The market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies grew up by more than 380% during 2021. About a year ago, the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies was the size of ether (ETH).

The second week of November 2021 started with some news in the world of cryptocurrencies. The global market capitalization of the industry surpassed 3 trillion US dollars (USD). This event represents a growth of 50% during the last semester.

Just six months ago, total market capitalization had hit the $ 2 trillion mark. According to data revealed by CoinGecko, global investment in cryptocurrencies has grown almost 3,000% over the last two years.

On the other hand, two currencies continue to stand out from the rest for raising an amount near the totality of the funds: bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH).

Of the total capitalization of USD 3 trillion in different cryptocurrencies, only bitcoin represents 40% (USD 1.2 trillion) and ether 16% (USD 560 billion) of the total. This capitalization means that BTC keeps maintaining a considerable difference in front of the second highest value cryptocurrency on the market with almost a double margin.

However, bitcoin has lost dominance in the last year, following the increase of ether and other lower-value cryptocurrencies. These currencies are Binance Coin, Cardano, tether, Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, and USD coin.

Bitcoin Doubles the Market Capitalization of Ether, Despite Slower Increase

The capitalization of ether has also grown more than that of bitcoin. Precisely, BTC quintupled, while ETH managed to multiply by ten, that is, by twice. Today, the volume of the second asset meets the same as the total cryptocurrency market had a year ago.

In addition to having approached a global market capitalization of USD 3 trillion, another vital milestone occurred for the two cryptocurrencies this week. Both bitcoin and ether started the week with a rise in price until reaching their all-time highs in the early hours of Tuesday, November 9.

Bitcoin exceeded the $ 68,000 mark, and ether reached $ 4,800, its all-time highs so far. The prices of both cryptocurrencies have been stable for the past three weeks without any decline.

The cryptocurrency market analyst at BitBank bank in Japan, Yuya Hasegawa, discuss that the rise in bitcoin happened due to two reasons. On the one hand, Yuya thinks that it came to effect due to the fall in real bonds of -1.09% in the last ten years, and, on the other hand, it acts in response to generalized global inflation.

As long as the headlines in the media about increasing inflation in Latin America, the United States of America, and Europe continue, the fluctuation of bitcoin could be an advantage, according to the analyst.

The upward movement could happen due to the impact of whales. According to data gathered from the Chainalysis firm, these heavyweight investors accumulated near 200,000 bitcoins in October. If they sell these Bitcoins in mass, they could cause a huge loss.

According to analysts Hasegawa and Kukan, demand remains growing and will do so for a long time. Although speculators claim there could be a small breakout of bitcoin’s bullish behavior in the coming days, there are those who sustain that the price is experiencing an overvalue.

By: Jenson Nuñez

Robinhood announced on his blog that he experienced an incident that affected data security.

The popular investment app Robinhood, with some 7 million users worldwide, revealed yesterday in a blog post that it was the victim of an attack that affected data security.

Below we translate the information from the blog, which began by acknowledging -five days later- what happened to them last week.

The investment app told that late on the night of November 3, they experienced a data security breach. An unauthorized third party gained access to a limited amount of personal data for a portion of their clients.

According to a series of investigations, the attack got contained, and Robinhood now firmly believes that no Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, or debit card numbers got exposed; there has been no financial damage for any clients as a result of the incident.

The unauthorized party managed to engineer a telephone customer service employee and gained access to various customer service systems. Robinhood clarified that the unauthorized party acquired a list of email addresses of at least five million people and the full names of a different group of approximately two million people.

Robinhood also believes that approximately 310 in total, additional personal information, including name, date of birth, and zip code, got exposed, with a subset of ten customers disclosing more extensive account details. Robinhood is currently making appropriate disclosures to affected individuals.

Hacker Demanded Payment

Likewise, Robinhood highlights that the hacker tried to profit financially from the company. According to Robinhood, after they managed to block the intrusion, the unauthorized party demanded an extortion payment. Robinhood immediately reported the event to the authorities and continued to investigate the incident with the assistance of Mandiant, a leading external security firm.

The Company’s Chief Security Officer, Caleb Sima, also said that, as a company, safety comes first, and after a diligent review, alerting the entire Robinhood community of this incident is now the right thing to do.

Cryptopotato recalls that this is not the first time that Robinhood’s security has experienced danger. According to a report, the commission-free trading app got compromised last year, with nearly 2,000 users affected.

It highlights that, although the attackers gained access to customer login details outside of the system, the data got later used to divert the affected funds off the platform.

On the other hand, in February of this year, the popular trading platform among millennials reported that the platform increased by six million new clients in Robinhood Crypto.

What is the Robinhood App?

Robinhood is a free trading platform. It brings the ability to invest in a bundle of stocks listed on Wall Street and purchase and trade cryptocurrencies. With this platform, it is also possible to invest in gold and ETF, a type of investment fund; all independently, without going through consultants, and all without spending on commissions.

