Headwinds from China collide with optimism in Latin America
Bitcoin is bouncing towards $35K, after a storm of volatility sent the crypto asset down to its lowest point in nearly five months.
While enforcement in China and a Bitcoin heist in South Africa have added to the uncertainty pushing prices lower, the market is being supported tailwinds from the West: El Salvador president Nayib Bukele has revealed plans for a Bitcoin airdrop, and Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego has said his bank is working to be the first in Mexico to accept Bitcoin.
On this mixed news, Ethereum has risen back to almost $2K, TRON and Cardano are celebrating double-digit gains, and Dogecoin has surged 40% as Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey make plans to discuss Bitcoin.
This Week’s Highlights
- eToro lists Algorand, Polygon, and Basic Attention Token
- El Salvador plans airdrop
- A16z launch world’s largest crypto fund
eToro lists Algorand, Polygon, and Basic Attention Token
eToro is listing Algorand (ALGO), Polygon (MATIC), and Basic Attention Token (BAT), taking the total number of cryptoassets available to 26.*
Algorand is the world’s first pure proof-of-stake crypto, and was founded by Turing award winner Silvio Micali. Polygon is a leading layer 2 network for Ethereum, and Basic Attention Token is used to incentivize users of the Brave web browser.
El Salvador plans airdrop
Bitcoin was given a midweek boost by news from El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele announced that crypto will become legal tender on September 7th. He also promised citizens $30 in Bitcoin for signing up to the local ‘Chivo’ wallet.
With a population of around 6.4 million, the sudden influx of El Salvadoran Bitcoin users could increase the user base by 2.5%, according to analyst Willy Woo. Furthermore, it could potentially add more than $100 million in buying pressure as El Salvador’s government purchases the Bitcoin needed for distribution.
A16z launch world’s largest crypto fund
Despite price volatility, the cryptoasset market continues to attract investment from big players.
Renowned Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz announced last week that it has raised $2.2 billion to create the largest crypto fund ever. This will invest in both seed-stage projects and later-stage networks.
“We believe that the next wave of computing innovation will be driven by crypto,” wrote the firm in a blog post, claiming they are “more excited today about what comes next than ever before.”
The week ahead
After several weeks of consolidation, traders are likely to be expecting more sideways action. Though this could be disrupted by a break above $35K showing bullish momentum, or a bearish drop through the recent low just above $28K.
For Ethereum, volatility could be catalyzed by an upcoming upgrade. The highly-anticipated EIP 1559 proposal went live this week on Ropsten testnet—an alternative blockchain for testing—and a date for the upgrade to hit mainnet is expected to be set soon.
* 24 in the US