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CoinMarketCap removes South Korea crypto exchanges from Bitcoin price tracker

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Crypto price trackin website CoinMarketCap has removed many South Korean exchanges from its calculations for the price of Bitcoin as the coin dipped under $58,000 again.

As of today, CoinMarketCap’s Bitcoin price tracker shows no data from major South Korean crypto exchanges including Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit. The website uses data from many exchanges to estimate the average price for cryptocurrencies. At the time of publication, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) is $57,721, having fallen more than 2% this morning.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, CoinMarketCap content manager Molly Jane Zuckerman said the removal was due to the premium observed on crypto exchanges based in South Korea. The crypto analytics provider estimates the BTC price to be roughly 6% higher than that on other exchanges.

“If the prices on South Korean exchanges stabilize, then we will add the data back in, but that hasn’t happened yet,” said Zuckerman.

The last time the price tracking website took similar action was in 2018, when CoinMarketCap announced it had “excluded some South Korean exchanges in price calculations due to the extreme divergence in prices from the rest of the world and limited arbitrage opportunity.”

During roughly the same time three years ago, the price of XRP was falling significantly after reaching an all-time high of $2.96 on Jan. 2. However, the token is looking bullish today, having briefly surpassed $1.00 for the first time since 2018 after it rose more than 20% in the last 24 hours. The price has since fallen to $0.9694 at the time of publication.

CoinMarketCap said only its Bitcoin price index was affected today, given the large volume of the crypto asset on South Korean exchanges. Last month, the volume of transactions in the South Korean digital currency market — driven in part by the price of BTC reaching an all-time — briefly exceeded the daily average transaction amount of the country’s stock market.

CoinMarketCap removes South Korea crypto exchanges from Bitcoin price tracker

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Draper Goren Holm adds Tezos startups to its $25M venture fund

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Blockchain venture studio Draper Gorem Holm has announced plans to incubate Tezos-based startups as part of its $25 million venture fund, highlighting its conviction in the smart contract platform.

The venture fund, called Fund 1, was launched in October 2020 as a way to incubate emerging blockchain companies. Fund 1 is set up as a traditional venture capital fund focusing on emerging fintech and blockchain startups.

The inclusion of Tezos-based projects into the fund is hardly surprising given the company’s growing support for the smart contract platform. Draper Goren Holm already backs Tezos Stable Technologies, the team behind the USDtez stablecoin. The company has also invested in Kalamint, a Tezos-based NFT marketplace.

Tim Draper, the company’s special limited partner, described Tezos as the “leading platform for smart contracts and low energy use” due to its reliance on proof-of-stake, or PoS, consensus.

Alon Goren, founding partner of Draper Goren Hold, said:

“We believe the differences in the Tezos blockchain, and how it is governed, are monumental to scaling blockchain verticals for the long-term.”

Tezos was one of the most promising smart contract platforms of late 2019 and early 2020 but has faded from the limelight amid the bull market. At $3.8 billion, XTZ is now ranked 32nd by market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap.

Draper Goren Holm adds Tezos startups to its $25M venture fund

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Bezos Knocks Musk Off Top of Billionaires List as Tesla and Bitcoin Craters

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Tesla’s Elon Musk has lost his spot as the richest man in the world. This development follows a decline in the price of Bitcoin and the shares of Tesla, his electric car company.

As the world’s biggest cryptocurrency plummeted as much as 17 percent on Tuesday, February 23, 2021, with prices fallen below $50,000, Tesla shares slid to $698, a development that came two weeks after the car company added no less than $1.5 billion in Bitcoin to its balance sheet.

In what appeared to be the greatest decline in Tesla’s value since last year’s September, about a whopping $3.56 billion was wiped out from Musk’s net worth. This is also after a plunge in the value of Bitcoin.

While Musk now ranks as the second richest man in the world with $180 billion, American industrialist Jeff Bezos is now the richest man with a total net worth of $187 billion. This is the second time the Amazon CEO is topping the billionaire’s list this month.

