Luc Smits van Oyen
Weekly crypto news: Australia‘s first Bitcoin ETF soon to be launched
The past week (April 15, 2022 through April 21) was a volatile one for the cryptocurrency market. As always, Bitcoin again took the lead in the price rises and falls. BTC saw a low of €35,900 this week, only to later climb back up to a high of €38,900.
What exactly caused this volatility is not clear, as there was some good news for Bitcoin this week. For example, Australia's first Bitcoin ETF will be launched April 27 and Bitcoin's on-chain analysis seems very positive. Read more about these topics and other important news items below!
Cosmos Asset Management has managed to get approval for Australia's first Bitcoin ETF. An ETF is an exchange traded fund, an asset in which people invest. Often ETFs consist of a basket of stocks, for example, but in this case it is just a single spot ETF. That is, the ETF simply follows the price of Bitcoin.
The ETF will be listed April 27 on CBOE Australia. At that point, a lot of traditional investors will suddenly have access to Bitcoin. According to the Australian Financial Review, potentially as much as $1 billion in investment could flow into the Bitcoin ETF.
It is expected that this will be the starting signal for the launch of a wide range of ETFs of other cryptocurrencies in Australia.
There is now more Terra USD (UST) on the market than Binance USD (BUSD). UST recently took over the third spot of largest stablecoins on the market and has yet to surpass USDC and USDT.
UST is a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar that launched in September 2020. The coin mechanism requires a user to burn a reserve asset such as Terra (LUNA) to mint an equivalent amount of UST.
Currently, according to Coingecko, UST's market capitalization is €16.7 billion, overtaking BUSD's €15.8 billion. USDC and USDT are still far above it though with market capitalizations of €45.7 billion and €76 billion respectively.
USDT's growth may be a logical consequence of the growth of its underlying blockchain Terra. Terra (LUNA) has been growing fast compared to the rest of the cryptocurrency market over the past few months and is now ranked #8 in the list of largest cryptocurrencies with a market capitalization of €31 billion.
The number of ADA wallets has grown by 100,000 since March 22, and 400 new projects have also been created on the Cardano Network since March 11. The total number of wallets on Cardano now stands at 3.268 million.
Cardano, which is competing with Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) among others, is showing strength with these numbers. The network is growing and so is the value of the network. However, transaction volume is still lagging a bit behind. The number of transactions per day on the Cardano blockchain has remained roughly the same since March 22.
Founder Charles Hoskinson recently suggested in a video on his YouTube channel that the tide could soon turn with the upcoming Vasil Hard Fork upgrade in June. He stated that it will provide a huge improvement for Cardano and its smart contract capabilities.
The number of Bitcoin that have not moved in the last 12 months is a rounded 64% of the total supply. Since November 2021, this percentage has already been on an upward trend, reaching record high after record high.
This is good news for Bitcoin holders because it means that the supply of Bitcoin is getting lower each time, which usually has a positive effect on the price. In fact, according to the principle of supply and demand, a lower supply means a higher price.
Many people see Bitcoin as a long-term investment, something they park money in and don't touch for several years. In the past 12 months, only 6.84 million of the total 19 million Bitcoins available have been on the market.
Also good news for Coinmerce users! Another 13 new coins have become available on our platform. The following coins have been added to the offering: AMP, ANC, CVX, DCR, GMT, IOTX, MIR, OXT, OGN, RVN, RNDR, SLP and WOO.
STEPN (GMT) is also one of the top performing coins this week. There is a lot of hype behind this coin right now and it shows in the 7-day increase of 46%. Only STEEM (STEM) performed better this week.
And lastly for this week's news summary also the following great announcement: Staking is now also available for Secret (SCRT). By staking this coin at Coinmerce you will earn 10% (!!) on a yearly basis - on top of any price increases of course.
What exactly caused this volatility is not clear, as there was some good news for Bitcoin this week. For example, Australia's first Bitcoin ETF will be launched April 27 and Bitcoin's on-chain analysis seems very positive. Read more about these topics and other important news items below!
$1 billion is expected to flow into Australia's first Bitcoin ETF
Cosmos Asset Management has managed to get approval for Australia's first Bitcoin ETF. An ETF is an exchange traded fund, an asset in which people invest. Often ETFs consist of a basket of stocks, for example, but in this case it is just a single spot ETF. That is, the ETF simply follows the price of Bitcoin.
The ETF will be listed April 27 on CBOE Australia. At that point, a lot of traditional investors will suddenly have access to Bitcoin. According to the Australian Financial Review, potentially as much as $1 billion in investment could flow into the Bitcoin ETF.
It is expected that this will be the starting signal for the launch of a wide range of ETFs of other cryptocurrencies in Australia.
Terra USD (UST) is now the 3rd largest stablecoin on the market
There is now more Terra USD (UST) on the market than Binance USD (BUSD). UST recently took over the third spot of largest stablecoins on the market and has yet to surpass USDC and USDT.
UST is a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar that launched in September 2020. The coin mechanism requires a user to burn a reserve asset such as Terra (LUNA) to mint an equivalent amount of UST.
Currently, according to Coingecko, UST's market capitalization is €16.7 billion, overtaking BUSD's €15.8 billion. USDC and USDT are still far above it though with market capitalizations of €45.7 billion and €76 billion respectively.
USDT's growth may be a logical consequence of the growth of its underlying blockchain Terra. Terra (LUNA) has been growing fast compared to the rest of the cryptocurrency market over the past few months and is now ranked #8 in the list of largest cryptocurrencies with a market capitalization of €31 billion.
Cardano's network is growing very fast
The number of ADA wallets has grown by 100,000 since March 22, and 400 new projects have also been created on the Cardano Network since March 11. The total number of wallets on Cardano now stands at 3.268 million.
Cardano, which is competing with Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) among others, is showing strength with these numbers. The network is growing and so is the value of the network. However, transaction volume is still lagging a bit behind. The number of transactions per day on the Cardano blockchain has remained roughly the same since March 22.
Founder Charles Hoskinson recently suggested in a video on his YouTube channel that the tide could soon turn with the upcoming Vasil Hard Fork upgrade in June. He stated that it will provide a huge improvement for Cardano and its smart contract capabilities.
Nearly two-thirds of Bitcoin does not make it to market
The number of Bitcoin that have not moved in the last 12 months is a rounded 64% of the total supply. Since November 2021, this percentage has already been on an upward trend, reaching record high after record high.
This is good news for Bitcoin holders because it means that the supply of Bitcoin is getting lower each time, which usually has a positive effect on the price. In fact, according to the principle of supply and demand, a lower supply means a higher price.
Many people see Bitcoin as a long-term investment, something they park money in and don't touch for several years. In the past 12 months, only 6.84 million of the total 19 million Bitcoins available have been on the market.
13 new coins listed on Coinmerce
Also good news for Coinmerce users! Another 13 new coins have become available on our platform. The following coins have been added to the offering: AMP, ANC, CVX, DCR, GMT, IOTX, MIR, OXT, OGN, RVN, RNDR, SLP and WOO.
STEPN (GMT) is also one of the top performing coins this week. There is a lot of hype behind this coin right now and it shows in the 7-day increase of 46%. Only STEEM (STEM) performed better this week.
And lastly for this week's news summary also the following great announcement: Staking is now also available for Secret (SCRT). By staking this coin at Coinmerce you will earn 10% (!!) on a yearly basis - on top of any price increases of course.