Welcome to Around the Blockchain, Huobi Learn’s daily rundown of the crypto markets.
US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Gary Gensler explained how securities laws apply to cryptocurrency tokens as he outlined the SEC’s priorities in crypto regulation on CNBC, saying it wants to “protect you — the investing public — so that you have proper information…and protect you against fraud and scammers and the like.” He emphasized that investments labelled as ‘tokens’ were “probably, possibly a security” but when asked if Ethereum was a security, declined to answer as he reiterated that he would not comment on any one crypto.
Crypto exchange Coinbase will be giving its employees one week off each quarter in 2022 to rest after “long days and long weeks” of hard work. This move was spurred by the realization that in 2020, “many employees weren’t taking enough time off to recharge, either because they didn’t want to force their teammates to cover for them or because they didn’t want to fall behind on their work”. The exchange subsequently arranged for a ‘recharge week’ at the end of 2020, followed by two ‘recharge weeks’ last year, during which almost the entire company shut down. Coinbase added: “Given the intensity of our work throughout the year, we think this is the best way to ensure our pace is sustainable for the long term”.
A recent report by Nansen researcher Martin Lee details how Ronin, the sidechain of Ethereum-based game Axie Infinity, has experienced exponential growth. The report states that last November, “Ronin processed over 560% of the total number of transactions on Ethereum”, and that executing trades on the Axie marketplace and sending assets over the network are “completed within seconds”. It also compares Ronin to Ethereum: gas fees range from 50 to 100 gwei on Ethereum, while Ronin offers 100 free transactions per wallet per day. Lee believes that when Ronin matures and stabilizes, “other games developers can start to build their games on Ronin”, as it has “proven itself to be a capable scaling solution for gaming”.
Iranian authorities will soon permit cryptocurrencies to be used in international settlements. Local media reported that the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade have jointly approved the adoption of a mechanism that uses digital coins for foreign trade, which “should provide new opportunities for importers and exporters to use cryptos in their international deals”. In addition, the head of the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, Alireza Peyman Pak, said the Trade Ministry will develop a plan within two weeks for the use of locally mined crypto and tokens acquired by private companies to pay for the import of goods.
Show me the money
According to data from the Huobi Global, BTC fell to a low of 42,463.61 USDT before rebounding slightly (though it has not yet managed to reach 43,000), while ETH rebounded after a slight decline to reach a maximum of 3275.92 USDT. Daily charts for both BTC and ETH showed two consecutive rises, though trading volume for both remains somewhat sluggish.
In its latest report, data analytics firm Glassnode suggests that Bitcoin may be in the last stages of a bearish trend after losing almost 40% of its value since Nov 2021. Using dormancy, a gauge of the market’s spending pattern (one that refers to the average number of days each token transacted remained dormant or unmoved), the report notes that the entity-adjusted dormancy flow has fallen below $250,000, and that the area under it has marked major price bottoms in the past. This comes after Bitcoin bottomed out in July 2021 before a new bull run that saw it hit a record high of almost $69,000 in Nov 2021. At the time of writing, its market cap stands at $809.98 billion.
New to Huobi? Register for a Huobi account and receive up to $300 as a ‘Welcome Bonus’ to help you start your investment journey! If you’re an existing user, check out Huobi Earn, where you can start earning interest from your idle cryptocurrencies!
