Weekly Wrap-Up: FUD in Turkey (April 26, 2021)

Good morning. Welcome to Monday Markets Wrap-up, part of our new series: BitPinas Daily. We will look back at all the major news and updates that happened this week. Crypto is global, but sometimes news that matters happens while we sleep. So we bring to you what’s happening in our space here and abroad. We highlight three to four important news of the past week and list down the rest.    

Market Price as of April 26, 2021:

Bitcoin closed April 25, 2021, at $48,981 per BTC. We’re down 7% in the last 7 days and up 78% since the year began. This is also 24% below the all-time high of $64,804, which was hit on April 14, 2021.

Bitcoin’s market capitalization stands today at $972,791,897,514 which is 48.68% of the entire cryptocurrency market. The entire crypto market, by the way, now has a market cap of $1,998,592,845,343   (+3.1%).

On the table above, there’s the cryptocurrency SLP. If you wonder what that is, check out this article: Playing Axie Infinity vs Minimum Basic Salary in the Philippines.

Crypto Exchange Volume

April’s Crypto Exchanges Volume Hits New All-Time High

The month has not yet ended but volume on crypto exchanges has already exceeded that of March this year. 

The Block said volume on crypto exchanges has already surpassed $1.3 million. This has exceeded the previous all-time volume hit in February ($1.23T). April 2021 is also the third month in a row when crypto exchange volume hit more than $1 trillion.

Dogecoin

Dogecoin was Briefly the 4th Largest Cryptocurrency by Market Capitalization

Dogecoin was briefly the 4th largest crypto by  market cap early today, eclipsing XRP which itself just recently regained that position. 

According to Coindesk, at that brief moment in time, Dogecoin’s market cap stood at $54 billion while XRP was at $50 billion. At the moment, Dogecoin is back at 5th with a market cap of $47 billion while XRP has $57 billion according to Coingecko.

But will Dogecoin reach the coveted $1? Coindesk cited a betting website where players see a 17% chance that that milestone will happen. 

Some analysts think the Dogecoin price rally is a big bubble and warns of a risk of that popping soon. “65% of all Dogecoins are kept in just 98 wallets across the world,” said Akand Sitra of TRM Labs. “The single largest wallet has 28% of all dogecoins, and five wallets control 40% of the entire dogecoin supply,” Sitra added.

But truly, where Dogecoin will go from here, whether an eventual takeover of Ethereum’s market cap or a catastrophic decline, will be an interesting thing to watch unfold.

Turkey

Crypto Exchange(s) Scandal in Turkey After Reports of Complete Crypto Ban

Bloomberg reported that the Turkish Central Bank has banned the use of crypto as payment beginning April 30. The reason is that the level of anonymity, the central bank says, brings the risk of irrecoverable losses.

This means companies that handle payments and electronic transfers from processing transactions involving crypto and crypto platforms are prohibited from doing so.

By April 22, it was reported that the CEO Faruk Fatih Özer of Turkish crypto exchange Thodex has gone missing while its users alleged that hundreds of millions of dollars were stolen. Thodex initially said the negative news was not true and there was no cause for concern. Its CEO Faruk Fatih Özer shut down his Twitter account.

The next day, Turkish police said it detained 62 people related to the Thodex probe.

By April 25, authorities said they detained 4 people in a probe of Verbitcoin, another crypto exchange in the country. Bank accounts associated with the exchange had been frozen. Verbitcoin said it is suffering financial strains. Financial strains in a bull run. Yes.

On the same day, it was reported that Turkey’s Central Bank denied that there will be a total ban of crypto.”You cannot fix anything by banning crypto and we do not intend to do this,” Governor Şahap Kavacıoğlu said on TV.

Citi

Citi: Bitcoin Could Lose Out to Other Digital Currencies

Citi is claiming that while the digital asset industry is expected to grow as a whole, Bitcoin’s dominance could continue to decline as it’s going to be affected by the usefulness of other cryptocurrencies.

