership will no longer be available when the wallet launches. 

If you're considering taking advantage of all the benefits of the E1 upgrade for $100 monthly, which includes 1/10 of an ILP per year, go to the Membership Upgrade tab on your home page. Time is running out for this offer. Entrepreneur One Upgrade Explained.
 
Click here to learn more about the ILP (Incentivized Loan Program)

 

The Vault Has A New Home

Apart from documenting your reports, history, balances, and transfers of HVC, ETH, and other top altcoins, the Markethive wallet will display a live chart tracking the progress of the HVC value in real-time. Your HiveCoin balance total is shown, including the HVC you have staked, which means what you have deposited into the Vault and rewards you with additional HVC also displayed, thereby increasing your portfolio. 

The wallet also houses the Vault, which displays your Markethive Credits, subscriptions, and statements. The Vault, already in operation within the Markethive back office, is where you currently purchase Markethive Credits to pay for your subscriptions and various services; however, all the functions of the Vault are being upgraded and are accessible in the wallet, so it’s fundamentally a comprehensive economic center for the Hive.

The image below is a mock-up of the internal wallet to get an idea of what’s coming. 

 

What Are Markethive Credits?

A Markethive Credit is similar to a stable coin and is what generates all of the activity. One Markethive Credit = $1usd. These credits can be purchased through the Vault section of the wallet via Bitcoin, Ethereum, credit/debit card, or Paypal.  

You can pay for anything through the Vault such as the Banner Advertising Impressions, the Boost, Press Releases, and Sponsored Articles, gaming activities, and more as these services are implemented and introduced into the Markethive system.
Your Vault credit can be used to buy ILPs and future upgrades that will unlock extra services and incentives. These will follow once the wallet is launched. 

 

Better Than A Bank Account

Utilizing the Vault by having an ongoing threshold balance of Markethive Credits can be very lucrative. In other words, keeping a certain amount in the Vault above your monthly commitments (subscriptions) that are debited will award you compound interest paid in HVC of up to 5% and deposited directly into your CoinClip or Wallet. 

 

How Is the Interest Calculated?

Markethive releases coins into the market, in contrast to mining, via Airdrops, Bounties, Faucets, or Micropayments. Keeping a designated threshold of Markethive credits in the Vault is a form of staking. Staking generates interest, meaning you are paid additional HVC based on how many coins you hold and your other activities in Markethive.

Your Hive Rank score adds to your daily interest and can be a significant multiplier. Your CoinClip Score is determined by the spread of earned and current balance of HVC. Essentially, if you send coins out of the system, you lower your score for staking. If you bring coins into the system, you increase your score. 

ILPs count as coins, so buying ILPs can significantly increase your staking rewards. Upgrading your membership adds to your staking interest, and logging in every day is rewarded with an additional interest increase.

Transferring any chosen amount of HiveCoin, HVC, from your wallet into the Vault for a set time period (e.g., 30 days) will earn interest also. Essentially, you are staking those delegated coins, and the higher the balance of staked coins, the more interest earned. You can choose to keep it in the vault and accumulate or transfer it to your wallet for transactional purposes. 

 

Image source: Fool.com What Is Crypto Staking

What Is Staking In The World Of Crypto? 

Staking is a way to put your crypto to work and earn rewards on it. Staking in general crypto terms is how many of the cryptocurrency blockchain projects verify their transactions, allowing participants to earn rewards on their holdings. 

Staking simply stands for holding a delegated amount of cryptocurrency in your wallet for a fixed period and is integral to the Proof of Stake protocol and a way of supporting the blockchain of a cryptocurrency in which you’ve invested.

Staking is available with cryptocurrencies that use the proof-of-stake model to process payments. This is a more energy-efficient alternative to the proof-of-work model, which requires mining devices that use computing power to solve mathematical equations.

 

Staking – The Markethive Way

In the case of the Markethive, the Vault section of your wallet is where you can stake the coins you hold and is an easy and passive way to earn income. The rewards and interest that one gains from staking vary depending on the length of the time, the amount of HVC staked, and Hive Ranking. 

Because Markethive includes the Markethive Credit threshold balance in its staking protocol, it would be advantageous for you to keep it above the threshold along with an increasing Hive Rank enabling you to earn the maximum amount of interest. The Vault will notify you if you go below the threshold. 

By buying or earning HiveCoin and banking it in the Vault, you are essentially burning the coin, and it is a good thing, as explained in this article on how Markethive creates coin velocity. There are many ways to burn crypto coins which is advantageous to the wealth and health of the currency. 

In this instance, to burn the HiveCoin means pulling the coin out of the marketplace and staking or holding it in the Vault, so there’s less supply. The less supply, the greater the demand, which in turn increases the price of the coin. 

So there are three types of currency in Markethive. The HiveCoin, (HVC), the ILP Tokens, and the Markethive Credits. And remember that the Markethive Credits are always equivalent to $1usd of which you buy products and services. Keep in mind the more you use the vault, the higher the interest rate. The more you use the system, the higher the interest rate. 

The four facets scored for stake interest are Hive Rank, Coin Clip score, Loyalty Level, and Attendance Bonus as illustrated in the schematic below. Also, total interest is paid on both your vault balance and coin clip, or wallet balance, and the interest on this combined total is paid at the end of each month. 

 
CEO of Markethive, Thomas Prendergast, reported in a recent email to all in the Markethive community, 

“The wallet is in its final draft and design. How long this can take is still to be determined, but we already have a working wallet. When the interface is completed, then we will announce the wallet to be released. I don’t easily get excited, but this has me rather anxious as this is a major milestone of the many milestones we have reached.”

 

Meanwhile, Two New Systems Implemented 

Two other vital upgrades were accomplished this week: 

1. New registration and login system. 
2. Markethive support ticket portal. 

Markethive’s registration and login system is now owned and operated by Markethive. This is important as we now do not have to rely or depend upon 3rd parties such as Oneall Login API Services. 

You choose which email networks you would like to log in with, and the ability to log in with your domain email will be integrated. When logging in with the new system for the first time, enter your email or username. The system will recognize you have an account and send an email with a link to log in initially.

Once logged in, go to Login Networks in your settings and add the other networks displayed. There will be more added as we move forward. 

The social networks you have linked to your Markethive account are now for remote broadcasting only with the added advantage of the bounty program that is in the works. This means you will be rewarded for registering all your separate accounts through the Markethive platform and by subscribing and following the many Markethive social media accounts will qualify you for the Infinity Bounty Program. 

Markethive Ticket Support is now active. This system enhances personalization, keeps records and information on all tickets you generate. You can upload documents and prioritize your queries, streamlining the support process. 

Ticket support can be found at the far right on the blue bar on the Home page. Fine-tuning to this system is still required, so your feedback when using the ticket support will be much appreciated. 

Now, our Telegram Support Channel can become a support for the Markethive community. It will be a place where people can ask questions or seek assistance from other Markethive associates about anything they may need help with—Eg., uploading a video, etc. 

These two new implementations make Markethive a more independent force, galvanizing its armor protecting its community from the oligarchs’ control and oppressive antics where many have fallen victim. Markethive – A sanctuary from the world chaos and storm that is brewing with intensity. 

Come to our Sunday meetings at 10 am MST as we approach massive major upgrades and be the first to know about it. See and hear explanations, ask questions, and witness the ever-evolving technology and concepts of Markethive as we stay one step ahead of tyrannical technocrats.  The link to the meeting room is located in the Markethive Calendar. See ya there.

 

 

The Latest Report On CBDCs. A Dystopian Nightmare!

Cryptocurrencies’ continued adoption puts pressure on governments worldwide, and their reckless money printing has only added fuel to the fire. Now they're rushing to develop their Central Bank Digital Currencies before it's too late. In a previous article, I explained how the implementation of CBDCs could well be part of the great reset plan. Today, we’ll explore a recent report, revealing what features CBDCs will have, how governments plan on rolling them out, and what implications this could have for cryptocurrency. 

The report was composed by the Bank for International Settlements or BIS, which is fundamentally the bank for central banks. Its primary role is to facilitate coordination between central banks around the world. Over the last few years, the BIS has been devising a template for Central Bank Digital Currencies or CBDCs to be issued by their respective central banks. 

It must be stated that CBDCs are not cryptocurrencies by any standards. This is because CBDCs are centralized, permissioned, and offer very little or no privacy. They are entirely controlled by central banks and the governments to which they are accountable. Almost every Central Bank is working on a CBDC of its own, and seven of these central banks have been actively helping the BIS construct a CBDC template. 

These are the United States Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of Canada, and the Swedish Central Bank. In October 2020, these seven central banks and the BIS published the first of many reports about what and how CBDCs will look. The second CBDC report came out on September 30th, 2021, and contains even more details about what CBDCs will look like. 
It's divided into a three-part system;

1. Design and interoperability.pdf 
2. User needs and adoption.pdf 
3. Financial stability implications.pdf 

The authors provided a short six-page summary.pdf of their three-part CBDC report, and there are a few interesting points in the summary, which were seemingly not mentioned in the three sections of the report. 

The very first thing worth pointing out is the most important, and that's everything you read here applies to a public or retail CBDC. Now, this is a small but insanely significant detail because central banks, governments, and select institutions will use their own so-called wholesale CBDCs. A wholesale CBDC template is also being worked on, but one blatantly obvious thing is that regular folks like us will use a completely different digital currency to the people in power.  

Source: https://voxeu.org/article/central-bank-digital-currency-concepts-and-trends

Another concerning detail quoted at the end of the first page of the report summary is, “CBDCs would be likely to have wide-ranging impacts on public policy issues beyond a central bank's traditional remit.” 

This seems to imply that CBDCs will be used to enforce public policy mandates in all other areas of our lives, not just the financial aspect. 

Adding to that, as quoted in the screenshots below, “different users and needs would need to be defined and addressed in the system’s design.” 

And also, “Central banks might consider measures to influence or control CBDC adoption or use. This could include measures such as access criteria for permitted users,” …] 

This suggests that even retail CBDCs will have different rules for different groups of people. 

