NBA Star Kevin Durant Partners With Coinbase, Bitcoin and Ethereum Recover, Visa Launches Crypto Consulting

Bitcoin and Ethereum both saw late recoveries Monday afternoon following new comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell about expected rate increases next year. Bitcoin and Ethereum have both been up and down over the last week, but well short of the all-time highs they set last month.

Along with Powell’s comments Wednesday, the volatility follows new economic uncertainty brought on by the Omicron COVID variant, ongoing comments by U.S. officials and lawmakers on crypto regulation, and the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill signed by President Biden last month that includes crypto tax provisions.

Meanwhile, NBA superstar Kevin Durant will become a prominent face of crypto platform Coinbase. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler further emphasized the need for more crypto regulation by publicly requesting crypto exchanges to “come in, work with the SEC.” Visa is launching crypto consulting services to support more mainstream adoption of Bitcoin and other digital currencies among financial institutions and retailers. Here’s more on the latest crypto news that investors should know about

• Bitcoin jumped back above $49,000 and Ethereum increased to above $4,000 Wednesday afternoon, improving on where both started the day. Bitcoin and Ethereum have seen big ups and downs in the weeks since they each set new all-time highs last month. Powell on Wednesday reiterated concerns that stablecoins need more regulation, though he said he was not so much concerned with cryptocurrency’s potential to cause instability to the broader financial system. The volatility also follows new economic uncertainty brought on by the Omicron COVID variant, ongoing comments by U.S. officials and lawmakers on crypto regulation, and the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill signed by President Biden last month that includes crypto tax provisions.
• Kevin Durant and his company Thirty Five Ventures signed a multiyear marketing deal with Coinbase, according to reporting by sports business news site Boardroom.TV. Brooklyn Nets star Durant will help promote the crypto exchange across his businesses and become a prominent advertising face of the brand. Durant’s partnership with Coinbase is the latest example of high-profile athletes jumping on the digital-asset wave.
• Visa is launching new consulting and advisory services to advise its clients on crypto. The payments giant said last week in a press release that its crypto advisory practice will offer advice to financial institutions, retailers, and other firms to help them better understand “the crypto ecosystem.” While the move doesn’t directly affect consumers, it is further evidence that cryptocurrency is gaining more mainstream adoption within corporate America — which generally has a positive influence on the value of investors’ crypto holdings. 
• The U.S. needs more crypto regulation, Gensler said once again in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that published Sunday. Cryptocurrency fits into the “broad remit” of the SEC, Gensler said in the interview. “I’ve said publicly, ‘Come in, work with the SEC, get registered.’ It’s really important to get that investor protection.” The comments echo remarks Gensler made to the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee earlier this month.

Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, and a good indicator of the crypto market in general, since other coins like Ethereum (and smaller altcoins) tend to follow its trends. Even though Bitcoin recently set another new all-time high, it was a pretty normal uptick for the crypto, which is notorious for its volatility. That’s not to say investors should take swings in either direction lightly, and this is also why investing experts recommend not making any major investment changes based on these normal fluctuations.

Cryptocurrency is still very new, and everything from innovation to regulation can have outsize impact for investors. Here’s how you can invest smartly, regardless of what’s making news or Bitcoin’s price swings.

How Investors Should Deal With Volatility

Cryptocurrency volatility is nothing new, and you should be comfortable with this if you decide to invest. 

Volatility can be attributed to an “immature market,” says Ollie Leech, learn editor at Coindesk, a cryptocurrency news outlet. Anything from a celebrity tweet to new federal regulation can send prices spiraling. 

“If Elon Musk puts hashtag Bitcoin in his Twitter bio, it sends Bitcoin up 10%,” says Leech. 

This unpredictability is part of the reason why investing experts warn against investing huge amounts of your portfolio into a risky asset like crypto. Many recommend keeping your crypto holdings to less than 5% of your total portfolio. 