Musk’s Networth Drop? Blame it on Bitcoin

Dan Ives, a financial analyst with Wedbush, said while he believes Musk’s latest purchase of $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin is a strategic move, he would blame Tesla’s stock decline on the company’s association with Bitcoin.

“Investors are starting to tie Bitcoin and Tesla at the hip. While Tesla on paper made roughly a $1 billion on Bitcoin in a month that exceeded all its EV profits from 2020, the recent 48 hour sell off in Bitcoin and added volatility has driven some investors to the exits on this name in the near-term,” Fox Business quoted Ives as saying.

Further explaining his point of view in an interview with CNBC, Ives continued: “With Tesla diving into the deep end of the pool on bitcoin, Musk runs the risk that this sideshow can overshadow the fundamental EV (electric vehicle) vision in the near term for investors.”

However, in spite of popular opinions on Musk, the Wedbush analyst is optimistic that bitcoin is a “smart move at the right time for Tesla.”

Ives estimates that Tesla has already made a return of over $1 billion off its investment in Bitcoin. “On the downside, it’s playing with firecrackers and risks and volatility are added to the Tesla story,” Ives added.

Cathie Wood of Ark Invest, an investment management firm, likely supports Ives’ argument, owing to the fact that ARK’s ETF has been buying Tesla shares amid its recent decline. As seen on Ark’s daily trading log, Wood has purchased no less than 200,000 shares of Tesla.

Bitcoin’s Rebound

Meanwhile, as of Wednesday, February 24, Bitcoin rallied back above $50,000, as the bulls returned back to the markets. The world’s largest cryptocurrency went up by as much as 5.4% to about $50,557, per data from Coinmarketcap.

Bezos Knocks Musk Off Top of Billionaires List as Tesla and Bitcoin Craters

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Bitcoin Held A Market Cap Of $900 Billion For A Short While

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Bitcoin is seeing its market cap loom ever closer to the fabled trillion-dollar mark. Today, the world’s first cryptocurrency saw its market cap rise past the $900 billion mark for a short moment as the asset hit new record highs in price.

Bitstamp Recording $900 Billion Market Cap

Bitstamp stands as one of the oldest crypto exchanges operating still. Recently, this exchange reported a price peak at $49,000, which resulted in Bitcoin holding a market cap of $912.69 billion. As it stands now, however, Bitcoin has seemingly returned to the $47,600 range.

Should Bitcoin gain (and maintain) a market cap of over $900 billion, it means that the asset managed to gain $354 billion in value just within this year, and it isn’t even March yet. Bitcoin’s price action certainly seems to want to achieve this, looming ever closer to that $49,000 price tag.

BitStamp to Operate Legally in New York with New BitLicense
Source: Chepicap.com

Bitcoin Outperforms The Netherlands

As it stands now, Bitcoin is responsible for approximately 61% of the entire crypto space’s market cap. These market caps have also reached all-time highs, with all the major altcoins going up alongside Bitcoin. The current market cap now stands at $1.450 trillion at the time of writing. The asset started this year with a market cap of just $776 billion.

CompaniesMarketCap, which isn’t CoinMarketCap, stands as a website ranking the most traded assets in the world, rating them by market cap. As it stands now, Bitcoin is in ninth place, managing to surpass Tesla and Facebook last week. Bitcoin’s market cap can even be compared to countries, as its $900 billion market cap makes it stand between the Netherlands and Mexico ($886 billion and $1.04 trillion, respectively) in terms of GDP.

Let that sink in. Bitcoin is outperforming entire countries.

Potential For BTC Only Growing

These new highs for Bitcoin came on the very same day the first-ever US Bitcoin ETF was approved. This also comes within the same week Tesla opted to buy a whopping $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, as well as a far more crypto-friendly regulatory atmosphere, at least when it comes to crypto-related fintech projects.

