The cryptocurrency space has arguably been the most talked-about and interesting space in the world of technology and finance in many years, with more and more people and businesses looking to understand this space and even enter it in some form, either by investing in cryptocurrencies or starting their own crypto ventures. This has become a worldwide phenomenon, fuelled by the rise in price of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other crypto assets over the last 12 months, with those rallies showing no sign of slowing down. Cryptocurrencies are here to stay, and will form a huge part of the way in which economies will evolve over the next few decades or so, and therefore it is not surprising that there are a number of startups, all over the world, looking to grab some sort of foothold in the crypto space as soon as possible. One of the best examples of this comes from Romania, where a cryptocurrency launched by a startup has managed to reach $1 billion in market capitalization.

The Romanian startup Elrond, which launched a cryptocurrency EGLD, has seen its market cap reach $1 billion, making it only the second Romanian ‘unicorn’, after UiPath, a leader in the robotic process automation space. Unicorns are startups whose valuation is over $1 billion. According to the people behind Elrond, the blockchain used to underpin this cryptocurrency is the most advanced in the world, and will be used as the standard by other developers to create their networks and processes. Of course, owners of EGLD are only entitled to benefits arising from the increase in value of the cryptocurrency itself, and not from the company’s revenues, since they do not own shares in the company.

This development is quite interesting, since it comes at a time when cryptocurrencies have begun to be adopted in various sectors as a way of improving their prospects and providing customers with better experiences. One of the biggest examples of this is the online gambling space, where many operators have begun offering players the opportunity to place bets using cryptocurrencies. This has proved to be extremely popular, as transactions are quicker, safer and more efficient, while also appealing to both crypto users as well as fans of online gambling. A crypto casino https://winz.io/ would have seen a number of new sign-ups and users as a result of such offers and initiatives, and therefore there is a lot of potential for similar partnerships in other sectors as well, which will also increase crypto usage as a result.

Elrond has also recently launched an app, called Maiar, which allows users to buy EGLD as well as Ethereum and Bitcoin through their phones, through participating exchanges, and receive and send EGLD to other people based on their phone numbers or herotags. Thus, the app is aimed towards improving and simplifying cryptocurrency transfers. According to Elrond management, over 37,000 unique accounts were opened on the app within 12 hours of its launch, and that this was still just a ‘soft’ launch, as the team were working on improving transaction speeds and increasing the registration bandwidth limit for users.

The stated aim of the company is to reach 1 billion users on the app, although this is extremely ambitious, and will require a growth rate of 10 accounts/second for over 3 years. For comparison, Revolut, one of the most popular money management and transfer apps in the country, had only about 12 million users in 2020, showing the scale of adoption which Elrond is attempting to reach. Time will tell if this will be successful, but it is already quite impressive to see the growth that EGLD and the app have already achieved.

VIBE (CURRENCY:VIBE) traded 1.6% lower against the US dollar during the 24 hour period ending at 23:00 PM ET on February 25th. Over the last week, VIBE has traded 50.8% lower against the US dollar. One VIBE token can now be bought for $0.0045 or 0.00000009 BTC on major exchanges. VIBE has a total market capitalization of $1.16 million and approximately $6,872.00 worth of VIBE was traded on exchanges in the last day.

Here’s how other cryptocurrencies have performed over the last day:

About VIBE

Buying and Selling VIBE

It is usually not currently possible to purchase alternative cryptocurrencies such as VIBE directly using U.S. dollars. Investors seeking to trade VIBE should first purchase Bitcoin or Ethereum using an exchange that deals in U.S. dollars such as Gemini, GDAX or Changelly. Investors can then use their newly-acquired Bitcoin or Ethereum to purchase VIBE using one of the aforementioned exchanges.

Cardano (CURRENCY:ADA) traded down 3.7% against the U.S. dollar during the 1-day period ending at 20:00 PM E.T. on March 1st. One Cardano coin can now be bought for about $1.25 or 0.00002548 BTC on cryptocurrency exchanges. In the last week, Cardano has traded 11.1% higher against the U.S. dollar. Cardano has a market capitalization of $39.93 billion and approximately $9.98 billion worth of Cardano was traded on exchanges in the last day.

