Crypto space hot news review dated 19.04.2021
Another crypto week filled with ups and downs has ended. We are all well aware of how volatile the cryptocurrency market is, and therefore Sunday’s rollback of Bitcoin did not particularly surprise anyone.
News digest of the past week
Bitcoin made a fairly large pullback, as a result of which the cryptocurrency market fell sharply, and many altcoins, such as Link and XRP, showed a decline to -30%
While the fall in the price of BTC may cause some cryptocurrency holders to panic, it also provides an opportunity to buy the cryptocurrency at a discount before the market goes up.
But based on the news, the cryptocurrency sector continues to conquer the world step by step. Let’s take a closer look at this news.
Bitcoin Price Drops below $52K Amid US Treasury Rumors
In the cryptocurrency market, there was a huge decline in prices: Bitcoin fallen to $51,500, ETH – to $1,940, and BNB-to $440. Many have asked the same question: what is going on?
For old crypto traders and those who understand and understand cryptocurrencies, this is another wild weekend in the cryptocurrency markets. Bitcoin fell by about $9,000 in an hour just amid rumors that the US Treasury Department will impose sanctions on several financial organizations for money laundering using cryptocurrencies. Everything is is just the same as always.
The altcoin market is also in the deep red with double-digit percentages that have vaporized more than $350 billion from the crypto market capitalization.
As reported yesterday, Bitcoin recovered value by more than $2,000 after the price fell on Friday, and was trading at a price above $62,000. However, over the past day, the situation has changed dramatically.
Rumors have begun to spread that the US Treasury is planning to penalize several financial institutions working with crypto assets for money laundering. Although the agency has yet to confirm the news, it appears that this FUD has caused major disruptions in the cryptocurrency market.
Bitcoin fell in a matter of hours from $61,000, to an intraday low of about $51,500 (on Bitstamp). This was the lowest price of BTC in three weeks, and the market capitalization of BTC fell below the $1 trillion mark.
And, as it usually happens when BTC shows high volatility, these price fluctiations were followed by altcoins as well. This unfavorable trend led Ethereum to a significant drop from more than $2,350 to an intraday low of $1,950. However, after reaching $400, ETH has recovered slightly.
The performance of most of the alternative coins was somewhat identical. Binance Coin rose from $520 to $440, then rebounded to $470.
On a 24-hour scale, the losses of all other large-cap crypto assets are expressed in double digits. These include Ripple (-22%), Cardano (-17%), Polkadot (-17%), Uniswap (-17%), Litecoin (-21%), Chainlink (-17%), Dogecoin (-15%), Bitcoin Cash (-25%) and others.
The situation with altcoins with low and medium capitalization is even worse. BItcoin SV lost the most (-30%), followed by Ethereum Classic (-25%), Verge (-23%), Horizon (-22%), Helium (-22%), Dash (-21%), Ren (-21%), EOS (-20%), Siacoin (-20%), Avalanche (-19%), OMG Network (-18%) and many others.
In the end, the total market capitalization of all crypto assets has fallen by $360 billion from yesterday’s high to today’s low. However, it has also regained its position, and is now back in excess of $2 trillion.
Crypto Community Criticizes New York Times for Claiming That BTC will Move to POS
The New York Times (NYT) has recently been criticized for outright false claims about Bitcoin.
According to the New York Times, Ethereum, the world’s second – largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, has said that it is moving to a Proof of Stake consensus, however, this transition could take up to a year, and that the current leader, Bitcoin, will follow suit.
This, of course, can’t be true, since Bitcoin technically can’t move away from the PoW algorithm. In addition, once all coins are mined, miners will continue to participate in the block discovery process, collecting incentives to verify transactions.
The article was, as expected, heavily criticized across the cryptocurrency world, with Alex Gladstein, the head of the Human Rights Foundation, even calling it “absolute nonsense” in a series of tweets.
“Frankly, it’s ridiculous that even the New York Times would write this nonsense that says a lot about the deplorable state of today’s mainstream media coverage of cryptocurrencies,” Gladstein said. Then he added: “And this is despite the fact that many people usually consider this newspaper not only the best newspaper in the country, but also in the whole world. It’s ridiculous that even an intern would only need a few minutes of searching the internet to find out that no one really expects Bitcoin to move to PoS. And yet, this article has become a source of spreading fake news.”
