Just a few days ago, Coinbase, one of the crypto market’s best-known companies, held its initial public offering (IPO). This entails the sale of shares and the listing of the aforementioned company on a publicly-traded stock exchange. Companies often do this to usher in veritable cash flow that is then utilised to expand by building new products and enhancing the ones that are already available. Coinbase is therefore one of the first crypto companies to ever go public, but it’s recent endeavour may pave the way to numerous other crypto-based businesses taking similar steps. 

It’s very likely that over the next few years, as crypto companies scale, there’ll be considerable opportunity to purchase crypto stock, some of which will likely be tradeable within blockchains as synthetic assets. This is exactly what Binance did for Coinbase’s $COIN ticker, but also for Tesla. 

With a huge inflow of capital from institutional and retail investors alike, bitcoin has just reached a new all-time high, recorded at $60,445 at press time. But what has led to this super-cycle and where is bitcoin headed next? 

$1.9 Trillion Stimulus Bill Signed in the United States

First things first, many analysts believe that the recent record portrays bigger fears for inflation, as the US Dollar is devaluing following constant capital injections in the economy. While the stimulus bill will do wonders for the US economy as a whole, it is destined to lead to stronger inflation. Thus, it only makes sense that individuals everywhere are rushing to move their fiat to crypto, in hopes of retaining the value of their hard-earned cash.  While the crypto market is far from being a hedge against portfolio risk, its long-term uptrend does showcase serious potential for deterring inflation. Either way, anyone who had ever purchased bitcoin and hasn’t sold, is now in profit. 

A couple of weeks back when bitcoin first surpassed its previous $20,000 all-time high, many people thought that the coin would settle at a value slightly higher than its previously-attained record. However, the bull run had considerably more surprises in store for us.

After riding the uptrend wave to $40,000, bitcoin seemed to have settled in the mid $35K range, but yet again, this wasn’t all. Propelled by positive industry news and a true belief in its future as the world’s main digital currency, bitcoin has yet again increased, this time reaching an all-time high of $56,512. This places the coin on the clear path to $100K, and many analysts believe that this psychological barrier will be surpassed in 2021. 

Over the last couple of weeks, bitcoin has been enjoying a well-deserved bull run, characterized through rapid price increases within a short timeframe. During the last 30 days, the cryptocurrency has managed to surpass its previous all-time high of $20,000, thereby establishing a new record of $41,940. The market was quick to celebrate, gasping in awe.

Fuelling the Bull Run

The bull run was fuelled by an overflow of capital deriving from institutional investors, and further consolidated through ongoing retail investments. Many analysts warned that this was a bubble and that a price correction was imminent, whereas others were firm in their belief that the bull run was only getting started.

Governments worldwide are rushing to develop central bank-backed digital currencies (CBDCs) as a direct response to the booming cryptocurrency market. This article will provide readers with an overview of recent developments in the CBDC sector. 

China Leads the Way for CBDC Development and Adoption

China is well known for being the first country to show utter seriousness in the development of its CBDC - the Digital Yuan. At this point in time, core development is essentially concluded, as China has already started testing and early-phase adoption efforts. Multiple events have happened since our last coverage of China’s CBDC development.

At this point in time, market data showcases that bitcoin is going through yet another bull run. In fact, it managed to surpass most of its recent yearly records, thus getting incredibly close to its previous all-time high of $20,000.

Right now, bitcoin is trading a little above $18,600. It is expected that this bull run will not end up in a massive correction that crashes the price and leads to another bear market. Things are drastically different this time around, and as part of this article, we will explore the main reasons behind bitcoin’s massive uptrend. 

Recently, the bitcoin price surpassed the $13K threshold, as part of an unexpected uptrend. What makes this jump so special is the fact that it represents the highest value BTC has reached over the last 16 months. Many believe that this is the start of yet another bull run - although there may be some truth to this claim, it is too early to determine whether higher values will be reached in the near future.  

This article will go over some of the reasons that caused this recent uptrend. 

So far, several countries have expressed tangible interest in the idea of developing central bank-backed digital currencies (CBDCs). The European Union has also talked about the potential release of a digital euro, although no actual plans were publicly announced. 

Recently, the European Central Bank (ECB) published a 50-page report highlighting the main challenges that the institution would have to deal with, in order to make the digital euro a reality. 

According to a statement made by the President of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, “Europeans are increasingly turning to digital in the ways they spend, save and invest (...) Our role is to secure trust in money. This means making sure the euro is fit for the digital age. We should be prepared to issue a digital euro, should the need arise.”

At this point in time, most of the world’s countries have issued some form of regulatory framework for digital currencies. Research on the matter has shown that there’s an overall lack of standardization in terms of cryptocurrency and blockchain regulation, thereby giving way to uncertainty, especially for crypto-related business ventures operating globally.

Recent reports indicate that a standardization of cryptocurrency regulations for EU member countries is on the agenda of the European Commission. A copy of a legislative draft was recently leaked on the internet, thus showcasing the institution’s vision concerning crypto regulation.

The main point worth keeping in mind is that crypto assets will be regulated in a similar manner to most other financial instruments. Most of these rules are centred towards service providers and token issuers, rather than users. The regulatory draft kicks off with a definition of crypto-based assets and highlights the main regulations that EU companies should respect. Emphasis is placed on stablecoins, which have been actively gaining popularity over the last couple of years.

Despite the worldwide economic slowdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems like the cryptocurrency market is entering a new phase of economic stimulation, price increases, and overall market interest.

This statement is backed by a statistical report released by Apptoppia, according to which a record-breaking number of cryptocurrency wallet app downloads were logged during July 2020. With this in mind, 3.5 million wallets were downloaded to mobile devices during this month, which is 81% more when compared to July 2019. Furthermore, throughout this year, the number of active digital currency users increased by approximately 110%.

For the sake of comparison, app wallet downloads averaged about 2 million during the last year.