Turkey will see a larger volume of investment flow in the next five years, the head of Turkey's presidential investment office said Friday.

Turkey's investment office met with Turkish investors and startups during Web Summit 2020, which is among the most prominent technology conferences in the world, according to a statement by the office.

During the summit, a session named "Turkey: Reshaping Venture Capital in Emerging Markets," was held with the attendance of Turkish entrepreneurs.

Burak Daliolu, head of the office, whose views were included in the statement said: "As the Presidency Investment Office, venture capital and technology enterprises are among our priority agenda items. Istanbul also needs to reach its deserved place all over the world, as an entrepreneurship center."

Stressing that Turkey has a highly developed and supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem, Daliolu said international funds have invested in the country to gain higher returns.

Enis Hulli, partner of investment firm 500 Startups Istanbul also said the total amount invested in startups is around $100 million annually in Turkey.

"Turkey was one of the leading countries in this field with a total output volume of $3.5 billion since 2018. Considering the increasing interest of foreign investors and acquisitions, Turkey is one of the most profitable markets in the world for early-stage investors," he added.

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'Turkey to see more investment flow over next 5 years' | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah

What goes up must come down and then usually goes back up again, at least in the case of the U.S. stock market.

The market has been on a roller-coaster ride this year amid the coronavirus pandemic. The S&P 500 started the year strong, breaking the record for the longest-ever bull market. Then, in March, when the pandemic slammed the U.S. with sweeping lockdowns that brought most economic activity to a halt, the index tanked, falling 30% in 22 trading days and officially entering bear territory.

Stocks have since rebounded with surprising strength, climbing to multiple all-time highs even as Covid-19 cases continue to soar. Through Thursday's close, the S&P 500 has gained more than 13% year to date, and nearly 64% from its March 23 low.

"We have had tremendous support both on the fiscal and the monetary side that have supported markets in the downturn," said Charlie Ripley, vice president of capital markets at Allianz Investment Management. "It's sort of supported to perfection."

For those investing long-term, such as for retirement, staying in the market is often the best strategy, according to financial advisors.

Investors who panicked in March and sold assets may now be kicking themselves after the tremendous recovery the market has seen since. Even though it's tempting to retreat from the risks of the stock market when things go haywire, it's important to remember that investing means trading some volatility for the reward of growing wealth.

"Volatility is part of the equation, and that's kind of what the reward is for," said certified financial planner Kaya Ladejobi, founder of Earn Into Wealth in New York. "If your capital isn't at risk, you can't get those returns."

Research has shown that missing out on the best trading days has a huge impact on long-term returns, as they often follow the worst days. Using market data going back to 1930, Bank of America found that an investor who missed the S&P 500 index's best 10 days each decade would have a return of 91% compared to a 14,962% return for those who stayed invested.

"You can weather out the storms as long as you're not drawing on the portfolio," said Anjali Jariwala, CFP, CPA and founder of FIT Advisors in Torrance, California. She added that if you withdraw from the market and realize it was a mistake, it can be difficult to find a place to re-enter.

A market dip can be nerve-wracking, but it does not signal that it's time to get out of risk assets. In fact, it can be an opportunity to set yourself up for the next market rally.

"History tells us that markets do recover over time," said Jason Field, CFP, a financial advisor at Van Leeuwen & Company in Princeton, New Jersey. "When markets do go down, it does provide an opportunity to buy good-quality investments at lower prices."

Luckily, some investors were able to pick up on this amid the coronavirus pandemic market rout, according to Phuong Luong, CFP and founder of Just Wealth, a San Francisco-based fee-only financial planning firm.

While some of Luong's clients who are mostly in their 20s and 30s reached out in March to see if it was safe to be in the stock market, others asked her if they should be investing more.

"People are understanding better about the value of long-term investing and staying the course and that the risk of being in the market over time decreases," said Luong.

Of course, market swings may cause enough anxiety that it becomes clear that an investor has overestimated their risk tolerance and needs to reassess.

If that's the case, it's a good time to tweak asset allocations so that the next time there's a market dip, investors won't see as much volatility, said Jariwala, adding that on the other hand, they might not see the same returns as an aggressively invested portfolio.

