Bitcoin had a slow start to 2021 as the index remained largely stuck around key support levels. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization had a mixed 2021 overall despite the net gains. There was some faint optimism that 2022 could start with a bang but that hasn’t happened till press time at least. It has been more of the same. Altcoins were also largely steady throughout the day with minimal changes.
The US Democratic party is slowly shifting towards a completely anti-crypto narrative. Leading legislators like Elizabeth Warren and others believe that the increased popularity of the crypto scene is likely to affect common people like scams. The same narrative is shared by many others within the party. More on that later on.
An Indian Tax authority has unearthed a tax evasion scandal involving WazirX, the country’s pioneering digital asset exchange. The episode involves evasion of around $6.62 million worth of taxes from the exchange which were recovered by the Central GST and Central Excise Committee of Mumbai (CGST). The scam involves its native WRX tokens that are used for payment and various other services on the platform. The regulator believed they are taxable and found out that the tokens weren’t considered in the tax reporting by the exchange. There is a debate whether the native tokens are utility tokens or security tokens and there is no end to that debate, yet.
Charles Hoskinson, Ethereum co-founder and founder of Cardano blockchain network, has lashed out against the Venture Capitalists (VCs) of Silicon Valley and other areas. He pointed out the considerable growth of the platform and made the case that many of these big-money executives don’t understand how blockchain networks operate. But, he did predict that 2022 might be slower for the crypto sector as compared to 2021. This means that he is also expecting a price tank at some point later in the year.
Bitcoin Remains Steady at $47k
Bitcoin rose slightly earlier but it has remained stuck around the $47k value for most of the day. The cryptocurrency recorded a short dip in the buildup to New Year’s Day but recovered later on back to square one.
The last 24 hours started with Bitcoin at around $47k. It traded sideways for a while before it started to drop in the buildup to the New Year. It posted a low of around $45.8k in a matter of hours and stayed there for a little time. However, just before the New Year actually happened, Bitcoin recovered back to around $47k in multiple phases. For the rest of the day, the digital currency fared slightly bullish and managed to hit $47.5k just before press time. But, overall it was a really slow day for the digital currency and not the big bullish one many had hoped for.
Going forward, Bitcoin is in a bearish web for the moment and there seems to be no escape at the moment. The digital currency went above $50k a few days ago but couldn’t sustain itself above it. While many indicators are quite bullish right now and 2022 brings with it a new hope, the price itself is very dead at the moment and favouring the bears. The bulls need to bring the index above $52 convincingly with a big volume move preferably. If they can’t do it quickly, 2022 will continue on with the bearish bias and become a party pooper.
The total market capitalization of Bitcoin was around $904 billion and its share of the proceedings was 40.4%.
Altcoins Remain Steady
Other cryptocurrencies aka altcoins remained largely steady for much of the day. They posted some losses just like Bitcoin during the early hours, especially to the countdown of the end of 2021, they made some half decent recoveries later on.
The main gainers included Avalanche (AVAX, 6%), Polkadot (DOT, 3%) and Ripple (XRP, 2.5%). Losers included Unisap (UNI, -4%) alone.
In Other News….
US Democratic Party Moving towards Crypto Skepticism
The ruling Democratic party of the United States is apparently moving towards anti-crypto leanings even though their voter base has millions of crypto users and not just big companies themselves.
While the Blockchain lobbyists are trying hard to soften their tone, the regulatory hawks are becoming a majority in the party and that may present further problems. Many of the younger generation from the party is pro-crypto, case in point the New York city Mayor-elect who has agreed to take his salaries in Bitcoin. Perhaps the party needs to allow the younger generation to take the reins, at least on this matter which the old guard can’t seem to get a grip around.