Saturday Sats: Moon Base
PDAX’s new mobile app, FinCEN on private wallets, Bitcoin mining hardware, DeFi’s momentum, and more.
Good morning. If Bitcoin tried $23k last Thursday, it finally landed there yesterday. It’s like reaching the moon and setting up for another takeoff to who knows where. This is unchartered territory, but Miguel Cuneta, Co-founder of SCI Ventures has some words about Bitcoin’s valuation.
Welcome to Saturday Sats, 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 19, 2020:
| Bitcoin | $23,137 | 0.2% |
| Ethereum | $648.96 | 0.6% |
| XRP | $0.57 | -2.6% |
| Tether | $1.00 | 0.2% |
| Litecoin | $107.97 | 0.1% |
| SLP | $0.029 | 2.8% |
Bitcoin closed December 17, 2020, at $22,841 per BTC. We’re up 27% in the last 7 days and 221% since the year began. This is the new all-time high. (How many consecutive days are we writing that sentence?)
Bitcoin’s market capitalization stands today at $427,300,574,268 which is 64.5% 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
PDAX launches native mobile app
A highly requested feature among its users, PDAX’s mobile app will have all the features of the BSP-licensed cryptocurrency exchange and anyone with a verified account can begin trading on the mobile version.
When asked by BitPInas what the mobile app could bring to the table, PDAX emphasized that since it is licensed by the BSP, their primary priority is to keep its clients’ funds safe.
“While there are already many options for Filipinos who want to trade cryptocurrencies, what we found is that the market still needs a secure, easy to use, and accessible app. We also believe in providing a great customer experience for our users,” PDAX Nichel Gaba told BitPinas over email.
The app also has two-factor authentication as an added layer of security against unauthorized access. (BitPinas)
Private Wallets
US Treasury to apply Bank Secrecy Act Rules to crypto wallets.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has proposed new rules requiring banks and money service businesses (MSBs) to submit reports, keep records, and verify the identity of customers who are making transactions with unhosted or private wallets.
Unhosted wallets could mean your Trezors and Ledgers and MyEtherWallets, basically any cryptowallet not hosted by a third-party financial institution.
The proposed rules are the following:
- If a user in a crypto exchange sends an amount worth $10,000 in one day to a private wallet, the crypto exchange must compel the sender to disclose who the owner of that private wallet is.
- The crypto exchange must store records of such transactions worth $10,000 and submit it to FinCEN.
- The crypto exchange must maintain records for transactions worth over $3,000.
The move would definitely bring crypto rules closer in line with the rules in the traditional financial system. (Coindesk)
In the Philippines, take a look at our compilation of daily, monthly, annual transaction and cash-in, cash-out limits of licensed virtual currency exchanges.
Bitcoin Supply
10% of Bitcoin’s supply hasn’t moved for 10 years
Glassnode’s data shows that 1,857,721 Bitcoin has remained “stationary” for over 10 years as of December 17. With a total of around 18,573,268 coins in circulation (although this number grows every 10 minutes as miners discover new blocks), this translates into roughly 10% of all Bitcoin mined to date.
The reality, of course, is that the reason why these coins haven’t moved is because they are lost already. Forgotten private keys, most likely. (Decrypt)
Bitcoin Mining Hardware
The bidding war for bitcoin mining hardware is heating up
“As bitcoin’s price breaks new record highs above $20,000, the bidding war for top-of-the-line ASIC mining equipment is heating up again. Bitmain has raised preorder prices for its flagship S19 series by 20% since early December, with shipments queued up to June next year. Some of those who preordered the January 2021 batches three months ago are now trying to resell the upcoming batch at premiums of at least 75%.” (The Block)
DeFi
Morgan Stanley’s head of digital asset markets says DeFi is poised to keep its momentum in 2021
DeFi isn’t going away in the coming year, that’s according to Morgan Stanley’s Andrew Peel. Speaking with The Block, there will be continued significant interest in the space and that DeFi will likely be continually applied to more traditional settings in the next two years.
“I think some of the technology from this DeFi phase will certainly be utilized in some more regulated way throughout 2021 towards 2022.” (The Block)
What Else is Happening?
- The Graph launches open blockchain API network (The Defiant)
- Aave holders vote to further decentralized governance (The Defiant)
- Crypto is at ‘a fork in the road,’ OCC leader Brooks says (Cointelegraph)
This article is first published on BitPinas: Saturday Sats: Moon Base
