So far, the crypto market has been anything but “predictable”, both in terms of price and sentiment. Bitcoin reclaimed some losses but continues to struggle to break the $40k barrier, but the dangers are still looming as the bears have other plans.
At the time of writing, the bitcoin price is still indecisive, trading around $35K. Although on paper we're still in altcoin season, alts did no better than BTC. Ethereum (Ether), Cardano (Ada), Dogecoin (Doge), Ripple (XRP) have crashed tremendously, asserting the recovery of the first truly digital coin’s dominance.
The accumulative crypto market cap lost $100 billion in a day and is now beneath $1.5 trillion.
It is indisputable that our faith in the crypto is getting tested, but we'll do what we always do, brace ourselves and HODL! Let’s not focus on the price or jump down on overly-glorified billionaires' throats, but rather endorse the great milestones the crypto market accomplished so far. Just remember: Cryptocurrencies have been around long before these baffling billionaires and CEOs got involved and the markets don’t need their acknowledgment or endorsements. So let’s skip the ad hominem fights, shall we?!
In order to be a successful investor, you have to be able to handle both bull & bear markets
— Mr. Whale (@CryptoWhale) June 18, 2021
It’s easy to handle bull markets. Anyone can make money when everything is going up
However, bear markets are what separate the good investors from the bad when emotions are tested
Elsewhere in the intriguing crypto sphere, China has implemented over 3,000 ATMs in Beijing to convert digital yuan into cash. Moreover, we’ve witnessed somewhat bullish news as Bitcoin is poised to get its first makeover in four years in a rare consensual moment.
That aside, what's very bullish is each coin has a huge upgrade coming...
— CoinSmart (@CoinSmart) June 17, 2021
—#Bitcoin
Taproot will bring smart contracts and efficiency#Cardano
Alonzo will bring smart contracts#Ethereum
ETH 2.0 will switch from PoW to PoS
—
Bright days are ahead for all 😎
Ready? Let’s roll back a little to check out what you might have missed last week:
Bitcoin Chart
Source: coinmarketcap.com
Crypto Charts
Source: coinmarketcap.com
Bitcoin to Get its First in Four Years Upgrade
Bitcoin miners around the world have just approved Bitcoin’s first upgrade for four whole years. The new makeover, which is dubbed as Taproot, is scheduled to be enforced later this year in November. Taproot aims at opening the doors wide to operate smart contracts on Bitcoin’s blockchain and enhancing the levels of efficiency and transaction privacy.
Unlike Bitcoin’s last makeover back in 2017, which actually created Bitcoin Cash, Taproot has gathered almost unanimous consensus among the global bitcoin community as it was approved by more than 90% of the bitcoin blockchain’s mining hash rate nodes.
This highly anticipated update will replace current Bitcoin’s public key signature algorithm with Schnorr signatures, thus hide users’ public keys if used in any smart contract and lower the space required in any smart contract block, therefore making the transactions fees way cheaper and private. The taproot will pave the way for Bitcoin to unlock the smart contract potentials.
Mila Kunis is Creating a Cat Animation on Blockchain
Despite that Fred Ehrsam, Coinbase co-founder and crypto pioneer warned that the NFT bubble will burst over the next three to five years, actors, musicians, and artists are still jumping in the NFT wagon. The latest to join was Hollywood Superstar Mila Kunis who has launched an NFT animation on the blockchain!
The actress revealed in an interview with Conan O’Brien that she took the time to venture into the NFT and cryptocurrency space during last year’s COVID lockdowns.
Kunis also said that she decided to dive deep into crypto because it is perceived to be a male-dominated field so she started to feel empowered when she began to educate herself with the help of intelligent women in the space.
Teaming up with Mack Flavelle, CryptoKitties founder, and Jonathan Howard, CryptoPoops NFT creator, Kunis released "Stoner Cats" animation NFT. According to the website, Stoner Cats is ‘an adult animated series centered on five house cats who mysteriously become sentient’.
Viewers of the series will soon be able to purchase these Stoner Cats NFTs to use those tokens to watch 5 minutes comedy cartoons online. All the money raised goes to support the artist and fund the production of more episodes. Kunis commented: “It brings ownership of content back to the artist and cuts out the middleman.”
Goldman Sachs Teams Up with Galaxy Digital to offer Bitcoin Futures Trading
Goldman Sachs' relationship with Bitcoin has always raised the community’s eyebrows. The bank has been bouncing to and fro from saying one day that Bitcoin is “not a viable investment” to filing a Bitcoin ETF application on SEC desks and exploring crypto as an asset class the next. Last week, the US based multinational investment bank has took another U-turn towards bitcoin and joined hands with crypto proponent Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital.
According to Cointelegraph, Max Minton, Goldman Sachs head of digital assets for the Asia-Pacific region commented that ‘offering Bitcoin futures trading was part of the banks’ goal of providing access to its clients’ preferred assets’. Minton added: “In 2021, this now includes crypto, and we are pleased to have found a partner with a broad range of liquidity venues and differentiated derivatives capabilities spanning the cryptocurrency ecosystem.”
Upcoming Activities
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Upcoming ICOs
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Podcasts Worth Listening to
- What is Hedging? Ahamd Sharkatly, Kalam Mushafar
- Is the Bitcoin Bull Market Over? Nathaniel Whittemore, The Breakdown.