In addition to having an appropriately balanced portfolio for your risk level, having a comprehensive financial plan for unplanned events like the coronavirus pandemic can help ease some anxiety, according to Ladejobi. This includes making sure you have a solid emergency fund as well as a road map for what to do if markets tank.

"When you have a financial plan in place and a strategy you can handle turbulent times better than when you don't have a plan," said Ladejobi.

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The stock markets roller-coaster year exemplifies why staying invested pays off - CNBC

Didi Taihuttu, his wife, and three kids bet all they have on bitcoin.

In 2017, CNBC spoke to the Dutch family of five when they were in the process of liquidating their assets from a profitable business and 2,500-square-foot house, to their shoes and trading it all in for the popular cryptocurrency and a life on the road.

Nearly four years and 40 countries later, Taihuttu and his family still don't have bank accounts, a house, or all that much by way of personal possessions. All of the family's savings remain tied up in highly volatile cryptocurrencies.

"We stepped into bitcoin, because we wanted to change our lives," said the 42-year-old father of three.

When the price of bitcoin collapsed in 2018, Taihuttu added more to his investment portfolio. He says he was always a firm believer that the cryptocurrency was poised for a major rebound. "I think in this bull cycle, we are going to see a minimal peak of $100,000. I won't be surprised if it hits $200,000 by 2022."

I won't be surprised if [bitcoin] hits $200,000 by 2022.

The price of bitcoin reached an all-time high on Monday, as it closed in on $20,000. And some analysts say the cryptocurrency still has a lot of room to run higher.

Mike Novogratz, CEO of investment firm Galaxy Digital, thinks this comeback rally is only just getting started. He sees bitcoin rising to $60,000 by next year.

And Tom Fitzpatrick, global head of CitiFXTechnicals, said the charts signaled that bitcoin could reach $318,000 by December 2021, in a report meant for Citibank's institutional clients and obtained by CNBC.

Taihuttu bought the bulk of his bitcoin holdings when it was was trading at around $900 in early 2017, just months before it reached nearly $20,000 a coin.

Even as bitcoin peaked, the family stayed invested in the cryptocurrency. Once the bubble burst, and the price tumbled down to about $3,000 in early 2018, Taihuttu and his family weren't deterred. "When bitcoin dipped, we started to buy more."

When I asked Taihuttu on our Skype call whether he was worried that we could be in the midst of another bitcoin bubble, he doubled down on his investment. "I don't see demand going down," he added. "I think we're headed for a supply crisis."

Part of what's different about bitcoin's rally in 2020 versus 2017 is that institutional investors are now adopting bitcoin, lending it newfound legitimacy and helping to erase the reputational risk of investing in the cryptocurrency.

"The 2017 rally was largely driven by retail investors, whereas this year we're seeing a massive influx from corporate entities and institutional money managers," said Mati Greenspan, portfolio manager and founder of Quantum Economics.

Old-school, billionaire hedge fund managers Stanley Druckenmiller and Paul Tudor Jones now own bitcoin and big fintech players like Square and PayPal are also adding crypto products.

This kind of mainstream adoption is hugely important, because cryptocurrencies like bitcoin aren't backed by an asset, nor do they have the full faith and backing of the government. They're valuable because people believe they're valuable. So it goes a long way when bitcoin gets buy-in from some of the biggest names on Wall Street.

The surge in interest from mainstream financial players hasn't just reformed bitcoin's image, it's also fomented a supply shortage.

"The basic reason for the two rallies are the same," Greenspan said. "It's a matter of digital scarcity. There is a strictly limited supply of bitcoin available in the market, so when everyone is buying and nobody is selling, it can cause tremendous upward pressure on the price. What's different this time are the players involved."

The 2017 rally was driven by retail speculation, and in 2020, it's the billionaires and corporations that are buying bitcoin en masse.

"When PayPal starts to sell bitcoin to its 350 million users, they also need to buy the bitcoin somewhere," said Taihuttu. "There will be a huge supply crisis, because there won't be enough new bitcoins mined everyday to fulfill the need by huge companies."

And that interest from institutional investors doesn't appear to be slowing down. Six out of 10 investors surveyed by Fidelity in June believe digital assets have a place in investment portfolios.

