Review of the crypto space top news 21.06.2021

The adoption of Bitcoin by El Salvador as a payment method remains the №1 news in the crypto space. And even if the World Bank stands against it, it will not change the precedent itself.

News digest of the past week

As usual, it was an eventful week. It is impossible to fit all of them in such a small digest, so let’s look at the most interesting news.

• The volume of Bitcoin trading on P2P exchanges in Africa has increased, the implementation continues

Cryptocurrencies offer many people in the world a great opportunity to avoid inflation, join the economy, and safely store and send their money digitally. Therefore, it is not surprising that mainly on the African continent, there has been an increase in trading volume on peer-to-peer crypto exchanges over the past six months. This is evidenced by the data taken from UsefulTulips.org.

Crypto exchanges such as Coinbase and Binance provide traders with a platform to trade. Peer-to-peer or P2P trading platforms work differently. Traders on these types of platforms do business directly with each other. Thus, the P2P platform itself is actually a kind of trading platform for cryptocurrency.

UsefulTulips.org tracks how much is traded on the two largest P2P exchanges. According to their data, over the past 180 days, it can be seen that in the world more often MTC buys through these exchanges.

While trade is declining in Europe and North America, some African countries are experiencing growth of between 16% and 30%. Therefore, the demand for BTC in Africa has increased dramatically. Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana stand out in particular. It is striking that Nigeria is a country that takes tough measures against exchanges and cryptocurrencies.

Another region where P2P volume has increased is Asia. The growth there comes mainly from India, a country where there has been a lack of clarity in recent months as to whether cryptocurrency will be banned or not. Trading volume in India increased by almost 20%. The Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia also saw an increase in trading volume.

• MicroStrategy is ready to buy Bitcoin for another $500 million

MicroStrategy, the business intelligence company best known for its massive Bitcoin purchases, is poised to buy hundreds of millions of dollars worth of BTC again. The company has completed the issuance of “senior secured bonds” in the amount of $500 million, the report said.

Senior secured promissory notes are a type of securities that investors can exchange for MicroStrategy shares or money. During the private sale, institutional investors were able to purchase these debt securities. So they actually lend MicroStrategy money that it eventually pays  an interest of 6.125%.

MicroStrategy was originally going to raise $400 million, but this amount was increased to $500 million shortly after interest turned out to be high. After issuing $500 million of senior secured bonds, the company now has $488 million to buy Bitcoin.

These PTS are added to the 92,079 coins that MicroStrategy already has in its portfolio, and have a value of $3.7 billion at the current price. Not a bad investment, considering that MicroStrategy initially invested $2.2 billion, generating $1.5 billion in profit.

It is not known when exactly MicroStrategy will start buying Bitcoins. This is likely to happen through a so-called over-the-counter (OTC) platform and therefore not on the open market. MicroStrategy will most likely enlist the help of Coinbase to do this.

• Italian regulator calls for European regulation of cryptocurrencies such as BTC, otherwise they will intervene themselves

Paolo Savona, head of the Italian regulator, warns that the growing use of cryptocurrencies could have a negative impact on financial markets. Thus, the 84-year-old economist and politician is in favor of strengthening regulation, the Reuters news agency reported on January 14.

Savona, the head of Italy’s National Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), claims that the use of cryptocurrency can lead to illegal activities such as money laundering, tax evasion, terrorist financing and even kidnapping.

This kind of criticism has been appearing more and more often lately, but it never has any basis. The facts paint the opposite picture of such claims. The official even adds that the cryptocurrency will worsen the transparency of the financial market:

“Without proper oversight, market transparency, the basis of legality and rational choice for market operators can deteriorate”.

According to the former Minister for European Affairs and Economic Development of Italy, it is clear that he never delved into the core technology of Bitcoin, otherwise he would have realized that it provides more transparency.

Savona even issued an ultimatum that if Europe did not step in and offer a solution, Italy would take action on its own:

“If finding a solution at the European level takes too long, Italy will have to take action on its own”.

