Weekly Crypto Market Update: Bitcoin Reaches $45,145

These are the major cryptocurrency stories of the week. 

The cryptocurrency market is always a buzz with new stories. Last week, Bitcoin was closing up to the US$45,000 mark, which gave the rest of the cryptocurrency market a green push. This week, Bitcoin’s struggle emerged victoriously as Bitcoin is now trading at US$45,145 (at the time of writing). Bitcoin did witness a small dip of 2%, pulling the value to US$43,000, earlier. The global capitalization of the cryptocurrency market is US$1.74 trillion (at the time of writing). Ethereum is trading at US$3129.86, showing an upward trend.

• CRYPTOCURRENCY MILLIONAIRES, 5 PEOPLE WHO RODE THE UPTHRUST
• TOP 10 CRYPTOCURRENCY INFLUENCERS YOU MUST FOLLOW IN 2021
• MAKE YOU OWN CRYPTOCURRENCY: HERE’S HOW

The speculation over cryptocurrencies as a long-term future as a viable investment option is taking a turn as billionaire investor Ray Dalio stated that he would pick gold over Bitcoin. While he considers Bitcoin as digital gold, the Founder of Bridgewater Associates said in an interview that he owns only a small amount of Bitcoin. He added, “if you put a gun to my head and you said, ‘I can only have one I would choose gold. There are certain assets that you want to own to diversify the portfolio, and Bitcoin is something like a digital gold”. His preference comes from the fact that gold has a long-standing history of being a store of wealth. 

Google has something to say about cryptocurrencies. Google will now only run crypto ads from advertisers that are registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. For cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges to advertise on Google, they need to register themselves as a Moner Services Business, with at least one state as a money transmitter or a bank entity. The businesses must comply with all the legal requirements. 

An Indian crypto player has made it to the headlines. CoinDCX has become India’s first crypto unicorn. The cryptocurrency exchange has raised US$90 million led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s fund B Capital, which is valued at US$1.1 billion. This is big news for the crypto companies in India as this sector still faces regulatory uncertainty in India. Speaking about regulations, the Indian government said it would take all the measures to remove the use of cryptocurrency assets in funding illegal activities or a part of the payment system. The government will, however, explore the use of blockchain technology for leveraging the digital economy. 

Are cryptocurrencies secure? This is a debate that’s been going on for some time now. But a recent incident is making a strong case for the debate. Poly Network is a platform that facilitates crypto transfers between different cryptocurrency blockchains. The network experienced a massive security breach by hackers, resulting in more than US$600 million being stolen. According to the statement put out by the company, “the amount of money you hacked is the biggest one in DeFi history. Law enforcement in any country will regard this as a major economic crime and you will be pursued.” The network got hacked on three blockchains, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon. As of Wednesday, the platform has recovered US$260 million out of all the stolen assets.