Bitcoin hits a new all-time price high, Tesla invests in the first cryptocurrency, a record batch of miners has been imported into Russia, Mastercard will implement direct support for digital assets, and other events of the week.
Bitcoin and Ethereum hit all-time highs
The price of the first cryptocurrency on Sunday, February 14, broke through the $49 000, setting a new price record.
On Bitstamp the Bitcoin price surpassed $49 700.
Data: TradingView.
Popular Twitter analyst Crypto₿ull noted that this is less than 1% from the $50,000 milestone.
$50k is less than 1% from here
— Crypto₿ull (@CryptoBull) February 14, 2021
The price of the second-largest cryptocurrency also updated an all-time high on the back of the launch of futures trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
Crypto market capitalization surpassed $1.5 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index stood at exactly 60%.
Data: CoinGecko.
Over the week, XRP posted a growth on par with Bitcoin. The Ripple token returned to the fourth spot in the market-cap ranking (per CoinGecko).
Tesla, Elon Musk invested $1.5B in Bitcoin. Experts react with mixed views
Tesla, led by Elon Musk, invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin. The company disclosed this in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The automaker noted that in the future it intends to integrate Bitcoin as a means of payment for its products.
According to the document, in January 2021 Tesla updated its investment policy to allow a more flexible approach to diversification and maximization of returns on funds not needed to maintain operating liquidity. A portion of these funds may be invested in “certain alternative reserve assets,” including cryptocurrencies.
The founder of Galaxy Digital, Mike Novogratz said Musk is a genius for his decision.
However, prominent economist and crypto critic Nouriel Roubini believes that the SEC should study Musk’s actions regarding the Bitcoin purchase for possible market manipulation.
ForkLog’s experts agreed that the SEC has no grounds to pursue Musk.
Meanwhile, former Goldman Sachs investment chief Gary Black closed his long position in Tesla stock due to the company’s Bitcoin investment.
JPMorgan analysts suggested that major companies will not follow Tesla’s example and will not move reserves into Bitcoin due to the asset’s high volatility.
Musk himself did not curb his activity in relation to cryptocurrencies and, in addition to engaging users, bought DOGE for his youngest (seventh) son, his “favorite” coin.
The founder of Tesla and SpaceX also criticised traditional banks, calling their systems slow and their databases unsafe.
A large batch of ASIC miners imported into Russia
In December 2020 the BitRiver data-center operator imported into Russia from Asia a batch of more than 20,000 ASIC miners with total capacity of about 70 MW.
All equipment belongs to a single client — a foreign company, the name of which is undisclosed. A dedicated hangar was launched for it as an independent Tier-III data center.
The exact quantity and specifications of the imported equipment were not disclosed. It is known that among the mined were WhatsMiner M32 devices from MicroBT.
BitRiver called this shipment the largest single deal in mining history.
Mastercard pledged direct support for cryptocurrencies
Already this year Mastercard will allow users to pay with cryptocurrencies, and merchants to accept such payments.
All of this will take place directly in the Mastercard network, without intermediaries in the form of processors or crypto-card issuers.
The company believes it should offer users a wide range of options, but does not advocate any particular course.
Which cryptocurrencies will be supported is not yet clear, but likely among them will be stablecoins.
Experts assessed the prospects of the payment-network initiative in Russia as “murky,” since the current law “On Digital Financial Assets” prohibits payment for goods and services with digital currencies.
Ethereum futures launched on CME
On Monday, February 8, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), oriented toward institutional players, launched Ethereum futures.
The exchange announced the addition of Ethereum contracts in December 2020.
In the first trading session the volume of Ethereum futures traded was 338 contracts.
Against this backdrop, the price of the second-largest cryptocurrency hit a new all-time high above $1,800.
Head of the Bank of Russia criticises Bitcoin
Elvira Nabiullina, head of the Bank of Russia stated that Bitcoin is not a currency. She warned about volatility risks and spoke about the potential use of cryptocurrencies in “suspicious operations.”
According to Chainalysis, the share of crypto transactions linked to criminal activity fell to 0.34% of total volume — amounting to no more than $10 billion in absolute terms.
Forbes released list of blockchain-using companies
In Forbes’ ranking of blockchain-using companies, there was a place for the Russian corporation Nornickel.
The list also included one of China’s largest banks, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
Binance withdrew its suit against Forbes
The cryptocurrency exchange Binance withdrew its claims against Forbes Media and two of its journalists — Michael del Castillo and Jason Brett.
Earlier the company called the magazine’s publication about plans to use Binance.US to distract U.S. regulators and extract hidden profits defamation. This strategy, according to the journalists, was laid out in a document titled “Tai Chi Education,” allegedly authored by former exchange employee Gary Zhou.
Co-founder of Ukrainian monobank backs Bitcoin and issues optimistic price forecast
Co-founder of the mobile bank Monobank Oleg Gorohovsky admits that he holds a sizeable portfolio of the first cryptocurrency.
“I’ve had a fairly large portfolio of Bitcoins for a long time and I also recommend you buy it”, he wrote on Facebook.
According to the entrepreneur, Tesla’s recent investments in cryptocurrency convinced him that “Bitcoin isn’t going anywhere.”
ForkLog also wrote:
- The UN said that North Korea financed its nuclear program using cryptocurrency.
- Chainalysis analysts supported the conclusions of UN experts.
- Uber will consider accepting Bitcoin payments.
- Blockfolio was hacked to spread insults.
- A Reddit user wrote a joking post and predicted Tesla’s investment in Bitcoin.
- Co-founder of Dogecoin explained how he got rid of coins in 2015.
- The oldest US bank will start offering Bitcoin custody services.
- Nassim Taleb: Bitcoin did not succeed as a means of payment.
What else to read and watch?
Read about the pervasive Russian hackers and the attack on US government agencies in ForkLog’s feature.
In this publication we discussed who really won in the battle between retail traders from r/WallStreetBets and Wall Street.
ForkLog author Bogdan Kaminsky explained how facial-recognition technology is being rolled out in Russia.
Read in this traditional ForkLog digest about the main DeFi events of recent weeks.
The magazine discussed with experts what is happening in DeFi amid the rise of the cryptocurrency market.
Subscribe to Forklog’s channel on YouTube!