CoinCheckup

Blog

  • Unbound Finance Raises $5.8M led by Pantera Capital and Michael Arrington’s XRP Capital

    Unbound Finance Raises $5.8M led by Pantera Capital and Michael Arrington’s XRP Capital

    Singapore, Singapore, 10th June, 2021,

    Unbound Finance has secured $5.8 million in investment from leading crypto investors, including Pantera Capital and Arrington XRP Capital, to support the firm and become the first ever decentralized cross-chain stablecoin. 

    Unbound is aiming to create capital efficient products that are both native and composable to the DeFi ecosystem. The liquidation-free collateralization platform allows users to borrow interest free loans against liquidity pool tokens as collateral. Through strategic partnerships, the project is building native bridges to allow cross chain transfers of its stablecoin and other synthetic assets. 

    “AMMs are DeFi’s Zero to One Innovation and we are building the aggregator layer to enable greater yields & capital efficiency for our users,” said Tarun Jaswani, CEO and Founder of Unbound Finance.  

    INVESTORS

    The Defi project is backed by leading venture capalists in the blockchain ecosystem including Pantera Capital, Arrington XRP Capital, CMS Holdings, Hashed,  LedgerPrime, LD Capital, TRGC, ArkStream Capital, ZeePrime Capital, Future Perfect Ventures, Brilliance Ventures, Woodstock, Coin98 Ventures & GenBlock Digital to name a few. 

    ““Unbound has great potential to play a lead role in the DeFi space by focusing on liquidity pool tokens. We’re excited to support the Unbound team as they build the key tools to capitalize upon this untouched part of the DeFi ecosystem”” — Dan Morehead, CEO Pantera Capital.   

    “Unbound Finance is new primitive with the potential to unlock billions in unproductive value trapped in AMMs. We’re excited about the launch of Unbound as a fundamentally new mechanism for borrowing, lending and synthetic assets in DeFi.” — Michael Arrington, Founder TechCrunch 

    The Angel investors that have also invested include founders of Angelist, Enjin, Gnosis, Kyber Network, Polygon, Harmony, Frontier, Wikihow, DFYN, Dao-Maker, TomoChain  and Polkastarter amongst many others.

    “Unbound’s dedicated development team has created something that makes all AMMs efficient and will make interesting money legos in the space further.” – Sandeep Nailwal, COO & Co-Founder Polygon. 

    “We are delighted to support Team Unbound in realizing its vision of becoming the native decentralized stablecoin of the DeFi & AMM space” – Maxim Blagov CEO & Co-Founder Enjin.  

    MARCHING FORWARD 

    Unbound is a protocol that leverages the liquidity lying idle in the wallets of AMM liquidity providers and enables interest free crypto loans in the form of its native stablecoin $UND and other synthetic assets. Going live first on Ethereum, the protocol currently supports AMMs like Uniswap, Balancer, MooniSwap and Sushiswap. Strategic partnerships with EVM-compatible public blockchains, like Binance Smart Chain, Polygon and Harmony will support AMMs like PancakeSwap, DFYN, and SeeSwap, among others. 

    Unbound’s ‘DeFi Treasury For Liquidity Pool Tokens’ went live with its first testnet in December 2020 and recently launched its final Zeta testnet in April 2021. It is one of the first projects to integrate Uniswap V3 and is in the process of launching aggregator contracts for concentrated liquidity provision. These doorway contracts will be used to collateralize the NFT positions, enabling further liquidity into UND.

    RESOURCE PLANNING 

    The funding will be used to propel the development and growth of our protocol. The use of funds will be used for the expansion of the Unbound team, audits, adoption, liquidity provision and R&D hyper-focused towards the AMM space. The influx of capital will also provide an opportunity to fuel new initiatives, including the aggregation contracts for Uniswap V3. 

