Getting a cryptocurrency listed on Coinbase is not that difficult anymore.
Until just recently, if Coinbase put up a new cryptocurrency, it was seen as a mark of approval and often brought the coin’s price up.
But Americans’ top crypto exchange has changed this policy. Instead of being selective, Coinbase will now list as many cryptocurrencies as it can.
The company’s CEO Brian Armstrong said via Twitter back in June that Coinbase’s target was to have every asset it legally could list.
“Outside our standards (for safety and legality), we do not offer opinion on the value of every asset,” he said.
“We are agnostic on assets, because we support free markets and that customers should have a choice in their crypto economy. This is how we will have the best innovation.”
Coinbase’s change in focus
The reason for the company’s new approach is a simple thing. Investors demand access to a much bigger range of coins, and if Coinbase does not provide it, investors will go to their competitors.
That is why the company says it wants to be the first to give new so called “alt” coins. The idea is to give the site’s customers access to such coins, but not give validation of the coins in question.
Coinbase currently has about 70 currencies in the United States, though they are not all available in all states. Armstrong informed CNBC back in April that his company is looking at listing 100 additional coins.
Armstrong stressed that people should not see a Coinbase listing as being an endorsement of any level. He also pledged that the top crypto exchange would give tools in the future to aid investors in evaluating individual cryptocurrencies.
Coinbase’s fresh direction makes perfect sense from a profit and strategy perspective. But for traders and investors, it has never been more crucial to do your own research. Always ensure you do a lot of googling when investing in a new alt coin. And remember to seek out skeptics who can give you a broader look at the value of a cryptocurrency. This is an industry with many shady figures looking to lie to investors to increase their own portfolios.
Author: Steven Sinclaire
Virgin Galactic Holdings, on July 11, intends to launch its founder, Richard Branson, into space through a test flight of the VSS Unity. If this succeeds, Branson would be the first billionaire to travel into space — just days before Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is planned to do the same through his company Blue Origin.
Shares of Virgin Galactic went higher by 20% in trading after the news of Branson’s planned trip, with the stock up around 166% over this past year.
What’s so special about Virgin Galactic?
Unlike official government agencies like NASA, Virgin Galactic makes its components themselves through its sub-company, The Spaceship Company, and lowers the markups that companies pay when using third-party supply chains.
Since its creation, Virgin Galactic has spent around $900 million creating its launch system, which includes three vessels, SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity, and VMS Eve, and increasing its fleet. Although not completely comparable, it costs NASA up to $11 billion to create a spacecraft from scratch, with the orbiter (the part that takes the crew to space and back) alone having a price tag of $6 billion.
The Federal Aviation Admin. has certified the company’s launch system as ready for space, allowing it to bring its clients into space. Virgin Galactic executives anticipate the company will be set to start next year. Michael Colglazier, the firm’s CEO, expects the program to earn $1 billion per year. That explains why Virgin Galactic has a $10 billion value even though it has no revenue and a cash burn rate of over $120 million per quarter.
So far, the company has sold 600 tickets and brought in over $80 million from deposits. Each ticket costs around $225,000. Around 1,000 customers are on the waitlist for the next set of tickets.
Should you invest in it?
The current heightened value of Virgin Galactic’s stock means it has already taken in some of the hype, but there is still more room for it to go higher. With new tech advancements, space tourism can become more affordable to more people over the next ten years — creating even higher demand. So consider this stock a very long-term buy that can pay off very well by the mid-2030s.
Author: Blake Ambrose
It is far from a stock market that is in complete danger, but a day after stocks reached record highs it is now a market being drilled with some very valid fears.
The Dow went down almost 500 points in trading on Thursday as investors displayed concern that the decrease in 10-year Treasury yields might mean that economic slowdown will happen later this year. Driving that possibly dreaded macroeconomic lowering would be two causes, traders believe. First, the Delta strain of COVID-19 that is supposedly spreading across the world. And two, the Fed moving to lower its bond buys before the end of this year.
Hence, the newly shown concerns by investors about the ever-increasing valuations in many sectors of the equities market.
“If I do any number-crunching, I place the market at around 4% overvalued. The upside possibility between now and 2021’s end is 0.4%, which is a low figure. You never see these numbers exactly correctly, but it’s not a good number,” said Hugh Johnson Advisors chief investment officer Hugh Johnson. “So the valuation amount are such that to be frank — and this was even before what we saw today — they are not exciting.”
The sell-off so far is widespread.
