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CABEI Lends assistance to EL Salvador for Bitcoin Adoption

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On Monday, 14th June, the head of the multinational development bank, CABEI (Central American Bank for Economic Integration), announced that the bank would provide technical assistance for the implementation of Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador.

In the Monday press conference, The executive President of the Central American Bank For Economic Integration, Dante Mossi, said the development bank is looking forward to collaborating with the finance ministry of EL Salvador for the selection of a technical team to carry out a successful bitcoin implementation process.

Mossi admitted at the Monday press conference that the Government of El Salvador was actively looking for assistance from the financial institution to allow a proper enactment of Bitcoin as a legal tender in the country. 

Mossi seemed pleased while delivering the message to EL Salvador’s government and the President that how proud he feels that the Central American Bank for Economic Integration came out to be the first choice of President Bukele and the Government authorities of El Salvador. Further, Mossi brought up the point that there is no other country in the world that has adopted Bitcoin cryptocurrency as widely as this country has done. He said, protecting public privacy is a big challenge today, and to overcome this, we must choose the most efficient method.

Mossi gave out some details about the formation of the technical advisory team of the bank that would involve CABEI members, the ministry of finance and central bank officials from EL Salvador. 

The development bank also aims at helping in project planning and providing navigation assistance regarding the legal aspects of Bitcoin implementation as the legal currency of El Salvador.

Challenges in Bitcoin Adoption 

Last week, El Salvador turned into the first country to receive Bitcoin as a legal tender after Congress authorized President Nayib Bukele’s recommendation to accept the cryptocurrency.

Early this month, after El Salvador collaborated with digital wallet company “Strike” to foster the country’s advanced financial framework utilizing Bitcoin technology, President Bukele presented the bill to Congress.

After a couple of days, El Salvador’s President Bukele reported that bitcoin mining would be carried out under the nation’s state-run geothermal energy utility by employing power produced from volcanoes. The declaration was made only a few hours later, the Central American country’s CongressCongress cast a ballot to make the crypto a plausible legal tender.

Still, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cautioned El Salvador about the dangers of utilizing cryptocurrency for everyday exchanges. An IMF group planned to meet with the President of El Salvador as the worldwide association reflected upon another aid package for the country during its recuperation from the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Meanwhile, El Salvador’s President disclosed that he was in touch with the IMF and expressed that he would clarify the operations comprehensively and the situation with the economy regarding how the currency functions as a legal tender in the country.

Conclusion 

President Bukele promises a robust selection of experts from CABEI would be made for effective risk assessment, investment plan, financial education, and regulation. CABEI, on the other hand, seems to be equally invested.

CABEI Lends assistance to EL Salvador for Bitcoin Adoption

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Bullish reversal? Traders debate whether $37K BTC price is a trend reversal

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The cryptocurrency market flashed bullish on June 9 as Bitcoin (BTC) price reversed course and rallied 20% to $37,500. 

For the past few weeks, analysts had been debating whether or not BTC was entering a long-term bear trend and the argument has been further complicated by a mixture of positive and negative headlines including the adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender in El Salvador and authorities in China ordering Chinese search engines to block results for searches related to the top crypto exchanges in the country. 

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of Bitcoin has surged 20% from a low at $31,000 late on June 8 to an intraday high at $37,450 as bulls look to take control of the trend.

BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

The move higher is seen as a bullish development for many including Mike McGlone, senior commodity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, who now feels that BTC is more likely to reach $40,000 than collapse down to $20,000. On the other hand, traders like Rekt Capital believe that BTC needs to have a weekly close above $32,000 to avoid further downside. 

The coming days will determine the fate of the bull run

The steady flow of positive announcements combined with the renewed regulatory crackdown in China has led some traders to ponder whether a bullish reversal is at hand or if the current price action is nothing more than a bull trap. 

According to Delphi Digital, the clear head and shoulders pattern seen on the BTC chart is a potential bearish indicator. 

Bitcoin head and shoulders pattern. Source: Delphi Digital

Despite this bearish pattern, the analysts also noted that a bullish RSI divergence has also formed, indicating the possibility of a trend reversal in the near future.

