Crypto Tidbits: Bitcoin Roars Past $10k, Halving Days Away, Ethereum 2.0 Nears

Another week, another round of Crypto Tidbits.itcoin has been one of the best-performing assets in financial markets over the past week, managing to rally as high as $10,100 — a price around 25% higher than two weeks ago. Altcoins, interestingly, have underperformed the market leader, with Ethereum and XRP both flatlining over the past week.

Crypto’s strength this week comes as the stock market has started to stagnate in the 2,800-2,900 point range. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones have been stalling as the economic outlook remains dismal, with a total of 30 million Americans filing for unemployment over the past six weeks.

Whatever the case, analysts are still bullish on Bitcoin.

Referencing the chart below, Raoul Pal — CEO of Real Vision and a former Goldman Sachs executive — said that Bitcoin’s move yesterday past $10,000. was a “KEY technical break.” This means that the “probability of vastly higher prices has risen dramatically.”

Related Reading: Crypto Tidbits: Bitcoin Hits $9ks, a16z Raises $500M Crypto Fund, Ethereum 2.0 Nears

Bitcoin & Crypto Tidbits

• Legendary Macro Investor Paul Tudor Jones Buys Bitcoin: In a note titled “The Great Monetary Inflation” written by legendary macro investor Paul Tudor Jones, he wrote that Bitcoin in the ongoing macroeconomic backdrop is eerily reminiscent of gold in the 1970s. What happened with gold then, for those unaware, is the precious metal rallied hundreds of percent within years due to an influx of inflation (15% per annum at one point) and an abolishment of the gold standard. Jones added while he subjectively sees Bitcoin as the worst store of value amongst fiat, gold, and financial assets, he sees the cryptocurrency as the “fastest horse in the race.”
• Research Paper Finds XRP, EOS, and Tezos are Not Monetary Crypto Assets: Researchers from London have found that three top blockchains — EOS, Tezos, and the XRP Ledger — have only a “small fraction of transactions used for value transfer purposes.” After compiling extensive data of transactions on the there aforementioned blockchains, making sure to obtain the metadata of each transaction, they found:
  

  “95% of the throughput on EOS was used for the airdrop of a valueless token, 82% of transactions on the Tezos blockchain were used to maintain consensus, and that only 2% of transactions on the XRP ledger resulted in value transfer.”

• Ethereum 2.0 Still On Its Way, Developers Confirm: Ben Edgington of Teku, an ETH 2.0 client operator, was reported by Decrypt to have said that the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade is still on track for a 2020 launch. Speaking at the Ethereal Summit, which went virtual due to COVID-19, Edgington said that he is “80-90 percent confident it will go live by Q3.” The upgrade will implement a Proof of Stake consensus mechanism, which means Ethereum will slowly be phasing out the mining system that blockchains like Bitcoin and Litecoin utilize.
• Bitcoin Halving Is Three Days Away: One of the most awaited crypto events ever, the Bitcoin halving of 2020, is now just three days away, according to blockchain data estimators. Analysts are divided over what this will mean for the cryptocurrency market, but the majority believe it is long-term bullish.
• Crypto Could Benefit as Negative Interest Rates in U.S. Proposed: In a move bullish for crypto, Kenneth Rogoff, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, promoted negative interest rates in a recent op-ed for Project Syndicate. He theorized that the current monetary regime could result in a failure of a “rapid recovery” in the global economy, which would “destroy wealth on a catastrophic scale” due to the trillions in debt companies and individuals have. Thus, Rogoff proposed that central banks should take short-term interest rates below zero, going as far as to say -3% “or lower.”

Photo by Irina Iriser on Unsplash