Review of the latest news in crypto-space 12.01.2021

The past week was again marked by a parabolic increase in the value of Bitcoin, contrary to all the forecasts of analysts, some of whom believed that the price of BTC will not even reach $ 20,000 at the end of 2020.

Digest of the past week’s news

By the New Year 2021, the price of Bitcoin BTC rose to $ 30,000, and after 10 days, BTC exceeded $ 40,000.

That’s not to mention the growing appetite of institutional investors who continue to buy Bitcoin en masse, not to mention ordinary people who are also finally starting to get their heads around seeing the price of Bitcoin skyrocket.

Ethereum and Litecoin are gradually following BTC, although they still haven’t reached the highest prices of 2018. Even the Ripple XRP price is starting to show signs of life again after a recent drop.

The rest of the altcoin market is also boiling and prudently waiting for its turn, many cryptocurrencies are still very far from their 2018 prices.

The bullish market continues to profit from positive news, as we will see in this week’s cryptocurrency news review.

• $ 40,000 – new Bitcoin high

Every day is synonymous with a new BTC record, which has reached $40,365. No one believed it at first, but Bitcoin already exceeds 40K, and continues its parabolic growth, even if sometimes it decreases a little on its way, and then begins to grow again.

The appetites of institutional investors do not weaken, they continue to buy Bitcoins. The Grayscale fund has announced that it has once again invested $ 2 billion in BTC and other cryptocurrencies for its investor clients.

Bitcoin’s parabolic rise surprises and worries traders, who wonder at what price level BTC will seriously adjust to digest this vertical rise?

The price of BTC may continue to rise much higher under the influence of demand from institutional investors who are investing millions of dollars, if not hundreds of millions for very large investors.

Thus, analyst Willy Woo points to the possibility of a double jump in the price of BTC which will double again to bring in $ 80,000, under the influence of a huge influx of investment capital. .

This phenomenon was already observed in 2013, says the analyst, who even recalls a five-fold jump in BTC at the initial stage.

• JPMorgan Bank estimates that demand for BTC from institutional investors and large corporations could reach $ 600 billion in the future

Such demand should really blow up the price of Bitcoin in the coming months. The maximum offer is limited to only 21 million BTC coins, and it should be taken into account that several million of them have already been lost for various reasons.

Although there may be only 18 million BTC tokens left on the entire planet, the price of Bitcoin clearly has growth potential.

JP Morgan Chase, which described cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin as a “scam” a few years ago, has changed its mind about this new crypto asset. Therefore, analysts of the American banking giant studied the prospects for the value of BTC and estimated that the value of the asset could thus reach $ 146,000. Earlier, JPMorgan has already estimated the future demand for the purchase of BTC by large corporations and institutional investors at $ 600 billion. The price of the BTC, therefore, in the future will be x5, and will reach a good amount of about $ 150,000, according to the Bloomberg report.

Figures that make sense if we look, for example, at the price evolution at the end of 2017, from October to December. The cost of the BTC was multiplied by 5 times under the influence of the euphoria of people who rushed to buy the coin. In 2021, things will be different, institutional investors are buying BTC en masse, but individuals are not back yet.

Analysts at JPMorgan Chase, in particular, believe that the number 1 cryptocurrency in the market can gain an advantage over gold, but point out that this target price for Bitcoin will not be reached this year, but in the longer term.

Analysis that indicates the volatility of an asset is a serious obstacle to its adoption as a means of payment. It is also an obstacle for some investors who are hesitant to invest in such an unstable asset. However, there is a significant wave of investment in the hundreds of millions of dollars from investors such as MicroStrategy, MassMutual and others.

JPMorgan Bank notes that Bitcoin has become an investment asset that attracts more and more investors, and that it will inevitably grow under the pressure of growing demand.

• Ethereum Crosses the Symbolic value of $ 1,000

While BTC is in the spotlight of the market and media, the price of Ethereum also continues its upward path, once again crossing the $ 1,000 mark.

While the BTC has long since surpassed its last 2018 high of $ 20K, the price of Ethereum still has room for the feat – the last maximum price of $ 1,430. in January 2018. Thus, Ether is gradually approaching, and is also an indicator that altcoins will also benefit from the growth of the cryptocurrency market.

Following the BTC, the most important cryptocurrencies on the market are really the first to get more expensive, such as Ethereum, Litecoin and, as a rule, Ripple, which, unfortunately, suffers from the consequences of abuse by the SEC.

We are seeing the altcoin market resuming consolidation with many cryptocurrencies whose value is rising. After such a growth of the Cue Ball, it is obvious that there is a threat of an upcoming correction. The price of BTC is currently in uncharted territory, with institutional investors and billionaires buying Bitcoins en masse, however individuals have yet to return in the numbers to push the BTC even higher.

• The US regulatory body OCC has allowed banks to use stablecoins for payment activities

Important news from the United States, where the US banking regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), has allowed the country’s banks to use stablecoins for payment activities.

The OCC letter also indicates that banks can now use independent blockchain-type node verification networks, i.e. Ethereum or other similar networks, which suggests that America will legalize the use of cryptocurrency by banks as a means of payment, as well as their participation in blockchain technology networks.

Brian P. Brooks, Acting Comptroller of the Currency, says, “While other governments have implemented real-time payment systems, the United States relies on our innovative sector to provide real-time payment technologies”. Some of these technologies are created and managed by banking consortia, and some are based on independent peer verification networks such as blockchains.  So with this announcement, the United States is fully committed to catching up with foreign countries like China that rely heavily on blockchain technology. Thus, American banks have received the green light to use stablecoins and blockchain technology in their banking activities, while complying with current laws and regulations.

As institutional investors buy BTC en masse, U.S. regulators are supporting these players and banks in using cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology as part of the country’s banking services. In this way, the OCC formalizes the legitimacy of blockchain networks that can now compete with historically established transaction networks such as SWIFT, ACH, or FedWire.

The cryptocurrency and blockchain sector is thus gaining ground in the US banking market thanks to regulatory recognition.

• Ripple has filed a lawsuit against one of the major investors

Legal concerns for Ripple are not over yet, although it has already been sued by the SEC for illegally selling XRP tokens. This time it is one of the main investors, Tetragon Financial Group, which is filing a lawsuit against Ripple Labs, according to Bloomberg.

A lawsuit directly related to the SEC charge. Recall that in December 2019, Tetragon Financial Group invested $ 200 million in a Series C fundraiser from Ripple. The fundraiser was used to update the XRP registry and increase the utility of the XRP token. Tetragon Financial Group is also seeking a restraining order, as well as an expedited trial and a preliminary injunction. Thus, Ripple is facing new legal challenges due to a new lawsuit filed by one of its own investors.

Ripple will also have to face another lawsuit filed by a certain Thomas Sandoval, who claims that the American crypto startup illegally sold XRP tokens, knowing that the asset can be considered a security of the company.

Ripple’s troubles are accumulating more and more, and I would like to believe that the company has the financial means and lawyers to resist these lawsuits.

Some cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Coinbase, have announced that they will stop trading XRP tokens. And the Grayscale Fund has just separated XRP tokens from its funds, of course, to protect itself from any lawsuits from its investor clients.