● US Dollar Soars on Election News and Vaccine Hopes
● Europe Appears to add Backdoors to Encryption
● Crypto ATMs are Booming
Hello again and welcome to this week’s edition of Overbit News, where we try and survey some of the biggest stories in the financial world.
After months of uncertainty, uneasiness, and downright pessimism in the markets brought on by the coronavirus pandemic; the markets welcomed a bit of good news this week. The general mood is soaring thanks to reports that the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine trials have shown more than 90% effectiveness against COVID-19 with no serious safety concerns.
As one could imagine, markets across the board posted sizable gains on this news, with European indices rising and the American Wall Street rallying to all-time highs. After a post-election down week for the U.S. dollar, even the greenback recovered, posting gains against all its major rivals. Even with worries of monetary easing, EUR/USD held strong near the 1.18 level. GBP/USD held strong as well around 1.3150, with positive news on the Brexit front offsetting some of the greenback’s gains.
The crude oil market followed equities as well, with WTI settling above $40.00 a barrel. One of the only losers on the day was gold, which plummeted to $1850 per troy ounce from its daily high of $1965.67. All in all, this type of day in the markets seems like a stark difference versus the past couple of months, where almost every move could be described in terms of risk aversion. Traders and investors should see this as a welcome sign that the pandemic’s effect on global markets might be coming to a close soon.
In a news story away from the markets, yet closely linked to cryptocurrencies, we look towards Austria. According to a story in the Austrian press, there are talks of banning end-to-end (E2E) encryption – a decision linked to a recent terror attack in the country. For anyone closely following, talks of banning E2E encryption shouldn’t be too surprising; members of the European Union have been discussing the topic of encryption and regulation for several years now. This most recent report coming out of Austria is based on a draft from the Council of the European Union (CoEU).
There’s a lot of jargon in this draft, but the premise is simple: how can the E.U. preserve its member states and their citizens’ right to privacy and due process, while also preserving the rule of law and their ability to keep an eye on criminals and their communications? “Competent authorities must be able to access data in a lawful and targeted manner, in full respect of fundamental rights and the data protection regime, while upholding cybersecurity,” one part of the CoEU report states.
Though it’s unclear how exactly they plan to achieve such a system, the report makes clear its stance on E2E encryption: they have full support for “the development, implementation and use of strong encryption”. Though they certainly have their eyes on the technology, one that is integral to many cryptocurrency systems, it seems clear at this point the E.U. has no point in installing ‘backdoors’ into these types of systems.
Closing out this week’s edition of Overbit News, we’re going to cover one of the fastest-growing trends in the world – Crypto ATMs. Crypto ATMs are growing quite rapidly, with new machines coming online at a rate of nearly one per hour according to a recent report by MobilePaymentsToday.
The evolution of Crypto ATMs has a long winding history, going all the way back to 2013 when the first-ever Bitcoin ATM came live in a Vancouver Coffee Shop. This first-ever Bitcoin ATM, allowed users to buy and sell bitcoin with cash and had volumes of $10,000 in BTC on its first day according to a report by CoinTelegraph.
From the first Crypto ATM ever in 2013, we now see 11,665 global crypto ATMs, that’s an enormous growth rate according to stats provided by CoinATMRadar. With nearly 12,000 ATMs clocking online globally, this is a marked increase from just 2019, where it was estimated at 6,372 machines, almost an 80% increase – averaging 23 new machines rolling out daily.
The United States clocked the largest increase of any country growing from 4,213 ATMs in 2019 to 9,242 ATMs in 2020, an increase of more than 50%, and acquiring the largest shares of ATMs by any country. For the top 5, Canada is placed second with 880, the U.K. with 268, Hong Kong with 62, and Columbia with 59.
As you can see, people globally just can’t get their hands on enough crypto, and ATMs, along with behemoths like PayPal will continue to spearheads new FIAT on & off ramps for the burgeoning industry, and you can rest assured that Overbit.com is keeping up with this rising demand through its suite of products.