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All the IMPORTANT signs of a Bull Stampede Blockchain and Crypto future in one place!

“Future belongs to those who prepare today,” said Malcolm X.

When we look back at the crypto space 5 years from now (or may be less) everyone of those who is mocking the hodlers and the die-hard fans of blockchain and crypto space will kick themselves for getting swept away by the mainstream news while missing the key updates that inevitably catapult this market to new heights.

It takes a bit of speculative imagination and a bunch of facts to come to this bullish conclusion.

We have looked at all the important signs from Big name institutions entering crypto space to executives leaving Wall street to examining Fortune 100 companies that have already explored Blockchain space for their business to many many other clues that are in the open for anyone to see. We did the hard work and consolidated all the more important updates in one place.

Working on this article we saw luminous signs of future mass adoption of crypto space. When will this ‘future’ arrive exactly? No one knows. But, that is alright – in our view – it is better to be ready early than miss out entirely.

These developments are in no particular order and impact of each of these moves adds to the sum total of momentum of the crypto space.

Buckle up, this bull ride is about to begin!



Confirmed Adoption

as of date (9/9/2018)

A company with about 10 trillion dollars in assets enters into cryptocurrency space, more specifically hedge funds betting on Bitcoin and Ethereum. In an exclusive interview with Forbes, Northern Trust’s President, Pete Cherecwich, said this “I do believe that governments will ultimately look at digitizing their currencies, and having them trade kind of like a digital token — a token of the U.S. dollar — but the U.S. dollar [would still be] in a vault somewhere, or backed by the government”

If you ask us, Government adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrencies is even more bullish case for crypto space than success in the business side.

InterContinental Exchange (ICE) announced launching a company named Bakkt (spelled Backed) to introduce physical Bitcoin backed futures which means more and more Bitcoins will go out of circulation in the coming months.

Bakkt is designed to serve as a scalable on-ramp for institutional, merchant and consumer participation in digital assets by promoting greater efficiency, security and utility,” said Kelly Loeffler, CEO of Bakkt.

According to the news article in Fortune.com if Bakkt successfully executes its plans, we could see Bitcoin becoming accessible via retirement plans and “Millennials getting their first 401(k)s [offering Bitcoin]; Wall Street could then tap Bitcoin’s popularity as an alternative to stocks and bonds to generate giant trading volumes.”

We are at a time when majority of workforce consists of Millennials and Millennials love their coffee and crypto. What do you imagine will happen when Millennials can access crypto assets via their retirement plans, ponder on that for a second!

Coinbase opened its custody service in July 2018. This opens up the crypto market to institutional investors that are looking to invest but stayed away because of lack of custodial services. This development from Coinbase happened during the bear market which means that market, consisting of retail investors, is yet to see its potential.

This Pennsylvania based firm which has been dealing with crypto assets silently for its select clientele is extending its trading desk to a small group of 500 clients. They plan on expanding the desk in future.

It’s not just USD Tether now, Gemini and Paxos have issued USD backed stable coin to help ease the volatility in the market related to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies

Why is this news significant? It is significant and one that people seem to be ignoring is the easiest way to become a public company is NOT to go IPO. It is to acquire an existing public company. That is what Huobi just did. Huobi also entered Japanese market by acquiring BitTrade exchange recently.

Propy enabled first Real Estate transaction recorded on Blockchain took place in California for a 10-acre land. This land transaction was followed by a million-dollar home being sold on Blockchain. This is just the beginning – Blockchain is expected to create a borderless global real estate market.

PICC is going Blockchain to transform its insurance business. The insurance industry has been surprisingly fast in embracing Blockchain to simplify the claims process, reduce costs and improve efficiencies. PICC chose VeChain which also partnered with PwC, DNV GL all of which are pointing toward greater traction in coming future.

In another success story of Insurance industry embracing Blockchain technology, Korean Insurance company Kyobo has chosen ICON platform to its improve its insurance business.





Executives on the move

It is not just the companies that are entering the Blockchain and Crypto space, there are many executives that are leaving their high paying secured corporate jobs to launch or be part of crypto space.

