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Ali Raza

Liverpool denies partnership deal with Tron (TRX)

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April 23rd cause a flurry of excitement around both the sports and the crypto world as Justin Sun tweeted that Tron had been invited to partner with Liverpool Football Club. This would have been a massive step for the fledgling company as Liverpool is a media giant with hundreds of millions of fans around the world.

The storm immediately following the tweet showed just how fickle both crypto and football could be. There were heavy skepticism and unreserved joy from all parties.

It would seem that the skeptics have won out (for the time being) as Liverpool FC have denied any partnership with Tron. This has been a slap of cold water to crypto-enthusiasts who tweeted flamboyantly optimistic words such as “can’t wait to see Tron’s logo on the famous shirt.”

The real story is a bit muddled

A spokesperson for Liverpool told Decrypt Media that the letter was an informal invitation from the football club that was sent to many companies. This was done so that Liverpool would be able to understand the companies’ business better.

Cliff Edwards, spokesman for Tron, does not agree with the turn of events. He insists that the letter was more specific than that. He says there was no mention of “seeking to understand the business” and directly quoted the video as saying “to connect and explore a partnership,” which is precisely what Justin Sun had tweeted.

As per the critics, the problem was that Justin Sun has become defensive when replying to critics. Many told him that the wording used in the video was not about an official invitation but was somewhat more opaque than that. Sun insisted that the envelope was an official invitation. There were others who tweeted him emails received by many crypto companies that were obvious scams and even accused the Tron CEO of “lapping it up” instead of ignoring it as most people would.

The true story might be a little more nuanced. The Liverpool spokesperson did say that the red envelope was sent to various companies and it could be possible that they sent one to Tron as well. However, what Liverpool probably did not expect is Sun running off and immediately showing this initial stage of talks on Twitter. The consensus is that he reacted somewhat badly and that there will be no partnership due to his slip-up.

This is not the first time that the Tron CEO has come under fire for his PR decisions. Just earlier this year, in fact, critics accused him of pre-selecting the winner of a Tesla give-away that Tron was running. The competition was bungled, and it cast a negative light on the company. Many have accused Tron of plagiarizing its white paper to boot.

A Valid basis for partnership

There is, however, a valid basis for the partnership. Tron is foremost an entertainment platform that aims to get money in the hands of creators directly. They could live-stream Liverpool’s games or create video games based on the blockchain and a wide variety of other uses.

However, the problem is that the Premier League controls all streaming rights for league games. That means a partnership with Liverpool would mean nothing for the most important games in the season. We will just have to wait and see if this was a scam done very well, or if it was indeed a botched partnership from a young CEO.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Virginia PD Talks About Why its Public Pension Turned to Bitcoin (BTC)

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One of the recent announcement by the two public pensions in Fairfax County, Virginia, showed that institutions are not only developing an interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain but that they are already prepared to invest in this space. The two pensions in question include Police Officer’s Retirement System and Employee’s Retirement System.

Now, however, Fairfax County Retirement Systems decided to speak up about the decision, stating why they chose to give cryptocurrencies a chance and bet on Bitcoin.

The amount invested in blockchain and crypto is below 1%

According to the Fairfax County Retirement Systems Director, Jeff Weller, the retirement system invested $21 million into the fund. In his recent post, Weller points out that $10 million came from the employee’s retirement system, and $11 million came from the police officer’s pension.

Since these are two separate funds, it means that the employees’ fund only dumped 0.3% of the fund, while the percentage is only slightly bigger (0.8%) when it comes to the police officer’s fund.

Furthermore, the move is not as simple as just purchasing Bitcoin. The fund, started by Morgan Creek, will use this investment to invest in blockchain companies, many of which have already joined the program. This will also not be just any company, but those with real potentials, such as Bakkt, Coinbase, and alike.

While it is true that there is risk involved, this is the type of risk that accompanies any investment, and not just those related to crypto. However, Waller also mentions that the “Fairfax’s investment team determined that the expected returns from this investment were in line with the level of risk incurred.”

The fund will invest in crypto as well

While the majority of the fund (85%) will be dedicated to investing in blockchain opportunities, Morgan Creek argued that a portion should be invested in crypto directly. However, according to Weller’s post, only around 15% of the funds will be used for that purpose.

While the crypto market remains volatile and the prices are currently low due to the bear market, an investment at the right moment could bring excellent returns, which are still in the realm of possibility, even under these conditions.

Still, Morgan Creek has not made an official investment at this time, possibly because there is a chance that Bitcoin will drop one last time before the bear market loses its energy. If it happens, BTC might fall below $3,000.

