January 04, 2021
- BTC Hits Over 30K During New Year’s Weekend
- Simplex, Leading Fiat-to-Crypto On-ramp Service Provider, Partners Visa to issue Debit Cards
- Japanese Internet Giant, GMO, Authorized to offer Yen and Dollar Pegged Stablecoins to Masses in New York
- India Homes World’s First Physical Crypto Bank, Aims to Have 100 Branches by 2022
BTC Hits Over 30K During New Year’s Weekend
For the first time ever, Bitcoin (BTC) hit a breakthrough of surging past $34,000 in the last new year’s weekend.
Antoni Trenchev, managing partner and co-founder of Nexo’s leading global regulated digital assets institution, stated that BTC “will be on the road to $50,000 probably in the first quarter of 2021”.
The breakthrough arrived just after BTC ended the year with a 300% surge in price, of which 50% were December gains. BTC broke a three-year-old record high of $19,793 on Nov. 30 and risen 30% (about $10,000) by the end of Dec. 31.
Mike McGlone, Bloomberg Intelligence commodity strategist, also stated that BTC has increasingly been “embraced in more global investment portfolios as holders expand beyond tech geeks and speculators”.
Despite very promising growth over the holidays, BTC remains a controversial trading asset class as it is still a thinly traded market. However, Scott Minerd, CEO of Guggenheim Investments, a global investment and financial advisory services firm, believes that BTC is bound to hit $400,000 in due time.
Source | Bloomberg
Simplex, Leading Fiat-to-Crypto On-ramp Service Provider, Partners Visa to issue Debit Cards
Simplex, a leading fiat-to-crypto on-ramp service provider, has entered into a strategic partnership with Visa to launch a debit card service. The partnership may potentially enable greater adoption of cryptocurrency for day-to-day life.
A spokesperson of Simplex clarified, “The principal membership is what enables us to roll this out to our partner network, basically giving any Simplex partner the ability to offer a crypto or fiat Visa card.”.
For the founder and CEO of Simplex, Nimrod Lehavi, the Visa collaboration is a significant step in the company’s plans to expand access to digital currencies. In October last year, Simplex introduced a Tether-to-Euro cash-out feature on its website.
Crypto debit cards remain an essential component of allowing “fiat-like convenience” to spend cryptocurrencies online or in physical store locations. Indeed, the increased use of digital currencies for microtransactions remains one of the benchmarks for crypto adoption.
Source | Cointelegraph
Japanese Internet Giant, GMO, Authorized to offer Yen and Dollar Pegged Stablecoins to Masses in New York
The New York Department of Financial Services has granted GMO, Japanese Internet Giant, a charter to operate US dollar and Yen backed stable coins in New York. New York has given the first authorization to a stable coin backed by the Japanese yen to work in the United States.
The right to grant such non-depositary charters was a contention point between state regulators such as NYDFS and national banking regulators in the United States. New York’s position as a global hub has rendered NYDFS to be the most influential state financial regulator in the United States—also one of the most violent.
According to Cointelegraph,
“GMO’s charter is as a limited liability trust company rather than a full bank, the principal difference being in authorization to handle deposits. While a stablecoin operator typically needs the ability to hold reserves of the pegged asset, GMO’s charter limits its rights to hold other kinds of deposits not central to its ability “to issue, administer, and redeem” its stable coins. “
Ken Nakamura, president and CEO of GMO, said: “We’re breaking ground with our move to issue the first regulated JPY-pegged stable coin, which many see as a safe haven asset.”
Source | Cointelegraph
India Homes World’s First Physical Crypto Bank, Aims to Have 100 Branches by 2022
Cashaa, an Indian online crypto banking platform and United Multistate Credit Co-op Society, a credit cooperative society, has entered into a joint venture, Unicas, to launch a physical crypto bank branch in Jaipur, India.
Multistate had announced plans to offer online and physical crypto banking services across its 34 locations in northern India back in October last year. Besides providing instant digital loans with cryptocurrencies as collateral, Unicas will offer users access to both fiat and crypto-asset services at the bank.
The physical crypto bank branch in Jaipur is part of an initial rollout in 14 locations across three states before the end of January 2021, according to a Cashaa blog post on Dec. 28. Unicas is looking to open 100 branches by 2022.
CEO of Cashaa, Kumar Gaurav stated,
“India is a very social and family-based country where the financial decision is made by the head of the family, which mainly lies in the age group of 40–65 years. This age group needs to see things physically before they believe in anything and that is why we decided to open a minimum of 100 branches which will establish trust about crypto but also educate and [create] awareness about crypto.”
Gaurav further described the JV as a key development toward establishing a “digital India.” It further reveals that Unicas will showcase the convenience and security associated with blockchain adoption.
Source | Cointelegraph
