The number of crypto investors has significantly increased – Crypto weekly update

This week, the total market capitalization exceeded 1.74 trillion EUR. Decrease at the 7-day interval is 3.86 %. Bitcoin decreased by 3.4 % during the week to a current value of over than 36 900 EUR. Bitcoin dominance is 40.1 %.

The number of crypto investors has significantly increased

The latest survey by Huobi Group, the operator of one of Huobi’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has shown very interesting statistics.

About 70% of crypto hodlers in the U.S. started investing in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in 2021, according to the Crypto Perception Report 2022

The company polled about 3,100 American adults in mid-December 2021 to assess respondents’ knowledge of crypto, what they think about the crypto market rise in 2021 and more.

The survey found 68% of respondents got their first crypto exposure within the last year, while another 21% of those started investing in crypto up to two years ago. Another 11% of investors started investing in cryptocurrencies more than two years ago.

According to the survey’s findings, respondents did not invest too much in crypto, though. 46% of pollees reported having $1,000 or less invested in cryptocurrencies. Another 25% said that they held between $1,000 and $10,000 worth of crypto.

Huobi Group global strategy director Jeff Mei said that 2021 was a big year for crypto thanks to the rise of sectors such as decentralized finance and non fungible tokens. Source

Rio de Janeiro plans invest in Bitcoin

One of the biggest cities in Brazil plans to allocate some of its capital to cryptocurrencies.

The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s second most populous city, said last Thursday that he plans to allocate 1% of the city’s treasury reserves to cryptocurrencies. “We are going to launch Crypto Rio and invest 1% of the treasury in cryptocurrency,” Mayor Eduardo Paes said at the Rio Innovation Week.

According to Pedro Paulo, Rio de Janeiro’s finance secretary, the city plans to apply discounts to tax payments made with bitcoin. “You take the single quota discount of 7%, it would make 10% if you pay in bitcoin,” Paulo said, adding that the administration needs to study the legal framework.

The main plan of the ongoing initiative is to turn the city into a cryptocurrency-friendly center. According to the news, further tax incentives will also be published in the future to achieve this objective. Source

USDC’s as largest stablecoin on the Ethereum network

Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) has reached a major milestone by surpassing Tether (USDT) in total supply on the Ethereum network.

USDC’s current supply on Ethereum as of writing is 40.06 billion tokens, just ahead of USDT’s supply of 39.82 billion.

Tether is still the most popular stablecoin since 2016. Originally, Tether shared the market with stablecoins BITUSD and NuBits (USNBT), but these fell into obscurity due to losing their dollar peg and shedding users. USDC emerged in 2018 as a more transparent and more regulated competitor to Tether, which has been under a cloud for years due to doubts over its backing.

Tether’s total supply is actually 78.5 billion tokens, where up to 50 % of tokens are on the Tron network. USDC’s total supply is currently 45.7 billion tokens across 21 chains or layer-two solutions. Source

Crypto.com suffers hack

Cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com has reportedly fallen victim to a hack, with at least $15 million worth of Ethereum stolen.

On Monday, Crypto.com announced it was pausing withdrawals after “a small number of users experienced unauthorized activity in their accounts,” stressing that “all funds are safe.” Citing the need to enhance security, the exchange also urged users to sign back into their accounts and reset their two-factor authentication (2FA).

Peckshield, a security research firm in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, revealed on Twitter in the early hours on Tuesday morning that Crypto.com has lost at least 4,600 ETH (around $15 million in current prices). Peckshield added that half of the stolen funds were sent to Tornado Cash, the Ethereum-centric mixing service using ZK-Snarks.

Curiously, despite Peckshield confirming and proving the funds stolen, a few hours later, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said that no customer funds were lost. Several Twitter users confirmed that the funds they claimed were missing were eventually returned to their accounts. Source

Intel Set to Reveal ‘Energy-Efficient’ Bitcoin Mining Chip

Tech giant Intel is releasing a new “ultra-low-voltage” Bitcoin mining chip, starting with a reveal at an industry conference next month.

News of the development of a new chip called “Bonanza Mine” focused on bitcoin mining will be revealed at this year’s International Solid-State Circuits Conference.

For the conference itself, Intel reportedly has a presentation prepared to outline the new Bonanza Mine chip, which is described as an “ultra-low-voltage energy-efficient Bitcoin mining ASIC.”

However, it is not yet clear if Intel will release the new chip to the public, or if it—alternatively—will remain embedded in a research project for now. Also, what effect, if any, Intel’s new “Bonanza Mine” will have on Bitcoin’s energy consumption is yet unclear. Source

Curiosity : Inflation in the euro area hits record highs

The European Central Bank is concerned over inflation in the euro area rising beyond its own expectations, a high-ranking ECB official has admitted. However, Europe’s monetary authority is not prepared to raise interest rates at this point in time.

Annual inflation in the area of the common European currency, the euro, has increased for a sixth consecutive month to a record high of 5% in December, according to preliminary estimates from Eurostat quoted by Trading Economics. The last time inflation declined was in June when it fell to 1.9% from May’s 2%.

Nevertheless, ECB Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel made it clear the regulator is not ready to raise interest rates in the eurozone for now, citing forecasts indicating that the inflation spike caused by the global pandemic will be followed by a “marked decline.” Schnabel also pointed out that the ECB should avoid choking off the economic recovery.

The representative of the ECB executive body also assured that the euro area’s central bank “will act quickly and decisively if we conclude that inflation may settle above 2%. Source

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