Mike Bucella, general partner at BlockTower Capital, told CNBC in a recent interview on "Power Lunch" that retail investors are actually the ones missing out on the bitcoin rally this year.

"If you dig a layer deeper in the derivatives market, you notice that most of that derivatives flow has transitioned from the crypto native exchanges of 2017 to institutional products, like the CME," said Bucella. "I think this really firmly indicates that retail actually missed out on this rally this year. It's been primarily and firmly an institutional bid."

But not all retail investors are missing out.

Taihuttu put a couple hundred thousand dollars into cryptocurrency in 2017, while the price of bitcoin was still trading lower, and he has mostly stayed all in on his investment.

Despite 2020's massive returns and all the recent bullish calls around bitcoin price targets, the fact remains, a speculative asset like bitcoin is prone to seismic price moves in a very short space of time.

In 2018, the massive sell-off in cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, was swift, brutal and worse than the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000.

2020 may look different than 2017's rally, but as an asset, bitcoin behaves in a cyclical manner. Each successive high is higher, and the lows are not quite as low, but bitcoin is certainly not immune to another major correction.

Though for Taihuttu, the bitcoin play isn't all about making a profit. He's already given half of his money away to charity, and his family of five has spent the last four years traveling the world, in order to spread the gospel of decentralized digital currencies.

Originally posted here:
This family bet everything on bitcoin when it was $900 and bought more when it crashed in 2018 - CNBC

When it comes to saving for retirement, you have several choices as to where to park your cash. Two of the most popular choices are the 401(k) and the individual retirement account (IRA).

If you work for a company that offers a 401(k), you may already be enrolled in this type of retirement account. IRAs, on the other hand, aren't tied to your employer, so to open this account you'll just need to find a brokerage. Although each type of retirement account has its perks, there are a few reasons why you might choose a Roth IRA over a 401(k).

Image source: Getty Images.

When you invest in a 401(k) or traditional IRA, your savings are tax-deferred. That means your initial contributions won't be taxed, but you will need to pay income taxes on your withdrawals in retirement.

A Roth IRA is the opposite: You'll pay taxes when you make the initial contributions, but then your distributions are tax-free. This can be an advantage in retirement because you won't need to worry about taxes affecting your disposable income. And when you don't need to account for taxes in your spending plan, it can be easier to determine how long your savings will last.

Not only can a Roth IRA save you money on income taxes during retirement, but it can also reduce the amount you pay in Social Security taxes.

Approximately half of seniors pay taxes on their benefits in retirement, according to a report from the Senior Citizens League. How much you pay in taxes, however, will depend on your "provisional income." This is half your annual benefit amount plus your adjusted gross income.

If your provisional income is higher than $25,000 per year (or $32,000 per year for married couples filing jointly), you'll owe taxes on up to 85% of your benefit amount.

However, withdrawals from your Roth IRA do not count toward your provisional income. That means you can spend more in retirement without exceeding Social Security's income limit, which will reduce the amount you pay in taxes on your benefits.

With a 401(k), your investment options are limited. You typically only have access to a selection of mutual funds chosen by the plan administrator, some of which may charge higher-than-average fees. But because your 401(k) is controlled through your employer, your only options are to invest in the options available or forego contributing to a 401(k).

IRAs offer a wide variety of investments to choose from. Between stocks, bonds, ETFs, index funds, and mutual funds, you can select the type of investment that best fits your needs. Investing in a Roth IRA can be a smart move for those who want to take a more hands-on approach to investing, because you can create a more personalized portfolio than you could with a 401(k).

All this isn't to say that 401(k)s never have their place in your investment strategy. While Roth IRAs do boast several key benefits, the 401(k) does have its merits as well.

For one, many 401(k)s offer matching contributions from your employer. Matching contributions are basically free cash that you can collect just by saving in your 401(k), and they're a perk you won't find with an IRA. If you have access to employer matching contributions, it may be wise to invest enough in your 401(k) to earn the full match. Then you can invest the rest of your savings in a Roth IRA.