 

How Will CBDCs Be Designed? 

Much of how CBDCs will be designed has to do with the current financial intermediaries’ roles in such a system. For starters, the report states, “Central banks would be the only entities entitled to issue and redeem a CBDC and would bear the ultimate responsibility for the design of the CBDC system and the operation/oversight of the core Ledger.” 

Although central banks could theoretically cut out all existing financial intermediaries, the report stresses the importance of partnering with the private sector simply because the central bank can't possibly recreate, much less maintain the same infrastructure on its own. 

Below is an image of what the financial system looks like now in most countries, 

Source: Coin Bureau

And the image below is what a CBDC-based financial system would look like, according to the report. As you can see, the exact role each party plays here is not entirely clear. Still, the report notes that “if the central bank were to play a too operational or dominant a role in the ecosystem, private intermediary participation could be curtailed with a reduction in the diversity, innovation, and efficiency of the system.”

Given that private financial intermediaries will be a part of the picture, CBDCs will need to be interoperable internationally and domestically with their existing infrastructure. But, because this will likely cause many technical issues, the report recommends limiting the number of financial intermediaries that are allowed to operate. 

Also, the report states approval processes for new intermediaries or specific services and strong oversight could help mitigate technical issues. Meaning, the central bank will decide exactly which financial intermediaries are allowed to operate. 

 

Privacy Issues

When it comes to privacy, it states total anonymity is not possible as central banks would design CBDC Systems to meet anti-money laundering and combat the financing of terrorism requirements. 

Supposedly, our data will be safe because the central bank would have no commercial interest in end-user data and may be better placed than a commercial entity to commit to a minimal use of such data. 

The report also brings up the infamous travel rule put in place by the FATF, which means that every CBDC  transaction above a certain amount would be automatically tracked. 

 

Interoperability

The next part of the report briefly touches on the interoperability requirement for CBDCs and notes that the essential foundation of interoperability would be standardization, which would allow compatibility. 

The report’s last mention of interoperability is that a CBDC could be introduced with an explicit policy goal to catalyze a migration of national standards to an internationally promoted standard.  In other words, CBDC standards will be Global.

 

What Is Their Strategy For Global Acceptance?

The BIS and central banks know that the public may have trouble understanding or accepting their new monetary system, as mentioned below, but they have a plan on helping us “ordinary people” understand. 

It starts by outrightly admitting that the main reason why central banks are developing CBDCs is because of cryptocurrency adoption, stating that, “without continued innovation and competition to drive efficiency in a jurisdictions payment system, users may adopt other less safe instruments or currencies potentially leading to economic and consumer harm.” 

Ironically the report acknowledges that “technological innovation has been transforming the markets for retail payments at pace over recent years, with many new payment methods platforms and interfaces evolving to become faster, cheaper, and safer.” 

The logical conclusion of this kind of statement would be to allow this kind of payment innovation to continue, but apparently, the BIS and its banker cohorts believe this is better done differently. 

In this section of the report.pdf, it outlines the three ways by which CBDC adoption can be achieved by;

1. Fulfilling unmet user needs
2. Achieving network effects
3. Not requiring everyone to buy a new computer or phone

The report detailed how CBDCs exactly fulfill unmet user needs, and according to the BIS, the main selling points are security, low cost, high liquidity, programmability, and privacy. The report then starts to detail some more manipulative ways of achieving CBDC adoption. Namely, “incentivize consumer use of CBDC by dispersing, social benefits and transfers to individuals in CBDC” and “allowing consumers to pay their taxes in CBDC.” 

The report also provides a formula for various CBDC marketing campaigns targeting consumers with different pain points and needs. The funny thing is that one of these consumer archetypes in their category is a person “who does not want commercial banks to know his or her Identity or track his or her spending.” So naturally, the best solution to this issue is to give all that information directly to the central bank instead. 

 

What Are The Financial Stability Implications? 

The next section of the report is the financial stability implications of a CBCD and is where cryptocurrency is first acknowledged. The report notes that “stablecoins are only just starting to be developed, and will need to satisfy regulators that they are safe.” It would seem they missed the memo that stablecoins have been around for years and their users know which ones are safe and which ones are less safe. 

Then the report goes on and makes a ridiculous claim which is believed to be categorically false by the crypto savvy, “Unlike central banks, issuers of stablecoins are not bound by principles to design products that would coexist and interoperate with other forms of money or to promote ongoing innovation and efficiency.” 

In the crypto space, it’s common knowledge that stablecoins like USDT and USDC are available on more than a dozen different blockchains. It's in the BIS and central banks’ economic interest to be as interoperable as possible. Stablecoins are literally leagues ahead in interoperability terms of any CBDC. Even Visa has managed to test USDC as part of its payment infrastructure. 

Source: Techcrunch

Then, the truth is revealed when the report states, “Significant stablecoin adoption and the potential consequent fragmentation could result in excessive market power and the type of deposit disintermediation described as a risk for CBDC issuance.” 

This statement officially confirms that central banks see stablecoins as a risk to a central bank digital currency rollout. They're also hyper-aware that “the actual introduction of CBDCs could be some years away. In the interim, providers of private money and tokens are expected to continue developing and expanding their service offerings.” 

Because the central banks can't possibly catch up, they can only slow stablecoins down through regulation, and we see more news of crackdowns and reviews in recent headlines.  

Although the next part of the report is quite technical, many astute crypto enthusiasts’ interpretation is that central banks know that CBDCs can't compete with stablecoins because they can't offer the same yields on savings found in Defi. Yields are something that wealthy investors and institutional investors crave, and their influence could protect stablecoins from harsh regulations.  

The third section of the BIS report is where things get really interesting. Besides the fact that the projected adoption of CBDCs in G20 countries is between 4% and 12%, CBDCs could pose a considerable threat to the financial system via the banks. 

To understand why we must go back to when the stock market started crashing in the lead up to the Great Depression. People scrambled to withdraw all their money from their bank accounts, only to find that their banks didn't have their money because it had all been lent out. 

The bank runs caused the banking sector to collapse, which ultimately caused the Great Depression. The FDIC was created shortly afterward to ensure that banks always had enough cash on hand to ensure bank runs could never happen again. 

However, the BIS report highlights that a CBDC would be seen as a safe haven by many investors during a crisis. It is suggesting that investors would move their money out of the banking system and into the central bank. 

This would lead to a collapse of the banking system like it did a hundred years ago. Even if this collapse doesn't happen, the report admits that in a CBDC system, “a common theme is that maintaining bank profitability levels could be challenging.” 

The report gives a series of recommendations for how private banks could mitigate the loss and risk of potential collapse, and some consider them laughable, at the very least.

One aspect particularly stands out of all the report’s side effects a CBDC could have on the banking system. It states, “the introduction of a CBDC by the central bank could cause a reduction in commercial bank deposits, which would consequently translate into more expensive credit lines.”

In other words, CBDCs could make loans more expensive, which means it could become next to impossible for the average person to buy a house or other valuable assets. You could say it's almost like "you’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy."

Notably, the same run on the bank risk exists with stablecoins, and you could argue that it's already begun as the $130+ billion in the stablecoin market cap came from bank balance sheets. 

After highlighting these risks and others, such as CBDCs potentially replacing government bonds, as the primary safe-haven asset among investors, the report explains how central banks can use their omnipotence to prevent these scenarios from playing out. 

Quote, “quantity-based safeguards would restrict the use of CBDC, through imposing hard limits on the transfers and or holdings of CBDC.”  It also states, “Limits could also be applied varyingly for different CBDC account holders.” Better yet, quote, “Such limits could be imposed on a permanent basis or on a transitional basis.” 

In other words, if the economy starts crashing and everyone runs to CBDCs to protect their wealth, the central bank will prevent them from doing that to prevent the crash, with no regard for investors. 

The BIS report concludes that a material shift from bank deposits to CBDC if the holdings of CBDCs by individual users were left unconstrained, could have a non-trivial long-term impact on bank lending and intermediation. 

 

What Is The Likely Outcome?

As terrifying as this BIS report is, it reveals just how difficult it will be to roll out such a dystopian system and arguably next to impossible. This is simply because there's no way to introduce a CBDC without eating into the bottom line of the banks and financial intermediaries. They would sooner side with crypto than let that happen, and some would suggest that this could be the outcome of introducing a CBDC.

There is also no way on God’s earth that the average person would adopt a CBDC without being forced, and the moment someone starts to use force to mandate something and claim it is good, it becomes clear that it's not. This begs the question of why central banks would go through all this trouble to create what is likely to be an abysmal payment method. 

Many would argue the answer is that this isn't their actual goal, and the evidence is easily found in the design of what they're building. CBDCs are nothing short of a tool for total control, and every single stated benefit and feature only exists to entice people into this totalitarian scheme.

As the report admitted, there are already numerous financial technologies that can do everything CBDCs can and more. Most of these financial technologies have come from cryptocurrency, and it’s odd that the report didn't mention any cryptocurrencies besides stablecoins. 

It also didn't mention the word blockchain either. It may be that the BIS doesn't want to draw any more attention to cryptocurrencies. What is the likelihood of any of the governments that read the report getting the idea of adopting Bitcoin as El Salvador did? Other countries are likely to follow suit, especially since it's much easier to plug into a financial system that's been proven to be secure and reliable rather than build a new one from the ground up. 

It looks like they won't have any other choice either because fiat currencies are losing value and credibility by the minute. However, this might actually be what the central banks want though. After all, the only way they could possibly convince anyone to adopt their CBDCs is if their existing fiat currencies are worthless. Even then, the crash could happen much quicker than they anticipated, and their CBDCs are far from being ready to fill that void. 

It may sound a little crazy, but we could end up with a scenario where the only kind of money left with any value is select cryptocurrencies and China's digital yuan (e-CNY). I think we all know which one the global majority would choose.

So while politicians and bankers “fluff around,” trying to implement their new financial system, we can do our part in adopting credible cryptocurrencies and emerging projects that tower over any technology the central banks come up with, especially in the case of decentralization autonomy and privacy. Systems that will have a positive impact on “We the people” not only financially, but also socially and professionally. 

