GB Market Commentary - 28/06/2021

By Alex Clark

Analysts are leaning bullish again as bitcoin rebounds, building on weekend momentum. Bitcoin came just shy of $35,000 during Asian trading this morning following a bearish weekend which saw the asset slump to a Saturday low of $30,300 and the asset’s weekly candle closed as a “hammer,” which is a bullish signal indicating possible trend reversal.

On-chain signals indicate that strong hands are aggressively buying the Bitcoin dip. The amount of stablecoins held in all exchange wallets has reached an all-time-high of $17bn, suggesting that investors are getting ready to enter the crypto markets. Not only that, but in the last 30 days, long-term holders have added 579,940 BTC to their holdings, while short-term have reduced their holdings by 521,983 BTC. (a trend which can be observed in the chart in my market commentary).

A proposal has been made to change dogecoin’s fee policy. Currently, users of the network are charged a fee of 1 DOGE to transact, which disincentivizes on-chain transaction activity, whereas the new proposal will reduce average fees to just 0.01 DOGE. As well as making fees 100 times cheaper, the proposal also includes speeding up Dogecoin’s block time and increasing its block size by a factor of 10.

The Iranian government appears to be softening its stance on cryptocurrency mining after issuing permits to 30 crypto mining farms across the country. As the Chinese mining industry continues to witness hostility, Iran could be readying itself to become a host to companies exiting the Chinese market.

El Salvador is preparing to buy an estimated $135m worth of Bitcoin after announcing that adult citizens in El Salvador will receive $30 worth of Bitcoin for free after setting up their account on the government’s cryptocurrency app. If all 4.5 million adult citizens opt to receive the free Bitcoin, it will instantaneously grow the Bitcoin user network by 2.5%.

Cardano, which has secured major partnerships with Ethiopia and Tanzania, is in talks with officials in El Salvador to help digitize the country and to go beyond just legalizing Bitcoin. If such a partnership becomes official this would be monumental for Cardano and its ecosystem. But, having said that, El Salvador is facing a tough time from the IMF and World bank and thus a new deal with an altcoin won’t be an easy decision for El Salvador’s top management.

The FCA has banned Binance from advertising and conducting any regulated activities in the UK based on a review of its controls and practices to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism. This comes after Japan’s Financial Services Agency warned last week that Binance was conducting unauthorised trade in cryptocurrencies with Japanese citizens.