Reading time – 4 minutes.
Washington has repeatedly stated the need to regulate the stablecoin market. For this, the Ministry of Finance and the leadership of the FRS act as a united front. The day before, Janet Yellen reminded the Senate of the importance of implementing a regulatory framework for issuers of fiat-backed digital assets…
Against this background, of particular interest is the statement of the People’s Bank of China, which spoke of the need to establish total control over the market of non-fungible tokens (NFT) and the rapidly expanding ecosystem of the metaverse.
The situation with ether (ETH) also deserves close attention, because today the leading altcoin is accumulated not only by whales, but also by small investors.
Not banned, but tightly regulated?
The US Treasury, in principle, has nothing against digital currencies, including fiat-backed assets. Something like this can be interpreted yesterday’s statement by the head of this department. Nonetheless, stablecoins should be regulated, Yellen said.
According to her, it is necessary to minimize in advance the risks associated with the prospect of widespread use of tokens in the American market. In the first place, stablecoins pose a threat to the dominance of payment systems and can also undermine the economic power of regulators.
In the Senate, Treasury and Federal Reserve leaders have shown unanimity and amicably urging lawmakers to address digital currencies without delay. Jerome Powell recalled the growing inflationary risks and announced measures to stabilize the situation in the financial sector.
The Ministry of Finance supports the FATF’s efforts to increase the transparency of the crypto market. Each service that provides services for the storage and exchange of digital currencies is required to comply with anti-money laundering and investor protection laws.
Miners and software developers have not yet been affected by the authorities’ initiatives. But it is not excluded that Washington will soon deal with them.
China dreams of total control
One gets the impression that Beijing has already declared war on all segments of the blockchain industry. Miners were squeezed out of the country in May. Then the central bank banned financial structures and companies from working with digital currencies.
This week, the People’s Bank of China issued another threatening announcement. According to the head of the anti-money laundering division at the NBK, the NFT market and the meta-universes are also banned. The official recalled that digital ecosystems are not controlled by anyone. Accordingly, the government’s arsenal lacks tools to ensure the transparency of token transactions.
According to a representative of the regulator, NFTs can be used in criminal schemes, including for tax evasion and money laundering. Halyk Bank plans to tighten its supervisory regime as much as possible over all businesses that still use digital currencies.
The state will strive for total control and will monitor all transactions in the domestic market. Companies and banks that have recorded suspicious activity of clients are obliged to block such transactions.
Everybody needs ether today?
The number of investors who prefer to buy ETH on a drawdown and send coins for cold or offline storage is growing rapidly. Moreover, everyone is subject to the cumulative fashion – both whales and small investors.
According to Glassnode, the number of non-zero ETH wallets has hit an all-time high of more than 69 million. A chart from Glassnode shows that investors have activated during the November pullback.
Ether is trading at $ 4,751 today. Capitalization of the leading altcoin has risen to $ 563.306 billion (according to CoinMarketCap).
The main beneficiaries of the recent crash were the whale addresses. The Santiment report notes: Ethereum wallets holding 100,000-10 million ETH have bought 676,000 coins over the past 12 days. It is during the period when the bearish trend dominates. The volume of their purchases in 45 days amounted to 1.28 million, and in 60 days – 1.46 million ETH.
Meanwhile, CryptoQuant again points to the ongoing outflow of Ether from exchanges. Currently, less than 14% of the total altcoin supply is on the trading floors. At the beginning of 2021, the ETH exchange balance reached 21%. For 10 months, this volume has decreased by more than 7%, which strengthens the optimism of traders, sums up CryptoQuant.
The last time approximately the same exchange balance of ETH was observed 3 years ago. The bulls are inclined to conclude that ether will end 2021 at values above $ 5,000, and by the spring of 2022 it will be trading in the range of $ 10,000 to $ 15,000 per coin. Time will tell!
Sources: Glassnode, Santiment, NewsBTC, CryptoQuant, CoinTelegraph, CoinDesk
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.