In addition, you're allowed to save more per year in a 401(k) than in a Roth IRA. For 2021, you can contribute up to $19,500 per year in a 401(k) and $6,000 per year in an IRA. For those over age 50, you can contribute $6,500 per year in your 401(k) and $1,000 per year in your IRA. If you're a super saver, you might choose to max out your Roth IRA first and then stash the rest of your savings in a 401(k).

While each retirement account has its advantages and disadvantages, the Roth IRA outshines the 401(k) in a few areas. By investing strategically and choosing the right account for you, it will be easier to build a healthy nest egg by retirement age.

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3 Reasons a Roth IRA Is Better Than a 401(k) - The Motley Fool

USS Sterett (DDG-104) steams through the night in the Gulf of Oman on Sept. 17, 2020. US Navy Photo

This post has been updated to include additional information from Adm. Gildays remarks.

After it took the better part of nine months to convince Mark Espers Pentagon that the naval force needed greater investment to be ready to deter or defeat China and Russia even if that investment came at the expense of the Army or the Air Force the Navy and Marine Corps will have to start anew with the incoming Biden administration, the chief of naval operations said today.

The two sea services in January wrapped up an extensive effort to plan out a future force design that would allow them to distribute small but lethal units across wide swaths of ocean, sensing and fighting their way through whatever obstacles an adversary could pose. But then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper was not convinced and said in no uncertain terms that if the Navy wanted to grow the fleet theyd have to find the money internally.

Even as of mid-summer, Esper still wasnt convinced to increase Navy and Marine Corps topline, USNI News understands.

By late September, he changed his mind.

Given the serious reform efforts put forward by the Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations and their commitment to continue them I agreed to provide additional funding from across the DoD enterprise, funding that was harvested from ongoing reform efforts such as Combatant Command reviews, Fourth Estate reforms, and other initiatives, Esper said in early October when announcing the results of his Future Naval Force Study. Together, these additional funding streams will increase the shipbuilding account to 13 percent within the Navys topline, matching the average percentage spent for new ships during President Reagans buildup in the 1980s.

However, Esper was fired just weeks after he started promising Cold War-era levels of investment in Navy shipbuilding.

I think that we made a lot of progress in the last year with Secretary Esper and his staff in terms of coming to a place where there was a realization that weve under-invested in naval forces for too long and we needed to, not double down, but increase the investment in naval forces, perhaps at the expense of other areas. That we were making the argument that we believe we need overmatch in the maritime, based on the adversaries that were facing, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said today while speaking at the U.S. Naval Institutes annual Defense Forum Washington event. We think that our analysis withstood the rigors through the [Future Naval Force Study], in a CAPE-led analytical effort, and delivered an FNFS and discussions about a topline in [Fiscal Year 2022] that would support an increase in those investments.

With a change in administration coming before that FY 2022 budget is released, I think internally certainly well have challenges again with the new administration in terms of explaining the rationale for making the investments in the naval force and heading down in the direction the commandant and I want to go in, he said.

Espers vision for the future fleet included all the same elements the Navy and Marine Corps had touted in their own Integrated Naval Force Structure Assessment that Esper rejected in February though the two plans differ in how aggressively they seek to overhaul the fleet from larger and more powerful platforms to smaller manned and unmanned ones that can distribute their offensive weapons and challenge an adversarys targeting. Its unclear if the future Biden administration would support high enough funding levels to make the changes as quickly as Esper had suggested he wanted to in his last weeks on the job.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper tours the avenger class minesweeper USS Devastator, docked at Naval Support Activity Bahrain on Oct. 28, 2020. DoD Photo

Gilday said that, as the sea services modernize the fleet and grow in size, he would not do so at the expense of readiness.

We cant afford a navy much bigger than about 306 to 310 ships, based on the composition of the fleet that we have today. And so it is going to require more Navy topline. We have found money inside the Navy budget, but not enough to sustain that effort to give you the numbers that you really need to fight in a [Distributed Maritime Operations]/[Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment] fight, he said during the event.

Gilday said the new fleet needs more submarines, fewer big surface combatants, more small combatants, more unmanned, more logistics ships, and a new composition for the amphibious fleet. He also needs to invest in future offensive technologies like hypersonic weapons and defensive technologies like lasers powerful enough to serve in a missile defense role.