 

A special thank you for valuable insights and research performed by Coin Bureau

Also published on Before It’s News – https://beforeitsnews.com/economy/2021/10/the-latest-report-on-cbdcs-a-dystopian-nightmare-3044898.html

 

Evergrande – A Potential Global Contagion. Will It Impact Crypto?

There have been major headlines, and a lot of talk and speculation concerning the Chinese developer, the Evergrande Group, and its demise and potential collapse it is facing. Could we be on the verge of another Lehman Brothers moment? An uncontrolled default of the Evergrande group could lead to a credit crunch, implicating all financial markets globally. But what about crypto?

 

Chinese Property Bubble

Before we discuss Evergrande, let’s look at the Chinese property bubble. It has, after all, provided the ingredients for this company to become so systemic. To say that the Chinese property market is in a bubble is an understatement. It's been so hot recently that off-plan units sell out online in minutes. 

For example, in March of last year, 288 apartments in a new Shenzhen development sold out in less than eight minutes. A few days later, an additional four hundred units sold out in record time. 

People are legitimately willing to fork out upwards of $100,000 immediately just to have the opportunity to buy a property 2 to 3 years from now. One of the main reasons the Chinese property market has been exploding at such a pace is that property is seen as one of the primary forms of investment in the country. 

When compared to their western counterparts, Chinese citizens own more property than they own bonds or stock. In China, at least 96% of urban households own at least one home. In the US, however, that number is closer to 65%. 

Furthermore, statistics reveal that $900 billion a year was invested into the property market at the peak of the US property boom. Currently, there is $1.4 trillion being invested in Chinese property. However, in recent years, buying property in China has been more about speculation than investing. 

They've been investing in property mainly because of their belief that prices will always go up. This belief, of course, is a self-fulfilling prophecy that we've seen on many occasions, including back in the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. 

The graph below shows the annual residential real estate investment in China versus in the US. As indicated, the Chinese bubble has grown and grown. Even the 2008 financial crisis did nothing to that demand, and it kept on climbing throughout. 

However, much like 2008, this Chinese property bubble is not being built on savings. There is a lot of debt being taken out to buy these homes. For example, from 2010 to 2019, China accounted for 57% of the total increase in household borrowing compared to the US, which only accounted for 19%. 

It's not only the fact that this debt-fueled property bubble is systemically dangerous, but it's also leading to massive increases in the cost of living. Interestingly, in an upmarket area of Tianjin with a population of about 15 million, apartments cost around $836 per square foot, which is around the exact cost of the most expensive areas in other parts of the world, where the disposable income is seven times more than in Tianjin. 

This property boom has not gone unnoticed by the Chinese Communist Party, and it has become increasingly worried about this speculation.  General Secretary of the CCP, Xi Jinping, stated that “housing is for living in, not for speculation.” But they're in a catch-22 situation here; Given that so many people have their net worth tied up in housing, if the government were to try and deflate that bubble, it could lead to social unrest, and that is not something you’d want in a one-party state or anywhere else, for that matter. 

It's kind of a weird symbiosis where the CCP is happy to let the property market continue its growth provided it keeps the people happy, which has been the case. But eventually, as has happened with any number of asset bubbles in the past, when the ingredients that first drove the bubble and are no longer there, you have an epic crash. 

Who And What Is Evergrande?

Evergrande is one of the largest property developers in China. It was established in 1996 in the southern city of Guangzhou and has grown at a breakneck pace ever since.  Its founder, Hui Ka Yan, was at one point the richest man in China as he steered Evergrande through that Chinese property boom. In 2009 the company did an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and raised almost $1 billion.

The firm owns more than 1,300 projects in over 280 cities across China to give you an idea of just how prominent this developer is. It's also a massive employer in the country. It employs over 200,000 people, and if we include all the people who work on its projects as contractors or subcontractors, that figure expands to over 3.8 million. 

But the company had ambitious goals and always wanted to expand beyond just property. It decided that it wanted to diversify into several different sectors and business units heavily. In some cases, these were as far from its core competency as they could be and included building electric cars, food and beverage businesses, bottled water, and dairy products. 

In 2010, the company bought a soccer team and also built a soccer school. It also had aspirations of building a 1.7 billion dollar soccer stadium in Guangzhou, where this team could play. Evergrande has recently laid out ambitions to build museums, theme parks, a health chain, and even into the financial services business by offering people wealth products. 

Image by The Civil Engineer

These lofty ideas to branch out from residential real estate would have been quite feasible if Evergrande could fully fund this expansion, but the sad reality is that the bulk of this expansion has come due to piles and piles of debt. $300 billion, to be exact. 

 

Building Purely On Debt

This debt burden has made Evergrande the most indebted property developer globally, and this sobering fact has come back to bite the company. In its rapid expansion over the last few years, Evergrande has taken on all forms of debt. These include the likes of bank loans, bonds, and international dollar bonds. 

However, one of the most common forms of debt that it's taken on is commercial paper. To clarify, this is shorter-term unsecured debt such as IOUs and other payables. It's an interest-bearing note that large banks or corporations typically issue to meet short-term financial obligations. 

Evergrande issued this commercial paper to all suppliers and contractors who worked on its projects. It was given as a substitute for cash and viewed as very secure. So secure that these very suppliers and subcontractors used the Evergrande commercial paper as a method to pay their suppliers, Etc. 

So, Evergrande commercial paper was essentially transformed into a quasi currency that people viewed as legitimate, despite being literally unsecured debt. This practice of using commercial paper to fund operations is not exclusive to Evergrande, but it has been one of the most prolific issuers. 

Then when it comes to more traditional forms of debt, Evergrande has taken out billions in bank loans from many Chinese Banks. Last year, Evergrande reported total bank and other borrowings of around $107.4 billion. This debt would have been all well and good if Evergrande had been able to pay it back. 

However, Evergrande’s bottom line has been deteriorating over the past couple of years. In 2020, Evergrande’s operating income was down 75% two years prior, plus there was also a fall in gross margin. The chart below shows how precipitous that fall in revenue has been, courtesy of Ming Zhou on Twitter. 

So what all that means is that Evergrande has even less below-the-line income to pay interest on its outstanding debt, let alone the principle. This realization has come to a head, and the company publicly admitted, a few months ago, that it may not be able to service all of its debt. Banks in China have started freezing Evergrande deposits to keep some collateral for paying back these loans. 

 

Default Is On The Cards

Of course, the international financial markets have taken notice. S&P has downgraded Evergrande’s dollar bonds from CCC to CC, with a negative outlook, and raised the chances of a debt restructuring or default. Fitch also downgraded Evergrande and its subsidiaries.

The markets have also reacted as bonds trading near par back in May are now trading at close to 30 cents on the dollar. This shows that these bond investors think that a default is on the cards. It's not just the debt market that's taking a hit, though. Evergrande shares have been on a sustained decline over the past few months, and they're already down 80% this year. 

Notably, Evergrande has not only issued a great deal of commercial paper to its suppliers and lenders. It has also taken money in deposits from close to 1.5 million people. These are people who put down these deposits hoping that they would one day buy some property from the developer.

This begs the question; if this company is so essential to the Chinese real estate sector and it's teetering on the brink, why doesn't the Chinese government bail it out? After all, they are a centrally planned economy, and they have the final say. 

Answer; the Chinese government has taken a hard line on leverage in the property development sector. A few years ago, it came out with directives to limit debt. These have become known as the Three Red Lines. 

These are cash on hand, the value of their assets, and equity in their businesses. Banks are required to limit real estate lending to 40% of their total under rules taking effect in January. The CCP would not want to create a moral hazard by bailing out Evergrande. If anything, it would more than likely want to make an example of the developer. 

So what all this means is that a default is not only likely but inevitable. In the case of the behemoth that Evergrande is, it may get ugly because of the contagion effect this could have across China's property sector and include its global credit markets. So there is a real risk that it won’t be contained within China; it will spread to the rest of the world, much like the 2008 credit crunch did. 

The counterparties that are at risk and Evergrande’s liabilities involve more than 128 banks and over 121 non-banking institutions, according to the letter Evergrande sent to the government late last year. Depending on how much exposure these counterparties have, there could come a situation in which they would themselves become too hot to touch. 

Let's also not forget about how much of that Evergrande commercial paper is out there. It's not well-tracked, and it has helped develop an entire quasi shadow banking system of suppliers, buyers, contractors, and counterparties. 

All of these folks have been using Evergrande paper as if it was as good as gold. There's no way a company as big as Evergrande could go bankrupt, right? 

Now, this fear of default could also spread to the other indebted property developers. Banks may become concerned about their ability to service their debts, and their commercial paper and bonds would also become toxic. 

Even if this is not the immediate result, you have a perverse situation where even the action of Evergrande trying to make good on its debt can precipitate a worse debt problem. This is because to raise funds, to settle its debt, it will have to sell assets. 

The overwhelming majority of Evergrande’s assets are property. If there is a fire sale of its properties, this could lead to a property crash and hurt everyone in the country. It would send all the property developers in the country into further, negative territory and damage the savings of all those Chinese who bet on the market. It creates a spiral where the collateral backing debt is falling in value, making everyone more indebted. 

 

Impact On International Markets – Global Contagion

This has a significant impact on international markets as there are a lot of holders of Evergrande’s debt offshore. These include asset managers, international bond funds, and other corporations. 

For example, a large bond fund called Ashmore Group, based in London, has over 400 million dollars worth of Evergrande bonds. Other asset managers that have exposure include BlackRock Inc., UBS Group,  and HSBC Holdings.  Both BlackRock and HSBC boosted their Holdings of Evergrande debt as recently as August. 

And these are only their International bonds. When it comes to the mountains of Evergrande commercial paper, no one really knows. This is a lot harder to track as these assets are not standardized securities like bonds. 

Moreover, what happens if the contagion spreads to the rest of the Chinese developers, banks, and companies? What happens if their debt cannot be paid? The risk of contagion in the Chinese property and credit markets could wreck the portfolios of these managers that hold their debt. And that's just the debt side. 

