Bitcoin price is still more than 10% away from the highs set last month, and bulls have been struggling to regain the powerful momentum they had on the way up. However, while price action is feigning signs of being exhausted, blockchain data shows that growth in actual Bitcoin adoption is still on a steady, parabolic incline and is nowhere close to peak levels historically.

According to a top cryptocurrency market researcher, this suggests the current uptrend has nowhere near concluded, and a new record in a key metric will be reached before it is all said and done.

Blockchain Data Shows When Retail Arrived, User Adoption In Action

As Bitcoin price action soars, the cryptocurrency making headlines and becoming the subject of water cooler talk and online chatter once again, has also lured new users to the technology en masse.

RELATED READING | “WONDERFUL” SHARK TANK INVESTOR SHIFTS PORTION OF PORTFOLIO TO BITCOIN AND ETHEREUM

Technically, Bitcoin’s current uptrend has been the most powerful in its history, but fundamentally, as healthy as things are, it hasn’t reached the user growth rates seen at the last major peak.

On-chain data shows user growth hasn't peaked yet, compared to last cycle | Source: glassnode

According to data shared from glassnode by crypto analyst and Bitcoin researcher Willy Woo, the 365-day net growth moving average of Bitcoin “entities” or users, hasn’t reached the same highs as 2017.

Until user adoption catches up with the former peak set back then, Woo says the top is still a far ways off.

Bitcoin Adoption Rate Suggests Trend Is “Just Warming Up”

Woo not only expects the current cycle to reach that previous growth rate, but exceed it. Which is why he claims the current “bull market is just warming up.”

Retail, as Woo points out as arriving in January, suggests the second-phase of the crypto market uptrend has begun according to Dow Theory. The public participation phase can last for some time, but eventually things get over extended and correct.

How far does the leading cryptocurrency go from here? | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Before that happens, however, the leading cryptocurrency by market cap is expected to reach prices of $100,000 or more per coin. If price discovery has already taken each coin to a price of more than $50,000 each and the trend is just “warming up” as Woo claims, how far do things actually go?

RELATED READING | FRACTAL FROM LAST BULL RUN SAYS BITCOIN WILL HIT $100K BY MAY

No one knows for sure, but Woo’s user adoption metric could be a key tool in timing when to exit any positions in the cryptocurrency, or to consider the trend as changed and to start turning strategies toward shorting bounces instead of buying the dip.

Featured image from Deposit Photos, Charts from TradingView.com

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Source: https://bitcoinist.com/this-bitcoin-metric-shows-just-how-far-away-the-top-could-be/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=this-bitcoin-metric-shows-just-how-far-away-the-top-could-be

Regulatory action against cryptocurrencies has always had an impact on markets, and that will be the case for the foreseeable future too.  Or, as MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor puts it, over the next decade, “regulatory FUD,” would be the most “logical challenge” for investors in the crypto-community. 

With Bitcoin becoming more popular, officials have begun calling for global regulations to monitor the asset. This includes U.S Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen who thinks cryptocurrencies facilitate illicit financing. In fact, she wants to examine ways to curtail their use in order to prevent anti-money laundering through Bitcoin. 

Meanwhile, the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission is also taking a strict approach. To date, it has not approved the many crypto-tracking ETFs proposed by investment firms, with New York-based fund manager VanEck applying for registration of its upcoming Bitcoin Trust with the SEC in December 2020. 

This was a month after VanEck listed a Bitcoin-focused exchange-traded note on Germany’s Deutsche Borse Xetra exchange.

Does this indicate that regions outside the USA have taken positive steps? For instance, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) mandates that citizens in E.U member states do not need to pay value-added tax for gains on crypto-investments. Across the region, government agencies in Swiss Cantons of Zug accept digital assets as a means of payment too. 

Post-Brexit, UK’s HM’s Treasury has proposed a detailed regulatory approach to digital assets and stablecoins for 2021. The British government wanted to “ensure its regulatory framework is equipped to harness the benefits of new technologies, supporting innovation and competition, while mitigating risks to consumers and stability.”

In fact, the U.K’s FCA recently detailed the nation’s approach to the Fintech sector, based on the recommendations of Ron Kalifa who urged authorities to set up a Digital Economy taskforce. In this report, Kalifa reasoned that the U.K could become a global center “for the issuance, clearing, settlement, trading, and exchange of crypto and digital assets.”

And yet, it remains to be seen whether the U.S Treasury Department will attempt to take similar steps. 

Ripple effect

The U.S has never been candid about regulating cryptocurrencies. At least, this is what heads of crypto-focused companies believe. In fact, Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, even considered moving the company’s headquarters to London over the lack of clear regulations on cryptocurrencies in the United States.  

The CEO had previously called the state of U.S regulations on crypto “unfortunate.” He emphasized the lack of a single national regulatory framework, something that was putting U.S companies, such as Ripple itself, at a disadvantage. According to Garlinghouse, Ripple has been yearning for a “level playing field” 

Now, some argue that U.S regulators clarify their laws on a case-to-case basis. This could not be more true in the Ripple v. SEC case, which could result in a clear definition of cryptocurrencies, and whether XRP, in particular, is a security or not. 

