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Wix is taking a big step beyond website building today with the launch of a suite of products called Ascend.
PR Manager Matt Rosenberg explained that just as Wix was founded with the aim of “demystifying and democratizing how you get online,” Ascend has a similar mission: “You don’t have to be a developer and designer to bring the same thing to business management and marketing.”
Other website builders like Squarespace and Weebly (now owned by Square) have also introduced marketing tools, but Ascend seems like a particularly ambitious expansion, encompassing 20 products in areas like chat, memberships, email marketing and search engine optimization (in some cases, these are existing Wix products being brought under the Ascend umbrella).
For example, Nitzan Achsaf, the company’s vice president and general manager of customer experience, demonstrated how a (fictional) tennis instructor could use the various Ascend products to answer questions from and offer discounts to one customer interested in purchasing a tennis racket, while also interacting with and providing official price quotes to someone else looking to book a birthday party for their child.
“What we’re proud of is, there’s no juggling of vendors or of third party platforms,” Rosenberg added.
In fact, all of a business’ interactions with a customer, regardless of channel, are routed into a single inbox, which can be accessed on any device — in the case of the tennis instructor, Achsaf said, “The whole conversation is [conducted via mobile phone] on the court, probably in between sessions.”
Wix is also developing a workflow editor, so that a business’ website and other channels can respond automatically depend on how customers behave.
Ascend by Wix is available as a separate subscription, with pricing ranging from $9 to $45 per month. Technically, you could use it even if you don’t have a Wix subscription, but Achsaf said, “The tight integration into a Wix website is a very big advantage for our users.”
Wix is taking a big step beyond website building today with the launch of a suite of products called Ascend.
PR Manager Matt Rosenberg explained that just as Wix was founded with the aim of “demystifying and democratizing how you get online,” Ascend has a similar mission: “You don’t have to be a developer and designer to bring the same thing to business management and marketing.”
Other website builders like Squarespace and Weebly (now owned by Square) have also introduced marketing tools, but Ascend seems like a particularly ambitious expansion, encompassing 20 products in areas like chat, memberships, email marketing and search engine optimization (in some cases, these are existing Wix products being brought under the Ascend umbrella).
For example, Nitzan Achsaf, the company’s vice president and general manager of customer experience, demonstrated how a (fictional) tennis instructor could use the various Ascend products to answer questions from and offer discounts to one customer interested in purchasing a tennis racket, while also interacting with and providing official price quotes to someone else looking to book a birthday party for their child.
“What we’re proud of is, there’s no juggling of vendors or of third party platforms,” Rosenberg added.
In fact, all of a business’ interactions with a customer, regardless of channel, are routed into a single inbox, which can be accessed on any device — in the case of the tennis instructor, Achsaf said, “The whole conversation is [conducted via mobile phone] on the court, probably in between sessions.”
Wix is also developing a workflow editor, so that a business’ website and other channels can respond automatically depend on how customers behave.
Ascend by Wix is available as a separate subscription, with pricing ranging from $9 to $45 per month. Technically, you could use it even if you don’t have a Wix subscription, but Achsaf said, “The tight integration into a Wix website is a very big advantage for our users.”
It has been a year since the start of Cboe’s XBT futures contracts and CME Group’s bitcoin derivatives products launched last December. With super bearish prices these past few months, a lot has changed since the cryptocurrency economy touched all-time highs on spot markets. Meanwhile, bitcoin futures contracts have been growing and some skeptics still believe these derivatives products are disruptive toward cryptocurrency spot prices.
Have Futures Products ‘Tamed’ Bitcoin’s Spot Price?
A few weeks before the launch of Cboe and CME Group’s bitcoin-based futures contracts, the price of bitcoin core (BTC) spiked significantly. After Cboe’s launch seven days later, the cryptocurrency touched an all-time high of $19,600 per coin and the value has been depleting ever since. On the opposite side of the spectrum, as the price of BTC went down on many occasions, bitcoin derivatives volumes on both CME and Cboe skyrocketed. A recent CME liquidity report for Dec. 7 shows bitcoin futures volumes rallied in November, just before the price was about to experience some heavy losses. The same can be said for the month of October as CME’s BTC futures contracts saw significant average daily volume (ADV) growth. Cboe’s ADV statistics show the exact same pattern throughout all the false bull traps and subsequent dumps all year long.
