Crypto news outlet The Block is reporting that an investor deck from Skybridge Capital reveals the company has already invested $182 million in Bitcoin
According to the slide presentation, the company has also allocated more than $25 million for a new Bitcoin fund
Crypto news publication The Block obtained an investor deck made by Anthony Scaramucci’s Skybridge Capital which reportedly shows that the company has already invested $182 million into Bitcoin. The company is also planning to launch a new Bitcoin fund, and has established companies such as the crypto-friendly bank Silvergate. In another part of the deck, Skybridge reportedly stated it had allocated $25.3 million to the new Bitcoin fund.
Skybridge is the latest institutional player that has entered the cryptocurrency arena. Other players that have made investments in Bitcoin include Tudor Investment Corp, Ruffer and One River Digital Asset Management.
Skybridge thinks that further mass adoption, and that Bitcoin offers several advantages over gold. As the development of the market progresses, more hedge funds and insurance funds will decide to make an allocation of their own.
Bitcoin will revolutionize traditional portfolios
The traditional portfolios are usually comprised of stocks and bonds, but investors are now seeking new opportunities, and Bitcoin has presented itself as an attractive option. Skybridge believes one of the main reasons behind the shift is due to the Federal Reserve’s actions and the policy of negative interest rates.
The pandemic has forced many governments to print money at an accelerated pace and release stimulus packages, and this has served as a catalyst for Bitcoin, an asset that cannot be created arbitrarily.
Institutions can bring unprecedented amounts of capital into the Bitcoin market. As we’ve already seen, the new influx of capital from institutions has made it possible for Bitcoin to smash its previous all-time high of $20,000 and even surpass $30,000 shortly after.
Bittrex will delist three privacy coins on January 15
Bittrex hasn`t announced the reason for the delistings
The price of the privacy coins dropped after the news
On December 29, the Bittrex cryptocurrency announced that it will be delisting the top three privacy coins – Monero, Dash and Zcash – on January 15. Bittrex has determined 30 days for the users to withdraw their delisted coins after the due date. Bittrex stated that the period might be shorter in some cases, and users should take action fast.
The announcement comes shortly after Coinbase and other exchanges decided to delist XRP after the SEC accused Ripple of issuing and selling unregistered securities.
Bittrex didn’t explain why it will be removing the markets
Bittrex didn`t explain anything about the delisting process, but Larry Cermak from The Block guessed that the recent pressure from FATF for anti-money laundering (AML) could be a potential reason.
The FATF considers crypto exchanges as virtual asset service providers or VASPs. The FATF says that these businesses should comply with AML and CTF requirements to prevent their platforms from being used in illegal activities. Privacy coins, which allow users to send transactions without revealing the amounts and addresses involved, have long been a thorn in the side of regulators.
Monero, Zcash, and Dash experienced sharp price drops after the announcement of the news on Friday night. Bittrex published the report via its Twitter account, and the story is still ongoing. The news was shocking for the privacy coins markets. They experienced rapid price drops in the range of 7% to 15%.
US authorities pay special attention to crypto these days. Several new crypto rules have been proposed recently, and some of them could have a massive impact on the cryptocurrency space. Exchanges and crypto exchanges have to respond to the new regulations, resulting in delistings and similar measures.
As Brian Armstrong warned, strict crypto rules will make US investors and traders find services and exchanges outside the USA. Rules that are ill-considered and hasty can face legal challenges – they may have worse consequences in the future. What do you think? Tell us about your thoughts in the comment section.
China’s digital yuan could affect the Biden administration’s positions regarding Bitcoin and cryptocurrency
There’s a crypto intersection for Biden’s administration. On one side, some rogue countries and criminals are using crypto. On the other side, cryptocurrency can be an essential tool for human rights activists and protestors
Biden’s nominees for different seats are not crypto-friendly, and Biden is against encryption
Many people are curious to see how the Biden administration will approach the topic of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. China’s presence as a geopolitical rival and the emergence of its digital yuan can make the situation more complicated. There are issues like competition with China, improving monetary policy, and digital regulations and rights around the globe related to Bitcoin. Although Biden’s administration might not address Bitcoin directly, there are some relevant issues to consider.
There are various issues facing the Biden administration. China is a rival superpower, and the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many lives. At the same time, the Federal Reserve has been printing money faster and faster, resulting in a weaker dollar. These challenges are essential for the next administration, and they will affect the crypto ecosystem indirectly.
The current position of BTC
Right now, some of the most important institutions in the U.S. that are regulate matters that can affect Bitcoin are the OCC, CFTC and the SEC.
Under Jay Clayton, the SEC went after several initial coin offerings (ICOs), accusing the of selling unregistered securities. Right before Clayton left the agency, the SEC announced a bombshell lawsuit against Ripple. The news crashed the price of the XRP cryptocurrency, which the SEC argues is actually a security sold by Ripple.
Even under the Clayton-led SEC, which was quite hostile to many cryptocurrency market players, Bitcoin and Ethereum weren’t treated as securities – this is unlikely to change moving forward.
Biden’s candidates for different seats
There is a crypto intersection for any administration right now. On the one hand, there are rogue countries like North Korea that use crypto for illicit activities, and on the other hand, there are human rights activists and protestors who positively use crypto to raise funds.
When we look at Biden’s candidates and advisors, his opinion towards cryptocurrency and decentralization technologies will become clearer.
A few of his nominees have expressed their views about Bitcoin and crypto, including Janet Yellen, his nominee for the Treasury Department. In the Clinton administration, Yellen was the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. She is not enthusiastic about Bitcoin, and thinks Bitcoin is mostly used for illegal transactions. In her opinion, Bitcoin consumes a lot of energy, and it is a massive concern regarding cyber criminal activities.
