Bitcoin dominance in the market, bitcoin dominance in the news. Let’s dive in.
There were promising noises for institutional adoption at Tuesday’s ETF Trends Big Ideas event. This was tempered somewhat by Cathie Wood’s suggestion that the SEC is unlikely to approve bitcoin ETFs until it’s market cap hits $2 trillion (it currently sits around $600 billion). Wood’s presentation also contained bullish price predictions of up to $500,000 should institutional adoption take hold. This is all looking more possible with the recent nomination of pro-crypto Gary Gensler to head up Biden’s SEC. Gensler is known to be pro-crypto and lectured his own Blockchain and Money course at MIT. The underlying question to all of this is whether institutional adoption and regulation will be a net positive for bitcoin and crypto in general. There could be significant pushback by the core bitcoin community at any attempts at heavy-handed regulation which do not fit the ethos of many proponents of crypto.
The American Cancer Society has launched it’s first crypto only donation fund. Charitable HODLERS will now be able to donate their cryptocurrency directly to the organisation. The stated aim is to reach $1 million in donations by early 2021 with funds going towards research and development of treatments. In order to satisfy the ego of would be donors they are offering a space on the Crypto Cancer Fund Wall of Honor in return for large donations. So now savvy large scale investors who want to help the fight against cancer can not only swerve capital gains tax, they can get their name on a wall while they’re at it.
The latest social media platform Clubhouse is growing and apparently attracting interest from bitcoin veterans, enthusiasts and newcomers. Discussions about bitcoin and crypto in general are exploding on the app. Those with inquiring minds can expect to receive the typical casual disdain from arrogant elitists’ whose self worth is only massaged by the feeling that they know something you don’t but this is offset by the fact that genuine experts in the field such as Balaji Srinivasan are holding regular talks also.
Colombia and Estonia became the first countries to host the bitcoin whitepaper on their governmental websites. The trend of publicly hosting the document is a response to recent legal threats of copyright violation filed by Craig Wright who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the author of the document. Despite the practical reasons behind hosting it, crypto enthusiasts in Colombia and Estonia are presumably feeling a sense of national pride today.
2021 could be the year of widespread Defi adoption. Despite a worldwide pandemic raging, Defi managed to enjoy incredible success in the summer of 2020 and looks set to continue the trend. According to Paul Brody of Ernst and Young it may not be long before some big players enter the world of Defi. Despite a downward trend in the majority of crypto over the past week, some of the major Defi projects have seen growth in that time. With institutional attention may come attempts at institutional regulation. Expect such predictions to be met with equal amounts of optimism and scepticism in the Defi world.
What do you think are the best Defi projects around?
Do you think institutional adoption and regulation is coming in 2021?
That’s all for today, I will see you tomorrow.