Cboe and CME Group are the largest FX exchanges in the world and have been selling BTC-based derivatives products since December of last year.
Skeptics think and have believed that futures markets have caused the long-term crypto-downturn and think futures actually ‘set the price of BTC.’ Many believe that when precious metals (PM) derivatives products were first introduced they defined and suppressed the price of PMs like gold and silver. Bitcoiners will also remember that CME chairman emeritus Leo Melamed told Reuters last year that futures markets would “tame” BTC.
“We will regulate, make bitcoin not wild, nor wilder. We’ll tame it into a regular type instrument of trade with rules,” said the senior figure at CME Group.
CME’S bitcoin futures report July 12, 2018.
Playing Spot Markets With Leveraged Shorts
The bearish market that followed the launch of bitcoin futures markets has caused people to wonder if derivatives players are manipulating spot prices. Large players like state actors and financial institutions could purchase BTC through the wide range of spot exchanges and follow up with this action by placing leveraged short positions in Cboe and CME contracts.
Cboe’s Nov. 20 volume matched CME’s trade volumes on the same day, which was followed by a five-day dump on BTC spot markets.
Just like the Chinese miners who have said they are shorting BTC right now, futures traders who buy from spot exchanges can slowly dump these coins back on the market and they are protected by hedging in futures positions. This same type of manipulation happened years ago with precious metals markets and there’s now an overwhelming amount of paper gold products being swapped compared to physical assets.
This week, both CME and Cboe markets are processing roughly around 3,500-7,000 ADV contracts and have seen more sizable ADVs on certain days prior to a market shift. For instance, on Nov. 20, CME Group’s bitcoin futures contracts reached a high of 14,490. Coincidentally Cboe’s XBT futures volume that same day matched CME Groups ADV Interestingly enough, the BTC spot price that day dropped from $4,670 per coin to $3,600 over the course of the five days that followed CME Group’s bitcoin derivatives contract spike.
Cboe and CME bitcoin contracts on Nov. 12, 2018.
Furthermore, bitcoin futures predictions have changed considerably since December 2017, when people were still betting in the $20,000 to $50,000 range. Instead, contracts today for December, January, and February are between $3,200-3,500, making the Blocktower Capital, and Ari Paul’s BTC wager look passé. In fact, the Ledger X contract that wagered BTC’s price would touch $50K by Dec. 28 was sold for a quick premium that day. Ledger X president Juthica Chou said the options sale made about “25 percent” premium above the spot price at the time.
More Bitcoin Futures Products Coming Soon
It is still too early to tell if bitcoin futures products are affecting spot prices in a negative way but skeptics have claimed markets like these are not beneficial to cryptocurrency since they were announced. In addition to Cboe and CME bitcoin derivatives, other giant financial institutions are joining in on the fun. The vice president of Nasdaq’s media team, Joseph Christinat, told the press that Nasdaq will launch its own bitcoin-based futures in the first half of 2019. Then the Intercontinental Exchange revealed that Bakkt would be launching its derivatives bitcoin products on Dec. 12, but delayed the launch. Now Bakkt is hoping it will start selling products on Jan. 24 and the institution’s contracts will be different than Cboe and CME futures. Bakkt plans to exchange its products in USD but according to reports, each trade “will result in physically delivered bitcoin.”
What do you think about the effect of bitcoin futures markets on cryptocurrency spot prices? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
Images via Shutterstock, CME, Cboe, and Trading View.
Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.
The Seattle-based co-working startup, led by co-founder and chief executive Amy Nelson (pictured), has raised the capital from lead investor Alpha Edison, with support from Madrona Venture Group, New America president and CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter, fashion designer Liz Lange and TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie .
As of November, startups founded by all-female teams had closed 391 deals worth $2.3 billion, an increase from the $2 billion invested in 2017, though still just 2.2 percent of all VC invested this year.
“I want The Riveter to be the place people think of when they think of women and work,” Nelson told TechCrunch.
The Riveter has 2,000 members throughout its locations in Seattle, Bellevue, Wash. and Los Angeles. Its expansion plans include new spots in Texas, Colorado and Portland.
The spaces are built with women in mind but are not exclusive to one gender. Nelson tells us The Riveter’s membership is 25 percent male, setting it apart from spaces like The Wing, which is only available to female-identifying people.