Here’s how other cryptocurrencies have performed in the last day:

Cardano Profile

Buying and Selling Cardano

It is usually not presently possible to purchase alternative cryptocurrencies such as Cardano directly using U.S. dollars. Investors seeking to acquire Cardano should first purchase Bitcoin or Ethereum using an exchange that deals in U.S. dollars such as Gemini, Coinbase or Changelly. Investors can then use their newly-acquired Bitcoin or Ethereum to purchase Cardano using one of the aforementioned exchanges.

TrueUSD (CURRENCY:TUSD) traded 0.1% lower against the U.S. dollar during the 24-hour period ending at 12:00 PM ET on February 13th. TrueUSD has a market cap of $369.25 million and approximately $147.59 million worth of TrueUSD was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours. One TrueUSD coin can currently be purchased for about $1.00 or 0.00002121 BTC on popular exchanges. In the last seven days, TrueUSD has traded 0.1% lower against the U.S. dollar.

Here is how other cryptocurrencies have performed in the last 24 hours:

TrueUSD Coin Profile

TrueUSD (CRYPTO:TUSD) is a coin. It was first traded on March 31st, 2018. TrueUSD’s total supply is 369,856,688 coins. TrueUSD’s official website is www.trusttoken.com. TrueUSD’s official Twitter account is @TrustToken.

According to CryptoCompare, “TrueUSD, part of the TrustToken asset tokenization platform, is a blockchain-based stablecoin pegged to the value of USD. In the TrueUSD system, U.S Dollars are held in the bank accounts of multiple trust companies that have signed escrow agreements, rather than in a bank account controlled by a single company. The contents of said bank accounts are published every day and are subject to monthly audits.  If someone wants to obtain TrueUSD through the online application, they will need to pass a KYC/AML check. Once that’s complete, they can send USD to one of TrueUSD’s trust company partners. Once the funds are verified by the trust company, their API will instruct the TrueUSD smart contract to issue tokens on a 1 to 1 ratio and to send them to the Ethereum address associated with the account at hand. Once in the wallet, the tokens can be transferred to a friend or used as payment, combining the advantages of fiat (stability and trust) with those of cryptocurrencies (reduced fees and transfer times). The user can also redeem real US Dollars by sending the TUSD tokens back to the smart contract address, which will notify the trust company, and initiate a bank transfer to the user’s account. “

Buying and Selling TrueUSD

TrueUSD can be purchased on the following cryptocurrency exchanges:. It is usually not possible to purchase alternative cryptocurrencies such as TrueUSD directly using US dollars. Investors seeking to trade TrueUSD should first purchase Bitcoin or Ethereum using an exchange that deals in US dollars such as Changelly, Coinbase or Gemini. Investors can then use their newly-acquired Bitcoin or Ethereum to purchase TrueUSD using one of the aforementioned exchanges.

According to Thailand’s Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, retail investors’ “excessive speculation” in cryptocurrencies may destabilize Thailand’s capital markets.

During a capital markets conference on Thursday, Arkhom told attendees that local retail investors in Thailand have been shifting their savings into cryptocurrencies in order to receive “higher returns.”

In fact, reports from the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission website suggest that cryptocurrency volumes on the nation’s licensed exchanges jumped to about 65 billion baht ($2.17 billion) in January 2021 from 19 billion baht in December 2020.

Termpittayapaisith wasn’t done, however, with the minister going on to say that “cryptocurrencies have enormous risk,” adding that “risk awareness will help those investors in avoiding excessive speculation on those assets.”

Interestingly, similar sentiments were expressed by Thailand SEC’s Secretary-General Ruenvadee Suwanmongkol last month when she said that investors should be careful with cryptocurrency investments and trade only with market players regulated by the SEC.

Thai government officials expressing concerns over the risks of “unregulated” crypto-investing comes a few days after the nation’s largest bank announced a $50 million allocation towards DeFi startups and digital assets.

Siam Commerical Bank’s venture arm SCB 10X announced on Tuesday the allocation of funds towards app developers and DeFi startups. DeFi startups are usually unregulated entities that operate without following the conventional KYC AML norms required by most regulated centralized exchanges.

Comments from Thailand’s Finance Minister also come at a time when multiple regulators and government officials have raised concerns about cryptocurrencies as an asset class.

Earlier this week, the Canadian central bank’s Deputy Governor called the cryptocurrency boom “speculative mania.” The market’s leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has surged from $29,000 to $46,000 since the beginning of 2021, drawing the attention of several regulators from around the world.

The latest price rise presents a volatile picture for those unfamiliar with the market, and has led to several critics calling the asset “a speculative bubble.”

