bitcoin

Sunday, October 31, 2021

Bitcoin set for record monthly close with BTC price still below 'worst case scenario'

$60,000 would be a monthly record, but longstanding analysis demands a minimum of $63,000 by the start of November.

Bitcoin (BTC) delivered fresh retests of $60,000 support on Oct. 31 with a matter of hours left until the crucial monthly close.

*BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView*

Record monthly close hangs by a thread

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed lackluster price action on Sunday, with BTC/USD below the "worst case scenario" for its October close.

Analysts were eagerly awaiting to see if the end of the month could provide a turnaround and prove the worst case theory correct for a third month running.

Its creator, PlanB, father of the stock-to-flow model, correctly guessed the $47,000 and $43,000 finales for August and September respectively.

Even without succeeding, however, finishing October above $60,000 would mark several achievements in itself.

If #Bitcoin closes the week tomorrow above $60k, it would be the 3rd week in a row...

It would also be the first *MONTHLY* close above $60k ever.
— Benjamin Cowen (@intocryptoverse) October 30, 2021

As Cointelegraph previously noted, Sundays have tended to see weaker performance from Bitcoin this month, with Monday contrasting the mood with a show of strength — particularly into the U.S. open.

"BTC daily says get ready for November," popular trader and analyst TechDev summarized on the day, putting the focus on the coming month.

*BTC/USD 1-month candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView*

Shiba Inu ends its run in altcoin slowdown

Altcoins staged copycat moves as Bitcoin waned, with the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap seeing modest losses over the past 24 hours.

Shiba Inu (SHIB), the star of the past week, lost more heavily, down 13% at the time of writing but still with weekly gains of 45%.

Sentiment mimicked the lack of upside, with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index showing declining "greed" in recent days.

*Crypto Fear & Greed Index as of Oct. 31. Source: Alternative.me*

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Bitcoin white paper turns 13 years old: The journey so far

The Bitcoin white paper only has nine pages, yet it contained enough to change the world. Here's how it came to be 13 years ago.

The 13th birthday of the Bitcoin (BTC) white paper has crept up just as the world continues to deal with a global pandemic, inflation fears, an astounding memecoin mania trend and growing institutional adoption of the cryptocurrency space.

On October 31, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin white paper to a cryptography mailing list hosted by Metzdow. The Metzdow mailing list was run by a group of cypherpunks and was filled with ideas meant to create a form of digital currency: some of these have even been cited in the Bitcoin white paper.

Satoshi’s white paper came in a message titled "Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper," in which Nakamoto explained that his digital currency is fully peer-to-peer (P2P) and requires no trusted third party for a transaction to occur. Through a peer-to-peer network, Bitcoin solved the double-spending problem. Bitcoin also allowed network participants to remain anonymous and was secured through a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm.

At the time, the white paper wasn't received the way people would expect it to be, knowing what they know today. Only a handful of people saw Nakamoto’s email and replied with their thoughts and concerns surrounding Bitcoin.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Leo Matchett, co-founder and CEO of Decentralized Pictures, a non-profit organization supporting independent filmmakers, said that the Bitcoin white paper “is the genesis of a new era in monetary sovereignty,” adding, “Satoshi stood on the shoulders of giants and solved problems that those who came before could not.”

Matchett opined further that the white paper “was truly the beginning of a new era for monetary systems of the world” because it “brought forth the idea that decentralization has more value than centralization.” Indeed, the idea of Bitcoin attempted to solve numerous problems including counterfeiting, steep on-ramps and counterparty risk.

Running Bitcoin

After the white paper was shared on the cryptography mailing list, slowly but surely, discussion surrounding the document started growing, with the Bitcoin network being launched in early 2009. At that time, Hal Finney, a cypherpunk that worked with the PGP Corporation developing leading encryption products, was already involved.

Hal Finney is well-known in the cryptocurrency space for being involved in the first Bitcoin transaction and being the first person after Nakamoto to run a copy of the network through a node. After setting it up, Finney tweeted he was “running bitcoin.”

Running bitcoin
— halfin (@halfin) January 11, 2009

The cypherpunk, who tragically passed away in 2014 as a result of ALS complications and had his body cryopreserved by the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, described his work with Satoshi in a forum post where he revealed he started mining BTC on “block 70-something,” and that after some correspondence, Satoshi sent him 10 BTC to test whether the network worked.

