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AMC catches the crypto bug; Native cryptocurrency on its way?

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Cryptocurrencies have certainly made it big in the world. An array of platforms recognized these assets and even incorporated them. AMC, the world’s largest cinema chain made it to the headlines after the firm’s CEO expressed interest in crypto. More recently, the AMC CEO revealed that they would take things up a notch while he dropped hints about launching a native cryptocurrency.

A look back into 2021 is proof enough of the growth of the crypto market. The value and the prominence of the industry took a serious turn this year. Celebrities, governments, prominent firms, and even the average Joe went on to embrace Bitcoin [BTC] and other crypto assets.

Better late than never! Following this motto, AMC dived into the crypto biz back in August 2021 when the firm’s CEO, Adam Aron announced the inclusion of Bitcoin into its payment system. While this list witnessed growth in no time, Aron recently noted that the firm was well invested in the industry.

AMC CEO drops hints about launching a cryptocurrency

Appearing in an interview with CNBC, Aron pointed out the company’s latest fervor around the crypto market. He acknowledged the fact that AMC had “made a lot of noise in the last few months about getting hyperactive in cryptocurrency.”

This wasn’t all. The CEO further aims to remain relevant in the crypto-verse. Remarking that the cinema chain would thrive in the crypto biz, he added,

“There are a lot of reasons why AMC could be a successful issuer of cryptocurrency as well as a redeemer of cryptocurrency.”

While this comes as great news to cinema and crypto lovers, seeking a green signal from regulatory authorities, particularly in the US could be a tough nut to crack. The regulatory scenario in the US continues to remain hazy. Ripple, Facebook, and several others have been strong witnesses of the same.

Circling back to where it all started, AMC has been prepping to accommodate cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin [BTC], Ethereum [ETH], Litecoin [LTC] as well as Bitcoin Cash [BCH] by the end of this year. Dogecoin [DOGE] was recently added to this list after the community’s appeal to the CEO himself.

Why Africa has remains undisputed leader with respect to cryptocurrency adoption?

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Investors, big and small, novice and experts across the world, have fancied cryptocurrencies. But for Africa, it is a necessity. The average Joe’s across many countries have managed to rake in fortunes from their Bitcoin [BTC] and other crypto investment over the last decade.

The adoption seen in Africa reflects the need for a financial infrastructure to avoid the growing inflation. In developing countries, institutional investors are considered crucial in the crypto ecosystem. In contrast, the retailers and non-institutional traders of the world’s second-largest and second-most-populous continent are leading the crypto adoption. According to the latest report by data analytics company, Chainalysis, the crypto market in the region has expanded by more than 1,200% since 2020.

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Why Africa has remains undisputed leader with respect to cryptocurrency adoption? 4

Why Africa ranks high on adoption index?

Countries such as Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania have emerged as the highest grassroots adoption globally and now rank in Chainalysis’s top 20 Global Crypto Adoption Index. The entire continent is not only the 3rd-fastest growing crypto economy but also has a much larger share of its total transaction volume that consists of retail-sized transfers than any other region.

To put things into perspective, Africa’s retail-sized figures stand at 7% versus the global average of 5.5%. In addition to that, the region also sees a more significant share of its transaction volume comprising of large and small retail-sized payments than the global average.

As a result of these smaller transfer sizes, which indicates higher grassroots adoption amongst daily market participants, the countries above in the region dominate Chainalysis’ adoption index.

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Why Africa has remains undisputed leader with respect to cryptocurrency adoption? 5

Reasoning

Peer-to-peer platforms are very popular in the continent compared to other parts of the world. The growth of P2P crypto exchanges has been steadily rising. As a matter of fact, Chaianlaysis observed that no other region uses P2P platforms at a higher rate than the crypto users based in Africa. They account for over 1% of all African transaction volume and 2.6% of BTC volume specifically.

This trend can be attributed to the fact that sending money to crypto businesses from customers’ bank accounts is tricky in countries such as Nigeria and Kenya. However, P2P platforms are non-custodial in nature, and hence, they enable customers to trade fiat for crypto amongst themselves.