The OCC is a part of the Treasury Department. The Secretary of the Treasury will determine the head of OCC. Currently, Brian Brooks is in that position, and he has an extremely positive attitude on cryptocurrencies. It’s likely that he will be replaced by another person, and they probably won’t be as crypto-friendly.
The office of Foreign Asset Control and FinCEN may restrict some crypto addresses and enforce rules against money laundering. When the Treasury department is headed by a person who is doubtful about crypto, some consequences are unavoidable.
Gary Gensler is another exciting candidate on Biden’s list. In the Obama Administration, he managed the CFTC. He has expressed some statements in favor of Bitcoin previously.
The Biden Administration has many different financial challenges, and they will affect BTC, as well. The most critical factor is Joe Biden himself. He was against encryption when he was in the Senate. He introduced two bills in the Senate that inspired early Bitcoin adopter and cryptographer Hal Finney to work on PGP encryption.
In this personal letter addressed to our community, Binance CEO CZ shares his reflections looking back at 2020 and our goals for the new year, including trends and developments that may define the industry, and areas of focus for 2021. Advancing the industry’s collective mission to further the freedom of money around the world, we aim to ensure the sustainable development and continued growth of the global crypto ecosystem.
In my New Year message last year, I emphasized building foundations for the growth of the global crypto ecosystem for generations to come. In 2020, we worked hard to bring new products, improvements and developments to key ecosystem initiatives. I feel like we are still working on the basement level of a new building, and haven’t even started to build the floors above ground yet. There is still much more work to be done.
The Crypto World After COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we live, impacting the well-being of countless individuals and damaging the global economy.
In 2020, worldwide markets faced unprecedented volatility and instability in already-vulnerable economies and countries. With global economic uncertainties, inflation, and traditional assets suffering due to the macroeconomic shock caused by the pandemic, people around the world have increasingly looked to bitcoin and crypto as an alternative asset – in an unprecedented manner. This has driven the crypto market to new heights and poised bitcoin/crypto to enter the mainstream.
This past year, interest in crypto continued to rise amongst traditional investors, and corporate onboarding numbers continued to increase. In 2020, the number of institutional clients we onboarded was 68% higher than in 2019, while new institutional client applications increased 35% quarter-over-quarter, signalling growing institutional interest in crypto. The pandemic also led to drastic macroeconomic changes, such as Quantitative Easing (QE) in almost all countries, which also drives people to crypto. As the new QE money flows into the global market, I think much of it will be converted into one form of cryptocurrency or another. This has corresponded with 2020’s booming crypto futures market that provide the necessary hedging and liquidity opportunities.
The longer-term economic impacts of COVID are unknown. However, as we’re still in the midst of major economic disruptions and historic volatility, I believe bitcoin/crypto will continue to rise and be at the pinnacle of positive change.
Compliance
Our industry is very new and innovative, so inherently, there are more regulations and guidelines needed and under development; similar to how Google and Microsoft persevered during the .com boom. Also, cryptocurrencies cater to a global audience, and because this is such a cutting-edge sector, guidelines in most jurisdictions are still evolving. We believe that ultimately, everyone wants regulation that promotes innovation and an open market. I am optimistic about the positive progress of regulatory frameworks and guidelines around the world, and I believe we will continue to see more clarity on cryptocurrency regulations in the next 12 months.
Compliance is a journey, not a destination – especially in new tech sectors. Responsible players are always working to meet new and changing standards and improve existing practices. We take our compliance standards very seriously, and will continue to heavily invest in this complex and ever-changing environment.
Our goal is to continue adhering to local rules and regulations, which allow us to protect and provide the best services to our users, as well as bring greater adoption. In addition to the many regtech solutions we invest in and compliance partners we work with, we will continue working closely with regulators, complying in the places where we operate as a global decentralized organization, and helping to positively influence regulations that will benefit our industry. We hope to work with more local governments and policymakers in the new year and encourage them to reach out to us to work together.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Binance Smart Chain
This year, we saw the rise of decentralized finance (DeFi) as a compelling use of blockchain technology to spread the freedom of money. Through DeFi, people are given new ways to participate in crypto-fueled financial products and benefit from their gains. The emergence of DeFi also drove more traffic to blockchain networks, and this brings a new set of challenges to developers, like higher network fees and congestion.
To help solve this problem for the crypto community, we worked with the Binance Chain community to launch Binance Smart Chain (BSC) as our contribution to driving more innovation to decentralized solutions such as DeFi and other blockchain-related solutions. BSC offers a high-performance and low-fee blockchain network that’s compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Now, developers can worry less about costs and focus more on innovating, and we even have rewards for developers.
I think the innovations around liquidity pools and AMM, especially for stablecoin trading, are very interesting. I believe we will see more growth in this area in 2021. DEXs (decentralized exchanges) are also well fitted for listing small and less mature coins, which provides a good validation ground for larger CEXs (centralized exchanges) like Binance.
We have introduced many of these DeFi innovations already on Binance.com, such as interest- and yield-generating products in DeFi Staking and Binance Liquid Swap. We also created the Binance Innovation Zone specifically for listing newer coins, thus providing liquidity for DeFi tokens while protecting less-experienced traders from the risks in trading them.
In 2021, I believe we’ll see more convergence on the product offerings on the CeFi (centralized finance) front. We have already expanded our portfolio of yield-generating products to include Binance Pool (for miners) and Earn products (for all users), which offer high APY in addition to an easy-to-navigate, one-click interface – reducing technical barriers to entry and costs of on-chain gas fees. Fundamentally, both DeFi and CeFi will help grow the industry. Whatever happens, we are ready to support and adopt any new DeFi innovations and trends.
