5 Things You Need To Know About The Crypto Market This Week

[TL; DR]

Continuing from the previous week’s bullish momentum, the cryptocurrency market has hoisted itself out of the former bear market and is enduring a sharp upwards swing marketwide. With green candlesticks illuminating the market as scores of assets in the top 100 begin to regenerate value and garner positive investor sentiments, the market appears to be nearing the potential of a full bull market. With this positive market sentiment forming, the Bank of Thailand have announced that they will allow for digital banks to overhaul their banking space by 2025, signposting that adoption is rapidly evolving. Similarly, TUMA (Texas M&A Business School) has announced that they will be offering a BTC-focused course to provide higher education pertaining to blockchain. In light of the bear market, SHIB also appears to be on the brink of price explosion, with their burn rate rapidly accelerating.

However, in spite of all this good news, it has also been revealed that Alameda lost one million dollars in liquidations in shocking new reports.

BTC Hits $20k – Is A Bull Market Pending?

In recent weeks, BTC has been accelerating in value, pushing through long-established resistance zones and now exploding back into the lower $20k region. This bullish momentum has unsurprisingly impacted the remainder of the market, with a handful of assets in the top 10 climbing up by over 20% in the past week. As Bitcoin pushed towards $21,000, ETH followed in tow, climbing by an impressive 9% in the past day alone. Similarly, SOL, MATIC, DOGE, ADA, BNB, and XRP all climbed by 71%, 21.92%, 18.58%, 20.76%, 13.36% and 13.46% respectively.

With this marketwide bullish momentum, it comes as no surprise that both retail investors and analysts alike are anticipating the onset of a bull market. This current resurgence of the blockchain industry demonstrates that investors are beginning to move past the fud and negative sentiments surrounding the infamous collapse of FTX, signalling that perhaps a new era of cryptocurrency is nigh.

Bank Of Thailand Will Allow Digital Banks By 2025

With the digital age emerging internationally at an unprecedented rate, the Bank of Thailand has now joined the dozens of other countries facilitating digital financial services from third-party providers. In a recent Bloomberg report, it was noted that the Bank of Thailand will allow digital banks to operate within Thailand by 2025. Under the ‘Consultation Paper On Virtual Bank Licensing Framework’, three primary different classifications of licenses have been revealed, with firms being able to apply for the license that fits their business and operational models later this year.

It has been reported that the Bank of Thailand will provide both regulations and supervision for virtual banks in a way comparable to those imposed on traditional commercial banks under existing licensing frameworks. Additionally, qualified applicants will be required to meet specific requirements as outlined in a statement from the bank: ‘Virtual banks should not initiate a race to the bottom through irresponsible lending, give preferential treatment to related parties, nor abuse dominant market position which will pose risks to financial stability, depositors, and consumers as a whole’.

One Of The Largest US Colleges To Offer BTC Tuition

Internationally, education surrounding blockchain has increased substantially, with many international colleges and universities now offering courses and qualifications across various facets of blockchain. The newest college to join this growing collection is one of America’s largest business schools, The Mays Business School at Texas A&M. It has been reported that the course will be titled the ‘Bitcoin Protocol’ and that it will be offered to students in both the College of Engineering and the Mays Business School when the semester starts on the 17th of January.

Associate Professor Korok Ray is among the first scholars to teach this course, which aims to teach students matters related to Bitcoin programming, as well as support them in the creation of a ‘Bitcoin library from scratch’. Considering the lack of concise and high quality cryptocurrency education has long been a barrier for entry, this new course focusing on financial literacy could begin to promote adoption on a wider scale.

SHIB Burn Rate Accelerates

Despite having been dubbed a ‘meme-coin’ and framed as a laughing stock by many, the SHIBA token has recently been subject to a substantial burning that is anticipated to rally its price to new heights. According to data published by the Shibburn tracking website, it was reported that the rate at which members of the Shib army have been disposing of their coins, by locking them up in unspendable wallets, has soared by 5,761%. This has led to the removal of 13,696,795 SHIB tokens.

The primary goal of burning SHIB tokens is to try and minimise the total circulating supply to a degree that will ensure there is a positive impact on its valuation. With the SHIB community vying to reach one cent, and potentially a dollar, this burn is an integral aspect of this mission.

Alameda Lost One Million Dollars In Liquidations

Since the decimating crash of the FTX exchange at the hands of infamous crypto CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, more and more information has been divulged by authorities in relation to his associated hedge fund, Alameda. With SBF having funneled funds through Alameda to line his own pockets and that of his teams, it appears that Alameda is now having a vast volume of its funds siphoned out and liquidated. It was reported that last night, Alameda Research lost a total of $1 million in assets, according to a report courtesy of the crypto intelligence firm Arkham.

The account initially held over 9,000 ETH, worth a whopping $10.8 million, with $20 million USDC, and $4 million DAI as collateral, with the account’s net balance totaling $15.2 million. However, the report has since revealed that the account was ‘forcibly reduced’, and that $1.2 million USDC was liquidated for 731 ETH. The account is reported to now maintain $1.1 million ETH short against $1.14 million USDC and a net balance of $300,000.