Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst has reaffirmed his prediction of a July 2 launch date for U.S. spot ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) after observing a surge in amended S-1 (registration statement) filings on Friday. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler has indicated that spot ether ETFs will launch this summer, pending the SEC’s […]
Bitcoin News
Mexican Billionaire Ricardo Salinas Doubles Down on Bitcoin, Advises Using It as Inflation Hedge
Ricardo Salinas, the third wealthiest man in Mexico, has recently doubled down on his proposal to use Bitcoin as a reserve asset. On social media, Salinas defended the role of Bitcoin as an inflation hedge, commenting on a post that presented inflation as a hidden tax on fiat money and advised his followers to purchase […]
Bitcoin News
Penguiana Doubles Market Cap to Over $2.5 Million Ahead of GUIANA NFT Mint
Penguiana, the distinctive penguin-themed meme coin on the Solana blockchain, continues to captivate the crypto community, achieving a new milestone by doubling its market cap to over .5 million according to Dexscreener. This surge in valuation underscores the strong investor confidence and community enthusiasm surrounding the project, especially with the impending launch of the GUIANA […]
Bitcoin News
Ripple Doubles Contribution to Fairshake PAC to Promote Crypto in 2024 Elections
Ripple announced a million contribution to Fairshake, a federal super Political Action Committee (PAC) supporting pro-crypto political candidates in the 2024 elections. This follows a similar million contribution made in 2023. The investment is part of a broader industry effort to promote policies fostering financial innovation in the U.S. Ripple criticizes the Securities […]
Bitcoin News
Dimon Doubles Down on Bitcoin Dislike, SBF to Aid Legal Action Against Celebrities, and More — Week in Review
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has reiterated his critical stance on bitcoin, labeling it a fraud and dismissing its potential as a legitimate currency. Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has agreed to a settlement that involves cooperating with legal actions against celebrities linked to FTX’s collapse. U.S. analysts are evaluating the impact of the proposed […]
Bitcoin News
Avalanche Doubles Down on Meme Coins: Announces $1 Million Liquidity Mining Incentives Program
The Avalanche Foundation announced the launch of Memecoin Rush, a program designed to incentivize meme coin liquidity providers on selected platforms in the AVAX environment. The program will allocate million to participants that provide liquidity for these tokens on Trader Joe and Steakhut, two AVAX decentralized platforms, and expand to include other platforms. Avalanche […]
Bitcoin News
Billionaire Tim Draper Doubles Down on Bitcoin — Foresees Moment When People Won’t Want Dollars Anymore
Billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper has doubled down on bitcoin and his price prediction of the crypto. “I think that there’s going to be a moment where there’s a run on the banks,” he cautioned, adding: “I actually think that there will be a moment in time when I can buy my food, clothing, and shelter all in bitcoin. And people won’t want dollars anymore.”
Tim Draper on Government and Bitcoin
Billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper discussed his bitcoin outlook in an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday. Draper is famous for his 0,000 bitcoin price prediction. When the price of BTC was 0, he predicted that it would take four years for it to reach 0K. Draper admitted that his prediction missed the mark because he underestimated several crucial factors.
“A few things I didn’t expect. I didn’t expect the U.S. government to be so paranoid about it [bitcoin]. I expected the U.S. government to figure out how to tax it and figure out how to allow people to do business with bitcoin as their base currency. And it’s happened in a number of other countries, and that’s why bitcoin is doing so well … So I miscalculated on how … scared the government, the U.S. government was,” Draper detailed, emphasizing:
And now, they realize that bitcoin’s actually better for everyone.
“It keeps perfect records,” he elaborated, noting that criminals who used bitcoin “were all caught, so using dollars is probably better for a criminal.”
Draper further shared: “I think that there’s going to be a moment where there’s a run on the banks the way after the Civil War there was a run on Confederate money, and there was a run on the Greek drachma and a run on the French franc when they became a part of the euro.” In conclusion, the billionaire investor opined:
I actually think that there will be a moment in time when I can buy my food, clothing, and shelter all in bitcoin. And people won’t want dollars anymore.