Among these critics was Nouriel Roubini who predicted that the current bubble will eventually end in another bust in a recent article. He said,

“Tesla’s Elon Musk and MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor may be betting the house on bitcoin. That doesn’t mean you should.”

According to Thailand’s Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, retail investors’ “excessive speculation” in cryptocurrencies may destabilize Thailand’s capital markets.

During a capital markets conference on Thursday, Arkhom told attendees that local retail investors in Thailand have been shifting their savings into cryptocurrencies in order to receive “higher returns.”

In fact, reports from the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission website suggest that cryptocurrency volumes on the nation’s licensed exchanges jumped to about 65 billion baht ($2.17 billion) in January 2021 from 19 billion baht in December 2020.

Termpittayapaisith wasn’t done, however, with the minister going on to say that “cryptocurrencies have enormous risk,” adding that “risk awareness will help those investors in avoiding excessive speculation on those assets.”

Interestingly, similar sentiments were expressed by Thailand SEC’s Secretary-General Ruenvadee Suwanmongkol last month when she said that investors should be careful with cryptocurrency investments and trade only with market players regulated by the SEC.

Thai government officials expressing concerns over the risks of “unregulated” crypto-investing comes a few days after the nation’s largest bank announced a $50 million allocation towards DeFi startups and digital assets.

Siam Commerical Bank’s venture arm SCB 10X announced on Tuesday the allocation of funds towards app developers and DeFi startups. DeFi startups are usually unregulated entities that operate without following the conventional KYC AML norms required by most regulated centralized exchanges.

Comments from Thailand’s Finance Minister also come at a time when multiple regulators and government officials have raised concerns about cryptocurrencies as an asset class.

Earlier this week, the Canadian central bank’s Deputy Governor called the cryptocurrency boom “speculative mania.” The market’s leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has surged from $29,000 to $46,000 since the beginning of 2021, drawing the attention of several regulators from around the world.

The latest price rise presents a volatile picture for those unfamiliar with the market, and has led to several critics calling the asset “a speculative bubble.”

Among these critics was Nouriel Roubini who predicted that the current bubble will eventually end in another bust in a recent article. He said,

“Tesla’s Elon Musk and MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor may be betting the house on bitcoin. That doesn’t mean you should.”

Why more DOT, LINK, and YFI can boost your trading portfolio

Tron, Ontology, SUSHI Price Analysis: 11 February

Samyuktha is a full-time journalist at AMBCrypto. Currently pursuing her Masters in Finance and Business Analytics, she is interested in cryptocurrencies, fintech, and blockchain technology adoption across various sectors.

Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank to invest $50M in blockchain, DeFi startups

Cryptocurrency trader and influencer Tyler Swope is naming three small-cap altcoins that he believes can go against the flow while the broader crypto market corrects.

In a new video, Swope tells his 201,000 YouTube subscribers that he’s looking at decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Bao Finance (BAO).

He says the altcoin is worthy of investor consideration as it continues to make progress while settling down from its initial hype phase.

“The xDai pools are deployed, a few minor bugs, but as we can see from the Baoman’s mouth: ‘Block rewards were pushed back one more day but the farms are working and stable. User deposits can start now.’ Yes, the crops are ready to be farmed on xDai. They are moving exactly as planned.”

Swope adds that BAO can now be used as collateral for spot trading on cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX.

The second altcoin on Swope’s list is Deus Finance (DEUS), which is an asset tokenization platform that allows users to trade real-world assets and derivatives such as equities and commodities directly on Ethereum.

“Deus is officially launching its decentralized trading platform in the next 48 hours. You will be able to trade hundreds of stocks, forex and selected cryptos on xDai without time restriction.”

Swope believes that the current total value locked within the platform of $39 million will grow as the project launches a scalable synthetics platform.

The last altcoin on Swope’s radar is DeFi platform Non-Fungible Yearn (NFY). According to the crypto influencer, the platform is expanding the possibilities and opportunities in the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) subsector by “taking NFTs and applying it to DeFi.”

“They are the first DeFi protocol to utilize NFTs to make yield farming more secure and flexible by protecting the wallet and allowing the first transferable stake. What this does is create an ecosystem where instead of wallet addresses that represent the right to stake, an NFT will represent the right to the staked funds and the yield they generate. You will be able to trade your staked tokens and future yield via an NFT.”