Adoption: Fiat, Payments, Stablecoins, and Traditional Finance
Another important area for us is the continued growth and mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies. Growth in crypto payments was one of the most obvious use cases we hoped to see more of in 2020, but it’s still far from mass adoption. Existing fiat payment rails are convenient, low cost and well-established, making them difficult to replace in one swift move.
Since last year, we have been building on existing fiat payment rails in order to allow more users around the world to access crypto. This year, we launched 28 fiat channels, covering different payment methods such as credit card, bank transfer and local popular wallets. Some worked out better than others, but we will keep building out our payment rails in order to provide users with the best purchasing experience. Users are now able to purchase crypto in 46 local currencies with our direct channels and we will continue to add more next year until the whole world is covered.
In addition, we launched Binance Card this year, allowing users to spend their crypto directly from their Binance crypto wallets. This offers a much more convenient method of crypto payment and our Binance Card has been hugely popular amongst our users.
I also believe we’ll see cross-border payments with stablecoins continue to increase next year. Cross-border payments using stablecoins or any cryptocurrency are much cheaper and faster than traditional payment methods, arriving in a matter of seconds, compared to cross-border bank transfers that may take days. Traditional cross-border remittance platforms can charge as much as 7% in fees to remit money overseas, while cryptocurrencies only cost pennies to move – and Binance P2P has some of the lowest fees around. I believe we’ll see greater adoption of stablecoins next year because of these factors.
PayPal entering the market is also great for user education and adoption, as is Square’s continued strong growth in the crypto payments space. Stanley Druckenmiller, Paul Tudor Jones, Franklin Templeton and MassMutual, well-known names in the traditional financial space, all made investments in bitcoin or the cryptocurrency industry this year. Hedge funds, mutual funds, and even a 169-year old insurance company investing in the crypto space, are setting a precedent for this industry, and I believe these are hugely positive moves in the right direction. Maybe next year, we’ll start to see Pension Funds and Sovereign Wealth Funds start to deploy a small part of the tens-of-trillions of dollars that they manage into crypto in order to hedge out some of their fiat risk.
Use Cases: BNB and NFTs
There are so many applications and use cases for BNB, from gaming to cross-border remittances, that I personally can’t count or keep tabs on how many now. There is a large, diverse community in the BNB ecosystem that continues to innovate in finding strong use cases. I don’t know what they will come up with next, but I am sure many of them will be very exciting.
Another crypto asset class I’m looking into this year is NFTs. I think we will see increased sophistication and adoption for NFTs in 2021, from virtual items in games to concert tickets. I believe this is an exciting new area yet to be explored and I’m looking forward to seeing how these develop.
Binance Charity
2020 was full of humanitarian challenges with the Australian bushfires, Beirut explosion, and much more, on top of COVID-19. From the start of the virus, our Binance Charity team and supporters fought against COVID-19 alongside frontline healthcare heroes, providing timely support to communities in need.
Through its “Binance for Wuhan” and “Crypto Against COVID” campaign, Binance Charity raisedover $4 million in cryptocurrencies – with three-quarters of the total donated by Binance – which enabled us to distribute more than 2 million pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) to aid 400+ hospitals in 26+ countries around the world, especially the nations that were affected most by the coronavirus.
In response to the Australia Bushfire Relief, Binance Charity also raised over $2 million aiming at forest rehabilitation and wildlife restoration. Binance Charity also partnered with UNICEF and allocated $10,000 worth of crypto and provided timely support to those in need following the tragic explosion in Beirut this August.
Binance Charity also fundraised $60,000 worth of crypto to Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris to contribute to the restoration of Notre-Dame Cathedral’s Mays, beautiful historical paintings that were damaged in the fire in April 2019.
Always exploring blockchain innovation in charity, the Binance Charity team also led the development of the first blockchain art donation platform, “NFT for Good” – an open platform for global artists to create, sell, auction and donate their NFT blockchain art to NGOs supporting global sustainable development.
During the hard time when the world is facing challenges, Binance Charity will continue its mission of bringing light to the people living in deprived areas in a transparent manner.
Blockchain Research and Development
As we continue to push ahead with crypto, we are also investing significant time and resources to blockchain research. In 2020, we established the Binance China Blockchain Research Institute (BCBRI) with the Linggang Group, with the aim to support blockchain applications in the real world and boost the adoption of blockchain technology. BCBRI has launched blockchain-empowered projects in six cities so far, to further blockchain technology R&D, fintech education including blockchain, AI and big data, and startup incubation. This year alone, we’ve actualized 20+ partnerships and projects with partners such as Amazon Cloud and Stanford University, and will have more developments to share next year.
On Security
Security is a very extensive topic, I think there are a few areas to focus on in 2021:
User Education. I believe more user education is needed across the industry to help people avoid “rug pulls” and scammers. We will continue emphasizing the importance of individuals educating themselves in order to make investment decisions cautiously and responsibly. Research before investing is key. In this area, Binance provides educational materials on Binance Academy, Binance Research, and CoinMarketCap to help investors make informed decisions.
Security Tools. Better tools are needed for regular people to securely hold their own private keys, with proper encrypted backups. Good cyber hygiene is complex and can be intimidating to cryptocurrency newcomers. We have invested heavily in multiple wallet developments to help on this front. Combining security with ease of use will be vital as more people invest in cryptocurrencies.
Security Infrastructure Investments. Centralized exchanges must increase security investments on technologies such as threshold signatures (TSS), to hold users’ funds more securely. Binance has open-sourced our TSS library, and a large number of community developers are contributing to it.
