Hello and welcome to this Week’s edition of Overbit News.
According to a recent CNBC report, China is stepping up attempts to bring the digital yuan to a broader audience as technological behemoths like Alibaba and Tencent come on board.
There will be obstacles ahead, and one in particular sticks out: Will Chinese citizens, who currently use two leading mobile payment systems owned by these same tech companies, begin paying with the digital yuan?
Since 2014, China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, has been working on a digital version of its national currency.
China’s digital yuan is a type of central bank digital currency that many other central banks are working on as well – however, the Chinese central bank is well ahead of its worldwide peers.
On Thursday, the most major push came when Tencent announced that the digital yuan would be supported on its WeChat messaging service. However, the PBOC may face difficulties in convincing users to download their new digital yuan app and abandon WeChat and Alipay.
On Friday, JD.com, an e-commerce behemoth, said that it would begin assisting third-party merchants selling on its site in accepting the e-CNY. JD.com was an early supporter of the digital yuan, and it has previously accepted it as payment.
To round up this week’s Overbit News, we take a look at a new JPMorgan client study on Bitcoin prices in 2022. From December 13 to January 7, the investment bank questioned 47 of its clients as part of its more comprehensive macroeconomic outlook for the year.
According to the findings, nearly 41% of clients predict the world’s most costly cryptocurrency will end the year around $60,000, indicating a 46% gain over Monday’s price. Only 5% expect Bitcoin to hit $100,000 by the end of the year.
Bitcoin dipped below $40,000 on Monday, its lowest prices since September, before recovering to around $41,000. Nonetheless, Bitcoin has fallen 11% since the beginning of the year and is now over 40% below its November record high of $69,000.
However, some, including El Salvador’s Bitcoin-obsessed President Nayib Bukele, believe Bitcoin will hit $100,000 by 2022. Last year, the bullish excitement surrounding Bitcoin’s accomplishment of the elusive $100,000 milestone was palpable. However, the currency ended the year at less than half its previous value, which appears to have impacted sentiment, as evidenced by a JPMorgan poll released on Monday.
According to JPMorgan, Bitcoin might reach $146,000 in the long run if its volatility decreases and institutions continue to favour it over gold in their portfolios. Bitcoin’s volatility is currently four to five times that of gold, according to the bank.
That concludes this Week’s episode of Overbit News; thank you for reading, and see you next week.