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Sending money to family or friends is fast in the digital age. Instead of going out to a bank or money-transfer service, it only takes opening an app to send money from your own home — or anywhere in the world.

Wise (LSE:WISE) is one of the firms that makes this really easy, and recently went public. This young firm has quickly grown to become one of the biggest money-transfer companies on the market, and it has a bold strategy very similar to PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL). But can it be as good of an investment as PayPal was in its early years?

Wise makes its profits from charging transaction fees for transfers, and one reason for its widespread use is that it is very transparent about its pricing. Also, it usually charges a fraction of what banks and other services charge. This has allowed the company to grow quickly.

Wise is pushing into new areas and spreading its message, which should allow it to keep adding more customers. Also, Wise is going into other financial products and services, with banking being one of them. While the company began by only giving money-transfers, it has now given its customers the ability to store their funds in a digital wallet and has allied with banks to give a Wise-branded debit card. Its banking service is unique because it allows users to keep their funds in up to 50 currencies. Wise says this is a “multi-currency account,” and it has been very popular among immigrants and travellers who like to transfer money or spend money in numerous currencies.

Similarities with PayPal

PayPal also begun as a great money-transfer app when it was created over 20 years ago. And similarly to Wise, it went with an aggressive marketing strategy. Among other strategies, PayPal offered its customers $5 to $10 to create an account on its platform — something that has turned into standard practice inside the fintech industry. Wise, meanwhile, has supported the idea of paying customers referral bonuses as a new standard for the industry. The company sure does look like an early PayPal.

Author: Blake Ambrose

The US Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen is now being accused of corruption because of her getting $7.2 million in the form of ‘speaking fees’ from the Citadel hedge fund and Citi bank.

“Since most Americans were locked down last year, those speeches are all done through Zoom, done from her home. $7.2 million in payments,” Bruce Fenton, a bitcoin supporter, says.

Yellen’s official disclosures reveal she got millions more from banks such as BNP, Barclays, UBS, and more.

That reveals that her incentives are totally misaligned because her official salary is only $221,400 per year, while just Citi alone has paid her over $7 million.

Moreover while this total might seem like a small amount for a bribe, Yellen’s wealth is thought to be around $20 million, so she has been awarded half her net worth in one year by one bank alone.

She is now helping her real employers, the hedge funds and banks and not the U.S. government, as Ron Hammond, Director of Gov. Relations at the Blockchain Assc., says:

“The pressure is growing as more Senators reveal their concerns to us in private about the bill, Treasury is doing all they can to kill the Wyden amendment, general politics of the measure could force Senator Schumer to say no to all amendments.”

For this $7 million, Yellen is now going to effectively stop a competitor of her Citi pay masters, the decentralized finance space, with a measure sneaked into the Bill at the last moment that labels smart contract coders as brokers.

Another amendment to the bill to exclude coders was nearly going to be accepted with general consent, but then Yellen pushed for a competing amendment that will not exclude coders, the Warren-Portman amendment.

The bill could now go through with no amendment, something that would net coders and miners into greater taxation in theory.

That would be a huge big win for Yellen’s current pay masters, but a big loss for Americans who might well see first hand just how corruption ends with selling out of the U.S., and all for only $7 million.

Author: Steven Sinclaire

Supporters of the crypto industry in the United States Senate issued an amendment to the bipartisan infrastructure legislation to make certain that miners and cryptocurrency service providers would not be forced to follow the new rules on tax-reporting and cryptocurrency brokers.

The amendment would “make clear that ‘brokers’ mean simply people who conduct transactions on exchanges where clients buy and sell digital assets,” according to a news release.

This means the IRS will not force miners, stakers and crypto companies that provide hardware or software for securing digital assets to report the actions of their customers or cryptocurrency users whose transactions they currently verify.

It also exempts software developers who create digital assets from watching their use if the customers are not their customers.

The amendment was put forward by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and Republican Senators Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming and Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania.

In a comment, Wyden said that “investors not paying tax they owe from cryptocurrency is a real issue,” but that the law as written here is too broad and would have applied to people who would not have been able to fulfill this mandate.

“Digital assets aren’t going anywhere,” Lummis said in the written comment. “While a lot more work is to be done, this amendment is a good step toward completely incorporating digital assets into the United States financial sector.”

The changes will cause the bill to raise $5.2 billion under the $28 billion envisaged by the first law, according to a Politico news report citing the Taxation Committee.

The report also revealed that the White House is fighting back against this proposed change, citing an official within the admin. who argued that the sector is using “scare tactics” to change the impact of the new law.

