Bold Bitcoin price forecast from the Winklevoss twins, YFI’s DeFi rally, and other events of the week

As the week draws to a close, we note the renewed rise in Ethereum transaction fees, the announcement of a new version of the USDC stablecoin, new records in the DeFi sector, and other key events.

Bitcoin price remains relatively steady

The week began with a drop in the Bitcoin price from around $11 800 to $11 200. Over the next few days, BTC price somewhat recovered, but there was no sustained upward move.

As shown in the chart below, over the week the leading cryptocurrency traded in a relatively narrow range.

Caption: BTC/USD exchange chart from TradingView

The cryptocurrency ‘Fear and Greed Index’ stands at 75, indicating moderate optimism in the market.

Source: alternative.me

However, indicators from the analytical service IntoTheBlock indicate a prevalence of bearish sentiment.

Bitcoin has been above the $10 000 level for more than a month above the $10,000 mark. That has not happened since early 2018. The longest stretch that Bitcoin stayed above $10,000 began in November 2017 and lasted 63 days.

Among the top-10 cryptocurrencies by CoinGecko, Polkadot (30.7%), Chainlink (8.6%), and Ethereum (5.1%) rose notably over the past week.

The Winklevoss twins predict Bitcoin at $500,000

The founders of Winklevoss Capital and the Bitcoin exchange Gemini, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss believe Bitcoin can break through the $500,000 mark.

In their view, Bitcoin outperforms gold, oil, and the U.S. dollar as a store of value and is the only long-term hedge against inflation.

In a joint article, the entrepreneurs detailed how the Fed reacted to the economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. They criticized quantitative easing and debt financing, and predicted the “Great Monetary Inflation” in the near future.

If Bitcoin follows gold’s path and/or partly replaces fiat reserves held by central banks, its price could soar to $500,000–$600,000, the Winklevosses said.

yEarn Finance nears $40,000

“The hot” token of the yEarn Finance project (YFI) continued its rapid ascent — the asset price briefly rose above the $38,000 mark, and the market capitalization surpassed the $1 billion threshold.

Over 30 days YFI rose more than 600%, over a week — 130%, and in the last 24 hours — 66%. By market cap, the coin overtook once-popular Dash and approached the DeFi leader, Aave.

Source: CoinGecko

The yEarn Finance project rose to fifth place in the DeFi Pulse ranking, overtaking Synthetix and Compound.

According to BitMEX exchange chief Arthur Hayes, YFI will rise to $100 000.

Ethereum transaction fees rose again

The average transaction fee in the Ethereum network, the second-largest cryptocurrency, has again surpassed the $6 mark. By comparison, the average Bitcoin network transaction fee currently stands at $2.85.

Data: Blockchair

According to Glassnode, the number of transactions in the Ethereum network exceeds Bitcoin’s by 3.6 times — 1,074,630 vs. 292,637 (as of August 29).

Such significant on-chain activity is likely driven in large part by the ongoing growth of the decentralised finance sector and the decentralised exchange (DEX) segment.

Coinbase and Circle unveil the second version of the USDC stablecoin

The Centre Consortium, which includes Coinbase and Circle, introduced a new version of the USDC stablecoin, for use, it does not require gas in ETH. The upgrade remains compatible with the first version of the stablecoin.

Wallet and infrastructure providers for USDC can now cover fees on behalf of users or settle them in stablecoins.

USDC 2.0 also adds new multi-signature contracts. As a result, governance of the project will be on-chain.

Value locked in DeFi surpasses $9 billion

In mid-week the value locked in the smart contracts of DeFi apps, exceeded $7 billion. A few days later the figure reached $9 billion.

Data: DefiPulse.

As of writing, the amount of locked funds had fallen to до $7,69 млрд.

In DeFi by volume of locked funds, Aave leads. Behind it are once-dominant Maker and Curve Finance.

Sberbank and S7 Airlines will start selling tickets for tokens

The airline S7 Airlines and Sberbank announced the start of selling tickets through the blockchain platform of S7 Airlines for corporate clients of the bank.

The joint project will allow ticketing agents, having accounts at Sberbank, to settle with the airline via smart contracts using tokens tied to customers’ real accounts.

Such a solution is being applied in Russia for the first time.

“Blockchain enables automating the entire settlement chain: money from the agent’s account will be tokenized and transmitted to the airline according to the algorithm laid out in the smart contract,” the press service noted.

The platform owner and guarantor of the customer’s available funds on the settlement account will be Sberbank.

The new service will be available from September 2020.

Roskomnadzor again blocks Bestchange portal

Roskomnadzor blocked the domain of the online aggregator Bestchange.ru once again.

The exchange was blocked by the Kotlas city court of the Arkhangelsk region for distributing prohibited information. The court deemed the offer to buy Bitcoin and pay for certain goods with it as prohibited.

The court ruling was issued on January 22, 2020. In addition to Bestchange, news sites Coinpost and Cryptorussia, educational portals Prostocoin and Cryptowikipedia, the online flower shop \”Lavka\” and the mining equipment seller Bitok were blocked.

In Kyiv, the Bitsonar pyramid exposer was kidnapped

On Wednesday, August 26, in Kyiv, unknown kidnapped the former Bitsonar pyramid employee Yaroslav Stadchenko (also known as Yan Novak). Police announced a city-wide plan \”Intercept\”, but progress remains elusive.

Stadchenko is a former technical employee of the collapsed Bitsonar pyramid, which presented itself as an investment fund for algorithmic cryptocurrency trading.

He was the one who exposed that Bitsonar was a Ponzi scheme and named the real organizer — the former Ukrainian official Oleksandr Tovstenko.

What else to read and watch?

This week ForkLog published an extensive piece on the fundamental reasons behind the success of the Chainlink project.

ForkLog magazine learned from experts whether the Starlink project can prevent internet outages.

Also released is the traditional digest on institutional investments in the crypto industry, including deals involving JPMorgan, Digital Currency Group, BlockFi and Binance Labs.

The consensus protocols developer Andrey Sobol spoke about what could lead to the creation of a successful standard for private money.

Gleb Kostarev spoke with Max Bit about stablecoins, DEX and Binance projects in the works.

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