    To Connect 

    Contacts
    • Press
    • Info@marketacross.com
  • Llamaz Become the First Ever NFTs in Near Space

    Llamaz Become the First Ever NFTs in Near Space

    Bitcoin Press Release: Hong Kong-based NFT art project Llamaz made history on the 4th of June 2021, when it successfully launched a series of NFTs into near space. 

    10th June, 2021, Hong Kong — LLAMAZ is an NFT art project created by 100 Fire Limited which made history on the 4th of June 2021. On this date, the project became the first ever to successfully launch NFTs to reach near space breaching a maximum altitude of 28,832 meters. 

    What Are Llamaz? 

    Llamaz are digital characters, made by combining various attributes and accessories. There are millions of possible Llamaz permutations, but only 10,000 were selected and will ever be minted. Of the 10,000 Llamaz, 30 of them were designed manually, creating a handful of celebrity Llamaz. Anyone can explore the full collection here or check out the celebrity Llamaz here. 

    Why Go To Space? 

    While Llamaz may seem to be colorful and carefree creatures, their world is on the brink of destruction. Overuse of PoW Blockchain technologies has led to extreme climate change, forcing the Llamaz to look to the stars for a new home. Learn more about the legend of the Llamaz here.

    LLAMAZ-1 Near-Space Mission 

    The mission, aptly named LLAMAZ-1, took place in collaboration with European Astrotech and was a complete success. In addition to definitely proving to all Llama-kind that their planet is in fact round, the mission carried with it a USB drive containing a copy of each Llama NFT. In their own way, each of the Llamaz NFTs took part in this epic journey into the stars. All parties can learn more about the LLAMAZ-1 mission here and watch the Llamas space odyssey from take off to spinning in near-space, and landing.

    OpenSea NFT Llama Collection

    The Llamaz are now for sale on OpenSea via the main website, allowing anyone to get a hold of their very own Llamaz NFT. While the vast majority are available for purchase using Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, Llamalon Must (#9999), celebrity Llama extraordinaire, and CEO of Dogecarz LLC, is available for purchase in exchange for a Tesla. That’s right Tesla owners! The lockup is finally over. Teslas can now be used to buy Llamaz. This extremely fast and convenient method of payment is sure to revolutionize the world of digital payments. For more information on the Llamaz Collection, visit the website. 

    LLAMAZ Socials

    Website | Twitter | Insta | Telegram | Discord | Wiki | Llamaz Press kit

    Media Contact Details
Contact Name: Media Manager 
Contact Email: information@100fire.com 

    LLAMAZ is the source of this content. This Press Release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest. 

  • Bitcoin Has Entered A Bear Market? Here Is How You Profit Off A Red Market

    Bitcoin Has Entered A Bear Market? Here Is How You Profit Off A Red Market

    On June 2, Bitcoin and altcoins saw double-digit rallies with Bitcoin briefly stood above $38,000 and dogecoin increased 40% once. The rally failed to spark hope among investors and the bitcoin fear and greed index is at 24, indicating extreme fear. Investors have good reasons to fear as the market saw a 50% loss recently.

    On June 4, Musk posted a tweet: Bitcoin, broken heart. Later, he tweeted again: Canada, USA, Mexico.
    They are interpreted by most people as: goodbye Bitcoin (he may have sold his Bitcoin) and all the way south (bearish Bitcoin)
    In fact, 5 hours after his release, Bitcoin fell by more than 10%.

    One indicator shows that the recent rally could be another market top. In a Delphi Digital report, the MVRV ratio that measures Bitcoin’s market value against its realized value is analyzed.

    On June 8, most cryptocurrencies plummeted by 10%

    According to the report, the MVRV ratio in May 2021 is similar to those in early 2011, late 2013 and early 2018. In these periods, Bitcoin price made ATHs before falling hard.

    Bexplus offers bitcoin prediction 2025 and bitcoin price prediction 2025, to help users keep up-to-date with the cryptocurrency industry.

    The bear market seems to be coming，How to earn profits from the price drop?

