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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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Bitcoin is outshining gold in the battle of the safe havens

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As the Bitcoin (BTC) price edges closer to $59,000, its value relative to gold is approaching new all-time highs, possibly hinting at the emergence of a new preferred store of value.

Measured against gold, Bitcoin’s price reached 34.94 ounces on Tuesday. The BTC-gold comparative peaked at 35.35 ounces on March 13 as Bitcoin surged past $61,000.

Bitcoin continues to outperform gold by a significant margin. | Chart via BuyBitcoinWorldwide

Bitcoin’s value relative to gold has more than doubled over the past three months and has grown nearly sevenfold since October 2020.

Gold futures, meanwhile, plunged below $1,700 a troy ounce Tuesday on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price bottomed at $1,676.50, marking a new three-week low. Since peaking above $2,050 a troy ounce in August 2020, bullion has corrected nearly 18%.

2020 was a big year for gold, as the yellow metal set new all-time highs in every major currency before toppling $2,000 per U.S. dollar for the first time. Bullion ended the year with a gain of around 22%. Still, that paled in comparison with Bitcoin’s 265% yearly return.

With the recent $1.9 stimulus package fueling inflation fears, assets like gold and Bitcoin should, in theory, perform well as investors hedge their bets against the declining dollar. However, the recent rise in bond yields may have taken some of the shine away from gold.

Others, even some prominent analysts like Bloomberg’s Mke McGlone, believe gold is losing ground to Bitcoin in the battle of the safe-havens. Earlier this month, McGlone tweeted:

“Gold will always have a place in jewelry and coin collections, but most indicators point to an accelerating pace of Bitcoin replacing the metal as a store of value in investor portfolios.”

Even JPMorgan, an organization long critical of Bitcoin, has claimed that the digital currency will consume a portion of gold’s market share. “The adoption of bitcoin by institutional investors has only begun, while for gold, its adoption by institutional investors is very advanced,” JPMorgan strategists led by Nikolas Panigirtzoglou said in a December 2020 report. “If this medium to longer-term thesis proves right, the price of gold would suffer from a structural headwind over the coming years.”

Bitcoin’s digital gold narrative continues to strengthen post-halving. The quadrennial deflationary event, which last occurred in May 2020, reduces the amount of new Bitcoin that enters circulation after each block is mined.

Bitcoin is outshining gold in the battle of the safe havens

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Marshall Islands digital currency would ‘raise risks,’ says IMF

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A representative for the International Monetary Fund has said the Marshall Islands’ digital sovereign currency would currently pose a risk to the islands’ financial stability. 

Following a March consultation, International Monetary Fund, or IMF, representative Yong Sarah Zhou said the issuance of the Marshall Islands’ digital sovereign currency, called SOV, as legal tender would “raise risks to macroeconomic and financial stability as well as financial integrity” of the islands. According to Zhou, the measures the Republic of the Marshall Islands, or RMI, took to contain COVID-19 may have been “swift and strong,” but also strained the local economy.

“The issuance of the SOV could jeopardize the RMI’s last USD corresponding banking relationship,” said Zhou. “This combined with anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism risks (including those related to the SOV) could disrupt external aid and other important financial flows, resulting in a significant drag on the economy.”

She added that the “cautious approach” towards the SOV already in place was warranted, given that the “potential cost of the SOV issuance will likely outweigh the expected benefits.” According to the IMF representative, the RMI’s gross domestic product fell more than 3% in FY2020 and is expected to decline another 1.5% this fiscal year with a possible recovery of the local economy in 2022.

“The RMI’s legal, regulatory, and institutional framework is not yet ready to accommodate the SOV issuance and manage associated risks.”

Government officials first announced the RMI would be exploring the creation of a digital currency in 2018, one that could be used as legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar — though the Marshall Islands are a sovereign state, they are also an associated state with the U.S. In June, a crypto advisor to the islands said that the RMI was conducting an 18-month test phase for “preSOV,” a token which can later be converted into SOV.

Central bank digital currencies have had some success in areas spread across multiple islands. For example, the Bahamas launched its Sand Dollar digital currency in October, aimed at driving greater financial inclusion within the archipelago nation of more than 700 islands. There are more than 58,000 people in the RMI spread across 29 atolls and 5 islands, 24 of which are inhabited.