It is expected that the new amendment will be discussed in the coming days, with a vote happening next week.

“The Dem majority today will think of additional amendments, and then we can get this bill to an end very shortly,” Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said during his floor speech this week.

Author: Scott Dowdy

Banking company JPMorgan Chase will supposedly soon give their clients a passively managed Bitcoin fund.

JPMorgan Chase has joined with the Bitcoin-centered institutional-grade NY Digital Investment Group to offer the passive Bitcoin fund, CoinDesk reports mentioning two sources close to the issue.

Advisers at the bank were prepped for the offering in a call only yesterday, according the report, who also reported that this fund will be “given to their clients as the cheapest and safest bitcoin investment fund on the private markets right now.”

A source said that the fund would be changeable into an ETF after that product has a precedent of SEC approval. The fund has not secured any clients funds yet.

Note that NYDIG, the JPMorgan partners in offering this fund, have already filed the documents for a Bitcoin ETF, after many other firms, like Invesco, who also filed today.

Although the new in-house fund might be expected to get investments soon, since last month, Mary Callahan Erdoes, the JPMorgan Wealth Management CEO, said the company’s clients see bitcoin like an asset class and “would like to invest.”

These remarks were during an interview back in June from “Bloomberg Wealth” which was published back on July 20th.

Wealthy clients of JPMorgan’s are already accessing GBTC and other bitcoin funds using a brokerage account, Business Insider recently reported. But the brand new bitcoin fund will be open only to clients of JPMorgan Private Bank.

The Bitcoin fund represents a shift in the conservative mega-bank’s cryptocurrency strategy. Recall that Jamie Dimon, the JPMorgan CEO, said that Bitcoin was a fraud in 2017.

Dimon has also been reported by the Wall Street Journal as saying that, “I’m not a Bitcoin supporter and I don’t care about it,” and, “On the other hand, my clients seem to be interested and I don’t tell my clients what to not do.”

Bitcoin is currently undergoing major changes as Washington attempts to restrict cryptocurrencies using a range of methods. But this has not slowed the digital asset down, as Bitcoin and Ethereum have rallied from their recent multiple month dip.

Author: Blake Ambrose

You will probably need more income during your retirement, more than what Social Security will give you. That is where your savings can help.

But your savings should not just sit in cash. Instead, you should invest your savings into your career so your money keeps going into a larger amount over time.

A lot of folks who are new to investing are overwhelmed by trying to choose how to divvy up their funds in their IRAs or 401(k)s. And many of them make the mistake of accepting misinformation that could set them back from accomplishing their goals. Here are three of these myths that could derail your retirement.

1. Stocks can be dangerous

Stocks are a very volatile investment. But to say they are a dangerous investment is a big exaggeration.

If you look at the market’s past, you will see that while it has had its share of turmoil, it’s also managed to come back from downturns each time. You will also see that investors who stayed put during past stock crashes wound up ahead, despite these temporary problems.

There is definitely risks in investing in stocks. But there is also risks in not going that route.

If you play it too safe, you may not get the full returns you could. And that might leave you with less money than you would like for your retirement years.

2. The more, the better

Diversification is a vital thing to have inside your portfolio. It can cause solid growth and guard you during downturns.

But it is also better to focus on owning quality stocks more so than quantity. Rather than focusing on buying a specific amount of stocks, you should instead focus on the types of companies you are buying and the specific ones you have selected for your portfolio.

3. What to do before retirement

It’s true that as retirement gets closer, you should start shifting some of your assets out of stocks and into bonds, since bonds do not usually fluctuate as much as stocks. But this does not mean you should be completely out of stocks when you retire.

You need stocks to keep bringing in growth. It is this growth that will allow you to take larger withdrawals from your savings during your retirement to augment your Social Security income.

Try to have around 50% of your portfolio in stocks near the start of your retirement. You can work with that percentage given your specific retirement age. But do not make the mistake of selling your stocks completely.

Author: Steven Sinclaire

For years, the IRS has removed a chunk of crypto miners income from all American taxpayers. But one company is now attempting to help crypto miners guard their mining profits from federal taxes by allowing them to do business within an IRA.

Usually, when a person mines for digital coins, proceeds are said to be income by the federal government, and therefore, must be counted in your taxable income.

“American crypto miners have double taxation,” says Ryan Radloff, who is the CEO of IRA custodian Kingdom Trust, which is offering the Choice IRA. Choice specifically focuses on savers looking to include crypto assets to their portfolios.

