Cryptocurrency Market Update: July 4, 2024

Bitcoin (BTC)

Bitcoin is currently trading at $58,162.98, experiencing a slight decline of 0.72% over the past 24 hours and showing a 7-day drop of 5.36%. The recent fluctuations are attributed to macroeconomic factors, including changes in market liquidity and significant events like the anticipated Mt. Gox refunds. Despite the current dip, analysts maintain a bullish outlook for Bitcoin, predicting it could potentially reach up to $90,000 by the end of the year due to ongoing institutional adoption and advancements in layer 2 technologies.

Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum is priced at $3,134.84, down 0.19% in the last 24 hours and showing an 8.94% decline over the past week. The market dynamics are influenced by upcoming events such as the possible launch of spot ETFs on Ethereum, which could significantly boost its price. Ethereum’s recent performance has been impacted by overall market trends, but it remains poised for potential growth with predictions suggesting it could range between $3,100 and $4,500 in the near future.

Regulatory Developments

In a significant regulatory move, Cuba has recognized cryptocurrencies, citing socioeconomic interests. This new resolution mandates that companies offering crypto-related services obtain a license from the central bank, indicating a step towards greater regulatory clarity and potential mainstream adoption.

Market Sentiment and Predictions

Historically, September has been a challenging month for cryptocurrencies, often showing limited gains or losses. However, the current market sentiment driven by macroeconomic factors and key regulatory developments could pave the way for a more bullish trend towards the end of the year.

Expert Predictions:

• Anthony Scaramucci: Remains optimistic about Bitcoin, maintaining his prediction of BTC reaching $100,000 by the end of 2024 due to its fixed supply and growing demand.

• Curtis Sliwa: New York City mayoral candidate, emphasizes making NYC a crypto-friendly city by increasing crypto ATMs and incentivizing businesses to accept cryptocurrency payments.

Conclusion

The crypto market continues to evolve with significant regulatory changes and market dynamics. Investors are advised to stay informed and exercise caution, avoiding leverage and making wise investment choices.

Stay tuned for more updates, and let's see where this exciting journey takes us next!

Hashing up

In June 2021, Bitcoin’s global hash rate dropped to as low as 84 exahashes per second (EH/s) due to the China government’s crackdown on all crypto related activities. Since then, it has increased by 108%, with the Bitcoin network performing at a rolling seven-day average of 175 EH/s as of Wednesday 8 December 2021. This is just shy of the all-time high level of 180 EH/s in May 2021. This could indicate a forthcoming positive price action despite the bearish market sentiments at present.

In recent years, Puerto Rico has been plagued with corruption allegations and scandals up to the point where their legislature has begun to hold meetings with members of the blockchain industry on how to create “smart contracts” that would help bring more credibility and transparency to the public sector. There is also a broader plan to make this U.S. island territory a hub for crypto and blockchain innovation. This is yet another example of a blockchain use case in the hopes of paving a brighter future.

Google released its annual list of top searches for the year 2021 earlier this week. “Dogecoin” and “Ethereum Price” made the list as #4 and #10 respectively in Google Trends’ “Year in Search 2021”. Cryptocurrencies were listed among the top searched news items among topics like COVID-19 vaccine and AMC stock, a significant change from 2020 where not a single cryptocurrency was featured on the list.

Bitcoin, Dogecoin and Ether lead the list as the most popular cryptocurrencies Americans plan to gift during the holiday season,

As always, avoid leverage and stay safe.

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Bitcoin hash rate returns to all-time high levels

The world hash rate of the Bitcoin community has returned to all-time high (ATH) levels simply six months after it noticed a serious crash in the course of the aftermath of the Chinese authorities’ mining ban.

The world hash rate of the Bitcoin community tanked as little as 84 EH/s initially of June following the Chinese authorities’ crackdown on the crypto mining sector.

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Puerto Rico Lawmakers Want to Use Blockchain to Cut Corruption

As Puerto Rico has been beset by corruption allegations, the island’s legislature will begin holding meetings on how to use the blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to reduce government graft. 

Puerto Rico House Speaker Rafael “Tatito” Hernandez said he will begin meeting with members of the island’s growing blockchain industry this month about creating “smart contracts,” on embedded computer programs in the protocols, that might bring more transparency and accountability to the public sector.