Marshall Islands digital currency would \’raise risks,\’ says IMF

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China’s Central Bank Addresses Digital Yuan Privacy Concerns

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The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) deputy director Mu Changchun has addressed privacy and anonymity concerns over its upcoming central bank digital currency (CBDC) project.

Changchun spoke at the China Development Forum in Beijing on Saturday.

Limited Anonymity Of CBDC

According to Changchun, it would be difficult for the digital currency to be fully anonymous. He said that the Central Bank needs to balance privacy for users with international consensus in risk control.

He elaborated the use of digital yuan not only as a payment method but also as a high-level financial surveillance tool.

The Central bank head said that the digital Yuan would provide privacy, but it would be limited. He said that the CBDC would have even more privacy than commercial payment products like bank cards, WeChat, or Alipay, tied more closely to the banking system.

China Cracking Down On Crypto Crimes

While giving reasons to why the digital Yuan would not be fully anonymous, Changchun said too much emphasis on anonymity would raise the cost of fighting crime and could bring severe consequences.

On the flip side, if the apex bank controls anonymity, it would mean that it will observe and monitor transactions taking place while the transacting parties would remain private. This way, PBoC still has the chance to analyze transactions to monitor crimes.

“A completely anonymous central bank digital currency is not feasible as it would violate anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist financing, and anti-tax evasion regulations,” Changchun said.

China has shown its commitment to tackling crimes, especially when it comes to the use of crypto to launder money. Beijing’s extensive crackdown on internet crimes has seen several young people sentenced to prison for laundering  Bitcoin using platforms like Kucoin.

The country was said to have convicted almost 100 people since November 2020 for knowingly using USDT to launder over $30 million through OTC desks.

Meanwhile, China continues to lead major countries in developing and piloting a central bank digital currency (CBDC). However, the project has raised concerns around the amount of insight it would give authorities into users’ financial data and behavior.

In January, 100,000 Chinese received $31 million digital yuan via lottery for free in the Shenzhen region. Residents in the region can now use ATMs to convert digital yuan to cash on a test basis. The Postal Savings Bank of China is also developing physical wallet cards on which to store digital yuan.

China’s Central Bank Addresses Digital Yuan Privacy Concerns

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Will Bitcoin Reach All-Time High of $100K in 2021?

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Will Bitcoin Reach All-Time High of $100K in 2021

Are you a Crypto enthusiast? Wondering whether BTC will beat all records and reach $100k this year or not? Well, you have landed on the right page. This article talks about the history of Bitcoin, from where it all started, reasons that accelerated its price, and finally analyzing whether BTC could really hit $100K

Table of Contents 

  • From Where It All Started: The Rise of Bitcoin
  • Reasons That Accelerated Bitcoin’s Price
  • Could Bitcoin really hit $100K?
  • Concluding Lines 

From Where It All Started: The Rise of Bitcoin

Bitcoin, the first-ever example of decentralized digital currency, came into existence in 2009 under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto. Initially, in January 2009, the Bitcoin network was introduced with the release of the first open-source bitcoin client and the issuance of the first bitcoins, with Satoshi Nakamoto mining the first block of bitcoins ever. The first price rise happened in July 2010, when the value of a single bitcoin rose to $0.08, and the next year in 2011, its price rose from $1 in April. After two years, in January 2013, it was seen that BitPay exceeded 10,000 transactions, and in November 2017, the price surged to $10k. Since its introduction, Bitcoin(BTC) has seen significant ups and downs. In 2018, Bitcoin saw the most critical crash to $3,200, but next year in 2019, its price stayed above US $3,190. After its lowest drop in this year, in mid-June, the price rose to the US $10,000, and again in December 2019, the same price fell to the US $7,112.73.  

However, the end of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 indicates a remarkable rise in Bitcoin’s price. In December 2020, BTC touched $10K. In January 2021, Bitcoin price rose to $40K, and on 16 February, the price further surged to $50,000, recording an all-time high. And finally, on 13 March 2021, it was announced that the price of Bitcoin rose to $60,065, and hours later, the price crossed $61,000 to set a new all-time high of $61,556.59. 

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Reasons That Accelerated Bitcoin’s Price

As Bitcoin has surpassed all records of the past and has unexpectedly crossed USD 60,000, it brings a question to everybody’s mind as to why BTC exploded. Here are some of the reasons for the accelerated BTC’s price. 