Mining Inside An IRA

Radloff partnered with data-center company Compass Mining this week to give clients an account that will allow them to mine for crypto directly inside their IRAs.

The process is very simple.

A customer first buys mining hardware by using the money within their IRA. Radloff says the equipment can range from $5,000 up to over $10,000. Compass handles the details and logistics, from delivering the machines to the data center, to setting up and monitoring the equipment.

While the Compass miners generate mostly bitcoin, they also provide some litecoin and zcash mining machines.

“After the miner is inside the IRA, the new bitcoins are seen as rental income or as dividends from stocks that you hold within your IRA – meaning they do not count as a contribution to your IRA,” says Radloff.

Radloff reports that if clients decide to sell, the capital gains taxes will either be deferred or eliminated if done inside the IRA.

“You are not getting access to the rental cash flow, it just goes right into the IRA,” explained Shehan Chandrasekera, the tax strategy leader at CoinTracker.io, a digital currency tax software firm that helps its customers track their cryptos across virtual wallets and manage their taxes.

While Bitcoin’s short-term volatility is more than enough to make anyone shy away, its increases over the long term, when combined with the inflation and uncertainty of the U.S. dollar, might make it a prime investment asset if such retirement offerings become recognized and accepted by the IRS.

Author: Blake Ambrose

The cannabis boom during the covid pandemic benefited the marijuana sector to a great extent. That said, U.S. cannabis outshone their more legal Canadian counterparts. The Canadian industry is still challenged with some regulatory hold-ups, with less legal stores than expected, and increasing black market sales.

Because marijuana is somewhat illegal (at least at the federal level), some people are not willing to look at cannabis companies. But Innovative is a unconventional pot stock that gives a safe choice for those people since it has no direct involvement with marijuana.

The company experienced an excellent 2020 and a better start to this year. Let’s recap how it did and what we might see in the upcoming second-quarter results due today.

Another record quarter?

In the company’s first quarter, its overall revenue climbed 103% y/y to $43 million. Increasing revenue also raked in another quarter of profits. Net income expanded to $26 million from $12 million in the year-ago time frame, and adjusted funds from operations also went up by 117% to reach $38 million for the quarter. For a REIT, adjusted funds plays the same role as net earnings for non-REITs. It decides how much cash is there to be given to shareholders in the form of dividends.

For the time between Jan. 1 and May 5, Innovative bought three new locations, as well as adding more land to an existing property. As of May 5, it owned 69 properties in 18 states; 100% of these are rented out.

This model has aided Innovative in not only growing its profits but also protecting itself from the volatility of this industry. It ended its first quarter with $661.4 million in cash and no debt.

Buy this stock now?

A new perk of investing in Innovative is that it gives a dividend, with a yield of 2.6%. However, when looking at a dividend paying stock, consistency is more important than yield. The company has been consistently giving and also boosting its dividend since it had its IPO in 2016.

On June 15, it unveiled a quarterly dividend of $1.40 a share, an increase of 32% y/y. It also marked the 11th dividend boost for the firm since its IPO. As a REIT, it is legally forced to give out 90% of its taxable income in the form of dividends. Its increase adjusted funds from operations is a sign it will keep paying dividends.

Author: Blake Ambrose

Robinhood shares ended 50% higher yesterday after two sessions of huge spikes. Now, this week, the investment app’s stock has gone up by 100%, causing it to be a new hot “meme” stock.

Shares were stopped for volatility in the first moments of trading on Wednesday. The stock increased over 80% at one time. The upward movement comes one day after the stock boosted up 24%. The stock price went past its IPO value of $38 on Tuesday in contrast to its debut just last week.

Retail interest might be a factor for the upward drive. Robinhood is among the most talked about stocks on Reddit’s WallStreetBets. The stock’s discussion volume has gone up over the past two days.

This Wednesday, Fidelity’s real time data showed Robinhood was a top moved stock, behind AMD and AMC, two stocks closely watched by WSB members.

While short squeezes usually have driven up “meme” stocks, Robinhood’s movement is not driven due to a short covering. “While there are some short side activities in the stock, it is the longer side which is the top driver of this volatility,” Ihor Dusaniwsky from S3 Partners has said.

“The upward pressure is not a short squeeze for the simple fact that there was not enough time for a big short to be built,” he said.

High profile investments into Robinhood might also be pushing the price higher. Last week Cathie Wood’s ARKK ETF bought up around 4.9 million shares of Robinhood, as reported by Bloomberg.

Investors are watching the stock closely after its recent public debut.

