Cryptocurrency prices are advancing in sharp contrast to last month’s nosedive.
Cryptocurrency prices were rising Monday as investors appear to have regained their confidence following last month’s nosedive.
Bitcoin, the world’s most popular and largest cryptocurrency by market cap, was up 2.4% to 42,925, while ether was up 2.6% to $3,096 and meme coin dogecoin climbed 6.8% to $0.157526.
Weeks of Price Declines
“Cryptocurrencies seem to be clawing their way back from the brink after weeks of steep price declines shocked investors in the latest market route,” said Micah Carnahan, crypto expert & writer, Finder. “The total coin market cap has gained over 10% in the last week alone as trading fears begin to ease.”
Carnahan noted Bitcoin’s rise coincides with a drop in value for the US dollar, which saw a decline of nearly 2% last week. He added that Shiba Inu prices have surged nearly 25% in the last 24 hours while, Gala, the native token of the Gala Games blockchain network, has soared over 85% in the last 7 days.”
Alexander Mamasidikov, co-founder of mobile digital bank MinePlex, said that “while inflation remains a big consideration for investors, rotating funds back into supposedly risky assets like BTC is fast becoming an attractive proposition to many.”
“Bitcoin investors are also attempting to decouple from the mainstream stock market, a move that will prevent any serious plunge even as tech stocks continue to take a beating based on the anticipation of a tighter monetary policy from the Feds,” he added.
Separately, David Lesperance, managing partner of immigration and tax adviser at Lesperance & Associates, said that decentralized finance, or DeFi, “has attracted a large amount of interest as a result of the high yields that have been promised to investors.”
“Can DeFi Survive….And In What Form?’
“However, DeFi platforms have also quickly attracted the attention of regulators,” he said. “Regulators who are already animated by the lack of anti-money laundering and governance structures in the crypto exchange realm are alarmed by this same failing in DeFi.”
He said UK tax authorities have ruled that investors must consider the terms on which platforms offer the staking of crypto assets in DeFi, which could affect beneficial ownership.
So, he said, if the platform has use of a person’s staked tokens while they are put up as collateral or lent out, “that could indicate beneficial ownership of those tokens has passed and must be treated as a disposal, which incurs capital gains tax.”
Lesperance also noted consumer protection concerns. He cited the recent hack involving Wormhole, which connects the two most popular blockchains, Ethereum and Solana, where hackers made off with about $320 million in cryptocurrency.
“These issues bring into focus whether DeFi’s central tenets of transparency and equality,” he said. “While Bitcoin is further along the curve then DeFi in dealing with these issues, both are exploding in popularity. Can DeFi survive….and in what form?”
Winston Ma, managing partner of CloudTree Ventures, Author of The Digital War – How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace” said that while the broad crypto market is pressured by the US Fed Reserve’s rate hike plan, “Metaverse and gaming-related tokens are supported by seemingly unstoppable mega M&A transactions among gaming and metaverse companies.”
Ma said that Sony (SNE) – Get Sony Corp. Report announced plans to acquire Bungie last week for $3.6 billion, part of a recent string of massive video game deals that includes Microsoft’s (MSFT) – Get Microsoft Corporation Report acquisition Activision Blizzard last month for $68.7 billion.
“Before that, Take-Two announced the $12.7 billion acquisition of Zynga, who in December formed a partnership with blockchain gaming powerhouse, Forte,” he said. “Only one month into 2022, but it’s clear that Year 2022 is the Year of Gamefi and Metaverse.”
