Bitcoin prices surge as the US formally recognizes crypto opportunity and explores a US dollar CBDC.
After a period of relatively narrow trading, Bitcoin prices took off last week.
Bitcoin climbed above $42,000 for the first time in weeks on the heels of President Biden’s executive order requiring various branches of the US government to produce reports studying, among other things, risk, regulation, competitiveness, and crypto opportunity in the US market.
Agencies were also tasked with investigating the viability of a US dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Analysts and crypto bulls welcomed the action, viewing it as long-overdue recognition of the fundamental role cryptocurrencies will play in the future of global financial systems – in short, acknowledgement crypto is here to stay.
“The growth in cryptocurrencies has been explosive,” American Deputy National Security Adviser for Economics Daleep Singh tells CNN.
The crypto market reacted as one might imagine, with coins, stocks, and funds all jumping on the news. And while gains were largely reversed later in the day, experts say regulatory clarity is a step in the right direction towards stability and mass adoption of digital assets.
Cryptocurrencies, and most assets related to crypto, enjoyed a much-needed price boost after getting what amounts to a resounding thumbs up from President Biden. The news actually came as a bit of a surprise to many experts who were expecting a Presidential crackdown on crypto.
Prices of crypto coins, stocks, and funds jumped as much as 13.5% Wednesday.
Bitcoin wallet Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN) traded up as high as $178.97, a single-day gain of nearly 10% during Wednesday’s session.
Crypto mining company Riot Blockchain Inc. (RIOT) shares climbed 11.5% to top $178, while Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. (MARA) saw prices surge 13.5% to close the day at $25.68. The share price of fellow crypto miners Hut 8 Mining traded up 11.2% at $5.64.
Taking a look at funds, fan favourites ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF BITO, Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF BTF, and VanEck Bitcoin Strategy ETF XBTF all rocketed over 10%.
Late week trading mostly reversed last Wednesday’s gains; however, this week’s long-anticipated federal rate hike has turned things around once again. After taking a dip, cryptocurrencies, crypto stocks, and funds have largely recovered losses.
Canadian companies have been at the forefront of crypto opportunity and innovation, and one company definitely worth watching is Blockchain Foundry (CSE: BCFN).
Headquartered in Toronto, BCFN develops and commercializes blockchain-based business and consumer solutions. The company also offers consulting services to large corporate clients seeking to leverage blockchain technology within their organizations.
The team behind Blockchain Foundry has been developing blockchain infrastructure for almost ten years and, in that time, contributed significantly to the expansion of the industry. Notably, BCFN is responsible for creating and deploying the Syscoin public blockchain protocol.
Originally launched in 2014, Syscoin has progressively evolved into one of the most advanced smart contract platforms around. Today, Syscoin offers users the best Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchain technology, including a proprietary high-speed payment solution known as Z-DAG, capable of an eye-watering 140,000 transaction per second and a first-of-its-kind zero counterpart “bridge” providing trustless interoperability between Syscoin and Ethereum.
The Syscoin-Ethereum bridge can process 60,000 independently verified transactions per second, providing Ethereum-based projects access to Syscoin’s unmatched low-fee, ultra-fast, highly secure infrastructure while giving Syscoin users added functionality.
Leveraging proprietary technology with open-source blockchain protocols has enabled BCFN to develop blockchain-based solutions for clients specializing in industries from digital identity to financial services.
The company reported annual revenue for the period ending December 31, 2021, of C$1.1M and net income totalling C$3.8M.
In December 2021, BCFN deployed a highly anticipated Syscoin NEVM upgrade. The network enhanced virtual machine (NEVM) brings together innovative Syscoin features and Ethereum smart contract functionality. Developers of dApps, DeFi applications, NFTs, and metaverse ecosystems can now fully benefit from Syscoin’s low-cost, scalable, and compliant tooling without compromising on security and dementalization.
In November of 2021, BCFN teamed up with Blockchain Intelligence Group to launch BitRank Verified, a blockchain intelligence software. The program provides fast real-time monitoring and ranking of transactions and wallets to help prevent contracts with so-called bad actors or sanctioned entities.
“By joining Blockchain Intelligence Group’s ecosystem, we are able to offer compliance and a regulatory framework to Syscoin customers for the first time on a public ledger that brings the same benefits as traditional financial services,” said Blockchain Foundry CTO and Syscoin Lead Core Developer, Jag Sidhu. “These benefits will integrate seamlessly for users all while they hold their tokens in their own digital wallets.”
In August 2021, Blockchain Foundry introduced a customizable digital asset compliance tool. Peregrine enables operators to create and enforce their own custom ruleset for digital assets, whether that be security tokens, stablecoins, NFTs, CBDCs, or other digital assets. Operators can even choose to overlay specific financial compliance frameworks, like SEC or FINTRAC, into the token ecosystem.
Disclaimer: The company described in this article is a customer of NAI Interactive Ltd. This material is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a recommendation or offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any securities or financial instruments, or for transactions involving any financial instrument or trading strategy.