Some of these efforts may take longer to fully realize, due to the long service lives of ships and the time it will take for larger combatants to age out and be replaced by smaller or unmanned ships.

Still, Gilday said there were some actions he wanted to get after on a quicker timeline: specifically, this decade he wants to deliver the Constellation-class frigate, design and begin building the DDG Next that will follow the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, develop a network to tie manned and unmanned platforms together, and significantly scale up the unmanned presence in the fleet. For DDG Next, he said he hoped to see the design start in 2026 so that construction could begin in 2028, on the heels of the Arleigh Burke production line ending.

Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite has promised billions of dollars in savings a year to help pay for some of these investments, with Esper promising something of a dollar-matching effort to help get the Navy where it needed to be. Braithwaite has on several occasions declined to say what cuts hes eyeing or give a total dollar amount that can be reinvested in the future fleet.

Gilday said today he wanted to divest some legacy gear, such as the original four Littoral Combat Ships that the Navy uses just for mission package testing and would not deploy overseas. The CNO said he doesnt want to put any more money into those ships when it could be used to buy more lethality for the fleet.

Additionally, Gilday said a second challenge the Navy faces today is convincing lawmakers to let the sea services move out quickly on new programs such as a light amphibious warship, small logistics ships, unmanned systems and more.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on seapower and projection forces, visit the General Dynamics Electric Boat Quonset Point Facility in Rhode Island on Dec. 12, 2019. US Navy Photo

I think we have challenges up on the Hill, particularly the Navy, with respect to unmanned. And with DDG Next, he said, referring to the next large combatant that will follow the Flight III Arleigh Burke destroyers. So we are fighting the ghosts of our past, whether its LCS, Zumwalt, the challenges weve had with Ford we need to explain how were not going to repeat the mistakes weve had in the past. And we cant just say it, we have to show them what we are doing systematically to build a little bit, test a little bit, and then move to scaling but when our confidence is high enough to do so.

In a later panel, Naval Sea Systems Command chief Vice Adm. Bill Galinis detailed what his command is doing to help build that confidence in future systems.

On unmanned systems, he said the technology already exists and doesnt need to be improved, they just need to do a lot of testing to prove out its reliability. He cited a recent trip by a large unmanned surface vessel from the Gulf Coast to California via the Panama Canal with little to no manned intervention there. He said NAVSEA and the Defense Department were pushing hard to prove and to improve the reliability and maturity of USVs and the components within them.

On more complex systems like the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, Galinis said NAVSEA is investing in significant land-based testing. In Philadelphia the Navy has built a propulsion plant and drive train to wring out the technology as individual components and as an integrated system. Similarly, on the Flight III destroyers, the Navy has now connected its first radar array to the new electrical system to ensure they can work together as a system.

Galinis added that, for the Navys newest ship program the Constellation-class frigate NAVSEA is still working through what kind of land-based testing and other prototyping efforts will be needed to drive down risk and raise confidence in the program.

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CNO: Navy Will Have to Convince Biden Administration to Invest in Larger, Lethal Fleet - USNI News

The interior of Jacobs' headquarters in Dallas.

Dallas-based engineering giant Jacobs is buying a majority stake in an innovation consulting firm that places a $2.4 billion enterprise value on the company.

Jacobs $995 million equity investment in PA Consulting amounts to a 65% stake. The remaining 35% will be held by PA employees, following the exit of existing majority stakeholder Carlyle Group.

Jacobs also will assume $845 million of PAs debt and provide up to a $130 million credit line to fund growth.

Over the last several years we have transformed Jacobs to a leading technology-enabled solutions provider, said Jacobs chairman and CEO Steve Demetriou in a statement. This strategic partnership is an intentional move in accelerating our strategy.

PA has seen its revenue grow from $459 million in 2016 to an estimated $715 million this year. The companys 3,200 employees work in the United Kingdom, U.S., Europe and the Nordics. It has operated an innovation center in Cambridge, England, for 50 years.

Founded in 1943, PAs recent work includes the Virgin Hyperloop, advances in gene therapy manufacturing with Ori Biotech, an inhaler used in tuberculosis research and a failure-predicting tool for public utilities.

