Thursday Thoughts: Rally’s Pause

Good morning. The fallout from the Ripple vs U.S. SEC news we discussed yesterday has materialized in the price charts. Everything is red, except for Bitcoin.

Welcome to Thursday, 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 24, 2020:

Bitcoin	$23,315	-2.2%
Ethereum	$587.86	-7.7%
Tether	$1.00	0.2%
XRP	$0.26	-41.4%
Litecoin	$102.79	-9.9%
SLP	$0.023	-13.5%

Bitcoin closed December 23, 2020, at $23,315 per BTC. We’re up 19% in the last 7 days and 222% since the year began. This figure is 2% below the previous all-time high of 24.225.28 which was hit on Dec. 20, 2020.

Bitcoin’s market capitalization stands today at $431,624,846,282 which is 68.20% of the entire cryptocurrency market.

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. By the way, we have an Axie news today.

Ripple vs U.S. SEC Backlash

At the wake of the news of the U.S. suing Ripple, the market was in a deep sea of red. You can check out a snapshot of Coingecko taken around 11:00 pm yesterday. Talks of XRP being delisted in exchanges soon made the rounds, with some implying that since Coinbase is filing for an IPO, an activity that the SEC approves, the exchange might find itself in good standing if it delisted XRP.

Some argue, however, that the entire saga could end in either Ripple moving out of the U.S. or XRP being declared a security. The latter choice would mean XRP won’t be in crypto exchanges, in my view.

Here are some news that directly followed the event:

• Bitwise liquidates XRP position in Crypto Index Fund. (Coindesk)
• Jump Trader and Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital have stopped making markets in XRP. (The Block)
• Simplex, the crypto payments processor, is now blocking XRP transactions. (The Block)

DeFi

SushiSwap project lead explains DeFi project’s future.

0xMaki, the anonymous developer—who didn’t reveal his identity—also said that he is no longer in contact with Chef Nomi, the creator of the decentralized exchange (DEX). Some of the future plans include:

• BentoBox in 2021, a protocol that will allow SushiSwap users to borrow or lend in a less riskier way and allow them to long or short any asset.
• Devs will be allowed to build on top of this protocol.

(Decrypt)

Ethereum

2 Million ETH locked up in Ethereum 2.0

At current prices, this is worth $1.2 billion. Ethereum 2.0, which began its first step in a multi year process last month will transition the blockchain from proof of work to proof of stake. Those who stake their ETH will become validators who will process transactions in return for rewards. (Decrypt)

#CryptoPH

BitPinas Year in Review 2020

Give someone their first major break. They will do the same for others when they're successful.

— Gabby Dizon | YGG 🛡️⚔️ (@gabusch) December 23, 2020

Let me bring your attention to our 2020 Year in Review series, where we sought the opinion of key crypto and blockchain leaders/influencers in the Philippines and abroad on what they think about 2020 in general and what they look forward to in 202. We published two so far:

• Miguel Cuneta, SCI Ventures
• Luis Buenaventura, BloomX

What else is happening

• From SIM swaps to home invasion threats, Ledger leak has cascading consequences. (Coindesk)
• FinCEN’s proposed cryptowallet rule might hit DeFi (Coindesk)
• U.S. warns crypto stablecoins on money laundering, risk controls. (Bloomberg)

This article is published on BitPinas: Thursday Thoughts: Rally’s Pause