The stock decreased by 12% under its IPO price during its initial day of trading on the Nasdaq. Shares ended lower by 8%. Some investors questioned whether its performance was connected to Robinhood’s hybrid auction-style IPO, a lack of lock-up time for 15% of shares owned by employees, or worries over regulatory headwinds.

Robinhood is a vital player in the retail trading trend involving GameStop and other stocks over the previous one year or so. In a weird move, the company offered around 35% of its shares to retail investors during its IPO.

Author: Scott Dowdy

Ether has greater potential than Bitcoin as a new cryptocurrency, and the newest EIP-1559 will help the digital asset trade more like a fixed asset, the CEO of Pantera Capital has said.

As the Ethereum London hard fork looms, Dan Morehead of Pantera Capital has predicted that the upcoming change would likely aid Ether in beating Bitcoin as the top cryptocurrency.

As a newer crypto, Ethereum has more potential than the current top-dog Bitcoin, Morehead stated at the Reuters Forum this week that the new Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 upgrade will probably help the number two token to trade as a fixed asset.

One of the five planned changes in the Ethereum London upgrade which is planned, is EIP-1559. It is an anticipated upgrade to Ethereum’s current fee structure, introducing a new minimum payment method for Ethereum transactions and get away from the bidding system that miners use to prioritize only the highest bids.

The upgrade is created to change fees for users to only pay the lowest bid for every block, the EIP-1559 upgrade could possibly make Ether a deflationary asset.

“You will see a transition of those who want to keep their wealth, doing it in Ether instead of Bitcoin,” Morehead said, adding that the crypto’s shift to Ethereum 2.0 will greatly reduce Ether’s energy usage levels compared to Bitcoin’s. Ethereum’s wide use in decentralized finance apps would also aid Ether in growing larger than Bitcoin, he said.

Despite expecting a better future for Ethereum, Morehead is also optimistic about Bitcoin’s better future. The CEO predicted that the top crypto would rise to between around $80,000 or more by the end of this year, rising higher than $120,000 within a year. Greater mainstream usage might further push Bitcoin’s price to as mush as $700,000 over the next decade, Morehead said.

He is not alone in believing that Ether might outperform Bitcoin soon. Mike Novogratz, the CEO of crypto company Galaxy Digital, said in June that Ether might become the “largest cryptocurrency one day.”

Author: Blake Ambrose

Over 60% of millennials believe they will have a part-time job during their retirement years. But it does not have to end up this way. If you are able to save up through your working years and invest into safe stocks that produce cash, that might make for a very enjoyable retirement.

Two dividend stocks that could be a foundation for your stock portfolio in the long term and give greater cash are Fortis and Walgreens Boots Alliance. Both of these companies have strong records of boosting their dividends over the years, and they seem like very good investments to buy and hold.

1. Walgreens Boots Alliance

Healthcare company Walgreens raised its dividend payment back in July, marking the 46th year it did so. Investors who own this Dividend Titan will now bring in $1.91 a share each year, up from $1.87. With the raise, the stock is now producing an impressive 4.1% — well higher than the S&P 500 average of under 1.4%.

Investors have been uneasy about the company due to competition from companies like Amazon that are getting more into healthcare. There are even some rumors that Amazon might launch its own pharmacy. But Walgreens is not slacking, and it has been doing the right things to get more competitive.

The company gives same-day prescription delivery from almost all of its locations, every day. It is also seeking to open 600 facilities for primary care over a four-year time line in their partnership with VillageMD.

While its profit margins are slim (usually no higher than 4%), the firm has a positive net income in every year in the past five. And its payout of 74% seems very sustainable. It might not be a top growth stock to purchase, but the investment might be a great source of recurring income. And the stock is cheaper, trading at a forward p/e multiple of only 10; meanwhile investors are handing over 11 times future earnings for the company’s rival CVS Health.

2. Fortis

Utility firm Fortis has been enlarging its dividend for 47 years. Its yield of 3.7% is higher than the average and can give you long-term stability. Over the previous four years, the firm’s profit margin was 12% or more. And their top line steadily increased during that time from 8.3 billion Canadian back in 2017 to over $8.9 billion last year — that’s an increase of 8%. While it’s not high growth, utility stocks are known mostly for their security instead of growth.

The company says it will increase its dividend by 6% every year at least until the year 2025. At this same time, it will push forward with its other growth opportunities, including focusing on clean energy — Fortis plans to remove carbon emissions by up to 75% by 2035.

Author: Steven Sinclaire

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