Bitcoin has done it again - the original and still the most popular digital currency in the blockchain ecosystem has reached a new all-time high of $68,789. The renewed interest in Bitcoin has managed to cool down the altcoin market a little, and took some interest away from meme tokens as both Dogecoin and Shiba Inu keep losing value. Meanwhile, some alternative cryptocurrencies unexpectedly made massive gains. Let’s take a look at some of the most interesting developments on the altcoin market that took place over the past week!
Loopring Grows By 140% - But Does It Have Long-Term Potential?
Loopring (LRC) is by no means a new altcoin. The Chinese-based ERC-20 token has been around since 2017, and even had a short-lived rally to over $2 in early 2018. However, after the crypto bull run of 2018 was over, Loopring went into a long hiatus and the LRC price was a flat line for almost 2 years.
Surprisingly, at the end of October the LRC price started to grow, and in the past 7 days Loopring has appreciated by over 140%, making it by far the best performing asset out of the top 100 largest coins. However, many investors are cautious and believe that the rapid spike in Loopring price might be a classic pump and dump, and just like in 2018, the LRC price is likely to drop down as suddenly as it climbed up.
It’s worth noting that on the fundamental level, nothing has changed regarding Loopring. Although the project has added some new functionalities a few months back, such as the NFT support, the recent spike in LRC price seems to be purely speculative, and not backed by any technological advancements.
Robinhood COO Cites Safety Concerns as the Reason for Not Listing Shiba Inu
In a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, Robinhood COO Christine Brown has finally decided to speak up about the reasons why Shiba Inu was not listed on the platform, even though the possibility of listing SHIB was teased by Robinhood earlier.
Unsurprisingly, Brown has cited safety concerns as the main reason for why SHIB was not listed on Robinhood. According to the Robinhood COO, Robinhood is a “safety-first company” which cannot list extremely risky and shady assets like SHIB. Brown has also mentioned the lack of “long-term value” of Shiba Inu, and the ambiguous “regulatory perspectives” around it.
In other words, Robinhood seems to be convinced that the SHIB rally is very short lived, and that some of the whales holding the majority of the total Shiba Inu supply might dump their tokens soon. In the worst case scenario, SHIB could end as a typical rug pull, which could severely damage the reputation of any trading platform listing it.
The Shiba Inu community still tries to force Robinhood and other marketplaces to list SHIB. However, so far the online petitions and organized campaigns of harassing certain platforms by giving them negative reviews on Google Play have not been successful in making the SHIB price grow again.
USDC Issuer Supports Stablecoin Regulations, But Will It Be Enough to Avert the Stablecoin Crisis?
The CEO of Circle, the company responsible for issuing the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC), has surprised blockchain investors by speaking positively about President Joe Biden’s administration’s plans to introduce strict stablecoin regulations, which would see stablecoin issuers forced to adhere to the same rules as standard banks.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire fully supports more regulations, as he believes them to be necessitated by the rapidly growing volume of the stablecoin market. According to Allaire, if the stablecoin market is not regulated quickly it might cause “risks to financial markets and financial stability”.
In the recent months, stablecoins like Tether (USDT) have been massively criticized for their role in artificially pumping the prices of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Many observers point out to the fact that the way in which companies like Tether mint new coins out of thin air is exactly the same as the way in which central banks print fiat currency - but will government regulations really be able to change this?
KDA Price Grows by 87% - Will Kadena Be the First Blockchain Network With No Fees?
Kadena (KDA) is a relatively new altcoin which has made the news this week by growing in price by over 87%, making it the second-best performing asset in the top 100, surpassed only by Loopring.
Kadena advertises itself as being the first decentralized network with no transaction fees. While the network as such will have fees, developers of dApps built on Kadena will have the ability to create “crypto gas stations” for their users. But will the idea of dApps with no fees be enough to make KDA one of the largest altcoins?