We should not forget that these Chinese developers, banks, and companies have publicly traded equity on International markets such as the Hang Seng or Shanghai stock exchanges. If these were to tank as they did with Evergrande, it could further hurt international portfolios. 

 

Impact On The Cryptocurrency Market

What about the crypto market? In times of market stress, we’ve learned that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies assets have a pretty strong correlation with equity markets and are not entirely isolated from what’s happening on the global macro front. We saw this play out last year during the covid-inspired crash. We also saw it happen numerous times over the past few months with concerns about potential Fed tampering.

It could be that large fund asset managers and institutions based out in Asia may have to sell their Bitcoin holdings to cover the losses that they hold in shares or debt of these developers. Or maybe the situation in which retail investors in China have to sell their crypto holdings to settle their debt. Even though the Chinese government has been trying to prevent its citizens from holding crypto, it hasn't fully succeeded as Bitcoin traders in China still wield enormous influence. 

Bitcoin is an asset that faces the same risks in the short term from global financial contagion. 

Image and related Article by Cointelegraph.com

However, one other factor unique to the crypto markets and has been drawn into the Evergrande saga is Tether. There are concerns that the controversial stable coin issuer, Tether, could be quite exposed to Evergrande. These suspicions have arisen due to a disclosure that the company hoped would temper the FUD and not add to it. 

That disclosure is the attestation report.pdf issued by Moore Cayman a few months ago, giving a breakdown of the reserves backing up USDT, stating 50% of its reserves were held in commercial paper and certificates of deposit. That equates to $30 billion.

One question comes to mind:  Why does Tether have so much commercial paper? Well, there are two possible reasons. One is that it likes to earn interest on this commercial paper, and the other is that there are very few banks that would be willing to hold $30 billion in cash and cash equivalents or Tether. 

The question that many have been asking is whether Tether has any Evergrande commercial paper. Ever since this speculation has come to light, Tether has emphatically denied holding any Evergrande commercial paper. 

If it were the case, it would mean that the reserves are not fully backed because all that commercial paper would be worth a lot less. Even if it were only a tiny component of the commercial paper, the knowledge that USDT is not 100% backed by assets would create a great deal of uncertainty around holding USDT. 

So, why does this matter for the crypto markets? Well, because Tether remains one of the essential components for Bitcoin liquidity. On many offshore exchanges, it is the stable coin pairing of choice as indicated on Coinmarketcap. USDT trading volume stands at $56 billion per day. It is 28X more than the next-in-line USDC shown on the chart below. 

Image CoinMarketCap

So, quite simply, if there is a crisis of confidence in Tether, this trading volume could dry up. People would be reluctant to use Tether to trade, creating a systemic liquidity crisis in crypto. 

The goal of this article is not to cause FUD. It’s to create awareness of a risk that is not being adequately considered. Whether we see a full-blown financial crisis due to an Evergrande default is not clear as yet. It all depends on whether the Chinese government will come to its aid. A complete bailout by the Chinese government is the only thing that could help stave off the contagion. 

But on the other hand, if the CCP does assist, it creates a perverse incentive where developers will think that the rules don't apply to them when they binge on debt. This is precisely what happened on Wall Street in the wake of the financial crisis. So right now, the CCP is stuck between a rock and a hard place. 

Optimism Remains Prevalent In The Crypto Markets

Despite all of the short- to medium-term risks an Evergrande default poses, there is good reason to remain optimistic about crypto in the long run. Fundamentally, nothing has changed, and external factors are beyond our control. Even if there is a situation that snares Tether, it could help to serve the long-term stability of the crypto markets. 

Tether Inc. has been at the center of controversy and FUD for years and is reportedly not particularly transparent. Many crypto enthusiasts would love to move to a reality where this FUD is no longer in the picture. If ever there was a crisis in confidence of Tether, it could lead to a legion of long-term hodlers. People would be reluctant to convert to stable coins, including USDC. 

Either that or they would convert their BTC holdings into other cryptocurrencies, which benefits the ecosystem holistically. The future is still bright for many cryptocurrencies with purpose and utility. Ultimately, this could lead to a new financial operating system and be needed to sidestep any debt-based or quasi currency. 

 

 

Resources: Coin Bureau

Also published on Before It’s News
https://beforeitsnews.com/financial-markets/2021/10/evergrande-a-potential-global-contagion-will-it-impact-crypto-3385095.html

 

Who Will Triumph In These Dark Times? Markethive – An End Times Project

We live in uncertain times, prophesied as the end times and reflected in the Book Of Revelation, with catastrophic events impacting society on every level. With the global economy in free fall and increased surveillance, our privacy, freedom, autonomy, and in many cases, people’s livelihoods are confiscated by the reigning tech giants with no regard for humanity, freedom of expression, and basic human rights. 

Canceling the people brave enough to broadcast their message of corrupt officials, cover-ups, and expose those responsible for the global chaos we are all experiencing and have fallen victim to. It’s all part of a greater awakening and the fall of the cabal. 

Many scholars still see the Book Of Revelation as an enigma and difficult to understand fully. But, as pointed out by an individual not known for his extensive biblical knowledge, he understood it to mean “We win in the end.” Although simplified, there is an obvious truth to this interpretation.  

The number of people appalled at where things are headed who wish to preserve human sovereignty and freedom grows daily. Our opportunity is here, right now, to make a difference together. While the cliques are still on the offensive, busy upholding their biased agenda and wielding their so-called power to oppress humanity’s self-expression, we can elude this evil and determine our future on our terms. 

Markethive – An End Times Project

So we don’t just wait in the hope of salvation. We get on with doing whatever is in our power to do. Markethive is an end-times project delivered to thwart those who hope to profit to an obscene degree from an end of human health and freedom. Built by the people, for the people, Markethive is a robust entrepreneurial community of those who wish to preserve a human society dedicated to spiritual and political freedom and prosperity for future generations.

As with many newly created systems, awareness, understanding, and mainstream adoption take time; however, the recent worldly events have certainly accelerated things on two fronts; 

1. The decentralized concept of Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies as a new monetary system.

2. The emergence of sovereign platforms like Markethive with independent cloud systems to circumvent      the repressive, unconscionable conduct of the social media elite and service provider giants, including      AWS, Apple, and Aweber. 

A growing number of people, aspiring entrepreneurs, and critical thinkers will not kowtow to the insidious actions of big tech and are part of what is causing real frustration and risk for the elite as they try to suppress and control the global populace. 

However, I believe their efforts will be thwarted, likened to the Hydra, the Greek legend of a giant multi-headed immortal monster. When one head is severed, two more will grow. 

A Flourishing Economy

At Markethive, known as the ecosystem for entrepreneurs, we are building a flourishing economy. A world within a chaotic world but not of that world, upholding self-sovereignty, freedom of speech, and liberty.

Some platforms, specific to microblogging, video, or digital media, are rising in opposition to what big tech is doing to silence the people and cover up the blatant lies and nefarious activities. However, to be completely untouchable by the tech giants, platforms need to cut all ties by owning and installing their technology, giving them the sovereignty to broadcast and be of altruistic service to the world. 

Users from all walks of life, influencers, marketers, business owners are looking for and migrating to more sovereign platforms to exercise their right to free speech along with the opportunity to improve their livelihood. Markethive is leading the way and can deliver a complete system where you will no longer have to rely on the monopolies for its services of any kind on any level.  

A Divine Vision

Markethive owns and operates on its independent servers and is underpinned by Blockchain with its Hivecoin (HVC). Due to Markethive’s infrastructure, the Markethive Consumer Coin will be one of the few cryptocurrencies that will remain strong, gathering momentum in this time of transition to a digital economy. 

Markethive is a divine vision that will thrive in these end times, driven by the community, with the velocity effect required to maximize the economy. Supply and demand within the Markethive ecosystem will result in financial sovereignty, autonomy, privacy, and peace. 

As we move forward with a digital economy, Bitcoin and purposeful altcoins will become the foundation of business. Markethive is a decentralized social media, marketing, and broadcasting network, with the imminent release of its exchange and wallet. That makes it an all-encompassing platform that is essential in these dark times of division and derision and critical for humanity’s financial health and well-being.

 

Thomas Prendergast, CEO and Founder of Markethive – and the architect of the blockchain-driven Social Market Network, has dedicated many years to building this “Ark” in anticipation of these end times. 

Giving back the autonomy and freedom of expression desperately needed to communicate and conduct any business online. With a holistic approach, Markethive enables every individual to realize their potential regardless of what is happening out there. Thomas says, 

“Amid this crisis, it’s business as usual and then some for Markethive, providing financial inclusion for all is our primary objective. The answer is Markethive’s blockchain technologies and integrated entrepreneurial ecosystem where people have privacy, autonomy, and sovereignty. They earn an income with our native crypto coin (HVC) in many different ways daily, including becoming a shareholder via the ILP, the added staking advantage of the Vault, and also profiting from the many cottage industries within the Markethive ecosystem. Essentially, it’s the community that owns Markethive and not the hierarchy". 

Transcending The Evil In The World

With God’s help, we will withstand the technocracy that is trying to enslave humanity. There is something greater than these tech giants and elitists that even they cannot control. Every thinking individual recognizes that something more prominent is taking place. 

We are spiritual beings experiencing physical reality, with many feeling trapped in the oligarchs’ agenda. A dictatorship can only exist with followers. We don’t need to go along with the obedient herd; we do have another choice. Above all, know that we can overcome all negative worldly emotions and circumstances from a spiritual foundation. 

Markethive is already in every country in the world to lift hundreds of millions of people into an environment of freedom of speech and information, financial sovereignty, and well-being. We are responsible for creating a massive army for the Lord and a foundation for the last days; The final harvest.  

 

 

The Biggest Ponzi Of All Time 

Impacting All Of Humanity

Many of us have been victims of crypto scams, and yes, they are out there in droves. We’ve all heard the comment, “Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme.” But who is saying this about the cryptocurrency that has earned the right to be the store of value for all cryptos and labeled “Digital Gold”? 