Personal Habits. Security threats and technologies used to defend against them evolve over time, but one thing remains constant: the human element. The human element is the weakest link. Attackers constantly prey on psychological flaws such as the desire for quick information and greed. There are increasingly sophisticated ways of abusing trust, including spear-phishing and social engineering. This can circumvent some of the most fundamental defense mechanisms we have relied on in the crypto ecosystem such as 2FA. At Binance, we continue to strive for zero trust in our enterprise security and trading platform security to protect our users.
Binance Angels Community
Another vital component of Binance success this year has been the incredible support and commitment from our Binance Angels Community. Binance Angels consist of dedicated users who believe in blockchain, crypto, and Binance. Binance Angels are community builders at heart, and they share the same values as Binance – to spread the freedom of money all over the world.
They are as passionate as we are about expanding the adoption of crypto and blockchain in their local communities, and they play a key role in helping us accomplish this mission.
Using their own life and professional experiences, our Binance Angels help us add more value to the Binance ecosystem. Our Binance Angels support and educate our users, help us improve our platform and user experience, and highlight our community’s concerns. They are instrumental in helping us build products and features that our communities want.
We take pride in our Binance Angels community, and the support of our Angels has been critical in ensuring Binance’s success. We currently have 239 Binance Angels who help us support users in more than 40 local communities – and growing! If you’d like to be part of the Binance Angels Community, apply through our Binance Angel Application.
Looking Ahead to 2021
In 2021, we will continue to keep our heads down and build products users love. We will continue to develop and improve services that are beneficial to society and protect our users and the industry. I’m very excited about the new developments and products we have planned for 2021.
On the personal side, my New Year’s resolution for the last 10 years has been getting a six-pack, but I’ve never gotten there. My main hope is just that 2021 will be less crazy than 2020, and that people’s lives continue to improve.
Konstantin Anissimov, Executive Director at CEX.IO
Bitcoin at the turn of the year
Bitcoin has been making headlines for weeks now, as the coin kept breaking all previous records, making new ones, and then it broke them, as well. Its upward surge continues day after day, and is only occasionally interrupted by small corrections before its price surges anew.
In the last week — between December 28th and January 3rd — the coin went from $26,850 to $34,608. In other words, the price increased by around 24%.
The coin’s growth came in a few major surges. The first surge was slow but steady, taking place over several days — December 29th, 30th, and 31st. During these last days of 2020, the BTC price went from $26,400 to $29,800. Everyone was speculating whether or not the coin will have the strength to reach $30k, as the resistance seemed too strong.
The first days of 2021 brought an answer to that question. On January 2nd, BTC price saw its second surge, which took it past $30k, and all the way up to $33.150. The coin also saw a sudden drop during the same day, hitting a new support at $31k, from which it skyrocketed back up to its new record of $34.6k. This happened on January 3rd, and the same day also brought another minor correction. This one was stopped by a support at $32,700.
What has been happening to BTC in the past week?
Apart from adoption speeding up, Bitcoin has seen several major news recently, which continued to attract new investors. For example, the coin’s market cap surpassed the value of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which was a big deal, given that Buffett called BTC “rat poison squared” a few years back.
Another report states that, according to data 78% of circulating BTC supply still remains dormant, and that only 22% (4.2 million BTC) is in constant circulation.
With that said, some of these coins have been locked up for decades now, and they are under constant supervision. They belong to crypto whales, early investors, and some are even property of Satoshi Nakamoto himself.
Well, a portion of these decade-old dormant BTC coins have just moved yesterday, as the coin’s 12th anniversary came along. Whether the coins were moved to mark the event or to take advantage of the price remains unknown.
The fact that BTC just celebrated its 12th birthday is in itself a major event for the coin which was proclaimed dead hundreds of times over the years. It certainly encourages people into believing in BTC, and its ability to keep going and continue pushing for mass adoption.
And, of course, there is always the fact that BTC went above $30k, only to breach the $34k resistance less than 24 hours later.
Ethereum at the turn of the year
While the movement of Bitcoin is nothing short of extraordinary, it is worth noting that the crypto industry’s second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum (ETH), saw some impressive movement, itself.
Ethereum found certain stability in the past week, trading sideways for the most of this period. Between December 28th and January 2nd, ETH mostly saw only the smallest price fluctuations, going between $730 and $750, The coin saw some slightly stronger movement here and there, but on a weekly basis — these days saw almost no significant price action.
This changed this Sunday, January 3rd, when Ethereum suddenly skyrocketed alongside Bitcoin. Bitcoin’s birthday is an important event for the coin, and Ethereum’s price simply decided to follow the surge, leading the coin past $1,000 for the first time in almost three years.
In the last 24 hours, Ethereum saw a 39.7% price surge. Meanwhile, on a weekly basis, the coin is up by 53.22%.
The coin’s market cap sits at $123,8 billion, while its daily trading volume went beyond $57.5 billion — almost half of the coin’s market cap.
Now, Ethereum’s price still has some ways to go in order to hit its old ATH, but it is entirely possible that this will happen in days to come. Meanwhile, if Ethereum’s weekend surge continues at the same rapid pace, this might even happen in the next few hours.
What happened to Ethereum in the last week?
Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum did not really have any major events tied to its price surge over the past week. The coin is a native crypto of its development platform, and Ethereum’s network is the place where things are happening.
The coin did not see any new groundbreaking events, but that does not matter. Its older events are still groundbreaking enough for the coin’s price surge to be perfectly genuine and expected.
As many are likely aware, Ethereum is still the largest force in the crypto universe regarding smart contracts, dApps, and now DeFi. DeFi explosion is still happening — it is only a bit overshadowed by the surging prices.
