At the end of last week, a phase of Bitcoin sales, which is still ongoing, started. The spent coins aged from 6 months to 5 years old are the ones that predominate.

Glassnode released a report on the activity of the Bitcoin market between August 16^th and August 22^nd. That study highlights the growth in the volume of futures, open interest, and contracts still pending settlement.

Medium- and long-term holders began to take profits in that period when prices broke above the psychological mark of USD 50,000. Meanwhile, open interest in options and futures in the Bitcoin derivatives market surged to new local highs.

Open interest has achieved a 56% recovery after falling from USD 27.4 billion to USD 10.6 billion in mid-April. On August 22^nd, the Glassnode report recorded an open interest of USD 16.6 billion.

The study states that perpetual futures financing rates moderately tend to long positions. Those rates have remained positive from the end of July, as the Bitcoin futures markets trade above spot prices.

All that means that a large part of the market considers the price of BTC will increase in the short and medium term.

The Volume of Bitcoin Sales Increases

Profit-taking did not seem significant, but on-chain signals started among investors with older currencies who sold their BTC.

A moderate rise in sales highlighted a sharp decline in BTC inventories on exchanges late in July. In August, the balance sheet has remained stable and increased in recent days.

The moderate inflows in the last week correspond to the profit taking by traders and investors. The magnitude of those flows is similar to that of the upward phase between December 2020 and April 2021. The authors of the study highlight that it is a behavior to expect.

Identifying the Age of the BTC Spent

Using the Spent Output Age Bands metric allows identifying the groups of those holders spending their coins. Last week, older coins, especially those older than six months, recorded a peak.

The Glassnode report says that older coins reappear in two specific instances. These can be sales in a bullish market or a distribution in a context of intensive sales, like in May.

Spent outputs, aged between six months and five years, indicate that experienced Bitcoin investors and traders have already resisted volatility.

A strong rally in all age bands last week suggests that some coins took output liquidity. In May and June, the maximum amount of spent coins of different ages corresponded to price corrections.

The Bitcoin Trading Volume Decreases

The study indicates that trading volumes have decreased as there are fewer transactions and smaller amounts transferred occur. The authors add that the Bitcoin network recorded a daily volume of USD 18.8 billion last week. That represents 37% below the bubble peak of 2017 and 57.6% below that of the capitulation in May.

The settlement volume is still 276% higher than the USD 5 billion level. However, the study clarifies the price has risen by around USD 10,000 to approach USD 50,000 (+ 500%).

During the bullish market of the first half, long-term holders distributed 1.75 million BTC. That created an oversupply and led to the all-time high in price in mid-April, the report stated.

This week began with the breakout of the USD 50,000 barrier, after which a correction occurred. Increased BTC inflows on exchanges may have played a relevant role in that.

By Alexander Salazar

Missouri Cool Valley City Mayor Jayson Stewart will give away free Bitcoin to all citizens.  The giveaway will take effect only if they don’t sell the currencies for several years.

The mayor of a small town in Missouri, in the west-central United States of America, wants to be the first mayor to distribute bitcoins to all his citizens.

Jayson Stewart, the mayor of Cool Valley in Missouri, announced his desire to give USD 500 and $ 1,000 to all the citizens in the town. In an interview with news outlet KSDK, Stewart revealed that he is raising funds to make the crypto rewards initiative happen.

Mayor Stewart revealed that he hopes to release his Bitcoin project before the year ends and is considering some potential sources to achieve it.

The mayor said he counts on some supportive donors who have agreed to match any money he could raise to several million dollars. The mayor is trying to get some government funding to go along with that. Or possibly part of the aid money that comes from the Covid relief.

Bitcoin for Everyone, but on one Condition

Stewart expressed that the initiative will make not only the city of Missouri richer but also its residents. He thinks Cool Valley would get richer and flourish financially, not just the city but the people who live there.

In addition, he did not rule out the possibility that part of the funds to finance the project could come from the city treasury.

The Bitcoin check project does not seem entirely impossible, considering that the city has an approximate number of 1,500 inhabitants. However, there is a catch: Stewart doesn’t want people to sell their profit in Bitcoin, at least for a few years.

In Stewart’s view, a small stash of cryptocurrency can be transformative. His idea is that people can count on Bitcoin as a source of long-term savings and investment. The mayor highlighted in this regard is his belief that cryptocurrency will continue to increase in price over the years.