It is one thing to throw bunch of surplus money at something as a speculative investment and an entirely different thing to invest yourself into the space leaving glamorous careers to the wind!

This to us is the bullish sign (and our favorite) of them all.

Amber Baldet who lead the Blockchain initiative at JP Morgan left the company to start a new venture.

Brat Garlinghouse, who held executive positions at AOL and Yahoo joined Ripple as their CEO.

Chris Danusiar who worked for EY as Global Assurance Deputy Technology Officer joined AuditChain.

Chris Matta, Vice President (after getting promoted) at Goldman Sachs quit the job to start new career in the blockchain/crypto space with Crescent Crypto Asset Management.

Eric Piscini, former Partner at Deloitte Consulting who grew their practice from 3 people in 2012 to 1200 in 2018 left the firm to help a crypto start up called Citizens Reserve.

Karen Chen, former UBS China President joined cryptocurrency firm Higgs Block as their CEO.

Matt Huang, Partner at Sequoia Capital left the firm to start his own crypto fund.

Marc O’Brien, Ex CEO of Visa UK joins cryptocurrency project Crypterium as their CEO.

Rachael Horowitz, former Director of Communications at Facebook joined Coinbase as their VP of Communications.

Richard Kim, Vice President from Goldman Sachs joined Galaxy Digital as their COO. Galaxy Digital is owned by Mike Novogratz who warned investors that it was “almost irresponsible” for people to ignore Bitcoin.

Rob Jesudason, Common Wealth Bank CFO, joined Block.One as their CEO.

Tim Wagner, former Amazon Web Services and Microsoft employees was hired by Coinbase as VP of Engineering.

Vishal Karir who managed $1.5 Billion in assets at Blackrock as Portfolio Manager and Quantitative Invesment Researcher with over 17 years of experience joined Ethos.

Women in crypto , is a positive movement in its own right where Entrepreneur spirited women are making strides in the Blockchain and Crypto space to ensure that the technology of tomorrow has no gender biases. Another great sign of longevity for the space.

And then there is the size of the Market itself

How can an article about Bulls not talk about market size? We didn’t think so.

But before we go into the discussion, see below tweet from CZ (Binance fame).

What is CZ talking about?

Let’s see, all values in USD and from this source

Silver market’s total capitalization is 100 Billion

Amazon, just one company with market cap of 1 Trillion

World’s richest people’s net worth is 1.9 Trillion

World’s currency market is 7.6 Trillion

Gold market’s total capitalization is 7.7 Trillion

World’s stock markets amount to 73 Trillion

World’s currency including non-physical instruments is 90 Trillion

Global Real Estate market valued at 217 Trillion

Derivatives market is estimated 544 Trillion to 1.2 Quadrillion

To put that in a visual on a single sheet of paper is very difficult. First it will be comparing a pebble against a mountain. So we will dissect these figures into multiple charts to give you some perspective.

Crypto currency market compared only up to Gold market

Now let’s add the Stock market and see how Crypto stacks up

See what happens when we include Derivatives!

Even the behemoth like Amazon don’t even get a speck of a line in this chart and Amazon is 5 times bigger than entire crypto market as of today!

When successful, Blockchain Technology (and digital assets along with it) are expected to take on world’s stock market, ETFs, Derivatives and most types of financial instruments. To even say we are at the beginning of a revolution bigger than Internet is an understatement.

82% of Fortune 100 companies

Do not take our word for it, below we present the 82% of Fortune 100 companies that have played with Blockchain technology in one form or another.

