Bitcoin's price surge has seen the cryptocurrency trade above $35.500, marking a new high for 2023, according to data from CoinMarketCap. This and more news in this handy daily summary so that you are always informed with the most recent events that occur within the crypto world.
Bitcoin returns to $35.000
📍Bitcoin exceeds $35.000 after Wednesday's price hike. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the price of Bitcoin is currently trading above $35.500, marking a new annual high for 2023.
Source: CoinMarketCap
With the recent rise in Bitcoin prices, the cryptocurrency has accumulated a gain of 27% in the last month and 73% in the last year. This rise comes after the purchase announced by MicroStrategy, which added another 155 bitcoins to its corporate balance sheet, with an investment of $5,3 million and listing of Invesco and Galaxy's proposed Bitcoin ETF, called the Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF, listed with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (BTCC).
In addition, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell delivered a new speech on monetary policy, keeping interest rates unchanged. According to the opinion of several experts, such as Michael James of Wedbush Securities, this speech was less hawkish than the previous ones.
Bitcoin is a safe haven asset
📍Economist Mohamed A. El-Erian, an advisor to Allianz, said that Bitcoin has become a “safe haven asset.” During an interview in the program Market Alert Speaking to CNBC’s El-Erian, he said that people are losing confidence in Treasury bonds as a safe haven asset in the current global landscape and that some of this confidence has been shifting to alternative assets like Bitcoin.
In line with this narrative, global asset manager Alliance Bernstein also said last week that Bitcoin had emerged as a safe haven asset and was consistently outperforming gold, which until now had been regarded as the ultimate safe haven asset in turbulent times.
Alliance Bernstein had published a article about Bitcoin in 2021, in which he acknowledged the qualities of the cryptocurrency, such as its transparency, censorship resistance, and financial inclusion. In said article, he also recognized the efforts of Bitcoin miners to make the blockchain network increasingly efficient and sustainable.
Meanwhile, last week, American investor and president of Duquesne Capital, Stanley Druckenmiller, admitted that he should have bought Bitcoin a long time ago.
At an investor conference in New York alongside Paul Tudor Jones, Druckenmiller acknowledged that “To be honest, I don’t have Bitcoin, but I should”During the conference, Druckenmiller compared Bitcoin to gold, saying that the cryptocurrency is now a “brand” much like the precious metal and that many young investors are becoming more familiar with the digital asset because “it’s much easier to do things with it.”
HSBC taps blockchain to modernize the gold market
📍HSBC, one of the world's largest banking and financial services groups, is modernizing the gold market using blockchain technology. HSBC has launched a tokenization platform to create tokens representing the gold stored in the bank's vault in London, according to reported Bloomberg's Anna Irrera.
HSBC's new platform allows the bank's physical gold bullion to be digitized and placed on the blockchain to optimize trading of the metal on the market.
Mark Williamson, HSBC's global head of FX and Commodities Partnerships and Propositions, said in an interview that the development of the bank's new proprietary tokenization platform will modernize one of the world's largest markets. He also noted that tokenization will open the doors of the gold market to retail investors, so they can invest directly.
According to data from the London Bullion Market Association, the city's vaults store some 698.000 gold bars, worth approximately $525.000 billion.
Hong Kong moves forward with its CBDC pilot
📍The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) recently released a report on its progress in developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The report, the authority reflects the use of e-HKD, its CBDC currency, in retail use cases such as payments, transaction settlement, and deposits, among others.
The monetary authority has been exploring the development of e-HKD for two years, considering the additional value such a digital currency could bring to modernise and optimise Hong Kong's retail payments ecosystem.
While the authority has not yet determined whether or not to issue a CBDC, in its recent report on the ongoing e-HKD pilot, it is acknowledging the innovation of new technologies.
The HKMA highlighted that its current CBDC pilot allows it to assess potential use cases for CBDCs and viable applications of such currencies, as well as setting a research precedent that will serve to strengthen the efforts of policymakers and the international community in relation to CBDCs. As reported by this media, more than 100 central banks around the world are currently evaluating the development of a CBDC digital currency.
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