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Tithi Luadthong

Without paying much attention to the inherent capabilities of Bitcoin, many new investors are just concerned about the potential of the asset to create wealth. This set of people follow just the positive price data about Bitcoin, and they tend to make their decisions based on these. One such stat is that Bitcoin now has more valuation than Tesla, the electric vehicle maker which recently invested $1.5 billion in the asset.

Tesla’s Bet, Bitcoin’s Boost

Many in the stock market size the growth of a company based on its market capitalization, the same metric is also used to rank crypto assets by a various data aggregator. Based on this metric, Tesla’s latest bet on Bitcoin has fueled a market cap increase which is currently pegged slightly above $865 billion.

This market cap figure is bigger than the combined market cap of Tesla, currently ranked as the world’s most valuable auto brand, and American auto brand, Ford Motors Company. Tesla’s market cap of $805.2 billion and Ford’s $46.62 billion both summed up to $851.62, a figure dwarfed by the gigantic market cap figure of Bitcoin.

What is The Significance of This?

The level of growth of Bitcoin today is the point of massive adoption of digital asset by institutional investors. This class of investors has access to investors’ funds which they must cautiously invest for reasonable returns under well-defined regulatory guidance.

With an increased market capitalization, it sends a message that the asset has gained enough traction with many people already invested in the asset. An $865 billion market cap is no small feat, comparing it with companies in emerging industries like Electric Vehicles, the asset valuation gives more conservative investors the confidence to show money is flowing deep into it.

Ethereum's competitor Polkadot surged again, reaching new ATH above $ 30. Meanwhile, the value of all cryptocurrencies has reached a record 1.5 trillion USD.

Bitcoin broke the record again, reaching almost $ 50,000, but it is not the only cryptocurrency that has set new heights in recent days. One of them is Polkadot (DOT), considered one of Ethereum's greatest rivals.

According to CoinMarketCap data, the DOT rate surpassed USD 30.0 on Tuesday, eventually reaching almost USD 31.0, which is the highest level in history. This means an increase of about 10% over the last 24 hours. Since the beginning of this year, the token price has already increased by 290%.

According to analysts, this is not the end of the increases. In the short term, Polkadot may rise to $ 41.0, which is more than 30% from the current price, believes analyst Rakesh Upadhyay.

Among the 20 largest altcoins in terms of capitalization, Cosmos (ATOM) rose the most, both in the last 24 hours and on a weekly basis, by 23% and 77%, respectively. Today, the cryptocurrency has set a historic high of over $ 26.

Meanwhile, the total capitalization of all cryptocurrencies in the world, of which there are over 8,000, for the first time exceeded USD 1.5 trillion - of which about 61% is Bitcoin. Recall that the USD 1 trillion round barrier was broken in early January.

In 2021, the cryptocurrency market capitalization has already increased by almost 120%, and by over 440% annually.

In a recent interview with CNBC Squawk Box Michael Sonnenshein, CEO at Grayscale Investments addressed Tesla’s recent Bitcoin investment that fuelled a fresh BTC rally. According to Sonnenshein, institutional investors seem to recognize that they don’t need to invest in Bitcoin “all at once.”

So you’re seeing corporations think about anywhere from, on the low end, 25 basis points, to, on the higher end, maybe 100 or 200 basis points over time. 

Many in the sector feel that Tesla’s investment involved “a lot of money,” but companies could follow Elon Musk’s example, nevertheless. Meanwhile, critics like economist Nouriel Roubini remain  opposed to the idea that companies should invest in Bitcoin, as Elon Musk’s Tesla did. He tweeted:

— Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) February 10, 2021

Moreover, Sonnenshein thinks that future investors would rather follow MicroStrategy’s method of investing in Bitcoin i.e., in various amounts rather than Tesla’s $1.5 billion stake. He added:

They’ve [investors] seen other corporations like MicroStrategy legging into this trade over time, and they ultimately believe in the growth of this. 

According to him, investors will buy Bitcoin regardless of price hikes or lows as they ultimately believe in the asset’s potential to grow over time. Sonnenshein will not be surprised to see a race among investors to add Bitcoin to their company balance sheets. He predicted that “visionary leaders in disruptive companies” will realize that the narrative surrounding Bitcoin has shifted from ‘why’ to ‘why not.’

Sonnenshein could have referred to a recent development with regard to another company’s interest in Bitcoin. CFO of Twitter, Ned Segal recently told CNBC that the social media giant could think about investing in Bitcoin if their employees and vendors seek payments in the crypto. Segal added: 

We’ve [Twitter’s] done a lot of the upfront thinking to consider how we might pay employees should they ask to be paid in bitcoin, how we might pay a vendor…and whether we need to have bitcoin on our balance sheet.