At the time, there was no demand for space on the blockchain, so the transaction was successfully processed with a 0 BTC fee attached to it. The 10 BTC were worthless at the time, but the transaction helped fix some bugs in BTC’s early days.

That first Bitcoin transaction made it clear that the network worked, and while there was still a lot of work to be done to get where it is today, it was a first step in the right direction. A year later, in 2010, the first commercial Bitcoin transaction would occur.

$600 million+ for two pizzas

On May 18, 2010 developer Laszlo Hanyecz created a post on the Bitcointalk forum offering 10,000 Bitcoin “for a couple of pizzas.” Hanyecz offered to pay another forum member the coins if they got him two large pizzas, which could even be homemade.

The post was met with skepticism, as 10,000 BTC at the time weren’t worth the cost of two pizzas, or were anywhere near it. Only on May 22, after a follow-up, did Hanyecz report that he “successfully traded 10,000 bitcoins for pizza.”

At the time and despite Bitcoin’s low value and the community’s small size, one user noted that a “great milestone was reached.” That day is now known in the cryptocurrency community as the “Bitcoin Pizza Day.”

The first commercial Bitcoin transaction led to the creation of an ecosystem now worth over $2 trillion and proved that Bitcoin has a number of use cases that need to be considered. For the first time ever, Bitcoin was used as a true medium of exchange.

A multi-trillion dollar industry

The cryptocurrency’s price would rise over time, partly because of adoption and partly because of speculators looking to profit off of its incredible volatility. In the midst of all that, new businesses were created in what ended up becoming a large asset class.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Miha Grčar, head of global business development at cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, said: “no one could have predicted the tidal wave of change unleashed by the publication of a 9-page PDF.”

The Bitcoin white paper, Grčar said, laid out a vision for a digital currency that can be used as a store of value and medium of exchange independent of centralized control. Per his words, the potential it has hasn’t been fully unleashed:

“It turned out to be a breakthrough of such historical importance and magnitude that even thirteen years on, we’re barely scratching the surface.”

Bitcoin, he said, instigated a “paradigm shift that now underpins a multi-trillion dollar industry” and showed the world there was a better way where “sovereignty, finance and individual freedoms all co-exist outside the clutches of corrupt outdated socio-economic systems ridden with insiders, cronies and backroom deals.”

As understood from the first commercial Bitcoin transaction, BTC’s value hasn’t always been clear. The cryptocurrency has gone through substantial crashes in its history and has been declared “dead” over 400 times by popular media outlets and analysts.

Bitcoin’s market cap is now above $1.16 trillion, according to Cointelegraph Markets Pro. While most wish they could have heard about the cryptocurrency in 2010 or 2011 to invest in it and build up wealth through that investment, most would have likely failed to see how big BTC would get.

Early Bitcoin investor Greg Schoen published, in May 2011, a now-famous tweet where he showed regret for selling 1,700 BTC for $0.30, after getting them when the cryptocurrency was trading at $0.06, as he could have sold his coins at $8 apiece. As one BTC is now trading above $61,000, his 1,700 BTC would now be worth over $104 million. A pity indeed.

I wish I had kept my 1,700 BTC @ $0.06 instead of selling them at $0.30, now that they're $8.00! #bitcoin
— Greg Schoen (@GregSchoen) May 16, 2011

Bitcoin’s rise has been supported by a thriving industry filled with innovation that has already seen cryptocurrency exchanges start trading on the Nasdaq exchange and by institutional investors who recognize that BTC can be used to diversify their portfolios and hedge against inflation.

Earlier this year, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender with the country’s Bitcoin Law officially coming into effect on Sept. 7. El Salvadorans can use the cryptocurrency through a wallet called Chivo launched by the government that uses the Lightning Network, a layer-two scaling solution.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Javier Moro, chief product officer at Latin American cryptocurrency exchange Bitso, noted that El Salvador’s move was “rooted in hope for a better future for El Salvadorans,” and its success will depend on the spread of cryptocurrency-related knowledge in the country.

More is yet to come

Earlier in October, the first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) was launched in the United States. The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF began trading under the ticker BITO on the New York Stock Exchange. It became the second-most heavily traded fund on record in its debut.