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Why Africa has remains undisputed leader with respect to cryptocurrency adoption? 6

According to Adedeji Owonibi, CEO and founder of a Nigerian blockchain consultancy company, Convexity, the stringent Nigerian law that barred banks from enabling crypto transactions has spurred a new trend.

“Binance used to be the most popular platform by far, but after the central bank’s sanction, many are moving to P2P platforms, like Paxful and Remitano. Informal P2P trading is huge in Nigeria on Whatsapp and Telegram. I’ve seen young people and businessmen in these groups carry out transactions for several millions with popular OTC merchants.”

Russia lays focus on cryptocurrency mining; Regulations on the way?

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As the world moves towards the crypto-verse, Russia intends to move a step ahead with its latest announcement. The Russian government intends to accommodate crypto mining operators and regulate the mining industry efficiently.

Cryptocurrencies have started to garner the attention of the globe. China however decided to steer away from the same. The country went on to oust an array of crypto mining firms. As most of these firms settled in Khazakitsan, Russia revealed that it intends to open its doors to these businesses.

In a recent announcement, the chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, Anatoly Aksakov, revealed that the government was looking into giving the crypto mining business a place under the entrepreneurship category.

Russia to recognize crypto mining as a business

As per TASS news agency, Anatoly Aksakov said,

“As this [crypto mining] is a type of entrepreneurial activity, it is obviously necessary to include it into the state register, to regulate it as a type of entrepreneurship under an appropriate code, and impose relevant taxation.”

The government is reportedly working on several things. This included things pertaining to crypto mining, taxing crypto as well as the issuance of a potential digital currency. The government is primarily concerned about establishing a proper regulatory system for digital assets.

Aksakov further added,

“We still need to discuss what digital currency actually is, although we call it currency, it is rather used as a financial instrument or a financial asset that is a subject to investment, rather than a means of payment.”

The crypto mining industry has started to become more prominent and valuable. As the demand for these digital assets increases, the need for mining activity also surges. Therefore, the crypto mining industry would continue to flourish.

Russia’s move comes at the right time and would further facilitate the world’s transition into the digital world.

Cryptocurrency Exchange Bilaxy Suffers Fund Losses as Hackers Attack Hot Wallet

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On Monday, the digital asset world woke up to the news of cryptocurrency exchange Bilaxy being hacked. Sources close to the exchange revealed that the hacker stole the funds by exploiting a bug in Bilaxy’s ERC-20 hot wallet. The exchange announced the details of the hack via a Telegram post early Monday morning.

During the hack, the perpetrator transferred 295 different ERC-20 tokens with the most recent transaction involving 50 ETH tokens. The address to which the funds were sent had a total grasp of 177.98 ETH or approximately $570,000. According to Bilaxy’s releases, the exchange suspended all activities to ensure the protection of the remaining funds.

The exchange contacted the affected users to inform them about their stolen funds with steps to recover them in the future. Bilaxy further assured its members that the unaffected funds were all moved to the cold wallet for safekeeping. In their official post, Bilaxy said:

“Bilaxy suffered heavy losses in this hacking incident and the problem has not been determined now, which will take lots of work and time to resume Bilaxy services. It may at least take 2 weeks to investigate the hack thoroughly and rebuild system architecture to secure the system and assets. We hope that users will have the necessary psychological preparation for it.”

The attack on Bilaxy comes a few weeks after the $100 million stings on Liquid. Fortunately, the exchange was able to recover the funds and transfer them back to the legal holders. Crypto fans kept their fingers crossed hoping that that is the case with Bilaxy too. Bilaxy also contacted CoinmarketCap, Coingecko, and Etherescan to put out notifications about the hack. As investigations for the funds’ progress, the company revealed that all the details have been divulged to the proper authorities.