For now, the Blockchain Opportunities Fund is the first of its kind, although it is possible that it will spark a new trend of institutions investing in crypto and blockchain through other, similar funds. Especially if the current bear market ends up being followed by a rally. The only potential issue is how the sales of large amounts of Bitcoin purchased by the funds will affect the token performance once the funds are ready to cash out?

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Morgan Creek’s $40 Million Crypto Venture Fund Anchored by Two Public Retirement Systems

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A new announcement made a couple of days ago, February 12th, by the Morgan Creek Digital revealed a $40 million crypto venture fund, which was anchored by two public pensions. The two public pensions are the Police Officer’s Retirement System and Employee’s Retirement System, both of which are located in Fairfax County, Virginia.

The fund has attracted a lot of attention, and it already has a number of investors, including a hospital system, a private foundation, but also a university endowment, and an insurance firm.

Institutions marching to crypto

Large pension funds have been considering cryptocurrencies as an investment strategy in the past, with one California-based public pension even considering this possibility back in 2016. However, cryptocurrencies are still at a very early stage, which is why many hesitated to make a move.

While the funds are located in the same area, they are still completely separate, and each of them has its own investment committee. The police pension fund contains around $1.45 billion in assets, and the government employees fund has around $4.25 billion. Both funds are quite large, which is expected to bring closer attention to other public pensions and potential interest in blockchain investing.

The goals of the fund

At first, the new fund will focus on equity investments, with a few potential investments in token-based projects that see a certain amount of cash flow, while they abide by the US SEC regulations. Also, the small portion of the fund will be dedicated to holding small amounts of certain cryptocurrencies.

Morgan Creek decided to make this move due to the public pensions’ desire to diversify their investment portfolio and go beyond investing in bonds and stocks. As the blockchain technology already attracted attention due to its unique applications in numerous industries, the public pensions saw it as an interesting opportunity.

The fund attracted the attention of many in the crypto and blockchain industries, and it already managed to close several deals with established firms, including Bakkt, Good Money, Coinbase, BlockFi, Harbor, and others.

While there are real opportunities for public pensions willing to take the crypto and blockchain route, it was difficult finding those who would be willing to make such a move at this point. Many issues in the crypto world still remain unresolved. However, the new development shows that the institutional investors are not only interested in coming to the crypto space, but that they have already arrived.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Bitcoin Futures Spiked 8% on February 8th: Is It A Start of A Long-Term Rally?

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Bitcoin Futures suddenly spiked on February 8th, reaching the highest level of the year after a nearly 8% increase.

Bitcoin Futures suddenly spiked on February 8th, reaching the highest level of the year after a nearly 8% large increase. The move came unexpectedly, and it allowed Bitcoin (BTC) itself to surge from $3,393 to $3,662.98. The new development has also sparked new speculations regarding Bitcoin ETFs as well, with the US SEC commissioner saying that ETFs might eventually happen. According to Brian Stutland of the Equity Armor Investments, this might be only a start and an indication that a bigger rally is about to happen. He believes that, if Bitcoin ETFs appear on the market, portfolio managers could allocate to Bitcoin in their models. If there is enough demand for the ETFs, and if investors do actually want to hold them, this might have a significant impact on Bitcoin itself. Stutland also believes that this could be what is currently driving the Bitcoin price, which surged right after the demand for Bitcoin Futures started growing. Stutland pointed out that nothing is certain at this point, and that a lot has yet to happen in order for an actually significant rally to arrive, but the current development could be the start of something new. Bitcoin might go above $4,000 In addition, Stutland seems to believe that Bitcoin may have found a bottom at around $3,500, which might allow it to push up and possibly breach the $4,000 resistance. TJM Institutional Services' Jim Iuorio also commented, stating that current charts show the "blend of positioning and technicals." He pointed out that the crypto market saw a lot of shorts since the price drop on November 14th. Iuorio also confirms that Stutland's prediction about BTC price breaching $4,000 might be correct, although he will not be convinced that it is a long-term increase unless the price breaches this barrier, and continues going up.

The move came unexpectedly, and it allowed Bitcoin (BTC) to surge from $3,393 to $3,662.98. The new development has also sparked new speculations regarding Bitcoin ETFs as well, with the US SEC commissioner saying that ETFs might eventually happen.

According to Brian Stutland of the Equity Armor Investments, this might be only a start and an indication that a bigger rally is about to happen. He believes that, if Bitcoin ETFs appear on the market, portfolio managers could allocate to Bitcoin in their models. If there is enough demand for the ETFs, and if investors do actually want to hold them, this might have a significant impact on Bitcoin in the long-run.