    Volatility is scary, but with the right tools, it’s greatly beneficial for earning money. With a bumpy road ahead, traders can engage in margin trading to hedge loss and earn profits. 

    Let’s see how we can benefit from the price drop of bitcoin:

    Assume we used 1 BTC to open a short contract when bitcoin was trading at $35,000. Please note that with 100x leverage, 1 BTC can open a contract worth 100 BTC. 

    If the price of bitcoin dropped to $33,000.The profit will be ($35,000 – $33,000) * 100 BTC/$33,000 *100% = 6.06 BTC, making the ROI 606%.

    Margin trading is a mature derivative in the crypto market. Established in 2017 and headquartered in Hong Kong, Bexplus is a leading crypto derivatives trading platform offering 100x leverage futures trading on BTC, ETH, LTC, EOS, XRP and etc.

    How to start?

    Sign Up 

    Bexplus requires no KYC so you only need to open an account with an Email address, in just 1 minute. Once registration is complete, a trading account and a demo account with 10 BTC will be opened automatically.

    Practice Your Skills: A Demo Account

    Successful traders are those who learn to analyze the market and could always keep a clear head. The best way to improve your skills and mindset is by practicing in the free demo account. 

    Every user is given 10 BTC at the beginning and they are replenishable, so you can try out different strategies as much as you like. 

    Make A Deposit And Claim Bonuses

    No deposit fee is needed. You can start your deposit at 0.001 BTC. Bexplus supports Bitcoin, ETH, etc, as well as USD, EUR, and GBP deposits. 

    To help traders earn more profits, Bexplus offers a 100% deposit bonus to every trader. Deposit 1 BTC and you will get 2 BTC, and up to 10 BTC is available for each deposit. The bonus is not withdrawable but could be used as margin. 

    Earn Passive Income With Bexplus

    When you are not trading, you can transfer your BTC to the interest-bearing wallet and enjoy up to 21% annualized interest. 

    The interest is calculated daily and the revenue of the deposit will be settled monthly. The monthly interest is calculated as (S*I/365*30)=MI. S represents the sum of the deposit, I stands for interest, and MI is the monthly interest.

    The crypto market is full of opportunities, don’t hesitate to join and claim your profit!

    Sign up to get a 100% bonus and use a simulated account to test your strategy.

  • Thailand SEC Set To Regulate Its DeFi Sector

    Thailand SEC Set To Regulate Its DeFi Sector

    The decentralized finance sector has been regarded as one of the main sectors of the crypto market, and it allows traders to access a whole array of financial services like lending and trading directly on the blockchain. While activities on centralized platforms only provide a degree of anonymity, the decentralized sector provides traders with access to the market without the need for any intermediaries.

    But while some people feel that the sector holds tremendous potential, others are skeptical because of the exploits and scams that have sadly become a common occurrence in DeFi. Taking the initiative to curb this and more, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand has announced that projects in the DeFi sector would subsequently need to seek a license before carrying out their operations in the country. 

    SEC update divides cryptocurrency community

    In a statement published by the Bangkok Post, the Securities and Exchange Commission mentioned that the issuer of any token is supposed to notify them. The statement further said that an issuer is expected to submit adequate information regarding their token and list them according to the country’s the Digital Asset Decree. 

    With the news making headlines, the crypto community of Thailand has seen a division of opinions. While some mentioned that the regulation of the sector would enable it to grow, others thought that since regulation and the DeFi sector do not go hand in hand, it is a bad idea on the part of the SEC. 

    Giving his opinion on the update, MVP Coin developer Dome Charoenyost mentioned that some parts of the DeFi sector lack regulation. This new update would see that they become regulated by the national regulatory entity in the coming years. Adding to his point, Ava Advisor CEO Niran Pravithana also mentioned that with the growing rate of scam tokens, regulation of the sector was a reasonable option.

    Currently, it is unclear how the Thailand SEC is planning to regulate the DeFi sector, but in the coming days, more updates would be released by the entity. The first way the SEC might pull this off is to order major DeFi protocols to audit their code, as this is one of the few ways to limit the risk of scams in the sector. 