For new investors, day-to-day swings can seem frightening. But if you’ve invested with a buy-and-hold strategy, dips are nothing to panic about, says Humphrey Yang the personal finance expert behind Humphrey Talks. Yang recommends a simple solution: don’t look at your investment. 

“Don’t check on it. That’s the best thing you can do. If you let your emotions get too much into it then you might sell at the wrong time, make the wrong decision,” says Yang.

This is the traditional “set it and forget it” advice that many traditional long-term investors follow. If you can’t get on board, and the extreme dips continue to cause you worry, then you might have too much riding on your cryptocurrency investments. 

“The most important thing any investor can do, whether they are investing in Bitcoin or stocks, is not just to have a plan in place, but to also have a plan they can stick with,” says Douglas Boneparth, a CFP and the president of Bone Fide Wealth. “While buying the dip might be attractive, especially with an asset that you really like, it might not always be the best idea at the moment.”

Other Recent Crypto News

• Executives from Coinbase, Circle, Stellar, FTX, and other crypto companies testified at a congressional hearing recently. Led by Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters, the hearing is titled “Digital Assets and the Future of Finance: Understanding the Challenges and Benefits of Financial Innovation in the United States.” The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services has had a clear and growing focus on cryptocurrency and its risks to U.S. consumers and investors.
• The Staples Center in Los Angeles — home of pro sports teams including the NBA’s Lakers and Clippers — will rebrand as the Crypto.com Arena starting Christmas Day, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday. Crypto.com will pay $700 million for the naming rights, the LA Times reported.
• The infrastructure bill signed by President Biden includes provisions that firm up tax reporting requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges, which has implications for investors. “I think a lot of folks are in for a big tax surprise,” South Carolina-based CFP Grant Maddox told us previously.
• The Biden administration has proposed legislation that would effectively treat stablecoin issuers as banks. Top U.S. officials have said for months that more cryptocurrency regulation was necessary, and this week’s report takes it a step further by defining what it could look like.
• Jelena McWilliams, the chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) told Reuters top U.S. officials are looking for clearer ways banks and their clients can hold cryptocurrency. “If we don’t bring this activity inside the banks, it is going to develop outside of the banks. … The federal regulators won’t be able to regulate it,” McWilliams told Reuters. 
• Cryptocurrency made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange in October in the form of a Bitcoin-linked ETF. The fund trades under the ticker BITO, and is the first investment product approved by the SEC linked to crypto assets. But the fund doesn’t directly hold Bitcoin — just Bitcoin futures contracts. This is an important distinction and investors should be aware before they buy in. 
• Mastercard announced it will partner with Bakkt to offer a “broad set of cryptocurrency solutions and services” for merchants, banks, and financial technology firms in the U.S. “Consumers, in turn, will experience expanded access to the digital asset ecosystem,” according to a press release. 
• Popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced recently it is partnering with Facebook to pilot a new digital wallet, named Novi. The wallet will enable individuals to send and receive money abroad “instantly, securely, and with no fees,” according to a Coinbase blog post. The popular cryptocurrency exchange has also partnered with the NBA for a sponsorship deal, marking another major partnership for the platform.
• Coinbase also announced it will be creating Coinbase NFT, a “peer-to-peer marketplace for minting, purchasing, showcasing, and discovering NFTs.” The announcement comes after an SEC scuffle over another Coinbase product, Coinbase Earn, last month. 
• U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell spoke at the House Financial Services Committee meeting recently and clarified comments from a July hearing where he expressed interest in cryptocurrency regulation. Powell says he has “no intention” of banning cryptocurrencies.
• Vitalik Buterin, the creator of popular cryptocurrency Ethereum, was named to the TIME 100 list of the most influential people of 2021. Alexis Ohanian, former executive chairman of Reddit, wrote of Buterin: “What makes Vitalik so special, though, is that he is a builder’s builder. No one person could’ve possibly come up with all of the uses for Ethereum, but it did take one person’s idea to get it started. From there, a new world has opened up, and given rise to new ways of leveraging blockchain technology.”

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