Wednesday Watch: Pounding on Resistance

Good morning. It’s the middle of the week. Wait, what? It’s also the middle of December 2020. A little over two weeks left and we bid this year goodbye.

Welcome to Wednesday Watch, 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 16, 2020:

Bitcoin closed December 15, 2020, at $19,431 per BTC. We’re up 0.8% in the last 7 days and 171% since the year began. This is also 2.0% below the previous all-time high of $19,832 on December 1, 2020.

Bitcoin’s market capitalization stands today at $360,907,329,145 which is 62.4% of the entire cryptocurrency market. 

Philippines: #CryptoPH

Last Bloomcast episode

Bloomcast is a weekly show on Facebook Live about Bitcoin, DeFi, crypto and everything else Axie. Hosted by BloomX’s Luis Buenaventura, it’s a staple in crypto Philippines and a must-watch. They invite local crypto enthusiasts and crypto company owners, crypto and fintech professionals, blockchain gamers, people you might have read here on BitPinas or on Twitter. You should be on Twitter.

Yesterday was its last show for the year. Prizes were given away. Not just Bitcoin, but a full Axie team so the winner could start their play-to-earn journey. Yield Guild Games’ Gabby Dizon was also there to discuss his new startup. We briefly wrote about it here. Otherwise, check an introductory article about Yield Guild here.

Watch Bloomcast’s final 2020 episode here.

Bitcoin

More billion-dollar firms buying Bitcoin

First, there was MicroStrategy, then there was Square. PayPal soon followed. Days ago, a 169-year old insurance firm MassMutual put $100 million in Bitcoin. It’s a tiny drop out of its $235 billion war chest, but the move could influence other older institutions to consider Bitcoin.

And so today,  we’ve read that London-based asset manager, Ruffer Investment announced that it allocated 2.5% of one of its funds to Bitcoin. This company manages $20.3 billion in assets, so 2.5% of that is also a drip. Still, it speaks volumes when it comes to the increasing interest of traditional financial institutions into Bitcoin. (Decrypt)

Stablecoins

Stablecoin issuers “must come out of the shadows”

A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to another instrument. In the case of Tether (USDT), its value is “tethered” to the U.S. dollar, so $1 is USDT 1. Stablecoins are a hot topic. With Central Banks very likely to issue their own “central bank digital currency” in the future, what will be the use of stablecoins? If it competes with sovereign currencies, won’t the government stop them from proliferating?

Those are questions still without answers right now. The G20 was firm: “no so-called ‘global stablecoins’ should commence operation until all relevant legal, regulatory and oversight requirements are addressed.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which is the U.S. banking regulator said in a recent paper that fintech banks and stablecoin issuers are “encouraged to reach their full potential by coming out of the shadows and joining the chartered banking system.” (Decrypt) 

Locally, the BSP did approve UnionBank’s PHX stablecoin, only used within the bank’s system. Check out our interview with UB’s Arvie de Vera here.

What Else is Happening?

• Mt. Gox Creditors’ Wait Nearly Over as Trustee Announces Draft Rehabilitation Plan (Coindesk)
• China is testing its digital currency in Suzhou. Here’s an early look at the user experience (The Block)
• DeFi’s new rally (Cointelegraph)
• JPMorgan Says MassMutual’s Bitcoin Foray Signals Widening Demand (Bloomberg)

This article is first published on BitPinas: Wednesday Watch: Pounding on Resistance