    Also, they could order that users in the DeFi sector undergo KYC if they want to carry out any activity. While the initiative has been thumbed up as a good idea, all hands are on deck about how the SEC plans to pull this off.

  • ProBit Global Grabs the Spotlight with a Whopping $2,000,000 IEO for BitBook to Add an Exclamation Point to Over $10,000,000 Raised YTD

    ProBit Global Grabs the Spotlight with a Whopping $2,000,000 IEO for BitBook to Add an Exclamation Point to Over $10,000,000 Raised YTD

    ProBit Global and BitBook made a splash in the IEO sector following a milestone-setting $2,000,000 IEO raise completed on the 2nd day of launch. The frenetic pace quickly claimed the entire 140,000,000 BBT allocation and maintained considerable momentum as BBT appreciated 75% to a high of 0.025 USDT following listing as the token has demonstrated significant demand.

    The hugely successful campaign marks a new IEO milestone for ProBit Global as the highest IEO net and the 3rd IEO to reach the $1M+ milestone alongside $1.5M for Smartkey and $1M for Nagaswap Protocol.

    ProBit Global has continued to churn out success for multiple IEO with over $7M raised for Q1 2021 IEO clientele and remains a staple for blockchain teams in search of legitimate exposure and veteran services covering initial onboarding to post-launch support. PROB tokens reward IEO participants with the top bonuses offered with a differential as high as 10% compared to standard quote currencies.

    The ten winners for the BitBook IEO Raffle Lottery were also selected to receive an all-expense-paid trip to the Maldives courtesy of BitBook’s decentralized travel booking system.

    BitBook’s value proposition aims to incentivize travelers and content creators with BBT token incentives while addressing exorbitant commission fees charged by online travel agencies, a critical friction point.

    These incentives will play a key role in streamlining accessibility and lowering costs to further optimize the experience for both travelers and hotels. The freshly acquired $2,000,000 in capital through IEO will further position BitBook in a more strategic position to hit essential points along their road map with an upcoming buyback feature set to add deflationary pressure.

    About ProBit Global

    ProBit Global is a Top 20 crypto exchange worldwide servicing crypto enthusiasts with unlimited access to trade and buy Bitcoin, Ethereum and 600+ altcoins in 1000+ markets.

    About BitBook

    BitBook is a social travel platform that allows both guests and users to monetize travel, and social media influence to earn rewards and get better prices by lowering the commission rates plaguing hotels creating a win/win for travelers and the industry as a whole.

    ProBit Global is a brand trusted by millions of users

    100,000+ community members
    800,000+ monthly active users
    3,000,000 monthly web visitors
    50,000,000 users on partnering aggregators and wallets such as CoinMarketCap
    User interface of Multilingual website supporting 41 different languages
    Marketing and community support in 8 key languages

    Join our active programs and get huge benefits!

    1. Trading Fee Discount: Buy PROB, pay trading fees with PROB & get as low as 0.03% trading fee
    2. Referral Program: Earn 10-30% of trading fees for referring friends to ProBit
    3. ProBit Exclusive: Subscribe to 50% off Top 200 tokens
    4. Auto Hold Campaigns: Hold tokens and get 6% annualized returns

    ProBit Global:www.probit.com

    ProBit Telegram: https://t.me/ProbitEnglish

  • Identity-centric Platform Concordium Set for Mainnet and MVP Launch on June 9

    Identity-centric Platform Concordium Set for Mainnet and MVP Launch on June 9

    Zug, Switzerland, 9th June, 2021,

    Concordium , the blockchain company, will for the first time offer the world access to a safe, transparent and regulatable blockchain and cryptocurrency, marking the end of an era of anonymity and distrust that has undermined the development of the industry.

    After three years of development, the Concordium Blockchain and its Cryptocurrency, the GTU, will make its Mainnet debut on June 9, a move that for the first time clears the way for any developer or user to access the Concordium platform.