In a statement sent to Cointelegraph, Ron Levy, CEO and co-founder of blockchain consulting firm The Crypto Company, stated that the Bitcoin white paper “laid the groundwork for what would become a decentralized industry beyond what anyone thought was possible.”

The next leap in this space, he said, are “clear laws and regulations around what can and can’t be done with crypto currency.” But, it’s obviously not clear how that may turn out, as all new technological breakthroughs face resistance from established mechanisms.

Brittany Laughlin, executive director at the Stacks Foundation, which bridges decentralized finance (DeFi) and the Bitcoin network, told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin has come a long way from just being a store of value, as it’s “now possible to build smart contracts on Bitcoin, welcoming the millions of BTC holders to the world of DeFi, NFTs and true ownership.”

Notably, Satoshi Nakamoto seemingly predicted that additional blockchains could use tokens, which they called “domain objects” at the time, to represent ownership of assets. Satoshi’s example was for a token representing the right to own a domain for a year.

Finney: "Satoshi, are you endorsing the idea that additional block chains would each create their own flavor of coins, which would trade with bitcoins on exchanges?"

Satoshi: "Right...domain objects (domaincoins?) could represent the right to own a domain for a year." pic.twitter.com/ZZBUwV65pS
— Balaji Srinivasan (@balajis) July 2, 2021

As Grčar said, humankind has only begun scratching the surface of what Bitcoin and blockchain technology are capable of. So much so, that the developments we have today were seemingly thought of by Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.

The Bitcoin white paper has made the idea of a decentralized network viable and proved that even a short nine-page document was able to change the world in ways so radical they may be hard to comprehend even at this point in time.

While it isn’t clear whether more countries will adopt BTC as legal tender in the future, or whether interest for Bitcoin ETFs will wane, it appears clear that Bitcoin is here to stay and serve as both a store of value and medium of exchange, and that’s only 13 years after the idea was first introduced. Imagine what will happen in the next 13 years.

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6 Questions for Yoni Assia of eToro

We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and we throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes!

This week, our 6 Questions go to Yoni Assia, the co-founder and CEO of eToro.

Yoni Assia is the co-founder and CEO of eToro, the social investing network with over 23 million registered users from more than 100 countries. Yoni is widely acknowledged as a crypto pioneer, having co-written the Colored Coins white paper with Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin in 2013. In 2018, Yoni founded GoodDollar, a nonprofit initiative created to develop a sustainable and scalable framework for bringing a digital, universal basic income to the world via new crypto asset technologies. He has long been a champion of different approaches to wealth and capital distribution, initially introducing the GoodDollar concept in a white paper called The Visible Hand in 2008. Yoni holds a BA in Management and Computer Science, and an MSc in Computer Science from the Reichman University (IDC Herzliya), Israel.

1 What kind of consolidation do you expect to see in the crypto industry in 2021?

Were nearly at the end of 2021 and what a year it has been for crypto, with many coins reaching new ATHs, the launch of a Bitcoin ETF in the United States, and growing demand for crypto from both retail and institutional investors. Weve seen more and more traditional companies embrace crypto and the blockchain technology that underpins it, and this will only continue.

This year has been about continued growth and the mainstreaming of crypto but, as the industry matures, we will see consolidation. Ultimately, I am hugely optimistic about the outlook for crypto blockchain technology will revolutionize finance.

2 Which is sillier: $500k Bitcoin, or $0 Bitcoin? Why?

$0 Bitcoin (BTC), easily. I bought my first Bitcoin in 2010, and 11 years later Im still investing in Bitcoin and running a company that makes it easier for others to do so too. Crypto is still a nascent asset class and Bitcoin, the first and largest crypto, is only 12 years old. It may take some time to hit $500,000, but the future is bright for BTC and crypto more broadly.

3 Which people do you find most inspiring, most interesting, and most fun in this space?

I have to mention my eToro team. Im lucky enough to work with some of the smartest, most dedicated and inspiring people in the industry.

Looking beyond eToro, I recently attended the Milken Institute Global Conference. The event brought together many of the brightest and most influential minds in the world to discuss the most urgent challenges facing us globally. Entitled Charting a New Course, the conference focused on how recent disruptions can be reframed for a thriving future. I left feeling deeply inspired and even more determined to push forward with GoodDollar a digital blockchain project which aims to make universal income a reality on a global scale. The income gap is a crisis of global proportions, and GoodDollars goal is to onboard the next 100 million people into the digital economy.