The mayor discussed that citizens would regret using their Bitcoin today to pay their car fees only to see them grow later. When Bitcoin hits about $ 500,000 all these years later, they will regret it.

Cities in the US Distribute Cryptocurrencies

Stewart, who describes himself as an entrepreneur and environmentalist, had called Bitcoin digital gold. He also announced that he plans to enhance the city’s energy with renewable sources. This decision became a matter of growing interest among the bitcoin community. Like all the lights of the government and things like that, he said.

Until now, nobody has determined how the Bitcoin funds will meet their distribution to residents, but Stewart suggested knocking on doors and offering free classes to townspeople on how to use and store digital currencies. Many citizens had shown enthusiasm on the matter.

By: Jenson Nuñez

Countries whose inhabitants have higher incomes showed higher adoption. More than 60% of DeFi operations exceeded $ 10 million in the second quarter.

According to an investigation carried out by the blockchain analytics company Chainalysis, Argentina and Brazil are the Latin American countries with the highest use of protocols for decentralized finance (DeFi). The two South American countries got ranked 16 and 17 respectively in the world rankings led by the United States of America, Vietnam, and Thailand.

According to Chainalysis, the purpose of this “DeFi Adoption Index” is to know which areas have the highest adoption of these protocols per person. Unlike other statistics prepared previously, the total of funds transferred by the nation was not a central factor for the elaboration of this ranking.

The index gave each country a score of 0 to 1 based on several factors, such as the value of operations and individual deposits compared to purchasing power. In addition to the United States of America, Vietnam, and Thailand, China, the United Kingdom, India, the Netherlands, Canada, Ukraine, and Poland appeared among the top 10, in that order.

Beyond Argentina and Brazil, there is no other Latin American country among the top 20 on the final list. The River Plate nation reached a score of 0.34, while Brazil marked 0.32.

The Chainalysis text highlights that cryptocurrency adoption ranks are generally higher in emerging markets. DeFi adoption has gained strength in higher-income countries with cryptocurrency use.

Especially regarding traders and institutional investors, a situation like this could indicate that the adoption of cryptocurrencies at the lowest economic levels could be due to the need to protect against inflation or the possibility of sending remittances more conveniently, adds the study.

More Details on DeFi Presented by Chainalysis

Decentralized finance is a set of financial services applications based on smart contracts. It is one of the most relevant events of cryptocurrencies in the last 18 months”, according to the study by Chainalysis.

In this area, the research indicates that the countries best positioned in the index appear to be the nations with the highest volumes of transferred cryptocurrencies, both currently and historically.

The data provided by the company highlights that, from April 2019 to June 2020, the vast majority of the web traffic of the DeFi protocols came from North America. On the other hand, Western Europe added a considerable percentage in September 2019.

Since June 2020, more traffic has become visible from outer regions, such as South and Central Asia. Despite including China, East Asian DeFi did not gather enough traffic as other centralized cryptocurrency services.

On the other hand, the data designate that large transactions predominate in Defi, which may indicate that they are “disproportionately popular with large investors.” Operations of more than $ 10 million represented more than 60% of DeFi transactions in the second quarter of 2021. Instead, these amounts constituted less than 50% of cryptocurrency operations in that same period.

The methodology Used by Chainalysis

Regarding the data evaluation method to build the DeFi adoption index, Chainalysis explained that three components helped with the metric.  The first was on-chain cryptocurrency funds received by DeFi platforms compared to PPP per capita (average income per capita). This reference serves as a tool to measure the total DeFi activity considering the purchasing power of the inhabitants of an entire nation.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The funds will be an award for development teams working on the network’s software.

This donation revealed the increasing interest in applying more decentralized financing procedures.

The Ethereum Foundation revealed that a series of projects operating in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, along with the exchange Kraken, donated at least $ 1.5 billion to rush the development of the Ethereum 2.0 execution layer.

Compound Grants, Lido, Synthetix, The Graph, and Uniswap Grants made a donation estimated at $ 250,000 each to support open source development teams working on technical updates to improve the network.

The funding round will benefit developers working on Ethereum software compatible clients such as Best, Erigon, Geth, Nethermind, and Nimbus. These devs will receive the gesture of the projects that coexist in the Ethereum ecosystem, which is an ecosystem that shows interest in the success of the number two network according to its market capitalization.