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Dogecoin and Ether rank in top 10 news searches on Google in 2021

Major cryptocurrencies Ether (ETH) and Dogecoin (DOGE) made the list of the world’s most searched terms in 2021 on Google

On Tuesday, Google released its traditional annual list of the top searches for the year, breaking them down into several categories, including searches, news, people, games, movies and others.

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Bitcoin or Ethereum?

Four researchers from Australian Universities have published an article that discusses how upgrading the EIP-1559 makes Ethereum a potentially better store of value, as compared to Bitcoin.  According to the report, a transaction fee of more than 50% of the newly created 12,000 ETH per day, have been burned by EIP-1559, and they believe that more ETH will be burned as the demand for it increases due to its robust ecosystem. In their conclusion, they state that Ether offers the superior long-term storage value. However, Bitcoin supporters will also have their own opinion on why the BTC is still the best option.  

As we all know, China has banned all “virtual currency-related business activities”, however this has not significantly affected their local crypto media. An anonymous executive from a big crypto publication has said that several crypto sites have moved their community to other media outlets like Telegram and Twitter to get their information across. More Chinese people have also joined these 2 social platforms, from users to developers and even evangelists. Nothing can stop the crypto wave.

Forbes has recently published its list of 30 under 30, and they have named 15 young crypto business pioneers on it. Despite its name, the list actually comprises of 600 individuals aged 30 and below from an aggregate of 20 classes like gaming and music, while most of crypto names come from the finance category. This year’s crypto selections represented a 50% increase over the 10 crypto leaders that were named in the previous release. This shows an undeniable trend of crypto being increasingly accepted into mainstream media.  

Adidas enters the Metaverse with NFT partnerships, as always avoid leverage and stay safe.

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Academic research claims ETH is a ‘greater’ store of value than Bitcoin

Australian university researchers have questioned Bitcoin’s reputation as the best cryptocurrency store of value network, with Ethereum on its way to “becoming the world’s first deflationary currency.”

A November 18 article by four Australian researchers discusses how upgrading the EIP-1559 makes ETH a potentially better store of value. The research was co-authored by Ester Félez-Viñas from the University of Technology Sydney, Sean Foley from Macquarie University, Jonathan Karlsen from the University of Western Australia and Jiri Svec from the University of Sydney.

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Chinese crypto ban poses no threat to local industry media, sources say

While some major Chinese cryptocurrency-related publications seem to be shutting down, a number continue to be run by local news agencies that have switched to social media like Twitter.

China’s most recent crypto ban would not significantly affect local crypto media sources as there are a number of ways to disseminate industry information, according to an executive at one of the biggest crypto publications in China.

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15 Crypto Leaders Create Cut For Forbes 30 Under 30

Forbes has named 15 young crypto business pioneers on the 2022 release of its 30 under 30 list. Despite its misleading name, the yearly Forbes 30 under 30 list is really comprised 600 individuals aged 30 and under from an aggregate of 20 classes like finance, gaming and music. Prominent graduated class from last year’s release include FTX and Alameda Research author Sam Bankman-Fried, and Brian Tubergen, the fellow benefactor of U.S.- based beginning symbolic offering and trade stage CoinList. In the most recent issue distributed on December 1, Forbes noticed that the last batch of individuals younger than 30 raised a larger number of than $1 billion consolidated..

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Digital Assets making waves everywhere

Sir John Cunliffe, the deputy governor for financial stability and Andrew Bailey , the governor for Bank of England recently did a live stream where they answered questions from the Economics Affairs Committee. The topic moved into the digital currency space and Sir Cunliffe stated that he sees programmable money being used in the crypto world and expects a revolution on how technology drives the functionality of money. The Bank of England and a task force are currently looking into the adoption of a pound CBDC for retail transactions, payroll distribution, pensions etc.

The Bitcoin network has already surpassed Paypal in trade volume by dollar value and has its sights set on the credit giant Masterclass. A report from Blockdata, a market intelligence platform, indicated that this could be achieved as early as 2026 or as late as 2060, depending on the growth rate of the price per transaction, or the volume of transactions. However it is still impressive that this relatively young decentralised network could even be competing with a company that has been established for 55 years.

Moving on to something on little more lighter note, Collins Dictionary has just announced that the term NFT will be the word of the year. NFT which is short for non-fungible token, had been chosen by the dictionary’s experts in Glasgow due to its surge in interest and its meteoric rise in usage over the past year. The term even surpassed other popular words like crypto and metaverse, which has also recently been a hot topic everywhere. This really portrays the impact that these digital art forms have on the world, truly amazing.