Last week, Peter Hasekamp, director of the Dutch Central Planning Office, called for a complete ban on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The director was not at all disconcerted by his superficial statement, but even Finance Minister Vopke Hoekstra pointed out that it is better to regulate than to impose a complete ban.

• Goldman Sachs Uses Ethereum to Offer ETH Derivatives to Customers

Goldman Sachs, a major US investment bank, switched to Bitcoin earlier this year, rebooting its cryptocurrency trading department. Now, the financial services company is also going to use Ethereum (ETH).

Goldman Sachs has announced that it will offer new derivatives, such as options and futures, on Ether in the coming months. This was reported by Bloomberg on June 15.

“Despite the recent drop in prices, interest in cryptocurrency among institutional investors continues to grow. The bank wants to make it easier for them to enter this market”, said Matthew McDermott, head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs.

According to McDermott, his conversations with clients show that digital currencies are not just a fashion statement. In a survey of 850 institutions, Goldman found that almost one in ten trades cryptocurrencies, and 20% are interested in them.

In addition, Goldman Sachs plans to invest in more cryptocurrency companies. Last month, the bank invested $15 million in Coin Metrics.

It was recently revealed that a bank manager left Goldman Sachs after taking millions from his investment in Dogecoin (DOGE). Late last month, Coinbase hired a former Goldman Sachs executive as its director of policy.

• South Korean Crypto Exchanges Remove Several Altcoins After Regulator’s Warning

In South Korea, the regulation of cryptocurrencies has been gradually tightened recently. According to the Korea Herald, several South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges have recently received warnings from the country’s financial regulator.

This applies to some cryptocurrencies that are allegedly marked as too risky. 20 Korean exchanges received a warning, and 11 of the 20 have already closed trading in several altcoins, including the large Korean exchange Upbit.

Upbit has removed Paycoin, Maro, Observer, and Solve.Care and Quiztok from the trading platform. Fortunately, it is an unknown cryptocurrency, but after removing them, their prices collapsed. The website also posted a warning about an additional 25 tokens that could eventually be removed. Coinbit also removed 8 tokens, and placed 28 on the warning list.

Recently, we have seen that more and more government officials and regulators are advocating for stricter regulation of cryptocurrency. However, this is usually accompanied by a large amount of misinformation about criminal activity, energy consumption, and other concerns, insecurities, and doubts (FUD).

However, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) are still very popular in South Korea. This was evident from the recently achieved record for the number of deposits and withdrawals on and from exchanges.

• Growth of the green agenda: New crypto projects can be focused on the environment

It was only a matter of time before something as forward-thinking as cryptocurrency became the focus of entrepreneurs and traders looking to capitalize on the huge green agenda that is currently at the forefront of every influential mind, from G7 government officials, to social media influencers.

Even banks and traditional fund management companies that have been around for decades have started to pay more attention to what they call environmental, social and management (ESG) product ranges. They realize that they will have to demonstrate to governments that they are not pinstriped dinosaurs who only care about cold hard profits. They also care about the carbon pollution.

Elon Musk said that he would not accept Bitcoin for payment because of the huge amount of energy needed for its mining, and therefore turned the entire market upside down. The question of whether he really cares about any environmental impact, or just tried to raise the price of his beloved Dogecoin by dropping a media-touted bomb on Bitcoin, is a matter of debate.

Dogecoin is considered more environmentally friendly than BTC, and Musk is now working with its developers as he believes his expertise can contribute to eliminating the digital currency’s carbon footprint, including focusing on renewable energy for dogecoin. mining processes, as well as further optimization of the calculations necessary for the extraction of currency.

This is consistent with the now infamous tweet slamming the prices of 5 popular currencies, and with the ongoing discussions that took place at this year’s G7 leaders’ summit in England. Seven leaders of advanced economies have consistently talked about climate change. Consequently, the emergence of laws aimed at reforming the way of life of people and regulating energy consumption is inevitable.

Obviously, in the future, the emphasis will be on environmental friendliness, and Bitcoin miners have stated that they are committed to reducing energy dependence in mining, as once tweeted… yes, as you`ve guessed it, Elon Musk.