Daily crypto news alerts for 1st January, 2021
🗞Bitcoin closes 2020 surpassing the $29,000 mark
Bitcoin managed to reach a new historical maximum of USD 29,176 at dawn on December 31, according to data from BitMEX, reflected by TradingView. The pioneer cryptocurrency is closer to the iconic $30,000 barrier and manages to exceed 300% appreciation this year.
Bitcoin's bullish momentum intensified in mid-December, when it broke the historic $20,000 mark and continued to set successive price and market cap records. There were even days, in the last two weeks, in which the price increased more than USD 2,000 in 24 hours.
After the recent all-time high the price fell back and BTC is trading, at the time of writing this article at $28,986, appreciating 1.9%. The market capitalization is USD 538,177 million.
Among the factors that favor the current upward momentum of bitcoin, would be the signature of President Trump, on Monday, December 21, to the law approved in the US congress on a new economic aid package, a fact reported by CriptoNoticias. The monetary expansion introduces more uncertainty about possible future inflation, prompting investors to seek safe haven assets like bitcoin.
On the other hand, the growing wave of institutional investment in bitcoin is causing demand to far exceed supply, according to a presentation by hedge fund manager SkyBridge Capital.
The dollar index (USDX), which reflects the strength of that currency against currencies such as the euro, the British pound and the Swiss franc, fell to 89.6 on Monday. This index, which was 102 in mid-March, has been gradually decreasing since then and is at the lowest level of the year.
November was the month with the highest bitcoin return so far, at 43%, as reported by CryptoNews. However, at the current price of bitcoin, December has a return of 47%, which would make it the highest performing month for bitcoin.
According to bitcoinity.com, the weekly volume of BTC traded on exchanges has increased in the last two weeks to around 600,000 BTC per week. The highest volume week in the year was the last week of July, with 747,000 BTC traded, when the price of BTC surpassed $10,000 and the current bull cycle began.
____________________________
🗞Coinbase client sues exchange for XRP trading
Amid a SEC lawsuit against Ripple, a California resident sued Coinbase. He accuses the site of making a profit from the sale of XRP as a security.
In his lawsuit, Thomas Sandoval emphasizes that Coinbase sold XRP cryptocurrency in the knowledge that the coin is a security, and this is a violation of California's fair competition law. The law protects consumers from fraudulent advertising and fraudulent business practices.
According to the plaintiff, the management of the exchange should have known that XRP was recognized as a security, since the management knew that all the nodes of the network were under the control of Ripple.
According to Stephen Palley, partner at Anderson Kill, the lawsuit does not have sufficient evidence and does not pose a serious threat to Coinbase. However, he may become the first of a whole galaxy of such proceedings.
On December 31, the suspension of trading with XRP was announced by the American division of the largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Now there is only one major exchange left on the US market that has not imposed restrictions on trading in pairs with XRP - Kraken.
Recall that on December 23, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple, accusing it of conducting an illegal sale of securities, which were XRP coins. Since then, a significant number of platforms have limited XRP trading for Americans, including Coinbase.
____________________________
🗞VanEck filed for third time with SEC to launch bitcoin ETF
Asset management company VanEck has filed a preliminary filing with the SEC asking for approval to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) on Bitcoin.
If accepted, it will be the first such product to be approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. However, the regulator has repeatedly delayed the approval period and subsequently rejected such applications, including from VanEck itself. So, the last time VanEck withdrew its application from the SEC in September 2019. However, since then the cryptocurrency market has continued to develop and, perhaps, the regulator will be more supportive this time.
The fund's name, according to the application, will be VanEck Bitcoin Trust. ETF shares will be traded on the Cboe BZX exchange, and the calculation of the value of shares will be carried out daily based on bitcoin quotes from the five largest cryptocurrency exchanges. The price index of the first cryptocurrency will be calculated by the subsidiary company MV Index Solutions. The maximum aggregate price of the fund's placement is still quite small - only $1 million. Note that the order does not specify a custodian service - the order will be supplemented.
In late November, VanEck launched Exchange Traded Bonds (ETNs) on the Xentra platform of the Deutsche Börse German stock exchange. The ETN price corresponds to the bitcoin rate, and the exchange product itself is backed by BTC.
____________________________
🗞Yearn.finance creator André Cronier unveils new DeFi protocol yCredit
The founder of the popular DeFi protocol yearn.finance André Cronier today announced the launch of his new project, yCredit.
yCredit allows you to make deposits in ERC20 tokens and receive 99.5% of the amount as a loan in the form of yCREDIT tokens. So, by depositing $ 100 in AAVE, the user will receive 99.5 yCREDIT. To get the deposit back, it must burn 100 yCREDIT. If the yCREDIT price deviates from $ 1, an opportunity arises for arbitrage, which is realized by exchanging it for an ERC20 token or burning it to return the initial deposit.
Thus, you can borrow or buy any ERC20 tokens available as collateral in the system. Currently AAVE, BNB, BUSD, CRV, COMP, DAI, ETH, LINK, MKR, REN, renBTC, SNX, SUSD, TUSD, UNI, USDC, USDT, wNXM, wBTC, and YFI are supported.
YCredit charges a commission of half a percent on each exchange, deposit, receipt or return of funds. The collected commissions will be distributed by the protocol among users staking yCREDIT tokens in a smart contract.
Cronje has previously presented a number of other projects in the decentralized finance space, including Deriswap, Keeper Network, StableCredit, yInsure.Finance and ySwap.Exchange. The developer warns that yCredit is experimental and subject to "economic abuse", so users need to consider the associated risks.