Stutland also believes that this could be what is currently driving the Bitcoin price, which surged right after the demand for Bitcoin Futures started growing. Stutland pointed out that nothing is certain at this point, and that a lot has yet to happen in order for an actually significant rally to arrive, but the current development could be the start of something new.

Bitcoin might go above $4,000

Besides, Stutland seems to believe that Bitcoin may have found a bottom at around $3,500, which might allow it to push up and possibly breach the $4,000 resistance.

TJM Institutional Services’ Jim Iuorio also commented, stating that current charts show the “blend of positioning and technicals.” He pointed out that the crypto market saw a lot of shorts since the price drop on November 14th.

Iuorio also confirms that Stutland’s prediction about BTC price breaching $4,000 might be correct, although he was not convinced that it is a long-term increase unless the price breaches this barrier, and continues going up a little further at least.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

TRON dApp Users Surge by 239% in the Last Month

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According to recent charts tracking the dApp performance and their daily active users (DAU), TRON dApps have seen a massive increase in the number of users within the last month. On January 8th, TRON dApps had around 18,500 active users — a number which has skyrocketed to 62,724 as of February 8th.

Within a single month, TRON dApp DAU number surged by 239%, while Ethereum lost around 31% of its DAU or 4,275 users. Another big competitor in the dApp sector, EOS, has also seen growth in its DAU, although a much smaller one of only 14% (9,534 users).

Why did TRON’s DAU number grow?

TRON has been one of the most popular projects in 2018. However, it recently started attracting even more attention due to several events.

The first one is the launch of the BitTorrent token (BTT), which happened on January 28th, 2019. The token sale was held on Binance Launchpad, a platform dedicated to increasing exposure of promising projects. BTT is a part of TRON’s ecosystem, and the event has been very beneficial for TRX as well.

Another reason why TRON has seen more activity recently is also connected to BTT, and it includes a series of airdrops that will gift BTT to TRX holders. The airdrops are expected to happen on occasion throughout the next six years.

Furthermore, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance, decided to support TRON and BitTorrent, which brought additional attention to both projects, as well as to TRON’s entire ecosystem. So much so, in fact, that TRX managed to double its value within only 30 days, starting from December 17th, 2018. During this period, TRX price grew from $0.0127 to $0.025, with the coin’s current price being at $0.026498, according to TradingView.

Also, TRON’s dApps have been relatively popular in the crypto community ever since they appeared on its platform, most of which are gambling and gaming-oriented. As a result, the TRON ecosystem has become one of the fastest-growing ones in the crypto space, and the recent reports regarding its DAU numbers confirm it.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

First BitTorrent (BTT) AirDrop Details

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The first airdrop of BitTorrent (BTT) is scheduled for February 11th, 2019, and it will be distributed to TRON (TRX) holders by the BitTorrent Foundation. The airdrop will be executed after the TRON network reaches the height of 6.6 million blocks, and it will include 10,890,000,000 BTTs, or 1.1% of the token’s circulating supply.

The airdrop will be the first of many in a series which is expected to go until 2025.

How to qualify for the airdrop?

The airdrop is already supported by multiple cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges, and those who wish to participate need to fulfill two conditions. The first one includes holding an amount of TRX coins, and the second one is to ensure that the coins are stored in a wallet or on the crypto exchange that will support the airdrop.

Some of the wallets and exchanges supporting the airdrop include Binance, OKEx, Bithumb, Huobi, Huobi Wallet, Koinex, Cobo Wallet, WazirX, Coin Tiger, FCOIN, Bitple Wallet, Gate.io, Coinex, and others.

Details about BTT

BTT is a TRON-based TRC-10 token which was launched on Binance Launchpad on January 28th. The token was exposed to over 10 million Binance users, and the sale was over within 15 minutes.

The coin is to be used in the BitTorrent platform for making transactions and rewarding users for providing their own computing resources. The mentioned series of airdrops is expected to reward TRON holders with at least 10.1% of the BTT circulating supply in the following years.

The circumstances were also very beneficial for TRON (TRX) as well, as the coin started experiencing growth while most of the other cryptocurrencies have been experiencing drops in price due to the crypto winter. In a period of only 30 days, starting on December 17th, TRX price doubled, going from $0.127 to $0.025. At the time of writing, the price of TRX stands at $0.026058, after a 1.02% increase in the last 24 hours.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.