But, those who care about crypto applications more than the prices are still making DeFi as important as ever. The other thing is Ethereum 2.0 arrival. This is something that will also take place over a large period of time, but the process of switching from PoW to PoS has started — after years of waiting — and that alone would be enough for ETH price to climb back to its old heights.
Lastly, there is its correlation with BTC, which is far from perfect, but it still helps. These are, after all, the two coins that everyone knows — the two leaders of crypto, and are typically considered safe investments.
What to expect next?
So, what is coming in this next week? So far, it is difficult to say. Strong price surges are usually followed by strong corrections, and after hitting $34k, BTC has already started seeing a price dip. At the time of writing (January 4), the coin has retreated slightly below the $30k level, which is not surprising after such a sudden growth. BTC is doing what it always does — it is looking for a support level that will allow it to recuperate and start growing anew.
In essence, BTC price might continue to surge, with the $35k level being its next major goal. The coin’s new ATH is already only a few hundreds of dollars away from this next milestone, and so it would not be surprising to see a surge that will reach it quite soon. After that, the coin would likely set its sights on $40k, and then $50k, as predicted by some experts throughout the previous year.
As for Ethereum, it is reasonable to expect that the coin will hit a new ATH, provided that the BTC price continues to act as it did thus far. But, investors should also keep vigilant due to the potential for major sell-offs, which could result in a price drop.
Let’s say you’ve made a mistake and sent your BTC to the wrong address. After googling for a solution and reading FAQ sections on Coinbase and blockchain, you will most likely decide that your transaction is lost forever. But, in truth, you still have a time to reverse it: recently Blenderwallet.io (wallet from the creators of the largest bitcoin mixer) added a new feature – “Transaction discarding” based on RBF(Replace By Fee) protocol.
RBF was created to prevent issues with stuck transactions and as a way out for someone who had sent funds to the wrong address or to scammers.
How does it work?
Here you can see a ledger wallet reporting an incoming transaction.
And here you can see what happens if you press “Discard transaction”
Have you ever seen a cancelled transaction in a blockchain?
The feature is only just a click away in the blenderwallet.io interface, so you don’t have to be an expert to manage your funds.
But, like any good technology, RBF has a downside that can be used by dishonest users.
So here’s an important tip: always wait for at least one confirmation of the transaction.
Here are some excerpts from BlenderWallet.io FAQ:
You can discard an unconfirmed outgoing transaction by replacing this transaction with another one, using the RBF mechanism. Your own address becomes the output of a new transaction, so the funds are returned to you, minus the network fee.
You cannot discard a transaction if:
The transaction was not initiated by you, including if the transaction is incoming for you.
It has already been confirmed (has at least one confirmation).
The transaction was not marked with the RBF flag or its amount is not enough to increase the network fee.
Discarding a transaction might not succeed like any other RBF replacement. The initial transaction can be confirmed and the new one be rejected, if, for example, the miner takes the initial transaction into the block before the second appears in the network.
Let us remind you once more – you cannot discard a transaction if it has already been confirmed at least once. You can only discard an unconfirmed outgoing transaction.
We hope this information will help you to manage your funds properly and keep them safe.
2020 will likely go down in history as the year of the largest and most wide-spread pandemic of the modern era – the COVID-19 pandemic. The novel coronavirus, which quickly spread across the globe forced most of the global population to drastically change their daily habits to contain the spread of the disease. Governments around the world quickly figured out that the effects of the economic crisis triggered by lockdowns and other containment measures is going to exceed the ones of the health crisis if they do not act fast, so they started issuing fat stimulus checks and printing money to numb the economic impact of the pandemic.
As dire as the situation with COVID-19 currently is, the economic response to the pandemic has created a macroeconomic environment that arguably favours the cryptocurrency asset class, especially Bitcoin. The fear of the imminent inflation and currency debasement risks caused institutional investors as well as retail investors to flock into the cryptocurrency sphere. This is how the biggest news of 2020, the pandemic, consequently positively affected the crypto markets. However, there were also several other factors, such as important upgrades, regulatory changes, acquisitions, and other events that influenced the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain in 2020. This article is an overview of what we think were the top 10 cryptocurrency and blockchain related events of 2020.
1. Third Bitcoin Halving slashed block reward to 6.25 BTC
On May 11, 2020, the much anticipated third Bitcoin halving took place. There was an abundance of speculation in the cryptocurrency space about how the halving would affect Bitcoin’s blockchain and the coin’s price, which stood at around $8,700 at the time of halving. The event that halved the block reward from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC, in did not immediately spark a Bitcoin bull run as some expected, but the effects of the reduced influx of freshly mined BTC can still be felt today. However, the halving did have a short-term impact on the Bitcoin mining ecosystem as some miners’ operations became obsolete and unprofitable, which resulted in a sudden drop of the network’s hashrate. Nevertheless, the Bitcoin hashrate recovered completely over the course of a few weeks and posted a new all-time high already less than 2 months after the halving. As far as Bitcoin’s price is concerned, Bitcoin changed hands at $11,650 3 months after the halving (+35%). Seven and a half months after the halving, Bitcoin is trading a bit under the $29,000 mark (+230% from halving). Although we cannot attribute the price growth to the halving alone, Bitcoin’s deflationary issuance schedule surely played an important role.
2. MicroStrategy Allocated a total of $1.1 Billion into Bitcoin
Year 2020 will also go down in history as the year in which interest in Bitcoin from institutional investors really took off. Furthermore, some companies really went all-in on Bitcoin this year – for example MicroStrategy, a previously relatively unknown business intelligence and cloud services company founded in 1989. The company first stepped into the limelight of crypto community’s attention in August, when it announced that they are steering away from cash and will be using Bitcoin as their primary treasury reserve asset as well as revealed they have made a massive $250 million Bitcoin purchase. The company made additional purchases in September even issued convertible senior notes to raise more capital to buy even more Bitcoin.
