Crypto Market Analysis: 24th August 2021

Crypto Market Analysis: 24th August 2021

Bitcoin has broken out above $50,000 for the first time since May this year as PayPal announces crypto buying and selling in the UK.

PayPal has trailed its launch of crypto buying and selling in the UK for some time but has today announced its intention to allow UK-based users to buy and sell crypto tokens from this week. Users will be able to hold a basket of four cryptoassets – bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin and bitcoin cash, but it is unclear as of yet whether the firm will allow users to make payments in said cryptos.

The price of BTC has been on a rapid rebound since late July in what has been a rollercoaster ride for the cryptoasset in 2021.

BTC began last week trading in the mid $46,000 range before trading down to $44,000 by Thursday. It has since staged another late-week surge, rising from a low of $44,177 to trading around $50,147 at the time of writing.

Ethereum had a similarly tumultuous week, slumping from just below $3,300 to below the $3,000 level midweek. It has since rallied however and is now trading around $3,325 – its highest level since late May this year.

Facebook’s much-trailed crypto development looks set to jump start with the launch of its ‘Novi’ digital wallet.

The social media platform has touted its move into crypto for some time now but the project has gone through various permutations, and names.

Its stable coin, now named ‘Diem’ is still in the works. But the company’s chief of financial services David Marcus said the firm was poised to launch the accompanying digital wallet, dubbed ‘Novi’.

Facebook initially launched its crypto project under the name of ‘Libra’. From the getgo, it was touted as a stable coin project that would allow people to send money around the world without the need for third-party oversight.

The project has been plagued by setbacks though, with privacy, regulatory and design issues. Initially, the token was set to be backed by a portfolio of fiat currencies, but this has since been rolled back to solely include the US Dollar.

US banking giant Wells Fargo has registered its own bitcoin fund with regulators.

Per CoinDesk, the firm’s new fund is a passive bitcoin tracker, only available to high-net-worth clients. The revelation comes in the wake of the news that JPMorgan also filed with the SEC for a bitcoin fund on Thursday.

Major institutional players are now making clear steps into crypto. JPMorgan and Wells Fargo join Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon in expanding their crypto remits for clients.

The moves reflect a developing demand for crypto from a different kind of demographic to that of more tech-savvy online exchanges. Banks in the US were only given permission to hold cryptoassets in July 2020. The expansion since then of crypto operations among the big institutions seems to have begun to gather pace.

Decentralised music streaming protocol Audius has seen its governance token surge in value after a tie-up with social media platform TikTok was announced.

TikTok opted for Audilus for the technology behind its new ‘Sounds’ library, intended to simplify the app’s music selection.

The Audilus platform’s governance token AUDIO has since surged in value, trading around $1.60 pre-announcement but reaching over $3.50. The token has however been more highly valued this year, seeing a 2021 high of $4.32.

The AUDIO token is user-staked to secure the Audilus platform. Holders receive a share of network fees, governance rights and access to artists’ tokens.

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Cryptoassets are volatile instruments that can fluctuate widely in a very short timeframe and therefore are not appropriate for all investors. Other than via CFDs, trading cryptoassets is unregulated and therefore is not supervised by any EU regulatory framework. Your capital is at risk.