All of the Dow’s is in red, except for defensive companies like Amgen, IBM, and Nike. The Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Russell 2000 were in the red too.
Coinbase is the top trending symbol on Yahoo right now, lowering by 4% as another fall back in crypto prices in the past day happens. Semiconductor companies also underperformed the market, with CPU giant AMD leading the pack at 4% lower.
“Stocks such as Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Google have all become pretty overbought on a short-term time frame. The Nasdaq and XLK ETF have also become overbought,” said Matt Maley, a Miller Tabak Market Strategist in a recent research note.
“We are not announcing that long-term buyers should get out of these companies in an aggressive way. However, they should consider making some cash from these (and other) companies right now… so they have the money to use once a correction has happened.”
Author: Steven Sinclaire
The stock market might be unreliable at times, and it doesn’t go up each year. But when looked at over the long term, there is arguably not a better source for wealth on the planet.
Since 1980, putting your money into an S&P 500 index would have given an annual total return, with dividends, of over 11%. In other words, you are doubling your money in under seven years, if you use dividend reinvestment.
If you are ready to set out on your path to wealth and independence, the next two unbeatable stocks could help you reach that goal.
Square
There is a war against cash and a digital payments revolution happening before our eyes. When the game is over, fintech stock Square could end up being one of the top providers of digital payments.
Square is possibly best-known for its selling ecosystem. This is the sector that gives point-of-sale analytics, devices loans, and other methods to help businesses expand. In the seven years going into the covid pandemic, the gross payment volume (known as GPV for short) on its network went from $6.5 billion all the way to $106.2 billion.
While their seller ecosystem has long been focused on small merchants, GPV data reveals that larger businesses now make up a majority of all the GPV on the network. Larger merchants should mean higher gross profit and a much better future for Square.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Biotech stocks are everywhere. But a profitable pharma company with a good track record of creating drugs for hard-to-treat illnesses … that’s the best way to describe Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Where Vertex has made itself unique is in treating cystic fibrosis — a genetic illness characterized by thick mucus that can block the pancreas and lungs. Despite there not being a cure for cystic fibrosis, Vertex has created multiple generations of gene-based therapies for the illness, each giving improved lung functions for the patients. The latest, a therapy called Trikafta, was FDA approved five months ahead of its scheduled time frame. At its peak, this drug could bring in $6 billion or higher in annual sales.
Creating a long line of treatments in the hard-to-treat sector has allowed Vertex to create quite a war chest. It recently reported $6.9 billion in cash and equivalents, which is a lot more than it needs to support its research into almost one dozen internally created compounds. This company certainly has a bright future.
Author: Steven Sinclaire
GameStop has become a possible turnaround company despite its meme status among investors.
Just one year back, the video game retailing company was seeming like it was going toward bankruptcy instead of a renaissance. Despite numerous activist investors reviewing the dying company, the chances were great that GameStop was little more than a dead stock.
While I no longer believe GameStop is a losing investment (not at a reasonable price that is), I also believe investors will be better off putting their money into these two gaming stocks instead, as they have a better growth possibility ahead of them without the same risk that hovers over GameStop.
1. Sea Limited
Sea Limited is a diversified firm with three divisions: e-commerce, digital financial products, and its oldest sector, digital gaming, which also seems to be its most lucrative.
Sea’s Q1 results revealed their digital gaming sector generated $717 million in adjusted earnings before taxes and amortization, while e-commerce had an adjusted loss of around $412 million and digital financial experienced a $153 million loss.
Yet all three sectors are growing quickly, and while the digital entertainment division is certainly gaining from people being on lockdown, today it is still getting sales growth. In Q1, it more than doubled to $781 million, and the other segments gave even better gains.
The company’s quarterly active users went up by over 61% from the year-ago time to reach 648.8 million, and they were higher by over 6% sequentially.
Gaming is Sea Limited’s core engine, but when combined with the possibility for its e-commerce platform and its digital financial business, Sea’s long-term prospect looks very bright.
2. Skillz
Esports will be huge. It is already big, but it’s growing rapidly, with total revenue expected to reach almost $1.1 billion this year, a 14.5% gain from last year. Within that number, analysts forecast over 75% will come from sponsorships and media rights. That serves the company Skillz perfectly.
Skillz is a platform giving an arena for gamers to compete against each other for prizes. Then it and the game developers split the profit. Since it is game-neutral and does not have the expense of really having to create games, Skillz can generate a huge profit margin.