A look inside one of The Riveter’s Seattle co-working spaces
“I don’t think the future is female, I think the future is fluid,” she said. “Gender is becoming an outdated idea but at the same time, it’s important to think of women when we build these spaces … There is a lot of value to women’s only spaces but our take on it is we want to redefine the future of work for women and we want everyone to be part of it.”
The Riveter provides space to work and collaborate; a digital network, currently in beta, for its members to connect; and programming ranging from office hours with venture capitalists to “self-care Saturday.”
Apparently, a lot of people realize at the last minute that they don’t have either beer, wine or liquor in their home when they need it.
It’s certainly the most obvious explanation for a sizable new round of funding into Drizly, a six-year-old, Boston-based on-demand delivery app for alcohol that works with roughly 1,000 brick-and-mortar liquor stores across the U.S. and Canada to deliver spirits to customers in what it says is less than an hour. Indeed, according to a new SEC filing, the company has just locked down $34.5 million in funding, which roughly doubles the company’s previous $33 million in funding. Investors include Polaris Partners, which led the company’s Series B round a couple of years ago, along with Baird Capital. Altogether, shows the filing, 17 investors took part in the offering.
The Drizly app shows shoppers different prices on the beer, wine and liquor that they’re looking for at local shops, along with different delivery or pick-up options. There have been some recent changes behind the scenes as the company has grown, too. In late summer, co-founder and original CEO Nick Rellas moved into an advisory role, while his co-founder and cousin, Cory Rellas, who had been the company’s chief operating officer, took over as chief executive. (Nick Rellas remains on the company’s board.) Drizly published a statement at the time, stating: “Having taken on a more critical role in the operations of the company over the past few years, coupled with his experience at Bain Capital, Cory is poised to lead Drizly through the next stage of its growth.”
Drizly also added a CMO, CFO and head of HR to its leadership team over the past year, as the Boston Globe reported in August.
Another sign that the company is maturing: it made its first acquisition in July, absorbing Buttery, an on-demand alcohol e-commerce company that was only active in four cities but whose backend technology and employees were integrated into Drizly. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Apparently, a lot of people realize at the last minute that they don’t have either beer, wine or liquor in their home when they need it.
It’s certainly the most obvious explanation for a sizable new round of funding into Drizly, a six-year-old, Boston-based on-demand delivery app for alcohol that works with roughly 1,000 brick-and-mortar liquor stores across the U.S. and Canada to deliver spirits to customers in what it says is less than an hour. Indeed, according to a new SEC filing, the company has just locked down $34.5 million in funding, which roughly doubles the company’s previous $33 million in funding. Investors include Polaris Partners, which led the company’s Series B round a couple of years ago, along with Baird Capital. Altogether, shows the filing, 17 investors took part in the offering.
The Drizly app shows shoppers different prices on the beer, wine and liquor that they’re looking for at local shops, along with different delivery or pick-up options. There have been some recent changes behind the scenes as the company has grown, too. In late summer, co-founder and original CEO Nick Rellas moved into an advisory role, while his co-founder and cousin, Cory Rellas, who had been the company’s chief operating officer, took over as chief executive. (Nick Rellas remains on the company’s board.) Drizly published a statement at the time, stating: “Having taken on a more critical role in the operations of the company over the past few years, coupled with his experience at Bain Capital, Cory is poised to lead Drizly through the next stage of its growth.”
Drizly also added a CMO, CFO and head of HR to its leadership team over the past year, as the Boston Globe reported in August.
Another sign that the company is maturing: it made its first acquisition in July, absorbing Buttery, an on-demand alcohol e-commerce company that was only active in four cities but whose backend technology and employees were integrated into Drizly. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Apparently, a lot of people realize at the last minute that they don’t have either beer, wine or liquor in their home when they need it.
It’s certainly the most obvious explanation for a sizable new round of funding into Drizly, a six-year-old, Boston-based on-demand delivery app for alcohol that works with roughly 1,000 brick-and-mortar liquor stores across the U.S. and Canada to deliver spirits to customers in what it says is less than an hour. Indeed, according to a new SEC filing, the company has just locked down $34.5 million in funding, which roughly doubles the company’s previous $33 million in funding. Investors include Polaris Partners, which led the company’s Series B round a couple of years ago, along with Baird Capital. Altogether, shows the filing, 17 investors took part in the offering.
