GB Market Commentary 07/06/2021

By Alex Clark

At the Bitcoin 2021 conference on Saturday, the president of El Salvador announced that the country’s government would declare bitcoin as legal tender, making it the first country to onboard to a non-fiat currency. This move is of particular importance given that over 70% of the active population of El Salvador are without a bank account. Following this, Paraguay has hinted that they will begin working on a big project involving Bitcoin and PayPal this week.

Both 21Shares and ETC Group will be launching crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) on the Aquis Exchange Multilateral Trading Facility for U.K. investors in mid-June.

25 accounts of influencers and media outlets on Weibo suddenly found their accounts suspended by the Chinese social media company in what appeared to be a targeted censorship effort. It appears that the suspension caused some fear over the crypto market's sentiment with Bitcoin's price dropping by over 3% immediately after the news began to circulate. Bitcoin dipped to as low as $35,300 and is now trading at $36,442.

Data from CryptoTreasuries shows that 32 companies together hold nearly $12 billion in BTC, while 11 companies hold roughly $470 million in ETH. Although not exhaustive, this gives an indication of just how much weight is being thrown behind the assets.

Asset management firm Ruffer exited the Bitcoin market in April with a little over $1.1 billion in profit for its clients from a $600 million investment it made in November last year. The firm is open to making more Bitcoin trades in the future and sees “Bitcoin emerging as an alternative safe haven asset” for institutional investors.

Blockstream and Square have joined forces to build an open-source, solar-powered Bitcoin mining facility. The project will be open and transparent which they hope will allow others to understand that a renewable mining facility in the real world is possible and that Bitcoin can accelerate the world toward a sustainable future.

Phillips Auction house have followed in the footsteps of Christies and Sothebys by allowing bidders for Banky’s “Laugh Now Panel A” to pay using cryptocurrency.

The FCA is extending the end date of the Temporary Registrations Regime (TRR) for existing cryptoasset businesses from 9 July 2021 to 31 March 2022.