4 Whats the most interesting place youve ever visited?

In 2020, I was fortunate enough to have dinner with Warren Buffett in Omaha, Nebraska. It was an honor to meet one of my heroes and a life changing moment for me. The two key takeaways for me were:

Investing can be simple when you invest in businesses you understand and believe in. If you follow the rules of value investing over a long period of time, you can succeed as an investor.
The most important investment you can make is in yourself.

5 Which two superpowers would you most want to have, and how would you combine them for good or evil?

Im going to cheat and name three. Ive always said I would want to be able to teleport, heal and have the ability to shake someone’s hand and know everything they know. Im all about using power for good.

6 Choose the single most memorable moment from your favorite movie.

For me, it would be the scene from The Matrix (1999), directed by the Wachowskis, when the main character, Neo, has to choose between a red pill and a blue pill.

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Americans reinvesting stimulus checks in Bitcoin made $4.5k in profit

A timely reinvestment of $3,200 worth of stimulus checks into Bitcoin would return a total profit of $4,514 (nearly 71%) by the end of October.

An average American taxpayer received three rounds of stimulus checks from the United States government as a means to reignite the economy by increasing consumers’ spending potential. For many, this meant an opportunity to invest in Bitcoin (BTC).

A Cointelegraph report from Aug. 26 shows that 11% of the respondents between the ages of 18 to 34 reinvested a part of their stimulus checks into cryptocurrencies. Adult Americans that reinvested the first round of stimulus payments from April 2020 into Bitcoin have realized a net profit of roughly 442%, turning a $1,200 investment into $5,304 as of Oct. 31, 2021.

The second stimulus check of $600 was distributed between December 2020 and January 2021, just two months before Bitcoin achieved an all-time high of $65,000 for the first time. If reinvested in Bitcoin, the second check would return a profit of 152% (approximately $312).

The average payout for the third stimulus check was set at $1,400, which was made available for eligible taxpayers from March 2021. Since then, Bitcoin underwent a three-month-long bearish market but made a full recovery to cross $65,000 in trading value for the first time. Despite the fluctuations, reinvesting the third stimulus check in Bitcoin would return a modest 7% or $98 in profit at the time of writing.

Based on the findings above, a timely reinvestment of $3,200 worth of stimulus checks into Bitcoin would return a total profit of $4,514 (nearly 71%) by the end of October. In a study conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Yahoo Finance, most Americans willing to invest in cryptocurrencies cited primary interest in Bitcoin and Ether (ETH).

Crypto analyst PlanB’s prediction on Bitcoin checks out for the third consecutive month.

Aug>47k✅
Sep>43k✅
Next targets: Oct>63k, Nov>98k, Dec>135k pic.twitter.com/C45nfQkQSC
— PlanB (@100trillionUSD) October 1, 2021

According to PlanB, Bitcoin is set to exceed $98,000 in value by the end of November. If the prediction holds true, the stimulus check investments will further realize 58% profit from today’s market price.

El Salvador announced Bitcoin as a legal tender on Sep. 07 and has ever since started reinvesting its U.S. dollar reserves on procuring Bitcoin.

President Nayib Bukele announced the addition of 420 Bitcoin on Oct. 28, bringing up the national reserve to 1,120 BTC, worth $87.4 million.

It was a long wait, but worth it.

We just bought the dip!

420 new #Bitcoin
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) October 27, 2021

According to Bukele, once the country makes a profit on its Bitcoin investment, an equivalent amount from its dollar reserves is reinvested for funding various initiatives. As a result, the total value of El Salvador’s national reserves maintains its original value in terms of the US dollar.

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Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin white paper is now a 13-year-old teenager

Today, Bitcoin maintains a stable trading value well above $60k after experiencing a gradual appreciation of 7,749,999,900% ever since its launch.

The iconic Bitcoin (BTC) white paper celebrates thirteen years of financial disruption after being first published on Oct. 31, 2008, by an anonymous person or entity named Satoshi Nakamoto.

The white paper, titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, foresaw the need for a peer-to-peer online payment system that is self-governing, secure and limited in quantity. The Bitcoin network was launched on Jan. 03, 2009, having each Bitcoin priced at $0.0008.

