Weekly digest: records of altcoin; discussion of national cryptocurrencies; news from OKEx
Bitcoin has shown an impressive curve during the last week: broke through the $ 19,000 mark and then plummeted to less than $ 17,000. Because of general interest in bitcoin, many altcoins have also grown, and the heads of Kazakhstan and Nigeria have added cryptocurrency to the current agenda. Meanwhile, traders and investors are actively discussing news from the OKEx exchange, which resumed withdrawing after a month of freezing of funds.
New highs of altcoins
Ethereum's price rose and fell this week: ETH rose above $600 in five days (for the first time since 2017) and then fell below $500. One of the reasons for the interest in the currency is the upcoming transition to a new blockchain (Ethereum 2.0), which will take place presumably on December 1. The new network has a different principle of operation (consensus), this is Proof-of-Stake with the possibility of staking.
Stellar cryptocurrency, which is in the top 15 Coinmarketcap in terms of capitalization, also had impressive growth: its price reached $ 0.22, updating the maximum over the past two years. This is also explained by the protocol update that happened on November 23.
Ripple is another altcoin hitting a two-year high this week. For the first time since September 2018, its price exceeded $ 0.5 (and reached $ 0.7). Also this week, Ripple posted a vacancy for an expert specializing in central bank digital currencies (CBDC). This suggests that the company's management is preparing for the arrival of national digital currencies.
Crypto Agenda in Government Discussions
Many countries spoke about their own digital currencies (CBDC) in 2020, and China has already tested its "digital yuan". Kazakhstan joined them in the outgoing week: on Tuesday, a message appeared that the country's national bank was studying the implementation of digital currency. A detailed report is expected in the second half of 2021, and experts are now exploring various implementation scenarios.
Nigeria, meanwhile, is developing a regulatory framework for blockchain and cryptocurrencies. According to the authorities, the country has the potential for the development of the crypto industry, but it needs a legacy. This is progress compared to the situation in 2017 when the Nigerian authorities announced the impossibility of controlling blockchain and Bitcoin.
OKEx resumed withdrawal
Since October 16, the withdrawal of funds has been frozen on the large cryptocurrency exchange OKEx: this was explained by the loss of communication with one of the private key holders.
On Thursday, November 26 (one day ahead of the announced date), the withdrawal was reinstated. In the first few hours, 2822 BTC were withdrawn from the exchange.
Experts feared that the massive withdrawal of funds would cause fluctuations in the price of bitcoin. But CryptoQuant CEO Ki Yong Joo said that 83% of the funds from OKEx went to wallets out of exchanges, so this is unlikely to affect the price of the asset.
What exchanges are interesting for an investor and what does Bitcoin whale have to do with it? Read the Equite.io blog!