● Russian Oil Drilling Giant Opens a Crypto Mining Farm
● Bitcoin Heads for $29,000 in 2020, Quadrupling in Value
● The US Dollar Falls Going to End of Year
As always, welcome again and thanks for opening today’s edition of Overbit Weekly Roundup. We will cover some of the top, year-end trends and emerging stories in today’s roundup.
First up is a look at Russia, where a massive oil giant is making headlines in the cryptocurrency arena.
On Wednesday, 30 December, Coindesk reported that a subsidiary of Gazprom, Russia’s “gas monopolist and world’s 10th biggest oil producer”, has just opened up a cryptocurrency mining operation run entirely by gas energy. The subsidiary, Gazpromneft, is Gazprom’s oil arm of the operation. This makes for a massive story for cryptocurrency in one of the world’s largest nations, as Gazprom is a state-owned company in Russia – a country that has not had the most lenient approach to cryptocurrencies.
Though, this would not be the first time Russia stepped into the cryptocurrency mining sector. Coindesk also reported earlier that Rosatom, a major nuclear power provider in Russia, had also opened its doors to power mining operations. Going into 2021, we believe stories of governments and cryptocurrency will continue to dominate the airwaves, and we’ll do our best to keep you updated on these.
Moving on from physical operations, we take a look at financial markets. In doing so, we would find it amiss not to start with Bitcoin, an asset that sits nearly 40% above its all-time high with little to no fanfare.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin sits at $28,600, honing in at the next resistance at $29,000. Looking back at December, Bitcoin has risen almost 50% – its best month since 2019. Zooming out on the past year, Bitcoin has more-than quadrupled in value, after it flash-crashed to $4,600 when the pandemic first took hold. Other cryptocurrencies have also seen massive, multi-hundred per cent run-ups in 2020, primarily Ethereum and ETH-based DeFi projects, as well as a few smart contract competitors like Polkadot.
In spite of these massive gains during 2020, it wasn’t good news for all traders and investors in the cryptocurrency space. To close out the year, regulators’ concerns made headlines when the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed litigation against Ripple Labs Inc. and top executives for misleading investors on the XRP token. These claims will obviously be settled in court, but this development brought massive downward pressure with it. Though much of the market has mostly rebounded since then, XRP still sits around $.20, a more than 50% drop from its price before the filing – primarily due to the mass delistings that exchanges are undertaking with XRP. It will be interesting to watch in the new year how the United States and other countries pursue non-compliant cryptocurrency projects, especially as the market continues to accrue millions if not billions of dollars a day.
Next, we will take a look at traditional markets.
In almost unsurprising news, the USD dollar remains under selling pressure as the DXY falls below its 2020 low of 89.538. In response, EUR and CAD, and even traditionally risky pairs like AUD, managed to reach fresh yearly highs against the battered dollar. GBPUSD advanced as well, most likely due to the post-Brexit deal set to pass on Thursday, 31 December, as well as the UK government approving the AstraZeneca covid vaccine.
To end the year and start a new one, it seems investors are increasing their risk preference. In spite of coronavirus cases being on the rise globally, it seems that vaccine news is partially overshadowing concerns. Economic stimulus finally seems to be a go in the United States as well, with US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin accounting that direct payments of $600 would be out as soon as this week. This comes after a vote for increasing the checks to $2,000 failed to reach a vote in the US Senate.
With 2021 here, the markets are sure to make some changes, from Forex to Commodities, to Crypto, and Overbit.com is prepared ahead of time, with suites of tools, products, and services, to provide the highest levels of support for our customers.
We thank you again for joining us in 2020, and from the entire Overbit team, we wish you cheers to a great 2021.