Weekly recap: crypto market crash, China vs miners

Crypto market in numbers

According to CoinMarketCap, the total cryptocurrency market capitalisation plummeted to $1.26 trillion on 23rd May 2021 from a new all-time high of $2.56 trillion set a week earlier. Thus, the capitalisation decreased by 51% over the week.

Glassnode estimates bitcoin holders’ net losses at $2.56 billion for 19th May, which is 185% more than the previous largest loss recorded during the March 2020 crash. The latest price drop resulted in 24% of bitcoin wallets turning out to be unprofitable.

All Time High

Gainers of the week (20th-26th May 2021)

Losers of the week (20th-26th May 2021)

The most traded coins (20th-26th May 2021)

TOP crypto market driving factors

Bitcoin and the overall crypto market

▼ 07-14.05.2021 – CoinShares has recorded the largest-ever net outflow from Bitcoin investment products.

▼18.05.2021 – Glassnode: 22,900 bitcoins have been transferred to crypto exchanges in one hour.
▼19.05.2021 – MicroStrategy purchased an additional 229 BTC for $10 million.

▼19.05.2021 – Glassnode: 11,056 BTC have been withdrawn from OTC wallets on 19th and 20th May, which is the largest transfer since 31st December 2020.

▲ 19.05.2021 – Glassnode: The total amount of bitcoins on cryptocurrency exchanges has reached a low over the last four months.

▲ 20.05.2021 – FalconX, Genesis Global Trading, and Alameda Research trading companies announced the purchase of bitcoin.

▲ 20.05.2021 – Elon Musk tweeted about the scalability of Bitcoin.

▼21.05.2021 – Liu He, Vice Premier of the PRC State Council, called for a crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading.

▲ 24.05.2021 – Elon Musk tweeted that in a battle between fiat and crypto, he supports the latter.

▲ 24.05.2021– Goldman Sachs has recognised cryptocurrencies as an asset class in their new report.

▼ 24.05.2021 – Xinhua News Agency has criticised bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining.

▲ 24 – 27.05.2021 – ConsenSys 2021, a global conference dedicated to cryptocurrency and blockchain, is held.

▲ 24.05.2021 – Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates founder, who previously criticised Bitcoin, spoke about his investments in BTC.

▲ 24.05.2021 – Elon Musk, together with Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor and leading Bitcoin miners from Canada and the United States, discussed renewable energy use. They agreed on forming a Bitcoin Mining Council.

▲ 25.05.2021 – The Global IT company purchased bitcoin for $500,000 during the first quarter of 2021.

▼ 25.05.2021 – Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China, has released a detailed plan to crack down on Bitcoin mining in the region.

▼ 25.05.2021 – Glassnode: investors have started withdrawing bitcoin from crypto exchanges again.

Ethereum (ETH)

▼18-19.05.2021 – Santiment marked that the amount of ETH whale transactions greater than $100,000 in value ballooned to levels not seen since January 2018.

▼ 19.05.2021 – Nansen: more than 400,000 ETH have been transferred to cryptocurrency exchanges. This is the largest transfer ever.

▲ 19.05.2021 – Ark Invest has invested $21 million in Grayscale Ethereum Trust.

▲ 20.05.2021 – Developers are getting ready to release Altair, the first Ethereum 2.0 hard fork, in July or August 2021.

▼ 21.05.2021 – The Ethereum Foundation transferred a large amount of ETH to the
exchange on 17th May, just before the market crash.

▲ 21.05.2021 – Vitalik Buterin gave an interview on CNN.

▼ 23.05.2021 – Nansen: more than 300,000 ETH have been transferred to cryptocurrency
exchanges. Second largest transfer ever.

▲ 24.05.2021 – In his article, Vitalik Buterin has promised that the Ethereum blockchain will be able to process 1 million transactions per second in the near future.

▲ 24.05.2021 – Ethereum 2.0 developer Carl Beekhuizen: The energy needs for maintaining the Ethereum blockchain can be reduced by as much as 2,000 times after transitioning to Proof of Stake (PoS).

▲24.05.2021 – In May, the total transaction volume on the Ethereum blockchain exceeded $500 billion for the first time.

▲25.05.2021 – Co-founder of Guggenheim Partners said that Ethereum “has much higher utility through smart contracts.”

▲25.05.2021 – In May, Ethereum miners’ revenue reached a record $2 billion.

Ripple (XRP)

▲ 19.05.2021 – The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) has gained access to the global payment network RippleNet.

▼ 20.05.2021 – S.D.N.Y. has allowed the SEC to ask foreign regulators for information on Ripple and XRP.

▼24.05.2021 – SEC has brought new arguments in favor of XRP being a security.

▲ 25.05.2021 – Ripple developers announced the integration of NFT support.

Cardano

▲ 19.05.2021 – Cardano announced its readiness to test its token migration tool that would allow ERC20 tokens to run on their blockchain.

▲ 22.05.2021 – Jillian Michaels, one of the world’s leading fitness experts, has invested in Cardano.