The Drizly app shows shoppers different prices on the beer, wine and liquor that they’re looking for at local shops, along with different delivery or pick-up options. There have been some recent changes behind the scenes as the company has grown, too. In late summer, co-founder and original CEO Nick Rellas moved into an advisory role, while his co-founder and cousin, Cory Rellas, who had been the company’s chief operating officer, took over as chief executive. (Nick Rellas remains on the company’s board.) Drizly published a statement at the time, stating: “Having taken on a more critical role in the operations of the company over the past few years, coupled with his experience at Bain Capital, Cory is poised to lead Drizly through the next stage of its growth.”
Drizly also added a CMO, CFO and head of HR to its leadership team over the past year, as the Boston Globe reported in August.
Another sign that the company is maturing: it made its first acquisition in July, absorbing Buttery, an on-demand alcohol e-commerce company that was only active in four cities but whose backend technology and employees were integrated into Drizly. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
U.K. lawmaker Eddie Hughes has proposed that taxpayers should have the option to pay council tax and utility bills in cryptocurrencies such as BTC. The 50 year-old conservative legislator for the Walsall North constituency said the move would place the country at the forefront of digital currency adoption in Europe.
“You’re either ahead of the curve or you’re behind the curve, and our country is in an interesting position right now – we need to be seen as a progressive country,” Hughes was quoted by the Daily Express as saying. “We are at a crossroads and we’re about to determine our future – one in which taking the lead in this field could prove very beneficial.”
Eddie Hughes
Hughes’ comments come hardly a month after Ohio became the first U.S. state to allow businesses to pay taxes using bitcoin. The state government partnered with payments processor Bitpay to handle the cryptocurrency conversion to dollars.
However, the British Member of Parliament’s pronouncements may not find many takers in the United Kingdom, which is currently in the midst of a regulatory shift that could affect its cryptocurrency industry. The country is also working on measures to prevent alleged money laundering and combat terrorist financing through cryptocurrency monitorin
Hughes is of the opinion that the wider acceptance of virtual currencies in the U.K is being stalled by inadequate information and lack of knowledge, stating:
People not understanding how the transaction works is holding us back in terms of mass adoption. And also how accessible it can be – it needs to appear like an app that people will use so they can become familiar with it in a safe and secure way.
Legislators Need to Understand Crypto
Hughes, who was elected into office last year and describes himself as a “crypto enthusiast with amateur knowledge,” said it was critical for legislators to have a better understanding of cryptocurrency and the underlying blockchain technology.
“It just feels like it gets talked about a lot, wherever you go in the U.K., and as MPs we have a duty to understand it,” he detailed, adding “Only recently I met with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which is now accepting charitable donations through cryptocurrency – if we can do that, what’s to stop us being able to pay council tax and other bills with bitcoin?”
European regulators have complained that cryptocurrencies are risky, and repeatedly alleged that they help to fuel money laundering and terrorism while placing investor funds at the mercy of fraudsters. Their alarmist entreaties have ramped up pressure on governments to act, with many promulgating a series of regulations ostensibly to safeguard the public and prevent the risk of financial instability.
In October, the U.K’s Financial Conduct Authority said it was considering a ban on cryptocurrency-linked derivative products. The financial regulator indicated that it will begin consultations on whether to ban the sale of derivatives based on digital coins like BTC as well as to restrict crypto-based contracts of difference to the public. Virtual currency futures and options will also be looked into, in discussions slated for the first quarter of 2019.
What do you think about Hughes’ plan? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.
U.K. lawmaker Eddie Hughes has proposed that taxpayers should have the option to pay council tax and utility bills in cryptocurrencies such as BTC. The 50 year-old conservative legislator for the Walsall North constituency said the move would place the country at the forefront of digital currency adoption in Europe.
“You’re either ahead of the curve or you’re behind the curve, and our country is in an interesting position right now – we need to be seen as a progressive country,” Hughes was quoted by the Daily Express as saying. “We are at a crossroads and we’re about to determine our future – one in which taking the lead in this field could prove very beneficial.”
Eddie Hughes
Hughes’ comments come hardly a month after Ohio became the first U.S. state to allow businesses to pay taxes using bitcoin. The state government partnered with payments processor Bitpay to handle the cryptocurrency conversion to dollars.
