Friday Focus: Moon Landing

Good morning. Bitcoin just went crazy and even went as high as $23,000, where it currently is. It appears trying to not just land on the moon, but stay there in preparation for another leg up.

Welcome to Friday Focus, part of our new series: BitPinas Daily. We will look at the price of Bitcoin, Ethereum and the major cryptocurrencies. 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. 

Market Price as of December 18, 2020:

Bitcoin closed December 17, 2020, at $22,841 per BTC. We’re up 26% in the last 7 days and 222% since the year began. This is the new all-time high.

Bitcoin’s market capitalization stands today at $428,266,070,510 which is 64.6% of the entire cryptocurrency market. 

Just in case you want to buy or sell Bitcoin now, we’ve rounded up the virtual currency exchanges and P2P marketplaces where you can do that locally.

Philippines: #CryptoPH

17 virtual currency exchanges in the Philippines

The BSP updated its list of virtual currency exchanges in the Philippines. We know about Appsolutely but we didn’t know about TopJuan Tech. Also, VHCEX and Telcoin were removed. Here’s everything we know about the licensed VCEs. 

PacPay to launch next year

Senator Pacquiao’s company Pac Technologies is launching Pac Pay next year with the aim of increasing financial inclusion in the country. We have an article coming up soon but check out our 2019 article about Pac Token and PacPay here.

Should Bitcoin also become a central bank reserve asset?

Atty. Rafael Padilla kick starts the conversation on whether central banks should consider putting Bitcoin in its reserve assets. Read here: Counterweight: The Case for Bitcoin as Central Bank Reserve Asset

Bicol-based SparkPoint does Defi

SparkPoint, a crypto and blockchain company in Bicol has been busy with a new roadmap for SparkDefi, its governance-based DeFi platform. You can read more about it here. You can also check out the 2019 Year in Review article that the SparkPoint team contributed to BitPinas last year: Local Action, National Vision (2019 Bicol Blockchain and Crypto Year in Review)

Exchanges

Coinbase says it filed to go public.

Amid months of speculation and rumors, Coinbase, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange confirmed that it has filed confidentially with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to go public. 

In a statement, Coinbase said it expects its draft registration filing to become effective after the SEC completes its review process. The company did not give further details beyond that.

Coinbase was last valued at $8 billion in 2018 after it received funding of $300 million from films like Tiger Global Management.

Industry pundits say this is a “watershed moment” for the digital currency industry now that the entire crypto market cap is at $663 billion. Analysts suggest it would also provide a way for investors to bet on the crypto industry without betting on a  specific asset. (Bloomberg)

Bitcoin Transactions

Bitcoin transaction fees doubled this week.

Bitcoin fees are up, thanks to all activities happening right now on the Bitcoin blockchain. According to BitInfoCharts, the average cost to send a Bitcoin transaction was $2.7 last Sunday. Yesterday, average cost to send was $5.

But you thought the whole point of Bitcoin was to make transactions cheaper? I actually have a whole article about transaction fees written all the way back to December 2017, the time of the previous bull run. Transaction fees at that time reached as much $55! If you are inclined to know more, please check “Why Bitcoin Transaction Fees are High and Ways to Ease Cost.”

With Bitcoin at all-time high levels, these transaction fees could still be higher in the future before it normalizes (hopefully) again. (Decrypt)

Central Bank Digital Currencies

Visa proposes method for offline digital currency payments.

Central banks around the world, including the BSP, are researching central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Visa has released a research paper exploring how CBDCs could be used to make offline transactions. 

Visa’s proposal is a system that would use “open source technology and public key infrastructure” so transaction messages could be signed without the need to be connected to the internet. 

Note that some countries have already launched CBDCs albeit in trial phases.

In the Philippines, the House of Representatives recently consolidated 4 bills that aim to promote CBDCs and e-payments. But the BSP was firm: No CBDCs until at least 2023. (Decrypt)

What Else is Happening?

• Crypto Bankis are the sector’s game-changers (Cointelegraph)
• Bitcoin is ‘more religion than solution’ says Billionaire Mark Cuban (Cointelegraph)
• Compound’s new blockchain readiesDeFi for central bank digital currencies (Coindesk)
• Seychelles, longtime home of BitMEX is bending to U.S. pressure on KYC (Coindesk)

This article is first published on BitPinas: Friday Focus: Moon Landing