11.08.[News of the day] • Institutions buy BTC as at the end of 2020 • and other articles

Welcome to today’s overview of crypto news:

MARKETS

Yesterday, BTC reached as much as $ 46,800, which was the highest price limit in more than two months, but in connection with the development of taxation in the USA, it retreated relatively quickly. In fact, it fell to around $ 44,600, but the bulls immediately regained control and moved it north again. In the following hours, BTC added more than $ 1,500 in value and again surpassed $ 46,500. Since then, BTC has corrected slightly again, but is still above $ 46,000.

The performance of altcoins has been quite impressive in recent days. ETH grew by 30% on a weekly basis after the arrival of London Hardfork. In just the last 24 hours, the ETH has risen above $ 3,200 and jumped to a new multi-month high of more than $ 3,240.

BTC analysis – trend weakens, does BTC resist resistance zone?

Cryptocurrencies

Institutions are buying BTC as at the end of 2020

BTC reserves on derivatives exchanges fell to the level last recorded before the May drop in price. Data from the analytical service CryptoQuant on-chain confirmed that as of August 10, derivative reserves amounted to BTC 1.256 million, which is the lowest since May 11.

Against the background of the return of institutions’ interest in crypto tools such as the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), the data show that major players have in fact increased their holdings of BTC throughout the downturn. Balances on crypto exchanges prove this, while the trend we last observed at the end of 2020 is repeated for derivative platforms.

On the other hand, even during the most intense phase of this year’s BTC bull run, derivative balances rose, with the declining balance only characterized by the very beginning of the run at $ 64,500.

Charles Hoskinson will announce the launch date of the smart contracts this week

IOHK CEO Charles Hoskinson has announced that the date of the highly anticipated launch of the smart contract at Cardano will be announced this Friday:

“We’ve had a lot of discussions with partners and other people, and we seem to be well on our way to announcing a date on Friday.”

The crypto billionaire adds that this will be a “very achievable date.” Nevertheless, he warns the community that onboarding on stock exchanges will be the “final go-go”.

Cardano has recently entered the “purple” phase of Alonzo’s deployment, and final adjustments are now underway before the hardware mainnet is launched. The price of Cardano (ADA) has risen by more than 20% in the last three days in anticipation of the launch of a smart contract.

Banks, crypto exchanges, companies

Coinbase removes the “US dollar-backed” claim for USDC stablecoin

USD Coin (USDC), Circle’s dollar stablecoin, apparently lost one of its biggest competitive advantages over its rival, Tether (USDT).

The main crypto exchange Coinbase made an important change to the USD Coin page on its website following an audit that revealed that not all USDC reserves are held in cash. This contradicts the previous statement that “each USDC is covered by one US dollar held in a bank account.”

Visitors to the Coinbase will now be greeted by a statement on the USD Coin website stating that the USDC is “backed by fully booked assets.”

Ripple works with a leading South Korean payment service provider

GME Remittance, one of the leading companies in South Korea, has announced a merger with SBI Ripple Asia, a subsidiary of the distributed ledger Ripple, to enable faster payments to Thailand.

According to Subash Chief Operating Officer Chandra Poudela, by becoming part of the RippleNet network, GME Remittance will be able to quickly open new corridors for money transfers around the world.

Siam Commercial Bank, Thailand’s oldest bank and longtime partner of Ripple, has teamed up with GME Remittance to accept money transfers from South Korea. Ripple has a strong presence in South Korea thanks to partners such as Coinone Transfer, Sentbe and Hanpass.

CBDC, Regulation

Venezuela announced a digital bolivar for October

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are becoming fashionable across many governments, and many countries are actively developing their own. The Venezuelan Central Bank has decided to establish its own CBDC by October this year. The same was first revealed by the Venezuelan vice president for communication on Twitter.

He added in the announcement that there would also be a currency adjustment that would remove six zeros from the Venezuelan Bolivar currency. The digital bolivar will be accompanied by an equivalent new coin worth 1 bolivar and banknotes worth 5 Bs to 100 Bs.

CBDC will be supported by an SMS-based exchange system to allow transfers and payments between users. The bank also clarified that none of these measures would affect the current value of the bolivar.

The Bank of Jamaica is minting the first batch of national digital currency

Jamaica is aggressively continuing to introduce the digital currency of the central bank (CBDC) as the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) launches the first batch of CBDC. The BOJ officially announced that its specialized CBDC department demonstrated the digital currency minting process at a financial ceremony on Monday.

The process of issuing the digital version of the Jamaican Dollar (JMD) was attended by Jamaican Finance Minister Nigel Clark, BOJ Governor Richard Byles and a group of BOJ executives, as well as the management team of the Irish technology company eCurrency Mint.

According to the announcement, the BOJ plans to spend a total of JMD 230 million ($ 1.47 million) in the form of CBDC to deposit-taking institutions and authorized payment service providers as part of a digital currency pilot project to end in December this year.