Ronit Ghose, Citi’s Global Head of Banks argued the problem is that Bitcoin isn’t used for everyday payments. Also, if the value constantly rises, people would be unwilling to spend their Bitcoins. 

It is for these reasons that Ghose pointed to two alternative cryptocurrencies that will disrupt Bitcoin’s market share for digital payments – Ethereum and Polkadot. The other alternative is central bank digital currencies or CBDCs.

JPMorgan

JPMorgan Says Bitcoin Liquidity “Likely to Remain Resilient”

We are still in awe that many banks who have steered away from Bitcoin in the past are now offering constructive opinions of it. Here are some of the things said at the note the bank released on Wednesday:

• Hashrate’s recovery suggests liquidity should continue to improve
• The depth in major exchanges has “dropped less and recover faster than other asset classes.”
• The 24/7 market contributes to market stability.

Binance.US

Former Regulator Now CEO of Binance.US

Brian Brooks, the former acting head of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is set to join the industry by becoming the head of Binance.US. First reported by WSJ, Brooks was also previously an executive in Coinbase. 

Brooks said he aims to make Binance.US a “robust” competitor to Coinbase and “reinforce its commitment to compliance.”

“I wouldn’t have taken this job if I didn’t have a strong commitment from the board to lead a strong compliance program,” he added,

A number of former high ranking government officials have joined Binance as of date. Recently it hired Max Baucus, a former top diplomat to China to guide the exchange in navigating the regulatory landscape in the U.S.

Celo

German Telco Deutsche Telekom is Now Partnered with Celo

The largest European telco by revenue, Deutsche Telecom announced its investment in Celo via a significant purchase of its native asset $CELO. 

While the size of the investment was not disclosed, the teco said it will operate infrastructure across the Celo ecosystem with its subsidiary T-Systems MMS operating as a validator. 

Deutsche Telecom will also open its SMS API to allow validators to send verification text messages using their service. Why SMS? We should take note that Celo uses phone numbers to act like the public keys so that users can send money across. This is evident in Celo’s Valora App, which is tied to a mobile number. This allowed the app to remove a key pain point — having users remember or copy paste very long public addresses.

#CryptoPH

March 2021 Paxful and LocalBitcoins P2P Bitcoin Transaction Volume Report

The volume of Bitcoin transactions in the Philippines in March 2021 has increased by 56% compared to the previous month according to data available for peer-to-peer exchanges Paxful and LocalBitcoins. This is the largest recorded combined volume on both exchanges, with Paxful getting the lion’s share of the volume.

[Chart]

March 2021 is now the single best month for P2P in the Philippines, whose previous record was barely above $4 million in September 2020. Current volumes are way higher than any previous volume recorded.

Ripple’s ODL to Aid iRemit Process Australia-Philippines Remittances

Ripple continues to build in the Asia Pacific despite legal troubles in the United States through its new partnership with payments expert Novatti Group.

First announced in December last year, Novatti has joined Ripple’s global payment network and committed to tap into RippleNet’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service, which leverages the cryptocurrency XRP for instant cross-border payments. 

Ripple and Novatti’s effort first targets the Australia-Philippines corridor through a partnership with iRemit, a Filipino remittance service provider which also holds e-money and virtual currency exchange licenses. While the Philippines is the third largest recipient of remittances around the world, the amount of fees per transaction is significant to the recipient, coupled with the delay of around 2 – 3 business days before the beneficiary can receive the funds sent to them. 

What else is happening

• Ethereum Gas Limit Hits 15M as ETH Price Soars
• CoinDesk Research: Does Bitcoin Have an Energy Problem? 
• Crypto Users Bicker After Turkish Exchange Abruptly Goes Silent
• Safemoon Not So Safe? BSC Token Jumps By Over 10 Times, Then Halves

This article is published on BitPinas: Weekly Wrap-Up: FUD in Turkey (April 26, 2021)