Bitcoin price and a bullish divergence on the RSI.  Source: Delphi Digital

According to Élie Le Rest, partner at digital asset management firm ExoAlpha, “the thesis for Bitcoin as a store of value is stronger than ever” but he feels that the top cryptocurrency “needs to increase its dominance” in order for the current bull run to continue.

Le Rest pointed to the news that El Salvador would recognize BTC as legal tender as “a huge step forward toward Bitcoin adoption” and he expects other countries to follow suit in the coming months and years.

Regarding Bitcoin’s future prospects, Le Rest mentioned that following the lower level retest of the $30,000 to $40,000 range over the past few days, a break above $40,000 “could resume the bull run that took place a month ago.”

Le Rest said:

“Traders still have some doubts on where the market is heading, so leverage has remained relatively low as forced liquidations have been painful since May. Breaking $40,000 could give the boost in traders confidence to leverage again their book to power new highs of the crypto market.”

Traders have also been keeping a close eye on Ether (ETH) and Le Rest pointed to the “massive ETH outflow” seen on June 8 as “a positive sign that the ETH bull run is not over yet,” but he cautioned that alternative chains like the Binance Smart Chain, Solana, and Avalanche “are putting a lot of efforts to take their DeFi market share.”

Altcoins rally alongside Bitcoin

Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360

Bitcoin’s rally to $37,500 also provided a boost to many altcoins. 

Ether saw its price rally 14% from a low at $2,300 on June 8 to an intraday high near $2,630, and Delphi Digital pointed out that the price of Ether is being supported by a decline in the circulating supply of Ether as 23% of its supply is now locked up smart contracts.

Ether supply locked in smart contracts vs. price. Source: Delphi Digital

Other notable performances include a 23% gain in the price of Kusama (KSM) to an intraday high at $486 following the launch of the Kusama parachain auctions and an 18% gain in the price of the Curve DAO Token (CRV) to $2.50.

The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.63 trillion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 43%.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Bullish reversal? Traders debate whether $37K BTC price is a trend reversal

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NYDIG’s Robby Gutmann Predicts Bitcoin Milestone Announcements

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Robby Gutmann stands as the CEO of the NYDIG Bitcoin investment firm, and he is convinced that the world is on the brink of Bitcoin adoption.

Heralding Big Announcements From NYDIG Partners

The man, the co-founder of Stone Ridge asset manager with $10 billion in AUM, gave this opinion on the 15th of March, 2021, within the “On The Brink” podcast. In his speculation, Gutmann warned that the coming weeks will see an array of announcements from the various strategic partners of NYDIG, ones that will change the traditional financial landscape to an amazing degree.

He warned that this all will start next week, give or take a few days, stating that “game-changing” milestones will be announced by some of these firms.

It was on the 8th of March, 2021, when NYDIG had finished its growth capital round of $200 million. This round was led by an array of heavyweight finance firms, such as New York Life, Morgan Stanley, Soros Fund Management, MassMutual, as well as FS Investments. Other notables on the list of NYDIG partners include fintech firms, such as Nymbys, Kasasa, as well as Moven.

Promising Greater BTC Access For The Public

Of course, Gutmann couldn’t give the public everything, and refrained from name-dropping which partners would make these absolute game-changing announcements. He did, however, hint that the upcoming bits of news will primarily involve the public gaining greater levels of access to Bitcoins, alongside various other services and products in that vein.

Now, it should be noted that partner firms of NYDIG get access to its “Corporate Treasury” product, which itself is a veritable suite of purpose-built treasury solutions that allow corporations to hold Bitcoin effectively.

Innovations On Multiple Fronts

Gutmann warned that the announcements in question will each show new points in terms of availability, adoption, and products and services based around Bitcoin, integrating it within the traditional financial landscape at large.

It was just last month when NYDIG had submitted the paperwork it needed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. This paperwork saw the firm apply to launch a brand new exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on Bitcoin, which is the latest innovation within the US crypto space.

Time will tell how effective these proposed sweeping changes will be to the traditional financial landscape, as Gutmann claims. Either way, mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies will always be a good thing for the crypto space at large.

