Bullish BTC, Crypto SOS in Argentina, WEF Embraces Blockchain and China Continues Testing Digital Yuan
In this edition:
- BTC Price Goes Over $9.4k
- Argentinians Turn to Crypto
- World Economic Forum Encourages Deploying Blockchain
- Digital Yuan to Be Tested by American Companies in China
We meet once again, fellow Anchorians! While we are getting ready to put the worst behind us concerning the coronavirus pandemic, the crypto world is booming with news. Oh and also, happy Labour Day to everyone celebrating it on May 1st! I know you’ve been working hard during these turbulent times so, chin up, you deserved it. I additionally send my support to all of you who had the misfortune to lose your job in this corona era and sincerely hope things will get better soon!
As a crypto enthusiast, I really am curious about what happens next for our industry. Will this inevitable recession bring people closer to cryptocurrencies? We’ll talk about that in a second. Naturally, blockchain as a tool is being embraced more every day by various industries and organizations. We’ll talk about that, too. The future is bright for the entire industry, I’d say. Presumably, nothing can happen overnight, but in just a few years crypto has gone from an ‘ununderstandable, secret hobby’ to one of the top priorities for policymakers. Anyhow, without further ado, let’s dive into another edition of Weekly Crypto Roundup!
BTC Price Goes Over $9.4k
Remember when they said that the COVID-19 pandemic will be the end of BTC, too? Experienced crypto people laughed because, well, that’s just what bitcoin does – it goes back and forth, and we are used to it. This time, it sure went forth!
And yes, that is the magic of BTC – from $7,700 to $9,500 in just a few hours, increasing in value by 23% overnight. Surely, this is not the first time to see an occurrence like this one, but why did it happen in this exact moment? Is it because of the May halving? Is it a response to the growing recession? Let’s see.
If we apply common sense to this situation, we’ll deduce that there is a significant increase in demand for BTC! Thank you, Captain Obvious, right? Proof of this is the fact that the volume on the major crypto exchanges went through the roof! At one point, Coinbase could no longer handle user activity and Binance’s trading volume reached an all-time high.
Also, you’re probably familiar with Fibonacci retracement, support and resistance lines. According to the experts, BTC surpassed all the important resistance areas swiftly and effortlessly, meaning that it can probably only go up from here.
We all know that it is not possible to pinpoint the exact reason why there is either a bullish or a bearish trend on the bitcoin market. We can assume, make logical conclusions, but can never guarantee. BTC halving is happening in less than two weeks, so maybe people wanted to buy BTC believing the currency will skyrocket after this event. Or, in fear of what the recession will do to national fiat currencies, they decided to choose crypto over traditional money.
Be as it may, everybody wants their own piece of bitcoin! By now, you’ve learned to trust us to inform you regarding all important crypto matters. Rest assured, we will continue to analyze the BTC price trend for you!
Argentinians Turn to Crypto
It comes as no surprise that the countries that are struggling with financial crises are usually the ones leading in crypto adoption. It’s only natural for people to turn to alternative solutions when the most obvious one, national currency, doesn’t work for them anymore.
For some time, Argentina has been fighting inflation and overall a bad economic situation in the country. This South American country’s foreign debt continued to grow as the government was borrowing money to stop the further devaluation of the national currency, peso. The real problem occurred when the government was unable to pay back the loan on time, leading to a possible default. At that point, citizens massively started ditching the peso for bitcoin, believing that will help them protect their assets. For those who had done it before the BTC price exploded, well, the future is bright for you, fellas.
As seen in this infographic provided by Arcane Research, there is a significant increase in buying BTC for the peso. Since January 2018, the volume has grown by 1028%! What’s also interesting is that there is an increase, though not as big as this one, in buying BTC for USD (407%).
While the reasons behind this are unfortunate, this indeed proves that crypto can serve as a haven in the events of a financial crisis. We can certainly debate if the BTC is the right solution, since there are other, less volatile cryptocurrencies, and if a stablecoin would be a better solution.. Nonetheless, the fact we all can agree on is that inflation really is fiat’s archenemy.
World Economic Forum Encourages Deploying Blockchain
While tech solutions blossom in some industries, a lot of them remain old-school, like Karen doing paperwork and putting it in a box surrounded by a thousand other boxes, never to be seen again. While impractical and time-consuming, this approach is also costly. There is not much space for analyzing potential pain spots and innovations.
When you add the current global situation, you quickly realize why entire industries are in a serious problem concerning this matter. Well, the World Economic Forum came to rescue by publishing ‘Redesigning Trust: A Blockchain Deployment ToolKit’ after conducting thorough 18-month research. The general idea is to save now fragile supply chains with blockchain technology.
This ToolKit is supposed to address two major issues in this industry – the lack of trust among competitors and the endless amount of redundant files. You guessed it, blockchain indeed could easily solve these hurdles. Back in 2018, WEF spotted these problems and started to work on their solution. Almost two years later, they delivered! Officially, the World Economic Forum now encourages supply-chain enterprises to deploy blockchain technology, which could especially resonate with the industry in the time of corona.
In detail, it’s described how to create an ecosystem of participants that will all benefit from the usage of shared, distributed ledger. The toolkit is designed to be implemented in all supply-chain businesses, but the major targets are food and oil industries.
It’s always good to see how blockchain technology is changing the world, step by step.
Digital Yuan to Be Tested by American Companies in China
When it comes to developing its CBDC, China is not messing around. Recently, the People’s Bank of China created a list of businesses that will participate in the testing of digital yuan. On that list, there were three major American companies – Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Subway.
Additionally, the currency will be tested by hotels and convenience stores. Though we are not always certain what’s going on in this Asian country due to the lack of transparency, developments in terms of national currency’s digitization are notable. In earlier Roundups, we talked about cities and regions in which the testing will take place.
The Chinese government clearly wants to be competitive in the world of digital payments, though for now, there is no intention to eliminate the competition in terms of private companies, such as AliPay. For only a few decades, China has drastically changed when it comes to technology, urbanism, and economy. It’s only fair to presume that, when China wants to improve something within the country, that happens.
Reports regarding digital yuan are more frequent now when China’s struggle with the COVID-19 is over. Perhaps this is the right time to dive into digitization, along with the development of blockchain technology. We can only wait and see if and how this will reflect on western countries.
Final Thoughts
As Dumbledore would say: ‘’Another Roundup… Gone!’’. Let’s sum this up again – we went through the recent BTC price jump, Argentina’s financial troubles, deployment of blockchain and, of course, China. What caught your attention the most, fellow Anchorians? Share it with us in our community >>
We can finally see the horizon after sailing through the storm and, hell yes, we pulled through! These couple of months were stressful for all of us, but now it’s time to think about the future. In the meantime, fresh editions of Anchor’s Crypto Roundups will be ready for you every week. Until next time, I wish you fair winds and following seas!
Disclaimer: The information provided in this post is not legal, accounting, or financial advice. I am not a lawyer, accountant, or financial advisor. I am not registered as an investment adviser with any federal or state regulatory agency. The Information should not be construed as investment or trading advice and is not meant to be a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any cryptocurrencies.
