The Number of Bitcoin Owners Continues to Grow – Crypto Weekly Update

This week, the total market capitalization exceeded 859 billion EUR. The decrease at the 7-day interval is 4.76%. Bitcoin decreased by 7.56% during the week to a current value of over 19,400 EUR. Bitcoin dominance is 43.1%.

The Number of Bitcoin Owners Continues to Grow

One of the biggest advantages of Bitcoin and blockchain technology is transparency. It makes it possible to track various metrics related to network activity to help investors in their investment decisions. One of the metrics often sought by investors is wealth distribution – an analysis of addresses based on the amount of bitcoins held.

Earlier this week, a very interesting trend was noted in the metrics of bitcoins distribution. The number of addresses with balance greater than 1 bitcoin rose by 13,091 just in the last week. Moreover, the total number of such addresses has reached new ATH at 865,000. This phenomenon signals that a number of investors have decided to expand their exposure to Bitcoin during the price correction.

Christian Ander, the founder of the Swedish Bitcoin exchange BT.CX told Cointelegraph that “this is good for the ecosystem that it’s growing from the ground up because want the economy to be bottom up.” His statement is related to the fact that the distribution of bitcoins among more and more users gives it a chance for wider adoption and fewer price fluctuations. If the number of small and medium-sized investors increases globally, the likelihood that the amount of whales that can manipulate the market will gradually decrease.

In addition, there has also been a sharp increase in the number of addresses holding more than 0.01 BTC over the past week, suggesting that retail investors are accumulating Bitcoin in a significant way at current price levels. On the other hand, the number of addresses holding more than 100 BTC has decreased by 136, indicating that some of the larger investors decided to get rid of some of their bitcoin during the downturns. Source

Deloitte Joins Forces With NYDIG

Deloitte, a global audit, tax, and financial advisory services giant is launching a new initiative to promote the global adoption of Bitcoin during the cryptocurrency market slump.

In the new initiative, Deloitte is joining forces with crypto company New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) to jointly help small, medium and large businesses with the implementation and adoption of digital assets. In their joint statement, the two firms say that businesses from different parts of the world are increasingly looking for ways to access digital assets. Thus, the alliance between Deloitte and NYDIG will aim to accelerate bitcoin adoption in companies while ensuring regulatory compliance.

According to a joint announcement on Monday, NYDIG and Deloitte are launching a strategic alliance to create a centralized approach for clients looking to adopt bitcoin products and services, which include things like loyalty and rewards programs, paying a portion of wages in bitcoin or various other employee benefits.

“The future of financial services will center around the use of digital assets, and we are focused on advising our clients on ways to engage in a regulated and compliant way,” said Richard Rosenthal, Deloitte’s digital assets banking regulatory practice lead and principal. Source

Circle Launches Euro Stablecoin

Circle, the company behind the issuance of the second largest stablecoin on the market, USDC, is launching a new fiat reserve-backed stablecoin called Euro Coin.

The new Euro Coin, whose value will be pegged to the euro at a 1:1 ratio, will be launched on the Ethereum blockchain network as an ERC-20 token later this month, with support for other networks likely to be available in the coming months.

Circle said in an accompanying press release that the Euro Coin is fully backed by euro-denominated reserves, which are “conservatively held in the custody of leading financial institutions in accordance within the U.S. regulatory perimeter.”

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said on Twitter that the Euro Coin will be issued under the same regulatory rules and will be as safe, liquid and transparent as the USDC stablecoin. According to his tweet, the Euro Coin expands opportunities for payments, finance, international trades and broader use cases for digital asset markets. Source

Cardano Delays Vasil Hard Fork

Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), the blockchain company behind the Cardano blockchain, has released a report earlier this week announcing a one-month delay to the long-awaited Vasil upgrade.

The Vasil upgrade is set to provide a “massive performance improvement to Cardano” and its smart contract capabilities, according to Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson. The update was originally scheduled to take place on June 29, but according to news, it will most likely take place during the last week of July.

In a Monday blog post, IOHK’s head of delivery and project Nigel Hemsley noted that the Input Output Global (IOG) team working on the update “is extremely close to finalizing the core work,” but there are still seven bugs that remain unresolved and require work. Fortunately, none of them are categorized as “severe”.

The hard fork, named after Bulgarian mathematician Vasil Dabov, is one of the most complex development programs to date, according to the developers. It is expected to dramatically improve the scalability of the network, which should boost adoption and increase interest in using Cardano. Source

Terraform Labs Employees Can’t Leave South Korea

According to a Monday report by the JTBC news channel, top employees of Terraform Labs have been banned from leaving South Korea.

The Financial and Securities Crimes Investigation Unit in the southern Seoul district, which is in charge of the investigation into the collapse of stablecoin UST and cryptocurrency LUNA, blocked certain key Terraform Labs employees from leaving Korea to stop them from abruptly fleeing the country amid the ongoing investigation

Daniel Hong, a former Terraform Labs developer, independently confirmed the JTBC report on Twitter on Monday, adding that he could not leave the country because “the Korean government has imposed an exit ban for all ex-Terraform Labs employees.”

According to multiple reports, the special unit is investigating Terraform Labs and its co-founders Do Kwon and Daniel Shin in connection with several allegations, including tax evasion and possible money laundering. Source

Fed Raises Interest Rates

The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points last week in an effort to combat the ever-growing threat of double-digit inflation.

The 75 basis point rate hike is the most aggressive interest rate increase since 1994, and it is the third rate hike this year. As a result, the key interest rate in the US is currently in the range of 1.5-1.75%.

“Clearly, today’s 75 basis point increase is an unusually large one, and I do not expect moves of this size to be common,” Powell said. He added, though, that he expects the July meeting to see an increase of 50 or 75 basis points, depending on the path of inflation.

The Fed is expected to continue its aggressive policy in the coming months, with estimates suggesting that the interest rate could move up to a range of 3.25% to 3.5% by the end of the year. Source

Start investing safely in cryptocurrencies now.