    The Concordium platform differs from other industry participants by offering previously unseen guarantees of governance and transparency, without compromising privacy. 

    Users are identifiable and the provenance of every transaction is trackable, creating trust for the users and meeting the needs of global regulators. At the same time, identities can be made available, but only if necessary. “Privacy, but not anonymity” said Lone Fonss Schroder, Concordium’s chief executive.           

    The company said credible participants in the industry were being damaged by a subset of users that was undermining trust in the technology, delaying broader adoption and hindering businesses and consumers from benefiting from the potential blockchain and cryptocurrency offers.

    “The time has come for the blockchain industry to respect the general rules of society. With the launch of Concordium Blockchain, the era of anonymity, opacity and lack of transparency has come to an end,” said Lars Seier Christensen, Concordium’s chairman.

    Concordium believes focusing on the requirements of developers and companies and taking into account future regulatory rules solves the problems that have so far prevented the widespread use of blockchain technology.

    “This is the tool that global businesses have been waiting for,” said Ms Fonss Schroder.  “This industry needs to realise that without trust and acceptance there is nothing.” 

    Concordium was founded by a non-profit Swiss foundation and is backed by a select group of respected academics and industry veterans. From its birth in 2018 it has combined the development of its own blockchain and cryptocurrency with a desire to help redefine the values upon which the industry has been associated.

    “This is not just an image problem, it’s far more serious,” said Ms Fonss Schroder. “Global business is rules based. The sooner the blockchain and crypto industry wakes up to the need to play by the rules the sooner the full potential of blockchain will be realised.”   

    The company’s combination of cutting edge technology and commitment to a global rules-based system has attracted the interest of investors. Earlier this year, it successfully raised over USD 41m from private and strategic sales, and the most recent sales is valuing the company at USD 4.45bn. 

    About Concordium

    Concordium is a decentralized and sustainable public blockchain that solves the shortcomings of traditional blockchains, through built-in user identification and Zero-Knowledge-Proofs, which are used to replace anonymity with securing private data. The technology supports encrypted payments, provides relevant authorities the ability to identify users, and allows the user to verify the identity of counterparties. 

    Based on science-based- and peer-reviewed protocols, Concordiums blockchain has a solid cryptographic focus, with protocols developed by academics from some of the world’s leading universities in this field together with Concordium’s research team. The project is led and advised by senior business executives from industries including banking, automotive, logistics, retail, energy, and telecommunications. It has also established partnerships with several esteemed scientific institutions, including the Concordium Blockchain Research center Aarhus, Aarhus University, ETH Zurich, and the Indian Institute of Science. 

    Contacts

    Beni Issembert, Chief Marketing Officer 

    bi@concordium.com 

    +972-54-3266064

    Maria Amalia Rojas, Communications Manager

    mar@concordium.com

    Full technical press release 

    Open source Code – https://github.com/Concordium

    Documentation – https://developer.concordium.software

    Contacts

    Chief Marketing Officer

    • Beni Issembert
    • bi@concordium.com
  • Flare Raises $11.3M To “Unleash the Value” inherent in Payment Chains

    Flare Raises $11.3M To “Unleash the Value” inherent in Payment Chains

    London, United Kingdom, 8th June, 2021,

    Flare, the world’s first Turing-complete Federated Byzantine Agreement (FBA) network, has attracted investment from several top-tier venture capital funds.

    The project raised a total of $11.3 million in its latest funding round, led by Kenetic Capital with investment from such firms as Digital Currency Group, Coinfund, LD Capital, cFund, Wave Financial, Borderless Capital, and Backend Capital.

    Additional financing came from private investors Vinny Lingham, Do Kwan, and Litecoin founder Charlie Lee, as well as Newform Capital, Genesis Capital, ZB Group, MXC and DeFi Capital.