While Bitcoin was initially perceived as a threat by traditional financial institutions, thirteen years of community support and a growing user base have made Bitcoin one of the most profitable investments for the Internet age. Today, Bitcoin maintains a stable trading value well above $60k after experiencing a gradual appreciation of 7,749,999,900% ever since its launch.

The Bitcoin white paper proposes a solution to prevent double-spending without the risk of trusting a third party. To do this, it mentions the use of ‘honest’ nodes that confirm transactions by overpowering the bad actors in terms of raw central processing unit (CPU) power of computers.

Interestingly enough, the Bitcoin white paper has 15 ‘honest’ and one ‘dishonest’ mentions, explaining the need for honest nodes to ensure the credibility of each transaction. In the words of Satoshi Nakamoto:

“We have proposed a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust. They [honest nodes] vote with their CPU power, expressing their acceptance of valid blocks by working on extending them and rejecting invalid blocks by refusing to work on them.”

The Bitcoin blockchain has mined block number 707542, which offered a mining reward of 6.25000000 BTC.

As the Bitcoin ecosystem slowly approaches its hard cap or maximum supply of 21 million BTC, the developer community will need to modify the existing rules to incentivize the miners that confirm Bitcoin transactions on the blockchain. The white paper suggests:

“Any needed rules and incentives can be enforced with this consensus mechanism.”

Prominent entrepreneurs from Crypto Twitter such as Anthony Pompliano join in on the celebrations.

Tomorrow is the 13 year anniversary of the Bitcoin Whitepaper.

We are officially launching Bitcoin Pizza in 20 cities with almost 100 locations.

Every dollar of my profits goes to bitcoin developers pic.twitter.com/oh5gHnJ7iP
— Pomp (@APompliano) October 30, 2021

Despite the ongoing resistance from numerous governments and authorities such as China, this year marks the beginning of Bitcoin’s legacy as a legal tender in El Salvador. The long-term effect of Bitcoin on El Salvador’s inflated economy will determine the asset’s mainstream adoption among other jurisdictions.

The success of Bitcoin and the crypto ecosystems as viable investments continue to attract investors from all walks of life. The world’s richest man, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, recently showed support for cryptocurrencies at the Code Conference in California:

“It is not possible to, I think, destroy crypto, but it is possible for governments to slow down its advancement.”

Musk also believes that “cryptocurrency is fundamentally aimed at reducing the power of a centralized government,” which can be one of the main reasons for Bitcoin’s slow mainstream adoption rate.

Bitcoin is my safe word
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2020

Musk has also been highly influential in affecting the market price of other cryptocurrencies such Dogecoin (DOGE).

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Latinx communities continue to rise above Bitcoin adoption obstacles

Latinx communities are driving forward adoption, as crypto is proven to meet their diverse needs in a way that traditional finance cannot.

Digital assets have recently become more and more prevalent in our daily lives — in the news, popular culture and our personal interactions. In the first quarter of 2021, the number of global daily Bitcoin (BTC) transactions hit 367,536. Bitcoin alone now accounts for around $20 billion of daily online transactions. Not only this, but those who are familiar with digital assets and cryptocurrencies trust them implicitly — Binance’s “Global Crypto User Index” for 2021 shows a 97% confidence in cryptocurrencies.

Proportionally, members of Latinx communities in the United States have some of the highest rates of crypto adoption, with approximately 31% of Hispanic people owning Bitcoin and the same data stating that 25% of Bitcoin owners are Latinx. There are many reasons behind this impressive rate of adoption, not least of which is the fact that this group has less access to traditional wealth. In 2016, Latinx families held less than one-sixth the wealth of white families and were several times more likely to support family members not living with them. In 2020, Mexican people living in the United States sent over $40 billion to family members in Mexico, and many of these transfers took place through cryptocurrency.

While Latinx communities seem to be at the forefront of adopting digital assets and using them to improve their daily lives, it is important that those in the cryptocurrency and digital asset industries make efforts to include marginalized groups in their future plans and to integrate with and embrace these communities, to continue on this upward trajectory of adoption and to ensure that everyone is aware of the wide range of benefits digital assets can provide.