Do you agree with Tim Draper about bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below.
Algorand (ALGO) Stuns In Q4: Market Cap Soars, TVL Doubles, And User Base Skyrockets
According to a recent report by Messari, smart contract platform Algorand (ALGO), showcased notable growth and outperformed the general crypto market during the fourth quarter of 2023.
Algorand Outperforms Crypto Market Growth
Per the report, Algorand experienced a surge in market capitalization during Q4 2023, with a significant growth rate of 123%. This substantial increase can be attributed to the overall positive momentum of the crypto market, which witnessed a 53% growth in market capitalization during the same period.
Transactions on the Algorand network also saw a significant uptick, increasing by 58% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ). Consequently, fee revenue rose by 60%, reaching its highest level in a year when measured in ALGO terms, while revenue in USD terms surged by an impressive 143%.
According to Messari, Algorand’s success can be attributed to its “thriving” ecosystem, which saw the launch of multiple innovative applications in Q4 2023. These applications covered diverse areas such as regulated and programmable euro, tokenized farmland, and a developer marketplace for selling code snippets.
The introduction of these applications further solidified Algorand’s position as a “dynamic and versatile” platform, attracting users from various domains, according to the report.
Moreover, Algorand witnessed a substantial increase in user adoption during Q4 2023, with the addition of 1.9 million new addresses, representing a 72% QoQ growth.
The platform also experienced a surge in transaction volume, with transactions surpassing 5.5 million towards the end of the quarter, marking the highest number recorded in the past year. Notably, ALGO transactions increased by 43% QoQ.
Messari further suggests that the rise in transactions can be attributed to the popularity of sticky applications like Lofty.ai, which boasted over 7,000 monthly active users, and TravelX, which issued over 2 million NFT plane tickets, with over 1 million issued in Q4 alone.
Decrease In Staked ALGO
Despite growth in key metrics, the report highlighted a decline in the amount of staked ALGO during Q4, with a 49% year-on-year (YoY) decrease. Messari attributed this decline to the reduction in rewards per governance period.
The diminishing rewards indicate a preference among users to utilize the native asset for transactions rather than committing it to governance. This is further supported by the notable 58% QoQ increase in transactions on the Algorand network.
Similarly, Algorand’s stablecoin market cap experienced a steady decline throughout the year, with a QoQ decrease of 43% and a YoY decrease of 74%.
Notably, Tether’s USDT stablecoin experienced a more severe fall on Algorand, with over 0 million withdrawn in Q3. However, Quantoz launched EURD on Algorand, issuing over 1 million euro-backed tokens in Q4, contributing to 1.4% of the stablecoin market cap on the platform.
Despite previous declines, Algorand’s decentralized finance (DeFi) total value locked (TVL) witnessed a significant growth of 109% in Q4 2023.
The platform’s DeFi ecosystem rebounded from a recent downturn, reaching its second-highest level in the past year, with a 12% YoY increase. Notably, Folks Finance experienced substantial growth, doubling its market share value from 55% to 58%, while Pact and Tinyman accounted for approximately 14% of each of the DeFi TVL market share in Q4.
As of the latest update, the ALGO token is currently trading at .1753. It has experienced significant declines across various time frames, with notable decreases of 8.7%, 12.4%, and 18.5% in the past fourteen days, thirty days, and one year, respectively.
Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com
ETF Or Halving: Analyst Doubles Down On Bullish Year For Bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) began 2024 on a positive note gaining by 3.18% in the first week of the year, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The premier cryptocurrency is expected to herald in a bull crypto season, with many investors expecting immediate approval of Bitcoin spot ETF proposals by various asset managers.
However, regardless of the decision of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the next few days, crypto analyst Ali Martinez believes Bitcoin is still poised for massive gains in 2024 as there is another bullish factor in play.
Bullish 2024 For Bitcoin With Or Without ETF Approval – Analyst
In an X post on January 6, Martinez expressed much optimism about Bitcoin’s potential price performance in 2024. He stated that irrespective of developments in the Bitcoin spot ETF saga, BTC is still set for major price surges due to another bullish narrative – namely, the Bitcoin Halving.
