Weekly news digest. Bitcoin More Than $ 23,000, Truth About Binance’s deals And The First Cryptocurrency Payment Service Provider
The top news story of the week is another Bitcoin rally, which brought the first cryptocurrency to above $ 23,000. This is a new all-time high, and experts predict positive dynamics in future. The growth has already led to fee escalation, and large companies and media have renewed interest in cryptocurrencies and in well-known crypto companies.
New Goal — $ 30,000?
During the week, bitcoin updated its all-time high several times. On December 17, it exceeded the $ 23,000 mark. This caused real excitement on the exchanges: on December 15 and 16, traders closed short positions for a total of $1.2 billion.
From December 13 to 18, the commission in the Bitcoin network increased from $2.70 to $12.25 (by 350%).
The number of Bitcoin addresses with a non-zero balance also renewed its all-time high and reached almost 33 million.
There are new predictions for the further dynamics of bitcoin: it could grow to $30,000-4,000,000. The managing partner of TokenboxVladimir Smerkissaid that “we can quite see $ 30,000 in the coming months,” and Scott Minerd, investment director of Guggenheim Partners, declared that bitcoin could grow to $400,000 (without specifying the period).
Large institutional investors also clearly believe in further growth: the British investment firm Ruffer Investment Company has allocated 2.5% of its funds (about $ 740 million) to Bitcoin.
Binance acquires 50 companies per year
Binance is known as one of the most successful companies in the crypto space. But not everyone knows about the real scale. Last week Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, Binance’s CEO, said in an interview that his company accomplishes 50 mergers and acquisitions every year. One of the biggest and most talked about in 2020 is the purchase of CoinMarketCap, but most of the deals are secret to the media.
Also this week, Binance began shipping its Visa bitcoin cards to customers in the European Economic Area. This physical card allows paying for products and services with cryptocurrency at points of sale that support Visa (over 44 million merchants around the world).
As a reminder, Binance will provide prizes for Khan Trading Tournament, which is currently taking place on the Equite.io platform. More about the competition - in a special section of the site.
The first provider of cryptocurrency payment services
The financial world is also waiting for a new solution for exchanging fiat currencies for cryptocurrencies. And this is Banxa, an Australian company that is currently preparing to list on the TSX Venture Exchange. The listing on the exchange will make Banxa the world's first cryptocurrency payment service provider. The services of the Australian company are already available for exchanges, wallets, and other cryptocurrency operators.
New financial opportunities are also available for Equite.io users: now there is a wallet in their personal account.