Bitcoin is currently hovering around $37k at press time. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is currently uneasily trading around this level as many expect it to not continue here for a long time. Altcoins on the other hand posted mixed losses overall today apart from a few exceptions. More on that later on.
In other news, Belgian MP Christophe De Beukelaer became the first major European legislator to ask for a salary in Bitcoin. But, since the Belgian treasury doesn’t allow such payments at the moment, he will instead convert his 5,500 EUR salary into Bitcoin using a local exchange service. This is the first such incident in the EU which is likely to open the doors for more Bitcoin adoption.
Top Chinese food delivery service Meituan has started a pilot run of accepting the country’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). The move comes after the Chinese government rolled out a limited test run of the digital currency in the country.
Basketball star Lebron James and American exchange crypto.com have teamed up to improve blockchain education in James’ hometown in Ohio, USA. The move is being done to prepare the next generation of blockchain innovators in the country.
According to one estimate, crypto users are snowballing around the world and they could reach as many as 1 billion by the end of this year alone. Among the biggest reason why is probably the Great Transfer of Wealth that is slowly going to occur in the near future. In this, more than $20 trillion in wealth is expected to be passed down by the elder generation into the incoming one.
Major NFT auction platform OpenSea has stepped into some hot water recently as it tried to limit token minting on its platform. According to an exchange email, it had decided to ask users to remove their inactive NFT listings. However, Twitter users pointed out that doing so resulted in a users’ ETH being lost and its NFTs deleted from the platform. This major issue sparked further controversy on the major NFT auction site. More on that later on.
Disgraced English legislator Matt Hancock has urged the United Kingdom to become a home for cryptocurrencies. He gave these statements during a recent address in the English parliament. Hancock is trying hard to be relevant after it was revealed that he made Covic-19 breaches during the height of the pandemic to have some illicit affairs.
US president Joe Biden is preparing an executive order on crypto right now according to a source close to the president. It would assign government entities to study the crypto sector and make regulations accordingly.
The overall Ethereum hash rate has reached record highs even though a complete shift to a less energy intensive Proof of Stake (PoS) concept is on the cards. This massive migration may change things a lot for the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
Apple stock rose more than 10% earlier today as the CEO announced the company’s foray into the metaverse. The move was much awaited as Apple has generally been slow to respond to the new metaverse craze.
Bitcoin Flat at $37k
Bitcoin is currently trading right around $37k at press time. The index remained entrenched below key resistance and support levels for most of the day, showcasing a current deadlock.
The last 24 hours started with the cryptocurrency at around $36.2k. It rose slightly to $37k just before midnight and has remained there ever since barring a few minor, short-lived moves above or below it.
Going forward, Bitcoin is currently at an uneasy calm after recent losses and a short-lived recovery. The index has found some support at around $36k but it might not hold for long. The bears are biding their time and might jump in to steal the show once again.
The total market capitalization of Bitcoin was around $700 billion and its share of the proceedings was 42.5%.
Altcoins Post Losses
Other cryptocurrencies aka altcoins posted mixed losses during the course of the day. They included Terra (LUNA, -15%), Ripple (XRP, -2%), Polkadot (DOT, -2%) and Cosmos (ATOM, -8.5%). Other altcoins posted slight losses earlier before recovering some of those losses close to press time.
In Other News…..
OpenSea’s Drive to Limit InActive NFTs Results in Major Issues for Users
Top NFT auction and trading platform OpenSea recently got embroiled in a major issue that robbed users of their money and NFTs. It all started with an email from the company that advised the users to cancel their NFTs because it wasn’t able to cancel them on their behalf. But, due to an error or a bug, many users lost access to their NFTs and even their funds on OpenSea. This caused a major commotion on Twitter as the users shared their stories and called out the company over this.
Many users are now advising NFT owners to first transfer the NFT to another address before canceling the inactive NFTs. That way, at least the ownership to the NFTs could be maintained. Open Sea still hasn’t given any robust response to this.
