Cryptocurrency
European Central Bank plans Crypto Euro
The ECB has hinted that it could create its own cryptocurrency within a few years.
The European Central Bank President, Christine Lagarde, recently gave a strong indication that the ECB could create its cryptocurrency within a few years, in what would be a systematical change to the euro zone’s financial system.
Lagarde hinted that it could take two to four years before the project could begin, as it addresses concerns over privacy, money laundering, and the technology involved.
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In a report credited to Bloomberg news, Christine Lagarde was quoted as saying, “My hunch is that it will come. If it’s cheaper, faster, more secure for the users, then we should explore it. If it’s going to contribute to better monetary sovereignty, a better autonomy for the euro area, I think we should explore it.”
What you should know
Nairametrics, some months back, revealed that the European Commission has designed a new Digital Finance framework including Digital Finance and Retail Payments Strategies and legislative proposals on crypto-assets and digital resilience.
READ: U.S Central Bank plans Crypto U.S dollar
What they are saying
Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President for an Economy that Works for People, said, “The future of finance is digital. We saw during the lockdown how people were able to get access to financial services, thanks to digital technologies such as online banking and fintech solutions. Technology has much more to offer consumers and businesses and we should embrace the digital transformation proactively, while mitigating any potential risks.”
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What this means
The European Commission is paying special attention to developing a regulatory framework that will support the digitization of assets through tokenization and also smart contracts.
It plans to give investors, consumers, traders, choice and opportunities in modern payments and financial services, while at the same time ensuring consumer protection and financial stability.
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Cryptocurrency
$385 million worth of Bitcoin moved by unknown identity
As Bitcoin’s price trades above $15,800, an unknown Bitcoin whale moved more than $105 million worth of cryptos.
Large entities are taking the center stage at the fast-changing financial market, amid strengthened price volatility seen at the flagship crypto’s market.
What we know
Data retrieved from, advanced crypto tracker, Bitcoin Block Bot, revealed that someone moved 22,816 BTC ($386M) in block 658,953 some hours ago.
Whale alert! 🐋 Someone moved 22,816 BTC ($386M) in block 658,953 https://t.co/ffndnEuLx6
— Bitcoin Block Bot (@BtcBlockBot) November 27, 2020
As Bitcoin’s price trades above $15,800, an unknown Bitcoin whale moved more than $105 million worth of cryptos.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $17,048.47 with a daily trading volume of $28,874,917,829.
It’s critical to observe that recent price action in the flagship crypto market indicates that a significant number of buyers have been aggressively buying at the $16,000 price support level which is marked by large entities.
This further illustrates that the demand for bitcoin is relatively high, as bitcoin whales curb broader pullback, at least in the near term.
Nairametrics, predicts the increased buying pressures by such large entities are partly responsible for the relative rebound seen in the bitcoin market.
Although it’s often difficult to predict movements in the crypto market, taking into account high volatility. BTC whales have shown historically that they often determine the BTC trend.
What this means from a macro level is that the increase in the number of these large entities can be considered bullish.
Cryptocurrency
Ripple on steroids, up 11%
Ripple recorded its highest percentage gain since November 24, gaining up to 10.61%.
Popularly known crypto asset, XRP, is recording significant appreciation in its price amid increased buying from global investors.
What we know
Ripple recorded its highest percentage gain since November 24. At the time of writing, it had gained 10.61%.
- The move pushed Ripple’s market value to around $24.09 billion, or 4.83% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization.
- Also, the third most valuable crypto asset has been trading from $0.50451 to $0.58549 for some hours now.
- At such prevailing price, Ripple has plunged by 83.68% from its all-time high of $3.29 set on January 4, 2018.
XRP was designed by Ripple mainly to perform speedy, less costly, and more scalable alternative transactions for both crypto assets and existing monetary payment platforms like SWIFT.
Ripple owns more than half of the total supply of XRP. In late 2017, the company vowed not to sell all of its tokens (XRP) at once, keeping up to 55 billion XRP in protected escrow accounts.
It plays a dual role as a payment platform and a currency. The platform is an open-source platform that is created to allow quick and cheap transactions.
Unlike its major crypto rival, Bitcoin, which was never intended to be a simple payment system, Ripple has gained the attention of major global banks such as Standard Chartered, and Barclays for international transactions worldwide.
Cryptocurrency
Canadian investment company buys more Bitcoin
The Canadian investment company recently disclosed it added about 73.9 BTC to its reserves since the middle of 2020.
Cypherpunk Holdings a publicly listed Canadian investment company, amid record sell-offs prevailing in the flagship crypto market, has recently purchased more Bitcoin (BTC).
The Canadian investment company recently disclosed it added about 73.9 BTC to its reserves since the middle of 2020. Cypherpunk holdings raised cash by selling other crypto-assets like Monero (XMR) and Ethereum (ETH).
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With the purchase, Cypherpunk now has 276.5 Bitcoins making it the 9th public Bitcoin holder. At current values, such crypto is worth about $5 million.
The report further added that “During October 2020, Cypherpunk Holdings Inc. was added to the unofficial list of public companies with a treasury position in Bitcoin alongside other companies such as MicroStrategy [MSTR], Square [SQ], and Galaxy Digital Holdings [GLXY].”
READ: Bitcoin boosts Square earnings in Q3
At the time of writing, Bitcoin price traded at $17,151.39 with a daily trading volume of $44 billion. BTC price is down -3.0% in the last 24 hours. It has a circulating supply of 19 million coins and a max supply of 21 million coins.
Recall a publicly-traded company based in America, MicroStrategy, adopted Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset to hedge against fiat inflation. This is seen in many quarters as a big deal and it’s good to see BTC’s being used as intended – a hard money/savings instrument.
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Bottom-line: The many global economic uncertainties that include inflation and the depreciation in value for most global fiat currencies have made cash an unreliable store of value, pushing well-known companies like Square, MicroStrategy, Grayscale to store their value in a deflationary currency like Bitcoin.
READ: Global companies are buying Bitcoins to hedge against inflation
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