Finding Liquidity in A Bearish Market Episode 3: A Dream of Spring

Have you ever worshiped a monk or a Taoist priest for fortune-telling of your own? Believe or not, I have. Go ahead, call me superstitious. But if it’s about the future of blockchain industry, I am strongly convinced that — no need for a crystal ball — it is the futuristic technology.

Despite that most governments share a rather conservative sentiment against the cryptocurrency area, there are also other opinions they have in common regarding the blockchain technology.

It is hardly something blameful for government not to help foster the crypto market given that cryptocurrency might to some extent threaten the position of fiat money as the only mass-adopted payment method, which supports empowering the government with supreme political and economic authority.

But blockchain solely is something different, it’s neutral. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Similarly, in good hands, blockchain technology should do nothing but good.

Some may argue that it’s much easier saying than actually sticking to the faith, especially for those who have been suffering. True, but I made no exception losing a considerable amount of money if not a fortune, and I still have a dream of spring, when the cryptocurrency market revives and the blockchain sector prospers as the fundamental technology across various industries.

However, if you don’t think it’s reasonable considering anyone — individual or institution — as the only source of information, about which you are absolutely right, why not start paying a little attention on what big players are doing?

HSBC, one of the world’s largest bank with total assets topping $2.5 trillion, had reportedly settled over 3 million forex transactions worth $250 billion using blockchain technology in 2018, according to a CCN report.

The bank even launched a blockchain platform — FX Everywhere — in February last year, and has processed 150,000+ payments ever since.

I doubt that a giant bank with over century-and-a-half history would challenge government watchdog on controversy such as anti-money-laundering, over which the cryptocurrency world has been criticized the most. And yet, the financial institution made a rather pro-statement towards the basic technology explicitly via the above-mentioned notable moves.

The Asia-focused British lender is not soloing in exploring this emerging tech space. In October 2018, HSBC together with 11 of its friends, including Standard Charter and BNP Paris, publicly backed blockchain-based trade finance platform eTrade Connect, aiming to improve the efficiency of cross-border trade financing.

Moreover, there is one beautiful thing about increasing globalization — the barrier of establishing an internationalized enterprise is lowering, politically, economically, culturally and financially.

In this specific context, for banks like HSBC and its peers, it means greater proportions of multinational company clients, the corporate treasurers of which will be more than happy to run sizable forex pools in a more efficient and agile way with the help of blockchain.

If, however, the positive attitude from the business side is not persuasive enough, take a look at one of the world’s most famous (or maybe infamous for being greedy just like other Wall Street firms) investment bank’s approach in this arena.

Goldman Sachs, according to public information, participated in two fundraising deals initiated by blockchain startups Axoni and Veem successively in mid-August and late-September 2018. The former is a distributed-ledger technology provider targeting financial institutions that raised $32 million from Goldman Sachs and a few other investors, while the latter is a blockchain payment platform attracted $25 million.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), holding company of the New York Stock Exchange, also backed a cryptocurrency exchange Bakkt, which very recently raised over $180 million in its Series A Round — for reference, Facebook raised roughly $12 million in its Series A, while Tesla attracted $7.5 million in the same round.

These guys, with their expertise in financial world, know-how covering various tech sectors, close relations with authorities and decades of experience sensing the market sentiment, they make serious calls.

Still not buying it?

Fine, you familiar with Placebo Effect? Consider my word as one. Just stick around wait and see, making sure to be one of the fastest movers once the starting gun sounds. DON’T GIVE UP FAITH.