The main events of the week – Bitcoin is getting closer to $ 3000, the regulator's interest in Ethereum and the closure of the project Basis

In the traditional Sunday review, we recall the new annual minimum of Bitcoin prices, events around Ethereum, positive news from Europe and other key events of the outgoing week.

Already the bottom or not?

On Saturday, December 15, the weighted average rate of the first cryptocurrency, continuing a protracted decline, fell for the first time this year below $ 3,200, while Bitcoin capitalization came close to $ 55 billion. On some exchanges, for example, on Bitstamp, at the same time the price went down to $ 3120.

Since then, Bitcoin has recovered somewhat (+ 2.41% in the last 24 hours as of 17:00 UTC), however, the resistance level at $ 3,300 still remains an insurmountable barrier. In total, over the week, the first cryptocurrency fell by almost 9%, which on the eve of the Christmas and New Year holidays hardly gives optimism to investors.

Along with Bitcoin, the rest of the market traditionally continued its drawdown, the cumulative capitalization of which at some point on Saturday almost fell below the psychological mark of $ 100 billion. However, for this level, the indicator did not go away and at the time was about $ 104 billion, having lost week $ 13 billion

In the top ten, cryptocurrencies continue to lose Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV, dropping to 8th and 9th place in terms of capitalization, respectively. At the same time, this week BCH fell to an absolute minimum for all 16 and a half months of its existence – $ 75 (-25% for seven days).

Among other most liquid cryptocurrencies, Stellar (-20.69%), NEM (-17.73%), Monero (-16.31%), Zcash (-14.74%) and Dash (-14 ,15%). And on this deep bearish background, Waves stands apart, which, due to the launch of smart assets and smart accounts in the main network, has risen by more than 50% over the past week and even rose to the Top 20 CoinMarketCap for a short time.

Meanwhile, the head of Digital Currency Group [DCG] Barry Silbert was forced to admit that the continued decline in the market adversely affected a number of venture capital deals. At least six planned agreements, he said, were eventually terminated.

However, well-known Bitcoin-optimist and co-founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors Tom Lee is convinced that the fair price of the first cryptocurrency is in the range of $ 13,800 – 14,800. His judgments, in particular, are based on the growing number of active addresses of BTC wallets, demand factors and various indicators use of the first cryptocurrency. Nevertheless, he refused from new forecasts.

CFTC wants to know more about Ethereum

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) expressed a desire to learn more about Ethereum and the underlying technology. In a request for relevant information published on Tuesday, December 11, the regulator explains that it wants to receive public comments on various questions regarding Ethereum, including the markets that were created on it.

The agency expects these answers to help it get a better idea of how exactly the Ethereum market needs to be regulated, as well as the derivatives markets associated with the cryptocurrency. The document contains 25 different questions, divided into categories such as Ethereum objectives, underlying technology, markets, surveillance, as well as cybersecurity and custodial solutions.

Opera introduced a browser for Android with support for Ethereum

This week, Opera Software announced at the Hard Fork Decentralized conference in London a public release of a browser for Android devices with an embedded Ethereum wallet.

The new mobile browser supports not only ETH, but also ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens, as well as decentralized applications (Dapps), which can be accessed directly from the wallet. The developers also state that the new product is fully ready for Web 3.0 – the concept of Internet technology development, which was formulated by Netscape manager Jason Calacanis in continuation of the Web 2.0 concept Tim O'Reilly.

“Until now, the use of cryptocurrency and access to Web 3.0 required special applications or extensions, making it difficult to even try to test all this. Our new browser eliminates this interference, ”Charles Hamel, product manager of Opera Crypto, wrote on the company's blog.

Access to the Ethereum blockchain will receive a new mobile browser through the infrastructure platform Infura.

Basis project closure

On Thursday, the company Intangible Labs, which is behind the project to create a "stable coin" Basis, announced the closure of the project. According to CEO Nader Al-Naji, this decision was made because of the rules of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), according to which project tokens would be classified as securities.

Attracted earlier financing in the amount of $ 133 million will be returned to investors. Such names as Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital, Digital Currency Group, MetaStable Capital, Pantera Capital and Polychain Capital were among the latter.

Al-Naji advised other entrepreneurs who are considering launching stable coins to refuse to do business in the United States, not to accept money from American investors, and also to ensure that the tokens have certain consumer functionality.

Bitwala with the support of solarisBank launched a banking service with support for Bitcoin and the euro

German blockchain start-up Bitwala has launched an updated cryptocurrency service , offering users a single bank account with support for Bitcoin and Fiat. The solution was developed in partnership with the Berlin Fintech-company solarisBank, which has a banking license and is regulated by the Federal Financial Supervision Authority of Germany (BaFin) and the European Central Bank.

A debit card and a built-in wallet are attached to each Bitwala user account, making it easy to exchange bitcoins for euros. Like any bank account in Germany, the service from Bitwala offers warranty insurance for a deposit up to € 100,000.

At the initial stage, accounts are open for residents of Germany, in the future the company plans to enter the markets of other countries.

Also this week it became known that solarisBank will assist the Stuttgart Stock Exchange with the launch of a platform for cryptocurrency trading. She is expected to start work next year.

Rebranding Kuna

On December 13, the Kuna.io cryptocurrency exchange presented a new logo , updated the site and expanded its functionality. Users have become available such new methods of replenishment and withdrawal of currency, such as Advanced Cash and Kuna Code, which will allow to transfer assets both between accounts of users of the exchange, and outside the exchange space.

The exchange interface has also been updated: the total balance is displayed in BTC and US dollars. It can be seen for each asset separately. In addition, the support team switched to round-the-clock operation. Kuna also launched a mobile app.

Representatives of the platform noted that the change of the logo and identity is designed to help it reach the markets of Georgia, Belarus, Russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Armenia.

Revolut received a European banking license

Friendly to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the British FINTECH startup startup Revolut received a license to provide banking services in Europe. The application was approved by the European Central Bank.

Initially, Revolut customers in the jurisdictions with which the company works will be able to deposit up to 100,000 euros insured through the European Deposit Insurance System. In the future, the company plans to introduce measures to protect against overdraft overdraft, as well as the provision of traditional individual and corporate loans.

Founded in 2015, the startup has attracted about $ 340 million of investments, which raised the company's capitalization to $ 1.7 billion. In 2017, Revolut added support for cryptocurrency. Initially, these were Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, and in May of this year, Ripple and Bitcoin Cash were added to the application.

RIP Timothy May

Behind the red-green candles, many of us easily forget what is happening in real life, and she, to regret, often brings sad news.

So, this week it became known about the death of Timothy May , one of the founding fathers of the cipherpunk movement, which was based on the e-mail of the same name, and the author of the famous Cryptoanarchist Manifesto, which was partially inspired by the creators of early Bitcoin prototypes.

Subscribe to the BlockchainJournal news in Telegram: BlockchainJournal Live – the entire news feed, BlockchainJournal – the most important news and polls.