Even the US’s Biden Administration, having done some strange things throughout its time in power, had also made the wise move by appointing various individuals in high positions that hold crypto-friendly sentiments. This could be a signal for greater cooperation opportunities between blockchain-based enterprises and regulatory authorities. Or it could just be a coincidence, though that’s unlikely.

Bitcoin Held A Market Cap Of $900 Billion For A Short While

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Bitcoin flippens Russian ruble after Tesla purchase

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After hitting a new all-time high of more than $48,000 earlier today, the market capitalization of Bitcoin has surpassed the total market cap of the Russian ruble. 

According to data from AssetDash, Bitcoin’s market cap is $871 billion at the time of publication. This exceeds the money supply of the Russian ruble, which as of January was estimated to be 58.6 trillion RUB, currently valued at roughly $791.1 billion. The crypto asset has also overtaken Tesla Motors in market capitalization after a brief retreat yesterday — the car manufacturer’s market cap is $813 billion at the time of publication, having fallen 1.8% in the last 24 hours.

The price rise that led to Bitcoin flipping the ruble in value followed news that Tesla had purchased an aggregate of $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, to be held as an investment and store of value for its excess cash. The price of BTC subsequently surged to a new all-time high of $48,200. Though it has since fallen under $47,000, the market cap of the crypto asset remains higher than that of Tesla and Facebook, and is gaining on Chinese multinational tech conglomerate Tencent, currently valued at $911 billion.

Bitcoin’s market cap was already worth more than the total value of many fiat currencies around the world, including the Mexican peso at roughly $731 billion. Though Bitcoin (BTC) remains the top rated asset on CoinMarketCap, the analytics website is currently listing the Tesla Model 3 above the coin in the “0” position, with the vehicle retailing at $37,990 in the U.S.

Bitcoin flippens Russian ruble after Tesla purchase

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Free TON to merge with Dune Network in decentralized M&A deal

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Free TON, a community-driven blockchain promoting decentralized self-governance and freedom of speech, has acquired Dune Network through a community merger mechanism that was recently approved by both camps.

An amended Dune community partnership proposal filed in January was approved on Tuesday, bringing the Free TON merger one step closer to fruition. Dune Network, which is a decentralized platform for distributed applications, said the merger will strengthen both communities and support the global adoption of decentralized governance.

Ben Sunderland, Dune Network’s community manager, said:

“Our vision is to create the blockchain ecosystem’s first true decentralised Merger and Acquisition. With our shared values, we feel a merge of the Dune Network community into the Free TON community will yield significant benefits for both parties, and the wider blockchain industry.”

According to Sunderland, the merger provides Free TON with several benefits, including an experienced community, a transfer of all social media to Free TON accounts, roughly 30,000 accounts and smart contracts, and access to Origin Labs, a new research arm that can contribute to Free TON’s development.

Fabrice Le Fessant, president of Dune Network and CEO of Origin Labs, told Cointelegraph:

“The merge between Dune and Free TON is a wonderful event for both our communities. I already see many of our members exchanging, and I am looking forward to more, as both techs are very complementary. With this merge, we’re all together contributing to the acceleration of the Free TON technical leadership in the market.”

Under the proposal, Free TON will allocate an agreed-upon amount of TON Crystal — the native asset of the Free TON blockchain — to Dune Network. Dune Network community members will decide whether they want to swap their tokens for the TON Crystal.

The merging process — which consists of proposal validation, the development of swapping infrastructure and the actual swapping period — is expected to last roughly six months and cost 9 million TON Crystal, which is equivalent to Dune Network’s market capitalization. The merger will be funded through contests on the Free TON network, according to Sunderland.

One TON Crystal is currently valued at around $0.40, according to CoinMarketCap, while Dune Network’s native DUN token trades at less than $0.02. Both cryptocurrencies rose sharply on Tuesday, possibly in conjunction with the merger developments.

As Cointelegraph previously reported, Free TON launched in May 2020, building on Telegram’s codebase. The project launched its mainnet in December 2020 after achieving “sufficient decentralization.”

Free TON to merge with Dune Network in decentralized M&A deal

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