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Cryptocurrency
Unknown address moves 91,010 Bitcoins valued at $2 Billion in block 663,180
Data obtained from Whale Alert revealed an unknown whale moved $2 billion in a single transaction.
Large entities have increased their presence in the flagship crypto market, as high net worth investors in recent times increased their pace in transferring Bitcoin.
These are catalyzed by the rush which include crypto traders and investors trying to have a stake in this rapidly growing crypto asset.
READ: List of Cryptos rich individuals are investing in
What you must know: Data obtained from Whale Alert, a crypto analytic tracker, revealed that an unknown whale moved $2 billion in a single transaction.
Whale alert! 🐋 Someone moved 91,010 BTC ($2B) in block 663,180 https://t.co/qe2fT9DldI
— Bitcoin Block Bot (@BtcBlockBot) December 27, 2020
READ: A $9 billion hedge fund seeks approval to launch Bitcoin Fund
At the time of drafting this report, Bitcoin traded at $27,096.11 with a daily trading volume of $67,707,067,332. Bitcoin is up 1.84% in the last 24 hours.
What this means: Bitcoin is fired up on all cylinders, smashing past record highs, and it seems its momentum is strengthening as mass media outlets embrace crypto coverage, on the bias that the flagship crypto rallied to an all-time high today and appears poised to take out the $28,000 level.
READ: Bitcoin’s market value now $468 billion, bigger than GDP of Africa’s largest economy
- Nairametrics believes the increased buying pressures by notable institutional brands are partly responsible for the non-dilutable crypto’s recent highs.
- While it is difficult to predict market movements, BTC whales have shown historically that they often determine the BTC trend.
- The timing of this movement suggests that such activity could be linked to an institutional investor amid the bias that of late, a lot of institutional players are flocking into the world’s flagship crypto market at unprecedented levels.
READ: Ripple gains over 171% last month
It’s key to observe that the address used is not linked to any crypto exchange or custody provider, suggesting an institutional investor or high net worth individual did such a transaction.
The flagship cryptocurrency is mainly decentralized, the first of its kind, and created by Satoshi Nakamoto. It was launched around January 2009.
Cryptocurrency
McCaleb, co-founder of Ripple sells 28.6 million XRP
McCaleb the co-founder of Ripple sold 28.6 million XRP — roughly $8.5 million
Crypto analyst, Leonidas Hadjiloizou, recently revealed via his Twitter handle that McCaleb, the co-founder of Ripple, sold 28.6 million XRP — roughly $8.5 million at the time of drafting this report — following 25 days of no sale activity after news broke of the Ripple SEC lawsuit.
Jed's Tacostand had paused XRP sales ever since the SEC lawsuit was announced. After 25 days of no sales, 28.6 million XRP was sold today. pic.twitter.com/XTMgmvDFZF
— Leonidas Hadjiloizou (@LeoHadjiloizou) January 18, 2021
At the time of writing this report, XRP traded at $0.288355 with a daily trading volume of $5.6 billion. XRP is down 1.09% for the day.
READ: Fear of U.S Financial regulators cripple XRP, tumbles by 61%
Recall that some days ago, Nairametrics revealed Ripple’s co-founder and one of the largest owners of XRP, Jed McCaleb, gained massively from selling XRP in 2020.
Despite Ripple’s legal troubles with the powerful American financial regulator, Jed McCaleb was able to gain $411 million in XRP sales throughout 2020, bringing his total gains from selling XRP to $546 million.
READ: Winklevoss brothers become crypto billionaires
- It’s important to note that McCaleb left Ripple several years ago and went on to launch his own crypto company known as Stellar.
- As of the start of Q3 2020, he was selling an average of 1.74 million XRP daily which, at that time, was estimated to be worth $547,438.
According to Whale Alert’s research, the co-founder still owns 3.274 billion XRP.
READ: Ripple is selling 33% of its ownership in MoneyGram
Recently, XRP has been losing value at record levels since reports that the world’s most valuable crypto exchange, Coinbase, announced that it wouldn’t allow XRP trading, in response to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission taking legal action against Ripple.
Cryptocurrency
Investors worry over future of Crypto under a Joe Biden Presidency
U.S Treasury Secretary nominee, Janet Yellen has referred to cryptos to be of a “particular concern”.
Global investors and crypto traders are becoming wary of what the future holds for crypto under a Joe Biden Presidency.
This is because the person expected to lead the U.S Treasury, Janet Yellen referred to crypto as of “particular concern” when it comes to terrorist financing and money laundering.
- The incoming finance leader believes that most cryptos are used for illicit financing.
- She raised such bias during her Senate confirmation hearing yesterday.
READ: Illicit financial flows: Nigeria lost $157.5 billion in almost 10 years – Buhari
Responding to a question from a U.S senator on how to tackle threats relating to terrorist financing, she elaborated on the role digital assets played as regards such channels.
“We need to make sure that our methods for dealing with these matters — with terrorist financing — change along with changing technology […] Cryptocurrencies are a particular concern. I think many are used at least in a transaction sense mainly for illicit financing and I think we really need to examine ways in which we can curtail their use and make sure that anti-money laundering doesn’t occur through those channels,” Yellen said.
READ: EFCC and CBN intensifies fight against financial fraudsters
What you should know: At press time, the crypto market was down by 2.69% with a total market value of $1.01 trillion, trading at $35,200 with a daily trading volume of $57.5 billion. Bitcoin is down 4.04% for the day.
Also, according to a recent survey conducted by one of Europe’s biggest banks, several market experts anticipate that the flagship crypto asset, Bitcoin, and a leading tech company have their prices highly inflated.
More than half of the market experts that took part in the survey disclosed that the most popular crypto could lose about 50% of its present value ad thus more likely to drop to the $18k range over the next year.
READ: Africa’s richest woman has been dragged to court for corruption
Deutsche Bank’s strategist, Jim Reid pointed out that Bitcoin was giving signs of a market bubble. He said:
“When asked specifically about the 12-month fate of bitcoin and Tesla—a stock emblematic of a potential tech bubble—a majority of readers think that they are more likely to halve than double from these levels with Tesla more vulnerable according to readers.”
Cryptocurrency
Ethereum on rampage, breaks above its 2 year high
The leading altcoin was trading at $1,377 thus within striking distance of $1,400.
The world’s utility crypto is fired up on all cylinders on the basis it just ascended past its 2 years high.
At the time of drafting this report, Ethereum traded at $1,415 with a daily trading volume of $35.3 billion. Ethereum is up 13.95% for the day.
What you should know: Ethereum is a cryptocurrency designed for decentralized applications and deployment of smart contracts, which are created and operated without any fraud, interruption, control or interference from a third party.
- Ethereum 2.0 is an upgrade to the Ethereum network that helps in improving the network’s scalability.
Through the implementation of several, efficiency, enhancements, scalability, and speed the Ethereum network becomes better without compromising its decentralization and security.
What this means: Key reasons attributed to the remarkable rise of Ethereum include the rise of many #DeFi projects running on the #Ethereum network as seen in 2020, #Ethereum flipped Bitcoin in terms of network fees.
- Users spent almost $600M in fees on the Ethereum network last year – 83% more than on Bitcoin.
In 2020, #Ethereum flipped #Bitcoin in terms of network fees.
Users spent almost $600M in fees on the Ethereum network last year – 83% more than on Bitcoin.
Data: @glassnode pic.twitter.com/SMSHbkFHuC
— Rafael Schultze-Kraft (@n3ocortex) January 9, 2021