    “The investment announced today demonstrates a belief in Flare’s potential to unleash the value and unlock the community in chains that do not have native smart contracts” said Flare CEO Hugo Philion. 

    “Flare’s goal is to bring additional utility to all chains and ecosystems that are integrated with it. The investment brings into the Flare ecosystem key participants in the investment community, together with major exchanges, market makers, blockchain founders and entrepreneurs that have an interest in driving meaningful developments and participation on Flare. We are grateful for all investors’ support in helping bring the Flare Network to fruition.”

    Jehan Chu, Managing Partner of Kenetic, said “Flare’s unique protocol will unleash a tidal wave of value and engagement across some of the world’s largest crypto market caps and active communities. By providing smart contract functionality to payment tokens like Doge, XRP, LTC and others, users will finally be able to activate their assets across DeFi, NFT’s, and a universe of utility. We are excited to be on this journey and supporting Flare as they supercharge the crypto ecosystem”

    Flare enables additional utility for tokens via its smart contracts, with the native FLR token functioning as collateral for the trustless issuance of assets from payment chains that do not have smart contracts. Initially, Flare will focus on XRP, XLM, Litecoin, and Dogecoin.

    Several DeFi, NFT, regulated privacy, multiverse and gaming projects have already announced that they will launch on Flare, whose Oracle system currently features at least 16 data providers.

    A portion of Flare’s token, Spark (FLR),  is being distributed to XRP holders who held XRP on 12th December 2020. Over 100 global exchanges participated in the Flare Token distribution with the majority of those exchanges also agreeing to list the token. Further token distribution is made automatically through a daily distribution to participants that hold trustlessly issued assets on Flare that originate from the integrated underlying chains.  

    “We are excited to support Flare and their commitment to bring EVM features to blockchains that do not have them. We will be submitting a governance proposal at the earliest opportunity to integrate the Algorand network and its native assets with Flare. There is an incredible unlocked value opportunity through the interoperability of all the other non-smart contract blockchain like LTC, DOGE, XLM or XRP. We are looking forward to collaborating with the Flare team and all of the Borderless Capital portfolio companies,” said David Garcia, CEO and Managing Partner of Borderless Capital.

    About Flare

    Flare is a scalable, highly decentralized smart contract platform that runs the Ethereum Virtual Machine and utilizes Federated Byzantine Agreement-based consensus. 

    The platform’s native token Spark (FLR) enables Flare to unleash the tremendous value and community created by existing tokens that do not currently have native smart contracts. Flare is initially integrating Doge, Litecoin, XRP and XLM. Any other token can be integrated through community governance voting.

    Flare is unique in that it derives its network structure from its underlying integrated networks, leveraging the decentralisation and security of the underlying networks.

    Flare’s development team features experts from the worlds of electronic engineering, distributed systems, quantum computing, mathematics, computer science, quantitative finance and risk management.

    Contacts
    • PR
    • info@marketacross.com
  • Ruffer Raked In $1.1 Billion In Profits From Bitcoin

    Ruffer Raked In $1.1 Billion In Profits From Bitcoin

    The big picture:

    • Ruffer left the Bitcoin market after netting a profit of over $1.1 billion
    • The firm started its investment in the market with 600 million
    • Investment Director Hamish Baillie says a return to the market is not out of the question

    UK-based investment manager Ruffer entered the Bitcoin market last November with an investment of around $600 million. It didn’t take long for the company’s bet on BTC to start paying off nicely, as the company managed to reap a $750 million profit just a few months later while still holding a sizeable Bitcoin position. 

    Now, the company’s investment director Hamish Bailie says that the company has sold off all the Bitcoin it owned. In total, the Bitcoin investment generated over $1.1 billion in profits for Ruffer.

    Before now, the company already conceded that it had sold off some of its assets for a profit of a region around $750 million, which is sold across December and January this year. In a statement that the Investment Director gave at the firm, Hamish Baillie pointed out that the firm held up its position since they started investing and gathered a total reward of $1.1 billion. 