▲ 24.05.2021 – CoinShares: Cardano investment products attracted $10 million worth of inflows from institutions over the past week. For all of 2020, only $24 million was invested.

Dogecoin (DOGE)

▲20.05.2021 – Elon Musk has tweeted about Dogecoin again and attached an image.

▲ 20.05.2021 – Musk has promised not to sell Dogecoin.

▲ 22.05.2021 – Jillian Michaels, one of the world’s leading fitness experts, has invested in DOGE.

▼ 05.24.2021 – In his article, Vitalik Buterin has outlined Dogecoin scalability issues that developers are likely to face.

▲ 25.05.2021 – Musk has called on the cryptocurrency community to help develop Dogecoin.

▲ 25.05.2021– Musk replied on Twitter: “Doge has dogs & memes, whereas the others do not.”

Monero (XMR)

▲ 21.05.2021 – Reddit has reported that users are unable to withdraw Monero from crypto exchanges. A liquidity crisis is expected.

Harmony (ONE)

▲ 19.05.2021 – Harmony blockchain developers have managed to achieve full compatibility with EVM and other Ethereum network tools.

Chilliz (CHZ)

▲ 19.05.2021 – Formula 1 teams Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo are launching fan tokens on the popular Socios platform provided by Chiliz.

Crypto market trends

Mining

? China extends its cryptocurrency ban. Last week, the PRC authorities announced that the country will crack down on financial institutions conducting cryptocurrency services, including registration, trading, clearing and settlement. This ban has also affected the activities of the local miners. Looks like Beijing has created the most favorable conditions for the promotion and adoption of the digital yuan by eliminating its possible competitors.

? Miners are preparing to retreat from China to other countries. Among possible moving points are Canada, Singapore, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, African countries and Iran, which offer one of the world’s cheapest electricity rates.

Since 2019, there has been talk that the United States will oust China from the leading positions in mining. Recently, the BIT Mining company has invested in new BTC mining farms in the United States.

? Besides Elon Musk, the sustainability of bitcoin mining became a concern for regulators and non-governmental organisations, including the European Parliament and Greenpeace. The environmental group has announced that it no longer accepts donations in BTC.

Lots of mining companies are looking for ways to make their production more environmentally friendly. For instance, American miners are considering the possibility of using associated petroleum gas which can be converted into electricity.

The cryptocurrency mining company, Marathon Digital Holdings, has promised the creation of a large bitcoin data center that will be ‘70% carbon neutral’. This trend was also supported by the asset management firm One River, which filed for a carbon-neutral BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Ethereum is set to slash its energy consumption by 99.95% within months. Vitalik Buterin admits “if bitcoin sticks with its technology exactly as it is today” there’s “a big risk it will get left behind”.

Regulation

? The Treasury Department announced that it is taking steps to crack down on cryptocurrency markets and transactions, and said it will require any transfer worth $10,000 or more to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service. Also, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) may set up an interagency policy team to examine the cryptocurrency sector.

? The Central Bank of Kuwait issued a warning regarding Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and other crypto investments, while the Bank of Canada said that the volatility in cryptocurrency assets is an emerging vulnerability to the country’s financial system. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank’s financial stability report states that risks to financial institutions from crypto assets ‘appear limited’.

Cryptocurrency exchanges operating in Hong Kong will have to be licensed by the city’s markets regulator and will only be allowed to provide services to professional investors.

? Members of the State Duma are now working on amendments to permit the use of cryptocurrency as a contractual means of payment.

? A member of the British parliament has called on Her Majesty’s Treasury to create a safe space for crypto businesses to innovate.

? The Indian government suggested that it will not impose an outright ban on cryptocurrency in the country and is likely to appoint a panel of experts to explore how virtual coins can be regulated.

CBDC vs Stablecoins

? The Central Bank of the Russia plans to develop a prototype of the digital ruble by the end of 2021. VTB Bank, Russian Standard Bank, and Promsvyazbank are among the financial institutions to test the new asset.

? South Korea and South Africa are also switching to digital currency testing. Indonesia announced plans to release its own CBDCs as well.

? The United States is also intensifying the development of the digital dollar. The Federal Reserve announced it is releasing a research paper this summer that explores a move to a CBDC. According to Fed Governor Lael Brainard, the leading CBDC projects could have a ‘significant effect’ on the global financial system, urging the U.S. to ensure it plays a leading role in the burgeoning CBDC ecosystem.

? The U.S. Federal Reserve chief, Jerome Powell, turned up the heat on cryptocurrencies, saying they pose risks to financial stability. Against this background, the sector of USD pegged cryptocurrencies has already exceeded $100 billion. The capitalisation of Tether (USDT) has hit $60 billion, USD Coin (USDC) – $20 billion. At the same time, according to The Block, the share of Tether in the sector is decreasing: from the beginning of the year, it decreased from 75% to 63%. The main competitor remains USDC with a current share of 20%.

That’s all for this week! Follow EXMO on YouTube, Twitter and Telegram to stay tuned to the main events and trends in the crypto market.