The events that are playing out now signal that adoption will only increase, indicating a rising Bitcoin price.
Last Week In Bitcoin is a series that discusses the previous week’s events in the Bitcoin industry and covers all the major news and analysis.
Summary of the week
In what was actually a positive week for Bitcoin, we saw dips and sideways movements. Even so, El Salvador continues to make headlines as the country continues to buy the dip and citizens continue to queue for “coins”.
With the global economy hit by scandals, soaring inflation, and an impending recession in some of the leading nations, it seems almost inevitable that investors large and small alike will amass bitcoin as a hedge against economic turmoil, which it sure will send the price up.
The bullish news despite the dip
Last Friday, US President Joe Biden said that if the US hits its debt ceiling towards the end of October, the US could enter an economic recession, which would likely lead investors to invest in Bitcoin when the US dollar is in gets into a state of economic turmoil.
This week started on an optimistic note when El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced on Twitter that the country had bought the dip and bought another 150 BTC, bringing its total holdings to 700 BTC. He even gave some “advice from the president” by tweeting, “You can never beat you if you buy the dip.”
Shortly afterwards, Bukele stated that the country’s Chivo bitcoin wallet had over 1.6 million users, just two weeks after El Salvador officially introduced Bitcoin as legal tender. This means that now over 25% of the total population of the Central American nation use the Chivo wallet. In the days that followed, images of people queuing to use some of the 200 Bitcoin ATMs installed in El Salvador spread across social media, confirming the country’s growing appetite for Bitcoin, although they may have been the source of the rush that could be paid out in USD.
On Tuesday, BTG Pactual, an $ 80 billion investment bank in Brazil, launched a crypto trading app, making it the first major financial institution in Brazil to offer customers direct exposure to Bitcoin. The bank has a history of setting precedents in Brazil. In April 2021, BTG Pactual also became the first Brazilian investment bank to set up a Bitcoin and crypto fund.
Also on Tuesday, the controversial trading app Robinhood announced that it was testing Bitcoin withdrawals along with a new digital wallet to meet increased user demand. No fixed date has been set for the official launch of the feature for its users. Later in the day, mining giant Genesis Digital Assets announced that it had raised $ 431 million in funding to expand its mining operations in the United States and Scandinavia. The company raised $ 125 million in funding just two months prior to the announcement.
On Wednesday, Dutch soccer giant PSV announced it was holding an unknown amount of Bitcoin on its balance sheet after a sponsorship deal with digital exchange Anycoin resulted in the team being paid in Bitcoin. “The opportunities and the future that the world of cryptocurrency offers are very promising,” said Frans Janssen, Commercial Director of PSV. Also on Wednesday it was announced that the government of the United Arab Emirates will allow tax-free Bitcoin trading in certain economic zones of its capital Dubai.
On Thursday, Twitter “broke” the internet when it partnered with Strike to launch a Bitcoin tip service on the social network. Although initially only available to iOS users, the company hopes in a statement to roll out the feature to desktop and Android users in the coming weeks.
Also on Thursday, the University of Wyoming confirmed that it was mining Bitcoin. It did after Wyoming lawmakers announced in April that they had earmarked $ 4 million in crypto staking that would be administered by the University of Wyoming.
When news of the recent Chinese crackdown on cryptocurrency trading finally broke, US Senator Pat Toomey said that China’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin was a “huge economic opportunity for the US.”
Bearish news that adds to the dip
Bitcoin has seen ups and downs in the last week as global markets were hit by news of the impending collapse of Evergrande, a $ 300 billion real estate giant based in China. Although Bitcoin briefly fell below the $ 40,000 mark, the price rebounded quickly – through Friday.
On Friday, the Chinese government cracked down on cryptocurrencies again, saying that trading in cryptocurrencies in the country was illegal. This is not news as China has consistently shared the same opinion since 2012. The markets reacted negatively, despite news that Twitter is incorporating Bitcoin tips on the platform.
verdict
The news that Twitter was finally rolling out bitcoin tips in partnership with Strike should have sent Bitcoin on a decent run, but the Chinese government couldn’t miss an opportunity to spread FUD despite the impending collapse of real estate giant Evergrande, which makes up nearly 2 let% of the country’s GDP.
What was interesting was what US President Joe Biden said last Friday as the week came to an end. Biden said that should the US hit its debt ceiling by the end of next month, the US would enter an economic recession. Who would have thought that continuous money printing wouldn’t come back to haunt them during a global pandemic?
It looks very likely that the US will actually enter a recession that will likely push more large institutional investors and public corporations to adopt Bitcoin as a hedge against economic turmoil. It’s likely the catalyst sending Bitcoin on an uptrend that hits the low six-digit mark and breaks many analysts’ predictions of a Bitcoin price of more than $ 100,000.
Although an entire country introduced Bitcoin this year, nearly countless companies put Bitcoin on their balance sheets, and billionaire investors praise it every week, Bitcoin has nowhere near reached its highs in May, let alone the highs we expect in the coming year. But just as the 2008 financial crisis inspired Satoshi to invent Bitcoin, the growing crises around the world are likely to push Bitcoin to big new highs …
This is a guest post by Dion Guillaume. The opinions expressed are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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