Jacobs said it expects to ramp up PAs growth, particularly in the U.S., by targeting high growth sectors like health and life sciences, public services, consumer and manufacturing, and defense and security.

'We see Jacobs as the ideal partner for PA, leveraging their client relationship networks and global platform to position us for the next phase of growth, said PA Consulting CEO Ken Toombs in a statement.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of Jacobs fiscal 2021 second quarter.

Jacobs is one of the largest public companies in Dallas-Fort Worth, with $13.6 billion in fiscal 2020 revenue and 55,000 employees globally.

Last week, both Jacobs and PA Consulting made smaller acquisitions.

Jacobs acquired Reston, Va.-based cyber and intelligence company The Buffalo Group. PA Consulting bought a Boston-area engineering company, Cooper Perkins, that specializes in electromechanical device design.

Terms of those deals werent disclosed.

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Dallas-based Jacobs investment puts $2.4 billion value on innovation firm - The Dallas Morning News

A Porsche 911 Speedster is presented at the Paris Motor Show on October 4, 2018 in Paris.

Christophe Archambault | AFP | Getty Images

German automaker Porsche is investing about $24 million in the development of "e-fuels," which officials say is a climate-neutral fuel to replace gasoline in nonelectric vehicles.

Production of such a fuel would allow the company and potentially other automakers a way to continue producing vehicles such as Porsche's iconic 911 sports car with a traditional engine alongside, or rather than, a new electric model. While electric vehicles can offer outstanding performance, the driving dynamics of the vehicles are different than traditional engines.

"We would like and love cars like the 911 with high-rev combustion engines or turbocharged engines still as cars you could drive in the future without having the burden of a CO2 footprint, an unnecessary CO2 footprint," Michael Steiner, Porsche's director of research and development, said Wednesday during a virtual media event.

Officials said e-fuels can act like gasoline, allowing owners of current and classic vehicles a more environmentally friendly way to drive. It also could use the same fueling infrastructure as current fuels rather than billions in investments for new infrastructure for electric vehicles.

The announcement does not change Porsche's target to have half of Porsche models sold by 2025 to be electrified, including all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Porsche, owned by Volkswagen, announced the investment in partnership with Siemens' renewable energy unit and other international companies such as energy firm AME and the petroleum company ENAP from Chile. It includes developing and implementing a plant in Chile that is expected to yield the "world's first integrated, commercial, industrial-scale plant" for making synthetic climate-neutral fuels, also known as e-fuels.

The pilot project is expected to begin e-fuel production at the plant as early as 2022. Porsche is expected to be the primary customer for the green fuel, starting with use in vehicles for motorsports and its driving experience centers.

The plant and process will be powered by renewable wind energy, a reason why Chile was chosen for the plant along with "excellent climate conditions."

E-fuels are produced by a complex process using water, hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The CO2 is filtered from the air and combined with hydrogen from the water to produce synthetic methanol, according to officials. The result is "renewable methanol," which the companies say can be converted into gasoline using an MTG (Methanol to Gasoline) technology to be licensed and supported by Exxon Mobil.

The only emissions from the vehicles would be carbon produced that was initially pulled from the air to make the synthetic fuel. The vehicles would still need to use oil to lubricate the engine.

Continued here:
Porsche investing $24 million in 'e-fuels' to supplement electrification of sports cars - CNBC

Dec 2, 2020 at 8:26 p.m. UTCUpdated Dec 3, 2020 at 1:30 p.m. UTC

Ethereum art(CoinDesk archives)

Those new to crypto, such as the institutional investors recently buying into bitcoins digital gold narrative, might now be looking around for the next big thing.

With the long-anticipated arrival of phase 0 of the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade launching on Dec. 1, that could be the networks native token, ether (ETH). But analysts say ether should be judged on its own merits and not as a bitcoin replacement.

Ive always thought this digital asset space is huge and its not just bitcoin because there are going to be different applications for different things, Raoul Pal, CEO and co-founder of financial media group Real Vision, said in Real Visions documentary Ethereum An Investigation, which was released on Nov. 30. I think of the two [bitcoin and ether] as having a very nice combined asset allocation.