The company appeared in 2013 by Baiju Bhatt and Vlad Tenev, two Stanford graduates, to democratize Wall Street by bringing everyone, even the young and less well-off, the opportunity to acquire commission-free investments.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The leader of the banking regulator briefly mentioned the current state of the regulatory sandbox in Colombia. The pilot tests might get completed at the end of March 2022.

The leader of the Financial Superintendency of Colombia, Jorge Castaño, expects that, by the end of March 2022, the selected cryptocurrency exchanges could gain access to open accounts in Colombian banks. The statement appeared this Thursday, November 4, during the representative’s participation in the 55th Banking Convention, as reported by the local portal, Semana.

The date runs in parallel with the completion of the pilot testing process to set regulative measures on transactions with crypto assets that the financial authority began in March of this year.  In the process, which got revealed under the name of the regulatory sandbox, eight Colombian banking institutions and eight cryptocurrency exchanges would now play a vital role in the program.

The participant entities in the project are Banco de Bogotá in association with Bitso and Buda; Bancolombia associated with Gemini; Coltefinanciera with Obsidian; Davivienda and Powwi working in parallel with Binance; Coink with Banexcoin; and finally Movii, in a mutual relationship with Panda and Bitpoint.

The Importance of the Crypto Assets Pilot Program

During a speech at the convention, organized by the Colombian Banking Association, Jorge Castaño highlighted the importance of the crypto assets pilot program. As the leader explained, the tests will allow Colombians to set investments in cryptocurrencies with fiat money from their bank accounts using crypto-asset exchange platforms and vice versa.

At the beginning of last May, an official of the Superfinancial, Laura Clavijo, explained in an online forum that the regulatory sandbox would seek greater inclusion in the financial system based on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

Since the program appeared on the radar, the regulatory authority managed a controlled space where commercial banks could test services associated with cryptocurrency exchanges.

Colombia’s regulatory sandbox would allow a more inclusive financial system for the country’s citizens, and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are key. The leader of the Innovation Group of the Financial Superintendence of Colombia (SFC) announced the program during a virtual forum held on Thursday, May 6.

Major Commercial Banks Would Test Services with Cryptocurrency Exchanges

At the Blockchain and cryptocurrencies event in Colombia, Clavijo presented a general sketch of the scope of the experimental environment that the SFC created with the idea of testing innovative business models. The government pilot plan allows more local commercial banks to test services with cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Binance and Gemini.

The official also added that at least 63% of financial operations took place in the digital environment in Colombia due to the pandemic outbreak.

That situation forced the government to understand that financial technology (Fintech) represents a challenge for regulation but, the government cannot see it the other way around because there could be a risk of slowing down the regulative measures.

By: Jenson Nuñez

According to the 22 countries that Finder investigated, Mexico is the 9th country with the most use of cryptocurrencies. The Latin American countries studied were Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico, which came first.

Finder, an Australian news agency, revealed a report highlighting a ranking of the countries that use crypto the most. After a survey of 41,645 people in 22 nations, the study detected that Mexico is the country that uses these assets the most from Latin America, compared to Colombia and Brazil.

Of the 22 countries worldwide that Finder carefully selected to study their adoption of cryptocurrencies, Mexico got ranked ninth. In Latin America, it was number one, considering that it only took three countries in the region, along with Colombia and Brazil, to do the research.

These two countries stood far behind Mexico, according to Finder. It placed Brazil in 12th place and Colombia in 16th. It is also a striking highlight that Venezuela and Argentina did not find a proper spot in the study made by Finder.

According to other studies led by organizations such as Chainalysis, Venezuela and Argentina rank first because they have greater use of cryptocurrencies in Latin America.

Chainalysis Highlights that Venezuela is the country that uses cryptocurrencies the most in Latin America

The world ranking of the places that use cryptocurrencies the most, according to the report revealed by Chainalysis, differs in various ways from that of Finder. These differences occur because all the countries of the world got taken into account, not just 22.

In addition, each entity took different ways to measure the adoption rate of these assets, which also makes them reach different conclusions. Chainalysis highlights that Venezuela is the Latin American country that uses cryptocurrencies the most, ranking number 7 worldwide.

According to his research, the countries that go behind Mexico are Argentina in 10th place, Colombia in 11th, and Brazil in 14th, above Mexico.

The United States of America ranked tenth in Finder and eighth in Chainalysis, considering that it is the region with the most cryptocurrency ATMs worldwide. According to Coin ATM Radar, the United States of America currently has 27,200 bitcoin ATMs, a number that surpasses Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, and Brazil by three or four figures.

Ridge Blue Bank (RBR) is the first bank that merges the service of buying and selling bitcoins to its ATMs for withdrawal and deposit of fiat money. These ATMs are not something meaningful to Bitcoin, like those installed since 2013 across the globe, but they integrate all the functions.