As of the end of 2020, the company has spent more than $1.1 billion on Bitcoin and now owns slightly less than 70,500 BTC. Considering that an average purchase price was $15,964 per coin, the company is up by over 70% on its Bitcoin investment at current prices. MicroStrategy’s success has apparently led other companies to gain some Bitcoin exposure. Although no one else got that deep into it, several other companies, including the financial services firm Square (acquired $50 million worth of Bitcoin) and the insurance company MassMutual ($100 million stake in the world’s largest cryptocurrency) allocated some of their reserve assets into Bitcoin.
3. ETH Staking Begins in the Phase 0 of Ethereum 2.0 Roll-out
The transition process to the improved and PoS-enabled version of Ethereum, the Ethereum 2.0 has begun with the launch of the Beacon chain on December 1. In the Phase 0 of what will likely turn into a multi-year upgrade process, Ethereum ecosystem got a new blockchain, that is intended to act as the main chain of the new protocol. The Beacon chain will manage the Ethereum 2.0’s staking system and crosslink the 64 shards that will comprise Ethereum 2.0. Its launch was a historical moment for the cryptocurrency world as it represents the beginning of migration to a Proof-of-stake consensus algorithm on the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap. When fully rolled out, Ethereum 2.0 will significantly improve the networks throughput while reducing Ethereum’s environmental footprint at the same time.
Right now, ETH holders are already able to stake their coins by sending them to the deposit contract deployed on the beacon chain. Once the coins are locked in the contract stakers will start earning staking rewards. However, this is not a full-featured staking yet, since the deposited ETH cannot be withdrawn until Phase 1.5 of Ethereum 2.0 goes live. Even under this condition, over 2.1 million ETH have already been staked, and the amount of ETH in the contract is still growing. 32 ETH is needed to run a validator node on Ethereum 2.0, but most of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, Coinbase and Kraken, have introduced services that allow users to participate in ETH staking and earn associated rewards even if they hold less than 32 ETH.
4. PayPal Rolls-Out Cryptocurrency Buying and Selling Feature
The payments giant PayPal officially announced its entrance to the cryptocurrency world on October 21, by revealing it would launch a cryptocurrency buying, holding, and selling feature. Although the PayPal’s announcement did not come as a major surprise, as rumours and insider reports have been circulating within the crypto community since June, the announcement did cause the crypto market to rally. As far as Bitcoin is concerned, PayPal’s entry is considered one of the key factors that pushed its price past $20,000 and set the ground for the currency’s new all-time highs.
While PayPal’s crypto functionality is currently limited to U.S. customers, the payments processing company has revealed its plans to expand its crypto services in 2021. PayPal’s representatives even said that they would allow users to spend their crypto balances at all merchants that support PayPal. In addition, PayPal’s crypto account is not a cryptocurrency wallet as it does not allow for crypto to be sent from it or received to it. What PayPal does allow, is to buy some cryptocurrency and hold it on their platform until the user decides to sell it at some point in the future. Doing so, PayPal actually degraded the functionality of crypto assets to a speculative investment, which, to be fair, is the primary use case of most cryptocurrencies.
5. The Great Market Crash of March 12
While 2020, has been mostly a great year for cryptocurrency holders, it would be unfair to only list the positive news and events that took place this year. There were also some negative events, such as the market crash that took place between March 12 and March 13. The market crash, induced by the fear of COVID-19 pandemic, started to take hold in the traditional markets at first but the uncertainty quickly spread to the cryptocurrency markets as well. The total cryptocurrency market cap almost halved, dropping to below $150 billion at the low-point in mid-March.
The March 12 to March 13 market crash caused the total cryptocurrency market cap to tank below $150 billion.
Bitcoin started the month at around $8,600 and even saw some gains in the first week of March, causing it to change hands at a price above $9,000 for two days. On March 8, the BTC price quickly slipped to $7,800, but the price drop did not end there. Between March 12 and 13, BTC further fell and only reached a bottom in the sub-$5,000, and even sub-$4,000 levels on some exchanges.
Despite the severity of the crash, the cryptocurrency market was relatively quick to recover in the coming months. In addition, following the crash of March 2020, the cryptocurrency market moved in high correlation with the U.S. stock market and even the precious metal market, only to outperform them all towards the end of the year.
6. The DeFi Craze of Summer 2020
While the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols existed already in 2019, the sector really took off in the summer of 2020. During the so-called “DeFi summer”, “DeFi Hype” or “DeFi Craze”, we saw novel DeFi protocols popping up almost every day and aggressive price performances of the DeFi-related tokens.
The DeFi hype was kickstarted by Compound’s launch of their own governance token called COMP. Compound, being one of the most popular DeFi protocols, also introduced a special business model, where users are rewarded in the protocol’s governance token for simply using Compound. Many other protocols copied the model, and this sparked a new cryptocurrency niche called yield farming. Special yield farming protocols, which interacted with various DeFi protocols with the goal of obtaining the maximum possible yield, soon emerged.
Also due to yield farming, the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi surged from just $670 million at the start of the year to over $13.3 billion at the end.
Total value locked in DeFi during 2020 – highest increase in TVL can be observed during the “DeFi Summer”. (Image source: DeFi Pulse)
7. Record Issuance of Stablecoins
As we all know, classic cryptocurrencies can get super-volatile. To solve this problem, stablecoins emerged as alternative currencies that offer almost all the benefits of the cryptocurrency but remove, or at least minimize the risk of rapid price swings. Because they exist on the blockchain they are also more suitable to be traded on exchanges in various crypto trading pairs.