We want to be thoughtful about it over time, but we haven’t made any changes yet.

At press time, Bitcoin wa s trading at $44,137 and has been down by 1.5% in the past hour.

The growth of the cryptocurrency market continues at a relentless pace. Currently, only between bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency, ether (ETH) there is already a capitalization of more than a trillion dollars. That is, more than USD 1,000,000,000,000 between the circulating of both currencies.

With BTC hovering around $ 48,000 and ETH over $ 1,700, the accumulated capital between the two main cryptocurrencies is close to 1.1 trillion dollars, in data from CoinMarketCap.

The more than 18 million bitcoins in circulation equal to about $ 889 billionwhile the current supply of ether, of about 114 million, shows a total capitalization of more than $ 200,000 million.

The dominance of both currencies is clear, if we put it in context with the total market capitalization. With over 8,400 cryptocurrencies listed on CoinMarketCap, the market barely reaches $ 1.44 trillion. That is only between BTC and ETH is 75% of the capital of this market.

After the leading cryptocurrencies, the picture is very different: only the stablecoin tether (USDT), an asset that maintains a 1: 1 parity with the dollar, exceeds 30,000 million dollars in capitalization. And only up to the top 10 do we find coins above 10,000 million.

Currently, bitcoin is among the 10 most valuable assets in the world, as we have reported in this medium. Behind him are already the shares of companies such as Tesla, Facebook, Visa, Paypal and MasterCard.

Although to a lesser extent, ETH is also beginning to creep into the world’s heavyweights. At the time of writing, the Ethereum cryptocurrency is ranked 53rd among the most valuable assets, in CompaniesMarketCap data. It has already left behind companies like AT&T, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer or Pepsico.

For its part, the dominance of bitcoin (that is, control over the total capitalization of cryptocurrencies) stays above 60%. And this occurs despite the fact that in recent weeks most of the major altcoins have outpaced the rise of bitcoin in percentage terms.

As CriptoNoticias reviewed the morning of this Thursday, February 11, a comparative index between bitcoin and the top 50 of altcoins points to a season of dominance of the latter against BTC.

According to records from blockchaincenter.net, we are in a month of altcoins, since in the last 30 days more than 80% of the other cryptocurrencies have risen more than BTC, in percentage.

However, the situation does not change: bitcoin dominates the market widely. More than 8,400 cryptocurrencies and Putting together the value of all of them, little more than half of a single one is covered, the first cryptocurrency in history: bitcoin.

By definition, critical mass is the minimum amount of fissile material needed to sustain a nuclear reaction. Comparing the cryptocurrency market to that definition it would seem as if the market reached critical mass a long time ago. The cryptocurrency market has been sustaining itself for quite some time which raises the question, what’s happening now? Prices for Bitcoin are skyrocketing like in 2018 and there is no end in sight. In our view, what’s happening now is that a second critical mass in the cryptocurrency market has been reached. After years of waiting the cryptocurrency market has reached the point at which consumer demand is driving adoption by mainstream institutions and we’re only in the opening round.

Bitcoin Goes Institutional

The adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) as both a means of transferring value and investment has been slow going but it is gaining momentum. Hurdles in the form of uncertain regulation and volatility kept most mainstream investors out of the market but that is changing fast. Demand for Bitcoin service by consumers and investors is leading more retailers and institutions to adopt the coin. That, in turn, is driving increased demand among consumers and investors.

There were not one but four major announcements concerning Bitcoin in the wake of the Tesla revelation. News from MasterCard, Bank of New York Mellon, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley amount to one thing; their clients want to own Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency. J.P. Morgan reports that its managers are demanding the company support crypto while Morgan Stanley is mulling another investment in a crypto-focused business.  MasterCard is perhaps the most aggressive saying it will support the use of several cryptocurrencies directly on its platform while Bank of New York Mellon will offer custodial services. The bottom line is that, regardless of use, competition within the financial world will have to support cryptocurrency or else risk getting left behind.

The Money Is Flowing Into Ethereum

If there is one thing about cryptocurrency that mainstream investors need to understand it is defi. Defi is an umbrella term for decentralized finance applications such as lending, borrowing, providing liquidity, and other financial services on the web. Investors who stake or capitalize these defi apps earn fees and interest but that is not the point. The point here is not that anyone should rush out and use these services but that money is flowing into them at a very fast pace.