RANK NAME Industry NEWS 1 WALMART Retail Walmart is implementing blockchain for its food businesses 2 State Grid Electricity The State Grid Corporation of India is using blockchain technolgy to impove data sharing 5 Royal Dutch Shell Oil & Gas Royal Dutsch says Blockchain will revolutionize and disrupt oil industry to trillion Dollar Industry 6 Toyota Motor Automobile Toyota seeks blockchain technology in developing Self Driving Cars 7 Volkswagen Automobile Volkswagen implements and backs Blockchain technology to drive the automobile industry to a new level 8 BP Oil & Gas BP, formerly known as British petroleum has announced that they will be partnering with blockchain startups which are running ICO’s and also have already tested ithe tokens internally 9 Exxon Mobil Oil & Gas Big names in Oil Industry are looking forward to blockchain patents, as they see the potential. 10 Berkshire hathaway Conglomerate Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathway is planning to utilise blockchain technology for shipping freights 11 Apple Technology Apple’s Co founder is considering to implement blockchain technology 12 Samsung Electronics Electronics Samsung looks into blockchain to track their worldwide shipments and also believes it might reduce the costs 13 Mckesson Health Care Mckesson implementing blockchain and forecast a better future for healthcare IT solutions with blockchain 14 Glencore Commodity World’s largest producers of Cobalt are considering the implementation of blockchain technology, but its not being confirmed yet. 15 United Health group Health Care On April 2 2018 United health group has confirmed its usage of blockchain, to maintain and keep the date upto date.

Click here to see the complete list of Fortune 100 companies.



The growing number of crypto friendly nations

Mainstream news goes berserk when a country indicates that they are going to introduce a new law or ban ICOs or similar. They fire up the FUD ante so much that – market drops from $800 Billion to $200 Billion. What they don’t highlight is the silent fight that is taking place among nations to be among the leaders in the Blockchain space. Well, here are the top locations that not only recognize this technology – they are enabling it.

Country Description Belarus The country recently announced that they are welcoming blockchain and crypto investors and businesses to boost the economy. They have legalized mining and ICOs. Estonia With its e residency facility, Estonia happens to be the most business friendly country and its boasting to be the leading country to evolve in blockchain technology applications. They are even thinking to launch national digital currency. Gibraltar While other countries on this list have taken a supportive stance, Gibraltar happens to be the first country ever to set regulatory framework for cryptocurrency and blockchain projects. Many new ventures are moving their base to Gibraltar. Hong Kong Hong Kong has set Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies as HIGH Priority for Securities and Futures Commission to stop bad players from exploiting gullible investors at the same time provide clarity to the genuine ones. Japan First country to recognize Bitcoin as legal currency (the news that gets the least attention but the one that started rally in 2017), first country to have numerous crypto ATMs and first country setting up a framework that could potentially guide many other nations. Jeju Island, South Korea Jeju Island aims to be the Global Blockchain innovation hub. While the nation is still debating many aspects of blockchain and cryptocurrency – Jeju is acting inspired to become global force in the space. Malta It’s not just Binance and OkEx but many crypto startups and trading platforms are looking to call Malta their headquarters. Malta has been the most talked about country for the past year or so in regards to crypto, with low taxes and friendly government. Singapore While rest of the world is still debating crypto currencies and their impact, Singapore is in talks to develop a platform to launch securities tokens, that tells you a bit about the Nation’s vision. Slovenia Slovenia an Central European Nation is crypto friendly and gives special considerations such as no VAT on mining income. Switzerland Switzerland happens to be at the forefront of digital revolution. Many Blockchain giants such as Ethereum, Tezos, ICON established their headquarters in Switzerland for a reason!







In the pipeline

In this section we will explore all the developments that are in pipeline. As tempted as we are to include these in the ‘confirmed list’, we are restraining ourselves from doing so and include them all in this section to keep you appraised of what is ‘true’ and what is ‘potential truth’.

While Andreas Antonopoulos is vocal in advocating against Bitcoin based ETFs, market seems to have an unhealthy sentiment attached to a possible ETF. Every time an ETF application which is guaranteed to be rejected gets rejected – market reacts irrationally. We at cryptotapas believe that an ETF is inevitable but not before 2019 and that it will have lesser impact than Bakkt. CBOE has a better chance of approval.

Wealth management company managing over trillion dollars is exploring investing into cryptocurrency space. Click on this link to access the report issued by Wellington.

Fidelity may be on a secret mission (not so much of a secret anymore since we are talking about it) to build a digital asset exchange of its own. Fidelity had earlier introduced a way for its users to connect their coinbase accounts to their Fidelity accounts. Turns out – this is just a small part of major plan to get into digital currencies market in future.