    Giving their reasons for exiting the market at this period, the company discussed market sentiment. It pointed out that young people would spend less of their time trading Bitcoin because of the pandemic-induced lockdowns finally easing up.

    Baillie says Ruffer might return to the Bitcoin market

    After taking their profits in the Bitcoin scene, the firm has, in turn, reinvested the said profit in other protective assets. A typical example is a government-backed bond that sees its price in correlation with retail price index. 

    Despite this, Baillie has mentioned that they have not shut their door on returning to Bitcoin as they are still mulling on a possible return in the coming years. One of the executives in the company mentioned that as far back as 2017, the firm was highly skeptical towards Bitcoin, but all that changed last year with the Bitcoin boom. 

    Baillie also mentioned that he was not too concerned about the debate about Bitcoin’s environmental impact which has been raised by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Baillie pointed out that most of the criticism that the asset is receiving now is stemming from misinformation. He also noted that the gaming industry consumes more energy than the Bitcoin mining industry.

  • Do Investors Buy More Bitcoin When Its Price Increases Or Decreases?

    Do Investors Buy More Bitcoin When Its Price Increases Or Decreases?

    The big picture:

    • Bitcoin’s price movements over the years have shown that the more expensive it is, the more people adopt it
    • This phenomenon was noted using Thorstein Veblen’s theory of valuable goods
    • Traders tend to buy less when the market is down

    Over the years, we have seen immense fluctuations in the price of Bitcoin, the leading digital asset on the market. Even though some groups of individuals attempt to predict price movements, a portion of the cryptocurrency investing population prefers to hold digital assets over a long time.

    But how do Bitcoin prices demand the perception and demand for the cryptocurrency? A standard “supply and demand” perspective would predict that as an asset’s price increases, demand would subside. However, this is not necessarily true for all goods. In this article, we’ll use the helpful concepts of Veblen goods and Giffen goods to get another perspective on what drives demand for Bitcoin. 

    Is Bitcoin a Veblen or Giffen good, or neither?

    According to definition, a Veblen good is typically a luxury good that enjoys more demand as the price of the item rises. To use an example – the high price tags for artworks or luxury car models can themselves be drivers of demand, because they give those goods an air of exclusivity, turning ownership into a status symbol. The concept was introducted by U.S.-based economist Thorstein Veblen in the late 19th century. Veblen goods are characterized by their unique property of demand increasing alongside the price. This is in contrast to what happens with essential goods such as household or food items – as their price increases, the demand for such goods falls. 

    The Giffen good concept, on the other hand, has some parallels with the Veblen good concept, except that it is not used to describe luxury products. Similarly to Veblen goods, the demand for Giffen goods increases along with their price. A simple example of Giffen goods would be food and drink goods that are difficult to substitute adequately – either there’s few alternatives available or the viable alternatives are even more expensive. This means that consumers cannot simply switch to buying other goods when their price rises. 

    A closer look at Bitcoin shows that the digital asset has qualities of both Giffen and Veblen goods. 

    Fluctuations in Bitcoin demand

    When Bitcoin saw a massive decline in the market in 2018, the trading volume of Bitcoin went on a spiral downward, indicating that the digital asset became much less desirable. The trading volume decrease persisted even though the bearish run brought the digital asset into the limelight. When the price of Bitcoin crashed in March 2020, the trading volume of the digital asset lingered around $37 billion as the digital asset touched close to $5,000. When the price of the asset moved up, the trading volume of the asset also went up.

    As the price of a Veblen good moves up in the market, people in the market automatically feel better, and the price is justified. Also, the status of the Veblen good is elevated and bought by the richer population of the market. During that period, analysts regarded Bitcoin as a financial religion as several high-value investors in the market continued to amass vast amounts of BTC. 

    The statistics of people looking to enter the Bitcoin market also increased considerably, entering a region of 63% in the United States of America. Social media activity also went up during the period as most people across different social media discussed the digital asset.