Q1 gross margins were a huge 95%, a 100-basis-point uptick over the year-ago number. It also almost doubled revenue (up 92%), making it the 21st consecutive quarter it has given revenue growth, while increasing its full-year revenue expectations to $375 million, which is a 61% boost from 2020.
Author: Blake Ambrose
Gold and silver just took another step in regaining their former status as money after the state of Ohio became the 41st one to remove their sales tax on bullion purchases.
Governor Mike DeWine passed House Bill 110, which gives the right of Ohioans and small businesses to get precious metals without getting hit by taxes.
The legislation was supported by State Representatives Riordan McClain and Kris Jordan.
“These are are common sense efforts. The government should not be taxing people’s money,” said Jordan in a comment.
“This type of double taxation discourages Ohio citizens from purchasing precious metals in the state and pushes their business elsewhere. Ohio gold and silver dealers can now better compete against other states and online marketplaces. This exemption will also let Ohio attract coin shows, which can give significant amounts of economic benefits,” he said.
The new law also got wide grassroots backing from organizations like the National Bullion Association, Money Metals Exchange, The Campaign for Liberty and the Sound Money Defense League.
Earlier this year, in testimony to the House and State Senate as the legislation was being debated, the Policy Director at the Sound Money League, Jp Cortez, said that the measure levels the field between gold and other assets like stocks. He said that the state does not charge taxes on such assets as stocks and bonds.
Cortez added that these taxes penalize normal consumers who wish to use precious metals to safeguard their wealth.
“Precious metal investors are buying them to protect their wealth against the harmful effects of inflation. Inflation also harms ‘the little guy’ – including retirees on limited incomes, and savers,” he said.
In a prepared comment, Cortez welcomed the newly changed law. However, he said that more work must be done as nine states are keeping their tax on gold and silver.
“Ohio has ended their unfair taxing of citizens who are simply buying one form of money for another. The nine states that still tax the monetary metals are more and more embarrassing themselves. The tide has changed against this stupid practice,” he said.
Ohio is the second state to withdraw its precious metals sales tax this year. In May, Arkansas also passed legislation to do the same.
Author: Blake Ambrose
Sygnum has revealed it will be the first banking institution in the world to give Ethereum 2.0 stake options to its customers.
The comment from the Swiss financial institution means it is the first bank to allow customers to stake ethereum.
Sygnum will allow this staking through its own bank. By using its top-grade banking system which is right now giving a yield of as much as seven percent a year.
The brand new staking offering from the bank will give a complete user-friendly option for customers who wish to stake their own ethereum from their own existing wallets. This staked ethereum will stay inside clients’ personal wallets, ensuring total security for people.
The announcement of ethereum 2.0 staking to the bank is not the only cryptocurrency to be staked by Sygnum. Currently, they also offer staking on the Tezos coin. The digital bank also has yield-producing fixed deposit on the Digital Swiss Franc.
Thomas Eichenberger, from Sygnum, spoke about this news, “Ethereum is now the second top protocol, and staking on Ethereum is a fundamental part of digital assets and can now be managed using a secure and convenient portal.” Eichenberger also reported that the staking of Ethereum with his bank will further boost the attractiveness of their current services.
ETH staking growing in popularity
The number of Ethereum that is being staked on top of the Ethereum 2.0 system keeps going up. Most recently that number got to 6.1 million Ethereum, with more than 185,000 validators. The number of Ethereum being staked now comes to a whopping $14 billion.
Staking seems to be rising in popularity as an additional method to bring in interest on crypto assets. JPMorgan’s analysts recently said that staking will keep getting traction as a revenue source for both retail and institutional investors. These analysts expect this staking revenue to grow four-fold by the year of 2025.
Thomas Brunner, of Sygnum Bank, said that, “Sygnum customers can now use the new staking system and benefit from the possibly higher profits now. This is an attractive option for long-term holders in Ethereum.“
Author: Steven Sinclaire
If you have $100,000, congrats: That amount of money is more than most people have. And $100K is a very nice start on your road to creating a retirement foundation.
But chances are, you would like to retire with much more than $100,000. In fact, you may even be able to reach a retirement goal of $1 million in savings.
The following moves could easily turn your $100K cash into a whopping million by the end of your career.
1. Don’t touch your savings
When you have a lot of cash in your retirement plan, it can be tempting to remove that money from your savings before retirement.
But that is a huge mistake. If you wish to turn your $100,000 into $1 million, then you need to leave your money where it’s at. Also, if you do an early withdrawal using a non-exempt reason, you will get slapped with a large penalty on the amount you removed, thereby hurting your savings efforts much more.