PayPal’s Cryptocurrency Focussed Super Application to Launch Soon, says CEO

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After proving its use cases recently, the digital asset industry has won over several mainstream players. The main evidence for this was companies like PayPal conducting a full-fledged dive into the world of cryptocurrencies. On Thursday, the company’s CEO Dan Schulman revealed that the company was on its last stretch to add cryptocurrency functionalities within its upcoming super application wallet.

Schulman made his comments during PayPal’s Q2 hearing with developmental focus standing out as a priority. He added that the team behind the application had finished putting the final code touches to its initial version. During the investor meet, Schulman urged everyone to see the benefits of having an all-in-one cryptocurrency trading platform.

PayPal’s Ambitious Plans

According to sources within the payments company, the new application will include features such as high-yield savings, intra-messaging capabilities, and even access to direct deposit funds. In the latest report, PayPal claimed that the digital market penetration in the United States had increased substantially in the past few years. Twenty-Twenty proved to be a divisive year with a 5 percent jump from the last quarter of 2019. In Schulman’s words:

“We’re one of a few payments companies to allow consumers to use cryptocurrency as a funding source. We’re also seeing strong adoption and trading of crypto on Venmo.”

PayPal’s crypto-trading arm Venmo had a stellar year with approximately $58 billion worth of capital traded on it during Q1 2021. The parent company added a whole new sector of users, taking the total number of active PayPal accounts to 403 million. The $311 billion generated in total payment volume was a product of both fiat and cryptocurrency transactions, said the report.

XRP Rules the Roost as Double-Digit Gains Elevates Cryptocurrency Market

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XRP’s price action over the past few weeks has been similar to the rest of the market: bearish traps followed by slight bullish signals. As July comes to a close, however, the digital asset industry has gained a strong foothold in the green zone. XRP’s surged in the last seven days to post a 7-day gain of 31.2 percent. At press time, XRP was trading for $0.72 with a total market cap of $33.172 billion. The weekly gain elevated the daily trading volume to $5.113 billion after an increase in buying pressure. 

XRP also boomed in the hourly spectrum after posting a rise of 17 percent. This increase was complemented by a bullish sentiment shared by the rest of the cryptocurrency market. Technical analysis of the cryptocurrency showed a marked increase in performance and coin peripherals. The three indicators in question: RSI, CMF, and PSAR, sided with the bull in the short term and the graph rocketed up. 

XRP 1 hour:

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XRP Rules the Roost as Double-Digit Gains Elevates Cryptocurrency Market 9

XRP’s new resistance of $0.73 was a cause of celebration for the XRP cadre after having suffered in bearish territories earlier.

The Parabolic SAR stayed below the markers as the pressure caused the price candles to stay in the green. 
According to the RSI, the crypto-asset was well and truly in the overbought zone. This meant that more users were amassing XRP in the portfolio rather than selling it. 
Even though the Chaikin Money Flow indicator, was in the green, it showed an affinity towards the zero line

XRP 1 day:

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XRP Rules the Roost as Double-Digit Gains Elevates Cryptocurrency Market 10

It was good news all the way for the token in the long term as all the corresponding indicators leaned towards the bull. As the immediate supports rectified themselves, it was apparent to see why the cryptocurrency was performing well on the charts. 

The CMF in the long term had shot up to settle near the overbought zone. An increase in buy-in pressure proved to be the kicker here. 

Although its RSI had a difficult June, it rose sharply in the past few days to stay on course for an overbought zone breach. 

The PSAR helped the coin along its bullish path as the markers gave the cryptocurrency a solid foundation. This was primarily due to an increase in conversations around cryptocurrencies and their use cases. 

Cryptocurrency trades makes big moves in gold dominated India

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The cryptocurrency market’s popularity vector has broken all ceilings with every realm of the financial world paying close attention to its developments. Even with all the recurring price fluctuations, the industry seems to have instilled a sense of trust amongst the public especially in nascent markets such as India.

