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Bitcoin has been on a downward streak for the last week, down around 15 percent over the last seven days. That’s bad but it could be worse. You might have put your money in stocks. Some people, though, remain optimistic. RT’s Max Keiser predicts that the coronavirus will push Bitcoin up to $100,000, and JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon will be begging the Fed for money to buy coins. Dimon might want to diversify though.
Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, has suggested that it might not be BTC that pushes the number of cryptousers from 50 million to 5 billion. He didn’t say which coin would do the job but it’s likely to be one that uses decentralized finance protocols, or DeFi. Bitcoin still isn’t one of them. And in the meantime, the Bitcoin clock keeps ticking. Less than two months to go now before the next halving.
YouTube is still banning videos about cryptocurrencies, and as always, it’s never clear which videos they want to remove and which they’re willing to keep. US congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ) is trying to bring some clarity but only to the regulation of cryptocurrencies. His new bill, the “Crypto-Currency Act of 2020” tries to categorize different kinds of crypto assets and assign them to appropriate regulators.
Government has also been busy in South Korea. The country’s National Assembly has legalized cryptocurrency trading and holding. It’s not all good news though. Cryptocurrency exchanges will need to comply with reporting requirements, including real name verifications. That could be difficult for some small exchanges.
China’s central government is also showing more interest in blockchain technology. It’s giving $4.7 million to the People’s Bank of China to research and develop its blockchain trade finance platform. But while Korea and China are looking forward, France is looking at its feet. It’s become clear that French banking group BNP Paribas is stopping customers sending funds to Coinbase. It’s “an illegal operation,” they say.
Mining is now an expensive operation, with Bitcoin miners needing heaps of expensive equipment and cheap electricity to take a cut of the $14 million worth of Bitcoin handed out in rewards every day. But it is worth remembering that BTC isn’t the only coin with mining rewards, and mining certainly isn’t the only way to generate returns from cryptocurrencies. Asset rater Morningstar has just rated securities issued on a blockchain. The securities come from FAT Brands, the food company best known for Fat Burger, Buffalo’s, and Penderosa Steakhouse. The security was structured in a way that included a number of Ethereum tokens to ease digital representation. Morningstar says the move will improve transparency. Alipay, too, is getting creative with its fintech. It’s adding lite applications to its interface. There may be lessons there for exchanges.
Check the audio version here:
Joel Comm is an internet pioneer, New York Times best-selling author, futurist speaker and co-host of The Bad Crypto Podcast. That’s a fancy way of saying he writes words, says things and loves to play with cryptos.
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.
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