The statement is a falsehood that’s knowingly propagated by bankers and unknowingly spread by ignorant, no coiners. It’s being used as a ruse to deflect from one of the biggest and longest-running Ponzi schemes of all time. A system so fundamentally flawed that it’s flabbergasting to see that it exists to this day.  

I am, of course, talking about the fiat money system—a proverbial house of cards, where billions of sheeple seek cover. With the assistance and research conducted by Coin Bureau, we look at the matrix equivalent of the monetary red pill, and by the end of this article, you will never be able to look at that money in your wallet in the same way again.

The Inception Of Paper Money

Let’s start with a bit of a refresher course on Fiat money. Most people associate the cash in their pockets and bank accounts as Fiat money. But in reality, the concept is much broader than that. 

Money is a concept that has been around for hundreds of years. Paper money first started being issued in 1697 by the Bank of England. US dollar started hitting the scene in 1792 per the coinage act.  Before this, coins made from gold and silver were used as the monetary medium in society.

However, with the introduction of paper money, these Banks could issue bills that were easier to denominate, store and spend. They were a lot easier to be used as money. However, you always had one key thing with this centrally issued money; some reserves backed it. This was termed the convertibility of money.

You could theoretically exchange those dollars in your hand for a certain quantity of some precious metal. In most cases, this was gold. This is where the term the gold standard originated. It created a certain level of confidence among those that held it that there was particular value behind it. The money in your hands and that which was in your bank had intrinsic value. Not only that, but strict adherence to the gold standard would limit the potential for damaging inflation. 

Of course, the gold standard’s most significant advantages can be seen by some as disadvantages. This is because the money supply in the system is naturally limited by the amount of gold kept in reserves. Strict adherence to the standard can even lead to deflation which is also damaging to the economy. 

Owning Gold Deemed Illegal

The convertibility of gold was a pressing issue for FDR during the Great Depression as it limited the money supply. He issued an executive order which made owning gold illegal and required everyone to convert it into US dollars. 

He did this to set a government price for that gold that was quite inflated. This would then allow the Federal Reserve to inflate its balance sheet by over 70%. So yes, the gold standard was not ideal for these governments, but at least it kept them in check. It marked a certain degree of confidence in the value of money and, when applied correctly, could prevent hyperinflation. 

The Bretton Woods Agreement

So confident were the countries in the virtues of the gold standard that in 1944, forty-four countries signed on to what was called the Bretton Woods Agreement. Within the Bretton Woods system, all national currencies were valued in relation to the US dollar. This, therefore, made the US dollar the dominant reserve currency. The dollar, in turn, was convertible to gold at a fixed rate of $35 per ounce. So you can think of it as a quasi-gold standard still backed by gold, but indirectly. 

The Bretton Woods system had a pretty decent run until 1971. It was then that Richard Nixon committed his first impeachable offense. Nixon's termination of the convertibility of USD into gold should have sunk him before Watergate. This is because Nixon set the wheels in motion for the current Fiat money system that we know today, a glorified confidence game backed by nothing. So what exactly happened? 

Fiat, No Gold, No Intrinsic Value

In August of 1971, Nixon said that the US would “suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar into gold or other reserve assets, except in amounts and conditions determined to be in the interest of monetary stability and in the best interests of the United States.” 

Well, it turns out that that temporary suspension became permanent, and it ended any sort of Illusion that the US dollar and, by extension, 43 other currencies were backed by gold. In fact, the US dollar was backed by nothing.

From then on, money only had value because the Federal Reserve and the US government said it did. It was a piece of paper that people agreed between themselves had a specific value. It's also no coincidence that after we saw this abandonment of a form of monetary tether, we had an inflation of the monetary base. This then led to the periods of high inflation in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. 

Fiat Money Doesn’t Exist

So now we know that Fiat money does not have any intrinsic value and that it's all one big confidence game where we the people have to believe the government's promises. But the really shocking thing about this, though, is that most of the money in circulation does not actually exist. 

So what do I mean by that? To understand it better, we have to look at how money makes its way through the system. The primary method of which is Fractional Reserve Banking. This calls for a bit of an overview.

What if I told you that the money you think you have in the bank is not actually there. You see, this money has been lent out to many of the bank's other customers. And banks are allowed to do this because of the fractional reserve system. 

You give your money to the bank for safekeeping, and they turn around and use it for their own purposes. They only have to keep a certain amount of deposits related to the loans they’ve issued out. This is termed rehypothecation, and it's not only restricted to banks. It's also used by other Financial entities, such as Brokers, etc. 

In this situation, the banks are hoping that only a tiny proportion of their users will withdraw. Hence, they keep a small buffer of deposits in this case. Now, I know what you're thinking. This is incredibly risky. What happens if all the depositors come and request their money all at once? Well, then you get what is termed a bank run. And it is precisely as the name would suggest. 

When all people rush to withdraw their funds at once, the bank has a liquidity crunch, and they cannot pay out the depositors. Rumors mainly cause bank runs. If people hear that a particular bank is facing a liquidity crunch, they will rush to withdraw their funds which, of course, feeds the rumor. It's pretty scary. A bank can have no underlying issues, but the mere talk that it’s short on funds could cause everyone to withdraw simultaneously, making it a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

All Banks Are Susceptible To Bank Runs

What is disturbing about bank runs is that every single bank is susceptible. It's not only those short of liquidity but also those in a relatively strong position. All you need is one picture of a line outside a bank, and it drives the panic. Bank runs were typical during the Great Depression. People heard about one bank facing a run, so they naturally tried to rush to their bank to withdraw their funds, thereby leading to panic further.

Here's a fun fact; The bank runs prompted the formation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or FDIC. 

The federal government believed that if they guaranteed a certain amount of deposits, people would feel comfortable. While this brought stability for run-of-the-mill bank runs, you need to understand that FDIC only ensures up to 250,000 dollars in deposits. Those with balances above are still at risk of a loss. 

Many may argue that 2008 was a high-tech version of a bank-run. Financial institutions started withdrawing their deposits at highly leveraged investment banks, which led to a massive liquidity crunch. Furthermore, bank runs still take place quite regularly in other countries around the world. 

In 2008 the UK had a retail bank run on Northern Rock. Then there was the Eurozone crisis in the 2010s where bank runs plagued countries like Greece and Cyprus, so much so that the government had to limit the number of Euros that people could withdraw from the ATMs – only 60 Euros per day. 

Imagine that; you've placed your life savings in a bank account, and now you're looking to withdraw it, and the bank limits you to a measly 60 Euros a day. However, it's not like the government had a choice, as there was no more liquidity in the system. The European Central Bank decided not to further increase its Emergency Liquidity Assistance for Greek banks; they had to introduce capital control.

The Greek government was forced to immediately close Greek banks for almost 20 days, implementing controls on bank transfers from Greek banks to foreign banks and limits on cash withdrawals, to avoid an uncontrolled bank run and a complete collapse of the Greek banking system. All of this happened because the banks were built on a precarious system of fractional reserves. That’s one aspect, but it’s not the worst thing about fractional reserve banking. 

Fractional Reserve Banking

Fractional reserve banking plays a fundamental role in the multiplication of money. This reserve ratio is not determined by the Banks but by the Fed or equivalent Central Bank. It's the minimum amount of deposits they must hold in liquid securities to meet their obligations. This stock of money kept in near-term deposits is generally referred to as the M1 money supply. 

But here is where things get interesting. The M1 money supply is the money that includes coins and notes in circulation, along with other money equivalents that can easily be converted. Because the banks are allowed to lend out money to their customers, they can increase the broader money supply to many multiples of the actual money that's in the system. 

So, for example, if the reserve requirement is 5%, only 5% of the bank balance sheet should be held in this liquid money. The other 95% can be loaned out, so that means that the bank can lend out 20 times the amount of money that's kept on its balance sheet. 

This is called the multiplier effect of money and means that the broader money in the economy can be many multiples of the money that actually exists in the bank. You can think of it as a leveraged trade in a crypto position. The one difference is if things go belly up, you won't be the only one getting absolutely rekt.

This broader definition of money is termed the M2 and M3 money supply. And to give you an idea of just how much this inflates the outstanding money supply, the image below shows the M2 and M3 money supply compared to M1. The first bar shown (M1) is the only one that is actual tangible money. This was back in 2001. 

The graph below illustrates the evolution of the M1 and M2 money supply over the past few years.

It would seem that the person who drew up the graph ascertained the fact that M2 inflation mainly benefits Wall Street. Notice the spike illustrated at the top in the red box? That’s the Covid pandemic and it had a massive impact on the broader money supply. 

So why did this happen? Was it because the FED printed a lot more money? Well, yes, that is the slight uptick we see in the M1 money supply indicated at the bottom. However, this massive explosion of the M2 money supply shown above is a combination of another Factor.

You see, central banks can use the reserve requirement to impact the broader money supply. It's one of the three tools at their disposal—the other two being the federal funds rate and open market operations: bond purchases, etc. 

All the Fed needs to do to increase that money supply with the reserve ratio is lower it. This means that the money multiplier is higher the more it is injected into the economy and vice versa to contract the money supply.  

Pre-pandemic, these reserve requirements varied according to the number of net transaction accounts at the bank in question. The reserve ratio itself ranged from 3% to 10% for many years. This made sure that banks had reserves that were broadly in line with their activity. Those viewed as riskier had to hold more funds and were more restricted in effectively creating money.

However, along came the global pandemic, and that reserve ratio requirement went out of the window. On the 26th of March in 2020, the Fed dropped the reserve ratio to 0% for all banks. In other words, they eliminated any need for reserves at all. 

Now banks are not required to keep reserves to meet withdrawal requests. They can effectively loan out as much money as they want into the economy, thereby radically inflating the M2 money supply. Combine this with an insane amount of base money being printed over at the Fed, and you have that explosion in the M2 money supply. 

The Cat Is Out Of The Bag

Fun fact; Almost a fifth of all US money supply in existence was created in 10 months last year. Difficult to comprehend, right? In the entire 107-year history of the Fed printing money, all of that was printed in less than a year. That’s insane! And given that the vast majority of that is M2, it is effectively money printed out of thin air.  