Although stablecoins faced rigorous regulatory pressure in 2020, their total market cap more than quadrupled this year, rising from $5.7 billion at the beginning of 2020 to more than $26 billion today. The largest market share belongs to Tether (market capitalization above $20 billion), which also saw the biggest absolute growth in 2020. The stablecoin transaction volumes also climbed throughout the year and surpassed a monthly adjusted transaction volume of $50 billion for the first time in June 2020.
Total stablecoin market capitalization more than quadrupled in 2020. It currently stands at $26.3 billion. (Source: Messari Research)
8. Bitcoin Surges past $20,000 and posts Several Consecutive ATH Prices
Judging by the number of important and positive events linked to Bitcoin, you could imagine that the world’s largest cryptocurrency performed well this year. In fact, Bitcoin surpassed its all-time high price set on December 27, 2017 this year. After hoovering at around $10,000 since May, Bitcoin finally managed to lift off from the $10K line in mid-October 2020. The market gained additional traction following the PayPal’s news, but then struggled to break through $20,000 for a few weeks. Bitcoin first broke its ATH from 2017 on November 30, when it surged as high as $19,850. Nevertheless, this spike was short-lived, and Bitcoin faced a quick readjustment to around $19,150. The price than tried to break the psychological barrier of $20,000 several times, but only succeeded on December 16, when it surged to above $20,600. Only one day later, on December 17, Bitcoin posted a fresh new ATH price again, this time at $23,421. Bitcoin than continued the rally by breaking the $24,000 mark for the first time ever on Christmas day, and posting a yet again new ATH of $28,314 exactly three years after the peak of 2017’s bull run. The current ATH price stands at $29,250 and was set on December 31, 2020. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading just 0.5% below its ATH so, new fresh ATH prices in 2021 or even this year are very likely.
9. Uniswap’s Massive Airdrop of its governance token UNI
Uniswap is an automated market maker (AMM) and a decentralized exchange (DEX) built on Ethereum that allows users to swap between different cryptocurrencies directly on the Ethereum blockchain. Uniswap was the undisputed king of AAMs until SushiSwap, a project that forked the open-source code of Uniswap emerged and spiced the things up by introducing an attractive incentive model for liquidity providers. SushiSwap sucked a lot of liquidity from Uniswap but lifted a lot of dust in the community and sparked a heated debate whether such practice is healthy for the ecosystem as a whole.
During the “DeFi Summer” Uniswap was one of the few leading DeFi projects without its own token. This changed on September 17, when Uniswap launched their own governance token called UNI. The tokens were distributed in the form of an airdrop, with each Ethereum address that interacted with Uniswap protocol prior to the announcement receiving 400 UNI tokens. The UNI airdrop was massive as one could sell the 400 UNI for over $1,000. You could imagine that this made over 250,000 Ethereum addresses owners eligible for the airdrop very happy. With the airdrop, Uniswap also popularized the token distribution strategy, which rewards users who gave the platform a shot before there were any direct incentives to do so.
10. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sues Ripple over XRP
Ripple was created in 2012 as a cryptocurrency gross settlement and cross-border transaction platform. The creators of the XRP Ledger “gifted” the majority of XRP supply to Opencoin, a company known as Ripple today. In a recently filed lawsuit the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleges that Ripple’s sales of XRP constituted an unregistered security offering. Ripple on the other hand claims that XRP is not a security as owning XRP does not give its holders any rights pertaining to the company. In addition, Ripple believes that the price of XRP is not determined by the company’s activities. Nevertheless, the fintech company owns over 50% of the XRP supply and regularly liquidates their holdings. In fact, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated that his company would not be turning a profit if it was not for its XRP sales in March.
The news of the SEC coming after Ripple caused the price of XRP to drop over 60%, before finding the new ground around the price of $0.20. In light with the impending lawsuit, several major exchanges, including Coinbase, announced that they would be halting XRP trading on their platforms, trying to distance themselves from the alleged unregistered security offering. The decision of the court in the case of the SEC vs. Ripple could have a major influence on the cryptocurrency regulatory landscape and could set a precedent for all cases that will follow. If the court ends up siding with the SEC, other cryptocurrency projects could be negatively affected as well.
2021: Bring it on!
We saw plenty of developments, regulatory changes, and innovation in 2020. Bitcoin emerged as a popular hedge against inflation, which combined with institutional investors entering the game caused its price to surge to a new ATH, while the second largest cryptocurrency is making everything ready to move to Proof-of-stake and increase its capabilities by upgrading to Ethereum 2.0. Combined with the rapid progress of several other altcoins and the increased usage of stablecoins, we can confidently say that the whole cryptocurrency space grew, both in terms of valuation and maturity, quite a lot in 2020. At CoinCheckup, we are already looking forward and hoping for more similar or even better developments in 2021.
Coinbase is a prominent exchange, and its actions are likely to influence other exchanges as well
After Coinbase’s announcement, the XRP price experienced another major drop
Coinbase will stop XRP trading due to the lawusit between Ripple and United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Coinbase published a blog post about the issue and announced it would suspend XRP trading on January 19, 10 am PST. The announcement explains that the suspension won’t affect the Spark token airdrop which is expected to be delivered to holders of the XRP cryptocurrency.
According to the announcement, customers can deposit and withdraw XRP after the suspension, and it won’t affect Coinbase’s XRP wallet functionality.
The SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple is prompting cryptocurrency exchanges to take action regarding XRP
SEC has charged Ripple, as well as Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen for allegedly selling unregistered securities. Essentially, the SEC is arguing that XRP is a security issued by Ripple, but hasn’t been registered as such, giving the company the benefits of issuing a security without any of the obligations.