Goldman Sachs revealed its plan to enter into crypto market by introducing various financial vehicles tied to Bitcoin price. While there have been rumors against this in September, their CFO clarified that – the plan is still on.

This leading venture capital fund raised over 300 million for a crypto-focused fund.

And they have sought help from one of the world’s leading financial institution – Blackrock.

State Street a fund with 2.7 Trillion in assets is eyeing digital asset custodian service.

Venrock, the fund that manages Rockefellers wealth joined forces with CoinFund to start investing into cryptocurrencies.

Rootstock is bringing customizable smart-contracts to Bitcoin and this could spell death of many altcoins that have no specialized niche or use-case. However, this along with BAKKT entry could start a whole another rally for Bitcoin even before the halving event and we all know what follows when Bitcoin goes on a bull run.

Yale CIO’s are getting into Crypto Market

What can a meekly city to do when Federal government decides to cut funding other than roll back and take it?! But Berkeley, CA wants to do just the opposite, it wants to build its own highway of funds on Blockchain. What could be a trendsetting event in the Blockchain space, Berkeley proposed to issue its Municipal Bonds on Blockchain. We anticipate that in next 5-10 years State’s will choose the public funding via blockchain route.



Other news

It seems there is so much good news related to this space that it can get easily overwhelming. We cannot complete this article without these honorable mentions!

Billion users & a 25 fold increase?: Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong expects Crypto users to grow from current 40 million users to 1 billion users in 5 years. At the current user base, market at its lowest point from January 2018 highs is hovering around 200 Billion. What can a 25 fold increase in users plus increase in use-cases and mass adoption do to crypto space? Let your imagination chew on that one!

Chain’s acquisition by Stellar (read closely there could be a secret here): Stellar acquires Blockchain startup Chain for 500 Million dollars. Nasdaq had partnered with Chain in 2015 to pilot a blockchain based digital ledger technology made available to private companies. Now that Chain is part of Stellar, there are speculations rumored that Nasdaq might launch its Bakkt platform on Stellar network!

Own at least 6.1% Bitcoin suggests Yale University Research: In a research paper named “Risks and returns of cryptocurrency” by Yukun Liu and Aleh Tsyvinski of Yale University, they concluded that for a good portfolio diversification should include 6.1% investment in Bitcoin.

Rich are investing in crypto: Someone said do not pay attention to what rich are saying – watch closely to where they are investing in. George Soros, Mike Novogratz, Steven Cohen, Steve Wozniak, Tim Draper, John McAfee all hold a bullish outlook for Bitcoin and crypto space, some predicting a million dollar Bitcoin by 2020.

SEC says it will re-review the ETFs that it has rejected earlier. SEC has earlier this year talked about adopting ‘do no harm’ policy (similar to the same stance as they took with internet).

3.6 Trillion by 2028

This is least favorite of our inclusions (hence it came all the way at the end). Bloomberg issued a research report from Statis that predicts that each Bitcoin will be $96,000 in 5 years and Crypto market cap might reach 3.6 Trillion dollars in 10 years. About 18 fold increase in total market valuation from today’s market cap (at 196 Billion).

Why then is this research paper our least favorite?

They don’t know what they are talking about in our opinion 6 Trillion over 10 year period is rather slow. In our opinion, this market will grow larger than that in next 5 years if favorable regulations come to play Just one State in US going 100% digital currency on blockchain itself will catapult the market into multi-Trillion dollar space



There it is crypto-frontrunners. An enormous, although not exhaustive, list of Bullish future for the Blockchain and Crypto market.

We are sure that we have not covered them all. There may have been 100s of other news that will eventually propel this Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies space to a brighter future.

We sincerely hope that those who are supporting this revolution from its inception through its many ups and downs (including current bear market) will be rewarded tremendously.

If we missed any updates, please let us know so we can update this page during our future updates.

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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

Everything in this article is an opinion, not an advice of any kind. This material has been prepared for general informational purposes only and it is not intended to be relied upon as accounting, tax, investment, legal or other professional advice. Please consult with a professional for specific advice.

We do not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information and claims made.

About the author

RK Reddy holds two Masters degrees, one in Accounting and another in Business Administration with over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry. Read more about the author here.