The New York Times article also recently criticized Coinbase for promoting the technology with “amazing” CO2 emissions, following its colossal public debut on the Nasdaq exchange on April 1, 2021.
Other publications, such as The Economist, have also recently accused Bitcoin and its miners of consuming colossal amounts of energy. But the crypto community has since responded to various videos and comment sections, claiming that this is mostly a diversionary tactic, as the cryptocurrency industry has become so popular that it threatens those who demonstrate economic control.
Moreover, articles such as The NYT and The Economist articles usually do not mention the existence of more environmentally friendly altcoins.
MicroStrategy becomes the first US Company to pay its Directors in BTC
In the pursuit of cryptocurrency and, more broadly, Bitcoin, American financial companies and IT companies have struggled to get their hands on the digital asset. But first there is always the pioneer, who uses everything possible to achieve his goal. In the case of the adoption of the digital currency, MicroStrategy became the mainstay and the first organization to adopt the tactic of investing in Bitcoin, but hundreds of other financial companies have since joined in.
According to a recent tweet from CEO Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy’s board of directors will be paid in cryptocurrency. And not in anything there, but in Bitcoins. This is something grandiose, since using PTS is one thing, and using digital assets to pay your directors or employees is a completely different matter. But for the sake of preserving the reputation of a pioneer that MicroStrategy has, the company took this initiative and began paying the board of directors with Bitcoin. After that, it remains to be expected that other companies will do the same, because, as mentioned earlier, there is always someone who will be the first.
Why did it have to be Bitcoin? Yes, everything is banal simple.
Beyond all considerations, this was done to make the SEC realize that Bitcoin, for all its volatility, can still be used as more than a means of investment, and that it is safe to conduct business or pay others for their services in BTC. It is a kind of digital asset that is not tied to any monetary policy, and a decentralized approach that does not provide for any conditions. This is the ultimate future.
In addition, this decision clearly shows the thesis of the importance of Blockchain systems, and why it is necessary to accept both cryptocurrencies and Blockchain systems with open arms.
In total, the MicroStrategy board includes 5 board members, and all of them will receive payment for their services in the form of Bitcoins. This may tip the scales slightly in favor of Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies, in general, but nothing can be said for sure.
TIME Magazine will now keep the cryptocurrency on its balance sheet
Bitcoin is undoubtedly the largest and most successful cryptocurrency since the birth of the industry. With the highest market capitalization, an ever-rising price, and investors all over the world, it’s no surprise that the digital asset has attracted a lot of public attention.
So TIME Magazine decided to join Grayscale in an attempt to launch a series of different educational videos about cryptocurrency and blockchain. But the point of all this is not only that the cryptocurrency has become extremely popular among the general public. Payment for these videos and courses can be made in Bitcoin, and this further confirms the above fact.
The partnership between TIME and Grayscale was announced in a tweet by Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenschein. He said that TIME, along with its current president, Keith Grossman, will receive payments in Bitcoin in exchange for their efforts to push the cryptocurrency even further into the mainstream. This is also the first time that TIME will be paid a fee in cryptocurrency, which will be another historic milestone for the industry.
Moreover, TIME does not intend to convert the Bitcoins it receives through the partnership into a fiat currency and thus will keep the digital asset on its official balance sheet. At the time of this writing, no details of the deal were disclosed.
Cryptocurrency adoption continues as TIME searches for industry experts.
TIME also recently took advantage of the NFT craze by releasing its own set of magazine covers as non-replaceable tokens. These NFTs were uploaded to a popular trading platform called SuperRare, and the “TIME Space Exploration – January 19, 1959” token even managed to sell for 135 ETH.
TIME also announced that due to the ever-increasing popularity of cryptocurrency, the company is also currently looking for cryptography experts. The vacancy for a cryptocurrency CFO (Chief Financial officer) has recently been posted on several platforms, including LinkedIn.
TIME understands that the world is really changing, especially because of the ongoing global pandemic, which has caused many to lose their jobs and seek an alternative source of income. These people have found an alternative in the form of cryptocurrencies, and therefore the popularity of the industry has increased dramatically. But this was also due to a number of other factors, such as DeFi.