Ethereum (ETH) is the #2 cryptocurrency by market cap. The Ethereum network itself is a form of defi. The Ethereum 2.0 upgrade is turning the network into a POS blockchain which means miners (now called validators) stake money to capitalize a “node”, collateralize transactions and earn fees. The total value of money staked into the ETH 2.0 Beacon Contract surpassed $5.5 billion in the past week and continues to grow daily.

Perhaps more importantly, 59 of the top 60 defi applications in the world, worth 99.9% of the total value staked in defi or about $40 billion, are built on top of the Ethereum platform. That brings the total value staked in or on the Ethereum network to over $45 billion. At the current pace, the Ethereum network will have well over $100 billion in staked value by the end of the year. The takeaway is that, once again, demand is high and mainstream businesses are going to have to get on board with defi or else risk getting left behind.

The one defi app that isn’t built on Ethereum is the Lightning Network. The Lightning Network is built for the Bitcoin network which raises a question about Tesla’s purchase. Perhaps Tesle is planning a Lightning node or similar application of defi.

This Is Isn’t The End Of Bitcoin’s Run

With accessibility to cryptocurrency about to erupt it is safe to assume the run up in cryptocurrency prices isn’t over. Not only is adoption and interest growing, but the number of available tokens is also getting smaller. Yes, new Bitcoins and Ethereum are being minted every day but there are a finite number of them to be minted and something else to consider as well. People lose Bitcoin and that is having an impact on scarcity. At last estimate about 20% of all mineable Bitcoin’s have already been lost and more are lost every day. If you want one before they cost $100,000 each you may need to act fast.

7 Stocks to Buy For the Current Housing Boom

It’s been an uneven economic recovery to date. However, one area that is unquestionably booming is the housing market. But the interesting thing is that it took more than low mortgage rates to convince home buyers to take the plunge. What it took was a pandemic. Think I’m kidding? Look at the Housing Market Index (HMI). In September, the HMI posted a preliminary rating of 83. That’s a historical high. And this marks the fifth consecutive month the HMI has increased. Simply put, Americans have a renewed interest in spreading out. For some urban apartment dwellers, this means a flight to a place of their own. Some that own homes in more densely populated areas are looking for more wide-open spaces. And regardless of the outcome of the presidential election, the Federal Reserve has indicated it is in no hurry to raise interest rates. This means that mortgage rates should remain favorable no matter which party occupies the White House. There are many ways for investors to profit from this housing boom. Homebuilder stocks are a logical choice. But other companies will benefit from the rise in homeownership. To help you capitalize on this red hot sector, we’ve put together this special presentation.

View the "7 Stocks to Buy For the Current Housing Boom".

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The cryptocurrency market has risen this morning, with the total market capitalization having increased by more than 5% and the price of BTC up by 4.5% across global exchanges, as per data from CoinGecko. The market leader is currently trading around 47,191 USDT on OKEx.

Altcoins are generally underperforming, however. Major standouts outperforming BTC include XRP, UNI and ATOM, which are up 6.1%, 6.6% and 14.6% against the foremost cryptocurrency, respectively.

Sentiment in the cryptocurrency market remains bullish, with greed once again registering in the extreme territory. This prolonged period of greed suggests that the overall market may be somewhere near the middle of its parabolic pull cycle.

The total value locked in decentralized finance has eclipsed a new milestone and now stands above $40 billion, as per data from DeFi Pulse. The largest beneficiaries are projects with smaller TVLs, including Flexa, Bancor, PerlinX and Gnosis.

SushiSwap is the greatest TVL gainer among major DeFi projects — and, naturally, among major decentralized exchanges. First-place DEX Curve Finance and second-place DEX Uniswap have each gained less than 4%, while SushiSwap continues to close the gap with a TVL increase of roughly 7%. SushiSwap is now $0.25 billion away from catching Uniswap.

SushiSwap's surge in total value locked may be driven by news that Coinbase Custody has commenced support for SUSHI deposits and withdrawals.

BTCUSDT on OKEX is currently testing an important area of control with the ribbon of exponential moving averages, which may act as support, curling up from underneath on the four-hour time frame. 

If the bulls are truly still in control of this market — as many believe they are — they should defend the four-hour EMA ribbon. Failure to do so would open the door to prices just above 40,000 USDT.