Latin American adoption

It is only a matter of time before digital assets reach full proliferation in Latin America. For example, look at El Salvador’s decision to become the world’s first country to classify Bitcoin as legal tender. Citizens in El Salvador can now receive $30 worth of Bitcoin when they download and register on the government’s cryptocurrency app, Chivo. Taxes can be paid in Bitcoin, and prices will be displayed in either BTC or U.S. dollars. A major driver of the law is to help people elsewhere in the world who are sending remittances back to El Salvador, as these payments generally suffer from high transaction and commission fees when done through fiat currency.

Argentina is following El Salvador’s lead, with members of Argentina’s National Congress recently submitting a bill that will allow Argentine people to accept their salaries in Bitcoin. Cuba, Paraguay and Uruguay have all indicated that they will officially recognize and regulate cryptocurrency in their countries in the immediate future. Leaders in Argentina, Brazil, Panama and beyond have endorsed El Salvador’s action on social media.

Assisting migrants who are sending remittances to their family and friends in their countries of origin is just one example of how digital assets can empower people. Bill payment services via blockchain technology could also be life-changing for people in marginalized communities. Payments via blockchain are more secure, faster and often more cost-effective than traditional methods — and do not require access to traditional banking and payment channels. This is particularly significant, as a large number of those in marginalized communities do not have access to a bank account. While they make up only 32% of the U.S. population, Black and Latinx households represent 64% of its unbanked and 47% of its underbanked.

Overcoming barriers to entry

Those from marginalized communities have shown their tenacity and determination in how they have innovated and used these new technologies to their advantage, overcoming the limitations traditional finance has placed upon them. These groups are among the most familiar with crypto in the United States and are quick to adopt and use the technology.

It is now the role of the crypto industry, governments and organizations to reach out to marginalized communities and cater to them specifically, integrating with their communities and showing them how they can further benefit and change their day-to-day lives for the better. If enterprises and regulating bodies can learn about the cultures and traditions of these communities, they can understand their needs and can accommodate these requirements in a mutually beneficial way.

Two main barriers to digital asset adoption persist: a lack of understanding and concerns about security. To this end, education is key to further digital asset adoption — people need to understand the value of digital assets and how digital assets can serve them and their communities. Given that digital assets are still a relatively new concept, fear and lack of understanding are natural. It is difficult to comprehend how these new technologies can replace long-standing structures, such as traditional banks, and how this new technology can cater to them more effectively, safely and securely.

Digital assets use blockchain technology, which is generally considered to be one of the most secure options for transactions and payments; however, this may not initially be clear to those unfamiliar with the concept and concerned about the security of their money and payments. With the right understanding and educational initiatives, we can help adopters of cryptocurrencies to choose secure, regulated and licensed digital asset providers, so that they can transact with peace of mind.

Widespread crypto adoption is still in its early days, and many obstacles still exist. Strong government ties to traditional banking in many countries will drive skepticism of digital assets. Taking a top-down approach, it is imperative that governments and industry leaders reinforce this innovative, hugely beneficial technology. By creating a safe, regulated environment for crypto and facilitating healthy discourse and education on the topic, we can empower and transform citizens’ lives even further.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Rodrigo Bezanilla is the Latin American business strategist at Coinsource. With over 25 years of experience as an investment and financial adviser, Rodrigo has an extensive professional background in cross-border relations between Mexico and the United States. As managing partner at the Tejas Opportunity Group, a cross-border private equity firm focused on social impact investments in Texas, Rodrigo lends his expertise to building opportunities for the Latin American community through strategic business alliances and private equity activities.

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Saturday, October 30, 2021

Bakkt stock goes parabolic, GBTC outpaces BITO ETF and Tom Brady offers 1 BTC for 600th touchdown ball: Hodler’s Digest, Oct. 24-30

Coming every Saturday, Hodlers Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $62,540, Ether (ETH) at $4,420 and XRP at $1.08. The total market cap is at $2.66 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are SHIBA INU (SHIB) at 164.03%, Curve DAO Token (CRV) at 58.39% and Decentraland (MANA) at 54.46%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are OKB (OKB) at -23.74%, XDC Network (XDC) at -12.94% and Stacks (STX) at -9.66%.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraphs market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

Anybody that does the homework […] ends up investing into it. Look at Ray Dalio, a Bitcoin skeptic, now a Bitcoin investor.

Anthony Scaramucci, founder and managing partner of SkyBridge Capital

#Bitcoin is the most practical solution for a consumer, investor, or corporation seeking inflation protection over the long term.

Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy

To a degree, we think rising regulations could be a positive for Coinbases competitive positioning, particularly versus business models that predominantly rely on markets being unregulated.

Peter Christiansen, Citi analyst

As of yesterday, the total size of the digital asset market was $2.7 trillion. Among that $2.7 trillion, nearly 60% were commodities. […] Given the size, the scope and the scale of this emerging market, how its interfacing and affecting retail customers, and with the scale of the growth being so rapid, potential financial stability risks in the future, I think its critically important to have a primary cop on the beat.

Rostin Behnam, acting chairperson of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Creators, owners and operators or some other persons who maintain control or sufficient influence in the DeFi arrangements, even if those arrangements seem decentralized, may fall under the FATF definition of a VASP where they are providing or actively facilitating VASP services.

Financial Action Task Force

GameStop is looking for a unique individual who can help accelerate the future of gaming and commerce. In this future, games are the places to go, and play is driven by the things you bring. Future creators wont just build games but also the components, characters, and equipment. Blockchains will power the commerce underneath.

GameStop job post

“The conversation has shifted dramatically, where I think there’s a little bit of an understanding [from professional sports organizations] that there’s something here. I meet very little resistance these days that NFTs are a thing.”

Caty Tedman, head of partnerships at Dapper Labs

There may be some parallels here between the 2017 bull run and this 2021 cycle; however, adoption is far greater, open interest is higher, and the utility of crypto is unrecognizably farther along than in 2017.

Steven Gregory, CEO of Currency.com

Prediction of the Week

Bitcoin price dip matches October 2017 with BTC ‘explosion’ still forecast before 2022

Bitcoins price sustained a bit of turbulence this week, trading above $63,000 before falling down to around $58,000, based on data from Cointelegraphs BTC price index. Following the dip, Bitcoins price rallied back up past $62,000.

Zooming out on a longer time horizon than just this week reveals similarities in price action between 2021 and 2017 (one of the crypto markets notable bull runs) according to charting from Twitter user Smart Crypto. The Twitter personality posted a tweet showing two charts side by side one from 2017 and one from 2021.

Both charts showed Bitcoins price action from July until the end of the year. The charts look as if 2021 rhymes with 2017 in terms of Bitcoins price action. If BTCs chart continues playing out similarly to 2017, the asset could be in for a notable rise in value ahead. Smart Cryptos tweet was seemingly based on analysis from Twitter user TechDev.

FUD of the Week

CFTC reportedly investigating decentralized prediction platform Polymarket

Earlier this week it was reported that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was investigating Polymarket, a New York-based decentralized prediction market platform.

The news was first reported by Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources who claimed that the CFTC was looking to gauge whether the firm was enabling customers to trade binary options and conduct swaps that should be registered with the financial regulatory agency.

Polymarket is firmly committed to complying with applicable laws and regulations and to providing information to regulators that will assist them with any inquiry, a spokesperson from Polymarket said.

SEC reportedly knocks back Valkyrie’s leveraged Bitcoin ETF

It was reported on Thursday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had knocked back two Bitcoin ETF applications from Valkyrie and Direxion.

On Tuesday, Direxion filed for a product that would enable investors to buy contracts that short the price of BTC, while Valkyrie applied for a leveraged BTC futures ETF the following day.

As many onlookers have pointed out, the SEC appears to specifically favor Bitcoin ETFs that offer direct exposure to futures contracts, as opposed to funds that are directly backed by the asset, or ones that are leverage-based and shorting-focused in this instance.

US gov attorneys to target individuals and gatekeepers for crypto prosecutions

A group of high-ranking U.S. government attorneys from the SEC, Department of Justice (DOJ) and CFTC outlined their agencies directives for white-collar crypto enforcement on Wednesday.

The SECs enforcement director, Gurbir Grewal, said the regulator is putting its focus on gatekeepers, as he noted that “they’re the first line of defense more often than not against all manner of misconduct.” Grewal added that the SEC is also keeping an eye on unregistered crypto exchanges, unregistered and fraudulent initial coin offerings, and crypto-lending platforms.

Nicholas McQuaid, the principal deputy assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, said that his agency is looking to crack down on fraudulent individuals specifically. While Vincent McGonagle, the acting director of the Division of Enforcement for the CFTC, said that regulators are focusing on the wild west of decentralized finance (DeFi).