FC Barcelona and Man City call off crypto deals showing money isn’t everything, as always avoid leverage and stay safe.

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Bank of England sees CBDCs as a revolution for the future of money

The Bank of England estimates that 20% of retail and consumer deposits could potentially move toward CBDCs.

In an event streamed live on Wednesday, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey and deputy governor for financial stability Sir Jon Cunliffe answered questions from lawmakers from the Economic Affairs Committee.

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Bitcoin exceeds Paypal on transferred value and targets Mastercard

The Bitcoin network already trades more volume in dollar value than Paypal, and the world’s largest decentralized cryptocurrency network by market capitalization could overtake Mastercard by 2026.

A November 25 report from market intelligence platform Blockdata titled When can the Bitcoin network process volumes like Mastercard and Visa? points out that the Bitcoin network processed around US$489 billion per quarter in 2021, which is more than Paypal’s US$302 billion. After just 12 years of existence, Bitcoin processes around 27% of Mastercard’s US$1.8 trillion per quarter and 15% of Visa’s US$3.2 trillion.

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Collins Dictionary Picks NFT as Word of the Year 2021

Collins Dictionary has chosen the term NFT as its word of the year after surging interest in the digital tokens that can sell for millions of dollars brought it into the mainstream.

NFT is short for non-fungible token. Collins defines it as “a unique digital certificate, registered in a blockchain, that is used to record ownership of an asset such as an artwork or a collectible."

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Blockchain and gaming, a new way forward

A hearing of the Joint Economic Committee that was held in the United States, talked about the role a central bank digital currency, or CBDC for short and how it can improve the payment system for the country. Tim Massad who was a former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, referred to the current payment system as “slow” and “expensive”. Although he stated that stablecoins has its own type of issues, it is undeniable that CBDC has the potential to improve the financial services in the country.    

Bitdeer Technologies Holding Company, a Singapore based company that focuses on Bitcoin mining, has announced that a definitive merger with Blue Safari Group Acquisition Corp has been agreed . The special purpose acquisition company went public in June, and the merged firm is expected to be renamed as Bitdeer Technologies Group, while retaining the NASDAQ stock market listing.  While still subjected to a few conditions like regulatory clearances, Bitdeer could have an estimated corporate value of  US$4 billion.

As we all know, the video game industry has been growing over the last few years with more players beginning to engage in it. With that in mind, a recent survey by software company Stratis have found that an increasing number of video game developers in the US and UK are turning to the blockchain technology for their endeavours. Out of the 197 game developers that did the survey, around 58% of these companies are increasingly going with this route. The future also looks optimistic as the participants who have yet to adventure into blockchain technology, 72% of them are considering it while 56% are intending to start next year.

Australian Baseball League club Perth Heat to pay players in bitcoin, as always avoid leverage and stay safe.

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U.S. is not moving fast enough to develop a CBDC, says former CFTC chair

Tim Massad, who served as chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission till 2017, stated the United States is too sluggish in growing a plan to modernize its cost techniques.

In a Wednesday listening to of the Joint Economic Committee on the function of digital property in authorities, Massad said a central financial institution digital foreign money, or CBDC, may very well be one answer for the United States to enhance its present funds techniques, which he referred to as “slow” and “expensive.” In addition, the former CFTC chair stated whereas stablecoins may very well be used for this function, additionally they offered among the most pressing challenges for U.S. regulators and pose important dangers.

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Bitcoin miner to go public on Nasdaq after $4B SPAC merger

Bitdeer Technologies Holding Company, a Singapore-based Bitcoin (BTC) mining corporation, has announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Blue Safari Group Acquisition Corp. to combine the businesse of Blue Safari and the miner.

According to the announcement, the two firms are expected to merge and be renamed Bitdeer Technologies Group, retaining the NASDAQ stock market listing.

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Video game developers are increasingly using blockchain

According to a recent survey in the US and UK, video game developers are increasingly using blockchain technology as we read more about our blockchain news.

A survey by software company Stratis found that around 58% of UK and US video game developers are increasingly using blockchain technology for their endeavors, and 47% of NFTs are integrating their game into their endeavors. The survey interviewed 197 video game developers in the UK and the US. In addition to those already using NFT and blockchain, the rest of the participants were optimistic as 72% said they would consider using them to develop new games, with 56% intending to do so next year.

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