Recent reports from the subcontinent claimed that the usually gold-obsessed Indians were pouring billions of rupees into the world of digital assets. Most of the investments came from the younger age group of 18-35, a generation that was reversing the trend set by their predecessors. Indian households contain close to 25,000 tonnes, most of which are seen as generational assets. Even in this climate, the cryptocurrency market has grown in leaps and bounds with transactions accounting for over $200 million.

Many young Indians agree that they would rather put their money into crypto than a traditional asset like gold. New traders have found out that the short-term sales and big profits made digital assets a more lucrative purchase than a majority of the options available now. The privacy and transparency aspect of digital assets was another beacon for new entrants to the market. Sandeep Goenka, the founder of Zebpay added:

They find it far easier to invest in crypto than gold because the process is very simple. You go online, you can buy crypto, you don’t have to verify it, unlike gold.

Despite the industry’s success, it still had some way to go before it can overtake the gold market in the country. As of now, India’s $40 billion cryptocurrency market trails behind the Red Dragon’s $161 billion. For now, the increasing adoption is another sign of Indians’ willingness to take risk within a consumer finance sector that’s plagued with examples of regulatory short falls.

Crypto’s current stardom comes a few years after the Reserve Bank of India banned transactions in the country after calling out frauds and weak legislation. The ecosystem continued to receive pushback even after the Supreme Court quashed the ban last year and made all cryptocurrency transactions legal in the country. Investors believe that over time, digital assets will be adopted by nations worldwide.

India to consider imposition equalization levy on cryptocurrency transactions

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India’s relationship with the cryptocurrency market has always been on the rocks with the government first banning the asset class in 2018 before reversing the decision last year. Despite the all-clear from the government, some banks did not make it easy for customers to conduct cryptocurrency transactions.

A recent signal from India’s tax sector stated that they were deliberating to levy a 2 percent tax on cryptocurrencies purchased from a foreign cryptocurrency exchange. This additional tax would come in the form of an “equalization levy”, a step to keep digital transactions within the purview of the country. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts and holders in the country were split on the latest decision, with many claiming it would hinder the growth of the industry in one of the largest South Asian markets.

It was just this year that the Indian government had expanded the scope of equalization levy to include any purchase by an Indian or India-based entity through an overseas platform. Girish Vanvari, the founder of tax advisory firm Transaction Square spoke on the latest decision by adding:

The way the new equalization levy is worded and defined, it appears that it will also be applicable on cryptocurrency bought from an exchange not based in India. The levy is on the selling price and companies may be required to add this to the cost of the crypto assets.

Apart from the additional tax, there may also be the possibility of an expanded equalization levy that would be applied on “offshore exchanges facilitating cryptocurrency transactions”. The ambiguity of cryptocurrency laws in India makes it difficult to track who has paid the levy or who has defaulted. Because of this experts predict that the customers will be the ones bearing the brunt of the upcoming equalization levy.

Some officials reassured holders that the levy will not be applied on any asset purchased from an exchange with a permanent establishment in India. This announcement comes at a time when several cryptocurrency companies have taken their headquarters offshore. A permanent establishment is a concept in tax laws that determines the country with the first right to tax a company and to what extent.

It still remains to be seen if India would go ahead with ratifying the law but either way, the latest discussion meant that discussions regarding cryptocurrencies had reached the top echelons of the government.

XRP [XRP/USD] Price Analysis: Cryptocurrency remains buoyed by strong support and resistance

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The cryptocurrency market’s relationship with the bull has been a tumultuous one of late with price fluctuations taking over. Although the price dips were not very significant, Bitcoin and a majority of the altcoins such as XRP and Ethereum mimicked the same bearish signals. At the time of writing, XRP ranked 7th on the charts with a market cap that was a billion dollars short of its nearest competitor, Dogecoin.

Clocking in at $0.852, XRP had undergone a minor 2.05 percent price reduction over the past week. XRP’s price changes have also been a result of the Ripple lawsuit and its resulting events. Back in 2020, the United States Securities and Exchanges Commission [SEC] had asked XRP’s parent to divulge details regarding its workings. Despite the pushback, XRP surged over the past couple of months to hit new all-time highs.

