This Week in Coins: Bitcoin Unmoved, but Proof-of-Work Classics Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin Moon
Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt.
Market leader Bitcoin had a wobbly week this week. It peaked above $31,100 and bottomed below $29,900, but variability was capped at less than 2% in any given 24-hour period. After surpassing 50% market dominance last week, the leading cryptocurrency slumped to 47.9% but still maintained over $9 billion in trading volume.
Despite this ultimately flat week, Bitcoin (BTC) is up 15% over the past two weeks and 13% over the past month, with an annualized return of over 50%, according to data from CoinGecko. It is currently trading at $30,612, which is about the same as it was seven days ago.
The number one contender, Ethereum (ETH), added 1.9% over the seven days to trade at $1,923 on Saturday.
Earlier in the week, several altcoins were labeled as securities by the SEC in his various lawsuits against the industry, the effects of the bad press finally seemed to shake off. Polygon (MATIC) and Cardano (ADA) remain virtually unchanged from last week, but Solana (SOL) rallied and added 10% to switch hands at $18.35.
There were no significant losses among the leading coins, but there were several notable rallies above 10% this week. Two classic proof-of-work coins exploded after Wall Street-backed EDX Markets listed them last week: Litecoin (LTC) collected 18% up to $105.18 and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) blown up a whopping 52.6% to reach $291.31.
The week in the news
On Monday, Swiss National Bank Chairman Thomas Jordan, speaking at the Point Zero Forum in Zurich, said a central bank digital currency (CBDC) will be tested on the country’s first regulated crypto exchange, the SIX Digital Exchange (SDX). Jordan was convinced it was more than just a trial balloon.
“This is not just an experiment, it will be equivalent of real money to bank reserves,” he told those in attendance. “The goal is to test real transactions with market participants.”
That same day, HSBC Hong Kong clients became eligible to trade Bitcoin and Ethereum futures exchange traded funds (ETFs) on the bank’s ‘Easy Invest’ mobile app.
On Tuesday, the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs announced via Twitter that it had reached a consensus on amendments to the capital requirements regulation and directive, including new regulations for crypto assets. This move came in response to calls from lawmakers for strict rules to prevent “unbacked cryptocurrencies” from entering the traditional financial system.
The Bank of England fintech director, meanwhile, said the UK central bank was open to the possibility of a UK CBDC (or “Britcoin) may not be blockchain based. The official added that there was a conflict at a recent meeting of technologists organized by the bank to discuss the matter.
“None of them agreed with each other at any point,” he said, adding that forum contributors “weren’t convinced that distributed ledgers offered more efficiency than conventional ledgers.”
In Canada, a group of thirty Canadian legislators published a report endorsement of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, with 16 recommendations for the country’s government to create a national strategy for crypto. The group said the industry has “significant long-term gains”. economic and employment opportunities.”
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 was passed on Thursday granted royal approval by King Charles, who officially enshrines new law, according to a press release by the British government.
Under the Reform Act, crypto trading is recognized as a regulated financial activity. The amended law defines crypto-assets as “cryptographically secured digital representation of value or contractual rights”, and considers them regulated financial instruments, products or investments.
Finally, the industry is still reeling from the news two weeks ago that the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, has filed with the SEC for a spot Bitcoin ETF. BlackRock has filed with the SEC 576 times with ETF proposals and has been rejected only once to date.
This week, Fidelity And ARK Invest became the latest companies to double down on their efforts with their own ETF applications since the BlackRock news, joining companies like Invesco, Wisdom Tree, Valkyrie, and Bitwise. On Friday, however, reports appeared to indicate that insiders at the top US securities regulator believe the applications from BlackRock and Fidelity (and by extension, everyone else’s). are insufficient.