However, the British Member of Parliament’s pronouncements may not find many takers in the United Kingdom, which is currently in the midst of a regulatory shift that could affect its cryptocurrency industry. The country is also working on measures to prevent alleged money laundering and combat terrorist financing through cryptocurrency monitorin
Hughes is of the opinion that the wider acceptance of virtual currencies in the U.K is being stalled by inadequate information and lack of knowledge, stating:
People not understanding how the transaction works is holding us back in terms of mass adoption. And also how accessible it can be – it needs to appear like an app that people will use so they can become familiar with it in a safe and secure way.
Legislators Need to Understand Crypto
Hughes, who was elected into office last year and describes himself as a “crypto enthusiast with amateur knowledge,” said it was critical for legislators to have a better understanding of cryptocurrency and the underlying blockchain technology.
“It just feels like it gets talked about a lot, wherever you go in the U.K., and as MPs we have a duty to understand it,” he detailed, adding “Only recently I met with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which is now accepting charitable donations through cryptocurrency – if we can do that, what’s to stop us being able to pay council tax and other bills with bitcoin?”
European regulators have complained that cryptocurrencies are risky, and repeatedly alleged that they help to fuel money laundering and terrorism while placing investor funds at the mercy of fraudsters. Their alarmist entreaties have ramped up pressure on governments to act, with many promulgating a series of regulations ostensibly to safeguard the public and prevent the risk of financial instability.
In October, the U.K’s Financial Conduct Authority said it was considering a ban on cryptocurrency-linked derivative products. The financial regulator indicated that it will begin consultations on whether to ban the sale of derivatives based on digital coins like BTC as well as to restrict crypto-based contracts of difference to the public. Virtual currency futures and options will also be looked into, in discussions slated for the first quarter of 2019.
What do you think about Hughes’ plan? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.
U.K. lawmaker Eddie Hughes has proposed that taxpayers should have the option to pay council tax and utility bills in cryptocurrencies such as BTC. The 50 year-old conservative legislator for the Walsall North constituency said the move would place the country at the forefront of digital currency adoption in Europe.
“You’re either ahead of the curve or you’re behind the curve, and our country is in an interesting position right now – we need to be seen as a progressive country,” Hughes was quoted by the Daily Express as saying. “We are at a crossroads and we’re about to determine our future – one in which taking the lead in this field could prove very beneficial.”
Eddie Hughes
Hughes’ comments come hardly a month after Ohio became the first U.S. state to allow businesses to pay taxes using bitcoin. The state government partnered with payments processor Bitpay to handle the cryptocurrency conversion to dollars.
However, the British Member of Parliament’s pronouncements may not find many takers in the United Kingdom, which is currently in the midst of a regulatory shift that could affect its cryptocurrency industry. The country is also working on measures to prevent alleged money laundering and combat terrorist financing through cryptocurrency monitorin
Hughes is of the opinion that the wider acceptance of virtual currencies in the U.K is being stalled by inadequate information and lack of knowledge, stating:
People not understanding how the transaction works is holding us back in terms of mass adoption. And also how accessible it can be – it needs to appear like an app that people will use so they can become familiar with it in a safe and secure way.
Legislators Need to Understand Crypto
Hughes, who was elected into office last year and describes himself as a “crypto enthusiast with amateur knowledge,” said it was critical for legislators to have a better understanding of cryptocurrency and the underlying blockchain technology.
“It just feels like it gets talked about a lot, wherever you go in the U.K., and as MPs we have a duty to understand it,” he detailed, adding “Only recently I met with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which is now accepting charitable donations through cryptocurrency – if we can do that, what’s to stop us being able to pay council tax and other bills with bitcoin?”
European regulators have complained that cryptocurrencies are risky, and repeatedly alleged that they help to fuel money laundering and terrorism while placing investor funds at the mercy of fraudsters. Their alarmist entreaties have ramped up pressure on governments to act, with many promulgating a series of regulations ostensibly to safeguard the public and prevent the risk of financial instability.
In October, the U.K’s Financial Conduct Authority said it was considering a ban on cryptocurrency-linked derivative products. The financial regulator indicated that it will begin consultations on whether to ban the sale of derivatives based on digital coins like BTC as well as to restrict crypto-based contracts of difference to the public. Virtual currency futures and options will also be looked into, in discussions slated for the first quarter of 2019.
What do you think about Hughes’ plan? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.