ETHBTC on OKEx is trying to remain afloat but remains largely dependent on BTCUSDT. If the market-leading cryptocurrency continues to push higher, it stands to reason that ETH will decrease against BTC. However, if BTC declines toward 40,000 USDT, ETH may take advantage and look to regain some bullish momentum.

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The founder of asset management firm Skybridge Capital, Anthony Scaramucci, has predicted that the price of bitcoin will reach $100,000 before the year-end simply due to supply and demand. “You don’t have a lot of supply out there and very heavy demand,” he said. His firm currently has over half a billion dollars in bitcoin.

Skybridge Capital founder and managing partner Anthony Scaramucci talked about his expectations for the price of bitcoin and his firm’s investment in the cryptocurrency during an interview with CNBC last week.

Noting that he sees ferocious demand in bitcoin while its supply is decreasing, Scaramucci expects the price of the cryptocurrency to double by the end of the year. The Skybridge Capital founder remarked:

I do think we see $100,000 in this coin before year-end … It’s just a supply and demand situation. You don’t have a lot of supply out there and very heavy demand.

Bitcoin’s price has been climbing rapidly, hitting multiple all-time highs over the past week. The cryptocurrency has already gained almost 76% since the beginning of the year. Its market capitalization has surpassed $1 trillion. At the time of writing, the price of bitcoin stands at $56,575.

The demand for bitcoin has been fast growing, particularly from institutional investors, which did not exist during the 2017 bitcoin bull run. However, according to blockchain analytics firm Glassnode, 78% of the bitcoin supply is not liquid. The firm says: “Currently 14.5M BTC are classified as illiquid, leaving only 4.2M BTC in constant circulation that are available for buying and selling.”

Scaramucci cautioned individual investors: “The thing is volatile, and again I want to be cautious with individual investors … Be cautious.” As for his own asset management firm, he said:

We like it. We have over a half a billion dollars in bitcoin right now. And obviously, our bitcoin fund started in December. It’s done quite well.

Skybridge launched its bitcoin fund in December last year with $25 million of its own capital. The fund opened to outside investors in January and debuted with $310 million. Scaramucci said his firm “could be at the precursor of an avalanche of institutional investors heading in,” as orders were “building up from a large swath of institutions for the first quarter of 2021.”

Major companies have recently been scooping up bitcoins, including Elon Musk’s Tesla, which bought $1.5 billion worth of BTC in January. Other major companies that have already invested in bitcoin include Jack Dorsey’s Square Inc. and mega insurer Massmutual.

Furthermore, the Nasdaq-listed Microstrategy had accumulated 70,784 bitcoins as of Jan. 27 and has completed a $1.05 billion convertible note offering to buy more BTC. A large number of bitcoins are also acquired by investment funds, including Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and an array of bitcoin exchange-traded products (ETPs) and bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

What do you think of Skybridge’s prediction? Let us know in the comments section below.

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The cryptocurrency market isn’t just Bitcoin– although Bitcoin certainly enjoys a far favorable role in the market than any other cryptocurrency. And the recent trading session did just that. With Bitcoin pulling back almost 2.8% after it faced a slump in its trading volume by 23%, many traders thought it would be affecting the entire cryptocurrency market hard. But, it was not so. According to Nomics, a data company that researches cryptocurrency, the global market for cryptocurrency has kept ascending- with or without the strong influence of Bitcoin.

Currently, the total value of all the cryptocurrencies in the world is at a staggering $1.43 trillion, which is also due to the rise of Ethereum as a good cryptocurrency. Ethereum, which is the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency did rise by 3.25% to climb $1,800. According to today’s values, Ethereum has been on top of $1,500 for the last six straight days. 

Ethereum’s subsidiaries have also helped cryptocurrency markets, as DeFi projects, AAVE, Uniswap, and Synthetix have all been seeing gains in the double-digit. Synthetix is currently up by around 29%. The story has been pretty uniform over quite a few other markets- Binance has stacked its value by 43%, while Cardano has gone off its charts at 15%. 

Dogecoin was the only cryptocurrency in the top 10 which saw a slump in its prices by 5%. The trading volume of this cryptocurrency went down a cliff by 30% in just a day. The cryptocurrency market split has definitely wracked up a very interesting question- how big a factor is Elon Musk in the whole cryptocurrency sector? His tweets about different cryptocurrencies have certainly helped said cryptocurrency- so does it signify a form of market manipulation.