Sound far-fetched? Well, how about we hear it from the horse's mouth. Here is a snippet from the infamous 60 minutes interview with Neel Kashkari, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. This is what he had to say, 

And they're not even trying to hide it. There is an unlimited amount of money that the Fed can print. They're flooding the system with money printed out of thin air. It looked as if he had a bit of an honest moment and spilled the beans. 

Let’s listen to what Jay Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve system, had to say in his 60 Minutes interview, 

So he openly admits to flooding the system with money, almost as if to say, “I can't keep this charade up anymore. You got me.” So now the lid’s been blown off this caper, the jig is up. 
However, once free money and easy credit are out there, it's pretty hard to rein them back in, at least without some economic damage. 

Also, leaving all that funny money in the system is risky because it can lead to some pretty crazy inflation levels. This is especially the case in a post covid world where an excess money supply is chasing limited goods.

For many of us, it’s becoming increasingly clear we really only use fiat money out of necessity.  And some most definitely do not park it in a bank account because they know the bank will lend it out. So how do you secure your wealth these days?

Bitcoin, The Store Of Value Fiat Wishes It Was

An ever-increasing switched-on community suggests cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is the store of value that fiat wishes it was. There are so many reasons for this, starting with the most obvious of all. Bitcoin is limited in supply. There are only ever going to be 21 million Bitcoins mined. This is a protocol-defined limit that cannot be adjusted. 

Bitcoin and prominent Altcoins are governed by code. There is no single individual or even a group of individuals that can change their limit. They also cannot change the rate at which cryptocurrency is mined. 

In the case of Bitcoin, block rewards are also protocol-defined. 6.25 Bitcoin is mined per block every 10 minutes. This block reward number also decreases at every halving event. The most recent of which was May of 2020. There's no funny business going on here. It's just that simple. 

Moreover, when you keep crypto in your own wallet, what you're effectively doing is becoming your own bank. You are the only person who can unlock your assets with your private key. 

This is quite the opposite of the example mentioned earlier with money in the bank. The bank owns those funds, and the bank does whatever it wants to with that money. It even lends it out and inflates the money supply because, well, it can!

Another reason why many prefer cryptocurrency is that it is fully transparent and immutable. That means not only can we observe the actual state of the ledger, but no entity can reverse transactions or seize your coins.

Bitcoin is the granddaddy of the crypto industry, and arguably, there’s no other asset that's a better store of value out there. Although, some people may be asking, “what about gold? There was a gold standard for a reason.” Well, the Gold versus Bitcoin discussion is an entire topic in itself. Coin Bureau goes into detail in this video.

There is a growing community thrilled to be holding their wealth in Bitcoin and many other strong Altcoins. If anyone held fiat or gold post the covid crash, it would seem they would be in a far worse position than crypto enthusiasts are right now. 

The only thing worse than the fiat money system is fractional reserve banking. The fiat system led to the creation of valueless money, and fractional reserve banking led to the uncontrolled expansion of it. What's even more concerning is that most people you speak to have no idea how money is made. All of these people use this money without having a clue as to how inherently unstable it is. 

Not only that, but they store their savings in it. They keep money in bank accounts that don't have the funds to support it. All you need is one liquidity crunch to cause a panic: a panic, which can lead to a devastating bank run. If that doesn't show people how unstable fiat is, I don't know what will. 

Steadfast Crypto Communities Delivering Economic Sovereignty Will Prevail

Actual savings requires holding money in a way that keeps pace with inflation, or even better – beats out inflation and cost of living. So there is salvation; it's the honey badger of money, the antifragile store of value that's limited in supply, censorship-resistant, and immutable. 

Strong communities exponentially growing and committed to true liberty and economic independence will succeed in creating financial ecosystems withstanding the oppressive laws and executive orders that are deemed legal only because of the current powers that be say so. It is the most significant fraud that impacts the global population of all time.   

The crypto industry has over ten years under its belt now. It is a thing, and with innovative technology rapidly increasing that will outsmart the antiquated oligarchal system. We’re beyond the hype. Cryptocurrencies are officially part of our global financial system with El Salvador being the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender. 

 

 

 

Shitcoins vs Crypto Scams. What’s The Difference? 

There are many types of scams society has fallen victim to that have been around for decades. Charity scams, insurance scams, et al. are all too common, and they are more rampant than ever now we have the internet. And as technology emerges, anyone can simply create a crypto token which opens a pandora’s box of newly defined crypto chaos. 

The cryptocurrency market has exploded since the inception of Bitcoin, with 1000s of alternative coins now listed on various exchanges. Many have earned the respect of the crypto community by applying actual use-cases with developing technologies. While prominent cryptocurrency coins display transparency, genuine utility and serve a purpose for a decentralized application or an associated blockchain, many altcoins hold no real value. 

These coins are referred to as shitcoins and have no discernable purpose, and they are often targeted towards less experienced people in an effort to exploit them. The term shitcoin is commonly used for a copy or clone of another well-known crypto, or it can be a brand new project. It’s very much based on personal opinion. 

But are all shitcoins crypto scams? Not necessarily. There are inconspicuous scams out there orchestrated by greedy evil-doers hiding behind the guise of benevolence and charity and taking advantage of the crypto craze and people’s naivety of the nascent crypto industry. I’ll touch on that later with an example. 

Importantly, any crypto with no meaningful purpose and often no genuine demand for the coin, whatever value it may generate depends on pure speculation and is considered a precarious investment. Shitcoins are digital currencies that people believe to be valuable simply because they exist. Centered around hype and shills, they are very prone to pump and dumps and rarely recover. 

The crypto projects that rely on paid shills to pump their coin or token should be viewed with immense suspicion. Why should they feel the need to create an artificial perception of demand? Does that mean that there is no genuine organic interest in the project?

On a side note; If you’re not familiar with the terminology in this article relating to the crypto industry, here is a  breakdown of the most common crypto lingo.

How Easy Is It To Identify A Shitcoin?

It is often easy to identify a shitcoin because many follow a specific pattern. When a shitcoin is first launched, the token may attract some interest, but its price remains relatively low. The low price attracts newbie investors naively thinking they’ve invested in the “next Bitcoin,” further validated by a high-profile influencer backing it for whatever reason.

As interest peaks and investors jump in, prices spike quickly. This is almost always followed by the price tanking. The sharp fall in price is caused by investors selling their coins to profit from short-term gains. Usually, these pump and dump schemes are dominated by only a few “insiders” who really know the price dynamics and know when to sell to profit. The process is often associated with shitcoins and can leave many retail investors stuck with worthless tokens.

What Is The Most Obvious Sign?

The most obvious sign of a shitcoin is a lack of a well-defined function. 

Bitcoin was built for a decentralized payment network where financial transactions are secure, trustless, and censorship-resistant. It is now classed as the store of value for cryptocurrencies.

Ether, the coin native to the Ethereum blockchain, is used to validate transactions and secure the network. 

Binance Coin, the token native to the Binance Exchange, reduces fees on the Binance platform and powers the associated Binance Chain blockchain.

ADA, the native coin to the Cardano blockchain, is used to further develop applications, Defi, smart contracts, scalability, and interoperability. 

Hivecoin, Markethive’s native currency, is used to power a decentralized social media and multi-dimensional marketing platform, sovereign from the social media and tech oligopoly.   

Shitcoins do not have such clearly defined purposes.

Discerning a shitcoin is more straightforward when looking into the background development and associated project (if one exists). 

• Is the project a copy of an already-known cryptocurrency platform? 
• Does the project have an associated whitepaper? 
• Is the whitepaper copied from a different project? 
• Does the whitepaper reveal in-depth details on the technical implementation? Or is it just hyped up with promises and emotive images?
• Is there a clearly defined and credible road map?
• Is it raising money through an ICO based on the promise of a good return but lacking product, demo, or code? 

If there are contentious answers to any of these questions, the cryptocurrency could well be a shitcoin. A whitepaper is intended to be the technical details behind a project. It is not supposed to be an easy read. When a whitepaper is overly visual and lacks technical solutions, consider that a red flag. 

Numerous examples of projects have developed a cryptocurrency for something that really did not need one at all. Let’s not forget that the future value of a utility token will come from its actual use.

Three Widely Known Shitcoins

Although subjective, here are some of the more well-known shitcoins within the cryptocurrency market:

Dogecoin (DOGE). This meme-based cryptocurrency was designed around a comical picture of a Shiba Inu dog called Doge. The coin was initially created as a joke. Much of the coin's popularity has been the result of influencer encouragement and hype.

Shibu Inu (SHIB). Following Dogecoin's success, SHIB was developed as a token simply named after the Shiba Inu dog breed. It serves no purpose and is not associated with any blockchain or decentralized application. The maximum supply of tokens was set at one quadrillion.

Safemoon (SAFEMOON). Safemoon is a Ponzi-inspired coin that punishes holders for selling. Holders are charged an additional fee by the network when they sell, which is distributed to other holders. 

As I previously mentioned, it is so easy to generate a token for any reason. This video shows you what to do, or should I say what not to do, for the sake of the future of crypto and for humanity. 

The presenter also gives you his take on Safemoon and its ICO, which may be why certain authorities have outlawed ICO’s. Initial Coin Offerings are predominantly unregulated and have been the vehicle for scams and fraud. Consequently, the SEC has deemed them as securities and restricts unaccredited investors from participating. 

Crypto Scams Can Be Difficult To Recognize 

With technology, many projects can look legitimate at face value, so it’s easy to fall for their narrative as many unsuspecting people have done only to find they’ve been scammed with no recourse. 

Crypto scams have sky-rocketed, and it doesn’t help when popular social media influencers get involved claiming to be ambassadors for the cause. Playing on people’s emotions and goodwill makes the charity sector a sitting duck for crypto scams. 

One such example was the “Save The Kids” project, and unfortunately, many didn’t see the red flags and were fooled into investing their hard-earned money into this scam. There are many scams out there, but this one takes the cake for me. The video below explains it all.   