Global COVID-19 Pandemic 

Most people looked at bitcoin as a way to protect themselves from the looming economic downturn brought about by the spread of global coronavirus. Institutional investors such as Microstrategy, Tesla, Square Corp, and many others shifted their cash holdings to BTC, claiming that it was a good store of value against inflation.

Consider as ‘Digital Gold’

Although Microsoft founder Bill Gates has warned investors against risky cryptocurrency, and United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen mentioned it as inefficient for actually carrying out transactions and is extremely speculative, cryptocurrency enthusiasts are considering BTC for investment purposes and as a payment system. Bitcoin is drawing a worldwide audience, and few consider it as ‘digital gold,’ considering the fact that it has many of the same properties as gold and acts as a globally recognized store of wealth.

Bringing Better Trust

In the beginning, Bitcoin was surrounded by various questions, such as is it secured? Can it be hacked? Is decentralization a truly workable solution? Will halving destroy the system and so on. And finally, after a decade, BTC has proved that it is secured, non-hackable, and built on a reliable technology(Blockchain) that does not break in any sense. 

The emergence of Financial Institutions

As Bitcoin is now being associated with more institutional investors and with giant financial institutions like Paypal, Visa, JP Morgan, etc., more retail investors are interested in purchasing Bitcoin now more than ever. 

Highest Liquidity

Apart from the reasons mentioned above, another crucial reason for its upsurging is that it has the highest liquidity in the crypto space. The higher the liquidity ratio, the easier it is to sell a cryptocurrency at market price.

Could Bitcoin really hit $100K?

As Bitcoin shows no sign of slowing down, everyone is wondering whether BTC will achieve $100k in 2021 or not? Prediction is tough, especially if it’s about the future. But after looking at the features of the past data, we can get some idea about what the feature would look like. Bitcoin has moved closer to $100,000 than it is to $0. The latest advances in the field of Bitcoin are evidence that it is on its way to becoming a mainstream asset class. Blockchain Experts and analysts believe that if this trend continues, it wouldn’t be a surprise that BTC might hit $100k by the end of 2021.

Concluding Lines 

From the above discussion, it is clear that the Bitcoin era has begun and it will continue to make a revolution in the years to come. 

If you are planning to invest in Bitcoin, it is crucial that you know trading strategies very well and performs your own research before making any investment decisions. 

If you want to get started as a Certified Cryptocurrency Trader, get enrolled in Blockchain Council now!

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications, check out Blockchain Council.

Will Bitcoin Reach All-Time High of $100K in 2021?

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Crypto-collateralized loans may soon bring new investors to space

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Institutional investors will soon be able to receive Bitcoin-collateralized U.S. dollar loans through Silvergate Capital Corporation — the holding company of pro-crypto institution, Silvergate Bank.

According to an announcement from Silvergate, Coinbase Custody will be the custodian for loans funded through the bank’s Silvergate Exchange Network, or SEN. The network will provide access to capital through U.S. dollar loans collateralized by Bitcoin (BTC) while Coinbase holds the crypto in cold storage.

“Traditional lending services generally do not exist in the digital currency industry, which means there aren’t many lenders for investors to choose from,” said Jon Melton, Silvergate director of digital asset lending. “Our relationship with Coinbase Custody offers institutional investors increased access to capital efficiency so they can take advantage of market opportunities in the digital currency industry.”

Silvergate will offer loans starting at $5 million with an initial 12-month term. Such loans could augment or replace traditional funding rounds for firms looking to enter the crypto space.

Since first announcing it would explore offering crypto-collateralized loans in 2019, Silvergate’s annual revenue has more than tripled, from $30 million to $91.5 million. The bank said at the time that its clients had significant interest for Silvergate “to be involved in the custody and transfer of digital assets between customers.”

In the fourth quarter of 2020, CEO Alan Lane said the bank would be expecting “increased demand” for these loans in 2021. Though the number of digital currency deposits grew by $2.9 billion over the same period, the price of Silvergate Capital Corporation stock has been volatile in the first quarter of 2021, reaching an all-time high of $176.27 on Feb. 16 but falling 40% within three weeks. At the time of publication, NYSE:SI is valued at $148.90.

Crypto-collateralized loans may soon bring new investors to space

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