To explain, the Bitcoin Halving is an event in which the block rewards for miners are reduced by 50%. It happens every four years, with the first occurrence being in 2012. The halving event causes a reduction in BTC supply in comparison to demand, causing scarcity which leads to a price increase.
Whatever happens with the #Bitcoin ETF, remember we have another bullish narrative this year: The $BTC Halving!
It has historically been a catalyst for major price surges. Just take a look at the percentage increases in #BTC price following past halvings.
pic.twitter.com/FF1F99l34c
— Ali (@ali_charts) January 5, 2024
Martinez highlighted this fact stating that historically, there has been a significant increase in Bitcoin’s price following past halvings. When the first halving occurred on November 28, 2012, BTC was trading at around . In the next year, the token had attained a new price of ,000.
A similar phenomenon was noted after the second halving on July 9, 2016, at which Bitcoin was valued at 0. However, By December 2017, BTC had surged to an all-time high of ,700. The third halving event took place in May 2020, with Bitcoin being traded at ,821. By November 2021, BTC had surged by 700%, attaining its current all-time high of ,783.
Based on this price history, Martinez believes that BTC investors are well placed to reap large profits in the coming months as the next Bitcoin halving is set for April 2024. He postulates that these cyclical gains should remain constant, notwithstanding the SEC’s approval for Bitcoin spot ETF or not.
BTC Price Overview
At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at ,665, experiencing a slight decline of – 0.30% in the last 24 hours. On a larger scale, the leading cryptocurrency has demonstrated resilience over the past seven days, posting a noteworthy gain of 4.07%.
Over the last year, BTC’s performance has been remarkable, witnessing a substantial surge of 159.94%. However, amidst market fluctuations, there is a noticeable dip in daily trading volume, down by 22.25%, which is currently valued at .8 billion.
Robert Kiyosaki Doubles Down on Biggest Crash Prediction — ‘No Time to Play Russian Roulette With Your Life’
Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki has warned that the biggest crash in history may be starting. Emphasizing that the U.S. banking system is bankrupt, he warned that the S&P 500 will be next to collapse, which will “toast millions” of U.S. retirement plans. There’s “no time to play Russian Roulette with your life,” he stressed.
‘No Time to Play Russian Roulette With Your Life’
The author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, has doubled down on his greatest crash warning. Rich Dad Poor Dad is a 1997 book co-authored by Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. It has been on the New York Times Best Seller List for over six years. More than 32 million copies of the book have been sold in over 51 languages across more than 109 countries.
He wrote on social media X Sunday that bank credit just sold off like in 2008. “This may be the start of the biggest crash in history,” he warned, cautioning that there’s “no time to play Russian Roulette with your life.”
In a follow–up post on X, Kiyosaki said he wants to thank people who laughed at him for recommending his followers to buy and save silver since 2010. “It’s not easy being Paul Revere or Chicken Little warning people the U.S. government is stealing our wealth viz our money. Yet laugh all you want. It’s still not too late,” he wrote, adding:
Our banking system is bankrupt. Buy gold, silver, bitcoin while you still can.
The famous author predicted that once you buy gold, silver, and bitcoin, “your friends and family will laugh at you.” However, he emphasized: “Laugh all you want into a global banking crisis. Please remember my warning in Rich Dad Poor Dad published in 1997 predicting ‘Savers are losers’ and ‘Your home is not an asset’ which came true in 2008. People are still laughing at those 1997 predictions.” Kiyosaki concluded:
Watch for my next warning. The S&P is next which will toast millions of 401ks and IRAs [retirement plans].
The renowned author has repeatedly warned about an upcoming crash. Earlier this month, he said the next crash may turn into a depression. He also cautioned about a giant market collapse, another war, and “really hard times ahead” for millions. In November, he urged investors to get into bitcoin now before it’s too late.
What do you think about the warnings by Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki? Let us know in the comments section below.