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On March 21, Bank of America discussed the outlook for the US dollar and maintained its medium-term bearish view. The bank stated, "Since the outbreak of the Iran war, the US dollar has unsurprisingly appreciated against other G10 currencies, although the overall appreciation has not been significant. Until the situation becomes clearer, oil prices and major risks will continue to dominate the foreign exchange market. Meanwhile, interest rate expectations have been raised in most G10 central banks, which has somewhat restrained the dollars appreciation," Bank of America noted. Bank of America further pointed out that although relative interest rates have not been the main driver of the foreign exchange market during this period, this situation may change as the impact of the war on the real economy gradually becomes apparent. "While we maintain our long-term bearish view on the US dollar, upside risks to the dollar are likely to dominate as the war continues," Bank of America added.The Israeli military claims to have attacked a ballistic missile production facility of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Tehran.On March 21st, at the recently concluded Huawei China Partner Conference 2026, Huawei unveiled and showcased the Atlas 350 AI training and inference accelerator card, powered by the new Ascend 950PR processor. Compared to its predecessor, the Ascend 950PR offers significant improvements in low-precision data formats, vector computing power, interconnect bandwidth, and Huaweis self-developed HBM (Hardware-Based Memory Management) architecture.On March 21, according to the official WeChat account of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), on March 20, Liu Jiannan, Vice Chairman of the CCPIT, met with a delegation led by Lin Yiming, Global Executive Vice President of Novo Nordisk, in Beijing. They discussed the CCPITs 15th Five-Year Plan policies on accelerating the construction of a healthy China and promoting the orderly expansion of opening-up in fields such as healthcare, and exchanged views on supporting Novo Nordisks investment and development in China and deepening international cooperation in the supply chain.Iranian President Pezechzian: The actions taken by the United States and Israel against Iran are extremely inhumane and immoral, and we strongly condemn them.

Bitcoin Lightning Network-Based Strike Can Rival Visa – MS

Cory Russell

Apr 25, 2022 09:49

Morgan Stanley is optimistic about the bitcoin Lightning Network's potential as a consumer payment option.


They believe Strike, a Lightning Network-based payment technology, can compete with or even outperform Visa in the digital payments market.


Strike has partnered with Shopify and NCR, the world's leading supplier of point-of-sale payment solutions.


Morgan Stanley published a new analysis on the Lightning Network, bitcoin's Layer 2 fast payment system, and its potential to enable a "long-term move towards payments and settlements utilizing digital and cryptocurrencies rather than fiat currencies like the US dollar."


Morgan Stanley's positive analysis on the Lightning Network's potential for broader adoption comes after Strike, a US-based digital payments platform built on top of bitcoin's Lightning Network, announced earlier this month a new integration agreement with e-commerce giant Shopify.


Customers who paid in bitcoin will now be able to receive payments in US dollars from US Shopify businesses. Strike has announced collaborations with NCR, the world's leading supplier of point-of-sale (PoS) payment services.

Morgan Stanley Believes That Lightning Network Will Be Able to Compete With Visa

Morgan Stanley outlined why it believes Strike, a Lightning Network-based digital payment network, can compete with or perhaps exceed Visa in its recent study.


Morgan Stanley observes that "in essence, Strike is directly competing with Visa Direct, which provides real-time settlement," adding that "the primary distinction for merchants will be paid a significantly lower transaction cost."


"The customer advantage is that they may, if they choose, host their bitcoin on a private, secure network, enabling an element of secrecy connected with their transaction," the bank says.


Morgan Stanley emphasizes the importance of Strike's cooperation with NCR. "NCR software is used by one in every six PoS devices worldwide," the bank says, "so this news is important even if just a tiny percentage of retail businesses opt to add crypto capabilities."

Cons of Making Bitcoin Payments

The Morgan Stanley analysis points out some of the disadvantages of utilizing a bitcoin-based payment system, such as the cryptocurrency's underlying volatility on a day-to-day basis, which makes forecasting future buying power problematic.


Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley says that existing tax regulations, which require users to pay capital gains taxes on cryptocurrencies they sell, are a barrier to greater acceptance of bitcoin as a widely used means of exchange.


The bank, on the other hand, mentions the Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act, which has been introduced in the US Congress. If passed, the law would exclude personal bitcoin transactions from taxation as long as the profits are less than $200.


Morgan Stanley, on the other hand, cautions that this plan may meet criticism, particularly from anti-crypto members of Congress, since it serves to establish bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) as credible alternatives to the US currency.


The Morgan Stanley analysis "suggests we are at the beginning of an age when more and more people may opt to pay for items using Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies over time," according to Alex Gladstein, who summarized it on Twitter.

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