Finally…

There is a critical shortage of quality information about cryptocurrency, with only a handful of proven experts that can explain cryptocurrency and how it genuinely works in simple terms. There are millions of people desperate for more information to benefit from this developing industry which gives the opportunists a platform and immense power to shill and cook up crypto scams that can last for months or years. 

Scammers and shills take advantage of this narrow flow of information, purporting to be crypto gurus, and mislead or fool people looking for answers with their narrative, which by enlarge is speculative, even erroneous.  

Shitcoins are risky investments that most cryptocurrency enthusiasts should avoid. For investors who love risk and know what they’re doing, shitcoins may present an opportunity to make somewhat large but short-term profits. 

And outright scams? Well, tread very carefully. Do your research before committing. Who is behind the project? Are they credible? Have they been involved in any questionable projects in the past? How long have they been involved in the blockchain space? 

With experience comes knowledge and wisdom. As the saying goes, “Fool me once; shame on you. Fool me twice; shame on me." 

 

 

 

The Divine mission of Markethive, the blockchain-driven social market network, conceptualized by the architect and founder Thomas Prendergast forges ahead. In preparation for the coming wallet, the entire engineering department has been reorganized.

SHERIDAN, Wyo. – Sept. 10, 2021 – CEO and Founder of Markethive, Thomas Prendergast, announced today he has officially taken on the role of Chief Technology Officer.

Mr. Prendergast stated that "the decision for this direction was of significant importance to ensuring expediency and efficiency. Markethive’s priority and focus are on streamlining its task force of prominent engineers to enable fluent and speedier communication, thereby increasing productivity”. 

Thomas Prendergast also said that he had "embraced the responsibilities of the CTO position in keeping with the Divine vision of Markethive. The action will expedite plans for the release of the wallet and exchange”. 

Annette Schwindt, Co-founder and System Analyst of Markethive, stated,

“Markethive has been in operation as a social media and inbound marketing platform since 2015. The company is a strong advocate for the self-sovereignty of its members. With the advent of blockchain, Markethive scaled up its operations to integrate distributed ledger technology and its native cryptocurrency in 2018. It has since relocated to sovereign servers, away from AWS and Cloudflare, creating an autonomous ecosystem for all entrepreneurs.”

“Another political development has clearly put Markethive into prominence,” Thomas Prendergast added.” and that is it has become clear that the elite and the Biden administration particularly, have unveiled their attacks on the small business and entrepreneurs and the crypto industry. This attack is increasing in intensity and occurring globally. Markethive’s part in this is to ensure our members the right to not only publish on our platform unfettered but to experience the massive ability for your posts to be broadcast across the entire planet”.

 Annette further exclaimed, “We have built Markethive for just a time like this!”

 

Thomas Prendergast CEO
https://markethive.com

 

MARKETHIVE MISSION STATEMENT 

Markethive’s Divine Mission And Vision Statement – 2021

The Divine mission of Markethive, the blockchain-driven social market network, was developed to fill the vacuum for the world's entrepreneurs. 

In an era where entrepreneurs are coming under fire and free speech is threatened, the Markethive system of powerful broadcasting and marketing tools was developed for entrepreneurs to give them a solid platform to build their sovereignty and freedom.

In Markethive, your posts aren’t deleted; they’re broadcasted.

Markethive’s commitment is to uplift our expansive community and bring forth the entrepreneurial spirit within each individual. Integrity, transparency, freedom of speech, privacy, and autonomy are inherent in our code of ethics. 

Markethive aims to continue at the forefront of emerging technology, delivering a decentralized and dynamic ecosystem, enhancing the experience of all users. (UX)

Markethive’s Divine Vision is to empower and enrich the lives of every individual and humanity on every level across the globe.

 

Welcome to Markethive

 

 

The Rise Of The DEX And Peek Into A New Financial System

DeFi (Decentralized Finance)  is a term used to cover various components and activities, including Decentralized crypto Exchanges or DEXs which are at the cutting edge of DEFI. The rapidly evolving market of the DEX allows peer-to-peer cryptocurrency transactions without the need for an intermediary.  

DeFi – A New Financial System

DeFi is a system by which financial products become available on a public decentralized blockchain network. That makes them open to anyone to use, rather than going through middlemen like banks, brokerages, and even centralized crypto exchanges.

Unlike the legacy financial institutions and centralized crypto exchanges (CEXs), the KYC/AML (Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering) protocol. These are usually government-issued ID, Social Security number, or proof of address. They are not necessary with the DeFi protocol and are welcomed by those concerned about their privacy and who cannot access valid documents.

More specifically, DeFi operates in a decentralized environment on public and permissionless blockchains, making it possible for buyers, sellers, lenders, and borrowers to interact peer to peer and use services encoded into open-source software protocols and smart contracts rather than a company or institution facilitating a transaction.

Historically, intermediaries have been the central hub acting as agents and brokers of trust, providing liquidity and security. Over the last century, the massive failings of this system, resulting in tumbling economies and the onset of a global recession, revealed a major flaw in the architecture. With the emerging technology, we can see a glimpse of a new financial services infrastructure. 

Decentralized finance uses technology to disintermediate centralized models and provides financial services on a global scale to anyone regardless of ethnicity, age, or cultural identity. It also gives users more control over their money through personal wallets and trading services that expressly cater to the individual, not institutions. 

 

Source: https://www.coingecko.com/

What Is A Centralized Exchange? (CEX) 

Since the inception of Bitcoin, coin exchanges were fundamental as the vehicle to connect buyers with sellers. These exchanges are centralized and facilitate every aspect of digital trading. On most CEXs, you must deposit fiat or cryptocurrency into an exchange-held crypto wallet before making trades. In the world of digital assets, this is called on-ramping (as opposed to off-ramping, when you withdraw and convert your crypto to fiat).

Although you can transfer your crypto to an external crypto wallet (non-custodial wallet), many users leave it in their custodial wallet managed by the exchange, so essentially you give up control of your crypto. You don’t own the private keys to your funds, which means that you ask the exchange to sign a transaction on your behalf when you withdraw. You need to trust the exchange with your money. 

Notably, in Sept. 2020, centralized exchanges accounted for approximately 95% of the crypto trading volume. CEXs function as trusted intermediaries in trades and often act as custodians by storing and protecting your private keys, and therefore your funds. Along with the cost of your independence, centralized exchanges have their challenges. 

They reside in specific geographic locations and are subject to stringent regulations. A recent example of this is Binance, which was banned from undertaking any regulated activity in the UK. Any centralized exchange can place limits and restrictions on its customer’s actions, and some have been the target of malicious attackers, hacks, and fraud. Overall, they are arguably centralized bottlenecks that stand in contrast to cryptocurrency’s open, decentralized ethos.

Centralized entities have dominated the field of crypto exchanges and are now more than ever at the behest of regulatory authorities. You know, the ones we are trying to separate ourselves from. But with the continuous evolution of technologies, decentralized exchanges are emerging as an alternative. 

 

Source: https://www.coingecko.com/

The Decentralized Exchange Approach (DEX)

DEX platforms use a different approach when facilitating the buying and selling of cryptocurrency. With no intermediary organization to clear transactions, DEXs leverage the functionality of self-executing smart contracts. Their backend exists on a blockchain, and as DEXs are non-custodial, no entity takes custody of your funds or control of your private keys.  

Since DEXs are permissionless, no one checks your identity. All you need is a cryptocurrency wallet. However, some DEXs are partially run by a central authority, so there are some legal requirements that need to be adhered to. In some cases, if the order book is centralized, the host must remain compliant.

DEXs have become more prominent today, with over 85 exchanges listed on Coingecko, offering advantages that impact custody of digital assets, diversity, transactional trust, investor privacy, and trading fees. 

 

What Are The Advantages Of A DEX?

Custody – No counterparty risk

The primary appeal of decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges is that they don’t hold customers’ funds. Being non-custodial also means you don’t relinquish control of private keys to transact. You have an external wallet that interacts with DEXs instead, where trades self-execute through smart contracts. 

This eliminates counterparty risk and breaches like the Mt. Gox hack in 2014 and, more recently, the Binance hack that has put users’ funds at risk and exposed sensitive personal information.
 
Diversity

Currently, there are over 9,000 cryptocurrencies on the market. CEXs choose the cryptocurrencies they list and generally only list those that meet the requirements. These are adequate trading activity, prevalence, and effective security standards to ensure profitability and legal compliance. 

Altcoins that aren’t listed on centralized exchanges can still be traded freely on DEXs, where peer-to-peer transactions can occur without high trading volumes. This provides a broader opportunity for engagement in digital assets and enhances financial inclusion.

Trustless Transactions 

On CEXs, every transaction is overseen and recorded by a central authority, the exchange itself. Through smart contracts, DEXs execute trades and record them to the blockchain, enabling trustless transactions. This means that the system is run autonomously by the blockchain protocol’s underlying technical architecture and consensus mechanism. 

Decentralized exchanges are distributed across a vast network of computers and governed by their stakeholders. Anyone can become a stakeholder in a crypto DEX, share in its evolution, and benefit financially from its growth. There are numerous elements foundational to the trustless nature of blockchain networks, including immutability, decentralization, transparency, censorship resistance, and neutrality.

Privacy

Investors and Traders using decentralized exchanges don’t need to disclose their private keys because wallets are held externally, and the DEX is not liable for the funds. For the same reason, users aren’t typically required to complete KYC and AML procedures when using DEXs. 

Lower Fees 

Decentralized exchanges have no intermediary and function through the use of self-executing smart contracts. Therefore, DEXs like Uniswap charge a lower fee of around 0.3%. Although these fees fluctuate in response to the network utilization, they remain far lower than the costs incurred on centralized alternatives.

 

Overcoming Obstacles

Over recent years, many decentralized exchanges have emerged and have experienced some obstacles, including limited scalability, throughput, liquidity, and usability. However, DeFi and DEX are still in the infant stages with ongoing innovation in the technology, iterating on previous attempts to streamline the user experience. 

