The U.S. Senate passes another aid package for the economy – Crypto weekly update

This week, the total market capitalization exceeded 1.41 trillion EUR. Bitcoin grew by almost 13 % during the week to a current value of over 46 700 EUR. Bitcoin dominance is 61.1 %.

The U.S. Senate passes aid package for the economy

The U.S. Senate passes a USD 1.9 trillion (€ 1.60 trillion) bill to help businesses and citizens affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. President Joe Biden wants to use the new stimulus measures to “restart” the economy and create millions of new jobs. The aid package should, among other things, provide direct payments to Americans in the amount of USD 1,400 (EUR 1,175).

This is the third stimulus measure of its kind. The first two stimulus measures showed that the effect of such measures raises investors’ appetite for risk-on assets, including stocks and cryptocurrencies, mainly due to the issuance of huge amounts of dollars, which raises high fears of dollar devaluation. Source

Will Chinese companies follow Microstrategy?

On Sunday morning, the Chinese company Meitu announced the purchase of Bitcoins and Ethereum cumulatively in the amount of USD 40 million (EUR 33.6 million). Meitu is one of the first Chinese publicly listed companies which has decided to purchase cryptocurrencies.

Meitu runs one of the most popular mobile photo editing app in China, with more than 300 million monthly active users. In the public statement, the company said that cryptocurrencies still had ample room for appreciation, and allocating part of its treasury in cryptocurrencies can also serve as a diversification to holding cash. Source

Paypal confirms acquisition crypto-security firm Curv

The payments giant Paypal said Monday that it has agreed to acquire Israel-based company Curv, a provider of cloud-based infrastructure for digital asset security. According to Paypal, this acquisition should accelerate and expand all of the company’s initiatives and plans related to the support of cryptocurrencies and digital assets.

PayPal said it expects the acquisition deal to be completed in the first half of this year. Facebook has attempted to acquire Curv in the past, but the companies did not reach a relative agreement. Source

Ethereum is awaiting overhaul greenlit via EIP-1559

Ethereum is awaiting Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP-1559), which will be packaged with the hard fork this July. This is one of the most significant and disputable alterations to the Ethereum blockchain, which is focused to fix numerous fee issues in the Ethereum network.

The main concept of the improvement is that the gas fee will now be sent to the network itself as a sort of “burn” called base fee with only an optional tip paid to miners. The burnt fee will be set algorithmically, which allows set a fair fee for network users. This concept provides a solution for network congestion, which causes a sudden increase in fees and the failure of some transactions.

On the other hand, the miners and the mining pools are fundamentally against this proposal. For example, the Flexpool mining pool launched a marketing campaign against the EIP. Several minority pools joined, followed by majority pools Ethermine and SparkPool. Source

JPMorgan launching a new crypto instrument

The financial services giant JPMorgan Chase has designed a new debt instrument that provides investors direct exposure to a basket of crypto-focused companies. The product, called ‘JPMorgan’s Cryptocurrency Exposure Basket‘ is described in a new filing with the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) as an ‘unequally weighted basket consisting of 11 Reference Stocks of U.S.-listed companies’.

The instrument allocates 20% to MicroStrategy, 18% to Square and 15% to Riot Blockchain. Nvidia Corporation and PayPal Holdings each account for 15% of the basket. The basket also includes advanced companies like Micro Devices, Taiwan Semiconductor Company, Intercontinental Exchange, CME Group, Overstock.com and Silvergate Capital. Source

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