XRP 1 hour:

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XRP [XRP/USD] Price Analysis: Cryptocurrency remains buoyed by strong support and resistance 13

XRP’s short terms gains gave hope to investors that a bear run was impending. The candles turned green right before the immediate support which stood at $0.83. Its immediate resistance was $0.9, far crypto from its earlier all-time highs. All the indicators are taken in the technical analysis point to greener pastures for the seventh-largest cryptocurrency on the charts.

The Relative Strength Index had climbed over the zero line which meant that more people were buying XRP rather than selling it. Next in line was the Chaikin Money Flow indicator which projected a liner growth on the graph. This was in line with more investor money coming into the XRP ecosystem over the past couple of months. The MACD indicators in the short term had diverged towards the top as the histogram blinked green.

XRP 1 day:

The long-term gains enjoyed by XRP have elevated its support and resistance to levels unseen in 2020 or 2019. As it stands, the long-term support and resistance are $0.9 and $1.34 respectively. The aforementioned indicators took a more bearish stance when it came to long-term analysis.

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XRP [XRP/USD] Price Analysis: Cryptocurrency remains buoyed by strong support and resistance 14

XRP’s daily CMF indicators settled on the zero line with no major fluctuations in terms of capital coming in or leaving the market. The RSI signaled a stronger bearish signal as the indicator was much closer to the overbought zone than the oversold zone. A strong market sentiment allowed XRP to be buoyed between the overbought-oversold territory. The MACD indicator had crossed over at the start of the month, after which it continued a divergent path.

India’s Central Bank Clarifies Circular on Cryptocurrency Ban to be Invalid

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The cryptocurrency ecosystem in India has always been a contentious one. The lack of clarity has failed to address important aspects of the users in the region. In a brief respite, however, the country’s central bank and regulatory body Reserve Bank of India [RBI] clarified on Monday that its 2018 order directing financial institutions to halt dealing in digital currencies was revoked by the Supreme Court in March 2020.

Hence, the circular in question cannot be quoted by banks to refuse services to users dealing in cryptocurrencies. The clarification came in the wake of reports that certain banks such as HDFC Bank Ltd and State Bank of India [SBI] had warned customers via emails against engaging in virtual currencies such as Bitcoin.

Shrimohan Yadav, who happens to be the Chief General Manager of RBI stated,

“It has come to our attention through media reports that certain banks/ regulated entities have cautioned their customers against dealing in virtual currencies by making a reference to the RBI circular dated April 06, 2018. Such references to the above circular by banks/ regulated entities are not in order as this circular was set aside by the Hon’ble Supreme Court on March 04, 2020.”

Our RBI has finally sent out this notice to banks after 15 months since the Supreme Court verdict. Never late than never and we have this as a reason to celebrate! #IndiaWantsBitcoin

A brief history into India’s relationship with crypto

It all started late 2017 after two PILs were filed in the Supreme Court of India, one that sought to ban outrightly purchasing and selling cryptocurrencies in the country, while the other urged for proper regulation. Soon after which the government had set up a committee to investigate the industry and recommend actions.

A few months later, in April 2018, RBI issued a circular restricting commercial and co-operative banks, payments banks, small finance banks, NBFCs, and payment system providers from engaging in cryptocurrencies as well offering services to all platforms which deal with them. This crippled the crypto ecosystem overnight as many trading volumes across exchanges in the country fell sharply and many lost their jobs.

In May 2018, several Indian crypto exchanges and platforms filed a writ petition in the apex court of the country.

The following year, the government-established committee presented its report, prescribing a ban on “private cryptocurrencies” in India. Despite this, the Supreme Court revoked the RBI’s circular terming it as unconstitutional.

However, in January 2021, it seems like the cryptocurrency industry in India is back to square one as the government planned to introduce a bill to not just create a digitized version of the national currency but also to ban digital currency dealings.