Ethereum-based DEXs have seen increasing momentum and user adoption. New combinations of cutting-edge technology are helping later generation blockchains overcome the perceived shortcomings of earlier implementations. Cardano’s 3rd generation blockchain, DeFi platform, and Hydra technology will address the obstacles mentioned above.

The whole point of decentralized finance is to build financial services separate from the traditional financial and political system.

Interestingly, Cointelegraph recently reported the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission is very keen on understanding what is happening in the smart contract-based digital asset and DeFi landscape. Hester Peirce, Commissioner of the SEC, has warned of rampant “shadow-centralization” within the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector.

Dubbed the crypto mom, Pierce believes that DeFi founders need to ensure complete decentralization from launch to bypass financial regulation. 

“If you want to be decentralized, you really need to be decentralized, and that is going to then put you in a different category from the perspective of regulators because that’s just not something that we’ve dealt with before.”

 

The Future Of DeFi And Crypto Exchanges 

DeFi will minimize the power from large centralized organizations and put it in the hands of the open-source community and individuals. It allows for a more open financial system preventing censorship and discrimination worldwide.  

Decentralized exchanges are a solution and valid alternative to centralized entities.  Through on-chain smart contracts, DEXs provide a trustless method of connecting buyers and sellers and offer new precedents of equitable involvement and governance for stakeholders.

No banks or corporate exchanges are required. While a board of directors runs banks, DEXs are run by the “customers” themselves. With increasing momentum, we will witness a ramping up of innovation in technology throughout the entire industry. The evolution of technology will challenge the status quo and heavily align with the ethos of self-sovereignty.

 

Sources: Gemini Cryptorials, Binance

 

Stimulus Payments – How Much Went Into Bitcoin?  

What About Altcoins? Surprising Results 

Last year, we saw governments across the globe dole out billions of dollars to their citizens in an attempt to offset some of the economic impacts of the pandemic lockdowns. While that money was intended for food and rent, some of it managed to find its way into the crypto market. 

This has led many to wonder just how big of an impact all those stimulus checks, otherwise labeled Economic Impact Payments (EIP), have had on the crypto market. The United States Federal Reserve has also been wondering the same thing, so they recently published a study with surprising results and even more surprising regulatory recommendations. 

The study was conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank Of Cleveland, specifically, which is one of the 12 Regional Banks which collectively make up the Federal Reserve System in the United States. The Federal Reserve is the privately held independent entity within the US government which issues federal reserve notes, also known as US Dollars. 

 The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland differs from the other Fed branches in that it is the only one that handles collections for the US Department of the treasury. In other words, they provide the payment system that the US government uses to collect taxes and pay back government debt. This seems to include any payments made by individuals or institutions to the US government. 

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland also supports the treasury's objective of expanding the use of digital products and payment services across the federal government, as quoted on their website. It’s not surprising that many of its constituents are interested in crypto. Two of them recently released the study, Uncovering Retail Trading in Bitcoin the Impact of COVID-19 Stimulus Checks. 

In contrast to academic studies, this Fed study is technically a working paper that is circulated among all Federal Reserve officials to discuss, according to the second page of the paper. So with all this context in mind, let's take a look.

First Section Of The Study

The first section of the Fed's stimulus study lays the groundwork for the entire paper. It starts by noting that the Fed was inspired to analyze the effects of stimulus checks on the crypto market after data released by Coinbase, CEO Brian Armstrong in mid-April of 2020, featuring an image which shows that there's a massive spike in buy orders and deposits on Coinbase in the $1,200 range. 

Who Was Eligible?

As explained in the second section of the Fed study, every adult in the United States that earns less than $75K per year was eligible to receive a no-strings-attached stimulus payment for $1,200. Those making between $75K and $99K per year were still eligible to receive some, but this amount approaches zero as their income approaches the upper-income limit.

Given that the median salary in the United States is only around $36k, the vast majority of adults were eligible to receive some helicopter money, and seven out of ten received their Economic Impact Payment (EIP) by the end of May 2020. 

This totaled nearly $270 billion, which was just 10% of the over $2 trillion the CARES Act eventually pumped into the US economy. Around that time, both the stock market and the crypto Market accelerated their recoveries from the massive crash in early March, which is believed to have been caused by the World Health Organization's announcement that a pandemic was indeed upon us.

Interestingly, the rally out of the slump began long before the EIPs started being sent out. The Fed believes that the mere announcement of monetary measures was enough to jump-start the recovery in asset markets. Although there have been two more rounds of stimulus payments since last year, the Fed's working paper only focuses on the first round of stimulus, which went out in March of 2020.

 

Methods Used To Determine Effect

The third section of the FED study details the methods they used to determine how much of an effect the stimulus checks from last spring had on the price of Bitcoin. First, the Fed took trading data from Kaiko, a crypto data research company, about BTC buy orders on 26 cryptocurrency exchanges between January 1st and June 5th, 2020. Then they identified any buy orders at the $1,200 range and divided the initial time frame into two periods, January 1st to April 9th, and April 9th to June 5th.

They did this because the first round of stimulus checks was sent out on April 9th, and the remainder were distributed in the weeks that followed. Logically, the Fed predicted that there would be more $1,200 BTC buy orders between April and June than between January and April. The number of these orders could then estimate how much of that money was invested into Bitcoin. 

It stands to reason there are many confounding variables like multiple price points besides the $1200, where retail investors only invested a portion of their stimulus checks. They pointed out people with children are unlikely to invest in speculative assets. They highlighted the fact that most cryptocurrency investors tend to be young and single, among other variables. Still, overall the Fed actually did a pretty good job of accounting for most of them. 

 

Significant Findings

The 4th, 5th, and 6th sections of the Fed study reveal results for their various hypotheses in detail; however, how the last findings related to the impact of the EIPs on the price of Bitcoin are nowhere close to the magnitude that you'd expect. Of the nearly 270 billion dollars of stimulus money sent out to Americans, only about $58 million found its way into Bitcoin between April 9th and June 5th. 

Now, this might sound like a lot, but it's barely enough to push up the price of BTC by 5% on a single cryptocurrency exchange, much less the entire crypto market. According to the Fed, stimulus payments only accounted for 3.8% of BTC trades by number and 0.7% of trades by value during that time. 

In terms of the actual price, all the buy orders they analyzed, $1200, $1000, $600, $500, and $100, only managed to push up the price of Bitcoin by 0.22% between April 9th and June 5th. When you isolate the $1,200 payments, that BTC price pump drops to just 0.05%. So it just goes to show you that there are much bigger things that move the crypto market.

 

The Main Takeaways

The last section of the Fed’s stimulus study lays out a few conclusions and some regulatory recommendations for future stimulus programs. The main takeaway is that only 0.02% of all stimulus checks were spent on bitcoin: Ascertaining that,

“Policymakers should not be concerned about money being diverted to cryptocurrency markets when considering similar economic relief programs in the future.” 

It’s good news they came to this conclusion, but these findings are only pertaining to BTC. Bitcoin is just one of many cryptocurrencies that make up the crypto market and, these days, doesn't account for the majority share by market cap. 

 

What About Altcoins? 

It's possible that some of last year's stimulus money ended up in altcoins, and arguably the amount is probably more significant than the $58 million that went into Bitcoin. Considerable evidence for this is a study conducted by Coinbase in May 2020 which found that 40% of retail investors buy altcoins instead of Bitcoin, and more than half of those who purchase Bitcoin buy altcoins eventually. 

As shown in the chart above, the Coinbase study indicates a whopping 76% of crypto investors ultimately put their money into altcoins. Unlike BTC, which requires tens of millions of dollars to change its price on any given day, it’s often the case that even just a few hundred thousand dollars is more than enough to move an altcoin up or down by double-digit percentages. 

Bitcoin does carry the flag for the crypto space universally, as the store of value for all cryptos, much like gold was when it backed fiat currency. However, although some retail investors cut their teeth with Bitcoin, they are branching into other assets with prominent use-cases that provide differentiated services. 

Therefore stimulus-driven investing could have had a significant impact on the price of select altcoins while having a negligible effect on Bitcoins price. Cardano’s ADA has soared over the past few months, holding firm in the dip of many cryptos, including Bitcoin. 

Further evidence for stimulus-driven altcoin investing was the Bitcoin dominance chart when there was a significant dip in Bitcoin dominance in April, which is precisely when the bulk of those stimulus payments were sent out. 

Correlation certainly doesn't equal causation, but it's pretty clear that the average retail investor of today realizes the importance and utility some altcoins have with emerging technology, providing much-needed solutions to issues that have arisen within the industry and externally. 

Of all the crypto reports and studies out there, this one is probably the most significant. Besides the fact that the United States Federal Reserve conducted it, it underscores just how small of an effect retail money has on the price of Bitcoin. To move a trillion-dollar asset, you need trillions of dollars, and that's something the average person doesn't have. 

There are golden opportunities in the altcoin market the average retail investor can afford. When you think about the billions of people on social media and the swarms of digital media, marketing, and advertising on the internet, a decentralized blockchain project in this space is the ticket and answer to the social and financial issues experienced in today’s climate. 

 

Markethive – The Answer

With crypto smarts and not-so-crypto-savvy, many retail investors are coming to Markethive and supporting the social media and digital marketing network. Why? Because they are looking for a platform that promotes freedom and sovereignty. A place where entrepreneurs can flourish professionally, artistically, and financially, away from the pressures of the legacy Web 2 tech giants. 

Never before has a blockchain crypto project been attempted at this scale, but given the distributed data technology Markethive is integrating, it’s the next step in the evolution of multi-dimensional social media, marketing, and advertising. 

Markethive’s Hivecoin is one of the select altcoins that will rise and empower the retail investor. Its use case is the pinnacle and essential for this fungible asset coin to become very valuable to any user in the social media, marketing, and digital media industry. 

The various ways to earn Hivecoin, including airdrops, bounties, and staking capabilities, make it easy to accumulate and grow your portfolio. The added advantage of Markethive’s decentralized exchange and wallet soon to be released creates a robust, thriving ecosystem for the average Jack and Jill – The aspiring entrepreneur and retail investor.