For Pal, an early bitcoin investor, the rationale seems even more plausible these days: As bitcoins price hits a new all-time high, the number one cryptocurrency by market capitalization is now more expensive and thus potentially a riskier bet for new investors.

It can be expected investors are looking for a new opportunity in crypto at affordable prices. Given that ether is trading roughly 59% below its all-time high of $1,432.88, it is tempting to believe theres a bargain to be had. Whats more, the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade to increase the networks scalability, security and energy efficiency has generated a lot of hype.

However, at least for now, analysts and traders who spoke with CoinDesk dont think ether will replace the FOMO over bitcoin.

For institutional investors, they are buying BTC for the digital gold narrative, Ryan Watkins, senior research analyst at Messari, told CoinDesk. ETH just isnt in that conversation yet.

Ether benefits from spillover and likely has more conversation around it from crypto-natives, Vishal Shah, founder of derivatives exchange Alpha5, told CoinDesk. For the uninitiated, [it is] hard to see how bitcoin is not the sole on-ramp.

Some analysts say that as more institutions pour money into bitcoin and push up its price, ether and other cryptocurrencies will gradually decouple from bitcoin.

Indeed, while bitcoin this week logged a record high price, ether isnt even close to its all-time high of $1,448.18. Data from CoinDesk shows the 90-day correlation coefficient between the prices of the top two cryptocurrencies, while still strong, has gradually weakened a bit since the summer from as high as 0.93 to nearly 0.7 at the beginning of December.

The thing about correlation is it can disappear at any time, Ashwath Balakrishnan, research analyst at digital asset research firm Delphi Digital, told CoinDesk. In that case, you want to understandthe core fundamentals of what you hold because if you hold ether as a proxy [to your] bitcoin exposure, and [when] prices decouple, you are now exposed to something very different.

Bitcoin has been used by many investors this year as a hedge against a drop in the purchasing power of U.S. dollars. Ether is considered the currency of the world computer, which aims to build an ecosystem of decentralized applications.

The close historical correlation between bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies may be due to how tiny the digital-asset ecosystem is relative to the global economy. The total market capitalization of crypto assets is estimated at $562 billion, a mere 1.7% of the S&P 500 stock indexs combined market cap of $32.2 trillion. With almost every crypto asset built on different fundamentals, non-bitcoin cryptocurrencies may be trending with bitcoin prices simply because the nascent market is still so small and insular.

Correlation data doesnt tell the whole story. Prices may move in tandem but the degree to which that happens is another matter. When the explosive decentralized finance (DeFi) boom hit the market during the summer, ethers price rallied to its highest in more than two years because most DeFi projects are built on the Ethereum blockchain. At the time, bitcoin was struggling to break a similar two-year record.

The market will have to wait and see what kind of real impact the ongoing Ethereum upgrade could have on its native currency because the final phase of the process is scheduled to be completed in 2023. But a major fundamental upgrade on the network underpinning ether could lead its price to move on its own fundamentals, instead of merely following bitcoins price.

The heart of ETH 2.0, which makes the entire system possible, is ether, according to a report by Messari. ETH will not only be Ethereums native store of value asset and fuel for transactions, but will also be Ethereums ultimate source of security from its role in the [proof-of-stake] system.

Thus, while bitcoin can be seen as somewhere between a store of value and a commodity on the asset superclass triangle, ether could ultimately become the first asset to be a combination of all three classes of assets: capital assets, commodities and stores of value.

When ethers price starts to be driven by its own catalysts, holding it as a proxy to having BTC exposure will not work as expected, Balakrishnan added.

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Why Ethereum and Bitcoin Are Very Different Investments - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

A California developer is trying to raise $1 billion to invest in Black and Latino communities. If successful, it would be one of the largest commercial real-estate funds ever to focus on minority neighborhoods.

Martin Muoto, chief executive of the real-estate firm SoLa Impact LLC, already runs three funds totaling $180 million. They focus on affordable housing and some commercial real estate in minority neighborhoods around South Los Angeles. The funds, which raised money from individual partners in large investors like the private-equity firm General Atlantic, have recorded double-digit average annual returns since the first fund launched in 2014.

