This week, the leading cryptocurrencies have strengthened their positions. Currently, Bitcoin is trading at 8750.00 (+14.3%), Ethereum is at 210.00 (+7.6%), Ripple is near 0.2180 (+12.1%), Tether is at 1.0006 (–0.04%), and Bitcoin Cash – around 255.00 (+3.8%). The total market capitalization has grown from 220 to 247 billion dollars. Bitcoin’s market share increased to 65.2%.
According to experts, the reason for the strengthening of the cryptocurrency market is the Fed’s comments. The regulator reiterated its intention to maintain incentives until the full recovery of the US economy. Moreover, the head of the regulator Jerome Powell admitted the possibility of additional support measures to ensure economic growth. This means that the Fed will continue to pump up the American economy with cheap money, which will put pressure on the dollar and support alternative asset prices. Also, the expectation of Bitcoin halving, which should take place in two weeks, has a positive effect on digital currencies.
During the week, much attention was paid to the development of the situation around the Telegram project – the TON network. At first, the media reported that it could be launched without the participation of American investors, although a New York court forbade the company to do this. However, then it became known that Telegram postponed the launch of TON for another year, until April 30, 2021. The company informed investors that it could not give them Gram coins due to a court ban, and offered to return 72% of the investment. If investors do not take back the invested funds, Telegram promises to return them 110% of the investments if TON is launched within the next 12 months. The management of the company still hopes to meet an agreement with the American regulators. Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz advised Telegram not to create a new currency but to add support for Bitcoin, enabling its customers to use the existing cryptocurrency.
This week, there was an increase in investor interest in the second cryptocurrency in terms of capitalization, Ethereum, which was caused by the launch of the Ethereum 2.0 network, scheduled for July 30. On the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange, the volume of perpetual futures on Ethereum is already $76.5 million, and on the Bitfinex exchange, this figure exceeded $500K. In a recent interview, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin noted that the recently launched Topaz test network, which is close in characteristics to the scale and parameters of the future Ethereum 2.0 network, is stable, which is the result of two years of research, as well as the interaction of Ethereum developers and users.
Chinese authorities are actively working on testing digital renminbi. Also, they pay great attention to the development of the blockchain industry, not related to cryptocurrencies. Over the weekend, an infrastructure blockchain platform (BSN) of the State Information Center of China was introduced into commercial access. It is designed to simplify and reduce the cost of creating and deploying blockchain applications by companies. During the testing of the platform, applications that made it possible to track the movement of goods, raise funds for charity, and so on were launched.
Next week, cryptocurrency quotes may stabilize or continue the upward movement.
