Bank Of America Calls Bitcoin 'Impractical,' And Crypto Community Has A Lot To Say About That

Bank Of America Calls Bitcoin ‘Impractical,’ And Crypto Community Has A Lot To Say About That

Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) faced some backlash from the crypto community earlier today, after its criticism of Bitcoin from its latest research note made headlines.

What Happened: The bank’s research note titled “Bitcoin’s Dirty Little Secrets” stated that there is “no good reason to own Bitcoin unless you see prices going up”. According to the bank, Bitcoin’s volatility makes it impractical as a store of value or a payments mechanism.

Why It Matters: The research note was not well received by the crypto community who took to Twitter to share their thoughts about it.

Samson Mow, CSO of blockchain technology company Blockstream, shared a graph of Bank of America’s stock price over the years and said, “If your stonk chart looks like this, you don’t get to call Bitcoin volatile.”

If your stonk chart looks like this, you don’t get to call #Bitcoin volatile. @BankofAmerica pic.twitter.com/nVpqlFhejY — Samson Mow (@Excellion) March 19, 2021

The research note also claimed that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) would be “kryptonite for cryptocurrency”, which most users described as the “worst take” on cryptocurrency they have heard.

Popular Bitcoin proponent Anthony Pompliano stated on Twitter that the Bank of America has a higher chance of failing than Bitcoin, and was quickly backed by most of his 650k followers on the platform. CZ, CEO of the largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume Binance, suggested that it wouldn’t be just Bank of America, but rather, all banks that would fail before Bitcoin did.

Bank of America has a higher chance of failing than Bitcoin. — Pomp (@APompliano) March 17, 2021

The bank’s criticism, however, was appreciated by known Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff – According to him, the research report “concluded the obvious” and he went on to reiterate his belief that Bitcoin is the ultimate bubble.

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Bank of America’s stance on Bitcoin comes at a time where large institutions and public companies are buying and holding the digital asset on their balance sheets. Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) said it would offer Bitcoin to its wealthy clients.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $58,500, up 5% in the past 24-hours. With over $1 trillion in market cap, Bitcoin is larger than JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) ,and Bank of America combined.

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© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Crypto Mining Stocks Could Keep Beating Bitcoin in ‘Modern-Age Digital Gold Rush’

Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) – Wall Street hasn’t been this bullish about lithium in years.Investors are betting on a comeback in the metal key to rechargeable batteries as the world’s biggest automakers ratchet up their electric-vehicle lines. Miners once shunned amid supply overhangs have raised almost $3.4 billion in equity offerings in the Americas this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That’s seven times the total amount raised from 2018 to 2020.The change breathes new life into an industry that saw prices of its main product plunge by more than half from a record high reached in 2018. It also highlights a bullish wager that’s still available on the EV frenzy as sentiment toward electric-vehicle stocks, which surged last year, sours.Talks with investors and discussions on potential supply agreements with automotive-equipment and battery manufacturers “which were only in my dreams a year ago are now filling my calendar,” Robert Mintak, chief executive officer of Vancouver-based Standard Lithium Ltd., said by phone.Interest in the industry is resurgent as electric-vehicle targets set by big automakers and a change in the U.S. administration signal that a battery boom is finally gathering momentum. After the punishing three-year sell-off, prices of the soft silvery-white metal have started to rebound, and analysts including those at BloombergNEF expect further gains on rising demand and tight supplies of battery-grade lithium.A lithium price index compiled by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence jumped 32% this year through February, after plunging 59% from mid-2018 to mid-2020. The metal reached an all-time high in May 2018.Bigger PoolThe investor pool “is expanded to technology investors and others,” said Mintak, as major automakers’ determination to deploy hundreds of billions of dollars to electrify their fleets gives investors “that safety that there’s going to be a supply pinch.”The majority of the financing has been done by the world’s top two lithium miners – Albemarle Corp. and SQM, or Soc. Quimica & Minera de Chile SA, as it’s known formally – as they took advantage of their recent stock surges. Albemarle completed a larger-than-planned equity offering of $1.5 billion in early February, while Santiago-based SQM raised $1.1 billion in January.Junior miners, most of which have yet to produce substantial amount of lithium, are also attracting strong interest from investors. Take the case of Standard Lithium, which opened its first direct lithium extraction plant in El Dorado, Arkansas, in September, with the facility using a new technology that allows for a 90% lithium recovery rate. It raised C$34.53 million ($27.6 million) in an over-subscribed share offering in December. Investor interest was so strong that it had to turn away offers for more, said CEO Mintak.Lithium Americas Corp., which is developing the Thacker Pass mine in Nevada, raised a total of $500 million through two primary share offerings in October and January, respectively.Turning Tide“The tide is finally turning, and much faster than I thought,” Chris Berry, president of House Mountain Partners, an industry consultant, who said Wall Street hasn’t been this bullish on the lithium industry since 2017. “You see that with Lithium Americas being able to raise a total of half a billion dollars recently. This is for a pre-revenue company regarding lithium.”Sigma Lithium Resources Corp., which is developing a hard-rock lithium project in Brazil, had to upsize its private placement and increase offering price, which “says a lot about investor demand for lithium exposure, that asset, and that company’s vision,” said Berry.Junior lithium miners raised $529 million this year, Bloomberg data showed. That’s about $63 million more than the total amount raised from 2018 to 2020.Ford Motor Co. announced last month that its passenger-vehicle range will be all-electric in Europe by 2030. General Motors Co. plans to sell only zero-emission models by 2035. Volkswagen AG went further, announcing plans this week to build six battery factories in Europe and invest globally in charging stations, as ensuring scaling battery production has become a key in the EV race.Batteries make up about 30% of an electric car’s cost. And automakers around the world look to pivot to EVs, with hopes to get batteries at the cheapest price possible but also secure enough supply to meet those ambitions.Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden has pledged to build back the economy after the devastation of Covid-19 with cleaner energy and a lower carbon footprint. The administration said in late February it would conduct a government review of U.S. supply chains to seek to end the country’s reliance on China and other adversaries for crucial goods.The election of Biden is “a very favorable signal to investors” as it boosted confidence that the switch to clean energy will accelerate, which along with existing favorable subsidies and regulations in Europe and China bodes well for raw materials needed for that energy transition, said Seth Goldstein, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. The U.S. is the second-largest EV market, after China.Andrew Bowering, a director at Vancouver-based American Lithium Corp., called the U.S. review on supply chains “huge” for the lithium industry as it shows the government’s realization that in order to meet clean-energy goals, it’s important for the U.S. to have a security of supply of raw materials such as lithium.“All of a sudden, after three years of downturn, you’ve got the price of the commodity starting to go up again and a change in the administration in the U.S. that’s pushing a green new deal and support big money going into the green automobile industry,” said Bowering. “That leads investors into the space.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Nascent but growing crypto-universe under threat from proposed crypto ban

Offering little foresight, the government is working on a cryptocurrency legislation that may or may not allow cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to flourish here. There is, however, some confidence that the Centre will allow, rather, promote, innovations around blockchain, the underlying technology for Bitcoin. “We are very clear that we are not shutting off all options,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a virtual conference on March 15. “My view on this is that of course the Supreme Court had …

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