Now, Mr. Muoto is trying to use a similar approach in cities across the U.S. that suffer from a shortage of affordable housing and from what he said are regulatory barriers that make it tougher to build. His new Black Impact Fund is focusing on large metropolises like Philadelphia and Atlanta, as well as midsize cities like Fresno, Calif.

SoLa has been investing in opportunity zones, a program created by the 2017 federal tax overhaul that allows investors to defer and reduce taxes if they reinvest capital gains in designated low-income communities.

Critics of the program say it sometimes misses the mark, like when states earmark neighborhoods where development is already taking place. That could give investors a significant tax break without creating many new jobs or more affordable housing in poorer neighborhoods.

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Developer Aims to Raise $1 Billion for Investing in Minority Communities - The Wall Street Journal

Jordan Gaspar, who is the managing partner and president of the woman-owned VC firm AF Ventures, adds that these new standards are unlikely to revert to those of pre-COVID once a vaccine is available and economies reopen fully.

But, that isnt a bad thing, as she explains in this episode of FoodNavigator-USAs Investing in the Future of Food. Rather, she says, many of the changes and opportunities spurred by the pandemic will accelerate much-needed, true advancement in the industry and open new avenues for innovation and business development.

My biggest hope is that we dont go back to who we were before all of this. I think we have learned so much. Theres been so much progress applied to our industry. Theres so many new developments that we can continue to invest in once we have a moment to take our breath. So, my hope is that we can take the positive elements from the past, but really be focusing on what is true advancement in our industry, thats accelerated by several years in the past few months, Gaspar said.

For example, Gaspar says, while travel restrictions during the pandemic hindered face-to-face meetings with fundraising companies, they ultimately fostered increased transparency and open communication which will behoove companies and investors alike going forward.

We invested in six companies this past year, including ones evaluated virtually, which has been an adjustment, she said. We realized that we had to become flexible and nimble in our own process because the world has changed a little bit. And so, we invested in companies where we did a supply chain audit over Zoom and had a couple dozen more Zooms to get to know each other.

Likewise, she notes, supply chain and marketing challenges have given investors a chance to see how entrepreneurs and businesses perform under pressure.

COVID is a real marker of the type of resilience that certain founders can have, and for us those are all markers of a different level of expectation of founders, which is a result of COVID where the bar is raised that much higher, Gaspar said, adding, the pandemic also provided a great opportunity to see what people were made of essentially just to see what their chops were.

For each challenge the pandemic has posed, it also has created new opportunities for entrepreneurs to appeal to consumers and investors, including, in AF Ventures case, new eating occasions, distribution strategies, and platforms for cross-category expansion.

Theres so many lessons from this. First and foremost, the categories of priority are going to shift or expand to include more grab-and-stay options and at home lunch and snack solutions, Gaspar said. I had no idea how important lunch options in my home were [before the pandemic] because I used to wake up, send my kids to school and my spouse would go to work, and there was this whole portion of the day where there were no snacks and meals to be responsible for. Now have two snacks and lunch that I also am purchasing and thinking about in terms of stocking. So, we do have a change in use occasion.

In addition, she said, the pandemic has revealed the importance of omnichannel distribution not just for shelf stable products but refrigerated and frozen options as well.

Other areas of interest to consumers and investors include adaptogens, immunity-based platforms, functional ingredients, and solutions that prioritize physical health and mental well-being, Gaspar said.

As important as the market potential and business savvy of a company is to investors, the pandemic also underscored the importance of entrepreneurs emotional intelligence and how they treat employees qualities that increasingly are influencing consumers purchasing decisions.

It cant just be about business anymore. People are investing so much, and weve been thinking a lot about how we can support our teams, how to be good employers and teammates, Gaspar said.

She explained that before the pandemic, AF Ventures would have considered potential partners HR policies, but now with the strain of social distancing and working from home, Gaspar says companies including hers need to be more proactive in ensuring the health and happiness of staff.

Worker welfare also has become an increasingly important priority for many consumers as the pandemic has shined a light on the value of essential workers and the risks they take to help serve others.

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Investing in the Future of Food: Pandemic slows investment dealmaking, but also opens opportunities - FoodNavigator-USA.com