Cryptocurrency Market Review
This week, the cryptocurrency market attempted to grow. As a result, the leading assets strengthened their positions. Currently, BTC is trading around 42800.00 (+1.2%), ETH is at 3300.00 (+3.5%). The BNB token returned to third place and is moving around 485.00 (+10.2%). USDT is at 1.0004 (+0.02%) and SOL is around 148.00 (+4.5%). The total market capitalization reached 2.051T dollars by the end of the week. The share of BTC has decreased to 39.55%.
The upward movement of the market is likely to be speculative since there are no obvious fundamental growth factors. Support for digital currencies and other alternative assets was provided by the general weakening of the US dollar associated with high inflation in the United States and investors' doubts about the ability of the US Federal Reserve to limit it this year.
Traders are focused on the comments of US officials. In an interview with CNBC, the head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, evaded the question of whether ETH is security, saying that the commission did not give public legal advice. However, Gensler noted that companies that collected money from citizens and promised them profits could fall under securities laws. He also confirmed the need to create legal mechanisms that allow investors to receive all the necessary information from cryptocurrency companies before investing. The SEC continues the lawsuit with Ripple, proving that the XRP token was a security, and the company's management violated relevant US law when creating it. Ripple lawyers are trying to get an explanation from the regulator about why it considers XRP security, while several other currencies, in particular ETH, do not, hinting at the agency's bias. In this context, Gensler's refusal to comment on the status of ETH may indicate the weakness of the regulator's position and the prospects for Ripple to win the lawsuit. On Tuesday, at a Senate hearing, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell promised to submit a report on studying the prospects for a national digital currency (CBDC) soon, which will be an important step towards creating a digital dollar. Powell also said that CBDC would not force private stablecoins out of the market, and they would be able to coexist.
From the news of the financial industry, it is worth noting the possibility of launching the payment company PayPal Holdings Inc.'s stablecoin backed by the US dollar, according to Bloomberg sources. Employees of the corporation note that the new currency should ensure the expansion of payments and customers' security. The product is currently under development and is awaiting approval from US regulators. Meanwhile, payment giant Visa Inc. in collaboration with ConsenSys, develops a technical solution for using state digital currencies in everyday payments. The corporation's management said that the company has already held consultations with the central tanks of several countries. The implementation of the new solution will allow customers to make any payments using CBDC at all points that accept Visa cards. Corporation employees surveyed small businesses in nine countries and found that 24% of them are ready to accept payments in the digital currency this year. Not surprisingly, the public's continued adoption of crypto assets is pushing Visa Inc. and other major financial companies to expand their cryptocurrency services. Finally, this week, it became known that Tesla Inc. is preparing to sell some of its products for DOGE and SHIB tokens. Currently, payment technologies are being tested, but the purchase itself is not yet available. Given the constant support of the head of the corporation Elon Musk of digital assets, especially DOGE, it can be assumed that payments in cryptocurrencies will be accepted soon.
Next week, quotes of most cryptocurrencies may consolidate or resume their decline.