Coinbase is one of the biggest players in the cryptocurrency industry, and the other businesses will undoubtedly be influenced by its action. Offering the trading of assets that could potentially be deemed as unregistered securities could result in a lot of risk for cryptocurrency exchanges.
Other exchanges like OKCoin and Bitstamp have also announced similar actions, and they will either limit or completely suspend XRP trading on their platforms.
After the news, the XRP price dropped dramatically, and briefly even fell below $0.20. The XRP cryptocurrency has been suffering negative price action ever since the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple was announced, losing more than 50% of its value.
The future of XRP is now very uncertain, and it’s hard to predict what will happen to it until the court actually makes its decision or the SEC and Ripple reach a settlement. The litigation could continue for an extended period of time, and we certainly shouldn’t expect it to be resolved overnight.
With more exchanges either delisting XRP or suspending trading, the cryptocurrency will be affected by lower liquidity and will be much harder to access for cryptocurrency investors.
The recent developments regarding XRP show that there’s plenty of different risks when it comes to investing in cryptocurrencies. XRP enjoyed a bull run before the lawsuit was announced, and there was plenty of bullish sentiment surrounding the coin. But all the equations changed suddenly due to an intervention by regulators, and XRP is now in a very unfavorable position.
The world of cryptocurrencies continues to grow at breakneck speed. However, jumping into a crypto investment without a deep understanding of its market, possibilities, and threats might appear to be risky and unprofessional. There are lots of things you should know beforehand, like how to choose the best crypto exchange or the safest crypto wallet to fit your needs, and lots of other data. In case you don’t know where to start, we are here to help. Discover the list of the top things you should know before diving into crypto trading.
Get Ready For Learning
The most common mistake of hundreds of beginner investors is starting to trade without having a deep knowledge of how the industry works. The fact is that making business transactions with crypto is usually fast and easy, so many newbies rocket launch their investment activity just from making a couple of deals. Of course, you might start to gain profits right at once. However, having no investment strategy is likely to be a failure in the long-term. Brush up your knowledge of crypto before making any operations on the market.
Be Aware Of The Possibility Of Drastic Changes
There is nothing new to the fact that cryptocurrencies are volatile. However, the changes in the crypto value might appear to be more drastic than you expect. To have an idea of how volatile the crypto market can be, you can investigate a particular cryptocurrency e.g. Ripple, check XRP’s past performance and price forecast here.
The value of most types of coins often has numerous ups and downs within the shortest terms. The fact is that the market for digital money is less predictable than the stock exchange. Therefore, the first thing you should be prepared for is the high level of risk. Moreover, you shouldn’t panic when something doesn’t go as you predicted. The situation might change to completely opposite in a blink of an eye! That is why it is vital to invest wisely and avoid playing with your financial future.
Forget About Having A Proven Rate Of Return
Many crypto experts compare their trading activity with gambling. Why? The niche of digital money has little to no regulatory standards. Therefore, the rises and falls of the value of coins are very difficult to predict. This means you can’t calculate your returns similar to trading on the stock markets. Just remember that the cryptocurrency and stock markets are not complying with the same rules. Moreover, it is not recommended to build a long-term investment plan based on crypto.
Avoid Storing All Coins In The Same Place
When it comes to trading and storing coins, diversification is a must. To have a brilliant crypto portfolio, it is better to trade different types of coins. What is the best cryptocurrency to invest in? How to choose the most promising crypto coin? You will need to find the answers to these questions and make your crypto trading more diverse. Invest in different coins to reduce the risks of losing money in case the value of a certain coin suddenly drops.
Create An Extra Email
In case you use a regular email account for making all deals, you are facing a risk of exposure to a data breach. It is always a good idea to create a separate email to be used in trading, as well as add two-factor authentication. It is also recommended to choose an uncommon username that doesn’t contain any personal information. For example, johnsmith@mail.com is not a good email address since it contains your real name and surname. Don’t give the hackers a chance to trace you using identifiable data. Keep in mind that your confidentiality and security should be your top priority.
Find Out More About Crypto Wallets
Storing coins in a safe and reliable way is another important point for successful trading. Crypto wallets are designed exactly for these purposes. There are two most common types you might have heard about. These are “cold” and “hot” ones. Hot wallets might be a good alternative for beginner investors who trade small amounts of coins. They are very convenient and easy-to-use but have higher risks of being hacked. Cold wallets are considered to be safer and are good for saving cryptos for a long time, while hot ones can be used on a regular basis for fast trading.
It is also important to understand the difference between exchanges and wallets since they are separate services. In case you keep your coins on exchanges, you don’t have keys. Therefore, you are at high risk to lose your assets in case something goes wrong with the exchange. Not to mention, such incidents have already happened. Therefore, spend some time to investigate the opportunities of various wallets to choose the most fitting alternative for your needs.
Be Careful With Mobile Wallets
In case you are planning to use a mobile wallet for trading cryptos in high volumes, you are at great risk. The reason is that mobile wallets had been compromised plenty of times. Obviously, your mobile phone can be lost, stolen, or hacked easily. In other words, convenience should never go beyond security.
Avoid Fake News
As a beginner in the world of cryptocurrency, you might face lots of fake news and unreal promises of earning thousands of dollars in a single click. However, it is always important not to follow your emotions and invest wisely. Always double-check any info you find online before initiating the deal, otherwise you may easily fall into the traps of crypto scammers. This simple trick will help you sort out only fresh and relevant information, as well as invest effectively. It is better to follow only trustworthy and reliable sites to check the info about different coins.
Windup
Hopefully, these tips will help you build your investment strategy and start your crypto activity in an easy and safe way. You can also sign up for our newsletter to keep in touch with the hottest tips and news in the crypto industry.
