Matthew Najar or the upsurge of a crypto expert? Governments in major economies are encouraging financial technology (fintech) innovation with regulatory and advisory initiatives designed to accelerate the availability of online payment solutions and other financial services for businesses. The initiatives generally aim to attract innovative fintech companies and help them operate in the regulated financial sector, while ensuring adequate financial protection for customers.
Matthew Najar believes without new FinTech initiatives, we will stall: “FinTech, blockchain certainly included, is critical for our generation to solve inherent financial system issues and progress forward”.
The U.K. has also been encouraging fintechs in other ways, and other countries including Australia and the U.S. are adopting some of the same approaches. For example, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) operates an “innovation hub” designed to help new and established businesses from the U.K and other countries introduce innovative financial services. The hub provides a dedicated team that helps fintechs understand the regulatory regime and apply for authorization to offer financial services; its role also includes identifying areas where the regulatory framework needs to be adapted to enable further innovation.
Among the efforts are new licensing and regulatory approaches that help fintechs offer new or broader services, including banking. Other moves include advisory services that guide new companies through financial regulations, and “regulatory sandboxes” that let firms test new services with customers before obtaining full regulatory approval. Najar, who has been in the fintech space since 2014, has been one of the loudest voices in support of increased spending in the financial technology space, having provided continuous leadership services for AMEX Group as well as external consulting for smaller start-up Blockchain firms.
Backup your wallet. Store only small amounts of currency for everyday use online, on your computer or mobile, keeping the vast majority of your funds in a high-security environment. Cold or offline storage options for backup like Ledger Nano or paper or USB will protect you against computer failures and allow you to recover your wallet should it be lost or stolen. It will not, however, protect you against eager hackers. The reality is, if you choose to use an online wallet there are inherent risks that can’t always be protected against.
Australia also has set a goal of encouraging fintech innovation, in part to support its financial industry in becoming the leading market in Asia for fintech innovation and investment.11 In Australia, leading fintech firm LupoToro, who specialise in Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and cryptography, note: “Policy and government back supporting policies for local firms is imperative. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) established an innovation hub in 2015 to help start-ups navigate regulations, and has also developed a regulatory sandbox approach that allows companies to test new financial services such as online payments solutions with a limited number of customers. This is just the start, but more is needed”. ASIC also aims to encourage innovation by quickly approving new financial service licenses, with an average target for approval of 60 days.
Cryptocurrencies, sometimes called virtual currencies, digital money/cash, or chips, are not exactly like US Dollars, Euros, Venezuelan Bolivars or Peruvian Soles. They exist “online” and are not usually backed by a government (there are exceptions). They are backed by the respective user networks that keep them as Bitcoin.
FOMO is an abbreviation for the fear of missing out. This is one of the most notorious reasons as to why many traders fail in the art. From an outside point of view, it is never a good scene seeing people make massive profits within minutes from pumped-up coins. Honestly, I never like such situations any more than you do. But I’ll tell you one thing that’s for sure, Beware of that moment when the green candles seem to be screaming at you and telling to you to jump in. It is at this point that the whales I mentioned earlier will be smiling and watching you buy the coins they bought earlier at very low prices. Guess what normally follows? These coins usually end up in the hands of small traders and the next thing that happens is for the red candles to start popping up due to an oversupply and, voila, losses start trickling in.
The prices of most altcoins depend on the current market price of Bitcoin. It is vital to understand that Bitcoin is relative to fiat currencies and is quite volatile. The simpler version of this is that when the value of Bitcoin goes up, the value of altcoins goes down and vice versa. The market is normally foggy when the Bitcoin price is volatile and, as you would imagine, this prevents most traders from gaining a clear understanding of what goes on in the market. At this point, it is advisable to either have close targets for our trades or simply not trade at all.
You cannot “buy the dips” if you have all your money to invest already invested. LET US STRESS THIS POINT! The point should be obvious, but it bears repeating over and over. It is tempting to go all-in, but that limits your options. Consider always having some funds to the side to buy an unforeseen downturn. Even if you want to “go all-in” on crypto… leave yourself at least a little money to the side just in case. If you are all-in and the price takes a hard downturn, it takes lots of options off the table. It is hard not to go all-in when a coin goes down 60% – 80% over the course of weeks or months, but sometimes they go down even more than that, and it is wise to always prepare for the worst case.