Date: 05/21/2021
“The May 19 decline of virtually all assets on the back of Bitcoin showed the crypto has entered the mainstream, with potential outcomes tilted in its favor, in our view.” — Mike McGlone
Weekly News Report:
1. The Blockchain Research Institute (BRI) has revealed plans to expand into several continents mid-year through partnerships with several banks, foundations, and organizations. The three new BRI divisions will be working across their respective regions and in multiple countries (Africa and the Middle East) to gather stakeholders in business and government for the membership program. BRI Director of Communications Noah Lehman added that they are expected to launch in July 2021.
2. A single-layer network like Bitcoin’s could carry all humans transactions in the future, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Friday.
3. Bitcoin falls as China calls for a crackdown on crypto mining and trading. The latest news extended bitcoin’s streak of wild price gyrations this week.
4. Bitcoin’s epic $7.5B long squeeze just made BTC price more bullish. Analyst Willy Woo reiterated what fellow trader Twitterati CL207 highlighted in his Twitter thread: that the coins are going into the pockets of long-term investors.
5. Bitcoin and altcoins have “entered the mainstream” after this week’s price dip and will become stronger as a result, said Bloomberg Intelligence. In a tweet on Friday, Mike McGlone, the research unit’s senior commodity strategist, described Bitcoin as being in a “discounted bull market.”
6. Ether search interest is higher than ever, and it is attracting interest from around the globe. The United States is the country most interested in Ether, followed by Germany and Turkey, an analysis of search data has revealed.
7. Commerzbank tests blockchain for managing corporate supply chains, partnering with chemical companies Evonik and BASF to test blockchain’s use in managing supply-chain processes.
8. Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar in Penn Quarter recruiting 60 workers now offers bonuses in cryptocurrency. “We thought that would excite them and intrigue them and they might be able to put that money aside as an investment,” says Cuba Libre CEO Barry Gutin.
9. Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy bought another $10 million of bitcoin during the cryptocurrency’s price pullback. MicroStrategy’s latest purchase brought its bitcoin holdings to 92,079, acquired for $2.25 billion.
10. Prime Experiences, a luxury yacht firm operating in North America, has announced that it will begin to accept Bitcoin payments for its services. The firm is confident that the move will be met with an immediate 40% growth from Bitcoin payments in its first year. The firm also announced that it would base its web and mobile services on blockchain technology.
11. Elon Musk tweeted a photo of Starbase late on Tuesday night, and the cryptocurrency ‘STAR’ soared by 6000%.
12. National Bank of Egypt (NBE) is to harness blockchain technology from Ripple for a remittance corridor with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Egypt is in the top five nations globally in terms of remittance flows from ex-pat communities.
13. Ark Investment’s Cathie Wood believes BTC will rally to $500,000 and says the mining sector is increasingly embracing renewable energy. Despite relations between Musk and the Bitcoin community souring, Wood predicted: “Elon will come back and be part of [the Bitcoin] ecosystem.” Wood also believes the heavy market retracement improves the prospects of U.S. regulators approving a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, or ETF, stating: “The odds are going up now that we have had this correction.”
14. Ark’s Q1 SEC report revealed holdings of 639,069 shares in Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust, worth more than $20 million.
15. Nebraska could follow Wyoming and open its first crypto bank should the bill pass the final round. If passed, the legislature would make Nebraska the second U.S. state to formalize a charter for cryptocurrency-centric banks. Wyoming was the first state to do so, chartering its first crypto bank in September 2020.
