An overview of current news in the crypto space
In our digest, we took a look at some of the important crypto industry news from the past week:
- How states became the largest holders of bitcoins;
- NFT market shows growth in the second quarter of 2024;
- Central Bank prepares for international settlement with digital ruble;
- Efirium has surpassed bitcoin twice as fast as bitcoin in terms of fee revenue;
- El Salvador continues to buy bitcoin despite price drop;
- Russian investors are ready to invest millions in mining.
Now for more details. Reading time: 8 minutes.
How states have become some of the largest holders of bitcoins.
States have become some of the largest holders of bitcoins, largely due to asset forfeiture from criminals. The exception is El Salvador, which actively buys and mines cryptocurrency. This country has more than 5.8 thousand BTC on its account.
The United States is the largest holder of bitcoin among countries. They have 213.2 thousand BTC and other crypto assets on their accounts, including 50.5 thousand ETH and almost $122 million in the USDT stablecoin. Most of the bitcoins were confiscated from the closed Silk Road darknet market.
China has accumulated 190 thousand BTC seized from the PlusToken financial pyramid scheme in 2020. There are no official data on the sale of these assets.
The UK has 61 thousand BTC confiscated in January 2024. Germany – 50 thousand coins seized in early 2024. In June 2024, the German government began moving funds and 40.3 thousand BTC remained in their accounts.
In addition, Bhutan (621 BTC), Venezuela (240 BTC), Finland (90 BTC), and Georgia (66 BTC) have small bitcoin holdings. The aggregate balance of confiscated bitcoins in government accounts exceeds that of MicroStrategy, which owns about 215,000 BTC.
More often than not, governments report sales ex post facto. In the U.S., the Marshals Service used to sell confiscated bitcoins through closed auctions, but now this function is performed by Coinbase Prime.
NFT market shows growth in the second quarter of 2024.
Analytics platform DappRadar has reported a significant increase in sales in the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) market in the second quarter of 2024. Sales volume increased by 28%, reaching levels last seen in early 2023. Between April and June 2024, $4 billion worth of NFTs were sold, up 3.7% from the fourth quarter of 2023.
DappRadar blockchain analyst Sarah Gergelas noted that NFTs were the leading trend for the second quarter of 2024. Despite changes in market shares between different platforms, the market as a whole is showing steady growth.
The analysts also noted that positive momentum in the web3 industry remains strong, although specific reasons for the increase in trading volumes were not given. However, they emphasized that interest in NFTs continues to grow, which is helping to drive the market.
Thus, Q2 2024 confirmed the NFT market’s potential for further growth and strengthened its position as an important segment of the digital economy.
The Central Bank is preparing for international settlements with the digital ruble.
The Central Bank of Russia is actively working on the introduction of the digital ruble for international settlements. According to Olga Skorobogatova, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, the regulator is already discussing the interaction of national digital currency platforms with a number of countries. The launch of such projects is expected not earlier than 2025.
Since September 1, the Bank of Russia has been significantly expanding the pilot project to test the digital ruble. Twelve banks are participating, and another 19 banks are waiting for their turn. From August 2023, opening and closing of digital wallets, transfers between individuals and payment for purchases by QR code are being tested.
The digital ruble will become a new form of Russian currency equal to the cash ruble and will be issued by the Central Bank. The State Duma is considering a bill that would extend the norms of the law “On Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism” to transactions with the digital ruble.
The digital ruble promises to become an important element of Russia’s financial system, opening up new opportunities for international settlements.
Ethereum has twice surpassed bitcoin in terms of revenue from commissions.
According to a report by analytical company Lookonchain, Ethereum blockchain collected $2.72 billion from commissions in the first six months of 2024, which is twice as much as bitcoin’s revenue ($1.3 billion). Ethereum’s profit growth is attributed to infrastructure improvements and network scaling.
In the first quarter of 2024, Etherium’s commission revenue totaled $1.17 billion, up 155% year-on-year. In May, the average commission on the network reached 6.1 Gwei, the lowest since October 2023.
The Tron network ranked third with $459.39 million in revenue, with Solana ($241.29 million), BNB Smart Chain ($176.56 million), Avalanche ($68.83 million), ZKsync era ($59.77 million), Optimism ($40.4 million) and Polygon ($23.91 million) also in the top 10.
Experts predict that Ethereum will continue to show high earnings growth in the second half of 2024 due to its opportunities for new blockchain projects.
El Salvador continues to buy bitcoins despite the falling price.
El Salvador, the first country to accept bitcoin as legal tender, is persevering with its “1 BTC a day” program. Beginning in November 2022, the government is acquiring one bitcoin every day despite the cryptocurrency’s significant drop in value.
According to BlockBeats, El Salvador’s asset value has dropped to $330 million, down 19.51% from the peak of $410 million recorded on May 21. Nevertheless, President Nayib Bukele said the country will continue its daily bitcoin purchases as long as it can.
El Salvador has also transferred a significant portion of its crypto assets to a cold wallet, which Bukele called the country’s “first bitcoin wallet.” In addition, El Salvador has gotten some of his bitcoins from cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, and over the past three years has independently mined 474 BTC using geothermal energy from the Tecapa volcano.
El Salvador’s continued investment in bitcoin reflects his belief in the cryptocurrency’s long-term potential. As the first country to make bitcoin legal tender, El Salvador continues to lead the way despite current market fluctuations.
Russian investors are ready to invest millions in mining.
A survey by Intelion Data Systems has shown that Russian investors are actively interested in cryptocurrency mining. The survey involved 400 people: 38% started investing in anticipation of bitcoin halving, 14% in 2022, 9% in 2017, and 2% have been mining for more than a decade.
Despite the willingness to invest millions of dollars, the lack of transparent regulation remains a major obstacle. The State Duma is considering a bill to regulate the mining of digital assets, some provisions of which have raised concerns among market participants. In particular, we are talking about bans on cryptocurrency mining in certain regions and advertising of mining services.
The Ministry of Energy’s initiative to increase electricity transmission tariffs for mining centers has also been criticized, as it may make mining economically unprofitable.
Nevertheless, interest in mining in Russia remains high, and investors are hoping for clearer and fairer rules that will allow the industry to develop further.
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