While Ripple itself maintains that XRP is not a security, the lawsuit inspired SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce to claim that U.S federal agencies are not aligned in their views, stating,  

“…We have this very open-ended category called an ‘investment contract…So something might be characterized as one thing by another agency, yet still be a security under our rules, and that can be frustrating for people.”

She added,

“That’s why I have called for more clarity, because I actually think it can be difficult to determine whether something fits within the security bucket or not, and we could do more to provide some guideposts for what that would be.”

In a nutshell, Ripple executives claim that XRP does not meet the Howey test, as opposed to the SEC’s allegations that it does and is, therefore, a security. Ripple claims that it does not enter into investment contracts with XRP buyers, who apparently do not receive the company’s revenues. In fact, the laws of the U.K, Singapore, and Japan, deem XRP as a currency.

Coinbase’s dilemma

Crypto-firms have their own separate demands from regulators, with Coinbase also coming to the fore. The leading exchange, which is registered as a Money Services Business with the FinCEN, recently published a “transparency report.” This showed 1,914 “legitimate government” requests it received in 2020 that mainly came in the form of subpoenas and sometimes included search warrants and court orders. Agencies in the U.S alone sent a bulk of it with 1,113 requests or 60% of the total. 

Although, the Coinbase team noted that the exchange had an “obligation to respond” since the requests were “valid under financial regulations and other applicable laws,” the exchange made an interesting statement in this regard and said, 

“Yet we do not hesitate to push back where appropriate, even when it is inconvenient or costly to do so.” 

On 5 January 2021, Coinbase submitted “formal comments” to U.S Treasury’s FINCEN that highlighted their concerns about new regulations on user-controlled wallets proposed right before the new year began. Citing it as “unreasonable proposed crypto regulations,” Coinbase alleged that Treasury’s proposed rule would have a significant impact on users’ privacy.

With Coinbase going public soon, regulators may call for more scrutiny, keeping such companies in mind. This could initiate standards for crypto-exchanges such as collecting and reporting data, which, in turn, could lead to imposing taxes. However, Coinbase seems to welcome at least some regulations as it said in its IPO prospectus, 

If the world economy ran on a common set of standards, that could not be manipulated by any company or country, the world would be a more fair and free place, and human progress would accelerate.

A cause for unnecessary friction?

Meanwhile, FINCEN’s proposals have influenced another prominent voice in the crypto-economy, Jack Dorsey, to state his rather unhappy views. The CEO of Square and Twitter believes that upon enacting the rule, his firm would face unnecessary friction from investors. He argued, 

“The burdensome information collection and reporting requirements [from Treasury] deprive US companies like Square of the chance to compete on a level playing field to enable cryptocurrency as a tool of economic empowerment.”

“Delays in modernizing old regulations, or issuance of new regulations that are not risk-based […] creates a drag on innovation, economic growth, and American competitiveness. “

Dorsey also alleged that the proposal would diminish FinCEN’s responsibility to protect the financial system. However, according to him, FinCEN “has an opportunity to lead” with regulations that “support American-grown innovation.”

Even Argo Blockchain PLC, a mining company has similar expectations. Peter Wall, CEO of the mining firm that is up 1,400% in the past year, said,

“Like any sector, there will be a dance with regulators, a push-and-pull. We think some guardrails are good.”

What next?

Ergo, it wouldn’t be surprising if “tensions between innovation and regulations” persist, as noted by former Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Timothy Massad who said,

“The basic, overarching issue is that digital asset innovation has outpaced our regulatory framework…Regulation won’t stop innovation…unless it’s done badly.”

Meanwhile, the outlook for regulations in the U.S remains uncertain, but perhaps a light-handed approach could provide companies the reassurances they seek. Such an environment may even attract more institutional investors and benefit the overall market.

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Source: https://ambcrypto.com/heres-the-one-thing-ceos-of-ripple-coinbase-and-square-all-agree-on

Developers for Dogecoin (DOGE), the internet and Elon Musk’s favorite “meme coin,” have announced an update for the project that should speed up the protocol’s sync speed. 

According to an announcement made on Monday (March 1), developers have released a new version of Dogecoin Core that includes performance improvements for the protocol. The Reddit post claims the update significantly improves upon the synchronization speed for nodes uploading blocks. 

The post says: 

“Significantly improves the speed at which a node can upload blocks, by removing expensive integrity checks that were performed each time a block is sent to another node. When a block is received and during rescans of the locally stored blockchain, the checks are still performed.“

This update also reduces the default time transactions are cached in the mempool from 336 hours to 24 hours. 

According to a report by CoinDesk, the latest upgrade represents the first significant update for DOGE since July 2019.

The update follows a wave of backlash for the meme coin. Cryptocurrency community members roundly criticized DOGE after its growing popularity with Elon Musk and internet celebrities led to the coin skyrocketing in price. 

Musk took a step back from supporting the coin after users pointed out DOGE’s top-heavy holdings and lack of substantial updates.

Featured Image Credit: Photo via Pixabay.com

The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.

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Source: https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2021/03/dogecoin-doge-developers-announce-update-for-internets-favorite-meme-cryptocurrency/