NYDIG’s Robby Gutmann Predicts Bitcoin Milestone Announcements

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PayPal’s crypto integration means Bitcoin could triple its user base

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Bitcoin (BTC) price has again punched through the $13,000 mark after yesterday’s PayPal’s announcement sparked a powerful rally which drove the price to a new 2020 high. 

Currently sitting near $13,100, Bitcoin price has rallied nearly 10% since the announcement and BTC is now close to overtaking PayPal as the 21st biggest asset by market capitalization.

PayPal’s crypto announcement comes two weeks after Square, another payments giant, announced its own foray into Bitcoin by investing roughly 1% of its assets into Bitcoin.

According to Lanre Jonathan Ige, a researcher at Amun AG, the continuing trend of large sized investments will be material in bringing institutional interest to Bitcoin. Ige said:

“Corporations are often trend-following and we can expect a number of other corporations to follow the lead of Square and Microstrategy, as the returns of the assets continue to impress.”

However, the recent news from PayPal is more likely to bring the masses to Bitcoin, rather than Bitcoin to institutions. This is because PayPal may bring a more mainstream audience up to speed with the cryptocurrency as an investment vehicle for now and as a payment method in the future, which has been one of the main focus of the Bitcoin community when it comes to mass adoption.

PayPal should boost Bitcoin’s user base

According to data from glassnode, Bitcoin currently has over 187 million users or “hodlers”. While impressive, crypto analyst Willy Woo noted that this pales in comparison to PayPal’s 487 million users.

Total Bitcoin HODLers. Source: Twitter

By adding Bitcoin, PayPal is bringing the name to a mainstream audience. While it is only possible to buy, sell and hold Bitcoin through PayPal for the time being, the company announced that it would be adding cryptocurrency payment and transfers in 2021. Once this occurs, it could cement Bitcoin’s reputation as a payment and remittance mechanism.

Transacting through PayPal and other centralized platforms could even become one of the ways in which Bitcoin is able to scale to a mainstream user base. Centralized transactions (along with other methods like sidechains and lightning network) could be used to alleviate congestion in Bitcoin’s blockchain, allowing it to be used only for bigger transactions that require more safety, transparency or immutable proof of ownership.

Bitcoin is on the path to outperforming banks

While it seems that payment processing companies and cryptocurrencies are finding more synergy as time passes, the same can not be said for banks and this struggle is reflected in their stock price.

Jon Erlichman, tech correspondent at BNN Bloomberg, noted that assets like Bitcoin, Ether and stocks for payment companies like PayPal and Square were doing quite well this year but since the COVID-19 pandemic, financial stocks have underperformed.

Bitcoin and Ether YTD performance. Source: Digital Assets Data

To date, the prices of Bitcoin and Ether have appreciated by 80.5% and 217%. Meanwhile, PayPal rallied 99% and Square 186%. Banks like JPMorgan and Bank of America, on the other hand, have lost 28% and 32% respectively. Citigroup has seen its stock value drop by 46% and Wells Fargo has decreased by 58%.

As for Bitcoin, it continues to be one of the best performing assets in existence, beating gold and the S&P 500 by a wide margin in 2020.

Macro Assets Current Year Returns. Source: Skew.com

As a growing number of people interact with Bitcoin as an investment vehicle, it is possible that consumers will turn their backs to banks and invest in cryptocurrency.

According to experts, Bitcoin may even benefit from what some call the ‘Robinhood effect’, a phenomenon where retail investors with disposable income purchase an asset via fee-free, gamified investing platforms in order to avoid the rigamarole frequently associated with banks.

If this happens to BTC, the digital asset could see the same type of hyperbolic investing frenzy that occurred as Robinhood investors poured funds into Tesla earlier this year.

PayPal’s crypto integration means Bitcoin could triple its user base

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Former patrons can’t drown sorrows as first-ever bar to accept Bitcoin closes

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A legendary bar and restaurant in Germany that was reportedly the first to ever accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment has permanently closed.

According to an Oct. 18 Reddit post from Joerg Platzer, founder of Room 77, the first brick-and-mortar business to accept Bitcoin (BTC) is no longer accepting customers and has shuttered its doors. In a goodbye message riddled with references to Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Platzer said “thanks again for all the fish and the generous tips” after more than 15 years in business occupying “that little joint in Berlin Kreuzberg.”