The integration of this service to existing ATMs came to fruition by Ridge Blue Bank’s partnership with the ATM solutions company BluePoint ATM and the bitcoin ATM network company, LibertyX. According to BRB CEO Brian. K Plum, this new evolution in the Bitcoin system would reinforce the commitment to the future of banking for all customers.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The United States of America had year-on-year inflation of 6.2% for the month of October. Meanwhile, bitcoin keeps making history and continues to break its own market listing records.

While bitcoin consolidates itself with a new record of $ 70,000 per coin, inflation in the United States of America continues to rise. For the month of October, the annual inflation rate was 6.2%, the highest in the United States of America in 30 years.

The information got released this Wednesday, November 10 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the North American country, while local media highlighted that it is the highest percentage since November 1990.

Regarding this news, the president of the United States of America, Joe Biden, declared a total war against inflation. For the president, taking down and defeating the country’s inflation rates has become one of his government’s priorities.

The president said regarding the situation that, reversing this infamous trend is one of the top priorities for his administration. According to a report brought by CNN, the representative of the White House acknowledged that these inflationary levels are currently affecting the pockets of citizens.

Despite Biden’s statements, his economic policies do not seem to point in the same direction. Far from transforming and bringing changes to the economic course taken by his predecessor in the White House, Donald Trump, the new president has only reinforced the increase in public spending and monetary issuance, as his response to the crisis caused by the pandemic and the need to infrastructure and service improvements.

In fact, this weekend the Infrastructure Law (Infrastructure Bill) got approved, which contemplates a public expenditure of 1.3 trillion dollars. The destination of these funds will be some labor areas and other sectors such as transportation, the supply of drinking water, or broadband internet.

US Economy is Suffering and Bitcoin is Growing Stronger

The situation of the US economy turns more worrying and grey when compared to the performance of bitcoin this year. Since April, inflation in the North American country has not crumbled down below 4 points.

Bitcoin, meanwhile, has an outstanding increase of close to 350% so far this year, according to data from CoinGecko. The main cryptocurrency in the market has a  current capitalization of more than 1.2 trillion dollars and many of the most recognized analysts in the industry are forecasting new highs before the end of this year.

The forecasts for the US economy, meanwhile, do not look so safe and promising. According to the Financial Times, an outstanding group of economists expected a subsequent decline in inflation rates, but the data that came to light this Wednesday seems to point at a very different scenario.

By: Jenson Nuñez

Over the years, Zimbabwe has changed its position on the pioneering cryptocurrency. The government has already held talks with the private sector to carry out the project.

Zimbabwe might evaluate the adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies as legal means of payment. That African country, which has one of the highest inflation rates, is consulting experts in the field.

Charles Wekwete, head of the e-Government technology unit, said that they are already consulting the private sector for the project. The official explained that the government seeks to gather opinions from various sectors of society to formulate policies. The Finance Minister and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe have spoken out as they consider it a complex area.

Wekwete pointed out that cryptocurrencies cause fear in Zimbabwe, for which they want to understand the implications of the emerging market. He highlighted that those currencies are a fundamental departure from previously known financial instruments.

For that reason, he invited private actors who know how to handle cryptocurrencies to meet with the government. Furthermore, he stated that the government of Zimbabwe is willing to consider the use of those assets.

The Zimbabwean military man did not provide details on what the government is doing to adopt cryptocurrencies. He just said that many governments worldwide still do not have a good understanding of those assets.

Bitcoin Would Not Be Legal Tender but a Means of Payment

The news that Zimbabwe would accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a means of payment went viral in recent days. However, the government of that country clarified that it would not adopt any cryptocurrency as legal tender.

The Zimbabwe Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting stated that the government is not considering introducing another currency into the economy. In that regard, they highlighted that the inflationary Zimbabwean dollar (ZWL) is still the legal tender.

However, the official did not deny the possible acceptance of Bitcoin as a legal means of payment. In several countries, cryptocurrencies coexist with fiat currencies, which seem to work well in contrast to the Zimbabwean dollar.

These Are the Reasons Why Bitcoin Could Work in Zimbabwe

If Bitcoin becomes a means of payment in Zimbabwe, the fees and rates for money transfers would be negligible. That advantage would ease the burden for those living abroad who want to send remittances to their families.

The Zimbabwean economy has undergone a process of dollarization (use of the US dollar) whereby the population rejects the local fiat currency. For that reason, citizens try to save their funds in other assets, where Bitcoin comes to the fore.

Many consider Bitcoin a store-of-value asset that could help Zimbabweans hedge against the economic crisis alongside the US dollar. Its decentralized and anti-inflationary features could help it become an effective means of payment in that troubled nation.

Bitcoin is a solution that can provide the financial stability that Zimbabwe needs to avoid going into crisis. In contrast, fiat money and the traditional economic system contribute to keeping inflation dormant.

There is a high acceptance among Zimbabweans, who recognize BTC as a financial tool to protect them. It is only a matter of time before seeing what the authorities of that African country will decide about it.

By Alexander Salazar