2. Get heavy into stocks
Stocks are a pretty risky investment, especially when you compare them to bonds. But they also seem to give much higher returns, and if you put your long-term savings into stocks, you will set yourself up to grow your balance into much a larger one.
Of course, choosing stocks for your retirement can be hard, especially if you do not know much about investing. But a good plan is to invest in S&P 500 index funds, which are passive funds that seek to match the performance of the entire S&P 500 index.
3. Delay if you must
If you are sitting on $100,000 and you are 30, you might not have to put another dime into your retirement plan to get to $1 million. In fact, if you kept that sum in your retirement account for 30 years and your investments gave an average 8% return, which is some percentage points under the stock market’s average, you would have just over $1 million.
However, if you are older, then you should think about postponing retirement to allow your money more time to grow.
Author: Blake Ambrose
Regulatory crack downs might pop bubbly crypto markets and cause bitcoin to be unsuitable for professional investors, according to Swiss financial giant UBS in their warning to their clients.
In a message sent out last week, UBS’ global wealth team stated that China’s new crackdown had harmed crypto prices. It also revealed that there were signs that harder rules might be in the works for Western markets like the UK and US.
“Regulators have shown they can and will get tougher on crypto,” the note said. “So we say that investors should stay clear, and form their portfolio around not so risky assets.”
It continued: “We have long warned about changing investor sentiment or government crackdowns popping bubble-like cryptocurrency markets.”
UBS’ warning to their clients also said that a number of recent regulatory news were a worry for cryptocurrencies.
China brought back its restrictions on the computing process that creates cryptocurrency, known as “mining,” in June, with authorities inside the Sichuan province shutting down many sites.
In the United States, the president of the Boston Federal Reserve, Eric Rosengren, said Tether was one of the “financial stability problems” it is looking at. And the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority blocked crypto exchange Binance from their territory.
UBS’s message added: “Crypto trading practices, like extending 50X or up to 100X leverage, seem fundamentally against mainstream financial regulation.”
The Swiss bank’s worries about cryptocurrencies is the same as many other banks and lenders. Goldman Sachs analysts even said that bitcoin is “not a suitable investment” and mentioned worries about its volatility.
However, Wall Street is now divided on the use of cryptocurrencies – and so are banks. Goldman Sachs relaunched its crypto trading service this year to profit from the crypto boom, regardless of its reservations.
UBS said in their note: “While we cannot rule out future price increases in cryptos, we see it as a speculative sector that poses great risks to serious investors.”
Author: Blake Ambrose
Usually, growing companies want to avoid dividends, opting to put their money into the business instead. However, that does not mean it is impossible to find dividend-paying growth stocks.
For example, Warren Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns stock in Mastercard and Apple, and both companies give quarterly dividends while still keeping a solid pathway for growth. Here is what you should know.
Apple
Apple has formed a consumer electronics empire. From iPhones to Macs to AirPods and the Apple Watch, the company’s hardware almost always captivates customers worldwide. In fact, Apple has a user base of over 1.65 billion devices worldwide as of its first quarter in 2021, and that is probably going to climb with the new launch of its M1-powered iPad Pro and iMac.
Not surprisingly, the company gave solid numbers over the long term.
Since 2016, Apple’s share price has increased over 375%, but shareholders have also gotten a lot of benefit from routine dividend payments. Currently, the company’s quarterly payout is $0.22 a share, but that number has gone up each year since 2012. And with Apple’s great balance sheet, investors should expect the trend to keep going.
Apple is Warren Buffett’s biggest holding, making up 40% of his company’s portfolio.
Mastercard
Mastercard’s platform connects merchants, consumers, and banking institutions, helping electronic payments in more than 210 nations. Last year, the company did 24% of all card-powered transactions, making Mastercard the third top payments network worldwide.
Since 2015, the company’s stock has more than tripled, going up by 285%. At this same time, its dividends have increased every four quarters, even during the covid pandemic. That backs the company’s underlying stability, and it gives me the confidence that Mastercard can stand just about anything.
Currently, their quarterly dividend is numbered at $0.44 a share, giving a payout ratio of only 31%. So in other words, investors have a good cause to think those annual dividend boosts will keep going.
Moreover, given its huge market opportunity and good competitive position, Mastercard might be a market-stomping investment over the long term. That is why you should consider investing in this stock right now.
Author: Blake Ambrose