“We had a great time,” said Platzer. “Having a lot of fun and making many friends. It is clear by now that nobody will stop Bitcoin anymore. Sound money on a global scale will soon make it unfeasable [sic] to wage wars and it will create economic equality amongst mankind.”

Room 77, “the restaurant at the end of capitalism” located in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, Germany, was reportedly the first brick-and-mortar location in the world to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment. Platzer claimed to have received the first crypto payment in May 2011 for a pint of beer.

Given that the average price of beer in Germany is roughly $4.10 and Bitcoin had just reached parity with the U.S. dollar at that time, the patron could have easily paid for their drink with more than 1 BTC — now priced at $11,432. That’s a high-quality beverage.

Source: Room 77

Crypto Twitter users were quick to jump on the news with their pilgrimage stories to the legendary Bitcoin bar. Cointelegraph reported that even Bitcoin educator Andreas Antonopoulos had turned local business owners onto crypto after a chance meeting in the bar.

“A visit to Berlin was never complete without stopping by Room 77,” said Bitcoin Core developer Eric Lombrozo. “This place will always remain part of Bitcoin history.”

Phil Lucsok shared memories of his first time spending crypto in the real world:

“When I first got some Bitcoin, I just wanted to spend it somewhere AFK. I got to Room 77 on an early spring afternoon in 2013 and ordered a coffee since I didn’t want beer or food, just wanted to spend some decentralized currency for the first time in my life.”

Platzer did not provide a specific reason for the closure, but former patrons are speculating it may be related to restrictions due to the pandemic. Last week, authorities announced a curfew requiring bars in Berlin to shut down between 11:00 PM and 6:00 AM and restrict gatherings to no more than 25 people indoors. 

Though the ban was later lifted, many businesses worldwide are experiencing a drop in revenue as tourism drops and more people stay indoors.

“Blame it on COVID or blame it on gentrification,” said crypto economist Jon Matonis on Twitter. “Either way, this Kreuzberg landmark has served as a Bitcoin watering hole for over 10 years, with thousands making the obligatory pilgrimage.”

Former patrons can\’t drown sorrows as first-ever bar to accept Bitcoin closes

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Grayscale Investments now controls 2.4% of the current BTC supply

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Crypto fund manager Grayscale Investments has increased the assets under management in its Bitcoin Trust by more than $180 million over the past week.

According to data from information platform Bybt, Grayscale added 17,100 Bitcoin (BTC) to the firm’s Bitcoin Trust in the last seven days. The company now has 449,900 total coins under management — worth roughly $4.9 billion with the crypto asset at $10,890, closing above $10,000 every day for the last 63 days.

This effectively means Grayscale controls roughly 2.4% of total coin supply — currently at 18,502,381 according to CoinMarketCap — and shows no signs of stopping its buying spree. The total supply of Bitcoin is capped at 21 million, meaning there are roughly 2.5 million BTC left to be mined, or about 11.9% of the total Bitcoin to be generated. Even if the firm were to stop amassing coins now, it would still have control of more than 2% of all Bitcoin in circulation by the time the final block is mined. 

Grayscale is not the only firm seeing the potential of crypto investments. Business intelligence company MicroStrategy has swapped more than $400 million of spare capital from fiat to Bitcoin. The company has reportedly accumulated 38,250 BTC since its first crypto purchase in August; less than a tenth that of Grayscale.

Barry Silbert, CEO of Grayscale, announced in a Sept. 15 tweet — perhaps jokingly for members of Crypto Twitter — that the two companies were in a “buying race” for Bitcoin: 

However, token holders do not necessarily need to worry about Grayscale acquiring coins faster than they can be mined. Cointelegraph reported in July that the majority of the investment firm’s crypto purchases came from Bitcoin already in circulation. The firm refers to these purchases as “in kind” exchanges.

Grayscale reported $5.8 billion in assets under management as of Sept. 25, with crypto trusts including Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Horizen (ZEN), Litecoin (LTC), Stellar Lumens (XLM), XRP, and Zcash (ZEC).

Grayscale Investments now controls 2.4% of the current BTC supply

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