Ethereum Foundation expressed through a statement in the official blog that they will strongly show their support as these [development] teams adapt and grow alongside the wider community.

This ecosystem is working hard on an ambitious project that may include a transition process to turn its blockchain into a powerful virtual processing machine. A process that appears in the crypto-environment with the name Ethereum 2.0.

This transformation includes leaving behind the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus algorithm to transition to the Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism. It is a metamorphosis that would meet its completion in several phases that have been put in place already since last year when the Beacon Chain got activated.

Once eth1 and eth2 get merged in stage 2, there would be an ecosystem that will work between the execution layer and the consensus layer. In this sense, the new financing that will complement the one already assigned by the Ethereum Foundation will support clients of the execution layer (previously Eth1).

These clients will keep bringing critical network infrastructure after the merger, as Ethereum moves toward a proof-of-stake consensus system. The platform’s strong support will continue as these teams adapt and climb up in parallel with the wider community, details the official blog post.

Decentralized financing for Ethereum

According to the Foundation, this first round of financing by these large Ethereum projects intends to “reduce the risks that arise from dependence on a single team or entity.”

For this reason, we are working on the search for more decentralized financing mechanisms for Ethereum’s public goods. This decision is one more step that allows groups of participants to bring direct support to the development and maintenance of the client, the note adds.

If the plan succeeds, all this hard work and efforts will lead to the community enjoying tons of benefits that Vitalik Buterin previously highlighted last May. The network’s co-creator believes that Ethereum’s security will be higher, and stronger with the proof of stake.

By Jenson Nuñez

The New York-based financial giant is now getting ready to start offering CME Bitcoin futures and then Bitcoin exchange-traded notes (ETNs.)

Citigroup, one of the most relevant financial services companies worldwide, is getting ready to offer investment instruments from the crypto-derivatives market.

As CoinDesk reported on Tuesday, the New York-based banking giant is now waiting for regulatory approval to begin trading Bitcoin futures on the US derivatives market, Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group). An anonymous source from the bank brought the information to the media.

According to the report, the initiative would arrive because of increasing demand from the bank’s clients who want to acquire more exposure to digital currencies. The news also comes as Bitcoin hits the $ 50,000 mark again amid an uptrend in the crypto market.

Citibank Intends to Trade BTC Funds and Futures

Citigroup would join banking giant Goldman Sachs in offering future clients of Bitcoin (BTC).

Goldman Sachs started trading BTC futures in June, right after a partnership with Galaxy Digital, the investment firm specializing in cryptocurrencies led by billionaire Michael Novogratz.

The operations of Goldman’s Bitcoin financial instruments are also at work through the CME Group market. Citigroup is still awaiting approval from US regulators to launch the project. The report did not provide details on the current status of the regulator’s review or advance an estimated launch schedule.

Although, on the other hand, the report revealed that futures trading is not the bank’s only effort to explore the space of digital currencies. According to another spokesperson close to the bank, Citi would be hiring staff to join a crypto-focused team based in London.

The unknown source told CoinDesk that the institution is also waiting to bring Bitcoin exchange-traded notes, or ETNs, once the futures receive their approval.

One More Journey into the Crypto World

A Citigroup spokesperson also assured by email to the media about the bank’s projects related to the release of new financial instruments linked to Bitcoin.

Regarding the many questions about regulatory frameworks, supervisory expectations, and other special features, the entity is very thoughtful about its steps. They said they are currently considering products as futures for some institutional clients, as they operate under strict regulatory frameworks.

Citigroup’s release arrives as an increasing number of large US banks are exploring cryptocurrencies. Institutions often choose to offer cash-settled products that track the price of Bitcoin, such as exchange-traded products (ETPs) or ETNs.

A brief report revealed that Bank of America’s first brokerage unit started the clearing and settlement of cryptocurrency ETPs for hedge funds in the European continent. Goldman Sachs also started offering cryptocurrency ETPs to its European clients this year.

With more than $ 23.7 trillion in assets under management, Citigroup has made other moves into the crypto space. In June 2021, a business unit of the bank began offering cryptocurrency-related products to wealthy clients. A month earlier, a report from the Financial Times highlighted that Citi was weighing cryptocurrency trading and custody.

By: Jenson Nuñez