Weekly news digest: bitcoin at $ 40K, ether — at $ 1200 and triumph of stablecoins
The big news of the week is the Bitcoin rally. Now the first cryptocurrency has risen above $40,000: the mark was crossed on Thursday. Now there is no longer any doubt what the currency of the 21st century will be. And China is moving into a new era, launching the next test of the digital yuan: now the virtual currency has been issued for $3 million. And in the United States, they are trying to make blockchain currencies legitimate.
From $ 30K to $ 40K in less than a week
From the first days of 2021, investors and traders have been following the dynamics of bitcoin: the first cryptocurrency rose to $30,000 in the very beginning of the year. This week, on Thursday, the mark of $40,000 was passed. Thus, the recent predictions about the $50,000 do not seem fantastic anymore.
Altcoin prices are also growing. Ethereum did well last week and tested the $1200 mark.
Today, many analysts are talking about a correction: for example, Joseph Jung, author of Cointelegraph, notes that a significant correction of Bitcoin may start at the beginning of the year. Russian expert Dmitry Machikhin (partner of GMT Legal) predicted the same situation: he associates the correction with legislative regulation, which will be strengthened in 2021.
A new round of regulation
There are no doubt that regulators will come to grips with cryptocurrency. For example, in Iran, where mining licenses have been introduced since 2019, a raid on illegal farms was carried out on Thursday. As a result, 1620 underground cryptocurrency mining points were closed.
However, regulations does not always affect the cryptocurrency space in a negative way. Thus, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) legalized stablecoins officially: from January 5, national banks and federal savings associations were allowed to use them for payments to customers. And in Ukraine, the Ministry of Digital Transformation signed a memorandum with the developers of Stellar: the companies will work together on a strategy for virtual assets.
Digital yuan: another $ 3 million
China is still the leader in implementing digital currencies. The country has already passed several successful tests of the "virtual yuan" — the digital currency of the Central Bank. And in early January it was announced that a new round is coming. The Shenzhen city authorities will distribute 100,000 envelopes among citizens, with 200 yuan (about $31) in each one. Volunteers need to spend them by January 17th via campaign partners: 100,000 city shops and restaurants. The development of digital yuan has been going on since 2017, and mass use is expected in 2022.
What was 2020 for Equite.io? Read about it in our year-ending post!