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This week Bitcoin begins to recover after a sudden drop last week below $60K. Accompanying Bitcoin’s rise was a statement from Tesla CFO claiming they believe in the value of Bitcoin in the long term. Other cryptocurrencies are also on the rise, most notably Tether (USDT) that has grown by more than $10 billion over the past month.
Let’s take a closer look at this week’s crypto updates.
Tesla sold part of Bitcoins for $272 million
Electric car maker Tesla sold part of its assets in the first cryptocurrency for $272 million.
According to the financial results of the automaker for the first quarter of 2021, profit was $101 million.
The company cited the sale of cryptocurrency as a positive influencer in its core business. This contributed to Tesla’s record one-quarter revenue of $438 million. The previous record was set in the third quarter of 2020 at $331 million.
According to Tesla founder Elon Musk, the electric car maker sold 10% of its Bitcoins to test market liquidity.
Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn confirmed during a conference call that the automaker believes in the value of Bitcoin in the long term and intends to preserve its current assets in cryptocurrency, as well as continue to accumulate coins received as payments for cars.
On 24 March, The automaker added Bitcoin as a payment method for its products. Right now, this method is only available to US customers and it will be available for other countries later this year.
In early February, Tesla announced its intention to add a cryptocurrency payment option to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company announced this when it disclosed its $1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin. At the same time, Musk called the investment in the $1.5 billion cryptocurrency recklessness for the company from the S & P500 index and stressed that Tesla’s actions did not directly reflect his views.
According to analysts, Tesla’s unrealized profit from investments in cryptocurrency was higher than from the sale of electric vehicles in 2020.
Bitcoin has skyrocketed in value since the automaker’s financial statements were published. Over the past day, the first cryptocurrency has risen in price by 3%, at the time of writing, it is trading at $ 54.6 thousand.
Tether capitalization exceeds $50 billion
The market capitalization of the dollar-pegged stablecoin Tether (USDT) has surpassed the $50 billion mark and has grown by more than $10 billion over the past month.
According to CoinMarketCap, USDT accounts for 52.7% of total cryptocurrency trading volume.
Currently, USDT holds 66% of the stablecoin market. USDC is in second place (17%), while BUSD is in third place (9%). At the same time, the share of USDT has been gradually decreasing in recent months – stablecoins USDC and BUSD are growing at a faster pace.
According to information on the Tether website, about 24.6 billion USDT were issued on the Tron blockchain, and 24 billion on the Ethereum network.
Last week, Tether developers launched USDT stablecoin on Hermez Network – Ethereum’s second-tier solution. The project uses zero-knowledge ZK-Rollups technology to reduce the load on the underlying blockchain. It solves the problems of high commissions and long confirmation of transactions.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Tether would launch its stablecoin on the Polkadot blockchain.
At the end of April 2020, Tether (USDT) capitalization exceeded $ 7 billion.
PayPal CEO: demand for cryptocurrencies exceeded company expectations
PayPal CEO Dan Shulman said that demand for digital assets has exceeded the company’s expectations.
During an interview with TIME, Shulman added that he predicts that significant changes will occur in the financial system in the next ten years.
Schulman noted that PayPal has been studying digital currency forms and distributed ledger technology (DLT) for about six years. However, for a long time, the company’s management believed that cryptocurrencies are more like assets than currencies.
The PayPal CEO added that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) can use distributed ledger technology similar to Bitcoin. However, often CBDCs simply digitize fiat currencies and are fully regulated by the government, Shulman noted.
Shulman predicts up to ten “super applications” to dominate payments, with cash flow “significantly reduced.” He also predicts that credit cards will eventually disappear and be replaced by mobile phones.
With the rise in popularity of digital assets, he said, companies should focus on cybersecurity.
In November 2020, PayPal launched the buying and selling of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) via its platform for US users.
On March 30, PayPal made it possible for US users to purchase with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) at its merchant network of 29 million merchants.
In early April, the payment giant acquired crypto storage infrastructure provider Curv.
Stay Informed!
That’s it for this week, thank you for reading!
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